The roles of foreign direct investments, economic growth, and capital investments in decarbonizing the economy of Oman

A city perspective on the arduous task of emission-growth balance: decoupling and decomposition analysis in Chinese cities

Decoupling economic growth and carbon emissions is essential to a sustainable high-quality development. As a small unit of the engine of development, more research has begun to focus on city-level issues. In order to fill the gaps in the decoupling research at the city level covering the whole nationwide, this paper applied the bottom-up method to calculate 282 cities' carbon emissions according to China's city-level panel data of terminal energy consumption, and combined Tapio decoupling with LMDI decomposition model to analyze cities' decoupling status and its driving factors. The results reflect that (1) strong decoupling, weak decoupling, expansive coupling, and expansive negative decoupling were the main decoupling states of Chinese cities and the strong decoupling cities were mainly clustered in the southwestern area. (2) The COE effect, ES effect, and EI effect were negative in most cities, promoting the realization of strong decoupling in most cities, but the contribution of COE effect and ES effect to the decoupling effect was relatively small. (3) The nature differences of ES effect and EI effect were the crucial reason for the significant differences in the degree of decoupling among different types of cities, especially the differences of EI effect in both SD cities and WD cities during 2005 to 2010 and 2010 to 2015. Based on the findings, some common but differentiated recommendations are provided for promoting the decarbonization of the economy in Chinese cities.

Testing the impact of renewable energy and oil price on carbon emission intensity in China's transportation sector

As the largest carbon emitter in the world, with its transportation sector contributing the largest shares of its emission, the need for a low-carbon transition economy has become a policy agenda for China because in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, lowering the intensity of carbon emissions in the transportation sector will be crucial. In this regard, we used the "bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model" to explore the impact of clean energy and oil prices on the intensity of carbon emissions in China's transportation sector. The study found that an increase in oil prices decreases the intensity of carbon emissions in the short and long run. Similarly, an increase in the level of renewable energy and economic complexity declines the intensity of carbon emissions in the transportation sector. On the contrary, the research demonstrates that non-renewable energy contributes positively to carbon emission intensity. Therefore, the authorities must promote green technology to neutralize the transportation system's detrimental effects on China's environmental quality. The implications for successfully promoting carbon emission intensity mitigation in the transportation sector are examined in the conclusion.

Determinants of environmental quality in India: evidence using the bootstrapped ARDL model with structural breaks

This current study examines the impact of renewable energy consumption, agriculture, and globalization on carbon emissions in India over the period from 1980 to 2018. For long-run estimates, we apply Gregory-Hansen's co-integration test, bootstrap ARDL approaches, fully modified ordinary least squares, and dynamic OLS. The empirical results of long-run estimates indicate that a 1% increase in renewable energy consumption, agriculture, and economic globalization will increase carbon emissions by 0.764%, 1.675%, and 0.517%, respectively. Moreover, this study confirms the detrimental effect of these variables on carbon dioxide emissions. Economic globalization coefficients indicate that the scale effect is valid in India. The 2002 economic crisis slowed down the country's growth rate, which reduced the ecological pollution. Several policy recommendations are derived from the empirical findings.

Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, foreign direct investment, and economic growth in Malaysia: an NARDL technique

This study seeks to ascertain whether there is an unbalanced link  between CO₂ emissions, foreign direct investment, and economic growth in Malaysia over a 40-year timeframe between 1980 and 2019. We investigated the asymmetric relationship , using  non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) technique. The findings showed a noteworthy asymmetry between FDI, CO₂ emissions, and GDP in Malaysia. The long-term and short-term effects of negative FDI on GDP are both equivalent to 0.028 and 0.021, respectively. This suggests that, compared to short-term fluctuations, long-term negative FDI adjustments have a considerably more negative impact on economic growth. The coefficient of positive (CO₂⁺) and negative (CO₂^-) changes in economic growth is equal to 0.086 and - 0.152, respectively. It indicates that positive changes in CO₂ emissions have stronger effects in the long run than negative shocks. Considering an asymmetric association between these two variables in the short and long term, Malaysian policymakers must comprehend the dynamic relationship between FDI, CO2 emissions, and GDP to plan appropriate economic and environmental policies that will support sustainable economic development and ensure a safer environment.

