The role of green growth and institutional quality on environmental sustainability: A comparison of CO2 emissions, ecological footprint and inverted load capacity factor for OECD countries.

Green growth is of great importance in terms of solving environmental problems and achieving sustainable development goals. However, the existing literature has not investigated how green growth affects environmental degradation and environmental sustainability variables. In light of this gap, this study aims to analyse the impact of green growth and institutional quality on CO2 emissions, ecological footprint and inverse load capacity factor in OECD countries by constructing three different models. The results of the analysis indicate that (i) green growth exerts a significant mitigating and differentiating effect on CO2, ecological footprint and inverted load capacity factor in the long run. This is evidenced by a 1% increase in green growth reducing CO2, ecological footprint and inverted load capacity factor by 0.563%, 0.373% and 0.198%, respectively. (i) The impact of green growth on CO2 and inverted load capacity factor in the long run is negative and statistically significant; (ii) the impact of green growth on CO2 and inverted load capacity factor in the short run is negative and statistically significant; (iii) the impact of institutional quality on deterioration is positive and significant in the long run; (iv) the impact of population on deterioration and sustainability is significant and mixed. The findings indicate that decision-makers in OECD countries should review green energy policies when setting the sustainable development goals, as environmental sustainability is more challenging than reducing pollution.

Structural breaks in CO2 emissions: Are they caused by climate change protests or other factors?

In recent times, there has been increase in climate change protest across the globe. However, whether decrease in emissions is connected with climate change protest or not is yet to be documented in the literature. Consequently, the aim of this study is to fill this gap by examining ex-post detection of how climate change protests and its interconnectedness with CO2 emissions. Using the Bai and Perron (1998) structural break test, we estimate the number of breaks as well as the date of such structural breaks in CO2 emissions series for 41 countries. Our aim is to match the date of the climate change protests to those of the structural breaks. We observe that climate change protests are fairly consistent with the dates of breaks in Europe and Asia, but not in BRICS economies or US, Canada and other countries. Therefore, this method allows us to solve a gap in the energy industry related to the modelling and correct allocation of positive shocks in CO2 emissions to climate change protests.

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.

Exploration on terrorism, ecological footprint and environmental sustainability in countries with the most terrorism antecedent: Accessing evidence from panel fourier analysis.

Amidst increased concerns for global security and ecological balance, the intricate interconnectedness between terrorism and environmental sustainability has attracted significant attention in the existing literature. To this end, the present study explores the interaction among environmental degradation, terrorism, and foreign direct investments in 17 countries with the most terrorism antecedents over the 2002-2018 period through the Panel Fourier cointegration test and the Panel Fourier Toda-Yamamoto causality test. The present study also leverages recent and robust panel analysis for evidence-based results and inferences for policy formulation. The panel Fourier cointegration test presents the cointegration relationship between the outline variables under review. Empirical findings highlight that terrorism does not have a significant influence on the ecological footprint. However, foreign direct investment has a positive influence on the ecological footprint. These findings have implications for environmental sustainability and foreign direct investment inflows in the bloc investigated. More insights are discussed in the concluding section with policy caveats.

Coal consumption-environmental sustainability nexus in developed and developing major coal-consuming economies.

Coal is crucial for economic progress but equally baneful to the environment. Thus, the coal consumption-environmental sustainability nexus attracted the attention of both policymakers and scholars. This study evaluates the coal consumption-environment nexus in developed and developing countries over the period 2000-2020. We used panel data econometric techniques and the Augmented Anderson-Hsiao (AAH) two-step GMM estimator to assess and compare the impact of coal consumption on CO2. The findings revealed that the consumption of coal aggravates environmental pollution and hinders environmental sustainability. Thus, this study confirms the environment-destroying effect of coal consumption. However, the findings reveal that the negative consequence of coal consumption on the environment is more for the sample of developed countries than that of developing countries. This suggests that coal use harms the environment developed economies than the developing countries. Specifically, we found that the carbon emissions emanating from a one percent (1%) increase in coal consumption of the developed countries is about six-fold more than that of the developing countries. Therefore, this study suggests a gradual phase-out, rather than sudden phase-out, of coal consumption with greater emphasis on developed countries. The implementation of the coal phase-out policy and the removal of fossil fuel subsidies should start with the developed countries or be made more stringent in such countries than the developing economies. The developed countries should relinquish a greater proportion of their coal consumption than the developing countries.

Exploring the potential of the carbon credit program for hedging energy prices in Brazil.

