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The stable growth of an economy is based on the coordination between environmental protection and economic development. Environmental regulation may affect energy efficiency because of its function of correcting energy consumption externalities. This paper uses the SBM model and Tobit model to explore the impact on and pathways of environmental regulations of energy efficiency in 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China and explains temporal and regional heterogeneity. The findings suggested that the environmental regulation in all provinces is continuously strengthened and the energy efficiency in eastern China is relatively higher. There is a positive effect of environmental regulation on energy efficiency and there is a temporal and spatial heterogeneity. Environmental regulation affects energy efficiency through green technology innovation, industrial structure upgrading, energy structure transformation and other transmission paths, and its influence mechanism on energy efficiency also has regional heterogeneity. The policy suggestions are: further enhance the intensity of environmental regulation, refine supporting safeguards and implement differentiated environmental regulation measures.

Achieving sustainable development requires an increasing share of green technologies. World energy demand is expected to rise significantly especially in developing economies. The increasing energy demands will be entertained with conventional energy sources at the cost of higher emissions unless eco-friendly technologies are used. This study examines the asymmetric effects of nuclear energy on carbon emissions for Pakistan from 1974 to 2019. Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and Phillips Perron (PP) unit root tests suggest that variables are integrated of order one and bound test of Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and nonlinear ARDL confirm a long-run relationship among selected variables. The ARDL, Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) results show that the coefficient of nuclear energy has a negative and significant impact on emissions in both short and long run. Further, the NARDL finding shows that there exists an asymmetric long-run association between nuclear energy and CO2 emissions. The vector error correction method (VECM) results indicate that there exists a bidirectional causal relationship between nuclear energy and carbon emissions in both the short and long run. Additionally, the impact of nuclear energy on ecological footprint has been examined and our findings remain robust.

This study empirically examines the asymmetric relationship between public-private partnerships investment in the energy (PPPIE) sector and CO2 emissions for selected Asia economies from 1990 to 2019. For estimation, we used the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag modelling (NARDL) econometric approach. The findings reveal that a positive change in PPPIE hinders environmental quality by increasing CO2 emissions in Indonesia and Russia in long run. On the contrary, a positive change in PPPIE has a negative influence on CO2 emissions in China and Turkey in long run. The negative shock of PPPIE mitigates the CO2 emissions in long-run in Russia, Indonesia, and Turkey. However, a positive change in PPPIE improves environmental quality by decreasing CO2 emissions in India, Indonesia, and Turkey in the short run. Although a negative change in PPPIE has negative effects on CO2 emissions in only Indonesia, while it has positive effects in India, Russia, and Turkey in the short run. Therefore, the government should encourage public-private partnerships investment in the renewable energy sector in the selected Asian economies by encouraging environmental quality.

One of the strategic objectives of China is to increase renewable energy consumption by reducing non-renewable energy consumption. This motivates us to carefully investigate the asymmetric effects of financial deepening on renewable and non-renewable energy consumption for China, using annual data from 1990 to 2019. The results show that in China, a positive shock in bank deposits and broad money has a significant increasing effect on renewable energy consumption, while a negative shock in bank deposits and broad money has also a significant increasing effect on renewable energy consumption in the long-run. Moreover, positive change in bank deposits and broad money has an inverse impact on non-renewable energy consumption, while negative change has stimulating non-renewable energy consumption in long run. Thus, government and policymaker’s policies aimed at promoting financial deepening in China must be persistent and sustainable to foster renewable energy consumption.

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Every year millions of Muslims go to Saudi Arabia to fulfil pilgrimage worship, thus Saudi Arabia is such a religious centre brings with it various consequences. In this context, this paper investigates the nexus between CO2 emissions, economic growth, energy consumption and pilgrimage tourism in Saudi Arabia for the period of 1968–2017. The dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully-modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) methods are employed in this study. FMOLS results prove that energy consumption, number of pilgrims and oil prices have a positive effect on CO2 emissions and GDP has a negative effect on it, while DOLS results imply that only energy consumption has a positive effect on carbon emissions. In addition, there is unidirectional causality from CO2 to pilgrimage tourism and from pilgrimage tourism to oil, and there is bidirectional causality between pilgrimage tourism and GDP. Therefore, the environmental cost of pilgrimage tourism is inevitable. Reflections of pilgrimage visits to Saudi Arabia as a belief tourism are dealt with for the first time in this paper. In addition, our more specific purpose is to determine the environmental impacts of Muslims performing the pilgrimage, during their religious worship.

