Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Resources Policy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resourpol

Does natural resources depletion and economic growth achieve the carbon
neutrality target of the UK? A way forward towards
sustainable development
Kashif Raza Abbasi a, b, Khadim Hussain c, Magdalena Radulescu d, e, Ilhan Ozturk f, g, h, *
a
School of Economics, Shanghai University, No. 99, Shangda Road, Baoshan Campus, Baoshan, District, Shanghai, 200444, China
b
Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan
c
Department of Economics, Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), Mirpur, 10250, AJ&K, Pakistan
d
Department of Finance, Accounting and Economics, University of Pitesti, Str. Targu din Vale, no.1, Pitesti, 110040, Romania
e
Doctoral School of University "Lucian Blaga" Sibiu, Bd. Victoriei, no.10, 550024, Sibiu, Romania
f
Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Cag University, Mersin, Turkey
g
Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
h
Department of Finance, Asia University, 500, Lioufeng Rd, Wufeng, Taichung, 41354, Taiwan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Environmental sustainability is primarily related to using various natural resources for the economic, energy, and
Natural resources depletion industrial activity. Therefore, it is worthwhile to examine the impact of the natural resource depletion (NRD),
Energy use energy use (EU), economic growth (EG), population growth (PG) and industrial value added (IVA) on the CO2
Economic growth
emissions during 1970–2019 for the United Kingdom (UK). The study employs a novel environmental sustain­
Carbon neutrality
ability estimation approach employing a dynamic Autoregressive-Distributed-Lag (ARDL) model to analyze the
positive and negative shock in short run and in the long run for the selected determinants. Also, Frequency
Domain Causality (FDC) has been applied for robustness check. Empirical findings show that EG, IVA and NRD
substantially stimulate CO2 emissions in short run, while EU, IVA and PG boost the environmental sustainability
in the long run. The FDC outcome also supports the hypothesis of long, medium, and short-run causality. As for
policy recommendations, we propose that the UK government should consider these factors by introducing a new
long-term environmental strategy to reach the carbon neutrality point.

1. Introduction instance, agriculture, manufacturing, residential, and transportation,

A significant obstacle for the human civilization is to achieve sus­
tainable development in different aspects of life. The United Nations
developed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework in
2012 to overcome the thriving goals and meet the sustainable growth.
The SDGs are made up of 17 different priorities, 169 strategies, and 232
benchmarks to coordinate nationwide and worldwide (Zafar et al.,
2020). Environmental quality plays an important role in reaching these
SDGs and received much scientific coverage recently. Air pollution has
the potential to improve the performance of the environmental growth
in a variety of aspects. Controlling carbon emissions can increase the
health conditions and therefore helps to achieve the SDGs. Besides that,
CO2 emissions are correlated with key social-economic areas, for
that increase a nation’s GDP and citizens’ income (He et al., 2018).
Moreover Jones and Klenow (2016), discovered that GDP is closely
related to wellbeing in some aspects including mortality, deprivation,
intake, and leisure. However, lowering CO2 emission usually comes at
the cost of the economic progress in the near term.
In addition, concerns over the CO2 emissions represent serious
environmental problems created by the anthropogenic climate change
and they are the main focus of the policymakers and legislation in many
nations. CO2 emissions are essential for the economic growth and en­
ergy usage (Wang et al., 2020). The governments’ ultimate focus is to
strike a sustainable economic development and CO2 emissions. In other
words, the policymakers continue to boost a rapid economic growth at
the lowest possible expense in CO2 emissions. Numerous empirical

