Environmental Kuznets curve among BRICS countries: Spot lightening finance, transport, energy and growth factors

The impact of air-railways transportation, energy demand, bilateral aid flows, and population density on environmental degradation: Evidence from a panel of next-11 countries

The renewable energy sources are considered the vital factor to promote global green business. The environmental cost of doing business is the pre-requisite to analyze sustainable policies that facilitate the eco-minded entrepreneurs to produce healthier goods. This study examines the impact of renewable energy sources (i.e., hydro energy, biofuel energy, and wind energy) on the environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) countries, for the period of 1995-2015. The study employed principal component analysis to construct an "integrated environmental index" by using three alternative and plausible factors including carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuel energy consumption, and chemicals used in the manufacturing process. The environmental index is used as an interactive term with the three cost of doing business indicators including business disclosure index, the cost of business start-up procedures, and logistics performance index to form environmental cost of doing business (ECDB) indicators. The results of three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator show that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows supported the green business while trade openness deteriorates the environment, which partially validates the "pollution haven hypotheses (PHH)" in a panel of countries. There is no evidence for environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; however, there is a monotonic decreasing relationship between per capita income and ECDB indicators. The hydro energy supports the sustainable business environment, while biofuel consumption deteriorates the environmental impact on the cost of business start-up procedures. Finally, wind energy subsequently affected the ECDB indicators in a panel of BRICS countries. The overall results conclude that growth factors and energy sources both have a considerable impact on the cost of doing business; therefore, there is a momentous need to formulate sustainable policy vista to magnetize green business across countries.

This study investigates the effect of energy consumption on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 33 African countries from 1995–2017. It contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of disaggregated measures of energy consumption (coal, oil and other liquids, renewable energy, and electricity) on GHG emissions (CO2, N2O, CH4, and total GHG emissions) in Africa and identifies the transmission channels through which energy consumption affects GHG emissions. The system GMM is used in the study as it accounts for possible endogeneity and the potential correlation between the error term and the country fixed effects. The results show that coal consumption significantly increases CO2, CH4, and total GHG emissions and reduces N2O emissions. Oil consumption increases CO2 and total GHG emissions but reduces N2O and CH4 emissions. Renewable energy consumption reduces CO2 and CH4 emissions but increases N2O emissions. Finally, electricity consumption promotes CO2, N2O, CH4 and total GHG emissions in Africa. Further analyses show that foreign trade and economic growth are the channels through which oil consumption increases GHG emissions. The adverse effect of electricity is through urbanization. Renewable consumption could decrease GHG emissions through sustainable urbanization and trade policies. The findings suggest that countries should gradually reduce coal consumption and encourage renewable energy consumption, which has the lowest impact on the environment.

Do natural gas and renewable energy consumption lead to less CO2 emission? Empirical evidence from a panel of BRICS countries

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The disastrous consequences of climate change for human life and environmental sustainability have drawn worldwide attention. Increased global warming is attributed to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, biodiversity loss, and deforestation due to industrial output and huge consumption of fossil fuels. Financial inclusion can be acted as an adaptation or a mitigation measure for environmental degradation. This study analyzed the impact of financial inclusion on environmental degradation in OIC countries for the period 2004-2018. A novel approach, "Dynamic Common Correlated Effects (DCCE)" is used to tackle the problem of heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence (CSD). Various GHG emissions along with deforestation and ecological footprint are used as indicators of environmental degradation. Long-run estimation confirms that financial inclusion is positively and significantly linked with CO2 emission, CH4 emission, and deforestation while negatively correlated with ecological footprint and N2O emission in overall and higher-income OIC economies. An inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is validated when ecological footprint, CO2, and CH4 are used in all panels of OIC countries. An inverted U-shaped EKC is also observed for deforestation in lower-income and overall OIC countries. In the case of N2O emission, however, a U-shaped EKC appears in lower-income and overall OIC countries. It is suggested that the governments of OIC countries should continue to have easy access to financial services and maintain sustainable use of forests and biocapacity management to address environmental challenges.

