China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC): melting glaciers-a potential threat to ecosystem and biodiversity

Nexus among the perceived infrastructural, social, economic, and environmental impact of CPEC: A case of Pakistan

Despite its ambitious "economic sustainability" objectives, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been the subject of growing environmental anxiety. Considering the CPEC developments, it is clear that Pakistan is ready to fully embrace this new industrial chapter and take advantage of its major benefits to solve social, energy, infrastructure, and economic problems. However, it should also seriously commit to undertaking proper environmental impact assessments and upgrading system resilience. Data was collected from 400 respondents from Pakistan, and structural equation modeling was applied with the help of AMOS. Factor analysis and structural equation modeling techniques were used to estimate the results and test the study's hypothesis. The results indicate a strong socio-economic impact across perceived economic, infrastructure, social, and total impacts, but they identify a negative association between infrastructure innovation and environmental sustainability. Moreover, results revealed that infrastructure supports social and economic growth, but it might have a substantial negative impact on biodiversity. According to findings, Pakistan may be more vulnerable to climate change due to three potential environmental issues: coal-fired power plants, CO2 concentration along the CPEC route, and increased traffic on the Karakorum Highway. Furthermore, future international trade will be significantly impacted by the corridor. It may, however, also accelerate the destruction of the ecosystem over time due to the industrial revolution.

Disaster management and environmental policy integration in Pakistan - an evaluation with particular reference to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan

Economic and social development, the state of the environment and a propensity for disasters are closely intertwined. Therefore, environmental policy integration (EPI) across development and disaster management (DM) policies and plans is important. Pakistan as a country is highly vulnerable to climate-induced environmental changes and associated disasters. In this paper, the extent to which its national environment and climate change policy, disaster risk reduction (DRR) policy as well as disaster management (DM) plans are aligned is established, based on a review of government documents and expert opinions. In this context, a particular emphasis is put on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that led the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan (CPEC; 2017-2030). While environmental assessment (EA) is currently not conducted for any DM policies and plans, DM and EA are well integrated into provincial environmental protection acts, in national as well as most provincial DM plans. It is concluded that a regulatory framework to guide EPI in DM for BRI and CPEC projects is needed.

Support for tourism development in Pakistan: A study of road and transportation infrastructure development

The local population is considered one of the main stakeholders in tourism development. Understanding whether and how road and transport infrastructure is related to local communities' overall attitude toward tourism development is crucial. Scholars have suggested that the overall positive attitude of a local community is associated with its tourism development. This study keeps in view the positive and negative consequences of road and transport development and its relationship with local communities' overall attitude. Drawing on social exchange theory, this study investigates local community support for tourism development using 565 samples from the local community of Gilgit-Baltistan and northern areas of Pakistan. Findings show that community visibility and image enhancement are positively related to the overall attitude of the local community. Infrastructure and urbanization are also positively related to the host community's overall attitude, whereas traffic problems are negatively related to the overall attitude of the local community. However, environmental concerns have an insignificant relationship with the overall attitude of the local community. Overall attitude of local communities is also positively related to support for tourism development. Furthermore, economic benefits positively moderate the relationship between the overall attitude of the local community and its support for tourism development.

Economic growth and carbon emissions in Pakistan: the effects of China's Logistics Industry

The logistics business is a crucial contributor to economic development, yet it is also the leading source of carbon emissions. Economic growth at the expense of environmental deterioration is a challenging issue; this phenomenon offered a new avenue for scholars and policymakers to investigate and address these issues. The recent study is one of the attempts to explore this intricate subject. The goal of this research is to determine whether or not the Chinese logistics sector has an impact on Pakistan's GDP and carbon emissions as a result of CPEC. The research utilized data from 2007Q1 to 2021Q4 using the ARDL approach for an empirical estimate. Due to the mixed order of variable integration and finite data set, the ARDL technique is well deserved, which helps reach sound policy inferences. The study's key results indicated that China's logistic business enhances Pakistan's economic development and carbon emissions in the short and long term. Similarly, China's energy usage, technology, and transportation contribute to Pakistan's economic progress at the price of environmental damage. The empirical study may be a model for other developing nations, given Pakistan's viewpoint. With the support of the empirical results, policymakers in Pakistan and other associated countries would be able to plan for sustainable growth in conjunction with CPEC.

