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Although previous related studies illustrate several factors that reduce and eliminate ecological pollution, empirical evidence that examines the impact of banking development on footprint ecological quality is missed. This study explores the impact of banking development, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on the ecological footprint of 27 OECD countries spanning data from 1990 to 2018. Using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), the results indicated that a 1% increase in banking expansion is projected to augment the ecological footprint in the OECD nations across all quantiles (first to ninth). Thus, the results affirm that banking development dampens ecological sustainability in the OECD nations. In contrast, the results indicate that renewable energy promotes ecological sustainability in the OECD nations across all quantiles (first to ninth). The empirical findings suggest that OECD policymakers should regard banking and economic development as a "green energy fostering mechanism" while designing policies to promote ecological friend energy sources. Moreover, as part of their core mandates, central banks, and regulatory authorities should promote financial innovation in the banking sector to mobilize the required capital to facilitate nature conservation and restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of this research was to determine the impact of renewable energy, alternative and nuclear energy, urbanization, energy use, and fossil fuel energy consumption on Romanian economic development. To investigate the relation between variables, we employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique in conjunction with FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and CCR (Canonical Cointegrating Regression). Long-run and short-run findings suggest that alternative and nuclear energy, as well as fossil fuel consumption, has a positive association with economic growth, but renewable energy, urbanization, and energy usage have an adversative relationship with economic growth. Similarly, FMOLS and CCR statistics indicate that alternative and nuclear energy and fossil fuel consumption have a favorable impact on economic development. Renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and energy use, on the other hand, revealed a negative connection with economic progress. Conservative solutions are necessary to implement appropriate policies to address energy consumption concerns in Romania in order to improve economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most countries, notably those that signed the Paris Climate Agreement, prioritize achieving the zero carbon or carbon neutrality aim. Unlike earlier studies, this one assesses the contribution of environmental policy, clean energy, green innovation, and renewable energy to the E7 economies' achievement of carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2019. Findings emanating from the study show that the EKC hypothesis is valid in E7 countries. Implying that emissions in the E7 countries increased with the kick-off of development but declined later due to possible potent environmental regulatory policies put in place. Similarly, across all models, renewable energy (REN), green innovations (GINNO), environmental tax (ETAX), and technological innovations (TECH) were found to exert a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions in the E7 countries both in the short and long run. On the other hand, economic expansion (GDP) positively impacts environmental deterioration. Furthermore, the country-specific result shows that, on average, Brazil, India, China, Russia, Mexico, and Indonesia have significant environmental policies aiding carbon abatement. Except for Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia, the income growth in the rest of the countries does not follow the EKC proposition. Furthermore, the causality result revealed a unidirectional causal relationship between GDP, REN, and GINNO to CO2 emission. No causality was found between ETAX with CO2, while a bi-directional causality exists between technology and CO2 emissions. Based on the finding, policymakers in the E7 countries should move away from fossil fuels because future electricity output will not be sufficient to reduce emissions considerably. Environmental regulations, encouraging technological innovation, adopting green and sustainable technology, and clean energy sources, among other things, demand radical and broad changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to examine the direct impact of green innovation strategies and the green dynamic capability on green innovation. The indirect effect is also tested, using green organizational identity as a mediator. A cross-sectional and quantitative research approach was used to collect data from energy firms. The results show that green innovation strategies and green dynamic capabilities positively affect the green innovation. The findings also proved that a green organizational identity acts as a mediator. The research outcomes suggest that the role of green organizational identity needs to be verified by firm managers who want to boost green innovation. In the advance era, society is more conscious about the green environment. Managers need a green innovation strategy to achieve green innovation within their firm. This study will help to manage the environmental issues, environmental degradation reductions, and establishment of green programs and products, which will all benefit society in the terms of improving resource efficiency, enhancing quality of life, and encouraging economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role of the import diversification in the renewable energy consumption for a global panel of both developing and developed economies. The study applies panel co-integration and panel quantile regression analysis on the panel data of 138 countries during 1995–2018. For empirical analysis, the authors used Pedroni) cointegration test and panel-quantile regressions. The investigation proves that the import diversification significantly reduces the renewable energy consumption and there is a major need for designing and implementing some revised and synchronized policies of trade with the energy mix and sustainable development goals. The empirical findings claim that the foreign direct investments, natural resources and GDP increase significantly boost the renewable