Dairy production systems represent a significant source of air pollutants such as greenhouse gases (GHG), that increase global warming, and ammonia (NH3), that leads to eutrophication and acidification of natural ecosystems. Greenhouse gases and ammonia are emitted both by conventional and organic dairy systems. Several studies have already been conducted to design practices that reduce greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from dairy systems. However, those studies did not consider options specifically applied to organic farming, as well as the multiple trade-offs occurring between these air pollutants. This article reviews agricultural practices that mitigate greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. Those practices can be applied to the most common organic dairy systems in northern Europe such as organic mixed crop-dairy systems. The following major points of mitigation options for animal production, crop production and grasslands are discussed. Animal production: the most promising options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the livestock management level involve either the improvement of animal production through dietary changes and genetic improvement or the reduction of the replacement rate. The control of the protein intake of animals is an effective means to reduce gaseous emissions of nitrogen, but it is difficult to implement in organic dairy farming systems. Considering the manure handling chain, mitigation options involve housing, storage and application. For housing, an increase in the amounts of straw used for bedding reduces NH3 emissions, while the limitation of CH4 emissions from deep litter is achieved by avoiding anaerobic conditions. During the storage of solid manure, composting could be an efficient mitigation option, depending on its management. Addition of straw to solid manure was shown to reduce CH4 and N2O emissions from the manure heaps. During the storage of liquid manure, emptying the slurry store before late spring is an efficient mitigation option to limit both CH4 and NH3 emissions. Addition of a wooden cover also reduces these emissions more efficiently than a natural surface crust alone, but may increase N2O emissions. Anaerobic digestion is the most promising way to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from storage and land spreading, without increasing NH3 emissions. At the application stage, NH3 emissions may be reduced by spreading manure during the coolest part of the day, incorporating it quickly and in narrow bands. Crop production: the mitigation options for crop production focus on limiting CO2 and N2O emissions. The introduction of perennial crops or temporary leys of longer duration are promising options to limit CO2 emissions by storing carbon in plants or soils. Reduced tillage or no tillage as well as the incorporation of crop residues also favour carbon sequestration in soils, but these practices may enhance N2O emissions. Besides, the improvement of crop N-use efficiency through effective management of manure and slurry, by growing catch crops or by delaying the ploughing of leys, is of prime importance to reduce N2O emissions. Grassland: concerning grassland and grazing management, permanent conversion from arable to grassland provides high soil carbon sequestration while increasing or decreasing the livestock density seems not to be an appropriate mitigation option. From the study of the multiple interrelations between gases and between farm compartments, the following mitigation options are advised for organic mixed crop-dairy systems: (1) actions for increasing energy efficiency or fuel savings because they are beneficial in any case, (2) techniques improving efficiency of N management at field and farm levels because they affect not only N2O and NH3 emissions, but also nitrate leaching, and (3) biogas production through anaerobic digestion of manure because it is a promising efficient method to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, even if the profitability of this expensive investment needs to be carefully studied. Finally, the way the farmer implements the mitigation options, i.e. his practices, will be a determining factor in the reduction of greenhouse gas and NH3 emissions.

This study analyses the relationship between per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, gross domestic product, gross inland energy consumption, and renewable energy consumption for a panel of 28 countries of European Union in the period 1990–2016. Two theoretical models, a quadratic and a cubic one, are used to estimate the shape of the environmental curve and to test the Kuznets hypothesis. The panel cointegration approach proved the existence of long-run equilibrium relations among the four macroeconomic indicators. Empirical estimations, using panel data techniques, as well as heterogeneous regression for each individual country in the panel, show non-conclusive evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The least square estimates, with the variables in log per capita form, reveal that the inverted U-shaped EKC hypothesis is verified for the panel and for 17 of the 28 EU countries. Estimates of the cubic model show that the environmental curve has an inverted N-shaped form. These results do not hold when the values are in non-logarithmic form. In addition, the estimations for all models show that an increase of gross energy consumption leads to an increase of GHGs, while an increase of renewable energy consumption leads to a reduction in GHG emissions.