Examine the Economic and Social Effects on Lao People’s Perceived Benefit Attitudes towards BRI

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays a vital role in mobilizing economic and social development and improving national and international connectivity. This research proposes to examine residents’ perceptions of economic and social effects of BRI in Lao PDR. Moreover, it attempts to test the moderating effect of location. A total of 412 survey responses were collected across the country via online survey, and structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were used to estimate a research model and moderation. The findings reveal that both economic and social determinants have a positive influence on perceived benefit attitudes towards BRI. Specifically, education, tourism, and foreign direct investment (FDI) are the main drivers of the socio-economic benefits, whereas employment and living standards are not. The result confirms the nonexistence of the moderating effect of the location. Our study sheds light on the knowledge of BRI in the Lao PDR context by examining the socio-economic determinants on the perceptions of the local citizens and the moderating effect of location. The government and BRI authority are informed about the factors that explain the benefit of BRI; this information will be useful for future studies.

Community Wellbeing Under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Role of Social, Economic, Cultural, and Educational Factors in Improving Residents' Quality of Life

This present article explores the effects of cultural value, economic prosperity, and community mental wellbeing through multi-sectoral infrastructure growth projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. The implications of the social exchange theory are applied to observe the support of the local community for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This study explores the CPEC initiative, it's direct social, cultural, economic development, and risk of environmental factors that affect residents' lives and the local community's wellbeing. CPEC is a multibillion-dollar project to uplift economic growth and free trade between Pakistan, China, and other regional stakeholders. Although CPEC is still in its initial phases with partial startups, policymakers and government officials claim this mega project as a "game-changer" in the region, mainly for Pakistan and China. This gigantic project offers the significant potential to generate business slews and employment opportunities with international outreach. Due to the term's newness, numerous studies have recently explored the macro and microeconomic benefits of the CPEC initiatives; still, these projects are theoretical. The existing literature insufficiently explored how helpful CPEC would be to a specific group and how residents perceive its advantages. This study fills in the literature gaps and explores the likely advantageous potential of the CPEC for the regional states. The study applied a convenient sampling technique for the data collection process. It used a mixed-method approach to gain scientific results, with a standardized questionnaire survey of 459 people (300 men and 159 women) from five major cities of Pakistan. The study results designate that residents believe that CPEC infrastructure projects will significantly improve residents' life quality through more job openings and community poverty reduction. Still, they raised their concerns regarding environmental protection issues in the region. The findings specified that residents had an optimistic approach to better educational productivity by adopting environment-oriented policies. Policymakers should establish new CPEC study centers in different areas, and investors should be encouraged to participate in the industrial sector. Officials can overwhelm community worries about environmental degradation. Government officials in both countries can utilize the findings to raise public awareness about CPEC's social, economic, cultural, mental wellbeing, and ecological implications.

The Impact of Incentives on Job Performance, Business Cycle, and Population Health in Emerging Economies

In the past, different researchers have conducted studies on incentives and how they are linked to employee motivation, influencing emerging economies. This study addresses two gaps as outlined in previous studies. One research gap exists in examining employee loyalty and employee engagement in relation to the business cycle. The other gap is observed in the recommendation that future researchers use different moderators between incentives, the health of employees, and job performance with population health. This focus was explored in the present study by identifying the responses of hospitals and physicians to the business cycle to examine the impact of incentives on job performance and health of workers in public and private sector hospitals in Shandong, Eastern China. Data were collected in the form of questionnaires that consisted of close-ended questions. These questionnaires were then filled out by 171 doctors and 149 nurses working in both public and private sectors in Shandong, Eastern China. The results showed that there is a relation between different variables. Some variables have more impact on other variables such as transformational leadership, which has a significant impact on the job performance and business cycle, whereas monetary incentives also impact job performance and population health, but this impact was lower than that of transformational leadership in terms of how job performance influences emerging economies.

Testing how financial development led to energy efficiency? Environmental consideration as a mediating concern

This work investigates the relationship of financial development with energy efficiency and economic growth. Due to the coexistence of economic expansion, trade openness, financial development, and urbanization in Indonesia and Turkey, these two countries are considered. Johansen cointegration, error correction, and Granger causality tests are applied to validate the predicted effects of economic activity on the environment. Results show a long-term relationship of Indonesia's CO2 emissions with five out of six macroeconomic factors, except for urbanization, which has a detrimental effect on carbon emissions. On the other hand, no cointegration across variables is found in the case of Turkey. However, unidirectional causality is observed from energy consumption and economic growth to economic growth. Furthermore, economic growth, energy consumption, and trade openness have a two-way causal effect on financial development. This work encourages Turkish and Indonesian policymakers and regulators to strengthen environmental laws. It also encourages other economies and governments to conduct similar analyses and determine the best course of action.

