Moderating and mediating role of renewable energy consumption, FDI inflows, and economic growth on carbon dioxide emissions: evidence from robust least square estimator

Testing the agriculture-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve with moderation effect of human capital and renewable energy: insights from BRICS economies

The surge in economic growth and increased agricultural output can augment societal well-being whilst proliferating environmental stressors. So, the study tests the validity of the "agriculture-induced Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis" (AEKC) by assessing the varied environmental proxies that have yet to be accounted for earlier in the case of BRICS economies. Furthermore, most studies have utilised "first-generation econometric approaches" as the "cross-sectional dependency" has not been deemed in estimation. On account of this, the research employed "second-generation CIPS and CADF unit root test", "Westerlund cointegration test", "fully modified ordinary least square" (FMOLS) and "dynamic ordinary least square" (DOLS) to test the validity of AEKC in "BRICS countries" for 30 years. A positive association between agriculture and "ecological footprint" has been found which evidences the presence of an "inverted U-shaped AEKC" in BRICS nations. Another finding shows that the favourable impact of agriculture towards climate change can be moderated by illustrating the interaction effect of "human capital" and "renewable energy" with "agriculture". Lastly, the investigation brings forth the policy repercussions and acumens for the BRICS governments and policymakers in halting climate change by using renewable energy in agriculture and building human capital.

Assessing the spillover effects of various forms of energy on CO2 emissions - An empirical study based on dynamic spatial Durbin model

Previous studies ignored the geospatial dynamics spillover effects of energy consumption on CO2 emissions while assessing such impacts in developed and developing countries. Moreover, most studies wrongfully assess spillover effects in its aggregated format rather than decomposing by its components. This is important as not all energy sources share the same characteristics. We fill these gaps in the literature by investigating the spillover effects of various forms of energy, including fossil fuels, renewable energy, and nuclear power, on CO2 emissions in 135 developed and developing countries from 2000 to 2019. We used the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model (DSDM) to better understand the results. A series of indicative tests confirmed using the DSDM model and including spatial interaction of CO2 emissions in the analysis. Our findings show evidence of indirect spillover effects of the various energy sources on CO2 emissions. Further considering the spillover effects of the energy sources of neighbouring countries, the paper finds that the driving increase in CO2 emissions mainly came from the energy consumption of the country itself and neighbouring countries' energy consumption. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the direct effects of energy consumption often exceed its indirect effects. The results also confirm that total and fossil energy consumption harms the environment, whereas adopting renewable and nuclear energy sources reduces CO2 emissions. Lastly, we find nuclear energy is the most environmentally sustainable energy source. The study concludes that the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model is paramount in estimating the environmental impact of energy consumption in our sample. The practical policy implications drawn from this study could be used to promote increased collaboration to hasten the energy transition process and address global warming and climate change.

The role of green finance and governance effectiveness in the impact of renewable energy investment on CO2 emissions in BRICS economies

In the context of sustainable development, this study investigates the intricate dynamics among good governance, renewable energy investment, and green finance in BRICS nations. The aim of the study is to assess how green finance and governance effectiveness moderate the impact of renewable energy investment on CO2 emissions. Utilizing the Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) model, a meticulous analysis spanning two decades was conducted to unravel the relationships among key variables and CO2 emissions. The findings underscore a nuanced interplay where renewable energy investments, synergized with robust governance and strategic green finance, significantly mitigate CO2 emissions, contributing to sustainable economic development. However, the study reveals non-linear relationships, highlighting the necessity for optimal allocation and strategic planning to maximize environmental benefits. In the short-run, a government effectiveness policy threshold that should be attained in order for renewable energy investment to reduce CO2 emissions is provided. In the long-run, the negative responsiveness of CO2 emissions to renewable energy investment is further consolidated by green finance. Moreover, enhancing renewable energy investment in the long run is positive for environmental sustainability. It follows that policy makers should tailor policies aimed at enhancing renewable energy investment in the long-run as well as complementing renewable energy investment with green finance in the long-run in order to ensure environmental sustainability by means of reducing CO2 emissions. Policymakers in BRICS nations are urged to strengthen governance structures, promote renewable energy investments, leverage green finance, foster public-private partnerships, adopt a holistic approach, and address non-linear effects to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The interaction between remittance, FDI, renewable energy, and environmental quality: a panel data analysis for the top remittance-receiving countries

A country's financing system is essential in addressing sustainable development requirements. National sources and international financial flows contribute to economic growth and environmental quality in many ways, and their impact can be critical. This paper applied panel data analysis using a comparative approach of Pooled Mean Group Auto Regressive Distribute Lags (PMG-ARDL) and Cross Sectionally ARDL (CS-ARDL) to estimate the effects of FDI, renewable energy, and remittance on environmental quality in the top remittance-receiving countries, during 2000-2021. The study emphasized the positive relationship between FDI and carbon emissions. Moreover, renewable energy and remittances revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship with carbon emissions. In the case of developing countries from the panel, remittance improves environmental quality after reaching the threshold. Moreover, for some of the developing countries included in the panel, we found that they do not achieve the desired carbon mitigation effect in their early stages of renewable energy implementation. However, renewable energy becomes a key factor for tackling environmental pollution after a certain threshold. The mixed results determined diverse policy recommendations for various stakeholders.

The mediating role of renewable energy, sectoral output and economic growth on greenhouse gas emissions: African regional perspective

Global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing when they should be progressively reducing, given worldwide concerted emissions mitigation efforts and protocols. To effectively tackle emissions to foster a sustainable climate, the situation's complexity needs a sector- and region-specific approach, not a one-stop analysis. We must first understand where the emissions originate-which sectors contribute the most to them. This study employs a panel multiregional framework with advanced econometric techniques accounting for cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneous slope coefficients to analyse GHG emissions (CO2 and CH4), sectoral output, economic growth and renewable energy dynamics across African regions from 2010 to 2019. The empirical findings are as follows: First, regional impacts of the economic sectors vary substantially, reflecting technological and socioeconomic differences leading to heterogeneous environmental patterns in the short and long term. Second, the estimated EKC turning points are uniformly lower, indicating slower environmental impact growth with sectoral development in African regions. Third, trade and urbanization are critical drivers of emissions in most regions and economic sectors, with a more pervasive impact on CO2 emissions than CH4 emissions. Finally, sectoral output imposes differential indirect CO2 and CH4 emissions effects via renewable energy, with East African manufacturing exhibiting the most significant emissions-reduction impact. Disaggregated, regional, and sectoral-specific strategies are recommended for designing green development pathways policies.

The impact of environmental regulation on regional economic growth: A case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

In this paper, we take the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the study area and analyze three types of environmental regulation tools, namely, command-and-control (CAC), market-incentivized (MI) and public-type (PT). We apply the threshold effect to test the impact of each of these tools on regional economic growth and analyze the relationships between the tools and environmental regulation. The entropy method is used to calculate the comprehensive environmental pollution index of each province and city in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Using Stata 14.0 measurement software and based on provincial data with respect to the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2014 to 2021, a panel threshold model is used to test the impact of the three types of environmental regulation tools on regional economic growth and analyze the relationship between environmental regulation and regional economic growth. It is found that the relationship between environmental regulation and economic growth is non-linear. There is no significant relationship between CAC environmental regulation and regional economic growth; there is a single threshold effect between market-incentive environmental regulation and public participation environmental regulation on the economic growth of the Yangtze River economic belt.

