The nexus between financial development, globalization, and environmental degradation: Fresh evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries

Financial development and environmental quality: Does the financial environmental Kuznets Curve Prevail in Australia?

It is crucial to evaluate the link between financial development and environmental quality in order to meet the environmental sustainability goals. Therefore, this scholarly work seeks to validate the of an inverted U-shaped relationship between financial development and environmental quality in Australia, which modifies the conventional theory of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. For the purposes of empirical analysis, we utilized the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound test over the period from 1980 to 2021 for empirical investigation. Our findings confirm the existence of a Financial Environmental Kuznets Curve (FEKC) in the long-run, while the short-run results do not support its establishment. This means that achieving a financial development level of 0.0458 could help attain the environmental wellbeing in Australia. Similarly, the estimation outcomes affirm that the conventional Environmental Kuznets Curve exists in the long-run but not in the short-run. Our results also indicate that energy usage negatively impacts environmental quality, while foreign direct investments support the pollution halo effect in the long-run but do not exhibit this effect in the short-run. The roles of urbanization and trade openness are positive in enhancing quality of environment in the short-run. However, the effect of the carbon tax on determining environmental quality in Australia is deemed insignificant. In conclusion, this study offers vital policy recommendations to help achieve the Australian government's commitment to climate change.

Appraising the role of the digital economy in global decarbonization: A spatial non-linear perspective on globalization

In the context of globalization, the role of the digital economy in carbon emissions may generate spatial spill over effects. This study comprehensively applies a spatial model to understand the nexus between the digital economy and carbon emissions in 67 economies from 2010 to 2019. Specifically, this study contributes by introducing a spatial panel threshold model, which helps to present the new evidence regarding decarbonization process. Empirical findings exemplify that the digital economy remarkably reduces local carbon emissions, with the positive spatial spill over effects being salient. The spatial moderating effect model uncover that globalization positively affects the nexus between the digital economy and carbon emissions. Interestingly, the spatial panel threshold model designates that the digital economy's reduction effect on local carbon emissions will be tightened, whereas the positive spatial spill over effects turn negative only when globalization surpasses a threshold. Our model has the potential to explain some results that traditional models cannot reach.

Does globalization mitigate environmental degradation in selected emerging economies? assessment of the role of financial development, economic growth, renewable energy consumption and urbanization

While the acceleration of globalization in newly developing (emerging) economies contributes positively to economic developments on the one hand, it is a research topic that can have an impact on environmental pollution on the other hand. Therefore, this study analyzes the impact of globalization on environmental pollution for 14 emerging economies in the 1991-2018 period by including economic growth, financial development, renewable energy consumption, and urbanization in the ecological footprint model. In addition to the AMG forecaster, Driscoll-Kraay, PCSE, and FGLS estimation techniques are used for long-term forecasting. Causal linkages among variables are analyzed by the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel bootstrap causality test. The findings show that the series are cointegrated, that is, a long-term relationship between the variables. In the long term, globalization and renewable energy consumption reduce environmental pollution, while economic growth and financial development play a role in encouraging environmental pollution. Causality analysis enumerates a causality from economic growth and financial development to environmental pollution, as well as a two-way causality between globalization and environmental pollution and renewable energy consumption and environmental pollution. Empirical findings can offer important implications for policies that will reduce environmental pollution in these countries.

Decarbonization through sustainable energy technologies: Asymmetric evidence from 20 most innovative nations across the globe

Since the discharge of carbon is one of the main causes for ongoing global warming issue and change in climate, most nations have committed to decarbonizing their economies at the COP26 summit. Thus, this investigation aims to explore the consequences of innovations in sustainable energy technologies on decarbonization in the 20 most innovative nations across the globe. In assessing the cause-and-effect relationship, we have used “Panel Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (P-NARDL)” technique. The findings demonstrated that the variables have a lasting relationship. The positive asymmetric shock in the innovations in sustainable energy technologies has a positive influence on the decarbonization of these nations, while the negative asymmetric effect is insignificant. According to the findings, clean energy negatively consequence on carbonization whereas growth in economy is favorably and considerably connected with it. The findings demonstrate that there is bidirectional causation between all variables under investigation, with the exception of the unidirectional causality flows from the usage of sustainable energy technology and emissions of CO2. In a global context, this research suggests that government should identify the roles of new sustainable energy technologies by reforming patenting regulations to rectify the environmental damages.

