Green electricity adoption as a catalyst for mitigating the ecological pressure of economic complexity in BRICS economies

Abstract

Environmental sustainability has become an increasingly important policy challenge for emerging economies, where rapid industrialization and structural transformation are placing growing pressure on natural resources. This study examines the relationship between economic complexity and environmental sustainability in BRICS countries. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of the economic complexity index on the ecological footprint and investigates whether green electricity adoption moderates this relationship. The study uses annual data from 1995 to 2023 and applies the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) and Bootstrap Quantile Regression (BSQR) to capture heterogeneous effects across different levels of ecological pressure. The results indicate that higher economic complexity significantly increases the ecological footprint, suggesting that advanced production structures are associated with greater resource consumption and environmental pressure. In contrast, green electricity adoption consistently reduces ecological degradation across all quantiles. Furthermore, the interaction between economic complexity and green electricity adoption is negative and significant, confirming that green electricity adoption mitigates the environmental impact of complex economies. These findings suggest that BRICS countries should align industrial development with renewable energy expansion by promoting green technologies, supporting renewable electricity in advanced sectors, and gradually reallocating fossil fuel subsidies to achieve sustainable development.