Global digital divide and environmental degradation in Africa.

ICTs and access to Internet use are considered vital for the achievement of sustainable development goals. So, this study explored the effect of the global digital divide, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, and forestation on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 42 high-income countries (HICs) and high-middle-income (HMICs), low-income countries (LICs), and low-middle-income countries (LMICs) of Africa from 1990 to 2018. TheDumitrescu-Hurlin causality results confirmed a unidirectional causality from GHG emissions to the global digital divide (HICs and HMICs), global digital divide to GHG emissions (LICs), and GHG emission to trade openness (LICs and LMICs). Moreover, the long-run results of the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model showed an increase in GHG due to an increase in the global digital divide in all three panels. Further, ARDL results showed reduced GHG emissions due to increased trade openness in LIC and LMICs, renewable energy consumption, and forestation in all three panels. Thus, to encounter pollution from Internet use, the government should start environment-friendly projects through public and private investment in smart and modern environment-friendly technology and reduce the taxes and tariffs on them. Moreover, the governments of African countries should create public awareness through print and electronic media for raising the forestation area.

The impact of geopolitical risk, governance, technological innovations, energy use, and foreign direct investment on CO2 emissions in the BRICS region.

Geopolitical risk (GPR) and other social indicators have raised many somber environmental-related issues among government environmentalists, and policy analysts. To further elucidate whether or not these indicators influence the environmental quality, this study investigates the impact of GPR, corruption, and governance on environmental degradation proxies by carbon emissions (CO2) in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, using data over the period 1990 to 2018. The cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS), and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) methods are used for empirical analysis. First and second-generation panel unit root tests report a mixed order of integration. The empirical findings show that government effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law, foreign direct investment (FDI), and innovation have a negative effect on CO2 emissions. In contrast, geopolitical risk, corruption, political stability, and energy consumption have a positive effect on CO2 emissions. Based on the empirical outcomes, the present research invites the concentration of central authorities and policymakers of these economies toward redesigning more sophisticated strategies regarding these potential variables to protect the environment.

Modeling financial development, tourism, energy consumption, and environmental quality: Is there any discrepancy between developing and developed countries?

The main purpose of this study is to explore the dynamic association between financial development, tourism, primary and renewable energy utilization, urbanization, and carbon emission by employing the longitudinal data of 52 countries from 1995 to 2017. Empirical results of panel pooled mean group-autoregressive distributive lag (PMG-ARDL) model reveal that financial development significantly improves the environmental quality in developed countries. However, it has a detrimental but insignificant effect on the environment in developing countries. In the case of developed countries, the profound tourism sector is more harmful to the environment due to a large number of tourist arrivals in contrast to the developing countries. There is a wide difference between developed and developing countries concerning industrial, regional, and economic structure, in the effect of financial and tourism development on carbon emission, but both urbanization and primary energy utilization promote carbon emissions. The utilization of renewable energy sources improves the environmental quality in both regions. Generally, it is suggested that investment in renewable energy resources in both regions affects pollution differently and still has the potential to accelerate environmental quality. Moreover, the panel causality test explores that there exists bidirectional causality between financial development, primary energy, and carbon emission in both regions, while a unidirectional causality is observed from urbanization to carbon emission in developed countries. In developing countries, it exists from tourism to carbon emission and carbon emission to renewable energy. Finally, from policy perspectives, the results of this research recommend developing the financial system, and more funds should be allocated in modern and eco-friendly energy projects and utilized energy-efficient technologies.

Synergy between adaptations and resilience of livelihood from climate change vulnerability: A group-wise comparison of adapters and non-adapters.

