Role of country risks and renewable energy consumption on environmental quality: Evidence from MINT countries

Is the load capacity curve a true phenomenon for OECD economies? Hidden behavior of financial institutions and markets in Environmental Sustainability

Over the last few decades, the globe has faced severe challenges in isolating entire nations from social, economic, and environmental issues. However, rising pollution levels have become the most debatable agenda. To resolve this, the world has introduced a few green initiatives, i.e., the Paris Agreement, the Kyoto Protocol and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Interestingly, to meet the desired threshold level, all stockholders demand massive finance to comply with such green initiatives. Thus, to highlight the importance of the financial sector, this study considers 26 OECD economies covering the period of 1982-2018. The leading importance of this study is utilizing the load capacity factor (LCF) as a decent proxy for sustainability. Similarly, the present empirical study utilizes advanced estimators to investigate the role of financial market index (FMI), financial institutions index (FII), renewable energy (REC) and income in environmental quality. The summarized results describe the positive role of REC in LCF in the specified nations. Conversely, FMI and FII are inverse-connected with the load capacity curve. Finally, the Load Capacity Curve (LCC) is validated for the selected economies. Interestingly, this study also suggests some imperative implications for boosting environmental sustainability. Such outcomes highlight the urgent need for legislative frameworks to accelerate the switch to renewable energy sources. Additionally, they emphasize the need for stricter oversight and control of financial institutions regarding their investments and policies for environmental preservation. Finally, the study raises the possibility that financial markets might obstruct ecological safeguards.

Exploring sustainable energy consumption and social conflict risks in Turkey: Insights from a novel multiresolution ARDL approach

Nonrenewable energy sources have been shown to be a cause of conflict and terrorism, highlighting the global conflict aspect, but little is known about the causal relationship between the energy system and terrorism in Turkey. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the causal links among renewable energy consumption, fossil fuels, terrorist attacks, education, trade opening, and geopolitical risks in Turkey from 1980 to 2016. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and Granger causality tests, the study analyzes the short and long-term relationships between the variables. Additionally, robustness tests are conducted using a powerful multiresolution ARDL approach to ensure the stability of the statistical findings. The results reveal the existence of long-term relationships between all the variables, particularly among terrorism, renewable energy, and education. In the short term, a one-way relationship exists between terrorism and education to renewable energies and from trade openness to terrorism. The study demonstrates that nonrenewable energy increases terrorism in the long term, whereas renewable energy and trade openness reduce terrorism, highlighting the potential impact of global conflicts on Turkey's sustainable development. Therefore, renewable energy is a powerful tool to fight against terrorism, and Turkey has encouraged its use and deployment of diplomatic efforts to resolve political and military conflicts, particularly in the Middle East. This study provides insights into the complex relationship among sustainable energy consumption, terrorism, education, and trade opening, contributing to the understanding of the geopolitical risks and economics in Turkey. It has implications for policymakers in the region, highlighting the importance of renewable energy and trade openness as tools for conflict resolution and sustainable development in the face of global conflicts.

Do circular economy, renewable energy, industrialization, and globalization influence environmental indicators in belt and road initiative countries?

This paper is the first comprehensive research to examine the effect of circular economy on environment employing two environmental degradation indicators (CO2 emissions, ecological footprint) and one environmental quality indicator (load capacity factor) for 57 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries during 2000-2019. The effect of other variables such as renewable energy, industrialization, and globalization was also controlled. The study applied the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag method (CS-ARDL), the augmented mean group (AMG), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) methods as a robustness checks. The empirical findings reveal that circular economy and renewable energy have pro-environmental effects by decreasing carbon emissions and ecological footprint and increasing the load capacity factor in BRI countries. However, industrialization and globalization have detrimental effects on the environment. The result of causality shows a bidirectional causality between renewable energy, circular economy, industrialization, and three environmental indicators, but the relationship of globalization with CO2 emissions and the load capacity factor is unidirectional and with the ecological footprint is bidirectional. All the results are confirmed by the robustness tests. The study suggests policy implications for the BRI government.

