On the asymmetric effects of premature deindustrialization on CO2 emissions: evidence from Pakistan

Balancing growth and sustainability: COP 28 policy implications of green energy, industrialization, foreign direct investment, and globalization in South Asia

This research investigates the intricate relationships between economic variables and how they affect South Asian nation's ability to develop sustainably. Given the growing concerns about climate change and global warming brought on by emissions of greenhouse gases, this study looks into the connection between emissions of CO2, green energy, industrialization, foreign direct investment, economic globalization, and financial development from 1995 to 2022. Second-generation panel techniques were employed in this study to look at the relationship between variables because of the potential of residual cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. The empirical outcomes display that green energy, economic globalization, and financial development reduce CO2 emissions by 1.839%, 1.223%, and 3.902% respectively. Industrialization and foreign direct investment degrade the environment by 4.302% and 1.893% respectively. A bidirectional causality link between green energy, industrialization, economic globalization, and CO2 emissions was found by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H). Based on our findings, we recommend legislative support for renewable energy, cleaner technologies, and strict environmental regulations, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Encouraging FDI, sustainable practices, and financial development can drive economic growth while preserving the environment. As we approach COP28, this holistic approach to sustainable development becomes increasingly vital for South Asian countries to achieve their SDG targets and combat climate change.

Unleashing sustainability in uncertain times: Can we leverage economic complexity, uncertainty, and remittances to combat environmental degradation?

Rapid economic growth and human activities have seriously damaged the environment and hindered the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hence, this study aims to explore the impact of economic complexity, uncertainty, and remittance on environmental degradation in 134 countries from 2000 to 2022. In addition, it examines whether uncertainty moderates the relationship between remittance and environmental degradation. Two proxies (ecological footprint and CO2) were used to measure environmental degradation. The analysis was conducted using a cross-sectional dependency test, second-generation unit root test, and panel quantile regression. The results revealed that economic complexity significantly and positively impacted environmental degradation, while uncertainty and remittance significantly and negatively impacted environmental degradation. Furthermore, uncertainty weakened the negative relationship between remittance and environmental degradation. Accordingly, this paper discusses various recommendations and policy implications regarding economic complexity, uncertainty, remittance, and environmental degradation.

Accessing the impact of poverty age groupings on carbon neutrality targets: scenarios from developing Sub Sahara African countries

Sustainable development aims to both alleviate poverty and protect the environment. Previous research has explored the connection between poverty and carbon emissions. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, nearly half of the population lives below the international poverty line, hindering economic growth and sustainable development. Therefore, this current study aims to further explore different age groupings of poverty and economic growth relates to environmental pollution, in 43 Sub-Saharan African nations. This study addresses existing gaps by employing the Driscoll-Kraay (D-K) standard error technique and the method of moments quantile regression to examine the connections between variables, yielding significant findings. The results indicate that youth and middle age poverty has an inverse relationship with environmental pollution. In conclusion, this study emphasizes the critical importance of addressing poverty in the formulation of policies aimed at mitigating environmental pollution and promoting sustainable development in Sub-Saharan African countries. Insights from this research can inform policymakers and other stakeholders in designing more effective interventions, programs, and initiatives to combat both poverty and environmental degradation, ultimately leading to a better and more equitable environment.

Do green financial and non-financial policies achieve the carbon neutrality target?

Due to the pressing need to combat climate change, reaching carbon neutrality-defined as having net-zero greenhouse gas emissions-has elevated to the status of a worldwide priority. While non-financial policies concentrate on regulation and incentives to promote environmentally friendly behavior, green financial policies strive to move investment toward low-carbon and sustainable initiatives. Therefore, the study aims to examine how green financial and non-financial policies affect carbon neutrality in China from 1995 to 2021. For analyzing the linear and nonlinear estimates, the study has employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) frameworks. The findings suggest that in the linear framework, green finance policies and environmental policy stringency encourage renewable energy consumption and discourage CO2 emissions. In the nonlinear framework, the positive shocks in the green finance policies and environmental policy stringency increase renewable energy consumption, and the negative shock in both types of policies discourages renewable energy consumption. In the CO2 model, a positive shock in green finance policies and environmental policy stringency reduces CO2 emissions, and a negative change in both these policies is insignificant. Since the positive and negative changes in both these policies significantly and differently impact renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions; thus, policymakers should take into account positive and negative changes in both these policies while formulating policies for carbon neutrality targets in China.

The environmental influence of national savings in D-8 countries: Empirical evidence using an ARDL model

Extensive theoretical and empirical evidence supports the crucial role of savings in driving a nation's economic growth and development. However, previous studies have not considered their potential environmental implications. This study aims to explore the influence of savings and remittances on the Developing-8 countries (D-8) from 1989 to 2019, using the panel autoregressive distributed (ARDL) model. The findings reveal that national savings and remittances, in the long run, help mitigate environmental degradation in the D-8 countries but energy use and population growth stimulate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In contrast, economic growth does not significantly affect these countries' environmental quality in the long run. However, none of the explanatory variables have any significant relationship with CO2 emissions in the short run. Therefore, policymakers in the D-8 countries are strongly encouraged to prioritize the enhancement of national savings across the three economic agents to maximize the positive effects of savings on environmental quality. Government savings can be increased by reducing deficits and borrowings, while corporate savings can be encouraged by implementing investment tax credits and promoting research and development. Additionally, governments can embark on public enlightenment campaigns on financial education and provide incentives to encourage household savings.

How does Fintech affect green innovation of Chinese heavily polluting enterprises? The mediating role of energy poverty

Corporate green innovation is the crucial driving force to promote green development and realize the construction goal of "Beautiful China." Meanwhile, the development of Fintech creates a more favorable external environment for corporate green innovation. Using the panel data of China's Digital Financial Inclusion Index and Energy Poverty Index at provincial level from 2011 to 2020, this paper studies the influence of Fintech on corporate green innovation by the evidence from Chinese heavily polluting enterprises. Based on stepwise regression, this paper further examines the mediating role of energy poverty, including energy consumption level, energy consumption capacity, and energy consumption structure, in the relationship between Fintech and corporate green innovation. The results show that (1) Fintech contributes to improving the level of green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises; (2) energy poverty acts as a mediator in the process of Fintech's influence on corporate green innovation; (3) Fintech can promote green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises by improving the level of regional energy consumption level, but it fails to influence corporate green innovation through energy consumption capacity and energy consumption structure. These results provide governments and companies with implications on facilitating corporate green innovation so as to further promote green development.

