Modeling the effect of green technology innovation and renewable energy on carbon neutrality in N-11 countries? Evidence from advance panel estimations

Low-carbon innovation, economic growth, and CO2 emissions: evidence from a dynamic spatial panel approach in China

Low-carbon innovation plays an essential role in carbon reduction worldwide. This study investigates the nexus between low-carbon innovation, economic growth, and carbon emissions by the dynamic spatial Durbin model from 2007 to 2020. First, the Moran index results verify the provincial spatial agglomeration of carbon emissions. High-emission provinces concentrate in major economic zones and energy extraction areas. Second, the effect decomposition results show that long-term and short-term effects are consistent. Low-carbon innovation has a significant mitigation effect on carbon emissions in local regions, which effect, however, is not significant in the adjacent areas. The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis is validated locally, but all provinces and cities have not reached the inflection point of the environmental Kuznets curve, and the linkage effect in adjacent regions remains insignificant. The above results have been tested to be robust. Third, the results of the mechanism analysis show that environmental policies, absorptive capacity, and financial development play a moderating role in the relationship between low-carbon innovation and carbon emissions. Finally, the heterogeneity test showed significant differences between Eastern, Central, and Western. The direct effect of low-carbon innovation exists in Eastern and central regions; the spillover effect of low-carbon innovation is only in the eastern region. In addition, corresponding measures are proposed based on the conclusions.

Renewable energy technology innovation and inclusive low-carbon development from the perspective of spatiotemporal consistency

As an emerging driving factor, the positive impact of renewable energy technology innovation (RETI) on inclusive low-carbon development (ILCD) may be undervalued or even neglected. This paper develops an evaluation system to measure China's ILCD by using provincial panel data from 2006 to 2020. Based on the combined perspective of spatial spillover effect and threshold effect, this paper examines the spatial spillover effects and the regional boundary of RETI on ILCD in different periods and further analyzes five heterogeneities. The results show that (1) RETI and ILCD are increasing steadily, presenting a spatial pattern of "high in the east and low in the west." (2) Overall, RETI significantly promotes ILCD in local and neighboring areas. RETI in the growth period inhibits local ILCD, which in the mature period promotes local and neighboring ILCD. (3) The spatial spillover boundary of the whole RETI is 1400 km, that of RETI in the growth period is 1000 km, and that of RETI in the mature period is 1600 km. (4) The promotion effect of RETI on ILCD enhances over time and shows a spatial pattern of "eastern > central > south > north > western." It is further found that RETI strongly promotes ILCD in non-resource-based, high marketization, and strong environmental regulation areas. Therefore, it is necessary to break down administrative and market barriers, strengthen inter-regional cooperation and interconnection of resource elements, and establish a dynamic management mechanism of "one province, one policy" according to the regional heterogeneity for providing decision-making reference in promoting global energy transition and climate governance.

Analyzing the nexus between energy transition, environment and ICT: A step towards COP26 targets

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals and the recent COP26 summit, energy transition, low carbon emissions and technology have become extremely important subjects in the agenda of governments and policymakers. The present study thus discusses the nexus between energy transition, economic growth, CO₂ emissions and information and communications technology (ICT) in BRICS countries applying the novel GMM-PVAR method proposed on the annual data for the period 2000-2017. This method is strong to the issue of endogeneity which is commonly faced in the context of panel data analysis but mostly ignored in the literature. The findings of this research demonstrate that carbon emissions have a positive and significant effect on energy transition; similarly, raising economic growth augments the consumption of energy transition. Furthermore, ICT is found to be a significant choice in the development of energy transition and the solution of environmental challenges. Overall, technological factors in addition to economic and environmental factors also have great roles in the development of renewable energy and energy transition. Thus, results from this study call for government supports to develop ICT across the BRICS countries.

