Exploring the role of coal consumption, solar, and wind power generation on ecological footprint: evidence from India using Fourier ADL cointegration test

Abstract

The transition to renewable energy sources has been identified as crucial to combating climate change on a global scale. India's future energy vision is becoming increasingly focused on renewable markets, particularly solar and wind power, which would improve energy efficiency and allow the country to shift from a coal-based economy to a renewable-based economy by 2030. In this context, the present study intends to investigate the impact of India's considerable investments in solar and wind power plants on mitigating environmental degradation by reducing reliance on coal-fired power. To this end, this study adopts the Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ADL) cointegration test and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) to assess the relationship between coal consumption, solar power, wind power, and ecological footprint in India using data from 1995 to 2018. The empirical results show that solar and wind power are significant and negatively related to ecological footprint, indicating that they lessen the environmental degradation. However, coal consumption is significant and positively related to ecological footprint. The study findings confirm the constructive role of solar and wind power in mitigating environmental degradation that is caused by the domination of coal-fired power generation in India, and solar and wind power are cleaner alternatives to replace coal-fired power.

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Environmental Science and Pollution Research
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23910-z
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Exploring therole ofcoal consumption, solar, andwind power
generation onecological footprint: evidence fromIndia using Fourier
ADL cointegration test
SelinKarlilar1 · FiratEmir2
Received: 2 July 2022 / Accepted: 26 October 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
The transition to renewable energy sources has been identified as crucial to combating climate change on a global scale.
India’s future energy vision is becoming increasingly focused on renewable markets, particularly solar and wind power, which
would improve energy efficiency and allow the country to shift from a coal-based economy to a renewable-based economy
by 2030. In this context, the present study intends to investigate the impact of India’s considerable investments in solar and
wind power plants on mitigating environmental degradation by reducing reliance on coal-fired power. To this end, this study
adopts the Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ADL) cointegration test and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square
(FMOLS) to assess the relationship between coal consumption, solar power, wind power, and ecological footprint in India
using data from 1995 to 2018. The empirical results show that solar and wind power are significant and negatively related
to ecological footprint, indicating that they lessen the environmental degradation. However, coal consumption is significant
and positively related to ecological footprint. The study findings confirm the constructive role of solar and wind power in
mitigating environmental degradation that is caused by the domination of coal-fired power generation in India, and solar
and wind power are cleaner alternatives to replace coal-fired power.
Keywords India· Renewable energy· Solar energy· Wind energy· Coal consumption· Environmental degradation
JEL Classification P18· P48· Q28· Q42
Introduction
Renewable energy sources play a crucial role in environ-
mental and sustainable development issues, such as miti-
gating environmental degradation, improving traditional
primary energy-related carbon emissions, increasing
efficiency, and economies of scale.It is obvious that
using traditional energy sources in production process
have detrimental effect on environment and cause cli-
mate change.The three warmest years in our history were
recorded to be 2015, 2016, and 2017, even though 2016 had
the greatest level of atmospheric carbon emissions in the
past 800,000years. Meanwhile, due to the increasing pro-
portion of greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions by developing
countries, it has attracted the growing attention of policy
makers and environmentalists to urgently work on energy
regulation measures and find a remedy for environmental
sustainability. They indicated that renewable energy sources
are remedies for sustainable development goals and that
power generation by using traditional fossil fuel sources is
a major cause of environmental degradation (Udemba and
Tosun 2022). Therefore, according to sustainable develop-
ment goals and international treaty agreements on climate
change such as the Paris agreement, countries have begun
to prioritize environmental sustainability and increase the
Responsible Editor: Roula Inglesi-Lotz
* Firat Emir
firat.emir@baucyprus.edu.tr
Selin Karlilar
selin.karlilar@emu.edu.tr
1 Department ofEconomics, Faculty ofBusiness
andEconomics, Eastern Mediterranean University,
Famagusta, NorthCyprus,viaMersin10, Turkey
2 Faculty ofEconomics, Administrative andSocial
Sciences, Bahcesehir Cyprus University, Nicosia,
NorthCyprus,viaMersin10, Turkey

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix by
investing more in their potential renewable energy sources
(IRENA 2020; BP Energy Outlook 2020). In this context,
the integration of new generation renewable energy sources
into power generation systems has rapidly increased in the
world. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA
2019), the power generation system that uses traditional
energy sources accounts for almost 40% of carbon emis-
sions throughout the world, and, nowadays, it continuously
declines depending on increasing investment in renewable
energy generation. In 2019, renewable energy generation
accounted for 26.2% of total generation globally. This
raises this proportion in the energy mix of the countries,
mainly depending on the rapid increase in investment in
solar and wind energy capacities. Solar power generation
has become the most widely used power generation in
the world, accounting for more than 50% of total renew-
able energy expansion in 2021, followed by wind power
generation. Furthermore, it is predicted that these renew-
able energy sources will take the place of using traditional
energy sources for power generation by 2035 (IEA 2018,
2019, 2021a; REN21 2019; BP Energy Outlook 2020).
