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Motivated by the growing levelof informal economy in emerging economies, this study examines the role of the informal economy in the ecological footprint for the case of Africa. The relationship between official economy, trade openness, governance indicator, financial development, and urbanization on ecological footprint is also investigated. Applying data from 1991 to 2017, this empiric utilizes panel estimation procedures to account for cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in panel data. The results establish the presence of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity across countries in Africa. Furthermore, long-run cointegration is confirmed using Westerlund panel cointegration. Driscoll-Kraay's (DK) estimation technique shows that informal economy, official economy, governance, financial development, and urbanization have significant positive impacts on ecological footprint, implying that they contribute to environmental degradation. However, trade openness has a negative and significant effect on ecological footprint, improving environmental quality. Similarly, the Dumitrescu-Hurlin (DH) Granger causality test reveals a two-way relationship between the informal economy and ecological footprint and formal economy and ecological footprint. However, the study finds a one-way connection from urbanization and financial development to ecological footprint and from ecological footprint to governance indicators and trade openness. The implications of the findings for a sustainable environment are discussed., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

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 CO 2 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., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The current research investigates the linear and non-linear effects of democracy and income levels on carbon dioxide emissions for 72 countries from 1993 to 2019. Considering the possibility that the impact of independent variables on carbon dioxide emissions may vary throughout the distribution of carbon dioxide emissions, the correlations between the variables are studied by the panel quantile regression method. The findings confirm the EKC hypothesis in countries having low and medium emissions and demonstrate an inverted U-shaped correlation between GDP and carbon dioxide emissions. In low- and medium-emission countries, a higher democracy level contributes to environmental quality, while it leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions in high-emission countries. On the contrary, it is remarkable that democracy causes a delay in the turning point of the EKC in countries with low and medium emissions. Furthermore, the results demonstrate an EKC correlation between democracy level and carbon dioxide emissions in countries with low and medium emissions. However, the correlation between democracy level and carbon dioxide emissions, which is inverted U-shaped in low- and medium-emission countries, turns into a U-shaped correlation in high-emission countries. These findings emphasize the necessity of considering the changing impact of democracy according to the emission structure of countries in policymaking., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The need for a cleaner environment and wealthier economies has been highly recognized by European Union (EU) policymakers of the last years, as evidenced by the creation of a plethora of laws and regulations for reducing carbon dioxide emissions while promoting the economic prosperity of EU countries. Indeed, many works have been done in this field, remarking on climate change's impacts on economies and the need for determinant environmental policies inside the EU. This paper investigates the effect of climate change on economic growth using nonlinear dynamic panel methods for 15 countries of the EU in the period 1981-2019. Specifically, it is examined the impact of temperature, precipitation, and CO 2 emissions on economic growth. So, autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) methods were employed, overcoming cross-dependency and also considering linearity and nonlinearity. The results showed that economic growth has positive nonlinear relationship with long-run temperature, but in short-run they have a symmetric negative association. Moreover, precipitation has long-run negative and a short-run positive relationship with economic growth. However, when CO 2 emissions are added, then model's performance is decreased, and precipitation has a positive effect on economic growth, but all others, except from temperature increase, become insignificant. Finally, actions should be taken for more stable climate conditions and consistent environmental policies by EU countries., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The association between trade, financial development, consumption of renewable energy, environmental quality, foreign direct investment, and economic growth is important for sustainable growth and environmental strategies. Hence, this research unveils this association in selected low- and high-income economies from 1996 to 2020. Unlike most of the previous literature, this study uses a composite environmental quality index, a composite financial development index, and a composite trade share measure to better represent environmental quality, financial development, and trade openness, respectively. The Continuously Updated Fully Modified and Continuously Updated Bias Corrected estimators along with the Dumitrescu Hurlin causality method are utilized to scrutinize the nature of the linkage between the modeled variables. The long-run estimation provided that consumption of renewable energy and environmental quality augment economic growth in high-income nations, while both these variables do not contribute to the economic growth in low-income countries. Financial development upsurges economic growth in high- as well as low-income nations. Interestingly, trade openness boosts economic growth in high-income countries, while in low-income countries, it obstructs economic growth. In causal linkage, the conservation hypothesis for low-income countries and the feedback hypothesis for high-income countries are confirmed in the context of consumption of renewable energy and economic growth association. The supply-leading hypothesis for low-income countries and the feedback hypothesis for high-income countries are supported regarding the financial development-economic growth nexus. Moreover, one-way causality from growth to environmental quality and bidirectional causality between environmental quality and economic growth for low- and high-income countries are established, respectively. Lastly, exhaustive environmental and economic policies are directed., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

