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Background: The present study draws motivation from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and explores the nexus between access to modern cooking energy sources, responsible energy consumption, climate change mitigation, and economic growth. Using 2018 demographic and health survey data, the study examines the influence of key socioeconomic and demographic factors on household choice of cooking energy in Nigeria. Results: The empirical results show that traditional energy sources are dominant among Nigerian households (74.24%) compared to modern energy sources (25.76%). Regarding energy demographics, male-headed households show more usage of modern energy sources (19.86%) compared to female-headed households (5.90%). Regional analysis reveals that the northwest region predominantly uses traditional energy sources (18.60% of the share of total traditional energy sources), while the southwest region shows the greatest usage of modern energy sources (10.52% of the share of total modern energy sources). Binary logistic regression analysis reveals the positive and statistically significant influence of wealth index, education, and geopolitical region on the likelihood of utilizing modern energy sources. Conversely, household size and place of residence indicate an inverse relationship with the likelihood of adopting modern energy sources. Conclusions: These findings have important policy implications for energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and improving the quality of life in Nigeria, which is currently plagued with significant energy poverty, especially in rural communities. Highlights: Examination of household energy utilization in Nigeria. We found that traditional energy utilization is accounted for by 74.24% of households. Clean energy source is accounted for by 25.76% of the household. 19.86% and 60.86% of male-headed households utilize clean and traditional energy, respectively. 5.90% and 13.38% of female-headed households utilize clean and traditional energy, respectively. 18.60% and 7.14% of Northwestern region and Southwest region has the highest traditional and cleaner energy sources, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) and human capital development on environmental degradation (CO2) using the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework in line with the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21). Five South Asian countries namely: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were considered in the context of the present study between the annual time period of 1990 to 2016. Pedroni cointegration test and Kao's residual cointegration test are used to assess long term relationship while Dumitrescu and Harlin (Econ Model 29:1450–1460, 2012) is used to test causality relationship between the variables. Empirical findings from the study showed significant effects of ICT import, renewable energy usage and human development decrease CO2 levels while ICT export and urbanization increase carbon emission levels in the long run. Furthermore, a significantly positive association is observed between economic growth and CO2 emission while the square of national income exerts a significantly negative effect on environmental degradation, which supports the EKC for the South Asian states. From a practical implication context, policymakers should not only concentrate on their economic growth trajectory improvement but also enhance the improvement of their ICT infrastructure, invest more in renewable energy sources, follow policies that would help the countries to raise human development standards, as well as consciousness for environmental sustainability should be pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to a low-carbon economy is imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate pollution emissions. This preposition also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-13), which highlight the climate change action. In this vein, Brazil has implemented the Decarbonization Credit (CBIOS) program to incentivize biofuel production and promote environmental sustainability through carbon credit emissions. To this end, the present study evaluates the effectiveness of the CBIO contract as a hedging tool for investors in the face of energy price fluctuations and decarbonization efforts. Specifically, we employ conditional dynamic correlation (DCC-GARCH) and optimal hedge ratio (HR) techniques to assess the relationship between CBIO and the futures and spot prices of sugar, oil, and ethanol. Our findings suggest that the current CBIO contract is not an effective hedge against energy spot and future prices. However, our analysis identifies a strengthening correlation between ethanol traded in Chicago and CBIO over time, highlighting the potential for an underlying contract to serve as an effective hedging tool in the future. Our study adds to the existing literature on carbon pricing mechanisms and their impact on financial markets, emphasizing the importance of sustainable energy policies and their potential to mitigate the risks associated with energy price volatility and decarbonization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the business context, resilience and sustainability seem to have multiple dimensions and connections. Administrative sustainability strategies can help a company develop and become more resilient. With the use of a sustainability maturation index (SMI), this study attempts to analyze how the financial success of a business is affected by its approach to sustainable development. As resilience abilities are closely linked to the SMI, this study proposes to explore the initial integration of both sustainable development and resilience criteria into a single framework. To determine whether there could be an interaction between the SMI and economic performance indices, planned conversations were used to gather data from 35 different firms. The investigation disproves widely circulated claims, demonstrating that there is no meaningful correlation between profitability and sustained business operations. It's noteworthy to point out that market emphasis, organizational size, and firm place of origin do not significantly correlate with SMI. One could argue that to evaluate the effects of environmentally friendly procedures, a company's multi-dimensional performance, which includes both financial and non-financial measurements, should be considered. In addition, more research is required to identify the nonfinancial metrics of success that businesses use to measure resilience and sustainable development to create a cohesive framework that facilitates trade-off evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African economy is widely known to contribute significantly to the carbon emissions due to usage of heavy machinery and equipment involved in production process. This study examines the linkage among carbon emissions, export, gross domestic product, and urban population growth in South Africa. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to evaluate the linkage among outlined variables, using annual data from 1981 to 2021. The findings indicate that a 1% increase in urban population leads to 1% decrease in carbon emissions. Furthermore, a 1% increase in economic activities (GDP) leads to a rise in carbon emissions. This corroborates rising exports with GDP that is rising thereby resulting in carbon emissions. The study recommends platforms that educate the populace, especially the youth on the management of carbon emissions in their daily home and business activities should be encouraged. More investment into clean technologies should be provided for energy efficiency machinery, and more research into such activities should be pursued by all relevant stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cement production reportedly accounts for the largest global materials flow, thus achieving global environmental sustainability through responsible consumption and production is central to the sustainable development scenario. But even that China, the world's largest carbon emitter and largest cement producer, is under-studied. Thus, the current study employed the nonlinear ARDL and frequency domain causality methods to unearth the contributory or mitigating role of energy sources and economic progress in China's cement carbon emission (CCE) over the period 1971-2020. Overall, the study establishes long-run equilibrium relationship between the study variables of interest Subsequently, the baseline regression suggests that a positive shift in economic growth, energy from fossil fuel and primary energy consumption all increase emissions while a negative shift does not have a significant effect on emissions. Moreover, a positive (negative) shift in renewable energy decreases (increases) emissions in both the short and long-run. The result of the Frequency Domain causality analysis resonates with the results of NARDL regression. As a policy, this study infers energy development and economic-related measures are strategically important in achieving sustainable cement production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of industrial structure on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with emphasis on the activities of secondary and tertiary industries and the role of information and communication technologies and economic freedom. We focus on explaining consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions in a selection of African economies over the period 1995–2017, accounting for possible heterogeneity in the distribution of both measures of CO2 emissions using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression approach for handling fixed effects in panel quantile models. The results show that (i) industrial output increase territorial-based CO2 emissions and have stronger impact in countries with more extractive industries; (ii) services reduce consumption-based CO2 emissions and the impact is significant across the entire quantile distribution; (iii) the use of fixed (wired) and analogue telephone technologies increases consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution; (iv) the use of mobile telephone and internet technologies reduces consumption-based and territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution; (v) increased economic freedom decreases territorial-based CO2 emissions and the impact is stronger at the upper quantile distribution. Overall, our findings highlight the role of mobile telephone and internet penetration, restructuring towards service-based economy and economic freedom in promoting cleaner production and sustainable consumption patterns in African economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emissions from several emerging economies currently constitute the largest contributions to the global carbon emissions levels thereby triggering concerns on the prospects for achieving global environmental sustainability‐related goals (SGDs‐13 and 11). Thus, this research examines whether technological innovation and renewables pose any moderating roles in the environmental quality advancements of rapidly emerging economies using the bloc of the emerging seven (E7) economies. The empirical framework of the study capitalizes on the strengths of the novel CS‐ARDL technique in addressing the pitfalls of cross‐sectional dependence (CD) from common factors that marred the understudied panel observations for the bloc between 1992 and 2018. The long‐run estimations provide crucial insights into the environmental sustainability dynamics of the E7 bloc. First, the observed impacts of the rapid economic expansion alongside the fast‐growing energy consumption were significantly detrimental to environmental sustainability over the period of study (1992–2018). Second, the duo of technological innovations and renewables place the E7 on an environmental sustainability path as they significantly dampen the CO2 emissions level in the bloc. Third, the inverted U‐shape growth‐emission conjecture of the EKC was confirmed for these groups of emerging economies within the innovation‐environment nexus exploration. Fourthly, although both innovations and renewable energy consumption enhance sustainability, however, the