Renewable energy electricity, environmental taxes, and sustainable development: empirical evidence from E7 economies.

Since globalization has increased both production and population, it has also increased environmental damage. This is why the development of renewable energy sources is crucial to the survival of humanity and the planet itself. Business patterns across the various nations, however, have changed significantly over time. This study examines how environmental taxes and renewable energy electricity affect renewable energy consumption in emerging seven economies by using panel dataset over the period of 1990 to 2020. Control variables include economic growth, carbon emissions, and environmental innovation. The results confirmed the presence of the long-run co-integration association, the existence of slope coefficient heterogeneity, and the dependency of cross sections using several panel data methods. Since the data was not normally distributed, a new technique known as method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) was applied in this study. The projected results contend that the major factors of renewable energy consumption are renewable energy output, environmental taxation, economic growth, and carbon emissions. However, eco-friendly innovations drastically cut back on the need for renewable energy. Bootstrap quantile regression verifies the results' reliability, and the panel Granger causality test corroborates that the listed factors have a bidirectional causal relationship with renewable energy usage. Furthermore, this research recommends boosting spending on renewable electricity, the environmental tax sector, and ecological innovation in order to expand the use of renewable energy.

Public debt and environment degradation in OIC countries: the moderating role of institutional quality.

Although the effect of public debt on environmental quality has been envisaged in prior empirical studies, the outcomes are inconclusive. Moreover, institutional quality can directly or indirectly influence public debt and environmental quality. However, empirical investigations probing the moderating role of institutional performance in public debt and environmental degradation relationship are missing. This research pursues to bridge this gap by exploring whether the institutional quality is a factor that moderates the debt-environment relationship of OIC economies in the period 1996 to 2018. Short-run findings disclose that public debt statistically significantly degrades the environment quality in the panels of low and overall OIC-income countries, but it mends the environmental performance in the high-income panel of OIC countries. Institutional performance is negatively linked with all environmental damaging measures across the three-income stratum of OIC countries. Both the short-run and long-run results of the interactive term between public debt and institutional quality reveal that it turns the unfavorable influence of public debt on environmental damaging measures. The outcomes of the study validated an inverted U-shape EKC when CO2, CH4, and ecological footprint are employed in all three-income panels of OIC countries. However, for N2O emission, a U-shaped EKC is seen in the panels of low-income and overall OIC nations. To address environmental issues, our results suggest that OIC countries should improve the institutional quality and control the public debt at a certain level, also ensure sustainable use of biocapacity and forests.

Advances in formulation, functionality, and application of edible coatings on fresh produce and fresh-cut products: A review.

With the increasing population of the world food demand is also increasing but unfortunately, many countries in the world are lacking suitable and economical postharvest preservation techniques to minimize increasing postharvest losses. To ensure food security advanced production technologies, distribution systems and minimum losses should be ensured to give accessibility of food to all population groups. Innovative preservation techniques should be adopted by the agriculture sector to meet intercontinental distribution and demand for fresh produce. The application of the edible coating is a novel technique in postharvest preservation due to its simple application, ecofriendly nature, and effectiveness. Edible coatings can also improve the quality and safety aspects of fresh produce and thus extends shelf life. This review aimed to update information about recent advances in edible coating formulation and application mainly on fresh-cut /minimally processed fruits and vegetables. This information will be helpful for processors to select the best coating material and its effective concentration for different fresh and minimal processed vegetables.

Impact of varying levels of soil salinity on emergence, growth and biochemical attributes of four Moringa oleifera landraces.

Salinity in soil and water is one of the environmental factors that severely hinder the crop growth and production particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the impact of salinity levels (1.5 dS m-1, 3.5 dS m-1, 7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1) on emergence, growth and biochemical traits of moringa landraces under completely randomized design having three replications. Four landraces of Moringa oleifera (Faisalabad black seeded moringa [MFB], Patoki black seeded moringa [MPB], Faisalabad white seeded moringa [MFW] and Rahim Yar Khan black seeded moringa [MRB]) were selected for experimentation. All the salinity levels significantly affected the emergence parameters (time to emergence start, time to 50% emergence, mean emergence time, emergence index and final emergence percentage) of moringa landraces. However, 1.5 dS m-1 and 3.5 dS m-1 were found more favorable. Higher salinity levels (7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1) significantly minimized the root surface area, root projected area, root volume and root density as compared to 1.5 dS m-1, 3.5 dS m-1. Number of branches, leaves, leaflets and leaf length were also adversely affected by 7.5 dS m-1 and 11.5 dS m-1. Maximum seedling fresh and dry weights, and seedling length were recorded at 1.5 dS m-1 followed by 3.5 dS m-1. Chlorophyll a and b contents, carotenoids and membrane stability index were also observed highest at salinity level of 1.5 dS m-1. In case of moringa landraces, MRB performed better regarding emergence attributes, growth parameters, and biochemical analysis followed by MFW as compared to MFB and MPB. Moringa landraces i.e. MRB and MFW were found more tolerant to salinity stress as compared to MFB and MPB.

Moderating role of institutional quality in validation of pollution haven hypothesis in BRICS: a new evidence by using DCCE approach.

