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Resource abundance characterizes economies within the MENA region from North Africa to the Middle East. As such, to improve financial development (FD) for regional economic sustainability, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the roles of natural resources abundance and institutional quality indicators on the region's FD while underscoring the inflationary levels and general economic growth trends amidst rising globalization. The adopted empirical strategy (CS‐ARDL and AMG) is employed for potential cross‐sectional dependency (CD) and slope homogeneity in the regional data spanning over two decades (2000–2020). Unlike the extant literature, two separate regional FD indicators were considered for an insightful analysis namely, banking financial services via domestic credit to private sector, and financial stability via the Z‐score values showing the tendencies of default in a country's banking structure. Regardless of the FD indicator, the results reveal that natural resources, growth trends, and inflationary levels significantly spur long‐run regional FD thereby invalidating the financial resource curse hypothesis in the region. Furthermore, both institutional quality levels and globalization produced detrimental impacts on FD levels. However, the interaction between institutional quality levels and natural resources shows a desirable FD‐stimulating effect in the region, noticeably when FD is proxied by the Z‐score. Thus, implying that stronger institutions are crucial for MENA's overall financial stability vis‐à‐vis reduction in the risk of default in the banking system. Hence, policy recommendations including the strengthening of institutional capacities among others, were suggested to regional authorities toward harnessing resources for sustainable regional FD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is a vital component of economic development process, but part of the energy system including production and consumption of non‐renewable energy sources largely constitute environment setback. Interestingly, this research contributes to the growing debate on understanding the factors contributing to energy consumption portfolios using the case of five major South Asian economies including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan from 1990 to 2018. Crucial factors like trade flow, human development index, technological innovations, and urbanization were controlled for while examining the roles of economic expansion on the disaggregated energy consumption portfolios (renewable and non‐renewable energy sources) of these countries. The empirical dissection revealed that economic growth and the duo of trade and innovation are inimical to environmental sustainability as they trigger nonrenewable energy consumption while suppressing cleaner energy usage in the South Asian bloc. Urbanization on the other hand shows significant simultaneous positive impacts on the consumption of both renewables and nonrenewable energy, but its impacts are more pronounced on the latter than the former. Lastly, the study posits that human development and urbanization are major drivers of clean energy among the countries. Thus, strategic investment plans for human development enhancements and greener urban infrastructures are recommended for environmental sustainability goals in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of institutional pressure (IP), top management support (TMS), green supply chain management practices (GSCM), and supply chain competitive advantage (SCCA) on corporate environmental performance (EP). We also analyze the mediation effect of GSCM on the interplay between TMS and EP. Additionally, the paper also provides an analysis of the moderating role of SCCA between IP and EP. To attain the objective of this research, we assembled data from 710 business entities within the Shaanxi province of China utilizing a survey design approach. The structural equation model (SEM) was applied to test and assess the hypothetical outline. The study outcomes empirically show that TMS, GSCM, and SCCA positively and significantly impact EP. Interestingly, our study found an insignificant association between IP and EP. The study's results also demonstrate that IP directly relates to top management support. Moreover, the study's empirical findings reveal that GSCM positively mediates IP and EP. The study findings show that SCCA shapes IP and EP's connection. Accordingly, the practical implications of our study's findings suggest that business managers, investors, and government agencies must know the importance of adopting sustainable practices within the supply chain. Business managers must take action to integrate environmental criteria into supplier selection, evaluate suppliers' EP, and collaborate with eco‐friendly suppliers. Hence, government agencies, stakeholders, and business managers can use this information to shape regulations and policies that encourage businesses to adopt sustainable supply chain practices. Offering incentives such as tax benefits or grants for sustainability initiatives can also promote adoption. The study recommends that a business culture that targets improving EP due to IP and top management support is essential in achieving GSCM practices, thereby promising competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments engage in infrastructural developments across the globe, and the level of success often colligates with institutional quality levels. However, despite the presence of governance, the lack of well‐developed infrastructure has bedevilled sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries for decades. Therefore, this study investigates the governance‐led infrastructural development hypothesis for the SSA region from an institutional quality perspective towards addressing the infrastructural deficit challenges of the region. A combination of advanced panel econometric techniques was applied to data collected from the African Development Bank, World Bank World Development Indicator, and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to investigate the governance‐led infrastructural development hypothesis in SSA while controlling for financial development, economic growth, and industrialization in the region. The findings show that the interaction of institutional quality