Is reducing fossil fuel intensity important for environmental management and ensuring ecological efficiency in China?

Since China is a country with high environmental pollution, researchers have intensively studied China's environmental problems using various environmental indicators such as carbon emissions and ecological footprint. Unlike previous literature, this study analyzes the effects of economic growth, globalization, foreign direct investment, and fossil energy intensity on ecological efficiency in China. As an innovation to the literature, the study examines the Chinese ecosystem simultaneously with its economic and environmental aspects by focusing on ecological efficiency. To this end, the study applies dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) simulations and kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) methods for the period from 1990 to 2018. The results of the DARDL simulations show that globalization, and economic growth enhance ecological efficiency in China. The findings also demonstrate that both foreign direct investment and fossil fuel intensity have a negative impact on environmental quality in China. Based on these results, the study suggests that the Chinese government should adopt policies to channel foreign direct investment into environmentally friendly production, reduce fossil fuel intensity, and improve ecological efficiency by making use of environmentally friendly technologies provided by globalization and economic development.

Revisiting the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis with globalization for OECD countries: the role of convergence clubs

This paper aims to investigate the role of globalization in ecological footprint for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries during the 1981-2015 period with the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. To do so, unlike the existing literature, we follow a different path. Firstly, we test the environmental convergence (EC) hypothesis using the Phillips and Sul, Econometrica 75(6): 1771-1855, (2007) methodology. Then, we examine the impact of globalization and energy consumption on the ecological footprint (EF), and test the existence of the EKC hypothesis using the dynamic ordinary least squares mean group (DOLSMG) estimator. The convergence test results indicate that OECD countries do not converge to the same steady-state levels with regard to EF levels. However, we identify two convergence clubs that converging to a different steady-state equilibrium. The results of DOLSMG reveal that the EKC hypothesis is valid for both convergence groups. Furthermore, the impact of energy consumption and globalization on EF is higher for club 2, which includes developing countries.

Are impacts of renewable energy and globalization on carbon neutrality targets asymmetric in South Africa? A reconsideration using nonlinear ARDL approach

In this paper, we deviate from the existing literature by disentangling the independent variables into their positive and negative changes to capture asymmetric and dynamic multiplier effects of renewable energy and globalization on carbon neutrality targets within the framework of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. In doing this, the paper uses South African data for the period 1990 to 2018 and the results show that CO₂ emissions respond differently to the positive and negative shocks in renewable energy, globalization, and economic growth. The effect of a positive shock in economic growth is inelastic and positively related to CO₂ emissions while a negative shock in economic growth has an elastic and negative effect on CO₂ emissions. These results hold for both long-run and short-run periods. In the case of globalization, the positive shock increases CO₂ emissions while the negative shock decreases CO₂ emissions; although the long-run effect of a negative shock is elastic and insignificant while the short-run negative shock exerts an inelastic and significant effect on CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, both the upward and downward shocks in renewable energy consumption transmit a negative effect on CO₂ emissions in the long-run and short-run periods. Therefore, the paper suggests among others that to effectively decarbonize the South African economy, the use of subsidies, tax credits, tax holidays, and a host of others on green energy activities need to be enhanced as incentives for promoting cleaner energy production and consumption.

Energy transition determinants in the European Union: threshold effects

The World Economic Forum (2018) has introduced a comprehensive proxy for the Energy Transition Index (ETI), which includes two main sub-indices; the energy System Performance Index (SPI) and Transition Readiness (TRI). The first sub-index measures the current state of the energy system, and the latter indicates future transition(s). Any factor that can move these two levers in a positive direction will eventually lead to improved energy transitions. Various factors affect the energy transition. Since the ETI is a comprehensive index that includes socio-economic, governance structures, and political dimensions of the energy transition, it is expected to be impacted by globalization and economic complexity. The present study seeks to answer whether the impact of globalization and economic complexity on both energy transition sub-indicators is in the same direction. Also, do the effects of these two variables vary at different levels of energy transition and its sub-indices? For this purpose, we implement a fixed-effect panel threshold model for data from the European Union. The results demonstrate that (overall) globalization significantly influences the ETI and its sub-indices at all levels. The economic complexity in all three regimes reduces TRI (at 90% or 95% confidence intervals). Nevertheless, it harms the SPI and ETI if they exceed the threshold.