While global warming and climate change associated with increasing carbon dioxide are widely seen to be one of the most serious worldwide dangers to population health, little is known regarding "how" country alters the linkage between increasing CO2 emissions and population health outcomes. Current literature on the health effects of CO2 emissions recommends various factors that may establish a more robust link, including health expenditure and research and development. Therefore, the purpose of this inquiry is to examine the effectiveness of health expenditure and R&D in improving health outcomes through reducing CO2 emissions. Using data for Saudi Arabia over the period 2000-2018, the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) technique shows that (i) health and R&D expenditures decrease infant mortality and increase life expectancy; (ii) health and R&D expenditures reduce CO2 emissions in all the estimated models; (iii) health and R&D expenditures can improve health outcomes through reducing CO2 emissions; and (iv) health and R&D expenditures have both direct and indirect effect on health outcomes. Policy implications and limitations are also discussed., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aims at investigating the dynamics of environmental degradation by focusing on the financial development-CO 2 emissions link. In this purpose, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, trade openness and urbanization are integrated into the CO 2 emissions model as other explanatory variables. In this study, 18 upper-middle-income countries with the highest growth rate in the world are examined for the period 1990-2018 by AMG method, which considers the cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity. In addition, the causal linkages between variables are explored by Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel bootstrap causality technique. As a result of the study, it is found that financial development and renewable energy consumption reduce CO 2 emissions. In addition, it is determined that economic growth, urbanization, and trade openness deteriorate the environmental quality. As a result of causality analysis, while one-way is found from renewable energy consumption to CO 2 emissions, a bidirectional causality is observed between financial development and CO 2 emissions. Empirical findings provide several policy suggestions that decrease CO 2 emissions in these countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The postmodernism stance critiques the current discourse of modern consumption-based societies. These societies legitimize their embedded beliefs and actions based on their lifestyle reflected through their consumption patterns. Their consumption patterns relate to carbon footprints that are yet to be explored in the current body of knowledge at the macro level. The legitimacy of their lifestyle and consumption patterns rely on their conscious efforts in reducing carbon footprints. This study uses the environmental Kuznets curve model and explores the impact of household lifestyle and household consumption patterns on CO 2 emissions across different cultures and societies worldwide. 49 countries were taken to assess how different cultures define consumption patterns related to CO 2 emission. The results showed that the curvilinear relationship between consumption and CO 2 depends on the country's national cultural orientation., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study explores the relationship between economic growth and carbon dioxide and the moderating effect of institutional quality in Nigeria from 1990 to 2020, by employing long-run and short-run dynamic ARDL regression, quartile regression and Granger causality test for the estimation. Utilizing CO 2 per capita emissions; GDP per capita, a proxy for economic growth; capital stock (CAPSTK), proxy for capital investment in Nigeria and control of corruption and regulatory quality (COC and RGQ) which represent the effective environmental regulations and laws put in place for the control and prevention of environmental degradation, the study found a significant cointegration between CO 2 emissions and economic growth (lnGDP) in Nigeria. Furthermore, an N-shaped nexus exists between CO 2 emissions and economic growth in the long-run and short-run instead of the inverted U-shape curve postulated by the EKC hypothesis. This was confirmed by both ARDL and quartile regression results. Similarly, InCAPSTK contributed significantly to the growth of CO 2 emissions in Nigeria both in the long run and short run; although, the short run did so at 10% significant level. Contrary to expectations, control of corruption (COC) contributes significantly to CO 2 emissions in the long run, but when it interacts with income (InGDP [Formula: see text] COC), it significantly contributes to the reduction of CO 2 emissions. More so, regulatory quality (RGQ) had no significant impact on CO 2 emissions in Nigeria either in the long run or short run, even when it interacts with InGDP. This finding is further supported by the quartile regression outcomes and Granger causality. The study therefore concludes that CO 2 emissions-economic growth nexus in Nigeria assumes an N-shape both in the long run and short run. Based on the results, the study recommends that Government should pursue industrialisation policy with sophisticated method of production that will bring about rapid economic progress and at the same time support environmental sustainability., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate change currently observed and expected in the future is associated with risks to security and sustainable development and natural and irreversible consequences. To minimize these risks, it is necessary to adapt the public administration, economic sectors, and regional infrastructure to the changing climate conditions. This paper discovers the links between CO 2 emissions and their key determinants such as economic growth, energy consumption, population, trade openness, and financial development including the period from 1990 to 2020 to test the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis by using ARDL bound test for the Russian Federation. Findings reveal that energy consumption and population have a positive impact on CO 2 emissions, while economic growth, financial development, and trade openness have been found to decrease CO 2 emissions in the long term. The results of this paper show that there is a "U"-shaped relationship between CO 2 emissions and economic growth in the Russian Federation. This shows that EKC is valid up to a certain income level in the Russian Federation, and when this income level is exceeded, a positive relationship will begin between economic growth and environmental degradation. As a policy implementation, policymakers must implement clean energy technology policies to achieve the 2060 net zero carbon target. Policies such as fossil-based energy use and reducing energy intensity should be adopted., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Today, as a result of the developments and widespread use of information and communication technologies, the weight of online shopping in the economy has increased. The environmental impacts of this new order, which is an important part of electronic finance, are discussed. In this study, the effect of electronic finance, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and urbanization on emissions in EU member countries is examined using the panel vector autoregression (PVAR) approach for the period from 2005 to 2018. The main results suggest that e-finance has a positive and statistically significant effect on CO 2 emissions. However, the renewable energy consumption-increasing effect of e-finance is greater than its emission-reducing effect. Moreover, renewable energy consumption has a statistically insignificant effect on emissions. Therefore, the contribution of e-finance on environmental quality weakens. The requirement for EU member countries to prioritize the use of environmentally friendly energy to benefit from the environmental contribution of e-finance in the most optimal way is stated as the main policy implication of this study., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