measures and governance indicators significantly and positively induces infrastructure in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). Additionally, while economic growth and financial development yield no expected significant influence on infrastructural developments, industrialization plays a crucial role, as its spillover effects are not confined to boosting economic growth alone but also to infrastructural transformations. Thus, the provision of policy frameworks by authorities to strengthen institutions and promote good governance is vital for articulating and facilitating infrastructural development plans for SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental literature keeps expanding on the natural resources‐environmental sustainability conundrum. However, most studies examine this conundrum in different geographical locations other than resource‐rich Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries while also neglecting the criticality of issues like green innovations, financial development, and renewable energy. Besides, the likelihood of a nonlinear relationship has often been jettisoned in the framework. Thus, the resources‐sustainability nexus was examined in the SSA using robust econometric techniques, while underscoring the roles of green innovations, renewable energy, and financial development. Using the cross‐sectional augmented auto‐regressive distributed lag (CS‐ARDL), cross‐sectional augmented distributed lag (CS‐DL), and the common correlated effect mean group (CCEMG) approaches that conciliate with residual cross‐sectional dependence and heterogeneity amongst others, we discovered that (i) the natural resources‐sustainability nexus is nonlinear in SSA. (ii) unlike the environmental gains from green innovations and renewables in the SSA, natural resource harms their environmental sustainability (iii) the interaction between financial development and natural resources worsened the ecosystem of the countries (iv) the interaction between natural resources and the duo of green innovations and renewable energy enhances SSA's ecological quality (v) urbanization damage environmental sustainability by spurring ecological footprints. Furthermore, one‐way causality paths were observed from the trio of natural resources, financial development, and green innovations to ecological footprints. But renewable energy and urbanization had a feedback causal relationship with ecological footprints. The findings are robust to CO2 emissions as an alternative environmental quality measure. Policy implications to foster SDGs‐related pollution mitigation agenda were thereafter extensively discussed for the SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable use of natural resources would entail ensuring that derived economic benefits today do not undermine the welfare of generations to come. On this basis, this study examines the nexus between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions disaggregated into production and consumption‐based (i.e., trade‐adjusted) CO2 emissions for a selected panel of 45 developing and transition economies over the period 1995–2017. The empirical model also incorporates the impacts of population, affluence, and energy intensity. The results show that affluence increases production‐based CO2 emissions by 1.407%, with the EKC's predicted inverted U‐shaped curve only explaining consumption‐based CO2 emissions. Economic reliance on natural resource rents and energy intensification contribute 0.022% and 0.766%, respectively, to CO2 emissions embedded in territorial production inventories and 0.035% and 0.583%, respectively, to CO2 emissions embedded in consumption inventories. The bootstrap non‐causality test shows that historical data on each variable has significant predictive power for future CO2 emissions from both sources. The historical information about natural resource rents has significant predictive power over the future levels of affluence and energy intensity. Clearly, the results show that the environmental impact of natural resource rents is stronger when CO2 emissions are adjusted for trade and varies among the countries, with Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe among the most affected countries. Overall, this study provides motivation for policies to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly argued in what is termed the degrowth strategy that economic growth cannot occur side by side with environmental protection. In this study, it is instead argued that the spread of green products through economic complexity and international trade are possible means of solving this problem. To this end, the individual and interactive environmental impacts of economic complexity and international green trade are examined in a panel of 24 European Union nations between 2000 and 2018. Panel quantile regressions (QRs) and Driscoll‐Kraay fixed effect‐OLS regressions are employed in analysing the relationships. The findings reveal that both green trade and economic complexity have beneficial individual effects on the environment. Their interaction effect further confirms that they have a complementary synergistic impact on the environment of the 24 EU countries. It thus implies that both green trade and economic complexity act better together than separately. Countries interested in achieving sustainable environment can do so by raising local productive capabilities, such that they are able to quickly transition into the production of technology‐intensive, eco‐friendly items. Alternatively, they can also explore the unique benefits provided by international trade in green products in cases where they do not have the ability to locally produce certain green goods. Better still, they can pursue both objectives simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the growing threats to humanity from climate change, we analyzed the information and communications technology (ICT)/education—environmental nexus from three distinct blocs including BRICS, MINT, and the G7 economies between 1990 and 2020. Two models were examined to reach the study's objectives. The first model evaluates whether education and ICT are essential for environmental sustainability via potential reduction in carbon emission. On the other hand, the second model fills an existing gap in extant studies by examining the prospect of education