Pollution and electricity price in the EU Central and Eastern European countries: a sectoral approach

Pollution and energy crisis are actual issues in Europe, including the EU Central and Eastern European states. In this context, the objective of this paper is to assess the impact of economic growth and electricity prices for non-household consumers on pollution. The empirical findings reveal the U pattern for energy industry and inverted U pattern for manufacturing in the period 2007-2021 in the EU countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Renewable energy consumption reduces the CO2 and GHG emissions in energy industry. FDI and electricity prices determine the reduction in GHG and CO2 emissions in both sectors. These results are the basis for policy recommendations.

The influence of agricultural policy on carbon emissions in selected OECD countries

Global agriculture is actively impacted by policies which affect the composition and location of produce and the production methods. This paper examines how agricultural policy affects carbon emissons in 27 OECD countries over the period 2000 to 2020. This research deploys the Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) and Pooled Mean Group (PMG) to analyse panel data. The study findings demonstrate that the indicators of agricultural policy (agricultural financial support and producer protection ratio) predominantly display a significantly positive relationship with emissions in the short term. Still, that link is mostly significantly negative in the long run. As such, agricultural policy is a driver of emissions in the short run, which is in line with the extended STIRPAT model, although in the long run, the variable seizes to be a driver. Economic growth, transport services and human capital support that their association is positively significant in the short run, chiefly negative and significant in the long run. There is overwhelming evidence that renewable energy is negatively and significantly associated with emissions in both periods. This research analysis is imperative to create vital cornerstones towards a complete understanding of the effects of agricultural policy on developing green economies.

From COVID to conflict: Understanding the deriving forces of environment and implications for natural resources

In the contemporary world, the importance of natural resources is increasing day by day especially due to extraordinary circumstances, i.e., COVID-19 and global conflicts. The abundance of natural resource is considered competitive advantage and crucial for sustainable development. However, the role of natural resources can be questionable especially if its impact on the economy is negative. Sustainable use of natural resources is currently the biggest challenge for governance. Following these footprints, the study aims to revisit a novel perspective of natural resources in the context of global conflicts using data from Asian economies for the period of 1996-2020. In this pursuit, this study investigates how governance balances macroeconomic variables with sustainable development to account for effective climate change adaptation, mitigation efforts and integral to control conflicts. The second-generation test of CIPS and CADF are used to deal with cross-sectional dependence issues and Westerlund cointegration to estimate long-run relationships. Furthermore, the long-run coefficients are estimated by the PMG estimator using dynamic panel ARDL approach. The findings confirm that surpassing the threshold level of governance is essential to promote environmental quality and preservation of natural resources. The region needs to promote steward policy for resources. This can take the form of nationalizing resource assets, increasing taxes and royalties on resource extraction to ensure sustainable development. The handlers need to design polices supportive to renewable energy consumption, endorse IT based industry solution, encourage high-tech inward FDI, promote green financing and support sustainable development.

Pollution, political instabilities and electricity price in the cee countries during the war time

Pollution, war and energy crisis are the CEE countries' most important global actual issues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of political stability and electricity price in 11 CEE countries in the period 2007-2021 to anticipate the effect of these factors on pollution in times of political and energy crisis. The common results based on DOLS/FMOLS and CCEMG estimations indicate that political stability enhances CO2 emissions, while higher electricity prices for non-household consumers reduce pollution. An inverted-U pattern was observed in the relationship between growth and pollution, while renewable energy consumption is the most powerful tool to reduce CO2 emissions. These results are the starting point for policy recommendations.

Heterogeneous effects of energy consumption structure on ecological footprint

Attention to environmental sustainability has increased among nations, especially after the Paris Agreement and COP26 of 2021. Considering that fossil fuel consumption is one of the main factors causing environmental degradation, altering the energy consumption patterns of nations toward clean energy can be a suitable solution. For this purpose, this study investigates the impact of energy consumption structure (ECS) on the ecological footprint from 1990 to 2017. This research includes three steps: First, the energy consumption structure is calculated using the Shannon-Wiener index. Second, from 64 countries with middle- and high-income levels, the club convergence method is used to identify countries with similar patterns in an ecological footprint over time. Third, using the method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR), we examined the effects of ECS in different quantiles. The results of club convergence show that the two groups of countries with 23 and 29 members have similar behavior over time. The results of the MM-QR model show that for club 1, the energy consumption structure in quantiles of 10th, 25th, and 50th has positive effects on the ecological footprint, while in 75th and 90th are negative. The results of club 2 indicate that the energy consumption structure has positive effects on the ecological footprint in quantiles 10th and 25th, but negative effects on 75th. Also, the results show that GDP, energy consumption, and population in both clubs have positive effects, and trade openness has negative effects on ecological footprint. Considering that the results indicate that changing the structure of energy consumption from fossil fuels to clean energies improves the environmental quality, so governments should use incentive policies and support packages for the development of clean energy and reduce the costs of installing renewable energy.

Foreign direct investment, stock market capitalization, and sustainable development: relative impacts of domestic and foreign capital

It is well acknowledged that achieving sustainable development goals without negatively impacting a country's economic activity is complicated. The question of whether foreign or domestic capital can be used to address the financial demands of the nations who lack the financial resources for a green transformation should now be resolved. Based on this, the main goal of this research is to analyze the impacts of domestic and foreign capital on carbon emissions for a heterogeneous panel of 42 countries for the period from 1990 to 2017. Aside from capital accumulation, the environmental impact of elements such as economic growth, urbanization, trade openness, and energy usage is also studied. The newly developed quantile via moment approach is utilized to isolate the impacts according to the countries' emission levels. Finally, the impact of these variables on the recently constructed sustainable development index is investigated in order to ensure its robustness. The findings of the study reveal that the environmental efficiency of domestic capital accumulation in countries with low emission levels is higher than in countries with high emission levels. Foreign capital, on the other hand, has no substantial effect on emission levels in all quantiles.

Uncovering the impact of income inequality and population aging on carbon emission efficiency: An empirical analysis of 139 countries

Income inequality and carbon emission efficiency are the primary issues that need to be addressed to achieve UN sustainable development goals. However, research on the relationship between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency has not received enough attention. To more comprehensively understand how income inequality affects carbon emission efficiency, and how aging and economic growth affect the relationship between income inequality and carbon emissions efficiency, fixed effect regression estimation and threshold effect regression estimation approaches are developed based on panel data of 139 countries from 1998 to 2018. The results show that: (i) there is an inhibitory effect of income inequality on the improvement of carbon emission efficiency; (ii) under the influence of aging, there is a U-shaped relationship between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency, that is, income inequality has an inhibitory effect on the improvement of carbon emission efficiency before promoting it; (iii) along with the rapid economic growth, the inhibitory effect of income inequality on carbon emission efficiency increases, that is, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between income inequality and carbon emission efficiency. Finally, we combine the changes in spatial and temporal distributions to propose corresponding policy recommendations.

