Visualizing the sustainable development goals and natural resource utilization for green economic recovery after COVID-19 pandemic

Quantifying future carbon emissions uncertainties under stochastic modeling and Monte Carlo simulation: Insights for environmental policy consideration for the Belt and Road Initiative Region

This study critically examines future carbon (CO2) emissions in the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) region, considering factors such as energy consumption, economic growth, population growth, and population density. The objective of this study is to identify critical areas of higher emissions, which require policy intervention capable of strengthening sustainability in the BRI compact. A combined approach of stochastic modeling and Monte Carlo simulations was employed, utilizing panel data from 45 countries in the BRI region from 1990 to 2021. Results confirm that emissions are higher in all scenarios in direct proportion to electric power consumption, population growth, and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. In scenarios with high emissions, a continuous and significant upward trend in CO2 emissions was observe. The medium emissions scenario exhibited a more moderated rise in emissions, suggesting a balance between economic development and environmental considerations. Critical areas for future environmental policy-making resides in electric power consumption, population growth, and GDP growth. The study strongly recommends for a shift from the current focus on road and railway infrastructure to renewable energy infrastructure, green innovations and efficient technology transfer to member countries. Without this, the BRI region is likely to face increased emissions, posing significant challenges to future sustainable development and global environmental sustainability.

Developing environmental sustainability policy - How financing and subsidies are influencing green innovation in mineral extraction industries in China

Mineral extraction is regarded as a pollution-intensive industry and is confronted with multiple environmental sustainability challenges. This issue poses an existential crisis for mineral extraction due to continued global pressure to adopt more sustainable practices in their functioning. Despite its importance, there is a notable gap in the literature regarding how these companies encounter financial challenges, particularly in the context of high-risk, long development cycles, and the unique double externalities associated with green innovation. This research, leveraging panel data from 2016 to 2023, aims to fill this gap by examining whether Chinese mineral extraction companies demonstrate distinct preferences for specific financing sources and by evaluating the role of government in facilitating their green innovation activities. Our findings indicate that such companies utilize a mix of internal and external financing to support their green innovation projects. It is observed that the influence of external finances channels, namely government subsidies, equity financing and debt financing, on green innovation progressively weakens, a conclusion supported by multiple robustness checks. Furthermore, the study highlights the crucial role of government subsidies in motivating publicly listed companies to enhance their green innovation activities through debt and equity financing, thereby contributing to a more equitable and sustainable development paradigm in the Global South.

Long COVID science, research and policy

Long COVID represents the constellation of post-acute and long-term health effects caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection; it is a complex, multisystem disorder that can affect nearly every organ system and can be severely disabling. The cumulative global incidence of long COVID is around 400 million individuals, which is estimated to have an annual economic impact of approximately $1 trillion-equivalent to about 1% of the global economy. Several mechanistic pathways are implicated in long COVID, including viral persistence, immune dysregulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, complement dysregulation, endothelial inflammation and microbiome dysbiosis. Long COVID can have devastating impacts on individual lives and, due to its complexity and prevalence, it also has major ramifications for health systems and economies, even threatening progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing the challenge of long COVID requires an ambitious and coordinated-but so far absent-global research and policy response strategy. In this interdisciplinary review, we provide a synthesis of the state of scientific evidence on long COVID, assess the impacts of long COVID on human health, health systems, the economy and global health metrics, and provide a forward-looking research and policy roadmap.

Research on industrial structure adjustment and spillover effect in resource-based regions in the post-pandemic era