The technological innovation and strict environmental protocols in the highly developed regions have become the primary sources for foreign direct investment to move in the pollution haven economies. In this regard, this study attempted to identify the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the developing economies of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) region. For this reason, a dataset was obtained between 1995 and 2019. Chudik and Pesaran's (2015) latest dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE) technique is used because of its new features when integrating the problems of heterogeneity and structural breaks into panel data that are general and do not encompass much recent research in this context. According to the empirical outcomes, foreign direct investment is a source of pollution haven in this region. However, the moderating effect of institutional quality on foreign direct investment has been found negative for ecological footprint. It also found the threshold point where the foreign direct investment effect becomes negative on ecological footprint. Based on these empirical results, this research suggests that foreign direct investment strategy should be maintained in the presence of good institutional efficiency as it enhances the environment and promotes economic development.

Economic growth, fiscal imbalance, and environmental sustainability: What is desirable and undesirable for developing economies?

Developing economies are suffering to fulfill the sustainable environment's commitments in fiscal imbalance. This study attempted to highlight the core issue of fiscal imbalance in developing economies and its impact on a sustainable environment. For this purpose, the study utilized generalized least squares (GLS) and quantile autoregressive distributive lag (QARDL) on a 19-year dataset (2000-2018) of the South Asian region. The results of GLS indicate that fiscal imbalance contributing positively to South Asia's environmental degradation process. Here, energy consumption (due to dirty sources of energy) and energy intensity (due to inefficient energy conversion technology) are also sources of environmental degradation in this region. The results of QARDL confirm that economic and political fluctuations can be the long-run source of fiscal imbalance in this region, which ultimately slows down the process of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) theory and contributes positively to environmental degradation. Based on the empirical analysis, this study provides a comprehensive set of policy guidance for developing and developed economies for the smooth transition of sustainable environmental conditions in South Asia.

Biogenesis of silver nanoparticles to treat cancer, diabetes, and microbial infections: a mechanistic overview.

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) by harnessing the natural abilities of plant secondary metabolites has advantages over routine physical and chemical synthetic approaches due to their one-step experimental setup to reduce and stabilize the bulk silver into SNPs, biocompatible nature, and therapeutic significance. The unique size, shape, and biochemical functional corona of SNPs embellish them with the potential to perform therapeutic actions by adopting various mechanistic approaches including but not limited to the disruption of the electron transport chain, mitochondrial damage, DNA fragmentation, inhibition of ATP synthase activity, disorganization of the cell membrane, suspension of cellular signaling pathways, induction of apoptosis, and inhibition of enzymes activity. This review elaborates the biogenic synthesis of SNPs in redox chemical reactions by using plant secondary metabolites found in plant extracts. In addition, it explains the synergistic influence of physicochemical reaction parameters such as the temperature, pH, the concentration of the AgNO3, and the ratio of reactants to affect the reaction kinetics, molecular mechanics, enzymatic catalysis, and protein conformations that aid to affect the size, shape, and potential biochemical corona of nanoparticles. This review also provides up-to-date information on the mechanistic actions that embellish the plant-based SNPs, an anticancer, cytotoxic, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, and antioxidant potential. The mechanistic understanding of the therapeutic actions of SNPs will help in precision medicine to develop customized treatment and healthcare approaches for the welfare of the human population. KEY POINTS: • Significance of the biogenic nanoparticles • Biomedical application potential of the plant-based silver nanoparticles • Mechanism of the anticancer, antidiabetic, and antimicrobial actions of the plant-based silver nanoparticles.

Empirical assessment of government policies and flattening of the COVID19 curve.

The objective of the study is 2-fold. First, it estimates the 2019 new coronavirus disease (COVID19) flattening curve using Panel Random Coefficient Model. This allows each country to have its trajectory while allowing for random error effects to transfer across countries. Second, it calculates the expected number of days to reach the flattening point of COVID19 curve and estimate the empirical effectiveness of government policies around the world using Poisson regression. This study avails global COVID19 incidence data for 190 countries between January 22, 2020 and May 11, 2020. In the absence of a vaccine or of more appropriate treatment options, non-pharmaceutical approaches must be used to control the spread of the COVID19. This study proposed that the contact tracing, stay at home restrictions and international movement restrictions are most effective in controlling the spread and flattening the COIVD19 curve. At the same time, habits that hurt the immune system like smoking have a negative effect on the flattening of the curve. The government should integrate these policies in their lockdown plan to make it smart lockdown.

Assessing the impacts of globalization and gender parity on economic growth: empirical evidence from OIC countries.

The contemporary debate on globalization and gender equality has a strong impact on economic growth. The present study analyzes the impacts of globalization and gender parity on economic growth in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) 47 member countries for the period (1991-2017), using System GMM panel data technique. The results of system GMM have also been empirically estimated by making two groups (viz., low-income and high-income OIC member countries from the World Bank data classification, 2019) to examine the robustness of globalization and gender parity on economic growth. The results reveal that there is a negative impact of globalization on economic growth in the overall sample of OIC countries. When estimated by decomposing low-income countries and high-income countries, globalization has a significantly positive impact on economic growth in the case of high-income OIC countries, whereas globalization slashes GDP in the case of low-income OIC countries. The study finds that there is a positive impact of gender parity (ratio of female to male labor force work participation) on economic growth. Moreover, foreign remittances, government expenditures, capital formation, and human capital are also becoming the causes of a significant increase in economic growth in OIC member countries.