Can forests realize the carbon neutrality dream? Evidence from a global sample.

The enlarge in economic activities and the urban population at the global level has brought about an increase in the demand for energy, food, and natural resources, as well as an exacerbation in global climate change concerns. In this respect, it is important to ensure the balance between global climate change and global economic activities. Therefore, a wide literature has emerged that searches for alternative solutions to improve climate change and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The majority of existing studies emphasize the importance of renewable energy sources in environmental improvement efforts. Few studies highlight the importance of forestation in environmental improvement efforts, highlighting the non-linear effects of forestation. To fill this gap, this study uses panel data from 181 countries between 1990 and 2022 and evaluates the non-linear impact of economic growth, forest extent, energy efficiency, and urban growth on per capita CO2 emissions using a dynamic panel threshold and dynamic panel quantile threshold methods. Furthermore, we extend the model and conduct robustness tests examining the non-linear threshold effects of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on per capita CO2 emissions. Our findings provide pieces of evidence that forest extents are an alternative solution to renewable energy use and energy efficiency in environmental improvement efforts.

Testing the EKC hypothesis for ecological and carbon intensity of well-being: The role of forest extent.

The G-20 countries represent a considerable percentage of the global economy and are crucial in matters to do with support for environmental sustainability. The uniqueness of this study lies in determining the effects of forests on human well-being and environmental degradation with respect to G20, offering a unique perspective regarding the efforts to battle climate change. The study analyzed the impact of income, forest extent and education on ecological and carbon intensity of well-being following the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Based on annual data from 1990 to 2022 and employing the Method of Moments Quantile Regression, the results validate the presence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between GDP and environmental well-being which refers to the existence of EKC. Our results connect improved ecological and carbon intensity of well-being with expanding forest extent and improving education levels. Forest management combined with educational management work as an effective mechanism reducing environmental degradation while also positively contributing to human well-being. In addition, through these informed and rational decisions, policy makers can promote the environmental stability of forests.

An Evaluation of the Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions From China's Light Sector to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

As a high-energy-consuming sector, China's light sector should have received more attention for its carbon emissions (CO2e). However, the literature on energy-related CO2e in China's light sector is limited at present. This paper aims to assess the impact of China's light sector on CO2e. This paper applies the energy consumption technique, input-output analysis technique, and structural decomposition model to analyze China's light sector energy-related CO2e and emission reduction from the input-output perspective. The results show that the energy structure effect, energy intensity effect, and input structure effect are the main restraining factors for the growth of the light sector energy-related CO2e, which are caused by the expansion of the energy utilization structure on the supply side of the light sector. The final demand effect is the factor promoting the growth of the light sector energy-related CO2e. It reveals that the final demand products in the light sector still have high environmental degradation features. Policymakers should actively enhance and rationally adjust the demand for the light sector in numerous industries to avoid the resource waste caused by the excessive expansion of the light sector.

Linking tourist's footprint and environmental tragedy through transportation, globalization and energy choice in BIMSTEC region: Directions for a sustainable solution using novel GMM-PVAR approach.

The rising temperature in the world's atmosphere is an outcome strongly linked to man-made manufactured interventions. Recreational activities in the form of tourism are such interventions that can unleash multidimensional negative externalities if not regulated properly. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) region has become one of the major hubs for recreational activities in the last few decades. However, the region's tourism-led environmental degradation has received scant attention in the literature. As such, this paper unveils how tourist footprint affects the region's environmental sustainability and explores potential solutions to encourage the tourism industry to be more pro-environmental. We have used the novel GMM-PVAR technique to assess how globalization, transportation, green energy, and economic growth have affected the tourism industry and carbon footprint in the BIMSTEC region from 1990 to 2019. We lean on the empirical outcomes to propose regional sustainable tourism development policies. The GMM-PVAR model indicates that renewable energy, economic growth, and the transportation sector's development positively affect the tourism industry's growth in the region. However, globalization and environmental degradation negatively influence tourists' arrival. Contrarily, transportation services, economic growth, and tourism boost the carbon footprint in the region. Although globalization and clean energy reduce carbon footprint, these indicators are insignificant, indicating that this region is still lagging in renewable energy generation and failed to reap the positive spillovers of globalization. Based on these outcomes, we propose that the region redesign its tourism industry to encourage eco-friendly tourism by leaning more on pro-environmental strategies (i.e., powering the tourism industry through the penetration of renewable energies) and tightening environmental regulations.