Environmental regulation and its influence on energy efficiency and environmental performance: do technology innovation and financial efficiency matter?

Global warming has recently become a significant concern for world leaders. Financial efficiency, environmental regulations, and green technologies are widely recognized as important contributors to a clean environment. Consequently, the primary motive of this study is to investigate the impact of financial efficiency, environmental regulations, and green technologies on CO2 emissions and energy efficiency in top polluted economies over the period 1995 to 2020. To that end, the study relies on the ARDL-PMG model, which can provide both short- and long-run estimates simultaneously. The findings of the model imply that environmental innovation and regulations helps improve energy efficiency and environmental quality in the long run. In contrast, financial development deteriorates the environmental quality and improves energy efficiency. Therefore, policy experts in top polluted economies must increase research and development activities to promote green technologies and introduce strict environmental-related regulations to complement other mitigating policies.

Insights from BRICS-T economies on the impact of human capital and renewable electricity consumption on environmental quality

This paper evaluates the impact of electricity consumption from renewable and nonrenewable sources on the load capacity factor for BRICS-T nations using data from 1990 to 2018. The paper used linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approaches to explore these associations. The results of the Westerlund co-integration show long-run co-integration between load capacity factor and the independent variables. The results show that renewable electricity energy and human capital contribute to the sustainability of the environment, while electricity consumption, economic growth, and industrialization impede environmental sustainability. Similarly, the nonlinear effect of renewable electricity energy on LCF shows interesting findings. The positive (negative) shift in renewable electricity energy increases ecological sustainability in the BRICS-T nations. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality gives credence to both linear and nonlinear ARDL results. The study suggests policy recommendations based on these results.

Examining the potential role of ICT diffusion on green growth: does financial development matter in BRICS economies?

Green growth refers to the economic growth strategy, which is less detrimental to natural assets, predominantly the environment. Therefore, the main motive of investment and innovation activities should be to attain economic growth while sustainably utilizing natural assets. In this regard, we aim to explore whether ICT diffusion and financial development matter for attaining green economic growth in BRICS economies. The long-run autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) results show that internet development exerts a positive influence on green growth in four BRICS economies excluding India. However, the long-run estimates of mobile cellular subscriptions are positive only in Russia and China. On the other side, the increase in bank credit and insurance premium also contributes to the long-run green economic growth in almost all BRICS economies. Policymakers should focus on the increased use of ICT in the economy that would replace the physical resources in the economy with information resources. Besides, financial services should be provided to individuals and small and medium enterprises involved in green consumption and production activities.

Do environmental technology and banking sector development matter for green growth? Evidence from top-polluted economies

Pursuing green growth is imperative to cope with the climate change battle. Green growth in top-polluting economies is being encouraged. The underlying work is aiming to investigate the impact of environmental technology and banking sector on green growth. More precisely, the study employs CS-ARDL and PMG-ARDL methods for empirical assessment. The FMOLS and DOLS techniques have been used to perform the sensitivity analysis for CS-ARDL and PMG-ARDL results. Empirical evidence of both the CS-ARDL and PMG-ARDL models reveals that banking sector development and environmental technology promote green growth. In detail, the insights reveal the significant and positive effect of environmental innovations and technology on green growth in both long-run as well as in short-run. Moreover, the findings of the study also disclose the significant and positive effect of banking sector and stock market developments on green growth in both long-run and short-run. Sensitivity analysis confirmed and improved our findings. Based on these effects, the study delivers policy implications for the promotion of environmental-based technological innovations and financial sector development to enhance green growth in top-polluted economies.

Green growth and environmental quality in top polluted economies: the evolving role of financial institutions and markets

An efficient financial system is crucial for the attainment of green growth and superior environmental quality. Therefore, our focus in this analysis is to estimate the effect of financial institutions and markets on green growth and environmental quality in highly polluted economies from 1991 to 2019. Estimates of the variables are collected with the help of the ARDL bounds testing approach. Findings of the ARDL model imply that a financial institution's efficiency helps improve green growth in the USA, China, and Japan in the long-run. However, the efficiency of the financial markets causes the green economy to grow in the long run in China and Russia only. On the other side, in the CO₂ model, the long-run estimated coefficients of a financial institution's efficiency are negatively significant in Japan and China only, implying that a financial institution's efficiency significantly reduces CO₂ emissions. Similarly, the long-run estimates of financial markets are significantly negative in the context of China and Japan only in CO₂ emissions.

Designing a clean environmental framework for Pakistan: analyzing the nonlinear impact of aggregate demand drivers on CO2 emissions

Aggregate demand in every country is one of the main components of macroeconomics, and Pakistan is no exception. This paper uses a fresh econometric framework to analyze the nonlinear impact of aggregate demand drivers on CO₂ emissions in Pakistan by using a nonlinear ARDL approach over the data period from 1975 to 2019. The linear findings reveal that consumption and government expenditure indicates deteriorating effects on carbon emissions in long run in Pakistan. However, nonlinear findings revealed that positive change in government expenditure and trade has positive effects on carbon emissions. The positive change in investment has a negative significant and meaningful effect on the environment in Pakistan and asymmetric findings are also country-specific. Therefore, this study offers a few important policy implications for theorists, academics, and policymakers of Pakistan as well developing economies.