Analysing the influence of foreign direct investment and urbanization on the development of private financial system and its ecological footprint

In this research, the objective is to examine how private financial development, urbanization and foreign direct investment and economic growth affects the environment using the ecological footprint as an indicator. Panel data was used for 100 countries from 1980 to 2019, classified according to their income level. Several econometric steps were used to estimate the results, such as cointegration and causality techniques. The results show that the private financial system and environmental degradation have a long-term equilibrium relationship, and the incidence is positive, but not significant at the level of the 100 countries. In high-income countries, the private financial system reduces environmental degradation; however, in upper middle-income, lower middle-income and low-income countries, it increases in the long run. Likewise, urbanization plays a predominant role on the ecological footprint in the long term. Meanwhile, the role of foreign direct investment is not stable over time. The causality test shows bidirectional causality between environmental degradation and the private financial system at the global level in high- and upper middle-income countries. However, low-income countries have a unidirectional relationship of environmental degradation to the private financial system. With regard to foreign direct investment, there is a unidirectional causal relationship between environmental degradation and foreign direct investment at the global level and from foreign direct investment to environmental degradation in high-income countries.

Integrating ecosystem services and landscape connectivity to construct and optimize ecological security patterns: a case study in the central urban area Chongqing municipality, China

Rapid urbanization is often accompanied by the irrational utilization of natural resources and environmental degradation. Ecological security pattern (ESP) is an effective way for rational allocation of resources, which is conducive to achieving sustainable development. Taking the central urban area Chongqing municipality as the study area, ecological sources were identified by integrating ecosystem services and landscape connectivity. Combining natural and anthropogenic factors, a resistance surface was constructed and modified, and four ecological function zones were determined. Ecological corridors were extracted and prioritized by Linkage Mapper and the gravity model, and ecological nodes were also obtained. A network connectivity assessment was performed to compare the connectivity of ESPs before and after optimization. The results showed that ESPs included 2453.72 km² of ecological sources, 189 ecological corridors, 69 ecological nodes and 4 ecological function zones. The ecological sources primarily consisted of forestland, cultivated land and water bodies in Jinyun, Zhongliang, Tongluo, Mingyue and other mountainous areas, with the maximum distribution index value at the tenth level of the terrain niche index gradient. The Yangtze River and Jialing River were also the most important ecological sources. Ecological corridors were mainly dominated by forestland and cultivated land. Ecological nodes were concentrated in Yubei, Banan and Jiulongpo districts. The optimized ESPs had higher network connectivity and closure, with a more uniform distribution of ecological corridors, and included 2461.95 km² of ecological sources, 218 ecological corridors and 72 ecological nodes. Finally, recommendations for sustainable development were proposed. This study provides a theoretical reference for decision-making related to ecological protection and urban planning.

Understanding the relationship between globalization and biophysical resource consumption within safe operating limits for major Belt and Road Initiative countries

Over the past few years, a growing number of scholars have explored environmental deterioration and its connection to various indicators acting as proxies for growth and globalisation. Taking this into view, the current study examines the globalisation-environment nexus, using 66 major countries and administrative regions of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as case studies for 2000-2015. For this analysis, six biophysical resource usages were used within the safe operating space of the planetary boundary concept as proxies for the environmental state, along with the four main and five sub-indices of the Konjunkturforschungsstelle (KOF) globalisation index. Pearson's correlation, hierarchical clustering, redundancy analysis, linear regression, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) forecasting, etc. were used to infer existing trends, the interactions between the environment and globalisation, a projected future, and coupling with safe operating space aspects. The findings reveal the long-run asymmetric relationship of variables. Surpassing safe operating limits to achieve globalisation is the most prominent outcome. Economic, trade, and financial globalisation are more crucially related to biophysical resource usage. Nitrogen use and material footprint act as strong drivers for various indices of globalisation. At least 40% of countries are above the global average resource usage and 50% have crossed all of the safe operating limits. At the present rate, nearly 51% of countries might cross all their safe operating spaces in 2030. In a race to achieve more globalisation (0.95), more than 30% of countries might cross 5 of the 6 planetary boundaries. Land system change, the biogeochemical cycle, and climate change are impending as the most important domains to be focused on regarding globalisation. Based on the findings, it can be recommended that governments and policymakers devote more attention to reframing and redesigning globalisation to be more environment friendly to achieve long-term sustainable development goals.