In the contemporary era, it is evident that consumption-based carbon emissions (CCO2e), adjusted for international trade, are a more accurate and robust measure of environmental pollution than production-based emissions. Therefore, many studies have focused on exploring the determinants of CCO2e; however, the literature could not yet discern environment-related R&D budget (ERRD) and political risk index (PRI) as a new driver. To fill this gap, the current paper aims to divulge the dynamic effects of ERRD and PRI on CCO2e while taking imports, exports, and GDP as control regressors. To do so, the G7 nations' data from 1990 to 2020 is utilized, and several advanced econometric tests and techniques are deployed to tackle the advanced issues (i.e., cross-section dependence, heterogeneity, and endogeneity) in econometrics. The CS-ARDL estimates suggest that PRI and ERRD significantly lessen the environmental quality by disrupting the detrimental effects of CCO2e. Likewise, the rise in exports possesses a negative association with the ratio of CCO2e. However, CCO2e significantly tends to surge on account of an increase in GDP and imports. GDP squared exhibits the negative link with CCO2e, confirming the EKC hypothesis in G7 nations. Besides, the AMG technique and causality test validate the robustness of our findings. In addition, the policies related to CCO2e by authorities will take approximately more than a year to absorb their effects., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The paper's main aim is to forecast the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions in the USA and its related components, analysing the contributions of each of those components to CO 2 total volume. The empirical ground is a mix of non-linear tools, combining the artificial neural network (ANN) parametric method with a vector autoregressive (VAR) estimator. ANN includes 1 layer and 20 neurons, forecasting being based on the economic growth and net trade effects doubled by different types of renewable energy consumption. The accuracy of estimations for 14 targeted categories of CO 2 emissions is ensured by 4360 observations, with 10 types of inputs over 1984M01-2020M04. ANN seems to offer superior forecasting accuracy compared with the widely used autoregressive methods, such as VAR model, but seems to be weak in capturing the output 'spike' forms. The main findings show that, although economic growth and net trade have an important contribution to the targeted outputs, the more prominent ones are wind, solar and total biomass energy consumption. Therefore, the CO 2 emissions can be better controlled through non-polluting capacities, in parallel with the use of wind, solar and total biomass energies. The tool excellently predicts the CO 2 emissions during pandemic crises being a good instrument in policy decisions. Modest contributions to CO 2 prediction seem to have energy consumption generated by waste, hydroelectric power and renewable geothermal systems. This underlines an unclear current status given their collateral effects in environmental damages and high investment costs. The paper contributes to the literature in several ways. It is one of the first works focused on CO 2 emissions forecasting in the USA based on a mixed approach by ANN and VAR types, considering an extended pallet of inputs to predict the volume of total CO 2 emissions but also its components. As a novelty, the inputs combine both economic and environmental determinants. Not at least, the estimations are performed based on a large span, with monthly frequency., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is one of the most dynamic African sub-regional organizations in several areas, such as economic integration and environmental conservation. On the other hand, it is also one of the sub-regions with the largest size of the shadow economy in the world. This article empirically explores the impact of the shadow economy on economic growth and CO 2 emissions in ECOWAS countries. Using system generalized method of moment (SGMM) and common correlated effects mean group (CCEMG) estimators on annual data from 14 ECOWAS countries over the period 1991-2016, the results suggest that the shadow economy decreases economic growth and CO 2 emissions. However, the impact of the shadow economy on economic growth is more significant and higher than that on CO 2 emissions. The results also indicate that industrialization and urbanization tend to increase economic growth and CO 2 emissions in these countries., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The issue of examining the stationarity of per capita energy consumption (PCEC) series is central in energy literature. Most of the existing studies examine this issue by employing unit root tests based on the time domain only providing a partial picture of the problem at hand due to not including the information related to the frequency domain. In contrast to existing studies, the present study uses a recently projected wavelet-based unit root testing scheme-Fourier wavelet KSS (FWKSS) introduced by Aydin and Pata. Energy 207:118245 (2020) which has several advantages over the existing wavelet unit root tests such as the ones proposed by Fan and Gençay (2010). Specifically, the FWKSS takes care of any possible smooth structural break in the data series under examination. This study re-examines the stationarity of PCEC across the globe covering for the first time a total of 133 countries and including all income groups constituting 49 high-, 76 middle- and 8 low-income countries. The selection of countries is made based on the availability of at least 25 years of annual time series data. The empirical results based on latest available data reveal that among 133 chosen countries, 67 countries are found to have non-stationary PCEC including 20 high-, 43 middle- and 4 low-income countries while the remaining 66 countries are found to have stationary PCEC including 29 high-, 33 middle- and 4 low-income countries. PCEC is found to be stationary in 79 of them including 35 high-, 40 middle- and 4 low-income countries. Some relevant policy implications are discussed as well., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

To explore if and how the common rebreathing (paper bag) approach to hyperventilation works, two experiments were carried out. In the first experiment, 12 normal volunteers, aware of the common physiological rebreathing rationale, were twice asked to overbreath intensely and then either to rebreath or to restart normal ventilation. Alveolar CO2 increased more quickly and physical symptoms disappeared earlier in the rebreathing condition. The second experiment had a similar design; however, this time the subjects were led to believe that, after both hyperventilation provocation tests, they were rebreathing in a semiclosed tube system. On one of the occasions, the tube system was, in fact, open. The CO2 restoration again differed in the two conditions. In this second experiment, the moment of symptom disappearance was not significantly earlier in the rebreathing condition. The combined results of the studies suggest that expectation and suggestion play a role in the effects of rebreathing approaches on hyperventilation.

