Revisiting the EKC framework concerning COP-28 carbon neutrality management: Evidence from Top-5 carbon embittering countries.

In the aftermath of the 28th Conference of the Parties (CoP) climate summit in the UAE, the majority of developing countries encounter challenges in attaining their objectives of carbon neutrality for a sustainable economy. The association of economic factors such as economic growth, governance structures, forest area, renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and urbanization with environmental elements (carbon footprint) is vital for sustainable economic development and environmental management strategies. Therefore, this research reveals this association in five selected high-emitting countries spanning from 1990 to 2022. This research utilizes the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework to investigate the interrelationship between these variables. To do so, this study employs the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) statistical technique to determine the short- and long-term impacts of the variables under investigation on carbon footprint. In contrast, the mean group (MG) and common correlated effect mean group (CCEMG) have been applied for robustness. The findings revealed that GDP, urbanization, and forest area have positive associations with carbon footprints, whereas GDP square, renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and governance effectiveness have inverse relationships with carbon footprints. These findings provide all stakeholders with valuable policy recommendations and management advice for accelerating the transition of renewable energy to low-carbon and green growth.

A causal link between financialization and ecological status: a novel framework for Asian countries?

Sustainable finance and green trade are essential to accomplish the green growth agenda. Though the literature prevails, little is known about the inclusive influence of financialization and trade openness on ecological status rather than just focusing on air pollution or inconclusive element. This study aims to analyze the role of financial dimensions and trade openness with environmental performance in the context of three panels of Asian countries consisting of low, middle, and high-income over the period 1990-2020. The estimated outcomes from the novel panel, the Granger non-causality technique, demonstrate that financialization further contributes to environmental deterioration instead of preserving the environmental quality. Regarding the low and middle-income economies, the authorities should enhance gains from trade openness to develop energy efficiency and ecological status policies. In the case of high-income Asian countries, they are even more desperate to consume energy and ignore the ecological challenges. The findings of this research offer various policy suggestions to accomplish sustainable development objectives.

Moving towards sustainability: how do low-carbon energy, current account balance, and reserves induce environmental deterioration in the Big 3?

Promoting financial sustainability is the focus of current state policies while addressing the concerns of environmental pollution. The alarming impacts of climate change on economies motivate us to revisit an intensive empirical study to explore the dynamic relationships of low-carbon energy, current account balance, and reserves with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the most polluted countries across the globe for the years 1981-2020. We applied the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag (D-ARDL) simulation model to investigate the short and long-run connection. The empirical outcomes of the study uncover that in the short run, a 1% increase in renewable energy reduces CO2-based emissions by 0.417%, 0.169%, and 0.619% in China, the USA, and India, respectively. We further explored that China's and the USA's economic growth causes environmental deterioration. In contrast, a 1% increase in current account balances improves the environmental quality of China and India by 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively. This research concludes that model variables significantly impact the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to draw policy implications to increase the consumption of low-carbon energy to sustain economic growth by limiting the adverse impacts of economic activities.

Sustainable environment, energy and finance in China: evidence from dynamic modelling using carbon emissions and ecological footprints.

This study investigates sustainable finance along with sustainable economic factors on both carbon emissions and ecological footprints in China. A novel Dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lag technique is applied; results revealed sustainable finance exerts positive/negative influence on carbon emissions in the long and short run, respectively. Results are robust with ecological footprints that sustainable finance placed a lucrative cause to preserve the environment. Sustainable economic factors show a positive impact on carbon emissions in the long run, whilst economic growth, energy consumption and exports improve environmental quality. Conversely, in the short run, urbanisation supports the environment whilst economic development, energy use and exports exert a positive impact. In addition, this study suggests useful policy implications for the stakeholders.

When would the dark clouds of financial inclusion be over, and the environment becomes clean? The role of national governance.

On one side, the rapid progress in financial development boosts economic growth. On the other hand, it forces both the developed and emerging countries to play the role of good governance that help save the environment. The current study aims to identify the role of national governance in the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprints. To attain the study's objective, we use a novel method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) on a panel data set of 65 countries from 2004 to 2017. The empirical outcomes reveal that financial inclusion has a significant positive and heterogeneous impact on ecological footprints. This effect varies across quantiles, and when moving from lower to upper quantiles, the impact of financial inclusion on environment escalates. National governance plays an important role to moderate the relationship between financial inclusion and ecological footprint negatively. Moreover, GDP and REC display a significant positive and negative influence on ecological footprints, respectively. We obtain similar and robust findings from the alternative panel estimation techniques, including FMOLS, FEOLS, and DOLS. The policy implications from this research can be considered to achieve sustainable and eco-friendly environmental goals.