Testing the impact of renewable energy and oil price on carbon emission intensity in China's transportation sector.

As the largest carbon emitter in the world, with its transportation sector contributing the largest shares of its emission, the need for a low-carbon transition economy has become a policy agenda for China because in order to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, lowering the intensity of carbon emissions in the transportation sector will be crucial. In this regard, we used the "bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag model" to explore the impact of clean energy and oil prices on the intensity of carbon emissions in China's transportation sector. The study found that an increase in oil prices decreases the intensity of carbon emissions in the short and long run. Similarly, an increase in the level of renewable energy and economic complexity declines the intensity of carbon emissions in the transportation sector. On the contrary, the research demonstrates that non-renewable energy contributes positively to carbon emission intensity. Therefore, the authorities must promote green technology to neutralize the transportation system's detrimental effects on China's environmental quality. The implications for successfully promoting carbon emission intensity mitigation in the transportation sector are examined in the conclusion.

Examining the nonlinear impact of human capital on environmental degradation in N-11 countries: an application of the PSTR approach.

The emergence of globalization and human capital has played a crucial role in the economic integration of countries, leading to the growth of the economies and a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This study highlights the importance of investing in human capital development to control ecological degradation and promote sustainable economic growth. This paper employs the PSTR method to investigate the threshold impact of GDP, globalization, information communication technology, and energy consumption on CO2 emissions. The study examines two regimes, with a single threshold to analyze the transition of human capital on these variables. The results reveal that human capital developments play a central role in controlling ecological degradation due to reduced CO2 emissions. Based on the empirical findings, this research study offers corresponding policy suggestions.

Can financial globalization and good governance help turning emerging economies carbon neutral? Evidence from members of the BRICS-T.

Since turning carbon neutral is regarded as a major macroeconomic agenda worldwide, this study examines whether financial globalization and good governance can help Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey in achieving carbon neutrality. Considering the period of analysis from 2000 to 2020 and utilizing robust econometric methods, it is observed that the environmental consequences vary across different components of financial globalization. In particular, the results validate the pollution haven hypothesis by confirming the carbon emission-boosting effect of de facto financial globalization indicators. In contrast, the pollution halo effect hypothesis is verified by the finding of the carbon emission-abating effect of de jure financial globalization indicators. Besides, promoting good governance is evidenced to impose carbon emission-mitigating impact in the long-run. The findings also authenticate the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for the emerging countries of concern. Finally, for both the short and long runs, it is found that the non-renewable to renewable energy transition contributes to lower discharges of carbon dioxide, while urbanization results in the amplification of the carbon emission figures. Considering these critically important findings, it is necessary for these countries to impose restrictions on the influx of unclean foreign direct investment, facilitate and ease the investment process for foreign investors for investing in environment-friendly projects, promote good governance, and adopt green economic growth and sustainable urbanization policies by developing their respective renewable energy sectors.

The relevance of international tourism and natural resource rents in economic growth: Fresh evidence from MINT countries in the digital era.

The Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey (MINT) economies are recognized to be bedevilled with many obstacles hampering the economic expansion. In the meantime, many of these problems have not been comprehensively scrutinized in the context of the countries. In recent years, natural resources and tourism development have significantly increased in MINT economies. This study scrutinizes the relationship between natural resource rent, mobile use, foreign direct investment, international tourism, and economic growth in a balanced panel data of four MINT nations from 1971 to 2019. The key finding of this study shows that there is a positive and significant impact of foreign direct investment, natural resource rent, mobile use, and international tourism on MINT's economic growth. Furthermore, the tourism-led growth hypothesis is supported empirically in the case of MINT nations. Furthermore, the Granger causality analysis demonstrates that unidirectional causality is discovered from economic growth to tourism. The study recommends that MINT nations implement some practical tourism strategies to push up economic development, and in turn economic growth will positively contribute to the tourism sector.

