Determinants of green growth in developed and developing countries

The public as a definitive stakeholder of corporate environmental sustainability practices: A cross-national institutional approach

An emerging body of literature connects the well-known Varieties of Capitalism framework (and its variants) with the propensity of nations to move away from hydrocarbons. Our study extends this work by exploring how macro-level institutional configurations matter for public expectations towards corporate environmental sustainability practices. By linking survey data of public-as-stakeholders to institutional systems encompassing 16 countries (N = 7156), we use multi-level modelling to test the explanatory power of a theoretically well-refined recent construct, namely, the Varieties of Institutional Systems - and discover significant variations associated with public expectations across different institutional systems. The findings, however, defy the notion of a clear distinction between mature and emerging markets or that mature institutional systems consistently hold firms to higher environmental standards. Rather surprisingly and counter-intuitively, we find that public-as-stakeholders from State-Led institutional systems had the highest expectations towards corporate environmental sustainability practices. We outline some of the major theoretical and policy implications of our research findings.

The impact of green finance on green growth: The role of green energy and green production

This study examines the linkage of green finance and green growth under the regulatory role of green energy and green production in 52 countries worldwide from 2005 to 2019. Applying the Bayesian regression and GMM regression, the results of these two methods are similar. When ignoring the regulatory role of green energy and green production, green finance negatively impacts green growth. This result is entirely opposite when considering the regulatory role of green energy and green production, green finance impacts green growth positively. However, Bayesian regression is more effective when providing different posterior probability intervals and probability ranges for independent variables to affect the dependent variable. Specifically, the probability that green financial growth has a negative impact on green growth is above 75.86 %. Similarly, under the role of green energy, the probability that green finance growth has a positive impact on green growth is 80.45 % and under the role of green production, this probability is 76.64 %. These findings imply that countries should build a financial system associated with the goal of green energy and green production, thereby helping the economy become greener.

Environmental taxation and inclusive green growth in developing countries: does the quality of institutions matter?

The promotion of inclusive green growth is one of the most debated topics in international forums and is considered a major concern by all countries in the world. Although the existing literature has examined several determinants of inclusive green growth, the impact of environmental taxation on inclusive green growth is relatively little explored. This study is therefore the first attempt to examine the impact of the environmental tax on inclusive green growth for developing countries from 2000 to 2021. To do this, we apply the system generalised method of moments (GMM) that controls unobserved heterogeneity, heteroskedasticity, simultaneity, reverse causality and endogeneity. The empirical results show that environmental tax promotes inclusive green growth. In addition, our results indicate that the control of corruption, government efficiency, the quality of regulation and the rule of law interact with the environmental tax to promote inclusive green growth. Furthermore, this study reveals interestingly that the environmental tax has a positive impact on the two components of inclusive growth and green growth, but the institutional factors that accentuate the impact of the environmental tax are somewhat nuanced. The results of the study have important policy implications for decision-makers in developing countries in promoting inclusive and environmentally friendly growth.

Can greater openness improve green economy efficiency of countries along the Belt and Road Initiative?

Openness is the core concept of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI), which plays a significant role in promoting the sustainable economic development of countries along the BRI. This study uses the entropy method to measure openness based on six dimensions: trade, investment, finance, tourism, technology, and information. Simultaneously, a super-SBM model with undesired output is proposed to measure green economy efficiency (GEE). Using the panel data of 66 countries along the BRI from 2008 to 2019, we empirically examine the impact of openness on GEE. The results are as follows: (1) The openness level of countries along the BRI is generally increasing, but the relative differences between countries tend to widen. (2) Openness has a significant U-shaped nonlinear effect on GEE, and the conclusion is still valid after considering the robustness test; (3) The spatial econometric model shows that openness not only affects the GEE of the local country, but also has a spillover effect on neighboring countries. Therefore, we believe that BRI countries should strengthen policy communication, break down border barriers, actively promote the orderly flow and diffusion of openness elements, and pay attention to the quantity and quality of openness development, which is key to the high-quality construction of the BRI.

