An empirical analysis of the non-linear effects of natural gas, nuclear energy, renewable energy and ICT-Trade in leading CO2 emitter countries: Policy towards CO2 mitigation and economic sustainability

Nuclear energy generation's impact on the CO2 emissions and ecological footprint among European Union countries

This study employs Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares, Common Correlated Effects and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality techniques to investigate the environmental impacts of nuclear energy generation in European Union countries from 1990 to 2022. The ongoing debate within the European Union and the empirical contradictions in the literature, coupled with the overall singular-dimensionality surrounding the impacts of nuclear energy on the environment, necessitate a broader and comprehensive examination of its effects across various environmental dimensions. These dimensions include the presence of CO2 emissions and the ecological footprint generated. The findings reveal that nuclear energy adoption by countries tends to affect CO2 emissions but this relationship goes from CO2 to nuclear energy consumption as per the causality test, while the ecological footprint variable does not exhibit a causal relationship with nuclear energy consumption. We estimated that a higher presence of air pollutants promotes the generation of nuclear energy as an alternative to fossil fuel energy sources. The study highlights that while nuclear energy generation produces no air pollution, it does impose significant land use requirements, potentially leading to ecosystem degradation. Factors such as uranium extraction, nuclear waste management, disposal, and accidents contribute to this impact. Further research is needed to understand the specific mechanisms and factors contributing to the observed environmental degradation associated with nuclear energy generation.

The crucial roles of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality in achieving environmental sustainability in BRICS

The BRICS countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-are committed to achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, which focuses on mitigating climate change. To attain this goal, it is crucial to emphasize the significance of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality. This study contributes to the literature by examining the potential role of these factors in environmental sustainability in the BRICS economies from 2000 to 2021, utilizing cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) estimation and other novel econometric techniques. Accordingly, the study suggests that BRICS governments and policymakers prioritize the use of ICT in the industrial and institutional sectors to achieve faster environmental sustainability in the short-run, as per the CS-ARDL results. However, the study advises caution in the long-term as the interaction between ICT and renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality may not favour environmental quality. Although the renewable energy sources interaction with ICT may not yield immediate progress, strong measures need to be taken to ensure that short-term gains are not nullified. In conclusion, the study highlights the potential of ICT, renewable energy sources, industrialization, and institutional quality in achieving environmental sustainability in the BRICS countries, while recommending cautious measures in the long run to safeguard the progress made.

Can technological progress, renewable and nuclear energy consumption be the remedy for global climate crises? An examination of leading OECD countries

Energy is the most critical input for production and consumption. The inputs of energy cause irreversible damage to the environment. The studies carried out to reduce the environmental impact of the methods used in energy production are extremely valuable. This study aims to reveal the effects of technological development, nuclear energy consumption, and renewable energy use on environmental degradation. The patent numbers, technological development, GDP, renewable energy, and nuclear energy consumption data of 16 OECD countries covering the years 1996-2019 were used in the empirical analysis. The findings of panel FMOLS and DOLS methods reveal that technological progress, nuclear, and renewable energy consumption significantly reduce CO2 emissions. In line with these findings, critical policy implications have been suggested.

Unraveling the interplay between globalization, financial development, economic growth, greenhouse gases, human capital, and renewable energy uptake in Indonesia: multiple econometric approaches

Addressing global environmental concerns requires the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources. More research is needed to examine the relationships between renewable energy (RE) and globalization, economic growth, and environmental quality in Indonesia. Therefore, we examined how renewable energy usage in Indonesia has changed due to the dynamic effects of globalization, financial development, and environmental quality. Time-series data were analyzed using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to test for cointegration and long-run/short-run dynamics between 1990 and 2020. In addition to ARDL bounds testing, we used the Johansen and Engle-Granger cointegration methods for confirmation. Globalization, financial progress, human capital, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic expansion have favorable long- and short-term effects on renewable energy sources. Globalization has enabled Indonesia to expand trade, FDI, and financial investment. It has also increased energy-efficient technology use due to environmental policies. The computed results are robust enough to substitute estimators, such as dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). We recommend the implementation of policies that support financial and environmental development by utilizing renewable resources and increasing investments in renewable energy ventures.