Resource-based regions support national economic development and are essential sources of basic energy and raw materials. In the post-pandemic era, however, there are practical situations to deal with, such as a fractured industrial chain, a weaker industrial structure, and a sharp reduction in economic benefits. Based on data collected from 68 cities in China, from 2010 to 2021, with 816 observations, this paper explores the industrial development process of resource-based regions in China and the change in the toughness of the industrial structure under the impact of COVID-19. The paper studies and analyzes industrial development trends, industrial structure toughness, and spatial spillover effects. The methods used are the Markov chain model and the Industrial Structure Advancement Index. By building the spatial Dubin model, the paper analyzes the spatial spillover effect of regional industrial development. It decomposes the spillover effect using the partial differential model based on regression. The results show that, during the study period, the comprehensive development level of industries in resource-based regions in China was slowly improving and tended to stabilize after entering the post-pandemic era. The evolution of an advanced industrial structure is significantly heterogeneous among regions, and each region has different toughness. The impact of COVID-19 has reduced the toughness of China's resource-based regions' industrial structure. The spatial spillover effect of regional industrial development is significant. Labor force, technology input, and industrial-structure optimization have different impacts on the industrial development of neighboring regions. In the post-pandemic era, China has used new management methods for more innovation. In order to achieve low-carbon, environmental protection, and sustainable development of resources, realize the rapid recovery of the toughness of industrial structure in China's resource-based cities, and reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China proposes to expand the supply of resources, improve the allocation of resources, optimize the direction, promote the rational flow and efficient aggregation of various factors, and enhance the impetus for innovation and development.

Role of green financial assets, financial technology and the green energy on the development of a green economy

A major issue for governments in the past few decades has been environmental deterioration caused by economic activity. Researchers are increasingly interested in the factors that contribute to environmental deterioration. The study aims to test the role of green bond financing on energy efficiency investment and economic growth. In this investigation, we use the ARDL estimator to investigate the relationships between the financial technology, green bonds, green stock, green supply chain and the development of green energy. The importance of green supply chain, green energy, green bonds and financial technology has been identified as major variables. According to the study's findings, green supply chain, green finance and sustainable economic growth are all essential and positive indicators of a composite assessment of sustainable practices. Green bonds, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and green economic development all play a necessary part in green finance development.

The effects of capital-biased tax incentives on firm energy intensity: Environmental dividend or consequence?

Capital and energy are essential input factors in the production and operation of firms, and they are closely interconnected. Nudging firms to improve energy performance during capital investment is crucial for attaining green competitiveness. Nonetheless, little is known about how capital-biased tax incentives affect firm energy performance in the process of encouraging firms to update or expand fixed assets. To fill this critical gap, this paper leverages the 2014 and 2015 accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets as quasi-natural experiments to investigate the impact of capital-biased tax incentives on firm energy intensity. This study uses information from a unique dataset of Chinese firms, and the staggered difference-in-difference strategy is constructed to address identification challenges. The findings of this paper are as follows: (1) The accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets significantly increases firm energy intensity by approximately 11.2%. A series of validations reinforce the robustness of this result. (2) Restructuring energy use and the factor substitution of energy for labour are the main channels through which the accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets increases firm energy intensity. (3) The accelerated depreciation policy for fixed assets has a more remarkable effect on the energy intensity enhancement of small-scale firms, capital-intensive firms, and firms in energy-endowed regions. These conclusions support shaping policy options moderately by coordinating tax incentives and government regulation as key factors in promoting sustainable firm development. Overall, this research provides empirical evidence regarding the micro-environmental consequences of capital-biased tax incentives and offers valuable insights for enhancing corporate energy performance.

Revitalizing our earth: unleashing the power of green energy in soil remediation for a sustainable future

This study investigates the feasibility of using renewable energy sources in soil remediation to advance green recovery in a way that is both sustainable and kind to the environment. The report stresses the need to reduce the adverse effects of soil pollution in China and foster economic recovery. This study aims to determine how green energy may be most effectively used in soil remediation operations. Using renewable energy sources to power remediation procedures and phytoremediation is presented in this research as two ways to achieve green recovery in soil remediation. The analysis in this work employs the unit root, auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL), and vector error correction model (VECM) methods. Based on our research, we know that using renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal power may significantly lessen the environmental impact of soil remediation while simultaneously advancing the cause of sustainability. Phytoremediation is a low-cost, environmentally friendly option that utilizes plants to degrade and remove soil pollutants. The study's findings also stressed the need to consider various remediation strategies' advantages and disadvantages. The study's findings also exposed the potential advantages and disadvantages of phytoremediation, as was the method's viability for use in extensive soil remediation initiatives. The report concludes by emphasizing the need to assess soil remediation and green recovery's more enormous social and environmental implications. We can build a more sustainable future, encourage economic recovery, and combat environmental degradation using renewable energy sources and cutting-edge remediation techniques. The article suggests doing more studies to learn more about the pros and downsides of combining soil remediation and green recovery initiatives.