Does the depth of the Financial Markets matter for establishing Green Growth? Assessing Financial sector's potency in decoupling Economic Growth and Environmental Pollution

China's 2060 carbon neutrality agenda requires implementation of policies that can decouple its economic growth from environmental pollution. Consequently, establishing green growth in the Chinese economy is of utmost significance. Against this milieu, this study questions whether the depth of Chinese financial markets matters for establishing green growth in China. Besides, the green growth effects of renewable energy use, technological innovation, and urbanization are also examined. Accordingly, quarterly frequency data from 1990Q1 to 2020Q4 are utilized to perform econometric tests that accommodate structural break concerns in data. Overall, the findings reveal that the depth of the Chinese financial markets facilitates the prospects of greening the Chinese economy. Notably, deepening of financial markets is seen to initially inhibit green growth while stimulating it later on; thus, the financial markets' depth-green growth nexus is evidenced to depict a U-shape. On the other hand, green growth in China is also found to be catalyzed by the renewable transformation of the Chinese energy sector and through technological innovation in the long-run. Conversely, urbanization is witnessed to inflict anti-green growth impacts. Furthermore, the causality analysis verifies bi-directional causal associations between renewable energy use and green growth while unidirectional causalities running from financial markets' deepening, technological innovation, and urbanization to green growth are also discovered. Therefore, it is recommended that China should try to persistently develop its stock and debt markets so that clean investment can be boosted to decouple economic growth and environmental pollution. Besides, it is also important to undergo renewable energy transition, develop clean technologies, and design low-energy urbanization strategies.

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.

Comprehensive evaluation of sustainable consumption towards green growth based on an interval valued Neutrosophic TOPSIS approach

Sustainable consumption is crucial in reducing the growing pressure of environmental crises. This study proposes the Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach to evaluate sustainable consumption toward green growth. The proposed approach assesses criteria weights in Interval Valued Neutrosophic Sets (IVNSs) using the Method of Maximizing Deviation. The proposed method evaluates sustainable consumption for ten selected developed and developing countries, including Canada, France, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The evaluation process encompasses four main criteria with eight sub-criteria, namely environment (population density, CO2), energy (total natural resource rents, renewable electricity), economics (value added of agriculture, forestry, and fishing, GDP per capita), and health (fertility rate, mortality rate). The countries are ranked based on the relative closeness coefficient. The results reveal that two economic sub-criteria are pivotal in the sustainable consumption rankings. Canada emerges as the country with the highest degree of green growth, attributed to its extensive land area and potential for renewable energy. Based on the findings, this study proposes some policy implications for Vietnam, including balancing fertility and mortality rates and regulating economic growth and resource exploitation.

Exploring the nexus between green innovations and green growth in G-7 economies: evidence from wavelet quantile correlation and continuous wavelet transform causality methods

There are numerous studies on the nexus between technology and economic growth. However, the recent paradigm shift toward achieving green economic growth calls for divulging the important drivers of green growth to derive the salient policies for triggering the green growth process. In this context, the recent study claims green technologies (GT) as the crucial determinant of green economic growth (GG) and extends the prior literature by examining the dynamic effects of GT on GG for G-7 nations. To do so, the recent study relies on the two novel econometric methods of wavelet quantile correlation (WQC) and continuous wavelet transform causality (CWC) for robust findings. The WQC's results determine that the rise in the GT significantly triggers the GG of G7 economies. More specifically, with the exception of a few quantiles that show no significant effects of GT, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom enjoy significant benefits from GT across all quantiles. The remaining G-7 countries also benefit from GT, but a few quantiles show that GT has negative effects. Interestingly, the application of the CWC test supports the QWC's outcome, such that the CWC test confirms the causal nexus that runs from GT to GG for each economy. Based on the results, the study derives some salient policies for local and global authorities.

Modelling the role of energy price movements toward economic stability in Malaysia: new evidence from wavelet-based analysis

Energy is one of the prime factors in influencing the sustainable development of a country. Different energy sources play important roles in driving the income growth of different economic sectors such as industrial, agricultural, and services. Fossil fuels, however, have come under strong criticism for actively accelerating climate change. As such, it is imperative to investigate the contributions of various energy sources toward sustainable growth. With Malaysia as the test-bed, the present study analyzes the impact of energy prices on economic stability using the novel wavelet-based analysis. Specifically, the study analyzed the impact of crude oil, natural gas, and gasoline prices on the economic (brown) and green growth from 1995 to 2020. The results show that in continuous wavelet transform, the cone of influence of all five factors exhibits strong short-run variance and fluctuations from 2005 to 2013. However, the intensity of brown growth is more influential than green growth. Similarly, in wavelet coherence graphs, the downward right arrows indicate positively significant associations between crude oil prices, natural gas prices, and gasoline prices with brown and green growth. Additionally, wavelet-based Granger causality reveals a bidirectional causal relationship between all variables. The results thus strongly suggest that energy prices predominantly affect the economic (brown) and green growth progression of the Malaysian economy. The study concludes with some suggested implications to augment the country's sustainable growth.

