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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.)

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.)

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.)

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.)

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 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.)

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 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.)

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.)

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 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.)

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.)

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.

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.)

Robust estimates of CO 2 budget, CO 2 exchanged between the atmosphere and terrestrial biosphere, are necessary to better understand the role of the terrestrial biosphere in mitigating anthropogenic CO 2 emissions. Over the past decade, this field of research has advanced through understanding of the differences and similarities of two fundamentally different approaches: "top-down" atmospheric inversions and "bottom-up" biosphere models. Since the first studies were undertaken, these approaches have shown an increasing level of agreement, but disagreements in some regions still persist, in part because they do not estimate the same quantity of atmosphere-biosphere CO 2 exchange. Here, we conducted a thorough comparison of CO 2 budgets at multiple scales and from multiple methods to assess the current state of the science in estimating CO 2 budgets. Our set of atmospheric inversions and biosphere models, which were adjusted for a consistent flux definition, showed a high level of agreement for global and hemispheric CO 2 budgets in the 2000s. Regionally, improved agreement in CO 2 budgets was notable for North America and Southeast Asia. However, large gaps between the two methods remained in East Asia and South America. In other regions, Europe, boreal Asia, Africa, South Asia, and Oceania, it was difficult to determine whether those regions act as a net sink or source because of the large spread in estimates from atmospheric inversions. These results highlight two research directions to improve the robustness of CO 2 budgets: (a) to increase representation of processes in biosphere models that could contribute to fill the budget gaps, such as forest regrowth and forest degradation; and (b) to reduce sink-source compensation between regions (dipoles) in atmospheric inversion so that their estimates become more comparable. Advancements on both research areas will increase the level of agreement between the top-down and bottom-up approaches and yield more robust knowledge of regional CO 2 budgets., (© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Global CO 2 emissions from different industries have been increasing at an alarming rate. This growth is outpacing the efforts, nations are putting in place to reduce their carbon footprints. In this topical review, we critically analyze the level of CO 2 emissions on a global scale and across various industries and activities within them and the dominant anthropogenic forcing instability. The global CO 2 emission from various economic sectors such as industries, transportation and variety of waste sources were traced globally and regionally. To contextualize our review, the sector wise CO 2 emission trends data for a period more than a decade is reviewed which highlighted the main sources of emissions. The data shows the overall reduction of carbon footprints and its progress across various sectors is very limited. The governing factors for this continued global pattern can be ascribed to two main factors: high consumer demands, and poor efforts towards shifting low and zero carbon services across all sectors. Some efforts have been witnessed to shift towards clean fuels and renewables, particularly in Europe and North America. However, rapid growth in industrialization limits the shifting of fossil-based energy systems towards less harmful systems. In Asia, particularly in eastern, southern, and south-eastern regions, the carbon footprints were found to increased owing to a huge demand for materials production, travelling and energy services. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to identify, understand and tackle the most persistent and climate-harmful factors across all industries and drive such policies to substitute the fossil fuels with renewables., (© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.)

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.)

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.)

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.

