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.

COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review.

COVID-19 has slowed global economic growth and consequently impacted the environment as well. Parallelly, the environment also influences the transmission of this novel coronavirus through various factors. Every nation deals with varied population density and size; air quality and pollutants; the nature of land and water, which significantly impact the transmission of coronavirus. The WHO (Ziaeepour et al., 2008) [1] has recommended rapid reviews to provide timely evidence to the policymakers to respond to the emergency. The present study follows a rapid review along with a brief bibliometric analysis of 328 research papers, which synthesizes the evidence regarding the environmental concerns of COVID-19. The novel contribution of this rapid review is threefold. One, we take stock of the diverse findings as regards the transmission of the novel coronavirus in different types of environments for providing conclusive directions to the ongoing debate regarding the transmission of the virus. Two, our findings provide topical insights as well as methodological guidance for future researchers in the field. Three, we inform the policymakers on the efficacy of environmental measures for controlling the spread of COVID-19.

Meteorological factors, COVID-19 cases, and deaths in top 10 most affected countries: an econometric investigation.

This paper examines the nexus between the Covid-19 confirmed cases, deaths, meteorological factors, including an air pollutant among the world's top 10 infected countries, from 1 February 2020 through 30 June 2020, using advanced econometric techniques to address heterogeneity across the nations. The findings of the study suggest that there exists a strong cross-sectional dependence between Covid-19 cases, deaths, and all the meteorological factors for the countries under study. The findings also reveal that a long-term relationship exists between all the meteorological factors. There exists a bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 cases and all the meteorological factors. With Covid-19 death cases as the dependent variable, there exists bi-directional causality running between the Covid-19 death cases and Covid-19 confirmed cases, air pressure, humidity, and temperature. Temperature and air pressure exhibit a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Air pollutant PM2.5 also exhibits a significant but positive impact on the Covid-19 confirmed cases. Temperature indicates a statistically significant and negative impact on the Covid-19 death cases. At the same time, Covid-19 confirmed cases and air pollutant PM2.5 exhibit a statistically significant and positive impact on the Covid-19 death cases across the ten countries under study. Hence, it is possible to postulate that cool and dry weather conditions with lower temperatures may promote indoor activities and human gatherings (assembling), leading to virus transmission. This study contributes both practically and theoretically to the concerned field of pandemic management. Our results assist in taking appropriate measures in implementing intersectoral policies and actions as necessary in a timely and efficient manner. Causal relations of Meteorological factors and Covid-19 (2 models used in the study).

Unconditional and conditional analysis between covid-19 cases, temperature, exchange rate and stock markets using wavelet coherence and wavelet partial coherence approaches.

This paper examines the time-frequency relationship between the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, temperature, exchange rates and stock market return in the top-15 most affected countries by the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ Wavelet Coherence and Partial Wavelet Coherence on the daily data from 1st February, 2020 to 13th May, 2020. This study adds to the literature by implementing the Wavelet Coherence technique to explore the unexpected outbreak effects of the global pandemic on temperature, exchange rates and stock market returns. Our results reveal (i) there is evidence of cyclicality between temperature and COVID-19 cases, implying that average daily temperature has a significant impact on the spread of the COVID-19 disease in most of the countries; (ii) strong connectedness at low frequencies display that COVID-19 cases have a significant long-term impact on the exchange rate returns and stock markets returns of the most affected countries under study; (iii) after controlling for the effect of stock market returns and temperature, the co-movements between the confirmed COVID-19 cases and exchange rate returns becomes stronger; (iv) after controlling for the effect of exchange rate returns and temperature, the co-movements between the confirmed COVID-19 cases and stock market returns become stronger. Apart from theoretical contribution, this paper offers value to investors and policymakers as they attempt to combat the coronavirus risk and shape the economy and stock market behavior.

Nexus between environmental, social and economic development in South Asia: evidence from econometric models.

This study investigates the impact of various economic, social and environmental indicators on economic growth in South Asian countries. Using the data throughout 1990-2017, a panel data estimation method is adopted with sophisticated econometric approaches. The obtained results indicate a long-term positive effect of biological capacity, financial development, human development index, income inequality on economic growth while the effect of energy use is the opposite. The findings of the study suggest that governments and associated bodies must promote financial development, human development, and biocapacity to not only attain economic growth in the long-run and but dissuade ecological footprint, and income inequality at the same time while matching the energy consumption with the bio-capacity of each economy.

A qualitative enquiry into strategic and operational responses to Covid-19 challenges in South Asia.

The Covid-19 epidemic is a public health emergency of international concern. It poses a massive risk for the human race across the planet, calling for the need to take measures at the local, regional, national, and global levels. South Asian countries stand more vulnerable to the pandemic due to their dense population, poor infrastructure, and low surveillance system. This paper aims to understand the challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic for South Asia; and investigates the strategic and operational responses to this pandemic by policymakers and healthcare professionals, respectively, in South Asia. The study uses interviews and opinions of policymakers and doctors, from the South Asian region, involved in tackling the Covid-19 crisis. The qualitative analysis is performed on these interviews and opinions by using NVivo 12 software. The findings indicate that policymakers and healthcare providers across South Asia have been showing efficient teamwork while dealing with this pandemic. The healthcare administrators being at the operational level, convey the challenges they face to the policymakers who then respond to them at a strategic level.