Although India is one of the world’s largest coal consum-
ers, it is also the world’s second largest renewable energy
investor after China (Martinot 2009).
In detail, as the third-largest carbon emitting country in
the world, India emitted 6.8% of the global carbon emission
level in 2019. Besides, it is also positioned as the third-larg-
est energy consumer due to rapid population and economic
growth with a high industrialization level. Rapid population
growth (1.36 billion inhabitants, 2019) and intensive indus-
trialization have created enormous demand for energy in the
country. Hence, India satisfies 80% of its energy needs by
heavily utilizing traditional fossil fuels such as coal and oil
(Franco etal. 2017; Crippa etal. 2020; IEA 2021b). On the
one hand, although India is the second-largest coal-abundant
market in the world, its coal reserves are insufficient to sat-
isfy its increasing energy demand. Domestic demand for
coal has more than doubled, reaching 60% in 2019, up from
25% in 1990, in the country’s energy mix. Consequently,
more than 80% of coal-fired plants in India are faced with
a critical stock availability level in 2021. Thus, increasing
demand for energy and facing the scarcity of coal resources
have led India to invest in its potential alternative energy
sources for power generation (Kumar and Majid 2020; IEA
2021a, 2022). On the other hand, utilizing coal-fired tech-
nologies for power generation worsens the environmental
sustainability and air quality in India. The level of carbon
emissions caused by these technologies accounts for almost
45% of total energy-related emissions in India (Sholapurkar
and Mahajan 2015). Consequently, energy policies in India
play a vital role in mitigating carbon emissions and improv-
ing local and global environmental quality in line with
global environmental agreements and the country’s own
sustainable development goals.
Although coal-fired generation still has a massive share
in the energy mix, India is highly endowed with the remark-
able potential of renewable energy sources such as solar
and wind power. In this regard, India aims to increase the
utilization of solar and wind power to reduce the rising
dependency on importing coal and, accordingly, try to miti-
gate environmental problems created by coal-fired power
(Wang and Liu 2021). Besides, they are fully cost-competi-
tive and cost-effective green energy resources compared to
fossil-fuel fired technologies. In particular, wind power is
approximately 35% cheaper compared to coal-fired power,
where this number is accounted for as 30% for solar power
generation (GWEC 2020; Indian Institute of Science 2021).
Accordingly, the Indian government intensified its project
developments and investment in increasing the capacity of
power generation from its potential renewable energy incor-
poration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE) (REN21 2021; Shekhar etal. 2021). Since 2014,
the share of renewables in terms of installed capacity has
doubled while the share of coal capacity has regressed.
Owing to the remarkable progress of India’s energy transi-
tion by renewables deployment, the total installed capac-
ity of solar and wind power has reached 49 GW in the
2015–2019 period (IEA 2021a). Moreover, according to a
report by the Indian Institute of Science (2021), the total
installed capacity of renewable energy has reached 86 GW,
of which solar power accounted for 34 GW, with wind power
adding a further 37.5 GW by the end of 2019. Additionally,
in 2020, wind power installed capacity accounted for 43.3%
of the total energy mix. That was followed by solar power
with a share of 39.8%. According to the Renewable Global
Status Report (2020), India has become one of the world’s
leading investor economies in renewable energy. At the end
of 2020, India was ranked fourth according to its wind power
installed capacity and fifth according to solar power installed
capacity (Energy Statistics 2021).
Acceleration in investment and a rapid increase in
installed capacity of renewables have led the Indian gov-
ernment to set a target to raise its renewable energy gen-
eration capacity to 450 GW by 2030 under the conditions
of the Paris Agreement (IEA 2022). In addition, they have
committed to an emission mitigation target to reduce harm-
ful emissions and their intensity by 43% and 60% in 2030,
respectively. According to the IEA report published in 2018,
the share of renewable energy sources in India is expected to
rise to 38% by 2040 due to the priority given to new power
generations, led by solar and wind power in particular. Apart
from this, coal-fired power generation is targeted to decline
from 74% in 2017 to 57% by 2030 (IEA 2020). To this end,
according to 2030 development goals, the upward trend of
solar and wind power generation systems will keep growing

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
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in the near future. Therefore, based on these expectations, it
is important to see how far India can go beyond its targeted
level to make the new power generation pathway consistent.
