Towards green growth: biomass energy, solar energy, and globalization as pillars of sustainable development in India

Abstract Green growth integrates economic development with ecological sustainability, emphasizing emissions reduction, biodiversity conservation, and resource efficiency. However, the interplay of renewable energy diversification, education, and globalization in shaping green growth pathways remains understudied, particularly in emerging economies like India. This study aims to examine how solar energy (SOR), biomass energy (BIO), education (EDU), and globalization (GLO) influence green growth (GGW), selecting India as the focus due to its significant investments in biomass energy, solar energy, and education initiatives. This study used the wavelet quantile-based approaches to observed how these factors impact GGW across different quantiles and period. The result from the wavelet quantile regression (WQR) indicates that: (i) SOR exerts a positive and significant influence on GGW in the medium and long term, while in the medium term its effect is quantile-dependent, varying in sign and magnitude; (ii) BIO exhibits no significant effect on GGW across quantiles in the short run, while exerting a positive and statistically significant impact on GGW across most quantiles in the medium and long term; (iii) the role of EDU exhibits heterogeneous short-run effects, and becomes predominantly positive in the medium and long run (iv) GLO exerts a significant and negative effect on GGW at lower quantiles in the short run; in the medium and long term, the positive and significant effect is observed. Moreover, the result from the wavelet quantile correlation analysis gives validation to the result from the WQR method. Furthermore, the result of the Wavelet Quantile Granger Causality method revealed the evidence of causation from the explanatory variables to GGW. The study proposed policies based on these findings.