How Can SDG-13 Be Achieved by Energy, Environment, and Economy-Related Policies? Evidence From Five Leading Emerging Countries

Summary: The adverse effects of climate change on humanity have been escalating due to environmental degradation. Consequently, nations have been compelled to implement measures to address climate-related challenges. Within this framework, traditional and recently acknowledged factors play a pivotal role in achieving SDGs, particularly SDG-13. This study empirically examines the influence of newly recognized factors, such as the energy transition index (ETI) and environmental policy stringency (EPS), alongside traditional factors like gross domestic product (GDP), renewable energy use (REU), and foreign direct investments (FDI), on the environment, measured through ecological footprint and load capacity factor. Focusing on leading emerging economies— excluding Indonesia and Mexico due to data limitations—the study utilizes data from 2000 to 2020 and applies the kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) approach under the marginal effect framework to explore this nexus. The findings indicate that (i) GDP and FDI do not exhibit environmentally friendly characteristics across the examined countries; (ii) REU contributes to environmental preservation only in Brazil; (iii) ETI and EPS do not significantly enhance environmental quality in any of the countries studied; (iv) the KRLS approach demonstrates high predictive accuracy, achieving a 99.6% success rate across various models. Overall, the research highlights the differential marginal effects of these factors on the environment, which vary by factor, percentile, and country. Based on the empirical evidence, the study discusses policy implications for the five leading emerging economies to effectively pursue SDG-13 by leveraging the identified factors.