Role of nuclear energy in carbon mitigation to achieve United Nations net zero carbon emission: evidence from Fourier bootstrap Toda-Yamamoto

In this communication, the time series data of three major countries USA, France, and Japan from 1965 to 2020 for CO₂ emission, GDP, and nuclear energy (NE) are evaluated. It also analyzed and validated the EKC hypothesis while using nuclear energy for electricity generation. Fourier ARDL is used to investigate the hypothesis criteria, and the Fourier bootstrap Toda-Yamamoto (FBTY) causality test is used for causal linkage between the variables as well as the wavelet coherence; it is also presented the time and frequency dependency of the variables. The CO₂ mitigation by using the NE is also assessed for all three countries and assessed that the France, Japan, and USA mitigated the CO₂ per year is 0.0463 million metric ton (MMT), 0.0239 and 0.0728 MMT per year respectively. Similar to that the SO₂ is reduced by using the NE is 24.322, 43.527, and 132.592 MMT/year, and NOx is reduced by approximately 0.2847, 0.147, and 0.4478 MMT/year by France, Japan, and USA respectively by applying the NE for power generation. The evidence of the EKC, Fourier bootstrap and Toda-Yamamoto clarifies the important role of nuclear energy in terms of carbon mitigation to achieve UN net zero carbon emission by 2050. Hence, in order to meet the UN target of net zero carbon emission by 2050, the USA and Japan should increase the production of nuclear energy as France meets its 74.1% energy demand through NE by validating the EKC hypothesis; on the other hand, all the three countries should increase the production of tidal energy due to their geographical location as tides are much more predictable than wind and sun keeping in consideration to the expenses incurred and a full proof plan for disposing NE residuals in a safe place as NE residuals are highly radioactive and contains traces of thorium and uranium.

Does globalization and energy usage influence carbon emissions in South Asia? An empirical revisit of the debate

The 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 agenda hinges on attaining a sustainable environment with the need to "take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts". Hence, this study empirically revisits the debate on the effect of nonrenewable energy and globalization on carbon emissions within the framework of the Kuznets hypothesis using an unbalanced panel data from seven South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) covering 1980-2019. The variables of interest are carbon emissions measured in metric tons per capita, energy use measured as kg of oil equivalent per capita, and globalization index. To address five main objectives, we deploy four techniques: panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), feasible generalized least squares (FGLS), quantile regression (QR), and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). For the most part, the findings reveal that the (1) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets curve holds; (2) U-shaped globalization-Kuznets curve is evident; (3) inverted U-shaped turning points for nonrenewable energy are 496.03 and 640.84, while for globalization are 38.83 and 39.04, respectively; (4) globalization-emission relationship indicates a U-shaped relationship at the median and 75th quantile; and (5) inverted U-shaped energy-Kuznets holds in Pakistan but a U-shaped nexus prevails in Nepal and Sri Lanka; inverted U-shaped globalization-Kuznets holds in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but U-shaped nexus is evident in Bhutan, Maldives, and Nepal. Deductively, our results show that South Asia countries (at early stage of development) are faced with the hazardous substance that deteriorates human health. Moreover, the non-linear square term of the nonrenewable energy-emissions relationship is negative, which validates the inverted U-shaped EKC theory. Overall, the effect of energy and globalization on carbon emissions is opposite while the consistency at the 75th quantile result indicates that countries with intense globalization are prone to environmental degradation.

