ABSTRACT This study empirically explores the heterogeneous impacts of agricultural and natural resource‐based activities on CO 2 emissions. This study examines the impact of agricultural, forestry, and fishery value‐added, renewable energy consumption, trade openness and natural resource rents on environmental degradation in BRICS economies over the period 1992–2023. To estimate the models, this study utilizes quantile regression (QR) method, which provides efficient and unbiased estimates across different quantiles of the distribution. The results show that agricultural, forestry, and fishery value added (AGRFFC) and trade openness positively affect CO 2 emissions at all quantiles. However, renewable energy consumption and natural resource rents negatively affect CO 2 emissions at all quantiles. For robustness check, this study uses the Driscoll‐Kraay standard errors method, which corrects heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation in the models. The results of the Driscoll‐Kraay standard errors regression method are consistent with the findings of the quantile regression method. The results of panel causality test show that there is uni directional causality from agricultural and natural resource‐based activities to CO 2 emissions. The findings of this research confirm the existence of a bi‐directional causal link between GDP and CO 2 emissions as well as a bi‐directional causal link between trade openness and CO 2 emissions. However, there is no evidence of a causal link between the REC and CO 2 emissions. The findings suggest that there are interdependent variables (CO 2 and key factors AGRFFC, GDP, TRD) that require an integrated policy response to address the interdependencies. The results show an urgent need for comprehensive strategies to reduce emissions through transforming trade, agriculture, and energy systems from their current state into sustainable future forms while simultaneously addressing emissions at their source.
Xu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.