Natural resource abundance, digitalization and institutional governance: The critical challenges towards net-zero transformation

Abstract

Amidst the efforts to balance economic growth and climate change concerns, natural resource consumption accounts for environmental degradation. The current study deliberates on ecological sustainability by examining how natural resource consumption, digitalization, and institutional governance impact environmental degradation in natural resource-dependent economies. Our econometric findings from CS-ARDL report that natural resource consumption and economic growth lead to environmental deterioration, while digitalization developments and institutional governance safeguard environmental sustainability. Similar findings are endorsed by robustness analysis to help propose novel environmental policy frameworks.