The spatial impact of digital economy on energy intensity in China in the context of double carbon to achieve the sustainable development goals.

Using the provincial panel data of China during 2012-2019, the present study employed spatial Durbin error model to explore the spatial effect of the digital economy on energy intensity. The results show that both digital economy and energy intensity have spatial autocorrelation, showing the distribution characteristics of spatial aggregation. The digital economy has a significant negative influence on energy intensity. The result shows a significant spatial spillover effect of digital economy on energy intensity, and the development of the digital economy in neighboring regions reduces energy intensity in the central region. Additionally, industrial structure, urbanization, energy price, and foreign direct investment have a heterogenous impact on energy intensity. Thus, it is crucial to give importance to the development of the energy intensity, plan the spatial layout of the digital industry as a whole, drive the coordinated growth of the regional digital economy, quicken the upgrading of industrial structure, promote urbanization, perfect the energy price formation mechanism, raise the entry threshold for foreign direct investment, to effectively reduce the energy intensity, and facilitate the smooth realization of the "double carbon" goal.

Investigating the Role of Information and Communication Technologies, Economic Growth, and Foreign Direct Investment in the Mitigation of Ecological Damages for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

At the present time, information and communication technology (ICT) has played a vital role in socio-economic development such as economic growth, literacy, life expectancy, and employment levels in societies, however, such development has come with various environmental damages perspectives. This study scrutinizes the impact of ICT, economic growth, and foreign direct investment (FDI) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the 44 One Belt and Road Initiative (OBRI) countries split into sub-region from 1991 to 2019. This study applied various econometrics approaches such as cross-sectional dependence, second-generation unit root, and Westerlund panel cointegration techniques are executed to analyze the panel data set. The full modified ordinary lease square and dynamic ordinary lease square estimators are applied to investigate the long-term influence of ICT development, GDP (economic growth), and FDI on CO2 emissions. The empirical analysis was performed at a disaggregated level to assess the possible environmental influences across the OBRI countries. Overall, the results reported that broadband and mobile development have an adverse effect on CO2 emissions. The finding further reveals that the broadband indicator negatively affects CO2 emissions in all OBRI regions except South Asia. Similarly, the mobile use indicator protects the environmental quality in all OBRI regions except MENA (Middle East and North Africa) and Central Asia. Regarding country-wise analysis, broadband has alleviated the pollution level in 21 countries, while mobile has alleviated it in 15 countries. Moreover, economic growth is responsible to increase pollution levels in all panels and regions except Europe. Besides, the results highlight that higher FDI reduces environmental pollution whereby, the pollution halo hypothesis is supported to hold for all OBRI panels and regions except MENA countries. Based on the empirical findings, the policymakers and governments of these economies should design policies to grow smarter cities, transportation systems, electrical grids, industrial processes, and energy-saving production through ICT development on a macro level.

Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?

In the context of environmental sustainability and accelerated digital technology development, China attaches great importance to the prominent role of digital economy in addressing environmental degradation. Utilizing Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2019, this study investigates whether the digital economy can improve China's environmental sustainability proxy by reducing carbon emission intensity. Based on the fixed effects model, the findings reveal that the digital economy has a significant negative effect on carbon emission intensity and the conclusion remains robust after conducting several robustness checks. However, this impact shows regional heterogeneity, which is more effective in resource-based eastern regions and the Belt and Road provinces. Moreover, mediating effect analyses indicate that the transmission mechanisms are energy consumption structure, total factor energy productivity, and green technology innovation. Furthermore, the results based on the spatial Durbin model (SDM) demonstrate that digital economy development has a significant spatial spillover effect. Finally, on the basis of results analysis and discussion, policy recommendations are provided for achieving environmental sustainability.

The role of age and business coaching in the relationship of lean startup approach and innovative work behavior of women entrepreneurs during COVID-19.