The transition to a low-carbon economy is imperative to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate pollution emissions. This preposition also aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-13), which highlight the climate change action. In this vein, Brazil has implemented the Decarbonization Credit (CBIOS) program to incentivize biofuel production and promote environmental sustainability through carbon credit emissions. To this end, the present study evaluates the effectiveness of the CBIO contract as a hedging tool for investors in the face of energy price fluctuations and decarbonization efforts. Specifically, we employ conditional dynamic correlation (DCC-GARCH) and optimal hedge ratio (HR) techniques to assess the relationship between CBIO and the futures and spot prices of sugar, oil, and ethanol. Our findings suggest that the current CBIO contract is not an effective hedge against energy spot and future prices. However, our analysis identifies a strengthening correlation between ethanol traded in Chicago and CBIO over time, highlighting the potential for an underlying contract to serve as an effective hedging tool in the future. Our study adds to the existing literature on carbon pricing mechanisms and their impact on financial markets, emphasizing the importance of sustainable energy policies and their potential to mitigate the risks associated with energy price volatility and decarbonization efforts.

Empirical analysis into the nexus between energy consumption, economic growth, and natural resources in D-8 bloc: evidence from panel causality analysis.

THe importance of the impact of natural resources on economic growth is an important issue with a long history in the energy and environment literature. It is seen that the studies conducted in this field are generally shaped by the "resource curse hypothesis," a hypothesis that highlights the trade-off between economic growth and resource abundance in the growth literature. However, the extant literature have presented inconclusive results. This study aims to examine the direction of causality between capital, energy use, energy imports, exchange rate, natural resources, and per capita income in countries that are rich in natural resources and consist of developing countries (D-8). In this context, first of all, the existence of CD test was determined, and then the stationarity of the variables was determined with the CADF unit root test. Then, whether the slope coefficients of the variables were homogeneous or not, it was decided that they were heterogeneous. Finally, the direction of causality between the variables was examined with the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test applied to heterogeneous panels. The empirical analysis results show a unidirectional causal relationship from capital to GDP per capita and from GDP per capita to energy use. In addition, while a two-way causality relationship was determined between the exchange rate and GDP per capita, no causal relationship was found between energy imports, natural resources, and per capita income. These results have macroeconomic implications and spillover effects on the energy mix of D-8 economies. In addition, no causal relationship was found between natural resources and GDP per capita in this country group and within the scope of the analysis period. Policy recommendations are highlighted in the conclusion.

Ecological risks and innovative-investment projects.

Market competition is becoming fiercer all around the world and countries pay considerable attention to their innovative-investment environment. Rapid global economic development and infinite resource extraction have damaged the environment and the harmful environmental effect has become increasingly significant. Thus, technological innovation occupies an important place in the discussion of developmental issues. Previous studies on innovative projects were focused largely on how technological innovations allow us to prevent financial risks and enter the market. However, it is necessary to pay attention to environmental risks arising from successful technological innovations. Thus, this study focused on the nexus between ecological risks and innovative investment. Specifically, the study considers the environmental risks of innovation. The findings reveal that investment in innovations and environmental protection measures can be carried out simultaneously for both ecological and economic targets. To control and prevent environmental risks of technological innovations, there should be a shift from industrial technological innovations to environmental technological innovations to achieve the unity of economic benefits and environmental interests. Such an approach preserves social and public interests and ensures sustainable development.

Examining obesity kuznets curve in the United States from the perspective of globalization and biocapacity.

Given the recent rise in the adult obesity prevalence in the United States, the central and state-level governments and health agencies in the country are considering appropriate measures. Further motivation for this investigation stems from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG-3, 8, and 13), that highlights the need for sustainable health for all, sustainable decent economic growth amidst environmental sustainability. Driven by this motivation, this study investigates the validity of Obesity Kuznets curve (OKC) in the United States over the experimental period of 1975-2016. In addition, this study illustrates the (mediating) role of globalisation and biocapacity in controlling the prevalence of obesity in the United States. While the study established the validity of obesity Kuznets curve, especially in the short run, it found an inverted U-shaped relationship between globalisation and obesity for the United States. This interprets that a significant reduction in wealth-related health issues is achievable with increased (socioeconomic and political) globalisation policy amidst improved (socioeconomic) welfare of the Americans. Moreover, biocapacity showed a desirable impact on obesity since the short- and long-run relationship with a respective elasticity of 0.02 and 1.86 is negative and statistically significant. In general, this study puts forward policy from the perspective of socioeconomic and political globalisation and domestic welfare measures across the country.

