Impact of government governance and environmental taxes on sustainable energy transition in China: fresh evidence using a novel QARDL approach

Although economies have experienced immense growth in recent times, however, it also comes with environmental and social consequences which question the current practices and threaten the well-being of current as well as the future generation. This realization, thus, pushes institutions to bring change in existing energy-related policies in order to incorporate social and environmental concerns. Clean energy transition, in this regard, is gaining attraction all over the world as it shifts away economies from non-renewable resources. The study, thereby, intends to explore the role of governance and environmental taxes in the energy transition in China economy over the period 1999-2019. The roles of industrialization and economic growth in the transition of energy are taken into consideration. The recently introduced legit quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) model and Granger causality in quantiles are applied to quarterly data spanning 1999Q1 to 2019Q4 for empirical quantile analysis. Results echoed that governance has a positive impact and environmental resources have a negative impact on energy transition across all quantiles. However, economic growth influences clean energy transition only at extremely higher quantiles (0.60-0.95), and industrialization does not have any effect on energy transition over the entire quantile range. The findings of the Granger causality analysis reveal the presence of a bidirectional causal association between clean energy transition and all the variables. Worthy policies are recommended on the basis of the findings.

Natural resource volatility and financial development during Covid-19: Implications for economic recovery

Demand for natural resources is constant, while the prices of natural resources increase day-by-day, which has a significant impact on financial development and economic activity. Thus, the study intends to test the association of natural resource volatility and financial development, in order to recommend policies for economic recovery. The study acquires and analyses data for the N11 economies. The findings reveal that natural resource volatility is linked to global economic growth and governmental governance in pre-pandemic era as well as during pandemic. Results exposed that natural resource volatility has a large detrimental impact on global economic growth and plays a prominent part in economic recovery. The findings are robust and reveal that natural gas, oil, and the quality of public administration all contribute to N11 financial development. The study suggests that policymakers address the challenges raised through the solutions discussed.

The role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China: Evidence from QARDL approach

In the past decade, researchers have shifted their interests to explore different ways to mitigate environmental degradation. In that context, the present study explores the role of solar energy and eco-innovation in reducing environmental degradation in China. The study utilized data for the period 1990-2018 and applied the latest available econometric technique, a quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, to determine the impacts of solar energy and eco-innovation on improving China's environmental quality. According to the empirical results, in the long term, solar energy is negatively and significantly associated with CO₂ emissions at higher quantiles. Eco-innovation has proven to be the most important channel to mitigate CO₂ emissions in China. Eco-innovation is exerting a negative and significant influence on CO₂ emissions at all quantiles in the long term. In addition, the population size is causing CO₂ emissions to surge significantly at lower quantiles. The empirical analysis reveals that per capita income (PI) is positively associated with CO₂ emissions at all quantiles, but it is significant only at higher quantiles in China. We found evidence of unidirectional causality for eco-innovation to CO₂ emissions and solar energy to CO₂ emissions. However, for population and CO₂ emissions, per capita income, and CO₂ emissions, we found bidirectional causality. As indicated by our empirical results, solar energy and eco-innovation are the two most effective channels to control CO₂ emissions in China. Therefore, policies based on the promotion of eco-innovation and the initiation of new solar energy projects can control emissions and improve environmental quality in China. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:555-571. © 2021 SETAC.

Assessing the capacity of renewable power production for green energy system: a way forward towards zero carbon electrification

Ghana suffers from inadequate power supply due to increasing demand though it is amongst the African nations with the highest access to electricity. This research aims to assess the techno-economic potential of wind and solar energy potential for Ghana's northern part. We employ the Weibull distribution function, levelized cost of energy, and net present cost metrics for the economic study. The wind and solar energy resource's structure generated 72,284 kWh yearly. Both systems were identified to be too expensive if implemented under the current financing conditions in the country. The PV systems generated 38,859 kWh/year, representing 53.76% of the total electricity generated in a year, generating renewable hydrogen in the country. The findings show that sizing and management of renewable plants will fulfill the basic annual cooking demands of the populations, which are 785 kg H₂ in Ghana. The countries' capacity for developing solar hydrogen plants is further suggested by generating new solar hydrogen opportunity charts. Considering the significance of hydrogen energy under the renewable energy output, we recommend using hybrid systems for hydrogen production. The findings reveal which flexibility options are critical in key stages of the energy transition to a 70, 80, 90, and 100% renewable energy system.