Energy mix with technological innovation to abate carbon emission: fresh evidence from Mexico applying wavelet tools and spectral causality

The global warming issue arises from climate change, which draws scientists' attention toward cleaner energy sources. Among clean sources, renewables and nuclear energy are getting immense attention among policymakers. However, the significance of nuclear energy in reducing CO₂ emissions has remained ambiguous, necessitating further research. Therefore, the present study draws impetuous attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals-7 (affordable clean energy) & 13 (climate change mitigation) by looking at the relationship between energy mix (fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear), economic growth, technological innovation, and CO₂ emissions in Mexico from 1980 to 2019 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. In addition, to assess the direction of causality, this study applied wavelet techniques and spectral causality. The findings affirm that renewable and nuclear energy use and technological innovation tend to curb CO₂ emissions, whereas fossil fuel consumption and economic expansion trigger CO₂ emissions. The study lends support to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) phenomenon in Mexico. The FMOLS and DOLS tests show that our long-run estimates are reliable. In different time scales, the wavelet coherence result is also consistent. Finally, the results of the spectral causality approach demonstrate a significant causal association between the variables tested at various frequencies. As a result, in order to achieve SDGs 7 and 13 and support an environmentally friendly ecosystem, Mexico's energy mix must be changed to renewables and nuclear.

Heterogeneous impact of eco-innovation on premature deaths resulting from indoor and outdoor air pollution: empirical evidence from EU29 countries

Environmental innovations play a vital role in reducing air pollution and the number of pollution-related mortality. Most of the previous studies have examined the role of eco-innovations in environmental quality. However, to our knowledge, no study has evaluated the effects of eco-innovation on air pollution as a cause of mortality. For this purpose, this research examines the effect of eco-innovations on premature deaths from indoor and outdoor air pollution in twenty-nine European countries from 1995 to 2019. The Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MM-QR) is used to assess the impacts. The results confirm the heterogeneous effects of the main variables in both models. Both models indicate that eco-innovations reduce premature deaths from outdoor and indoor air pollution, and these effects are more significant in high quantities (75th and 90th). Also, the effect of eco-innovations on reducing mortality due to indoor pollution is more significant than that related to outdoor pollution. Eco-innovation, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and urbanization reduce premature mortality indoors and outdoors, but CO₂ emissions increase this mortality. The results of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test also support that all variables, including eco-innovation and CO₂ emissions, have a bidirectional causal relationship with indoor (LIND) and outdoor (LOUT) mortality due to air pollution. Governments and politicians can help mitigate this problem by providing more environmental innovations by increasing support packages and reducing taxes.

The impact of environmental information disclosure quality on green innovation of high-polluting enterprises

With the gradual increase of social awareness of environmental protection, environmental information disclosure has become the key for enterprises to accept social supervision and fulfill their social responsibility. This study examines the high-polluting enterprises that were listed on Chinese A-shares between 2008 and 2021. The influence of environmental information disclosure quality on green innovation is examined using ordinary least squares (OLS) as a benchmark model. The results show that the improvement of environmental information disclosure quality of high-polluting enterprises can significantly improve the quantity and quality of green innovation of enterprises and are mediated by alleviating financing constraints and enhancing cash reserves. Moreover, improving the quality of environmental information disclosure of highly polluting enterprises has a more significant contribution to the quantity and quality of green patents of non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises located in central and eastern China, and large enterprises. The findings of this paper provide theoretical support for achieving a "win-win" situation of environmental protection and green innovation.

Financial Development and Environmental Degradation: Promoting Low-Carbon Competitiveness in E7 Economies' Industries

Emerging countries are approaching economic prosperity. However, the development process has enhanced their ecological footprints, thus promoting low-carbon competitiveness among E7 countries' industries. Therefore, it is essential to identify the factors that affect a country's ecological footprint (EF) in order to safeguard the environment. This study explored the effect of financial development, human capital, and institutional quality on the EF of emerging countries. Furthermore, we explored the effect of financial development on the EF of emerging countries through the human capital channel. In addition, we investigated the role of institutional quality in the financial development-EF nexus. Using panel data from 1990 to 2018, we employed the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) technique to conduct a short-term and long-term empirical analysis. The empirical outcomes revealed that financial development degrades ecological quality by raising the EF. The findings further demonstrated that human capital and institutional quality reduce the EF. Moreover, financial development fosters environmental sustainability through the channel of human capital. Additionally, institutional quality reduces the negative ecological impacts of financial development. The causality analysis suggested that any policy related to financial development, human capital, and institutional quality will affect the EF. However, the inverse conclusion was not sustained. Based on these findings, emerging economies should increase their environmental sustainability by promoting human capital and effectively using financial resources.

