Asia's carbon footprint : unraveling the role of natural resource rent, standard of living and energy consumption

Amid escalating climate risks and uneven decarbonization trajectories, understanding the distributional determinants of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential for guiding Asia toward equitable and sustainable development. Anchored in the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework and the resource-curse hypothesis, this study examines the heterogeneous effects of total natural resource rents (TNR), standard of living (SDL), renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption (REC and NREC), and foreign direct investment (FDI) on GHG emissions across 32 Asian economies from 1990 to 2021. Using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR)-which accounts for slope heterogeneity, cross-sectional dependence, and nonstationarity-the analysis uncovers significant variation across the emissions distribution. SDL exhibits a positive impact on GHG emissions at lower quantiles, with the effect diminishing at higher quantiles, indicating enhanced emission efficiency in more developed contexts. TNR shows a positive relationship with emissions at the lower end of the distribution, reflecting extractive-led early growth, but becomes negative at higher quantiles, suggesting improved governance of natural resources. REC initially correlates with increased emissions at lower quantiles, likely due to transitional inefficiencies in renewable deployment, but the association weakens at higher levels of emissions. In contrast, NREC consistently and significantly raises emissions across all quantiles, confirming its persistent environmental burden. FDI also increases emissions throughout the distribution, with more pronounced effects at the upper tail, aligning with concerns over pollution haven dynamics in industrializing economies. Robustness checks using Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) support the reliability of the results. While the study does not claim causal inference, the quantile-based associations offer actionable insights. The findings underscore the need for differentiated, context-specific strategies that promote clean energy transitions, efficient resource utilization, and environmentally conditioned investment frameworks to facilitate Asia's transition toward a low-carbon future.