Search

Without enhancing the quality of the environment, the goals of sustainable development remain unachievable. In order to minimize the damage to the planet, sustainable practices need to be considered. This study is conducted to identify some of the drivers behind the increasing sustainability issues and tried to investigate the impact of natural resources, financial development, and economic growth on the ecological footprint in Malaysia from the year 1980-2019 by utilizing the dynamic simulated autoregressive distribution lag approach. It was identified that financial development, economic growth, and natural resources are the determinants behind the upsurge of the ecological footprint as all three show a positive and significant effect on ecological footprint. However, in the long run, the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis was also validated in Malaysia. Therefore, it is recommended to increase awareness among the public regarding the adoption of sustainable practices in everyday life and to use green technologies that offer maximum efficiency and minimum damage to the environment in commercial and domestic activities. Finally, based on the research results, a comprehensive policy framework was proposed which could allow the Malaysian economy to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 7, 8, and 13., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Considering that the rigor of economic activities has widely been linked with the turbulent nature of the increasing global atmospheric and environmental hazards thus hampering environmental sustainability, it then presented a suggestive dilemma realizing that increasing unemployment, i.e., de-economizing human activities posit a desirable environmental quality effect. Given this backdrop, and employing the more recent estimation techniques, the current study probes the validity of the novel environmental Phillips curve (i.e., negative relationship between unemployment and environmental degradation) opined by Kashem and Rahman (Environ Sci Pollut Res 1-18, 2020). In this case, the panel of BRICST (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey) economies for the selected data set over the experimental period 1992-2016 is analyzed. After using related approaches that are designed to account for probable country-specific factors, i.e., the cross-sectional dependence concern, the findings from the PMG-ARDL model affirmed the validity of the environmental Phillips curve for the BRICST countries. Thus, there is a significant trade-off between unemployment and environmental degradation. Moreover, this study concludes that renewable energy consumption improves the environmental quality, while conventional energy sources remained detrimental factors to environmental quality in the panel of the examined countries. Therefore, the study identified that the share of renewable energy in the energy mix should be escalated to improve environmental quality and maintain or improve the employment level, thus advancing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of the BRICST countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Limiting CO2 emissions is crucial for sustainable development, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation, ensuring a more resilient and cleaner future. Prioritizing sustainable urbanization renewable energy, and energy efficiency is vital for achieving this prosperous and sustainable future. As a result, we adopt the Fourier testing approach for stationary, cointegration, estimator, and causality, to scrutinize the role of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and urbanization on CO2 emissions in Finland over the period between 1990 and 2020, controlling economic growth and trade openness. The empirical analysis of the Fourier ARDL estimator establishes that energy efficiency measures such as gas and oil efficiency exhibit an adverse effect on CO2 emissions, so energy efficiency mitigates CO2 emissions. Similarly, the study also found that urbanization and renewable energy reduce CO2 emissions. Conversely, economic growth and trade openness induce CO2 emissions. Additionally, the Fourier-Toda-Yamamoto method provides robust evidence regarding the long-term implications of the examined factors. Based on this result, the study emphasizes that implementing a regulatory framework to enhance energy efficiency, promote renewable energy adoption, and support sustainable urban development will be an essential strategy in the global effort to attain the net-zero emissions target, which offers valuable insights to other countries seeking to transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to analyze the economic determinants of national carbon emissions in a large cross-section of 119 countries. The study followed the 'theory of sustainable development' to assess the national sustainable developmental agenda. The study employed cross-sectional, robust least squares, and Markov switching regression for parameter estimates. The findings indicate that information disclosure, the cost of business start-up procedures, sustainable fuel imports, and renewable energy decrease emissions stock. In contrast, ease of doing business and logistics operations increase it. According to the ex-ante analysis, information disclosure, the cost of business start-up procedures, and environmentally friendly logistical operations would likely reduce emissions stock. Ease of doing business and lower renewable fuel expenditures will almost certainly increase emissions stock in the majority of subsequent years. Over time, information disclosure is expected to significantly impact carbon emissions, followed by renewable energy consumption, doing business, and logistical operations. Sustainable economic policies worldwide make it possible for green technology and environmentally friendly manufacturing to be put into place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nation sustainable development goals are largely emphasized on advancement in cleaner production technologies to take action against climate change and maintain the average global temperature less than 1.5°C. The role of carbon pricing, renewable energy, and sustainable food production would be helpful to achieve sustainable development goals in line with technological innovations. This study works in given factors and evaluated the global pace of economic growth towards sustainable development. The ex-ante and ex-post analysis is carried out on the world aggregated data for a period of 1980–2017. The results show that knowledge spillover, combustible renewables & waste, and carbon pricing substantially decreases carbon emissions, whereas trademark applications have a direct relationship with carbon