Impact of Agriculture, Manufacturing, Tourism, and Transportation on Environmental Quality in the Middle East and North Africa region

As climate conditions deteriorate and ecosystems become increasingly precarious, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) must address a pressing challenge: achieving continued economic growth without worsening environmental quality (ENQ). To address this issue, it is vital to understand the sectoral drivers of ENQ to inform policymakers in devising appropriate and evidence-based interventions. Thus, this study aims to investigate the environmental impacts of agriculture (AGR), manufacturing (MANU), tourism (TOUR), and transportation (TRAN) in twelve MENA countries from 1990 to 2023. Using the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, this study adopted these four sectors as proxies for Affluence, total population (POP) as a proxy for population, and carbon intensity (CI) as a proxy for technology to investigate their impact on three proxies of ENQ, i.e., carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e), nitrous oxide emissions (N₂Oe), and methane emissions (CH₄e). Using the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation method, the study concludes that (1) POP contributes to CO₂e and CH₄e reductions, but N₂Oe increases; (2) manufacturing increased CO₂e and N₂Oe, while agriculture decreased both pollutants but increased CH₄e; (3) tourism and transportation worsened ENQ through increasing these three emissions and; (4) carbon intensity is positively correlated with CO₂e and N₂Oe, but negatively correlated with CH₄e. The results emphasize the urgent need for target-specific policies, such as cleaner manufacturing, more efficient agriculture, and methane abatement measures, and lowcarbon policies in both the tourism and transportation sectors to reduce sector-based environmental pollution and to promote sustainable development in MENA countries.