Alola Andrew Adewale, Onifade Stephen Taiwo, Magazzino Cosimo, Obekpa Hephzibah Onyeje
CREDS-Centre for Research on Digitalization and Sustainability, Inland Norway University of Applied Science, Elverum, Norway.
Faculty of Economics, Administrative, and Social Sciences, Nisantasi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Sci Rep. 2023 Sep 1;13(1):14394. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38032-w.
This study seeks to address pertinent economic and environmental issues associated with natural gas flaring, especially for the world's leading natural gas flaring economies (i.e. Russia, Iraq, Iran, the United States, Algeria, Venezuela, and Nigeria). By applying relevant empirical panel and country-specific approaches, the study found that fuel energy export positively impacts economic growth with elasticity of ~ 0.22 to ~ 0.24 for the panel examination. It is further revealed that environmental quality in the panel is hampered by increase in economic growth, gas flaring, fuel energy export, and urbanization. Moreover, for the country-wise inference, government quality desirably moderates economic and environmental aspects of gas flaring in Venezuela and Nigeria, and in Russia and Iran respectively. However, government quality moderates gas flaring to cause economic downturn in the USA. Additionally, economic growth increased with increase in urbanisation (in Iraq and the USA), gas flaring (in Iran and the USA), government quality (only in the USA), and fuel energy export (only in Algeria) while economic growth downturn is due to increase urbanisation in Russia and the USA, increase in fuel energy export in the USA, and increase in government quality in Russia. Meanwhile, environmental quality is worsened through intense carbon dioxide emission from increased urbanisation activity (in Iraq, Iran, Algeria, and Nigeria), increased fuel energy export (in Nigeria), increased natural gas flaring (in Algeria and Nigeria), increased GDP (in Russia, Iran, USA, Algeria, and Venezuela), and high government quality (in Iran). Interestingly, the result revealed that increase in GDP (in Nigeria), increase in urbanisation (in the USA), and increase in gas flaring (in Algeria and Nigeria) dampens environmental quality. Importantly, this study offers policy insight into sustainable approaches in natural gas production, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality.
本研究旨在解决与天然气燃烧相关的重要经济和环境问题，特别是针对世界主要天然气燃烧经济体（即俄罗斯、伊拉克、伊朗、美国、阿尔及利亚、委内瑞拉和尼日利亚）。通过应用相关的实证面板和特定国家方法，研究发现，对于面板检验而言，燃料能源出口对经济增长有积极影响，弹性约为0.22至0.24。进一步研究表明，面板中的环境质量受到经济增长、天然气燃烧、燃料能源出口和城市化增加的阻碍。此外，就国家层面的推断而言，政府质量分别对委内瑞拉和尼日利亚、俄罗斯和伊朗的天然气燃烧的经济和环境方面起到了理想的调节作用。然而，在美国，政府质量的调节导致天然气燃烧引发经济衰退。此外，城市化增加（在伊拉克和美国）、天然气燃烧增加（在伊朗和美国）、政府质量提高（仅在美国）以及燃料能源出口增加（仅在阿尔及利亚）会推动经济增长，而俄罗斯和美国城市化的增加、美国燃料能源出口的增加以及俄罗斯政府质量的提高则会导致经济增长下滑。与此同时，城市化活动增加（在伊拉克、伊朗、阿尔及利亚和尼日利亚）、燃料能源出口增加（在尼日利亚）、天然气燃烧增加（在阿尔及利亚和尼日利亚）、国内生产总值增加（在俄罗斯、伊朗、美国、阿尔及利亚和委内瑞拉）以及政府质量较高（在伊朗）所导致的二氧化碳排放量增加，会使环境质量恶化。有趣的是，结果显示，国内生产总值增加（在尼日利亚）、城市化增加（在美国）以及天然气燃烧增加（在阿尔及利亚和尼日利亚）会降低环境质量。重要的是，本研究为天然气生产、政府效能和监管质量的可持续方法提供了政策见解。