energy demand for both groups of developing and developed countries. Therefore, this study shows that generally the current trade policies might be ineffective and import diversification policies should be reformed to match with the energy regulations, manufacturing, and sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change presents a substantial impediment for the global community and prompts policymakers worldwide to prioritize environmental goals when defining national development strategies. Prioritizing these goals is particularly challenging for governments of developing economies still relying on fossil fuels, foreign capital, and industry contribution to GDP. This study examines the relationships between carbon dioxide emissions, industry value added, financial development, and electricity generation in 15 Central and Eastern European countries from 1995 to 2021. To achieve this objective, we examined stationarity and cointegration and employed a vector error correction model to investigate causalities between the variables, along with a variance decomposition analysis. Our findings suggest that the short-run unidirectional causalities exist from industry value-added to carbon dioxide emissions and from carbon dioxide emissions to financial development and electricity generation. Long-term causality exists between carbon dioxide emissions and industry value added. The findings shed light on the challenges and opportunities these countries face in transitioning to climate neutrality and meeting the decarbonization targets. Within this context, the findings underscore the significance of crafting customized strategies for these economies to navigate the complex landscape of climate change while promoting sustainable industrial, electricity and financial sector development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollution, war and energy crisis are the CEE countries' most important global actual issues. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of political stability and electricity price in 11 CEE countries in the period 2007–2021 to anticipate the effect of these factors on pollution in times of political and energy crisis. The common results based on DOLS/FMOLS and CCEMG estimations indicate that political stability enhances CO2 emissions, while higher electricity prices for non-household consumers reduce pollution. An inverted-U pattern was observed in the relationship between growth and pollution, while renewable energy consumption is the most powerful tool to reduce CO2 emissions. These results are the starting point for policy recommendations. [Display omitted] • Political stability enhances CO2 emissions. • Higher electricity prices for non-household consumers reduce pollution. • Renewable energy consumption reduces pollution. • An inverted-U pattern in the growth-pollution nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering the high current account deficits worldwide and the growing importance of tourism to GDP in many countries, the impact of the exchange rate fluctuations on the tourism demand and on the current account of the balance of payments became crucial during the last decades. That is why many researchers focused on studying this impact in the context of different exchange rate regimes. Tourism has a significant positive impact on Spain's trade balance, because Spain ranks 1st globally if we consider tourist arrivals. FED proceeded to many adjustments of its currency against other currencies to boost tourism industry. Thus, we estimated the impact of the exchange rate on trade balance in tourism with Turkey in the short and long run by using the non-linear ARDL cointegration approach because Turkey is the one of the main trade partner of Spain and this bilateral relation has not been studied so far in the economic literature. Our results show that the Euro depreciation boosts Turkey tourist arrivals, while the Euro appreciation is not significant for Spain's tourism balance. Based on these results, we designed some policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigating the determinants of environmental sustainability has become a very attractive and popular area of research in response to the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs) and COP26 targets. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to explore the effects of renewable energy, technological innovation, and the insurance market on environmental sustainability in the United States (US). This work contributes to the extant body of knowledge by exploring the effect of the insurance market on the load capacity factor (LC), specifically regarding the US. The LC tracks a certain ecological threshold by simultaneously comparing biocapacity and ecological footprint (EF), thereby providing a comprehensive empirical analysis of ecological sustainability determinants. However, this proxy includes the combined attributes of the demand and supply sides of ecological sustainability. Using the recently developed autoregressive distributed lag method, this research reveals that the insurance market adversely affects the LC in the US. The overall outcomes highlight the positive role of renewable energy, technological innovation, and the insurance market in achieving the SDGs and COP26 targets. Policy recommendations for policymakers concerning promoting renewable energy, green innovation activities, the green insurance market, and ecological regulations are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Romanian cards market relaunched after the crisis period, because the credit diminished or even stoped during 2008-2013, so the banks had to rely on the fees granted by issued cards or by banking payments operations. So, the total issued banking cards increased a lot during the last years and the electronic banking services developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present an econometric analysis using VAR techniques for emphasizing the political institutional factors, economic freedom factors and the quality of labor force factors impacting on FDIs attracted in Bulgaria and Romania. We used yearly data series between 2000 and 2014, provided by the World Bank. These two countries display a very friendly climate (law income corporate tax), but they attracted large amounts of FDIs only for a short period of time at mid-2000s'. The foreign investments sharply dropped during the crisis, and the perspectives are not so good. The foreign investors claim that high corruption