Anthropogenic influences significantly modify the hydrochemical properties and material flow in riverine ecosystems across Asia, potentially accounting for 40-50% of global emissions. Despite the pervasive impact on Asian rivers, there is a paucity of studies investigating their correlation with carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. In this study, we computed the partial pressure of CO 2 (pCO 2 ) using the carbonate equilibria-based model (pCO 2 SYS) and examined its correlation with hydrochemical parameters from historical records at 91 stations spanning 2013-2021 in the Ganga River. The investigation unveiled substantial spatial heterogeneity in the pCO 2 across the Ganga River. The pCO 2 concentration varied from 1321.76 μatm, 1130.98 μatm, and 1174.33 μatm in the upper, middle, and lower stretch, respectively, with a mean of 1185.29 μatm. Interestingly, the upper stretch exhibited elevated mean pCO 2 and FCO 2 levels (fugacity of CO 2 : 3.63 gm 2 d -1 ) compared to the middle and lower stretch, underscoring the intricate interplay between hydrochemistry and CO 2 dynamics. In the context of pCO 2 fluctuations, nitrate concentrations in the upper segment and levels of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO) in the middle and lower segments are emerging as crucial explanatory factors. Furthermore, regression tree (RT) and importance analyses pinpointed biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) as the paramount factor influencing pCO 2 variations across the Ganga River (n = 91). A robust negative correlation between BOD and FCO 2 was also observed. The distinct longitudinal patterns of both parameters may induce a negative correlation between BOD and pCO 2 . Therefore, comprehensive studies are necessitated to decipher the underlying mechanisms governing this relationship. The present insights are instrumental in comprehending the potential of CO 2 emissions in the Ganga River and facilitating riverine restoration and management. Our findings underscore the significance of incorporating South Asian rivers in the evaluation of the global carbon budget., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study investigates the influence of foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development (FD), and governance on carbon emissions in 15 emerging Asian economies (EAEs) from 2000 to 2021. It aims to assess how successful these nations have been in upholding ecological sustainability while promoting themselves as alternative manufacturing destinations to China and fostering domestic manufacturing through significant financial development. It creates a composite governance quality (GQ) measure and three subdimensions-EcoGov, InstGov, and PolGov-to assess its precise role in influencing the FDI-carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and FD-CO 2 nexuses. Using fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques, this study yielded findings revealing that FDI and FD significantly enhance carbon emissions. The overall GQ significantly moderates the FD-CO 2 nexus but fails to moderate FDI's detrimental environmental influence. More specifically, EcoGov significantly moderates FDI's and FD's influence on carbon emissions, whereas InstGov significantly enhances their influence on emissions. In contrast, PolGov is only found to moderate FD's impact on environmental quality since the Government frequently endorses liberal environmental regulations to facilitate FDI-led growth. The findings from this study are robust and carry distinct policy ramifications., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The endeavor to implement the 2030 Agenda of national and international stakeholders became increasingly impetuous, considering the wide range of uncertainties and risks. The new humans-centered development model built on the prominence of environmental and social values seeks to reinforce communities' resilience and mitigate environmental risks, leaving no one behind. For this to happen, solid and effective institutions, the right environmental policies, and a safe statutory labor framework are the sine qua non. In this study, we evaluated the effects of informality, institutional quality, and renewable energy consumption on ecological footprint of two groups of emerging countries from Europe and Asia from 2002 to 2018. Our results by PMG-ARDL approach highlight dissimilarities between the two groups, showing greater heterogeneity. In this sense, informality is found to have positive and significant effects on ecological footprint in the long run in emerging European countries. In contrast, the effect is negative for emerging Asian countries. In the short run, the effects are less critical in the studied countries between the two groups. Institutional quality variables impacted environmental quality differently. In this sense, it is detrimental for policymakers to consider concerted measures to decrease institutional vulnerabilities and reduce the level of the informal economy. The outcome of this study concurs with a complete awareness of the importance of informality and institutional quality to mitigate social and environmental risks conjunctively., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