* Corresponding author. Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Cag University, Mersin, Turkey.
E-mail addresses: kashifabbasi@shu.edu.cn (K.R. Abbasi), hussain.eco@must.edu.pk (K. Hussain), magdalena.redulescu@upit.ro (M. Radulescu), ilhanozturk@
cag.edu.tr (I. Ozturk).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2021.102341
Received 1 July 2021; Received in revised form 23 August 2021; Accepted 2 September 2021
Available online 30 September 2021
0301-4207/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K.R. Abbasi et al.
analyses have shown that the increased energy depletion and economic
activity drive carbon emissions (Akadiri et al., 2019). These studies
considered a link between the economy and carbon dioxides, suggested
an inverted U-shaped connection and a two-way causality (Acheam­
pong, 2018; Sunday et al., 2017).
Conversely, several studies emphasized the UK’s causal association
between the CO2 pollution and several economic aspects (e.g., GDP,
energy use) (Adedoyin and Zakari, 2020). To meet the sustainability
objectives by 2030, the UK’s CO2 emissions must decline by another
31% starting with 2019, relative to the 29 percent achieved over the last
decade. If the targets are set to net-zero by 2050, the emissions must
decline much further. In comparison, the government’s estimates indi­
cate that CO2 emissions will only decrease by 10% by 2030 (Simon
Evans, 2020). World-leading economies maintain their comparative
edge in CO2 emission reduction by using the most innovative technology
in their energy sector, whereas the emerging economies may find it
difficult.
For few decades, several countries have faced rapid economic
growth. However, such rapid development caused a significant loss of
natural resources, triggering environmental problems which need to be
properly addressed. Initial industrialization, the extensive use of natural
resources, and rapid urbanization have affected the dynamics of the
United Kingdom, which is characterized by a high population density
and mostly human-made environments. Its developed economy has
fluctuated significantly over the past two decades and is no longer
dependent on the heavy industry. The growth of the service industry,
high tech and light manufacturing and increasingly diverse lifestyles are
reshaping the United Kingdom’s consumption and development habits,
raising new obstacles for the environmental change (Dommett, 2017).
The United Kingdom has raised its public profile on the environmental
issues and reinforced its environmental laws. The United Kingdom is still
committed to the environmental conservation and economic growth at
the government level.
Considering the above reality, a study of environmental sustain­
ability could be appropriate for the UK’s government officials to achieve
carbon neutrality goals. Such study may help the policymakers to
develop some long and short-term strategies to minimize the CO2
emissions and enable better use of the natural resources.
Therefore, the present research aims to investigate the connection
between the depletion of the natural resources, energy use, economic
growth, population growth, industrial value-added, and CO2 emissions
in the United Kingdom. Though, a wide discrepancy exists in these
factors around the world. Hence, particularly we concentrate on this
topic in several ways: Firstly, the literature on natural resource deteri­
oration in the context of environmental sustainability is limited, and this
study adds to a larger debate. Secondly, growing Brexit concerns have
had an effect on the UK’s economic development and industrial sectors,
possibly impacting macroeconomic components, energy use, and pop­
ulation growth in the energy sector. Thirdly, while the spatial regression
models have been used in the previous studies, the dynamic effects of the
CO2 emissions were ignored in these spatial studies. As a result, we use a
dynamic autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) and Frequency
Domain Causality (FDC) in our study. The dynamic ARDL model enables
to capture both the short and long-term effects of the explanatory var­
iables; then, it can graph the predictions of the actual regressor trans­
formation and its impact on the regressand. Further, FDC confirms the
robustness of the outcome in the short, medium and long run. Finally,
this research will facilitate the formulation of the government policies
for carbon neutrality target in the UK. Also, the findings of this study
could be applied to the nations that have made a parallel effort to
maintain an excessive drift in the CO2 emissions. These insights will
stress the impact of each factor on the environmental sustainability and
the appropriate policy consequences.
This study particularly seeks to address the following questions:
2
Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341
1) Does the depletion of natural resources have an effect on the envi­
ronment in the United Kingdom?
2) To what extent has energy use driven CO2 emissions?
3) Does economic growth enhance environmental degradation in the
UK?
4) What is the role of industrial value-added and population growth
towards environment?
The rest of the study is organized as follows: Section (2): Focused
Brief literature review section (3): Materials and methods of the
empirical framework. Section (4): Empirical results and discussion.
Section (5): Conclusion and policy suggestions.
2. Literature review
The aim of literature reviews is to concentrate on the explanatory
variables concerning the study’s endogenous variable. Various analyses
have used many econometric approaches for the time series and panel
data to examine the economic growth, energy use, industrial value-
added, natural resource depletion, population growth and CO2 emis­
sions. We address four key associations among the chosen variables as
follows:
2.1. Economic growth and carbon neutrality
Economic growth has a complimentary role in both climate change
and sustainability (Destek and Sarkodie, 2019). Economic growth (as
measured by GDP) significantly affects CO2 emissions (Ren et al., 2021).
Primarily, Panayotou (1994) suggested the prominent Environmental
Kuznets Curve (EKC) concept as the first inspiring research on the link
between GDP and CO2 emissions. GDP is hypothesized to display an
inverted U-shape relationship with the CO2 emissions in this model. The
outcome revealed that the economic progress throughout the industri­
alization era could harm the climate by increasing CO2 emissions in any
region. However, as a nation reaches the post-industrial era, the eco­
nomic development will help it to reduce the environmental degrada­
tion by reducing the CO2 emissions. Destek, Ulucak and Dogan (2018)
analyzed yearly data from 1980 to 2013 using second generation panel
data methods that account for country cross-sectional dependency. The
findings indicate a U-shaped connection between actual income and
ecological footprint while nonrenewable energy contributes to envi­
ronmental deterioration in EU nations. Furthermore, Erdoğan et al.
(2019) examined the connection between carbon emissions and eco­
nomic development in BRICS-T nations from 1992 to 2016. the empir­
ical evidence indicates, economic development leads in a rise in carbon
emissions. Abbasi (2021) used CS-ARDL and Dumitrescu and Hurlin
Granger causality to investigate the short- and long-term links between
GDP and CO2 emissions. The results showed preferable long- and
short-term relationships.
Many other subsequent scholars, including Selden and Song (1994)
and Holtz-Eakin and Selden (1995), intended to examine the association
between the CO2 pollution and RGDP to test the validity of the EKC
hypothesis. When researching the detrimental causes of the CO2 emis­
sions, the majority of formulating questions focused on GDP. The
empirical evidence were contradictory about the EKC linkage: On the
one hand, it was shown that GDP rises CO2 emissions (e.g., Balado-­
Naves et al., 2018; Dong et al., 2018b; and Cheng et al., 2019). In the
meantime, certain studies found that GDP is inversely related to the CO2
intensity (Acheampong, 2018; Cheng et al., 2018). Furthermore, some
researchers confirmed the EKC link (e.g., Balado-Naves et al., 2018;
Sarkodie and Ozturk, 2020; Le and Ozturk, 2020 and You and Lv, 2018),
while others reached some different results (K. Abbasi, Lv, Nadeem,
