Is there a link between cognitive abilities and environmental awareness? Cross-national evidence

Organizational system thinking as a cognitive framework to meet climate targets

System thinking is a crucial cognitive framework to enable individual pro-environmental behavioral changes. Indeed, a large body of literature has shown a significant and positive association between individuals' system thinking capacities and perceptions of the threat posed by climate change. However, individual behavioral changes play a limited role in addressing climate change compared to large organizations involved in a significantly larger share of economic activities. Do organizations exhibit system thinking capacities? Here, we conjecture that system thinking is a cognitive framework observable at an aggregated group level and, therefore, organizations, not just individuals, can exhibit characteristic levels of system thinking. We conceptualize a definition of organizational system thinking and develop an empirical method to estimate it using a large body of textual data from business organizations. Then, we show that system thinking organizations are more likely to lower emissions and align them with the pathways required to meet the climate targets set by the Paris Agreement. Finally, we discussed the theoretical and policy implication of our study. Overall, our results suggest that system thinking is a relevant organization-level cognitive framework that can help organizations align their emissions with global climate targets.

The ecological impact assessment of globalization dimensions and human capital: a dynamic approach in the case of selected fossil fuel-rich countries

The aggravation of climatic damage, the rise in pollution, and global warming have prompted investigation of factors leading to the increase in human demand on natural resources. Numerous studies have dealt with the connections linking human action with the environmental impact, but this research field remains insufficiently documented. Human resources constitute the center of decision to reduce the ecological footprint, but studies on the impact of human capital and the social and human dimension of globalization on environmental sustainability have been insufficiently analyzed. Therefore, the aim of this study is to verify the capacity of human capital and the social dimension of globalization in addition to its political and economic ones to mitigate environmental degradation. The study referred to the FMOLS, DOLS, and PMG-ARDL methods applied to 13 fossil fuel-rich countries spanning the period 1992-2017 and applied a set of robustness tests based on the cross-section dependence test, unit root tests, and Johansen combined test. The findings, based on FMOLS and DOLS techniques, demonstrate that human capital exerts positive long-term influence upon ecological footprint in the case of fossil fuel-rich countries. Globalization does not significantly impact ecological footprint: only political globalization is able to decrease deterioration in the environment, and neither economic nor social globalizations have an effect. When applying the PMG-ARDL approach, the results supported those derived from FMOLS and DOLS methods and revealed that human capital positively affects ecological footprint in the long term but without significant short-term effects. Our results also showed that globalization is beneficial for high-income countries and harmful for middle-income countries in terms of mitigating environmental degradation. So, the reduction of the ecological footprint in the fossil fuel-rich economies remains dependent on the actions taken by political decision-makers at the international level and on the awareness of human capital of the urgency of mitigating environmental degradation. A set of recommendations in favor of environmental sustainability, in particular those relating to human action and which can serve decision-makers, were formulated in this study.

Does Subjective Well-Being Promote Pro-Environmental Behaviors? Evidence from Rural Residents in China

The spontaneous pro-environmental behavior (PEB) of rural residents is essential for rural environmental governance. Existing studies have primarily focused on the impact of objective factors on individual PEB, while less attention has been paid to the role of subjective factors, such as rural residents’ subjective well-being, in shaping such behaviors. Based on the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data, this study evaluates the impact of subjective well-being on the PEB of rural residents. The results show that subjective well-being significantly promoted the PEB in both the private sphere with reciprocity and the public sphere with altruistic attributes. Subjective well-being affected PEB mainly by enhancing rural residents’ social interaction and reciprocity with others and raising their fraternity and altruism. Moreover, the positive effect was mainly driven by women and individuals with more environmental knowledge. Therefore, enhancing rural residents’ subjective well-being is not only an important development goal, but also the starting point and foothold of solving the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection and promoting social harmony.

Internet Usage, Human Capital and CO2 Emissions: A Global Perspective

Under the background of dealing with global warming, the widespread use of the internet provides a new idea for countries to develop a low-carbon economy at the right time. Based on the panel data of 70 countries from 1995–2018, this paper empirically analyzes the relationship between internet usage, human capital, and CO2 emissions under different levels of economic development by using system GMM and a threshold regression model. The results show that internet usage and human capital are essential drivers of low-carbon economy development, and human capital can inversely regulate the impact of internet usage on CO2 emissions. Internet usage can increase CO2 emissions when human capital is below the threshold value, and it can significantly inhibit CO2 emissions when human capital exceeds the threshold value. In other words, with the accumulation of human capital, the effect of internet usage on CO2 emissions has an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship. Furthermore, the empirical analysis of high-income and middle- and low-income countries indicates the hindrance effect of internet usage on CO2 emissions is more evident in high-income countries. For both the high-income and middle- and low-income countries, the relationship between internet usage and CO2 emissions generally shows an inverted “U-shaped” relationship, first rising and then falling as human capital accumulates.

