**1. Introduction**

Climate change is a devastating phenomenon that people have experienced for the last few decades. Excessive greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, specifically nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), are the major causes of global climate change [1,2]. This phenomenon will cause a dramatic change in our world in the coming years, as greenhouse gases absorb heat from the sun and capture it in the atmosphere, causing the Earth's surface temperature to rise. The fifth assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the climate system's human impact is visible [3]. After the Industrial Revolution, population growth and economic development have led to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and climate because of human interference on the Earth. Among the several greenhouse gases that cause global climate change, carbon dioxide is the most abundant [4]. Its excess may be directly associated

with human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, transportation, deforestation, land reclamation, and cement production for agricultural purposes, which increased after the industrial revolution.

In this modern age, enhanced development is the key to the progress of each nation. Developing nations focus on their growth process to boost productivity and grow early. These nations are also attempting to improve their living standards by raising their per capita incomes, and this is being made possible with the help of enhanced growth and development. Emerging economies such as developing Asian nations are now relying on industrialization for their rapid development. In this regard, these developing Asian economies rely on the rapid productivity energy cycle to attain the desired economic upswing. The environment is being affected by CO2 emissions due to the energy process, as industrialization had led to environmental degradation. Thus, the swift economic upswing gives rise to environmental depletion in developing economies [5]. These Asian economies have been trying to achieve the desired economic upswing for the last two decades but have failed to clean their natural environment. Inadequate policies and limited resources fail to coordinate with the harmful environment, which is causing ecological disorder. Therefore, the developing Asian nations have compromised their environmental conditions and focus on their per capita incomes to increase the so-called standard of living. Therefore, it can be rightly claimed that ecological disorder is rising with the growing rate of economic upswing, which is reflected in the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) [6].

The world energy consumption crossed BTU 583.57 quadrillions in 2017, at a 2.27 percent annual growth rate, against BTU 381.49 quadrillions in 1998. The share of underline developing economies crossed BTU 213.96 quadrillions in 2017, with thirty-seven percent of the world's energy consumption [7]. Thus, energy consumption has increased considerably in these developing economies, with swift economic growth as the desired output. However, environmental degradation has a peak off as the undesired output due to dirty energy sources such as fossil fuel. Most of the energy sources of the underline countries are import-based, which is hurting their economic progress and exchange rate. The world is turning the sources of energy into renewable ones, with 570.96 million tons of renewable energy consumed. However, the share of developing economies is less than twenty-five percent [8].

The current COVID-19 condition has changed the economic and energy scenario. Renewable energy projects have been delayed in developing economies to meet the current financial requirements. The oil price fluctuations during COVID-19 and its impact on the exchange rate have opened a new debate on energy efficiency and economic growth. In this case, the occurrence of EKC theory and its smooth trajectory is debatable, as economic growth is not the only independent factor responsible for it.

There were nearly 20.06 billion units of gross fixed capital formation worldwide in 2018. The underline economies hold 7.77 billion, which is nearly thirty-nine percent of the total [9]. Unfortunately, these developing economies accumulated capital, which is not a technological advance and is thus less efficient in production. It is not only a source of high per-unit cost but can also be a source of environmental degradation due to the high usage of fossil fuel energy, which is imported and dirty.

Developing Asian nations have specific problems, like poverty, unemployment, and a high population growth rate with a low per capita income growth rate. That is why these nations try to boost their development to resolve these issues. However, due to the scarcity of resources and outdated technology, it is difficult to control environmental degradation. In per capita terms, China is responsible for 7.95 metric tons of emissions in 2018 compared to 2.69 metric tons of emissions in 1999, at an annual growth rate of 5.97 percent [10]. Likewise, Malaysia faced 8.02 metric tons of emissions in 2013 compared to 7.76 metric tons in 2010. Finally, Mongolia recorded 14.54 metric tons of emissions in 2013 compared to 9.09 metric tons in 2010. Mongolia is considered the largest carbon dioxide emitter among developing countries in the Asian region [11]. Energy is regarded as the primary source of development, but it is essential not to consider improper planning, scarce resources, and outdated technology. Therefore, to control CO2 emissions, it is essential to apply the policies about utilizing

energy sources. Governments and policymakers need better strategies to use energy efficiently to boost economic activity and control carbon dioxide emissions, especially in developing economies [12].

The current work includes the data of those developing Asian nations that share common social issues. They are also on the same page regarding geographical, financial, political, and ecological circumstances with a higher population growth rate. They are considered highly ranked as carbon dioxide emitters since the 1990s due to their will to become industrialized as quickly as possible. The panel Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques were utilized to analyze the under-considered data for the following objectives:


The analysis is organized as follows: the remainder of the introduction depicts the literature review, section two describes the materials and methods, results are provided in section three, discussions are in section four, and the conclusion is given in section five.