Post-COP26: can energy consumption, resource dependence, and trade openness promote carbon neutrality? Homogeneous and heterogeneous analyses for G20 countries

The need to halt the pervasive issue of global warming has triggered commitments from policymakers, international organizations, and research pundits with an ambitious goal of neutralizing carbon emissions, forming the core of COP26 in November 2021. Consequently, the carbon neutrality agenda is globally debated in the environment and economic growth literature. Given the preceding narratives, this study examines the tripartite effects of energy consumption, resource dependence, and trade openness on carbon neutrality in G20 economies from 2001 to 2019. The empirical evidence relies on homogenous and heterogeneous dynamic models based on a system generalized method of moments (GMM), fully modified ordinary least squares (FM-OLS), and quantile regression estimators. The following results are evident from the empirical analyses. Among the heterogeneous indicators, nonrenewable energy, oil rents, coal rents, and imports contribute to the surge in carbon emissions, while renewable energy, gas rents, and exports moderate carbon emissions. The homogenous impacts show that total energy consumption, total natural resource rents, and trade openness promote significant carbon emissions. Further, the long-run results from FM-OLS and the disintegrated mean effects from quantile regression are robust for the main short-run results based on the two-step system GMM. Based on the empirical fallout, investing in renewable energy and diversifying from natural resource exploration are among the emanating policy that can enhance the sustainability of the G20 environment.

Green credit, environmentally induced R&D and low carbon transition: Evidence from China

This paper explores the impact of green credit (Cre) on low-carbon transition (Lct) and its influence mechanisms. Theoretically, Cre promotes environmentally induced R&D (ER&D), which in turn affects Lct. Empirically, using a panel data of 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 2004 to 2019, we measure the provincial ER&D and carbon emission performance (Cep), based on which we conduct an econometric analysis. It is observed that Cre promotes Lct (that is, Cre reduces carbon emission and improves Cep). This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests and endogeneity treatments. And the impact of Cre on Lct is asymmetrical due to regional differences in physical and geoclimatic characteristics, income levels, and financing constraint levels. Second, ER&D is an important mechanism of action for Cre enhancing Lct. Further analysis reveals that ER&D can affect Lct through energy transition effects and green innovation effects. Finally, the positive effect of Cre on ER&D is significant in high level of Lct regions, but insignificant in low level of Lct regions. Based on this, specific policy recommendations from the perspective of developing Cre and establishing an incentive mechanism for ER&D are put forward.

Empirical analysis of the feasible solution to mitigate the CO2 emission: evidence from Next-11 countries

From the empirical findings, economic growth, energy consumption, fossil fuel use, and infrastructure all have a positive impact on CO2 emissions. Forest rent and industrialization show a mix of results to explain CO2 emissions in N-11 countries. Forest and agriculture have negative coefficients in most of the estimations which indicate the reduction of CO2 emissions in 11 countries. Through the evidence of variance decomposition (VD) analysis, this study found an inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis in the long run. Moreover, through the econometric analysis, it is clear that forest area is important to reduce CO2 emissions in N-11 countries, where forest investment and planning would be effective for carbon reduction. Agricultural activities and production with green investment play an important role in mitigating CO2 emissions in N-11 countries.

