Environmental sustainability assessment using dynamic Autoregressive-Distributed Lag simulations-Nexus between greenhouse gas emissions, biomass energy, food and economic growth.

Increasing population demand has triggered the enhancement of food production, energy consumption and economic development, however, its impact on climate change has become a global concern. This study applied a novel environmental sustainability assessment tool using dynamic Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) simulations for model estimation of the relationships between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy, biomass, food and economic growth for Australia using data spanning from 1970 to 2017. The study found an inversed-U shaped relationship between energy consumption and income level, showing a decarbonized and services economy, hence, improved energy efficiency. While energy consumption increases emissions by 0.4 to 2.8%, biomass consumption supports Australia's transition to a decarbonized economy by reducing GHG emissions by 0.13% and shifts the demand for fossil fuel. Food and energy consumption underpin socio-economic development and vice versa. However, food waste from production and consumption increases ecological footprint, implying a lost opportunity to improve food security and reduce environmental pressure from agricultural production. There is no single path to achieving environmental sustainability, nonetheless, the integrated approach applied in this study reveals conceptual tools which are applicable for decision making.

[1]  S. Soimakallio.  Assessing the uncertainties of climate policies and mitigation measures. Viewpoints on biofuel production, grid electricity consumption and differentiation of emission reduction commitments , 2012 .

[2]  Khalid Ahmed,et al.  CO2 emissions in Australia: economic and non-economic drivers in the long-run , 2017 .

[3]  A. Demirbas,et al.  Biomass resource facilities and biomass conversion processing for fuels and chemicals , 2001 .

[4]  L. Lynd,et al.  Beneficial Biofuels—The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma , 2009, Science.

[5]  Fan Zhang,et al.  Does energy efficiency promote economic growth? Evidence from a multicountry and multisectoral panel dataset , 2018 .

[6]  A. Neef,et al.  Sustainable development and the water–energy–food nexus: A perspective on livelihoods , 2015 .

[7]  Ricardo Martins,et al.  Nexusing Charcoal in South Mozambique: A Proposal To Integrate the Nexus Charcoal-Food-Water Analysis With a Participatory Analytical and Systemic Tool , 2018, Front. Environ. Sci..

[8]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Toward a sustainable environment: Nexus between CO2 emissions, resource rent, renewable and nonrenewable energy in 16-EU countries. , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[9]  Nawshad Haque,et al.  Energy and greenhouse gas impacts of mining and mineral processing operations , 2010 .

[10]  J. Batista-Foguet,et al.  Exploring the public's willingness to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from private road transport in Catalonia. , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[11]  K. Burnett,et al.  A Review of the Current State of Research on the Water, Energy, and Food Nexus , 2017 .

[12]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Investigation of environmental Kuznets curve for ecological footprint: The role of energy and financial development. , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[13]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Assessment of contribution of Australia's energy production to CO2 emissions and environmental degradation using statistical dynamic approach. , 2018, The Science of the total environment.

[14]  Sebastian Kripfganz,et al.  Response Surface Regressions for Critical Value Bounds and Approximate p‐values in Equilibrium Correction Models1 , 2020 .

[15]  Zejun Li,et al.  Modeling the nexus across water supply, power generation and environment systems using the system dynamics approach: Hehuang Region, China , 2016 .

[16]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Another look at the relationship between energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth in South Africa. , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[17]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  The relationship between carbon dioxide, crop and food production index in Ghana: By estimating the long-run elasticities and variance decomposition , 2017 .

[18]  M. Bildirici.  Biomass energy consumption and economic growth: ARDL analysis , 2016 .

[19]  Aage Stangeland,et al.  A model for the CO2 capture potential , 2007 .

[20]  D. Deryng,et al.  Climate and southern Africa's water–energy–food nexus , 2014 .

[21]  M. Bildirici,et al.  An analysis of biomass consumption and economic growth in transition countries , 2018 .

[22]  Faik Bilgili,et al.  The impact of biomass consumption on CO2 emissions: Cointegration analyses with regime shifts , 2012 .

[23]  Richard J. Smith,et al.  Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships , 2001 .

[24]  Graham Town,et al.  Review of solar energy for biofuel extraction , 2018 .

[25]  P. Narayan,et al.  Electricity consumption, employment and real income in Australia evidence from multivariate Granger causality tests , 2005 .

[26]  T. Mwampamba,et al.  Incorporating Ecohydrological Processes Into an Analysis of Charcoal-Livestock Production Systems in the Tropics: An Alternative Interpretation of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus , 2018, Front. Environ. Sci..

[27]  Mohammad Salahuddin,et al.  Ecological footprint and real income: panel data evidence from the 27 highest emitting countries , 2017 .

[28]  Andrew Q. Philips,et al.  Cointegration Testing and Dynamic Simulations of Autoregressive Distributed Lag Models , 2018, The Stata Journal: Promoting communications on statistics and Stata.

[29]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Determinants of energy consumption in Kenya: A NIPALS approach , 2018, Energy.

[30]  Phebe Asantewaa Owusu,et al.  The causal nexus between carbon dioxide emissions and agricultural ecosystem—an econometric approach , 2016, Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

[31]  P. Gerbens-Leenes,et al.  Food consumption patterns and economic growth. Increasing affluence and the use of natural resources , 2010, Appetite.

[32]  Alexander Müller,et al.  The Role of Biomass in the Sustainable Development Goals: A Reality Check and Governance Implications , 2015 .

[33]  Nilay Shah,et al.  Sustainable planning of the energy-water-food nexus using decision making tools , 2018 .

[34]  Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie,et al.  Empirical study of the Environmental Kuznets curve and Environmental Sustainability curve hypothesis for Australia, China, Ghana and USA , 2018, Journal of Cleaner Production.

[35]  Lanouar Charfeddine.  The impact of energy consumption and economic development on Ecological Footprint and CO2 emissions: Evidence from a Markov Switching Equilibrium Correction Model , 2017 .

[36]  Walter Krämer,et al.  The CUSUM test for OLS residuals , 1992 .

[37]  Havva Balat,et al.  Potential contribution of biomass to the sustainable energy development. , 2009 .

[38]  Adeolu O. Adewuyi,et al.  Biomass energy consumption, economic growth and carbon emissions: Fresh evidence from West Africa using a simultaneous equation model , 2017 .

[39]  Samuel Asumadu-Sarkodie,et al.  A review of renewable energy sources, sustainability issues and climate change mitigation , 2016 .