Toward China's green growth through boosting energy transition: the role of energy efficiency

The primary purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate whether low-carbon energy transition has achieved preliminary progress in facilitating China's green evolution of economy following the provincial dataset. Besides, how improved energy efficiency moderates the influence of energy transition on green growth and the mediation effects are also quantitatively explored. The primary findings insist that low carbonization energy transition is positively associated with green growth, a finding detected by a series of sensitivity checks. Besides, the reciprocal actions between adjusting energy structure and raising energy productivity can effectively strengthen their roles in promoting green growth. In addition, boosting clean energy transition plays an indirect role in green growth by enhancing energy productivity while directly facilitating green growth. Following the three outcomes, this study puts forward some policy implications on enhancing governmental supervision, promoting clean energy evolution, and upgrading ecological protection technologies.

Carbon footprints across transport infrastructure development and industrial output in Pakistan

Over the past few decades, the development of transport infrastructure has attracted huge local and foreign direct investments to raise the overall industrial output in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the transport sector has emerged as one of the most emissions-intensive industrial sectors. Thus, this study is the first to investigate how Pakistan's transport infrastructure across four modes-roads, trains, ports, and airways-affects industrial value addition and carbon footprints in the country. By making use of the theoretical and empirical literature, the study builds carbon emission and economic output models to determine the economic and environmental sustainability of transport infrastructure development in the country. The empirical findings conclude long-term environmental sustainability issues in transportation infrastructure development. All means of transport infrastructure development have a significant positive impact on carbon dioxide emissions in the country. Only ports and highways, however, provide a positive contribution to industrial output. Additionally, population growth, capital, labor, and urbanization are positively linked with the industrial output and carbon dioxide emission in the country, whereas trade openness helps to offset the emission intensity to some extent. Given this evidence, we provide detailed policy implications by highlighting the significance of greener technologies under new transport-related infrastructure investment that addresses SDG-9.

Impact of green finance and fintech on sustainable economic growth: Empirical evidence from India

This research study analytically investigates the influence of green finance and financial technology on sustainable economic growth. The analysis is based on data from Indian states from 2010 to 2021. The research paper uses the panel regression method to examine the association between fintech, green finance and economic growth by applying a two-step GMM (generalized model of moments) to determine the endogeneity issues of the variables. This paper reveals that green finance widely helps quality economic growth by significantly impacting finance structure, financial effectiveness, and environmental quality protection development. Furthermore, fintech enhances the significant effect of green finance in the finance structure and environmental quality protection while lacking consequences on the association between green finance and economic effectiveness. Based on the results, the current research paper offers policy submissions for policymakers and the Government of India, including strengthening the consolidation of fintech growth with green finance, structuring a quality environmental revelation outline to control state governments in refining the effectiveness of green finance, and emerging prolonged satisfactory protocol as an outside involvement proceeding to encourage green finance in the non-public sector.

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.

A review of environmental friendly green composites: production methods, current progresses, and challenges

The growing concern about environmental damage and the inability to meet the demand for more versatile, environmentally friendly materials has sparked increasing interest in polymer composites derived from renewable and biodegradable plant-based materials, mainly from forests. These composites are mostly referred to as "green" and they can be widely employed in many industrial applications. Green composites are less harmful to the environment and could be potential substitutes for petroleum-based polymeric materials. It is helpful to limit usage of fossil oil assets by developing biopolymer matrices such as cellulose-reinforced biocomposites using renewable assets such as plant oils, carbohydrates, and proteins. This paper focuses on green composites processing utilizing a variety of naturally available resources, sustainable materials which are not detrimental to the environment, new scientific signs of progress in achieving green sustainable development, as well as nanotechnology and its environmental consequences. Additionally, the environmental impacts of different composite materials are examined in this paper, along with their production from eco-friendly materials. Moreover, the manufacturing aspects of green composites and some concerns related to their production are also discussed. The merits of green composite materials and valid reasons why they are a valuable substitute for the traditionally used composite materials are also covered.

