Energy Poverty and Environmental Quality Nexus: Empirical Evidence from Selected South Asian Countries

South Asian countries are included in the economies of developing Asia. The region of South Asia is predominantly affected by energy poverty issues due to a heavy reliance on conventional energy and unpredictable access to energy services. It has about a quarter of the world's population and is home to three of the world's ten most populated countries: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This study investigates environmental sustainability dynamics in South Asian countries from 2000 to 2021, utilizing the Cross-sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin (D-H) causality methods. The research offers insights into the long-term trends and causal relationships that shape environmental outcomes in South Asian nations. Based on empirical findings, in the long-term, it is revealed that increases in energy poverty, economic growth, income inequality, and capital formation raise greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while renewable energy and labor reduce GHG emissions. On the other hand, the error correction term shows the speed of adjustment toward equilibrium at 0.75%. Furthermore, the D-H panel causality reveals a directional link between variables. These findings highlight the urgent need for South Asian countries to implement policies to address energy poverty, promote renewable energy adoption, and reduce income inequality to mitigate GHG emissions and achieve long-term environmental sustainability effectively.