Environmental sustainability and green logistics: Evidence from BRICS and Gulf countries by cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach

The logistics sector plays a crucial role in supporting various aspects of the economy, making it an essential part of a nation's development. However, this sector also contributes to environmental pollution through various emissions. The adoption of environmentally friendly logistics practices presents a promising solution to mitigate adverse environmental impacts. This study aims to investigate the influence of economic growth, green innovation, foreign direct investment, transport emissions, renewable energy, and trade openness on green logistics in both Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) and Gulf countries from 1992 to 2020. This study used an advanced panel approach to obtain robust results, considering cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity. The cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag method was employed to analyze long and short-run estimations. Our findings reveal that in Gulf countries, both transport emissions and foreign direct investment have a negative impact on green logistics. In the BRICS countries, economic growth, transport emissions, trade openness, renewable energy, and green innovation have a positive impact on green logistics. The study proposes several recommendations to improve logistics development in both groups of nations and promote sustainability. To achieve carbon neutrality, it is important to adopt green logistics, promote green investments, and support renewable energy, innovation, and sustainable growth.