Impact of globalization, institutional quality, economic growth, electricity and renewable energy consumption on Carbon Dioxide Emission in OECD countries

This research for the first time examines the influence of the financial development, stock market, globalization, institutional quality, economic growth, electricity, and renewable energy consumption on carbon dioxide emission from 1985 to 2018 in thirty-six (OECD) countries. Cointegrations exist in the used variables based on the examined findings of the Kao, Westerlund, and Pedroni cointegration. Findings of the pooled mean group (PMG) indicate that renewable energy consumption, globalization, and institutional quality assist to reduce the carbon dioxide emission that improve the environment while financial development, stock market, electricity consumption, and economic growth cause to increase the carbon dioxide emission in OECD countries both in the long and in the short run. To reduce carbon dioxide emission, important policy implications are suggested for OECD countries.

A controversy on the three fundamental growth determinants in selected CEE countries

The present study is a controversy on the three fundamental growth determinants. It contributes to the literature by divulging the effects of foreign direct investment and financial development on energy consumption in Central and Eastern European countries from 1990 to 2016. In doing so, second-generation multi-econometric methodological methods are adopted to conclude this study. The Pooled Means Group (PMG) estimation approach confirms that foreign direct investment is adversely associated with energy consumption. A one-point rise in FDI in the CEE region reduces energy consumption by 0.0172 points in the long run. Congruently, the globalization index also mitigates energy consumption. Conversely, financial development and economic growth stimulate energy consumption in the CEE region. Energy consumption boosts by 0.0626 points when a one-point escalation in financial development occurs. The U-shaped link between energy consumption and economic growth is revealed. The country-wise results show that energy consumption rises due to financial development and FDI in nine countries and one country. However, reduction in energy consumption occurs due to an upsurge of financial development in seven and FDI in six countries. Moreover, the causality results suggest that energy consumption causes financial development, and FDI. The policy suggestions are included to mitigate unsustainable energy consumption and renovate the energy policy in this region.

Modelling the globalization-CO2 emission nexus in Australia: evidence from quantile-on-quantile approach

Sustainable development policies for achieving net-zero emissions require understanding the factors that influence carbon emissions. Capitalizing on the limitations of the existing literature, this study applies the quantile-on-quantile approach to investigate economic globalization's impact on carbon emissions in Australia for 1970-2018. The results from the quantile-on-quantile revealed a positive feedback linkage between globalization and carbon emissions at all quantiles. The results further indicated that while there is a positive feedback linkage between economic growth and carbon emissions at most quantiles, a positive feedback interconnection exists between carbon emissions and coal consumption at all quantiles. As a robustness check, we employed the quantile regression test, and the results from quantile regression are consistent with the findings from the quantile-on-quantile approach. The consistency of the results suggests that these study findings are reliable and suitable for informing policies that seek to address carbon emissions in Australia. The policy implications for Australia are discussed.

Green Technology Innovation, Globalization, and CO2 Emissions: Recent Insights from the OBOR Economies

This study explores the connection between technological innovation, globalization, and CO2 emissions by controlling the critical influence of information and communication technology (ICT) and economic growth in a panel of One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries from 1991 to 2019, utilizing advanced and robust econometric strategies (second generation). In addition, this study also uses an interaction variable (TI*GLOB) to check the interaction role of technological innovation on the linkage between globalization and CO2 emission, besides their direct effect on CO2 emissions in OBOR countries. The outcomes revealed that the linkage between technological innovation and CO2 emissions is negative, and statically significant in all the regions (e.g., OBOR, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, MENA, Europe, and Central Asia). Moreover, the results of globalization show a significant positive relationship with CO2 emissions in OBOR and South Asia region. Nevertheless, it significantly negatively affects environmental pollution in East and Southeast Asia, MENA, Europe, and Central Asia. The results of TI*GLOB indicate that, for the OBOR sample, East and Southeast Asia, and Central Asia, the moderation effects of technological innovation with globalization are significantly negatively associated with CO2 emissions. However, in MENA and Europe, the interaction effect is a significant positive. The coefficient of ICT for OBOR, Europe, and Central Asia are positive and statistically significant; however, for East, Southeast Asia, and MENA regions, these results are statistically negative. Furthermore, the findings are robust, according to various robustness checks that we have performed for checking the reliability of our main findings. The study establishes numerous polities and makes various recommendations, in light of relevant conclusions.

