International cooperation, production side emissions and environmental sustainability

PurposeRising greenhouse gases have contributed to global warming above the pre-industrial levels with detrimental effects on world climatic patterns. Extreme weather has inflicted drastic impacts, including loss of lives and livelihoods and economic disruption. However, collective international cooperation in adopting greenhouse gas emission mitigating measures can translate into long-run beneficial effects of improving environmental quality. This study examines if international environmental cooperation among the world's top ten polluters can reduce production side emissions.Design/methodology/approachThe panel estimation procedure was applied to data from ten top polluting countries from 2000 to 2019.FindingsThe results revealed a statistically significant inverse association between a nation's commitments to international environmental treaties and carbon dioxide emissions. Other than confirming the environmental Kuznets curve effect, industrial intensification, international trade and law rule are other strong correlations of carbon dioxide emissions.Research limitations/implicationsThe main policy implication is the urgency for the leaders of the world's top ten polluters to actively cooperate in developing and implementing new production-side carbon emission measures as well as the implementation and enforcement of existing international treaties to minimize further environmental damage and let the countries in the lower ranks of carbon emissions to enjoy the long-run benefits of the decarbonized world.Originality/valueThis study makes a new contribution to the environmental research literature by unfolding how collective global cooperation on environmental challenges can help reduce environmental damage in a coherent analytical framework.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0598

Driving Factors and Scale Effects of Residents' Willingness to Pay for Environmental Protection under the Impact of COVID-19

In recent years, environmental degradation and the COVID-19 pandemic have seriously affected economic development and social stability. Addressing the impact of major public health events on residents' willingness to pay for environmental protection (WTPEP) and analyzing the drivers are necessary for improving human well-being and environmental sustainability. We designed a questionnaire to analyze the change in residents' WTPEP before and during COVID-19 and an established ordinary least squares (OLS), spatial lag model (SLM), spatial error model (SEM), geographically weighted regression (GWR), and multiscale GWR to explore driver factors and scale effects of WTPEP based on the theory of environment Kuznets curve (EKC). The results show that (1) WTPEP is 0–20,000 yuan before COVID-19 and 0–50,000 yuan during COVID-19. Residents' WTPEP improved during COVID-19, which indicates that residents' demand for an ecological environment is increasing;(2) The shapes and inflection points of the relationships between income and WTPEP are spatially heterogeneous before and during COVID-19, but the northern WTPEP is larger than southern, which indicates that there is a spatial imbalance in WTPEP;(3) Environmental degradation, health, environmental quality, and education are WTPEP's significant macro-drivers, whereas income, age, and gender are significant micro-drivers. Those factors can help policymakers better understand which factors are more suitable for macro or micro environmental policy-making and what targeted measures could be taken to solve the contradiction between the growing ecological environment demand of residents and the spatial imbalance of WTPEP in the future.

Exploring the Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Algeria's Energy Used and Climate Change Based on Olduvai Theory

The death of industrial civilization explains how the contemporary ecological crisis within industrial society is caused by the values inherent in unlimited economic growth and competitive materialism. It demonstrates the central role and importance of electricity, and what policy makers need to do in order to ensure that current and future systems remain reliable even as they are transformed by the rise of clean energy technologies. The novel COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented global health and economic crisis. The result of such a scenario is that energy demand contracts by 6%, the largest in 70 years in percentage terms and the largest ever in absolute terms. The impact of COVID-19 on energy demand in 2020 would be more than seven times larger than the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on global energy demand, and this is what the Olduvai theory defined by e=energy production/population. It states that the life expectancy of industrial civilization is less than or equal to 100 years. © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Analysing the factors affecting medical waste generation in China

