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The emergence of new transformational technology, known as the fourth industrial revolution, has crucially opened a new window to green economic growth. The transition to low carbon, green economy, and green sustainability has gained momentum simultaneously in developed and developing countries. The greening policy echoes the pending climate change and its entrenching disruptions. Financial technology, or FinTech seems to be a promising direction in unlocking the green dilemma; to be concrete, FinTech and the green economy are separately documented in the literature. Against this background, the current study investigates the intersection between green economic growth and FinTech by conducting a systematic-cum-bibliometric analysis of published papers in the Scopus database with the goal of first examining the role and opportunities of implementing green FinTech as a stimulus for transition towards green economic growth in African countries and, second, identifying knowledge gaps and future policy and research directions by developing an integrated framework to help African countries in the transition to green economic growth and green FinTech. The results illustrate an increasing trend in research attention towards the green FinTech concept and its relationship with green economic growth, climate change, and greening rules and standards. A deep inspection of the mined papers indicates that future research trajectories are oriented into five different mainstreams: technology and instruments in digital finance; regulation, policies, and green FinTech; climate risk mitigation through FinTech; FinTech and environmental quality; green finance and climate change mitigation. Based on these research directions, an integrated framework was conceptualised that aims to deliver green economic growth using FinTech as a vehicle of transition for African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sixth Assessment Report of Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the urgency of accelerated climate actions harnessing synergies and minimizing trade-offs with various SDG. This calls for a clear understanding of linkages between climate goals and other SDGs at national level for formulating synergistic policies and strategies and developing different sectoral programs and coherent cross-sectoral policies. This is even more important for least developed countries such as Nepal where these linkages are less understood and development challenges are multifaceted. In this context, this paper aims to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs among selected SDGs and their associated targets in Nepal in a linear pairwise comparison. Synergies and trade-offs related to climate action (SDG 13), access to energy (SDG 7), sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), and life on land (SDG 15) have been evaluated using historical data for the period from 1990 to 2018 employing a mixed methods approach. Network analysis to map the conceptual linkages between the SDGs and their targets was combined with the advance sustainability analysis (ASA) to quantitatively evaluate the synergy and trade-offs between SDGs. The results illustrate the presences of a continual trade-off between emission reductions targets of SDG 13 with per capita energy consumption and share of renewable energy of SDG 7, land use for agricultural production target of SDG 12, and forest area target of SDG 15. This indicates that climate action is strongly interlinked with GHG emissions from economic activities and energy consumption. The results of the study represent a valuable input for the policy makers, supporting coherent and sustainable development planning as Nepal plans to graduate to a middle-income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In respect to CO2 emissions, the post-Soviet states are a scientifically interesting object of research, as each of the countries has developed via different paths since reclaiming independence from the Soviet Union. Given that each country has a different approach to the use of fossil resources, it is essential to assess their input to global carbon footprint individually. Such assessment then allows to find certain actions in the development of legislation and to apply focused techniques to reduce carbon emissions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the fossil CO2 emissions produced in the Baltic States from 1991 onward, describing challenges relating to sustainability and socio-economic, scientific, and integrated approaches to sustainable development, including clean and efficient use of energy, and thus addressing climate challenges. This paper reports on data on CO2 emissions in the Baltic States. The results show that the transition of the Baltic States from the specificities of the Soviet Union's economy to an economy integrated into global markets has led to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. However, the development and implementation of national policies for sustainable development are still crucial for mitigation of the climate crisis. Further actions must include the implementation and monitoring of policies for sustainable development, changing of the consumption and production patterns, education and awareness of sustainability, and adaptation to global climate change, while also addressing sustainability challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food is connected to sustainable development goals in numerous ways, as food security is key to achieving sustainable development. The world is currently not on track to achieve the set sustainable development goals (SDGs). In Nigeria, flooding is a recurrent disaster and constitutes a setback to success with the SDGs and sustainable development. Flooding disasters are a threat to food security due to their impact on the food system. This study is an integrative review that explores the link between Nigeria's flooding, food security, and the SDGs. It adopts an assemblage and systems thinking approach to analyze the impact of flooding on all components of food security. It finds that, despite the impact of flooding on food security, it is not recognized as a threat by policymakers, as evidenced by the lack of mention of disasters in the current Nigeria Agriculture Promotion Policy (APP). Attention is drawn to this oversight in this work by highlighting the interconnections between flooding, food security, and sustainable development. Recommendations on flood mitigation and adaptive practices that can alleviate the negative impact of flooding on food security to enhance the success rate of the SDGs are proffered. This work contributes to the literature by showcasing the impact of flooding on food security and its connection to sustainable development, which is an area that has not received adequate attention in research. The assemblage and system thinking approach adopted brings novelty and allows for a succinct understanding of how flooding impacts all four aspects of food security. This paper serves as the first time the problem has been explored in this manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has reviewed the international research on the interactions between the Economy, Energy, and Environment (3E) in the 21st century. For this purpose, a bibliometric and cluster analysis by fractional accounting has been carried out based on the two most important databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The research found and studied 2230 documents from the WoS Core Collection and 3,149 from Scopus. The results show a continuous increase in the number of articles that were published and citations during the whole period. They also showed that China and the United States (U.S.) were the most productive countries and there was a predominance of Asian organizations supporting and fostering researches. The main contribution of this article is the analysis of keywords from 2001 to 2018. The trends show that the main common elements are sustainable development and sustainability and they also include CO2 emissions and consumption. Future research in this field should address the energy transition issue in the area of sustainable development by adapting it to the restrictions of this economic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]