Unveiling the asymmetric impact of energy consumption on environmental mitigation in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan

The manufacturing sector is the backbone for the development of an economy. Numerous studies investigated the impact of aggregative energy consumption on environmental degradation by using typical econometric techniques. To correct this gap, our study uses energy consumption and environmental degradation only in the manufacturing sector of Pakistan for the period 1985 to 2018. Our study also demonstrates the symmetric and asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with carbon emissions by using a recently developed methodology by Shin et al. (2014). The findings of linear autoregressive distributive lag model shows that energy consumption and financial development intensify environmental degradation, while foreign direct investment and globalization mitigate environmental degradation that leads to validate pollution halo hypotheses in Pakistan. However, non-linear autoregressive distributive lag results confirm the asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption with co₂ emission. This study recommends the policies for policymakers in Pakistan to consider asymmetric behaviour of energy consumption as well as the installation of renewable energy sources and technological improvements in the industrial sector needed to enhance environmental sustainability. Further, there is a need to enhance globalization and foreign direct investment for Pakistan to achieve its environmental targets.

Towards sustainability path in Argentina: the role of finance, energy mix, and industrial value-added in low or high carbon emission-application of DARDL simulation

The interconnection between environmental protection and sustainable development is at the heart of discussion among all the intergovernmental agencies around the globe. Such discussion is considered highly important considering the role of finance, an abundance of fossil fuel and industrial value-added on economic activities and environmental issues. Meanwhile, few empirical studies in this line of discussions have documented policy options for projecting the path towards sustainable development in Argentina from 1971 to 2018. To contribute to the extant literature in filling this gap, this study examines whether finance can escalate a long-lasting economic shift that will change the path of carbon emission in Argentina using the novel econometric technique, dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag simulations. The modelling protocol incorporates the impact of the following economic agents such as population, economic growth, trade openness, and government consumption expenditure. Our result suggests that all the variables are cointegrated under the ARDL-bounds testing framework. The long and short-term estimates from the dynamic ARDL simulation show that finance and industrial value added interestingly offer policy options for CO2 mitigation in Argentina. Fossil fuel, population, economic growth, and government consumption expenditure have increasing an impact on CO2 emissions, exacerbating sustainability challenges in Argentina. In sum, improved finance and industrial restructuring are needed economic acumen that can accelerate a quick transition to a low-carbon development in Argentina, while fossil fuel, population, economic growth, and government consumption expenditure generate environmental challenges. Policy options in consideration of investors' safety in carbonated companies in Argentina, these companies owe shareholders an obligation to invest in a resilient carbon capture and storage technology in a bid to decrease environmental degradation and align with environmental goals set by the Argentine government.

Time-frequency relationship between R&D intensity, globalization, and carbon emissions in G7 countries: evidence from wavelet coherence analysis

The seven leading industrial countries, called the G7, are becoming a pivotal group to fulfil their emissions-reduction commitments to manage the climate crisis. This paper investigates the relationships between R&D intensity, globalization, and carbon emissions in the context of the G7 countries for the period from 1970 to 2017. Our analysis, which examines these relationships, focuses on the wavelet coherence approach to conduct time-frequency domain analyses. The empirical results show that there is heterogeneity across different time scales and frequencies for R&D intensity, globalization, and carbon emissions within each country. Specifically, R&D intensity and globalization are negatively correlated with carbon emissions for the G7 countries, except Japan, for which they are positive. The long-term correlations between R&D intensity, globalization, and carbon emissions are higher than those in the short- and medium-term periods. In addition, the multiscale connectedness network results reveal that the strongest bidirectional correlations exist between energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions. Our results provide a useful reference for policymakers in the G7 countries to effectively regulate carbon emissions.

