The global community is concerned about several environmental changes. Climate change, desertification, destruction of tropical rainforests, erosion of coastal ecosystems, soil resource loss, overfishing, species extinction, and loss of biodiversity are all contributing factors. Many commentators contend that these issues make up a cumulative, sustained human impact on the environment that has profoundly changed the surface of the Earth. We explore the effects of alternative energy sources, natural resources, and government consumption expenditures on French environmental sustainability from 1990 through 2018 under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. We apply advanced econometric methodologies for empirical analysis. Our long-run estimates indicate that alternative and nuclear energy, natural resources, and government final consumption expenditures are negatively associated with CO2 emissions, while economic growth is positively related to CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions are negatively correlated with the square root of economic growth (EKC), thereby supporting EKC. As economic growth increases, environmental sustainability deteriorates. Eventually, EKC will make a positive contribution to environmental improvement. Future research directions, research limitations, and policy implications are discussed.
Keywords: Alternative energy; EKC; Environmental sustainability; France; Government expenditure.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.