The carbon dioxide neutralizing effect of energy innovation on international tourism in EU-5 countries under the prism of the EKC hypothesis.

Mitigation of carbon dioxide emissions has become an utmost important global agenda, keeping into consideration the associated environmental hardships. As a result, it is important to unearth the factors which can neutralize carbon emissions to transform the world economy into a low-carbon one. Against this backdrop, this study explores the carbon dioxide neutralizing effects of economic growth, international tourism, clean energy promotion, and technological innovation in the context of five European Union (EU-5) nations during the 1990-2015 period. This study's main contribution is in terms of its approach to test the interaction effect between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and energy innovation on carbon dioxide emissions. The econometric analysis chronologically involves the employment of unit root, cointegration, causality, and regression methods. Overall, the findings support the inverted-U-shaped economic growth-carbon dioxide emissions nexus to verify the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Besides, the Pollution Haven Hypothesis in the context of the selected panel is also verified as higher FDI inflows are seen to boost the carbon dioxide emission levels. The results also confirm that energy innovation moderates the harmful effect of air transport (a proxy for international tourism) on carbon dioxide emissions during the developing stage of the tourism industry. On the other hand, renewable energy promotion is found to curb carbon dioxide emissions. These findings suggest that the European governments need to enhance investments in their respective renewable energy sectors and simultaneously ensure the development of clean industries, which can collectively help these nations become carbon-neutral in the future.

The effects of air transportation, energy, ICT and FDI on economic growth in the industry 4.0 era: Evidence from the United States.

This study analyses the causal and long-run linkage between air transport and economic growth. It was conducted to validate the tourism-led growth hypothesis for the United States (US) during the period 1981-2017 and includes Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) alongside coal rents in the tourism-led growth hypothesis. This study presents a new direction for future studies by considering the relevance of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), particularly in the US. To achieve the stated claim, this study considers as additional explanatory variables how ICTs moderate the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on GDP. The empirical result confirms a connection between the Industry 4.0 era and the role of ICTs, which promotes substantial changes in the way of life and productivity. This has led to a vast technological advancement, which is in line with but at a faster pace than the technological advancement of previous revolutions. From empirical results, the study provides relevant policy recommendations related to the role of natural resources, new technologies and tourism on US GDP, while it also provides evidence of the positive effect of ICTs over FDI under the Industry 4.0 era.

Designing policy framework for sustainable development in Next-5 largest economies amidst energy consumption and key macroeconomic indicators.

Global travel and tourism have enjoyed a significant boost due to the progress in air transport. However, the debate on air transport and the influx of foreign investments and global energy demand on economic development remains questionable. Therefore, this study is an attempt to contribute to the body of knowledge in the energy-tourism-led growth hypothesis literature. For this purpose, a novel approach to the effects of international tourism on economic growth is introduced for the Next-5 largest economies, namely (China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and the USA) between 1990 and 2018. Empirical results reveal a positive connection between foreign direct investment and income levels, electricity production and income levels, as well as between urbanization and economic growth. Moreover, the validation of the environmental Kuznets curve and the halo effect of foreign direct investment on the environmental degradation process provides a shred of more substantial evidence and fitting environmental instruments for policymakers. The empirical results encourage sustainable economic growth in these countries, mainly through the attraction of clean and high-technology foreign investment, the increase of the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix and the regulation in the tourism industry. The novel contribution of this study to the empirical literature is the unification in the same research of the TLGH and the EKC for the Next-5 largest economies, establishing recommendations for tourism, energy efficiency and environmental correction process.

The effects of tourism and globalization over environmental degradation in developed countries.

This paper focuses on long-term evidence on economic growth, international tourism, globalization, energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in OECD countries for the period of 1994-2014. The empirical analysis reveals that climate change is magnified by energy use, tourism and economic growth. An inverted U-shaped relationship is also found between international tourism and CO2 emissions. The contribution of international tourism to climate change in the early stages of development is thus diminished by globalization in the later stages. In other words, globalization appears to reduce carbon emissions from international tourism. The empirical results provide additional arguments for shaping regulatory frameworks aimed at reversing the current energy mix in OECD countries by facilitating energy efficiency and promoting renewable sources.

Do agricultural activities induce carbon emissions? The BRICS experience.

This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) over the period 1990-2014, while considering agricultural activities, energy use, trade openness and mobile use as driving forces of environmental degradation. The empirical results verify an inverted U-shaped connection between carbon emissions and economic growth. This study confirms the unfriendly impact of agriculture on the environment. Electricity consumption and trade openness likewise exhibit similar impacts on carbon emissions. Mobile use however reduces pollution. A unique revelation from this study is that the interaction between electricity consumption and agricultural activities has an additional pernicious effect on the environment. The methodologies applied for testing the impact of selected independent variables on carbon emissions in BRICS are the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and the Fully Modify Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) for long run regression. Empirical evidence confirms that agriculture exerts a negative impact on the environment in BRICS countries. This study therefore recommends the adoption of cleaner energy processes and enabling high-tech and clean foreign investment.