Moderation of Services' EKC through Transportation Competitiveness: PQR Model in Global Prospective

The continuously increasing GHG emissions have created environmental pollution and several challenges to ecosystems and biodiversity. The challenges of climate change are multipronged, resulting in melting glaciers, flash floods, and severe heat waves. In this regard, the adaptive and mitigation strategies to manage the consequences of climate change are highly important. The transport sector creates a quarter of carbon emissions, and this share is continuously increasing. Accordingly, this research study uses transport competitiveness to determine carbon emissions of the transport sector for 121 countries covering the time period from 2008 to 2018. The Panel Quantile Regression (PQR) technique is engaged to analyze the study results. The findings highlight that transport competitiveness tends to increase carbon emissions of the transport sector across quantile groups 1 and 3, while it reduces carbon emissions in quantile group 2. The U-shaped services' EKC is validated in quantile groups 2 and 4. The moderation engaged, i.e., transportation competitiveness, changes the turning point of the services' EKC across quantile groups 2 and 4. However, in the high-CO₂ quantile group, the moderation impact of transport competitiveness is strongest as it reduces the sensitivity by flattening the services' EKC. Furthermore, the planned expansion of the population and improved institutional quality tend to mitigate carbon emissions across different quantile groups. The policy relevance/implications that are based on the study results/findings are made part of the research paper.

Does the pollution halo hypothesis exist in this "better" world? The evidence from STIRPAT model

Multinational corporation has changed their host countries. The new wave of FDI inflow attracted the interest of policymakers. FDI has significant effects on both productivity and carbon dioxide emissions. The host countries should carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of FDI to their nation. The previous literature has not illustrated the global context's theoretical halo or haven pollution hypothesis. Using panel data of 96 countries between 2004 and 2014, our empirical results confirm the haven pollution hypothesis in both developing and developed countries. We employ the different general methods of moments (GMMs) to engage FDI in traditional STIRPAT theoretical frameworks. The empirical results contribute to the evidence of the EKC theory. The country's income level has been used to modify our models. The affluence of the economy, urbanization, FDI, and industrial sector would cause harmful effects on carbon dioxin emissions globally. The paper implies the two models which can be used for both developed and developing countries. The policymaker can use both short-run and long-run elasticities from those models to implicate their country's FDI inflow strategy.

Nexus between energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission: evidence from 10 highest fossil fuel and 10 highest renewable energy-using economies

The world, addressing to achieve rapid and drastic economic growth by relying on fossil fuel energy consumption, could increase already increasing level of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Therefore, there is a growing consensus that environmental sustainability by using renewable energy is the only option to avoid environmental calamity. Therefore, according to the authors' best knowledge, this is the first work to look into the short and long-run nexus between economic growth, trade openness, renewable and fossil fuel energy consumption, along with gross capital formation, population growth, and life expectancy as additional variables in top 10 highest renewable energy-using (TRU) economies and top 10 highest fossil fuel-using (TFU) economies from 1991 to 2020, by employing advanced panel data econometric approach. After demonstrating cross-sectional dependency in panel data, the Westerlund cointegration test verifies the long-term link between the variables. A cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) econometric technique is used to show short- and long-run coefficient values. CS-ARDL estimates confirm that the economic growth, fossil fuel energy, trade openness, and gross capital formation increase carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions levels in the short run for TRU and FEU economies, except for gross capital formation for FEU economies. However, economic growth adds to CO₂ emissions for only TRU economies, while fossil fuel energy consumption enhances CO₂ emissions for both groups of economies in the long run. On the contrary, renewable energy reduces CO₂ emissions in the short and long run, while human capital in only the short run. The inferences of this study present new intuitions and urge governments and policymakers to develop a reliable mechanism for investing capital to diversify the energy portfolio through the energy transition process to attain sustainable economic growth and promote awareness campaigns to draw the attention of human capital to environmentally friendly, clean, and green energy sources. Overall, the results recommended energy efficiency usage and ecological friendly innovative technologies to enhance and protect environmental quality.

Research on carbon emission measurement and low-carbon path of regional industry

As industry is the world's leading carbon emitter, promoting industrial carbon reduction is of key significance to carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Using a data-driven method, based on the collection and processing of relevant data from statistical yearbooks and others, we analyze the efficiency and amount of carbon emission of each industrial sector after processing multi-dimensional data by the improved IPCC EF method of calculating carbon emissions. In addition, we adopt the LMDI decomposition method for data modeling to measure the contribution of energy efficiency, industrial structure, GDP per capita, and population size to carbon emission changes, to identify targets for industrial carbon reduction, and to propose a targeted optimization path for carbon emission. We show how the method is implemented by taking the statistics of Anhui Province from 2010 to 2019 as an example and advises on an optimization path for carbon emission in Anhui Province. This study is of both theoretical and practical significance as it provides theoretical and methodological support for the low-carbon development of the regional industry, and provides a reference for other countries and regions to explore the path of low-carbon and environment-friendly green transformation and upgrading.

Economic Growth and Environmental Quality: Analysis of Government Expenditure and the Causal Effect

Environmental expenditures (EX) are made by the government and industries which are either long-term or short-term investments. The principal target of EX is to eliminate environmental hazards, promote sustainable natural resources, and improve environmental quality (EQ). Thus, this study looks at the impact of economic growth (EG), and government finance expenditure (GEX) on EQ in Northern Africa and Southern Africa (NASA) republics from 2000-2016. The panel quantile regression (PQR) and panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model in a generalized method of moment framework (GMM) were employed as a framework. The PQR results show that; (i) In Northern republics, GEX had a significant positive effect on EQ at 25%, 50%, and 75% quantiles levels. (ii) In the Southern republics, GEX had a significant negative impact on EQ at 25%. Moreover, the PVAR through the GMM established that EG and GEX are significantly positive while the parameter for CO₂ is insignificant and negative in the North. However, in the South, GEX and CO₂ were statistically significant, while EG positively impacts EQ. Lastly, the granger causality report in North indicates uni-directional causation running from LNGEX → LNGDPpc, LNCO₂ → LNGDPpc, LNFF → LNGEX, and LNFDI → LNGEX. Similarly, there is uni-directional causation in South republics from LNGEX → LNGDPpc, LNCO₂ → LNGEX, and LNFDI → LNGEX.

Analysis of the Impact of Ecological Innovation and Green Investment on China’s CO2 Emissions

In order to effectively address or eliminate the impact of CO2 emissions, it is crucial to conduct a CO2 emissions evolution analysis using a green investment model. Ecological innovation helps to limit carbon dioxide emissions, which is crucial to resource distribution and effectively summarizes the regularity and innovation of the process of limiting carbon dioxide emissions. Under the condition of fully grasping the principles of low-carbon city development and related policy protection, find a suitable low-carbon city development model. This paper analyzes the impact of ecological innovation and green investment on carbon dioxide emission limitations by building a data analysis model. The results of the case analysis show that the impact of the green investment scale on Chinese carbon dioxide emission restrictions is an inverted U-shaped relationship. The scale of green investment, economic competition, and marketization of capital allocation has a negative impact on Chinese carbon dioxide emissions, while green investment and ecological innovation have a positive effect on the green and low-carbon development of the Chinese economy.

The influence of FDI on GHG emissions in BRI countries using spatial econometric analysis strategy: the significance of biomass energy consumption

Indeed, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays an increasingly important role in global economic and climate change mitigation. However, scientists have insufficient attention to the issues related to the elements that contribute to justifying these impacts and bolstering its response in BRI nations. Accordingly, the existent study executed an in-depth examination of the spatial direct and spillover effects of foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) and biomass energy consumption (BEC) on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for 57 BRI countries (1992-2012). We applied the spatial lag model (SLM), the spatial error model (SEM), and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) with five different weights matrices to verify the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH), the pollution halo hypothesis (P-HH), and the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). We linked the study results with the implementation level of the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings of local Moran's I (LMI) and Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests confirm the existence of spatial autocorrelation (SAR). The empirical results revealed that FDI has a positive direct and spillover influence on GHG emissions, which supports the presence of PHH. Also, the nexus between economic growth and GHG emission is an N-shaped curve. The results revered that BEC has a negative sign for direct and spillover effects. In contrast to BEC, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption (FFEC) and population positively sign for direct and indirect impact. Some policy proposals and future research directions are discussed for BRI countries.

