Renewables, food (in)security, and inflation regimes in the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs): the environmental pros and cons

Abstract

In the present (twenty-first) century, the pertinent challenge of attaining the regime of food security with low pollution amidst the drive for sustainable economy and energy efficiency is core to governance and intergovernmental agencies. Therefore, in an attempt to investigate environmental issues among the coastline Mediterranean countries (CMCs) for the first time, the current study examines the dynamic long-run nexus of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions with food production and inflation rate over the annual period 1995–2014. Using a dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, the consumption of renewable energy in the panel of sixteen (16) CMCs is empirically observed to be an efficient policy vehicle for mitigating CO₂ emissions. Also, in all the examined CMCs, consumption of renewables is observed to cause significant decline in CO₂ emissions, thus securing a sustainable environment. However, in the long run and in the panel of CMCs, the study reveals that increase in food production (a drive toward food security) increases environmental risk. Additionally, the study found that high inflation regime in the panel CMCs is associated with low CO₂ emissions especially in the long-run, thus necessitating efficient policy mechanism. In adopting the genetic resources of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources, as well as employing price control policy, the members of the CMCs might have unearthed a suitable policy directive in effectively sustaining environmental quality.