Call for multi-policy approach: Synergistic effects of emissions trading scheme and energy efficiency policies

Limited research exists on the synergistic effects of carbon emissions trading and energy efficiency policies despite their significance in achieving global carbon neutrality objectives. This study examines the synergistic effects of carbon emissions trading and energy efficiency policies on aspects of the environment, energy, and economy. Results show that the synergistic effect leads to an additional reduction of 1.2% in carbon emissions, along with a decrease of 4.2% in economic losses. Despite challenges like increased energy external dependency and carbon leakage, the synergistic effect shows a positive externality between policies, reducing the carbon intensity and marginal emission mitigation costs. Furthermore, these synergistic effects yield positive consequences for social welfare, particularly benefiting rural households and fostering equitable distribution of carbon mitigation benefits across societal groups. These findings underscore the importance of considering policy synergies between carbon emissions trading and energy efficiency policies to ensure the total effect of climate change mitigation strategies.

Asymmetric and time-frequency co-movements among innovation-themed investments and carbon emission efficiency: Thematic investing and hedging opportunities

This study is aimed at investigating the asymmetric and time-frequency co-movements and the hedge or safe-haven properties of carbon efficient indices, the MSCI ACWI Sustainable Impact, and MSCI World EGS indices, in relation to technology and innovation-themed investments. In doing so, the ADCC-GJR-GARCH and wavelet coherence techniques are applied to a daily return series ranging from January 2019 to January 2023. Findings of the ADCC-GJR-GARCH model show negative and insignificant asymmetric linkage among underlying indices during the sample period. The S&P 500 carbon efficient index (CEI) acts as a strong hedge or safe-haven for technology and innovation-themed indices during tranquil and tumultuous periods. The MSCI ACWI Sustainable Impact, MSCI World EGS, and carbon efficient indices except for S&P 500 CEI exhibit weak hedge or safe-haven attributes. Wavelet coherence reveals negative (positive) co-movements between the thematic and carbon efficient indices in short-term (medium-term and long-term) horizons with consistent leading behavior of thematic indices to carbon efficient indices outcomes. It justifies the presence of short-lived hedging or safe-haven characteristics in the thematic domain for investors. These strong and weak hedge or safe-haven characteristics of low carbon and sustainability indices reveal that adding low carbon efficient and sustainable investments to a portfolio result in considerable diversification benefits for investors who tend to take minimal risk in both tranquil and tumultuous periods. The current findings imply that financial institutions, thematic investing companies, and governments need to encourage carbon efficient technology transfer and innovation-themed investments by increasing the fund allocations in underlying asset classes. Policy-making and regulatory bodies can encourage investors to make carbon-efficient and thematic investments and companies to issue carbon-efficient stocks or investments to safeguard social and economic risks during fragile periods. These investments can offer greater opportunities to combat the intensity of economic shocks on portfolios for responsible or sustainable investors.

Intelligent industry, energy regulation and ecological transformation-Taking equity financing as the moderating variable

With the panel data of 21 China's industrial industries from 2008 to 2020, the relationship models between intelligent industry, energy regulation and ecological transformation are constructed and tested from two dimensions of resource saving and environmental friendliness, then equity financing is introduced into this model as moderating variable to discuss the moderating effects on the relationships between intelligent industry, energy regulation and ecological transformation. Results show that: ⑴China's industrial industries significantly transformed to the resource-saving type, and the environment-friendly level stayed in a slow progression. ⑵Intelligent industry affected ecological transformation positively and significantly. The impact of energy regulation on ecological transformation was nonlinear. The regulation of energy consumption can significantly stimulate the transformation of resource saving, and restrain the transformation of environmental friendliness; the regulation of energy structure can significantly stimulate the transformation of environmental friendliness. ⑶ Equity financing can positively moderate the relationship between intelligent industry and ecological transformation, and it can also moderate the regulation of energy structure and promote the transformation to environmental friendliness, especially in the low consumption industries.

