The role of liquefied petroleum gas in decarbonizing India: fresh evidence from wavelet-partial wavelet coherence approach

Examination of the factors contributing to environmental degradation: does LPG consumption still matter?

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is one of the energy resources that deserve to be qualified as a transition fuel for developing countries that cannot abandon their dependence on non-renewable energy use and adopt renewable alternatives. The current study examines how environmental degradation is affected by financial development, LPG use, and economic growth in the BRICS-T countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkiye) in the period of 1993-2018. For this purpose, four models were tested with Pedroni, Kao, PMG Panel ARDL cointegration and Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality methods. The results show that LPG consumption has a positive effect on the ecological footprint and an adverse influence on the CO2 emission of BRICS - T countries. The financial institutions exhibited to have a positive and significant impact on ecology. Economic growth displayed negative effects on environmental degradation and a positive influence on CO2. Additionally, there is significant evidence for the validity of the EKC hypothesis. Unidirectional causality exists between ecological footprint, LPG, financial market, and economic growth. The financial institution index shows bidirectional causality with the ecological footprint. There is also unidirectional causality between ecological footprint, LPG, financial market, and economic growth. Furthermore, the financial institutions' index shows a bidirectional causality with the ecological footprint. Also, economic development and financial institution index have a bidirectional relationship with CO2 emissions. On the other hand, the financial market index showed unidirectional causality with CO2 emissions. In short, our study highlights the need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to sustainable development in BRICS - T countries. Policymakers must balance economic growth with environmental protection and consider the potential trade-offs between policy options to promote sustainable and inclusive development.

Partial wavelet coherence as a robust method for assessment of neurovascular coupling in neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy

In neonates with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, the computation of wavelet coherence between electroencephalogram (EEG) power and regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO2) is a promising method for the assessment of neurovascular coupling (NVC), which in turn is a promising marker for brain injury. However, instabilities in arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) limit the robustness of previously proposed methods. Therefore, we propose the use of partial wavelet coherence, which can eliminate the influence of SpO2. Furthermore, we study the added value of the novel NVC biomarkers for identification of brain injury compared to traditional EEG and NIRS biomarkers. 18 neonates with HIE were monitored for 72 h and classified into three groups based on short-term MRI outcome. Partial wavelet coherence was used to quantify the coupling between C3-C4 EEG bandpower (2-16 Hz) and rSO2, eliminating confounding effects of SpO2. NVC was defined as the amount of significant coherence in a frequency range of 0.25-1 mHz. Partial wavelet coherence successfully removed confounding influences of SpO2 when studying the coupling between EEG and rSO2. Decreased NVC was related to worse MRI outcome. Furthermore, the combination of NVC and EEG spectral edge frequency (SEF) improved the identification of neonates with mild vs moderate and severe MRI outcome compared to using EEG SEF alone. Partial wavelet coherence is an effective method for removing confounding effects of SpO2, improving the robustness of automated assessment of NVC in long-term EEG-NIRS recordings. The obtained NVC biomarkers are more sensitive to MRI outcome than traditional rSO2 biomarkers and provide complementary information to EEG biomarkers.

An empirical investigation of the relationships between nuclear energy, economic growth, trade openness, fossil fuels, and carbon emissions in France: fresh evidence using asymmetric cointegration

The intention behind the current analysis is to join the debate over the main factors to consider in the global fight against climate change. Thereby, the Non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) approach is applied to assess the impacts of nuclear energy, fossil fuels, income, and trade on carbon emissions in France from 1980 to 2020. In addition, the relevance of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) presumption is tested. The main results stipulate that nuclear energy lessens CO₂ emissions in France. However, fossil fuels and trade openness enhance these emissions. On the other hand, the current analysis confirms the presence of an inverted U-shaped curve relating economic growth to carbon emissions. Therefore, the EKC hypothesis is supported in our case. Indeed, by calculating the turning point, it is possible to extract the turning year corresponding to 2008. Furthermore, an asymmetric causality test is performed in order to identify the possible non-linear causal links between the potential drivers of carbon emissions. First, the causal linkage between CO₂ emissions and GDP is bidirectional. Furthermore, a unidirectional causal link between CO₂ emissions and non-renewable energies and a dual directional causal link between pollutant emissions and trade are identified. These empirical results are intended to guide the French government in the implementation of relevant energy and trade-related strategies in order to attain the ambitious targets of carbon emissions reduction. In fact, France should reduce imports of fossil fuels to curtail the positive effect of trade on carbon emissions. In addition, it is recommended to substitute fossil energies with renewable energies gradually by using adequate instruments and boosting research and innovation to mitigate the adverse influences of non-renewable energies on environmental quality. Finally, our findings confirm the positive role played by nuclear energy in the fight against climate change.