Pakistan CO2 Emission Modelling and Forecasting: A Linear and Nonlinear Time Series Approach

Pakistan is considered among the top five countries with the highest CO₂ emissions globally. This calls for pragmatic policy implementation by all stakeholders to bring finality to this alarming situation since it contributes greatly to global warming, thereby leading to climate change. This study is an attempt to make a comparative analysis of the linear time series models with nonlinear time series models to study CO₂ emission data in Pakistan. These linear and nonlinear time series models were used to model and forecast future values of CO₂ emissions for a short period. To assess and select the best model among these linear and nonlinear time series models, we used the root mean square error (RMSE) and the mean absolute error (MAE) as performance indicators. The outputs showed that the nonlinear machine learning models are the best among all other models, having the lowest RMSE and MAE values. Based on the forecasted value of the nonlinear machine learning neural network autoregressive model, Pakistan's CO₂ emissions will be 1.048 metric tons per capita by 2028. The increasing trend in emissions is a frightening and clear warning, suggesting that innovative policies must be initiated to reduce the trend. We encourage the Pakistan government to price CO₂ emissions by companies and entities per ton, adapt electricity production from hydro, wind, and different sources with no emissions of CO₂, initiate rigorous planting of more trees in the populated areas of Pakistan as forest covers, provide incentives to companies, organisations, institutions, and households to come out with clean technologies or use technologies with no CO₂ emissions or those with lower ones, and fund more studies to develop clean and innovative technologies with less or no CO₂ emissions.

Determinants of China's renewable energy industry development: do eco-innovation and financial inclusion matter?

Fossil fuels are causing irreparable damage to the environment and lead to the depletion of reservoirs of coal, oil, and gas, which may give rise to the issue of energy scarcity and security. Therefore, policymakers and empirics have looked for alternative sources of energy that are affordable, reliable, and clean sources of energy. Consistent with this view, we have tried to examine the impact of eco-innovation and financial inclusion on renewable energy development in China. In order to empirically investigate, we have applied the autoregressive distributive lag model. The long-run estimates of eco-innovations are statistically significant and positive models, confirming that environmental-related innovations help increase the production of different renewable energy. Similarly, the long-run estimates of financial inclusion are positively significant, implying that an increase in financial inclusiveness intensifies the production of solar, biomass, and renewable energy in China. Generally, our findings imply that both eco-innovations and financial inclusion help increase renewable energy production in China in the long run.

Can Renewable Energy and Export Help in Reducing Ecological Footprint of India? Empirical Evidence from Augmented ARDL Co-Integration and Dynamic ARDL Simulations

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of exports, renewable energy, and industrialization on the ecological footprint (EF) of India over the period spanning from 1970–2017 by employing the newly developed augmented ARDL (A-ARDL) co-integration approach and the novel dynamic ARDL (D-ARDL) technique. The empirical results demonstrate that exports and renewable energy consumption reduce the EF, while industrialization intensifies the EF. More precisely, a 1% increase in export (renewable energy consumption) reduces the EF by 0.05% (0.09%). In addition, the short-run elasticity of the GDP is found to be larger than the long-run elasticity indicating the possibility of the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) of the EF for India. The study indicates that the income effect and increased policy focus on renewable energy usage can be expected to reduce India’s per capita EF in the long run. Moreover, India’s export sector has been traditionally less energy intensive, which reflects in our findings of export growth leading to a reduction in EF. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends some policy insights that may assist India to effectively reduce its ecological footprint.

The role of information communication technologies on carbon emissions in OECD countries: new evidence from method of moments quantile approach

This paper aims to investigate the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) on carbon emissions (CO2) in the OECD area. For this purpose, a comprehensive panel data set is utilized covering the 1994-2018 period for 38 countries and a novel method of moments panel quantile regression model which allows to account for fixed effects and endogenous explanatory variables. Results suggest that the ICT, represented by the percentage of individuals using the Internet in the total population, contributes positively to CO2 emissions up to 0.40th quantile and has no effect after this level. The results imply that countries with relatively low per capita emissions are susceptible to the rebound effects, in which better energy efficiency results in increased demand for energy and ICT-related items, hence increasing carbon emissions. At this juncture, one policy idea would be to include a carbon tax into the per-unit purchase price of smartphones, tablets, smart gadgets, and any other relevant ICT items. Additionally, this legislation can assist decrease conspicuous consumption, which can be viewed as a trigger for the demand for ICT products. Additionally, these countries should encourage enterprises to invest in and employ energy-efficient technologies through tax incentives or subsidies.

Pro-environmental behavior–Renewable energy transitions nexus: Exploring the role of higher education and information and communications technology diffusion

The most accepted solution to deal with the problems of global warming and climate change is to transform the energy sector by moving toward renewable energy. Therefore, the primary focus of the analysis is to examine the role of renewable energy consumption, higher education, and ICT in improving environmental quality and green growth in China. We have employed the quantile ARDL model to obtain the short-and long-run estimates. According to the findings of QARDL, the long-run estimated coefficients of renewable energy consumption and higher education are positively significant in most quantiles. However, in the long run, the estimates attached to ICT are insignificant in the CO2 emissions model in most quantiles. On the other hand, the estimates of renewable energy consumption are significantly positive from the 50th quantile and onward in the green growth model, confirming that the higher the renewable energy in the economy, closer it will get to the target of green economic growth. The long-run estimates of higher education and ICT are positively significant at most quantiles in the green growth model. In the short run, renewable energy consumption turned out to be the most critical determinant of CO2 emissions and green growth.

Revealing the effectiveness of green technological progress and financial innovation on green economic growth: the role of environmental regulation

Green economic growth is the best alternative strategy for sustainable development. Existing literature investigated the determinants of green economic growth in China and provides mixed results. Thus, our study explores the impact of green environmental technology, financial innovation, and environmental regulations on green economic growth by controlling the impact of renewable energy consumption, trade, and education. The study explores the symmetric and asymmetric associations by employing ARDL and NARDL approaches. The ARDL long-run findings display that green environmental technologies, environmental regulations, and financial innovations positively and significantly contribute to green economic growth. However, the NARDL long-run findings infer that positive shock in green environmental technology, financial innovation, and environmental regulation exerts a significant and positive impact on green growth, while negative shock in green environmental technology, financial innovation, and environmental regulation has an insignificant impact on green growth. Based on the findings, the study delivers important policy implications to promote green economic growth in China.

