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Against the background of climate change and scarce non-renewable resources, transforming the fossil-based toward a bio-based economy is considered crucial for sustainable development. Numerous countries have released governmental strategies outlining their bioeconomy visions. This study examines the bioeconomy visions presented in 78 policy documents from 50 countries worldwide, building on earlier vision typologies. Through qualitative content analysis, 227 distinct policy goals were identified and analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the salience of specific goals, overarching goal categories, and distinct bioeconomy visions: bioresource, biotechnology, and bioecology visions. The results reveal that goals and visions prioritize economic growth, while environmental considerations are less salient. The bioresource vision emerges as the globally dominant perspective, while the bioecology and biotechnology visions have lower salience. These findings deepen our comprehension of current bioeconomy policies and emphasize the need for critical research on bioeconomy visions and their implications for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, environmental concerns have emerged as significant obstacles to economic advancement, leading to a critical examination of the complex relationship between environmental sustainability and economic expansion. With the economy expanding swiftly and environmental hazards intensifying, immediate action must be taken to address these problems. This necessitates innovative policies and practices that foster sustainable economic growth while minimizing environmental impact. To solve these issues, this study proposed an extensive analytical framework employing machine learning techniques, particularly artificial neural networks (ANNs), to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. According to the EKC hypothesis, environmental degradation worsens before economic growth occurs. This study examines GDP per capita and key environmental indicators to measure economic development, using data from Anhui Province, China, from 2012 to 2019. The analysis provides empirical support for the theory and establishes a modeling framework that seamlessly integrates ML methodologies with EKC analysis, systematically examining and assessing the EKC's reliability for Anhui Province. The intricate interplay between Anhui Province's environment and economy, utilizing industrial waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste as critical indicators, evaluates environmental quality. At the same time, per capita GDP is the economic growth parameter. The findings indicate that the EKC does not adhere to an unchanging law but instead displays variations in distribution characteristics. The experimental results of the proposed ANN model demonstrate an impressive accuracy rate of 87%, outperforming five alternative models, including RF, KNN, DT, and LR. This superior model performance underscores the effectiveness of the ANN-based approach in capturing the intricate dynamics linking economic development and environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of natural resource wealth on sustainable economic development in the top 8 resource-abundant sub-Saharan African countries according to the World Bank Wealth of Nations 2018 over the period 1981–2017. The study incorporates public debt as an explanatory variable in our analysis, which is an extension of previous natural resource-growth estimations, to throw more light on how natural resource abundance and debt overhang simultaneously affect economic growth in resource-abundant sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. The NARDL bounds testing approach and asymmetric Granger causality tests are employed. Long-run asymmetric effect results show that an increase in natural resource rents significantly increases economic growth in Equatorial Guinea. However, an increase in natural resource rents in the Congo republic negatively affects economic growth, validating the resource curse hypothesis. No significant effect was found in other countries studied. In terms of asymmetric causality results, no bidirectional causality between natural resource rents and economic growth was noted. We, however, identified a weak unidirectional asymmetric causality relationship running from economic growth to resource rents in the Congo Republic and natural resource rents to economic growth in South Africa. The study, therefore, suggests the implementation of efficient public debt management policies and an improvement in the quality of institutions for effective management of public loans and resource revenues to stimulate economic development in these resource-rich countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major sources of financing for development projects of a government in achieving macroeconomic objectives is collecting revenues from taxes and non-tax sources. Rent form resources have an exigent role for the evaluation of economic welfare. Thus, in both the developed and developing economies, natural resources occupy a crucial importance. The novelty of this study counts on the approach to explore the economic growth impacts of natural resources via the transmission channel of its utilization in Bangladesh. The study aims to pursue the influence of resource rent for the period 1990 to 2017. To approach cointegration, autoregressive distributed lag is used. A significant positive influence of rent from resources to growth is found for Bangladesh. This implies proper use of the funds generated through resource rent. Exports, being a vital factor of trade as well as the economy as a whole, should be taken care of which shows negative signs in our study. In the short run, the population growth rate is affecting our economy whereas the effect is reversed in the long run. Domestic credit provided by the financial sector affects negatively and imports as well as gross capital formation have positive signs which is good in the sense that it promotes our country to sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional GDP calculations exclude the ecological environment and natural resource depletion, arguing that sustained economic growth can lead to sustained welfare improvements. The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) is a monetary measure of sustainability and economic welfare aimed at overcoming some of the limitations of GDP. Given the significant impact of industrial development, the demographic composition, and the balance of payments in economic growth and sustainable economic well-being, we propose an improved ISEW method (SE-ISEW), where the structural index is used instead of the Atkinson index as a measure of structural imbalance. This study calculates and compares the ISEW and SE-ISEW for 30 provinces in mainland China from 1997 to 2017 and discusses highly controversial methodological assumptions related to income inequality, long-term environmental damage, and nonrenewable energy consumption. Findings show that China's GDP is larger than ISEW and SE-ISEW respectively. Moreover, the "relative threshold effect"—increases in social welfare are slower than the expansion of economic scale—has been found in many provinces. In the case of rapid economic growth, the gap between GDP and ISEW or SE-ISEW has increased over