To limit the effects of carbon emissions and realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), countries worldwide seek efficient energy usage, economic sustainability, and natural resource blessing. Studies at the continental level mostly neglected the differences between the continents, while this study explores the long-run effect of natural resource rents, economic development, and energy consumption on carbon emissions and their interactions across the global panel of 159 countries divided into six continents from 2000 to 2019. Recently proposed panel estimators, causality tests, variance decomposition, and impulse response techniques were adopted. Findings from the panel estimator revealed that economic development contributed to environmental sustainability. At the same time, energy consumption increases ecological pollution globally and on most continents. The interaction between economic development and energy consumption positively impacted ecological pollution. Natural resources' rent was found to promote environmental pollution in Asia. The causality test results were mixed across continents and globally. However, findings from the impulse response and variance decomposition confirmed that economic development and energy consumption counted higher variations of carbon emissions than natural resource rents within the 10-year forecast. This study provides a valuable baseline for formulating policies related to the economy-energy-resources‑carbon nexus., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is regarded as the world's first carbon tariff regulation. Its consequential impacts on the trades of individual countries/regions at different development stages are crucial for climate justice while remaining unclear. By combining Multi-regional Input-output analysis and scenario analysis, this study analyzed the economic-carbon inequality in national/regional plastic exports and simulated CBAM's short-term impacts on plastic trade inequality under different scenarios. Our analysis shows that the maximum values of total carbon tariffs for all countries/regions levied on plastic exports to the EU will be 497.8, 859.1, and 1564.2 million euros under scenarios covering Scope 1, Scope 1&2, and Scope 1&2&3 emissions, respectively. The corresponding proportions of CBAM costs to national/regional plastic export volumes to the EU will be 0.6%, 1.0%, and 1.8% on average, respectively. China and the rest of Asia and the Pacific will burden the most CBAM costs in all cases, and Russia will be the country most affected. CBAM will exacerbate the economic-carbon inequality in the plastic trade by reducing the trade profits of developing economies with higher ratios than those of developed economies. Our analysis calls for practical initiatives to induce technological advances toward lower carbon technologies, increase trade diversification, exploit the domestic market's potential, and implement domestic carbon pricing mechanisms to alleviate the negative impact of CBAM., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Top-down modeling estimates are among the most reliable information available on the CO 2 fluxes of the earth system. The inadequate coverage of CO 2 observing stations over the tropical regions adds a limitation to this estimate, especially when the satellite XCO 2 is strictly screened for cloud contamination, aerosol, dust, etc. In this study, we investigated the potential benefit of a global ground-based observing station network, 17 newly proposed stations over India, and global satellite XCO 2 in reducing the uncertainty of terrestrial biospheric fluxes of Tropical Asia-Eurasia in TransCom cyclo-stationary inversion. The data from selected 80 global ground-based CO 2 observation stations, together with two additional stations from India (i.e., Cape Rama and Sinhagad) and satellite XCO 2 , helps to reduce the temperate Eurasian terrestrial flux uncertainty by 23.8%, 26.4%, and 36.2%, respectively. This further improved to 54.7% by adding the newly proposed stations over India into the inversion. By separating the Indian sub-continent from temperate Eurasia (as inspired by the heterogeneity in the terrestrial ecosystems, prevailing meteorological conditions, and the orography of this vast region), the inversion evinces the capacity of existing CO 2 observations to reduce the Indian terrestrial flux uncertainty by 20.5%. The largest benefit (70% reduction of annual mean uncertainty) for estimating Indian terrestrial fluxes could be achieved by combining these global observations with data from the newly proposed stations over India. The existing two stations from India suggest Temperate Eurasia as a mild source of CO 2 (0.33 ± 0.57 Pg C yr -1 ), albeit with prominent anthropogenic influences visible in these two stations during the dry seasons. This implies that the proposed new stations should be cautiously placed to avoid such effects. The study also finds that the newly proposed stations over India also have an impact in constraining nearby oceanic CO 2 fluxes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This paper examines the CO 2 emission efficiency of airlines in the years 2011 and 2018 by using the Atmosfair Airline Index. This index gives reliable results since it encompasses data from more than 100 airlines and considers important variables in the calculation of CO 2 emissions. Firstly, we investigate the regional differences and the effect of the share of government ownership in the CO 2 emission efficiency of airlines. These factors have not been taken into account in other studies by using such a comprehensive index. Secondly, by utilizing the Barro and Sala-i Martin model that is commonly used to examine the regional income convergence model in economics, we also check whether there is a convergence in the CO 2 emission efficiency of airlines or not. As a result, in terms of efficiency growth, we find that airlines in Europe are more successful compared to airlines from other regions. Furthermore, increases in the share of government ownership in airlines negatively affect the CO 2 emission efficiency in Asia, whereas it is insignificant in Europe and America. Moreover, there is no convergence in the CO 2 emission efficiency of airlines from all regions. This shows that low-efficient airlines are not catching up with high-efficient airlines. Lastly, we find that charter airlines are more efficient in terms of CO 2 emissions., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Today, the developing economies continue to tackle the penalties of the energy use and its influence on their environmental and socio-economic prosperity, and the developed economies are concentrating on promoting programs and policies to improve and sustain the endowment of adequate energy consumption that pledges less carbon emissions and threats to human health. Currently, millions of people face a dearth of access to reliable, affordable, and clean energy to fulfill their daily requirements. Thus, the mounting need for energy use portends hazardous consequences on human health. This paper investigates the transmission channels and impact of energy consumption on health outcomes in Asia by adopting a panel of selected Asian economies for the period from 1991 and 2019. The findings of the study show that energy causes a rise in infant mortality rate and a reduction in life expectancy. Furthermore, the study found that a high degree of pollution emissions causes a rise in infant mortality and a decline in life expectancy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Zhang, Chen and Li.)