Analyzing dynamic impacts of deagriculturalization on CO2 emissions in selected Asian economies: a tale of two shocks

The study investigates the symmetric and asymmetric impact of agriculturalization on CO₂ emissions in a sample of selected Asian economies for time period 1985 to 2019. For empirical analysis, the study adopted panel linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approaches. The long-run findings of panel ARDL reveal that agriculturalization contributes to environmental quality by mitigating CO₂ emissions. The panel nonlinear results clearly indicate that the effects of agriculturalization on CO₂ emissions are asymmetric. The findings demonstrate that agriculturalization improves environmental quality and de-agriculturalization mitigates environmental quality. Our empirical results are also robust to alternative model specifications. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the relevant authorities should formulate reforms in the agriculture sector that controls and reduces carbon emissions in Asian economies.

Environmental concern in the era of digital fiscal inclusion: The evolving role of human capital and ICT in China

To achieve environmental sustainability, the role of human capital and financial inclusion has been debated in limited empirical studies. Employing a reliable ARDL model approach, this study examines the dynamic link between human capital and ICT, financial inclusion, and CO2 emissions using the China economy dataset over the period 1998–2020. The vivacious side of human capital shows that literacy rate and average year of schooling curb CO2 emissions in long run. The results of human capital are also based on facts in magnitude as well as in direction. Also, empirics unfold that digital financial inclusion significantly increases CO2 emissions. Based on these novel findings, a wide set of economic policies are repaired for environmental quality. Environmental education should be considered at early levels of education. The authorities and policymakers should fix energy-related issues through education. The China government should stimulate the educational sector to conduct a clean and green revolution that acts as a mechanism for a green and clean economy. This study's finding is more effective than the previous unlike empirical studies for policy-making because of the advanced econometric method.

Analyzing the role of environmental technologies and environmental policy stringency on green growth in China

This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental technological innovations and environmental policy stringency on green economic growth in China. The empirical analysis of the study is based on the ARDL model. Findings confirm that environmental technology positively impacts green economic growth in the short and long run. In the robust model, the estimates of all technologies appeared to be significantly positive in the short and long run. Conversely, the estimated coefficients of environmental policy stringency, in the basic and robust model, have only negatively impacted the green economic growth in China in the short run. In the long run, the environmental policy stringency has not shown any significant impact on green economic growth in China in the basic and robust model. China needs to increase environmental technology and environmental policy stringency for achieving green growth and sustainability targets.

China's 2060 carbon-neutrality agenda: the nexus between energy consumption and environmental quality

This study examined the nexus between energy consumption and environmental quality in light of China's 2060 carbon-neutrality agenda utilizing annual frequency data from 1971 to 2018. In order to obtain valid and reliable outcomes, more robust econometric techniques were employed for the analysis. From the results, all the variables were first differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long-run. The elastic effects of the predictors on the explained variable were explored through the ARDL, FMOLS, and the DOLS techniques, and from the discoveries, energy utilization worsened environmental quality in the country via more CO2 emissions. Also, industrialization and urbanization deteriorated the country's environmental quality; however, technological innovations improved ecological quality in the nation. On the causal connections between the variables, a unidirectional causality from energy consumption to CO2 effluents was discovered. Also, feedback causalities between industrialization and CO2 secretions, and between urbanization and CO2 exudates were disclosed. However, there was no causality between technological innovations and CO2 emanations. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that, since energy consumption pollutes the environment, the country should transition to the utilization of renewable energies. Also, the government should allocate more resources to the renewable energy sector. This will help increase the portion of clean energy in the country's total energy mix. Furthermore, research and development that are linked to the utilization of green energies should be supported by the government. Data constraints were the main limitation of this exploration. Therefore, in the future, if more data become available, similar explorations could be conducted to check the robustness of our study's outcomes.

Revealing the Effects of Corporate Governance on Green Investment and Innovation: Do Law and Policy Matter?

Green investment (GI) and innovation performance are key factors of sustainable green development. GI and innovation have become a trendy solution to minimize environmental issues in the previous few decades. We investigate the effects of corporate governance, environmental law, and environmental policy stringency on GI and environmental innovation (EI) using Chinese time-series data from 1998 to 2020. Short and long-run findings indicate that corporate governance has a positive and significant impact on GI and innovation in China. However, environmental law has positive and significant effects on GI and innovation in the short run and long run. Furthermore, environmental policy stringency has an insignificant impact on GI but stimulates green innovation both in the short and long run. The study also reveals that education has a significant positive impact on green innovation both in the short and long-run. The short and long-run results propose essential policy implications.

Assessment of food-energy-environmental pollution nexus in Iran: the nonlinear approach

Iran's agricultural production has expanded significantly in recent years. Environmental pollution caused by the use of energy and chemical fertilizers, depletion of groundwater resources, and soil erosion, on the other hand, demonstrates a lack of attention to the environmental dimension of production in this country. In addition to these issues, climate change has exacerbated the agriculture sector's difficulties. This study intends to investigate the asymmetric relationship between energy consumption, chemical fertilizer consumption, CO2 emissions, temperature changes, and production from 1961 to 2019 using the NARDL approach and Granger causality test in the frequency domain (Breitung and Candelon.). Short-term and long-term estimates revealed that the positive and negative shock effects of energy consumption on production are both positive. As a result, it was observed that the negative shock of increased energy consumption had a greater influence on agricultural output than the positive shock. In the long run, the positive shock of fertilizer use has a positive effect on and improves production. But the effect of a negative shock is insignificant. Furthermore, the negative shock of CO2 emission has a positive effect on production. Finally, positive and negative shocks in temperature changes were discovered to have an increasing and reducing influence on production. The results of the Granger causality test in the frequency domain test showed that there is a bidirectional causality relationship between energy consumption and agro-production in the long term. There is also unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions and fertilizer consumption to production and from production to climate change. According to the findings, reforming energy prices, investing in mechanized agriculture, shifting away from fossil fuel consumption towards renewable energy, and tending to green growth are all necessary to achieve multiple goals such as optimizing energy consumption, reducing environmental pollution, and improving efficiency.

