Public debt vs. governmental environmental expenditure: evidence from EU economies

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of public debt levels on public environmental protection expenditures. The underlying hypothesis suggests that the level of public debt influences the amount of public spending allocated to environmental protection. The methodology is based on a panel data regression analysis for the yearly observations from 1995 to 2022 on all EU economies. Data were collected from the Eurostat database. The results are contextualised within the broader framework of sustainable development and legal regulations, which promote higher environmental protection expenditures. The findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on the efficiency of environmental protection expenditure, exploring the tension between fiscal responsibility and the need for greater investment in environmental sustainability.