Sustainable finance, natural resource abundance, and energy poverty trap: the environmental challenges in the era of COVID-19

Energy poverty is a global challenge and the scarcity has been emerging as a global issue. Therefore, the relationship among energy scarcity, sustainable finance, and carbon emissions is analyzed with the help of global data from 40 developing countries until the beginning of the COVID-19 era. For empirical results’ estimation, the study analyzed a panel data ranging from 2000 to 2019. To measure the energy poverty, some part of population that has no access to energy is considered, and empirical analysis based on augmented mean group (AMG) regression method was carried out. The findings of the study suggest the inverse relation among energy poverty and carbon emissions. Moreover, a negative relationship was also observed between sustainable finance and carbon emissions. These findings highlight that alleviation of energy poverty can intensify environmental pollution. While improvement in access to clean energy will benefit society by alleviating energy poverty and controlling carbon emissions. Moreover, improvement in the share of sustainable finance in total investment may improve the environment quality by reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, it is suggested that regional plans along with sustainable finance are required on a priority basis for the promotion of clean energy to control carbon emissions and alleviate energy poverty at the household level.