Green energy, natural resources and tourism: Unlocking environmental sustainability in selected asian economies

Abstract

The growing concern about environmental sustainability compels us to examine the roles of green energy and tourism in promoting eco-friendly activities. To achieve the objective, this study explored impact of renewable energy (GE), tourism, natural resource rents (NRR), human capital index (HCI), urbanization, and income on the load capacity factor (LCF) for 26 Asian economies from 1990 to 2023. This research employs the novel method of moment quantile regression (MMQR) to examine the asymmetric relationship among the study variables and validates the Load Capacity Curve (LCC) hypothesis. The findings of MMQR indicate that tourism, NRR, GE, and HCI positively impact the LCF throughout all quantiles, but the impact is more profound at higher levels of LCF. In contrast, urbanization detrimentally affects environmental quality only at the 25th and 50th quantiles. The HPJ approach also illustrates a causality from GE, tourism, NRR, HCI, urbanization, and income on the LCF. The findings emphasize the environmental significance of renewable energy, NRR, HCI, and tourism in achieving SDGs. These goals include shifting towards a low-carbon economy and mitigating contamination. Policymakers ought to emphasize investments in renewable energy and eco-tourism to enhance environmental sustainability.