The role of green finance in mitigating climate change risks: a quantitative analysis of sustainable investments

The dire problem of climate change has garnered more attention in recent years and, with it, the necessity of reducing its damaging effects on the environment. Nevertheless, despite the green finance index's (GFI) potential advantages in combating climate change, empirical studies on the subject's consequences have been few, mostly because of the index's restricted data availability. This study's primary goal is to close this gap by employing panel data analysis to investigate the environmental effects of GFI in China between 2004 and 2021. Econometric methods like the Driscoll-Kraay standard error and other robustness test models are used to look into the links between political risk, green finance, the ecological footprint, and the economic complexity index. According to the research findings, there is a 0.31% and 0.81% decrease in ecological footprint resulting from the implementation of GFI and rises in GDP (gross domestic product). These results suggest that these strategies could play a major role in establishing a sustainable environment. However, in the chosen countries, the ecological footprint increases by 0.81% and 0.80%, respectively, due to the presence of political risk and economic complexity. This study suggests that government involvement is necessary to reduce carbon footprints and protect the ecosystem, based on these empirical findings. Implementing green financing initiatives, fostering technological development, economic diversification, and fostering a stable political environment are all ways to achieve sustainable investments.

The role of energy, political stability, and real income on achieving carbon neutrality: asymmetric evidence

Apart from business considerations stemming from the marketplace, businesses, individuals, and the economy at large, political decisions also play a role on environmental quality. Governments make a series of policies that impact private businesses, sectors, the environment, and the economy at large. In this paper, we test the asymmetric role of political risk on CO₂ emissions, while controlling for renewable energy, non-renewable energy, and real income: policy toward environmental sustainability objectives in the context of Turkey. To realize the motive of this study, we capture the asymmetric effect of the regressors by adopting the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag method (NARDL). This research adds to the environmental literature in terms of methodological and empirical. Methodologically, the study shows that a nonlinear relationship exists among the variables, and it has a significant impact on environmental sustainability targets. The outcome of the NARDL indicates that the increasing political risk, non-renewable energy, and economic growth follow a trajectory trend on carbon emissions, which is unsustainable in Turkey, but renewable energy is sustainable. Moreover, decreasing real income and non-renewable energy decreases carbon emissions. This research also deployed the frequency domain test to capture the causal association of the concerned variables and the outcome indicates political risk, renewable energy, non-renewable energy use, and real income are predictors of CO₂ in Turkey. From this result, policies geared toward promoting a sustainable environment were formulated.

Does country risk impact the banking sectors' non-performing loans? Evidence from BRICS emerging economies

This study aims to fill the gap in the literature by specifically investigating the impact of country risk on the credit risk of the banking sectors operating in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS), emerging countries. More specifically, we explore whether the country-specific risks, namely financial, economic, and political risks significantly impact the BRICS banking sectors' non-performing loans and also probe which risk has the most outstanding effect on credit risk. To do so, we perform panel data analysis using the quantile estimation approach covering the period 2004-2020. The empirical results reveal that the country risk significantly leads to increasing the banking sector's credit risk and this effect is prominent in the banking sector of countries with a higher degree of non-performing loans (Q.25 = - 0.105, Q.50 = - 0.131, Q.75 = - 0.153, Q.95 = - 0.175). Furthermore, the results underscore that an emerging country's political, economic, and financial instabilities are strongly associated with increasing the banking sector's credit risk and a rise in political risk in particular has the most positive prominent impact on the banking sector of countries with a higher degree of non-performing loans (Q.25 = - 0.122, Q.50 = - 0.141, Q.75 = - 0.163, Q.95 = - 0.172). Moreover, the results suggest that, in addition to the banking sector-specific determinants, credit risk is significantly impacted by the financial market development, lending interest rate, and global risk. The results are robust and have significant policy suggestions for many policymakers, bank executives, researchers, and analysts.