The key to sustainability: In-depth investigation of environmental quality in G20 countries through the lens of renewable energy, economic complexity and geopolitical risk resilience

The world is currently facing urgent climate and environmental issues, such as global warming, ecosystem collapse, and energy shortages. In this context, this study selected data from 2000 to 2021 and employed the Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR) to thoroughly investigate the impact of renewable energy consumption, economic complexity, and geopolitical risks on the ecological footprint of the Group of Twenty (G20) countries. The results indicate that in countries with lower quantiles, renewable energy consumption significantly reduces the ecological footprint, whereas its effect is not prominent in countries with higher quantiles. Economic complexity has a negative impact on the ecological footprint, and this impact becomes stronger as the quantile of the ecological footprint rises. Additionally, economic complexity moderates the effect of renewable energy on the ecological footprint. Geopolitical risks facilitate the growth of the ecological footprint. Likewise, robustness tests such as DOLS, FMOLS, and quantile regression confirm these estimates in the same framework. This study has conducted a profound analysis of global environmental issues, offering innovative perspectives and recommendations for achieving goals related to sustainable energy utilization, mitigating climate change, and improving the ecological environment. The findings of this research will guide policymakers in G20 countries to adopt more effective environmental protection measures, thereby contributing to the construction of a sustainable future.

Revisiting the nexus between digital trade, green technological innovation, and environmental sustainability in BRICS economies

After the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019, many countries started progressing towards race to zero targets. The intricate framework of digitalization and green technologies has the potential to persuade governments to implement policies that promote a zero-carbon economy, i.e., green economy. Hence, this study determines the effect of digital trade (DGT) and green technological innovation (GTI) on environmental sustainability (ENS) by considering the role of renewable energy consumption (REC), globalization (GLOB), and economic growth (EG). The study measured ENS by taking into account three proxy variables, i.e., ecological footprint (EF), carbon dioxide emission (CO2e), and methane emissions (CH4e). POLS and PMG-ARDL techniques are applied to the panel data of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) from 2000 to 2019. Panel Quantile Regression (PQR) along with AMG and CCEMG estimators is applied hereafter for checking the robustness of the empirical results. The long-run empirical outcomes show the positive association of DGT, GTI, REC, and GLOB with ENS. Lastly, this study inscribed the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and highlights policy implications and governmental measures to ensure environmental sustainability in BRICS economies.

Collectivist culture, environmental regulation and pollution emissions: evidence from China

Collectivist culture serves as a significant cultural foundation in China. It could, to some extent, shape public attitudes toward the environment and thus influence the implementation of related policies. To examine this hypothesis, this study constructs the collectivist culture intensity index for 25 Chinese provinces spanning from 2010 to 2020. Through a fixed-effect model, we explore how the collectivist culture intensity affects pollution emissions in China. The empirical results indicate the significance of collectivism in enhancing emission reduction through environmental regulations. This conclusion remains robust even when excluding the impact of endogeneity concerns by adopting the instrumental variable approach. Heterogeneity analysis shows that collectivism is more effective in enhancing market-based environmental regulations rather than those driven by policies. Further mechanism analysis confirms that green innovation is a crucial pathway through which collectivism influences pollution emissions. These findings here will offer guidance to policymakers when formulating environmental policies for contexts with different regional cultures.

Geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, and dynamic connectedness between clean energy, conventional energy, and food markets

The global financial markets suffered unprecedented shocks, leading to significantly increased uncertainty in the markets due to various economic and financial recessions and geopolitical tensions, resulting in substantial fluctuations in market prices. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the response of the clean energy, conventional energy, and food markets to economic uncertainty and political tension while considering the influence of numerous crises and political conflicts. To achieve this, we employ the DCC-GARCH-based connectedness approach and the quantile-on-quantile model on monthly data spanning from May 2008 to June 2023. The results provide evidence of the sensitivity of dynamic volatility spillovers between financial assets to GEPU and GPR during major economic and financial crises and geopolitical events. Notably, this sensitivity increases significantly during the global financial crisis (GFC), the European debt crisis, Brexit, the US presidential election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian-Ukrainian war. However, the investigation of the tail dependence structure reveals that the relationship between uncertainties and total volatility connectedness across various market conditions appears to be asymmetric and heterogeneous. Our findings assist policymakers and green investors in designing the most effective policies to mitigate the impact of uncertainties on both conventional and green investments. This is achieved through insightful knowledge about the primary drivers of contagion among these indices, all while not compromising sustainability goals.

Greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum production in Guyana: An examination of the implications for the country's net carbon sink status

The emerging petroleum production sector has been positively impacting Guyana's economic prospects while contributing to an anticipated increase in the country's greenhouse gas emissions. This article presents a case study that adopts a convergent mixed methods approach. The methods selected for data collection consisted of in-depth interviews, document review and quantitative analysis to examine the implications of the GHG emissions from Guyana's emerging petroleum production sector for the country's net carbon sink status. The article explores measures to enable Guyana to remain a net carbon sink. The study reveals that fugitive emissions were the highest component of greenhouse gas emissions, mostly accounted for by flaring and venting from well testing and flaring from conventional petroleum production. The annual GHG emissions from petroleum production for 2025, 2027 and 2030 were 9034, 13,397 and 20,516 kilotons of CO2e, respectively. Moreover, the combination of the emissions from the oil and gas production and those from three scenarios of growth in Guyana's energy sector, the total annual GHG emissions could vary from 4445 kilotons of CO2e by 2025 to the largest amount of 24,888 kilotons of CO2e by 2030 across various scenarios and conditions. Further, the highest total GHG emissions for 2025 would be 11,015 kilotons CO2e compared to a sequestration rate of 154,060 kilotons CO2 (7%) for 2025. In 2027, the highest total GHG emissions would be 16,234 kilotons CO2e as compared to a sequestration rate of 153,860 kilotons CO2 (11%). No negative implication for Guyana's net carbon sink is projected. However, Guyana should review, update and implement policies to mitigate GHG emissions and offset unavoidable ones. This research highlights the efforts of Guyana to adopt a development path that seeks to fulfil obligations to the UNFCCC and the Paris Accord while improving the social and economic well-being of its citizens.

Environmental deterioration in the age of industrialization and production: do industrial competition and renewable energy reduce the ecological burden?

The modern era of globalization, economic development, and increase in manufacturing activity pose severe risks to the natural environment. In this context, industries must prioritize sustainable economic growth and development. Thus, the purpose of this study is to provide insight into industrial competition, renewable energy, economic freedom, manufacturing value added, economic growth, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2 emissions) in the top ten high-income countries from 1997 to 2019. The results from panel cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), augmented mean group (AMG), and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) techniques revealed that economic growth and industrial production have a harmful influence on CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, industrial competitiveness, renewable energy, and economic freedom are all negatively associated with CO2 emissions. This specifies that industrial competitiveness, renewable energy, and economic freedom are favorably related to environmental sustainability by limiting CO2 emissions in the top ten high-income countries. These findings imply that governments and responsible authorities/policymakers develop strategies to reduce the environmental impact of manufacturing value addition and economic growth in the top ten high-income countries and allocate more financial resources to renewable energy and promote industrial competition.

Battling for net zero carbon: the position of governance and financial indicators

Africa, over the past years, has put various measures in place in the fight against carbon emissions. Achieving net zero carbon has caused the continent researchers to investigate various conditions required for a successful transition. Therefore, the political system cannot be left out since it plays a major role in decision-making. This study contributes to previous literature analyzing the empirical effect of financial development and governance quality on carbon emissions. The study is focused on 52 African countries with data from 1996 to 2021. Panel quantile and generalized method of moments are used for the analysis. The result indicates that financial development contributes to environmental degradation, government effectiveness, rule of law, and political stability which promote environmental pollution; however, control of corruption, renewable energy, and economic growth promote ecological sustainability. According to the aforementioned, it is crucial for governments to include financial development plans in national environmental strategies, particularly for those in African nations. Furthermore, governments should put restrictions on trade to control the trade of high-carbon technologies.

