A sustainable study of competitive industrial performance amidst environmental quality: New insight from novel Fourier perspective.

This paper uses the novel Fourier Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag within the load capacity curve framework to investigate the effects of economic growth, trade openness, renewable energy consumption, and competitive industrial performance on environmental sustainability. The results of the empirical analysis provide evidence that the load capacity curve is valid in Turkiye. Moreover, while trade openness jeopardizes environmental sustainability, renewable energy consumption and industrial competitiveness increase environmental quality. Policymakers should focus intensively on policies that can achieve SDG 9 and industrialization activities. It is essential to give privileges, especially to companies operating in the industrial sector, regarding the transition to renewable energy. Energy efficiency policies that will accelerate the transition to clean energy sources are also an alternative to escape from fossil energy immediately. Environmental factors should be considered when importing intermediate goods used in industry, and these policies should be guaranteed by law as soon as possible.

Assessing the role of green investments and green innovation in ecological sustainability: From a climate action perspective on European countries.

In recent years, economies have been increasingly focused on achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, recognizing that their achievement is vital to ecological sustainability and green growth. In this context, this paper focuses on investigating the impact of green innovation, green investment, economic growth, and natural resources on ecological sustainability in the five best-performing European Union countries in terms of the Climate Change Performance Index. This study uses the load capacity factor as a comprehensive proxy of ecological sustainability and also assesses the load capacity curve hypothesis in sample nations. Continuously updated fully modified and continuously updated bias-corrected estimators are used to analyze the data from 1995 to 2020 in the context of climate action perspective. The econometric analysis revealed that the load capacity curve hypothesis is invalid in the sample countries. Natural resources decrease environmental sustainability. However, green investments and green innovations contribute to environmental quality and thereby, can be used for effective climate action. Based on these findings, the study recommends specific policies to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on target 13.

Sustaining environment through municipal solid waste: evidence from European Union economies.

As part of their pursuit to succeed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), European Union (EU) countries have placed great importance on realizing SDG 11, which aims to create sustainable cities and communities. The relationship between environmental quality and municipal solid waste remains understudied despite its significant impact on achieving SDG-11. Consequently, this study seeks to peruse municipal solid waste, renewable energy consumption, human capital, and natural resources impact on load capacity as a comprehensive measure of environmental quality. By utilizing the CS-ARDL approach, this study reveals the inadequacy of municipal solid waste conversion in EU countries and highlights the favorable effect of human capital and renewable energy on enhancing environmental quality. Moreover, this study provides concrete evidence that natural resources contribute to environmental corruption. EU economies should adopt policies to bolster municipal solid waste conversion to improve environmental quality.

Assessing the connection between competitive industrial performance on load capacity factor within the LCC framework: Implications for sustainable policy in BRICS economies.

Industrialization plays a crucial role in socio-economic development as it holds significant potential for creating new jobs, tightening the income gap, and promoting the use of advanced technology. As global competition intensifies, emerging economies emulate industrialized economies in accelerating manufacturing activity to improve national welfare and join the new global order. However, policymakers' understanding of how competitiveness in the industrial sector helps developing countries accomplish their sustainable development goals must be deepened. This paper aims to analyze the connections among competitive industrial performance, renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and load capacity factor (LCF) in the BRICS economies for the period between 1990 and 2018. Robust evidence from the continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC) models shows that greater industrial competitiveness enhances environmental quality. The findings also reveal that income growth ultimately evolves as an ecologically friendly factor, confirming the validity of the load capacity curve (LCC) hypothesis. Another outcome of the econometric analysis indicates that renewable energy consumption contributes to the LCF, whereas urbanization damages the environment. Therefore, BRICS policymakers should concentrate on maintaining their competitiveness, implementing resilient urban planning, and promoting the usage of renewable energy to safeguard the environment while simultaneously achieving rapid economic growth.

The role of environmental protection expenditures and renewable energy consumption in the context of ecological challenges: Insights from the European Union with the novel panel econometric approach.

In line with the United Nations' sustainable development goals (SDGs), countries are taking action to achieve their carbon reduction goals. Because countries have limited financial resources, it is important for carbon reduction policies that public expenditure is used effectively. Researchers have neglected to probe the environmental quality in European Union countries by considering environmental protection expenditure and renewable energy consumption. This study expands the literature by investigating the impact of renewable energy consumption and environmental protection expenditure on the load capacity factor, which considers both the supply and demand directions of the environment. Hence, this work contributes to the SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), and SDG 15 (life on land) targets of European Union-22 countries. The study uses the CS-ARDL approach, which considers cross-sectional dependence, endogeneity, and heterogeneity. Empirical analysis showed that environmental protection expenditure is insufficient for European Union economies. In addition, renewable energy consumption contributed to environmental quality. Based on the outcomes, European Union countries should allocate larger budgets from their general budgets for environmental protection. Policies that can attract the attention of the private sector and not just the public sector should be implemented.

The role of government spending on energy efficiency R&D budgets in the green transformation process: insight from the top-five countries.

