How flare-up of small and medium enterprises intensifies carbon emissions in Asian and European regions: a panel analysis.

SMEs (small and medium enterprises) contribute substantially to the global and national economies. So, their activities can significantly affect the ecosystem; however, environmental performance is primarily targeted at larger corporations. Therefore, this study measures the SMEs' impact on environmental quality through CO2 emissions. For this purpose, data on twenty-five Asian and European economies from 2005 to 2020 is utilized, and the effect of SMEs on the environment is measured in the light of the EKC hypothesis. In order to validate and test the influence of SMEs on the environment, the pooled mean group (PMG) model with cointegration approaches is utilized. The results show that the flare-up of small and medium enterprises increases environmental pollution through high carbon emissions at micro levels. Thus, the study suggests that governments, SMEs, and other stakeholders have to create strategies and regulations targeted at SMEs to minimize their negative environmental impact.

Association between energy consumption preferences and macroeconomic stability: an empirical analysis from developing Asia.

The study examined the impact of macroeconomic performance and energy consumption on carbon emissions in Asian developing countries. Although, macroeconomic performance is a critical measure for the determination of development in societies. Thus, the examination of macroeconomic performance variables is a core issue for policymakers. The panel quantile regression model assesses the macroeconomic performance at several quantiles, ranging from 0.05 to 0.95. The effect of macroeconomic performance and energy consumption on CO2 emissions has also been established. The findings indicate that CO2 emissions and macroeconomic performance are negatively associated in all quantiles of macroeconomic performance. Though, fossil fuel energy and population growth positively influence carbon emissions in all low and medium quantiles but this relationship becomes weaker in the upper quantiles. In addition, hydroelectricity consumption and carbon emissions are negatively and significantly associated in the quantile ranges of low and higher. Based on the aforementioned results, the study suggests the formulation of such policies that can improve macroeconomic performance in the region and the promotion of hydel energy instead of fossil fuels to reduce environmental pollution in developing Asian countries. Moreover, the population control program, promotion of renewable energy, and dangers of fossil fuel consumption should be a part of public policies to control environmental issues by reducing carbon emissions at the regional level.

Sustainable finance, natural resource abundance, and energy poverty trap: the environmental challenges in the era of COVID-19.

Energy poverty is a global challenge and the scarcity has been emerging as a global issue. Therefore, the relationship among energy scarcity, sustainable finance, and carbon emissions is analyzed with the help of global data from 40 developing countries until the beginning of the COVID-19 era. For empirical results' estimation, the study analyzed a panel data ranging from 2000 to 2019. To measure the energy poverty, some part of population that has no access to energy is considered, and empirical analysis based on augmented mean group (AMG) regression method was carried out. The findings of the study suggest the inverse relation among energy poverty and carbon emissions. Moreover, a negative relationship was also observed between sustainable finance and carbon emissions. These findings highlight that alleviation of energy poverty can intensify environmental pollution. While improvement in access to clean energy will benefit society by alleviating energy poverty and controlling carbon emissions. Moreover, improvement in the share of sustainable finance in total investment may improve the environment quality by reducing carbon emissions. Therefore, it is suggested that regional plans along with sustainable finance are required on a priority basis for the promotion of clean energy to control carbon emissions and alleviate energy poverty at the household level.

Globalization, sustainable development, and variation in cost of power plant technologies: A perspective of developing economies.

This study evaluates the sustainable power plant cost in the outlook of global power plant efficiency to reduce fossil fuel dependency and greenhouse gas emissions. For this purpose, the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) applied for conducting the cost assessment of power zone technologies for all principal electricity generation. This study considers the characteristics of essential factors (cement, price of resources, possible increases in employees, and metals) that affect costs. This study suggests that the cost of electricity-generating technologies significantly affects growth efficiency, reduction in production cost, and improving environmental conditions. It also suggests that the cost of electricity-generating technologies, combined with technology mixture, is the key factor behind replacing existing technology in the electricity sector. EPRI cost assessments expanded by around 30% and 50% during 2015-2016. Factors like competition amongst power plant owners, the ambiguous marketplace, production procedures, and lack of environment-related strategies have resulted in massive environmental degradation in developing economies like Pakistan. Based on empirical findings, this study recommends designing efficient technologies, which would reduce power plant costs and ensure vertical prospects related to environmental conditions in the future.

The dynamic role of energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability in the dilemma of emission reduction and economic growth.

This study examines the relationship between energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability from the perspective of economic growth and CO2 emissions. For this purpose, this study utilizes the energy trilemma index (ETI) 2018 of the World Energy Council (WEC) to measure, evaluate and assess the energy efficiency of the top ten best-performing countries around the world. This study formulates an interval decision matrix to apply Principal Components Analysis (PCA) by reducing a large set into a small set of underlying variables with comprehensive information. Finally, this study uses the Fuzzy-TOPSIS method to determine the comprehensive ranks of all countries. This study shows that Denmark holds overall first rank in energy efficiency with a score of one in energy security, eleven in energy equity, and seventeen in environmental sustainability. In contrast, Germany has dominated all top ten performers by energy and environmental progress, which cannot be shirker within the UK's social progress concept. Thus, with ceteris paribus, a higher energy price will indicate a higher degree of scarcity of energy sources, encouraging working for cheaper and renewable alternatives and ultimately influencing the energy supply side. Carbon valuation can reduce greenhouse emissions by paying the extra dollar to the enterprise for less emission. It will lead to changing energy consumption structures and make it a cleaner choice for profit maximization.

The long-run and short-run influence of environmental pollution, energy consumption, and economic activities on health quality in emerging countries.