Khan and Shaheen, 2020; Ahmed et al., 2021; Balsalobre-Lorente et al.,
2018; Bölük and Mert, 2014; Iqbal et al., 2021; Supachart et al., 2020).
K.R. Abbasi et al.
2.2. Energy use (EU) and environment
The energy use-emissions link analyzed in the literature merely re­
flects the interaction between resource use and the environmental
emissions. Using FMOLS approximation, Rahman (2020) observed that
the EU has an adverse effect on the emissions in the G7 and the UK
economies as a whole. Ozturk and Acaravci (2013), Shahbaz et al.
(2013) noticed that overall energy usage has an encouraging impact on
the carbon emissions in the short and long run employing an ARDL
model for China, India, Turkey, and Indonesia. Destek et al. (2016)
examined the connection between CO2 emissions and EU with other
factors from 1991–2011 for ten chosen Central and Eastern European
(CEEC) countries. The findings indicated that these nations are consis­
tent with the EKC theory. The findings of the fully modified ordinary
least squares (FMOLS) analysis indicated that EU contributes to CO2
emissions. Furthermore, Dong et al. (2017) investigated the link be­
tween the natural gas and EU and carbon emissions during 1985–2016
for BRICS nations using the Granger causality and AMG estimator. Their
findings showed a negative effect and a two-way causality between EU
and the carbon emissions. Destek and Aslan (2020) examined the
multivariate connection between disaggregated REC, EG, and climate
change in the G-7 nations from 1991 to 2014 using the AMG estimator
and panel bootstrap causality technique. The outcomes reveled that rise
in biomass EC is effective in reducing carbon emissions in France, Ger­
many, Japan, and the United States; rise in hydroelectricity use is
beneficial for environmental degradation in Italy and the United
Kingdom.
In Algeria Bélaïd and Youssef (2017) used the ARDL, VECM and
Granger Causality for the renewable energy and nonrenewable energy
(NRE) during 1980–2012. The results showed that NRE displays a
constructive impact on the environment. Besides that, Pata (2018)
discovered that the energy sources positively and negatively affect
carbon emissions by applying an ARDL model. Furthermore, Chen et al.
(2019) reported that coal and non-fossil fuel energy have a beneficial
impact on the carbon emissions during 1995–2012 in China. More
notably, despite the importance of the energy consumption-emissions
nexus for the monetary activity, the analyses did not stress the role of
the economic development. From 1982 to 2013. Destek and Okumus
(2019) examined the pollution haven theory in 10 emerging economies.
They use second-generation panel data to investigate the connection
between real income, FDI, EC, and EFP. Rising energy use and economic
development contribute to rising ecological impact.
2.3. Natural resources (NR) and carbon neutrality
Natural resources are a critical component of industry and prosperity
(Ndiaya et al., 2019). For five European nations Balsalobre-Lorente et al.
(2018) studied the impact of the energy use and NR on the environ­
mental sustainability during 1985–2016. They employed a panel data
analysis to forecast the long-term outcomes and found that using clean
energies and NR supports the sustainable development. The U.S. Zafar,
Shahbaz et al. (2019) examined the NR and FDI impact on the ecological
footprint. The authors employed an ARDL approach and found a
connection among these variables. The study revealed that controlling
NR waste requires educating people to change their eating habits,
reducing fishing and erosion, being careful of water and energy supplies,
and using energy-efficient fine products in everyday life. Victor et al.
(2019) performed a balanced panel data to investigate the NR rent and
carbon emissions in 16 European nations. According to their PMG-ARDL
system findings, NR rent raises pollution in those counties.
Shahbaz et al. (2019) investigated the relative impacts of natural
resource abundance and natural resource reliance on economic devel­
opment in 35 resource-rich nations from 1980 to 2015. The findings
revealed the presence of cointegration between the variables. Whereas
natural resource plenty supports economic development, natural
resource deficiency stifles economic activity. Also, Danish et al. (2019)
3
Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341
noticed that the availability of NR in BRICS nations decreases the
environmental deterioration except in India; experts suggested to enable
the NR restoration in conjunction with the synthetic resource conser­
vation in order to mitigate the environmental degradation. It is also
suggested that the shift from the old technology to the advanced tech­
nologies that combine recycling, re-claiming, and innovation would lead
to the economic development and environmental sustainability. Caglar,
Balsalobre-Lorente and Akin (2021) utilized conventional and one-break
unit root checks, supplemented by the new SOR unit root test, to
determine that ecological footprint and its six elements all contained
unit root, with the exception of the built-up land footprint for Spain and
the grazing land and forest footprint for the United Kingdom.
2.4. Population growth and environment
Given the widespread recognition of the population growth and the
associated forecasts of the increasing demand, the global environmental
overshoot is inevitable. The world’s population increase will require a
2,6% share of the environmental capital by 2050, and this projected
value would be unattainable (Galli, 2015). The term "worldwide over­
shoot" is related to the population’s need for the natural resources
approaching the world’s ecological capacity. The massive increase of
global population degrades the natural infrastructure, diminishes envi­
ronmental efficiency, and reduces carrying potential (Freedman, 2014).
Interestingly (Monfreda et al., 2004), low per-capita economies have a
greater population than high per-capita. On the other hand Toth and
Szigeti (2016) showed that population is not the cause of the environ­
mental depletion; rather, it is represented by the population’s
consuming trend. Begum et al. (2015) considered the population impact
on the carbon emissions using data from Malaysia from 1970 to 1980
and noticed that the population has no major impact on the environ­
mental sustainability. Their estimated population was found to display a
detrimental impact on the emissions. Recent research, such as Dong
et al. (2018) and Mendonça et al. (2020), reported the connection be­
tween population and the environment. They concluded there is a sub­
stantial long-run association among the factors. Wood and Garnett
(2009) stated that the metropolitan population has a higher ecological
footprint than the rural one used panel NARDL and reported positive
shocks in GDP have insignificant influence on environmental
deterioration.
Overall, we have noticed no time-series study which examined the
functions of the natural resources, energy use, economic growth, pop­
ulation growth and industrial value-added on the CO2 emissions in the
UK. This may be related to the choice of samples (country/region), time
periods, factors, and analytical methods. Also, empirical findings
showed a varying connection based on the aforementioned literatures.
However, Amountzias et al. (2017), Chitnis et al. (2013), Dimitropoulos,
Hunt, & Judge (n.d.), Adedoyin and Zakari (2020), Kirikkaleli et al.
(2020), Abbasi et al. (2021a,b) incorporated the UK in their panel and
time-series analyses. In the United Kingdom, there is a dearth of research
on the dynamic relationships between economic development, CO2
emissions, and other factors. In contrast to these correlations, a few
studies have shown evidence of CO2 emission reductions associated
with economic policies and waste-to-energy conversion.
In particular, the literature led us to believe that the economic
growth, energy use, industrial value-added, natural resources and pop­
ulation growth are important drivers of environmental sustainability;
however, the lack of an analytical research on the association of these
vigorous, dynamic variables for the UK has motivated us to fill this gap.
However, this research is the first to apply dynamic ARDL and frequency
domain causation to the UK.
K.R. Abbasi et al. Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

