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The existing scholarly discourse surrounding the energy transition has long operated on the assumption of perfect displacement of non-renewable energy. However, an evolving set of studies highlights an intricate web of inefficiencies and complexities that prevent the perfect displacement of fossil fuel energy with renewable energy production. Since this could carry serious implications for the environmental targets of several economies, it is crucial to accurately and continuously measure the actual extent of fossil fuel displacement. Within this framework, this study empirically investigates the extent of non-renewable energy displacement by renewable energy for a balanced panel of seven Asia-Pacific (APAC) countries between 1989 and 2015. The outcome function also controls for globalisation, real GDP per capita, and crude oil prices. After implementing the necessary diagnostics, the panel cointegration establishes a significant long-run relationship among the selected variables. The PMG-ARDL estimation indicates that renewable energy production and globalisation significantly reduce the fossil fuel energy production, whereas real GDP per capita and crude oil prices induce it positively. However, the coefficient of renewable energy production is only - 0.39, indicating that more than 2.5 units of renewable electricity are necessary to displace a unit of non-renewable energy. As such, this study concludes that the current energy transition in Asia-Pacific region is not perfect. These results are robust to the usage of the FGLS estimation technique. The study suggests the adoption of a new energy transition that allows greater displacement of fossil fuel energy as well as gradual reduction in overall energy use., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper aims to measure the impact of environmental provisions in free-trade agreements on pollution levels in 40 Asian economies for the period 1990-2019. Following the failure of WTO negotiations, there has been a rapid proliferation of preferential trade agreements incorporating various types of environmental clauses. We exploit such changes to assess their influence on pollution emissions. We use a DOLS approach that considers the potential endogeneity of environmental clauses. Further, panel vector error correction models (VECM) are employed for examining the presence of a cointegration relationship among the variables studied. Overall, our findings indicate that these environmental clauses have heterogenous effects on CO 2 emissions. We do not find significant effects of environmental clauses on pollution. However, this result is driven by environmental provisions that are not legally enforceable. We do find a positive effect of environmental clauses with a higher level of legalism on the environmental quality. These results show that the inclusion of environmental provisions in trade agreements is not sufficient by itself. Such provisions should incorporate a legally enforceable framework to effectively address environmental concerns. These findings have significant policy implications for Asian countries., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The main hurdle in deploying renewable energy projects is the high initial cost, making it difficult for businesses and individuals to afford it. The fragility of the financial sector and human resource management further slows the pace of renewable energy demand. Therefore, we aim to investigate the impact of financial fragility and human resource management on renewable energy consumption over time horizon 1997-2020. To that end, the analysis employed the ARDL-PMG model. For Asia as a whole and all other sub-regions, including South East Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia, the estimates for bank non-performing loans are notably negative. In general, these findings imply that a rise in financial fragility significantly reduces renewable energy consumption in the long run. In the short run, the estimates attached to both bank non-performing loans and bank costs are negatively significant in Asia and sub-regions of Western Asia only. The results for the human resources show that it exerts a significant and positive influence on renewable energy demand in Asia as a whole, South Asia, East Asia, and Western Asia. The estimates attached to human resources are statistically insignificant in all models in the short run. In the end, some important public strategies and their implementations have been discussed., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study investigates a modified version of the Okun's Law that incorporates energy consumption and temperature for five Central Asian countries, while it employs the ARDL methodology, spanning the period 1995-2018. While the original Okun's Law is not supported, the analysis does find support for the modified Law, suggesting the importance of regional specific factors. The results document the presence of a negative association between unemployment and real GNP both in the short and in the long run. The impact of energy consumption on unemployment is positive in the long run, while the temperature impacts unemployment both in the short and in the long run., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The reduction of carbon emissions has become an important climate issue worldwide. However, the diversity of carbon trading systems and the differentiation policy may generate incomparable carbon abatement costs across regions and countries. Based on the nonparametric model, this paper investigates the shadow price of carbon emissions and energy structure in 38 Asian countries from 1991 to 2019. The main findings of this paper are as follows: (1) The annual average shadow price of carbon emissions experienced a fluctuating decline for Asian countries during the period 1991-2000, followed by a continuous rise and then a fluctuating decline. (2) Industrialization may lead to a decline in carbon shadow price, while urbanization may lead to a rise in the opportunity cost of carbon reduction. (3) The carbon shadow price in countries of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is lower than that in non-APEC countries. (4) The structure of energy consumption is negatively related to marginal abatement costs, while on the contrary, the coefficients of the level of human resources are significantly positive. We also derive corresponding policy measures to promote intra-regional emission reduction., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

One of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the current millennium is the need to mitigate climate change, and one of the most viable options to overcome this challenge is to invest in renewable energy. The study dynamically examines the links between renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption, climate change, and economic growth in five emerging Asian countries during the period 1975-2020. Variables selected in the model have long-term cointegration, as explored by the Pedroni cointegration test and the Westerlund cointegration test. The long-term estimated parameters of the augmented mean group (AMG) method show that renewable energy consumption significantly reduces climate change, while non-renewable energy consumption significantly promotes climate change. The results also show that GDP, investment in transport infrastructure, and urbanization can significantly contribute to climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Moreover, the results validate the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis for emerging Asian economies. Country-specific analysis results using AMG estimates shows that renewable energy consumption reduces climate change in selected emerging Asian countries. Non-renewable energy consumption and investment in transport infrastructure have had significant progressive impacts on climate change in all countries. Urbanization contributes significantly to climate change, with the exception of Japan, which does not have any significant impact on climate change. GDP contributes significantly to climate change in all countries; however, GDP2 has significant adverse effects on climate change in India, China, Japan, and Korea, validating the inverted U-shaped EKC assumption for all countries except Bangladesh. Moreover, the Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test confirmed a pairwise causal relationship between non-renewable energy consumption and GDP, supporting the feedback hypothesis. The results suggest that the best option for climate change mitigation in selected emerging Asian countries is to transition from non-renewable to renewable energy sources., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present paper investigates the influence of renewable energy consumption (REC), economic growth (GDP), financial development index (FDI), z-score (ZS) and control of corruption (CC) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, for eighteen different APEC economies over the period 2000-2019 using the Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive Distributed Lags (PMG-ARDL) approach and Granger causality tests. The outcomes of the empirical study confirm that the variables are cointegration using Pedroni tests. The long-run estimates revealed that economic growth and renewable energy contribute to the huge of carbon emissions, while financial development, ZS and CC lead to decrease carbon emissions. Granger causality shows that, in the long-run, there is bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions, economic growth, and financial development. In the short-run and for basic variables, Granger shows a unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions and economic growth to REC and; unidirectional causality from financial development, ZC and CC to CO2 emissions. A comprehensive approach is needed in APEC countries to effectively reduce CO2 emissions and promote sustainable development, including encouraging green financial products, reinforcing financial regulations, transitioning to a low-carbon economy, enhancing renewable energy usage, and improving governance and institutional quality, while considering the distinctive characteristics of each country., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