This paper investigates the relationship between energy intensity, economic freedom, and carbon emissions. The problem of environmental degradation, economic freedom, and energy use is mainly studied for developed economies; however, this study has selected forty-one Asia-Pacific economies representing all income groups of the World Bank's classification. In the presence of income, economic freedom plays a dual role for environment and energy: direct impact and as moderating factor impact. Here, we empirically test for a panel of 41 Asia-Pacific countries using the autoregressive distributed lag approach. Our findings suggest, although there is no bidirectional causality between all the variables, the long-run estimates of economic freedom for economy and environment are positive. The results imply for substantial structural reforms with a favorable economic and regulatory environment for Asia-Pacific countries. Our empirical analysis also implies that GDP growth levels for Asia-Pacific countries are becoming increasingly dependent on economic freedom and energy intensity. The results underline the critical role played directly and indirectly by economic freedom in creating an atmosphere that promotes research and development activities to help reduce energy intensity shortly to solve environmental problems., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This paper utilizes spatial econometric reenactments to examine the geographic effects of different types of environmentally friendly power on corban discharges. The example covers 31 nations in the Asia-Pacific district during the time frame 2000 to 2018. The spatial connection in the model was affirmed by symptomatic testing, and the spatial Durbin model was picked as the last model. Results show that Gross domestic product per capita, receptiveness to business sectors, unfamiliar direct venture, energy force, and urbanization critically affect CO2 emanations. In correlation, just wind and sunlight-based energy have added to a generous abatement in ozone harming substance emanations in nations over the long run. In contrast, hydropower, bioenergy, and geothermal energy discoveries have been irrelevant. A cross-sectional examination worldview delineated that nations with more elevated sunlight-based energy yield have higher CO2 outflows, while nations with lower levels have lower CO2 emanations. The presence of spatial impacts in the model gave off an impression of the negative consequences for homegrown CO2 outflows of Gross domestic product per capita and exchange transparency of adjoining nations. Furthermore, energy power and higher creation of sustainable power in adjoining nations will prompt lower homegrown CO2 outflows., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the research work presented in this article.

In this paper, we quantify the CO2 and N2O emissions from denitrification over the Amazonian wetlands. The study concerns the entire Amazonian wetland ecosystem with a specific focus on three floodplain (FP) locations: the Branco FP, the Madeira FP and the FP alongside the Amazon River. We adapted a simple denitrification model to the case of tropical wetlands and forced it by open water surface extent products from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite. A priori model parameters were provided by in situ observations and gauging stations from the HYBAM Observatory. Our results show that the denitrification and the trace gas emissions present a strong cyclic pattern linked to the inundation processes that can be divided into three distinct phases: activation, stabilization and deactivation. We quantify the average yearly denitrification and associated emissions of CO2 and N2O over the entire watershed at 17.8 kgN ha -1 yr -1 , 0.37 gC- CO2 m -2 yr -1 and 0.18 gN- N2O m -2 yr -1 respectively for the period 2011–2015. When compared to local observations, it was found that the CO2 emissions accounted for 0.01 % of the integrated ecosystem, which emphasizes the fact that minor changes to the land cover may induce strong impacts on the Amazonian carbon budget. Our results are consistent with the state of the art of global nitrogen models with a positive bias of 28 %. When compared to other wetlands in different pedoclimatic environments we found that the Amazonian wetlands have similar emissions of N2O with the Congo tropical wetlands and lower emissions than the temperate and tropical anthropogenic wetlands of the Garonne (France), the Rhine (Europe) and south-eastern Asia rice paddies. In summary our paper shows that a data-model-based approach can be successfully applied to quantify N2O and CO2 fluxes associated with denitrification over the Amazon basin. In the future, the use of higher-resolution remote sensing products from sensor fusion or new sensors like the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will permit the transposition of the approach to other large-scale watersheds in tropical environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the metafrontier environmental efficiency and group frontier environmental efficiency of the governments of the countries in Asia, the Americas, and Europe, adopting the directional distance function along with metafrontier analysis. The paper develops a new approach to measure technology heterogeneity between the environmental efficiency of the metafrontier and that of the group frontiers, namely technology gap. The 65 countries selected for this study include not only the countries in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol, but also countries in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. According to the average values for environmental efficiency, based on these geographical locations, the empirical results show that European countries are superior to Asian and American countries, regardless of the environmental efficiency of the metafrontier or group frontiers. Also, the technology heterogeneity of European countries is lower than that of the other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although Asian economies have registered strong economic growth over the last few decades, their growing pollution emissions raise concerns among the policymakers about the sustainability of this output growth. This paper tests the causal relationship between economic development, energy consumption, trade openness, financial development, FDI, government expenditures, institutional quality. and pollution emissions for 41 Asian economies from 1996 to 2015. Further, we separately test the impact of political and economic institutions on pollution emissions of the sample economies. Our estimated outcomes, based on the panel cointegration method and panel vector error correction models (VECM), substantiate the presence of a cointegration relationship among all the selected variables. While economic development, energy use, trade openness, and FDI augment environmental degradation, financial development and better economic institutions help the selected countries in reducing their pollution emissions. Moreover, better economic and political institutions also mediate the adverse impact of income, trade openness, and FDI on pollution emissions. The VECM model shows that per capita GDP is the only variable having a causal effect on pollution emissions in all the models. For all the other variables, the causal effect is significant only in a few cases. These outcomes have some important policy recommendations for the sample economies., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In recent times, there has been increase in climate change protest across the globe. However, whether decrease in emissions is connected with climate change protest or not is yet to be documented in the literature. Consequently, the aim of this study is to fill this gap by examining ex-post detection of how climate change protests and its interconnectedness with CO2 emissions. Using the Bai and Perron (1998) structural break test, we estimate the number of breaks as well as the date of such structural breaks in CO2 emissions series for 41 countries. Our aim is to match the date of the climate change protests to those of the structural breaks. We observe that climate change protests are fairly consistent with the dates of breaks in Europe and Asia, but not in BRICS economies or US, Canada and other countries. Therefore, this method allows us to solve a gap in the energy industry related to the modelling and correct allocation of positive shocks in CO2 emissions to climate change protests., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