The role of information communication technologies on carbon emissions in OECD countries: new evidence from method of moments quantile approach

This paper aims to investigate the effects of information and communication technologies (ICT) on carbon emissions (CO2) in the OECD area. For this purpose, a comprehensive panel data set is utilized covering the 1994-2018 period for 38 countries and a novel method of moments panel quantile regression model which allows to account for fixed effects and endogenous explanatory variables. Results suggest that the ICT, represented by the percentage of individuals using the Internet in the total population, contributes positively to CO2 emissions up to 0.40th quantile and has no effect after this level. The results imply that countries with relatively low per capita emissions are susceptible to the rebound effects, in which better energy efficiency results in increased demand for energy and ICT-related items, hence increasing carbon emissions. At this juncture, one policy idea would be to include a carbon tax into the per-unit purchase price of smartphones, tablets, smart gadgets, and any other relevant ICT items. Additionally, this legislation can assist decrease conspicuous consumption, which can be viewed as a trigger for the demand for ICT products. Additionally, these countries should encourage enterprises to invest in and employ energy-efficient technologies through tax incentives or subsidies.

The marginal effects of economic growth, financial development, and low-carbon energy use on carbon footprints in Oman: fresh evidence from autoregressive distributed lag model analysis

Oman is committed to turning carbon neutral by 2040 whereby identifying the environmental sustainability-stimulating factors has become a critically important agenda for the nation. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to evaluate the marginal effects of economic growth, financial development, and low-carbon energy use on Oman's carbon footprint levels using quarterly frequency data spanning from 1984Q1 to 2018Q4. Controlling for structural break concerns in the data, the results from the empirical analysis verify the carbon footprint-related environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for Oman in the long-run. In this regard, the threshold level of per capita real GDP level of Oman is predicted at around US $23,500 which is below the average and maximum per capita real GDP level of Oman during the period considered in this study. Besides, the development of the financial sector and scaling up consumption of low-carbon energy resources are evidenced to boost and curb Oman's short- and long-run carbon footprint figures, respectively. More importantly, the joint carbon footprint-mitigating impact of financial development and low-carbon energy use is also unearthed from the findings. In line with these major findings, a couple of relevant policy interventions are suggested to help Oman accomplish its 2040 carbon-neutrality agenda.

Factors influencing CO2 emissions in the MENA countries: the roles of renewable and non-renewable energy

This article seeks to examine the impacts of renewable and non-renewable energy on carbon dioxide emissions for 14 Middle East and North Africa economies using fully modified least-squares and vector error correction model techniques. Different sectoral outputs (agricultural, industry, and services) are considered in the analysis to find the influence of each sector on carbon emissions and to validate the environmental Kuznets curve model at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. The fully modified least-squares estimates show that renewable energy enhances environmental quality, whereas non-renewable energy deteriorates it. We also find that the industry sector has the highest contribution to environmental degradation. The results of the vector error correction model technique show a two-way linkage between CO₂ emissions and renewable energy and between CO₂ emissions and non-renewable energy in both short and long runs. At the sectoral level, we also find a two-way linkage between agricultural value added and CO₂ emissions, a unidirectional relationship running from emissions to industry value added, and a unidirectional linkage running from services value added to CO₂ emissions in both short and long runs. Therefore, governments must focus their actions on environmental policies of a green and inclusive economy that combine tools of environmental economics with those of the ecological economy. This can be considered a call for policymakers to take relevant and quick policies and actions towards low-carbon energy to reach these dual objectives.

Pathways to securing environmentally sustainable economic growth through efficient use of energy: a bootstrapped ARDL analysis

Oman has traditionally relied upon natural gas and oil for meeting its domestic energy demand. As a result, despite growing economically, the level of carbon dioxide emissions in Oman has persistently surged; consequently, the nation has failed to ensure environmentally sustainable economic growth. Against this background, this current study aims to explore the impacts of energy consumption, energy efficiency, and financial development on Oman's prospects of attaining environmentally sustainable growth over the 1972-2019 period. The estimation strategy is designed to take into account the structural break issues in the data. Using the carbon productivity level as an indicator of environmentally sustainable economic growth, we find long-run associations amid the study variables. Besides, higher energy consumption and greater financial development are found to impede carbon productivity while improving energy efficiency is observed to boost carbon productivity in Oman. Therefore, it is pertinent for Oman to consume low-carbon and energy-efficient fossil fuels, improve energy efficiency levels, and green its financial sector to achieve environmentally sustainable growth.