As resource shortages and environmental problems keep coming up, economies urgently need renewable energies as the new driving force for development. As one of the representatives of renewable energy, the photovoltaic (PV)'s trade has received much attention from all walks of life. Based on bilateral PV trade data, complex network methods and exponential random graph models (ERGM), this paper constructs global PV trade networks (PVTNs) during 2000-2019, describes detailed evolution features and verifies the influencing factors of the PVTNs. We find that (1) PVTNs have obvious characteristics of the small-world network, accompanied by disassortativity and low reciprocity. (2) Asia, North America, and Europe are the top 3 leading regions in the PVTNs. (3) China is the largest exporter, and the US is the leading recipient. Germany is an essential importer as well as exporter of PVTNs. (4) The formation and evolution of the PVTNs are significantly affected by transitivity, reciprocity, and stability. PV trade is more possible when economy-pairs are WTO members, located on the same continent, or with asymmetrical urbanization rates, industrialization rates, technological level or environmental supervision strength. Specifically, economies with higher industrialization rates, technological levels, stricter environmental regulations or lower urbanization rates are more likely to import PV. Economies with higher economic development, larger area, and greater trade openness are more inclined to trade PV. Besides, economic partners that share a religion or language, have common historical colonial ties or geographic borders or sign regional trade agreements are more likely to trade PV., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Balanced and sustainable development is one of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) objectives. Therefore, considering the role of urbanization and human capital as critical elements for sustainable development, we analyzed the moderating effect of human capital on the relationship between urbanization and CO 2 emissions in Asian member countries of the Belt and Road Initiative. In doing so, we used the STIRPAT framework and the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. We also employed the pooled OLS estimator with the Driscoll-Kraay's robust standard errors, the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), and the two-stage least square (2SLS) estimators in the case of 30 BRI countries for the period 1980-2019. The relationship between urbanization, human capital, and carbon dioxide emissions were examined first by showing a positive correlation between urbanization and carbon dioxide emissions. Secondly, we showed that human capital mitigated the positive effect of urbanization on CO 2 emissions. Next, we demonstrated that human capital had an inverted U-shaped effect on CO 2 emissions. Specifically, a 1% increase in urbanization rose CO 2 emissions by 0.756%, 0.943%, and 0.592% following the Driscoll-Kraay's OLS, the FGLS, and the 2SLS estimators, respectively. A 1% increase in the combination of human capital and urbanization reduced CO 2 by 0.751%, 0.834%, and 0.682%, respectively. Finally, a 1% increase in the square of human capital decreased CO 2 emissions by 1.061%, 1.045%, and 0.878%, respectively. Accordingly, we provide policy implications on the conditional influence of human capital in the urbanization-CO 2 emission nexus for sustainable development in these countries., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Environmental degradation has attained much attention from researchers and policymakers at national and global levels. The ever-increasing energy use in production methods is considered one of the fundamental reasons for environmental degradation. The concept of environmental efficiency in the wake of sustainable growth evolved in the last three decades. The present study has been designed to estimate environmental efficiency using the Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index (MLI) using annual data from 43 Asian countries from 1990 to 2019. The MLI is an established econometric approach to estimate cases where input variables are used to get output variables in desirable and undesirable forms. Labor, capital, and energy consumption are input variables, while carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions (undesirable variable) and gross domestic product (undesirable variable) are taken as output variables. The results suggested that, on average, environmental efficiency has decreased by 0.3% over the period in selected Asian countries. Cambodia, Turkey, and Nepal have the highest total factor productivity (TFP) output growth rate on average among 43 Asian countries. These countries are excellent examples of sustainable development that balances environmental protection and efficiency. On the other hand, Kuwait, Mongolia, and Yemen showed the least TFP growth. The study also employed unconditional and convergence tests where the countries' conditional convergence is based on foreign direct investment, population density, inflation, industrialization, and globalization. Some policy implications for Asian countries are also discussed at the end of the study., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This research is an endeavor to improve the literature on information and communication technology (ICT)-financial development-environmental sustainability nexus by conducting an aggregated and disaggregated analysis on the role of financial development and technological progress in attaining a sustainable environment. By employing a unique and comprehensive set of financial development and ICT indicators, this study offers an in-depth analysis of the role of financial development, ICT, and especially their interactions in maintaining environmental sustainability in 30 Asian economies from 2006 to 2020. Results from the two-step system generalized method of moments indicate that separately, both financial development and ICT are detrimental but together, their joint effects are beneficial to the environment. Several policy implications and recommendations are made to help policymakers to craft, design, and implement appropriate policies to improve environmental quality., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The effects of renewable energy, tourism, foreign direct investment, and income on environmental degradation have attracted the attention of many researchers, but to date, no researcher has examined the concurrent effects of these variables on CO 2 emissions for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. Motivated by this gap in the literature, this study aims to analyze the determinants of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for six ASEAN countries. To this end, the study utilizes the panel ARDL estimator and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test from 1995 to 2018. The results show that (i) tourism and foreign direct investment increase CO 2 emissions. (ii) Real income and trade openness reduce environmental degradation. (iii) Since the long-run income elasticity is lower than the short-run, the EKC hypothesis is valid. (iv) Renewable energy reduces carbon emissions only in the short term and has no effect on environmental quality in the long term. There is also no causal relationship between renewable energy and environmental degradation. This could be due to the ineffective deployment of renewable energy in ASEAN countries. Based on these results, this study suggests that ASEAN countries should effectively use renewable energy, reduce the amount of fossil energy in the tourism sector, and support economic development to achieve a sustainable environment., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Biased technological progress is the act of energy conservation and emission reduction by changing the marginal rate of substitution. In this study, we introduced renewable energy into a production function, and proposed a method of identifying biased characteristics of technological progress, based on marginal productivity theory. A panel dataset for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies from 2000 to 2017 was analyzed to explore the effect of biased technological progress in reducing particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). We found that input biased technological progress tended to use more non-renewable energy. Input biased technological progress aggravated haze pollution; however, this effect decreased as the PM 2.5 concentration increased. Output biased technological progress significantly reduced haze pollution in high-income economies, but increased it in low-income economies. The effect of neutral technological progress on haze pollution was the opposite of the effect from output biased technological progress. We also found that increasing renewable energy consumption and reducing energy intensity were separate effective paths for input