The effects of corruption and income on environmental degradation is well established in the literature. However, little attention has been given to how the control of corruption affects the environmental quality at different levels of income. This study examines the interaction effect of the control of corruption and income on environmental quality in Africa over the period from 1996 to 2017. Using a Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) with fixed effects, the results revealed that both the control of corruption and income level increase CO2 emissions while their interaction term reduces CO2 emissions. This implies that the interaction effect of the control of corruption and income level mitigates carbon emissions. Particularly, the marginal effect of the control of corruption on CO2 emissions decreases as income level increases. Furthermore, renewable energy consumption has a negative and significant effect on CO2 emissions. The effect of foreign direct investment on CO2 emissions is positive and significant, which validates the pollution haven hypothesis. These results are heterogeneous across the quantile distribution of CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, our study suggests the need for the government and policymakers to stimulate income levels as a prerequisite for achieving sound and effective environmental policies in Africa.

The reduction in oil prices might make crude oil a cheaper alternative to renewable energy (RE). Given this, the present paper examines the effect of fluctuation of oil prices on the use of RE in the United States (US) during the period 1970 to 2018. We constructed two nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) models to examine the effect of the positive and negative oil price shocks on the use of RE in the US. The RE consumption is taken as the dependent variable and the gross domestic product (GDP), Brent crude prices, population density, trade openness, and price index as independent variables. The result revealed that the rise in crude oil price, GDP, and population density will increase RE use in the short run and in the long run as well. Moreover, the study finds that any decrease in oil prices will decrease RE use in the short run and its effect will eventually diminish in the long run. On the policy front, it is suggested that US should raise its energy security by reducing its dependency on imported crude oil and increase the role of RE through the imposition of taxes on oil and increase the base of production and consumption through a series of measures.

This study investigates the cointegration and causality among environmental quality (CO2 emissions), international trade, economic growth, and tourism of five Central Asian Republic States (CARS-5), namely Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan, for 1992–2018. To this end, we employed the Johansen cointegration approach, modified Wald tests, and the Toda & Yamamoto (1995) approach. The empirical results showed that the variables were cointegrated in the long run, and the Granger causality test results revealed the existence of causality in the series. Furthermore, the empirical results validated both the export-led and the tourism-led growth hypotheses for Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. These findings suggest that the CARS-5 should develop appropriate and prudent public policies to stimulate sustainable economic development.

Industrial development generally entails a structural transition from resource-based and low-technology activities to medium- and high-tech industrial (MHT) activities that represent higher innovation intensity. A modern, highly complex production structure creates better opportunities for skills development and technological innovation. The present study examines the relationship between innovation intensity and climate change crises by incorporating the factor of economic complexities. For this purpose, we used panel data pertaining to 120 global economies from 1996 to 2019 and applied the CS-ARDL estimation technique to achieve empirically valid results. The outcomes of the estimations revealed that real GDP, trade openness, energy use, and economic complexities have a positive and significant relationship with climate change crises in these economies, whereas innovation intensity has a negative and significant relationship with climate change crises. However, the joint effect of the interaction between innovation intensity and real GDP with economic complexities is positive and significant in terms of climate change crises. Thus, the study concludes that higher innovation intensity has a significant role in determining climate change crises in the presence of complex economic structures.

Carbon dioxide emissions have been the primary source of extreme environmental pollution and have detrimental consequences on human life, irrespective of an economy being developed or underdeveloped. For the developing economies, in particular, it is imperative to reduce such emissions in order to sustain the growth of the respective economies. However, for designing appropriate emission reduction policies, it is appropriate to identify the sectors which contribute the most to carbon dioxide emissions and dampen the growth of overall economy. Against this background, the key intention of this study was to examine the influence of carbon dioxide emissions generated from various sources on the economic progress in Pakistan between 1971 and 2017. This study is important for Pakistan to sustain its economic progress and enable the nation to comply with commitments of the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. The econometric analysis conducted in this study considers a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model which is applied to ascertain the short- and long-run economic growth impacts associated with positive and negative shocks to CO2 emissions generated from various sources. The choice of this model is driven by its capacity to perform an asymmetric analysis which is relevant for suitable policy-making purposes. The overall results, in a nutshell, reveal that carbon dioxide emissions from Pakistan’s transportation sector influence the country’s economic progress. Positive shocks to such carbon dioxide emissions are originate to reduce economic progress in the long run while negative shocks are evidenced to boost economic growth both in the short and long run. In contrast, carbon dioxide emissions from other major sectors are found to be ineffective in influencing Pakistan's economic growth both in the short and long run. Hence, keeping into consideration the prospects of attaining sustainable economic growth, the Pakistan government must prioritize the implementation of CO2 emissions-inhibiting policies within the transportation sector. Simultaneously, the traditional fossil fuel dependency within this sector should also be phased out.