Carbon Neutrality in the Middle East and North Africa: The Roles of Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, and Government Effectiveness

Carbon neutrality is a 21st-century priority area, with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries making significant investments in renewable energy and climate mitigation initiatives to attain it. However, carbon neutrality research in the MENA region is under-developed, particularly when considering the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and effectiveness of government. To address this gap, this research investigates the roles of renewable energy, economic growth, and government effectiveness toward the MENA region's carbon neutrality goal. We implemented heterogeneous and second-generation panel data techniques that are resilient to cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity to panel data spanning 16 MENA countries from 1996 to 2018. We discovered that MENA data are cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, and cointegrated. We found that government effectiveness and renewable energy bring carbon neutrality closer, but economic growth initially delays it. We detected Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the MENA region, specifically in the High-Income Countries. Although there were signs of EKC in the Middle-Income Countries, this was not significantly validated. Finally, we found a one-way causal link from government effectiveness and renewable energy to carbon neutrality but a feedback mechanism between economic growth and carbon neutrality in the MENA region. As a result of these findings, it is recommended that the MENA region's policymakers prioritize renewable energies and improve the effectiveness of government to drive economic growth toward the carbon neutrality goal.

How does social media drive corporate carbon disclosure? Evidence from China

As public concern over global warming increases, there is a growing requirement for companies, as carbon emitters, to disclose (and work to reduce) their carbon emissions. Previous literature has neglected the role of social media as a source of legitimacy pressure to influence corporate carbon disclosure. Based on legitimacy theory, this study analyzed the impact of social media legitimacy pressure on corporate carbon disclosure using data from 3,656 Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2019. We found that social media legitimacy pressure significantly enhances corporate carbon disclosure. Additionally, this positive relationship is weakened by substantive corporate internal carbon management measures (corporate green innovation and environmental management systems). Accordingly, in order to ensure consistent carbon management practices, companies should focus their efforts on substantive carbon management measures along with carbon disclosure.

Using media reports to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of carbon dioxide management development in China

Over the past few decades, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions management problem has attracted global attention. China is transitioning to carbon neutrality and experienced rapid development in low-carbon management. However, current studies have limited understanding of the evolutionary process and development issues at a macro-level, which may hinder the structural reformation of stepwise carbon-neutral development. This study used the content analysis method to process and code reports from China’s most prominent news media, Xinhua News Agency, to identify China’s low-carbon evolution and development issues. The results depict a trend of gradually increasing carbon management within China and highlight the staged development features. Years 2010 and 2021 are the critical nodes of carbon emissions management in China, representing the two primary actions of low-carbon pilot city projects and the carbon-neutral construction. However, the results also reveal the uneven development problem of China’s carbon management behind the rapid transition. The government is the primary participant in carbon management, but the participation of firms and the public is relatively low. The power industry implements the highest amount of carbon management actions, but less attention is paid to other sectors with high carbon emissions. Report tones on environmental protection and green technology have gradually declined, while the tone on economic and social development has increased. There are evident differences in the number of carbon management measures implemented between regions. The southeast coastal regions report more management numbers than China’s central and western regions. The top three provinces (or municipalities) are Beijing (131), Shanghai (93), and Guangdong (78). From an industry perspective, more-reported regions have implemented carbon management measures in more industries than less-reported regions. This study provides a distinctive contribution to the theoretical work on China’s carbon emissions regulation and the emerging planning and management mechanisms.

The impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on sustainable environment: a new perspective from ecological footprint in five OECD countries

The paper explores the short-run and long-run asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization, green energy, and economic policy uncertainty on environmental sustainability proxied by ecological footprint. Using the Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed lag (NARDL) approach in selected five OECD countries, we find that ecological footprint responds to positive and negative fiscal decentralization asymmetrically in the long run and short run. However, the nature of the response varies significantly across countries. The result also suggests that green energy is a major factor in reducing the ecological footprint in all countries except Canada. Finally, economic policy uncertainty plays a negative and significant role in the ecological footprint in the UK, USA, and Germany while insignificant in Australia and Canada. Implications for effective environmental policies are discussed.