Digital transformation and carbon intensity reduction in transportation industry: Empirical evidence from a global perspective

Digital transformation has become an inevitable trend in industrial development, but research on its environmental benefits has not been conducted in-depth. This paper focuses on the impact and mechanisms of the digital transformation of the transportation industry on its carbon intensity. Empirical tests are conducted based on the panel data of 43 economies from 2000 to 2014. The results show that the digital transformation of the transportation industry reduces its carbon intensity, but only the digital transformation that relies on domestic digital sources is significant. Second, technological progress, upgrading the industry's internal structure and improving energy consumption are the main channels through which the digital transformation of the transportation industry reduces its carbon intensity. Third, in terms of subdividing industries, the digital transformation of basic transportation has a more significant effect on reducing carbon intensity. For segmentation digitization, the carbon intensity reduction from digital infrastructure is more significant. This paper serves as a reference for countries to formulate development policies for the transportation industry and implement the Paris Agreement.

How do energy technology innovation, financial inclusion, and digital trade help to achieve carbon neutrality targets?

The ultimate goal of carbon neutrality objectives is to bring greenhouse gas emissions down to a point where they are no longer a factor in escalating climate change and global warming. Adopting sustainable habits, technologies, and investments may be facilitated and accelerated by energy technology innovation, digitalization trade, and financial inclusion, which can substantially influence reaching carbon neutrality objectives. However, none of the past studies have examined the role of energy technology innovation, financial inclusion, and digital trade on the carbon neutrality targets in top polluted economies. To fill this vacuum, this study aims to investigate the effect of energy technology innovation, financial inclusion, and digital trade on carbon neutrality in the top 40 polluted economies across Asia, America, and Europe from 2004-2021. Two renowned econometric techniques are used for empirical analysis, including Two Stage Least Square (2SLS) and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The estimates of energy innovation, ICT trade, digital financial inclusion, foreign direct investment, and research and development spending highlight the adverse influence on carbon emissions in global, Asian, American, and European samples. Conversely, the per capita income and foreign direct investment cause carbon emissions to increase in Asia, America, and Europe. Thus, policy experts in top polluted economies should target an integrated policy with a central focus on energy innovation, digital trade, and financial inclusiveness to achieve carbon neutrality.

Prospects of recycling from end-of-life of Li-ion batteries on alleviating materials demand-supply gap in new electric vehicles in Asia

The acceptance of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is continuously increasing to mitigate CO2 emissions, resulting in an increase in the future material demand for LIBs. Therefore, the proper handling of End-of-life (EOL) BEV batteries requires careful attention to mitigate the supply chain issues for future LIBs materials, especially in Asia. A system dynamics model assessment was performed to evaluate the EOL of LIBs by considering the dynamic lifespan, recovery rate, and economic value under three growth rate scenarios in Asia from 2022 to 2030, depending on the battery chemistry over time. We find that comparing three different scenarios to materials demand, the result showed that materials demand for LIBs is greater in higher scenarios as compared with lower and reference scenarios. Moreover, in the low scenario, the nickel demand and recovery from end-of-life LIBs BEVs will achieve 244.0 and 43.28 kt in 2030. Based on the dynamic economic evaluation, an overall, higher potential economic value of all materials would achieve around 1471 million USD in 2030 in the low scenario. This study manifested that recycling LIBs materials has enormous economic potential and would be a step towards economic sustainability, especially in Asia in the near future.

