Green transition and economic growth in G20 countries: evidence from disaggregated energy sources.

Green transitioning through renewable energy sources is the most effective strategy for any economy. This study investigates the extent to which G20 countries are shifting towards a green economy compared to prioritizing economic growth. To this end, the present study analyzes the nodes between income and renewable (solar, wind, hydro, and biomass) and nonrenewable (oil, coal, and gas) energy sources for the period of (1997-2020) in G20 countries. The energy-environmental Kuznets curve method is applied to study their behavior at various stages of growth. The main findings showed that wind, solar, and biomass energies have an inverted N-shaped relationship with income. The hydroelectricity did not follow any traditional EKC shape, showing a steady positive trend and growth. While nonrenewable energy consumption, i.e., coal, oil, and gas, follows an N-shaped EKC curve. The impact of foreign direct investment in the solar and wind sectors is positive. The varying outcomes concerning foreign direct investment (FDI) indicate that although G20 countries strive to achieve their green transition objectives by discouraging environmentally harmful investments, their success remains limited. The study indicates that G20 nations are progressing toward a green transition; however, additional technological innovations are required to transform these economies from brown to green. Governments can establish research institutions, offer grants and incentives, and encourage collaboration between academia, industry, and government to support green technology R&D.

Climate change adaption strategies in urban communities: new evidence from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Pakistan is urbanizing at the fastest pace in South Asia, and if left unplanned, it will not only reduce adaptive capacity of its residents rather it will be a chaos for its residents. The aim of this study is to answer the question on how urbanites of Pakistan are coping with climate change and which part of the society required support to cope with changing climate? To answer this questions, this study conducted survey through a structured questionnaire, from the urban residents of Islamabad, to explore their coping mechanisms towards climate change. Survey collected information on demographic, social, economic, and physical aspects, using Hackman's Treatment effect model. The sample selection equation is conditional on the adaptations to climate change in the outcome equation. Main independent variables are income, age, education, and occupation. Selection equation is based on perceptions of individuals about climate change which contains dependent variables of changes in temperature of summers and winters, changes in rain fall pattern, fog, hailstorm, and information received from social media and peer groups. With the result of 57.55, the Wald test shows that overall, there exists goodness of fit at the 99 percent confidence level. The value of rho in the Heckman model is 0.40 which implies the Heckman model provides more consistent and more efficient estimates. The results are suggesting that increasing age enhances the likelihood of adaptations as the positive and significant coefficient of age implies that age has probability to adapt to climate change. The positive and significant coefficient of income, education, and occupation implies that urbanites have higher probability to adapt to climate change. Perception is the essential foundation of adaptation, and differences in perception can be transferred to the adapted strategies. Households that experience a greater variation in annual mean temperature are more likely to adopt any adaptation strategy to cope with climate change. Essentially, poverty encompasses the majority of the characteristics that reduce respondents' adaptation capacity and increase their susceptibility to climate change. The major contextual disparities were discovered across union councils in the form of financial, personal, social, physical, and natural capitals of families. Therefore, obligation is on government to offer greater support for individuals who are less affluent in terms of these assets. For this city, officials must offer subsidy schemes to less privileged and marginalized people of urban dwellers to enhance their adaptive capacity.

A cross-country efficiency and productivity evaluation of commercial banks in South Asia: A meta-frontier and Malmquist productivity index approach.

South Asia primarily consists of developing economies with diverse financial systems. The commercial banking industry plays a crucial role in each country's financial development in the region. This research aims to evaluate commercial banking industries' efficiency and productivity growth in the South Asian (SA) region over 6 years (2013-2018). In addition, the technology gap among the banking industries of all countries is also explored. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) Meta-frontier is employed to measure the technical efficiency (TE) and technology gap ratio (TGR) among the countries. Further Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is used for productivity change estimation. Results indicate that, on average, 147 commercial banks (CBs) have a technical efficiency score of 0.6208, while CBs in Nepal are the most efficient in the region with an average score of 0.7153. The Meta frontier analysis also confirms the presence of different production technologies in CBs. Nepal's CBs group frontier is closer to meta-frontier (technology gap ratio, TGR = 0.9361) While, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka rank second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively. The results of productivity contend that the total factor productivity change of all 147 CBs decreases by 0.8 percent on average over the study period. CBs have enhanced their productivity growth in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Pakistan, but declining trends have been witnessed in Indian and Bangladesh's commercial banking industries.

The nexuses between carbon emissions, agriculture production efficiency, research and development, and government effectiveness: evidence from major agriculture-producing countries.

Agriculture production efficiency and carbon emissions have become the challenge for the sustainable world. Therefore, this study explores the relationships between agriculture production and carbon emissions in major (seventeen) agriculture-producing countries over the time period of 1996-2018. Data envelopment analysis is applied to estimate the efficiency of agriculture sector production. The results suggested that the USA, Russia, Korea, Japan, and Italy were efficient agriculture production. Among BRICS countries, China (0.183), India (0.378), and Brazil (0.382) are far off to Russia in Agriculture production efficiency. Growth of research and development investment by 1% increases agriculture production efficiency by 0.0773 (full panel), 0.119 (developing), and 0.0245(developed), respectively. Carbon emissions are also significantly decreased by research and development investment. However, the effectiveness of the government on carbon emissions can be both positive and negative in developed and developing countries' cases. Nevertheless, both developed and developing governments are concerned about increasing agriculture production efficiency. The shape validity of the environmental Kuznets curve is also varied between the developed and developing groups. From the policy perspective, it is suggested that the government should reform its policies to avoid carbon activities and enhance the agricultural sector on a priority basis to increase the efficiency of current raw resources, generate jobs, and reap a variety of other advantages.

