The Paradox of Natural Resource Abundance and Environmental Degradation: An Empirical Study in Countries with High Abundance of Non-renewable Energy

In this research, we simultaneously examined the natural resource curse hypothesis and the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in countries with high abundance of non-renewable energy during the period 2005-2018 by the method of non-linear simultaneous equations system. The results indicate that the resource curse hypothesis is not rejected and the inverse U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is rejected, ie the paradox of the abundance of natural resource and environmental degradation is realized. In other words, despite the decline in economic growth due to the abundance of non-renewable energy, instead of reducing environmental degradation, we are facing an increase in it. Moreover, the results indicate a positive and significant impact of human development and private investment on economic growth and a negative and significant impact of human development and health index on environmental degradation. Therefore, for sustainable economic growth, policies such as preventing excessive depletion of renewable energy resources, investing to compensate and conserve existing renewable energy and accelerating investment in renewable energy and technologies along with promoting environmental education to raise awareness of the environmental problems is recommended.