A scalable papermaking process was employed herein to manufacture cellulosic papers from native and phosphorylated cellulose microfibers (referred to as CMF and PCMF, respectively) impregnated with polyethyleneimine (PEI) for Direct Air Capture (DAC) applications. These papers were analyzed in terms of their physico-chemical properties using several techniques. The impact of PEI content on desorbing the co-adsorbed H 2 O and CO 2 from the air, as well as on the anisotropic microporous network, was explicitly analyzed. The results indicated that phosphorylation promotes the uptake of both CO 2 and H 2 O in the corresponding neat and PEI-loaded papers, reaching a superior CO 2 adsorption capacity of ∼0.7–0.9 mmol.g−1 for PCMF papers versus 0.07–0.3 mmol.g−1 for CMF papers. Furthermore, the CMF and PCMF papers exhibited H 2 O adsorption capacities in the range of 1.5–1.8 mmol.g−1 and 2.2–3.8 mmol.g−1, respectively. This work further highlights the combined role of phosphorylation and favorable PEI impregnation in tuning the cellulose CO 2 adsorption properties under humid conditions, facilitating the rapid release of the adsorbed CO 2 under mid conditions. [Display omitted] • Manufacturing of scalable solid cellulosic papers with amine functionalities and enhanced carbon capture. • Microstructural and chemical characterization of amine functionalized paper with various amine ratios. • Valorization of Alfa biomass in Carbon capture applications. • The combined role of phosphorylation and PEI impregnation in tuning the H 2 O and CO 2 co-adsorption properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent commentary by Santhosh and Ravindran on our paper (Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 2014, 39:10,606) demonstrated that the interaction between H 2 and MXene (Sc 2 C and Ti 2 C) phases are not Kubas-type and should be of weak physisorption, and thus made a conclusion that 2D Sc 2 C and Ti 2 C are not suitable for practical hydrogen storage applications. In this responses, we recalculated hydrogen adsorption on 2D Sc 2 C and Ti 2 C by using different exchange-correlation functionals. And based on the calculated results, bare MXenes (especially the Ti 2 C) are suitable as hydrogen storage materials at temperatures of several tens degrees lower than room temperature. And the hydrogen adsorptions on the MXenes terminated with oxygen group were also investigated. Among the Ti 2 C, Sc 2 C and their oxygen-functional counterparts, the binding energy of H 2 on Sc 2 CO 2 surface is the closest to the ideal range of 0.16–0.42 eV/H 2 at ambient conditions, and thus the Sc 2 C with oxygen group is expected to be more suitable as hydrogen storage materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Black liquor gasification was coupled with calcium looping. • Calcium looping for CO 2 capture and H 2 production was compared. • CO 2 capture route (39 €/t) was less expensive than H 2 production route (48.8 €/t). • CO 2 avoided cost was highly dependent on capital cost of black liquor gasification. • Export of H 2 had the lowest CO 2 avoided cost among black liquor gasification cases. Although considered one of the major energy-intensive industries (EIIs), the pulp and paper industry has also the potential for energy production from an industrial waste, black liquor. This study proposes black liquor gasification (BLG) coupled with calcium looping (CaL) as a CO 2 capture route for the pulp and paper industry. BLG with H 2 production (BLG-CaL-H 2), BLG with gas turbine combined cycle (BLG-CaL-GT) or with solid oxide fuel cell (BLG-CaL-SOFC) were considered. The dependence of carbon capture and storage (CCS) cost on the natural gas, limestone, electricity imported and H 2 sale prices aside the expenditures related with BLG-CaL were evaluated. The CCS route, based on CaL retrofitted to the pulp and paper plant, was found to have a lower cost of CO 2 avoided (39.0 €/tCO 2) when compared with BLG-CaL (48.8–57.1 €/tCO 2). Between the BLG-CaL scenarios, BLG-CaL-H 2 presented the lowest cost of CO 2 avoided (48.8 €/tCO 2) but the highest energy penalty. Based on the thermodynamic performance, it was shown that CaL retrofit and BLG-CaL-SOFC presented the best overall performance, turning the electricity importer reference plant into electricity exporter. The economic sensitivity showed that the capital requirement of BLG-CaL has a strong effect on the cost of CO 2 avoided for all alternatives. The H 2 production is also strongly affected by the H 2 sale price while BLG-CaL-SOFC and BLG-CaL-GT are strongly dependent on natural gas price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise: The adaptive significance of amphistomy (stomata on both upper and lower leaf surfaces) is unresolved. A widespread association between amphistomy and open, sunny habitats suggests the adaptive benefit of amphistomy may be greatest in these contexts, but this hypothesis has not been tested experimentally. Understanding amphistomy informs its potential as a target for crop improvement and paleoenvironment reconstruction., Methods: We developed a method to quantify "amphistomy advantage" ( AA $\text{AA}$ ) as the log-ratio of photosynthesis in an amphistomatous leaf to that of the same leaf but with gas exchange blocked through the upper surface (pseudohypostomy). Humidity modulated stomatal conductance and thus enabled comparing photosynthesis at the same total stomatal conductance. We estimated AA $\text{AA}$ and leaf traits in six coastal (open, sunny) and six montane (closed, shaded) populations of the indigenous Hawaiian species 'ilima (Sida fallax)., Results: Coastal 'ilima leaves benefit 4.04 times more from amphistomy than montane leaves. Evidence was equivocal with respect to two hypotheses: (1) that coastal leaves benefit more because they are thicker and have lower CO 2 conductance through the internal airspace and (2) that they benefit more because they have similar conductance on each surface, as opposed to most conductance being through the lower surface., Conclusions: This is the first direct experimental evidence that amphistomy increases photosynthesis, consistent with the hypothesis that parallel pathways through upper and lower mesophyll increase CO 2 supply to chloroplasts. The prevalence of amphistomatous leaves in open, sunny habitats can partially be explained by the increased benefit of amphistomy in "sun" leaves, but the mechanistic basis remains uncertain., (© 2024 The Authors. American Journal of Botany published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Botanical Society of America.)