This study investigates the effect of energy utilization, greenhouses gasses emissions, and economic activities on health risks such as mortality rate and incidence of respiratory diseases in emerging Asian economies. The study analyzes a panel data from 1995 to 2018 to examine the long-run and short-run influence of environmental pollution on health issues. The empirical findings highlight that greenhouse gasses emissions, fossil fuel consumption, and natural resources depletion in the region are key factors to increasing health risks in the long-run period, while the use of clean energy and improvement in per capita economic growth is helping to improve the health status of the households. In a short period, greenhouse gasses emission is the only significant factor responsible for the high mortality rate and occurrence of respiratory diseases in the emerging economies of Asia. According to the results, there is a need for government intervention programs to rescue the region from the negative effects of environmental pollution and the utilization of nonrenewable energy. In emerging Asian countries, the combustion of fossil fuels, environmental pollution, and limited access to clean energy are such factors responsible for high mortality rate and stimulating incidence of respiratory diseases in the individuals. The study suggests that alternative green energy can prove helpful to control greenhouse gasses emissions and to control health issues by improving environmental quality. The study further suggests that the use of clean energy from water, wind, and sunlight may prove helpful to meet the energy requirement at the domestic level and improve the health status of the individuals by reducing the incidence of respiratory diseases in emerging countries of Asia.

Ion-beam-induced bending of semiconductor nanowires.

The miniaturisation of technology increasingly requires the development of both new structures as well as novel techniques for their manufacture and modification. Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are a prime example of this and as such have been the subject of intense scientific research for applications ranging from microelectronics to nano-electromechanical devices. Ion irradiation has long been a key processing step for semiconductors and the natural extension of this technique to the modification of semiconductor NWs has led to the discovery of ion beam-induced deformation effects. In this work, transmission electron microscopy with in situ ion bombardment has been used to directly observe the evolution of individual silicon and germanium NWs under irradiation. Silicon NWs were irradiated with either 6 keV neon ions or xenon ions at 5, 7 or 9.5 keV with a flux of 3 × 1013 ions cm-2 s-1. Germanium NWs were irradiated with 30 or 70 keV xenon ions with a flux of 1013 ions cm-2 s-1. These new results are combined with those reported in the literature in a systematic analysis using a custom implementation of the transport of ions in matter Monte Carlo computer code to facilitate a direct comparison with experimental results taking into account the wide range of experimental conditions. Across the various studies this has revealed underlying trends and forms the basis of a critical review of the various mechanisms which have been proposed to explain the deformation of semiconductor NWs under ion irradiation.

Energy consumption habits and human health nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This study explores the impact of fossil fuels consumption, solid fuels consumption for cooking purposes, economic growth, and carbon emissions on human health, with a key emphasis on the occurrence of tuberculosis and the high mortality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. For its practical insights, the study develops a system Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) for a panel of 34 middle- and lower-middle-income countries from 1995 to 2015. The study adopts a flexible methodology to tackle endogeneity in the variables. The robust results report that the use of solid fuels (charcoal, peat, wood, wood pellets, crop residues) for cooking purposes and the consumption of fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) are significantly increasing the occurrence of tuberculosis. In addition, the results highlight that the consumption of both solid fuels and fossil fuels has adverse affects on life expectancy by increasing the mortality rate in Sub-Saharan African countries. Results report that renewable energy sources like sun, wind, and water (all with potential to prevent households from direct exposure to particulate matters and harmful gases) as well as a rise in economic growth serve as helping factors to control the occurrence of tuberculosis and to decrease the mortality rate. Moreover, the use of renewable energy sources is serving to lessen emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxides, and particulate matters, which can ultimately decrease the mortality rate and extend the life expectancy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Impact of economic growth, nonrenewable and renewable energy consumption, and urbanization on carbon emissions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The present study explores the impact of economic growth; urban expansion; and consumption of fossil fuels, solid fuels, and renewable energy on environmental degradation in developing economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. To demonstrate its findings in detail, the study adopts a system generalized method of moment (GMM) on a panel of 34 emerging economies for the period from 1995 to 2015. The results describe that the consumption of fossil and solid fuels for cooking and expansion of urban areas are significantly contributing to carbon dioxide emissions, on one end, and stimulating air pollution, on the other. The results also exhibit an inverted U-shape relationship between per capita economic growth and carbon emissions. This relation confirms the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in middle- and low-income economies of Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the use of renewable energy alternatives improves air quality by controlling carbon emissions and lowering the direct interaction of households with toxic gases. Thus, the use of renewable energy alternatives helps the economies to achieve sustainable development targets.

Primary care and health system performance in Pakistan: A study of basic health units of South Punjab.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the health system performance in the provision of primary health care in Pakistan's southern Punjab region. METHODS: The cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted in October 2014 in three tehsils of district Multan in the Punjab province of Pakistan, and comprised recipients of primary health care at basic health units. SPSS 16 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 77 basic health units, 19(24.7%) were selected for this study. Of them, 4(23.5%) were located in Jalalpur Pirwala, 3(17.6%) in Shujabad and 12(70.6%) in Multan Sadar. Besides, of the 300 respondents interviewed, 72(24%) were from Jalalpur Pirwala, 48(16%) from Shujabad and 180(60%) from Multan Sadar. The majority of the population was not fully satisfied with the services provided by the basic health units and was unable to gain the entire facilities adequately. Most importantly, the long distance of basic health units from residing areas, low quality and shortage of medicine were the basic reasons affecting the performance of basic health units. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the population was not fully satisfied with the services provided by basic health units.