The dependence of oil production in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region may have environmental consequences. This research explores the nonlinear effects of oil rents and the economic growth of six GCC countries on their per capita CO2, CH4, N2O, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, considering spatial linkages through 1980–2014. We apply fixed effects (FE) and corroborate the spatial dependency in all estimated pollution models. Spatial Durbin model (SDM) is utilized to estimate the direct and spillover effects. We find the inverted U-shaped relationship of economic growth with CO2, CH4, N2O and GHG emissions, and of oil rents with CH4 and GHG emissions. Monotonic positive effects of oil rents on CO2 emissions and U-shaped relationship between oil rents and N2O emissions are also found. Urbanization has positive effect on the CO2, CH4 and GHG emissions and has negative effect on N2O emissions. Financial market development (FMD) has negative effects on all types of investigated emissions. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has negative effects on CO2 and N2O emissions. Energy use has positive effects on CO2 and N2O emissions. Further, the neighboring spillover effects of economic growth, oil rents, urbanization, FDI, energy use and FMD are found statistically significant for some investigated emissions. Hence, oil rents, energy use, urbanization and economic growth are responsible for environmental degradation of home and neighboring countries in the GCC region, and we recommend implementing tighter laws to protect the environment.

This study advances in the analysis of the relationship between economic growth and environmental degradation, and how innovation and energy use impact on per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in 17 selected OECD countries with over the period spanning from 1990 to 2012. The empirical model is found in the empirical hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) scheme. The econometric results reveal a complete significant relationship, where economic growth, renewable electricity use and innovation correct environmental pollution, while biomass consumption and fossil electricity consumption affect negatively environmental correction process. This study implements a novel methodology in the analysis of the relationship between per capita GHG emissions and selected auxiliary variables, through an interaction effect which moderates the relationship between energy variables and economic cycle over per capita greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hence, this study also incorporates De Leeuw’s finite lags effect in auxiliary variables, in order to validate the long-run effect of these variables over per capita GHG emissions. Consequently, the results validate the positive role that regulatory energy policies, linked with energy innovation processes and the replacement of polluting sources, have on environmental correction. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that in the long run, renewable electricity consumption and energy innovation measures delay the technical obsolescence. These results enable certain strengthened conclusions that help to explain the interaction between energy regulation, economic growth and per capita GHG emissions, and how are necessary the adoption of regulations which reduce energy dependency and mitigate the negative effect of dirty energy sources on per capita GHG emissions.

As Africa becomes more open to trade and globalization, emissions in the region continue to increase steadily. In the context of the prevailing economic and political conditions in Africa, it is anticipated that climate change shocks will impede developmental progress and hinder economic growth within the region. This research endeavors to empirically investigate the interconnections among GDP per capita, renewable energy consumption, freshwater withdrawals, forest area, and greenhouse gas emissions across 23 African nations from 2001 to 2020. The analytical framework incorporates the Pedroni cointegration test and the Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) method to establish a durable relationship among the variables under scrutiny.
 The outcomes of our investigation disclose that a 1% escalation in GDP per capita and freshwater withdrawals corresponds to an 87.75% and 16.93% increase in greenhouse gas emissions, respectively. Conversely, a 1% rise in renewable energy consumption and forest area manifests a decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 58.51% and 13.24%, respectively. The examination reveals a negative coefficient for GDP per capita squared, affirming the validity of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Furthermore, the Pairwise causality test indicates bidirectional causation between renewable energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions and between renewable energy consumption and GDP per capita. Additionally, unidirectional causality exists from GDP per capita to greenhouse gas emissions, freshwater withdrawals to GDP per capita, forest area to GDP per capita, and freshwater withdrawals to forest area. The study recommends the sustainable use of resources in order to achieve low emissions.

