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The pursuit of net-zero emissions has emerged as an international agenda in response to rising environmental challenges. The built environment, which comprises buildings and construction activities, accounts for nearly 37% of global energy consumption and, in turn, represents a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). Emissions in this sector stem both from the operational energy use of buildings and from energy-intensive manufacturing processes, positioning it as a critical domain for targeted emission reduction strategies. Accordingly, this study examines the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the top five carbon-emitting nations from 1997–2021. The study employs the dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE) estimator and cross-sectional-auto regressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL); for a robustness check, the findings revealed that EKC is valid for the panel as a whole in both estimations of CS-ARDL and DCCE. Further, the coefficient values of industrial development and energy efficiency exhibit negative but statistically insignificant effects on the built environment. The renewable energy consumption is significantly decreasing emissions from the built environment in the sample nations. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality test provides important policy insights emphasizing the adoption of environmentally sound industrial policies, energy-efficient designs and expanding renewable energy deployment to attain the long term goal of sustainability.
Qayoom et al. (Thu,) studied this question.