Energy mix with technological innovation to abate carbon emission: fresh evidence from Mexico applying wavelet tools and spectral causality

The global warming issue arises from climate change, which draws scientists' attention toward cleaner energy sources. Among clean sources, renewables and nuclear energy are getting immense attention among policymakers. However, the significance of nuclear energy in reducing CO₂ emissions has remained ambiguous, necessitating further research. Therefore, the present study draws impetuous attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals-7 (affordable clean energy) & 13 (climate change mitigation) by looking at the relationship between energy mix (fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear), economic growth, technological innovation, and CO₂ emissions in Mexico from 1980 to 2019 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. In addition, to assess the direction of causality, this study applied wavelet techniques and spectral causality. The findings affirm that renewable and nuclear energy use and technological innovation tend to curb CO₂ emissions, whereas fossil fuel consumption and economic expansion trigger CO₂ emissions. The study lends support to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) phenomenon in Mexico. The FMOLS and DOLS tests show that our long-run estimates are reliable. In different time scales, the wavelet coherence result is also consistent. Finally, the results of the spectral causality approach demonstrate a significant causal association between the variables tested at various frequencies. As a result, in order to achieve SDGs 7 and 13 and support an environmentally friendly ecosystem, Mexico's energy mix must be changed to renewables and nuclear.

Can Renewable Energy and Export Help in Reducing Ecological Footprint of India? Empirical Evidence from Augmented ARDL Co-Integration and Dynamic ARDL Simulations

The objective of this study is to investigate the impact of exports, renewable energy, and industrialization on the ecological footprint (EF) of India over the period spanning from 1970–2017 by employing the newly developed augmented ARDL (A-ARDL) co-integration approach and the novel dynamic ARDL (D-ARDL) technique. The empirical results demonstrate that exports and renewable energy consumption reduce the EF, while industrialization intensifies the EF. More precisely, a 1% increase in export (renewable energy consumption) reduces the EF by 0.05% (0.09%). In addition, the short-run elasticity of the GDP is found to be larger than the long-run elasticity indicating the possibility of the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) of the EF for India. The study indicates that the income effect and increased policy focus on renewable energy usage can be expected to reduce India’s per capita EF in the long run. Moreover, India’s export sector has been traditionally less energy intensive, which reflects in our findings of export growth leading to a reduction in EF. Based on the empirical findings, this study recommends some policy insights that may assist India to effectively reduce its ecological footprint.

The role of environmental transformational leadership in employees' influencing organizational citizenship behavior for environment well-being: a survey data analysis

Many researchers and intellectuals focused on the topic of organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE); however, employees' pro-environmental behaviors, such as eco-helping, eco-civic engagement, and eco-initiatives, are often being ignored. Also, the investigation of the stimulating factors behind these behaviors remains weak. Hence, this research aims to explore the role of environmental transformational leadership (ELT) in these three types of organizational citizen behaviors for the environment (OCBE) considering the indirect effects of psychological empowerment and leader-member exchange (LMX). We examined the effects of meditation by using four steps for mediation analysis and the Sobel test. Chi-square (χ²) tests for observing the difference were also applied. The results from a survey of 500 employees from the manufacturing industry in China provide that environmental transformational leadership contributes indirectly and directly to promoting environmental behavior within organizations due to the inspirational nature of transformational leaders. Furthermore, the intentions of employees for organizational environmental behavior stimulate on account of a high sense of leader-member exchange and psychological empowerment. Based on these findings, the study suggests that leadership in organizations should facilitate their employees with psychological empowerment and sharing of information and initiative regarding the environment for boosting OCBE. It is also recommended that at the time of recruitment and selection of employees, they should be given orientations regarding environmental protection and resource conservation. Moreover, organizations should promote the transformational style of leadership to achieve environment-related goals.

