Assessing the impact of international trade on ecological footprint in Belt and Road Initiative countries.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is one such comprehensive plan that aims to boost economic growth and connectivity across Africa, Asia, and Europe. While the effort may be good for boosting exports and foreign direct investment (FDI), some are worried about the toll it may take on the environment. Therefore, we aim to examine the effect of international trade and FDI on the ecological footprint in BRI countries, considering the mediating role of the environmental performance index. The CCEMG estimator was used to examine the impacts of imports, exports, FDI, population growth, urbanization, and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) on the global ecological footprint. Our findings show that export has a positive relationship with ecological footprint. Similarly, imports and FDI revealed a positive association with the ecological footprint. Finally, environmental performance revealed a negative association with ecological footprint in BRI countries. Our findings support the pollution haven theory by demonstrating the critical importance of environmental regulations in enticing responsible investors. By using the ecological footprint as an all-encompassing measure of environmental effect, this study sheds light on the need to incorporate sustainability within the goals of the BRI. This research emphasizes the importance of adopting well-informed methods to promote sustainable development and mitigate the BRI's adverse environmental impacts.

Impact of economic variables on CO2 emissions in belt and road and OECD countries.

The rebirth of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) programme have necessitated the study as it has a vast potential to promote economic growth, yet, marred with numerous energy use and ecological concerns. The article is the first to comparatively examine the impact of economic variables on consumption-based CO2 emissions in the BRI and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries by testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and the Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH). The Common Correlated Effects Mean Group (CCEMG) estimates the results. Income (GDP) and GDP2 positively and negatively impact CO2 emissions in the three panels, validating the EKC. Foreign direct investment (FDI) significantly affects CO2 emissions for the global and BRI panels, supporting the PHH. However, the PHH is refuted for the OECD panel as the impact of FDI on CO2 emissions is negative and statistically significant. GDP and GDP2 decline by 0.029% and 0.0446%, respectively, for BRI countries, compared to OECD countries. It is recommended that BRI countries enact new and stringent environmental laws and use more tidal energy, solar energy, wind power, bioenergy, and hydropower instead of fossil fuels, for the sustainable attainment of higher economic growth, devoid of pollution.

Trend and relationship between environmental accounting disclosure and environmental performance for mining companies listed in China.

We examined the effect of environmental disclosure on environmental performance for listed mining companies in China. Our analysis used China's Environmental Information Disclosure Degree (EIDD) and the Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission's disclosure guidelines to propose the Environmental Information Disclosure Index. Majority of previous studies on environmental disclosures focused on a particular company or city or province. Few studies considered a whole sector of a country. Among the few studies that considered a whole industry, none of such studies considered the mining industry. In addition, our study employed a recent environmental disclosure index and modified a recent index for environmental performance for the empirical analysis making our study unique. We also employed vigorous reliability and robustness test to ensure that our findings are valid and can be used by policy-makers. Using panel data for thirty-four mining companies from both Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange for the period 2000-2018, our cointegration estimation analysis concluded that corporate environmental performance and environmental information disclosure has a positive and significant relationship at a 1% level. Trend analysis revealed that mining companies comply with environmental information disclosure in China. This was seen from the great improvement in the environmental disclosure for mining companies between 2008 and 2010 after the enforcement of EIDD. Our results contribute to the previous literature and open the way for further studies on industry level in other countries.

The role of CO2 emissions and economic growth in energy consumption: empirical evidence from Belt and Road and OECD countries.

Energy economics literature indicates that CO2 emissions and economic growth are significant drivers of energy consumption. This paper empirically tests the claim described above within the context of the Belt and Road Initiative countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Prais-Winsten regression estimates the models with panel corrected standard errors. The random effects and fixed effects estimators proved inefficient, while the panel corrected standard errors proved to be an efficient and appropriate estimator. The results are consistent with the usual drivers indicated in the literature; both CO2 emissions and economic growth positively and significantly affect energy consumption in all the eight panels, including the Belt and Road Initiative panel and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development panel. CO2 emissions on energy consumption are 10.7% higher in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries than in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. Similarly, economic growth on energy consumption is 9.4% higher in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries than in the Belt and Road Initiative countries. Policy recommendations in the study include improving and implementing an energy diversification policy, introducing carbon taxes and adopting new technologies like carbon capture and storage. These policies aim to encourage renewable and green energy usage and transition to low carbon technologies to reduce CO2 emissions while maintaining sustainable economic growth.