The environmental sustainability effects of financial development and urbanization in Latin American countries

From industrialization to dehumanization: understanding the deriving forces of environment and implications for sustainable development

Environment has detrimental effects on economic activity and human survival. Climate change is increasingly conducive to natural disasters, epidemics, social conflicts, food security, financial shocks, economic hardships, and life subsistence. In pursuit of this issue, this study empirically investigates the effects in outcome variable CO2 provoked by independent variables governance, technological innovation, renewable energy, economic growth, and economic policy uncertainty in APEC economies. The APEC region accounts for 60% of global emissions, 62% of world GDP, 48% of global trade and contribute 8.7% renewable energy annually. A dynamic panel PMG-ARDL model is applied under the assumption of maximum likelihood estimation with DH causality and CS-ARDL for the period of 1996-2020. Our empirical results confirm that governance, technology innovation, and transitional energy have significant and positive effect to mitigate CO2 emissions. The region needs to design policy mechanisms supportive to promote institutional quality, enhances transparency, ensure political stability and rule of law. It develops the infrastructure that ensures the adaptation of technology innovations, promotes green growth, improves energy efficiency, and implements carbon pricing mechanism. Economic policy uncertainty has insignificant and positive effects on environmental degradation. The findings show that governance, technological development, and transitional energy have an essential role to mitigate CO2 emissions and achieve sustainable development. Moreover, this study will be helpful in understanding the implications of SDGs and achieving specific targets such as (SDG-7: Clean energy sources) and (SDG-8: Sustainable development goal) based on the largest set of emitters APEC.

Moderating role of green innovation and fiscal expenditure towards achieving the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 at provincial-level in China: policy implication from green total factor productivity

Amidst resource loss and environmental protection constraints, achieving green development necessitates enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP) as a means of promoting rational and efficient resource allocation, thereby balancing economic growth and environmental preservation. Meanwhile, literature on the subject matter of GTFP from a sustainability viewpoint is minimal. As a result, this study employs the panel dataset from 30 provinces of China spanning the period 2005 to 2020 and utilizes the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) developed by Machado and Santos Silva (2019) to analyze the heterogeneous role of green innovation, environmental regulations, and fiscal expenditure on GTFP. Moreover, the controlling variable for this study includes renewable energy and economic growth. Furthermore, this study investigates the heterogeneous combined impact of green innovation and fiscal expenditure (GTE*FSE) on GTFP. The findings of the MMQR reveal that green innovation has a positive impact on GTFP, while fiscal expenditure, environmental regulations, and renewable energy consumption have a negative impact. GTE*FSE has a positive and significant effect on GTFP, indicating that FSE can reinforce and increase the positive impact of GTE on GTFP in the long run. The study also reveals that economic growth has a mixed effect on GTFP, depending on the quantiles. Furthermore, environmental regulation has a significant and negative impact on GTFP, contradicting the Porter hypothesis. Likewise, the robustness of the findings is confirmed by the results of the fully modified OLS (FMOLS) and dynamic OLS (DOLS) estimations, which indicate a similar impact of the determinants on GTFP as observed in the MMQR analysis. This reinforces the validity of the findings and suggests that the observed relationships are robust to different estimation techniques. Furthermore, the findings of the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) panel causality test reveal significant bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and GTFP and fiscal expenditure and GTFP. Policy-makers need to channel a large chuck of their fiscal spending into green innovation so as to boost sustainability.

Assessing regional economic growth through green financial policy: Insights from PSM-DID model on 107 cities of China

The crucial role of green finance policies in advocating environmental sustainability cannot be overlooked and has resulted in an increased attention in recent years. Despite their significance, the connection between these policies and economic growth remains disputed among policymakers. This study presents an empirical analysis that aims to uncover the relationship between green finance policies and economic growth rates by analysing the data from 107 cities in China, spanning a period of 16 years from 2003 to 2019. The research focuses on the implications of green finance reforms and innovation pilot zones by employing PSM-DID model to evaluate their effects on the regional GDP by segregating the industries in primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. The results indicate that the green finance reforms and innovation pilot zones are associated with reduced growth rates of regional GDP for secondary industries. However, the growth rates of the tertiary industry are positively affected. Thus, the study offers valuable guidance and recommendations to policymakers and cities seeking to join the pilot zones for green financial reform to foster economic growth while supporting environmental sustainability. The findings of the study also contribute to the understanding of how targeted policy interventions, such as the establishment of pilot zones, can influence economic dynamics at the regional level and describes the complex relationship between policy interventions, economic growth, and industry composition, particularly in the context of environmental sustainability.