Medical waste deserves particular attention due to its potential for causing serious damage to people and the environment. Although the factors influencing the generation of medical waste are critical for designing policies aimed at effectively reducing medical waste and improving medical waste management, they have not been extensively studied. The rapid development of China's medical and health services and the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 have brought significant challenges to managing medical waste in China. Therefore, based on panel data from eight cities in China from 2013 to 2019, this study used a fixed-effects model to investigate the influencing factors of medical waste generation (MWG) in China, and tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results show that there is a non-linear N-shaped curve relationship between MWG and per capita gross domestic product (GDP);MWG will continue to increase with economic growth, but the growth rate will slow down from fast to slow, and then from slow to fast with economic growth. The analysis also reveals that implementing a tiered diagnosis and treatment policy may negatively affect MWG by reducing the waste of medical resources and thus reducing the generation of medical waste. The positive effect of population size on MWG is also highly significant, so when the aging of the population increases, the generation of medical waste also increases. The three policy suggestions are provided: 1) improve the disposal capacity and efficiency of medical waste;2) give full play to the advantages of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy;3) improve the management level of medical waste in primary medical institutions. © 2023

Analysing the factors affecting medical waste generation in China

Medical waste deserves particular attention due to its potential for causing serious damage to people and the environment. Although the factors influencing the generation of medical waste are critical for designing policies aimed at effectively reducing medical waste and improving medical waste management, they have not been extensively studied. The rapid development of China's medical and health services and the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 have brought significant challenges to managing medical waste in China. Therefore, based on panel data from eight cities in China from 2013 to 2019, this study used a fixed-effects model to investigate the influencing factors of medical waste generation (MWG) in China, and tested the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results show that there is a non-linear N-shaped curve relationship between MWG and per capita gross domestic product (GDP);MWG will continue to increase with economic growth, but the growth rate will slow down from fast to slow, and then from slow to fast with economic growth. The analysis also reveals that implementing a tiered diagnosis and treatment policy may negatively affect MWG by reducing the waste of medical resources and thus reducing the generation of medical waste. The positive effect of population size on MWG is also highly significant, so when the aging of the population increases, the generation of medical waste also increases. The three policy suggestions are provided: 1) improve the disposal capacity and efficiency of medical waste;2) give full play to the advantages of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy;3) improve the management level of medical waste in primary medical institutions.

Dynamic Role of Green Energy Efficiency and Climate Technologies in Realizing Environmental Sustainability: Fresh Insights From China

Amid rising industrialization and economic progress, China has shown exponential growth in energy and fossil fuel consumption;therefore, it faces great global concern and widespread criticism for energy and fuel conservation to reduce fuel-related emissions. In addition, the recent spread of COVID-19 instigates the impact of environmental pollution, exaggerates the virus intensity, and lowers people's immunity due to poor air quality. Therefore, this study explored the role of green energy efficiency and climate technologies in achieving carbon neutrality in China using an advanced quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) framework. The results indicated that green energy efficiency and climate technologies significantly reduce environmental pollution across all quantiles in the long run. In contrast, urbanization enhances environmental degradation at lower and higher emissions quantiles, while trade only promotes environmental pollution at lower quantiles. These findings suggested using alternative energy sources and carbon-reducing technologies to ensure a sustainable environment.

Dynamic relationships among green bonds, CO2 emissions, and oil prices

Green bonds play a pivotal role in the financing of sustainable infrastructure systems. Likewise, CO2 emissions and oil prices can cause an impact on the green bonds market. In order to better understand this issue, this study analyzes the relationship among green bonds, CO2 futures' prices, and oil prices using a daily data set that includes 2,206 observations corresponding to daily information from 1 January 2014 to 15 June 2022. The Granger Causality Test and the Dynamic Conditional Correlation (DCC-Garch) Model were employed to conduct this analysis. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed to identify crisis periods concerning the sample period and provide an analysis of DCC-Garch results during extreme market conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Granger Causality Test results present a unidirectional causality running from the Green Bond Index to the oil price returns. Also, there is a unidirectional causality running from the Green Bond Index to the CO2 futures' returns. Additionally, a unidirectional causality runs from the oil price returns to the CO2 futures' returns. The results for the DCC-Garch indicate a positive dynamic correlation between the Brent oil price return and the CO2 futures' returns. Finally, the Green Bond Index shows a negative dynamic correlation to the oil return and the CO2 futures' returns presenting a strong correlation in uncertainty periods.