Does the new energy demonstration cities construction reduce CO2 emission? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Based on the panel data of 279 cities in China from 2003 to 2017, this paper regards the new energy demonstration cities (NEDC) construction as a quasi-natural experiment, using the double-fixed effect model and the difference-in-differences (DID) method to test its local carbon emission reduction effect and transmission mechanisms and further explores the impact of NEDC on neighboring carbon emissions. Results show that (1) NEDC reduces carbon emission intensity and per capita carbon emission significantly and shows dynamic sustainability. The policy effect has shown a trend of increasing year by year. Moreover, there is significant heterogeneity in the carbon emission reduction effect of NEDC, which produces more significant policy effect in large-scale and non-resource-based cities. (2) NEDC construction reduces carbon emission through green technology innovation effect, innovative elements agglomeration effect, and total factor productivity improvement effect. In terms of the contribution of reducing carbon emission intensity and per capita carbon emission, total factor productivity accounts for 36.7% and 21.5%, respectively, green technology innovation accounts for 18.6% and 23.9%, respectively, the contribution of R&D personnel agglomeration is 7.5% and 8.3%, respectively, and the contribution of R&D capital agglomeration is 5.9% and 9.5%, respectively. (3) From the perspective of spatial effect, the impact of NEDC on carbon emissions presents a "siphon" effect; that is, although NEDC reduces local carbon emissions, it has produced the phenomenon of transfer to neighboring areas, accelerating the increase in the carbon emission intensity of neighboring areas.

Discovering the evolution of Pollution Haven Hypothesis: A literature review and future research agenda

In order to reduce environmental degradation, there has been an increased focus on identifying the main conftributors to environmental degradation and reducing carbon footprints to promote sustainable development. Although the recent focus on institutional and policy reforms has led to a higher focus on environmental discussion, little is known about the status of research on the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). Hence, the current study evaluates the research dynamics of this field by recognizing most central researchers and key publication outlets from the perspectives of most citations and productivity, research directions, common keywords, countries with the highest academic contribution, and changes in research matrices. Our selection of 494 journal articles from the WOS indicates that King Saud University and the University of Wah were the most productive research institutions, and China was the most productive geographical region. Environmental Science & Pollution Research was identified as the most common outlet for research publications. We also identified strong academic cooperation, notably between China and Pakistan. Moreover, the co-occurrence network identified the Pollution Haven Hypothesis and economic growth nexus, trade, pollution haven and developing economies and FDI, carbon emissions, and pollution haven nexus as the three main prevailing research themes. Lastly, we provide useful policy implications to maximize the impact of environmental reforms and avoid environmental degradation.

Probing the Effect of Governance of Tourism Development, Economic Growth, and Foreign Direct Investment on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Africa: The African Experience

The environmental repercussions of extensive carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on the environment are crucial for policymakers and scholars. The repercussions of and connection between economic growth (ECG), tourism (TOUR), and foreign direct investment (FDI) on CO2 emission mitigation have been measured and argued from empirical and theoretical perspectives by scholars. Notwithstanding, the extant body of knowledge has failed to incorporate and investigate the function of governance in decarbonizing tourism activities and FDI from CO2 emissions to attain a healthy and quality environment in Africa. Hence, this current research investigates governance’s role in the reduction processes of CO2 emissions grounded in environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) conceptual assumptions for panel data spanning 2000 through 2020 for 27 African countries. This research utilized the Westerlund panel cointegration approach for the investigation of the cointegration of the selected variables. This study applied the Driscoll–Kraay regression approach for the long-term estimation. In addition, the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and the pooled mean group (PMG) were used for robustness checks. The findings of this research indicated that the governance (GOV) indicators employed have a statistically significant effect on the CO2 emission reduction. Besides, this study found that the appreciation of the income of the nations gives credence to the formation of the EKC theory and contributes to the decline in CO2 emissions within the selected African nations. The findings revealed that tourism, FDI, ECG, and GOV are positive and significant factors leading to increased CO2 emissions in Africa. Furthermore, the results showed that effective governance and control of FDI inflows and tourism activities can support decarbonization. These findings suggest the merits of governance in ensuring effective decarbonization policies of the environment, and policy suggestions are accordingly put forward.

Analyzing the Asymmetric Effect of Renewable Energy Consumption on Environment in STIRPAT-Kaya-EKC Framework: A NARDL Approach for China

This study aims to analyze the asymmetric relation between renewable energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in China using the STIRPAT-Kaya-EKC framework. To delve into the asymmetric effect of renewable energy consumption on the environment, the non-linear ARDL model is used. The results of this study confirm the asymmetric impact of renewable energy on the environment in the long run as well as in the short run. However, the negative shocks to renewable energy have a greater detrimental influence on the environment than the benign effect due to the positive shock to renewable energy. Population growth affects the environment in the short run, whereas technology only affects environment quality in the long run. Moreover, the study supports the EKC theory in China. This research emphasizes that the administration can improve the economy’s lifespan by allocating substantial funds to establish legislation to maintain a clean environment by subsidizing renewable energy infrastructure and research and innovations for low-carbon projects.

Pathways towards environmental sustainability: exploring the influence of aggregate domestic consumption spending on carbon dioxide emissions in Pakistan

The traditional literature has explored various factors including, but not limited to, trade openness, financial development, energy consumption, foreign direct investment, globalization, and per capita income that significantly contribute to carbon emissions. However, the current study identifies aggregate domestic consumption spending as a novel driver of carbon dioxide, employing the data for the period of 1973-2018 in Pakistan. To this end, we develop the theoretical framework to illustrate the link between aggregate domestic consumption spending and carbon dioxide emissions and deploy autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), asymmetric ARDL, and the threshold non-linear ARDL (NARDL) techniques. The results of the ARDL method suggest that only in the short run, aggregate domestic consumption spending significantly affects carbon dioxide emissions. Furthermore, the findings of the NARDL approach reveal that the positive and negative shocks significantly deteriorate and ameliorate the environmental quality by increasing and decreasing the pollution, respectively, in the short and long run. Even though the outcome of the threshold NARDL technique supports the results of the aforementioned approaches, the novelty of the current study is to find out the threshold in aggregate domestic consumption spending, which carries a significant role in determining the carbon emissions in both periods. Besides, we infer that fossil fuels energy and trade openness also degrade the Pakistani climate by boosting atmospheric pollution. Additionally, the application of the asymmetric Granger causality test validates the results by asserting the casual relationship between aggregate domestic consumption spending and carbon dioxide emissions. Based on the results, we suggest the authorities to start to promote the deployment of green products publicly to obtain green and sustainable development.

Does Chinese foreign direct investment harm CO2 emissions in the Belt and Road Economies

China's Going Global Strategy and Belt and Road Initiative gained great attention among scholars. Moreover, it is believed that Chinese investments abroad cause serious social and environmental externalities. Hence, in this paper, we examine how China's foreign direct investments influence the carbon emissions of 35 Belt and Road Initiative countries from 2000 to 2019. To do so, we use a panel model that accounts for heterogeneity and country cross-section dependence. Our results show that while other countries' foreign direct investments have contributed to the deterioration of the environment in these countries, Chinese investments have not. This substantiates the hypothesis of the halo effect influence of China's foreign investments as opposed to other countries' investments which may seek a haven for its carbon emissions. These results highlight the importance of source and destination regulations of foreign direct investments in terms of their environmental impact and carbon emissions in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. It also provides a fresh finding on the efficacy of China's foreign investment management policies and regulations in producing the desired environmental outcome in hosting countries.

