Ascertaining sustainable development is a major issue across the globe, and the economic growth pattern achieved is a predominant reason behind this. The globalization-led economic growth achieved by the emerging economies might not be ecologically sustainable, as globalization might not have been utilized as a policy tool. Moreover, a sound policy calls for considering the entire data spectrum for the analysis, which is largely ignored in the literature. This research contributes to the literature by proffering a policy framework for the emerging economies by analyzing the impact of globalization and tourism on environmental degradation, by considering the Chinese context as a sample. Following the quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, the impact of economic growth, globalization, and tourism on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide emissions, and the ecological footprint in China over 1978Q1-2017Q4 are analyzed. The results demonstrate that economic growth stimulates environmental degradation, while the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve is also validated. Moreover, tourism has been found to exert positive environmental externalities, while globalization exerts negative environmental externalities. Based on the outcomes of the research, a comprehensive policy framework has been suggested, following which the Chinese economy might be able to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals 7, 8, and 13.

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Control of the increasing fossil fuel‐based carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the associated environmental consequences are important for sustainable development in China. Nevertheless, very few studies have investigated the environmental consequences of China's fossil fuels at both the national and regional levels. For this purpose, this study explores the dynamic relationships among CO2 emissions, economic growth, and consumption of various fossil fuels (i.e., coal, petroleum, and natural gas) in China, using the panel dataset of 30 provinces for the period 1997–2015. Considering the significant differences across various regions, the whole sample and different regions in China are analyzed separately. The estimated results, at both the national and regional levels, provide strong evidence in favor of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for CO2 emissions in China. Furthermore, increasing coal and petroleum consumption significantly promotes CO2 emissions. Conversely, natural gas offers a cleaner substitute for other fossil fuels (i.e., coal and petroleum); its substitution effect may be influenced by the share of natural gas in the total energy needs. Finally, the above findings highlight several policy implications for the Chinese government's policymakers to effectively reduce CO2 emissions in China, thereby setting the nation on a sustainable development path.