Green innovation, resource price and carbon emissions during the COVID-19 times: New findings from wavelet local multiple correlation analysis

This paper investigates how oil price, COVID-19, and global energy innovation can affect carbon emissions under time-and frequency-varying perspectives. We contribute to the literature by being the first research to document the relationship between these variables in the short and long run (dynamically) at different frequencies in a multivariate context, thus providing a more detailed picture of the forces driving CO2 emissions. For this purpose, we use a novel methodology, i.e., the wavelet local multiple correlation (WLMC) recently developed by Polanco-Martinez et al. (2020). The results provide fresh evidence of long-run asymmetric dynamic correlations, highlighting how the oil price plays a key role in the dynamics of CO2 emissions. Moreover, we find that, during the long period, there is a strong negative co-movement between CO2 and the global energy innovation index, i. e., more investment in clean energy induces less emission. Supported by our findings, this research suggests crucial policy implications and insights for the governments worldwide in their efforts to revive their economies amidst the pandemic and environmental uncertainties.

Examining the agriculture induced Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in BRICS economies: The role of renewable energy as a moderator

This study uses the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) to examine how economic growth, agriculture, renewable energy, information and communication technology (ICT) and human capital affect carbon emission during the period of 1990–2019. Several econometric techniques such as Pedroni Cointegration test, Mean Group techniques and Pairwise granger causality test are employed. The result from Augmented Mean Group suggests the existence of agriculture induced environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis for BRICS economies. The roles of both the renewable energy and ICT use are negative and significant on the carbon emission. Furthermore, the moderation effect of renewable energy with agriculture shows that it can moderate the agriculture's positive contribution towards the climate change while the moderation effect of ICT and human capital with agriculture do not yield any significant outcomes. The pairwise granger causality result further establishes bidirectional causality between CO 2 emission and renewable energy, ICT and CO 2 , agriculture and GDP, ICT and GDP, renewable energy and agriculture as well as between renewable energy and ICT. Finally, the study provides policy implications and insights for the BRICS governments and policymakers in their efforts to tackle the climate change through the use of renewable energy. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Renewable Energy: An International Journal is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Dirty dance: tourism and environment

Tourism was one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global economy before the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for around 10% of global GDP. This has created a number of challenges including environmental degradation, especially in small island countries where the carbon footprint of tourism constitute a substantial share of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study investigates the impact of tourism on CO2 emissions in a relatively homogenous panel of 15 Caribbean countries over the period 1960-2019. The results show that international tourist arrivals have a statistically and economically significant effect on CO2 emissions, after controlling for other economic, institutional and social factors. Managing tourism sustainably requires a comprehensive set of policies and reforms aimed at reducing its environmental impact, and curbing excessive dependency on fossil fuel-based energy consumption.

Variations in the Yamuna River Water Quality During the COVID-19 Lockdowns

The COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in Wuhan city of China in December 2019 has adversely impacted the health and the economy, society, and other significant spheres of the human environment. The pandemic has severely impacted economic activities, especially the industrial production, transportation, tourism, and hoteling industries. The present study analyses the impact of varying severity of lockdowns of economic activities during various phases of the pandemic on the water quality of the Yamuna river on parameters like pH values, biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids, and electrical conductivity. The study has found a significant improvement in water quality parameters with closing economic activities during lockdowns. The average levels of concentration of these parameters of water quality were quite low during the lockdown period at 7.26 (pH value), 31.32, 136.07, 7.93, 30.33 mg/L, and 1500.24 mu S/cm compared to pre lockdown periods levels at 7.53 (pH), 39.62, 116.52, 6.1, 57.2 mg/L and 1743.01 mu S/cm for biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, total suspended solids, and electrical conductivity, respectively. In addition, the study has found a strong significant positive correlation between COD with BOD and TSS during the lockdown period. The major findings from the present study could be instrumental in making environmentally sustainable policies for the country's economic development. There is also a huge scope of scaling up of the study at the national level to analyze the health of the rivers in the backdrop of lockdowns.

