Description:
Natural resources play a significant role in determining the strength of countries' economies. Still, at the same time, they are accompanied by concerns about their impact on the environment. Because of the scarcity of studies investigating the association between natural resources and environmental deterioration, this study aims to fill this gap by examining the relationship between the abundance of natural resources and the environmental quality of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries from 1995 to 2017. Following the panel data model analysis, the unit root test results proved the stationary of some variables at the level, during the stationary of other variables at the first difference. This study relies on the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method to prove the relationship between natural resources and carbon dioxide emissions in the long term. At the same time, it relies on the generalized method of moments (GMM) model to confirm the association between natural resources and carbon dioxide emissions in the short term. Because of the different opinions and studies on the extent of the effect of natural resources on the quality of the environment, our experimental results prove that Natural resources and environmental quality have an insignificant negative connection in the long and short term. These results reinforced some previous studies that confirm the positive influence of natural resources on the quality of the environment. In contrast, our experimental results demonstrate a close relationship between CO2 emissions as a dependent variable and the rest of the independent variables. The results of both (GLM) and (RLS) as robustness check tests are consistent with our model results. These empirical insights and suggestions are of particular interest to policy-makers as they help build sound external and environmental policies to sustain sustainable development