and output biased technological progress, respectively, to mitigate haze pollution. For neutral technological progress, improving total factor productivity was an important way to mitigate haze pollution. Finally, several policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate haze pollution in APEC economies., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aims to analyze the impact of ICT, renewable energy consumption, and financial development on CO 2 emissions in selected developing countries of East and South Asia. Using panel data spanning 1985-2020, Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator is used to analyze the short-run and long-run effects. Results suggest that ICT and financial development positively contribute to the degradation of the environment in the long run, while their impact on CO 2 emissions is insignificant in the short run. On the other hand, renewable energy consumption affects environmental quality positively in both the long run and short run. It is also examined that economic growth affects CO 2 emissions positively but the squared economic growth reduces CO 2 emissions which validates inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. The empirical findings of the Granger Causality test suggest unidirectional causality from ICT and financial development to CO 2 emissions, while a bi-directional relationship is found among renewable energy and CO 2 emissions. Results imply that governments in these countries need to invest in renewable energy to control environmental degradation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This two-dimensional study makes significant incursions into the health-environment literature by interrogating whether non-renewable energy moderates the impact of environmental degradation on mortality rates. It further aligns with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and 11, which aim to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. It contributes to the health-environment literature by investigating the intrinsic relationships among mortality rates, carbon emissions (environmental degradation), and non-renewable energy consumption. The study uses an unbalanced sample of 42 Asia and Pacific countries to determine (1) whether carbon emissions exaggerate the incidence of mortality rates and (2) if the interaction of non-renewable energy with carbon emissions enhances or alters the impact of carbon emissions on mortality rates. Consistent findings from the panel spatial correlation consistent least-squares dummy variables (PSCC-LSDV) and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques reveal that (i) carbon emissions exacerbate mortality rates; (ii) non-renewable energy consumption exhibit mortality-reducing properties; (iii) non-renewable energy attenuates the impact of carbon emissions on mortality rates, (iv) persistency in mortalities occurs; and (v) the health-environment-energy dynamics differ across income groups. The paper's conjecture is expected to channel a new line of discourse on how non-renewable energy influences the environment and health outcomes., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

While climate change is having serious impacts on agriculture and may require ongoing adaptation, short-run threats to global food security are also crucial for developing countries. We use dynamic and asymmetric panel autoregressive distributed lag estimators to investigate how the effects of climate change on agricultural productivity vary depending upon the short run and long run in Asia over the period of 1980-2016. The results confirmed that there is a long-run relationship between agricultural productivity and climate change variables; however, only CO 2 emissions could be linked to agricultural productivity in the short run. Moreover, while the direction of this effect is positive for the short run, it turns into negative in the long run confirming that carbon fertilization in the atmosphere can to some extent have a positive effect on agricultural productivity., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study explores the influence of financial development (FD) on CO 2 emissions in five South Asian economies including energy consumption (ENC) and per capita income (PCI) as control variables. Using annual panel data for the period 1980-2018, this study applies the second-generation unit root and cointegration tests, panel pooled generalized least square (GLS) estimate, pooled mean group (PMG) estimation, and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test to accomplish the study. Westerlund cointegration test confirms a long-run relationship among the variables. The GLS estimation results reveal that FD, ENC, and PCI have significant impacts on environmental pollution. The relationship between FD and CO 2 emissions is linear, and thus, FD causes environmental pollution positively; an increasing level of FD does not reduce the latter. PCI and ENC affect environmental quality negatively. However, the existence of the EKC hypothesis is validated, as, at a rising level of PCI, pollution starts declining, taking an inverse U-shape. The PMG estimators also provide similar outcomes and validate the robustness of the panel GLS estimation. The D-H causality test supports the GSL findings and further reveals a feedback relationship between PCI and CO 2 emissions, ENC causes CO 2 emissions, bidirectional causality exists between FD and ENC, PCI causes both ENC and FD, and CO 2 emissions cause FD. The outcomes have implications for the policymakers to encourage firms and stakeholders to invest in renewable energy projects, and the financial intermediaries to the extent and subsidize loans for such investment projects. This is likely to induce investments in renewable energy sources, which will boost the energy portfolios, reduce CO 2 emissions, and produce a moderately cleaner environment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The fact is that output volatility and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions move together over the period. This empirical study examines the dynamic effect of output volatility on CO2 emissions using the advance nonlinear panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. The empirical analysis is executed for ten high emitters Asian countries covering the period from 1990 to 2019. The findings reveal that positive change in output volatility increases CO2 emissions and negative change in output volatility decreases CO2 emissions in the long run in Asia. The results also show that digitization also positively impacts environmental quality in Asia due to green globalization. The findings are also robust and similar in an alternative indicator of the environment. An important policy is that reducing volatility in output is a suitable way of environmental sustainability, particularly for Asian countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Air pollution brings uncountable serious influences on human life during the last decade. This study is an attempt to compare economic liberalism with economic federalism in examining the problem of air pollution in the Asia-Pacific region. Economic analysts have different views with one school of thought arguing that air pollution is the cause of the failure of a free economy rather than the failure of government regulations, while another supports liberal economics and vice versa. After developing a conceptual framework, the study uses the technique of fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine how the rule of law, the size of government, regulatory efficiency, and the openness of the market influence air pollution in countries across the region. The analysis identifies two solutions with government size being found to be a necessary and core condition that influences air pollution. The study thus provides insights and suggests that government spending, taxation, and other financial health policies can be used as key sources to control air pollution in the Asia-Pacific region., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Continuous economic growth and the rise in energy consumption are linked with environmental pollution. Demand for health care expenditure increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is interesting in modeling the nexus between public and private health expenditure, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth. To this end, the present study analyzed the nexus between public and private health care expenditure, economic growth, and environmental pollution for 36 Asian countries for the period 1991-2017. FMOLS, GMM, and quantile regression analysis confirm the EKC hypothesis in Asia. Besides, FMOLS and quantile regressions reached the reducing effects of government and private health expenditures on CO 2 emissions. While quantile regression results show that public and private health expenditures can mitigate CO 2 emissions; however, these results differ for various levels of CO 2 . Findings of quantile regression show a significant impact of both public and private health expenditures in reducing CO 2 at the 50 th and 75 th quantiles but results are insignificant for the 25 th quantile. Overall, the paper concludes that both government and private health sectors' expenditures caused CO 2 emissions to decrease in Asia and that the negative impact of the private health sector on CO 2 emissions is greater than that of the government health sector. The concluding remark is that the higher the health spending, the higher the environmental quality will be in Asia. Hence, the health administrators need to increase public and private health expenditures with an effective cost-service and energy-efficient management approach to reach sustainable health services and a sustainable environment in Asia., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper examines the effect of ICT and FDI on environmental pollution in major Asia Pacific countries during the year 1990-2018. We use Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Panel Causality for the estimation of the results. Our results suggest that ICT and FDI affect the carbon emissions or environmental pollution negatively. This implies that with the rise in ICT infrastructure and FDI inflows, environmental pollution decreases significantly in the long run. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality results suggest the existence of bidirectional causality among ICT and FDI which implies that increase in foreign investment leads to increase in ICT infrastructure and also, with increasing ICT infrastructure, the foreign investment increases in the Asia Pacific countries. On the policy forefront, the main focus should be targeted towards promoting FDI and ICT infrastructure in order to facilitate sustainable economic development in the Asia Pacific countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the nexus between natural resources, gross capital formation, globalization, and economic growth in the developing countries from European, Asian, African, and American continents. It adopted the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach to test this relationship for the period from 1980 to 2018. Results suggest that natural resources and globalization have a positive impact on economic growth in European, Asian, and American countries, while capital formation negatively affects growth. In African countries, the effect of globalization and gross capital formation is positive, but natural resources have a negative impact on GDP. Evidence from all continents illustrate that there is bidirectional causality between globalization and economic growth. Also, there is bidirectional causality detected between capital formation and growth in Europe and Asia and between natural resources and growth in Asia and America, while there is unidirectional causality from GDP to natural resources in Europe, from capital formation to GDP in Africa and America, from GDP to natural resources in Europe, and from natural resources to GDP in America. Based on these results, it can be said that new growth models can no longer be independent of natural resource rents and globalization., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE part of Springer Nature.)

In the preceding two decades, the expansion of financial services has played a vital role in pursuing economic growth agendas in the developing Asian nations. However, its harmful effect on environmental quality cannot be denied. In this backdrop, in the present study, we investigated whether the financial sector development moderated the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint in the eight developing nations of South and Southeast Asia from 1990 to 2015. In doing so, we included the per capita income, energy solutions, and trade expansions as determinants of the ecological indicators. The results of the second-generation unit root tests and Westerlund's cointegration test reported the long-run stability and cointegration, respectively. To navigate the possible cross-country dependency, we employed the cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag approach (CS-ARDL). The results confirmed that per capita income, energy solutions, trade expansion, and financial sector development invigorated the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint in the long run. Further, it is reported that the development in the financial sector has a significant moderating impact on the nexus between energy and environmental footprints. In other words, the financial sector development drove the association between the overall environmental quality and energy solutions in the long run. Similarly, we observed that the financial sector development worked as a significant mediator between environmental proxies and trade expansion. By including the ecological footprint, carbon footprint, and land footprint as environmental proxies, the study provides the wider environmental spectrum. Based on the outcomes of the study, we proposed a novel scheme, which may help to address the harmful environmental impacts of the financial sector development in the selected developing nations.

This paper explores the dynamic relationship between CO 2 emissions, urbanization, trade openness, and technology innovation based on the panel data of 13 Asian countries over the period of 1985-2019. The STIRPAT model is used as a framework for the analysis. For estimation purpose, panel cointegration and FMOLS techniques are utilized. The causality between the concerned variables is also examined by estimating a panel VECM model. The results of panel cointegration reveal the presence of long-run relationship among the variables. FMOLS estimations show that energy consumption increases CO 2 emissions while technology change, urbanization, and trade openness compact it. Panel causality analysis indicates bidirectional causality between urbanization and emissions, technology and emissions, trade and emissions, and trade and technology in the long run. Overall findings support the idea that urbanization, technology innovation, and trade openness can play important role to achieve environmental sustainability.

Adopting renewable energy consumption is one of the most important aspects of international efforts to combat climate change, improve energy security, and encourage the shift to a more robust and sustainable energy system. Therefore, the empirics and policymakers worldwide are searching for factors that can promote renewable energy consumption. This analysis intends to investigate the role of financial globalization and tourism on renewable energy consumption in Asia and sub-regions such as Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. The analysis utilized the linear and nonlinear CS-ARDL methods. Long-run outcomes of the linear and nonlinear models confirm that a rise in financial globalization and tourism promotes renewable energy consumption in Asia and all sub-regions. However, the nonlinear model highlights that a fall in financial globalization hurts renewable energy consumption in Central and South Asian regions, and tourism only hurts renewable energy consumption in Asia. In addition, ICT, GDP, and GHG emissions help promote renewable energy consumption. These results suggest that Asian policymakers must increase collaboration in the financial sectors and promote sustainable tourism in the regions to promote renewable energy consumption., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The renewable energy product trade is critically important to global economic prospects and its rapid development, making it a key issue in international economics of much interest to scholars. Previous studies have paid attention to bilateral trade, yet we still know little about the patterns of renewable energy product trade and its evolution from the whole industry perspective. Based on bilateral trade data, complex network, as well as ERGM and TERGM, we build global renewable energy trade networks (GRETNs) during 2000-2018 and explore the patterns and determinants. The results show that (1) the GRETNs expand during 2000-2018, characterized by a small-world, reciprocity, degree disassortative, and export volume heterogeneity. (2) The GRETNs form four communities, and the community patterns greatly fluctuate over time. (3) Economies in North America, Europe, and Asia play dominant roles, while the USA, Germany, and China are the cores of the GRETNs. (4) Endogenous structure of reciprocity, structural embeddedness, and out-degree popularity are essential parts of the evolving patterns of GRETNs. Most trade relationships are developed between economies located within the same continent, participating in APEC or WTO, or having similar areas. There is heterophily in GDP and per capita income, and Matthew effects in GDP, urbanization, and industrialization rate. Countries that share a common geographic border, language, religion, or currency, being former colonies of the same colonialists, and having signed regional trade agreements are more likely to trade in renewable energy products., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The purpose of this study is to explore the empirical relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), population, energy production, and water resources in South Asia. The newly developed approach dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE) by Chudik and Pesaran (Journal of Econometrics 188:393-420, 2015a) for measuring co-integration has been applied in the present study. This procedure provides significant robust outcomes in the presence of cross-sectional dependence among the cross-sectional units. The findings confirmed that earlier models, such as mean group (MG), pooled mean group (PMG), and augmented mean group (AMG), which have been used in the literature for long data, provide misleading results in the presence of cross-sectional dependence among the cross-sectional units. A statistically significant and negative result has been observed between FDI, population, energy production, and water resources in South Asia. The governments of South Asian economies must encourage green FDI initiatives for water management, ensuring water security, securing natural resources for enhancing the sustainable development of regional economies.

