Governance Dynamics, Climate Action Performance and Sustainable Industrialization in MINT Countries
Greening industrialization is critical to balancing the crux between MINT's economic progress and environmental sustainability. However, the governance trajectory to improving climate action performance while achieving sustainable industrialization remains elusive, with no empirical consensus on their relationship. This study examines the intervening influence of governance quality and its economic, political, and institutional dynamics on the link between industrialization and environmental sustainability in MINT countries between 2000 and 2023. Premised on the EKC hypothesis, the study employs the Panel Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) to analyse the relationship. The empirical results show that the EKC hypothesis did not hold for MINT countries, and industrialization significantly worsens climate action performance. Also, quality country governance mitigates the effects of industrialization on climate-action performance, with political governance exhibiting the most significant influence. Policy regulators in MINT countries need to strengthen governance mechanisms to ensure sustainable industrial production practices through effective regulations and corruption-free structures to diminish the impact of industrialization on MINT's environmental sustainability. The study contributed to the literature by employing a novel dataset on sustainability performance to advance knowledge on the strategic ways to tackle industrialization-induced climate crisis through strong governance mechanisms in MINT countries.