Do Political Stability, Trade, and Natural Resources Asymmetrically Impact the Environmental Quality in South Africa? The Role of Renewable Energy

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study was to analyze and decompose the positive and negative impacts on political stability, trade, natural resources, renewable energy consumption, and environmental quality in South Africa using annual time series data from 1996 to 2021. This study employs an asymmetrical nonlinear ARDL approach to examine the short‐ and long‐run influences of key variables. The study also used robust least squares and generalized method of moments (GMM) to evaluate the series' robustness. The findings show that political stability interacts positively and negatively with environmental quality under positive and negative shocks. The variables trade, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption negatively influenced environmental quality in South Africa, but natural resources uncovered a positive interaction during short‐ and long‐run estimations. Furthermore, the findings of the robust least squares and GMM methods also revealed that political stability, trade, economic progress, and renewable energy consumption negatively influenced environmental quality in South Africa. Natural resources showed a positive influence on environmental quality during the investigation. The findings of this analysis indicate that South Africa would benefit from adopting more conservative and tightly regulated policy measures to enhance political stability, diversify its energy portfolio, and sustain a favorable trade balance. Implementing such policies carries important implications: they can strengthen the sustainable management of natural resources, support a shift away from environmentally harmful practices, and stimulate more resilient and inclusive economic growth.