Based upon the given information above, this study inves-
tigates coal consumption, solar, and wind power generation,
and their significance for environmental sustainability for
India for three main paradoxical reasons. First, India is one
of the world’s biggest coal consumer countries for power
generation. Second, it is ranked as the third top global car-
bon emitter country, and lastly, it is ranked as one of the
world’s top three leaders depending on installed renewable
energy capacity. In fact, this study aims to contribute to the
existing energy and environmental economics literature with
several novelties. First, to the best of the authors’ knowl-
edge, this is the first attempt to answer the question of how
the use of renewable and non-renewable energy sources in
India affects environmental sustainability. This is important
to be determined to assess whether the intensive invest-
ments made for renewable energy sources work to reduce
environmental deterioration levels in India. To do this, the
ecological footprint, which is a comprehensive indicator, is
first used to measure environmental sustainability in India
and then regressed on different renewable energy poten-
tials.In other words, if, as the literature suggests, solar and
wind energy sources are the primary drivers of the envi-
ronment, then controlling the aggregate level of emissions
through these indicators may be feasible. This is also the
first study to use disaggregated data for renewable energy
and link coal consumption, solar and wind power energy,
and ecological footprint into a single analysis.Thirdly, India
is one of the biggest contributors to the world’s emissions
and environmental deterioration due to its dependence on
fossil-fuel fired generation systems and carbon emissions
from fossil-fuel generation, which grew tenfold from 181
MtCo2 in 1971 up to 2161 MtCo2 in 2017 (IEA 2019). To
this end, from a theoretical standpoint, if environmental deg-
radation due to GhG emissions, mainly carbon emissions, is
strongly sensitive to the changes in coal consumption, this
study will be a light for policy makers, energy, and environ-
mental economists to pay strong attention to the country’s
specific energy revolution for integrating renewable energy
sources for power generation to reach the sustainable devel-
opment goals of India. Also, the findings of this study could
be especially useful for the continuity of the renewable gen-
eration target and to lessen the adverse environmental effects
of fossil fuels in India. Fourth, although few studies have
investigated the wind power-carbon emissions nexus in the
literature, no studies have yet examined the wind power-
ecological footprint nexus for India. Fifth, as an empirical
and methodological contribution, this is the very first study
that employs the newly developed advanced data testing
method, the Fourier ADL cointegration test, to empirically
analyze the steady-state association between ecological
footprint and disaggregated renewable and non-renewable
energy sources. This empirical technique differs from tradi-
tional cointegration techniques by considering the number of
structural breaks and gives robust results accordingly. Lastly,
this study extends the data set used in the literature and cov-
ers the years from 1995 to 2018, which is also the whole
available data. Upon careful empirical and methodological
analysis done to answer our research question, effects and
implications will be recognized and designated for better
identification of the workings of sustainable development.
Accordingly, policy recommendations will be provided to
achieve the sustainable development goals of the country.
The organization of this paper is listed below: After the
introduction, Section2 introduces the empirical and theoreti-
cal literature and is followed by Section3, which assesses
the data and the econometric methodology applied. Sec-
tion4 discusses the findings of the study, and Section5
delivers the conclusion and policy implications.
Empirical andtheoretical literature
The sustainable development issue has been widely exam-
ined in the literature. The Brundtland Report (1987) and
Goldemberg etal. (1988) can be demonstrated as a starting
point for this examination. Sustainable development as a
concept has been constructed along with social, economic,
and ecological dimensions. The Brundtland Report (1987)
determines it as a development issue and signifies the needs
of the current generation without wasting the resources for
future generations to meet their needs. However, other stud-
ies illustrate this point as inherently a dynamic process and
not a fixed condition (Mog2004). Meadows (1998) stated
that it is a dynamic concept and depends on people’s values
and awareness. Although there are lots of debates and argu-
ments about this three-dimensional concept, nowadays, the
sustainability of satisfying society’s needs is prioritized over
the sustainability of the economy and environment. How-
ever, it is well known that both society and the economy are
interdependent on the environment as an essential resource
supplier.
Besides this, the current and forecastable fossil fuel crisis
on the national front, along with GhG emissions, especially
carbon emissions, methane, and nitrous oxide, which cause
an increase in global heat, leads not only India but also other
countries to rethink and restructure their infrastructure and
their energy dependencies. As it is mentioned earlier, the
increasing global temperature and the rapid increase in the
Indian population and its energy demand led India to focus
on sustainable and economically efficient energy supply and
improve its energy efficiency measures with the integration
of renewable energy into its energy mix. Therefore, due to
the rapid increase in energy demand in India, it can be stated

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
that the most significant environmental problem in India is
building up an efficient infrastructure for its energy supply
to meet its social and economic goals. To this end, this study
aims to clarify the debates in the literature by evaluating the
significance of the potential alternative energy resources on
environmental sustainability and recommending some poli-
cies to achieve development goals. Accordingly, this section
is organized into three sub-sections to give the reason for the
selection of the variables and empirical analysis.
Coal consumption andenvironmental degradation
Coal is the most cost-effective option compared to other
forms of fossil fuels, and it is regarded as a reliable energy
source (Apergis and Payne 2010). However, the reliance on
coal has raised environmental concerns in terms of emis-
sions. Coal-fired power technologies account for the vast
majority of global emissions, and they are the main sources
of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen
(NO2), and particular matter (Shahsavari and Akbari 2018).