Toward a sustainable growth path in Arab economies: an extension of classical growth model.

Background/Objectives: Many economies are on the trajectory of alternative growth drivers other than conventional capital and labor. Access to credit facilities is a pertinent indicator of economic growth. In line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs-8) agenda, the national goal for sustainable development for most economies and Arab economies is no exception. Therefore, the current study adopts a traditional growth model by exploring the relationship between gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, credit for private sectors, ratio of exports, real GDP, and per labor force participants for selected Arab economies annually from 2001 to 2020. Research design: This study leverages the Fourier Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS) unit root test and second-generation panel econometrics as estimation techniques, such as Westerlund and Edgerton panel cointegration test, and the use of two estimators, namely the augmented mean group (AMG) and common correlated error mean group (CCEMG), to obtain robust results. Findings: Empirical findings from Westerlund and Edgerton panel cointegration tests validate the long-run equilibrium relationship among the outlined variables. Further empirical results indicate that the share of exports is negatively significant with economic growth in countries such as Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Jordan. Additionally, savings and labor force participation have a positive relationship with economic growth in individual countries such as Algeria and Bahrain. As per the panel, there is no significant relationship between labor force participation and economic growth. This indicates that the skilled labor force enhanced economic growth. Conclusions: These findings come with inherent far-reaching policy suggestions for economies and panels. Further details on country-specific policy actions are presented in the concluding section.

Empirical analysis of South African's urbanization growth and export demands: implications for environmental sustainability.

South African economy is widely known to contribute significantly to the carbon emissions due to usage of heavy machinery and equipment involved in production process. This study examines the linkage among carbon emissions, export, gross domestic product, and urban population growth in South Africa. The study employs the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model to evaluate the linkage among outlined variables, using annual data from 1981 to 2021. The findings indicate that a 1% increase in urban population leads to 1% decrease in carbon emissions. Furthermore, a 1% increase in economic activities (GDP) leads to a rise in carbon emissions. This corroborates rising exports with GDP that is rising thereby resulting in carbon emissions. The study recommends platforms that educate the populace, especially the youth on the management of carbon emissions in their daily home and business activities should be encouraged. More investment into clean technologies should be provided for energy efficiency machinery, and more research into such activities should be pursued by all relevant stakeholders.

A bibliometric review analysis into environmental kuznets curve phenomenon: A retrospect and future direction.

The present study presents a retrospect into environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC). The EKC debate is dated over four decade long and worthy of empirical scrutiny. To this end, the present study leverages on over 200 previous studies curated from SCOPUS and Web of science (WOS) core collection database respectively. The present study also presented both literature schematic on the evolution, trends, gaps, and future directions on the EKC debate. This paper endeavors to enhance our comprehension of the inherent paradoxes present in sustainability discourses by delving into the fundamental assumptions underlying the Environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). By conducting a bibliometric analysis, we aim to shed light on the factors contributing to the prominence of thematic keywords within sustainability discourses. This study seeks to provide valuable insights into these dynamics and implications on sustainability debates. Key empirical findings outlines predominant and influential studies and journal outlets on the theme under consideration. The present study bibliometric analysis displays that Ozturk i. with 13 published papers 3153 citations and a link strength of 2, Dogan e. Had 7 papers with 2190 citations with no link strength, Shahbaz. B 7 papers 1347 citations and 1 link strength, Saboori b.7 papers 677 citations 1 strength link and Liu y. 6 papers 582 citations with no link strength. From a policy dimension, the present bibliometric study presents valuable depth on the evolution and development of the EKC phenomenon by identifying's the extant literature leaders, action-step for future studies on environmental sustainability without compromise on economic growth as the EKC theme express the tradeoff between economic growth and environmental degradation. Further insights are rendered in the concluding section.

An empirical assessment of the tripartite nexus between environmental pollution, economic growth, and agricultural production in Sub-Saharan African countries.

