Determinants of environmental sustainability transitions in BRICS economies: Evidence from policy stringency, globalization, eco-innovation and democratic institutions

Environmental degradation remains a significant challenge for emerging economies, particularly in the BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa where rapid economic growth, globalization and institutional
transitions continue to intensify pressure on ecological systems. This study investigates the dynamic relationship between ecological footprint and key economic, institutional and policy related factors, including gross domestic product, globalization, environmental technology as a proxy for eco innovation, environmental policy stringency and democracy. To address a gap in the existing literature, which has largely relied on mean based estimation techniques, this study applies the Method of Moments Quantile Regression to examine how these relationships vary across different levels of environmental pressure in BRICS countries during the period 1996 to 2022. The results indicate that GDP, globalization and democracy significantly increase environmental degradation across all quantiles. By contrast, environmental policy stringency and green technology contribute to reducing environmental degradation, particularly at higher pollution levels. The findings obtained from Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares are consistent with the quantile regression results, confirming the robustness of the analysis. In addition, the Dumitrescu Hurlin causality test reveals unidirectional causality running from ecological footprint to GDP and environmental technology, while bidirectional causality is identified between ecological footprint and environmental policy stringency and between ecological footprint and democracy. Overall, the findings provide important policy insights for BRICS countries by emphasizing the need for targeted and flexible strategies that balance economic development with environmental sustainability.