Labor agglomeration and urban air pollution: research on labor force based on skill heterogeneity in China

Labor agglomeration with heterogeneous skills has different effects on urban air pollution. Based on the panel data of 263 prefecture level cities in China from 2006 to 2019, this paper constructs a Spatial Durbin Model to explore the impact of skill heterogeneous labor agglomeration and the interaction between skill heterogeneous labor agglomeration on urban air pollution. The results show that there is a positive U-shaped relationship between high-skilled labor agglomeration, low-skilled labor agglomeration, and urban air pollution. From the perspective of restraining urban air pollution, high-skilled labor agglomeration is stronger than low-skilled labor agglomeration. Under the influence of high skilled labor agglomeration, the inhibitory effect of low-skilled labor agglomeration on urban air pollution is enhanced. High-skilled labor agglomeration and low-skilled labor agglomeration reduce the degree of urban air pollution by promoting the improvement of urban innovation level. Based on this, this paper puts forward some policy suggestions, such as further promoting urban labor agglomeration, formulating reasonable urban population management policies, strengthening labor exchange and learning, and carrying out labor knowledge and skills training.

The role of pricing strategies, clean technologies, and ecological regulation on the objectives of the UN 2030 Agenda

The dynamics of global emissions and the increasing focus on market-based policy instruments have prompted this research to examine the extent to which such instruments are successful in emission control. The study explores the influence of carbon taxes, eco-friendly innovations, and ecological policy in attaining sustainable development goals and fulfilling the mitigation targets of climate change for 2030. The article selected 15 EU countries from southern and western regions and tested the empirical relationship between 2000 and 2018. This work used second-generation testing approaches and error correction-based modeling approaches to analyze the relationship between the variables. The results show that eco-friendly innovations and environmental policies help reduce emissions in the long and short run. On the other hand, carbon taxes have a more prominent effect on mitigation efforts, specifically in the short run. Factors such as urbanization, economic growth, and energy consumption are the most prominent polluting elements, the results being consistent in all models. The results further show a unidirectional and bidirectional causality relationship between the variables, and outcomes are more country-specific. Given these arguments, carbon taxes are a short-term instrument in combating carbon emissions. However, the sustainable development vision 2030 relies on eco-innovations linked with research and development and the transition from gray to green energy.

When would the dark clouds of financial inclusion be over, and the environment becomes clean? The role of national governance

On one side, the rapid progress in financial development boosts economic growth. On the other hand, it forces both the developed and emerging countries to play the role of good governance that help save the environment. The current study aims to identify the role of national governance in the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprints. To attain the study's objective, we use a novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) on a panel data set of 65 countries from 2004 to 2017. The empirical outcomes reveal that financial inclusion has a significant positive and heterogeneous impact on ecological footprints. This effect varies across quantiles, and when moving from lower to upper quantiles, the impact of financial inclusion on environment escalates. National governance plays an important role to moderate the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprint negatively. Moreover, GDP and REC display a significant positive and negative influence on ecological footprints, respectively. We obtain similar and robust findings from the alternative panel estimation techniques, including FMOLS, FEOLS, and DOLS. The policy implications from this research can be considered to achieve sustainable and eco-friendly environmental goals.

Validation of environmental Philips curve in Pakistan: a fresh insight through ARDL technique

The tremendous increase of greenhouse gases puts adverse effects on environmental degradation, unemployment, and economic growth. Against this backdrop, and implementing the more recent estimation approach, the present study investigates the validity of the novel environmental Phillips curve (i.e., inverse relationship between unemployment and environmental degradation) carried by Kashem and Rahman (2020). The unique contribution of this research is to examine the three environmental indicators (CO₂, CH₄, and ecological footprint) as a dependent variable with the same independent variables, i.e., unemployment rate, energy consumption, economic growth, foreign direct investment, and globalization, from 1975 to 2014 in Pakistan. The results validate a negative relationship of unemployment rate with CO₂, CH₄, and ecological footprint in the long run that proves the existence of environment Philips curve for Pakistan. However, a positive association is observed for energy consumption and CO₂, CH₄, and ecological footprint. The positive connection of energy consumption and environmental indicators determined that not only CO₂ emissions rather CH₄ and ecological footprint play an equal role in environmental degradation. Furthermore, in the long run foreign direct investment improves environmental sustainability for CO₂, and ecological footprint thus proved the pollution halo hypothesis for Pakistan. Probing the effects of globalization that badly pollutes environmental sustainability. Therefore, the policymakers should focus on innovations and technological improvements to contemplate both environmental degradation and unemployment. There is a need for sudden actions for energy consumption plans in Pakistan for the nation's health, economic growth, and environmental sustainability.

Financial development and environmental quality: the role of economic growth among the regional economies of Sub-Saharan Africa

The Sub-Saharan African region is considered to be the most susceptible to the effects of climate change. The region's climate is influenced by several factors, the most notable of which is increased variation in development. The conglomerate between the financial sector and environmental quality (EQ) has been a priority for policymakers and analysts. This study looked at the complex relationships between financial development (FD) and environmental quality, as well as the position of economic growth (EG), from the perceptions of the five sub-national economies, from 1980 to 2017. The study tested the EKC hypothesis across the sub-regions. We employed the panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model in a generalized method of moment framework to investigate the topic. The PVAR result showed that (i) financial development had a negative impact on CO₂ in four geographical regions (Western, Southern, Northern, and Central). As a result, FD in these countries minimizes carbon emissions and enhances the atmosphere. (ii) Also, FD had a positive impact on carbon emissions in Western Africa. As a result, FD in these countries increases CO₂ rather than improving environmental quality. The EKC hypothesis was validated in the Western African sub-region but was rejected in Central and Eastern (u-shape relationship) African sub-regional economies indicating variations in growth and environmental outcomes among the sub-regional economies. The Granger causality results in the West and Central African republics was a two-way causal connection between EG and CO₂. The results demonstrate how "EG and CO₂" and "CO₂ and EG" are intertwined in Western and Central, while most of the relationships were unidirectional. Detailed sub-regional policy recommendations are deliberated.

Does trade openness mitigate the environmental degradation in South Africa?

The debate over the role international trade plays in determining environmental outcomes has considerably generated more heat than light. Theoretical work has been successful in identifying a series of hypotheses linking openness to trade and environmental quality, but the empirical verification of these hypotheses has seriously lagged. This study revisits the dynamic relationship between trade openness and environmental quality in South Africa using time series data over the period 1960-2020. The recently developed novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulation framework has been used. The outcomes of the analysis indicate that (i) trade openness deteriorates environmental quality in the long run, although it is environmentally friendly in the short run; (ii) the scale effect increases CO₂ emissions, whereas the technique effect contributes to lower it, thus validating the presence of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; (iii) energy consumption, foreign direct investment, and industrial value-added contribute to environmental deterioration; (iv) technological innovation improves environmental quality; (v) the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) exists; and (vi) InSE, InTE, InOPEN, InEC, InFDI, InTECH, and InIGDP Granger-cause InCO₂ in the medium, long, and short run suggesting that these variables are important to influence CO₂ emissions. In light of our empirical evidence, this paper suggests that the international teamwork to lessen carbon emissions is immensely critical to solve the growing trans-boundary environmental decay and other associated spillover consequences.