A lot of attention has been paid to environmental pollution worldwide, due to the increase in anthropogenic activities. Massive investment in non-renewable energy options raises questions regarding environmental sustainability and how to maximize food and non-food output while still preserving a healthy ecosystem. To this end, the present study explores the three-way nexus between economic growth, CO2 emission, and agriculture-value added will accounting for other control variables across a balanced panel of selected African economies from 1997 to 2020. Panel econometrics method of the generalized method of moments (two-step difference GMM) is used to obtain a robust result. From the present study, the environmental pollution model shows that economic growth significantly contributes to environmental pollution in Africa. Additionally, the food price index, capital, and FDI promote pollution, while agricultural production and labor decrease pollution. In the case of the economic growth model, the findings reveal that environmental pollution supports the growth-led pollution hypothesis. Also, the food price index and capital ameliorate economic growth, while foreign direct investments decrease economic growth. Finally, the agricultural production model indicates that economic growth increases agricultural production when the interaction term between GDPC and FDI is included in the model. In summary, the combination of explanatory variables, environmental pollution, capital, and foreign direct investment decreases agricultural production. On the contrary, the food price index and labor promote agricultural production in Africa. Furthermore, the study provides a lot of policies for authorities and stakeholders in Sub-Saharan African countries and other developing economies.

A research landscape bibliometric analysis on climate change for last decades: Evidence from applications of machine learning.

Climate change (CC) is one of the greatest threats to human health, safety, and the environment. Given its current and future impacts, numerous studies have employed computational tools (e.g., machine learning, ML) to understand, mitigate, and adapt to CC. Therefore, this paper seeks to comprehensively analyze the research/publications landscape on the MLCC research based on published documents from Scopus. The high productivity and research impact of MLCC has produced highly cited works categorized as science, technology, and engineering to the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The most prolific author is Shamsuddin Shahid (based at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia), whereas the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the most productive affiliation on MLCC research. The most influential countries are the United States and China, which is attributed to the funding activities of the National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), respectively. Collaboration through co-authorship in high-impact journals such as Remote Sensing was also identified as an important factor in the high rate of productivity among the most active stakeholders researching MLCC topics worldwide. Keyword co-occurrence analysis identified four major research hotspots/themes on MLCC research that describe the ML techniques, potential risky sectors, remote sensing, and sustainable development dynamics of CC. In conclusion, the paper finds that MLCC research has a significant socio-economic, environmental, and research impact, which points to increased discoveries, publications, and citations in the near future.

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.

Estimating the energy consumption function: evidence from across the globe.

The motivation for the current study stem from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) such as access to clean (SDG-7) and responsible energy consumption (SDG-12) and climate change mitigation (SDG-12). This chase for these goals is pertinent for sustainable economic growth and environmental sustainability. This becomes necessary given the global demand for energy which comes has it environmental consequences given anthropogenic effect. To this end, the present study seeks to identify the factors determining the energy consumption function for 79 economies across the globe. For empirical investigation, 44 years data of five regions, namely Asia and Pacific, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East and Arab States, is analyzed. A multivariate regression model and the method of least squares are employed to achieve set of objectives. The least squares result of the regions and single country of the regions are not significantly different from each other. Every region exhibits a common narrative that economic growth, carbon emissions, and urbanization are the key factors determining the consumption function in most of the sample economies. The empirical findings revealed that energy consumption function is determined by economic growth, urbanization, and carbon emissions. In the light of these findings, it is recommended that energy policy needs to be designed considering the significance of economic growth and environmental quality, and consequently it leads toward the achievement of the sustainable development goals.

On the nexus between globalization, tourism, economic growth, and biocapacity: evidence from top tourism destinations.

Several studies have investigated the relationship between tourism, consumption of energy, globalization, and ecological footprint. However, the role of biocapacity alongside tourism development in environmental sustainability is yet to be documented in the extant literature. No doubt, the biocapacity of a country, its level of tourist's arrival, as well as globalization all contribute immensely to ecological footprint. Consequently, this study looks at long-run and causality connections with a special focus on bio-capacity. The study uses the pooled mean group-autoregressive distributed lag model (PMG-ARDL) methodology to test the causality relationship during 2016 international tourists' receipt from world tourism organization data files for 10 tourism destinations. Empirical result based on the panel PMG-ARDL confirms the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the 10 tourism destinations countries investigated. Furthermore, the panel ARDL estimator was used to estimate the short-run and long-run relationships simultaneously between biocapacity, tourist arrivals, GDP per capita, globalization, and ecological footprints. While the Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality test was used to establish causality relationships among the highlighted variables. The trade-off between economic growth and environmental quality suggests that tourist arrival dampens environmental quality. In addition, the study finds that growing biocapacity affects ecological footprints negatively. Furthermore, an increase in tourism-related activities, globalization, and economic production has the potential to damage the quality of the environment. To this end, given the study results, there is a need to pursue green tourism which can reduce environmental degradation and destruction of land caused by multiple tourism-related transportation and construction of tourist facilities respectively in the top ten tourist destination countries.