and bureaucracy greatly diminish the advantages of an attractive fiscal environment in these two specific countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to presents some considerations regarding some specific monetary regimes adopted in the Central and eastern European countries and the developments of the inflation rate in the frame of these monetary regimes (namely the inflation targeting regime and the Monetary Council regime). The analysis covers both the EU accession moments in 2004 and 2007 and the crisis period started in 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an oil-exporting country, Oman traditionally relies on oil sources to meet its energy demand. The country has not been able to safeguard its environment from carbon emissions (CO2)-related adversities. In this context, this study evaluated the impacts of the price of oil, financial development, economic growth, and nonrenewable energy on the environmental quality in Oman. The research used the recently developed augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to investigate annual data from 1980 to 2018. The outcomes revealed the following: (i) financial development negatively affected ecological quality in the short and long term; (ii) oil prices positively impact carbon emissions in the long term; however, the price of oil does not significantly influence CO2 emissions in the short term; (iii) nonrenewable energy is harmful for ecological quality over both the short and long term; (iv) there is a causal link among financial development, nonrenewable energy, and carbon emissions. The current research outcomes present valuable findings for Oman's policymakers in heading toward sustainable financial and energy sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the main developments of the eurozone during the crisis period and the measures adopted by ECB in this context. The paper specially aims the countries that were the most affected by the crisis, namely: Greece, Cyprus, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. The public debt of those countries increased greatly and they faced many pressures on the international financial markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green and blue infrastructure has gained importance for energy firms around the globe due to increased focus on addressing emerging challenges raised in the achievement of green innovation (GI) and the protection of the environment. Pollution reduction and green technology are key factors that help to accomplish GI. The aim of the current research was to examine how green and blue infrastructure and green technologies impact and improve energy firms' business GI in Pakistan. Quantitative methods were used for the collection of data from 475 managers, policymakers, senior employees, owners, and CEOs. Findings demonstrated that green and blue infrastructure and GI were positively linked. The results also showed that pollution reduction played a mediating role between blue infrastructure and GI. Furthermore, findings also revealed that green technology played a moderating role between green and blue infrastructure and GI. Pollution reduction is a crucial factor in developing the GI performance of energy firms. These new outcomes extend green and blue infrastructure and GI literature and provide empirical proof for practitioners and policymakers. Our study suggests that green technology positively influences green and blue infrastructure, which in turn is associated with GI. This study is based on critical factors that have encouraging impacts on GI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of fiscal and financial incentives for energy efficiency labels on eco-friendly houses (houses with high energy efficiency certificates, such as A+, A, B, and B−) in 18 municipalities in the Lisbon metropolitan region during the period 2014–2020. The empirical results indicate that the variables of fiscal incentive policies for energy efficiency labels, income per capita, credit agreements for the purchase or construction of a house, and the number of completed dwellings in new constructions for family housing encourage eco-friendly houses. In contrast, the variable number of completed reconstructions per 100 completed new constructions has a negative impact. Although this study is constrained by data limitations resulting from the short period under analysis and the moderate number of municipalities available, it advances the discussions around energy efficiency in residential properties in Portugal. Furthermore, it investigates the effectiveness of tax incentive policies for energy efficiency seals as an instrument for promoting ecological houses in the municipalities of the Lisbon metropolitan area. Thus, the need to study the Portuguese capital stands out as it is the most populous city in the country and concentrates a large part of the economic activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online transactions, medical services, financial transactions, and banking all have their share of fraudulent activity. The annual revenue generated by fraud exceeds $1 trillion. Even while fraud is dangerous for organizations, it may be uncovered with the help of intelligent solutions such as rules engines and machine learning. In this research, we introduce a unique hybrid technique for identifying financial payment fraud by combining nature-inspired-based Hyperparameter tuning with several supervised classifier models, as implemented in a modified version of the XGBoost Algorithm. At the outset, we split out a sample of the full financial payment dataset to use as a test set. We use 70% of the data for training and 30% for testing. Records that are known to be illegitimate or fraudulent are predicted, while those that raise suspicion are further investigated using a number of machine learning algorithms. The models are trained and validated using the 10-fold cross-validation technique. Several tests using a dataset of actual financial transactions are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has contributed to several advances in technology including linking people around the globe and driving us to modern economies. With fast economic growth and industrialization progress, the negative impact of globalization on biodiversity can be easily ignored. Globalization is an undeniable factor in our planetary devastation from pollution to global warming and climate change. The major intention of our recent analysis was to examine