Unraveling the role of China's OFDI, institutional difference and B&R policy on energy efficiency: a meta-frontier super-SBM approach.

Under the Belt and Road initiative, the cooperative network between Chinese firms and participating countries has evolved rapidly to seek new markets for foreign investment. Foreign investment is one of the most effective ways of improving environmental energy efficiency through technology spillover. Therefore, first, this article applies the foreign direct investment theory with an interactive effect of institutional difference on energy efficiency. We employed the meta-frontier super-slacks-based measure approach to find the sampled countries' environmental energy efficiency. We also divided the study sample into six regions to consider group heterogeneity and the variation in energy efficiency performance in various Belt and Road regions. For the empirical investigation, we applied the generalized method of moments approach. The impact of China's outward foreign direct investment on energy efficiency is positive in the full sample. Nevertheless, the region-wise study found mixed results regarding China's outward foreign direct investment to promote energy efficiency and the Belt and Road region. In addition, the study further infers that institutional distance can be the greater impediment to promoting host countries' efficient energy-based investment.

Inequalities by energy sources: An assessment of environmental quality.

Energy demand is rising day by day, driven mainly by the development of countries. At the same time, uneven economic growth in countries is the prime cause of inequality in energy consumption. Keeping in view the worth of energy in the growth process, this study quantifies the impact of energy inequalities and trade on environmental quality over the period 1995-2018 for 57 countries. The Theil approach is used to quantify inter-and intra-regional disparities in five energy sources; oil, coal, natural gas hydroelectricity, and renewable energy. The results show that North America has the highest oil consumption inequality between the regions while East Asia & Pacific has the highest index value within the regions. Coal consumption inequality is declining in North America, but not in East Asia and the Pacific. Europe & Central Asia, and North America have the highest inequalities in natural gas consumption between the regions. Inequality is shrinking in hydropower consumption between the regions, however, such trend has not loomed within the regions. Europe & Central Asia and East Asia & Pacific have major renewable consumption inequalities within the regions. Generally, there is a decreasing temporal trend in energy consumption inequalities of all energy sources. The GMM technique is applied to investigate the impact of energy inequalities and trade openness on environmental quality. The results reveal that energy inequalities degrade environmental quality. Moreover, trade has a positive impact on environmental quality. However, democratic countries can be advantageous to improve the environmental quality. The study implies that countries should take actions to reduce energy inequalities within and between the regions. Specialization in production through trade can also be an option for improvement in the environment.

An analysis between financial development, institutions, and the environment: a global view.

Financial development is important for the growth of a country which indirectly affects the environment adversely through industrialization. However, in the presence of strong institutions, this adverse effect can be reduced. The main concern of the present study is to estimate the relation between CO2 and financial development (FD) in the presence of economic institutions as an interactive term. A sample of 101 countries has been selected for econometric analysis for the period from 1995 to 2017. The cross-section dependence test statistics for dependency, CIPS and CADF for panel unit root test, Westerlund test to ascertain the long-run affiliations, and FMOLS to extract the long-run coefficients have been applied. Dumitrescu and Hurlin test is also employed to know about the causal nature of the panel series. The findings show that financial development has a positive relationship with CO2. However, after inclusion of economic intuitions, the adverse impact of financial development on the environment is reduced. The study also confirms the presence of environmental Kuznets curve in the context of income and financial development. The findings imply that financial development can help to improve environment quality if it is accompanied with strong institutional framework such as assurance of property rights, government integrity, and liberalization in financial sector.

What determines compliance with cleaner production? An appraisal of the tanning industry in Sialkot, Pakistan.

Leather tanneries which produce significant amounts of solid waste, effluents, and emissions are a major contributor to industrial waste. A cleaner production program was launched by the government of Pakistan to implement the cleaner production measures for tanneries of Sialkot from 1999 to 2005. The main objective of this study is to identify the impact of a cleaner production program, along with other determinants of a cleaner production in the leather industry. The study analyses firm-level primary data collected from leather tanneries in Sialkot. The primary data were collected from tanneries in Sialkot. The econometric analysis is conducted using the Poisson regression analysis. Overall results show that there is no significant impact of cleaner production in 2015, while the panel data results indicate that the effect of cleaner production support by CPC on cleaner production practices diminished once the support came to an end. The other main factor is firm size, which indicates the financial position of the firm; international and regulator pressures are major determinants of the adoption of cleaner production measures. The analysis also indicates that there is higher probability of large firms adopting a cleaner production in comparison with small ones. Export orientation of firms is another important determinant of cleaner production. The enforcement of the environment compliance laws also has positive effect. The compliance with cleaner production measures is quite low, at 6.4 out of 19 cleaner production practice measures. There is a need to adopt measures that are environmentally friendly and are favorable towards both labor health and product quality, which are important for the sustainable growth of the tanning industry.