What is the asymmetric influence of natural resource rent and green innovation on the ecological sustainability of the ARCTIC region

Due to the rapid energy demand growth, the Arctic region's natural resources get the immense interest of scholars and policymakers in the context of social, political, and economic aspects. However, the Arctic region's environmental impact on natural resource development has rarely been explored. This study contributes to the existing literature on environmental change by discovering the role of natural resource rent and green innovation on ecological sustainability from 1990 to 2020. Initially, we evaluate the long-run relationship among model variables through heterogeneous linear panel estimations such as fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and fixed effects ordinary least squares (FE-OLS). Later we apply the moment quantile regression (MMQR) to evaluate the asymmetric influence of independent variables across the grid of quantiles (0.1–0.9). The outcome of all four estimators in terms of the nature (sign) of the variable association is uniform. However, the significance of the association varies from quantile to quantile under the MMQR method. The study's findings revealed that natural resource rent and economic growth positively impact ecological footprint, whereas green innovation promotes environmental sustainability. Manifestly, these effects are more substantial at lower quantiles and weaker at higher quantiles. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis is confirmed at major quantiles. These findings suggest allocating substantial investments in green innovations and seeking alternatives and sustainable mechanisms for extracting natural resources to transform traditional carbon and energy-intensive production procedures. •Asymatric derivers of Ecological footprint (EF) is explored in ARCTIC region.•Novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression Applied.•Natural resources rent contribute to EF.•Green Innovation significantly reduce EF.•EKC hypothesis is confirmed.