The transition to a low carbon economy has become more realistic with sustainable development goals (SDGs). Economies are on their way to 2030 and 2050 targets by increasing their environmental awareness. However, the most important issue that complicates this process is the dependence on fossil fuels and the need for sufficient time for renewable resources to mature. Previous literature has neglected this and focuses directly on renewable and fossil energy research and development (R&D) budgets. This paper fills the gap in the literature by showing whether the budgets allocated by countries for energy efficiency R&D are important in the maturation process of renewable energy sources. This paper offers policy recommendations to the countries (the USA, Canada, Germany, France, and Japan) that allocate the highest share of the budget to energy efficiency. It also presents the current situation of countries investing in energy efficiency as examples for other countries looking to transition into green energy. This study tackles the effects of energy efficiency R&D budgets, economic growth, trade openness, and natural resources on CO2 emissions over the period 1985-2019 using Augmented Means Group and Common Correlated Effects Mean Group methods. Empirical findings show that the energy efficiency R&D budgets are not at a level to enhance environmental quality. Moreover, economic growth and trade openness also contribute to environmental damage. On the contrary, natural resources increase environmental quality. In the light of the empirical findings, the considered countries with the largest budgets (top five) should expand their energy efficiency budgets until the transition to renewable energy gains momentum to achieve SDG-13, i.e., climate action, and SDG-7, i.e., affordable and clean energy.

The ecological footprint facing asymmetric natural resources challenges: evidence from the USA.

One of the most critical problems of today is the environmental policies with the focus on economy. Despite the many efforts of global organizations, environmental pollution is the subject of human beings. For this, the most polluting countries attract the attention of researchers. Many studies produce economy-centered environmental policies for the USA. However, the asymmetric effect of natural resources on environmental pollution has been neglected in the literature. In this paper, the effects of economic growth, renewable energy, biocapacity, and natural resources on the ecological footprint are addressed within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis over the period 1980-2017. Empirical findings confirm that economic growth and biocapacity increase environmental degradation, while renewable energy consumption helps reduce environmental damage. More specifically, when the results are analyzed in terms of natural resources, positive shocks in natural resources contribute to reducing environmental damage, while negative shocks in it negatively affect the environmental quality. The paper presents important policy implications for economy-centered environmental issues.

Analysing the ecological footprint in EU-5 countries under a scenario of carbon neutrality: Evidence from newly developed sharp and smooth structural breaks in unit root testing.

This paper examines the resistance to shocks (economic, political, outbreaks etc.) of the ecological footprint in EU-5 countries over the period 1961-2016. The aim of the study is to determine whether the ecological footprint tends to return to the average with advanced econometric analysis. Efforts to move towards carbon neutrality, which increased after the Paris Agreement, are important for the countries in our analysis. To achieve our aim, we primarily used traditional and one-break unit root tests, followed by the novel SOR unit root test, which considers both sharp and smooth breaks to achieve robust results. The econometric findings show that EF and its six components (i.e., carbon, cropland, grazing land, forest, built-up land and fishing grounds) all contain unit root except the built-up land footprint for Spain and the grazing land and forest footprint for the United Kingdom. Our study provides policymakers with important information for implementing policies to reduce environmental pollution and achieve the target of carbon neutrality.

Testing pollution haven and pollution halo hypotheses for Turkey: a new perspective.

In this study, we analyzed the asymmetric short- and long-run causal links between foreign direct investments and emissions in Turkey over the time period 1974-2018. Using hidden co-integration techniques, we defined and tested the asymmetric pollution haven and asymmetric pollution halo hypotheses. To evaluate the long-run asymmetric causal relationship, we estimated both the crouching error correction model and vector error correction model. We performed a stepwise regression model to estimate the crouching error correction model. The empirical results confirmed an asymmetric causal relationship between positive shocks of foreign direct investments and positive movements in emissions in the short run as well as an asymmetric causal link between negative and positive shocks of foreign direct investments and positive emissions in the long run. Furthermore, the results showed that increases in foreign direct investments led to a decrease in the rate of emission growth in both the short and long run. This finding supports the validity of the asymmetric pollution halo hypothesis in Turkey's case. Policymakers should strengthen their environmental protection laws to protect the quality of their environments as well as implement policies that encourage the use of clean technology and tax incentives that increase foreign direct investment inflows. Graphical Abstract.

Interrelationships among foreign direct investments, renewable energy, and CO2 emissions for different European country groups: a panel ARDL approach.

This study estimated unbalanced panel data analysis to investigate the relationship among CO2 emissions, GDP, renewable and non-renewable energy utilization, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in 26 European countries. Moreover, we investigated the role of environmental regulations in validation of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in two EU country groups, namely 1-4th and 5th enlargement countries of EU, since their adaptation periods of environmental legislation may indicate differences. Empirical results confirmed the validation of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and PHH for overall EU countries. However, results differ between country groups in EU. For example, while results confirm the evidence of EKC in 5th enlargement countries, they do not support in 1-4th enlargement countries. Moreover, while environmental regulations do not play an important role in the validity of PHH, they are important factors in the validity of EKC in overall EU countries. Granger causalities showed that economic growth causes energy consumption and FDI inflow. Since renewable energy mitigates the emissions, EU countries should enhance green technology and energy efficiency to ensure sustainable development. What is more, EU countries need to tighten the environmental regulations on FDI inflow. Therefore, our results support the new framework by European Commission on screening the FDI inflows throughout the EU zone.