Role of information and communication technology, economic growth, financial development and renewable energy consumption towards the sustainable environment: Insights from ASEAN countries

The objective of this study is to examine the effect of information and communication technology, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and financial development on carbon dioxide emissions in selected ASEAN countries. The PMG (Pooled Mean Group) estimator is used to panel data from 1991 to 2020 to examine both the short-run and long-run impacts. The findings indicate that ICT and financial development contribute to environmental deterioration, in the long run, their influence on CO2 emissions in the short run is insignificant. On the other hand, the use of renewable energy has a long- and short-term favorable impact on environmental quality. Furthermore, it is discovered that economic growth increases CO2 emissions, but squared economic growth reduces CO2 emissions, confirming the inverted U-shaped EKC theory. The Granger causality test indicates that renewable energy and CO2 emissions are bidirectionally causal, but information and communication technology and financial development are unidirectionally causal to CO2 emissions. According to the findings, the governments of these nations must reduce carbon emissions from internet usage and invest in renewable energy sources to control environmental deterioration.

Assessing the role of sports economics and green supply chain management for the coordinative and coupling development of China's green economic growth

The significance of the sports economy to the national economy is growing as the country develops rapidly. The term "sports economy" is used to describe the economic activities that are directly or indirectly tied to sports. This work introduces a multi-objective optimization model for a green supply chain management system, intending to reduce the economic and environmental impact of storing and transporting potentially dangerous products. This research intends to examine the impact of the sports sector on green economic growth and competitiveness in the China region. An empirical analysis is conducted to determine the relationship between sports economics and green supply chain management by employing data on 25 provinces of the China region for 2000 and 2019. To fulfill this study's objective and determine the effect of carbon emission, this study will use renewable energy, sports economics, green supply chain management, information and communications technology, and waste recycling as explanatory variables. In order to obtain the desired objectives, the current study will use the short run and long run of the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag and pooled mean group tests. Besides, this study uses an augmented mean group, fully modified ordinary least square, and dynamic ordinary least square estimations for the robust check. In contrast, renewable energy, green supply chain management, sports economics, information and communications technology, and waste recycling decrease CO2 emissions and, therefore, facilitate the carbon-abatement agenda of the China region.

Assessing key indicators of efficient green energy production for IEA members

Environmental pollution, increased energy consumption, and growing demand for the energy sector have been widely discussed. Due to policymakers and different organizations impacting a lot of new regulations, tools have been implemented to use clean energy that has zero impact on the environment. The International Energy Agency (IEA) supports energy efficiency and evaluation by developing tracking indicators and analyzing energy consumption data. The paper identifies critical indicators for efficient green energy production and ranks the IEA member countries using the CRITIC-TOPSIS method. Results showed that CO2 emissions and monitoring energy consumption are the most significant indicators while assessing the countries' performance regarding green energy production. The results indicated Sweden as the best-performing country regarding green energy production and reaching energy efficiency between 1990 and 2020. While Turkey and the USA ranked last, resulting in significantly increased CO2 emissions within the time range that need more efforts and policy implications to reach similar energy efficiency levels as other IEA countries.

Modelling natural gas, renewables-sourced electricity, and ICT trade on economic growth and environment: evidence from top natural gas producers in Africa

Addressing extensive global goals including growing energy-sourced electricity and advancing sustainable development plans strongly depends on natural gas as a transition fuel to renewable forms of energy. Therefore, by using pooled, random, and fixed-effects models, the current study investigates the effects of electricity sourced from natural gas (ENG), renewable energy (RE), and trade in information and communication technologies (ICTs) on economic growth and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Africa's top three natural gas producers, Algeria, Egypt, and Nigeria, from 1990 to 2020. The findings indicate that CO₂, ENG, ICT trade, and urbanization (UP) are all strongly and positively correlated to economic progress, with the exception of RE, which has an insignificant influence. For the environment, data indicate that RE and GDP degrade the environment while ENG and ICT trade boost it. The causality results that ENG and RE cause both economic growth and CO₂ emissions. Based on these empirical results, it is recommended that policymakers should step up their efforts to usage natural gas as a transition fuel to renewable energy sources and acknowledge the advantages of the significant contribution that green ICT trade can make to economic advancement and a clean environment.