Economic Freedom, Education and CO2 Emissions: A Causality Analysis for EU Member States

Environmental sustainability is one of three pillars of sustainability. However, a significant worldwide deterioration in the environment has been experienced since the Industrial Revolution, but the efforts to protect the environment date back to the 1970s. In this context, many economic and non-economic factors underlying environmental degradation have been investigated until today, but the influence of economic freedom indicators and education on the environment have been relatively less analyzed and the researchers have mainly focused on the influence of economic and institutional variables on the environment. Therefore, this paper investigates the reciprocal interplay among economic freedom indicators, education, and environment in EU member states over the 2000–2018 term by using a causality test with cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity and taking the research gap into consideration. The causality analysis indicates that market-oriented economic structure and education can be beneficial in combatting environmental degradation.

Exploring the Effects of Natural Capital Depletion and Natural Disasters on Happiness and Human Wellbeing: A Study in China

Since recent climate change has caused more natural disasters (NDs) than ever before, there is a worldwide concern that this could have both short-term and long-term economic and health consequences. This is perhaps the first attempt to explore the effects of natural capital (NC) and NDs on the human health and wellbeing of China over the period 1993-2020. The study has compiled data from World Bank, World Value Survey, UNDP, EM-DAT, and IMF for analysis. The empirical analysis is done by using the autoregressive distributed lag model. Empirical results prove that NC has a positive and significant effect on happiness, health, and human wellbeing in the long run. The results also show that NDs significantly reduce happiness and human wellbeing in the long run. The results recommend some important policy implications.

Educational attainment and environmental Kuznets curve in China: an aggregate and disaggregate analysis

The primary focus of this study is to evaluate the impact of various levels of education on CO2 emissions in China. Moreover, the study also tested the EKC hypothesis for different levels of education and economic development. The analysis employed disaggregate and aggregate data for education that included enrollment at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and the average year of schooling. For empirical analysis, we employed an error correction model and bounds testing approach to cointegration. The results of the study provided some useful information both in the short and long run. All the proxies of education positively impact CO2 emissions at the initial level both in the short and long run; however, when we take the square of these variables, the effects of education on CO2 emissions become negative. Similarly, the impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions is positive in the short and long run, and the square of economic growth on CO2 emissions is negative, supporting the EKC hypothesis. China should increase investment in human capital that promotes green growth and environmental quality.

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.

Management of Green Economic Infrastructure and Environmental Sustainability in One Belt and Road Enitiative Economies

Green infrastructure has been considered as one potential solution for improving air quality as well as enhancing environmental sustainability in the modern era. Therefore, the study aims to examine the impact of green economic infrastructure on environmental sustainability in one belt and road initiative (OBRI) economies for the period 2007 to 2019. For empirical investigations, the study adopts 2SLS and GMM approaches. The study uses three proxies to measure green economic infrastructure, namely, green logistics, use of the internet, and green technology. Our 2SLS findings demonstrate that green logistics increases CO2 in OBRI, Central Asia, MENA and reduces CO2 in Europe. However, GMM findings report that green logistics increases CO2 in OBRI, central Asia, and MENA and reduces CO2 in Europe. While our 2SLS findings show that internet use reduces CO2 in OBRI and East and Southeast Asia Europe and increases CO2 in MENA. While GMM findings reveal that the use of the internet reduces CO2 in OBRI and Europe and increases in East and Southeast Asia and MENA. While green technology also enhances environmental sustainability in OBRI. Based on the findings, environmental policies can be revised for OBRI economies.

International tourism, digital infrastructure, and CO2 emissions: fresh evidence from panel quantile regression approach

The main motivation behind this study is the importance of tourism and ICT industry in the economic development of a country and their potential effects on the country's environmental quality in the digital era. For empirical analysis, the study applies FMOLS, DOLS, and quantile regression techniques for Asian economies. The findings of the study confirmed that tourism and digitalization improve environmental quality in FMOLS and DOLS models. In the basic quantile regression model, the estimates attached to tourism arrival are positive 5^th quantile to 40^th quantile and then turn negative from 60^th quantile and onwards. Likewise, the estimates attached to tourism receipts in the robust quantile regression model are positive from quantile 5^th to quantile 20^th and negative and increasing from quantile 30^th and onwards. Conversely, the estimates of digital infrastructure are insignificant in the basic quantile model at all quantiles except the 95^th. However, the estimated coefficients of digital infrastructure in the robust model are negative and rising from 40^th quantile to 70^th quantile and negative and declining from 80^th quantile to 95^th quantile. In general, we can say that as the tourism and digital sectors grow, the CO₂ emissions decline.

Global and regional externalities of the Ukrainian energy sector

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for assessing the effects of global and regional externalities that create traditional power generation industries and to propose a transition to a tariff strategy taking into account these consequences. The main purpose of the research is to analyze the current wholesale electricity tariffs in the energy market of Ukraine and propose their assessment taking into account external effects for other sectors of the economy.

Design/methodology/approach

At the first stage, according to observations for 2004–2019 on the amount of pollution and the cost of agricultural products in some regions of Ukraine, which is provided in 2010 prices, the impact of hazardous emissions on the cost of agricultural products was analyzed in each region. The use of panel regression allowed to combine spatial and temporal studies (12 separate areas and time interval 2004–2019). To assess the external effects of heat generation, panel regression was used, which made it possible to combine spatial and temporal data on the impact of pollution on the efficiency of agricultural production and add regional losses of agricultural business to the cost of heat generation. This paper uses optimization models to maximize the function of public utility of electricity generation, making allowances for externalities.

Findings

This research assesses the negative externalities of Ukraine's energy and confirms the need for a global transition to a low-carbon economy primarily through climate finance. The analysis revealed the presence of various influences of the factor of regional air pollution and time. The hypothesis of the existence of a negative impact of local air pollution on agricultural production has been confirmed. An increase in emissions by 1,000 tons leads to an average decrease in regional agricultural production by UAH 84 million (at the prices of 2010).