magnitude of their desirable environmental impacts is quite low compared to the observed impacts of the pollution damages created by the observed energy consumption‐driven economic growth expansion in the bloc over the years. Overall, the results are indicative that the E7 needs to do more in terms of investments in environmental‐related technological innovations and the expansion of renewables in overall energy portfolios to harness the inherent benefits of the duo to position the bloc on a sustainability path. More recommendations for environmental sustainability enhancement from technological innovation and renewable perspectives were further enunciated for the E7 bloc in the main text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is a global menace mainly driven by human anthropogenic activities. There is a need for environmental sustainability amidst increased economic growth. To this end, this study draws motivation from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) with special focus on climate change mitigation and ecological balance. Thus, the present study analyses the dynamic relationship between economic growth, conventional energy consumption, access to technological innovation, economic globalisation, and the pertinent role of institutional quality for the case of the Russian Federation. This study employed novel combined Bayer and Hack cointegration test in conjunction with Pesaran's ARDL bounds testing for robustness. Both tests validate a long-run equilibrium relationship between the outlined variables. Furthermore, empirical results show that increase in economic activities and consumption of energy that stem from a fossil-fuel basis both have deteriorating effect on environmental sustainability for Russia. Additionally, effect of globalisation shows mixed results, such as, in the short run, economic globalisation dampens environmental quality as increase in global integration exacerbates environmental quality, while, in the long term, globalisation improves the quality of the environment. On the contribution of institutional quality, it improves environmental sustainability over the investigated period. Interestingly, renewable is seen as a panacea for environmental sustainability in the Russian Federation given its pertinent effect to improve the environment of Russia. From a policy lens, there is need for a paradigm shift to renewables and clean technologies to mitigate the effect of climate change issues. The concluding section presents more policy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is motivated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG-7,8,11,12 and 13) on the need for clean and responsible energy consumption in view of anticipated actions for environmental sustainability. The world has been plagued with various consequences of environmental degradation including the attendant risks of climate change which has been exacerbated by rising greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions over the years. To this end, we explore the combined effect of rail, air transportation, and urbanization in an EKC framework for the case of the E7 economies between 1995 and 2016. This study distinguishes itself from the extant ones by extending the EKC framework to explore the nexus between air transport, rail transport, urbanization, and the environment. The empirical evidence obtained from the study is based on second-generation panel econometric methods that are robust to heterogeneity and cross-sectional issues. Firstly, the findings lend support to the EKC phenomenon for E7 economies, thereby, implying that emphasis is placed on higher-income status in the bloc relative to environmental sustainability. Secondly, conventional energy from fossil fuel and air transport significantly dampen environmental quality among the E7 economies. Thirdly, rail transport and urban population, on the contrary, strongly aid the improvement of environmental quality among the E7 countries thus underscoring the significance of green urban mass (rail) transportation to the environmental sustainability agenda. Hence, in view of the economic growth trajectory among the E7 economies, useful policy blueprints were highlighted in the concluding section of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of increased renewable energy consumption has been widely debated, and this has become a central energy policy concern for developing and developed countries. The existing literature provides evidence that there is a positive relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in developed economies. However, findings in respect of developing/emerging economies remain inconclusive. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the impact on renewable energy consumption on economic growth by controlling other macroeconomic variables for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (East, Central and West) covering the 1990–2018 sample period. For this purpose, common correlated effects mean group estimator (CCEMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test approach are used to consider both cross-sectional dependency and cross-country heterogeneity across countries. The CCEMG result indicates that an increase in renewable energy consumption led to reduction in economic growth even when the sample is analyzed based on geographical locations as East, West, and Central Africa. Granger causality results validate the feedback hypothesis for only Central Africa; the growth hypothesis is supported for East and West Africa. The empirical results suggest that energy planners, governments, and policy makers must act together to increase the renewable energy consumption share in her energy mix to promote economic growth for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global emission statistics show that Africa is among the least carbon-emitting continents. However, the rising drive for economic growth amid urbanization and globalization in recent years has continued to attract the attention of policymakers to the attendant potential environmental risks. Hence, using robust empirical techniques, this study examines