The dispute between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions is one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century. The central issue of the emerging economies revolves around the decoupling of economic growth and the rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study examines the decoupling the CO2 emissions from the economic growth through the employment of the Tapio decoupling index and decomposition of CO2 emissions into its pre-determined factors through the Log Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition technique for Pakistan, India, and China (PIC) for a time span of 1990–2014. The findings of the Tapio elasticity analysis depict that in a few years, environmental impact has been seen to be decoupled from the economic growth in the respective PIC countries. However, relatively Pakistan experienced expensive negative decoupling; India mostly experienced weak decoupling and expensive coupling, while China exhibited weak decoupling in multiple years. In addition, the analysis of Tapio decoupling elasticity showed that energy intensity is the key factor supporting the decoupling in PIC countries, while population, affluence (GDP per capita) and energy structure have weakened the progress of decoupling. Furthermore, the analysis of the LMDI decomposition suggested that population, energy structure and affluence in PIC countries increase the CO2 emissions, while energy intensity reduces CO2 emissions, while mixed effects are reflected by carbon intensity.

Maintaining a balance between environmental quality and economic growth is now one of the common goals of fiscal and monetary policies in developed and developing economies. This study examines the asymmetric impacts of fiscal and monetary policy instruments on environmental pollution in Pakistan over the period 1985–2019 by employing the asymmetric or nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) framework. The outcomes indicate that in Pakistan, a positive and negative shock in fiscal policy instruments has a significant increasing influence on carbon emissions in the short run, while a positive and negative shock in fiscal policy instruments has a significant decreasing impact on environmental pollution in long run. However, negative and positive shock in monetary policy instruments enhances carbon emissions in short-run, whereas positive shock in monetary policy instruments decreases carbon emissions in the long run. Therefore, the policymakers may consider the usage of fiscal and monetary policy instruments to maintain economic growth along with lowering the environmental pollution.

This study explores the dynamics between disaggregated factors of governance and stock market development for the panel of selected South Asian countries (i.e., Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Using newly developed data for disaggregates of governance with annual frequency between 1996 and 2014, this study pioneers in South Asian context. Doing so, this study incorporates dynamic panel data technique pool mean group estimation for robust and policy oriented outcomes. The empirical results show that three indicators of governance (control of corruption, accountability and rule of law) have a positive and statistically significant impact on stock market development. The results of long-run estimations are homogenous across the countries but, the short-run estimates, and the speed of adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium are found to be heterogeneous. It could be due to volatility effect of governance in each cross section country. From the policy perspective, the study concludes that the institutional quality and governance are the significant factors on market capitalization in the panel countries. The institutional factors (i.e., control of corruption, accountability and rule of law) support stock market development through high market capitalization, strengthens investor's confidence for long term investment in the countries.

The present study seeks to investigate the sector-level energy consumption of oil and natural gas and to explore the linkage between economic growth, households, agriculture, industry, power, fertilizers, and commercial sector in Pakistan for the period of 1980–2016. The energy sector of Pakistan is facing severe crisis from the last few years due to inadequate production and supply. Long-lasting deficits of natural gas and oil, the two supreme types of fuel in Pakistan, had detrimental consequences for the growth as well as for the economic development. An autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method and Granger causality test under vector error correction model (VECM) were employed to check the association among the variables. Furthermore, the innovative accounting method was used to investigate the responsiveness of each variable to another within the study framework. Empirical results show long-run association among the variables, as oil consumption in the agriculture and power sector show a positive effect on Pakistan’s economic growth. Similarly, energy consumption from natural gas in the households and fertilizers as well as in the industry sector has had a constructive association with economic growth. In contrast, energy consumption from oil in the households and industry sectors has adverse association with economic growth, while natural gas consumption in the commercial sector has negative linkage with economic growth. Possible steps should be taken by the Government of Pakistan to enhance the production of oil and natural gas from other alternatives to meet the requirements of these sectors.

This research has examined the dynamic linkages among climate change factors, such as CO2 emissions, temperature, rainfall, and cereal yield in Turkey from 1968 to 2014. At first step, we tested stationary properties of the climatic factors and crop yield by using both traditional and breakpoint unit root tests. After the confirmation of given properties, we used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to capture the dynamic relationship among the variables in the given span of time. The empirical results show that there is a long-run equilibrium relationship that exists between climate change factors and cereal yield. CO2 emissions and average temperature have a diverse effect on the cereal yield, whereas average rainfall has a positive effect on the cereal yield in both the long run and short run. To check the causality, we use the Granger causality test that reveals a significant effect of climate change variables on the cereal yield. The unidirectional causal link is significant among temperature and rainfall factors. The results show that the cereal yield is affected by more climate factors like rain fall and temperature due to CO2 emissions as compared to land and labor use. Based on the findings of the study, few suggestions have been made to address the climate change factors. Devise agriculture-specific adaptation policy for the farmers to build their capacity and resilience to tackle climate changes, for example, farm practices. Agriculture research and development should work on cereal crop varieties that can tolerate the high temperature and precipitation. These policies could help the agriculture sector to sustain production and allocation efficiency in the long run.