emissions that exhibit the innovation embodied emissions at a global scale. The results support the inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and global income with a turning point of US$15,800 and US$11,100 by using FMOLS and DOLS estimators respectively. The ex-ante analysis shows that knowledge spillover, trademark applications, and carbon pricing will largely decrease carbon emissions while carbon pricing, food production index, FDI inflows, and broad money supply will decrease fossil fuel emissions for the next 10 years time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linkage between renewable energy resources and environmental influences on economic growth among selected Asian economies play a vital role in sustainable economic development. This study encompasses the panel data sets for eight selected Asian countries, and the period starts from 1990 to 2018. This research relies on the panel vector error correction model (PVECM) for data estimation. The overall findings indicate that biomass, geothermal, and wind power sources of energy have a positive and significant impact on the economic advancement of Asian economies. Besides that, as opposed to the other two renewable energy sources, windpower has a greater impact on economic development. Furthermore, the empirical findings of current research have significant implications towards selected Asian countries' energy policy related to both private and public sector enterprises as it helps in identifying the industrial sectors which have greater contribution towards the economy and their energy requirements in long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applied a panel data of 37 African countries in examining the impact of trade openness and foreign direct investment on sustainable agriculture towards the attainment of the United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially, SDG-2, with the aim of ending extreme hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Data for the study was sourced from the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) and World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, for the period 2005 - 2019. To control for endogeneity, the study engaged the system Generalised Method of Moments (GMM). The result shows that FDI and trade openness have significant negative impact on agricultural sustainability in Africa. This result implies that, increase in FDI may decrease agricultural sustainability by 0.00294%, while increase in trade openness may lower agricultural sustainability by 0.430066 %. Therefore, the study concludes that while trade openness is negative, policy to raise local production towards export promotion should be encouraged. In addition, FDI should be encouraged to augment local employment and investment towards increasing output and productivity in the Africa region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nation sustainable development goals are largely emphasized on advancement in cleaner production technologies to take action against climate change and maintain the average global temperature less than 1.5°C. The role of carbon pricing, renewable energy, and sustainable food production would be helpful to achieve sustainable development goals in line with technological innovations. This study works in given factors and evaluated the global pace of economic growth towards sustainable development. The ex-ante and ex-post analysis is carried out on the world aggregated data for a period of 1980–2017. The results show that knowledge spillover, combustible renewables & waste, and carbon pricing substantially decreases carbon emissions, whereas trademark applications have a direct relationship with carbon emissions that exhibit the innovation embodied emissions at a global scale. The results support the inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and global income with a turning point of US$15,800 and US$11,100 by using FMOLS and DOLS estimators respectively. The ex-ante analysis shows that knowledge spillover, trademark applications, and carbon pricing will largely decrease carbon emissions while carbon pricing, food production index, FDI inflows, and broad money supply will decrease fossil fuel emissions for the next 10 years time period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the economic side, China has attained rapid development; yet, the ecological aspects pose threats to its sustainable development. The nexus between economic growth, natural resources, human capital, and financial development has an important inference for the environment, and therefore, this endeavor examines the influence of said variables on the ecological footprint in China via adopting the novel dynamic simulated ARDL approach by utilizing the data from 1985 to 2018. The outcomes of the analysis confirm that natural resources and financial development have a considerable positive short- and long-run relation with the ecological footprint. Besides, this depicts that natural resources and financial development lead to an upsurge in ecological footprint in China. Furthermore, human capital also upsurges the negative influence on the environment. Economic growth also upsurges the ecological footprint; however, the outcomes also yielded an interesting insight lending credence to the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve in China. So, it is important to offer awareness sessions to the community as well as to human resources working in different sectors regarding the significance of sustainability by giving training related to the reduction of the excessive consumption of scarce resources. Moreover, a watchful deliberation must be given while implementing strategies about sustainability concerning the specified factors and their potential impact on ecological footprints so that the targets of Sustainable Development Goals 7, 8, and 13 could be accomplished by the Chinese economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the relationship between globalization, energy consumption, and economic growth among selected South Asian countries to promote the green economy and environment. This study also finds causal association between energy growth and nexus of CO2 emissions and employed the premises of the EKC framework. The study used annual time series analysis, starting from 1985 to 2019. The data set has been collected from the World Development Indicator (WDI). The result of a fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method describes a significantly worse quality environment in the South Asian region. The individual country as Bangladesh shows a positively significant impact on the CO2 emissions and destroys the level of environment regarding non-renewable energy and globalization