| Nuclear energy represents a widely accepted form of energy production in recent years, emerging as a viable alternative energy source to meet increasing energy demands in many countries worldwide, and considered environmentally sustainable. The current literature lacks studies examining the potential impacts of nuclear energy on the ecological footprint in a large sample size. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to analyze the potential impacts of nuclear energy on the ecological footprint, an indicator of environmental sustainability, in 25 countries consuming nuclear energy between 2000 and 2023. Simultaneously, the study focuses on the effects of renewable energy, economic growth, and foreign direct investment on the ecological footprint, while also questioning the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). To this end, the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) was used to examine the extent to which various variables have an impact among countries with different environmental sustainability ratings. The findings show that in all quantiles, nuclear energy and economic growth contribute to the ecological footprint, foreign direct investment increases the ecological footprint and creates a pollution haven, while renewable energy consumption reduces the ecological footprint, and finally, the inverted U-shaped structure of the EKC hypothesis is confirmed. |