The role of energy, political stability, and real income on achieving carbon neutrality: asymmetric evidence

Apart from business considerations stemming from the marketplace, businesses, individuals, and the economy at large, political decisions also play a role on environmental quality. Governments make a series of policies that impact private businesses, sectors, the environment, and the economy at large. In this paper, we test the asymmetric role of political risk on CO₂ emissions, while controlling for renewable energy, non-renewable energy, and real income: policy toward environmental sustainability objectives in the context of Turkey. To realize the motive of this study, we capture the asymmetric effect of the regressors by adopting the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method (NARDL). This research adds to the environmental literature in terms of methodological and empirical. Methodologically, the study shows that a nonlinear relationship exists among the variables, and it has a significant impact on environmental sustainability targets. The outcome of the NARDL indicates that the increasing political risk, non-renewable energy, and economic growth follow a trajectory trend on carbon emissions, which is unsustainable in Turkey, but renewable energy is sustainable. Moreover, decreasing real income and non-renewable energy decreases carbon emissions. This research also deployed the frequency domain test to capture the causal association of the concerned variables and the outcome indicates political risk, renewable energy, non-renewable energy use, and real income are predictors of CO₂ in Turkey. From this result, policies geared toward promoting a sustainable environment were formulated.

Do financial development and renewable energy shocks matter for environmental quality: evidence from top 10 emitting emissions countries

Creating a reliable energy supply, ecological quality, and economic development has become a global effort. Finance is at the center stage ecological transition to low-carbon emission. Against this backdrop, the present work analyses the impact of the financial sector on CO₂ emissions using data from the top 10 emitting emissions economies from 1990 to 2018. Using the novel method of moments quantile regression, the findings illustrate that renewable energy usage enhances ecological quality while economic growth lowers it. The results also affirm that financial development is positively linked with carbon emission in the top 10 emitting emissions economies. These results can be explained by the fact that financial development facilities offer low borrowing rates with less restrictions for environmental sustainability projects. The empirical findings of this study highlight the necessity for policies that boost the proportion of clean energy consumption in the top 10 polluting nations' overall energy mix to reduce carbon emissions. It follows that the financial sectors in these nations must invest in cutting-edge energy-efficient technology and clean, green, and environmentally friendly initiatives. This trend will increase productivity, improve energy efficiency, and reduce pollution.

Environmental sustainability in Vietnam: evaluating the criticality of economic globalisation, renewable energy, and natural resources

Vietnam's goal of achieving a certain level of decarbonisation by 2030 is difficult despite its awareness of the threat posed by climate change. However, the country is endowed with natural resources and the increasing dependence on the global economy coupled with greater investment in alternative energy sources are some of the factors responsible for economic expansion in recent years. Hence, the question arises "what are the environmental impacts of economic globalisation, economic growth, natural resources, and renewable energy in Vietnam?", which constitutes a major policy problem. In this study, a time series dataset stretching from 1984 to 2019 is employed to scrutinise the impact of economic globalisation, economic growth, natural resources, and renewable energy on Vietnam's CO₂ emissions. This goal is achieved by employing the ARDL bounds testing procedure, dynamic ARDL, and spectral Granger-causality test. Moreover, the outcomes from the dynamic ARDL showed that economic globalisation and economic growth lead to environmental deterioration, whereas it is mitigated by renewable energy. Lastly, the outcomes from the spectral Granger-causality test indicate that a feedback causality association exists between CO₂ emissions and the regressors, namely economic globalisation, renewable energy, and economic growth, while no causality connection exists between CO₂ emissions and natural resources. Hence, we suggest that actions for reducing emissions should involve the implementation of energy-efficient techniques and renewable technologies within the energy value chain.