Table 1
Data and measurement.
Variables Data Sources Measure Unit

CO2 Emissions The_Global_Economy Thousands of tones

(2020)
Economic Growth The_Global_Economy Rate of change in real
(2020) GDP
Energy Use The_Global_Economy Per Capita
(2020)
Natural Resources WDI (2019) (% of GNI)
Depletion
Industrial Value Added The_Global_Economy Billion USD
(2020)
Population Growth The_Global_Economy Percent
(2020)

3. Materials and method

3.1. Dataset collection

The current empirical research for the UK is focused on variables

including the economic growth, energy use, natural resource depletion,
industrial value-added, population growth, and CO2 emissions, and it
uses data from 1970 to 2019. Table 1 presents the source of the data and
their unit measurements, where CO2 emission in (thousands of tons),
economic growth (rate of change in real GDP), energy use (Per Capita),
natural resources depletion (% of GNI), industrial value-added (billion
USD), and population growth (Percent) are obtained from most
authentic data sources such as WDI and the Global Economy.

3.2. Model specification

The current study examines the impact of the economic growth,
energy use, natural resource depletion, industrial value-added, and
population growth on the CO2 emissions. For analytical purposes, a
multivariate time series technique was used. The biggest benefit of the
annual secondary data is that it eliminates the effects of seasonality. To
eradicate heteroscedasticity, all series were converted into logarithmic
forms. In the social sciences, time series models based on an ARDL
approach are very popular. This framework can be used to test a wide
range of theoretically valid hypotheses, like the impact of the green
energy use on the economic development in Germany (Rafindadi and
Ozturk, 2017). Before using the ARDL model, the cointegration analysis
is necessary (Jordan and Philips, 2018). explained that cointegration
Fig. 1. Methodological framework.
for error correction. The dynamic ARDL method is used in this analysis
to investigate the actual shift in the dependent variable induced by an
independent factor suggested by Jordan and Philips (2018). Fig. 1 shows
the methodological framework of the study.
3.3. The ARDL bounds test method
The assessment of bounds test used for the long-term association
among the factors. To evaluate ARDL bounds, the following method is
developed:

ΔCO2t = ϕ0 + ϕ1 CO2t− i + ϕ2 EGt− i + ϕ3 EUt− i + ϕ4 IVAt− i + ϕ5 NRDt− i + ϕ6 PGt− i +

∑q q
∑ ∑ q ∑ q q
∑
β1 ΔCO2t− i + β2 ΔEGt− i + β3 ΔEUt− i + β4 ΔIVAt− i + β5 ΔNRDt− i +
i=1 i=1 i=1 i=1 i=1 (1)
q
∑
β5 ΔPGt− i + εt
i=1

method established by Pesaran et al. (2001) which is more restrictive in

small sample sizes and common in social-sciences since the series of
studies is eighty or fewer later than the popular “two-step” technique
(Engle et al. 1987) or the cointegration testing process (Johansen,
1988). This cointegration measure has no widespread use in the tradi­
tional statistical techniques. In addition, the ARDL model has a specific
standard such as various lags, first discrepancies, and lag, which makes
the interpretations of the results of variations in the explanatory variable
(s), particularly short- or long-run deviations, more difficult. To address
this (Jordan and Philips, 2018), created a flexible command that enables
the operators to dynamically perform the ARDL models, except the one
where Δ signifies the 1st difference, CO2, EG, EU, IVA, NRD, and PG are
carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, energy use, industrial
value-added, natural resources depletion, and population growth,
respectively. Also, t–i displays the optimal lags preferred by AIC and ϕ, β
inspecting the long-term association. Abbasi et al. (2021a) stated that if
the variables have a long - term association, we can estimate the ARDL
model both in the short and long term. The bounds test hypothesis H0
and H1 are as described in the following equations:
H0 = ϕ1 = ϕ2 = ϕ3 = ϕ4 = ϕ5 = ϕ6 = 0

4
K.R. Abbasi et al. Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

and specific shift in a data set (Ali et al., 2020).

The FDC helps remove the seasonality variations in the small dataset
H1 ∕
= ϕ1 ∕
= ϕ2 ∕
= ϕ3 ∕
= ϕ4 ∕
= ϕ5 ∕
= ϕ6 ∕
= and can detect the nonlinearities and causality inequalities. Also, it
Based on the value of the measured F-statistic, we should support or confirms that prior changes can be detected and jurisdictive steps could
deny the null hypothesis. Also, Pesaran et al. (2001) mentioned that if be taken accordingly. The system, however, is limited to a fixed time­
the approximate F-value is higher than the upper bound, the variables frame and cannot replicate unlimited time simulations (Breitung and
are considered to display a long-run connection; if the F-value is less Candelon, 2006). distinguish between long-, medium-, and short-run
than the lower bound, there is no long term association and the decision causality in time series analysis. The FDC model shown in this analysis
is ambiguous if the F-value is between the lower and upper limits. The meets the requirements described by Hosoya (1991). Mainly, we classify
ARDL model developed by Pesaran et al. (1999) is different against other the time scale as a horizontal vector [xt , yt ] with dt at time-period t = 1,
time series models. The ARDL model is applicable in a short period series …..T where dt calculate a pre-defined vector autoregression role
and I(0), I(I), or both (Abbasi et al., 2020). Similar lags also can be θ(L)dt = εt , where θ(L) = 1 − θ1 L − … − θp Lp (Lk dt− k, k is a lag poly­
exercised for explained and explanatory variables (Abbasi, 2021). The nomial), and εt represents the error term. The Moving Average form
long-run ARDL model is given as in the following equation: recommends a stationary stage with Cholesky decomposition of the
positive fixed error term explained as:
q
∑ q
∑ q
∑ [ ]
CO2t = α0 + σ 1 CO2t− i + σ 2 EGt− i + σ3 EUt− i + ψ 11 (L) ψ 12 (L)
dt = η η (5)
(2)
i=1 i=1 i=1
q q q
ψ 21 (L) ψ 22 (L) 1t 2t
∑ ∑ ∑
σ 4 IVAt− i + σ5 NRDt− i + σ 6 PGt− i + εt
i=1 i=1 i=1 where ψ symbolizes the coefficient pattern, and η labels the white noise.
The spectral density of xt is expressed as follows:
The long-run variance parameters are denoted by σ in equation (2).
The AIC is used for detecting the suitable lags. For the short-run esti­ 1 {⃒⃒ )⃒ ⃒ ( )⃒ }
fx (ω) = ψ 11 (e− iω ⃒2 + ⃒ψ e− iω ⃒2 (6)
mations, the ARDL model is expressed as: 2π 12

q
∑ q
∑ q
∑ Afterwards, the approximation of causality presented by Hosoya
CO2t + α0 + β1 ΔCO2t− i + β2 ΔEGt− i + β3 ΔEUt− i + (1991) is stated as:
(3)
i=1 i=1 i=1
q q q [ ] [ ]
∑ ∑ ∑ 2π fx (ω) |ψ 12 (e− iω )|2
β4 ΔIVAt− i + β5 ΔNRDt− i + β6 ΔPGt− i + ϕECTt− i + εt My→x (ω) = log = log (7)
i=1 i=1 i=1
|ψ 11 (e− iω )|2 |ψ 11 (e− ω )|2

Equation (3) denotes the short-term fluctuations, while ECT denotes
the error correction term used to estimate the change of speed; the
standard ECT ranges from 1 to 0. The ECT would be negative and sta­
tistically significant, meaning that each shock can be restored to sym­
metry when the next shift occurs (Abbasi et al., 2021a).
where ω is the frequency, y does not affect x (y →x) at ω if |ψ 12 (e− iω )| =
⃒ ⃒
0. If dt = ⃒xt , yt ⃒ is cointegrated, the pre-defined vector autoregression
process θ(L)dt = εt is specified as:
Δdt = (θ1 − I)dt− 1 + θ2 dt− 2 + … + θp dt− p + εt = θ(L)dt− 1 + εt (8)

