Journal of Environmental Management 368 (2024) 122077 0301-4797/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies. Research article Towards sustainable environment in North African countries: The role of military expenditure, renewable energy, tourism, manufacture, and globalization on environmental degradation Ghalieb Mutig Idroes a , Hasanur Rahman b, c , Imtiaz Uddin d , Irsan Hardi e , Pasquale Marcello Falcone f, * a Energy and Green Economics Unit, Graha Primera Saintifika, Aceh Besar, 23371, Indonesia b Department of Economics, Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib University, Jamalpur, 2000, Bangladesh c Department of Economics, Comilla University, Cumilla, 3506 Bangladesh d Department of Sociology, University of Chittagong, Chattogram, Bangladesh e Economic Modeling and Data Analytics Unit, Graha Primera Saintifika, Aceh Besar, 23371, Indonesia f Department of Business and Economics, University of Naples Parthenope, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Environmental degradation Climate change Sustainable environment ARDL CO2 emissions ABSTRACT Climate change resulting from increasing emissions has become a pressing concern in North African countries due to its significant environmental and socio-economic impacts. There is a need for extensive research on this topic to raise global awareness of the associated dangers. This study investigates the dynamic impact of economic growth, military expenditure, globalization, renewable energy, manufacturing, tourism, capital formation, and labor on CO 2 emissions in North African countries from 1995 to 2021. The long-term results of the ARDL model reveal that globalization, renewable energy and capital formation have a negative impact on CO 2 emissions, whereas economic growth, manufacturing, and tourism exhibit a positive impact. Pairwise Granger causality evidence indicates unidirectional causality from economic growth, globalization, military expenditure, manufacturing, tourism, and capital formation to CO 2 emissions. These findings provide policymakers with critical insights to shape evidence-based interventions that promote renewable energy investments and global- ization, enhance capital formation and high-skilled labor, and implement regulations to mitigate the environ- mental impacts of economic growth, military expenditure, manufacturing, and tourism. This guidance will help the region transition to a more environmentally friendly economic system. Funding There is no institutional funding for this research. Ethical approval This study ensures that, the ethnical approval is maintained and no ethnical contradiction. Consent to participate This study ensures that, the consent to participate is maintained and no contradiction. Consent to publish We have no contradiction to publish and this paper only submitted to this journal only. Declaration of interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ghaliebidroes@outlook.com (G.M. Idroes), hasanur.cou@gmail.com (H. Rahman), imtiazuddin883@gmail.com (I. Uddin), irsan.hardi@gmail. com (I. Hardi), pasquale.falcone@uniparthenope.it (P.M. Falcone). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jenvman https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122077 Received 23 February 2024; Received in revised form 14 July 2024; Accepted 31 July 2024