and ICT in influencing citizens on the importance of transition to renewable energy usage. Driscoll and Kraay estimator was employed as a panacea tool for cross‐sectional dependence and slope homogeneity while the fixed effect approach provides sufficient robustness checks on the findings. While some outcomes vary per bloc, others are relatively similar across the three blocs. Education level in school enrollment perspectives shows a negative significant pollution reduction effect across the three blocs, while only the G7 bloc performed better from human capital perspectives. The combined sample bloc shows that ICT also significantly reduces carbon emission, however, an individual bloc analysis refutes this stance for the MINT bloc. Additionally, while renewable energy cushions emissions in all the blocs, rapid urbanization, shows a positive CO2 emission impact except in the G7 bloc. Last, ICT and education significantly boost renewable energy usage only in the G7. Hence, governments and stakeholders in the blocs should gravitate toward greater investments in quality education and greener ICT infrastructures for a sustainable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This present study is motivated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN‐SDGs) that concerns pertinent issues that comprises environmental sustainability (SDG‐13), sustainable development (SGD‐8), and responsible consumption (SDG‐11), among others. To this end, this study examines the long‐run and causality linkage between renewable and non‐renewable energy, foreign direct investment, and economic globalisation in a carbon‐income framework by use of both carbon dioxide emission and ecological footprint as a determinant for environmental degradation for E7 countries. Furthermore, a series of panel econometrics panel tests in conjunction with quantile regression is used to explore the relationship between the outlined variables for annual frequency data from 1990 to 2016. Empirical results trace a long‐run equilibrium relationship among the highlighted variables as reported by Westerlund (2007). Additionally, this study gives credence and validates the pollution haven for the emerging (E7) countries examined, thus, implying the detrimental effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on quality of environment in E7 economies. Interestingly, we observe that investment in renewable energy consumption will improve environmental quality. This outcome resonates with the advocacy of UN‐SDGs‐7, 11, 12, and 13, where emphasis is placed on responsible energy consumption (renewables), access to clean energy, and climate change mitigation. Conclusively, these revelations suggest the chase for adoption of low‐carbon development technologies and strategies in E7 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following universal debate for energy sources and sustainable development across the globe, with its far‐reaching implications on the environment, this crusade aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN‐SDGs). The study variables are based on the SDGs‐7, 8, and 13 that highlights access to clean energy, sustainable economic growth and mitigation of climate change issues. Awareness of environmental sustainability has received much consideration because of the hazards associated with climate change issues in recent times. Studies on environmental quality and pollution emissions (CO2) are becoming increasingly interesting. It is reported that human activities and increasing economic issues resolve environmental‐related challenges. In the light of this, we assess how employment moderates energy consumption and climate change for G7 countries. We utilise panel co‐integration and long‐run regression using dynamic ordinary and fully modified ordinary least squares to institute the magnitude of long‐run elasticity among the outlined variables. Panel heterogeneous techniques are used to detect the direction of causality for the annual data from 1990 to 2016. The empirical result shows a clear significant correlation between variables and the long‐run relationship between pollutant releases and energy utilisation, employment and real output. The study finds an inverse relationship between trade and pollutant emissions, thus suggesting that openness trade mitigates against environmental degradation in the sampled blocs. The causality analysis reveals a bidirectional causality between emissions and employment and a unidirectional causality between emissions, real GDP, energy utilisation and trade. These results have far‐reaching outcomes on environmental fronts and economic growth highlighted in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study focuses on the need for responsible and clean energy consumption, climate change mitigation, and sustainable economic growth. To this end, the study investigates the connection between biomass energy consumption, real GDP, investment in the energy sector, and CO2 emissions in the emerging (E7) countries – China, India, Brazil, Mexico, the Russian Federation, Indonesia and Turkey – for the period 2000–2018. The study uses a battery of techniques, namely Pooled Mean Group‐autoregressive distributed lag, ordinary least square, dynamic ordinary least square, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (PMG‐ARDL, OLS, DOLS FMOLS) and causality estimators, to measure the robustness of the conceptualized relationship among the variables of interest. Empirical results show that conventional energy from fossil fuel sources is a driver of CO2 emissions within the E7 economies. On the other hand, biomass energy consumption and investments in the energy sector decrease CO2 emissions. Furthermore, a feedback causality relationship between biomass energy consumption and CO2 emissions is observed. Similarly, a feedback causality relationship is seen between economic growth and biomass energy consumption. Our study's empirical findings reveal that biomass energy consumption mitigated CO2 emissions in the E7 economies that were examined, suggesting the pivotal role for biomass energy consumption in creating an eco‐friendly environment and environmental sustainability. This requires investment from the private sector, stakeholders, and government administrators in cleaner energy technologies initiatives like biomass. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]