Therefore, they have detrimental consequences on the envi-
ronment. Wang etal. (2018) highlight that SO2 and NO2
are the major dangers in the life cycle of coal-fired power
generation, and environmental emissions from coal-fired
technologies are generated during power generation phases.
In research conducted by Dunmade etal. (2019) for South
Africa, it is determined that the country’s coal consump-
tion has a 95% potential to contribute to global warming.
Additionally, Wang etal. (2008) indicate that coal mining
has harmful effects on groundwater and vegetation. In their
study, Shearer etal. (2017) assesses the future emissions of
coal-fired plants under construction in India. They indicate
that the country’s low-carbon target could be threatened by
emissions from new coal-fired power plants.
Coal consumption is a widely used source of energy in
the world, and there are numerous studies done on the sub-
ject matter in the literature. In this regard, researchers have
extensively used carbon emission (Long etal. 2015; Pata
2018; Joshua etal. 2020; Munir and Riaz 2020; Ansari etal.
2022; Kanat etal. 2022) to assess the environmental situ-
ation based on coal consumption. The empirical results of
all these studies report that coal consumption significantly
contributes to environmental damage. Recently, limited stud-
ies have considered ecological footprint as a holistic measure
of environmental deterioration (Adebayo etal. 2022; Gorus
and Karagol 2022; Hassan 2022). The common conclusion
of these studies indicates that consumption of coal causes a
rapid degradation of the environment. In the case of India,
the same result is obtained by Tiwari etal. (2013), Ahmad
etal. (2016), Gyamfi etal. (2021), Pata and Kumar (2021),
Magazzino etal. (2021), and Adebayo etal. (2022). In short,
all the existing research agrees that using coal has a negative
effect on the health of the environment.
Solar power andenvironmental degradation
Considering its clean nature and low emissions potential,
solar power is one of the important alternatives to fossil-fuel
technologies (Dogan and Seker 2016). It also has long-term
advantages in terms of sustainability, environmental protec-
tion, and greater potential for expanding access to reliable
energy (Heffron etal. 2021). There are two main strands of
literature on the relationship between solar power and the
environment.
The first strand of studies has emphasized the environ-
mental risk of solar power. Unlike the other sources of
energy, solar power is free and inexhaustible because it
uses sunlight to generate energy (Evans etal. 2009). How-
ever, solar power has a high degree of intermittency, which
indicates that the performance of solar systems is strongly
influenced by the meteorological conditions/weather fluctua-
tions (Yasmeen etal. 2022; Yuan etal. 2022). This can be
seen as the main disadvantage of solar power. Furthermore,
solar power has environmental externalities such as land
degradation, water use, soil pollution, solar radiation fluc-
tuation, and hazardous substances (e.g., solvents and acids)
used in the manufacturing phases of solar panels (Shahsavari
and Akbari 2018; Al-Shetwi 2022). In this regard, Lam-
bert etal. (2021) prove the negative impact of solar pan-
els on soil quality. Bakirci and Kirtiloglu (2022) highlight
that solar radiation levels gradually increase in regions with
normal weather conditions, while they decrease in regions
with cloudy weather conditions. In fact, most of these con-
sequences can be corrected with well-planned management.
The second strand of studies discusses the impact of solar
power on the environment in terms of carbon mitigation.
For instance, Gao etal. (2021) investigate the environmental
impact of solar power during its lifespan from the emissions
and ecological footprint perspective. Their results show that
solar power generation emits a significant amount of emis-
sions and leaves a significant ecological footprint during
the manufacturing phases, and the environmental impact
of the other phases is very small. When the manufacturing
phase is completed and fully installed, solar power plants
are completely safe for the environment. Kotrikla etal.
(2017) also report that a large amount of emissions can be
removed by using solar power. Accordingly, solar power can
be described as pollution-free because it emits 99% fewer
emissions than coal-fired technologies and does not require
fuel to operate (Sharif etal. 2021b). Additionally, recently,
several studies to date almost agree that solar power is highly
effective in reducing carbon emissions. These include Zhang
etal. (2020) for China, Zaman etal. (2021) for Saudi Arabia,
Chien etal. (2022) for China, Güney (2022) for 35 countries,
Yasmeen etal. (2022) for the USA, Yu etal. (2022) for top
ten solar energy consuming countries, and Zhao etal. (2022)
for G7 countries. In the same line, Sharif etal. (2021b) reach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
the same result for the top-ten solar energy consuming
countries by using ecological footprint as a comprehensive
parameter for environmental deterioration.
Wind power andenvironmental degradation
This section discusses the environmental effects of wind
power. Wind energy is one of the most feasible forms of
renewable energy, and it is mainly a domestic energy source;
it is unlimited and cost-effective (Chien etal. 2021; Udemba
etal. 2022). Evans etal. (2009) state that wind power is
considered the most powerful energy source among the
other energy sources in terms of sustainability, and their
results highlight the necessity for wind power investment
to minimize environmental concern over the world. In this
line, Gao etal. (2021) reveal that wind energy provides the
fastest return on investment among biomass, thermal, and
solar power.