Over the past three decades, industrial innovations and technological advancements have changed business dynamics, adversely devastating the overall environment. As a result, our oceans have been severely affected due to climate change and global warming. To address this issue, this study investigates the factors that cause ocean CO 2 using a sample of 44 countries over 2012-2021 and explores a dynamic and causal relationship between economic growth, ocean carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and control variables relating to the ocean industry. This study finds that increasing economic activity tends to increase ocean carbon emissions. The results support the evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis suggesting an inverted U-shaped association between ocean emissions and real income for the sample countries. Moreover, this study reports that ocean health index, maritime container transport, trade of fishery and ocean species, aquaculture production and marine species, and employment rate in the fishery processing sector are the significant factors of ocean CO 2 . Region-wise analyses suggest that real income positively influences ocean emissions and confirm the evidence of the EKC hypothesis in European sample countries but these relationships have an insignificant effect in Asia and the Pacific and the American regions. Furthermore, a short-run unidirectional panel causality flows from the production of aquaculture and other species to RD&D, from OHI and GDP to trade of fishery and other species, and from OHI to employment rate in the fishery sector. Likewise, bidirectional causality runs from energy consumption and maritime transport to ocean CO 2 in the long term. Regarding the long-run causal association, the results determine that all of the estimated coefficients of the lagged error correction terms are statistically significant which explains that they are crucial in the adjustment process as they deviate from the long-run equilibrium., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present study investigates the influence of rural-urban migration, construction sector share, and agriculture-irrigated land on environmental quality in urbanized Asian nations. For analysis, panel data from seven highly urbanized economies from 1996 to 2020 is utilized. The study employed an augmented mean group (AMG) estimator to find short and long-run results. The empirical discoveries depict that rural-urban migration increases energy demand in urbanized areas and significantly contributes to deteriorating environmental quality. The findings also reveal that the expansion of construction sectors is a significant source of high cement production, which also increases carbon emissions and environmental pollution by increasing the concentration of particulate matter in the atmosphere. The findings also exposed the role of agriculture-irrigated land, contributing to carbon emissions in urbanized Asian economies. The study also investigated the impact of the square term of irrigated agricultural land on environmental deterioration, revealing that adding agricultural land will further intensify environmental degradation by increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. A policy framework to reduce environmental damage in Asian economies caused by rural-to-urban migration, the building industry, and irrigated agricultural land was recommended based on the study's findings., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Financial fragility, ICT capital, environmental policy stringency, and education are the main factors that have also gained popularity regarding their impact on green growth. This study examines the impact of financial fragility, ICT capital, environmental policy stringency, and education on green growth. For analyzing the short- and long-run estimates, we have applied the panel QARDL model. The results of the panel QARDL model highlight that the estimates of non-performing bank loans and bank costs are negatively significant in both the short and long run, implying that financial fragility hurts green growth in the short and long run. Similarly, the estimated coefficients of the internet (mobile) and education estimates are positively significant in the short and long run, confirming that ICT capital and education are causing green growth, while environmental policy stringency promotes green growth only in the long run. Regarding the asymmetric effects of all the factors on green growth, the Wald test only confirms asymmetric effects in the long run. The study offers several significant recommendations for sustainable green development policies., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a new global economic force, has struggled to achieve a dual objective of enhanced economic growth and improved environmental quality. Financial development is generally considered an important tool in achieving these simultaneous objectives. This paper examines the response mechanism and the inter-relationship between the ASEAN region's financial development, energy consumption, and economic growth. Unlike previous studies, the paper uses a generalized method of moments panel vector autoregression (GMM-panel VAR) framework for the 1981-2021 period. The second-generation Granger causality test is used to identify their causality relationship. Economic growth supports financial development and reduces energy consumption from fossil fuel sources in the ASEAN countries. Financial development also reduces fossil fuel energy consumption. The bi-directional relationship between economic growth and fossil fuel energy consumption exists. Energy consumption and financial development are also bi-directionally linked. However, only the unidirectional Granger causality from economic growth to financial development is found. The variance decomposition analysis results confirm that economic growth accounts for the most significant variance in fossil fuel energy consumption and financial development in the ASEAN countries. Policy implications have emerged based on these findings., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The study aims to examine the relationship between carbon emissions and ecological footprints with economic complexity, core pollution indicators, urbanization, globalization, and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in eight emerging Asian economies from 1971 to 2020. A panel data framework that considers cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity was used for analysis. The Pedroni and Johnsen Fisher cointegration showed that carbon emission, ecological footprint, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic complexity, globalization, and urbanization confirmed the presence of cointegration. Moreover, fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DLOS) indicated that globalization, non-renewable energy consumption, and economic complexity increase emission and ecological footprint in the long run, whereas renewable energy generated through biomass, solar, and wind decreases environmental degradation. Furthermore, urbanization also negatively affects the environment. From a policy perspective, policymakers in these countries may manage their natural resources efficiently by escalating the share of renewables in total energy production, offering tax holidays, incentives and encouraging companies to install clean energy plant, and providing support to research and development-oriented companies to engage in research activities to reduce the cost of production of renewable energy., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Flooding events are determining a significant amount of damages, in terms of economic loss and also casualties in Asia and Pacific areas. Due to complexity and ferocity of severe flooding, predicting flood-prone areas is a difficult task. Thus, creating flood susceptibility maps at local level is though challenging but an inevitable task. In order to implement a flood management plan for the Balrampur district, an agricultural dominant landscape of India, and strengthen its resilience, flood susceptibility modeling and mapping are carried out. In the present study, three hybrid machine learning (ML) models, namely, fuzzy-ANN (artificial neural network), fuzzy-RBF (radial basis function), and fuzzy-SVM (support vector machine) with 12 topographic, hydrological, and other flood influencing factors were used to determine flood-susceptible zones. To ascertain the relationship between the occurrences and flood influencing