This paper investigates the moderating role of governance quality on the finance-renewable energy-growth nexus in five major regions in the world, including 123 countries from 1990 to 2017. In a disaggregated approach, we used several financial variables denoting financial depth, financial efficiency, financial inclusion, and financial stability, which represent the different components of financial development. In an aggregated approach, we constructed composite indexes of governance quality and financial development following the principal component analysis (PCA). Next, we applied the two-stage least squares, difference-GMM, and system-GMM methods, as well as the Granger non-causality test in (Dumitrescu and Hurlin Econ Model 29(4):1450-1460, 2012). First, the results show that financial development and improved governance quality are complementary drivers of economic growth in all regions, except in America and Europe and Central Asia in most cases. Similarly, renewable energy consumption and enhanced governance quality are interrelated factors in strengthening economic growth in the Asia Pacific, MENA, and SSA regions, as opposed to the Americas and Europe and Central Asia. Second, there is bidirectional causality between financial development and economic growth in all areas, while the two-way causality between renewable energy consumption and growth is only confirmed in America and SSA regions, respectively. This study reveals the threshold effect of governance quality on the renewable energy-finance-growth nexus across regions. Therefore, policymakers should improve the level of governance quality and the efficiency of financial systems and renewable energy consumption to promote sustainable development in the different regions, especially in the Asia Pacific, MENA, and SSA zones.