Investigating the Impact of the External Environment and Benchmark Characteristics on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor's Construction: A COVID-19 Perspective

The economic stability of a country, such as Pakistan is dependent on the construction of mega-projects, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). However, certain external factors and project characteristics may delay the construction of infrastructure projects; scholars have not investigated the development of CPEC from this perspective. In addition, the COVID-19 outbreak has hindered CPEC initiatives. This analysis will examine the effect of external environment factors on CPEC, and benchmark the project's effects on economic stability through CPEC's development by incorporating 523 samples obtained from employees of various CPEC projects. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze all hypotheses proposed here on AMOS 21.0 tools. According to the findings of this study, the CPEC external environment and project benchmark characteristics have a negative effect on the construction of CPEC development. Furthermore, the development of CPEC is found to have a significant effect on economic stability. However, fear of COVID-19 has weakened the relationship between CPEC development and economic stability. Finally, we also discuss the implications and limitations of the study.

Investigating Eco-Environmental Vulnerability for China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Key Sector Punjab Using Multi-Sources Geo-Information

China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), a critical part of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), is subjected to rapid infrastructure development, which may lead to potential eco-environmental vulnerability. This study uses multi-source geo-information, and the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)-based best–worst method (BWM) to quantify the baseline eco-environmental vulnerability of one key CPEC sector—the Punjab province. The Punjab province is an important connection between northern and southern CPEC routes in Pakistan. In this study, we have established an indicator system consisting of twenty-two influential factors in a geospatial database to conduct eco-environmental vulnerability analysis. The overall setup is supported by a geographic information system (GIS) to perform spatial analysis. The resulting map was categorized into five vulnerability levels: very low, low, medium, high, and very high. The results revealed that the overall eco-environmental health of the Punjab province is reasonably good as 4.64% and 59.45% area of the key sector lies in ‘very low’ and ‘low’ vulnerability categories; however, there also exist highly vulnerable areas, particularly in the proximity of CPEC projects. Although high vulnerability areas constitute a very small percentage, only 0.08% of the Punjab province, still, decision-makers need to be aware of those regions and make corresponding protection strategies. Our study demonstrated that the MCDM-BWM-based EVA model could be effectively used to quantify vulnerability in other areas of CPEC. The findings of the study emphasize that management policies should be aligned with research-based recommendations for ecological protection, natural resource utilization, and sustainable development in regions participating in BRI.

Climate Change Policy Coherence across Policies, Plans, and Strategies in Pakistan-Implications for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan

Climate Change (CC) adaptation and mitigation policy coherence (PC) across sectors is essential to effectively address CC challenges and support synergies. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to CC. In this paper, the extent to which Pakistan's national and provincial water, agriculture, and energy sector policies, development plans and strategies are aligned in a CC policy coherent manner is established. In this context, a qualitative content document analysis with associated scoring is used to assess government documents. Furthermore, implications of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Initiative (CPEC; 2017-2030), the biggest infrastructure investment program ever in Pakistan, are discussed. An important result is that sectoral policies are found to have different degrees of PC. Better coherence is found at federal than at provincial levels. Furthermore, CC policies are found to be more coherently addressed in water and agriculture policies than in energy policies. It is suggested that to achieve higher levels of CC PC, federal and provincial governments should establish mechanisms of intergovernmental consultation for policy-making and cross-sectoral planning, especially in the energy sector. Our findings can help the Government of Pakistan to transform CPEC into a model green Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the region. In this context, there are important implications with regards to e.g., reducing coal-based energy projects and environmentally damaging infrastructure activities in sensitive ecosystems. With this paper, the authors want to raise awareness of the key importance of CC PC, particular in context of the BRI. Many countries participating in the initiative have carbon reduction targets in place.

Climate Change Policy Coherence across Policies, Plans, and Strategies in Pakistan—Implications for the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Plan

Climate Change (CC) adaptation and mitigation policy coherence (PC) across sectors is essential to effectively address CC challenges and support synergies. Pakistan is highly vulnerable to CC. In this paper, the extent to which Pakistan’s national and provincial water, agriculture, and energy sector policies, development plans and strategies are aligned in a CC policy coherent manner is established. In this context, a qualitative content document analysis with associated scoring is used to assess government documents. Furthermore, implications of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Initiative (CPEC; 2017–2030), the biggest infrastructure investment program ever in Pakistan, are discussed. An important result is that sectoral policies are found to have different degrees of PC. Better coherence is found at federal than at provincial levels. Furthermore, CC policies are found to be more coherently addressed in water and agriculture policies than in energy policies. It is suggested that to achieve higher levels of CC PC, federal and provincial governments should establish mechanisms of intergovernmental consultation for policy-making and cross-sectoral planning, especially in the energy sector. Our findings can help the Government of Pakistan to transform CPEC into a model green Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the region. In this context, there are important implications with regards to e.g., reducing coal-based energy projects and environmentally damaging infrastructure activities in sensitive ecosystems. With this paper, the authors want to raise awareness of the key importance of CC PC, particular in context of the BRI. Many countries participating in the initiative have carbon reduction targets in place.