factors, correlation attribute evaluation (CAE) and multicollinearity diagnostic tests were used. The predictive power of these models was validated and compared using a variety of statistical techniques, including Wilcoxon signed-rank, t-paired tests and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results show that fuzzy-RBF model outperformed other hybrid ML models for modeling flood susceptibility, followed by fuzzy-ANN and fuzzy-SVM. Overall, these models have shown promise in identifying flood-prone areas in the basin and other basins around the world. The outcomes of the work would benefit policymakers and government bodies to capture the flood-affected areas for necessary planning, action, and implementation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Sustainable finance and green trade are essential to accomplish the green growth agenda. Though the literature prevails, little is known about the inclusive influence of financialization and trade openness on ecological status rather than just focusing on air pollution or inconclusive element. This study aims to analyze the role of financial dimensions and trade openness with environmental performance in the context of three panels of Asian countries consisting of low, middle, and high-income over the period 1990-2020. The estimated outcomes from the novel panel, the Granger non-causality technique, demonstrate that financialization further contributes to environmental deterioration instead of preserving the environmental quality. Regarding the low and middle-income economies, the authorities should enhance gains from trade openness to develop energy efficiency and ecological status policies. In the case of high-income Asian countries, they are even more desperate to consume energy and ignore the ecological challenges. The findings of this research offer various policy suggestions to accomplish sustainable development objectives., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Bisphenol S (BPS), an organic compound and bisphenol analog, is commonly used as a substitute for bisphenol A. BPS is widely used in epoxy glues, can coatings, and thermal receipt papers; however, its risks have not been fully determined and the probability of its toxicity has been continuously suggested. In this study, we conducted BPS toxicity tests on aquatic plants (acute), cladocerans (acute and chronic), and fish (chronic) to determine its adverse effects, and calculated the toxicity values. Additionally, we conducted an ecological risk assessment of BPS in freshwater ecosystems with toxicity data from previous studies using the species sensitivity distribution method and BPS exposure data from 14 rivers in four countries in Asia (China, Japan, India, and South Korea). The chronic-based risk quotient (RQ) values of BPS in one river in China and two rivers in India were > 1, indicating a high ecological risk of BPS to aquatic organisms. The other four rivers in China showed medium ecological risk (0.1 < RQ < 1) and those in Japan and South Korea showed negligible chronic risk (RQ < 0.1) to aquatic organisms. We also suggest sensitive indicators in the model organism Danio rerio and highlighted the importance of the development of new method of ecological risk assessment. This study could provide new information that will assist in managing BPS and bisphenol analogs in freshwater ecosystems., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Oil and natural consumption are non-renewable energy sources that are the main drivers of economic growth, but these energy sources are also the main causes of environmental degradation in Northeast Asian countries. The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of renewable energy consumption, non-renewable energy consumption on CO 2 emissions, and economic growth in seven selected Northeast Asian countries during the period 1970-2020. First, the cross-sectional dependence test recommended by Pesaran, Ullah, and Yamagata (2008) concludes that there is no cross-sectional dependence in the panel data model, so it is feasible to use the first-generation panel data methods. Later, cointegration tests proposed by Pedroni (Oxford Bull Econ Stat 61:653-670, 1999, Economet Theor 20:597-625, 2004), Kao (J Econom 90:1-44, 1999), and Westerlund (2007) were adopted, revealing long-term cointegration relationships among model panel variables. Long-term variable coefficient elasticities were detected using the estimation techniques of panel fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and panel dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS). Two-way causality of variables was detected using the Dumitrescue-Hurlin (Econ Model 29:1450-1460, 2012) panel causality test. The results of the analysis highlight the significant progressive effects of renewable energy consumption, nonrenewable energy consumption, employed labor force, and capital formation on long-run economic growth. The study also concluded that renewable energy consumption significantly reduced long-term CO 2 emissions, while non-renewable energy consumption significantly contributed to long-term CO 2 emissions. Estimates from the FMOLS technique reflect a significant progressive effect of GDP and GDP 3 on CO 2 emissions, while GDP 2 has a significant adverse effect on CO 2 emissions, thus validating the N-shaped EKC assumption in selected group of countries. Furthermore, the feedback hypothesis is supported based on the two-way causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Strategically, this evidence-based empirical study demonstrates that renewable energy is a valuable process that can protect the environment and contribute to future economic growth in selected countries by addressing energy security and reducing carbon emissions., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper investigates the relationship between CO 2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investment for a sample of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Countries (APEC) countries from 1981:Q1 to 2021:Q1 employing panel data methodology. We identify cross-sectional dependence and hence utilize the cross-sectional augmented Dickey-Fuller panel unit root test for appropriate estimation. The cointegration test developed by Westerlund (2008) reveals a long-run equilibrium between CO 2 emissions, energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investment. Long-run parameter estimates based on Common Correlated Effect Mean Group indicate that an increase in FDI inflows has a negative impact on air quality, supporting the pollution haven hypothesis. The cointegration test results also show that the impact of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on CO 2 emissions varies by country in the estimation sample. In contrast to the mixed evidence on the effects of other variables, the increase in energy consumption is positively and significantly affecting CO 2 emissions in all APEC countries. Emirmahmutoglu and Kose Econ Model 28:870-876, (2011)'s panel causality test results show a bidirectional relationship between FDI and CO 2 emissions in Japan. Furthermore, there is a bidirectional causal relationship between GDP and energy consumption in Australia, China, Japan, and Singapore. Overall, empirical evidence suggests that APEC countries should adhere to strict regulations and invest in environmental-friendly clean technologies to attract foreign direct investment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Glaciers across the Kashmir Himalayan region are melting at an accelerated pace compared to other regions across the Himalayan arc. This study analyzed the recession patterns of nine glaciers in the Kashmir Himalaya region over 28 years between 1992 and 2020 using satellite images and field measurements. The recession patterns were correlated with debris cover, topographic factors, and ambient black carbon (BC) concentration at glacier sites. HYSPLIT model was used to track the air mass sources at a 7-day time-step from September 1, 2014, to September 28, 2014, over the selected region. All nine glaciers revealed high recession as indicated by changes in the area (average recession: 20.8%) and snout position (~ 14 m a -1 ). The relative percentage of debris on each glacier varied between ~ 0% (clean glacier) and 43%. Although the investigated glaciers lie in the same climatological regime, their topographical behavior is dissimilar with mean altitude ranging between 4000 and ~ 4700 m asl and the average slope varying from 17 to 24°. All the