Probing environmental resilience facets of sustainable energy, natural resources, and sustainable innovation among EU member states

Abstract

By integrating the novel load capacity curve (LCC) with advanced panel quantile techniques, this study offers the first thorough assessment of the key factors of ecological resilience among selected European Union (EU) economies. Recognizing the need to ensure the global temperature increases below 1.5 °C, countries have undertaken enthusiastic initiatives in improving ecological resilience and tackling fatal ecological consequences. However, these initiatives are susceptible to the dynamic increase of natural resources consumption that outpaces the regenerative capacity of the ecosystem among our sample of ten EU states. In this vein, the present study scrutinizes the ecological facets of sustainable energy, demographic factor, and trade globalization under the prism of LCC framework. The empirical findings from the 1991–2021 sample of ten EU member states via Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) failed to validate the notions of LCC as there is an inverted U-shaped pattern between economic growth and load capacity factor (FCLC). Furthermore, the study evidenced that natural resource use and demographic factor show a significant negative relationship with the ecological resilience in our sample of ten EU member states, whereas sustainable energy, sustainable innovation, and trade globalization enhance FCLC. For moderation effects, sustainable innovation mitigates the negative effect of natural resources. Thus, the EU economies should balance socio-economic and ecological frameworks to rebound the ecological reserve state. By promoting sustainable energy, innovations, and inclusive growth, they can keep the total demand on nature below the biologically regenerative capacity of productive areas to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-15).