Existing studies indicate that future global carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) efforts could largely be concentrated in Asia. However, there is limited understanding of how individual Asian countries and regions will respond to varying and uncertain scales of future CDR concerning their energy-land-water system. We address this gap by modeling various levels of CDR-reliant pathways under climate change ambitions in Asia. We find that high CDR reliance leads to residual fossil fuel and industry emissions of about 8 Gigatonnes CO2yr−1 (GtCO2yr−1) by 2050, compared to less than 1 GtCO2yr−1 under moderate-to-low CDR reliance. Moreover, expectations of multi-gigatonne CDR could delay the achievement of domestic net zero CO2 emissions for several Asian countries and regions, and lead to higher land allocation and fertilizer demand for bioenergy crop cultivation. Here, we show that Asian countries and regions should prioritize emission reduction strategies while capitalizing on the advantages of carbon removal when it is most viable. Global future carbon removal efforts could largely be concentrated in Asia. Here, this study shows that multi-gigatonnes expectation of carbon removal could have adverse impact on the energy-land-water system of countries and regions within the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several developing countries in Asia are relying on agricultural practices in which climate change is a challenging concern. The trends change in atmospheric parameters and vegetation indices are questioned and vague. Consequently, the trend variations of the environmental characteristics were introduced in the first decade of 21 century to better understand the trend changes and envisage the relationship between the atmospheric parameters and the vegetation cover. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder provide several atmospheric parameters, e.g., Air Temperature, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). In addition, NDVI was estimated and aimed at the role of the interactions among the atmospheric parameters based on statistical analysis. The results showed that AOD and NDVI were air temperature dependent; meanwhile, AOD, NDVI, and air temperature were exchanging and influencing one another. Furthermore, the average minimum air temperature of the region increased during this period and carbon dioxide was a time-dependant parameter that was rising at a steep slope, which may lead to environmental crises. The trend analysis outlines what policies, programs, and procedures should be used to balance the ecosystem and mitigate the climatic negative effects. The Current research strengthens on the social awareness and the international cooperation to reduce socio-economic and political harm and loss in the face of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates the results obtained earlier with the climate model developed at the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAP RAS CM) and describing the impact of atmospheric sulfur dioxide on the terrestrial carbon cycle. Since no global data are available for the near-surface SO2 concentration, a statistical model was used to reconstruct its concentration from appropriate data on surface sulfate concentrations; the coefficients of this model were tuned by using the output of the RAMS-CMAQ atmospheric chemistry and transport model. The results obtained in this study are generally consistent with data reported earlier. Specifically, the most significant SO2 impact on the terrestrial carbon cycle was found to be for southeastern North America and for Europe. However, this impact for southeastern Asia obtained in this study is considerably weaker than the value obtained earlier, which can be explained by the excessive moisture content in the atmosphere used in the IAP RAS CM for this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses reduction in specific CO[sub 2] emissions, industry efforts to promote use of natural gas, expanded nuclear generation, and research and development (R&D) works on improving efficiency of fossil plants. It also discusses feasibility of HVdc interconnected power systems for environmental protection, development of hydropower, and specific possible developments in Siberia and Russia to the year 2030. The paper first discusses the main features of Asia's power sector. It examines how Asia will account for half of global generation expansion, where most of this expansion will be dominated by coal-firing power stations. It examines power in Japan: measures for environmental issues and related R&D. A reduction in specific CO[sub 2] emissions (kg-C/kWh) exceeding 30% has been achieved over the past 20 years as a result of expanded use of nuclear power generation and industry efforts to promote the use of liquefied natural gas. Discussed is Japan's target for CO[sub 2] reduction in the year 2010 of 6% below the level of 1990. The paper goes on to focus on prospects for development of power generation in East Russia. Current state of generating capacity of East Russia, prerequisites for prospective power development, and prospects for development are examined. Finally, future electric power development in China is reviewed. A feasibility study for interconnection of the eastern area of the Eurasian continent for around the year 2020 is then discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food production is an important source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Quantifying the carbon footprint of all the major food categories in different continents is critical for accurately evaluating various aspects of GHG emissions from food production on a continental and global scale. Such information, however, is lacking. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis of plant-based and animal-based food production in all continents comprehensively using 5353 carbon footprint values from 524 published papers and calculated GHG emissions from food production (system boundary is from cradle to farm gate) at the continental and global scale. Our results indicate that the average carbon footprint of plant-based foods amounts to 0.66 kg CO 2 -eq kg−1, which is only 10.7% of animal-based foods (6.15 kg CO 2 -eq kg−1). The carbon footprint of plant-based food in Asia and Europe is 8.9%–184% higher than that of other continents. Africa has the lowest carbon footprint for plant-based foods, owing to its low agricultural input and limited crop management. However, the carbon footprint of animal-based foods in Africa and Asia is 2.5%–150% higher than that of other continents, with North America and Oceania recording the lowest. Total annual GHG emission from global food production reached 8125 Mt CO 2 -eq, with grains, meat, and milk together accounting for 70.8%. Asia, owing to its large production, emerged as the largest emitter, accounting for 55.4% of global GHG emissions. It was followed by Europe (16.3%) and North America (10.5%), while Africa, South America and Oceania together emit 17.8%. In summary, our study presents the most comprehensive account of the carbon footprint of food production at the continental and global scale to-date, which will help develop strategies and policies to reduce GHG emissions at various levels such as geographical regions, food and nutrition security, resource availability and resource use. • Plant-based food carbon footprint (CF) < 89% than that of animal-based food. • Plant-based food CF in Asia and Europe up to >184% than that of other regions. • Animal-based food CF in Africa, Asia up to >150% than that of other regions. • Global food production GHG emission is 8125 Mt CO 2 yr−1. • Asia emits 55% of global food GHG emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of climate change, it is essential to rethink how we build to reduce the environmental impact of the construction industry. Timber construction can be a solution to reduce the use of concrete or steel, whose manufacture emits much CO 2. This paper proposes a method to reinterpret tenon and mortise joints for construction. Friction-based assemblies, particularly mortise and tenon wooden joints, have been studied for centuries in Asia and Europe and may offer promising constructive solutions, such as allowing disassembling rather than demolishing a structure. These assemblies can be complex; they initially required a great deal of craftsmanship, which robotics can now replace to manufacture and assemble them. Nevertheless, it is necessary to develop methods to produce these robotic joints. Our method uses non-sequential assemblies, which are by definition, opposed to sequential assemblies. An assembly is said to be sequential when the elements that compose it are assembled one after the other, in a defined order or not. For a non-sequential assembly, all the elements that compose it are in motion and assembled simultaneously. This assembly method has the particularity of being locked only by its kinematics, which makes it possible to easily (dis)assemble the elements by only knowing their motion. After an introduction and defining the terms and hypotheses of our research, we discuss the related word. In the fourth section, the developed method is explained. Then, we introduce the different parameters to control the assembly's design and kinematics. After that, we extend the previous method to the third dimension. Finally, a construction prototype demonstrates the method's efficiency. [Display omitted] • Generality: our method works for pure translation, in 2D or 3D. • Exhaustivity: any kinematic can be generate thanks to parallel transformation. • Control: calculations and parameters are given to choose the kinematics according to external factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines long-term eddy covariance data from 18 European and 17 North American and Asian forest, wetland, tundra, grassland, and cropland sites under non-water-stressed conditions with an empirical rectangular hyperbolic light response model and a single layer two light-class carboxylase-based model. Relationships according to ecosystem functional type are demonstrated between empirical and physiological parameters, suggesting linkages between easily estimated parameters and those with greater potential for process interpretation. Relatively sparse documentation of leaf area index dynamics at flux tower sites is found to be a major difficulty in model inversion and flux interpretation. Therefore, a simplification of the physiological model is carried out for a subset of European network sites with extensive ancillary data. The results from these selected sites are used to derive a new parameter and means for comparing empirical and physiologically based methods across all sites, regardless of ancillary data. The results from the European analysis are then compared with results from the other Northern Hemisphere sites and similar relationships for the simplified process-based parameter were found to hold for European, North American, and Asian temperate and boreal climate zones. This parameter is useful for bridging between flux network observations and continental scale spatial simulations of vegetation/atmosphere carbon dioxide exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuelwood plays an important role in the rural economy of the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Optimizing energy fixation in forest trees through high density energy plantations (HDEP), gasification of wood, and conversion of forest tree biomass, are some of the potential areas whereby additional research and development input for efficient management of atmospheric carbon in our energy system can be incorporated. For example, the photosynthetic efficiency of forest trees is rarely above 0.5%, which on the basis of theoretical considerations can be increased by up to 6.6%. Thus there is an ample scope to improve the efficiency up to 1%, which amounts to doubling of the productivity of the forests. Recent policy changes and experiences with wood-based bio-energy programmes in several countries indicate that woodfuels may become increasingly attractive as industrial energy sources. Use of biodiesel and the formulation