Modeling the linkage between coal mining and ecological footprint in South Africa: does technological innovation matter?

The environmental sustainability challenges posed by coal mining as a critical revenue and energy source for South Africa have been sparsely explored in the literature. Therefore, the current study examines the role of technological innovation (TI) in the coal mining (CM)-ecological footprint (EF) nexus in South Africa from1981 to 2017. Results from FMOLS, DOLS, and CCR establish that CM contributes significantly to environmental degeneration in South Africa. Furthermore, the findings reveal that while TI has a separate positive influence on environmental sustainability, the interaction between CM and TI leads to a declining EF. This implies that TI mitigates the negative impact of CM on the environment. Hence, it is concluded that coal production in the country should be embedded in environment-sustaining technological process.