Do international collaborations in environmental-related technology development in the U.S. pay off in combating carbon dioxide emissions? Role of domestic environmental innovation, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness

Many economies are seeking new ways to improve environmental quality through international collaboration in environmental-related technology development (ICERTD). Cost reduction, green market penetration, and green technology development are central to global partnerships for sustainable development, even though no empirical study explains the ICERTD-carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions nexus. The paper fills this knowledge gap in the environmental economics literature by examining the relationship between ICERTD and CO₂ emissions in the U.S. from 1990Q1 to 2018Q4 using domestic environmental innovation, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, and gross domestic product per capita as control variables. Fully modified ordinary least squares, dynamic ordinary least squares, and correlated component regression methods were employed for testing the long-run nexus among the variables. The present study revealed that (i) a long-run cointegration existed among ICERTD, domestic environmental innovation, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, gross domestic product per capita, and CO₂ emissions; (ii) ICERTD, domestic environmental innovation, and renewable energy consumption benefited the U.S. in lowering CO₂ emissions in the long run; and (iii) trade openness and gross domestic product per capita were positively associated with CO₂ emissions. This study recommends important policy recommendations for increasing ICERTD for decarbonization.

The importance of facilitating renewable energy transition for abating CO2 emissions in Morocco

ABSTRACT: Achieving environmental sustainability has become a core policy agenda of the Moroccan government. The nation's monotonic dependence on fossil fuels for meeting the local energy demand has been acknowledged as the major cause of environmental distress. Besides, Morocco has traditionally been a major importer of fossil fuels whereby the nation's fossil fuel dependency could not be phased out to a large extent. Consequently, the greenhouse gas emission figures of Morocco have persistently surged over the years. Moreover, Morocco has large reserves of untapped renewable energy sources which can be employed for producing power without significantly degrading the environment. Against this backdrop, this study explores the renewable energy consumption-carbon dioxide emissions nexus, controlling for economic growth, financial development, and foreign direct investment inflows, in the context of Morocco over the period between 1980 and 2017. In addition, along with the direct impacts, the indirect environmental impacts associated with renewable energy consumption are also scrutinized in this study. The empirical strategy involves the application of econometric methods that are robust to handling structural break issues in the data. Overall, the results reveal that renewable energy consumption curbs carbon dioxide emissions both in the short and long run. In contrast, financial development and foreign direct investment inflows boost carbon dioxide emissions in Morocco. However, these adverse environmental impacts are partially neutralized by facilitating greater renewable energy use within Morocco. The results indicate that renewable energy consumption interacts with financial development and foreign direct investment inflows to jointly reduce the carbon dioxide emission figures of Morocco in the long run. Furthermore, the findings also validate the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis in the long run only. In line with these key findings, it is recommended that the Moroccan government should adopt relevant policies that can help the nation overcome the existing barriers faced in transitioning from non-renewable to renewable energy use. Simultaneously, it is also necessary for Morocco to achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth by greening its financial sector and revisiting its financial globalization policies.

The role of green innovations, environmental policies and carbon taxes in achieving the sustainable development goals of carbon neutrality

The green innovations, environmental policies, and carbon taxes are the tools to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the mitigation process. This study is intended to examine the impact of innovation, carbon pricing (CTAX), environmental policies (EP), and energy consumption (ECON) on PM_2.5 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission for Central-Eastern European countries. The panel effect during 2000-2018 is tested using a dynamic panel data model while the Granger causality approach obtains country-related outcomes. The outcomes reveal that eco-friendly innovations have a more profound effect on carbon mitigation. Environmental policies reduce emissions by 2.7% in the short run and 17.4% in the long run. Similarly, CTAX mitigates GHG emissions by 8.6% in the short-run and PM2.5 by 0.9% and 5.7% in the short and long run. However, urbanization, energy consumption and trade openness are the leading polluters in the region. The main findings remain dominant in the country-specific results and find unidirectional and bidirectional causality evidence among variables. The research concludes that green innovations and strict environmental policy can lead towards achieving sustainable development goals using carbon taxes as a tool on the way.

Institutional quality, financial development and the influence of environmental factors on carbon emissions: evidence from a global perspective

This study explores the moderating role of institutional quality on carbon emissions using data from a global panel regarding renewable energy consumption, foreign direct investment, economic growth and financial development between 2002 and 2019. Using the two-step system generalized method of moments, the results illustrate that in the panel data, renewable energy usage and foreign direct investment inflow enhance environmental quality, while financial development and economic growth lower it. The results show that many countries' quality institutions cannot yet adequately mitigate the harmful impact of each environmental factor and protect the environment; however, the institutional quality interaction term confirms the significant moderating effect of all explanatory variables on environmental quality in the panel data. The findings also confirm the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve and demonstrate the pollution halo hypothesis. The findings in this paper may be useful for policymakers when enacting stricter environmental regulations.

Fossil fuels consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in G7 countries: Empirical evidence from ARDL bounds testing approach

This research determines the intertemporal relationships caused by the coal, oil, and natural gas consumption in the carbon dioxide emission by the G7 countries from 1965 to 2018. Auto-regressive and Distributed Lags models and Bound test were used to detect cointegration and understand the dynamic effect. Due to structural breaks occurred in the variables, two dummy variables for the periods of breaks, 1978 and 1990 were incorporated respectively. Positive causality was identified, in the sense that the consumption of fossil fuels provides an increase in carbon dioxide emissions. Short-term elasticities indicate that an increase of 1 percentage point in the consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas will cause, respectively, an increase of 0.4823%, 0.3140%, and 0.1717% in carbon dioxide emissions. In the long run, the increase of 1 percentage point in the consumption of oil, coal, and natural gas will cause, respectively, an increase of 0.4924%, 0.2692%, and 0.1829% in carbon dioxide emissions. The error correction model (ECM = -0.4739) indicates that 47.39% of a shock in the carbon dioxide emissions variable is resolved in one year and after 2 years, carbon dioxide emissions return to long term equilibrium.

Do higher education research and development expenditures affect environmental sustainability? New evidence from Chinese provinces

Even though higher education R&D expenditures (HEEXP) are important determinants of economic growth that facilitate science, technology, new ideas, and innovation, yet its effect on environmental sustainability remains unexplored. This paper examines the nexus between HEEXP and carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e), followed by control variables such as electricity consumption (EC), foreign direct investment (FDI), gross domestic product (GDP), and total population (TP) for the period 2000Q1-2019Q4. Data were evaluated using different tests, e.g., the cross-sectional dependence test, cross-sectionally augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test, Westerlund error-correction-based panel cointegration test, mean group, augmented mean group, common correlated effects mean group, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test. First, the results validated the cointegration association among HEEXP, EC, FDI, GDP, TP, and CO₂e. Second, the finding showed significant long-term negative nexus between HEEXP and CO₂e. Third, the findings indicated that electricity consumption, foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, and total population are the important factors that intensify the overall situation of CO₂e. Fourth, the results indicated that there exists bidirectional causality between EC and CO₂e; FDI and CO₂e; GDP and CO₂e; POP and CO₂e; and HEEXP and CO₂e. This paper's findings call for devising policies and strengthening financial support to induce higher education for developing green patents.