Role of environmentally related technologies and revenue taxes in environmental degradation in OECD countries

The purpose of this study is to validate the impact of foreign direct investment inflows (FDI inflows), trade openness (TO), environmentally related technologies (ERTs), environmentally related tax revenues (ERTRs), and economic growth (EG) on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by employing a PMG (pooled mean group) estimator with a dataset of 36 OECD countries spanning from 1990 to 2020. Im-Pesaran-Shin, Fisher-type, and cross-sectional augmented Dicky-Fuller tests indicate that study variables are stationary at I (0) and I (I). Kao and Pedroni cointegration test results show that cointegration exists across regressors and regressands throughout the sample of OECD countries. The results of the Hausman test confirm that the PMG panel ARDL method can be employed. Empirical results of PMG demonstrate that ERTRs help to reduce CO₂ emissions, while FDI inflows, TO, ERTs, and EG are significant and positively related to environmental degradation. This study is an effort to fill the gap by exploring the role of ERTs and ERTRs in environmental degradation in selected OECD countries. The study findings support the relationship between CO₂ emissions, ERTs, and ERTRs. It has been determined that environmental technologies and revenue taxes are also drivers of environmental sustainability. The study provides policymakers with pertinent implications for promoting the development and adoption of green technologies. The findings suggest that imposing environmental taxes expedites the development of environmentally related technologies for reducing CO₂ emissions and promoting sustainable development in OECD countries, with potential applications in a wide range of countries, particularly as a basis for emerging countries to boost their energy transition timelines.

Climate change, the by-product of tourism and energy consumption through a sustainable economic growth: a non-linear ARDL analysis for Turkey

Using a non-linear autoregressive distributed lag time-series analysis, this paper investigates the causal relationship between climate change, the tourism sector, and energy consumption in Turkey. The trade-off between a country's economic growth and the environmental degradation caused by tourism and the energy sector is critical in terms of scientifically addressing the issue and developing economic policies. As a result, climate change is used as the dependent variable and is represented by precipitation and temperature separately; the independent variables are tourist arrivals, energy consumption, and economic growth. Data is gathered by various institutions from 1995 to 2020. According to the test results, while positive and negative shocks contribute to the decrease in precipitation and temperature in renewable energy consumption (REC) in the long-run, they affect the increase in precipitation and temperature in non-renewable energy consumption (NREC). In the long-run relationship between tourism and temperature, a decrease in the number of tourist arrivals causes a decrease in temperature and precipitation. The findings reveal that a decrease in the number of tourist arrivals and an increase in REC may aid in decreasing temperature, while the increase in NREC may cause an increase in temperature. Through a case study of Turkey, decision-makers should consider these scientific findings that are in the frame of non-linear analysis as possible scenarios for mitigating climate change and fostering sustainable economic growth with efficient tourism policies for the world.

Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals through technological innovation: juxtaposing the economic and environmental effects of financial development and energy use

The BRICS comprise of group of emerging market economies which are committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agenda of the United Nations by the end of the year 2030. In this regard, it is critically important for these nations to sustain their annual rise in their economic growth rates while simultaneously declining the rate of discharge of carbon dioxide emissions. Against this backdrop, this study aims to investigate how financial development, greater primary energy consumption, and technological innovation affect the prospects of the BRICS nations in achieving economic and environmental sustainability. Considering the period from 1990 to 2020 and utilizing methods that are robust to working with cross-sectionally dependent, heterogeneous, and endogenous panel data, the key analytical findings derived in this study reveal that higher levels of financial development, primary energy consumption, and technological innovation boost the per capita economic growth rates of the BRICS nations. Besides, technological innovation also moderates the financial development-economic growth and the primary energy consumption-economic growth nexuses by jointly boosting economic growth rates with these two macroeconomic variables. On the other hand, financial development and higher primary energy consumption are seen to boost the annual per capita carbon dioxide emission growth in these emerging nations, while technological innovation is observed to do the opposite. Furthermore, technological innovation is witnessed to moderate the nexus between energy use and economic growth to further reduce the emission growth rate in the BRICS nations. Accordingly, a set of policies are recommended to the concerned governments in order to enable the BRICS nations to attain the Sustainable Development Goals agenda.