This paper investigates the impacts of new digital technology on carbon emissions in China. To better capture the feature of new digital technology, we distinctively measure it using the invention patent stock of new generation information technology industry. The empirical results show that the development of new digital technology significantly reduces carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) intensity. The results are still robust after addressing the endogeneity issues using instrumental variable regressions. The carbon reduction mechanisms of new digital technology include reducing energy intensity, optimizing energy structure, and advancing treatment technology. We further confirm the spatial spillover and nonlinear effects of new digital technology on CO 2 intensity and the moderating effect of urban digitalization in carbon reduction. The study suggests that the potential of new digital technology in reducing carbon emissions should be highly attentioned by governments., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The government of any country can play a great role in promoting economic and environmental policy reforms in both normal and crisis periods, but during the crisis period, the role of the government should take the economy into a recovery position. The stock market is the backbone of the financial system that needs the government's attention, especially in the period of financial stress and environmental protection is the responsibility of every economy to live in a healthy environment. Combining this motive, this study analyzed the role of the government towards the stock market and carbon emission by using different approaches, including the wavelet approach, OLS regression, and the Granger causality test. The wavelet approach is useful for analyzing the role of the government at different time intervals by using the time horizon from 1993 to 2021. World governance's six indicators in terms of voice and accountability, control of corruption, rules of law, regulatory quality, political stability, and government effectiveness are used as the proxy for the role of the government. Our findings show that all WGI indicators have a positive relationship with the stock market of Malaysia except voice and accountability while concerning voice and accountability, the role of the government of Malaysia is negative on the stock market. Similarly, our findings also show that the effective government governance mechanism through WGI indicators has a significant positive impact on CO 2 emission due to industrialization. Furthermore, findings of the Granger causality test reveal that all the WGI indicators cause to stock market of Malaysia, and political stability has bi-directional causality indicating stock market index is also a factor that caused the political stability within Malaysia. In the Granger causality results of the CO 2 and WGI indicators, there is unidirectional causality found between rules of law and regulatory quality with CO 2 emission. This study advocated strong implementations for the investors for investment decisions in effective governance countries and implications for the government to remove their weakness by making effective governance related to the economy and as well as the environments within the country., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Microbial electrosynthesis (MES) constitutes a bioelectrochemical process where bacteria uptake electrons extracellularly from a polarized electrode to incorporate them into their anabolic metabolism. However, the efficiency of current MES reactor designs can be lower than expected due to limitations regarding electron transfer and mass transport. One of the most promising bioreactor configurations to overcome these bottlenecks is the Microbial Electrochemical Fluidized Bed Reactor (ME-FBR). In this study, microbial CO 2 fixation is investigated for the first time in a ME-FBR operated as a 3-phase reactor (solid-liquid-gas). An electroconductive carbon bed, acting as a working electrode, was fluidized with gas and polarized at different potentials (-0.6, -0.8 and -1 V vs. Ag/AgCl) so it could act as an electron donor (biocathode). Under these potentials, CO 2 fixation and electron transfer were evaluated. Autotrophic electroactive microorganisms from anaerobic wastewater were enriched in a ME-FBR in the presence of 2-bromoethanosulfonic acid (BES) to inhibit the growth of methanogens. Cyclic voltammetry analysis revealed interaction between the microorganisms and the cathode. Furthermore, volatile fatty acids like propionate, formate and acetate were detected in the culture supernatant. Acetate production had a maximum rate of ca. 1 g L -1  day -1 . Planktonic cell biomass was produced under continuous culture at values as high as ca. 0.7 g L -1 dry weight. Overall, this study demonstrates the feasibility of employing a fluidized electrode with gaseous substrates and electricity as the energy source for generating biomass and carboxylic acids., (© 2023 The Authors. Microbial Biotechnology published by Applied Microbiology International and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Although there are a number of studies in the literature that have explored the effect of environmental degradation on the subjective well-being and life satisfaction, no previous study has addressed the role of renewable energy consumption in examining the effect of environmental degradation on self-reported health. To this end, we employ a conditional mixed process (CMP) model, using a unique dataset that combines both micro-level data from the 6th (2010-2014) and 7th (2017-2022) Waves of the World Values Survey (WVS) database and macro-level data from the World Bank. Our study has several important empirical findings. First, while environmental degradation deteriorates self-reported health, social capital and health expenditure have a positive impact on self-reported health. Second, the share of renewable energy consumption in total final energy consumption has a statistically significant negative impact on environmental degradation. Third, urbanization has a deteriorating effect on environmental quality and the total number of people increases environmental degradation., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The rising human demand for food has increased the pursuit for more agricultural land to feed the ever-growing human population. Although agriculture constitutes the cornerstone of most economies and serves as a vital source of foreign earnings to others, experts suggest that it emits a substantial amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, thereby enhancing global warming. Furthermore, with the growing pace of globalization, less developed countries are witnessing economic growth with detrimental impacts on the environment. Inspired by the need to protect tropical rainforests and basins, the current research aims to assess the dynamic impacts of agricultural land use change (LALUC) and globalization (LGLO) on environmental quality (LCO 2 ) in the Congo Basin while controlling for economic growth (LGDP), biomass energy consumption (LBIO), and urbanization (LURBN). Based on panel data from 1980 to 2018, this study utilized second-generation econometric methods including the cross-sectional Im, Peseran Shin (CIPS), Westerlund bootstrapped co-integration test, autoregressive distributive lag/pooled mean group (ARDL/PMG), and the Dumitrescu Hurlin (D-H) panel causality estimates. The outcome reveals a long-run equilibrium co-integrating association among the estimated variables, and LALUC, LBIO, and LURBN were found to reduce LCO 2 , while LGDP and LGLO increase LCO 2 . These findings imply the inverted U-shaped relationship between LALUC, LBIO, and LURBN is beneficial for environmental quality in the Congo Basin. Based on the findings, environmental quality and economic growth can be achieved instantaneously in this region by engaging in large-scale production of biomass energy. Therefore, policymakers and governments should promote renewable energy use and convey foreign funds towards its enhancement, while investments in agriculture should prioritize environmentally benign practices such as agroforestry., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The BRICS countries are important contributors to global efforts aimed at preventing a climate catastrophe. These countries account for half of the total emissions generated by the G20 nations. In this context, this paper examines the relationship between total factor productivity (TFP) and CO 2 emissions (CE) in BRICS countries from 1996 to 2022, with institutional quality serving as a moderating factor. Moreover, a diverse range of methodologies was employed to address the problem of cross-sectional dependence; i.e., the CS-ARDL technique is used to analyze the relationship between variables in both the long and short-run. The AMG and CCEMG methods are employed for robustness analysis, while the Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test is used to assess causality. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that TFP is positively associated with CE. Conversely, we find that institutional quality has a negative impact on CE. Furthermore, the study confirms that the interaction between TFP and institutional quality has a negative effect on CE. This implies that an improvement in institutional quality leads to a decrease in CE, as it strengthens the regulatory system governing CE and reduces pollution. Environmental policy must include economic flexibility and policy unpredictability in order to meet CO 2 reduction targets. In addition, the study has identified bidirectional causal links between CE and variables such as TFP, institutional quality, and other control variables. According to our study, the BRICS countries should encourage digitalization and renewable energy production while preserving a reasonable standard of institutional quality since they have significant resource advantages in the renewable energy sector., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Patient reported outcomes (PROs) have an integral role on how to improve patients' overall experience. The optimal PROs delivery in patients with breast disease is an important issue since PROs are steadily integrated in routine care., Methods: An institutional phase 3 randomised controlled, open-label trial. Eligible candidates were adult women with perceived or confirmed breast disease. Computer generated randomization was used to allocate interventions: collection of PROs in electronic or paper form. Our objective was the effectiveness of electronic versus paper form of PROs. The main outcome measures were: response rate, reported experience, administrative resources, and carbon dioxide emissions., Results: Two hundred thirty-eight patients were randomised. After loss-to-follow-up and consent withdrawals, 218 participants (median age, IQR=55, 21; n =110/ n =108) were included in the per-intention-to-treat analysis. Response rate was 61.8% for electronic patient reported outcomes (ePROs) and 63.9% for paper patient reported outcomes (pPROs) (difference=-2.1%, 95% CI: -15.8-11.7%). Only known breast cancer at recruitment was predictive for response in multivariable analysis. ePROs were associated with a 57% reduction in administrative time required, a 95% reduction in incremental costs, and 84% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, all differences being significant. No difference was detected in perception of PRO significance or ease of completion, but participants experienced that they needed less time to complete ePROs [median, (IQR) 10 (9) respectively 15(10)]. Finally, respondents would prefer ePROs over pPROs (difference 48.1%, 95% CI: 32.8-63.4%)., Conclusion: ePROs do not increase the response rate in patients with perceived or confirmed breast disease. However, they can enhance patient experience, reduce incremental costs, facilitate administrative logistics, and are more sustainable. On the basis of these findings, both modalities should continue to be available., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

The combustion of biomass and waste paper sludge in a fluidized bed is ecologically profitable. However, a large amount of by-product with high hydraulic reactivity is produced and is considered as wastes. Most of the time the waste paper fly ash (WPFA) goes to landfills, therefore new utilization methods are necessary. In some countries, the high content of metallic and metalloids trace elements (MMTE) in WPFA, more specifically Barium (Ba) and Lead (Pb) makes its valorization difficult. In this paper, the Lightweight Aggregates (LWA) was produced from WPFA by granulating with water in high-intensity granulator. Since WPFA is rich in CaO, the addition of water promotes rapid setting and hydration compared to other types of ash. In this study, different granulation parameters were investigated, such as the rotation modes between the steel pan and the impeller, the rotation speed of the steel pan, the granulation time, in order to improve the mass percentage of the targeted LWA (2–16 mm). In order to evolve the immobilization potential of Ba and Pb, a carbonation process was performed, exposing the manufactured LWA to pure carbon dioxide (CO 2) gas at laboratory scale. The physical, morphological, thermal and mechanical characterizations were performed on LWA for use in mortars, concretes or civil engineering constructions. Results have demonstrated the influence of the rotation mode between the steel pan and the on the distribution of WPFA inside the steel pan and the change in the growth rate of the granules can be observed. Increased density and improved compressive strength with low porosity and water absorption were also found in LWA after carbonation. This was due to the occurrence of both a carbonation reaction and a hydration reaction. Furthermore, the results of thermogravimetry and SEM-EDS confirmed the formation of hydrated phases (ettringite, carboaluminates), also the formation of calcite in the pores and the external surface of the LWA. Regarding environmental aspects, the results have revealed that Ba and Pb were well immobilized in the solid matrix after carbonation. [Display omitted] • LWA was manufactured from WPA without any agglomerating agents. • The physical-chemical properties of LWA were improved after carbonation. • The resulted LWA meet the requirements of NF EN -13,055-1. • The microstructure of LWA was studied before and after carbonation. • Influence of time, mode and rotation speed on the size of the manufactured LWA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immediate action is needed to stabilise the climate. Dietitians require knowledge of how the therapeutic diets they prescribe may contribute to climate change. No previous research has quantified the climate footprint of therapeutic diets. This study sought to quantify and compare the climate footprint of two types of therapeutic diets for people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with two reference diets., Methods: A usual diet for an individual with CKD and a novel plant-based diet for CKD were compared with the current Australian diet and the Australian-adapted EAT Lancet Planetary Health Diet (PHD). The climate footprint of these diets was measured using the Global Warming Potential (GWP*) metric for a reference 71-year-old male., Results: No diets analysed were climate neutral, and therefore, all contribute to climate change. The novel plant-based diet for CKD (1.20 kg carbon dioxide equivalents [CO 2 e] per day) produced 35% less CO 2 e than the usual renal diet for an individual with CKD (1.83 kg CO 2 e per day) and 50% less than the current Australian diet (2.38 kg CO 2 e per day). The Australian-adapted EAT Lancet PHD (1.04 kg CO 2 e per day) produced the least amount of CO 2 e and 56% less than the current Australian diet. The largest contributors to the climate footprint of all four diets were foods from the meats and alternatives, dairy and alternatives and discretionary food groups., Conclusions: Dietetic advice to reduce the climate footprint of therapeutic diets for CKD should focus on discretionary foods and some animal-based products. Future research is needed on other therapeutic diets., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Dietetic Association.)