of a project for undertaking 13.4 million ha of Jatropha plantations in India highlight the seriousness with which the Government of India is promoting carbon neutral energy plantations. The cost of establishment of plantations primarily for fuel production and its conversion to energy are major deterrents in this pursuit. Some of the issues in developing countries, like low productivity on marginal lands, degraded forest lands, and unorganized units for biomass energy conversion, result in cost escalation as compared to other energy sources. This paper revisits the scope for raising energy plantations, a comparison of the direct and indirect mitigation potential uses of plantations as an adaptation strategy through reforestation and afforestation projects for climate change mitigation and socio-economic issues to make this venture feasible in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A country's macroeconomic policies have two basic objectives: to provide its citizens with a means to make a better living and a preferable environment. For the past decades, accompanying its fantastic economic growth, fast-developing Asia has become one of the major contributors to the increase of global carbon dioxide emissions. This paper analyzes productivity growth of ten Asian countries, namely, China, Japan, the NIEs and the ASEAN-4, by examining their outputs from economic performance and environmental impact standpoints. Productivity growth and its components are calculated using the Malmquist index. There appears to be a widening gap between the productivity growth trends without/with CO2 emissions of the ten Asian economies. This implies that the factor of productivity could be over-emphasized at great cost to the environment. A cross-country comparison analysis, considering CO2 emissions, shows that the productivity of China and ASEAN-4 deteriorated while the productivity growth of Japan and NIEs performed much better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The terrestrial carbon sink slows the accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere by absorbing roughly 30% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but varies greatly from year to year. The resulting variations in the atmospheric CO2 growth rate (CGR) have been related to tropical temperature and water availability. The apparent sensitivity of CGR to tropical temperature ( γ CGR T ) has changed markedly over the past six decades, however, the drivers of the observation to date remains unidentified. Here, we use atmospheric observations, multiple global vegetation models and machine learning products to analyze the cause of the sensitivity change. We found that a threefold increase in γ CGR T emerged due to the long-term changes in the magnitude of CGR variability (i.e., indicated by one standard deviation of CGR; STDCGR), which increased 34.7% from 1960-1979 to 1985-2004 and subsequently decreased 14.4% in 1997-2016. We found a close relationship (r2 = 0.75, p < 0.01) between STDCGR and the tropical vegetated area (23°S – 23°N) affected by extreme droughts, which influenced 6-9% of the tropical vegetated surface. A 1% increase in the tropical area affected by extreme droughts led to about 0.14 Pg C yr−1 increase in STDCGR. The historical changes in STDCGR were dominated by extreme drought-affected areas in tropical Africa and Asia, and semi-arid ecosystems. The outsized influence of extreme droughts over a small fraction of vegetated surface amplified the interannual variability in CGR and explained the observed long-term dynamics of γ CGR T . The apparent temperature sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 growth rate has increased markedly over the past six decades, however, the increase remains unexplained. Here we show that tropical extreme droughts amplified the interannual variability in atmospheric CO2 growth rate and drove the sensitivity change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant greenhouse gas, and its concentration is continuously increasing, mainly as a consequence of anthropogenic activities. Accurate quantification of CO2 is critical for addressing the global challenge of climate change and for designing mitigation strategies aimed at stabilizing CO2 emissions. Satellites provide the most effective way to monitor the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this study, we utilized the concentration of the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO2 , i.e., XCO2 retrieved from a CO2 monitoring satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), and the net primary productivity (NPP) provided by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to estimate the anthropogenic CO2 emissions using the Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) over East and West Asia. OCO-2 XCO2 , MODIS NPP, and the Open-Data Inventory for Anthropogenic Carbon dioxide (ODIAC) CO2 emission datasets for a period of 5 years (2015–2019) were used in this study. The annual XCO2 anomalies were calculated from the OCO-2 retrievals for each year to remove the larger background CO2 concentrations and seasonal variability. The XCO2 anomaly, NPP, and ODIAC emission datasets from 2015 to 2018 were then used to train the GRNN model, and, finally, the anthropogenic CO2 emissions were estimated for 2019 based on the NPP and XCO2 anomalies derived for the same year. The estimated and the ODIAC CO2 emissions were compared, and the results showed good agreement in terms of spatial distribution. The CO2 emissions were estimated separately over East and West Asia. In addition, correlations between the ODIAC emissions and XCO2 anomalies were also determined separately for East and West Asia, and East Asia exhibited relatively better results. The results showed that satellite-based XCO2 retrievals can be used to estimate the regional-scale anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and the accuracy of the results can be enhanced by further improvement of the GRNN model with the addition of more CO2 emission and concentration datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]