Does green finance matter for sustainable entrepreneurship and environmental corporate social responsibility during COVID-19?

Purpose>The discourse aimed to investigate green finance practices under the assumptions of several notable climate advisors and speculators in Asia and particularly in Southeast Asia. The study intrigues by considering financial specialists to vent government spending on green restoration plans leading toward green bankable venture openings for the public and private sector. This section distinguishes a few of the green fund components and approaches that can be joined by national and neighborhood governments, essentially in Southeast Asia, into their post-COVID-19 techniques, but are too valuable inputs for domestic commercial banks and private corporates.Design/methodology/approach>It can be defined as a functional type for Cobb Douglas development. ARDL technology is a way of calculating complex forces at the classification level at long-term and short-term stages. This ARDL approach has many advantages and can be implemented when incorporated in level I (0) and level I first (1) with the original variable. Still, it offers robust ability to the outcomes and standardizes the lag, considering the number and sample size used. Pooled mean group (PMG) method is becoming a convenient technique for monitoring data over the period and a good approach for energy impact panels – growth ties for creating links between energy emissions and environmental sustainability and businesses in the nation.Findings>There is a positive partnership between creativity and a sustainable world. Corporations are recommended to uphold the principles of CSR in the development process by introducing environmentally friendly advanced technologies. The main objectives of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are economic growth, environmental sustainability and social justice. Several programs have been established to expand businesses' responsibilities to improve their confessions in sustainable growth. SMEs are a primary source of production of innovative products and technologies. The key concerns of stakeholders and politicians in the new competitive business climate are the protection of environmental sustainability and social responsibility, recognizing factors driving economic development for SMEs.Originality/value>During the COVID-19 era, the prime responsibility of pandemic confronting governments is to spend on help activities (that have been started in earlier phase) and recovery endeavors (yet to start in the situation). Therefore, the governments may devise policies to pool resources from commercial, private, public-private partnerships and other capital market sources. With rising hazard recognitions particularly emerging from at-threat income projections, governments ought to make the correct mechanisms and instruments that can perform this catalytic part of derisking and drawing in such capital. This too can be an opportunity for governments to enhance and execute such financial instruments that offer assistance, quicken their commitments to climate alter beneath the Paris Agreement and the sustainable development goals (SDGs), and thus “build back better” is being progressively voiced over the world.

Impact of work resumption on air quality after subsiding of COVID-19: evidence from China

This paper explores the short-run impact of work resumption, extensively launched on February 10, 2020 in China, on air quality after the subsiding of COVID-19. Utilizing the data of 1012 air-quality monitoring sites in 233 cities derived from the Real-time Release Air Quality Platform and the difference-in-differences method, we find that alternative measures of air quality index in non-Hubei provinces increase significantly, compared with those in Hubei province which was temporarily not allowed work resumption due to the severity of epidemic. Specifically, our results reveal a rise in AQI of 11.28 per cent, in PM2.5 of 12.47 per cent, in PM10 of 10.49 per cent, and in NO2 of 23.64 per cent, relative to the baseline mean. Moreover, the deterioration of air quality is found to be caused by intracity rather than intercity migration.