Can minimizing risk exposures help in inhibiting carbon footprints? The environmental repercussions of international trade and clean energy

Since bettering environmental conditions has acquired significant interest globally, discovering factors that may facilitate the establishment of environmental sustainability is currently of foremost importance. Hence, this study considers a sample of 33 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and checks whether reducing exposure to different forms of country risks, in the presence of international trade and clean energy consumption, can reduce their respective carbon footprint levels. Utilizing annual data from 2000 to 2018 and employing methods that handle problems related to dependence across cross-sectional units and heterogeneity of slope coefficients, the findings endorse that (a) reducing financial and political risks abate carbon footprints, (b) economic risk exposure does not influence carbon footprints, (c) international trade exerts carbon footprint-boosting effects, and (d) undergoing unclean to clean energy transition curbs carbon footprints. Accordingly, the concerned governments should these findings into account while conceptualizing green environmental policies in the future.

The determinants of ecological footprint in the UK: The role of transportation activities, renewable energy, trade openness, and globalization

The objective of this study is to explore the interaction between transportation energy consumption, GDP, renewable energy, trade, globalization and ecological footprint in the United Kingdom over the period 1990-2020. To achieve this aim, the study uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach and Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality test. The research findings demonstrate that an increase in transportation energy consumption, renewable energy, and globalization is associated with a reduction in environmental pollution. On the contrary, GDP and trade contribute to worsening the environment. Moreover, there exists a unidirectional causal relationship from transportation energy consumption, GDP, renewable energy, trade, and globalization towards the ecological footprint. The findings of the study recommend that the policymakers should implement strategies and provide incentives to increase the deployment of renewables in the transportation sector, specifically focusing on electric vehicles (EVs) and the necessary charging infrastructure. Overall, the UK government should prioritize sustainable environmental development when planning its economic development strategies.

Unraveling the non-linear impact of financial development on environmental sustainability: insights from developing countries agreeing the accord

This study delves into the intricate relationship between financial development and environmental sustainability by considering the role of the Paris Agreement in the context of developing countries. By employing advanced econometric techniques method of moment quantile regression (MMQR) and considering a period spanning from 1996 to 2021, this research unravels the non-linear impact of financial development on environmental degradation while considering population and GDP as control variables. The study reveals an inverted N-shaped relationship between financial development and environmental degradation, indicating that environmental degradation (ED) decreases as financial development increases. However, this is followed by a rise in ED before eventually witnessing a further decline. Additionally, the study highlights the positive correlation between GDP and population with ED across all quantiles, with a more pronounced impact observed in higher quantiles. Furthermore, the coefficient of the Paris Agreement demonstrates its effectiveness in decreasing environmental degradation, particularly at higher quantiles of ED. The findings of this study hold practical implications for policymakers, emphasizing the importance of designing and implementing coherent environmental and economic policies in developing countries. This study contributes to understanding the complex dynamics between financial development and environmental sustainability, offering valuable insights for fostering sustainable development pathways.

The effects of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption and environmental technology on the ecological footprint: Evidence from advanced panel data analysis

The world faces various challenges in terms of environmental sustainability. An increasing world population, the rigidity of traditional production and consumption patterns, the complexity of economic activities, globalization, and harmful emissions intensify environmental pressures. In this context, the evaluation of various environmental policy instruments is important to alleviate environmental pressures and, thus, combat climate change. This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption, and environmental technology on the ecological footprint in OECD countries by using data from 1994 to 2018 and modern panel data techniques. The results of the AMG estimator indicate that environmental taxation and renewable energy consumption play a role in reducing the ecological footprint; however, results imply that environmental technology does not have a statistically significant effect on the ecological footprint. In addition, we applied DCCE and CS-ARDL estimators to obtain robustness results and observed that the findings remained valid. Therefore, the results of the study suggest that regulations to increase the effectiveness of environmental taxes, renewable energy consumption, and environmental technology should be promoted to ensure environmental sustainability.