Determinants of ecological and carbon footprints to assess the framework of environmental sustainability in BRICS countries: A panel ARDL and causality estimation model

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effects of financial development, human capital, globalization, and renewable energy consumption on ecological and carbon footprint. For this purpose, the data was collected from four countries i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, and China for 20 years (1997-2016). The 20 years panel data collected for these countries was analyzed through "auto-regressive distributed lag" (ARDL). Findings of this study reveal that human capital is a significant positive determinant of environmental degradation in short run and long run while renewable energy consumption is a significant negative determinant of environmental degradation in short run and long run. Findings further reveal that globalization significantly reduces environmental degradation in short run and long run. Furthermore, findings show that the financial development significantly positively affects the environmental degradation in short run and long run. Therefore, renewable energy consumption and globalization are found to be negative predictors of ecological footprint and carbon footprint while human capital and financial development are found to be positive predictors of ecological footprint and carbon footprint. These findings are expected to be great contribution to the literature and practice, as they will help researchers and policymakers to realize the relative importance of energy, educational, economic, and trade policies in determining the environmental degradation.

The Difference of Knowledge and Behavior of College Students on Plastic Waste Problems

Environmental education in the academic level is the most effective way to increase environmental awareness of college students particularly in handling plastic waste problems. This study aimed to compare the student’s knowledge and behavior on plastic waste problem between environmental science and social science students and to examine the correlation of knowledge and behavior to reduce plastic waste. Through survey of 98 students of National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, we compared the students’ knowledge and behavior on plastic waste problems by t-Test and Chi-square analysis, and we used Kendall’s rank correlation to evaluate the correlation of knowledge and behavior. This study found that the differences in majors resulted in the significant differences in knowledge on the negative impacts of plastic waste, where the students who are majoring in environmental sciences have higher score than the students in social science. Relating behaviors, the differences in majors also resulted in the significant different behaviors to reduce plastic usage, where the students with major in environmental sciences have the better behavior to reduce plastic usage for daily life than the social science students. These behaviors were shown in purchasing products with plastic packaging, preparing shopping bag, re-using plastic bags, taking own meal box, and having food on the sites to reduce single used plastic package. This study also found the positive correlation between environmental knowledge on plastic waste and behavior to reduce plastic waste in the daily life.

Patience and climate change mitigation: Global evidence

Complex policy problems such as climate mitigation have an economic, political, and social dimension. We focus on one of the social dimensions of climate change mitigation: the link between society-wide patience (future orientation) and adoption of public policies to combat global greenhouse gas emissions. Theoretically, future-oriented societies are more likely to accept current costs in exchange for long-run benefits posed by climate change mitigation than impatient (present-oriented) ones, cooperate in efforts to combat climate change, and support future-oriented governments. We evaluate this claim using evidence from a cross-section of countries. Controlling for other theoretically relevant factors, we find that patient societies are more likely to adopt public policies to mitigate climate change.

Mitigating degradation and emissions in China: The role of environmental sustainability, human capital and renewable energy

China's carbon-embedded growth trajectory is gradually becoming a burden to environmental sustainability, hence, requires much attention. The complexity of human capital attributed emissions coupled with fossil fuel inclined energy utilization for industrialization underscores the failure of China to meet its mitigation target. We developed a policy-driven conceptual tool based on disaggregate energy utilization, human capital, trade, income level and natural resource exploitation in a carbon and environmental degradation function. Using a battery of statistics and econometric techniques such as neural network, SIMPLS, U test, dynamic ARDL Simulations, and Prais-Winsten first-order autoregressive [AR(1)] regression with robust standard errors, we examined the theme based on a data spanning 1961-2016. The study demonstrates that fossil fuel energy consumption and human capital are conducive catalysts for climate change. The instantaneous increase in renewable energy, environmental sustainability and income level has a diminishing effect on emissions and environmental degradation. The environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is validated in both emissions and degradation function - at a turning point of US$ 5469.79 and US$ 5863.70, respectively. The study highlights that the over-dependence on fossil fuel energy and natural resources for economic development, carbon-intensive trade and carbon-embedded human capital, thwart efforts to mitigating climate change and its impacts. Thus, the onus of responsibility for achieving a cleaner environment in China depends majorly on governmental policies that favour or dampens environmental sustainability.