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

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

Military spending, financial development, and ecological footprint in a developing country: insights from bootstrap causality and Maki cointegration

Military spending is required for national sovereignty, but it comes at a cost. The ecological consequences of military activities remain insufficiently investigated, especially in developing countries, where military spending is on the rise due to terrorism and civil unrest created by different secessionists' groups. As such, this study has a maiden attempt to address this gap by exploring the effects of military spending on the ecological footprint (EF) using the bootstrap causality test and the Maki (2012) cointegration test under multiple structural breaks. The findings suggest that military spending increases the EF. Also, while energy consumption and economic growth degrade the environment, financial development enhances environmental wellbeing by reducing the ecological footprint. The causality results suggest a unidirectional causality from military spending to EF, while feedback causality exists between military spending and economic growth. The result of this study affirms the existence of destruction theory and also provides a better understanding of the links behind environmental degradation and is applicable for the design and implementation of environmental policies.

Energy productivity and environmental deregulation: the case of Greece

Among the EU countries, Greece relies heavily on coal the most, and it has lagged behind in cutting emissions. Further, following the oil crisis of the 1970s, Greece has strategically invested in lignite. Solid fossil fuels such as lignite are classified as fossil fuels that are detrimental to environmental performance. This continued burning of fossil fuels has emerged as one of the most serious concerns in Greece, even globally. The aim is to capture the effect of energy productivity on carbon dioxide emissions (CO₂E) in Greece while controlling trade openness, energy consumption, and economic growth. Toward this end, we employ a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and other econometric robust techniques. The findings of the study are as follows: (i) trade openness positively impacts carbon emissions growth; (ii) economic growth adds to increased CO₂E; (iii) expanding energy productivity is beneficial to the environment as it causes CO₂E to decline; and (iv) increase in energy consumptions further results in CO₂ cutbacks. The recommendation of our study suggests some innovative policies to counter the detrimental effects of carbon emissions by an increase in energy efficiency for the Greek economy. The study recommends that embracing a low-carbon, resource-efficient, and circular economy is of paramount importance to Greece in order to ensure environmental protection, as well as to boost green growth, create new jobs, and combat unemployment. Greece should ensure that energy efficiency techniques are promoted, and renewable energy sources are expanded in order to increase the options for cleaner alternatives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus preserving the environment.

Nexus Between Financial Development, Renewable Energy Investment, and Sustainable Development: Role of Technical Innovations and Industrial Structure

Significant challenges confronting China include reducing carbon emissions, dealing with the resulting problems, and meeting various requirements for long-term economic growth. As a result, the shift in industrial structure best reflects how human society utilizes resources and impacts the environment. To meet China's 2050 net-zero emissions target, we look at how technological innovations, financial development, renewable energy investment, population age, and the economic complexity index all play a role in environmental sustainability in China. Analyzing short- and long-term relationships using ARDL bounds testing, we used historical data spanning 1990–2018. According to the study's findings, the cointegration between CO₂ emissions and their underlying factors was found. The deterioration of the environment directly results from financial development, increasing economic complexity, and population aging. Technical advancements, investments in renewable energy sources, and changes to the industrial structure all contribute to lower CO₂ emissions. Granger causality results were also reliably obtained in this study. According to our findings in the fight against environmental problems, a key tool for meeting long-term sustainability goals is policy prescriptions that use technological innovations, renewable energy investment, and industrial structure.

Impact of financial development and renewable energy consumption on environmental sustainability: a spatial analysis in CEMAC countries

This research aims to examine the impact of financial development and renewable energy consumption on CO₂ emissions in CEMAC for the period 1990-2018. The study employs spatial analysis approach. As previous investigations have overlooked the effects of the spatial interactions in demonstrating environmental sustainability across nations, this paper gives the first comprehensive spatial analysis of CO₂ emissions among countries. To eliminate possible bias and inefficiency in estimated coefficients, the spatial autoregressive model is used to account for both geographical dependency and individual heterogeneity. The results revealed that under economic distance weights, the values of the spatial lag coefficients of financial development (FD), foreign direct investment (FDI), gross domestic product (GDP), and renewable energy consumption depict negative and statistical significance effects regarding spatial fixed effects in the SDM model, while trade openness (TO) shows a negative and insignificant impact. Other decomposition effects results show that FD had both direct and indirect significantly negative effects on environmental sustainability in CEMAC. This indicates that FD has a significant negative effect on CO₂ emissions in both the local country and its adjoining countries. On average, a unit change in FD in each country and its neighboring countries would reduce dioxide carbon by 0.071 and 0.066, respectively, and that of the whole region would be 0.137 units, meaning that environmental sustainability will improve. However, GDP recorded significantly positive direct and indirect effects on environmental sustainability. The direct and indirect effects of FDI on CO2 in both the local and neighboring countries were negative but statistically insignificant. On the other hand, the direct and indirect effects of TO on environmental sustainability were positive and statistically significant. Along with significant and statistical effects of financial development, GDP, FDI, renewable energy consumption, and TO, the findings reveal the presence of a positive spatial dependency of CO₂ emissions in CEMAC. This implies that policymakers in CEMAC countries lean to rely on their environmental sustainability decisions to assign financial and investments to that of neighboring nations. Furthermore, the findings indicate that adjacent countries' FD and REC have a considerable impact on a country's CO₂ emissions. Our findings offer significant political implications, implying that financial development and renewable energy consumption should be strengthened to meet environmental sustainability goals.