the globalization, energy consumption, trade, economic growth, and fuel importation to determine the ecological footprint in Pakistan by taking the annual data variables from 1974–2017. A linear ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) technique with limited information maximum likelihood and linear Gaussian model estimation were utilized to check the variables association. Outcomes show that in the long run, globalization, energy usage, trade, and GDP growth have consistently productive interactions with the ecological footprint, while an examination of fuel importation uncovers an adversative linkage to impacts on the ecological footprint in Pakistan. Similarly, the findings of short-run interactions also reveal that globalization, energy usage, trade, and GDP growth have constructive linkages; however, an examination of fuel importation also uncovers an adversative linkage to impacts on the ecological footprint. The outcomes of limited information maximum likelihood also expose that the variables of globalization, energy usage, trade, and fuel importation have productive linkages, while an examination the GDP growth uncovers an adversative linkage to the ecological footprint. Furthermore, the outcomes of the linear Gaussian model estimation also uncover that globalization and energy usage demonstrate a constructive linkage, while other variables reveal an adverse linkage to the ecological footprint. Environmental pollution is now an emerging issue which causes the climatic variations associated with greenhouse gases emissions. The Pakistani government must adopt new strategies to ensure that CO2 emissions are reduced in order to stimulate economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increased occupational dermatoses in certain professions such as health care workers (HCW), cleaning and kitchen employees (CKE), measures of prevention and skin protection are of high significance. Skin protection courses focus on educational aims (e.g. improving skin care habits, influencing the participants’ attitudes towards health) and medical aims (e.g. optimising diagnostic procedures, complementing individual therapy). Participants are patients who have been suspected to suffer from an occupational skin disease and are insured with the German Accident Prevention & Insurance Association (BGW). Teaching units of the skin protection courses focus on basics of skin functioning and important aspects of occupational skin diseases. Practical parts include information and instructions about the correct implementation of skin protection, skin care and skin cleansing. Every participant is seen by a dermatologist obtaining a precise patient’s history and performing a skin examination. All this results in working out individually adapted and professional skin protection strategies. In total, 791 participants (93 men and 698 women) completed the skin protections courses. Six hundred and sixty-seven patients (mean age: 36.9 years, SD = 11.6) were HCW and 124 patients (mean age: 40.4 years, SD = 10.8) were CKE. In HCW 82.5% ( n = 550) and in CKE 86.3% ( n = 107) suffered from hand eczema of the atopic, irritant or allergic type. Irritant contact dermatitis as a single diagnosis was the most frequent one in both groups (HCW: 34.5.%, n = 230; CKE: 49.2% n = 61). According to regularly performed evaluations, the participants rated the course as good to excellent. Nearly 80% of the participants had skin lesions while attending the course, in 27% the dermatosis was severe. There is a high need for health education, advisory services, diagnostics and additional therapy in occupational dermatology. Prevention of occupational skin diseases and maintenance of health through educational programmes are important complementary measures for dermatological care but still missing in endangered professions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare workers (HCW) have an increased risk of suffering from occupational skin diseases (OSDs). Therefore, we established special prevention and skin protection courses for HCW. Medical aims are to optimize diagnostic procedures and individual therapy, educational aims are to improve individual skin protection/skin care habits of the patient and also to influence the participants' attitudes towards health. Participants are patients that have been suspected to suffer from an OSD and are insured with the German Accident Prevention Insurance Association for Health Care Workers (BGW). Teaching units mainly focus on the texture and functioning of the skin, general aspects of OSDs, general information concerning skin protection, instructions about the correct use of skin cleansing and skin protection products. Besides, every participant is clinically examined by a dermatologist and a precise patient's history is obtained. Individually adapted skin protection strategies are developed. Patients can ask the dermatologist questions in confidence. 504 patients (mean age: 36.9 years, SD = 11.7) participated in the skin protection courses. 94.6% ( n = 477) suffered from hand eczema frequently caused by a mixture of atopic, irritant and allergic contact dermatitis, but irritant contact dermatitis was the most frequent diagnosis (55.4%, n = 279). The participants rated the course as good to excellent. Health education and advisory services in occupational dermatology are still fragmentary. Prevention of OSD and maintenance of health through education are important complementary measures for dermatological care. In the future, similar educational programmes should be offered for employees of other professions with an increased risk for OSD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper aims to evaluate the effect of social networks on the green innovation of energy sector firms working around the globe. The study also evaluated green dynamic capabilities' mediating, and green organizational culture's moderating role in the association of the social networks and green innovation. The study will help electricity production and distribution firms to become more environmentally proactive and achieve green innovation. For this research, study data were collected from employees working in the energy sector firms of Pakistan. Standardized scales were adapted from previous studies and a questionnaire was developed using 'Google Docs' and distributed using Facebook. From different energy sectors of Pakistan,476 respondents filled the questionnaires. To examine the research hypotheses, we chose energy