Dairy production systems represent a significant source of air pollutants such as greenhouse gases (GHG), that increase global warming, and ammonia (NH3), that leads to eutrophication and acidification of natural ecosystems. Greenhouse gases and ammonia are emitted both by conventional and organic dairy systems. Several studies have already been conducted to design practices that reduce greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions from dairy systems. However, those studies did not consider options specifically applied to organic farming, as well as the multiple trade-offs occurring between these air pollutants. This article reviews agricultural practices that mitigate greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. Those practices can be applied to the most common organic dairy systems in northern Europe such as organic mixed crop-dairy systems. The following major points of mitigation options for animal production, crop production and grasslands are discussed. Animal production: the most promising options for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the livestock management level involve either the improvement of animal production through dietary changes and genetic improvement or the reduction of the replacement rate. The control of the protein intake of animals is an effective means to reduce gaseous emissions of nitrogen, but it is difficult to implement in organic dairy farming systems. Considering the manure handling chain, mitigation options involve housing, storage and application. For housing, an increase in the amounts of straw used for bedding reduces NH3 emissions, while the limitation of CH4 emissions from deep litter is achieved by avoiding anaerobic conditions. During the storage of solid manure, composting could be an efficient mitigation option, depending on its management. Addition of straw to solid manure was shown to reduce CH4 and N2O emissions from the manure heaps. During the storage of liquid manure, emptying the slurry store before late spring is an efficient mitigation option to limit both CH4 and NH3 emissions. Addition of a wooden cover also reduces these emissions more efficiently than a natural surface crust alone, but may increase N2O emissions. Anaerobic digestion is the most promising way to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from storage and land spreading, without increasing NH3 emissions. At the application stage, NH3 emissions may be reduced by spreading manure during the coolest part of the day, incorporating it quickly and in narrow bands. Crop production: the mitigation options for crop production focus on limiting CO2 and N2O emissions. The introduction of perennial crops or temporary leys of longer duration are promising options to limit CO2 emissions by storing carbon in plants or soils. Reduced tillage or no tillage as well as the incorporation of crop residues also favour carbon sequestration in soils, but these practices may enhance N2O emissions. Besides, the improvement of crop N-use efficiency through effective management of manure and slurry, by growing catch crops or by delaying the ploughing of leys, is of prime importance to reduce N2O emissions. Grassland: concerning grassland and grazing management, permanent conversion from arable to grassland provides high soil carbon sequestration while increasing or decreasing the livestock density seems not to be an appropriate mitigation option. From the study of the multiple interrelations between gases and between farm compartments, the following mitigation options are advised for organic mixed crop-dairy systems: (1) actions for increasing energy efficiency or fuel savings because they are beneficial in any case, (2) techniques improving efficiency of N management at field and farm levels because they affect not only N2O and NH3 emissions, but also nitrate leaching, and (3) biogas production through anaerobic digestion of manure because it is a promising efficient method to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, even if the profitability of this expensive investment needs to be carefully studied. Finally, the way the farmer implements the mitigation options, i.e. his practices, will be a determining factor in the reduction of greenhouse gas and NH3 emissions.KeywordsAgricultureGreenhouse gasAmmoniaAbatementMixed crop-dairy systemsOrganicLivestockManureGrasslandCarbon storageSoil carbon sequestration