Pathways to securing environmentally sustainable economic growth through efficient use of energy: a bootstrapped ARDL analysis

Oman has traditionally relied upon natural gas and oil for meeting its domestic energy demand. As a result, despite growing economically, the level of carbon dioxide emissions in Oman has persistently surged; consequently, the nation has failed to ensure environmentally sustainable economic growth. Against this background, this current study aims to explore the impacts of energy consumption, energy efficiency, and financial development on Oman's prospects of attaining environmentally sustainable growth over the 1972-2019 period. The estimation strategy is designed to take into account the structural break issues in the data. Using the carbon productivity level as an indicator of environmentally sustainable economic growth, we find long-run associations amid the study variables. Besides, higher energy consumption and greater financial development are found to impede carbon productivity while improving energy efficiency is observed to boost carbon productivity in Oman. Therefore, it is pertinent for Oman to consume low-carbon and energy-efficient fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency levels, and green its financial sector to achieve environmentally sustainable growth.

How green technology innovation affects carbon emission efficiency: evidence from developed countries proposing carbon neutrality targets

With the introduction of national carbon neutrality targets, carbon emission reduction actions in developed countries have become a hot topic as part of the international community's drive to take action to mitigate climate change. Carbon emission efficiency is an important indicator that can be used to measure progress toward carbon emission reduction targets. The relationship between green technology innovation and carbon emission efficiency has not been adequately studied, and the transmission mechanism is not yet clear. Based on the above research gaps, taking 32 developed countries that have proposed carbon neutral targets as research samples, this paper used spatial econometric models to explore the impact of green technology innovation on carbon emission efficiency and adopted spatial mediation model and spatial moderation model to analyze the transmission effects of economic development, urbanization, and financial development on environment-related green technology and carbon emission efficiency. This paper aimed to provide a policy basis for developed countries to mitigate carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality goals as soon as possible. The following results were obtained: (1) Luxembourg, Norway, and Switzerland were found to be efficient in terms of carbon emissions, while most developed countries were in an inefficient state. (2) Environment-related green technology innovation significantly improved carbon emission efficiency. (3) Economic development and urbanization had a mediating role on green technology innovation and carbon emission efficiency. In other words, green technology innovation could have an indirect impact on carbon emission efficiency by influencing economic development and urbanization. (4) Financial development could positively moderate the sensitivity of carbon emission efficiency to green technology innovation. Improving the level of green technology innovation is one way to improve carbon emission efficiency, and the mediating effect of economic development and urbanization can be used as a focus point to improve carbon emission efficiency. The pressure of carbon emission reduction can be moderated by finance development. The results of this study provide theoretical support that will assist developed countries in achieving their carbon neutrality targets.

Research on the impact of energy technology innovation on total factor ecological efficiency

Promoting sustainable economic development from the perspective of energy technology is crucial, given limited energy resources and severe environmental pollution. Based on the panel data of China's provinces from 2000 to 2017, we empirically explore the complex relation among energy technology innovation, regional economic growth, and total factor ecological efficiency. We innovatively introduce ecological footprint as one of the input indicators of total factor ecological efficiency measured using slack-based measure-data envelopment analysis, thereby comprehensively quantifying sustainable economic development. Moreover, we adopt spatial econometric and threshold regression models to empirically assess the relation between energy technology innovation and total factor ecological efficiency. We infer the following conclusions. First, both China's provincial ecological efficiency and energy technology innovation possess significant spatial positive correlation, manifesting a spatial geographical distribution agglomerated by similar characteristics. Second, the regional energy technology innovation has a remarkable spatial effect on ecological efficiency, displaying a U-shaped trend. Compared with the direct effect, the spatial spillover effect is more intense, along with a much stronger long-term influence. Third, under the regulation of regional economic growth, two inflection points exist in the effect of energy technology innovation on ecological efficiency. Energy technology innovation is not conducive to total factor ecological efficiency under low regional economic growth. No significant relation exists between the two core variables under medium regional economic growth. Furthermore, energy technology innovation positively influences total factor ecological efficiency only when regional economic growth reaches a certain peak.

Determinants of ecological footprint in OCED countries: do environmental-related technologies reduce environmental degradation?