Climate engineering: a strategic approach to combat environmental potential risks associated with Pak-China Economic corridor (CPEC) Development

China-Pak Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become a future economic potential for both countries. It will serve as a gateway to share trade and other industrial benefits with each other. On one hand it's a blessing for both countries, the other way it is offering a potential threat to the environment i.e. due to wide construction of roads the major effect is threatening biodiversity and environmental sustainability. It will cause deforestation, floods, glacier melting, climate change, and global warming. "Climate engineering" is the newly emerging concept to resolve the problems related to the environment and biodiversity. Under the umbrella of concept "Climate engineering" we proposed attractive and environmentally friendly solutions that are helpful to mitigate the impact of anthropogenic activities on the environment of both countries. These proposed strategies include installation of CO₂ scrubbers, construction of Algal ponds, and development of research stations across the roads and by introducing the concept of carbon canopy. It will also help the legislators and policymakers of both countries to incorporate these solutions for sustainable development on each side.

Infrastructure projects and sustainable development: Discovering the stakeholders' perception in the case of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been an economic game changer for both China and Pakistan. We investigate stakeholder satisfaction with CPEC projects in Pakistan, particularly with respect to the affected local communities. Given the project application and adaptability, two provinces-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab-and eight districts were selected randomly. Primary data from approximately 250 respondents as well as secondary data were collected. Among other models, a logit model was adopted to determine the role of certain factors in the perceived level of satisfaction. Results reveal that with respect to the relationship between land acquisition and dissatisfaction with a CPEC project, the level of dissatisfaction is 2.45 times higher when land is acquired by force or when compensation for the land is perceived to be inadequate by the local people. Individuals favor economic zones and development projects over road projects; the likelihood of being dissatisfied is approximately nine times greater in regions without economic zones than that in regions with such zones. Similarly, when no development project is allocated to a community, the probability of dissatisfaction of the local people is about 7.6 times greater. In addition, expectations of poor financial outcomes for CPEC projects cause significant dissatisfaction and are a source of tension among the local people. To reduce dissatisfaction, organizations and business communities must actively support the success of CPEC projects. A more equitable allocation of economic zones and development projects may help ease tensions and increase satisfaction among the local people.

The Sustainable Development of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor: Synergy among Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability

This case study focuses on how economic, social and environmental factors synergize for sustainable development, and relates to fundamental speculations, looking to unclutter a query-encompassing view of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This study is explanatory in nature, and identifies, recognizes, and discusses the social dispositions and fundamental sustainability dimensions related to sustainable development. Three fundamental sustainability dimensions—economic, social and environmental—are incorporated in connection with the CPEC to explore sustainable development. We submit an inclusive viewpoint of the CPEC, towards the sustainable development of economies, from neighborhoods to nations. This explanatory case reveals a momentous sprouting tie between China and Pakistan. For sustainable development in the global context, more meaningful paradigms are needed to be developed. Socio-economic diversity and strategic importance have highlighted a joint perspective and are emerging as novel ways of directing business enterprises to enter the Asian markets, thus contributing to the development and exploitation of operational economic opportunities, leading to competition for the global business market. This study integrates sustainability in connection with the scenario of the CPEC and provides a plethora of understanding.

Saudi Arabia-China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: intergovernmental green initiatives

The objective of the study is to conduct the socio-economic and environmental survey about the feasibility of Saudi Arabia-China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (SCPEC) in five different dimensions, i.e., (i) key strengths of SCPEC project, (ii) prospective weaknesses of SCPEC project, (iii) opportunities attain Pakistan from SCPEC project, (iv) opportunities gain SCPEC from Pakistan, and (v) possible threats from SCPEC to other countries, including India. The larger number of intellects participated in this survey, including armed personnel working in strategic industries, academicians of higher education institutes, colleges, and public/private schools, doctors, civil servants, employees of non-governmental organizations, and others. The survey identified five major key strengths, including tourism promotion, infrastructure development, technology diffusion, energy demand, and mutual trade gains, while the prospective weaknesses are financial constraints, political instability, international dumping, corruption, and lack of good governance. The survey results show that Pakistan economy could attain maximum opportunities from SCPEC project in the form of economic empowerment, mutual trade gains, transportation development, entrepreneurship, and development of Gwadar port, while the SCPEC project gains from Pakistan in the form of economic stabilization, trade gains, and low transportation cost. The possible threats to SCPEC project to the other countries including India are political threats, security issues, Kashmir issue, and economic issues. The survey results conclude that the large number of intellects confirmed the positivity of SCPEC project for both the Pakistan and for the Chinese economy, while few intellects in numbers are incompatible with the SCPEC project due to economic, environmental, and security threats.