Considering the substantial environmental and economic consequences, countries worldwide have placed renewable energy at the forefront of their priorities. While previous empirical research has extensively explored the link between renewable energy and economic growth, this study seeks to address an overlooked aspect by investigating the potential impact of a particular indicator on economic activity. This paper examines the relationship between current account balance and renewable energy in OECD countries using an autoregressive distributive lags (ARDL) model to explore symmetric relationships and the non-linear autoregressive distributive lag model (NARDL) approach and panel vector autoregression (P-VAR) model over the period 1995-2020. The results indicate that there is a cointegrating relationship and that renewable energy consumption has a positive impact on the current account balance in the long term, but no significant impact in the short term. Given that many OECD countries are struggling with deficits, prioritizing bioenergy trade would be beneficial to increase the current account surplus., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study aims to examine the impact of industrial growth, agricultural value added, economic growth, and renewable energy consumption on environmental pollution in South and East Asian countries using panel ARDL approach over the period 1970-2020. Furthermore, the impact of institutional quality in this relationship is uniquely explored. Baseline model suggests that environmental damage is exacerbated by agricultural value added and industrial growth in the long run, but not in the short run. The relationship between economic growth and carbon emissions is an obvious inverted U-shaped link in the long run, but it is a U-shaped association in the short run. Renewable energy consumption has significant adverse effects on environmental pollution both in the short and long term. In the long run, institutional quality plays a stronger moderating role in the association between baseline regressors and environmental pollution. Also, institutional quality helps to expand the ability of industry and agriculture to improve environmental quality. Lastly, the threshold results reflect that the impact of regressors on environmental degradation is penetrating into the level of institutional quality. The strong progressive effects of agricultural and industrial growth on environmental degradation are more similar to the existing literature in the long term, but not in the short term. In addition, the long-term condensation effect of renewable energy on CO 2 emissions and the enhancing effect of economic growth on CO 2 emissions are relatively similar to existing literature. In contrast to weak institutional quality, strong institutions can improve the ability of agriculture and industry to reduce environmental damage., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The present era faces adverse effects of the strides recorded in economic advancements of the prior generations thus leading the present generation to growth dilemma. Consequently, there is a conscientious consideration for the ecological effects of economic growth. To resolve the preceding issue, due consideration must be given to harmless growth of which eco-digitalization, green financing, green technology, energy transition, and regularity quality are key determinants. Despite the aforesaid importance, empirical studies advancing this nexus are scarce. Hence, this study contributes to environment empirics by providing empirical evidence for the impacts of the highlighted indicators on sustainable environment in the USA. The study explores quarterly data from 1996Q1 to 2019Q4 based on the novel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. The pretests' outcomes show that long-run nexus exists among the variables, whereas the Zivot-Andrew uncovers breakpoint years in the observations. The main findings show that eco-digitalization, green financing, green technology, and renewable energy promote sustainable environment. On the flip side, non-renewable energy and regulatory quality hinder the pathways to sustaining the environment in the USA. Robustness analyses conducted based on FMOL, DOLS, and CCR provide substantial support and validity for the main results. Furthermore, the causality nexus lends empirical support for the existence of bidirectional and unidirectional causalities in the empirical model. Policy insights that drive the paths to sustainability in the US are suggested based on the findings., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The response of terrestrial ecosystems to increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations is controversial and not yet fully understood, with previous large-scale forest manipulation experiments exhibiting contrasting responses. Although there is consensus that increased CO 2 has a relevant effect on instantaneous processes such as photosynthesis and transpiration, there are large uncertainties regarding the fate of extra assimilated carbon in ecosystems. Filling this research gap is challenging because tracing the movement of new carbon across ecosystem compartments involves the study of multiple processes occurring over a wide range of timescales, from hours to millennia. We posit that a comprehensive quantification of the effect of increased CO 2 must answer two interconnected questions: How much and for how long is newly assimilated carbon stored in ecosystems? Therefore, we propose that the transit time distribution of carbon is the key concept needed to effectively address these questions. Here, we show how the transit time distribution of carbon can be used to assess the fate of newly assimilated carbon and the timescales at which it is cycled in ecosystems. We use as an example a transit time distribution obtained from a tropical forest and show that most of the 60% of fixed carbon is respired in less than 1 year; therefore, we infer that under increased CO 2 , most of the new carbon would follow a similar fate unless increased CO 2 would cause changes in the rates at which carbon is cycled and transferred among ecosystem compartments. We call for a more frequent adoption of the transit time concept in studies seeking to quantify the ecosystem response to increased CO 2 ., (© 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has boosted economic development while harming the ecology. It is vital to track its CO 2 emissions to guide the BRI toward a green future and low carbon. Our research contributes to these goals in two ways. First, this research examines the spatial-temporal effects of institutional quality (IQ) and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on CO 2 emissions for 75 BRI countries from 1990 to 2019. Second, geographical implications are considered when assessing the factors that affect CO 2 emissions on a regional scale. Several diagnostic methods are used to determine the significant spatial impacts, and spatial panel models (SPMs) are used to analyze the phenomenon's spillover and direct consequences. The empirical findings demonstrate that increased IQ and renewable energy (RNC) harm the country's CO 2 emissions. These negative consequences spread geographically to adjacent countries of the