Improved CRA-method in phenomenological approach (on the example of innovative SME and GHG emissions)

Despite the successful experience of highly developed countries, for example, in achieving sustainable development, there is no single recipe. Each country can create its own development scenario or combine existing, which will provide it with positive results. We can determine the best ones using the built rating. To build it, the article proposes an approach consisting of several stages. First, the study determines the relationship between the selected factors and the resulting indicator using a correlation analysis. Then, using the Sturges rule, we determine the range and group the countries in the context of each range (group) in accordance with the level of individual indicators. After, we form groups of countries according to the rating. This approach is entirely shown on the impact of small and medium enterprises' innovation on greenhouse gas emissions. Correlation analysis is often used to determine the relationship between factors and resulting indicators. We have shown that its use without additional processing of input data can lead to false results. Therefore, further in the study show imperfection of "blind" correlation and regression analysis in the phenomenological approach. And in our example, offer an improved technique for processing input data for correlation analysis and changed the ranking of countries.

Role of financial inclusion and export diversification in determining green growth: evidence from SAARC economies

This study quantifies the impact of financial inclusion and export diversification in attaining the target of green growth for SAARC economies during the period 2000 to 2019. For the analysis purpose, this study employed second-generation econometric techniques that deal with heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence issues. To this end, CUP-FM and CUP-BC are used to investigate the long-run dynamic equilibrium relationship among the variables of interest. The outcomes show that financial inclusion and institutional quality are eco-friendly variables and play a vital role in attaining green growth. In contrast, export diversification and FDI are inversely related with green growth in SAARC economies. Furthermore, a unidirectional causality running from financial inclusion to green growth and financial inclusion to export diversification is observed. On the basis of investigated outcomes, this research suggests essential policy recommendations to attain green growth.

The role of green growth, green financing, and eco-friendly technology in achieving environmental quality: evidence from selected Asian economies

Many countries are trying to achieve carbon neutrality targets by using environment-friendly technology and green growth. Thus, this analysis effort to identify the key role of green growth in improving the environmental quality. This study investigates the impact of green growth, income, environmental taxes, environment-friendly technology, renewable energy, and financial development in the context of 12 Asian economies over the period of 1990 to 2018. This study used the method of cross-section - augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) to find out the impact of green growth and growth (GDP) on environment quality with some plausible variables under the scheme of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). The study employed the method of CS-ARDL and for robustness the augmented mean group (AMG) method to find out the impact of green growth and GDP growth on environment quality with some plausible variables under the scheme of EKC. The results of CS-ARDL concluded that CO₂ is significantly affected by GDP growth, green growth, and technological change in the context of Asian economies. The GDP square is inversely and the GDP growth is positively related to the CO₂, indicating the presence of inverted U-shaped EKC in this region. But the inverse relationship between green growth and green growth square and concave EKC is observed in Asian countries. The study used the Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel test to gauge the causality between the variables. This study suggested that policymakers should focus on transforming the country's energy system in ways that will reduce energy-related CO₂ emissions faster than previously expected.

Impact of human capital and financial globalization on environmental degradation in OBOR countries: Critical role of national cultural orientations

As regional economic integration and climate change are among the most important phenomena influencing economic and social sustainability in the modern world, a huge volume of research is directed towards these topics nowadays. The aim of this study is to explore the impact of financial globalization and human capital on environmental degradation in One Belt One Road (OBOR) countries in a cultural context that is largely under-explored in spite of being immensely crucial for fulfilling the United Nations' agenda on climate change mitigation. Owing to the presence of vast cultural differences, we check if the national scores on "Power Distance Index" and "Uncertainty Avoidance" in these countries matter for the environment. To this end, we use the latest and annual data set comprising 31 OBOR countries from 1996 to 2018, and employ panel econometric techniques that effectively deal with the threat of endogeneity. Results show that human capital improves environment while financial globalization deteriorates it. Interestingly, high power distance and uncertainty avoidance can reverse the positive impact of human capital. Similarly, financial globalization is favorable for environment in countries with low power distance and uncertainty avoidance. The findings are robust to the use of alternative specifications. Theoretical underpinnings and implications are discussed arising from the interesting reversal of traditional impacts in different cultural scenarios. Specifically, we recommend a culture of entrepreneurship, innovation, and inclusivity, promoted through increased tolerance towards risk-taking and participative decision-making to reap the benefits of human capital and globalization in improving the environment. Our results have important implications for climate change mitigation endeavors in OBOR countries and understanding the cultural context in this regard. Additionally, our study opens a vast avenue for the related research work in the future.

How are FDI and green recovery related in Southeast Asian economies?