For cointegrated structures (|xt , yt |), the introductory assessment of

3.4. Dynamic ARDL simulations approach the frequency domain causality can be simplified as:

Because of the ARDL model’s complexities in its short- and long-run Δdt = φ(L)εt = ξ(L)ηt (9)
estimations (Jordan and Philips, 2018), created the dynamic ARDL
simulations that offered to forecast and immediately plotted the pre­ where φ(L) = φ(L)G− 1 , ηt = Gεt , and the minor triangle matrix G has a
dictive shift on the explained variable whereas holding other explana­ correlating E(ηt ηt′ ) = I. = I. The cointegration between the dynamics is
⃒ ⃒
tory variables stable. To apply the dynamic ARDL model, the data series (⃒xt , yt ⃒) consequently designated as β φ(1) = 0, in which the cointe­
′

should be integrated at I(1) or I(0), and the specifications of this analysis gration vector β is stationary β zt ′ zt. Hosoya (1991) is now applied to
′

satisfy these preconditions. For the parameter vector, the dynamic ARDL assess the causality of the stationary set verified as:
algorithm employs 5000 simulations. The graphs are often used to assess [ ]
the real shock on the regressor and its effect on the dependent variables. |ψ (eiω )|2
My→x (ω) = log 1 + 12 − iω (10)
According to Jordan & Philips (2018, 2019), the novel method of ARDL |ψ 11 (e )|2
bound test is as follows: Thus, in a bivariate projection (My→x ), the H0 states that y does not
ΔCO2y = α0 + θ0 CO2t− 1 + β1 ΔEGt + θ1 EGt− 1 + β2 ΔEUt + θ2 EUt− 1 + inspire or forecast x at a frequency (ω) and it is articulated as:
β3 ΔIVAt + θ3 IVAt− 1 + β4 ΔNRDt + θ4 NRDt− 1 + β5 ΔPGt + θ5 PGt− 1 + εt My→x (ω) = 0 (11)
(4)
For lenience, the H0 is the cause and effect between two determinants
(|xt , yt |), both utilized as a purpose and forecast variable and could be
3.5. Spectral frequency domain causality (FDC)

The study also aims to determine the association between the eco­
Table 2
nomic growth, energy use, industrial value-added, natural resource Descriptive statistics.
depletion, population growth, and CO2 emissions in the United
Descriptive Statistics CO2 EG EU IVA NRD PG
Kingdom. Therefore, the causality tests have been used in this analysis
(Breitung and Candelon, 2006). In comparison to the standard Granger Mean 13.18 0.87 8.15 5.83 0.77 1.40
Median 13.21 0.92 8.19 5.78 0.71 1.19
causality test, the approximation technique used in this analysis permits
Maximum 13.40 1.87 8.26 6.41 2.31 4.61
the dependent variable to be determined at particular time intervals. Minimum 12.61 − 1.27 7.91 5.26 0.05 0.24
This conceptual framework was designed by Geweke (1982) and Hosoya Std. Dev. 0.17 0.61 0.11 0.34 0.54 1.17
(1991). The key discrepancy between the time concept and the Skewness − 1.52 − 1.43 − 1.24 0.04 1.22 1.28
frequency-domain model indicates a particular variation within a time Kurtosis 5.32 5.69 3.21 1.73 4.25 3.86
Jarque-Bera 30.50 32.09 12.96 3.39 15.60 15.25
sequence. On the other hand, the FDC calculates the magnitude of a

5
K.R. Abbasi et al. Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

calculated by executing the F-test coefficient in a standardized theo­ Table 4

retical way. The VAR framework of xt is given as: ARDL bounds test analysis.
Test statistics Value K H0 H1
xt = α1 xt− 1 + … + αp xt− p + β1 yt− 1 … + βp yt− p + ε1t (12)
F-statistics 14.696 5 no level relationship Relationship exists
The linear restraint in Eq. (12) is alike to the H0 (My→x ) = 0; however, t-statics 4.013
α and β are the projected depictions, t is time, p lag, and the error term is Kripfganz and Schneider (2018) critical values and approximate p-values
εt . This analysis also utilizes the diagnostic tests OLS CUSUM to verify Significance F-statistics t-statistics p-value F
the model stability (Brown et al., 1975). The Breusch Godfrey Lagrange
I(0) I(1) I(0) I(1) I(0) I(1)
multiplier is used to confirm the serial correlation (LM). The Breusch 10% 2.435 3.679 − 2.528 − 3.837 0.000 a 0.000 a
Pagan Godfrey (BG) analysis is performed to determine hetero­ 5% 2.916 4.309 − 2.840 − 2.874 p-value t
scedasticity. The Jarque-Bera test is also exercised to diagnose the re­ 1% 4.042 5.766 − 3.574 − 5.063 0.061 c 0.061 c
sidual normality. At last, for the concept specification test, the Ramsey
reset test is used.
Table 5
4. Results and discussion Dynamic ARDL simulations.
Determinants Coeff. Standard-error t-value P-value
The descriptive statistics results are shown in Table 2; the peak
Cons. − 2.851 0.384 − 7.43 0.000a
demonstrates Kurtosis; a normal distribution pattern is confirmed by ΔEG t-1 0.009 0.005 1.75 0.088 c
Jarque-Bera test value. CO2 emissions and the EU mean - values are ΔEU t-1 − 0.009 0.052 − 0.18 0.855
(13.18, 8.15), that are greater than the other indicators. However, the ΔIVA t-1 0.083 0.016 5.20 0.000 a
overall results show that EG, IVA, NRD and PG reflects a favorable trend. ΔNRD t-1 0.013 0.005 2.45 0.019 b
0.005 0.004 1.30 0.202
The first aim is to define whether series are stationary or not at I(0) or
ΔPG t-1
Long-run
I(1), specifically for the dependent variable. Notably, using I(2) re­ EG t 0.004 0.004 0.96 0.342
gressors or displaying seasonal unit roots is not ideal (Abbasi et al., EU t 1.293 0.088 14.66 0.000 a
2020). Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Phillip-Perron (PP), and IVA t 0.108 0.043 2.48 0.018 b
NRD t 0.012 0.008 1.46 0.15
Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) - three-unit root tests were
PG t 0.015 0.005 3.08 0.004 a
used to inspect the order of the parameters to satisfy the criterion. ECT (− 1) − 0.182 0.044 4.15 0.000 a
Table 3 shows the outcomes of the root unit assessments. Table 3 dis­ R2 0.888 Prob > F 0.000 a
plays the null hypothesis of ADF and PP for all parameters and it could Adj R-squared 0.856
not be discarded at the constant and trend levels, and it is discarded at N 49 Simulations 5000