Although wind power technologies have a lower environ-
mental impact compared to traditional energy sources, they
have negative externalities such as noise and habitat destruc-
tion. In addition, wind power inevitably releases pollutant
emissions, which are typically formed during the produc-
tion, material transportation, and installation phases (Weis-
ser 2007; Xue etal. 2015; Xu etal. 2022). These effects are
regarded as minor and can be mitigated with careful manage-
ment and monitoring. In fact, wind power emits significantly
fewer emissions than other power generation sources (Li etal.
2012; Wang and Sun 2012). From the life-cycle perspective,
Miller etal. (2018) document that wind power emits less car-
bon than fossil-fired based technologies. More specifically,
Marimuthu and Kirubakaran (2013) report that wind power
decreases emissions compared to a coal-fired power plant,
but solar power plants have a higher carbon intensity than
wind power plants. Likewise, Li etal. (2020) investigate the
environmental emissions caused by wind power generation
in China. The life cycle assessment method reveals that wind
power generation diminishes the environmental emissions,
which are carbon emissions, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen
oxide (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO). Moreover, Forbes
and Zampelli (2019), in their study, report that in the absence
of wind power, carbon emissions would have been 14.6%
greater in Ireland. Their findings also highlight that higher
penetration levels of wind power leads to a large reduction in
emissions. In the same way, Oliveira etal. (2019) conclude
that the investment in wind power results in a reduction in
total carbon emissions in Ireland.
Few studies have investigated the impact of wind power
on the environment at a national or cross-national level
from a climate change perspective. For instance, Destek
and Aslan (2020) for G7 countries, Sharif etal. (2021a) for
the USA, Güney and Üstündağ (2022) for 37 selected coun-
tries, Bargaoui (2022) for 36 OECD countries, and Zhang
etal. (2022) for E5 countries indicate that wind power gen-
eration improves environmental quality, preventing harmful
effects of emissions. In addition to these studies, Aydin and
Pata (2020) stated that there is a path dependence in energy
demand for wind power in the USA. That is, wind power
has long-term effects in the USA, and energy policies can
be implemented for this energy source.
Data andmethodology
Given the expectation of increasing global energy demand
threefold due to an increase in population, productivity, and
living standards by 2050, most countries plan to improve their
energy production capacity by investing in renewable energy
sources. For instance, the Indian government invests in solar
and wind energy to enhance the share of renewable energy
sources in the energy production mix. In recent years, these
two renewable energy forms have seen the most rapid expan-
sion in India, and they serve as the structural pillars of the clean
energy system. India has reached fourth place with the largest
installed wind power capacity and fifth globally in terms of
solar power capacity. In this context, in this study, we aim to
explore the long-run association between coal consumption,
solar, and wind power generation and the ecological footprint
in India. The investigated relations can be presented as below:
Therefore, a comprehensive indicator for environmental
sustainability, i.e., ecological footprint (EFP), is used and
measured as global hectares per person (gha). It comprises
forestry, cropland, fishery, and grazing land along with CO2
emissions. The data has been obtained from Global Footprint
Network official website (2022). Besides, the data for coal
consumption (COAL), solar power generation (SOLAR),
and wind power generation (WIND) are acquired from Brit-
ish Petroleum statistical review of world energy (2022) and
measured as terawatt per hour (www. bp. com). The annual
data is restricted for the time period of 1995–2018, due to
the data availability of ecological footprint. To increase the
reliability of the results and decrease the heterogeneity of
the series, the logarithmic forms of the variables are used
for estimations. Table1 details the descriptive statistics and
correlation matrix for investigated variables.
Panel A of Table1 shows that the mean value of EFP
is − 0.065, that is between 0.173 and − 0.217. The standard
deviation of the ecological footprint is 0.125, which sug-
gests a low level of dispersion from the mean value. Further-
more, the means of coal, solar, and wind power generation
are 2.274, − 2.511, and 1.898, respectively. Additionally,
the Jarque–Bera (JB) statistics designate that variables are
(1)
lnEFP
t=
𝛼
+
𝛽
1
lnCOAL
+
𝛽2
lnSOLAR +
𝛽3
lnWIND +
𝜀t

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
normally distributed and positively skewed except for wind
power generation. Furthermore, the correlation matrix analy-
sis in Panel B of Table1 reveals that coal, solar, and wind
energy sources are positively correlated with ecological
footprint in India at a 1% significance level, while they are
positively and highly correlated with each other.
Furthermore, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF),
developed by Dickey and Fuller (1979), and Phillips and
Perron (PP) (1988) stationarity tests have been employed
to determine the integration order of the variables as a
precondition for investigating the long-term association
among studied variables. However, traditional unit root
tests can prohibit structural breaks and may occasion-
ally yield ambiguous results when the data has structural
breaks. Therefore, the Zivot-Andrews unit root test has
been employed to check for structural breaks and deter-
mine the stationarity level of variables under this condi-
tion. Furthermore, in the energy-environment literature, the
authors mainly used dummy variables to avoid misleading
results and to capture the effect of rapid changes in data.
