Moving towards sustainability: how do low-carbon energy, current account balance, and reserves induce environmental deterioration in the Big 3?

Promoting financial sustainability is the focus of current state policies while addressing the concerns of environmental pollution. The alarming impacts of climate change on economies motivate us to revisit an intensive empirical study to explore the dynamic relationships of low-carbon energy, current account balance, and reserves with carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the most polluted countries across the globe for the years 1981-2020. We applied the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag (D-ARDL) simulation model to investigate the short and long-run connection. The empirical outcomes of the study uncover that in the short run, a 1% increase in renewable energy reduces CO2-based emissions by 0.417%, 0.169%, and 0.619% in China, the USA, and India, respectively. We further explored that China's and the USA's economic growth causes environmental deterioration. In contrast, a 1% increase in current account balances improves the environmental quality of China and India by 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively. This research concludes that model variables significantly impact the environment. Therefore, it is necessary to draw policy implications to increase the consumption of low-carbon energy to sustain economic growth by limiting the adverse impacts of economic activities.

Differential insecticide resistance in Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) field populations in the Punjab Province of Pakistan.

The cotton whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) has a propensity for developing high-level resistance to insecticides. Management of B. tabaci in cotton grown in Pakistan depends on insecticide use, resistance monitoring has become essential to minimize the development of resistance. In this study, resistance was monitored in adult whiteflies collected from cotton fields in the Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Lodhran, Multan, and Vehari districts of the Punjab Province, Pakistan during 2017, 2018, and 2019. Resistance monitoring was carried out for two insect growth regulators (pyriproxyfen and buprofezin) four neonicotinoids acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid, and the historically used pyrethroid, bifenthrin and organophosphate, chlorpyrifos. Results based on resistance ratio (RR) showed that moderate to high level of resistance against noenicitinoids insecticides have been observed in all four districts while whiteflies exhibited very low to low resistance to pyriproxyfen and buprofezin. The RRs for acetamiprid, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, thiacloprid varied from 7.60 to 50.99, 19.32 to 65.72, 17.18 to 54.65 and 6.49-47.49-fold, respectively. Bifenthrin and chlorpyrifos showed very low toxicity against whiteflies in all districts except Faisalabad, with RRs of 12.28-50.56-fold and 7.94-26.24-fold, respectively. The results will facilitate 'smart' selection and guide rates of insecticide applications for whitefly management in cotton for effective whitefly management while also delaying the development of resistance.