the first discrepancy in all sequences except EG. In contrast, KPSS Note: (a, b, c) symbolize 1%, 5%, and 10%.
findings showed that the constant and trend null hypothesis were denied
at the level for all parameters except for EG which was found significant summarizes the ARDL bounds validation cointegration test results,
at the first difference, while NRD was found insignificant. Consequently, including acceptable critical values and estimated p-values based on the
all data series were combined overall, and the ARDL bounds test could surface inference proposed by Kripfganz and Schneider (2018). The
be performed. ARDL bounds checking cointegration study shows that the F- and
The ARDL framework enables the selection of various lags for study T-values of indicators and the coefficient of the lag variable y in the
variables. For lag selection, we used SIC; rendering to SIC, lag one is the predicted model is larger than the upper critical-bound, which is sup­
best fit for the model subsequently is the lowermost. Following ported by the measured p-values that are substantial. As a result, H0 is
completion of the pre-requisites, the next step was to examine the as­ denied, and all predicted series verified the existence of cointegration.
sociations revealed by the existing framework. The short-run distur­ Table 5 summarizes the findings of the dynamic ARDL models. The
bances show an unbalanced series; this disequilibrium is reversed over empirical results of the dynamic ARDL simulations suggest that the
time as the series returns to a sustainable long-run relationship. There is economic growth positively influences the environmental sustainability.
a cointegration association between these series. However, since not all This outcome shows that a 1% rise in EG has a 0.009% slight impact on
correlations between I(1) data series verify the existence of the cointe­ the environment in the short term. This factor proves that EG is causing
gration, it is critical to verify the legitimacy of a cointegration. Table 4 the environmental degradation in the United Kingdom. Our findings are
consistent with other studies (Hussain et al., 2020), that reported the
Table 3 economic growth increases the CO2 emissions. Also (Adedoyin and
Unit root analysis. Zakari, 2020), found that the short-run estimate indicates that the GDP
Variables Constant Trend Constant Trend Constant Trend significantly enhanced the UK’s environment. Furthermore (Jamel and
ADF test at level PP test at level KPSS test at level
Maktouf, 2017; Jardón et al., 2017), stated that EG influences the CO2
a a
emissions in the Latin American countries. However, energy use has a
CO2 1.000 1.000 1.000 0.999 0.779 0.165
a long-run effect on the rise of the CO2 emissions, with an estimated
EG 0.000 0.000 a 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.309 0.047
EU 0.975 0.943 0.982 0.949 0.521 b
0.194 b annual growth rate of 1.293 percent. The finding is aligned with Begum
IVA 0.610 0.182 0.599 0.409 0.902 a
0.095 et al. (2015) hypothesis, which indicates that EU has a long-term posi­
NRD 0.130 0.312 0.137 0.321 0.106 0.085 tive drift on the carbon emissions in Malaysia. While inconsistent with
a c b
PG 0.000 0.145 0.391 0.065 0.655 0.074 Adedoyin and Zakari (2020), the electricity consumption negatively
ADF at first difference PP at first difference KPSS at first difference impacts on the rise of the CO2 emissions in the United Kingdom.
CO2 0.309 0.049 b 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.487 b
0.191 b Industrial value-added as share of GDP has a positive and important
EG 0.000 a
0.000 a 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.510 b
0.511 b
association with the CO2 emissions both in the long run and in the short
a
EU 0.000 0.000 a 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.347 0.097 run. A potential 1% upsurge in IVA upsurges the CO2 emissions by
a
IVA 0.000 0.000 a 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.154 0.112
a
0.083% and 0.108% in the short run and in the long run, respectively.
NRD 0.000 0.000 a 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.141 0.103
PG 0.000 a
0.862 0.000 a 0.000 a
0.102 0.082
These results are supported by the findings of other previous studies
(Rahman and Kashem, 2017) and indicates that industrialization has a
Note: (a), (b) and (c) Significant at 10%, 5%; and 1%, respectively. *MacKinnon substantial impact on the carbon emissions both in the short term and in
(1996) one sided p-values.

