Testing The Role of Natural Resources Management on Load Capacity Factor in India: An Assessment of the Influence of Geopolitical Risk and Economic Policy Uncertainty

The ongoing inquiry revolves around whether natural resources heightened geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty will act as mitigating or amplifying factors about pollution. In delving into this matter, this study investigates whether natural resources, geopolitical risk, and economic policy uncertainty act as mitigating or amplifying factors on environmental quality in India, given the country's rapid economic expansion and increasing energy demands. Employing quarterly data from 2003/Q2 to 2022/Q4 in India, the study empirically examines how geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty effectively influence ecological quality measured by the load capacity factor while considering the roles of natural resources and energy consumption. The analysis employs recently developed econometric methods, Quantile-on-Quantile Granger Causality and Quantile-based Augmented Dickey-Fuller, marking their novel application in the context of India's environmental sustainability literature to unveil causal connections among variables. The results indicate that natural resources, economic growth, renewable energy, economic policy uncertainty, and geopolitical risk collectively demonstrate forecasting capabilities over Ecological Quality. This study's originality lies in employing advanced quantile-based techniques, providing insights into asymmetric and nonlinear relationships in the data. Therefore, it is necessary for targeted environmental policies to ensure sustainable ecological management in India's ongoing economic growth trajectory.