Originality/value

The optimization problem of the ratio of different types of generation is set on the basis of maximizing the function of social utility of electricity generation, taking into account external effects. The authors presented an optimization model of electricity generation, which corresponded to the state of the energy market for 2019, provides an opportunity to assess the contribution of the inverse external effects of each electricity sector and to estimate external tariffs for each electricity generation sector.

Environmental costs of political instability in Pakistan: policy options for clean energy consumption and environment

Using time series data of Pakistan from 1990 to 2019, this study explores the asymmetric effects of political instability on clean energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The results from the traditional ARDL model show that political stability lessens environmental damage by reducing CO₂ emissions in the long run. However, when we used the nonlinear ARDL approach, we found that political instability not only reduces the consumption of clean energy but also leads to damage environmental quality in the long run in Pakistan,while political stability not only increases the consumption of clean energy but also helps improve environmental quality in the short run in Pakistan. Thus, macroeconomic policies to promote expansion in clean energy consumption will directly stimulate green economic growth and environmental quality.

Impact of innovation in renewable energy generation, transmission, or distribution-related technologies on carbon dioxide emission in the USA

Innovation in renewable energy generation, transmission, or distribution-related technologies (IREGT) is an effective way to deal with environmental pollution. Even though previous studies have focused on renewable energy generation in the USA, the impact of IREGT on carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂e) remains widely unexplored. Recognizing this gap, this study inspected the IREGT-CO₂e nexus in the USA, with international collaboration in green technology development (ICGTD), trade openness (TO), renewable energy consumption (REC), and gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) as control variables from 1990Q1 to 2018Q4. The study applied the canonical cointegration regression (CCR), fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) method, and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) approach to assess the long-run association among variables. First, the findings validated the cointegration relationship among IREGT, ICGTD, TO, REC, GDPPC, and CO₂e. Second, the results indicated that the IREGT, REC, and ICGTD had benefited the USA in mitigating CO₂e. Third, GDPPC and TO were positively connected to CO₂e. Fourth, the Granger causality depicted that GDPPC, TO, and ICGTD Granger caused CO₂e in the USA, while IREGT and CO₂e had a bidirectional relationship. The study's findings encourage the government should devise policies to induce higher research institutions and private enterprises to engage in IREGT.

The role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China: Evidence from QARDL approach

In the past decade, researchers have shifted their interests to explore different ways to mitigate environmental degradation. In that context, the present study explores the role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China. The study utilized data for the period 1990-2018 and applied the latest available econometric technique, a quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, to determine the impacts of solar energy and eco-innovation on improving China's environmental quality. According to the empirical results, in the long term, solar energy is negatively and significantly associated with CO₂ emissions at higher quantiles. Eco-innovation has proven to be the most important channel to mitigate CO₂ emissions in China. Eco-innovation is exerting a negative and significant influence on CO₂ emissions at all quantiles in the long term. In addition, the population size is causing CO₂ emissions to surge significantly at lower quantiles. The empirical analysis reveals that per capita income (PI) is positively associated with CO₂ emissions at all quantiles, but it is significant only at higher quantiles in China. We found evidence of unidirectional causality for eco-innovation to CO₂ emissions and solar energy to CO₂ emissions. However, for population and CO₂ emissions, per capita income, and CO₂ emissions, we found bidirectional causality. As indicated by our empirical results, solar energy and eco-innovation are the two most effective channels to control CO₂ emissions in China. Therefore, policies based on the promotion of eco-innovation and the initiation of new solar energy projects can control emissions and improve environmental quality in China. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:555-571. © 2021 SETAC.

Green economy design in BRICS: dynamic relationship between financial inflow, renewable energy consumption, and environmental quality

Foreign direct investment (FDI) and remittances are a source of financing that allows the environment to be clean by promoting green innovation. This study empirically examines the impact of financial inflow on renewable energy consumption and environmental quality in BRICS over the period of 1991-2019. The basic results emanate from the NARDL-PMG but robustness observed through FMOLS and DOLS. A positive change in FDI has a positive effect on CO2 emissions, whereas a negative change in FDI significantly reduces CO2 emissions in the long run, while positive and negative shocks to remittance increase the renewable energy consumption in the long run. A positive shock in remittance has no significant impact on CO2 emissions, while a negative shock in remittance leads to an increase in CO2 emissions in the long run. Our results are robust to different econometric methods. The findings of the study have some implications for devising renewable energy consumption and CO2 emission reduction policies in BRICS.

The nonlinear links between urbanization and CO2 in 15 emerging countries: Evidence from unconditional quantile and threshold regression

The extant literature has provided empirical evidence about the relationship between urbanization and the environment; however, little attention has been paid to the non-linear relationship among them. This study aims to measure the effects of urbanization on carbon dioxide emission using quantile and threshold regression methods. To this end, the study employed threshold analysis and quantile regression methods in a sample of 15 emerging economies from 1995 to 2015 and analyzed the variation of such non-linearity at different levels of carbon dioxide. The results illustrate that a single threshold and two regimes exist and the threshold for urbanization is 29.56%. Among the two regimes, the elasticity estimates form an inverted U-shape impact of urbanization on carbon dioxide emission. The increase in the marginal effect of urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions up to the median level and a declining trend after this level implies that environmental quality is likely to improve in the emerging countries.

Impact of globalization on CO2 emissions based on EKC hypothesis in developing world: the moderating role of human capital

In the last 3 decades, developing economies continuously have increased their manufacturing industries with an impressive growth rate. Rising the trend of globalization, these underdeveloped economies are receiving economic growth at the cost of environmental degradation. In this context, this study investigates the impact of globalization and human capital on carbon emissions (CO₂) in the 78 developing economies from 1990 to 2016. Our findings based on robust system generalized method of moments (GMM) indicate that human capital and political globalization significantly reduce environmental degradation while economic, social, and overall globalization decrease the environmental quality. Furthermore, our empirical results support the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. However, globalization (without interactive term with human capital) appears to have no significant association with CO₂ emissions, while (with an interactive term) it appears to have a significant negative influence on environmental quality. Moreover, our results are robust to various robustness checks; I have performed for scrutiny the consistency of our findings. This study also offers useful policy implications for stakeholders, policymakers, and governments for promoting environmental sustainability.

