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The economic giant China, enjoying miraculously high economic performance since the 1980s, is currently facing an economic performance slowdown, along with environmental sustainability challenges. Energy-industry investments might serve as a potential driver of economic performance, indirectly inducing environmental sustainability through investments in the energy-industry transition from old technology to a renewable one. This research provides an empirical assessment of the causal bond between energy-industry investment and economic performance across the regional development levels, employing a dynamic longitudinal data modeling on China’s 27 provincial and municipality units from 1997 through 2017. It developed an economic performance model to incorporate energy-industry investment as an aggregate production growth input. The core empirical findings are as follows. Firstly, the energy-industry investment and economic performance induced a positive and statistically significant mutual influence, manifested from their parameter estimates. Secondly, a bilateral causal bond is unveiled between energy-industry investment and economic performance based on the Dumitrescu-Hurlin technique, confirming the feedback hypothesis of a causal bond between the two variables. The results are consistent across the under-analysis panels in terms of the nature of the influence; however, the induced degrees of their influence significantly differed across the regional development levels. The intensity of the direct influence of energy-industry investment (0.049) on economic performance lags behind the feedback influence of economic performance (1.069) on energy-industry investment. Additionally, considerable heterogeneities are detected in influence intensities across the regional panels. Eastern China (region of high development) displayed the most substantial direct (0.058) and feedback influence (1.193), while western China manifested the least substantial intensity of direct (0.030) and feedback influence (0.836). After that, the central China (region of medium development) demonstrated a medium intensity of direct (0.037) and feedback influence (0.996). Finally, among other regressors, human capital, physical capital, inflation rate, and trade presented a positive and significant influence on economic performance. In contrast, the foreign direct investment significantly influenced the economic performance only in the eastern China. The empirical findings implied that energy-industry investment might serve as a vital driver of economic performance, with the most significant role in the highly developed regions and the least significant in the low developed regions, given the important explanatory variables. Based on empirical findings, policies are suggested.

Biogas is a methane-rich gas that is produced by the anaerobic fermentation of organic material, such as animal dung. Pakistan has the sixth largest livestock-based economy in the world and thus demonstrates great potential for biogas production. The government has already started the Biogas Support Program (BSP) in a few selected areas of the country. With that in mind, this study was designed to determine a household's predicted willingness-to-adopt a biogas system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. The study is based on primary data collected from four districts: Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, and Mardan. Data was collected from 200 livestock farming households selected through an equal allocation technique. Probit analysis was used to identify those factors influencing the willingness of a household to adopt a biogas system. The results of the probit model reveal that the education level of the respondents, total daily electric shortfall, the effect of electric shortfall on childrens' education and female drudgery, and respondents' awareness regarding the pros and cons of using biogas were statistically significant factors. On the basis of p

About three billion people worldwide use solid fuels for cooking and space heating. This fueling practice contributes to global forest depletion and disease prevalence. To abate the environmental and health threats caused by the inefficient burning of biomass fuels, large-scale initiatives were undertaken globally for the dissemination of fuel-saving and energy-efficient stoves, known as improved cookstoves (ICS). This paper examines the adoption of ICS in northwest Pakistan by using a logit analysis. The results show that the education of the respondent, number of working household members, and total income of the household had significant effects on the adoption of ICS. Conversely, the age of the respondent and possession of land did not exhibit any significant influence on adoption. The overall model was significant with p

The current study examines the effect of global climate change (CO2 emissions), financial development, and technical progress (fertilizer consumption and improved seed distribution) on cereal production in Pakistan over the 1977–2014 period. The study undertakes the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to investigate the long-term interrelation among the variables. The outcomes of the ARDL bounds-testing approach confirmed the presence of a long-term relationship among the variables. Empirical results revealed that CO2 emissions have a negative impact on cereal production in the short-run and long-run. It means that increase in global climate change will decrease cereal production. Findings further showed that financial development has a positive impact on cereal production in both cases. It suggests that increasing financial development will enhance cereal production, which will ensure the country’s food security. In addition, technical progress has a significantly positive impact on cereal production in both cases. The dynamic OLS, fully modified OLS, and the canonical cointegrating regression estimators confirmed the robustness of the findings. Financial development is essential for sustainable agriculture production; therefore, policymakers should devise a comprehensive agriculture policy that addresses the financial needs of the agriculture sector and attracts investment. The financial institutions may use carbon financing as a tool to intervene in the financial market to generate funds for the application of cleaner production principles and the use of best practices for agriculture development and sustainable production.

This study attempts to identify the enablers that play an important role in the uptake of energy efficient cookstoves (EECs) in Chitral, Pakistan. For this purpose, primary data were collected from 390 households distributed across 20 villages. The ordered logit model is used to analyze the factors affecting the uptake of EECs in the study area. The findings show that the education level of the household head, landholding by the household, presence of organizations working to promote EECs, and media campaigns promoting EECs have a statistically significant influence on the uptake of EECs. Of these factors, the presence of NGO promoting EECs has the largest influence on EEC adoption as it increases the probability of switching from traditional cookstoves to EECs by 20.5% points. Media campaigns for promoting EECs increase the probability of switching to EECs by 14% points. The study concludes that socio-cultural and economic variables as well as efficient dissemination of information and promotion of EECs have a statistically significant relationship with the uptake of improved and clean cooking technology. Based on the findings, the study recommends that, to ensure successful dissemination, local needs and preferences of users of the area be taken into account when designing an EEC program.

Solar energy is abundantly available in Pakistan and is converted into electrical energy by using solar photovoltaic system. This study identifies the determinants of social acceptability of solar photovoltaic (PV) system in northwest Pakistan. The study is based on a survey of 100 randomly selected households from three villages in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. In the study area, 46% of the households used solar PV system. We used binary logistic model to investigate the determinants of social acceptability of solar PV system. The results show that income of the household, household’s monthly cost of energy consumption, education of respondents, information about the availability of solar PV system in the market, and source of awareness about solar PV system are the key determinants of the social acceptability of solar PV system. The overall model was highly significant as shown by p

Large dependence of the world population on biomass fuels for domestic energy consumption is one of the major anthropogenic causes of deforestation worldwide. The use of biomass in inefficient ways in rural areas increases fuelwood demand of a household. Development of the improved biomass stove programs in the 1970s has been one of the efforts to reduce burden on biomass resource base through reliable and efficient methods of energy consumption. However, despite having multiple economic, social, environmental, and health benefits; the improved stove dissemination programs failed to capture worldwide recognition. A wide array of socio-cultural, economic, political, and institutional barriers contributes to the low adoption rate of such programs. Drawing on field work surveys in rural northwest Pakistan, this paper provides empirical evidence of individual, household, and community level variables that play a vital role in the adoption of improved cookstoves. The study is based on primary data collected from 100 randomly selected households in two villages of rural northwest Pakistan. Using regression analysis, the study depicts that education and household income are the most significant factors that determine a household willingness to adopt improved biomass stoves. The study concludes that the rate of adoption could substantially be improved if the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a greater role in overcoming the social, economic, cultural, political, and institutional barriers to adopting improved cooking technologies.