This article revisits the nexus between financial development and environmental degradation by incorporating economic growth, electricity consumption and economic globalization in the CO2 emissions function for the period 1975QI–2014QIV in the United Arab Emirates. We apply structural break and cointegration tests to examine unit root and cointegration between the variables. Further, the article also uses the Toda-Yamamoto causality test to investigate the causal relationship between the variables and tests the linkages of the robustness of causality by following the innovative accounting approach. Our empirical analysis shows cointegration between the series. Financial development increases CO2 emissions. Economic growth is positively linked with environmental degradation. Electricity consumption improves environmental quality. Economic globalization affects CO2 emissions negatively. The relationship between financial development and CO2 emissions is U-shaped and inverted N-shaped. Further, financial development leads to environmental degradation, and environmental degradation in turn leads to financial development in the Granger sense. © 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

The economic growth of developing countries has been associated with their exports, and the existing research suggests that exchange rates significantly influence the exports. This study used panel data to investigate the potential nexus of gross domestic product (GDP), exports and exchange rates in Asian countries over the period of 1981–2016. The results portray that nexus between exchange rate and exports holds true for Export-led Growth (ELG) and Growth-led Exports (GLE) hypotheses. This study used the Wald test under Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) with all necessary specifications tests to identify the possible nexus of variables, and applied the fixed effects model along with control variables. The results imply that an undervalued currency enhances exports and has a significant impact on economic growth. Additionally, the results of Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) model with financial crises dummy suggested that the estimations are robust. Keeping in view the aforementioned findings, a timely and balanced policy can play a pivotal role in improving the long term nexus of exchange rates, exports and economic growth.

This paper aims to determine the interaction of commercial energy distribution, including the installed capacity of hydroelectric energy, hydroelectric energy generation, the installed capacity of thermal energy, thermal energy generation, the installed capacity of nuclear energy, and nuclear energy generation, with economic progress in Pakistan over the 1970–2019 period. Both linear and non-linear autoregressive distributed lag models were used to ascertain the symmetric and asymmetric short- and long-run effects. The findings from the linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis revealed evidence that increases in the installed capacity of nuclear energy, alongside higher levels of hydroelectric energy generation and thermal energy generation, have positively affected economic growth in the short run, while a greater installed capacity of nuclear energy has positively affected economic growth in the long run. The findings from the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model analysis showed that negative shocks to installed capacities related to hydroelectric, thermal, and nuclear energy reduced economic growth, while positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy boosted economic growth in the short run. Furthermore, in the long run, negative shocks to the installed capacities of hydroelectric and thermal energy reduced economic growth, negative shocks to the installed capacity of nuclear energy enhanced economic growth, and positive shocks to hydroelectric energy generation and the installed capacity of nuclear energy have stimulated economic growth in Pakistan.

According to the Economic Complexity Index, Japan was the number 1 most complex economy in the world. In addition to complexity, Japan pledges to reduce emissions by boosting cleaner energy sources. This study simulates two policies to highlight a path for Japan in achieving this ambitious energy and environmental target. The novel dynamic autoregressive distribution lag (ARDL) model and Kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) are adopted over panel data from 1970 to 2018. Empirical evidence from the ARDL and dynamic ARDL models shows that CO2 emissions have a significant long-term relationship with GDP per capita, renewable energy, and economic complexity index while air transport is significant in the short run. Putting it more elaborately, a unit increase in GDP per capita increase the emission by 0.84%–0.96% in the long run and 0.46%–0.48% in the short run. As regards renewable energy, a unit increase in it decrease the carbon emission by 0.07% and 0.04% in the long-run and short-run respectively. Also, an increase in the economic index diminished the emission by 0.81% in the long run. Moreover, economic complexity moderates the role of GDP in environmental degradation as it also has a significant impact on carbon emission.

