Modeling financial development, tourism, energy consumption, and environmental quality: Is there any discrepancy between developing and developed countries?

Greening the workforce in higher educational institutions: The pursuance of environmental performance

The research aims to examine the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in the university's environmental performance. Furthermore, this research also focuses on the mediating effect of green commitment and pro-environmental behavior. It also aims to check how green self-efficacy moderates the relationship between green commitment and pro-environmental behavior. The paper opted for a quantitative design using the convenience sampling technique/approach by collecting the data through a structured questionnaire on 208 academic staff currently employed in the university. The data were collected from August until December 2021 on two campuses (Gujranwala, Jhelum) of the University of Punjab in Pakistan. The current study results give empirical insights that show how green human resource management practices lead to environmental performance at a greater level in a university setting. Study results proposed that change in behavior of employees through human resource management practices can ultimately affect the organization's environmental performance. Further results also demonstrate that green self-efficacy moderates the relationship between green commitment and pro-environmental behavior. This study highlights the role of the university staff's level of commitment and self-efficacy, which are beneficial for enhancing the university's environmental performance. The originality of this study fills the gap in how green commitment mediates the relationship of green human resource management and environmental performance further; it fulfills the gap of green self-efficacy that moderates the relationship of pro-environmental behavior and green commitment. The study sheds light on green human resource management practices in the higher education sector. It emphasizes the vital role of academic staff's environmentally conscious behavior in enhancing a university's environmental performance. The further study highlighted the increasing concept of green human resource management as a set of building the ability, enhancing motivation, and providing opportunities to influence workers' pro-environmental behaviors. The conclusion of the current research was capable of validating the positive concerns of green GHRM, behaviors, and commitments for environmental performance.

Impact of energy and industrial structure on environmental quality and urbanization: evidence from a panel of BRICS countries

Global sustainable development demands boosting renewable energy and optimizing industrial structures. This study employs a panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to examine the dynamic relationship between energy structure, industrial structure, environmental quality, and urbanization in the BRICS countries from 1990 to 2021. Energy structure, industrial structure, environmental quality, and urbanization cointegrate empirically. Energy mix optimization and industrial structure upgrades can improve environmental quality. Energy enhancements also supported urbanization. Accelerating industrial change could adversely impact urbanization. The impulse response results demonstrate that expanding renewable energy and tertiary industries such as financial and service boost environmental quality and urbanization. The variance decomposition investigation reveals significant "path dependence" in reducing carbon emissions and increasing urbanization. Finally, based on the findings, policy insights for enhancing environmental quality and fostering urbanization are laid out and disputed, with long-term implications for environmental managers and urban planners.

Socioeconomic determinants of environmental efficiency: the case of the European Union

The study's main objective is to assess and evaluate the models of socioeconomic determinants of environmental efficiency in the European Union countries from 2010 to 2018. The two-step data envelopment analysis is implemented, using both constant and variable returns to scale assumption. Moreover, the results of the model of environmental efficiency determinants from four areas-tourism, circular economy, energy and resources use and quality of life-are presented. Based on our findings, it can be concluded that it is necessary to develop the concept of sustainable tourism because the enormous increase in foreign tourists harms environmental efficiency. It is also necessary to gradually transform economies into less energy-intensive towards knowledge-based economies. The positive impact of measures related to the pain of the circular economy was also demonstrated. In conclusion, we present several recommendations for EU policies concerning the current economic and energy situation.

Sustainable development of West African economies to achieve environmental quality

The deterioration of environmental quality spurred on by rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the main threat to reducing carbon footprint. Africa has recently been identified as having experienced excessive temperatures above pre-industrial standards. Despite its lower GHG emissions, Africa continues to be among the most impacted areas of the world by global warming. However, this research scrutinizes the effect of human capital and trade openness on the ecological footprint (ECF) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions using data from West Africa from 1995 to 2016. The research used dynamic ordinary least squares, fully modified ordinary least squares, and paired Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality tests for its assessment. The study's findings are as follows: (1) The study found that human capital and trade openness decrease the ecological footprint in West Africa; (2) globalization reduces CO₂ emissions while also increasing the ecological footprint; (3) the analysis reveals that natural resources and the population improve environmental quality in West Africa, while biocapacity reduces the ecological footprint and improves CO₂ emissions in the region; and (4) the study revealed the bidirectional causality between biocapacity, the population, and ECF. The study also revealed the bidirectional causality between biocapacity, population, human capital, natural resources, and CO₂ emissions, while ecological footprint is unidirectionally causally related to globalization, human capital, and trade capital. Unidirectional causality runs from the ecological footprint, globalization, and trade openness to CO₂ emissions. To ensure their countries have a long-term future, policymakers in West Africa should take action to limit overexploitation of natural resources and encourage people to live more sustainably. The study suggested that West African countries adopt "green growth" policies and improve technology to help their economies and the environment.