index. However, negative and positive growth levels (GDP) and square of GDP confirm the EKC hypothesis in this region. This study has identified the causality between GDP growth and carbon emission and found bidirectional causality between economic growth and energy use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Paris agreement (COP21) emphasized the need to progress toward using low-carbon energy technologies, including nuclear power, that is favorably looked for to meet the challenges to reduce an enormous increase in global temperature to below 2 °C. The cost of carbon pollution is highly induced by the energy sector that damages the global environmental sustainability plan. The alternative and nuclear energy demand is an optimized solution to decrease carbon damages, which can be better work under the imposition of carbon taxes on polluting industries. This study works in a given direction to analyze the role of alternative and nuclear energy, carbon pricing, FDI inflows, fossil fuel combustion, economic growth, and population density on the cost of carbon pollution in a panel of 90 selected countries for a period of 1995–2018. The results confirmed a "nuclear energy-augmented environmental Kuznets curve" with a turning point of 39.974% of total energy demand across countries. The result implies that alternative and nuclear energy initially increases carbon damages. Simultaneously, it decreases at the later stages of atomic energy expansion; thus, nuclear power growth is imperative for long-term sustainable development. A positive relationship is found between carbon pricing and carbon damage, while a negative relationship is between fossil fuel combustion and carbon damage across countries. The results conclude that expansion in nuclear energy would help reduce the cost of carbon pollution to achieve environmental sustainability agenda across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to analyze the dynamic linkages between technology factors and carbon emission in a panel of 26 selected European countries from 2000 to 2017. The results of the panel fixed-effect regression model show the monotonic increasing function between agriculture technology and carbon emissions. In contrast, panel quantile regression confirmed the inverted U-shaped 'Agriculture Technology Kuznets curve (ATKC)' of carbon emissions at 30th quantile distribution to 80th quantile distribution with the turning points of 12,60,000 tractors to 9,68,000 tractors, respectively. The results further exhibit the negative relationship between high-technology exports and carbon emissions, as high-technology exports have a positive impact on environmental quality in order to reduce carbon emissions across countries. The relationship between ICT goods exports and carbon emissions is complimentary, while R&D expenditures have a negative relationship with carbon emissions in a given period. The study substantiates the 'pollution haven hypothesis (PHH)' that is controlled by trade liberalization policies. The telephone and mobile penetrations have a differential impact on carbon emissions in both of the prescribed statistical techniques, which needs fair economic policies in order to delimit carbon emissions through green ICT infrastructure. The results further exhibit the 'material footprint' that is visible at the earlier stages of economic development while it is substantially decreasing at the later stages to verify 'environmental Kuznets curve (EKC)' hypothesis with a turning point of US$45,700. Finally, the study shows the positive relationship between industry value-added and carbon emissions that sabotaged the process of green development across countries. The study concludes that green ICT infrastructure is imperative for sustainable production and consumption, and climate change protection with cleaner production techniques and environmental regulations that reshape the international policies towards sustained growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental problems, including extreme weather phenomena, unprecedented global warming, and environmental disasters caused by increasing levels of CO2 and other toxic emissions, along with rapidly increasing economic development and energy consumption, require global development and policies to meet sustainable development goals. The traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) model has limited practical applicability for measuring environmental performance, as it lacks the computational capacity to deal with undesirable outputs. The current study employs "radial" and "non-radial" DEA technology, and acknowledges the associations of a mathematical foundation to increase the analytical capability of the environmental performance of DEA. Results show that in the measurement of environmental performance analysis, the non-radial DEA model has a higher discriminating power compared to radial DEA. Results show that the average values of radial and non-radial environmental performance are highest for Latin America and the Caribbean, at 0.99 and 0.96, respectively, while the former USSR has the lowest values of 0.22 and 0.32, respectively. The South Asian region shows relatively stable values of about 0.58 to 0.65, and Latin America & Caribbean countries and sub-Saharan Africa also show a stable radial environmental performance ranging from 0.82 to 1.00. These results indicate a considerable difference among the eight world regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of green finance and renewable energy on energy efficiency in E−7 economies. We analyzed the nonlinear and asymmetric effects of green finance and renewable energy on energy efficiency. We collected data from 1985 to 2017 and applied the NARDL and 2SLS methods. The results reveal that the differences in green finance development in the E−7 region are as follows: China (0.61), Brazil (0.55), India (0.53), Indonesia (0.49), Mexico (0.37), and Russia (0.39). In 2019, the Gini coefficient was the largest in Russia (0.57), followed by Turkey. Based on empirical findings, the largest barrier to green energy efficiency is insufficient private and governmental investment in the energy sector to improve access to power, to increase energy security and promote economic growth in an environmentally sustainable manner. The findings point to a promising but vulnerable future for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment in E−7 countries. This paper emphasizes that green financing and renewable energy policy limitations must be addressed to realize the funding potential of energy efficiency in E−7 countries. • We have analyzed the barrieres for renewable energy and energy efficiency. • Non-linear and asymmetric effects is observed on energy efficiency. • We