Is there a relationship between natural gas consumption and the environmental Kuznets curve? Empirical evidence from Bangladesh

Bangladesh has significant natural gas reserves, and total demand has climbed substantially in recent years. The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for cointegration and the vector autoregressive(VAR) Granger causality model to analyze a long-run link between natural gas (NG) consumption, economic development, urbanization, and CO2 emissions. The objective is to investigate the relationship between the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and Bangladesh's NG consumption using data from the years 1990 to 2018. According to the ARDL model, economic growth, urbanization, and NG consumption, all have a positive and significant influence on CO2 emissions. Despite having a negative coefficient, the square of economic development has a significant impact on CO2 emissions. In the long run, it verifies the EKC hypothesis in Bangladesh. Both linear and nonlinear economic development determinants display statistically significant positive and negative signals in the short run. From Bangladesh's perspective, this also demonstrates the presence of an EKC. The impact of NG consumption in the short run is insignificant; nevertheless, urbanization has a significant effect. The VAR Granger causality demonstrates that economic development and urbanization have a bidirectional response; however, NG consumption and CO2 emissions have just one-way causality. The key policy implication of the study is that NG use is expected to raise emissions. Increasing the share of clean energy in the energy utilization system, such as nuclear power and renewable energy, is a plausible policy choice.

The spatial analyses of consumption-based CO2 emissions, exports, imports, and FDI nexus in GCC countries

Trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) could have environmental consequences for local and neighboring economies due to their spatial linkages and could also affect the production and consumption-based emissions. Hence, we examine their direct and spillover effects on territory-based CO₂ (TCO2) and consumption-based CO₂ (CCO2) emissions in GCC countries using a period 1990-2019 and spatial Durbin model (SDM). The empirical results have corroborated the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in an association of economic growth and emissions in both TCO2 and CCO2 models. Hence, economic growth has a positive relationship with CO₂ emissions at the first phase of the EKC and has a negative relationship with CO₂ emissions at the later stage of the EKC. The spillovers of economic growth were found the opposite in the case of TCO2 and insignificant in the case of CCO2. The effect of Financial Market Development (FMD) is found negative on TCO2 emissions and insignificant on CCO2 emissions. Exports have a positive direct effect on TCO2 emissions and have negative spillovers, direct, and total effects on CCO2 emissions. The positive direct effect of exports on TCO2 reflects that exports are raising TCO2 emissions in domestic economies. On the other hand, the negative direct effect of exports on CCO2 explains that exports are helping reduce CCO2 emissions in domestic economies. Moreover, negative spillovers of exports on CCO2 indicate that increasing exports of a GCC country helps reduce CCO2 emissions in neighboring countries. In addition, the negative total effect of exports on CCO2 implies that increasing exports reduce CCO2 emissions in the whole GCC region. Imports have positive spillovers and direct effects on TCO2 and have positive spillovers effects on CCO2 emissions. FDI has negative direct and spillover effects on CCO2 and positive spillover effects on TCO2. We suggest promoting FMD, FDI, and exports to have their positive ecological effects in GCC countries.

The asymmetric effects of crops productivity, agricultural land utilization, and fertilizer consumption on carbon emissions: revisiting the carbonization-agricultural activity nexus in Nepal

Agriculture plays an integral part in facilitating socioeconomic development in Nepal. However, it is also associated with environmental concerns which need to be controlled for the sake of ensuring environmental and agricultural sustainability in tandem. Against this backdrop, this current study aims to check whether shocks to the levels of agricultural productivity, land utilization for crop production, and fertilizer consumption influence the carbon dioxide emission figures of Nepal over the 1965-2018 period. The long-run associations between these variables are confirmed from the cointegration analysis. Besides, the outcomes from the asymmetric non-linear autoregressive distributed lag regression analysis show that crop productivity does not influence the emission levels in Nepal. However, a decline in the land area used for crop production purposes is evidenced to trigger higher emissions of carbon dioxide both in the short- and long run. On the other hand, higher fertilizer consumption is found to boost the short- and long-run carbon dioxide emission levels in Nepal. Accordingly, considering the objective of reducing agriculture-based emissions, this study recommends the Nepalese government to adopt policies that can enhance the productivity of low energy-intensive crop production, stimulate green agriculture and non-agriculture activities, and minimize the use of chemical fertilizers in arable lands.