Exploring the mediating role of environmental strategy, green innovations, and transformational leadership: the impact of corporate social responsibility on environmental performance

This study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on environmental performance by utilizing data collected from ten big industrial organizations operating in Lahore, Pakistan. The research data was organized using the cross-sectional process. Of the 316 questionnaires completed by employees, 226 were considered valid, and these responses were used for further PLS analysis. The findings of the research indicate CSR has a moderate impact on environmental performance. Furthermore, the result revealed that green innovation, green capability, environmental strategy, and green transformational leadership are a better ecological performance example that could mediate CSR and environmental performance. This research study postulates the existing resource-based view (RBV) theory for overall directors of industrial organizations and representatives to achieve and manage CSR, green innovation, green capability, environmental strategy, and green transformational leadership to find optimal environmental performance. Thorough study will provide valuable inputs to the overall directors and managers of the enormous industrial sector to support their internal strategies such as CSR, green innovation, green capability, environmental strategy, and green transformational leadership to expand the environmental performance (to help directors, managers, policymakers, and executives to take appropriate/profitable decisions in the future).

Determinants of renewable energy sources in Pakistan: An overview

For successive economic growth of any society, sustainable energy plays a pivotal role. Considering this view, developing countries are facing serious challenges of energy at the present time. However, policymakers have outlined numerous policies to satisfy energy demand but still remain incapable to fill the gap between demand and supply. At a halt, 11% of the world population lacks access to different formulae of energy supply and access. Additionally, in different time periods, distinct policies have erupted for the progress of renewable energy. It includes especially those households of the far-flung areas having no gas and electricity availability. However, the basis of this research study is to determine the significant renewable energy source for Pakistan's economy with the economic benefits such as job creation in energy sector. This research study aims in finding ways to secure energy supplies and achieving economic benefits. The research study concludes by engaging renewable energy technologies with the least operational and externality cost that is the utmost choice in the future. In policy perspective, Pakistani government should take actions in favor of renewable energy and technological innovation that necessitates biomass resources to be tied to non-sustainable prolonged investments.

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.

The impact of environmental regulations on export trade at provincial level in China: evidence from panel quantile regression

Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper constructs a quantile regression econometric model to analyze whether China's environmental regulation has an impact on export trade and to verify whether the Porter hypothesis has been valid in China in recent years. The results show that in the short term, environmental regulations have a restraining effect on export trade, while in the long run, due to the existence of innovation efficiency, environmental regulations will change from having a restraining effect to a promoting effect on export trade. Strict environmental regulations will reduce the production cost of Chinese products, further improve the export competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, and promote export trade. The empirical results verify the conclusion that the Porter hypothesis is confirmed in China. The following three suggestions are proposed for China's exports to promote the win-win of China's green development and export trade: promote the realization of international and domestic double circulation, avoid becoming "pollution shelters" and support technological innovation in environmental protection industries.

The cyclical impact of green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions in BRICS economies

This paper explored the asymmetrical relationships between green and sustainable technology research and environmental sustainability among the BRICS states from 1990 to 2018. The data was analyzed by second- and third-generation economic techniques such as slope heterogeneity and cross-section independence test, unit root test, structural break unit root test, panel cointegration with structural breaks cointegration tests, cross-section autoregressive distributed lags technique, augmented mean group, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test. First, the results validated a long-run cointegration among variables. Second, the results showed that renewable energy consumption and positive shocks to green and sustainable technology research are proper to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions (short- and long-run). Third, gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, exports, and negative shocks to green and sustainable technology research increase carbon dioxide emissions. Fourth, the nexus between green and sustainable technology research and carbon dioxide emissions was counter-cyclical during economic expansion and contraction periods. Fifth, the impact of positive shocks to green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions was more than the impact of negative shocks to green and sustainable technology research on carbon dioxide emissions.

Forecasting carbon emissions due to electricity power generation in Bahrain

Global warming and climate change have become one of the most embarrassing and explosive problems/challenges all over the world, especially in third-world countries. It is due to a rapid increase in industrialization and urbanization process that has given the boost to the volume of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. In this regard, carbon dioxide (CO2) is considered a significant driver of GHGs and is the major contributing factor for global warming. Considering the goal of mitigating environmental pollution, this research has applied multiple methods such as neural network time series nonlinear autoregressive, Gaussian Process Regression, and Holt's methods for forecasting CO2 emission. It attempts to forecast the CO2 emission of Bahrain. These methods are evaluated for performance. The neural network model has the root mean square errors (RMSE) of merely 0.206, while the Gaussian Process Regression Rational Quadratic (GPR-RQ) Model has RMSE of 1.0171, and Holt's method has RMSE of 1.4096. Therefore, it can be concluded that the neural network time series nonlinear autoregressive model has performed better for forecasting the CO2 emission in the case of Bahrain.