The purpose of the startup approach is to find an appropriate course of action that adds value to the economy's development. This study is aimed to determine the effect of the lean startup approach with mediating effect of business coaching to foster innovative work behavior in women entrepreneurs. Additionally, the study also examines the moderating effect of age on the lean startup approach and innovative work behavior. A quantitative approach was employed. The findings show that the relationship between the lean startup approach and innovative work behavior is significant. Moreover, the findings also revealed a significant mediating effect of business coaching and moderating effect of age. This research encourages practitioners and scholars to deal with women entrepreneurship incubation initiatives in the lean startup methodology. Furthermore, this study also leads to a deeper understanding of women's ideas for business exploration, growth, and implementation. The study contends that guidelines and directives are critical for creative entrepreneurial behavior.

Determinants of renewable energy sources in Pakistan: An overview.

For successive economic growth of any society, sustainable energy plays a pivotal role. Considering this view, developing countries are facing serious challenges of energy at the present time. However, policymakers have outlined numerous policies to satisfy energy demand but still remain incapable to fill the gap between demand and supply. At a halt, 11% of the world population lacks access to different formulae of energy supply and access. Additionally, in different time periods, distinct policies have erupted for the progress of renewable energy. It includes especially those households of the far-flung areas having no gas and electricity availability. However, the basis of this research study is to determine the significant renewable energy source for Pakistan's economy with the economic benefits such as job creation in energy sector. This research study aims in finding ways to secure energy supplies and achieving economic benefits. The research study concludes by engaging renewable energy technologies with the least operational and externality cost that is the utmost choice in the future. In policy perspective, Pakistani government should take actions in favor of renewable energy and technological innovation that necessitates biomass resources to be tied to non-sustainable prolonged investments.

Do Income Inequality and Institutional Quality affect CO2 Emissions in Developing Economies?

Concerns about income inequality and environmental pollution have stayed important aspects in reaching sustainable development objectives. However, economies continue to struggle with income inequality reduction and environmental degradation mitigation, all of which need significant consideration. Hence, the purpose of this research is to look into the relationship between income inequality, institutional quality, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 42 developing countries from 1984 to 2016. Furthermore, the current study also investigates the role of institutional quality in moderating the relationship between income inequality and CO2 emissions. For empirical analysis, we used cross section dependence, cross section unit root, and Westerlund's cointegration test to confirm the cross section dependence, stationarity, and cointegration among variables. Moreover, for long-run estimates, we employed Driscoll Kraay regression. According to the Driscoll Kraay regression outcomes, rising income inequality (without interaction term) leads to rising CO2 emissions. However, (with interaction term) it shows a significant negative effect on CO2 emissions. The findings of the interaction term (LnISQXLnINE) disclose a significant negative effect on CO2. Moreover, an increase in institutional quality, economic development, energy consumption, industrialization, and trade openness significantly increase CO2 emissions in all the models. In addition, the square term of income inequality and economic growth depicts an inverted U-shaped association with CO2 emissions. The outcomes are also verified by the robustness check results acquired employing the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and pooled mean group (PMG). Furthermore, Dumitrescu and Hurlin's panel causal test reveals a bidirectional causality running from income equality, energy consumption, industrialization, economic growth, trade, and interaction term toward CO2 emissions. In view of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), the findings proposed significant policy repercussions for the study's sample economies.

A step towards sustainable path: The effect of globalization on China's carbon productivity from panel threshold approach.

Surfacing the stress of global CO2 emission reduction and the change into a low-emission economy has become one of the prominent economic concerns in the twenty-first century. The essence of evolving a low-emission economy is to raise carbon productivity that can be estimated as the cost-effective paybacks of CO2 emissions. A panel threshold model was applied to approximate the threshold effect of globalization on carbon productivity under the development of human capital by using the panel data of thirty provinces of China from 2009 to 2017. The empirical findings demonstrate that China's carbon productivity increases, while economic growth shape moves towards sustainable development with low-carbon emission. Moreover, the driving force of globalization on carbon productivity is not tediously decreasing/increasing, but it has a double threshold effect of human capital. In line with this, this study finding found a single and double threshold of 9.3478 and 10.8800, respectively, as a benchmark where the relationship turns positive. The empirical findings have suggested several policy implications for the Chinese Government, policymakers, and regulatory authorities regarding this critical issue.