However, this is insufficient to capture the slower changes,
such as economic reforms, in series. Economic reforms,
e.g., supply-side policies, are long-term policies and have
small and long-term effects on other variables. Therefore,
they may not be captured with traditional unit root tests.
To avoid these deficiencies and improve the strength of the
results while testing the cointegration relationship among
examined variables, a newly developed model, i.e., Baner-
jee etal. (2017), has been utilized. This method uses the
Fourier function to estimate the results and can capture
multiple breaks (Gallant 1981; Gallant and Souza 1991).
It was developed model of Banerjee etal. (1998) and can
be presented with the following equation (Eq.1).
where deterministic trend is depicted with
d(t)
and can be
defined as below:
where t depicts for trend, and N indicates for the no of obser-
vations. Moreover,
𝜅
stands for particular number of fre-
quencies. It can be determined with the minimum sum of
squares method. Then, Eq.(2) was implemented into equa-
tion one, and the following model was generated.
Then, the null hypothesis of no cointegration relationship
among investigated variables (
∅1=0)
was tested against the
alternative hypothesis which states for cointegration associa-
tion among investigated variables (
∅1<0)
. The following
test statistic was used for this purpose.
where

∅1
and se (

∅1)
indicate ordinary least squares esti-
mators and standard error term of
∅1
, respectively. This
test is recently commenced to the literature, and yet none
of the studies investigated the cointegration relationship of
renewable energy potentials of India, i.e., coal, solar, and
wind energy, with its environmental sustainability indica-
tors, i.e., ecological footprint by employing Fourier model
estimation. Therefore, this technique distinguishes our paper
from the previous studies in the energy-environment litera-
ture. Moreover, Bounds test has been utilized to confirm our
results obtained from the Fourier cointegration test. Lastly,
to capture the direction and magnitude of the effect of wind
power generation on environmental sustainability in India,
FMOLS model has been utilized. This model was applied to
examine the robustness of the outcomes under the condition
of small sample size and serial correlation and endogeneity
problems in the regressors.
Empirical results
As mentioned before, ADF and PP unit root tests have been
utilized to determine the integration order of the variables
as a prior condition for the cointegration test. The minimum
(2)
Δ
y
it
=d(t)+∅
1y1,
t−
1+𝛿
�
y2,
t−
1+𝛽Δy2
t
+𝜀
t
(3)
d
(t)=∝
0+𝜃1sin
(2𝜋𝜅t
N)
+𝜃1cos
(2𝜋𝜅t
N)
(4)
Δ
yit =∝0+𝜃1sin(
2𝜋𝜅t
N)+𝜃1cos(
2𝜋𝜅t
N)
+d(t)+∅
1
y
1, t−1
+𝛿�y
2, t−1
+𝛽Δy
2t
+𝜀
t
(5)
t
adl =

∅1
se
(

∅1)
∅
1
Table 1 Summary of descriptive analysis and correlation matrix
Authors’ computation
Panel A. Descriptive statistics
lnEFP lnCOAL lnSOLAR lnWIND
Mean − 0.065 2.274 − 2.511 1.898
Median − 0.115 2.217 − 4.007 2.234
Maximum 0.173 2.858 3.070 3.963
Minimum − 0.217 1.770 − 6.897 − 0.700
Std. dev 0.125 0.374 0.973 0.471
Skewness 0.413 0.206 0.603 − 0.219
Kurtosis 1.632 1.587 1.966 1.609
Jarque–Bera (JB) 2.446 2.075 2.421 2.037
JB probability 0.294 0.354 0.297 0.361
Observations 23 23 23 23
Panel B. Correlation matrix
lnEFP 1
lnCOAL 0.971 1
lnSOLAR 0.955 0.958 1
lnWIND 0.931 0.977 0.904 1

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
value of the AIC criterion is used to determine the optimal
lag length for these tests. The results of the unit root tests
are provided in detail in Table2. Consequently, all of the
studied variables have a unit root at their level form and are
stationary at integration order one, I(1), at different signifi-
cance levels. In addition, the Zivot-Andrews unit root test is
conducted, and the structural break for ecological footprint
occurs in 2013, coal consumption in 2014, solar energy gen-
eration in 2007, and wind power generation in 2004. In these
years, India has reiterated its reforms on the economy and
eliminated its rules and deregulated the market for more for-
eign direct investments. To this end, India aims to catalyze
economic growth which causes significant deteriorations on
environment and energy sector. These results satisfy the pre-
condition of the Fourier ADL cointegration test.