Assessment of the role of renewable energy financing and information and communication technology in carbon neutrality: evidence from RCEP economies

Understanding the correlation between the various forms of financing and their propensity to invest in renewable energy (RE) innovation is crucial for its successful financing. We investigate the "path" taken by innovators in the financial sector. The UN Secretary-General announced the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative in 2012 to ensure that all people can access reliable, modern energy services by 2030. Substantial monetary and technological investments at a rate much surpassing historical levels are required to accomplish this goal. This research is aimed at determining if the combination of REF and ICT may help improve environmental quality. Using econometric methods, we examine time series data from RCEP economies from 2000 to 2019. This study describes another determinant of carbon emission: economic growth, tourism, and trade openness. The study employs Cup-FM and Cup-BC tests to check the results of variables in this study. The effect of economic growth, tourism, and trade significantly positively impacts carbon emissions in this model. However, renewable energy finance and ICT adversely impact the carbon emission level. Moreover, the moderate effect of renewable energy finance on information and communication technology, tourism, and trade is found to have a negative impact on carbon emissions. The policy recommendations suggest how a country can minimize carbon emissions.

Is ICT Development Conducive to Reducing the Vulnerability of Low-Carbon Energy? Evidence from OECD Countries

This paper constructs a low-carbon energy vulnerability system with the three dimensions of economy-society-environment, uses the entropy method to measure the low-carbon energy vulnerability index of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries from 2002 to 2018, and observes the essential characteristics. On this basis, we analyze the impact of the development of the Information Communication Technology (ICT) service industry on the vulnerability of low-carbon energy and explore the moderating effects of technological innovation and resource consumption. This paper draws the following conclusions: (1) The low-carbon energy vulnerability of OECD countries shows a gradual downward trend, showing three stages of "continuous rise-declining volatility-low-level fluctuation". The low-carbon energy policies and implementation efforts in different countries have become the key to reducing the vulnerabilities of low-carbon energy in OECD countries. The economic and social vulnerabilities of low-carbon energy in most countries are outstanding. (2) The development of the ICT service industry benefits by reducing the vulnerability of low-carbon energy with a significant weakening effect, while high-vulnerability countries benefit even more. (3) In the weakening effect of the development of the ICT service industry on the vulnerability of low-carbon energy, technological innovation exerts an enhanced moderating effect, and resource consumption exerts a disruptive moderating effect. Technological innovation accelerates the weakening effect of the ICT service industry, and resource consumption is not conducive to the weakening effect of the ICT service industry. Based on this, we draw corresponding policy recommendations.

The impact of income inequity on energy consumption: The moderating role of digitalization

Income inequity and energy consumption have become important issues for sustainable development, and digitalization offers unlimited potential for bridging the income gap and decreasing energy consumption. Based on an international perspective, we confirm the impact of income inequality on energy consumption in 108 countries from 2000 to 2019 and then explore the moderating and threshold effects of digitalization on the impact of income inequality on energy consumption. The empirical results indicate that income inequality causes a surge in energy consumption, and the dynamic SYS-GMM results suggest that for every 1 unit increase in income inequality, energy consumption increases by 0.003 unit. The moderating effect suggests that digitalization helps mitigate the impact of a 3.654% surge in energy consumption caused by income inequality. In comparison, digitalization has a significant moderating effect on energy consumption in middle- and high-income countries (Europe, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region), and the moderating effect of digitalization is effective in both free and non-free economies. The dynamic SYS-GMM threshold panel models reveal a non-linear relationship between income inequality and energy consumption affected by digitalization. This provides international evidence that reveals the underlying mechanisms of digitalization, income inequality, and energy consumption. It will better guide countries in harnessing digital dividends to overcome the twin dilemmas of the income gap and energy poverty.

