Exploring the key role of education in achieving green growth: evidence from group of seven countries

Climate change has emerged as a major threat for developed as well as emerging nations. In order to effectively address this matter, it is imperative to undertake a transition towards a sustainable and environment‐friendly economic model. From an economic standpoint, it is worth noting that green economic growth serves as a mechanism to enhance income levels while preserving the integrity of the environment. Therefore, there is a significant interest among researchers and policymakers to identify the determinants of green growth (GG), with the aim of formulating effective policies to promote sustainable development. In light of this, we probe the impact of education and natural resources on GG in China. The novel augmented autoregressive distributed lag approach reports the long‐run co‐movement between education, natural resources, and GG. Moreover, the results derived from the novel wavelet quantile correlation method indicate that education positively affects GG in both the short‐ and long‐term, across different quantiles. However, in the medium‐term, the impact of education on GG is negative. In both the short‐ and long‐term, natural resources hinder GG, thus providing support for the natural resource curse theory. We present policy recommendations aimed at fostering GG in the Chinese economy. For example, there should be a substantial increase in investment in education to boost GG. Next, access to education is inevitable to attain higher GG; therefore, quality education should be provided at a lower cost.

The most accepted solution to deal with the problems of global warming and climate change is to transform the energy sector by moving toward renewable energy. Therefore, the primary focus of the analysis is to examine the role of renewable energy consumption, higher education, and ICT in improving environmental quality and green growth in China. We have employed the quantile ARDL model to obtain the short-and long-run estimates. According to the findings of QARDL, the long-run estimated coefficients of renewable energy consumption and higher education are positively significant in most quantiles. However, in the long run, the estimates attached to ICT are insignificant in the CO2 emissions model in most quantiles. On the other hand, the estimates of renewable energy consumption are significantly positive from the 50th quantile and onward in the green growth model, confirming that the higher the renewable energy in the economy, closer it will get to the target of green economic growth. The long-run estimates of higher education and ICT are positively significant at most quantiles in the green growth model. In the short run, renewable energy consumption turned out to be the most critical determinant of CO2 emissions and green growth.

The upsurge in higher education is considered a key determinant for enhancing green growth. Moreover, ICT development is also the main catalyst of green growth. This research explores the role of higher education and ICT on green growth for China from 1995 to 2020. The study employs auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) approach for short-run and long-run estimates of green growth. The effect of higher education and ICT on green growth is significantly positive in the long run and short run. The outcomes of the empirical models reveal that financial inclusion is positively associated with green growth in both long run and short run. Moreover, renewable energy consumption is found to have a positive impact on green growth. The findings thus point to the need for policies that promote human capital and ICT infrastructure as a way of accelerating green growth.

There is need for international collaboration among developing and developed countries for fostering green economy and sustainability. Despite of high awareness on climate change, even the developed countries are underperforming with respect to the environmental footprint of their activities. Furthermore, countries having cheap labour tend to attract global investment. Countries have been classified based on their virtual carbon trade, which requires calculation of carbon emission deficit or surplus of the countries through their imports and exports (Slay in Virtual carbon trade, transition and developing economies: Sinners, or sinned against? UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Regional Bureau for Europe and CIS 2011). This chapter focuses on fostering green economies and green growth from political, social and economic perspectives so that sustainable development can be achieved, and poverty as well as environmental footprints can be reduced. The chapter covers the following topics: relationship between green economies and green growth; the ways for recruiting change agents for sustainability (i.e. the roles of media, higher education, policies, and companies in recruiting change agents for sustainability); ways for enhancing green economies (i.e. carbon taxes, international protocols, virtual water, virtual carbon, eco-industrial parks, green supply chain); as well as introduction of new perspective towards carbon tax and carbon-motivated border tax adjustments concepts. This chapter reveals that political, social and economical aspects are interrelated and that they support each other. For this reason, all three aspects should be considered together so that green economy and green growth are fostered.

Green growth cannot succeed without significant changes in the education system and the closely related social division of labor. This paper combines historical evidence and a game‐theoretic analysis to study the relation between vocational education and green growth. It is found that a low‐vocation and a high‐vocation equilibrium can be distinguished in the interplay between education and labor markets, and that a high‐vocation equilibrium is better suited for green growth. At the present stage of development, there are tendencies in both directions in China. Therefore, China has the possibility to successfully implement a green growth strategy by developing a strong vocational education with Chinese characteristics.

Digital Development in Korea explores the central role of digital information and communication technology in South Korea. Analyzing the role of ICT in green growth and sustainability, this new edition also demonstrates how concerns over public safety and the Olympic Games are shaping next generation digital networks. Presenting a network-centric perspective to contextualize digital development politically, economically and socially, as well as in relation to globalization, urbanization and sustainability, this book builds on fi rsthand experience to explain the formulation and implementation of key policy decisions. It describes the revolutionary changes of the 1980s, including privatization and color television and the thorough restructuring that created a telecommunications sector. It then goes on to explore the roles of government leadership, international development and education in affecting the diffusion of broadband mobile communication, before weighing up the positive and negative aspects of Korea’s vibrant new digital media. Seeking to identify aspects of the Korean experience from which developing countries around the world could benefi t, this book will be of interest to students, scholars and policymakers interested in communications technologies, Korean studies and developmental studies.

The relationship between higher education and economic development has long been emphasized in the research on economics and education. Much of the existing literature focuses on the gross domestic product (GDP) as a core measure of a nation’s economic accounting system, but this may neglect some negative effects of production, such as resource depletion and environmental damage. Under such circumstances, the concept of “green GDP” was conceived to consider environmental influence simultaneously with the economy. It is, however, only theoretically feasible due to the complexity in calculating environmental pollution and the unavailability of data about resource consumption. Considering the measurement problems, this paper proposes a new approach to indirectly estimate green GDP. Using this approach, we mainly explore the impact of higher education on economic growth, especially regarding the development of a green economy. Results show that (a) higher education plays a significant role in building a green economy, and (b) green GDP is more responsive to changes in higher education than the traditional GDP. This study provides empirical evidence for the substantial contribution that higher education makes in promoting green economic growth to achieve comprehensive sustainable development.