The world is in a clash between the perspectives of economic expansion and sustainable environment. The high pace of technological progress opens space for fostering economic growth but at the same time, it creates a big dilemma for humans in protecting the environmental quality. The environmentally specific technologies are expected to help human beings to achieve dual objectives of economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. Despite its importance, attention to the role of environmental-related technologies in reducing environmental degradation is limited. This paper, therefore, intends to discover the impact of environmental-related technologies on the ecological footprint for 20 OECD from 1990 to 2015. The results endorse a long-run relationship between ecological footprint and green technologies, renewable energy, international trade, energy intensity, and real income. Environmental-related technologies and renewable energy consumption are found to be impetuous to sustainable development. The study provides relevant implications for policymakers to support the development and adoption of green technologies.

Evaluating pollution damage function through carbon pricing, renewable energy demand, and cleaner technologies in China: blue versus green economy

Climate change and increased greenhouse gas emissions boost the global average temperature to less than 2°C, which is the estimated breakeven point. The globe is moving into blue pollution economies as the environmental sustainability objective becomes more distorted. The study looked at three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, namely (i) affordable and clean energy; (ii) industry, innovation, and infrastructure; and (iii) climate change, to see how far the Chinese economy has progressed toward green and clean development strategy. In the context of China, the "pollution damage function" was intended to refer to carbon damages related to carbon pricing, technological variables, sustained economic growth, incoming foreign investment, and green energy. The data was collected between 1975 and 2019 and analyzed using various statistical approaches. The results of the autoregressive distributed lag model suggest that carbon taxes on industrial emissions reduce carbon damages in the short and long run. Furthermore, a rise in inbound foreign investment and renewable energy demand reduces carbon damages in the short term, proving the "pollution halo" and "green energy" hypotheses; nonetheless, the results are insufficient to explain the stated results in the long run. In the long run, technology transfers and continued economic growth are beneficial in reducing carbon damages and confirming the potential of cleaner solutions in pollution mitigation. The causal inferences show the one-way relationship running from carbon pricing and technology transfer to carbon damages, and green energy to high-technology exports in a country. The impulse response estimates suggested that carbon tax, inbound foreign investment, and technology transfers likely decrease carbon damages for the next 10 years. On the other hand, continued economic growth and inadequate green energy sources are likely to increase carbon pollution in a country. The variance decomposition analysis suggested that carbon pricing and information and communication technology exports would likely significantly influence carbon damages over time. To keep the earth's temperature within the set threshold, the true motivation to shift from a blue to a green economy required strict environmental legislation, the use of green energy sources, and the export of cleaner technologies. Source: Authors' self-extract.

How Strategic Interaction of Innovation Policies between China’s Regional Governments Affects Wind Energy Innovation

Prior research has shown the importance of innovation policies that promote innovation in renewable energy, such as wind power. We study the impact of the strategic interaction of innovation policies between regional governments in terms of wind energy innovation in China. Based on panel data from 2007 to 2018 on a provincial level in China, we construct an innovation strength index of each province in the wind power industry and investigate the inductive effect of the technology-push policy and the demand-pull policy, as well as their spatial spillover effect on wind energy innovation. The results show that the technology-push policy of local governments has an obvious inductive effect on wind energy innovation in the region, while also having a negative spillover effect through R&D factor competitions between regions with geography proximity or with proximity in the ranking of R&D funds input. In terms of the demand-pull policy, only changes at the national level can produce positive spillover effects by promoting expectations of market growth. Yet, competition between regions with proximity in the ranking of wind energy resource reserves produce negative spillover effects. The findings should have a far-reaching impact on the sustainable development of global wind power.

The Impact of Green Technology Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the Context of Carbon Neutrality in China: Evidence from Spatial Spillover and Nonlinear Effect Analysis

The Paris agreement is a unified arrangement for the global response to climate change and entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its long-term goal is to hold the global average temperature rise well below 2 °C. China is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 through various measures, one of which is green technology innovation (GTI). This paper aims to analyze the levels of GTI in 30 provinces in mainland China between 2001 and 2019. It uses the spatial econometric models and panel threshold models along with the slack based measure (SBM) and Global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index to analyze the spatial spillover and nonlinear effects of GTI on regional carbon emissions. The results show that GTI achieves growth every year, but the innovation efficiency was low. China’s total carbon dioxide emissions were increasing at a marginal rate, but the carbon emission intensity was declining year by year. Carbon emissions were spatially correlated and show significant positive agglomeration characteristics. The spatial spillover of GTI plays an important role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In the underdeveloped regions in China, this emission reduction effect was even more significant.