Impact of globalization on CO2 emissions based on EKC hypothesis in developing world: the moderating role of human capital.

In the last 3 decades, developing economies continuously have increased their manufacturing industries with an impressive growth rate. Rising the trend of globalization, these underdeveloped economies are receiving economic growth at the cost of environmental degradation. In this context, this study investigates the impact of globalization and human capital on carbon emissions (CO2) in the 78 developing economies from 1990 to 2016. Our findings based on robust system generalized method of moments (GMM) indicate that human capital and political globalization significantly reduce environmental degradation while economic, social, and overall globalization decrease the environmental quality. Furthermore, our empirical results support the inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. However, globalization (without interactive term with human capital) appears to have no significant association with CO2 emissions, while (with an interactive term) it appears to have a significant negative influence on environmental quality. Moreover, our results are robust to various robustness checks; I have performed for scrutiny the consistency of our findings. This study also offers useful policy implications for stakeholders, policymakers, and governments for promoting environmental sustainability.

The role of remittance inflow and renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in the environment: Accounting ecological footprint indicator for top remittance-receiving countries.

This study examines the impact of remittance inflow and foreign direct investment on ecological footprint in top ten remittance-receiving counties in the presence of economic growth and renewable and non-renewable energy under the framework of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis over the period of 1990-2018 by employing the continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and the continuously updated bias-corrected (CUP-BC) estimators. The results show that remittance inflow, foreign direct investment, and non-renewable energy utilization affect the ecological footprint positively while renewable energy utilization negatively impacts on ecological footprint. This study also supports the pollution haven hypothesis and inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis. The turning point obtained from long-run regression was found to be approximately $1368.65 outside of the sample period. Besides, the results are robust to various robustness analyses that we have executed for inspection of the reliability of our main findings. Finally, this study presents important policy implications with respect to the top remittance-receiving countries.

The impact of environmental regulations on export trade at provincial level in China: evidence from panel quantile regression.

Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper constructs a quantile regression econometric model to analyze whether China's environmental regulation has an impact on export trade and to verify whether the Porter hypothesis has been valid in China in recent years. The results show that in the short term, environmental regulations have a restraining effect on export trade, while in the long run, due to the existence of innovation efficiency, environmental regulations will change from having a restraining effect to a promoting effect on export trade. Strict environmental regulations will reduce the production cost of Chinese products, further improve the export competitiveness of Chinese enterprises, and promote export trade. The empirical results verify the conclusion that the Porter hypothesis is confirmed in China. The following three suggestions are proposed for China's exports to promote the win-win of China's green development and export trade: promote the realization of international and domestic double circulation, avoid becoming "pollution shelters" and support technological innovation in environmental protection industries.

Heterogeneous effects of remittances and institutional quality in reducing environmental deficit in the presence of EKC hypothesis: A global study with the application of panel quantile regression.

This study investigates the heterogeneous effects of remittance inflows, institutional quality, foreign direct investment, energy consumption, financial development, and trade openness on the ecological footprint spanning from 1990 to 2016 for the global panel of 93 countries. The current study employs a panel quantile regression (PQR) approach for tickling the distributional and unobserved country-specific heterogeneity. The findings reveal that remittance inflows significantly enhanced the environmental degradation in 5th to 70th quantiles and it turns to becomes negative at 80th to 95th quantiles. Similarly, institutional quality also deteriorates the environmental quality in all quantiles except higher quantiles such as 90th and 95th quantiles, which shows the improved environmental quality. Furthermore, the results support the validity of an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. In addition, financial development, energy consumption, and trade openness significantly deteriorate the environmental quality in the long run. In contrast, foreign direct investment improves environmental sustainability. Moreover, these findings are robust to various robustness analyses which confirm the consistency of the results. Related policy proposals are then offered according to our empirical findings.