Tourism, Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, and Ecological Footprint Nexus in India

Abstract: Environmental problems have become a major issue in the country. Therefore, understanding the factors that are causing degradation of the environment in India is essential. This paper investigates the relationship between renewable energy consumption, tourist arrivals, economic growth, and ecological footprint in India during 1985-2022, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to cointegration. Results reveal that economic growth and tourist arrivals are the positive drivers of ecological footprint in India. However, the renewable energy consumption has not been found to be a significant driver of ecological footprint, neither in the short run nor in the long run. Keywords: Ecological Footprint, Renewable Energy, Tourist Arrivals, Economic Growth JEL Classification Number: Q56, Z32, Q20, O44