the impacts of increasing urbanization alongside its interactions with energy portfolios on environmental prospects of 15 selected African countries including the most urbanized and leading oil producers in the continent of Africa. The results of the analysis produced insightful implications for achieving both environmental and economic sustainability for the understudied countries. Firstly, the trio of urbanization, economic globalization, and income levels aggravate environmental degradation among these countries as they were found to be essential drivers of carbon emission levels over the understudied period (1990–2015). Secondly, while urbanization significantly poses threat to environmental sustainability, the evidence obtained regarding its interaction with energy portfolios of the understudied countries differs. The significant detrimental environmental impacts of the interaction between urbanization and energy portfolios were only confirmed in the context of fossil energy consumption among the countries, while renewables exist as a significant decarbonization channel within the framework of the increasing level of urbanization among the countries. Thirdly, the study upholds the EKC conjecture. Hence, policymakers and authorities in Africa should capitalize on maximizing the benefits of the huge renewable resource potentials on the continent through adequate investments in green energy technologies for urban infrastructures toward the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs 11 and 13). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the energy-environment literature, a handful of the advanced economies, mostly the European Union countries, have met some of the national environmental sustainability targets. Consequently, most of these countries are renewing their policies for 2040, while the African bloc largely seems to have a longer path to emerge from the woods. Giving this insight, we are compelled to draw inferences from the role of major energy sources (conventional and renewable) in the sub-Saharan Africa's drive for environmental sustainability target. To achieve this objective, we examine the validity of an N-shaped hypothesis for sub-Saharan region which has received less documentation in the extant literature. Thus, this study employed the pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag (PMG-ARDL) and Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality approaches as estimation techniques. Our empirical results show that conventional and renewable energy aspects respectively worsen and improve environmental quality in both short and long run. Importantly, the study establishes the validity of the N-shaped hypothesis in the two periods (short and long run) as reported by the study regression with 17.830% for GDP growth, −2.241 % for quadratic form of GDP, and 0.094% for cubic form of GDP growth, respectively, in the long run. Moreso, renewable energy shows a magnitude of −1.306% and −0.157% for short- and long-run period, respectively, on carbon dioxide emission. The implication is that environmental quality in the sub-Saharan region is potentially characterized in cycles of worse (decreased quality), improvement (better quality), and again worse (deceased quality) resulting from the significant change in the region's economic prosperity. In addition to the ARDL approach, the causality analysis further reiterates that there is significant causality from the energy forms and economic expansion to carbon emission at least in one direction. While examining the validity of N-shaped hypothesis for the first time for Africa, the study offers policy perspective to the governments and environmental stakeholders in the panel countries, especially to re-engineer the region's economic dynamics if the region must meet the anticipated Sustainable Development Goals 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are ample studies that document the tourism‐led growth for single countries and/or a specific region. The nexus on international tourist arrival‐induced pollutant emissions and energy consumption has been ongoing in the related literature. This is pertinent, given its inherent implications for environmental sustainability. This study explores the growth impact of international tourist arrivals on quality of the environment in terms of a causality relationship for 16 selected Mediterranean countries by a multivariate framework; this is based on tourism‐led growth and the tourism‐induced pollutant emissions model for annual data from 1995 to 2014. Our model, therefore, explores the dynamic causal links between tourism, growth, energy, and the environment. We employ the panel causality technique (Emirmahmutoglu and Kose 2011) that allows for heterogeneity and correlations across cross‐sections. The data shows correlation among international tourism, economic growth, energy consumption, and pollutant emission. The findings from the causality analysis support the evidence on tourism‐induced pollutant emissions and energy consumption as well as the validity of the tourism‐led growth hypothesis. The findings also suggest that international tourism is a catalyst for energy consumption and economic growth, which translates into pollutant emissions, implying insightful policy prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for improved environmental quality through low-carbon emission has been explored in this study in the wake of the growing call for a transition to renewable energy use amidst widening trade relations between Turkey and the countries in the Caspian region including Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. This study draws strength from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and their impact by 2030. These SDGs encompass pertinent targets on responsible energy consumption (SDG-12), access to clean and affordable energy (SDG-7), and climate change action (SDG-13). Empirical evidence from the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) technique corroborated by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) technique shows that a percent rise in renewable energy consumption level