Measuring economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Asian economies

This study aims to address the economic, social, and environmental wellbeing issues simultaneously by measuring the carbon intensity of wellbeing (CIWB) of Asian economies employing Prais-Winsten and pooled OLS estimator. The measure of CIWB is made taking into account a ratio of the two indicators-CO₂ emissions per capita and life expectancy at birth. There is a paucity of studies that concentrate on human and social wellbeing indicators (i.e., water, sanitation, life expectancy) together applying the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Therefore, we have also investigated the EKC hypothesis as this theory hypothesizes the link involving human and environmental wellbeing and development. The findings utilizing the two econometric techniques indicate that in both the estimation models urban population access to an improved water source and total population access to improved water source has consistently negative and significant effects on CIWB. The fertility rate and prevalence of HIV pose no threat to CIWB. These findings demonstrate that social and human wellbeing indicators of the Asian economies are sustainable to this moment as they are lowering CIWB which is desirable. Contrary, GDP per capita, exports as a percent of GDP, and urban population have a significant and positive impact on CIWB which poses a challenge for the sustainability issue. We also have found the existence of the EKC hypothesis indicating environmental quality will increase past a turning point. The findings of the paper are well matched with the view of the "Economic and ecological modernization" theory and "human ecology" theory.

The roles of foreign direct investments, economic growth, and capital investments in decarbonizing the economy of Oman

Oman is a Middle Eastern country that has traditionally been monotonically reliant on its indigenous fossil fuel supplies. Besides, the nation has also been a surplus producer and net exporter of oil which further highlights the prolonged fossil fuel dependency of Oman. Consequently, despite flourishing economically, environmental quality in Oman has persistently aggravated. These opposing economic and environmental performances have necessitated Oman to identify the factors which can enable Oman to decarbonize its economy for tackling the environmental concerns faced by the nation. Against this backdrop, this study aims to examine the symmetric and asymmetric effects of foreign direct investments, economic growth, and capital investments on carbon dioxide emissions in Oman during 1980-2019. Using relevant econometric estimation methods for controlling structural break concerns in the data, the findings reveal evidence of asymmetric environmental impacts associated with shocks to the nation's foreign direct investment inflow, economic growth, and capital investment figures. Specifically, it is witnessed that positive shocks to the levels of foreign direct investment inflows, economic growth, and capital investments boost carbon dioxide emissions both in the short and long run. On the other hand, negative shocks to the levels of foreign direct investment inflows and economic growth are witnessed to reduce the emissions. Besides, the findings also validate the environmental Kuznets curve and pollution haven hypotheses in the context of Oman. Hence, considering these key findings, it is recommended that Oman should ideally pursues green economic growth policies by restricting inflows of unclean foreign direct investments and green its financial sector in order to collectively minimize its carbon dioxide emission figures.

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.

Assessment of major food crops production-based environmental efficiency in China, India, and Pakistan

Global warming and food security have led to increasing concern about agricultural crop production efficiency, especially wheat and rice farming. The purpose of the current study is to measure wheat and rice production efficiency scores with environmental quality in China, India, and Pakistan by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The DEA results show that China and India are more efficient in wheat and rice production but it is not efficient in the environment in the study period. The results also show that Pakistan has also relatively small wheat and rice efficiency compared with China and India and increased the efficiency with the passage of time. The practical outcomes also show that Pakistan has the most efficient and effective states from the periods 2008 to 2019 in terms of wheat and rice efficiency and also a small increase in carbon emission. Based on the findings, policymakers should pay attention to the role of green technology in reducing agricultural CO2 emissions.

Financial development and environmental sustainability in West Africa: evidence from heterogeneous and cross-sectionally correlated models

Although West African nations are flourishing economically of late, they still have environmental issues due to the high rate of emissions in the bloc. Despite the worsening environmental condition, there have been limited studies on the causal agents of this situation in the region. Therefore, drawing strength from the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targeted impacts of 2030, this study explored the nexus between financial development and environmental sustainability in West Africa (WA) for the period 1990 to 2016. The cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimator alongside the cross-sectionally augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) and the cross-sectional augmented error correction (CAEC) estimators were engaged to examine the elastic effects of the explanatory variables on the explained variable and from the results, financial development was harmful to environmental sustainability in WA through high carbon emissions. Also, control variables foreign direct investments, energy consumption, industrialization, and population growth were detrimental to the sustainability of the environment. On the causal connections amid the series, a unidirectional causality from financial development and population growth to carbon emissions was uncovered. Also, feedback causalities between foreign direct investments and carbon emissions, between energy consumption and the effluents of carbon, and between industrialization and environmental pollution were unraveled. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that the countries should integrate environmental welfare objectives into their financial development policies. Also, the nations should ensure that their citizens have access to energy that is affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern (SDG 7). Finally, improvement in energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and good use of resources (SDG 12) should be promoted by the nations. The above recommendations if seriously taken into consideration will help the region to combat climate change and its impacts, which is the focus of SDG 13. The main flaw of this exploration was the lack of data for some specific time periods. Therefore, in future when such data become available, similar investigations could be carried out to confirm the robustness of the study's results.

Income inequality and environmental degradation in Egypt: evidence from dynamic ARDL approach

Over the past four decades, the Egyptian economy has suffered from both income inequality and environmental degradation. This dual problem raises the question about the nature of the relationship between inequality and the environment in a developing country like Egypt. In this regard, the study aims to examine the impact of income inequality on carbon emissions during the period 1975-2017. The analysis considers the ability of the political economy approach compared to the Keynesian trade-off approach to explain the inequality-environment relationship in Egypt. To do this, the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lags approach is employed to capture the short-run and long-run relationships and to overcome the complications associated with the structure of the widely used autoregressive distributive lags model. The findings show that the relationship between inequality and CO₂ emissions is not a trade-off. Rather, inequality leads to environmental deterioration in the long run, but there is no significant effect in the short run. In the long run, a 1% rise in the Gini coefficient increases CO₂ emissions by 2.28%. These results support the political economy approach in explaining the inequality-environment nexus. Hence, the economic development policies adopted in Egypt during the past four decades have led to a negative impact on the environment. The study advises economic policy makers in Egypt to adopt income redistribution policies to reduce the severity of income inequality. Improving income distribution has a positive effect on the environment in Egypt.