impacted country. Moreover, non-renewable energy (NC) positively affects the CO 2 of the impacted nation and its neighbors. Hence, the objective of reducing CO 2 emissions compels BRI to establish an effective plan to reduce non-renewable energy, enhance IQ, resolve internal and external disputes, and foster religious and ethnic harmony in BRI-affected nations. Positive direct and negative spatial impacts of economic expansion highlight the zero-sum game of nations, so high CO 2 -emitting countries should exercise caution when implementing economic policies., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Over the past three decades, industrial innovations and technological advancements have changed business dynamics, adversely devastating the overall environment. As a result, our oceans have been severely affected due to climate change and global warming. To address this issue, this study investigates the factors that cause ocean CO 2 using a sample of 44 countries over 2012-2021 and explores a dynamic and causal relationship between economic growth, ocean carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, and control variables relating to the ocean industry. This study finds that increasing economic activity tends to increase ocean carbon emissions. The results support the evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis suggesting an inverted U-shaped association between ocean emissions and real income for the sample countries. Moreover, this study reports that ocean health index, maritime container transport, trade of fishery and ocean species, aquaculture production and marine species, and employment rate in the fishery processing sector are the significant factors of ocean CO 2 . Region-wise analyses suggest that real income positively influences ocean emissions and confirm the evidence of the EKC hypothesis in European sample countries but these relationships have an insignificant effect in Asia and the Pacific and the American regions. Furthermore, a short-run unidirectional panel causality flows from the production of aquaculture and other species to RD&D, from OHI and GDP to trade of fishery and other species, and from OHI to employment rate in the fishery sector. Likewise, bidirectional causality runs from energy consumption and maritime transport to ocean CO 2 in the long term. Regarding the long-run causal association, the results determine that all of the estimated coefficients of the lagged error correction terms are statistically significant which explains that they are crucial in the adjustment process as they deviate from the long-run equilibrium., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Abstract: The pulp and paper industry both uses and produces large amounts of energy and rising fuel prices bring along significant challenges to the sector. Several strategies can be applied in order to remain competitive e.g. an increase in energy efficiency, a switch in fuel and/or a novel energy conversion technology. In this study, we investigate if improved energy conversion strategies can reduce energy costs, primary energy use and CO2 emissions of paper mills within different European countries (The Netherlands, Poland and Sweden). Our results show that differences in history and availability of resources has led to different conversion strategies in the three countries. We found that a natural gas combined cycle, which is largely implemented in The Netherlands due to long term domestic availability of natural gas, has the lowest primary energy demand. Due to a long history of low electricity prices, CHP has not been common in Sweden. Many Swedish mills use biomass as an energy source and due to low CO2 emissions of the national grid the CO2 emission profile of the Swedish paper industry is very low. Our results imply that future conversion routes for the Swedish paper and board industry are again wood based; in case of increasing electricity prices these would be biomass gasification based CHP solutions. With a reduction of 800kg CO2/ton paper on average, a switch from coal to biomass would reduce CO2 emissions in the Polish pulp and paper industry with approximately 0.6Mton/year. A carbon price of 20–25€/ton would, according to our results, be enough to provoke this switch. Due to the high share of natural gas, the CO2 emission reduction potential of the Dutch paper industry (1.5Mton/year) is even larger than in Poland. Due to high biomass prices and relative low CO2 emission profile of natural gas, a carbon prices of more than 60€/ton CO2 would be needed to provoke a switch in The Netherlands. Provided with few alternatives, the most effective strategy in The Netherlands would be an increase in energy efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper an approach for analysing the potential for implementation of different technology pathways for the European pulp and paper industry (PPI) is presented. The approach is based on detailed technical research and aggregates the knowledge from previous studies to incorporate the whole European PPI. Thus, the potential for different technology pathways can be estimated on a European level whilst still considering important characteristics of individual mills. The usefulness of the approach was exemplified by applying it to a case study of the potential for introduction of carbon capture and storage (CCS) within the European PPI. The results from the case study show that for the European PPI, CCS has an up-hill road in order to be a viable, large scale alternative for reduction of CO2 emissions. If CCS is to be introduced in large scale within the European PPI, large biomass-based point sources of CO2 emissions need to be included when planning for CCS infrastructure and also the infrastructure needs to be built out for clusters emitting <20 MtCO2/yr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric‐driven conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO) under mild reaction conditions offers a promising approach to mitigate the greenhouse effect and the energy crisis. Surface engineering is believed to be one of the prospective methods for enhancing the electrocatalytic activity of CO2 reduction. Herein, hydroxyl (OH) groups were successfully introduced to cadmium nanosheets to form cadmium and cadmium hydroxide nanocomposites (i. e. Cd/Cd(OH)2 nanosheets) via a facile two‐step method. The as‐prepared Cd/Cd(OH)2/CP (CP indicates carbon paper) electrode displays excellent electrocatalytic activity for CO2 reduction to produce CO. The Faradaic efficiency of CO reaches 98.3 % and the current density achieves 23.8 mA cm−2 at −2.0 V vs. Ag/Ag+ in a CO2‐saturated 30 wt% 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazole hexafluorophosphate ([Bmim]PF6)‐65 wt% acetonitrile (CH3CN)‐5 wt% water (H2O) electrolyte. And the CO partial current density can reach up to 71.6 mA cm−2 with the CO Faradaic efficiency of more than 85 % at −2.3 V vs. Ag/Ag+, which stands out against Cd/CP, Cd(OH)2/CP, and Cd/CdO/CP electrodes. The excellent electrocatalytic performance of the Cd/Cd(OH)2/CP electrode can be attributed to its unique structural properties, suitable OH groups, perfect interaction with electrolyte, abundant active sites and fast electron transfer rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]