The similarities, differences, and contradictions regarding climate change adaptation and resilience by academics and practitioners have already been documented. It is the need of time to set new precedence by observing the adaptations and resilience as tools to respond to the climate variations. This study analyzed the influence of climate change adaptations and synergy between resilience from livelihood vulnerability and adaptations. A field survey of 489 farming households is conducted with the help of a well-structured questionnaire from four districts of the south part of Punjab province of Pakistan. This study uses the Endogenous Switching Regression model for the sake of analysis. The outcomes of the study reveal that age, education, family size, total land, and seed price have significant linkage with the adoption of adaptations. The synergistic effects of adaptation and resilience are also visible here as the adaptations factors are significantly contributing towards yield, per capita income, poverty, and poverty gap of the respondents. This study suggests the provision of proper education and smart technology to help in enhancing the adaptive capacity of farmers. More imperatively, adaptations to climate variations can be concluded as a remedial tool for resilient livelihood. It is believed that the present study can be considered as a guide for future research on other regions of Pakistan and neighboring countries.

An empirical nexus between economic growth, energy utilization, trade policy, and ecological footprint: a continent-wise comparison in upper-middle-income countries.

This study investigates the causal connection between economic growth, foreign direct investment, primary and renewable energy utilization, trade openness, and ecological footprint for 33 upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) from Africa, Asia, Europe, and America during the period from 1994 to 2017. Initially, first- as well as second-generation panel unit root tests are applied to check the integration order after confirming the cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity. Four different tests (FMOLS, DOLS, FGLS, and AMG) are applied to estimate the long-run elasticity, whereas Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) non-causality test is used to test growth, conservation, and feedback hypothesis. Results show negative relationship of economic growth on ecological footprint in Africa and Europe; renewable energy utilization in Asia, Europe, and America; and trade openness in Asia. Moreover, the results revealed an adverse impact of trade openness on ecological footprint in case of Africa and America. Furthermore, the results of D-H panel non-causality test confirm the growth hypothesis for economic growth to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and Europe; foreign direct investment to ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; primary energy utilization to ecological footprint in Asia; renewable energy utilization to ecological footprint in America; and trade openness to ecological footprint in Africa, Asia, and America. Furthermore, the feedback hypothesis was confirmed between economic growth and ecological footprint in Asia and Europe; foreign direct investment and ecological footprint in Africa and Asia; renewable energy utilization and ecological footprint for America; and trade openness and ecological footprint for Asia and America. Finally, in context to efficient policy implications, it is suggested to associate the economic growth with clean energy and environment-friendly technologies by expanding the share of renewable energy in America and economic growth in Africa and Europe. Furthermore, Asian policy makers need to focus on foreign direct investment and trade openness by using green energy to overcome the environmental degradation. Impulsion with these findings, the central authorities of UMICs need to focus on more investments in environmental quality not only through foreign direct investment but also exchanging their clean energy technologies through trade policies such as tax exemption, feed-in tariffs, and subsidies. Government of these countries ought to upgrade the conventional capital which will ultimately improve the human lives by providing clean environment.

The role of financial development, tourism, and energy utilization in environmental deficit: evidence from 20 highest emitting economies.

This study establishes a long-run relationship between ecological footprint, financial development, energy utilization, and tourism in 20 highest emitting economies under the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework by utilizing the longitudinal data covering the period from 1995 to 2017. In the procedure of panel data estimation, conventional methodologies usually overlook the problem of cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity across cross-sections. The other concern linked to the published literature is that only a small number of studies have estimated the effect of financial development and tourism on the environment in the presence of EKC framework simultaneously, even though these sectors have potentially substantial impact on environmental quality. To bridge these analyzed gaps, this study employs two different unit root tests: Cross-section Augmented Dickey Fuller (CADF) and Cross-section Augmented Im, Pesaran and Shin (CIPS) to confirm that the series are stationary at first difference after confirming the cross-sectional dependency. Westerlund cointegration test applied to confirm the long-run association among variables. Augmented mean group (AMG) results discovered that financial development and the energy utilization significantly enhance the pollution level, while tourism sector reduces the environmental deficit. Moreover, these findings do not validate the EKC hypothesis. Based on the empirical findings, multiple policy implications are suggested to control and reduce the environmental degradation without hindering economic growth and development for the underlying highest emitting countries.