Unleashing the link between the relaxation of the COVID-19 control policy and residents' mental health in China: the mediating role of family tourism consumption

Objective

COVID-19 has negatively influenced industrial development, family consumption, and residents' mental health. Unfortunately, it has not yet been studied whether this adverse situation can be alleviated after the relaxation of the COVID-19 control policy (RCC). Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the effect of the RCC on the resident's mental health and the mediating effect of family tourism consumption.

Methods

By using the PSM and mediating effetc model to research the panel data of two periods (April 2021 and April 2023) for Shaanxi province, China.

Results

The RCC negatively inhibited the mental health severity of residents, and the mental health severity decreased by 0.602. In particular, the RCC showed the most substantial negative effect on residents' stress, followed by anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, it is found that the impact of the RCC on the mental health of residents is highly heterogeneous. The RCC indicates a linear significant effect on the mental health of residents under 60 years of age, while the results were found insignificant for residents above 60 years of age. Meanwhile, the RCC's improvement effect on urban residents' mental health is greater than that of rural residents. In addition, mechanism analysis showed that tourism consumption plays a mediating role in the influence of the RCC on the mental health of residents, and the mediating effect accounted for 24.58% of the total effect.

Conclusion

Based on the findings, the study proposes that government and policymakers should strengthen mental health intervention, improve access to mental health counseling, stimulate economic development, expand the employment of residents, and track the mutation of the novel coronavirus.

Environment and natural resources degradation under COVID-19 crises: Recovery post pandemic

Environmental stability improved during the covid 19 pandemic when production and industrial activities, and natural resources depletion processes stopped during the lockdown environment worldwide; however, based on the judgment of COP26 and the recent COP27, environmental degradation increased in the world in post-pandemic; therefore, policymakers and researchers re-focused their attention on the determinants of CO2 in economies. Hence, this study investigates the nexus of natural resource rents, including oil rents, mineral rents, and coal rents, on the carbon emissions of upper-middle-income economies from 1984 to 2021. The study included economic growth and renewable energy as additional determinants. We have presented detailed time series methods that aid in examining the modeled variables characteristics in the current research, i.e., ADF and ADF-GLS for a unit root in the data variables and considering their stationarity, Johansen cointegration for long-term cointegration among variables, FMOLS, DOLS and CCR for the long run elasticities between dependent and independent variables and Granger causality test in our range of methods. Robustness checks analysis is done through a non-parametric approach by quantile regression and robust regression analysis. Our results exhibit that two natural resource rents that are oil rents and coal rents, have adverse impacts on carbon emissions, and both are positive and significant. In contrast, mineral rents have no statistical significance and role in the carbon emissions of upper-middle-income economies. Moreover, economic growth and renewable energy also positively and significantly impact carbon emissions. Granger causality analysis exerts that natural resources rents, except for mineral rents, economic growth, and renewable energy, all granger causes CO2 emissions, and the feedback is also true. The relevant findings are suitable for policymakers in upper-middle-income economies to ensure environmental sustainability in upper-middle-income economies.

Financial stability influence on climate risk, GHG emission, and green economic recovery of China

This study examines the nexus between financial stability, climate risks, GHG emission mitigation, and green economic recovery of China. Financing efforts to protect against and reduce the hazards associated with climate change need to consider these risks and resources. Study used the Kalman technique of analysis for empirical inference. This research focuses on the carbon risk in China by employing a Kalman estimation approach. Although environmental mitigation was found to be important at 39%, financial strength and carbon hazards were considerable at 34%. Moreover, the report demonstrates the relationship between climatic threats and environmental drift in China, at a rate of 17%, emphasizing the need to address climate change issues. A state's fiscal health guarantees national economic security while pursuing green economic recovery initiatives. Researchers concluded that precise policy suggestions were needed to promote green economic development.