Nonlinear impact of biomass energy consumption on ecological footprint in a fossil fuel-dependent economy.

Facing the rise in threats that the environment confronts, several studies were conducted regarding the possible sources of renewable energy in general and biomass energy in particular. This study raises the question of the role that biomass energy can play to reduce ecological footprint in a country rich in fossil fuel energy and on which its economy is largely dependent. The results of the NARDL method applied to the case of Saudi Arabia during the period 1984-2017 showed that the positive change in biomass energy consumption reduces the ecological footprint both in the short and long term. For a country dependent on fossil fuel energy as Saudi Arabia, fossil fuel energy and natural resource rents exert negative effects of the ecological footprint in the short term since they provide the necessary funds to finance green projects. However, natural resources rents and positive changes in fossil fuel energy consumption significantly increase ecological footprints in the long term. Urbanization has negative effects on ecological footprint both in the short and long term. The effects of GDP and GDP square on environmental degradation are negative and positive, respectively. However, the effects of these two variables on the ecological footprint are reversed in the long run. For a fossil fuel energy-dependent economy as Saudi Arabia, the biomass energy and the demographic dimension linked to urbanization are important levers for the transition to sustainable development, both in the short and in the long term.