Economic Development, Energy Consumption, and Environmental Deterioration: A Non-Linear Evidence from India

This study examines whether hydropower consumption, fossil fuel consumption, and economic growth had symmetric or asymmetric impacts on India’s environmental deterioration, i.e., ecological footprint. We have employed a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model on the yearly observations from 1980 to 2020 in the Indian context. Knowledge of these linkages is extremely important in creating renewable energy policies and accomplishing targets, as India chose an ambitious goal of 500 GW of renewable energy capacity (including 73 GW from hydro) by 2030. The findings reveal that although hydropower consumption and economic expansion contribute to reducing the ecological footprint, fossil fuel consumption accelerates environmental degradation. We find evidence of a long-run asymmetry relationship between hydropower consumption and ecological footprint. Our findings notify that stringent and effective regulatory policies should be formulated by Indian authorities to battle against environmental degradation by replacing fossil fuel and large hydropower with more energy-friendly renewable energy sources.