The effects of natural gas and oil consumption on CO2 emissions in GCC countries: asymmetry analysis

Oil and gas are key energy sources in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The present study examines the asymmetrical environmental effects of these energy sources and also tests the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) from 1975 to 2019. In the long run, the EKC is corroborated in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But the EKC is not validated in the GCC Panel. Increasing oil consumption raises carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing oil consumption reduces CO₂ emissions in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The effect of oil consumption is found asymmetrical in Qatar and symmetrical in the rest of GCC countries. Increasing natural gas consumption (NGC) carries a positive effect in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing NGC reduces emissions in Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Moreover, NGC's effects are asymmetrically in all GCC countries except Qatar. In the panel estimates, both increasing and decreasing oil and NGC have positive effects on CO₂ emissions. The long-run effect of oil consumption on CO₂ emissions is larger than the effect of NGC in most GCC economies and panel results. In the short run, increasing and decreasing oil consumption and NGC have a positive effect on emissions in all investigated economies except Saudi Arabia. In the long run, coefficients of decreasing oil consumption are found significantly greater than coefficients of increasing NGC in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the whole GCC. This finding corroborates that increasing CO₂ emissions with increasing NGC is lower than decreasing CO₂ emissions with decreasing oil consumption. Hence, we recommend these countries switch from oil consumption to NGC to reduce overall CO₂ emissions.

Is there a trade-off between ICTs and ecological systems in Africa? Evidence from heterogeneous panel methods robust to cross-sectional dependence

Among the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), increasing infrastructure resilience (SDG₉) and combating climate change and its impacts (SDG₁₃) have been vital goals. Growing evidence supports the presence of a trade-off between expanding information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure and maintaining the quality of the environment. Based on an ICT index and the ecological footprint, the present study reinvestigated the influence of ICT on environmental quality for a sample of African countries, where ICT services have substantially increased over the past decades. The study employed cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) and common correlated effects estimator (CCEMG) techniques on data representing 47 African economies between 1990 and 2017. The results of both methods were consistent and indicated an inverted U-shaped relationship between ICT infrastructure and environmental quality in the long and short run. The findings suggested that the expansion of ICT infrastructure could simultaneously enable African nations to achieve SDG13 and SDG9.

Exploring the Forms of the Economic Effects of Renewable Energy Consumption: Evidence from China

Renewable energy’s economic effects have been hotly debated, as it is a promising energy source. However, scholars have not achieved an agreement on this hot topic. Therefore, this article re-examines the direct and indirect economic effects of renewable energy consumption in China from 1990 to 2020. Using the Granger causality test to conduct empirical analysis, the result suggests there is a bidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Then, the mediation model is used for further analysis. The results suggest that economic growth is positively affected by renewable energy consumption. Meanwhile, renewable energy consumption can also indirectly affect economic growth through gross capital formation, the labor force, trade openness, research and development expenditure, and foreign direct investment. Based on the evidence this article provides, policymakers can issue corresponding policies to maintain sustainable economic growth while minimizing environmental pollution.

Forecasting Crude Oil Consumption in Poland Based on LSTM Recurrent Neural Network

Primary fuels, i.e., crude oil, natural gas, and power coal, dominate the total global demand for primary energy. Among them, crude oil plays a particularly important role due to the universality of applications and the practical lack of substitutes in transport. Crude oil is also one of the main sources of primary energy in Poland and accounts for around 30% of the energy consumed. Poland covers only 3% of its needs from domestic deposits. The rest is imported from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Great Britain, Kazakhstan, and Norway. Due to such a high import of raw material, Poland must anticipate future demand. On the one hand, this article aims to analyze the current (2020) and future (2040) crude oil consumption on the Polish market. The study analyzes the geopolitical and economic foundations of the functioning of the energy raw-materials market, the crude oil supply, the structure of Poland’s energy mix, and assumptions about the energy policy until 2040. On the other hand, conclusions from the research were used to build a model of crude oil consumption for the internal market. It has been also shown that the consumption of crude oil on the Polish market is a nonlinear phenomenon with a small set of statistical data, which makes it difficult to build an accurate model. This paper proposes a new model based on artificial neural networks that includes long-term memory (LSTM). The accuracy of the constructed model was assessed using the MSE, Theil, and Janus coefficients. The results show that LSTM models can be used to forecast crude oil consumption, and they cope with the nonstationary and nonlinear time series. Many important contemporary problems posed in the field of energy economy are also discussed, and it is proposed to solve them with the use of modern machine-learning tools.