Toward a sustainable environment and economic growth in BRICS economies: do innovation and globalization matter?

Over the last few decades, environmental deterioration has accelerated significantly. Environmental degradation has been a subject of research across the world because of its impact on billions of people. However, there has been no international agreement on lowering the utilization of energy and CO₂ emissions (CO₂), while demand for fossil fuels grows in emerging economies. On the other hand, the recent COP26 summit brought all parties together to accelerate action toward reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Although previous research shows that international trade promotes positive socioeconomic outcomes, other experts argue that it contributes to natural resource shortages and ecological deterioration. Thus, the current research considers the effect of international trade, renewable energy use and technological innovation on consumption-based carbon emissions (CCO₂), coupled with the role of financial development and economic growth in the BRICS economies between 1990 and 2018. Moreover, this research utilizes the common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG), augmented mean group (AMG) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) causality methods to assess these interrelationships. The study findings reveal that renewable energy use, exports and technological innovation mitigate CCO₂, whereas economic growth and imports trigger CCO₂ in the BRICS economies. The panel causality outcomes also reveal that all the variables except financial development can predict CCO₂ emissions. Based on the study findings, we recommend the adoption of policies, regulations and the development of legislative frameworks that promote technological innovation and the shift toward sustainable energy.

Does the Moderating Role of Financial Development on Energy Utilization Contributes to Environmental Sustainability in GCC Economies?

This present research examined the association among carbon emissions, financial development, economic growth, natural resources, and energy usage in GCC nations within the environmental Kuznets curve framework by applying the datasets between 1995 and 2019. It used some empirical approaches, including second-generation unit roots and cointegration methods and method of moments quantile regression (MMQR). We detected a cointegrating interconnection between carbon emissions and financial development, energy usage, economic growth, natural resources, and squared of economic growth in the long term. Furthermore, the findings of the MMQR reveal that economic growth, financial development, energy usage, and natural resources degrade the environment, as well as proving the presence of the EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the results also demonstrated that financial development greatly moderates energy usage in order to attain environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the fixed-effect ordinary least squares, fully modified ordinary least squares, and dynamic ordinary least squares were also used in the study as a soundness check of the MMQR approach. The path of causality moves from financial development, economic growth, and squared of economic growth to CO2 emissions. Lastly, the causality direction runs from carbon emissions to energy usage. Based on these findings, the energy mix of the region must be revised by ensuring the promotion of sustainable energy sources and other energy-efficient technology in order to attain the quality of the environment.

Appraisal of CO2 emission in Tunisia's industrial sector: a dynamic vector autoregression method

The world is confronted with a slew of environmental issues, one of which is attenuating the detrimental impacts of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission-induced climate change. The ever-increasing use of energy is eroding natural resources to the point that our economic future may be jeopardized. The Tunisian economic growth indicates the excellent performance in the industrial sector as the minimum required input for these developments which necessitate additional energy consumption, resulting in increased CO₂ emissions and environmental degradation. This study explores the role of energy efficiency, urbanization, economic growth, and natural gas energy usage in the industrial sector on the CO₂ emissions of Tunisia. The research mainly employs the vector autoregressive model (VAR) to examine the factors driving the evolution of CO₂ emissions through the industrial sector from 2000 to 2018. The findings assess that natural gas as an energy source and efficiency is crucial for reducing CO₂ emissions. The study has shown the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), which demonstrates that economic development in Tunisia has an inverted U-shape connection with CO₂ emissions. The findings show that energy consumption and GDP have a considerable impact on CO2 emissions due to large-scale population changes and industrial structure alteration. In contrast, energy efficiency is a key factor in lowering CO2 emissions. Based on the study's results, the article will enable economic decision-makers and relevant authorities to develop an appropriate energy strategy for the industrial sector to safeguard environmental deterioration in the long term by lowering carbon emissions.