investigated glaciers are north-facing except G3 (southerly aspect). Our results indicate anomalously high ambient BC concentrations, ranging from 500 to 1364 ng m -3 , at the glacier sites, higher than previously studied for glaciers in the Himalayas and neighboring Tibetan Plateau. The backward air-mass trajectory modeling indicated both local and global sources of particulate matter in the study area. A comparative analysis of BC measurements and glacier recession with the studies conducted across high Asia indicated the influence of BC in accelerating the melting of glaciers in the Kashmir region., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The study examined the impact of macroeconomic performance and energy consumption on carbon emissions in Asian developing countries. Although, macroeconomic performance is a critical measure for the determination of development in societies. Thus, the examination of macroeconomic performance variables is a core issue for policymakers. The panel quantile regression model assesses the macroeconomic performance at several quantiles, ranging from 0.05 to 0.95. The effect of macroeconomic performance and energy consumption on CO 2 emissions has also been established. The findings indicate that CO 2 emissions and macroeconomic performance are negatively associated in all quantiles of macroeconomic performance. Though, fossil fuel energy and population growth positively influence carbon emissions in all low and medium quantiles but this relationship becomes weaker in the upper quantiles. In addition, hydroelectricity consumption and carbon emissions are negatively and significantly associated in the quantile ranges of low and higher. Based on the aforementioned results, the study suggests the formulation of such policies that can improve macroeconomic performance in the region and the promotion of hydel energy instead of fossil fuels to reduce environmental pollution in developing Asian countries. Moreover, the population control program, promotion of renewable energy, and dangers of fossil fuel consumption should be a part of public policies to control environmental issues by reducing carbon emissions at the regional level., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Nurturing pressure and unemployment affect our production and life in many ways. The aim of this study is to examine the potential effects of nurturing pressure and unemployment on global CO 2 emissions, by using the panel data of 77 countries and regions from 1991 to 2020 and a STIRPAT-based theoretical framework. The results show that at the global level, both nurturing pressure and unemployment overall have negative effects on CO 2 emissions. While at the regional level, it becomes a different situation. An increase in nurturing pressure leads to an increase in CO 2 emissions in the Americas and the Middle East and a decrease in CO 2 emissions in Africa, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Unemployment has a positive effect on CO 2 emissions in the Middle East and a negative effect on CO 2 emissions in Africa, Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific regions. There is no evidence that unemployment has certain effects on CO 2 emissions in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

There are some studies that either examine the convergence or spillover effect of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) at the country or multiple country level but research on the spillover effect of GHGEs is very limited particularly for the agriculture sector across the major continents. Therefore, this study examined the connectedness across the five major continents namely Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Americas for the period 1961-2018. To achieve the objective, this study applies a very recent time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model. The results obtained from TVP-VAR model indicate that all the five continents are highly interconnected in GHGEs. In particular, the findings show that Asia, Africa and Americas are the main transmitters and Europe and Oceania are the main receivers of GHGEs. The findings suggest that Asia, Africa and Americas should use the economic profits received from the economic integration for the environmental protection policies with more attention. This might help for high economic growth and development with a clean environment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The ocean economy and marine tourism policies are global economic concerns being looked at from a deeply holistic viewpoint. For South Asian countries, the ocean economy and marine tourism have successive socio-economic importance. The quantification of the ocean economy and marine tourism also poses some major challenges, and these challenges pose limitations for policymaking by the government and other relevant agencies. The study has used the newly developed hidden panel cointegration test, and the nonlinear panel autoregressive distributed lag (NPARDL) model for a relationship between economic growth and tourism is assessed. This study offers consistent and reliable results of cointegration by incorporating the findings of four approaches to cointegration. The empirical results illustrate the asymmetric relationship between ocean and marine tourism and economic growth. The findings showed that 1% increase in long-term tourism economic growth is adjusted by 2.95% annually. This research paper aims to provide a policy related to South Asia's economic activities and ocean and marine tourism economic significance. Protecting local marine protected areas (MPAs) will improve the economic benefits of the ocean and the marine economy. The policy suggests that there should be a law ensuring that marine tourism is of high quality and environment friendly. This paper provides a guideline for further research with a strong emphasis on ocean- and marine-related economic development and tourism., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Earth is in the Anthropocene era and humankind deteriorates the global environment; thus, there is a dire need for sustainable policies at all levels. This study investigates the causal and long-run association between financial development, research and development expenditures, and carbon dioxide emission including energy intensity and income level for selected West Asia and Middle East (WAME) economies along the belt and road. The long-run panel estimation findings reveal that the research and development expenditures (R&D) are negatively associated with environmental degradation, as they significantly mitigate carbon emissions. In contrast, financial development contributes to environmental degradation. The findings validated the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) phenomenon for the WAME economies considering R&D and financial development. Further, energy intensity exacerbates environmental quality. Additionally, the findings from Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) causal approach reveal bidirectional causal associations between financial development and carbon emissions and between R&D and emissions. The findings have implications for policy and practice to attain environmental sustainability in the selected WAME countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Although El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been widely confirmed to have significant impacts on climate change in Asia, it is unknown whether the climate change in the Yangtze River Basin (YTR basin) is related to the operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, which is the world's largest hydropower station. In this study, we used the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) as an indicator of climate change and found that the mutation period of the YTR basin was 2003-2006 based on three mutation tests. By analyzing the trends of the SPEI and five related meteorological factors before and after 2003, it was found that the construction of the Three Gorges Reservoir increased the relative humidity and provided a more humid climate for the downstream basin. The relationships between drought events and ENSO and the water level of the reservoir indicated that the basin was more prone to drought in El Niño years and the Three Gorges Reservoir could alleviate agricultural drought in the downstream basin. The spatial impacts of the Three Gorges Reservoir on regional climate change were more pronounced, while the impact of ENSO could not be reflected at the station scale.

