The influence of FDI on GHG emissions in BRI countries using spatial econometric analysis strategy: the significance of biomass energy consumption.

Indeed, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays an increasingly important role in global economic and climate change mitigation. However, scientists have insufficient attention to the issues related to the elements that contribute to justifying these impacts and bolstering its response in BRI nations. Accordingly, the existent study executed an in-depth examination of the spatial direct and spillover effects of foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) and biomass energy consumption (BEC) on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for 57 BRI countries (1992-2012). We applied the spatial lag model (SLM), the spatial error model (SEM), and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) with five different weights matrices to verify the existence of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH), the pollution halo hypothesis (P-HH), and the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC). We linked the study results with the implementation level of the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The findings of local Moran's I (LMI) and Lagrange Multiplier (LM) tests confirm the existence of spatial autocorrelation (SAR). The empirical results revealed that FDI has a positive direct and spillover influence on GHG emissions, which supports the presence of PHH. Also, the nexus between economic growth and GHG emission is an N-shaped curve. The results revered that BEC has a negative sign for direct and spillover effects. In contrast to BEC, Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption (FFEC) and population positively sign for direct and indirect impact. Some policy proposals and future research directions are discussed for BRI countries.

Asymmetric impacts of disaggregated energy consumption and oil price fluctuations on the MENA net oil-exporting and importing economies.

This paper asymmetrically analyzes the impact of energy consumption and oil price fluctuations on the economic growth of the MENA net oil-exporting and importing nations from 1990 to 2019 using panel nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (PNARDL) model developed by (Salisu and Isah, Econ Model 66:258-271, 2017). The findings revealed that for the net-oil exporting countries, the impact of nonrenewable energy on economic growth is nonlinear in both terms, where in the both terms, high consumption of nonrenewable energy is influencing economic growth and its low consumption is limiting it. Furthermore, the impact of renewable energy is linear and it is influencing and limiting economic growth in both terms respectively. Moreover, the impact of oil price fluctuations on economic growth is linear in the long run and nonlinear in the short run, where in the long run, increase in it is not influencing economic growth but in the short run, while its decrease has no effect. For the net-oil importing countries, the impact of nonrenewable energy on economic growth is nonlinear in both terms, where in the long run, high consumption of nonrenewable energy is influencing economic growth but in the short run, it is discouraging it; however, in both terms, low consumption of nonrenewable energy has no effect. In addition, in the long run, the impact of renewable energy is nonlinear but linear in the short run; however, none of its impacts is significant in both terms. Also, the impact of oil price fluctuations on economic growth is linear in both terms and in the both terms, it is influencing economic growth. Nonetheless, for all the variables, the impacts are higher in the net-oil exporting countries. Policy recommendations were provided.

Analysis on the causes of the change in the north-south gap of industrial pollution discharge in China.

What are the causes of the change in the north-south gap of industrial pollution discharge in 2008 and 2016? In order to solve this problem, this paper makes theoretical and empirical research. The results show that (1) the difference in economic growth pattern transformation is the root cause of the change in the north-south gap of industrial pollution discharge.(2) The international financial crisis is the direct cause of the change in the north-south gap of industrial pollution discharge in 2008. The international financial crisis forced the industrial transformation and upgrading of the southern region, which made the TFP of the southern region relatively improve, and then led to the relative reduction of industrial pollution discharge in the southern region. (3) The supply-side structural reform is the direct cause of the change in the north-south gap of industrial pollution discharge in 2016. However, the supply-side structural reform proposed by the central government in 2016 is essentially a further continuation of the policy of "resolving overcapacity" implemented in 2013. In fact, the north-south gap in the growth rate of industrial discharge has changed since 2013.

Influence of FDI on environmental pollution in selected Arab countries: a spatial econometric analysis perspective.

This study investigates the spatial influence and spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental pollution (EP) by using panel spatial data in 1970-2016 for 12 selected Arab countries. It employs the STochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The spatial econometric approach is applied to examine the validity of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) and the pollution halo hypothesis (P-HH) (from now on, we will use the acronyms PHH and P-HH to denote the pollution haven hypothesis and pollution halo hypothesis, respectively). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are linked to the study results with a focus on cleaner production practices. The global Moran's I, local Moran's I, and Lagrange multiplier (LM) tests are used to ascertain the existence of spatial autocorrelation (SAR) and determine its trend. We also apply the spatial lag model (SLM), the spatial error model (SEM), and the spatial Durbin model (SDM) to achieve the study objectives. Data are analyzed by using the SDM on the basis of the results of the Wald and likelihood ratio tests. The results of the LM and global and local Moran's I tests confirm the existence of SAR. The SDM results reveal that a slight increase in CO2 is an influence of the FDI on EP. Findings support the existence of PHH in the Arab countries. The direct effect of the FDI is increased CO2 and environmental degradation, and the spatial spillover effects are statistically insignificant. This study suggests a set of policies for managing and directing FDI toward clean technology-based industries and reduced CO2 emissions. Such policies may contribute to the achievement of some SDGs and balancing economic development and environmental sustainability according to the cleaner production practice perspective in the Arab countries and other states with similar conditions.