Technology spillovers and sustainable environment: Evidence from time-series analyses with Fourier extension

Globalization and human capital accumulation are the main drivers of technology spillovers and essential for economic growth. At the same time, globalization and human capital are drivers to construct a green growth path that prevents pollution and the overuse of resources, and thus mitigates environmental degradation and achieves sustainable development. This mechanism, known as the 'technique/technology effect', may occur by stimulating technological development and creating environmental awareness and is of utmost importance in developed and developing countries to protect the environment. The aim of this study is to evaluate these outcomes, investigating how the environment reacts to developments in globalization and human capital accumulation by performing time-series analyses augmented with Fourier extensions, for countries in the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The study first checks unit root and cointegration relationship by using Fourier unit root and Fourier cointegration approaches. Having confirmed a cointegration relationship, the FMOLS estimator extended with Fourier terms is applied to estimate cointegration parameters. Empirical results show that globalization and human capital are beneficial to protect the environment and to build a sustainable blueprint for the future, which specifically refer to more investment in the educational system and more efforts promoting social and cultural interaction across the globe.

Exploring the role of finance, natural resources, and governance on the environment and economic growth in South Asian countries

We studied the influence of finance, natural resources, and governance on environmental degradation and economic growth for seven countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) using the latest panel data over 1996-2018. Panel cointegration tests and the long-run algorithms capable of addressing endogeneity and cross-sectional dependence have been applied to analyze the variables' linkages. To explore the short-run causalities, we further utilized a panel heterogeneous causality test. Empirical estimates concluded that there is a mediating role of finance and governance on improving environmental quality and have a significant positive impression on the economic growth of the SAARC countries. The results supported the natural resources curse theory and substantially contributed to environmental emissions in the study area. The causal results concluded the unilateral causality from the environment to governance and bidirectional causality between finance and environmental degradation. Similarly, there were unilateral causal linkages between economic growth and natural resources, where links are bidirectional between natural resources and environmental degradation for SAARC countries. Based on the outcomes of the study, some policy implications are provided for theory and practice.

Impact of globalization, foreign direct investment, and energy consumption on CO2 emissions in Bangladesh: Does institutional quality matter?

Bangladesh's recent doorway to the spectacular growth trajectory is largely associated with the shared contributions of globalization, FDI, trade, economic growth, urbanization, energy consumption, innovation, and institutional quality that affect its natural environment. Earlier studies hardly incorporated these dynamics together especially innovation and institutional quality to examine their impacts on environmental degradation in Bangladesh. This study attempts to scrutinize the effect of globalization, foreign direct investment, economic growth, trade, innovation, urbanization, and energy consumption on CO₂ emissions in the presence of institutional quality in Bangladesh over the period 1972-2016 by utilizing dynamic ARDL simulations' model by Jordan and Philips (2018). The investigated results depict that globalization; foreign direct investment, and innovation have a negative effect on CO₂ emissions in improving environmental quality while economic growth, trade, energy consumption, and urbanization positively impact CO₂ emissions and hence stimulate environmental degradation both in the long and short run. Besides, institutional quality measured by the political terror scale (PTS) affects CO₂ emissions positively and thereby degrades the quality of the environment in both the long and short run. Therefore, policy implication should go toward encouraging globalization, foreign direct investment and innovation; and the sensible utilization of income growth, trade potentials, energy consumption, urbanization and institution is required for the sake of environmental quality in Bangladesh.

Revisiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis: A Case of Central Europe

The rapid economic growth observed in Central European countries in the last thirty years has been the result of profound political changes and economic liberalization. This growth is partly connected with reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, the problem of CO2 emissions seems to remain unresolved. The aim of this paper is to test whether the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis holds true for Central European countries in an annual sample data that covers 1995–2016 in most countries. We examine cointegration by applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bound testing. This is the first study examining the relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth in individual Central European countries from a long-run perspective, which allows the results to be compared. We confirmed the cointegration, but our estimates confirmed the EKC hypothesis only in Poland. It should also be noted that in all nine countries, energy consumption leads to increased CO2 emissions. The long-run elasticity ranges between 1.5 in Bulgaria and 2.0 in Croatia. We observed exceptionally low long-run elasticity in Estonia (0.49). Our findings suggest that to solve the environmental degradation problem in Central Europe, it is necessary to individualize the policies implemented in the European Union.