Assessing the capacity of renewable power production for green energy system: a way forward towards zero carbon electrification

Ghana suffers from inadequate power supply due to increasing demand though it is amongst the African nations with the highest access to electricity. This research aims to assess the techno-economic potential of wind and solar energy potential for Ghana's northern part. We employ the Weibull distribution function, levelized cost of energy, and net present cost metrics for the economic study. The wind and solar energy resource's structure generated 72,284 kWh yearly. Both systems were identified to be too expensive if implemented under the current financing conditions in the country. The PV systems generated 38,859 kWh/year, representing 53.76% of the total electricity generated in a year, generating renewable hydrogen in the country. The findings show that sizing and management of renewable plants will fulfill the basic annual cooking demands of the populations, which are 785 kg H₂ in Ghana. The countries' capacity for developing solar hydrogen plants is further suggested by generating new solar hydrogen opportunity charts. Considering the significance of hydrogen energy under the renewable energy output, we recommend using hybrid systems for hydrogen production. The findings reveal which flexibility options are critical in key stages of the energy transition to a 70, 80, 90, and 100% renewable energy system.

Evaluating green innovation and performance of financial development: mediating concerns of environmental regulation

This research measures the relationship between green innovation and the performance of financial development by using an econometric estimation during the year of 2000 to 2018 in 28 Chinese provinces. It is intended to explore the relative role of green technological innovation in driving green financial development in the west and central China, as well as how it influences economic growth in these regions. Ordinary least square (OLS) framework was utilized in mainland China to perform empirical studies by using an econometric estimation. This study claims that China has adopted research-based education system, while those for economic growth and expenditure in the regions while the innovation parts results shows that the  tertiary education were 12.42% and 13.53% versus the 10.50% and 10.6% in the eastern area. The research-based education increases the patents in green innovation and boosts the environmental policy. The financial development led to green technological development and innovation. Green innovation and financial development decrease the emissions, and it is apparent that as environmental regulations stimulate technical development, the superiority of human resources increases. The findings indicate that green financing reduces short-term lending, thus limiting clean energy overinvestment, while the long-term loans have little impact on renewable energy overinvestment, and the intermediary effect is unmaintainable. Meanwhile, the green financial growth will reduce renewable energy overinvestment and increase renewable energy investment productivity to certain amount.

Co-movement of energy prices and stock market return: environmental wavelet nexus of COVID-19 pandemic from the USA, Europe, and China

This work aims to study the time-frequency relationship between the recent COVID-19 pandemic and instabilities in oil price and the stock market, geopolitical risks, and uncertainty in the economic policy in the USA, Europe, and China. The coherence wavelet method and the wavelet-based Granger causality tests are applied to the data (31st December 2019 to 1st August 2020) based on daily COVID-19 observations, oil prices, US-EPU, the US geopolitical risk index, and the US stock price index. The short- and long-term COVID-19 consequences are depicted differently and may initially be viewed as an economic crisis. The results illustrate the reduced industrial productivity, which intensifies with the increase in the pandemic's severeness (i.e., a 10.57% decrease in the productivity index with a 1% increase in the pandemic severeness). Similarly, indices for oil demand, stock market, GDP growth, and electricity demand decrease significantly with an increase in the pandemic severeness index (i.e., a 1% increase in the pandemic severeness results in a 0.9%, 0.67%, 1.12%, and 0.65% decrease, respectively). However, the oil market shows low co-movement with the stock exchange, exchange rate, and gold markets. Therefore, investors and the government are recommended to invest in the oil market to generate revenue during the sanctions period.

TRPgamma, a drosophila TRP-related subunit, forms a regulated cation channel with TRPL

TRP and TRPL are two light-sensitive cation channel subunits required for the Drosophila photoresponse; however, our understanding of the identities, subunit composition, and function of the light-responsive channels is incomplete. To explain the residual photoresponse that remains in the trp mutant, a third TRP-related subunit has previously been proposed to function with TRPL. Here, we identify such a subunit, TRPgamma. We show that TRPgamma is highly enriched in photoreceptor cells and preferentially heteromultimerizes with TRPL in vitro and in vivo. The N-terminal domain of TRPgamma dominantly suppressed the TRPL-dependent photoresponse, indicating that TRPgamma-TRPL heteromultimers contribute to the photoresponse. While TRPL and TRPgamma homomultimers are constitutively active, we demonstrate that TRPL-TRPgamma heteromultimers form a regulated phospholipase C- (PLC-) stimulated channel.

Termination of phototransduction requires binding of the NINAC myosin III and the PDZ protein INAD

Many of the proteins that are critical for Drosophila phototransduction assemble into a signaling complex, signalplex, through association with the PDZ-domain protein INAD. Some of these proteins depend on INAD for proper subcellular localization to the phototransducing organelle, the rhabdomere, making it difficult to assess any physiological function of this signaling complex independent of localization. Here we demonstrated that INAD bound directly to the NINAC myosin III, yet the subcellular localization of NINAC was normal in inaD mutants. Nevertheless, the INAD binding site was sufficient to target a heterologous protein to the rhabdomeres. Disruption of the NINAC/INAD interaction delayed termination of the photoreceptor response. Thus one role of this signaling complex is in rapid deactivation of the photoresponse.