Foreign direct investments and environmental quality in sub-Saharan Africa: the merits of policy and institutions for environmental sustainability

This study investigates the association between foreign direct investment (FDI) and environmental quality, taking into account policies and institutions for environmental sustainability across 23 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. We applied the Generalised Method of Moment (system-GMM) to analyse the data for the period 2005 to 2019. The results revealed that FDI improves environmental quality in the long run, whereas in the short run, FDI diminishes environmental quality when interacted with policies and institutions for environmental sustainability. Furthermore, policies and institutions for environmental sustainability and domestic investment improve environmental quality in both the long and short run. The study concludes that policies and institutions for environmental sustainability in SSA are important as they improve environmental quality. The study also finds policies and institutions for environmental sustainability complements with FDI to improve environmental quality in the long run. Finally, the study further establishes that domestic investment is important to improve environmental quality in SSA. The key findings call for strengthening policies for improving environmental quality in SSA.

Innovative Carbon Mitigation Techniques to Achieve Environmental Sustainability Agenda: Evidence from a Panel of 21 Selected R&D Economies

Technological innovation in the energy sector is highly needed to reduce carbon emission costs, which requires knowledge spillovers, financial development, and carbon pricing to achieve a green developmental agenda. The current study examines the role of knowledge innovations in achieving the environmental sustainability agenda under financial development and carbon pricing in a panel of 21 selected R&D economies from 1990 to 2018. The study constructed a composite index of financial development and knowledge innovation in the carbon pricing model. The results show that carbon pricing, a financial development index, innovation index, and energy demand fail to achieve stringent carbon reduction targets. A U-shaped relationship is found between carbon emissions and per capita income in the absence of a financial development index and trade openness. At the same time, this study shows the monotonic decreasing function in the presence of all factors. The causality estimates confirmed the feedback relationship between carbon pricing and carbon emissions, carbon pricing and the financial index, and the financial development index and innovation index. Further, the causality results established the carbon-led financial development and innovation, growth-led carbon emissions, and trade-led emissions, pricing, and financial development in a panel of selected countries. The estimates of the innovation accounting matrix (forecasting mechanism) confirmed the viability of the environmental sustainability agenda through carbon pricing, knowledge innovation, and financial development over a time horizon. However, these factors are not achievable carbon reduction targets in a given period. The study concludes that carbon pricing may provide a basis for achieving an environmental sustainability agenda through market-based innovations, green financing options, and improved energy resources. This would ultimately help desensitize carbon emissions across countries.

Symmetric and Asymmetric Impacts of Commercial Energy Distribution from Key Sources on Economic Progress in Pakistan

This paper aims to determine the interaction of commercial energy distribution, including the installed capacity of hydroelectric energy, hydroelectric energy generation, the installed capacity of thermal energy, thermal energy generation, the installed capacity of nuclear energy, and nuclear energy generation, with economic progress in Pakistan over the 1970–2019 period. Both linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models were used to ascertain the symmetric and asymmetric short- and long-run effects. The findings from the linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis revealed evidence that increases in the installed capacity of nuclear energy, alongside higher levels of hydroelectric energy generation and thermal energy generation, have positively affected economic growth in the short run, while a greater installed capacity of nuclear energy has positively affected economic growth in the long run. The findings from the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis showed that negative shocks to installed capacities related to hydroelectric, thermal, and nuclear energy reduced economic growth, while positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy boosted economic growth in the short run. Furthermore, in the long run, negative shocks to the installed capacities of hydroelectric and thermal energy reduced economic growth, negative shocks to the installed capacity of nuclear energy enhanced economic growth, and positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy have stimulated economic growth in Pakistan.

The carbon dioxide neutralizing effect of energy innovation on international tourism in EU-5 countries under the prism of the EKC hypothesis

Mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions has become an utmost important global agenda, keeping into consideration the associated environmental hardships. As a result, it is important to unearth the factors which can neutralize carbon emissions to transform the world economy into a low-carbon one. Against this backdrop, this study explores the carbon dioxide neutralizing effects of economic growth, international tourism, clean energy promotion, and technological innovation in the context of five European Union (EU-5) nations during the 1990-2015 period. This study's main contribution is in terms of its approach to test the interaction effect between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and energy innovation on carbon dioxide emissions. The econometric analysis chronologically involves the employment of unit root, cointegration, causality, and regression methods. Overall, the findings support the inverted-U-shaped economic growth-carbon dioxide emissions nexus to verify the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Besides, the Pollution Haven Hypothesis in the context of the selected panel is also verified as higher FDI inflows are seen to boost the carbon dioxide emission levels. The results also confirm that energy innovation moderates the harmful effect of air transport (a proxy for international tourism) on carbon dioxide emissions during the developing stage of the tourism industry. On the other hand, renewable energy promotion is found to curb carbon dioxide emissions. These findings suggest that the European governments need to enhance investments in their respective renewable energy sectors and simultaneously ensure the development of clean industries, which can collectively help these nations become carbon-neutral in the future.

New insight into examining the role of financial development in economic growth effect on a composite environmental quality index

The inclusion of an index, which can be the representative of environmental quality from different aspects, seems to be of paramount significance. This issue is a major challenging one in the economic-environmental literature. This study investigates the role of financial development in economic growth effect on the composite environmental quality index (CEQI) in two groups of selected Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. In this regard, System Generalized Method of Moment (SYS-GMM) is applied to fit the research models. According to the findings, in the selected OPEC countries, financial development reinforces negative impacts of economic growth on environmental quality. In the selected OECD countries, economic growth has negative effect on the environmental quality and financial development weakens this effect. The effect of financial development on the CEQI is respectively negative and positive in OPEC and OECD countries. Moreover, in both groups of selected countries, energy consumption and economic growth have a negative impact on the CEQI; nonetheless, trade openness has a positive effect. Accordingly, some policy suggestions and new recommendations are presented for future studies, which would contribute to the better implementation of economic-environmental policies. Graphical abstract.

A threshold approach to sustainable development: Nonlinear relationship between renewable energy consumption, natural resource rent, and ecological footprint

All over the world, humankind and nature are paying off economic development's opportunity cost through accelerated environmental degradation. Renewable energy is the best option to control and minimize environmental degradation for sustainable development. This study's primary motive is to examine the nonlinear relationship between renewable energy consumption, natural resource rent, and ecological footprint in the context of the world's top 15 renewable energy consumption economies to achieve sustainable development. Panel time-series data from 1996 to 2018 is focused on concluding the study. Panel Smooth Transition Model is used to explore the nonlinear relationship and transition between the low and high regimes because of the nonlinear behavior. The study's results suggest a negative association between renewable energy consumption and ecological footprint and a positive relationship between natural resource rent and ecological footprint in both low and high regimes in the case of these 15 economies. It is highly recommended that the nations must shift their energy consumption policies towards renewable energy sources by investing in renewable energy technology and research for a more sustainable development.

Investigating marginal effect of economic growth on environmental quality based on six environmental indicators: does financial development have a determinative role in strengthening or weakening this effect?