have applied NARDL model to examine the relationship among variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15192-8 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the interaction of governance and information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption on food security in West Africa is investigated in this study. The study engaged the system generalised method of moments (GMM) approach on a panel data of 15 West African countries. The data used for the study are obtained from the world development indicators (WDI) and world governance indicators (WGI), for the period 2005 to 2018. The findings show that good governance (government effectiveness and efficient anti-corruption control) can boost food security by between 12% and 20%. Furthermore, the findings show that a 1% rise in ICT adoption may boost food security by 12% to 15%. In explaining the level of food security, the relationship between governance and ICT adoption is positive and significant. This implies that ICT and governance (government effectiveness) interaction may have about 15% positive influence on food security, while ICT and control of corruption interaction may positively influence the level of food security by 8%. The study concludes by recommending that to enhance food security in West Africa, effectiveness in governance and ICT adoption are crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nation Sustainable Development Goals emphasized to meet the global food security challenges by mechanized farming; access of clean water challenges by renewable freshwater withdrawals; clean energy issues determined by clean fuel and cleaner technologies; and combat climate change by limiting anthropogenic emissions of carbon, fossil fuel, and Greenhouse Gas emissions in the air. This study examined the aforementioned United Nation Sustainable Development Goals in the context of Pakistan by using a time series data from 1970 to 2016. The study employed Tapio's elasticity of decoupling state to analyze the relationship between water-energy-food resources and carbon-fossil-greenhouse gas emissions in a given country context. The results of Tapio elasticity found that carbon-fossil-greenhouse gas emissions' contamination in water-energy-food's resources are quite visible that exhibit weak decoupling state, expensive negative decoupling state, and strong decoupling state in the different decade's data, which substantiate the ecological cost in water-energy-food's resources. The results emphasized the need to adopt different sustainable instruments in a way to limit carbon-fossil-greenhouse gas emissions in water-energy-food resources through cleaner production technologies, renewable energy mix, environmental certification, anti-dumping tariff duty, strict environmental regulations, etc. These instruments would be helpful to achieve environmental sustainability agenda for mutual exclusive global gains. • To evaluate sustainability in the water, energy, and food (WEF) resources in Pakistan. • Tapio's elasticity is used to analyze the ecological costs pertaining to the stated factors in a country. • Strong, expansive, negative, and weak decoupling state found during different sample time periods. • Last three decades data confirmed 'expansive decoupling' in a country. • Environmental sustainability is achieved by efficient management of WEF resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy sources are viewed as a promising solution for lowering global carbon emissions. A couple of long-term policy instruments are critical for providing synergy to green energy sources to achieve long-term sustained growth. The study aims to analyze the role of alternative and nuclear energy in reducing carbon damage in a panel of five selected island economies for 2001–2020. The results of panel quantile regression estimates show that access to clean fuel technologies decreases carbon damage with a range of −0.404% (at the 10th quantile) to −0.211 (at the 90th quantile). Further, alternative and nuclear energy decrease carbon damage more at the 40th quantile, i.e., −0.349%, and the lowest at the 70th quantile, i.e., −0.286%. Carbon pricing decreases carbon damage at the 30th and 40th quantiles with an elasticity estimate of −0.042% and −0.035%, respectively. In contrast, renewable energy sources increase carbon damage at a 70th quantile to 90th quantile distribution. Clean fuel technologies work with renewable energy sources to reduce carbon damage. The causality estimates show that carbon damage causes clean fuel technologies, carbon pricing, and renewable energy consumption. On the other hand, carbon pricing encourages clean fuel technologies and renewable energy. Clean fuel technologies Granger cause renewable energy across countries. The forecasting estimates suggest that nuclear power will likely reduce carbon damage with a variance shock of 5.539% over the next ten years. The study concludes that using alternative and nuclear energy is very important for reducing the cost of carbon emissions and making the islands' economies green and clean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation has gained incessant recognition due to rising concerns about environmental sustainability. It has the potential to improve energy efficiency by increasing total factor carbon productivity through mitigating effects. This research probes the asymmetric nexus between green technology innovation and energy efficiency in the top ten green innovator economies (Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, USA, Denmark, Finland, UK, Netherlands, Japan, and Norway). Prior investigations applied panel data approaches to acquire persistent outcomes on the green technology innovation-energy efficiency nexus, even though some countries did not individually demonstrate such a link. Comparatively, this study employs a distinctive 'Quantile-on-Quantile' technique that enables investigators to examine time-series dependence in each country by furnishing an international yet economy-specified understanding of the conjunction between the variables. Estimations disclose that green technology innovation improves energy efficiency in the majority of our selected economies at particular quantiles. It is also demonstrated that the asymmetries between our variables fluctuate among countries, highlighting the need for special care when adopting green innovation, energy efficiency, and sustainable environment policies. • The study analyzes the asymmetric green innovation-energy efficiency nexus. • A novel methodology, 'Quantile-on-Quantile (QQ)', is used. • The data for top-10 green innovator countries is used. • It is found that green innovations improve energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]