Interplay of tourism renewable energies, tourism institutional quality, and political risk in OECD economies

It is only possible to achieve the aims of reversing the impacts of the resource constraint and attaining sustainable growth if there is a rise in tourism organizational efficacy and tourism and a decrease in political instability. This is because these factors can influence the demand for energy by causing changes in the amount of power consumed. These factors may affect energy demand via changes in energy transitions. In light of this, the objective of this study is to investigate the impact that critical measures of institutional efficiency, tourism, and policy instability have on the utilization of renewable energy sources in a dataset consisting of 32 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development between the years 1997 and 2019. The article uses descriptive statistics and correlation models (cross-section dependency test and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model) using panel data from 32 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations from 1997 to 2019. Insight into the matter aids in our selection of appropriate econometric methods. The following methods are briefly explained. Evidence shows that as a society's average wealth and standard of life grow, so does its utilization of renewable energy sources. In addition, the economic globalization process and the danger it entails are adversely associated with a long-term reliance on renewable energy sources. Policymakers in countries that are members of the OECD should investigate the role that institutional effectiveness and policy instability play in the demand function for renewable energy to ensure a cleaner natural environment over the long term.

Asymmetric effect of political stability on production-based CO2 emissions in the UK: long-run evidence from nonlinear ARDL and frequency domain causality

The study deals with the effect of political stability on environmental degradation in the long run for the United Kingdom (UK). For this aim, the political stability effect on production-based carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is examined by considering trade openness, renewable energy, and economic growth and using quarterly data between 1995/Q1 and 2018/Q4. Nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL), which allows the researcher to measure the asymmetric impact of explanatory indicators positively or negatively, is performed as the empirical approach. Also, Breitung & Candelon (BC) frequency domain causality test is applied to measure the causality effect of explanatory variables on CO₂ emissions. The results reveal that (i) political stability has a statistically significant effect on production-based CO₂ emissions and positive shocks have a higher power than negative shocks; (ii) economic growth has an increasing effect, whereas renewable energy has a decreasing effect on production-based CO₂ emissions; and (iii) there is frequency domain causality from political risk, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and trade openness to production-based CO₂ emissions. Hence, empirical results highlight the asymmetric effect of political stability on environmental degradation in the long run for UK. Thus, UK policymakers should consider political stability in policy development and implementation process for limiting CO₂ emissions in the long run.

COVID-19 fatalities and internal conflict: Does government economic support matter?

This study examines the association between COVID-19 mortality rates and internal conflict and investigates the possible moderating role of government economic support during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Our main hypothesis suggests that countries with lower levels of government economic support are more likely to experience a positive correlation between higher COVID-19 mortality rates and the emergence of internal conflict. Using cross-country data from over 100 countries and controlling for various factors that may influence internal conflict, our analysis provides some support for this hypothesis. The results suggest a possible moderating role for government economic support, with the evidence indicating a weakening or elimination of the association between COVID-19 mortality rates and internal conflict when government economic support is adequate. However, the moderating effect of government economic support is not always significant, and caution is needed when interpreting the results. Our analysis also highlights the potential risks associated with low levels of government economic support during the pandemic. Specifically, we find that in countries where the government's macro-financial package in response to the pandemic is less than approximately 25% of GDP, there is a possible risk of growth in civil disorder resulting from increased COVID-19 deaths per million.

Environmental degradation, renewable energy, and economic growth nexus: Assessing the role of financial and political risks?

Sustainable development goal (SDG), which focuses on affordable and sustainable energy, provides a practical solution to realize sustainable growth. In addition, this target can encourage the realization of SDG 13 (climate action). However, factors like political and financial risk can impact climate actions and renewable energy. Therefore, this research extends the debate on the ecological footprint (EF) mitigation and achievement of SDGs by evaluating the renewable energy, political risk, financial risk, and EF nexus in an Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework from 1986 to 2018. Panel data for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is estimated using second-generation approaches. The CuP-FM test results indicated that the EKC is present in ASEAN in the context of renewable energy, financial risk, and political risk. Furthermore, the findings revealed that controlling political and financial risks is a useful mitigation strategy because EF decreases as these risks are reduced. Notably, a decrease in EF has been linked to the use of renewable energy. These results are verified by using CO2 emissions as an alternative proxy for environmental degradation. Moreover, both financial and political risk Granger cause renewable energy and economic growth indicating that controlling financial and political risk is necessary for sustainable development.