The effects of natural gas and oil consumption on CO2 emissions in GCC countries: asymmetry analysis

Oil and gas are key energy sources in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. The present study examines the asymmetrical environmental effects of these energy sources and also tests the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) from 1975 to 2019. In the long run, the EKC is corroborated in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But the EKC is not validated in the GCC Panel. Increasing oil consumption raises carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing oil consumption reduces CO₂ emissions in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The effect of oil consumption is found asymmetrical in Qatar and symmetrical in the rest of GCC countries. Increasing natural gas consumption (NGC) carries a positive effect in all investigated GCC countries, and decreasing NGC reduces emissions in Oman, Qatar, and the UAE. Moreover, NGC's effects are asymmetrically in all GCC countries except Qatar. In the panel estimates, both increasing and decreasing oil and NGC have positive effects on CO₂ emissions. The long-run effect of oil consumption on CO₂ emissions is larger than the effect of NGC in most GCC economies and panel results. In the short run, increasing and decreasing oil consumption and NGC have a positive effect on emissions in all investigated economies except Saudi Arabia. In the long run, coefficients of decreasing oil consumption are found significantly greater than coefficients of increasing NGC in Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the whole GCC. This finding corroborates that increasing CO₂ emissions with increasing NGC is lower than decreasing CO₂ emissions with decreasing oil consumption. Hence, we recommend these countries switch from oil consumption to NGC to reduce overall CO₂ emissions.

Have international remittance inflows degraded environmental quality? A carbon emission mitigation analysis for Ghana

Despite the considerable contributions of remittances to households and economic advancements, their environmental implications have received little attention in empirical research. This study was, therefore, conducted to help fill that gap, using Ghana as an evidence. In achieving the above goal, robust econometric methods that control for endogeneity, heteroscedasticity and serial correlation among others, were engaged for the analysis. From the results, the studied variables were first-differenced stationary and cointegrated in the long run. The elasticities of the predictors were explored via the FMOLS, DOLS and CCR estimators, and from the results, remittance inflows worsened the ecological quality in Ghana through high CO2 emissions. Also, population growth and energy utilization were not friendly to the country's environment; however, technological innovations improved environmental quality in the nation via low CO2 effusions. The VECM was employed to examine the path of causalities amidst the series, and from the results, there were bidirectional causalities between remittance inflows and CO2 emissions and between population growth and CO2 emanations. Also, a causation from energy utilization to CO2 effluents was discovered; however, there was no causality between technological innovations and CO2 exudates in the country. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that, authorities should enact regulations to control the activities of polluting industries that are being financed by remittances. Also, households and individuals should minimize their use of remittances to finance carbon-intensive items, like automobiles and air-conditioners among others, that add to environmental pollution in the country.

Investigating the role of capital formation to achieve carbon neutrality in India

India's sustainable development goals consist of higher economic growth through large investments on the one hand and ambitious carbon emission reduction plans through increased renewables on the other. It needs to be seen if the two policies related to capital formation and energy transitioning to renewables complement each other or if they have been divergent in the case of India. This paper studies the dynamic association between carbon dioxide emissions, economic growth, renewable energy (RE) consumption, and gross capital formation and tests for the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for India over the time period 1970-2018. It also tries to see if there is any possible conflict between the economic and energy goals of the country by augmenting the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation in the EKC framework. The empirical results not only confirm long-run relationship among the underlying variables but also indicate an "N"-shaped EKC in the long run for India which is a departure from the traditional inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. Renewable energy consumption is found to reduce emissions, whereas gross capital formation and the interaction term between renewable energy consumption and gross capital formation are found to raise emissions in the long run. The study concludes that India needs to align its economic policy of "Make in India" with its energy policy so that investments under the former facilitate extensive penetration, adaptation, and usage of renewable energy. A policy dichotomy between the two goals may defeat India's Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) objective of drastic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions through increased renewables by 2030.

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.

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.

Can Energy Efficiency Help in Achieving Carbon-Neutrality Pledges? A Developing Country Perspective Using Dynamic ARDL Simulations

The current research sheds light on the nexus between environmental degradation as proxied by carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), energy efficiency (EE), economic growth, manufacturing value-added (MVA), and the interaction effect of EE and MVA in India. Using yearly data from 1980 to 2019, the current study employs dynamic auto-regressive distribution lag (DARDL) simulations and Fourier Toda and Yamamoto causality techniques. The findings of DARDL reveal that as income and MVA rise, environmental quality decreases, while EE improves environmental conditions in both the long and short run. Surprisingly, the interaction term of EE and MVA has a detrimental influence on environmental quality, meaning that India remains unable to provide energy savings technologies to the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis is well-founded for India, as the long-run income coefficient is smaller than the short-run coefficient, implying that India is in its scale stage of economy, where economic growth is prioritized over environmental quality. The results of the causality technique reveal that CO2 emissions and EE have a bidirectional association. Therefore, policymakers in India should embrace realistic industrialization strategies combined with moderate decarbonization and energy efficiency initiatives under the umbrella of sustainable industrial and economic growth.

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.

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.