Effect of Agricultural Employment and Export Diversification Index on Environmental Pollution: Building the Agenda towards Sustainability

Agricultural activities have a significant impact on environmental quality, because they generate waste that pollutes water and soil. In parallel, the supply of products has diversified in recent years to meet growing demand, exerting strong pressure on nature’s capacity for regeneration and absorption of waste. This research aims to examine the impact of agricultural employment and the export diversification index on ecological footprints, using advanced techniques of panel data econometrics. This relationship is moderated by population density and real per capita product. Cross-section dependence and slope homogeneity were included in the econometric models. The cointegration and causality analysis was reinforced by estimating the short- and long-term elasticities, using the AMG, CCE-MG, FMOLS, and DOLS models. Using annual data for 96 countries, we found a heterogeneous impact of agricultural employment and the export diversification index on ecological footprint, between the short and long term. The findings reveal that the increase of the product increases the pressure on the ecological footprint. The achievement of SDGs must include joint efforts between countries, and not in isolation. Those responsible for environmental policy should promote the idea that production must be friendly to the environment and promote the green growth of countries. The adoption of new technology, higher productivity agricultural employment, and the regulation of exports of sustainable products can contribute to achieving environmental sustainability.

Achieving Sustainability and Carbon Neutrality in Higher Education Institutions: A Review

Universities and higher education institutions play an important role in achieving a sustainable future through their teaching and by undertaking cutting edge research to combat climate change. There have been several efforts towards a sustainable future and achieving carbon neutrality at higher education institutions in Australia and around the world. This study has reviewed the sustainability strategies of numerous universities in Australia and has identified as study cases six universities that are committed to and leading the implementation of initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality. The initiatives implemented at the selected universities were classified into eight “sustainability categories”, namely, built environment, energy, food and gardens, GHG emissions, natural environment, resource and waste management, transport, and water. Among the selected leading universities in sustainability, Charles Sturt University and the University of Tasmania (UTAS) are the only universities in Australia certified as carbon neutral. An interesting aspect of this review is the way in which universities are implementing sustainability initiatives in line with their mission and strategies. Despite striving towards the same end goal of achieving carbon neutrality, different institutions offer individually unique approaches towards sustainability. For example, UTAS values the creation, expansion and dissemination of knowledge and the promotion of continual learning, which is clearly demonstrated through its initiatives and policies. The findings in this review are critical in identifying those institutions of higher education which are role models in their strong commitment to achieving carbon neutrality. Such role model universities can pave the way for similar climate action at other universities.

Assessing Hybrid Solar-Wind Potential for Industrial Decarbonization Strategies: Global Shift to Green Development

The global energy mix is shifting from fossil fuels to combinations of multiple energy storage and generation types. Hybrid energy system advancements provide opportunities for developing and deploying innovative green technology solutions that can further reduce emissions and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This study examined the impact of an increasing share of wind and solar electricity production on reducing carbon intensity by controlling coal and lignite domestic consumption and the production of refined oil products in a world aggregated data panel. Data covering the last three decades were used for the analysis by the ARDL bounds testing approach. The results showed that an increasing share of wind and solar electricity production would be helpful to decrease carbon intensity in the short and long term. On the other hand, a 1% increase in coal and domestic lignite consumption increased carbon intensity by 0.343% in the short run and 0.174% in the long run. The production of refined oil products decreases carbon intensity by 0.510% in the short run and 0.700% in the long run. However, refining oil products is associated with positive and negative environmental externalities. The positive aspect depends upon the removal of harmful pollutants and the production of cleaner-burning fuels, while the negative part is related to the operational side of refineries and processing plants that may release contaminants into the atmosphere, affecting global air and water quality. Hence, it is crucial to improve processing and refining capacity to produce better-refined oil products by using renewable fuels in energy production. It is proposed that these are the most cost-effective pathways to achieve industrial decarbonization.