Manufacturing system reconfiguration towards sustainable production: a novel hybrid optimization methodology

Developing a sustainable manufacturing system is a progressively challenging issue as governments across the world have been enforcing increasingly severe regulations by promoting the reduction of environmental waste for manufacturing and energy-saving production activities. Thus, there is a need for developing a sustainable manufacturing system that can be fully examined by incorporating ecological aspects (e.g., consumed energy) for related operations of a manufacturing system using computer-based discrete event simulation tools. In this study, a combined framework of a novel hybrid fuzzy multi-objective optimization and discrete event simulation approach is presented. We combine ecological and economic data and optimization techniques that are aimed at minimizing economic and ecological objectives in a manufacturing system at an early design phase. Hence, the fuzzy multi-objective optimization model is formulated by incorporating economic and ecological parameters. Again, the discrete event simulation model is established based on a comprehensive performance evaluation of the production system. This study also supports design decisions in determining optimum machine numbers, lighting, and cooling equipment required for the production processes within the sustainable manufacturing in conjunction with the most effective level of material flows. In addition, an integrated Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)-epsilon constraint approach is applied to handle the multiple-objective optimization problem towards a set of trade-offs among the optimization objectives. A real-life application is carried out for investigating the applicability of the created hybrid framework. The findings of this study demonstrate that this framework is useful as a decision-making tool since it can develop a sustainable manufacturing system design considering an optimal solution associated with amounts of energy usage and CO2 emissions under economic constraints.

How military spending, economic growth, and renewable energy impacts ecological footprints in Next Eleven nations

The objective of this study is to investigate the association between military spending and environmental sustainability within the N-11 countries. There exists a strong correlation between sustainable economic expansion and energy consumption, which in turn results in the generation of elevated levels of carbon emissions. Moreover, it is plausible that a correlation exists between military spending and the degradation of the environment. The primary objective of this study is to examine the emissions of carbon and emissions of greenhouse gases in the N-11 countries, as these nations exhibit comparatively elevated levels of such emissions. Therefore, this study examines the correlation among economic growth, militarization, renewable energy, and environment in the Next Eleven nations from 1990 to 2022. The cross-section autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model is employed to analyze the enduring and immediate connections between variables. Empirical evidence indicates that a country's environment is positively influenced by GDP and militarization. The escalation of military capital intensity has exacerbated the environmental damage. Increasing the adoption of renewable energy sources can mitigate negative environmental impacts over time. This study proposes policy recommendations for sustainable development, including reducing militarization and improving the use of clean energy.

Sustainable electricity consumption in South Africa: the impacts of tourism and economic growth

The current study examines sustainable electricity consumption for economic growth in a small open and tourist economy. The energy-tourism nexus is evaluated for the relationship between sustainable electricity consumption and the international tourist arrival for the South African economy. The present study leverages on annual frequency data for South Africa from 1995 to 2019 for empirical analysis using the ARDL technique. Accordingly, empirical findings indicate a significant direct connection between the sustainable electricity consumption and the international tourism arrival; the study affirms that tourism-induced energy hypothesis is valid in South Africa. However, from a policy standpoint, alternative energy efficiency mechanisms such as renewable energy systems and emancipation of current energy management capabilities are recommended in South Africa. This is necessary for sustainable eco-friendly tourism that engenders clean energy consumption for the study area. More insights into policy caveats are presented in the concluding section.

Impact of waste management among Industry 4.0 and sustainable development

The study is aimed at investigating the impact of waste management in the context of Industry 4.0 and sustainable development. Data were collected from 257 production managers in the industrial sector using a survey questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS and PLS-SEM. The findings indicated that Industry 4.0 and waste management significantly contribute to achieving sustainable development. The integration of Industry 4.0 technologies and effective waste management practices can help organizations implement sustainable development goals. Practical implications include assisting organizations in implementing Industry 4.0 technologies and waste management strategies based on the 3Rs principle. This can lead to reduced environmental impacts and improved resource efficiency, contributing to sustainable development. Policymakers can also benefit from the study's insights to address waste management challenges and promote sustainable development. The study's originality lies in its incorporation of the cyber-physical system and niche theory to explore how Industry 4.0 can facilitate sustainable waste management. It highlights the transformative potential of Industry 4.0 in the industrial sector, particularly in developing countries. Overall, this research offers a unique contribution to understanding waste management within the context of Industry 4.0 and sustainable development.

