The role of energy security and economic complexity in renewable energy development: evidence from G7 countries

Regulatory pathways to green energy transition for sustainable environment: The fostering role of human rights, banking sector development, economic complexity, and economic freedom

Green energy transition directly contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13, which are among the 17 development goals determined by the United Nations. However, what are the determinants of this green energy transition? Researchers' answers to this question will assist in formulating policy prescriptions that will enable concrete steps toward achieving these goals. This study investigates how the development of the banking sector, human rights, economic complexity, and economic freedom affect the green energy transition in China, which is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases globally but is also one of the leading countries in renewable energy production. The study covers the years 1995-2022. Advanced time series analysis methods were employed, and robust results were reported. According to the findings, Economic Freedom, Human Rights, and Economic Complexity have increased the transition to green energy in China. No effect of banking sector development was found. The country should improve economic freedom and human rights and increase knowledge/innovation-based production to accelerate China's transition to green energy and contribute to environmental sustainability.

Evaluating strategies for developing renewable energies considering economic, social, and environmental aspects: a case study

Due to fast industrial expansion and the increasing population in Vietnam, this country is confronting a mounting lack of energy. While this country has considerable renewable energy (RE) potentials, including wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower sources, it has yet to exploit them entirely because of a lack of proper planning. This research aimed to find and assess solutions for encouraging RE growth in Vietnam. RE development solutions were formulated through SWOT analysis and evaluated in terms of their social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The SWARA approach weighed the strategy evaluation criteria. The most influential sub-criteria were initial investment cost, reduction of adverse environmental impacts, and natural capacity of the region, with weights of 0.155, 0.127, and 0.114, respectively. Strategy evaluation was performed using the Gray ARAS, and the results were validated with the Gray COPRAS, the Gray TOPSIS-G, and the Gray MABAC. In the strategy ranking, the top strategy is to reduce the cost of renewable power generation. This can be achieved by using advanced technologies and promoting cooperation between domestic and foreign industries and companies. Increasing domestic and foreign investment in RE infrastructure by providing financial facilities for investors, developing domestic and international cooperation, and creating a competitive environment between different companies to reduce electricity production costs were the most suitable strategies.

Energy transition and environmental stability prospects for OECD economies: The prominence role of environmental governance, and economic complexity: Does the geopolitical risk matter?

The global increase in temperature and climate change signals the need for humanity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adopt eco-friendly lifestyles. The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in the UAE emphasized this, urging nations to commit to the Paris Agreement and pursue a greener, carbon-free future. In recent decades, climate change has become a critical issue, primarily because of the extensive use of fossil fuels and conventional energy resources. Economic growth has led to an increase in energy consumption and widespread environmental damage. The present study empirically explores whether any changes in environmental governance, economic complexity, geopolitical risk, and the interaction term influence energy transition and environmental stability in OECD economies over the period 1990-2021. Novel econometric methods, including Westerlund co-integration and the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), are employed to address complexities such as cross-sectional dependency and panel causality. The key findings from the MMQR technique showed a positive link between environmental governance and economic complexity in driving sustainable energy transitions, thus bolstering environmental resilience in OECD countries. However, economic complexity counterbalances environmental stability. Significantly, geopolitical risk acts as a moderating variable, enhancing the effects of governance and complexity on sustainable energy practices and environmental stability. Based on these insights, this study recommends strategic initiatives, including investment in eco-friendly technologies, to fast-track the shift to clean energy and strengthen environmental resilience in OECD countries. These strategies align with the broader objectives of global sustainable development, offering a path towards a greener and more sustainable future.

Exploring the relationship between financial inclusion and natural resource utilization in QUAD economies

