Discovering the role of trade diversification, natural resources, and environmental policy stringency on ecological sustainability in the BRICST region

Understanding the role of trade diversification, natural resources, and environmental policies is crucial for achieving ecological sustainability. By unraveling the interactions between these factors, we can identify strategies to minimize the negative environmental impact of resource-dependent economies while fostering sustainable trade patterns. This research aims to bridge the gap by examining the influence of trade diversification, natural resource rent, environmental stringency policy, renewable energy resources and economic growth on the ecological footprint of BRICST (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey) countries from 1995 to 2021. The advanced panel-based technique Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) is deployed, followed by robustness estimators. The outcome implies that natural resource rent and economic growth pose environmental stress at several quantiles of ecological footprint. Conversely, trade diversification, renewable energy consumption and environmental policy stringency mitigate the adverse effects of industrialization in the BRICST nations. Manifestly, the impact of trade diversification is increasing from lower to higher quantiles while the influence of environmental policy stringency is decreasing on the conditional quantiles of ecological footprint. The study provides effective policies to save the quality of the environment in the BRICST region.