time. This study reveals an unbalanced development of China's economic growth and sustainable welfare growth and provides a new way of thinking about structural transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a long span of data (from 1751 to 2016), this paper empirically investigates the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and economic growth (real GDP per capita) in the United Kingdom. The empirical results provide strong support for the existence of an Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) in the UK, i.e., an inverted U-shaped relationship between CO2 emissions and economic growth, with turning point estimated around the mid-twentieth century. This turning point corresponds with the introduction of changes in environmental standards and policies, which reflects the regulatory efforts to limit pollution by reducing the discharge of grit into the atmosphere, as well as the decline in the use of coal as source of energy, which reflects the country willingness to ensure the energy transition necessary for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A debt-based economy requires the accumulation of more and more debt to finance economic growth, while future economic growth is needed to repay the debt, and so the cycle continues. Despite global debt reaching unprecedented levels, little research has been done to understand the impacts of debt dynamics on environmental sustainability. Here, we explore the environmental impacts of the debt-growth cycle in Indonesia, the world's largest debt-based producer of palm oil. Our empirical Agent-Based Model analyses the future effects (2018–2050) of power (im)balance scenarios between debt-driven economic forces (i.e. banks, firms), and conservation forces, on two ecosystem services (food production, climate regulation) and biodiversity. The model shows the trade-offs and synergies among these indicators for Business As Usual as compared to alternative scenarios. Results show that debt-driven economic forces can partially support environmental conservation, provided the state's role in protecting the environment is reinforced. Our analysis provides a lesson for developing countries that are highly dependent on debt-based production systems: sustainable development pathways can be achievable in the short and medium terms; however, reaching long-term sustainability requires reduced dependency on external financial powers, as well as further government intervention to protect the environment from the rough edges of the market economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green-Win is the proposal where that government, society, and business can all reap benefits while at the same time playing a vital role in the transition to sustainable development and lower carbon futures. We argue that, while the Green-Win proposition is central to many state and expert models of sustainability transitions, as a construction, it belies more complex trade-offs and cognitive models of sustainability and societal transitions. Cultural models are cognitive representations shared by a community which provide both models of the world, which aid in interpreting what is in the world, how it works, what is possible (or not) and why, and models for the world, which suggest how to act in it to bring about desired outcomes (cf. Geertz 1973). We surveyed 225 respondents in Shanghai, China, Istanbul, Turkey, and Beirut, Lebanon to assess their basic beliefs about sustainability, specifically whether it is possible to implement concrete practices that realize environmental sustainability goals in conjunction with economic development—the Green-Win proposition. We found important similarities and differences among urban stakeholders' cultural models of sustainable development. For example, Chinese and Lebanese respondents displayed a strong belief that economic growth and environmental sustainability are compatible, while Turkish respondents showed significant disagreement with this proposition. We argue that such basic notions about the possibility of Green-Win opportunities between environmental sustainability and economic development are important to understand in the context of mitigating and adapting to climate change in critical urban environments. Cultural models of and for green development may either enable or inhibit transformations in urban systems according to local conditions. Finally, we discuss the potential implications of cultural models' research for targeting communications and engendering collaborations among diverse stakeholders in order to align perspectives and overcome barriers that may otherwise limit successful visioning, planning, and implementation for transformation towards sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of human carbon emissions on climate has generated widespread global concern. We selected 24 countries as research objects and analysed the changes in carbon emissions in different countries between the establishment of emission reduction actions in 1990 and 2014. Then, we selected 19 factors representing four categories (economy, population, technology and energy) to explore the key factors that led to changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in different countries. Emission reduction actions since 1990 did not lead to marked improvements, and only five countries (Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and France) achieved reductions in carbon emissions. The factors that influenced CO2 emissions varied among countries. In most developing countries, reductions in CO2 emissions were caused by reductions in poverty and inherent natural conditions. Moreover, the extent of influence of a given factor on CO2 emissions differed among countries. The global economic crisis may cause similar fluctuations in CO2 emissions in many countries. Adjustments to energy and industrial structures are the main reason for the reduction in carbon emissions, whereas economic growth and urbanization are the two major contributors to the growth of carbon emissions. According to historical carbon emissions data, a green energy revolution must be implemented to address global climate change and ensure the sustainable development of human societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like similar urbanised regions in the world, key ecological thresholds in the greater Cape Town area are being breached by the prevailing approach to growth and development, resulting in dysfunctional costs for the local economy. This condition of rising costs caused by a new set of material, ecologically driven variables creates the context for rethinking what growth and development means. This paper provides a synthesis of critical ecological flows and resources in the Cape Town region, drawing on the most current available data on energy, water, waste, transport, land, biodiversity and climate change. Rooted in emerging disciplines of ecological economics and the new institutional economics, it argues that investments in growth and poverty eradication will be undermined unless we recognise environmental resources and ecosystem services as binding constraints and move rapidly towards a sustainable resource use economy. The paper suggests some bold system changes and initiatives to position the Cape Town region as a global leader in the new sustainability revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]