The asymmetric influence of environmental-related technological innovation on climate change mitigation: what role do FDI and renewable energy play?

This study aims to provide a new perspective on environmental studies by examining the influence of environmental-related technological innovation, foreign direct investment, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth on the climate change index (CCI), a novel proxy for environmental quality indicators. From the econometric standpoint, this study employs the "non-linear autoregressive distributed lag" model and spectral causality over the period of 1999-2018 for India. The results show that positive shocks to economic growth have detrimental long- and short-term effects on environmental quality, whereas negative shocks have no effect. While a positive shock has an insignificant impact, a negative shock to environmental technology innovation has a long-term negative impact on environmental quality. This study provides evidence for the pollution halo hypothesis in India. Besides, a long-term negative shock to the usage of renewable energy fosters environmental degradation. Furthermore, in short-, medium-, and long-term frequency, spectral causality demonstrates unidirectional causation from CCI to environmental-related technological innovation. Bidirectional causation is demonstrated between the CCI and renewable energy consumption in the short and medium term. In addition, environmental-related technological innovation and foreign direct investment are demonstrating a bidirectional relationship in the short term. This study has advocated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)-centric policy paradigm, which can assist the Indian government in achieving SDG-13 (mitigating climate change) and SDG-7 (clean energy consumption).

Towards a clean production by exploring the nexus between agricultural ecosystem and environmental degradation using novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach.

Agriculture, which serves as a lifeline for us, is unequivocally vital for an agriculture-dependent economy like Bangladesh, not only for its food supply but also because of its significant contribution towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2. However, in a third-world nation like Bangladesh, where farming practices largely circumvent the environmental consequences, raised our concern. In this milieu, this study is a novel attempt to explore the association between agricultural ecosystem and environmental degradation in Bangladesh using a long time spanning from 1972 to 2018. We observed a long-run association between the agroecosystem and CO2 emission. Further, findings from the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DARDL) simulation model revealed that the environmental quality of Bangladesh is heavily distorted by total cereal production, total livestock head, enteric methane emissions, N2O emissions from manure application, and CO2 equivalent N2O emissions from synthetic fertilizers in the short and long run, whereas agricultural technology, pesticide use in agriculture, and burned biomass crop residue deteriorated the environmental quality only in the long run. The counterfactual diagram entailed from the DARDL model projected the trend of CO2 emission in response to positive and negative changes in the analyzed variables. Lastly, this study established a causal relationship between the agroecosystem and environmental degradation using frequency domain causality. Indeed, our study will aid in reshaping agricultural practices in an eco-friendly manner to mitigate environmental degradation and help formulate pragmatic policy actions so that agro-lead nations can thrive in the race of achieving SDGs 1, 2, and 13.

Scaling the changes in lifestyle, attitude, and behavioral patterns among COVID-19 vaccinated people: insights from Bangladesh.

With the advent of COVID-19 vaccines, countries around the globe are anticipating a way out from the pandemic. Despite being an initiative to contain the COVID-19 virus spreading, the mass vaccination program also raised concerns about its consequences on the lifestyle, attitude, and behavioral pattern of vaccinated people in the post-vaccination period. With this in mind, this study investigated changes in lifestyle, attitude, and behavior among vaccinated people in Bangladesh. A cross-sectional survey was conducted incorporating 1227 COVID-19 vaccinated respondents from eight divisions of Bangladesh. The relative importance index (RII) was used to assess the most compelling lifestyle, attitude, and behavior changes, while binary logistic regression was used to identify factors driving the changes. Findings disclosed that respondents increased the physical contact with non-vaccinated ones and amplified consuming nutritious food after vaccination. The inclination of avoiding distance, handshaking, abandoning sanitizer and mask, visiting crowded places, traveling, and staying outside longer was found to be increased among vaccinated individuals. Surprisingly, about seven out of ten surveyed respondents exhibited a sedentary lifestyle, while 67.37% of respondents showed negative behavioral changes following the vaccination period. A positive attitude was observed in encouraging others to be vaccinated against COVID-19. However, 92% of the respondents positively changed their attitude toward the COVID-19 vaccine after vaccination. Furthermore, the participants' age, residence, economic status, and educational level influenced lifestyle, attitude, and behavioral changes positively. The study recommends informing citizens about the opacity of vaccinations' ability to contain infections and encouraging them to continue following COVID-19 protective guidelines.

Heading towards sustainable environment: exploring the dynamic linkage among selected macroeconomic variables and ecological footprint using a novel dynamic ARDL simulations approach.

Ever since the emancipation of a country, its environmental quality has undergone a significant transition during the development phases; Bangladesh is no exception. Bangladesh is facing a serious threat in the age of global warming, and climate change as the country is looking forward in achieving the SDGs by 2030. Yet, there is a dearth of study regarding the relationship among crucial macroeconomic drivers and ecological footprint (a proxy for environmental degradation). Under the circumstances, this study explores the effects of economic growth, capital formation, urbanization, trade openness, energy use, and technological innovation on the ecological footprint by adopting the novel dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) simulations approach for Bangladesh, using annual frequency data from 1972 to 2017. Empirical results from the bounds test ascertained that there exists a long-run equilibrium association among the outlined variables. Furthermore, the novel dynamic ARDL simulation results revealed that Bangladesh is yet to achieve the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. It was observed that the Bangladesh economy is still at the scale stage of its economic trajectory, emphasizing economic growth relative to her environmental status. However, capital formation, urbanization, and energy use seemed to degrade environmental quality, while trade openness and technological innovation upgraded the environmental quality. Putting it more elaborately, a unit escalation in GDP per capita increases the ecological footprint by 0.829% in the long run, while a unit increase in energy consumption upsurges the ecological footprint by 1.074% and 0.761% in the long run and short run, respectively. As regards technology innovation, one unit increase in it cutbacks the ecological footprint by 0.596% in the long run. Furthermore, the frequency domain causality unveiled the long-run feedback effect between economic growth and ecological footprint. The study further presents possible recommendations that can sustainably address environmental issues, keeping the economy buoyant.

COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among public university students in Bangladesh: Highlighting knowledge, perceptions, and attitude.

Across many parts of the globe, the educational system is under a complete shutdown, falling victim to health-safety concerns of the deadly COVID-19; and Bangladesh is no exception. Reportedly, the Bangladesh government prioritized resuming public universities after bringing all the students under vaccination. However, little is known about students' intention toward the COVID-19 vaccines in Bangladesh. Under the circumstances, this study attempted to assess the COVID-19 vaccine-related knowledge, perceptions, attitude, and acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine of public university students. Besides, factors affecting the degrees of COVID-19 vaccine-related knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and vaccine acceptability were also explored. Results from descriptive analyses revealed that most of the respondents showed positive attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccine, while 78% of them found to have adequate knowledge. Nevertheless, 37% of students exhibiting negative perceptions about the vaccine raised our concern. However, 72.7% of respondents intended to take a COVID-19 vaccine. Outcomes of multinomial logistic model showed that knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes significantly varied across the level of education, residence area, and COVID-19 infection history of the respondents. Further, findings of binary logistic model reported that female students, students of low family income, those free from COVID-19 infection, students having inadequate knowledge, and negative perceptions and attitudes toward the vaccine were susceptible to vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Indeed, our research will assist the authorities in better understanding the students' attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccines and in developing appropriate policies for a successful vaccination campaign in Bangladesh and other countries with similar background.