Evaluating the Dynamic Changes of Urban Land and Its Fractional Covers in Africa from 2000–2020 Using Time Series of Remotely Sensed Images on the Big Data Platform

Dramatic urban land expansion and its internal sub-fraction change during 2000–2020 have taken place in Africa; however, the investigation of their spatial heterogeneity and dynamic change monitoring at the continental scale are rarely reported. Taking the whole of Africa as a study area, the synergic approach of normalized settlement density index and random forest was applied to assess urban land and its sub-land fractions (i.e., impervious surface area and vegetation space) in Africa, through time series of remotely sensed images on a cloud computing platform. The generated 30-m resolution urban land/sub-land products displayed good accuracy, with comprehensive accuracy of over 90%. During 2000–2020, the evaluated urban land throughout Africa increased from 1.93 × 104 km2 to 4.18 × 104 km2, with a total expansion rate of 116.49%, and the expanded urban area of the top six countries accounted for more than half of the total increments, meaning that the urban expansion was concentrated in several major countries. A turning green Africa was observed, with a continuously increasing ratio of vegetation space to built-up area and a faster increment of vegetation space than impervious surface area (i.e., 134.43% vs., 108.88%) within urban regions. A better living environment was also found in different urbanized regions, as the newly expanded urban area was characterized by lower impervious surface area fraction and higher vegetation fraction compared with the original urban area. Similarly, the humid/semi-humid regions also displayed a better living environment than arid/semi-arid regions. The relationship between socioeconomic development factors (i.e., gross domestic product and urban population) and impervious surface area was investigated and both passed the significance test (p < 0.05), with a higher fit value in the former than the latter. Overall, urban land and its fractional land cover change in Africa during 2000–2020 promoted the well-being of human settlements, indicating the positive effect on environments.

Does environmental and renewable energy R&D help to achieve carbon neutrality target? A case of the US economy

The current study investigates carbon neutrality targets for the US's case while analyzing the role of environmental-related research and development (ERR&D) and renewable energy research and development (RER&D). This study also considered economic growth (GDP) and energy productivity (EP) as controlled variables. Utilizing the time series data over the period from 1990 to 2019, this study used various econometric approaches, such as unit root tests and cointegration tests for stationarity and the long-run association between variables, respectively. This study's main econometric regression tools, such as dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), are utilized. The empirical findings reveal that economic growth played a negative role in achieving carbon neutrality targets. However, EP, RER&D, and ERR&D positively contribute to carbon neutrality target achievement by reducing atmospheric CO₂ emissions. Moreover, this study found a cointegration relationship between the study variables. The bidirectional causality is found between ERR&D and CO₂ emissions, while a unidirectional causality is observed, running from exogenous variables towards CO₂ emissions. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends expanding the investment and expenditures in both ERR&D and RER&D sectors to attain carbon neutrality.

Evolution of the Industrial Innovation Ecosystem of Resource-Based Cities (RBCs): A Case Study of Shanxi Province, China

Constructing and exploring the evolution mechanism of an industrial innovation ecosystem in resource-based cities (RBCs) is the most effective way to solve the contradiction between economic development, energy shortage, and environmental degradation. Taking 10 typical RBCs in Shanxi Province as examples, this paper used the method of system dynamics (SD) to build a model of the industrial innovation ecosystem of RBCs and set up scenarios to simulate and predict the evolution of the industrial innovation ecosystem of RBCs. The results showed that the industrial innovation ecosystem of RBCs is a complex system composed of four subsystems: innovation players, innovation content, innovation resources, and innovation environment. In innovation players, the increase in the amount of talent has a more obvious effect on technology level and GDP than R&D funding. In innovation content, the improvement of management level has a slow and continuous positive impact on GDP. Technology achievements, once implemented, will improve GDP more than management progress does. In innovation resources, human capital has greater potential for an increase in GDP and per capita consumption expenditure. In innovation resources, technology level plays an important role in slowing down the deterioration of the ecological environment. This study enriched the theoretical paradigm of the research on the industrial innovation ecosystem, and provided effective strategies to solve the development problems of RBCs.