Abstract. This paper summarizes currently available data on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from African natural ecosystems and agricultural lands. The available data are used to synthesize current understanding of the drivers of change in GHG emissions, outline the knowledge gaps, and suggest future directions and strategies for GHG emission research. GHG emission data were collected from 75 studies conducted in 22 countries (n = 244) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were by far the largest contributor to GHG emissions and global warming potential (GWP) in SSA natural terrestrial systems. CO2 emissions ranged from 3.3 to 57.0 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1, methane (CH4) emissions ranged from −4.8 to 3.5 kg ha−1 yr−1 (−0.16 to 0.12 Mg CO2 equivalent (eq.) ha−1 yr−1), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions ranged from −0.1 to 13.7 kg ha−1 yr−1 (−0.03 to 4.1 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1). Soil physical and chemical properties, rewetting, vegetation type, forest management, and land-use changes were all found to be important factors affecting soil GHG emissions from natural terrestrial systems. In aquatic systems, CO2 was the largest contributor to total GHG emissions, ranging from 5.7 to 232.0 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1, followed by −26.3 to 2741.9 kg CH4 ha−1 yr−1 (−0.89 to 93.2 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1) and 0.2 to 3.5 kg N2O ha−1 yr−1 (0.06 to 1.0 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1). Rates of all GHG emissions from aquatic systems were affected by type, location, hydrological characteristics, and water quality. In croplands, soil GHG emissions were also dominated by CO2, ranging from 1.7 to 141.2 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1, with −1.3 to 66.7 kg CH4 ha−1 yr−1 (−0.04 to 2.3 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1) and 0.05 to 112.0 kg N2O ha−1 yr−1 (0.015 to 33.4 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1). N2O emission factors (EFs) ranged from 0.01 to 4.1 %. Incorporation of crop residues or manure with inorganic fertilizers invariably resulted in significant changes in GHG emissions, but results were inconsistent as the magnitude and direction of changes were differed by gas. Soil GHG emissions from vegetable gardens ranged from 73.3 to 132.0 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1 and 53.4 to 177.6 kg N2O ha−1 yr−1 (15.9 to 52.9 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1) and N2O EFs ranged from 3 to 4 %. Soil CO2 and N2O emissions from agroforestry were 38.6 Mg CO2 ha−1 yr−1 and 0.2 to 26.7 kg N2O ha−1 yr−1 (0.06 to 8.0 Mg CO2 eq. ha−1 yr−1), respectively. Improving fallow with nitrogen (N)-fixing trees led to increased CO2 and N2O emissions compared to conventional croplands. The type and quality of plant residue in the fallow is an important control on how CO2 and N2O emissions are affected. Throughout agricultural lands, N2O emissions slowly increased with N inputs below 150 kg N ha−1 yr−1 and increased exponentially with N application rates up to 300 kg N ha−1 yr−1. The lowest yield-scaled N2O emissions were reported with N application rates ranging between 100 and 150 kg N ha−1. Overall, total CO2 eq. emissions from SSA natural ecosystems and agricultural lands were 56.9 ± 12.7 × 109 Mg CO2 eq. yr−1 with natural ecosystems and agricultural lands contributing 76.3 and 23.7 %, respectively. Additional GHG emission measurements are urgently required to reduce uncertainty on annual GHG emissions from the different land uses and identify major control factors and mitigation options for low-emission development. A common strategy for addressing this data gap may include identifying priorities for data acquisition, utilizing appropriate technologies, and involving international networks and collaboration.

Aquaculture is a major source of protein in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region experiencing rapid population growth, changing lifestyles and preferences, and increased health awareness. However, the industry is still underdeveloped and is of a subsistence nature. Climate change has impacted aquaculture production (AQUAP) in SSA because of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, AQUAP activities also results in GHG emissions. In SSA, the causal effect of GHG emissions and AQUAP has not yet been empirically established and quantified. The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between GHG emissions and AQUAP in SSA. The parsimonious vector autoregressive (VAR) model was used in the study, with annual time series data of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), meat production (MP), GHG emissions, and AQUAP from 1970 to 2020. The findings demonstrate that AQUAP in SSA was suppressed until 2006 when it suddenly increased. Western and Central Africa have dominated AQUAP in SSA. GHG emissions were dropping sporadically until 1991 when they began to rise gradually. In both the long and short run, GHG emissions had a negative influence on AQUAP, while AQUAP had an asymmetric impact on GHG emissions. AQUAP impacts GDP positively in both the long and short run, and GHG emissions had an asymmetric impact on GDP. In conclusion, GHG emissions negatively affect AQUAP. In addition, AQUAP reduced GHG emissions in the short run but however increased it in the long run. This indicates the infancy of the sector in SSA, the initial phase of the Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC). Furthermore, GDP is positively affected by both GHG emissions and AQUAP. This also cements the initial stages of the EKC, with economic development also powered by GHG emissions, with also the positive contribution of AQUAP to economic growth. Overall, the study concludes of initial economic, and aquaculture sectoral development powered by GHG emissions. However, this is also leading to increased emissions. The study recommends upscaling AQUAP in SSA given its infancy, huge economic potential, sustainability and low GHG emission potential but should be grounded on environmentally sustainable practices.

Coupled effects of straw and nitrogen management on N2O and CH4 emissions of rainfed agriculture in Northwest China