A second step is the verification of long-run equilibrium
associations among the variables examined with newly
established, Fourier ADL cointegration test. Also, Fou-
rier ADL test results are verified by conducting the ARDL
Bounds test. Table3 gives the outcome of the cointegration
tests. Accordingly, the trace statistics show the cointegration
relationships among studied energy sources with ecological
footprint level at 1% significance level for both tests. In other
words, these results indicate that coal consumption, solar
power generation, wind power generation and ecological
footprint have long-run steady-state relationship in India.
To test the significance and the magnitude of the effect
of studied energy sources on ecological footprint in the
long run, FMOLS model has been utilized. The empirical
outcomes are tabulated in Table4. Based on the findings,
it is clear that all the studied variables have a statistically
significant effect on ecological footprint in India.
According to the results, coal consumption is positively
related to the ecological footprint, which infers that coal
consumption leads to environmental degradation. More
specifically, an increase in coal consumption by 1% causes
a surge in environmental degradation by 0.713% in the
long run. Given India’s heavy reliance on coal to satisfy
its high energy demand, this is an expected outcome, and it
shows that dependence on coal has adverse environmental
consequences. As a result, environmental degradation in
India has accelerated as the country’s coal production has
expanded to meet the rising need for energy. This fact has
an important implication for the energy target of the Indian
government, which is the necessity to shift the country’s
energy use toward clean energy sources with little or no
Table 2 Unit root test results
(1) All unit root tests were employed for only intercept. (2) * and ** depict 1% and 5% significance levels,
respectively. (3) ∆ signifies the first difference
Authors’ computation
ADF PP Zivot-Andrews
Level ∆ Level ∆ Level Break date ∆ Break date
lnEFP 0.822 − 3.49* 0.913 − 3.425** − 2.929 2000 − 4.431* 2013
lnCOAL 0.781 − 3.728* 0.647 − 3.756* − 3.125 2007 − 4.949** 2004
lnSOLAR 0.107 − 5.419* 0.268 − 5.419* − 3.612 2011 − 7.547* 2007
lnWIND − 1.468 − 5.623* − 1.550 − 5.519* − 4.576 2004 − 7.942* 2004
Table 3 Results of cointegration
tests
(1) Critical value for cointegration test is − 4.44 for 1%, significance level. (2) * depicts 1% significance
level. (3) BL and BU indicate lower bound and upper bounds, respectively
Authors’ computation
Panel A. Fourier ADL coint. test
Result Frequency (k) Test statistics AIC Dy Dx
Cointegration 1 − 5.469* − 5.457 1 2
Panel B. Bounds test results
1% 5% 10%
BLBUBLBUBLBU
Cointegration 1 9.732* 5.17 6.36 4.01 5.07 3.47 4.46
Table 4 Results of long-term estimation
(1) * and ** depict 1% and 5% significance levels, respectively
Authors’ computation
Coefficient Std. error T-statistics P value
lnCOAL 0.713* 0.139 5.101 0.0001
lnSOLAR − 0.016** 0.007 − 2.156 0.0448
lnWIND − 0.072* 0.024 − 2.954 0.0085
C − 1.591* 0.292 − 5.456 0.0000
R-squared 0.925 Adjusted R-squared 0.913

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
negative environmental impact. This outcome is in the vein
of Magazzino etal. (2021), Gyamfi etal. (2021), Pata and
Kumar (2021), and Adebayo etal. (2022).
Regarding the coefficient of solar power, it is statistically
significant and negatively associated with ecological foot-
print. A 1% rise in the proportion of solar energy generation
leads to a 0.016% decline in the environmental degradation
level. As a clean and sustainable energy source, solar power
can help contribute to reducing environmental degradation.
This is because solar power does not rely on the combustion
of coal-fired power and other harmful materials. Also, it can
decrease both the level of dependence on coal-fired power
and environmental problems caused by coal-fired power gen-
eration in India. Given this, solar energy is worth investing
in in India, and further developments in solar capacity may
provide even greater environmental advantages. This finding
is supported by the empirical result in the study of Wu etal.
(2021), in which solar energy is the promising carbon–neu-
tral option compared to coal-fired generation. This result
is in line with Zhang etal. (2020) for China, Sharif etal.
(2021a) for USA, Yasmeen etal. (2022), and Yu etal. (2022)
for top-ten solar-consuming countries, and Zhao etal. (2022)
for G7 countries. However, this contrasts with the views of
Destek and Aslan (2020) for G-7 countries, and Magazzino
etal. (2021) for India who reported the insignificant effect
of solar power on environment.
Finally, wind power has a significant negative effect on
the ecological footprint. For every 1% increase in wind
power generation, there is a decline of 0.072% in the level
of environmental degradation in the investigated period. The
results show that wind power has the potential to be consid-
ered as one of the best alternatives among potential renew-
able energy sources to fossil fuels. Also, findings support the
view that wind power is an eco-friendly energy source. This
is because the process of transforming the kinetic energy of
the wind directly into energy does not produce any pollution
or emissions. This would help India ensure a better envi-
ronment and reach its environmental sustainability targets.