Evaluating the environmental impact and economic practicability of solar home lighting systems: a roadmap towards clean energy for ecological sustainability

The vitality contribution is a vital cause for defensible monetary improvement and collective success by eradicating poverty. Adopting the solar home lighting system (SHLS) is advantageous not only in social lifestyles but also improves the health of family members and increases home-based small businesses activities due to the inexpensive and continuous supply of energy. The main aims of the study are to scrutinize the most substantial barriers to adopting SHLS in Pakistan. A comprehensive, structured questionnaire appraisal was conducted for sample size with the help of non-probability sampling (purposive sampling), and primary data was collected. The designated hypotheses were evaluated using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). In the present study, we validate the model using a sample of 271 adopters of SHLS contributed as respondents. The results disclose that entire autonomous variables expressively and positively correlated with adopting SHLS dipping energy disasters and improving home-based small business activities. Correspondingly, social media-based awareness of SHLS significantly moderates and positively affects the selected factors in this study. Empirical results indicate that prudently eradicating maintenance barriers with experienced professionals, subsidy in prices from the government, quality base satisfaction of owners, and social media-based awareness are the primary tools to adopt SHLS. Additionally, the outcomes offer valuable suggestions to the competent authorities that introduce encouragement and maintenance policy for adopting SHLS.

Investigating the financial market development and shadow economy nexus in the presence of country risk in an emerging economy

This research study examined the influence of financial market development on the shadow economy and the moderating effect of country risk (political, economic, and financial) in this nexus in Pakistan. Using data from 1995 to 2018, the study applied the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root tests, followed by the F-bounds test to investigate stationarity and cointegration in the series, respectively. The study utilized the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to estimate the long-run relationship, and to examine the possible causal relationship among the variables, the study employed Breitung and Candelon's (2006) spectral test. The study identified that financial market development is negative, and the country's risk determinants are positively associated with the shadow economy's size. Moreover, the study found that country risk positively moderates the influence of financial market development on the shadow economy. The results also highlighted a unidirectional relationship from economic and financial risk towards the shadow economy. Finally, based on the empirical findings, the study recommends some policy implications to the regulators of financial markets and the shadow economy.

Changes in environmental degradation parameters in Bangladesh: The role of net savings, natural resource depletion, technological innovation, and democracy

Most researchers consider CO₂ emissions to be the primary indicator of environmental degradation. Similarly, ecological footprint appears to be a significant proxy for environmental degradation in recent research due to its multifaceted impact on the natural environment. With this in mind, this study investigates fluctuations in CO₂ emissions and ecological footprint as indicators of environmental degradation in Bangladesh from 1980 to 2020, and how they are influenced by net savings, natural resource depletion, technological innovation, and democracy. The non-linear ARDL (NARDL)-based asymmetric analysis finds that positive changes in net savings, natural resource depletion, and democracy positively impact both parameters of environmental degradation in the long run. On the other hand, a positive change in technological innovation reduces these parameters in the long run. Likewise, negative changes in net savings and technological innovation reduce environmental degradation. In contrast, negative changes in natural resource depletion and democracy exacerbate these two parameters and degrade environmental quality in the long run. However, there are some variations in the short-run influence of the predictors on the predicted variable. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that policymakers must strategically exploit natural resources, net savings, technology diffusion, and democratic principles to preserve the natural environment in Bangladesh.

Environmental reverberations of geopolitical risk and economic policy uncertainty resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict: A wavelet based approach for sectoral CO2 emissions

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and a natural gas crisis between the European Union (EU) and Russia has begun. These events have negatively affected humanity and resulted in economic and environmental consequences. Against this background, this study examines the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU) caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, on sectoral carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. To this end, the study analyzes data from January 1997 to October 2022 by using wavelet transform coherence (WTC) and time-varying wavelet causality test (TVWCT) approaches. The WTC results show that GPR and EPU reduce CO₂ emissions in the residential, commercial, industrial, and electricity sectors, while GPR increases CO₂ emissions in the transportation sector during the period from January 2019 to October 2022, which includes Russia-Ukraine conflict. The WTC analysis also indicates that the reduction in CO₂ emissions provided by the EPU is higher than that of the GPR for several periods. According to the TVWCT, there are causal impacts of the GPR and the EPU on sectoral CO₂ emissions, but the timing of the causal impacts differs between the raw and decomposed data. The results suggest that the EPU has a larger impact on reducing sectoral CO₂ emissions during the Ukraine-Russia crisis and that production disruptions due to uncertainty have the greatest impact on reducing CO₂ emissions in the electric power and transportation sectors.