6
K.R. Abbasi et al.
the long term. However, they are contradictory with a prior analysis Lin
et al. (2015) which found a negative and important association between
industrial value-added as a percentage of GDP and CO2 emissions.
Furthermore, the natural resources depletion intensifies the CO2 emis­
sions, meaning that a 1% change in NRD leads to a 0.013 percent surge
of the CO2 emissions in the short run. The problem arises primarily due
to the continued reduction of the natural resources and the extensive use
of the energy exhaustive technology. Due to oil exploration and many
mining sectors, this is likely to connect the beneficial association be­
tween natural resource decline and CO2 emissions. The massive creators
of oil and mining nations, for instance, make it easier to destroy the
world by exploiting the natural resources with energy-intensive pro­
duction units (Kwakwa et al., 2020). However, UK is exploring oil and
mining by 947,208 bb/day and it is not in the world’s top twenty in this
respect (EIA, 2020). The outcome is consistent with Hussain et al. (2020)
and Zafar et al. (2020) that have shown a positive bond between the
natural resource degradation and CO2 emissions.
The associations between PG and CO2 emissions are favorable and
important in the long-term at a 1% level. A 1% growth in the UK’s
population raises the CO2 emissions by 0.015. These results indicate that
the UK’s growing population affects the environmental sustainability,
primarily by high per-capita energy use and GHG emissions. The results
also reveal that the UK’s growing population amplifies climate change
by putting more biological pressure on the natural resources due to the
nation’s ongoing rapid development in the metropolitan, marine, sub­
urban, urban, and ecologically vulnerable areas (Khan et al., 2021).
Though the outcomes are consistent with the results of other authors
(Dong et al., 2018; Mendonça et al., 2020; Weber, 2018) that showed
that population growth degrades the environmental sustainability and
speeds up the anthropogenic climate change. The error correction term
(ECT) calculates the change of speed and assures an adverse and sig­
nificant coefficient. In the long term, the ECT suggest that 18% of the
disequilibrium is corrected. The findings are verified by Aliyu et al.
(2017), Ameyaw et al. (2017) that specified that both value and
magnitude are adverse, indicating that ECT is significant. The R2 value
shows that explanatory variables account for 89 percent of the uncer­
tainty in the explained variable. The predicted p-value confirmed the
suitability of the presented model.
The dynamic ARDL simulations instantly plot predictions of the real
regressor shift and its impact on the explained variable whereas holding
the independent variables unchanged. The effect of the explanatory
variables such as EG, EU, IVA, NDR, and PG on CO2 emissions is pro­
jected to rise or decline by 10%. Fig. 2(a–b) depicts the impulse response
graph that shows the link between EG and CO2 emissions. The graph
depicts EG and its impact on the environment. A 10% rise in EG implies a
positive long-term impact on environmental sustainability; moreover, a
10% decline in economic growth show a long-run effect on the CO2
Fig. 2. The Impulse Response Plot for the Economic Growth (EG) and CO2 emissions.
7
Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341
emissions.
Fig. 3(c–d) depicts the impulse response plot to investigate the
relationship between EU and CO2 emissions. The EU graph reveals that a
10% rise show a favorable impact on the long-term environment,
whereas a 10% reduction also displays a long-run impact but less than
the positive shock. The counterfactual plot in Fig. 4(e–f) reveals that a
10% rise or decrease in IVA has a positive long-run effect on the
environment.
The impulse response graph in Fig. 5(g–h) exhibits that a 10% rise in
NRD increases emissions in the long term, whereas a 10% reduction
indicates that NRD has a massive influence on the environmental sus­
tainability. The impulse response plot in Fig. 6(i–j) demonstrates that a
10% increase and decline in the population growth has a positive long-
run effect on the carbon emissions.
This analysis also incorporates the FDC test developed by Breitung
and Candelon (2006) to investigate the pivotal relationship between EG,
EU, IVA, NRD, PG and CO2 in the United Kingdom. Table 6 shows the
empirical evidence that EG, NRD, and PG Granger-cause are short,
medium, and long-term frequencies ωi = 2.50. Also, the EU displays the
only long-run drift on the CO2 emissions. Finally, the IVA confirmed the
long and medium-run effect on the environment. In other words, EG, EU,
IVA, NRD, and PG are important indices of the UK’s long-medium and
short-term environmental sustainability. These outcomes are supported
by Dong et al. (2018), Kwakwa et al. (2020), Mendonça et al. (2020) and
Abbasi et al. (2021b) that indicated the energy consumption and GDP
positively impact on the environment.
4.1. Discussion of empirical outcome
This study has examined the factors influencing the environment in
the United Kingdom. The econometric findings show that the economic
growth causes a rise in the carbon emissions which is in line with the
findings of other studies (Doğan et al., 2020). In the short-medium and
long term, the influence of EG is theoretically and empirically impor­
tant. The research evidence shows that economic growth can increase
the amount of the carbon in the air. It may be attributed to the efficient
use of many nonrenewable energy sources in the industrial development
frame. In light of this, the article suggests that the UK should develop
and adopt the energy-use regulations and levy taxes on those practices.
Our research found a strong positive association between the CO2
emissions and EU which is supported by other studies (Adedoyin and
Zakari, 2020). It is a substantial effect of the energy use on the envi­
ronment. Moreover, given that renewable energy sources are frequently
used to preserve the environment when they have low/zero pollution, it
becomes critical to monitor the ambiguity that affects the clean energy
in the longer term. It will continue to promote innovation in the in­
dustry. Besides that, obtaining electricity from such a source reduces the
K.R. Abbasi et al. Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

Fig. 3. The Impulse Response Plot for the Energy Use and CO2 emissions.

Fig. 4. The Impulse Response Plot for the Industrial Value-added and CO2 emissions.

Fig. 5. The Impulse Response Plot for the Natural Resources Depletion and CO2 emissions.

CO2 emissions. As a result, the government and policymakers must
investigate the viable strategies that encourage the alternative energy
sources for the energy usage. The effect of these vulnerabilities can be
mitigated then by providing extra capital to procure the renewable en­
ergy sources and other ways such as domestically and internationally
deposits, bonds, and fiscal assistance. This would ensure industrial
continuity and add a degree of flexibility, which could be accomplished
during periods of economic shock. Local developers will also be stimu­
lated to capitalize on the renewable energy by providing funding and
lowering some of the taxes that hinder the energy investments.
We found that the industry’s value-added is positively linked to the
environment. Since the running of factories leads to the production of
the chemicals, the industry is a major source of pollution. Particularly
harmful when inhaled, Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides

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K.R. Abbasi et al. Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341

Fig. 6. The Impulse Response Plot for the Population Growth and CO2 emissions.