firms that act as small and medium enterprises and face problems in the achievement of green innovation. For testing the proposed relationships, descriptive statistics, regression, and correlation analyses were used. The results supported all the hypotheses of the study. Current research has various theoretical and practical implications for managers of the energy industry, and governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attaining sustainable development and cleaner production is a major challenge both for developed and developing economies; income, institutional regulations, institutional quality and international trade are the key determinants of environmental externalities. The current work attempts to study the role of environmental taxes and regulations on renewable energy generation for developed economies. For that, the authors have used the annual dataset for the period 1994 to 2018. More specifically, the study investigates the impacts of environmental taxes, environment-related technologies and the environmental policy stringency index on renewable electricity generation in 29 developed countries. Given the short available data of these countries, the authors have developed panel cointegration and panel regressions models (fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), quantile regressions). The heterogeneous panel empirics stated that environmental regulations and income level support renewable electricity generation. The conclusions further mention that bureaucratic qualities such as decision making and trade openness tend to reduce renewable energy generation. The empirical findings allowed us to draw new narrative and implications. Overall, the conclusions argue that innovative regulations and policies can be useful for attaining specific sustainable development goals (e.g., SDG-7: cleaner and cheap energy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the impact of renewable energy usage, economic progress, urbanization, and trade on carbon emissions in Bhutan. The stationarity among the variables was tested by employing the two unit root tests by taking the annual data series variables from 1982–2020. A symmetric (ARDL) technique was utilized to analyze the associations among variables with short- and long-run estimations. In addition, the cointegration regression method using FMOLS and DOLS was used in this investigation to discover the robustness of the study variables. Findings showed that via long-run assessment the variables renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and trade have adverse connections with CO2 emission, while the variable economic progress shows a constructive linkage with carbon emission. However, the short-run assessment showed that the variable economic growth has a positive impact on carbon emissions. Further, the variables renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and trade have an adverse relation to carbon emissions in Bhutan. The consequences of both FMOLS and DOLS also mean that the variable renewable energy usage, urbanization, and trade have an adverse influence on carbon emission, while economic growth has a constructive linkage with CO2 emission. Greenhouse gas emissions are undeniably an increasing global issue. This problem can only be handled by prudent legislation and funding. Despite having fewer greenhouse gas emissions than industrialized economies, Bhutan's government needs to develop new rules to address this issue in order to ensure environmental sustainability and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the last two decades, Pakistan has faced various economic obstacles, the most significant of which is the sluggish pace of industrial expansion caused by the energy crisis. To close this gap, Pakistan's government has made several efforts to save energy and lower the country's power shortage in recent years. To bridge this gap, we concentrate on a few key drivers to demonstrate vibrant recommendations and evidence to policymakers. In this context, the study investigates the asymmetric relationship between renewable energy consumption (REC), non-renewable energy (NRE), terrorism, inflation, and international trade in the industrial sector from 1970 to 2018 in Pakistan. We employed a novel co-integration approach known as a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) model with the Bayesian approach. The results show that the industrial sector is increasing due to positive shocks in REC, whereas negative shock in REC decreases significantly at a 5% level. Additionally, NRE, terrorism, and inflation are positive and have a long-term substantial effect on the industrial sector. The results suggest that the most effective strategy for Pakistan is to combat terrorism and vigorously promote renewable energy, highlighting its advantages to the environment and industrial development while avoiding non-renewable resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the era of intensive globalization and frequent economic shocks, boosting the GDP growth becomes the most difficult task and main preoccupation of policymakers. This is particularly true for Central Eastern European countries or so called CEE countries, which are trying to overcome contemporary and inherited imbalances at the same time. These economies were faced with another huge challenge after 2008. They have to maintain the same pace of structural reforms during the global economic crisis and to mitigate the negative effects of the crisis on economic growth. In that sense, the aim of this paper is to provide insight into a structural change in these economies in the period 2000-2014, using Leontief input-output analysis of the key sectors. The results pointed out that most of the key sectors during the period are service related sectors and that their number is increased after the crisis, while manufacturing of basic metals and electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply have lost the status of the key sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to demonstrate the impact of renewable energy consumption (REC) on environmental degradation using the EKC hypothesis testing for the BRIC and G-7 countries. Two EKC models were created and tested, with Model 2 including REC and other independent variables such as economic freedom (EF) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU), which affect the level of renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Empirical findings indicate that the EKC hypothesis is verified faster in the REC-EF-EPU-based EKC model (Model 2) than in the EF-EPU-based EKC model (Model 1) for G-7 countries since the turning point takes place earlier in Model 2 than in Model 1 with REC. This suggests that renewable energy consumption accelerates the reduction of CO2 emissions. Moreover, this earlier turning point results in lower environmental cleaning costs, less time vesting, and saving resources and money for G-7 countries. However, the study found no evidence supporting the EKC hypothesis for the BRIC countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed the equity in irrigation water uses and its impacts on paddy yield and water productivity among rice farmers in the Kano River Irrigation Project. Two hundred and twenty-five (225) respondents were used for the data collection from January to June 2021. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal Walli's test, Tukey kramer post-Hoc test, physical water productivity, and the Logit model. The results indicated that the downstream farmers had the lowest mean yield (1625 kg/acre), lowest access to irrigation water, and lowest irrigation water use (2430 m3/acre). However, they had the highest water productivity (0.66 kg/m3) against 0.44 kg/m3 and 0.58 kg/m3 for middle and upstream farmers, respectively. The logit regression results disclosed that the farm locations, quantity of irrigation water, access to irrigation water, and training on water use were statistically significant determinant of paddy output. Efforts to teach farmers about the actual crop water requirements are needed to promote irrigation water efficiency and conserve scarce resources for other competing users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising carbon dioxide emissions from the MENA region constitute a severe danger to the environment, public health, and the execution of the United Nations SDGs. Substantial steps are required to solve this problem and maintain the region's sustainable future. Hence, the current study focused on distinct factors, including renewable energy, energy intensity, green innovation, GDP, and CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2021. The research determines the multifarious variables in various quantiles, including the novel Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FM-OLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (D-OLS) and Driscoll-Kraay Standard Errors (DKS) applied. The findings reveal that renewable energy significantly reduces carbon emissions in all quantiles, while energy intensity, green innovation, and GDP lead to carbon emissions in lower, middle, and upper quantiles. For robust outcome confirmed by FM-OLS, D-OLS, and DKS methods. Also, Granger heterogeneous causality applied that confirmed the bidirectional causality among the variables. The study's findings imply that authorities should emphasize the emergence of renewable energy and green innovation while adopting energy-efficient technologies to minimize carbon emissions and accomplish SDGs 7, 9, and 13 to secure the MENA region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the relationship between geothermal energy consumption, economic growth, and foreign direct investments in countries where geothermal energy production is possible. Panel Fourier Granger causality and panel Fourier Toda–Yamamoto causality tests (2020–2021) were applied, which can take into account smooth transitional structural breaks with trigonometric functions using quarterly data for the period 2016 Q1–2020 Q3. Data were obtained from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED), and the OECD official website. According to the results obtained based on panels, there is one-way causality from economic growth to geothermal energy and one-way causality from geothermal energy consumption to foreign direct investments. The results obtained based on individual countries indicate that one-way causality from foreign direct investment to geothermal energy consumption was found for Mexico and Portugal, and one-way causality from geothermal energy consumption to economic growth was found for Italy and Mexico. On the other hand, causality from economic growth to geothermal energy consumption was observed for Germany, Japan, and USA. No significant results were found for Turkey and New Zealand, and it is understood that the macroeconomic structures of these countries are not affected by geothermal energy. The difference in the results reveals that the application recommendations on this subject should also be different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The G-7 economies comprise a few of the global, mainly economically developed countries. On the other hand, in conjunction with these high economic development performances, the ecological behaviors in G-7 anions have concurrently provoked to elevate deep apprehensions among the stakeholders. Therefore, the present research aims to empirically investigate the environmental influences of nuclear energy, industrialization, fossil fuel energy, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the G-7 nations between 1991 and 2018. After checking the cross-sectional dependency, this study employed the first-generation ((full modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS)) and second-generation (Driscoll and Kraay (D-K), feasible generalized least square (FGLS)) approaches for robust and reliable findings. The findings explore that nuclear energy production is ineffective in curbing the figure of ecological footprints in the long-run. Moreover, the industrialization process and fossil fuel energy consumption reduce environmental quality in the G-7 economies. More to the point, the empirical findings recommend that these nations can renovate their industrial production procedures in an eco-friendly behavior they can experience an unsoiled deployment of the energy transition. Similarly, the FDI also degrades environmental eminence in the long-run. This validates the pollution haven hypothesis in the G-7 countries. Based on these results, this study suggests the G-7 nations should reduce the production of nuclear energy levels, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy production in the industrial sector, reduce fossil fuel-based foreign investment, and assimilate ecological welfare strategies within their development planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the impact of economic growth, hydropower generation, and urbanization on