Assessing the influence of research and development, environmental policies, and green technology on ecological footprint for achieving environmental sustainability

• Published in: Renewable & sustainable energy reviews 2024-07, Vol.199, p.114508, Article 114508
• Main Authors: Nketiah, Emmanuel, Song, Huaming, Adjei, Mavis, Obuobi, Bright, Adu-Gyamfi, Gibbson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Environmental sustainability; Green technology; Industrialization environmental policies; Research & development
• ISSN: 1364-0321; 1879-0690
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114508

Recently, there has been rising global concern regarding the importance of achieving environmental sustainability. Consequently, researchers and policymakers have focused on identifying and evaluating the various elements that contribute to an individual's ecological footprint and environmental consequences. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth understanding of the roles of green technology, research and development (R&D), and environmental policies that help attain environmental sustainability in Ghana. The present study utilized both the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques to evaluate the long and short-run relationships between explanatory variables from 1990 to 2022. The study compares the results of NARDL and ARDL techniques. The findings reveal that the NARDL (0.999) analysis had a greater impact on the ecological footprint in Ghana than the ARDL (0.996) analysis. Under the ARDL technique, green technology has a negative impact on ECF in both the short and long run, and R&D also decreases ecological footprint (ECF) in the long run. Environmental policies had a negative impact on ECF in both the short and long run. Based on the NARDL approach, an adverse change in GT had a negative impact (0.004) on the ECF in both the short and long run. In contrast, a negative change in R&D has a negative impact (0.007) on the ECF in the short run, and a positive change in R&D negatively affects the ecological footprint in the long run. Notably, a positive change in environmental policies had a significant negative impact (0.040) on the ECF in the short and long run. This study suggests that policymakers should encourage and support the adoption and application of green technology and the development of robust environmental policies, as these measures can significantly contribute to decreasing the ecological footprint and fostering environmental sustainability. •This research assesses factors for attaining environmental sustainability in Ghana.•This study utilizes the ARDL and NARDL methodologies.•Research and development decrease ecological footprint.•Green technology can contribute to reducing ecological footprint in the long run.•Environmental policies decrease ecological footprint in the short run.