Can Nuclear Power Products Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Evidence from Global Trade Network

Since its birth, nuclear power has been a hot topic of academic research while being subject to much controversy. As a new green energy source with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nuclear power plays a vital role in combatting global climate change. Based on global databases and various empirical analysis methods, this study aimed to explore the changes in the global nuclear power product trade (GNT) network and its impact on GHG emissions from 2001 to 2018. The main findings are summarized as follows. (1) Global trade in nuclear power products and GHG emissions showed a non-linear and fluctuating growth during the research period. The geographical pattern of GNT not only has prominent spatial heterogeneity, but it also has some spatial reverse coupled with the spatial distribution of global GHG emissions. (2) The overall regression analysis finds that nuclear power product trade had a significant suppressive effect on global GHG emissions and had the greatest influence among all the selected variables. (3) As for the impact of the GNT network on GHG emissions, nuclear power product trade was better able to curb GHG emissions in countries with the dominate positions compared to those with affiliated positions, which reflects the heterogeneous effect of nuclear power product trade on GHG emissions. These results provide further evidence for the dialectical debate on whether nuclear power products contribute to GHG emissions reductions. This paper also provides corresponding recommendations for policymakers.

Asymmetric Effects of Economic Development, Agroforestry Development, Energy Consumption, and Population Size on CO2 Emissions in China

The COVID-19 epidemic and the Russian–Ukrainian conflict have led to a global food and energy crisis, making the world aware of the importance of agroforestry development for a country. Modern agriculture mechanization leads to massive energy consumption and increased CO2 emissions. At the same time, China is facing serious demographic problems and a lack of consumption in the domestic market. The Chinese government is faced with the dilemma of balancing environmental protection with economic development in the context of the “double carbon” strategy. This article uses annual World Bank statistics from 1990 to 2020 to study the asymmetric relationships between agroforestry development, energy consumption, population size, and economic development on CO2 emissions in China using the partial least squares path model (PLS-PM), the autoregressive VAR vector time series model, and the Granger causality test. The results are as follows: (1) The relationship between economic development and carbon dioxide emissions, agroforestry development and carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and population size and carbon dioxide emissions are both direct and indirect, with an overall significant positive effect. There is a direct negative relationship between population size and carbon dioxide emissions. (2) The results of the Granger causality test show that economic development, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions are the causes of the development of agroforestry; economic development, agroforestry development, population size, and CO2 emissions are the causes of energy consumption; energy consumption is the cause of economic development and CO2 emissions; and agroforestry development is the cause of population size and energy consumption. (3) In the next three years, China’s agroforestry development will be influenced by the impulse response of economic development, energy consumption, and CO2 emission factors, showing a decreasing development trend. China’s energy consumption will be influenced by the impulse response of economic development, agroforestry development, population size, and CO2 emission factors, showing a decreasing development trend, followed by an increasing development trend. China’s CO2 emission will be influenced by the impulse response of energy consumption and agroforestry development. China’s CO2 emissions will be influenced by the impulse response of energy consumption and agroforestry development factors, showing a downward and then an upward development trend.

Environmental life cycle assessment of battery electric vehicles from the current and future energy mix perspective

Electric vehicles and renewable energy sources in transportation played a significant role in promoting sustainable transportation systems. The overall performance of the electric vehicle is highly dependent on the electricity mix consumed during their production and use phase. Therefore, a comprehensive and dynamic assessment is necessary to provide accurate guidance to users and policymakers. Therefore, this study presents a comparative cradle to grave life cycle analysis of electric vehicles in 10 selected countries using the current and future electricity mix scenarios. We present the environmental footprint of vehicle production, transportation, and use phases. The results revealed that EVs in China with current (2019) and future 2025 electricity mix scenarios had a higher impact than all other EVs. In contrast, EV with 2030 Norway electricity mix was an optimal choice and has the least environmental impact in most of the selected categories. Moreover, it was also found that all EVs with 2030 electricity mix had lower environmental damages than EV 2019 electricity mix. Besides, this study outcome indicated that the use of clean energy could help to decrease the environmental impact and mitigate climate change all around the globe.