significantly abates carbon emission among these countries by about 0.26% while growing globalization vis-à-vis a percent increase in openness to trade significantly hampers environmental quality via inducement of carbon emission level by 0.32%. Extended findings from the Granger causality analysis corroborate the significance of the long-run coefficients with regard to the double-edged benefits of renewable energy consumption in enhancing both environmental quality and income levels through lower carbon emission and sustainable economic growth stimulations among the countries. The study confirmed the inverted U-shape relation between income growth and environmental deterioration, thus validating the EKC hypothesis for Turkey and the Caspian countries. This suggests that both blocs are still at the scale stage of their growth trajectory, where the emphasis is focused on increasing income level relative to environmental sustainability. As such, important policy measures were provided in the concluding section of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extend the body of knowledge in the environmental sustainability literature by exploring the spillover effect across the United States' carbon emissions from sectoral energy consumption: from the commercial sector (CEM), transport sector (TEM), industrial sector (IEM), residential sector (REM), electric power sector (EEM). From this perspective, this study accounted for world pandemic uncertainty index (WPU) in retrospect of global episodes (coronavirus pandemic), crude oil price (WTI), and disposable income per capita (DIC). To this end, the novel spillover methodology of Diebold and Yilmaz is employed in the context of the United State for the period January 1996-February 2020. Our Study shows that total spillover effect from the forecast error variance decomposition (FEVD) is 51.1%, while the rest 48.9% of the forecast variance is attributed to the idiosyncratic shocks. Furthermore, a significant contribution of 113.9% spillover effect from uncertainty due to pandemics to TME, IEM, REM, EEM, CEM, DIC, and WTI. Our study adds to the spillover index and computed the net spillover index between the outlined variables that shows the variance between the contribution of spillover to and from the spillover dynamics. Importantly, the study found that WTI, DIC, IEM, EEM, and CEM received a net spillover shock of 63.80%, 25.90%, 48.80%, 26.10%, and 53.3% from the total spillover index. However, WPU, TEM and REM are a net transmitter of spillover effect of 111.7%, 56.90%, and 48.50% respectively. These outcomes are instructive as decision-makers, stakeholders, and players in the energy sector and oil/energy market are required to pay more focus on sectors that are a net transmitter of spillover shocks such as the world pandemic uncertainty and as well those that are net receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthropogenic consequences of renewable and non‐renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and air transport have been assessed enormously in the literature. However, given the complexities in many economies of the world today, it is important to reassess the ecological concerns of these factors in light of the Environmental Kuznets Curve framework. Therefore, this current study investigates the global assessment using data from World Bank Development database from 1995 to 2016. Evidence from the method employed, sys‐GMM, revealed that the economic complexities index increases the carbon emission in low‐income groups while it significantly decreases the carbon emission for upper‐middle and high‐income groups. For the combined group, the EKC hypothesis holds, and ECI significantly hampers carbon emissions. For the other variables, it is worthy of note that (1) economic growth contributes to the high carbon contents across the income group especially for low‐income, upper‐middle‐income and high‐income group; (2) the effects of air transport on carbon emission is positive for lower‐middle‐income and high‐income group and negative for the upper‐middle‐income group; (3) the use of coal rents and energy use leads to high release of carbon contents across all the income groups; and (4) a significant increase in the utilization of energy leads to increase in carbon contents except for lower‐income group, it leads to a decrease. From this empirical assessment, vital energy policy directions are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study focuses on the need for responsible and clean energy consumption, climate change mitigation, and sustainable economic growth. To this end, the study investigates the connection between biomass energy consumption, real GDP, investment in the energy sector, and CO2 emissions in the emerging (E7) countries – China, India, Brazil, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Indonesia and Turkey – for the period 2000–2018. The study uses a battery of techniques, namely Pooled Mean Group‐autoregressive distributed lag, ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least square, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (PMG‐ARDL, OLS, DOLS FMOLS) and causality estimators, to measure the robustness of the conceptualized relationship among the variables of interest. Empirical results show that conventional energy from fossil fuel sources is a driver of CO2 emissions within the E7 economies. On the other hand, biomass energy consumption and investments in the energy sector decrease CO2 emissions. Furthermore, a feedback causality relationship between biomass energy consumption and CO2 emissions is observed. Similarly, a feedback causality relationship is seen between economic growth and biomass energy consumption. Our study's empirical findings reveal that biomass energy consumption mitigated CO2 emissions in the E7 economies that were examined, suggesting the pivotal role for biomass energy consumption in creating an eco‐friendly environment and environmental sustainability. This requires investment from the private sector, stakeholders, and government administrators in cleaner energy technologies initiatives like biomass. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies have shown that factors like trade, urbanization, and economic growth may increase the ecological footprint (EFP) since ecological distortions are mainly human-induced. Therefore, this study explores the effect of economic growth and urbanization on the EFP, accounting for foreign direct investment and trade in Nigeria, using data from 1977 to 2016. This study used the EFP variable as against the CO2 emissions used in the previous studies since the former is a more comprehensive and extensive measure of environmental quality. We apply the novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) simulations for model estimation, the Bayer and Hanck J Time Ser Anal 34: 83–95, (2013) combined cointegration, and the ARDL bounds test for cointegration. Although the results affirmed the presence of long-run relationship among the variables, economic growth deteriorates the environment in the short run, while urbanization exacts no harmful impact. In the long run, FDI and trade deteriorate the environment while economic growth adds to environmental quality. It is recommended that policymakers strengthen the existing environmental regulations to curtail harmful trade and provide rural infrastructures to abate urban anomaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments worldwide have prioritized carbon reduction and neutrality to address the escalating threat of climate change. These goals are in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG-13). These goals stress taking action on climate change to lessen the bad effects of human activities and using fossil fuels for energy. To this end, the present study investigates the connection between conventional energy usage, agricultural practices, economic growth, and their impact on environmental sustainability in South Africa. Additionally, it explores the role of renewable energy consumption and environmental technological innovation in mitigating these effects. To achieve the study objectives, a carbon-income function is fitted with an annual frequency data from 1975 to 2020. The present study leverages on Pesaran's Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method and for robustness analysis the dynamic ARDL simulations method to simultaneously explore the short and long-run coefficients of the study's outlined variables. Empirical analysis, confirmed by bounds testing for cointegration, reveals a long-term equilibrium relationship among the variables considered. Notably, economic growth, fossil fuel energy consumption, and agricultural activities have adverse effects on environmental sustainability in South Africa, indicating a trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality. Dynamic ARDL simulations provide further evidence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) phenomenon. However, renewable energy consumption and environmental technological innovation positively influence environmental quality. These findings highlight the imperative for South Africa and its stakeholders to adopt green growth policies and transition to cleaner energy alternatives. • This study explored nexus between environmental pollution, economic growth, and environmental technological innovation in South Africa • Utilisation of Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimators were employed • Agricultural activities dampens environmental sustainability in South Africa • Green growth policies should be pursued in South Africa energy mix [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is primarily motivated by exploring the role of globalization, energy intensity over economic expansion, and its impact on environmental sustainability in China. To this end, a sequence of econometrics tests were conducted to address this hypothesized relationship. The choice of China is informed by intense industrial activities and being one of the leading world economies. Annual frequency data from 1971 to 2015 is utilized for the current study. Empirical finding from novel and robust Bayer and Hanck combined cointegration test supports cointegration equilibrium relationship among the variables under review. This indicates a convergence between the explanatory variable and the explained variable in the fitted model. Further empirical evidence shows a positive statistically significant relationship between real income, ecological footprint, and globalization index. This outcome is insightful for environmental economists and policymakers. The causality analysis supports the growth-induced energy consumption hypothesis. Based on these revelations, policy direction for the energy sector in China in the face of global interconnectedness is offered in the concluding remark of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Giving that People's Republic of China is one of the two new frontiers of globalization, the country has continued to contend with the bottleneck of sustaining its economic growth amidst environmental hiccups arising from the drawbacks of globalization and energy consumption. By investigating the challenges of the country's drive toward environmental sustainability, the present study offers a new perspective on the role of electricity consumption and economic growth in a carbon-income function setting. This study also incorporates globalization into CO2 emissions equation for the experimental period of 1970–2014. Stationarity properties were ascertained by the Zivot and Andrew unit root test under a single structural break. Subsequently, the recent and novel combined cointegration test of Bayer and Hanck (2013) in conjunction with the Pesaran bounds testing approach is used to establish a cointegration relationship among the selected variables. Finally, the modified Wald test of the Toda-Yamamoto Granger causality test is employed to detect the direction of causality flows among the variables. Empirical piece of evidence finds a statistically positive correlation between electricity consumption and economic growth as seen in the long-run regression. This result is also affirmed by the Granger causality test. The test corroborates with the electricity-induced growth hypothesis in