Given the complexity of the correlation of economic growth with financial development, and their interactive impacts on environmental quality, this study attempted to present new insights into indecisive outcomes from the contribution of financial development in determining the impressionability of environmental indicators under economic growth conditions. Previous studies only employed a single environmental indicator for analyzing the correlation between economic factors and environmental quality. However, six environmental indicators are adopted in this study to evaluate environmental quality and to reach major goals of this research. To this end, using 2-stage system generalized technique of moment estimator, the association of economic growth, energy consumption, financial development, environmental indicators, and trade openness is determined in selected OPEC countries for years 2010 to 2019. Findings indicated that accompanied by the effects of economic growth on any EFI, ANS, PN, and EPI variables, the financial development enhances such effect. This is while, the financial development would weaken the economic growth effect on the ESI variable. Regarding EVI, no significant association was observed. Regarding to ESI, EPI, and PN, trade openness applies a significantly positive impact on environmental quality; on the other hand, it has positive role in environmental degradation based on EFI and ANS. This is while, according to the EVI variable, trade openness has not meaningful impact on environmental status. Finally, energy use has significant and positive effects on environmental degradation in each of environmental indicators. However, this variable has not shown significant impact on EPI and ANS. Alternatively, findings indicated that financial development can be considered an important and key variable in improvement of the environmental quality due to the moderating role it plays relative to the negative economic growth effect on the environmental quality. At the end of this paper, some limitations are presented, and some suggestions for further studies are provided as well.

Progress in nuclear energy with carbon pricing to achieve environmental sustainability agenda: on the edge of one's seat

The Paris agreement (COP21) emphasized the need to progress toward using low-carbon energy technologies, including nuclear power, that is favorably looked for to meet the challenges to reduce an enormous increase in global temperature to below 2 °C. The cost of carbon pollution is highly induced by the energy sector that damages the global environmental sustainability plan. The alternative and nuclear energy demand is an optimized solution to decrease carbon damages, which can be better work under the imposition of carbon taxes on polluting industries. This study works in a given direction to analyze the role of alternative and nuclear energy, carbon pricing, FDI inflows, fossil fuel combustion, economic growth, and population density on the cost of carbon pollution in a panel of 90 selected countries for a period of 1995-2018. The results confirmed a "nuclear energy-augmented environmental Kuznets curve" with a turning point of 39.974% of total energy demand across countries. The result implies that alternative and nuclear energy initially increases carbon damages. Simultaneously, it decreases at the later stages of atomic energy expansion; thus, nuclear power growth is imperative for long-term sustainable development. A positive relationship is found between carbon pricing and carbon damage, while a negative relationship is between fossil fuel combustion and carbon damage across countries. The results conclude that expansion in nuclear energy would help reduce the cost of carbon pollution to achieve environmental sustainability agenda across countries.

A critical review of the current research mainstreams and the influencing factors of green total factor productivity

The current world economy needs to undergo a green transformation. Green total factor productivity provides the basis for judging whether a country or region can attain long-term sustainable development. However, there is little research into the factors that influence green total factor productivity and this has become an obstacle in the transition to a greener economy. On filtering relevant articles and interviews data collected from 2009 to 2019, open decoding, spindle decoding, and selective decoding are carried out to classify research conducted into green total factor productivity. From this analysis, cutting-edge research and knowledge gaps in green total factor productivity are identified. Also, an influencing factor model of green total factor productivity is built. Findings suggest that technical, economic, and government are the three main research streams involved in this transformation process. In particular, technology plays a decisive role, economy plays a guaranteeing role, and government plays a regulatory role. Moreover, the impact of these factors cannot be isolated, as each influence and mediate the other two. Results from this study will help further popularize green total factor productivity and provide a new starting point for reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution.

Do CO2 emissions, energy consumption and globalization promote economic growth? Empirical evidence from Japan

In the empirical literature, there is no agreement on the linkage between environmental deterioration and economic growth. Thus, this paper aims to explore the long-run and causal effects of CO₂ emissions, globalization energy usage, trade openness and urbanization on economic growth in Japan by employing new econometric techniques. The paper uses a dataset spanning from 1970 to 2015 and employs recent econometric techniques. To the best of the investigator's understanding, no prior studies have examined this linkage utilizing the wavelet coherence technique for Japan. The novelty of the wavelet is that it can capture the causality and long-run linkage between economic variables at different frequencies and periods. Thus, the study's aim is to address the following questions: (i) Is there a long-run and causal linkage between economic growth, energy usage, urbanization, CO₂ emissions, trade openness and globalization? (ii) What is the interaction between economic growth and the regressors at various frequencies and periods? The paper utilizes the ARDL, DOLS and FMOLS to catch the long-run effects, whereas the wavelet coherence technique is employed to capture the causal effects among the indicators. The outcomes of the ARDL show that urbanization, CO₂ emissions, globalization and energy usage trigger economic growth, while no significant linkage is found between trade openness and economic growth. The wavelet coherence approach reveals (i) positive co-movements between economic growth and the regressors and (ii) a one-way causality from CO₂ emissions and energy usage to economic growth.

Another outlook to sector-level energy consumption in Pakistan from dominant energy sources and correlation with economic growth

The present study seeks to investigate the sector-level energy consumption of oil and natural gas and to explore the linkage between economic growth, households, agriculture, industry, power, fertilizers, and commercial sector in Pakistan for the period of 1980-2016. The energy sector of Pakistan is facing severe crisis from the last few years due to inadequate production and supply. Long-lasting deficits of natural gas and oil, the two supreme types of fuel in Pakistan, had detrimental consequences for the growth as well as for the economic development. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method and Granger causality test under vector error correction model (VECM) were employed to check the association among the variables. Furthermore, the innovative accounting method was used to investigate the responsiveness of each variable to another within the study framework. Empirical results show long-run association among the variables, as oil consumption in the agriculture and power sector show a positive effect on Pakistan's economic growth. Similarly, energy consumption from natural gas in the households and fertilizers as well as in the industry sector has had a constructive association with economic growth. In contrast, energy consumption from oil in the households and industry sectors has adverse association with economic growth, while natural gas consumption in the commercial sector has negative linkage with economic growth. Possible steps should be taken by the Government of Pakistan to enhance the production of oil and natural gas from other alternatives to meet the requirements of these sectors.

Foreign aid and economic growth: Do energy consumption, trade openness and CO2 emissions matter? A DSUR heterogeneous evidence from Africa's trading blocs

The paramount vision of every country or sub-regions is to attain economic growth and sustainable economic growth. The paradigm drift of studies into foreign aid and sustainable economic growth has shown conflicting results that play on researchers to fill the gap of knowledge void. The plurality of studies looked at economic growth and foreign aid in single countries. However, one of the major determinants of sustainable growth such as CO₂ emissions and trade goes beyond the boundaries of a country. Deductively, grouped countries or sub-regional studies are needed to ascertain the heterogeneous relationship and cross-sectional dependency among panels grouping. We fill these gaps with the recent empirical methodology to unveil the impact of foreign aid, CO₂ emissions, trade openness, and energy consumption on economic growth. Thus a percentage rise in foreign aid corresponds to different significant weights in all panel groupings with exception of Southern African Development Community, which unveiled a non-significant estimate. Whereas trade openness in all panel grouping indicated a significant weight on economic growth. An increase in CO₂ emissions has a significant material effect on economic growth in Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Economic Community of West African States, and Community of Sahel-Saharan States. The impact of energy consumption on economic growth across the panel groupings was statistically significant with Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa having the highest weight impact. These results obtained in this study indicate that foreign aid, energy consumption, trade openness, and CO₂ emissions are positively correlated with economic growth. Based on the finding, the significant of the policy implications suggested. (a) The need for a paradigm shift from fossil fuel sources to renewables is encouraged in the various trading blocs (b) The need to embrace carbon storage and capturing techniques to decouple pollutant emissions from economic growth on the continent’s growth trajectory.