This study delves into the intricate relationship between financial inclusion (FIC) and economic development (ED) within the context of QUAD nations, including the USA, Australia, India, and Japan. Using panel data spanning from 2000 to 2021, the research investigates this relationship by employing various statistical techniques. Initially, the Jarque-Bera (JB) normality test highlights the non-normal distribution of the data. Furthermore, the findings reveal varying slopes and cross-sectional interdependence among the variables, while the panel unit root test confirms their non-stationarity. Consequently, the adoption of the method of moment quantile regression is deemed appropriate for the analysis. The study's results uncover a negative association between FIC and total natural resource rent (TNRR), while renewable-energy usage (REU), ED, and foreign direct investment (FDI) exhibit a positive relationship with FIC. Notably, the impact of TNRR on FIC diminishes at higher quantiles, indicating a diminishing effect. Similarly, the influence of REU and ED on FIC also decreases at higher quantiles, suggesting a reduced contribution as other sectors gain prominence. Conversely, FDI positively affects FIC, with a more pronounced impact observed at higher quantiles. Policy recommendations for QUAD nations include enhancing FIC initiatives, promoting REU, fostering balanced ED, attracting FDI, and encouraging collaborative efforts among the nations. Furthermore, it is imperative for developing nations to implement widespread financial literacy programs specifically targeting vulnerable and marginalized populations, equipping individuals with essential knowledge to make informed financial decisions and gain access to formal financial services.

Dynamic interrelations between environmental innovations, human capital, and energy security in Vietnam: new evidence from an extended TVP-VAR approach

This study employs an extended joint connectedness approach, as well as a time-varying parameter vector autoregression technique (ETVP-VAR), to characterize the interrelationships among six factors, namely, renewable energy, environmental innovations (EI), gross domestic product (GDP), human capital, energy consumption, and energy productivity (EP), from 1995 to 2019 in Vietnam. Taking a holistic view, it appears that both energy consumption and GDP are net recipients of contagion shocks. In addition, renewable energy, as well as environmental innovations, is critical net transmitters during our studied period. From 1995 to 2003, human capital constantly acted as a crucial net shock absorber before switching to a crucial net transmitter after that year. With a significant exception around 1997, this variable is mostly a shock transmitter when it comes to energy production. Pairwise connectedness reveals that renewable energy consistently appears as a shock transmitter to GDP, human capital, energy consumption, and energy productivity. That being said, environmental innovations consistently contribute to renewable and green energy volatility by transmitting shocks from other markets.

The influence of shadow economy, environmental policies and geopolitical risk on renewable energy: A comparison of high- and middle-income countries

Given the alarming rate of climate change and environmental degradation, major countries are seeking ways to curtail environmental damage and attain sustainability in the future. In the quest for a green economy, countries are motivated to adopt renewable energy that can assist in resource conservation and efficiency. Accordingly, this study examines the diverse effects of the underground economy, environmental policy strictness, geopolitical risk, gross domestic product, carbon emissions, population, and oil prices on renewable energy for 30 high- and middle-income countries from 1990 to 2018. The empirical outcomes based on quantile regression document significant variations across two country groups. For instance, for high-income countries, the shadow economy has a detrimental effect across all quantiles but it is statistically significant at the top quantiles. Nonetheless, the effect of the shadow economy on renewable energy is detrimental and significant statistically across all quantiles for middle-income countries. In the context of environmental policy stringency, the effect is positive across both country groups, though there is heterogeneity in outcomes. Geopolitical risk has a positive influence on the deployment of renewable energy for high-income countries but negatively impacts renewables for middle-income countries. As far as policy suggestions are concerned, the policymakers of both high- and middle-income countries need to take steps to constrain the growth of the shadow economy by adopting effective policy strategies. Policies need to be implemented for middle income-countries to reduce the unfavorable effect of geopolitical uncertainty. The findings of this study contribute to a better and more precise understanding of factors shaping the role of renewables whereby the energy crisis would be mitigated.

Impact of technology and economic complexity on environmental pollution and economic growth in developing and developed countries: using IPAT and STIRPAT models

These days, the most serious threats to the global economy, society, and humans are climate change and global warming, mainly rooted in the sharp increase of economic activities and their concomitant greenhouse gas emissions. This paper aims to investigate how economic complexity and various sectors of the economy affect environmental and economic development. This study employs a modified IPAT and STIRPAT model to investigate the relationship of environmental pollution and economic development with economic complexity, economic structure, and technology in 21 MENA and 34 OECD countries between 1971-2017. Our findings show that economic complexity and industrialization positively affect economic growth in both groups of countries. However, economic complexity and industrialization affect environmental pollution in MENA and developing countries positively but in OECD and developed countries negatively. This relationship accepts the Environmental Kuznets Hypothesis for the nexus of economic complexity and environmental pollution. According to the findings, policymakers in developing countries should increase environmental considerations in their development planning. Also, developed countries should assist developing countries in their endeavors to decrease environmental contamination by supplying technology transfer and financial aid.