Exploring the Road toward Environmental Sustainability: Natural Resources, Renewable Energy Consumption, Economic Growth, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Despite the fact that China’s economy has grown swiftly since the reform and opening up, the problem of environmental degradation in China has become increasingly significant. Therefore, this paper uses China as an example to examine the dynamic relationship between the highlighted variables (renewable energy consumption, economic growth, oil rent, and natural resources) and greenhouse gas emissions (a proxy for environmental sustainability). Using annual data over the period 1971–2018 and employing the auto-regressive distributed lag bounds approach to perform an empirical analysis, the results suggest that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship between the highlighted variables and greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, renewable energy consumption and oil rent contribute to environmental sustainability because of their negative effects on greenhouse gas emissions. On the contrary, economic growth and natural resources hinder environmental sustainability due to their positive effects on greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, using the fully modified ordinary least squares approach and dynamic ordinary least squares approach to conduct a robustness test, the results also support the previous findings. To conclude, the findings of this paper may provide some solutions for China’s environmental sustainability.

Energy market uncertainty and the impact on the crude oil prices

Our paper proposes a novel measure of global energy market uncertainty and studies its impact on oil prices. The current literature primarily relies on a single or small number of observable variables, or general macroeconomic uncertainty (JLN) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indices to reflect energy market uncertainty. Using a Factor Augmented Vector Autoregression model (FAVAR), we construct time-varying global energy market uncertainty in a data-rich environment. Our estimates show variations from JLN and EPU proxies. The results reveal that real oil prices respond strongly to our proposed aggregate energy market uncertainty shocks. We also find heterogeneous responses to different types and magnitudes of uncertainty shocks. The real price of oil is affected the most under unexpected strong demand for alternative energy sources scenario.

Internet Development, Level of Industrial Synergy, and Urban Innovation

Innovation increases total factor productivity and leads to economic development. Based on panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities from 2001 to 2018, the current study uses a dynamic panel data model to empirically test the global and heterogeneous effects of internet development and industrial synergy on the level of urban innovation. Results found that the internet development significantly promoted the urban innovation level, and industrial collaboration was found to have a positive impact on the urban innovation level. Moreover, it was determined that the regulatory effect of the internet promoted industrial collaboration to improve the level of urban innovation. Variations in the impact of internet development and the industrial collaboration level on the urban innovation level were found in cities. Particularly, the impact of internet development and the industrial collaboration level on the urban innovation level in high-level cities was less significant. A positive role of the government is required to improve the level of urban innovation. Particularly, it is required to connect enterprises with universities to exchange scientific and technological knowledge, thereby improving urban innovation.

Sustainable Membrane-Based Wastewater Reclamation Employing CO2 to Impede an Ionic Precipitation and Consequent Scale Progression onto the Membrane Surfaces

CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) is a promising approach in controlling the global discharge of greenhouse gases (GHG). This study details the experimental investigation of CO₂ utilization in membrane-based water treatment systems for lowering the potential of ionic precipitation on membrane surface and subsequent scale development. The CO₂ utilization in feed water reduces the water pH that enables the dissociation of salts in their respective ions, which leave the system as a concentrate. This study compares the efficiency of CO₂ and other antifouling agents (CA-1, CA-2, and CA-3) for fouling control in four different membrane-based wastewater reclamation operations. These systems include Schemes 1, 2, 3, and 4, which were operated with CA-1, CA-2, CA-3, and CO₂ as antiscalants, respectively. The flux profile and percent salt rejection achieved in Scheme 4 confirmed the higher efficiency of CO₂ utilization compared with other antifouling agents. This proficient role of CO₂ in fouling inhibition is further endorsed by the surface analysis of used membranes. The SEM, EDS, and XRD examination confirmed the higher suitability of CO₂ utilization in controlling scale deposition compared with other antiscalants. The cost estimation also supported the CO₂ utilization for environmental friendly and safe operation.