Determination of the Stability of Ecological Footprint and its Subcomponents in Türkiye: Fourier KPSS Test

Environmental sustainability plays a critical role in protecting the world's ecosystem. Human activities, significantly increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the overuse of fossil fuels challenge the planet's capacity to regenerate itself. In this study, which aims to determine whether the ecological footprint and its sub-components are stationary in Türkiye, the data range of the survey includes the years 1961-2022 and consists of annual data. In this study, the Fourier KPSS test is used to determine the stationarity of ecological footprint and its sub-components, which are important indicators of environmental degradation. According to the results of the study conducted using the Fourier KPSS unit root test for the effectiveness of environmental policies implemented in Türkiye, it is concluded that the total ecological footprint, carbon footprint, cropland footprint, and build-up footprint variables are non-stationary. This result indicates that the shocks have a permanent effect on the variables and that the variables do not tend to return to their average after the shocks. Still, instead, the variables tend towards a new equilibrium point. Similarly, it shows that policies that affect the ecological footprint and some of its sub-components will have long-term and permanent effects. It is concluded that the fishing grounds footprint, forest products footprint, and grazing land footprint variables are stationary. This result implies that the impact of shocks on these variables is temporary.