Wind-generated energy is therefore highly recommended
for the Indian economy. Furthermore, this result can be
supported by the findings provided in the recent study by
Li etal. (2020), in which wind power generation is more
effective at controlling emissions than coal-fired power. The
empirical finding can also be justified by a study like Zhang
etal. (2022) for selected five emerging economies, includ-
ing India.
Consequently, empirical findings support the fact that
solar and wind power are cleaner alternatives to replace
coal-fired power, and India has started to take advantage
of the utilization of these clean sources. Solar and wind
power have strong potential to reduce the dependence on
coal-fired power and can lessen the environmental damage
that is caused by the domination of coal-fired power genera-
tion in India. Accordingly, increasing the share of solar and
wind power in the energy generation mix and continuing
on the path toward achieving a low-carbon economy will
enable India to reduce environmental degradation and meet
its clean energy target. In this line, solar and wind power
have become key components of the energy mix in India,
and the change in the energy structure of the economy has
been successful in mitigating environmental degradation.
As COP26 (2021) says, it is important for the future of the
world to use more solar and wind power and less coal-fired
power.
Conclusion andpolicy recommendation
India is currently the third-largest energy consumer in the
world, and its energy needs are rising continuously. The
energy sector relies heavily on fossil fuels to meet rising
demand for energy, with coal-fired power accounting for
the vast majority of the country’s energy consumption. In
2019, India accounted for 11.8% of global coal consump-
tion; however, demand for coal decreased by 8% in 2020,
despite India being the second-largest coal importer behind
China (IEA 2021a, b). There is a huge concern regarding
the adverse impact of coal-fired power plants on the envi-
ronment. Therefore, immediate investments in clean energy
sources are necessary, and the replacement of coal and other
fossil fuels with renewable energy sources is a very impor-
tant step toward a better environment.
In this context, this study explores the long-term asso-
ciations between coal consumption, solar power generation,
wind power generation, and ecological footprint covering the
period 1995–2018 to determine the best alternative resource
to fossil fuel energy sources. To this end, the Fourier ADL
co-integration test and the Bound test are employed. Both
tests revealed the long-run steady-state associations between
coal consumption, solar power generation, wind power gen-
eration, and ecological footprint. Moreover, the long-run
coefficients are estimated by employing the FMOLS method,
and the results indicate that solar and wind power generation
have a negative and significant association with ecological
footprint. In other words, increasing the share of solar and
wind power generation in the energy mix leads to mitigat-
ing the environmental deterioration in India. Furthermore,
the findings also reveal the positive effect of coal consump-
tion on the ecological footprint in India, indicating that coal
consumption causes environmental deterioration. These
results imply that environmental degradation in India can
be reduced by increasing the deployment of power genera-
tion from solar and wind power. Because, in contrast to fossil

Environmental Science and Pollution Research
1 3
fuel power plants, solar and wind power plants are environ-
mentally friendly, emitting no direct emissions, hazardous
pollutants or carbon dioxide during their operating stages.
In light of the results, efficiency measures and fossil fuel
conservation policies must be implemented to prevent envi-
ronmental degradation and achieve sustainability objectives.
Moreover, India has a huge amount of energy-generating
potential from solar and wind power, which are important
for current and future energy security. Accordingly, invest-
ments in solar and wind power play a crucial role in ensur-
ing the environmental sustainability of India. The Indian
government should therefore establish policies for the tran-
sition from fossil fuel-based energy to clean energy sources,
especially solar and wind power, to reduce the environmen-
tal deterioration level. In this way, it will also help the coun-
try to take a strong position to combat the climate change
problem. To reach this target, the Indian government should
prioritize environmental quality by considering the govern-
ment budget. They can support and subsidize the private
sector to promote the integration of solar and wind power
plants, or they can concentrate on public–private collabora-
tions. In addition, corporations that utilize clean energy may
be rewarded with subsidies and tax breaks, while those that
continue to excessively use fossil fuels could be taxed for
their carbon emissions. The proceeds from such a tax might
be allocated to these initiatives as a means of promoting
the transition to clean energy sources and investing in solar
and wind power infrastructure. Therefore, economic, low-
carbon, and sustainable development targets are achievable
with an increasing share of solar and wind power in the
country’s energy mix. To this end, future studies may inves-
tigate the same problem at the sectoral level for India to
have a detailed investigation and help policy makers design
comprehensive policies.
Acknowledgements This manuscript has not been submitted to any
journal for publication, nor is under review at another journal or other
publishing venue.
Author contribution Authors collaborate for this paper in each section.
SK worked for the introduction and literature review, and FE developed
the model, employed the methodology, and discussed the results. All
authors discussed the results and contributed to the final version of the
manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Data availability Data sources are outlined in Data and methodology
section and will be available on demand.
Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate The authors are giving their
ethical approval and consent for participation in this paper to be pub-
lished in your Journal if found publishable.
Consent for publication The authors are giving their consent for this
paper to be published in your Journal if found publishable.
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
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