the case of China. However, there is an environmental trade-off, as more electricity consumptions spur increased carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). Our study finds empirical support that globalization reduced pollutant emissions in both the short and long run over our sampled period. Based on these results and outcomes, several policy prescriptions on the energy-income and environment nexus are renders for policymakers. Among such policy recommendations are (a) the need for the diversification of the Chinese energy mix to cleaner energy sources and renewables and (b) the need for decarbonization and adoption of carbon capturing and storage technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistics from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reveals that energy consumption remains the main root cause of anthropogenic greenhouse pollutant emissions because of economic expansion. Thus, the need to explore the determinants of environmental degradation in South Africa is pertinent for policymakers and stakeholders. The current study is conducted in a multivariate framework using an augmented carbon income function. The present study explores the theme under review with the inclusion of total natural resource rent as an additional variable to circumvent for omitted variable bias. To this end, annual time series data from 1970 to 2017 is employed for econometrics analysis. The study set off with investigation of stationarity properties with conventional unit root test in conjunction with Zivot-Andrews unit root test that accounts for single structural break. The Pesaran's bounds testing techniques traces long-run equilibrium relationship between energy (coal) consumption, pollutant emission, total natural resources rent, and economic expansion over the sampled period. Empirical test from the modified Wald test detect and validate feedback causality between energy (coal) consumption and economic expansion. This is instructive to energy stakeholders and policymakers that energy is key determinant of economic growth. Furthermore, total natural resources rent shows significant contribution to pollutant emissions in South Africa. Based on the empirical results, policy direction such as adoption of new technologies and cleaner energy sources were suggested rather than fossil fuel driven economy in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study draws motivation from United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) and its impact by 2030. To this end, the current study explored the nexus between energy consumption (SDG-7), climate action (SDG-13), and economic growth (SDG-8) while controlling for role of government apparatus such as like voice of accountability, rule of law, control of corruption and technology innovation in a balanced panel of 46 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies from 1996 to 2020. For a robust study, the present study leverages on second-generation estimator such as cross-sectional SUR, two-stage least square (2SLS), 2SLS is referred to as the superior estimators to traditional pool OLS due to its capabilities of including endogenous regressors and efficiency. Empirical findings show that all the coefficients associated with mobile subscription (lnTI) are negative and statistically significant at 1% level of significance (P-value <0.01). This indicates that higher (lower) mobile cellular subscriptions results in the reduction (rise) of renewable energy consumption, implying that technological innovation in terms of the expansion of mobile cellular subscription hinders access to clean energy in SSA. Conclusively, the present study presents interesting outcomes concerning technology innovation, Governance, and SDGs goal 7 (clean energy) and 13 (climate action) in Sub-Saharan African blocs. Policy strategies are outlined in the concluding section. •Examination of technological innovation on sustainable development in Sub-Saharan Africa. •Utilization of robust second-generation estimators were employed. •Technology innovation is inversely related to carbon emission. •Renewable energy consumption shows mitigating role on emission in SSA. •Green growth policies should be pursued in Africa energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green growth is of great importance in terms of solving environmental problems and achieving sustainable development goals. However, the existing literature has not investigated how green growth affects environmental degradation and environmental sustainability variables. In light of this gap, this study aims to analyse the impact of green growth and institutional quality on CO 2 emissions, ecological footprint and inverse load capacity factor in OECD countries by constructing three different models. The results of the analysis indicate that (i) green growth exerts a significant mitigating and differentiating effect on CO 2 , ecological footprint and inverted load capacity factor in the long run. This is evidenced by a 1% increase in green growth reducing CO 2 , ecological footprint and inverted load capacity factor by 0.563%, 0.373% and 0.198%, respectively. (i) The impact of green growth on CO 2 and inverted load capacity factor in the long run is negative and statistically significant; (ii) the impact of green growth on CO 2 and inverted load capacity factor in the short run is negative and statistically significant; (iii) the impact of institutional quality on deterioration is positive and significant in the long run; (iv) the impact of population on deterioration and sustainability is significant and mixed. The findings indicate that decision-makers in OECD countries should review green energy policies when setting the sustainable development goals, as environmental sustainability is more challenging than reducing pollution. • We explore the role of green growth and institutional quality in sustainability. • Green growth has different impacts on pollution and sustainability. • The effect of institutional quality on pollution is positive in the long run. • The effect of population on degradation and sustainability is significant and mixed. • OECD countries