Synthesizing urbanization and carbon emissions in Africa: how viable is environmental sustainability amid the quest for economic growth in a globalized world?

Global emission statistics show that Africa is among the least carbon-emitting continents. However, the rising drive for economic growth amid urbanization and globalization in recent years has continued to attract the attention of policymakers to the attendant potential environmental risks. Hence, using robust empirical techniques, this study examines the impacts of increasing urbanization alongside its interactions with energy portfolios on environmental prospects of 15 selected African countries including the most urbanized and leading oil producers in the continent of Africa. The results of the analysis produced insightful implications for achieving both environmental and economic sustainability for the understudied countries. Firstly, the trio of urbanization, economic globalization, and income levels aggravate environmental degradation among these countries as they were found to be essential drivers of carbon emission levels over the understudied period (1990-2015). Secondly, while urbanization significantly poses threat to environmental sustainability, the evidence obtained regarding its interaction with energy portfolios of the understudied countries differs. The significant detrimental environmental impacts of the interaction between urbanization and energy portfolios were only confirmed in the context of fossil energy consumption among the countries, while renewables exist as a significant decarbonization channel within the framework of the increasing level of urbanization among the countries. Thirdly, the study upholds the EKC conjecture. Hence, policymakers and authorities in Africa should capitalize on maximizing the benefits of the huge renewable resource potentials on the continent through adequate investments in green energy technologies for urban infrastructures toward the realization of sustainable development goals (SDGs 11 and 13).

Accounting for the combined impacts of natural resources rent, income level, and energy consumption on environmental quality of G7 economies: a panel quantile regression approach.

As the argument widens on the need to cut down on global carbon emissions, this study addresses environmental degradation using a combination of second-generation empirical methodologies including, quantile regression (QR), augmented mean group (AMG), fully modified ordinal least square (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinal least square (DOLS) to examine the impacts of natural resource rents alongside disaggregated energy consumption on the environmental quality of the G7 economies within the framework of the stochastic impact by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model. The empirical findings reveal that the total natural resources rent indicates a positive significant relationship with pollution in all the quantiles except Q 0.05. Additionally, the findings for renewable energy consumption are adverse and significant throughout the assessed quantiles while fossil fuel energy consumption is reported to have a positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions, thus, increasing environmental degradation experienced in the G7 economies. The extended findings from the Granger causality analysis also show that income levels combined with fossil fuel use have a strong effect on environmental degradation, while the total natural resources rent granger causes clean energy consumption within the G7 countries. This finding supports the assertions that natural resource revenue is mostly channeled into further productivity avenues which consequently lead to further environmental degradation. As such, while maintaining targeted revenue agenda, we strongly recommend that productivity gains from natural resource rents within the G7 economies should be harnessed for investment in clean energy for a more sustainable environment.

Tourism-induced pollution emission amidst energy mix: evidence from Nigeria.

In recent years, there is concerted efforts to boost the tourism industry in Nigeria, and regulatory bodies were created for the tourism industry. This study is contributing to the ongoing debate on the tourism-energy-environment literature. Thus, we explore the linkage between tourism development, energy consumption, carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, and renewable energy consumption in Nigeria for the period of 1995-2016. The present study leverages on Bounds testing to cointegration in a carbon-income function environment while incorporating renewable energy consumption to the econometric framework. Subsequently, autoregressive distributed lag methodology alongside dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) is utilized for robustness of estimations. Empirical results give credence to the energy-induced emission hypothesis in Nigeria. This outcome is suggestive to policymakers as fossil fuel-based energy consumption deplete the quality of the environment. Similarly, the study also affirms the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) phenomenon. The emphasis on Nigerian growth trajectory (real income level) relative to her quality of environment via the channel of economic development and energy consumption from fossil-fuel source is indicated. On the other hand, renewable energy consumption in Nigeria shows significant ability to reduce emission level in Nigeria. This result is insightful, which implies that environmental quality is not threatened with an increase in tourist arrivals, hence tourism does not degrade the environment but is sustainable to the environment. Interesting and laudable for stakeholders' international tourism arrival did not deplete the quality of the environment. The plausible explanation is attributed to the scale of tourism in Nigeria which at the moment is still low or much more there is caution/awareness on ecotourism for sustainable environment.