population has significantly increased and led to the intensification of

Table 6
the carbon emissions. The increased population contributes to a spike in
Frequency domain causality analysis.
various human behaviors, affecting the emissions (Liddle, 2014). How­
Causality Direction Long-term Medium-term Short-term ever, the overall results of the current research differ from the earlier
ωi = 0.05 ωi = 1.50 ωi = 2.50 studies (Dong et al., 2018a; Kwakwa et al., 2020; Liddle, 2014; Rahman
and Kashem, 2017) because of different timeframe, applied methodol­
EG ⇒ CO2 6.44 6.41 10.53
(0.03) b (0.04) b
(0.00) a ogy and used sample.
EU ⇒ CO2 7.26 3.81 3.13
(0.03) b (0.15) (0.21)
IVA ⇒ CO2 6.96 5.02 2.11 4.2. Diagnostic inspection
(0.03) b (0.08) c
(0.35)
NRD ⇒ CO2 5.06 74.05 5.35
Several diagnostic methods validate the related model, as shown in
(0.07) c (0.00) a
(0.06) c
PG ⇒ CO2 69.65 5.91 354.45
Table 7, and it was concluded that serial correlation and hetero­
(0.00) a (0.05) b
(0.00) a skedasticity are not evident in the model. The null hypothesis was also
refuted by the Jarque-Bera and Ramsey RESET tests, indicating that the
Notes: The value without bracket and within (bracket) shows Wald test statistics
projected residuals are normally distributed and the model is correctly
and P-value. While (a, b, c) signifies 1%, 5% and 10%.
measured. In general, the model is right in terms of policy motivations.
Stability measurements using cumulative total (OLS CUSUM) plot
(NOx) can trigger acid rain, and CO2 can cause the climate change. This
were performed to preserve the long and short-run specifications. Fig. 7
and many other chemicals have the potential to affect both human
depicts the CUSUM measure graph, which indicates that the values are
health and the environment. The outcome is consistent with Ben Jebli
inside the critical limits at a 5% significance standard, showing that the
et al. (2020) that revealed the industrial value-added is statistically
long and short-run parameters are constant.
important and positively affects the environment.
Natural resource exploitation has often a detrimental impact on the
5. Conclusion and policy recommendations
environmental sustainability by rising pollution. Furthermore, the
importance of the natural resources in increasing the CO2 emissions is
Sustainable growth ensures the environment, natural capital, and
linked to the economic activity in developed economies such as the UK’s
social and economic well-being for present and future generations. The
economy, by escalating the extraction of the natural resources and their
ambiguity of climate change and its effects requires a comprehensive
inefficient use and contributing to the country’s dependence on the
framework for studying its dynamics. This research inspects the links
fossil energy supply. Similarly, the renewable energy supplies are small
between economic growth, energy use, industrial value-added, the
and unstable, resulting in environmental hazards. Our findings are
depletion of natural resources and population growth in the UK during
comparable and in line with past related research (Victor et al., 2019;
1970–2019. To accomplish this goal, the analysis employed a novel
Zafar et al., 2020).
dynamic ARDL model, which determines the short- and long-run asso­
Additionally, this scientific investigation shows that the UK’s
ciation and predicts the positive and negative shifts of the explained
variable. Further, Frequency Domain Causality (FDC) method applied to
Table 7
detect the short-, medium and long-run causality among the study var­
Diagnostic inspection.
iables. Before using the dynamic ARDL simulations, we verified the
Diagnostics Null Hypothesis P- Decision stationarity of each series to ensure that none of the series is I(2);
Value
otherwise, the findings will be invalid. To evaluate the stationarity,
Breusch-Godfrey H0: No serial correlation 0.148 Do not reject three-unit root tests (ADF-PP and KPSS) used separately. The unit-root
LM H0
tests confirmed that none of the series is I(2), which allows to proceed
Breusch Pagan H0: Homoskedasticity 0.538 Do not reject
Godfrey H0 dynamic-ARDL model. The findings of the dynamic ARDL simulation
Jarque-Bera test H0: Residuals are normally 0.199 Do not reject model showed that economic growth, industrial value-added, and nat­
distributed H0 ural resources depletion improved the environmental sustainability in
Ramsey RESET test H0: Model specified correctly 0.566 Do not reject the UK in the short run. However, energy use, industrial value-added,
H0
and population growth stimulated the environment in the long run. It

9
K.R. Abbasi et al.
Fig. 7. Ols cusum plot.
is worth mentioning that the outcomes of the FDC model confirmed the
short- and long-run estimates of the dynamic ARDL model because we
considered that the economic growth, energy use, industrial value-
added, natural resource degradation, and population growth are all
significant factors in determining the environmental sustainability in the
UK.
5.1. Potential policy implications
The empirical findings of this research have important policy con­
sequences for the environmental sustainability in some key dimensions
of the sustainable development as follows:
1. Given the positive outcome of economic growth the study suggests,
the United Kingdom should emphasize economic, social, and envi­
ronmental reforms simultaneously to reach a sustainable growth.
(1.1) Further, rising effect of natural resources on environment
proposes that, the natural resource management by implementing
safer mining methods, which could only be accomplished by
removing the fiscal, social, and political barriers to sustainability.
(1.2) However, the United Kingdom’s energy usage and CO2 emis­
sions are driven by natural resource depletion, industrialization, and
economic growth. The government required to motivate energy users
to use carbon-efficient technologies also facilitate them for effective
usage of energy in order to control CO2 emissions, energy security,
and urban development.
2. Importantly, to achieve this goal satisfactory funding should be
offered for environmental agendas, as well as a medium- and long-
term evaluation of the formal and informal financial implications
of emerging locally and internationally agreements. (2.1) The addi­
tion of a range of economic mechanisms to the legal framework
should enlarge the cost-effectiveness of UK environmental policy.
(2.2) There are numerous opportunities to expand the use of policy
tools, like incentive charges for water pollution and abstraction,
deposit-refund systems, and industrial waste, mining activities, and
pesticide utilize levies. An integrated strategy to environmental
protection should apply to more than just pollution discharges from
massive emission spectra. (2.3) The integrated system should also be
extended to the use of toxic substances and the life cycle of goods.
(2.4) The positive association between population and carbon
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Resources Policy 74 (2021) 102341
emission in the UK underlines the fact that more people need more
resources, leading to a faster resource depletion. Environmental
authorities in the UK should encourage the growing population to
implement sustainable lifestyles such as water and energy saving,
usage renewables sources, recycling, and eco-friendly beverages and
foods.
3. As it is the cradle of industrialization, the United Kingdom has an
extensive history to encounter the environmental issues that the
economic development will imply, such as resource depletion,
congestion, and destruction of the urban and rural ecosystem. On the
other hand, the environmental concerns have expanded in scale and
existence to the point that the UK’s government recognized them as
internationally and inextricably linked to the economic growth
matters in the late 1980s (DOMMETT, 2017). (3.1) The UK Policy for
the sustainable development unequivocally states that the energy
use, water, minerals, and transportation must be handled in tight
relation with the environmental goals. (3.2) Ultimately, a huge
economic structure like the UK’s can include well-informed initia­
tives, which including natural resource depletion, to improve policy,
transition financing, and fix the environmental fund in order to
achieve the UK’s carbon neutrality benchmark.
5.2. Future research directions
Although, the research has focused on limited period and framework
to address the specific environmental factors for the UK. Moreover, this
study suggests some further directions for the potential analyses per­
formed by the academicians and policymakers to pursue the technical
advancement in this context for exploring the additional perspectives
and movements surrounding the global economic development, energy
use, industrial value-added, natural resources, population growth, and
environmental sustainability. Future studies can establish on this model
in the framework of the EKC hypothesis about the effects of natural
resources and economic growth on environmental quality in developing,
developed, and emerging economies Nonlinear and asymmetric
methods can also be used to examine the effects of natural resources and
economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions, carbon levels, and
ecological footprints for various countries.
K.R. Abbasi et al.
Authors contributions
Kashif Raza Abbasi, Magdalena Radulescu: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Software, Data curation.
Ilhan Ozturk: Supervision, Writing, Reviewing and Editing.
Khadim Hussain: Data curation, Writing, Visualization.
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