Formulating sustainable development policies for China within the framework of socioeconomic conditions and government stability

Improvement in the environmental quality has been seen as a major concern worldwide, and a crucial agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's). In this study, we examined the causal impacts of economic growth, financial development, nuclear energy, government stability, and socioeconomic conditions on the environmental quality of China, using quarterly data, covering the period 1984-2018. We used different proxies for environmental quality, i.e., Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, ecological footprints, and load capacity factor, and a unique methodology named Fourier quantile causality, recently recommended by Cheng et al. (2021), for the first time in case of China. We find that nuclear energy, and government stability are positively causing the environmental quality, while economic growth, financial development, and socioeconomic conditions are degrading the environmental quality in China, since they are linked with increased income and energy consumption. Furthermore, all the explanatory variables are largely sensitive on different quantiles to affect the environmental quality; however, economic growth is a highly causing environmental degradation. Our study suggests that increasing nuclear energy consumption along with green financial measures that simultaneously support economic growth and socioeconomic conditions can be effective tools for improving environmental quality and realizing the SDGs in China.

Exploring the interrelationship among health status, CO2 emissions, and energy use in the top 20 highest emitting economies: based on the CS-DL and CS-ARDL approaches

Carbon dioxide emissions (CO2e) which is caused by energy use contributes to the global average surface temperature increase by 1.5 °C as compared to the mid-1800s which is causing a certain change in the climate and becoming an adverse effect on health and economy. The relationship between health status, CO2e, and energy use has yet to be thoroughly investigated in the top 20 highest emitting economies. The data from 2000 to 2019 is analyzed by using advanced techniques of cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-DL) and cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) which take into consideration crucial elements of panel data, namely dynamics, heterogeneity, and cross-sectional dependence. Moreover, cross-sectional augmented error correction method (CS-ECM) and the common dynamic process of the augmented mean group (AMG) are applied for robustness checks. The empirical findings revealed that (i) CO2e weakens the health status only in the short-run, whereas health expenditure improves the health status in the both short- and long-runs, while economic growth is not contributing to the health status in the both short- and long-runs; (ii) health expenditure and economic growth only help to mitigate CO2e in the long-run, whereas energy use causes CO2e in the both short- and long-runs; (iii) energy use causes high economic growth in the both short- and long-runs, whereas CO2e aids economic growth in the short-run but is extremely damaging to economic growth in the long-run, while in the both short- and long-runs health expenditure is not aiding the economic growth. This study provides policy recommendations on improving human health by advocating massive health expenditures, CO2e easing, promoting renewable energy use or low-emission energy, and steering the economy toward green economic growth.

Graphical abstract

The role of environmental protection expenditures and renewable energy consumption in the context of ecological challenges: Insights from the European Union with the novel panel econometric approach

In line with the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs), countries are taking action to achieve their carbon reduction goals. Because countries have limited financial resources, it is important for carbon reduction policies that public expenditure is used effectively. Researchers have neglected to probe the environmental quality in European Union countries by considering environmental protection expenditure and renewable energy consumption. This study expands the literature by investigating the impact of renewable energy consumption and environmental protection expenditure on the load capacity factor, which considers both the supply and demand directions of the environment. Hence, this work contributes to the SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), and SDG 15 (life on land) targets of European Union-22 countries. The study uses the CS-ARDL approach, which considers cross-sectional dependence, endogeneity, and heterogeneity. Empirical analysis showed that environmental protection expenditure is insufficient for European Union economies. In addition, renewable energy consumption contributed to environmental quality. Based on the outcomes, European Union countries should allocate larger budgets from their general budgets for environmental protection. Policies that can attract the attention of the private sector and not just the public sector should be implemented.