This research aims to explore the dynamic nexus among governance quality, forms of financial development, energy transition, and ecological sustainability in emerging economies between 2005 and 2023. Based on an unequal sample of 95 developing countries, the analysis combines institutional theory, public choice perspectives, and the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework to examine how institutions and finance jointly determine environmental performance. Ecological sustainability is predominantly quantified by ecological footprint, with CO2 emissions and energy intensity serving as robustness checks. The study accounts for cross-sectional dependence, slope heterogeneity, endogeneity, and nonlinear dynamics using well-established second-generation panel data techniques, including Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag, Common Correlated Effects Error Correction Model, Common Correlated Effects Mean Group, Augmented Mean Group, and System Generalized Method of Moments, quantile regression, threshold models, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality tests. The findings suggest a steady, long-run correlation among governance, finance, energy transition, and ecological sustainability. The quality of governance can greatly boost environmental performance and amplify the ecological scorecard of financial development and the adoption of renewable energy. The enhancement of financial deepening yields the greatest sustainability gains when institutions are well designed, which supports the existence of governance thresholds. Energy transition proves to be the most consistent source of environmental enhancement among estimators, as well as subsamples. Empirical tests on causality reveal that governance and finance are more likely to precede energy transition and improvements in sustainability, with weak feedback effects. In general, the results show that the effectiveness of institutional strength in finance in the context of the environment and sustainable energy transition in the new economy depends on the activities of emerging economies.
Qamruzzaman et al. (Wed,) studied this question.