The impact of energy consumption to environmental sustainability: an extension of foreign direct investment induce pollution in Vietnam

Purpose According to the crusade of the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs-6, 7,8,12 and 13) that addressed pertinent issues around, clean access to water, access to energy, responsible consumption and climate change mitigation alongside, respectively, Paris Kyoto Protocol agreement of mitigation of climate changes issues of vision 2030. Design/methodology/approach This purpose of this study aimed to assess the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis following the ecological footprint perspective with a data set covering the period 1995–2018. It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. To this end, the current study is fitted in a multivariate framework to ameliorate for omitted variable bias for the data set from 1995–2018 on a quarterly frequency using autoregressive distributive lag methodology. Subsequently, the stationarity status of the study underlines series were examined with a conventional unit root test and the Pesaran’s bounds test for cointegration analysis. Findings Empirical evidence from the bounds test to cointegration traces the co-integration relationship between ecological footprint, conventional energy use, foreign direct investment, international tourism arrival and water resources over the sampled period. The study, in the long run, affirms the N-shaped relationship between ecological footprint and foreign direct investment in Vietnam. Additionally, the present study validates the hypothesis of energy consumption-induced pollution emissions. The relationship between international tourism arrival and quality of the environment is statistically positive in both the short-run and long-run, as 1% in international tourism arrival worsens the quality of the environment by 0.45% and 0.4% in the short-run and long-run, respectively. Interestingly, water resource's major environmental issues that have plagued the Vietnam economy are inversely related to ecological footprint. Based on findings, Vietnamese policymakers may need to consider drafting appropriate environmental policies to tackle global warming while concurrently boosting economic development. Originality/value The present study focuses on Vietnam on the determinant of environmental quality measured by a broader indicator (ecological footprint). It is well-established that anthropogenic human activities are the root cause of environmental deterioration. The present study claims to distinct from previous literature in two-folds, namely, in terms of scope. Vietnam holds a very interesting energy mix and environmental dynamics, which has been ignored in the literature. Second, we argue to be the first based on our survey to explore the theme by incorporation of water resources and foreign direct investment intensification in the conventional pollution determinant model. This is in a bid to highlights the policy blueprint for the country (Vietnam), which is currently plagued with high pollution issues and the region at large.