Investigating the environmental effect of globalization: Insights from selected industrialized countries

Despite the burgeoning literature on the globalization-environmental degradation nexus, this area of empirical interest is still riddled with ambiguity. Thus, based on an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model, we re-investigate the effect of globalization on environmental degradation for 27 selected industrialized countries over the period 1991-2016. More specifically, we shed light into how overall globalization and its various components - economic, social and political globalization - affect environmental degradation. We advance existing literature by considering a measurement approach which disaggregates overall, economic, social and political globalization into their de facto and de jure aspects. Using the augmented mean group estimator, we find that overall and economic globalization reduce environmental degradation while social and political globalization do not exert any significant effect on globalization. With respect to the de facto and de jure aspects, we observe that, while only de facto economic globalization mitigates environmental degradation, de jure overall, economic and social globalization also dampen environmental degradation. We provide some policy implications in the end.

Impact of Clean Energy on CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth within the Phases of Renewables Diffusion in Selected European Countries

This study explores the impact of clean energy and non-renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions and economic growth within two phases (formative and expansion) of renewable energy diffusion for three selected countries (France, Spain, and Sweden). The vector autoregression (VAR) model is estimated on the basis of annual data disaggregated into quarterly data. The Granger causality results reveal distinctive differences in the causality patterns across countries and two phases of renewables diffusion. Clean energy consumption contributes to a decline of emissions more clearly in the expansion phase in France and Spain. However, this effect seems to be counteracted by the increases in emissions due to economic growth and non-renewable energy consumption. Therefore, clean energy consumption has not yet led to a decoupling of economic growth from emissions in France and Spain; in contrast, the findings for Sweden evidence such a decoupling due to the neutrality between economic growth and emissions. Generally, the findings show that despite the enormous growth of renewables and active mitigation policies, CO2 emissions have not substantially decreased in selected countries or globally. Focused and coordinated policy action, not only at the EU level but also globally, is urgently needed to overhaul existing fossil-fuel economies into low-carbon economies and ultimately meet the relevant climate targets.

Effect of foreign direct investment on CO2 emission with the role of globalization, institutional quality with pooled mean group panel ARDL

This study utilized the Pooled Mean Group estimator to investigate the effect of renewable energy consumption, electricity consumption, economic growth, institutional quality, and globalization on carbon dioxide emission with an updated dataset for 10 economies for the time period from 1985 to 2018. Results of Harris-Tzavalis's test and Levin-Lin-Chu's test show that the utilized regressand and regressors are stationary at I(0) and I(I) that conform that the pooled mean group estimator panel ARDL can be utilized. Results of Kao and Pedroni cointegration tests show that cointegration exists amongst the variables. Empirical results of pooled mean group (PMG) revealed that renewable energy consumption helps to diminish the environmental degradation while foreign direct investment, electricity consumption, and economic growth and institutional quality positively affect the degradation of the environment. The findings show that globalization in the long run adversely and significantly influences the environmental degradation; globalization reduces the environmental degradation in the long run while in the short run, globalization positively and significantly influences the environmental degradation. Results of the panel VAR and VECM model indicate electricity consumption and institutional quality, and globalization positively affects environmental degradation. Further policies are recommended based on the findings.

Renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic complexity, CO2 emissions, and ecological footprint in the USA: testing the EKC hypothesis with a structural break

The economic complexity index, which indicates the level of knowledge and skills needed in the production of the exported goods, is a measure of economic development. Some researchers have investigated the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by considering the effect of economic complexity on environmental pollution. This study, for the first time, examines the impact of economic complexity, globalization, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on both CO₂ emissions and ecological footprint within the framework of the EKC hypothesis in the USA. To this end, the combined cointegration test and three different estimators are utilized for the period from 1980 to 2016. The main finding of the study indicates that the inverted U-shaped EKC relationship between economic complexity and environmental pollution holds for the USA. In addition to this finding, globalization and renewable energy consumption play a dominant role in reducing environmental pollution, while non-renewable energy consumption contributing factor to environmental pressure. Overall, the outcomes indicate that increasing economic complexity helps to minimize environmental degradation after a threshold, and the US government can provide a better environment by using renewable energy sources and globalization. Graphical abstract.