Malaysia's CO2 emissions. This study applies Quantile Autoregressive Lagged (QARDL) technique for the period of 1965Q1 to 2018Q4. The Granger-causality in quantiles is applied to confirm the causal nexus among the modeled variables. The outcomes demonstrate that hydropower generation decreases the detrimental effects of CO2 emissions at the range of high quantile levels. Furthermore, urbanization, except for higher quantiles, exhibits negative impacts on CO2 emissions. Also, the QARDL coefficients confirm the presence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis from median to higher quantiles. Besides, the Granger-causality test confirms the two-way causality among CO2 emissions and hydropower generation in Malaysia's economy and the same for the other series. The policymakers should enhance the market attractiveness of hydropower generation projects through incentives for the investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, the Web became more than a space for product presentation, but also a capitalization market (e-commerce) and an efficient way to know the customer preferences and to meet their requirements. Large companies have the financial potential to use various marketing strategies and, in particular, digital-marketing. Instead, small businesses are looking for lower cost or no cost methods (also called guerrilla marketing). A small company can compete with a large company by approaching a particular range of products that excel in quality, and also by inventiveness in the marketing strategy. During 2010-2015 the potential of Information Technology and Communications (IT&C) sector was proved for the companies which aimed towards modernization of technologies and introduced new strategies in order to commercialize new products. An important challenge for companies was to be aware of the changes in customer behaviour, using social networks software. Finally, research centers have set up new IT&C services and improved marketing and communications following the crisis. More and more companies invest in analytic tools to monitor their marketing strategies and Big Data becomes extremely useful for this purpose, using information like customer demographics and spending habits, oscillation between simplicity, comfort and glamour. There are various tools that can transform in a very short time, massive amounts of data into real business value in a very short time, helping companies and retailers to understand, at any point in the product lifecycle, which trends are gaining and which are losing ground. These insights give them the possibility to reduce the risk of not selling their products by making adjustments to the design, production or promotional strategies, before putting the goods on the market. In this paper we aim to present the advantages of exploring customer requirements from social media for marketing strategy of an enterprise, by using SNA software Gephi and NodeXL and making a comparison of their features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the impact of coal energy consumption on the economic progress in Pakistan by using annual time series data during 1972–2019. Three-unit root tests were employed to rectify the variables' stationarity. The quantile regression approach with the extension of cointegration regression test was utilized to check the variables interaction with the economic progress. The outcomes of the quantile regression uncover that coal energy consumption in power sector and coal energy consumption in brick kilns have adverse influence to the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption has a productive association with the economic progress. Similarly, the findings of cointegration regression analysis uncover that via FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and DOLS (Dynamic Least Squares) that variables coal energy consumption in power sector and brick kilns have an adverse connection with the economic progress, while total coal energy consumption uncover a productive linkage to the economic progress in Pakistan. Pakistan is still facing a deep energy crisis because of the lack of energy production from cheap sources. New possible policies are required in this direction to improve the energy sector by paying more attention to the alternative energy sources to foster the economic progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction or strengthening of a carbon tax is being considered in many countries as an economic policy instrument to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, there is no study analyzing the impact of a carbon tax increase in a uniform method for various products, reflecting the energy taxes and exemptions. Therefore, this study analyzes the price changes of products associated with the introduction of a stronger carbon tax, using Japan as an example. A process-based life cycle assessment database was used to enable a detailed product-level analysis. Five scenarios with different taxation amounts and methods were analyzed. The results show that price changes vary greatly by industry sector and product, even within the same industry sector. For example, seasonal vegetables and recycled plastics are less affected by carbon tax increases. Imported products, such as primary aluminum, are not affected by the Japanese carbon tax change, indicating a risk of carbon leakage. If GHGs other than CO2 are also taxed, the price of CH4 and N2O emitting products, such as rice and beef, would rise significantly. The method presented in this paper enables companies to assume price changes in procured products due to carbon taxes and policymakers to analyze the impact of such taxes on products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Balancing environmental objectives with energy security poses a significant challenge for Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies undergoing substantial energy sector reforms, particularly in the electricity sector. Apart from implementing market principles, improving electricity infrastructure and increasing the use of renewable energy sources (RES) are crucial for fostering industrial and overall economic growth. This study analyzes a panel of 15 Central and Eastern European economies (CEE) from 1995 to 2021. It employs various analytical techniques such as cross-sectional dependency testing, unit root testing, cointegration analysis, and the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator. The results indicate that inefficient electricity