Pathways to Argentina's 2050 carbon-neutrality agenda: the roles of renewable energy transition and trade globalization

The government of Argentina has recently declared its objective of turning the nation carbon-neutral by 2050. Thus, it is essential to identify the relevant factors which can facilitate the attainment of this environmental development target. Against this backdrop, this study aims to evaluate the impacts of renewable electricity output, trade globalization, economic growth, financial development, urbanization, and technological innovation on sectoral carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina during the 1971-2014 period. The findings, overall, suggest that enhancing renewable electricity output share in the total electricity output figure of the nation helps to curb carbon dioxide emissions generated from Argentina's energy, manufacturing and industry, residential and commercial buildings, and transportation sectors. Contrarily, greater trade globalization is evidenced to boost carbon dioxide emissions in almost all the aforementioned economic sectors. Besides, the findings also validate the existence of the carbon dioxide emission-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for all four sectors. In addition, financial development and urbanization are also evidenced to exert carbon dioxide emission-stimulating impacts, while technological innovation is witnessed to be necessary for curbing sector-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. Accordingly, to decarbonize the economy, this study recommends the government of Argentina to adopt necessary policies for fostering renewable energy transition within the electricity sector, greening the trade globalization strategies, achieving environmentally sustainable economic growth, developing the financial sector by introducing green financial schemes, planning sustainable urbanization, and financing technological development-oriented projects.

Environmental pollution and agricultural productivity in Pakistan: new insights from ARDL and wavelet coherence approaches

The most serious challenge to the global facade is figuring out how to mitigate pollution levels without compromising agricultural productivity. The spillover effect of environmental change is predicted to be very high, although it will differ by region and crop. Considering this view, this study tries to address this issue by adopting comprehensive methodologies to assess the influence of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, agricultural labor, land, feeds, and fertilizers on agricultural productivity in Pakistan from 1961 to 2018. The autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and wavelet transform coherence (WTC) approaches are applied to estimate the long-run and short-run elasticity estimates. The empirical findings discover that CO₂ emissions, agricultural land, labor, feed, and fertilizers exert high pressure on agricultural productivity which is backed up by the WTC findings. Furthermore, the gradual shift causality test results reveal the presence of a unidirectional causality relationship between all regressors and agriculture productivity, demonstrating that all the factors significantly influence agriculture productivity. Moreover, these findings are robust to different robustness tests that we perform to test the reliability/accuracy of our core results. From policy perspectives, regulations must be developed to explore a practicable expansion strategy that includes the use of efficient fertilizers and feed at optimal levels, as well as environmental protection through public-private investment in the agricultural sector.

A Roadmap toward Achieving Sustainable Environment: Evaluating the Impact of Technological Innovation and Globalization on Load Capacity Factor

Technological innovations have been a matter of contention, and their environmental consequences remain unresolved. Moreover, studies have extensively evaluated environmental challenges using metrics such as nitrogen oxide emissions, sulfur dioxide, carbon emissions, and ecological footprint. The environment has the supply and demand aspect, which is not a component of any of these indicators. By measuring biocapacity and ecological footprint, the load capacity factor follows a certain ecological threshold, allowing for a thorough study on environmental deterioration. With the reduction in load capacity factor, the environmental deterioration increases. In the context of the environment, the interaction between technological innovation and load capacity covers the demand and supply side of the environment. In light of this, employing the dataset ranging from 1980 to 2017 for the case of South Africa, the bound cointegration test in conjunction with the critical value of Kripfganz and Schneider showed cointegration in the model. The study also employed the ARDL, whose outcome revealed that nonrenewable energy usage and economic growth contribute to environmental deterioration, whereas technological innovation and globalization improve the quality of the environment. This study validated the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve for South Africa, as the short-term coefficient value was lower than the long-term elasticity. Furthermore, using the frequency-domain causality test revealed that globalization and economic growth predict load capacity in the long term, and nonrenewable energy predicts load capacity factors in the long and medium term. In addition, technological innovation predicts load capacity factors in the short and long term. Based on the findings, we propose that policymakers should focus their efforts on increasing funding for the research and development of green technologies.