The role of globalization in CO2 emissions: A semi-parametric panel data analysis for G7

In order to provide flexible and comprehensive results about the relationship between globalization and CO₂ emissions for the G7 countries, we introduce the KOF globalization index into traditional Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology model, and conduct the empirical analysis by applying a semi-parametric panel fixed effects model. The data covering the period of 1970-2015 consists of CO₂ emissions, KOF globalization index, renewable energy consumption and GDP. Our results indicate that the relationship between globalization and CO₂ emissions are inverted U-sharped, which strongly support the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. Furthermore, an increase of economic output is associated with statistically significant growth in CO₂ emissions. On the contrary, an increment of renewable energy consumption lowers CO₂ emissions. Related policy proposals are then offered according to our empirical results.

The Effect of Renewable and Nuclear Energy Consumption on Decoupling Economic Growth from CO2 Emissions in Spain

This study examines the relationship between renewable and nuclear energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth by using the Granger causality and non-linear impulse response function in a business cycle in Spain. We estimate the threshold vector autoregression (TVAR) model on the basis of annual data from the period 1970–2018, which are disaggregated into quarterly data to obtain robust empirical results through avoiding a sample size problem. Our analysis reveals that economic growth and CO2 emissions are positively correlated during expansions but not during recessions. Moreover, we find that rising nuclear energy consumption leads to decreased CO2 emissions during expansions, while the impact of increasing renewable energy consumption on emissions is negative but insignificant. In addition, there is a positive feedback between nuclear energy consumption and economic growth, but unidirectional positive causality running from renewable energy consumption to economic growth in upturns. Our findings do indicate that both nuclear and renewable energy consumption contribute to a reduction in emissions; however, the rise in economic activity, leading to a greater increase in emissions, offsets this positive impact of green energy. Therefore, a decoupling of economic growth from CO2 emissions is not observed. These results demand some crucial changes in legislation targeted at reducing emissions, as green energy alone is insufficient to reach this goal.

Research on recognition and protection of ecological security patterns based on circuit theory: a case study of Jinan City

Accelerated urbanization and population growth have resulted in the loss of ecological land and biodiversity, accompanied by the degradation of ecosystem services. Identifying and improving existing ecological security patterns are of great significance for maintaining the sustainable development of cities. In this study, Jinan, the capital of China's Shandong Province, was used as a case study area. Based on three ecosystem services, namely, soil conservation, water conservation and carbon fixation, ecological sources were determined. Furthermore, a resistance surface was constructed based on biodiversity. On these bases, the circuit theory concept of random walks was applied to simulate ecosystem processes in a heterogeneous landscape and identify ecological corridors, pinch points and barriers. A total of 25 ecological sources, 48 ecological corridors and 19 pinch points were identified, and restoration areas were delimited to three levels. These elements together constituted the ecological security patterns. Specifically, the ecological sources were mainly distributed in southern Jinan and were covered mostly with forest land. The ecological corridors were located mainly in the eastern and southwestern plains below the southern mountainous areas and were covered mostly with cropland. Furthermore, the eastern corridors were much longer than the southwestern corridors. Pinch points were distributed mostly along rivers or around large-scale construction land. Barriers were distributed mainly in Zhangqiu District and northern Licheng District. Based on these findings, hierarchical restoration areas were delimited. Differentiated development contradictions in restoration areas were discussed, and corresponding ecological protection measures were proposed. An ecological security optimization pattern of "one center, two wings, and two belts" was finally proposed to provide planning strategies for decision-makers.

Does international cooperation affect CO2 emissions? Evidence from OECD countries

This paper analyzes the role of international cooperation on CO₂ emissions growth in 36 OECD economies over the period 1970-2016. The indices of political globalization are the benchmark measure of international cooperation since a higher value of the index of political globalization is an indicator of collaboration in the world. The paper finds that political globalization decreases CO₂ emissions growth. The findings remain robust when we consider the sub-indices of political globalization and include various controls. Also, the findings of the panel quantile regressions with the fixed-effects via the method of moments indicate that the effects of per capita income and the initial level of CO₂ emissions are higher in more pollutant countries. However, the impact of political globalization on CO₂ emissions is stable at different quantiles. The paper also discusses the potential implications for the role of international cooperation on climate change.