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.

The role of remittance inflow and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in the environment: Accounting ecological footprint indicator for top remittance-receiving countries

This study examines the impact of remittance inflow and foreign direct investment on ecological footprint in top ten remittance-receiving counties in the presence of economic growth and renewable and non-renewable energy under the framework of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis over the period of 1990-2018 by employing the continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and the continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC) estimators. The results show that remittance inflow, foreign direct investment, and non-renewable energy utilization affect the ecological footprint positively while renewable energy utilization negatively impacts on ecological footprint. This study also supports the pollution haven hypothesis and inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. The turning point obtained from long-run regression was found to be approximately $1368.65 outside of the sample period. Besides, the results are robust to various robustness analyses that we have executed for inspection of the reliability of our main findings. Finally, this study presents important policy implications with respect to the top remittance-receiving countries.

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.

Tourism-induced pollution emission amidst energy mix: evidence from Nigeria

In recent years, there is concerted efforts to boost the tourism industry in Nigeria, and regulatory bodies were created for the tourism industry. This study is contributing to the ongoing debate on the tourism-energy-environment literature. Thus, we explore the linkage between tourism development, energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission, and renewable energy consumption in Nigeria for the period of 1995-2016. The present study leverages on Bounds testing to cointegration in a carbon-income function environment while incorporating renewable energy consumption to the econometric framework. Subsequently, autoregressive distributed lag methodology alongside dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) is utilized for robustness of estimations. Empirical results give credence to the energy-induced emission hypothesis in Nigeria. This outcome is suggestive to policymakers as fossil fuel-based energy consumption deplete the quality of the environment. Similarly, the study also affirms the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) phenomenon. The emphasis on Nigerian growth trajectory (real income level) relative to her quality of environment via the channel of economic development and energy consumption from fossil-fuel source is indicated. On the other hand, renewable energy consumption in Nigeria shows significant ability to reduce emission level in Nigeria. This result is insightful, which implies that environmental quality is not threatened with an increase in tourist arrivals, hence tourism does not degrade the environment but is sustainable to the environment. Interesting and laudable for stakeholders' international tourism arrival did not deplete the quality of the environment. The plausible explanation is attributed to the scale of tourism in Nigeria which at the moment is still low or much more there is caution/awareness on ecotourism for sustainable environment.

A step towards sustainable path: The effect of globalization on China's carbon productivity from panel threshold approach

Surfacing the stress of global CO₂ emission reduction and the change into a low-emission economy has become one of the prominent economic concerns in the twenty-first century. The essence of evolving a low-emission economy is to raise carbon productivity that can be estimated as the cost-effective paybacks of CO₂ emissions. A panel threshold model was applied to approximate the threshold effect of globalization on carbon productivity under the development of human capital by using the panel data of thirty provinces of China from 2009 to 2017. The empirical findings demonstrate that China's carbon productivity increases, while economic growth shape moves towards sustainable development with low-carbon emission. Moreover, the driving force of globalization on carbon productivity is not tediously decreasing/increasing, but it has a double threshold effect of human capital. In line with this, this study finding found a single and double threshold of 9.3478 and 10.8800, respectively, as a benchmark where the relationship turns positive. The empirical findings have suggested several policy implications for the Chinese Government, policymakers, and regulatory authorities regarding this critical issue.

Revisiting the Role of Fiscal Policy, Financial Development, and Foreign Direct Investment in Reducing Environmental Pollution during Globalization Mode: Evidence from Linear and Nonlinear Panel Data Approaches

Fiscal policy is a crucial government tool for influencing and managing the national economy and creating a strong incentive for low carbon investment. Previous literature has reputable evidence that improving fiscal policy enhances environmental quality. However, the literature fails to classify the exact turning level (threshold point) below/above which the association may be negative or positive. In this regard, this research investigates the nexus between fiscal policy, foreign direct investment, financial development, trade openness, urban population, gross capital formation, labour force, and CO2 emissions in the era of globalization. The panel data set contained 105 countries over the period from 1990 to 2016. The empirical findings are estimated through linear and nonlinear panel data approaches such as fully modified ordinary least square and panel threshold regression. The subsequent findings are established: first, fiscal policy and globalization significantly increase environmental pollution. Second, the empirical results confirm the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHV). Third, financial development and gross fixed capital formation are also considered some of the most crucial indicators to increase pollution levels. Fourth, trade openness, urban population, and labour force improve environmental quality. Fifth, panel threshold regression discovers that countries maintain a minimum level of fiscal policy at −1.2889. Based on these empirical findings, this study suggests that policymakers and governments of these countries should take steps to restructure their industrial sector and design macroeconomic-level carbon-free policies to support the implementation of low-energy-intensive and lower carbon production technologies.