The effects of globalization on the environment: An investigation on selected countries

In recent years, globalization has increasingly been debated in its economic, political, and environmental dimensions. The acceleration of international trade, capital flows, technology transfers, and cultural interactions has deepened economic integration among countries, while simultaneously bringing environmental impacts to the forefront. Rising energy consumption, intensive use of natural resources, and increasing waste generation clearly reveal the risks that globalization poses to environmental sustainability. Therefore, comprehensively assessing the environmental implications of globalization is of critical importance for the development of balanced policy instruments in line with the goals of sustainable development. This study analyzes the environmental effects of globalization through advanced panel data methods within the scope of two distinct models. In the first model, the impact of the overall globalization index—along with its economic, social, and political dimensions—per capita income, and renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint is examined for 149 countries. Countries are also evaluated separately by income level (high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low), and the estimations are conducted using the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator, which accounts for cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity. The second model focuses on newly industrialized countries and investigates the effects of globalization, industrialization, per capita income, and renewable energy consumption on the ecological footprint. To further capture nonlinear dynamics, the "Global Kuznets Curve" hypothesis is tested within Model II, and long-run relationships are estimated using Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Mean Group (MG) estimators. Finally, causal relationships among the variables are analyzed using the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test. The findings of the first model reveal that different dimensions of globalization significantly increase the ecological footprint. Similarly, economic growth generates environmental costs, exerting adverse effects on the ecological footprint. By contrast, renewable energy consumption is found to mitigate environmental pressures. In the second model, which explores the nonlinear relationship between globalization and the environment, the validity of the Global Kuznets Curve is confirmed. Moreover, the linear estimation results indicate that globalization, per capita income, and industrialization increase the ecological footprint, whereas renewable energy contributes to environmental improvement by reducing degradation. The causality analysis further shows bidirectional relationships between globalization and renewable energy with the ecological footprint, while a unidirectional causal link is found from economic growth to the ecological footprint.