Nuclear energy green growth and green innovation effects on ecological footprint in the top fifteen nuclear energy using countries

Recent developments in the literature reveal that nuclear energy, as well as renewable energy, can be used to combat environmental degradation. However, it is a fact that this literature, which focuses on the relationship between nuclear energy and environmental degradation, does not include green growth and green innovation in environmental pollution models. In order to fill this gap in the literature, our study analyzes the nuclear energy-ecological footprint relationship by using 1994–2021 panel data of 15 leading countries in nuclear energy consumption and adding the variables in question to the empirical model. The long-term estimates are explored using the FMOLS, DOLS, and AMG estimators. The causality analysis is carried out by the Dumitrescu-Hurlin bootstrap causality procedure. In the long run, it is found that nuclear energy consumption, green growth, and green innovation improve environmental quality by mitigating the ecological footprint. Since natural resources and economic growth encourage the ecological footprint, they have a detrimental effect on environmental quality. Causality analysis points to unidirectional causality from nuclear energy consumption, green innovation, and natural resources to the ecological footprint. Additionally, a bidirectional causal linkage is detected between green growth, economic growth, and ecological footprint. The empirical findings obtained from the analysis can give important clues to the countries in question in the fight against environmental pollution. Especially in improving environmental quality, policymakers should focus on proposals focused on nuclear energy, green growth, and green innovation.