Mitigating energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina: the roles of renewable energy and economic globalization

The energy sector of Argentina is predominantly reliant on fossil fuels. Consequently, such fossil fuel dependency within the nation's power sector, in particular, has aggravated the environmental quality in Argentina by amplifying the nation's energy production-based carbon emission levels. However, keeping into consideration the international commitments pledged by Argentina under the Paris Accord and the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, it is pertinent for this South American country to curb its energy production-based emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. Against this milieu, this study examines the impacts of renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, and urbanization on carbon dioxide emissions generated from the production of electricity and heat in the context of Argentina. Using annual frequency data from 1971 to 2016, recent econometric methods are applied to control for multiple structural breaks in the data. The major findings from the ecnometric analyses affirmed long-run associations between renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, urbanization, and energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. Besides, enhancing renewable electricity output shares is found to curb these emissions while economic globalization and urbanization are witnessed to boost them. Moreover, renewable electricity generation and economic globalization are found to jointly reduce the energy production-related carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. The results also validate the authenticity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Finally, the causality analysis reveals evidence of unidirectional causalities running from renewable electricity generation, economic globalization, economic growth, and urbanization to energy production-related carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. In line with these findings, this study recommends several viable policies which can be implemented to help Argentina control the growth of its energy production-based carbon dioxide emissions.

Ecological footprint, public-private partnership investment in energy, and financial development in Brazil: a gradual shift causality approach

The present study assesses the effect of public-private partnerships in energy and financial development on Brazil's ecological footprint and also takes into account the role of renewable energy and economic growth using data spanning from 1983 to 2017. The study utilized several techniques including autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) to examine the relationship between ecological footprint and the determinants, while the gradual shift causality test was utilized to capture the causal linkage between the series in the presence of a single structural break. The outcomes of the Maki co-integration test revealed evidence of a long-run association among the variables of interest. Furthermore, the results of the ARDL and DOLS tests revealed that economic growth and public and private investment in energy increase environmental degradation, while it is mitigated by both renewable energy and financial development. Moreover, the gradual shift causality test revealed a bidirectional causal linkage between ecological footprint and economic growth. The present study recommends the establishment of a forum that will foster public and private partnerships to enhance communication, which will promote collaboration on new initiatives involving green technological innovations.

Is there a tradeoff between financial globalization, economic growth, and environmental sustainability? An advanced panel analysis

In recent years, many empirical studies investigated the effects of globalization on the ecological footprint (EF). Most of these studies relied on the KOF index of globalization and studied the effects of total globalization and disaggregated impacts of economic, social, and political globalization on the EF. However, less attention has been given to financial globalization which can also influence the EF. Hence, this study investigates the association between financial globalization (FG), economic growth (GDP), and EF controlling population density (PD) in the selected West Asian and the Middle East (WAME) nations from 1990 to 2017. The study relied upon second-generation methods for checking stationary properties and Westerlund and other techniques to scrutinize cointegration. The evidence showed cointegration in the model. The long-run approximations from continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated bias corrected (CUP-BC) tests divulge that financial globalization is an important factor to promote ecological sustainability in the sample countries because it decreases EF. Population density exacerbates EF and worsens environmental deterioration in sample countries. The study detected the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) between EF and economic growth in the presence of financial globalization and population density. Besides, financial globalization Granger causes EF, while the feedback effect exists between EF and economic growth. Based on these results, WAME economies can accomplish ecological sustainability and sustainable development by enhancing their financial globalization levels.