Environmental regulations, political risk and consumption-based carbon emissions: Evidence from OECD economies

The staggering rise in global temperature and abrupt change of climate are the responses of nature alerting humanity to limit the emissions of hazardous gases and adopt environmentally-benign life style. The present study explores empirically whether any changes in environmental policy stringency (EPSI), political risk (PR), and the interaction term of EPSI*PR result in any alteration of consumption-based carbon emissions (CBCE) of the 24 advanced OECD economies over the period of 1990-2020. Prior to the empirical estimations, various diagnostic tests are employed. The empirical techniques include, panel cointegration check, Cross-sectional Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lags (CS-ARDL), and Dumitrescu & Hurlin panel causality test. The findings confirm that imports, gross domestic product, and stringency of environment policies activate CBCE in short-run. Whereas, a unit improvement in political risk and its interaction with environmental policy stringency give rise to 0.231 MtCO₂ of CBCE in long run. Interestingly, the squared term of environmental policy stringency effectively tackles such emissions. Based on the findings, we conclude that the present environment related policies of OECD member states does not effectively limit CBCE. In order to achieve genuine emissions reduction goals, the selected nations should restructure their environment related policies by prioritizing increments in environmental policy stringency along with minimizing the risks involved in the political system.

Does political risk spur environmental issues in China?

China is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the world. Therefore, it is essential to explore the determinants of CO₂ emissions in China. But previous studies so far have not examined how the political risk of this country can affect its CO₂ emissions due to the lack of a long-term dataset. Hence, this study aims to capture the effect of political risk on China's CO₂ emissions while controlling renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and the economy's economic growth. We employ Bayer and Hanck cointegration, FMOLS, DOLS, CCR, and frequency domain causality tests to establish the relationship among the variables mentioned above. The outcome of the study reveals that political stability is an important predictor of environmental degradation in China. Moreover, political stability is helpful to lower CO₂ emissions, while technological innovation and renewable energy consumption can reduce CO₂ emissions, economic growth further deteriorates environmental quality by increasing its carbon emissions. Therefore, the present study recommends that policymakers in China should control political tension in the country to control CO₂ emissions and, at the same time, promote technological innovation and renewable energy consumption.

The role of private investment in ICT on carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) mitigation: do renewable energy and political risk matter in Morocco?

The present study proposed the relationship among private investment in information and communication technology (ICT), carbon emissions (CO₂), renewable energy, political risk, and economic growth over the period of 1985-2020 in Morocco. The dynamic ARDL simulations (ARDL) model suggests that private partnership in ICT plays a significant role in abating CO₂ emissions, the adaptation of renewable energy is a key contributor in CO₂ degradation, while economic growth shows a positive and significant association with CO₂ emissions, indicating that economic growth increases CO₂ emissions. The study also analyzed political risk in the study region, which indicates that low political risk mitigates CO₂ emissions in Morocco. The findings provide significant enlightenment to acknowledge the importance of private partnership in ICT for the purpose to decarbonize CO₂ emissions, and adopting the use of renewable energy. The findings also suggest that a stable political system is inventible towards low-carbon development.

Does political risk drive environmental degradation in BRICS countries? Evidence from method of moments quantile regression

As a contribution to the political risk-environmental degradation literature, this study examines whether political risk drives environmental degradation in a multivariate framework. To achieve our study objective, we employed the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) approach to analyze the effect of renewable energy use, economic growth, political risk, and globalization on quantiles of carbon emissions. The study utilized dataset stretching between 1990 and 2018 to investigate this interrelationship in the BRICS nations. The results generated from the MMQR mimic those of the three heterogeneous linear panel estimation techniques conducted (for robustness check), in terms of coefficient sign, magnitude, and significance. Using the MMQR technique, empirical results show that across quantiles (0.1-0.90), political risk, economic growth, and globalization positively affects environmental degradation. Renewable energy consumption, on the other hand, curb environmental degradation across all quantiles (0.10-0.90). Furthermore, the outcomes of the FMOLS, DOLS, and FEOLS corroborated the MMQR outcomes. In addition, the outcomes of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality revealed that renewable energy use, political risk, economic growth, and globalization can significantly predict CO₂ emissions in the BRICS nations. The findings offer intuition for policymakers to lessen CO₂ emissions in BRICS nations via diversification and clean energy technologies such as carbon capture and storage.

Role of political risk to achieve carbon neutrality: Evidence from Brazil

The current research assesses the impact of political risk on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in Brazil while controlling the role of financial development, GDP growth, trade openness, and technological innovation. In doing so, the quarterly dataset from 1990 to 2018 is utilized with Bayer and Hanck cointegration, dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and canonical correlation regression (CCR), and frequency-domain causality tests. The cointegration test revealed a long-run association amongst the variables of interest. Furthermore, the outcomes from the DOLS and CCR revealed that increasing financial development, technological innovation, trade openness, and real growth increase CO₂ emissions while a better political environment reduces environmental pollution.