For a couple of decades, environmental change has arisen as a ubiquitous problem and gained environmentalist's attention across the globe due to its long-term harmful effect on agricultural production, food supply, water supply and livelihoods of rural poor. The primary objective of this study is to explore the asymmetrical dynamic relationship between climate change and production of rice and controlled variables covering 1991–2018 by employing the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) model and Granger causality approach.in India. The NARDL findings demonstrate a significant negative relationship between mean temperature and production of rice in the long run while positively influencing rice production in the short run. Moreover, positive shocks in rainfall and carbon emission have a negative and significant effect on India's rice production in the long and short run. In comparison, negative shock in rainfall has a significant positive impact on rice production in the long and short run. Wald test confirms the asymmetrical relationship between climate change and rice production. The Granger causality test shows feedback effect among mean temperature, decreasing rainfall, increasing carbon emission, and rice production. While no causal relationship between increasing temperature and decreasing carbon emission. Based on our empirical investigations, some critical policy implications emerged. To sustain rice production, improve irrigation infrastructure through increasing public investment and develop climate-resilient seeds varieties to cope with climate change. Along with, at the district level government should provide proper training to farmers regarding the usage of pesticides, proper amount of fertiliser and irrigation systems.

The European Union (EU) is one of the strongest, but most complex unions in the world with a competitive tourism industry. The aim of this study, therefore, is to account for economic complexity index (ECI), Brexit and other crisis episodes in the growth-energy-emissions nexus. Theoretically, the traditional Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) model is assessed by adopting a One-step System Generalized Method of Moment (Sys GMM) on data for 26 EU member states over the period from 1995 to 2018. For the first time, an EU-macro regional analysis is conducted with and without the UK. Empirical results reveal that an increase in tourism, real GDP per capita, and energy use across the four EU macro regions leads to increase in carbon emission. In some regions, it was observed that tourism, ECI, Brexit, and the Greece bailout have no significant impact on carbon emission. This suggests that the increase in international travel, complexity of the economy, and financial crisis do not accelerate environmental crisis in such regions. However, where such factors are statistically significant, Brexit and the Greece bailout crisis both heighten emissions. Particularly, when the UK is excluded, Brexit and the Greece bailout crisis increase and reduce emissions, respectively. The EKC hypothesis, however, holds in either scenario. Based on these empirical findings, vital policy directions are suggested for a post-Brexit EU-UK energy and environmental relations.

Sustainable development inculcates the process of preserving the environment for future generations while maintaining existing human needs. This study attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between CO2 emissions, GDP, energy consumption, and imports and exports using yearly data between 1980 and 2014 for the panel of eight developing countries (i.e., Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey). All the tests for cointegration establish the long-run association among the variables and confirm the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis for the panel of eight countries. GDP and energy consumption remained significant factors for emission intensity both in the long and short run. However, exports found to be positive factor for emissions in the long run only and imports spur emissions in the short run. The country-specific results validate EKC hypothesis for Bangladesh, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. The findings are policy oriented and suggest that the countries’ economic growth along with energy consumption and exports are highly emission intensive which require necessary adjustments at sustainable development policy front.

The objective of this research is to examine the effects of stock market on air pollution in Malaysia during the period 1980–2017. To realize this aim, a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model is constructed. The short results in general revealed that the increase in stock markets will increase CO2 emissions and its significance increases in the long run. Moreover, the decline in stock market will reduce Malaysia’s CO2 emissions but only in the long run. From the outcomes obtained, a number of policy recommendations were provided for the investigated country.

In the current study, effects of two different underhood geometry modifications namely; fan position relative to shroud and fan tip clearance, on airflow through an agricultural tractor engine cooling system are investigated by utilizing CFD modeling. For the characterization of each modification, the underhood components are reduced to a domain of cooling systems including only fan, shroud, and radiator that allows saving in computational time and cost. The models are validated using a custom designed underhood flow setup, where hotwire velocity measurements at proximity to the radiator are conducted. The mass flow rate and the uniformity of the airflow through the radiator are quantified as performance parameters. For the former modification, position of fan relative to shroud, the computations are performed for the percentages of fan projection into shroud (FPiS) varying from 78% to 0% at fan rotational speeds of 2060 and 2800 rpm. The optimum fan location is found to be around 56-60% for both rotational speeds that leads 8% increase in mass flow rate compared with the pre-design location of 74%. In addition, a noticeable reduction in the relative magnitude of the RMS velocity through the radiator is obtained for the moderate FPiS values. For the latter modification, fan tip clearance, the computations are performed for the tip clearance values varying from 5.25to 12 mm at a fan rotational speed of 2060 rpm. As the tip clearance decreases up to 6 mm, air mass flow rate can be improved by 7%. However, further reduction in tip clearance does not improve the air mass flow rate instead it decreases, suggesting an optimum tip clearance value. The results suggest that the proper geometrical modifications in engine cooling systems might induce significant improvement in the aforementioned performance indicators.