ABSTRACT The increasing demand for sustainability is emerging in economies since the rapid industrialization, use of resources, population increase, and uneven technological change are redefining ecological performance. In this paper, the authors will examine the determinants of ecological sustainability using the load capacity factor (LCF) as the broad indicator of ecological balance in the E7 economies in the period between 1992 and 2023. Endogeneity, heterogeneity, and cross‐sectional dependence are mitigated by using a two‐step system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator accompanied by Driscoll–Kraay fixed‐effects robustness tests. The findings indicate that the consumption of renewable energy is the greatest positive factor of ecological resilience, whereas population growth and digital connectivity contribute significantly to the deterioration of LCF, which indicates the ongoing tension of demographic mechanisms and carbon‐consuming digital networks. The effects are positive on foreign investment and mineral rents, indicating that the inflows of funds through capital investments and outlays of revenue from resources can sustain ecological capacity when institutionalized in favorable institutions. Diagnostic tests prove the sufficiency of the instrument set and model stability. These results provide new data on the combination of structural, technological, and demographic factors to determine the sustainability trends in developing economies and emphasize the applicability of SDG pathways connected to clean energy, infrastructure, responsible production, and terrestrial ecosystems.
QIN et al. (Fri,) studied this question.