Pathways to decarbonization in India: the role of environmentally friendly tourism development

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.

International tourism and business productivity: does eco-friendly technologies matter?

This research is aimed at determining whether eco-friendly technologies go beyond and above in providing business productivity in international tourism. For this, the study obtained data from different databases, and this data range consisted of 2010-2020. The study applied the co-integration analysis, random and static technique, regression analysis technique, split analysis technique, and mediating effect tests on Chinese data. This research shows that tourism business innovation contributed 12%, value proposition as 9%, internal marketing as 16%, customer relationship management as 19.3%, tourists motivation as 34.05%, tourists time as 18.94%, green technological adoption as 17.3%, tourists visit intention as 8.11%, and green technical transfer as 28.1% in study model. Thus, the findings confirmed that international tourism and business productivity have a dynamic empirical nexus with the mediating role of eco-friendly technology adoption. Furthermore, such findings are robust empirically and validate the empirical connections among the study variables. These results imply that Chinese tourism industry stakeholders may use eco-friendly technologies to good effect, significantly enhancing tourism business productivity, international tourists' satisfaction, and tourists' revisit intentions. Hence, the study also directs practical implications related to the study topicality and China's tourism industry for prudent growth acquisition.

Study on the coupling and coordination degree between urban tourism development and habitat environment in the Yangtze River Delta in China

By constructing the two evaluation systems of urban tourism development (TD) and habitat environment (HE), the dynamic response relationship between the two systems in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2001 to 2020 is explored by using panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model and coupled coordination degree model. The study unearthed four intriguing findings: (1) the level of TD in the study area has been continuously rising from 2001 to 2020, with an initial slow growth rate and then fast. The level of HE is increasing steadily at an average annual rate of 7.05%. There exists a reciprocal response relationship between the two systems, with a strong shock effect in the short term and a synergistic evolution in the long term. (2) The coupling degree between the urban TD and HE has an increasing trend, and the coupling coordination degree of the two systems has an average annual rate of 4.165%, implying the interaction and promotion effect between the two systems is improving. (3) Most of the cities in the Yangtze River Delta gradually realize the evolution from dysfunctional type to coordinated type, but the overall coordination intensity is low. (4) The barrier degrees of TD system indicators show a small annual increasing trend, while the barrier degrees of HE system indicators show a substantial and continuous decreasing trend. In terms of the barrier degree factors, some important factors that restrict the coupled and coordinated development of the two systems are also reported. This research can provide a useful reference for the synergistic improvement of urban tourism economy and habitat environment.

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.

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.

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.