Economic Growth, Energy Use, and Greenhouse Gases Emission in Macao SAR, China

A city's economic structure and energy mix would change when the city is developed to accommodate more residents, visitors, and activities. This paper reviews Macao's economic growth, energy use, and greenhouse gases (GHG) emission from 1985 to 2020. Specifically, Macao's gross domestic product (GDP), energy use, and GHG emission have surged after the gaming industry was liberalized in 2002. The official data show that Macao's GDP was MOP 11 billion in 1985, increased by four-fold to MOP 54 billion in 2000, and then surged rapidly to MOP 445 billion in 2019. Additionally, Macao's total energy use increased from 8,840TJ in 1985 to 48,330TJ in 2019 while Macao's GHG emission increased from 0.70Mt of CO2-equivalent in 1985 to 6.13Mt of CO2-equivalent in 2019. Macao's GHG emission from all local sources per capita and GDP per capita exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship, showing an environmental Kuznets curve. Due to the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic, Macao's GDP dropped by 56% to MOP 194 billion while its total energy use and GHG emission dropped by 33% and 17% to 32,198TJ and 5.06Mt of CO2-equivalent, respectively, in 2020. © 2022

Chances in satellite retrievals of atmospheric composition over eastern China during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns

We examined daily level-3 satellite retrievals of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) CO, Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) SO2 and NO2, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aerosol optical depth (AOD) over eastern China to understand how COVID-19 lockdowns affected atmospheric composition. Changes in 2020 were strongly dependent on the choice of background period since 2005 and whether trends in atmospheric composition were accounted for. Over central east China during the 23 January-8 April lockdown window, CO in 2020 was between 3 % and 12 % lower than average depending on the background period. The 2020 CO was not consistently less than expected from trends beginning between 2005 and 2016 and ending in 2019 but was 3 %-4 % lower than the background mean during the 2017-2019 period when CO changes had flattened Similarly for AOD, 2020 was between 14 % and 30 % lower than averages beginning in 2005 and 14 %-17 % lower compared to different background means beginning in 2016. NO2 in 2020 was between 30 % and 43 % lower than the mean over different background periods and between 17 % and 33 % lower than what would be expected for trends beginning later than 2011. Relative to the 2016-2019 period when NO2 had flattened, 2020 was 30 %-33 % lower. Over southern China, 2020 NO2 was between 23 % and 27 % lower than different background means beginning in 2013, the beginning of a period of persistently lower NO2. CO over southern China was significantly higher in 2020 than what would be expected, which we suggest was partly because of an active fire season in neighboring countries. Over central east and southern China, 2020 SO2 was higher than expected, but this depended strongly on how daily regional values were calculated from individual retrievals and reflects background values approaching the retrieval detection limit. Future work over China, or other regions, needs to take into account the sensitivity of differences in 2020 to different background periods and trends in order to separate the effects of COVID-19 on air quality from previously occurring changes or from variability in other sources.

The 'Heart Kuznets Curve'? Understanding the relations between economic development and cardiac conditions.

As countries turn wealthier, some health indicators, such as child mortality, seem to have well-defined trends. However, others, including cardiovascular conditions, do not follow clear linear patterns of change with economic development. Abnormal blood pressure is a serious health risk factor with consequences for population growth and longevity as well as public and private expenditure in health care and labor productivity. This also increases the risk of the population in certain pandemics, such as COVID-19. To determine the correlation of income and blood pressure, we analyzed time-series for the mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) of men's population (mmHg) and nominal Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPPC) for 136 countries from 1980 to 2008 using regression and statistical analysis by Pearson's correlation (r). Our study finds a trend similar to an inverted-U shaped curve, or a 'Heart Kuznets Curve'. There is a positive correlation (increase GDPPC, increase SBP) in low-income countries, and a negative correlation in high-income countries (increase GDPPC, decrease SBP). As country income rises people tend to change their diets and habits and have better access to health services and education, which affects blood pressure. However, the latter two may not offset the rise in blood pressure until countries reach a certain income. Investing early in health education and preventive health care could avoid the sharp increase in blood pressure as countries develop, and therefore, avoiding the 'Heart Kuznets Curve' and its economic and human impacts.