Energy consumption and its efficiency are significant factors for economic growth and environmental stress. This study postulates the occurrence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis (EKC) by using the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. Furthermore, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model is used to measure energy efficiency, energy intensity, and environment to view the trajectory of EKC for the underline economies. For this purpose, a panel dataset from 1990–2013 of 15 developing countries is analyzed to verify the objectives mentioned above. The results of the panel ARDL support EKC’s theory for underline economies, as GDP positively impacts carbon emissions, while the square of GDP is negatively related. The DEA-based results found relatively low environmental conditions in these emerging economies due to high energy intensity and low energy efficiency. This outcome suggests that renewable energy sources must be treated as an essential factor for achieving sustainable economic goals without environmental degradation.

The development of the resource-based industry has obvious negative externality, and the government’s environmental regulation on the resource-based industry will force the technological innovation of the resource-based industry. This paper selects the panel data of 12 resource-based industries in China from 2003 to 2019 and tests the impact of environmental regulation on technological innovation of resource-based industries by constructing the econometric model. The results show that environmental regulation can promote the technological innovation of resource-based industries. Specifically, environmental regulation has no significant positive impact on the immediate product innovation of 12 resource-based industries in China, but it has a significant positive impact on the product innovation lagging behind one period and two periods. Environmental regulation has no significant impact on the process innovation of current period, but has a significant positive impact on the process innovation of lagging one period. Industrial scale has a significant positive impact on product innovation of resource-based industries. The input of scientific and technological activity personnel has a significant positive impact on the product innovation of current period, and in the long run, it promotes both product innovation and process innovation. On this basis, this paper puts forward the relevant measures and suggestions for the formulation of environmental regulation policies. The government departments should subdivide the resource-based industries, formulate environmental rules and policies by classification, encourage industrial enterprises to carry out technological innovation, reasonably implement fiscal and taxation policy tools and increase the investment in R&D funds, and improve the training mechanism of scientific and technological personnel.