Novel Methods to Calculate and Estimate the Factors Influencing the Ecological Footprints of Pakistan

Abstract

Increasing demand for natural resources has exacerbated the scarcity of natural resources. Shortage of natural resources for timely needs is raising some significant environmental issues for the fast-growing population. It is argued that there is a trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality but it is debatable. To expand this debate, this article examines the short-run and long-run relationship between ecological footprints and income growth accompanied by other macroeconomic indicators. This study investigated the validity of the Environmental Kuznets curve between income growth and environmental pressure in Pakistan. This paper is based on secondary data for the period (1970 to 2021). The Auto-Regressive Distributive lag-bound testing method is utilized to determine the short-run and long-run links between income growth and ecological footprints per capita. The study found that a larger proportion of Pakistan’s imports are contaminated with high embodied emissions. An increase in economic prosperity has dynamic implications for the environment across international borders. The products embodied emissions imported in Pakistan are greater than the emissions exported to other economies. The net effect of trade is negative on the environment in Pakistan. The study confirms that there exists a significant statistical relationship between ecological footprints and economic growth. This validates the evidence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in the case of Pakistan.