This study examines the association between air pollution and economic growth based on the idea of environment Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis which suggests an inverted U-shaped link between air pollution and economic growth in six different regions including Latin America and the Caribbean, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa over the period 2000 to 2018. This regional classification is done to investigate the regional differences of the EKC relationship for carbon emissions. Models based on panel data econometric models are employed to obtain empirical results. Random effect and fixed effect models are used in the present study. A multivariate framework is used in which carbon dioxide emission, per capita gross domestic product, trade openness, foreign direct investment, primary school enrollment, financial development indicator, and institutional quality that is measured by six indicators are included. The result is that the EKC hypothesis is supported in all the abovementioned regions except in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Thus, the hypothesis that different regions have dissimilar EKC relationships is supported through the results of this research study.

This study focuses on whether information and communication technology (ICT) contributes to economic growth in countries with better human development index as compared to those with a lower index. The study uses panel data estimation methods those are robust to dependencies across countries and heterogeneity from 1990 to 2016 in developing Asian countries. The results documented that countries with better human development index and mobile phone usage promote economic growth, whereas Internet users do not seem to do so. Despite that, human development index itself is a critical factor that contributes to economic growth in Asian countries. Finally, both mobile phone usages contribute to economic growth, but Internet usage does not seem to do. These new findings recommend that whereas better human development is regarded as crucial for mobile phone usage, it appears to be inappropriate for Internet usage. An additional feature is that the study uses the most robust panel data estimation method that produces more effective and reliable estimates.

The super-efficiency directional distance function (DDF) with data envelopment analysis (DEA) model (SEDDF-DEA) is more facilitative than to increase traditional method as a rise of energy efficiency in China, which is currently important energy development from Asia-pacific region countries. SEDDF-DEA is promoted as sustained total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE), value added outputs, and Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index (MLPI) to otherwise thorny environmental energy productivity problems with environmental constraint to concrete the means of regression model. This paper assesses the energy efficiency under environmental constraints using panel data covering the years of 2000-2015 in China. Considering the environmental constraints, the results showed that the average TFEE of the whole country followed an upward trend after 2006. The average MLPI score for the whole country increased by 10.57% during 2005-2010, which was mainly due to the progress made in developing and applying environmental technologies. The TFEE of the whole nation was promoted by the accumulation of capital stock, while it was suppressed by excessive production in secondary industries and foreign investment. The primary challenge for the northeast of China is to strengthen industrial transformation and upgrade traditional industries, as well as adjusting the economy and energy structure. The eastern and central regions of the country need to exploit clean- or low-energy industry to improve inefficiencies due to excessive consumption. The western region of China needs to implement renewable energy strategies to promote regional development.

This study explored the long-run association among greenhouse gases (GHGs), financial development, forest area, improved sanitation, renewable energy, urbanization, and trade in 24 lower middle-income countries from Asia, Europe, Africa, and America (South and North) by using panel data from 1990 to 2015. Granger causality was tested by Toda and Yamamoto approach. The bi-directional causality was established among urbanization and GHGs (Asia), financial development and forest (Asia), energy use and renewable energy (Asia), renewable energy and forest (Asia), improved sanitation and forest (Asia, Africa, America), urbanization and forest (Asia), and improved sanitation and financial development (Europe). The GHG emission also shows one-way causality is running from financial development to GHG (America), energy to GHG (Asia), renewable energy to GHG (America), forest area to GHG (America), trade openness to GHG (Africa), urbanization to GHG (Europe), GHG to financial development (Europe), GHG to energy use (Europe, Africa, and America), and GHG to trade openness (Asia). On the basis of fully modified ordinary least square and generalized method of moment, the reciprocal relationship of GHGs was observed due to financial development in Asia and Africa; renewable energy in all panels; forest area in Asia, Europe, and America; improved sanitation in Asia, Africa, and America; trade openness in Africa; and urbanization in Europe and America. Policymakers should concentrate on these variables for the reduction in GHGs. The annual convergence towards long-run equilibrium was 50.5, 31.9, and 20.9% for America, Asia, and Africa, respectively.

There is a call for global efforts to preserve the ecological systems that can sustain economies and people's lives. However, carbon emission (CEM) threatens the sustainability of humanity and ecological systems. This analysis looked into the influence of energy use (ERU), human capital (HCI), trade openness (TOP), natural resource (NRR), population, and economic growth (ENG) on CEM. The paper gathered panel data from the Central Asia region from 1990 to 2020. The CS-ARDL was applied to establish the long-term interaction among the indicators. The paper's findings indicated the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the Central Asia regions. Also, the empirical evidence highlighted that energy use, natural resources, and trade openness cause higher levels of CEM. However, the research verified that CEM can be improved through human capital and urban population growth. The study also found that HCI moderates the interaction between NRR and CEM. The causality assessment indicated a one-way interplay between ENG, ERU, NRR, and CEM. The study proposes that to support ecological stability in these regions, policy-makers should concentrate on developing human capital, investing in renewable energy sources, and utilizing contemporary technologies to harness natural resources in the economies of Central Asia., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The share of solar energy in the energy mix has become a major concern, and the global effort is to increase its contribution. Photovoltaic technology is an environment-friendly way of electricity production compared to fossil fuels. Currently, third generation of solar cells with a maximum average conversion efficiency of 20% has been achieved. Asia is an emerging market for photovoltaic technology, and it has recorded the highest installation capacity for 2018 (280 MW), 2030 (1860 MW), and 2050 (4837 MW). Meanwhile, Asia is estimated to be the highest producer of PV waste by 2040, with 5,580,000 metric tons of waste volume. Solid waste management is already a big environmental issue in South Asian countries, and untested landfilling of solar cells can further increase the burden. This review emphasizes the end-of-life scenario of solar cells in developing South Asian countries. Solar cell waste is hazardous e-waste that can lead to environmental and health impacts if not managed properly. It consists of metals with market value, which can be waste or gold, depending on its management. The study finds that recycling is the economically and environmentally effective waste management option for solar cells in South Asia. This paper reviews the deficiencies in the existing solar cell waste management framework in South Asian countries. Moreover, practical implications are presented for designing an effective waste management plan for solar cells in South Asian countries. Strong legislation, sufficient recycling infrastructure, and high stakeholders' interests are required to resolve this environmental concern., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)