Sustainable development challenges in Bangladesh: an empirical study of economic growth, industrialization, energy consumption, foreign investment, and carbon emissions-using dynamic ARDL model and frequency domain causality approach

Bangladesh, being the fastest growing economy in the South Asian region, necessitates a comprehensive study to evaluate the influence of various socio-economic factors. The primary objective of this study is to get a comprehensive understanding of the concept of sustainable development and its relationship to carbon emissions. This analysis will specifically consider the current status of economic and anthropogenic activities within the context of Bangladesh. This research examines the aforementioned matter by utilizing the latest accessible yearly data spanning from 1990 to 2020, as well as employing advanced econometric models including the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag approach and frequency domain causality test. The analysis of empirical data reveals that the economic growth experienced in Bangladesh has yielded a discernible and favorable influence on the degradation of the environment, in both the immediate and extended periods. Nevertheless, it is crucial to acknowledge that the observed impact holds no statistical significance. Furthermore, it is apparent that energy consumption has a substantial impact on the escalation of carbon emissions, in both the immediate and prolonged periods. Additionally, the processes of industrialization and foreign direct investment have also exerted adverse effects on short-term carbon emissions. A frequency domain causality test is used in this work to do a robustness analysis and confirm that there are causal links between economic growth, energy use, development, and carbon emissions over a range of time frames, such as the short, middle, and long terms. The above studies have given us a lot of useful information about how economic growth, energy use, industrialization, and environmental sustainability all affect each other in Bangladesh. Bangladesh should prioritize the formulation of policies and regulations that are centered around specific goals. These objectives include: (a) enhancing government engagement in activities related to environmental innovation, (b) integrating ecologically sustainable development targets by adopting renewable energy sources, and (c) devising strategies and initiatives to attract foreign direct investment, facilitate knowledge exchange, and promote energy-efficient manufacturing to stimulate economic growth.Graphical abstractThe short, medium and long-term causal outcomes of the complex relationship between CO2 and variables studied