This study is to examine how FDI and green economic growth are related in Southeast Asian economies. It also attempts to find out the role of fiscal policy development in the relationship between FDI and green growth in the economies of the region. For this purpose, a dynamic panel threshold model is used for the data over the period 2000–2018. The main results show that FDI has a positive impact on the progress of green growth in these economies, with a stronger impact in the group of Southeast Asian economies with high fiscal development. This result confirms the pollution halo hypothesis, which states that FDI can promote green growth in a country. Aligning economic priorities to improve green fiscal policies, reforming fiscal integration programs, planning for green job creation, and implementing policies to attract FDI are recommended as important policy implications over the COVID-19 period.

Does diversified environmental regulation make FDI cleaner and more beneficial to China's green growth?

With the internationalization and financial development, it is urgent to explore the effect of foreign direct investment on green economy under the context of multiple environmental regulations. By using the provincial panel data in the period of 2000-2016, the paper adopts the System Generalized Method of Moments and threshold models to detect the moderating effect of diversified environmental regulation on the nexus between foreign direct investment and green growth in China. The empirical results reveal that foreign direct investment has direct positive spillovers on China's green growth and supports the "pollution halo" hypothesis. There is a threshold effect of command-and-control regulation that exists in foreign direct investment's spillovers to green growth. Stricter command-and-control regulation can stimulate foreign direct investment's spillovers on green growth in China; however, market-based and informal regulations fail to. Some suggestions are proposed for constructing a matched and compatible policy system of foreign direct investment, environment protection, and economic growth by adjusting the intensity, tools, and enforcement of corresponding policies.

A Panel Analysis of the Impact of Green Transformation and Globalization on the Labor Share in the National Income

This study aims to examine the impact of green transition and globalization processes on changes in the labour share. The study covers 76 national economies diversified in development, global production share and energy transition stage from 2000 to 2018. Based on the Total Economy Database data, panel models of the relationship between green transition, globalization and the labour share in the national income were estimated. The conducted Breusch–Pagan and Hausman tests proved the validity of using fixed-effects models. We confirmed the research hypothesis that the openness of the economy contributes to a decline in the labour share. The openness of the economy resulting from globalization reduces the labour share in the national income. We do not confirm hypotheses that suggest energy transition contributes to a reduction in the labour share and that the labour share will decline in the post-crisis period due to the lower bargaining power of workers. Changes in the labour share should be of interest to government representatives who influence the shape and implementation of economic policy, especially in employment policy, education, and investment policy, mainly aimed at the green transformation.

Green Growth in the OECD Countries: A Multivariate Analytical Approach

Green growth is about merging environmental and social protection with economic growth. The OECD countries follow the progress toward greening though a set of indicators. The aim of the study is to analyze the condition and development of the OECD countries using a set of green growth indicators. The univariate and multivariate statistical approach was used to identify the main features of green growth development in two time spans. The achieved success of the OECD countries toward the green growth was measured from period 1 (years 2000–2009) to period 2 (years 2010–2019). For stimulant indicators, an increase was achieved, while for the destimulant variables, a decrease was reached between the analyzed periods. CO2 productivity increased by more than 31%, material productivity by 25%, and the energy productivity by nearly 21%. From the ecological point of view, a positive sign was achieved by an intensive increase of the percentage of municipal waste treatment by recycling or composting. The real GDP increased between periods in each of the OECD countries, except in Greece. The destimulant indicators decreased over time. The mortality declined by about 20% from exposure to ambient PM2.5 and thus the welfare costs of premature death from exposure to PM2.5 also declined. The decline of the mean population exposure to PM2.5 by 12.5% on average for the OECD countries is a positive signal for environmental protection and public health of the OECD population. Some uncertainty exists as the municipal waste generated per capita decreased only slightly by 2%.

Renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Economic Development Nexus: A Bibliometric Analysis

The present research aims to conduct a systemic review on Renewable Energy, Economic Growth and Economic Development and look for links between the papers published between 2008 and May 2021. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, it was possible to reach a sample of 111 articles selected by Web of Science and a sample of 199 academic articles selected by Scopus in that specific period. The analysis of the group of Renewable and Non-renewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth and Economic Development shows that most of the articles published in this subsample use the quantitative methodology in economic sciences. The results indicate that research on the subject has a growing trend and that most of the articles are post-2015 publications. In addition, China has been the leading nation in published works. The journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is considered the most relevant in this category, and Sustainability has the most publications. Finally, a research gap was identified to be explored, lacking studies aimed at understanding the consumption of renewable energies and economic development and studies that focus on renewable energies and economic growth in less developed economies.