Progressive development of the modern countries implies the harmonization of economical, social and environmental principles of functioning. It is the process that involves the interpenetration of such areas as meeting the ever-changing and rapidly growing needs of modern society, and caring for future generations. Education as the most important public institution that plays a crucial role in improving the efficiency of human capital, training and development of scientific and managerial personnel, also contributes to the generation and implementation of technological, digital and green innovations. The education system and the training of relevant personnel, the problems of economic diversification and the formation of a green labor market are being solved. However, the differences of states in the level of their socio-economic development have sharply raised the problem of uneven implementation of programs for the introduction of green technologies, which entails an imbalance of green growth. This article hypothesizes that the reason for the problem is based on the experience and best practices of countries with a high standard and quality of life in the development and implementation of national economic development programs based on green technologies with insufficient consideration of the characteristics of other countries.KeywordsPrecision horticultureOrganic farmingResource and energy saving

Currently, the issue of education for the development of a ‘green’ economy is among the most pressing global challenges. In this context, this study explores the relationship between CO2 emissions and education levels, represented by government spending on education as a share of GDP, alongside economic and social indicators such as GDP per capita, urbanization ratio, and inflation rate. The analysis focuses on the cases of Kazakhstan and Turkey. The study used a forecasting methodology involving a regression model to determine the relationships between changes in CO2 emissions, educational attainment, and economic and social parameters. A multiple linear regression model was constructed to assess education’s impact, and the ecological footprint and ecological deficit for the two countries studied were determined. The study uses information from the Footprint Data Foundation (Footprint Data Foundation). The research complements the existing theoretical framework on sustainable development, offering an interdisciplinary approach combining economic, environmental and educational aspects. The results show that education and GDP per capita significantly positively impact reducing CO2 emissions in Kazakhstan. The results can be used to justify the need to integrate environmental knowledge into educational programs and to develop more comprehensive models of the interaction of factors affecting the reduction of the carbon footprint. From a practical point of view, the study’s results will provide empirical data and analysis that can be useful for developing educational and economic strategies and more effective government programs aimed at reducing CO2 emissions, improving environmental quality and promoting green growth.

This paper aims to present a narrative of the outcome of an extensive historical literature review of global policy development and processes concerning the emergence, efficacy, and eminence of sustainable development, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs]) inception to date. It starts by presenting the emergence, efficacy, and eminence of the concept and term “sustainable development” (which is integral to ESD) in terms of its historical definition, dimensions, understanding, interpretations, and challenges. It also highlights the take‐up of sustainable development in terms of green growth, human development, and human agency. It then presents an overview of ESD, accompanied by a discussion of its key characteristics, approaches, and significances. The paper then highlights a semantic analysis of the development of ESD, with a special focus on some converging processes, events, concepts, discourses, and declarations that have supported the rise of ESD and shaped its status to date. Considerable emphasis is placed on the significance and nexus between environmental education and ESD. The paper analyses the crucial interconnection between education, sustainable development, ESD, the SDGs, and human development. Furthermore, the paper discusses the centrality of ESD to the global education discourse and the nexus, role, and relevance of education and particularly ESD in relation to the achievement of all the SDGs. The paper concludes by critically reflecting on the above, vis‐à‐vis the author's previous empirical research on higher ESD, making recommendations on the future of ESD research and practice.

The high-quality development of agriculture requires not only sustainable growth of agricultural productivity but also green agricultural production. Internet technology has played an essential role in agricultural production and marketing in China over the past decades. This paper estimates provincial agricultural green growth in China from 1997 to 2019 and decomposes it into technological progress (TP) and efficiency changes (EC) based on the Luenberger productivity indicator method. Then an econometric model is employed to analyze the impact of the Internet on the growth of agricultural green productivity and each sub-component, and moderating role of farmer education in such effect. The empirical results indicated that annual average growth rate of agricultural green productivity in China is 1.33% from 1997 to 2019, and technological progress dominates its growth. The development of Internet technology has a significant positive impact on agricultural green productivity and its decomposition. Farmer education has strengthened the effect of Internet technology on agricultural green productivity and its decomposition TP and EC.

The path to green growth in OECD economies: The role of energy transition and education

The COP27 conference establishes fresh objectives for global economies to achieve the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, which are centered on reducing carbon (CO2) emissions and constraining the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 °C. In this background, this study looks at how education has affected CO2 emissions, the economy, the use of renewable energy, green investments, and foreign direct investment in the E-7 countries from 2000 to 2021. Two unit root tests, CADF and CIPS, were used to gauge the data’s stationarity. The long-run coefficients were identified using the momentum quantile regression approach. The empirical results show a cointegration of the variables. Long-term CO2 emissions are influenced by a variety of factors, including foreign direct investment, economic growth, green investments, and education. The outcomes of reliable statistics provide support for the overall empirical study of groups and the economy. The results also suggest that there is a significant increase in education, leading to a reduction in CO2 emissions across long time periods. Additionally, the E-7 countries should place a high priority on boosting the use of renewable energy and investing in the expansion of higher education for sustainable development. To mitigate the rise in carbon dioxide emissions (CO2em), it is recommended that the governments of the E-7 nations take measures to promote the adoption of green investments. Governments must prioritize their efforts to ensure that green financing policies are able to complement environmental welfare policies and green growth policies.