should follow green growth policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) that address pertinent global issues. This study focuses on the need for access to clean and affordable energy consumption, responsible energy consumption, sustainable economic growth, and climate change mitigation. To this end, this paper evaluates the relevance of the renewable energy sector on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain for the period 1995–2015. As an econometric strategy, we adopt the use of panel data over the highlighted countries. In the first step, we apply the unit root test recommended by Levin, Lin, and Chu in conjunction with ADF-Fisher, and Phillips-Perron for robustness and consistency. We found that the variables used in this study are integrated I (1) in the first difference. In the second step, we apply the Pedroni cointegration test, and Kao Residual cointegration test, and we observe that the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The generalized least squares (GLS), the panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), ordinary least squares robust (OLS), and panel quantile regression are considered in this research. The econometric results validate the assumption of the environmental Kuznets curve, i.e., and there is a positive correlation between income per capita and a negative effect of squared income per capita on carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, we observe that renewable energy reduces CO2 emissions. Finally, we also find a direct connection between the urban population and the environmental degradation in the examined blocs. These results show that in Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, more is required to achieve environmental sustainability in the respective countries growth trajectory. Further policy prescriptions are appended in the concluding section of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although technological innovation plays a critical role in promoting sustainable development and environmental sustainability, there are few studies in the existing literature that address this relationship. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between technological innovation (TI), renewable energy consumption (REC), natural resource rent (NRR) and ecological footprint (EF) of E-7 countries (i.e. Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkiye) from 1992 to 2018 in order to ensure environmental sustainability in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Analysis was performed using the ARDL estimator, robustness test and Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality (DHC) test. Long-term empirical estimates from the PMG-ARDL technique have shown that a 1 % increase in TI and REC reduces EF by 0.064 % and 0.234 %, respectively, i.e. increases environmental sustainability. At this point, it is possible to say that TI and REC contribute to the achievement of SDG-7 and 13 in E-7 countries while NRR and real income (GDP) were found to impede the achievement of SDG-7 and 13 in E-7 countries through an increase in EF. The results were confirmed using robustness techniques. In the DHC test results, while there is a unidirectional causality from TI to EF, from EF to NRR and trade openness, a bidirectional causality was found between GDP and EF. This study suggests that policymakers should focus on introducing environmentally friendly equipment to reduce environmental degradation, increase the share of RECs and focus on sustainable development within the framework of the SDGs. • We explore nexus between technological innovation affect the ecological footprint in E-7 economies. • Adoption of second-generational panel econometrics techniques. • Technological innovation and renewable energy consumption help in mitigating climate change. • Green growth policies should be pursued in E7 energy mix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth comes with it environmental trade-off on environmental sustainability. This occurrence is evidence on a global scale as it stems from human anthropogenic activities driven by the consumption of energy sources from fossil-fuel origin. On this premise, the present study focuses on five fragile economies with huge energy and sustainability targets to explore the nexus between economic growth and the environment. The present study is distinct from previous studies in scope by the construct and inclusion of a financial inclusion index with the aid of Principal component analysis (PCA), human development to the economic growth-environment argument. To this end to reach evidence-based outcomes second generational panel analysis is employed. The Durbin-Hansen cointegration test traces the long-run equilibrium relationship between the study variables. Subsequently, an augmented mean group (AMG) estimator is employed to explore the relationship between the outlined variables. Furthermore, the present study finds support for the pollution haven hypothesis for the selected fragile economies. The plausible explanation is due to weak trade and environmental treaties in the examined countries. However, the renewable energy human development index help mitigates environmental degradation. Thus, the present study advocates the need for energy transition and investment into new technological innovation in research and development to attain sustainable development goals and environmental sustainability resonated in UNSDGs-11,12 and 13. Additionally, financial inclusion plays a vital role in the five fragile energy-environment mixes. The current study presents vital policy directives in the concluding section for individual countries and the entire bloc for more effective policy direction. • We explore nexus between sustainability amidst financial inclusion in five fragile economies. • Utilization of robust second-generation estimators were employed. • Our study found finds support for the pollution haven hypothesis. • Renewable energy human development index help mitigates environmental degradation. • Green growth policies should be pursued in five fragile economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]