Educational attainment and environmental Kuznets curve in China: an aggregate and disaggregate analysis

The primary focus of this study is to evaluate the impact of various levels of education on CO2 emissions in China. Moreover, the study also tested the EKC hypothesis for different levels of education and economic development. The analysis employed disaggregate and aggregate data for education that included enrollment at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels and the average year of schooling. For empirical analysis, we employed an error correction model and bounds testing approach to cointegration. The results of the study provided some useful information both in the short and long run. All the proxies of education positively impact CO2 emissions at the initial level both in the short and long run; however, when we take the square of these variables, the effects of education on CO2 emissions become negative. Similarly, the impact of economic growth on CO2 emissions is positive in the short and long run, and the square of economic growth on CO2 emissions is negative, supporting the EKC hypothesis. China should increase investment in human capital that promotes green growth and environmental quality.

Revisiting the EKC hypothesis by assessing the complementarities between fiscal, monetary, and environmental development policies in China

Recently, China has declared its national objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. Hence, mitigating carbon dioxide emissions has become an important agenda of the Chinese government. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of pursuing expansionary fiscal and monetary policies on China's carbon dioxide emission figures by using annual frequency data from 1980 to 2018. Accordingly, this study considers the levels of government expenditure and broad money supply as fiscal and monetary policy instruments, respectively. Besides accounting for structural break concerns in the data, the findings from the empirical analysis reveal that there are long-run associations between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, and fiscal and monetary expansion in China. Moreover, the results also show that in both the short- and long-run expansionary fiscal policy trigger higher carbon dioxide emissions while expansionary monetary policy inhibits the carbon dioxide emission figures of China. Furthermore, the results invalidate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis since the relationship between China's economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions is evidenced to portray an N-shape. In line with these findings, it is recommended that China achieve environmentally sustainable economic growth by aligning the national fiscal and monetary policies with the 2060 carbon-neutrality objective.

Pathways to Argentina's 2050 carbon-neutrality agenda: the roles of renewable energy transition and trade globalization

The government of Argentina has recently declared its objective of turning the nation carbon-neutral by 2050. Thus, it is essential to identify the relevant factors which can facilitate the attainment of this environmental development target. Against this backdrop, this study aims to evaluate the impacts of renewable electricity output, trade globalization, economic growth, financial development, urbanization, and technological innovation on sectoral carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina during the 1971-2014 period. The findings, overall, suggest that enhancing renewable electricity output share in the total electricity output figure of the nation helps to curb carbon dioxide emissions generated from Argentina's energy, manufacturing and industry, residential and commercial buildings, and transportation sectors. Contrarily, greater trade globalization is evidenced to boost carbon dioxide emissions in almost all the aforementioned economic sectors. Besides, the findings also validate the existence of the carbon dioxide emission-induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for all four sectors. In addition, financial development and urbanization are also evidenced to exert carbon dioxide emission-stimulating impacts, while technological innovation is witnessed to be necessary for curbing sector-based carbon dioxide emissions in Argentina. Accordingly, to decarbonize the economy, this study recommends the government of Argentina to adopt necessary policies for fostering renewable energy transition within the electricity sector, greening the trade globalization strategies, achieving environmentally sustainable economic growth, developing the financial sector by introducing green financial schemes, planning sustainable urbanization, and financing technological development-oriented projects.

