From Agricultural and Forest Land Development to Urban Landscapes: Green Energy's Influence on Global Pollutant Emissions

Abstract

There is a sharp inclination to use green energy sources such as solar, hydro, and nuclear energy to accomplish the COP29 targets and sustainability goals. The current study attempts to explore the role of green solar, hydro, and agriculture land use apropos global pollutant emissions. In doing so, the study examines the impacts of agricultural land use, forest area, and urbanization on global emissions. The study uses the global historical data from 1990Q1 to 2021Q4. The authors employ the diagnostic tests, autoregressive distributed lag models, and causality analysis for empirical analysis. The autoregressive distributed lag model's results mentioned that agricultural land and forestry also help improve environmental sustainability and urban landscape in the short and long run. In addition, the results find linear and nonlinear impacts of green solar and nuclear energy to mitigate the global carbon emission levels. The structural change policies of industrialization and urbanization remain the critical obstacles to attaining environmental sustainability. The on-hand research contributes to the ongoing challenges faced by global economies regarding green energy sources, agriculture land management and their criticality in attaining a sustainable environment by reducing carbon emissions. The research recommends further investments in green solar, agriculture land management, and incentivizing clean energy sources to achieve sustainable global development.