Mitigating human-induced emissions in Argentina: role of renewables, income, globalization, and financial development

Achieving environmental sustainability has become a global initiative while addressing climate change and its effects. However, the role of energy production and consumption in economic development remains critical amidst environmental pollution. Thus, the need for innovation and clean energy alternatives is critical while pursuing sustainable development. This country-specific study focuses on Argentina, where economic growth trajectory is embedded with high CO₂ emissions. This study assesses the long-term and causal impact of financial development and renewables on environmental pollution while accounting for the role of economic development and globalization using yearly data spanning 1980 to 2017. A battery of econometric methods is applied to underscore the interaction between the parameters of interest. The findings of Maki and ARDL tests of cointegration alongside Kripfganz and Schneider critical approximation p-values affirm long-run equilibrium interaction between variables. The outcomes of autoregressive distributed lag, fully modified, and dynamic ordinary least squares demonstrate that while economic expansion dampens environmental quality-globalization and renewables improve the environment. This finding suggests pollution-driven economic growth trajectory in Argentina with high dependence on fossil fuels. Besides, the gradual shift causality test finds evidence of one-way causality from renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and globalization to CO₂ emissions. Argentina's pathway in achieving sustainable development requires gradual and inclusive economic shift towards green growth.

Asymmetric Impact of International Trade on Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions in MINT Nations

The association between carbon emissions and international trade has been examined thoroughly; however, consumption-based carbon emissions, which is adjusted for international trade, have not been studied extensively. Therefore, the present study assesses the asymmetric impact of trade (import and export) and economic growth in consumption-based carbon emissions (CCO2) using the MINT nations (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) as a case study. We applied the Nonlinear ARDL to assess this connection using dataset between 1990 and 2018. The outcomes from the BDS test affirmed the use of nonlinear techniques. Furthermore, the NARDL bounds test confirmed long-run association between CCO2 and exports, imports and economic growth. The outcomes from the NARDL long and short-run estimates disclosed that positive (negative) shocks in imports increase (decrease) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. Moreover, positive (negative) shocks in exports decrease (increase) CCO2 emissions in all the MINT nations. As expected, a positive shock in economic growth triggers CCO2 emissions while a negative shift does not have significant impact on CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. Furthermore, we applied the Gradual shift causality test and the outcomes disclose that imports and economic growth can predict CCO2 emissions in the MINT nations. The study outcomes have significant policy recommendations for policymakers in the MINT nations.

The Effect of Energy Consumption and Economic Growth on Environmental Sustainability in the GCC Countries: Does Financial Development Matter?

Achieving environmental sustainability whilst minimizing the climate change effect has become a global endeavor. Hence, this study examined the effect of energy consumption, economic growth, financial development, and globalization on CO2 emissions in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The research utilized a dataset stretching from 1995 to 2018. In a bid to investigate these associations, the study applied cross-sectional dependence (CSD), slope heterogeneity (SH), Pesaran unit root, Westerlund cointegration, cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (DH) causality approaches. The outcomes of the CSD and SH tests indicated that using the first-generation techniques produces misleading results. The panel unit root analysis unveiled that the series are I (1). Furthermore, the outcomes of the cointegration test revealed a long-run association between CO2 emissions and the regressors, suggesting evidence of cointegration. The findings of the CS-ARDL showed that economic growth and energy consumption decrease environmental sustainability, while globalization improves it. The study also validated the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for GCC economies. In addition, the results of the DH causality test demonstrated a feedback causality association between economic growth and CO2 emissions and between financial development and CO2 emissions. Moreover, there is a one-way causality from energy consumption and globalization to CO2 emissions in GCC economies. According to the findings, environmental pollution in GCC countries is output-driven, which means that it is determined by the amount of energy generated and consumed.

Dominance of Fossil Fuels in Japan's National Energy Mix and Implications for Environmental Sustainability

Despite the drive for increased environmental protection and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), coal, oil, and natural gas use continues to dominate Japan’s energy mix. In light of this issue, this research assessed the position of natural gas, oil, and coal energy use in Japan’s environmental mitigation efforts from the perspective of sustainable development with respect to economic growth between 1965 and 2019. In this regard, the study employs Bayer and Hanck cointegration, fully modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) to investigate these interconnections. The empirical findings from this study revealed that the utilization of natural gas, oil, and coal energy reduces the sustainability of the environment with oil consumption having the most significant impact. Furthermore, the study validates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in Japan. The outcomes of the Gradual shift causality showed that CO₂ emissions can predict economic growth, while oil, coal, and energy consumption can predict CO₂ emissions in Japan. Given Japan’s ongoing energy crisis, this innovative analysis provides valuable policy insights to stakeholders and authorities in the nation’s energy sector.