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Recent environmental research has found that people with higher incomes and in more developed countries are more willing to pay (WTP) to protect their environment than people in developing countries. Based on this assumption, the study investigated Pakistani citizens' attitudes toward environmental protection, precisely their willingness to pay higher prices and taxes to preserve the natural environment. The research was carried out in three Punjab cities (Hasan Abdal, Wah, and Taxila) and four KPK cities (Abbottabad, Havelian, Mansehra, and Haripur). The selected cities are home to knowledgeable people who work in various universities, schools, hospitals, medical colleges, and nearby industrial estates and have a sense of environmental protection and can understand the healthcare issues related to environmental damages. The survey was divided into two sections: one about the participants' socio-demographic information and the other about people's willingness to pay higher prices and taxes to protect the environment. Four hundred and sixty-two people took part in the survey, and the data were analyzed using the bootstrap regression approach. The results show that gender has a detrimental impact, although population density and education positively impact a country's willingness to pay for environmental protection (WTPEP). Women are more likely to engage in pro-environmental behavior than men, resulting in disparities in their perceptions of male and female respondents in the study. People who live in crowded places tend to pay for environmental protection because of population density, healthcare difficulties, and air pollution. The respondents are well-versed in the externalities of environmental pollution; they are hopeful about paying for a better healthcare environment. Other criteria, such as the respondent's income, health status, total pollution level in the country, and per capita income, enable respondents to pay for environmental preservation to achieve long-term sustainable growth. The government must embrace air quality regulations and empower its citizens by offering better healthcare services since they are enthusiastic about paying higher taxes and fees to protect the environment., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

This study analyses the impact of GDP per capita, domestic credit, savings, and population on the environment in Pakistan from 1995 to 2019. The country has consistently been ranked eighth, fifth, and eight as an environmentally vulnerable nation from 1998 to 2017, 1999 to 2018, and 2000 to 2019, respectively. Therefore, the study explores the role of environmental awareness as a potential strategy for making peace with nature. Findings of the ARDL bounds testing approach confirm the long-run cointegration among variables of concern. In further assessment, the study determines that increased per capita income is detrimental to environmental quality in the long run. However, in the short run, it shows a favourable impact. On the other hand, domestic credit worsens the environment in the long and short runs. However, savings are positively insignificant in this regard. Furthermore, the total population significantly harms the environment in the long and short run. Fortunately, environmental awareness has emerged as a key solution to environmental degradation in Pakistan. Findings show that an increase in the dissemination of environmental awareness through the Internet, mobile, and landline phones, as well as by increasing education expenditures, mitigates the populations' detrimental impact on the environment and improves environmental quality in the long run., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

This study examines the potential effects of corporate sustainability governance on the investment efficiency of asset acquirers. Using secondary data gathered from the annual reports of sample firms and the global reporting initiatives data repository from 1991-2021, the study results indicate that the provision of sustainable governance better facilitates the efficient allocation of capital and acquirer's value creation. Subject to the individual effects, we find that the economic sustainability disclosure, social sustainability disclosure, and environmental sustainability disclosure have positive and significant effect on the investment efficiency of acquirers that increases the competitiveness of a company's investment. Outcomes further revealed that market risk disclosure and shareholder activism have a strong moderating impact on the relationship between sustainability governance and acquirers efficiency, which significantly complements the acquirer's value. The study findings put forward policy directions that the enforcement of persistent sustainability governance practices has more potential to maximize acquirer's investment., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Climate change is persistently causing adverse effects to the agriculture sector of developing countries, specifically in Asia. Pakistan is no exception to this effect and is ranked among the top 10 countries, which are most vulnerable to climate change. A huge upcoming challenge is to sustain an equilibrium among production and environmental protection. In this context, adaptation to climate change is considered as a win-win strategy for agriculture sectors in developing countries. However, numerous studies have focused on current farm-level adaptation while a scant interest has been shown on the role of physiological factors in the process of shaping small livestock herders' intentions towards environmental enrichment measures. A possible explanation of their lagging intentions is particular significance as they may comply with requisite climate adaptation measures or not. For deeper understanding, the current study investigates different psychological factors that affect the small livestock herder's intentions on adopting climate smart practices by using theory of planned behavior (TPB) with additional constructs (moral norms, risk perception, and social attributes). To this end, 405 small livestock herders from Punjab, Pakistan, were selected on the basis of multistage random sampling. The results of structural equation model showed that all constructs accounted for 57% of the variances in small livestock herders' adoption intentions. The outcome of this research offers a new indication regarding the interrelationship of numerous variables which are crucial to understand behavioral changes and psychological interventions. Overall attitude was the most prominent construct in the extended TPB model, which is mainly influenced by risk perception awareness. The results suggest that veterinary experts and extension agents should focus on psychological factors to explore different prospects to increase the involvement of livestock herders in environmental enrichment measures with little effort rather than tackling with traditional practices because it will be more likely to affect people's consideration of the external obstructions to act. Findings also offer public and private intervention for enabling technical and policy environment and strengthen social networks to keep livestock herders on track of updates of running government policies to ensure them to adopt climate change measures for their prosperous future.

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.

The objective of this study is to investigate the potential impacts of foreign ownership on the corporate sustainability disclosure of leading non-financial companies in the context of an emerging economy of Pakistan. The study employed data from the year 2006 to 2018 gathered from the Pakistan stock exchange. Further, the data on foreign ownership and corporate sustainability disclosure obtained from the firm's annual reports and the global reporting initiatives (GRI) database. This study employed a sequential mixed methods technique. The empirical results indicate that foreign ownership has a significant impact on total sustainability disclosure (TCSRI). Whereas having an individual assessment, we found that foreign ownership is positively associated with each component (economic, social, and environmental) disclosure respectively. Moreover, our findings prove that firm size and growth are positively related to foreign ownership, TCSRI, and its aspects. In contrast, the study reveals a negative relationship among financial leverage, TCSRI, and economic, social, and environmental sustainability exposure. Summing up, the study indicates that foreign ownership effectively improves sustainability governance mechanism, and at the same time, it is also found that higher financial leverage restricts the sustainability disclosure capacity of firms. Results from this study have technical, theoretical, and policy implications for regulatory institutions, corporate management, and investors in emerging economies. Hence, we put forward the policy implications that the regulatory institutions need to reconsider the policy guidelines subject to diversification of ownership and activism of foreign shareholders in both small/large size firms to enhance the sustainability disclosure practices. Also, reduce the increasing level of financial leverage, which is curbing the firm's economic, social, and environmental reporting activities.