Dynamic link between bilateral FDI, the quality of environment and institutions: evidence from G20 countries

The sustenance of a clean, natural, and relatively less tampered environment is one of the most important apprehensions of contemporary households, firms, and governments in the globalized world. Both developing and developed countries rely heavily on foreign direct investments (FDI) and institutional arrangements for economic prosperity and have feedback repercussions about environmental quality. Thus, the current paper attempts to explore such a triplex integrated linkage among bilateral FDI, institutional quality, and environmental quality proxied by CO₂ emissions intensity on each other for 19 selected G20 countries during 2009-2017. The empirical estimation of this paper takes into account three equations that jointly address the endogeneity problem by employing both static (such as seemingly unrelated regression and three-stage least square) and dynamic simultaneous econometric techniques (such as the system generalized method of moments) with a panel dataset considering host and source countries with 342-panel pairs for the selected sample time. The empirical results confirm that bilateral FDI reduces CO₂ emission intensity and strengthens the institutional quality of G20. It also supports the idea that institutional quality has a favorable and considerable impact on bilateral FDI. This paper confirms a positive and considerable feedback between environmental and institutional quality. Further, this study establishes a triplex relationship between these three factors. This study argues that governments should use incentives like tax cuts and additional subsidies to promote greener FDI in G20 nations. This is because it facilitates the employment of more modern technology and clean energy-efficient technologies to minimize emissions and spur economic growth.

The Effect of Monetary Policy and Private Investment on Green Finance: Evidence from Hungary

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of monetary policy and private investment on green finance in the case of Hungary. The study used an explanatory research design and a quantitative research approach. Quarterly secondary time series data over 8 years (2013–2020) were utilized. More specifically, the study used Johnson co-integration test and vector error correction model to investigate the long and short-run relationship among variables. The study’s findings imply that monetary policy, as measured by interest rates and the broad money supply, has a mixed effect on the level of green financing. Interest rates, in particular, have a negative and significant relationship with green finance in both the long and short run. However, a broad money supply has a positive but insignificant relationship with green finance in the long run. Private investment has a positive and significant relationship with green financing in both the long and short run. The study also used inward and outward foreign direct investment, and greenhouse gas as a control variable of the study. The study finding implies that inward foreign direct investment has a positive and significant relationship with green financing in both the long and short run. On the other hand, outward foreign direct investment and the level of greenhouse gas have a negative and significant relationship with green finance in both the long and short run. The study also discovered that over time series, disturbance in domestic private investment was the most determinant factor in forecast error variance of green financing. In addition, the result of document analysis shows that the majority of Hungarian credit institutions are dealing with their corporate strategy rather than their sustainability strategy. Hence, progressive approaches are needed from the credit institution to frame their strategy under the concept of sustainable development goals. The finding of this study will contribute to the existing literature on the study area, provide suggestions on green finance and green monetary policy approaches, provide implications on key stakeholders of green financing, as well as the experience of different economies. The study advises central banks, credit institutions, and regulatory authorities to consider both neoliberal and reformist approaches of green finance and green monetary policies in aid to increase green investment.

Short and Long-Run Causal Effects of CO2 Emissions, Energy Use, GDP and Population Growth: Evidence from India Using the ARDL and VECM Approaches

This paper investigates the nexus between CO2 emissions (CO2E), GDP, energy use (ENU), and population growth (PG) in India from 1980–2018 by comparing the “vector error correction” model (VECM) and “auto regressive distributed lag” (ARDL). We applied the unit root test, Johansen multi-variate cointegration, and performed a Variance decomposition analysis using the Cholesky approach. The VECM and ARDL-bound testing approaches to cointegration suggest a long-term equilibrium nexus between GDP, energy use, population growth and CO2E. The empirical outcomes show the existence of a long-term equilibrium nexus between the variables. The Granger causality results show that short-term bi-directional causality exists between GDP and ENU, while a uni-directional causality between CO2E and GDP, CO2E and ENU, CO2E and PG, and PG and ENU. Evidence from variance decomposition indicates that 58.4% of the future fluctuations in CO2E are due to changes in ENU, 2.8% of the future fluctuations are due to changes in GDP, and 0.43% of the future fluctuations are due to changes in PG. Finally, the ARDL test results indicate that a 1% increase in PG will lead to a 1.4% increase in CO2E. Our paper addresses some important policy implications.