Exploring the role of coal consumption, solar, and wind power generation on ecological footprint: evidence from India using Fourier ADL cointegration test

The transition to renewable energy sources has been identified as crucial to combating climate change on a global scale. India's future energy vision is becoming increasingly focused on renewable markets, particularly solar and wind power, which would improve energy efficiency and allow the country to shift from a coal-based economy to a renewable-based economy by 2030. In this context, the present study intends to investigate the impact of India's considerable investments in solar and wind power plants on mitigating environmental degradation by reducing reliance on coal-fired power. To this end, this study adopts the Fourier Autoregressive Distributive Lag (ADL) cointegration test and Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) to assess the relationship between coal consumption, solar power, wind power, and ecological footprint in India using data from 1995 to 2018. The empirical results show that solar and wind power are significant and negatively related to ecological footprint, indicating that they lessen the environmental degradation. However, coal consumption is significant and positively related to ecological footprint. The study findings confirm the constructive role of solar and wind power in mitigating environmental degradation that is caused by the domination of coal-fired power generation in India, and solar and wind power are cleaner alternatives to replace coal-fired power.