Industrialization and CO2 Emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Mitigating Role of Renewable Electricity

This study aims to explore the relationship between industry value added, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions in a sample of 44 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000–2015. This study makes several important contributions to extant research. While existing research was focused on the renewable energy-CO2 emissions nexus, the current study assesses the moderating role of the renewables sector in the industrialization-CO2 emissions relationship. In addition, this study considers whether EKC relationships will hold after accounting for structural transformations (including industrial contributions to GDPs). Moreover, we are revising the existence of the EKC framework for the Sub-Saharan African countries. Using a two-step system GMM estimator, we found that the share of industry in GDP has a significant positive impact on CO2 emissions, while renewable electricity output reduces CO2 emissions. If causal, a one percentage point increase in renewable electricity output reduces carbon emissions by 0.22%. Moreover, the renewable energy sector then mediates the positive effect of industry value added on CO2 emissions. We also find evidence for the statistical significance of the inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP per capita and CO2 emissions.

Sustainable Growth Drivers: Unveiling the Role Played by Carbon Productivity

In global climate change, improving carbon productivity holds great importance for China’s sustainable growth. Based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 1997–2017, the drivers, spatial effects, and convergence characteristics of carbon productivity in China are explored by combining a factor decomposition framework and a spatial panel model. The findings show that (1) China’s carbon productivity shows continuous positive growth, and the substitution effect of capital for energy dominates this changing pattern; (2) There is a β-convergence trend and club convergence in China’s carbon productivity, and the spatial technology spillover accelerates the convergence rate; (3) With its accelerated industrial transformation and technological upgrading, China’s current carbon productivity converges faster than its earlier stage, and the role of physical capital investment has gradually shifted to suppression. In contrast, the positive push of human capital investment has been strengthened; (4) From the perspective of the realization mechanism, the convergence of carbon productivity in China mainly comes from the convergence of energy restructuring and capital-energy substitution. These findings can help China narrow the inter-provincial carbon productivity gap in terms of improving factor structure, upgrading technology, etc., and provide references for sustainable growth decision making in China and around the world.

Exploring the asymmetric effects of renewable energy production, natural resources, and economic progress on CO2 emissions: fresh evidence from Pakistan

A bulk of literature has examined the asymmetric impact of renewable energy consumption on CO₂ emissions by using the advanced econometric approach. While the asymmetric role of renewable energy production in the CO₂ equation is largely unknown, our present study quantifies the asymmetric relationship between renewable energy production, natural resources, economic progress, and CO₂ emission for Pakistan by using the NARDL approach. It is found that positive change in renewable energy production has a positive effect on CO₂ emissions, while a negative change in renewable energy production has a negative effect on CO₂ emissions in the long run. Furthermore, a positive and negative change in natural resources contributes negatively to CO₂ emissions in the long run. The results reveal that a positive change in economic progress significantly increases CO₂ emissions in the long run. Based on findings, Pakistan's government should encourage local and international investors to increase their investment in the production of renewable energy by reducing environmental degradation.

The dynamic linkage between financial inflow and environmental quality: evidence from China and policy options

An inflow of foreign capital into the host country would raise her aggregate capital stock, gross savings and investment, economic growth, and environmental quality. This study scrutinizes the asymmetric impact of FDI and remittances to CO2 emissions in China using annual data from 1981 to 2019, via an asymmetric ARDL approach. The findings show that a positive and negative shock in FDI causes a decrease in CO2 emissions in long run. The findings inferred that a negative shock of remittances has a negative impact on the environment by reducing CO2 emissions in long run. While the impact of a negative shock of remittance is more than the impact of a negative shock of FDI on CO2 emissions in long run in China. Thus, government that policymakers should consider foreign capital as a policy instrument especially designing strategies and policies related to environmental sustainability in China.

Does foreign direct investment asymmetrically affect the mitigation of environmental degradation in Malaysia?

In this modern era, the global warming issue has been on the front burner of almost all countries including Malaysia. This study utilizing time series data spanning from 1970 to 2018. To this end, a linear and nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model was conducted to reveal the foreign direct investment-growth-environment nexus. The conclusion validates the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis in Malaysia. Specifically, the empirical results of the linear autoregressive distributed lag model indicate that foreign direct investment and real gross domestic product have a significant positive impact on CO₂ emission while carbon damage cost and the interaction term of foreign direct investment and carbon damage cost have a negative impact in the long run and short run. To find the asymmetric behavior of the foreign direct investment our study employed a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model. The findings confirmed the asymmetry association of foreign direct investment with CO₂ emission. Interestingly, our results of the interaction term in both models are significant with a negative sign that shows the mediating effect of carbon damage cost that converts the positive effect of foreign direct investment on CO₂ emission to negative. Thus, it is vital to reinforce the use of significant regulation as the Malaysian economy opens up to attract more foreign direct investment.

Industrialization, servicification, and environmental Kuznets curve: non-linear panel regression analysis

This paper investigates whether the impact of income on CO₂ emissions is invariant to endogenously estimated threshold levels for the economic structure (ES) represented by value added in manufacturing, industry, and service sector shares in GDP for a panel of 54 economies over the 1971-2017 period. Our panel smooth transition regression estimation results strongly suggest that the sensitivity of CO₂ emissions to income is substantially much higher in countries with higher manufacturing and industry sector shares, whilst it is much lower in servicified economies. Given the argument that manufacturing is the engine of growth, this finding may not necessarily downgrade the crucial importance of an industrial policy which places the manufacturing at the core. The empirical findings in this paper suggest that countries may better to design and implement a strategic and systematic industrial policy which promote the use of emission reduction technologies and encourage manufacturing and industrial sectors with lower carbon emissions.

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.