infrastructure negatively impacts GDP and industry value-added (IVA) growth rates, regardless of control variables. Conversely, electricity generated from RES positively affects GDP and IVA growth rates in fully developed models. However, increased RES-generated electricity in models without control variables adversely affects IVA growth rates. These findings, coupled with the specific characteristics of CEE economies, lead to policy recommendations for sustainable economic and energy development. • The study examines the impact of electricity infrastructure and RES on GDP and industry value-added in CEE. • Electricity infrastructure inferiority negatively impacts GDP and industry value-added. • RES generation has a positive effect on GDP and industry value-added. • Policies fostering green energy and infrastructure boost economic sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the impact of oil price, income and carbon dioxide emissions on renewable energy consumption in Russia for the data period from 1990 to 2015, using the Vector Error Correction Models and the Canonical Cointegrating Regression method. This article is the only study conducting individual time-series analysis that emphasizes the effect of oil price on renewable energy consumption in the case of Russia. The results of empirical analysis conclude that oil price affects renewable energy consumption negatively. The negative oil price effects on renewable energy use can be interpreted as a sign of issue that stems from higher oil prices and slows the transition from conventional to renewable energy sources. Additionally, we found that there is a positive and statistically significant influence of real GDP per capita as a proxy of income on renewable energy consumption, whereas the carbon dioxide emissions have a negative and statistically insignificant influence on renewable energy consumption. Considering these empirical results, Russia, which has a significant share in energy production in the world, should focus on the use of renewable energy in order to maintain this superiority and its sustainability. The findings of this paper may be useful to policymakers and may help to contribute to existing literature for future research in the case of oil-exporting countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimal design of regional integrated energy systems (RIES) offers great potential for better managing energy sources, lower costs and reducing environmental impact. To capture the transition process from fossil fuel to renewable energy, a flexible RIES, including the traditional energy system (TES) based on the coal and biomass based distributed energy system (BDES), was designed to meet a regional multiple energy demand. In this paper, we analyze multiple scenarios based on a new rural community in Dalian (China) to capture the relationship among the energy supply cost, increased share of biomass, system configuration transformation, and renewable subsidy according to regional CO2 emission abatement control targets. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model was developed to find the optimal solutions. The results indicated that a 40.58% increase in the share of biomass in the RIES was the most cost-effective way as compared to the separate TES and BDES. Based on the RIES with minimal cost, by setting a CO2 emission reduction control within 40%, the RIES could ensure a competitive total annual cost as compared to the TES. In addition, when the reduction control exceeds 40%, a subsidy of 53.83 to 261.26 RMB/t of biomass would be needed to cover the extra cost to further increase the share of biomass resource and decrease the CO2 emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the current worsening of climate change-associated risks, the transition to low-carbon energy sources has become a global priority. In this context, the advances in the implementation of smart grids, which, in addition to greater efficiency and resilience, also allow greater penetration of renewable distributed energy resources, are becoming increasingly important. However, the necessary investments will be colossal. Many specialists see the process of opening up the electric energy markets as essential to boosting these new technologies. Greater decentralization of the decision-making process can potentially promote greater scalability. However, not all liberalization reforms have led to good results. Several researchers have been evaluating experiences in different countries. Brazil, a country with continental dimensions and peculiar characteristics, already counts with a mostly renewable electric energy generation mix. In recent decades, however, it has become increasingly dependent on fossil fuel sources. Brazil has been conducting a process of opening the electric energy market since the 1990s. This process has faced a series of barriers. This article presents a critical bibliographic review of the Brazilian Power System history and its ongoing opening process, its possible successes and errors, as well as its perspectives and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's environmental goal by 2050 is to become the first climate-neutral continent in the world. This means specific efforts for diversifying the energy mix and investing in low-carbon energy. Our study investigates the nexus among carbon emissions, energy consumption and mix, and economic growth in a modified framework that includes the contribution of inward foreign direct investments and international trade to lowering air pollution. We have used a two-step approach to explore in more detail the links between these variables in 24 EU countries over the period 1995–2018, followed by a panel VECM analysis. Our results indicate that there is a unidirectional link between economic growth and CO2 emissions, which should imply a decoupling of environmental improvement measures from the pace of economic growth. We also find bidirectional causal relationships between low-carbon energy shares in consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as between low-carbon energy share in consumption and GDP per capita, which confirms both pollution haven and the halo effect hypotheses for FDI on gas emissions. However, in the long term, FDI, exports, and imports have positively impacted the reduction in CO2 emissions; therefore, stronger EU investment and trade integration should be promoted to improve the quality of the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]