Beyond the turbine: Charting the ecological footprint trajectory of wind energy technology budgets

Abstract

Amid the world's pursuit of environmental responsibility, strategic investments in wind energy technology reveal a powerful synergy, illuminating the path toward a greener and more sustainable future. This research explores the asymmetric association between wind energy technology budgets and ecological footprint in ten leading nations that invest the most in wind energy R&D (USA, China, Italy, UK, Brazil, France, India, Spain, Canada, and Germany). Prior investigations utilized panel data approaches to probe the wind energy technology-environment nexus without accounting for the specific qualities of various economies. Contrarily, the current research adopts the Quantile-on-Quantile methodology to appraise this relationship individually for every nation. This unique approach improves the exactness of our estimation, delivering a holistic global viewpoint while delivering customized perceptions for every particular economy. The annual data for the economies extends between 2000 and 2023. The findings indicate that dedicating resources to wind energy technology improves environmental quality by reducing the ecological footprint across several quantiles in selected counties. Furthermore, the findings highlight the diverse behaviors of these linkages in sample economies. These results underline the significance of policymakers performing exhaustive appraisals and executing efficient measures to allocate wind energy technology budgets for ecological sustainability. Highlights: The study analyzes wind energy technology-ecological footprint nexus. A unique methodology, “Quantile-on-Quantile (QQ),” is used. Wind energy technology reduces ecological footprint.