Green Fund Research Articles

Does industrial structure changes matter in renewable energy development? Mediating role of green finance development

Green financing development mediated the interaction between industrial structure changes and renewable energy growth in China from 2000 to 2021. The research examines whether green financing may boost renewable energy development via industrial structural modifications. The research uses an econometric models to explore how green funding affects industrial structural changes and renewable energy development. Industrial structural changes boost renewable energy growth in China. Green finance development mediates the relationship between industrial structure changes and renewable energy development, suggesting that green finance can enhance the positive effect of industrial structure changes on renewable energy development. The research also reveals that green funding has a more significant long-term impact on renewable energy development. Industrial structural changes have a more significant impact on renewable energy development in economically developed areas. The results are significant for developing country policymakers promoting sustainable energy development via trade and fiscal decentralization.

Green Funds in a Gray Area


 
 
 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) funds face tremendous skepticism regarding their impact relative to investor perceptions. In fact, several figures, including media commentators and asset management leaders, have sounded the alarm on ESG investing. They believe investors, especially retail investors, are being misled by funds’ names and largely unhelpful disclosures, and that some fund managers are exaggerating their ESG practices in the name of attracting investors’ money. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has documented evidence of misleading statements regarding ESG investing processes and has brought enforcement actions against companies for making false claims in their disclosures. In an effort to address the lack of standardization and clarity in the ESG fund industry, the SEC proposed two rules in May 2022 that would change the naming and disclosure requirements for ESG funds.
 To examine how ESG funds are naming themselves and disclosing key ESG information, this Note aggregates data collected from the twenty largest ESG mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Based on an analysis of this data—which simulates an investor’s experience attempting to identify which ESG funds best align with their objectives—this Note derives quantitative and qualitative takeaways. The main conclusion is that ESG fund names are often vague and misleading, and neither their names nor their accompanying disclosures describe the funds’ investment strategies in a manner retail investors can meaningfully understand and use to make fully informed investment decisions. This Note calls this phenomenon the “ESG fund labeling problem.”
 
 
 
 In addition to analyzing the ESG fund labeling problem and its impact on retail investors, this Note considers whether the SEC’s two proposed rules from May 2022 will be successful in abating the ESG fund labeling problem. Ultimately, this Note concludes that the proposed rules fall short of meeting investors’ needs in key areas and proposes modifications the SEC can employ to further resolve the ESG fund labeling problem and reduce investor confusion.
 
 
 
 
 

Explore the Complex Interaction between Green Investment and Green Ecology: Evaluation from Spatial Econometric Models and China’s Provincial Panel Data

From the economic perspective, China has made remarkable progress, yet environmental concerns represent an alarm to the country’s long-term prosperity. The associated relationship between green investment and the green economy has important implications for the environment. Whether there is an interactive relationship between green investment and green ecology, current views seem to be at odds with each other. This paper employs a panel vector autoregressive model to construct an empirical analysis of China’s provincial panel data from 2005 to 2019. Specifically, generalized moment estimation, impulse response function, variance decomposition, and other measurement methods were applied to study the interaction between green investment and green ecological development. The research results show the following: (1) the inertial development of the green investment system seriously restricts the progress of green investment levels, and the long-term development of green ecology has a significant self-reinforcing trend; (2) the two-way interaction between green investment and green ecology shows a positive spillover effect in the short term, but the positive effect gradually weakens in the long run; (3) the impact of green ecology on green investment is most significant in the interactive relationship, and the positive effect of green ecology on green investment in the western region is the most prominent. Therefore, the government should standardize green investment standards and use policy guidance to promote the regional transfer of green investment and green ecological resources. Financial institutions should appropriately lower the financing threshold for polluting enterprises and municipal construction and leverage more social funds to flow into long-term green technologies and green industries. Companies should raise awareness of environmental disclosure, ban outdated production capacity, and transition to cleaner production models to secure green funding.

Financial inclusion and low-carbon architectural design strategies: solutions for architectural climate conditions and architectural temperature on new buildings.

The objective of this research is to explore the potential of financial inclusion and low-carbon architectural design strategies as solutions to improve the thermal comfort and energy efficiency of new buildings in different architectural climate conditions. The manufacture sector, which accounts for about 40% of all yearly greenhouse gas releases, has been stimulating with trying to reduce the amount of energy it consumes and the detrimental effects it has on the climate, in accordance with the standards outlined in the 2016 Paris Agreement. In this study, panel data analysis is used to examine the connection between green property financing and carbon dioxide emissions from the building sector in one hundred and five developed and developing countries. Although this analysis finds a negative correlation among the development of environmentally friendly real estate financing and firms' worldwide carbon dioxide emissions, it finds that this correlation is most robust in developing nations. A number of these countries are experiencing an unregulated and rapid population explosion, which has boosted their demand for oil, making this discovery essential for them. The difficulty in securing green funding during this crisis is slowing and even reversing gains made in past years, making it all the more important to keep this momentum going during the COVID-19 outbreak. It's critical to keep the momentum going by doing something.

Recording Humidity, Temperature, and Moisture in a Hydroponic Greenhouse

George Mason University’s hydroponic greenhouse and the Patriot Green Fund requested an irrigation data logging system to track how weather conditions affect the frequency at which plants need to be watered. A prototype system was created and tested in the greenhouse. The initial prototype was found to have significant issues and was brought back to the lab for modification. Upon testing in the lab, it was found that the sensors had multiple issues; further testing is required to find solutions. This project has wide implications in the field of sustainability, as it could be used in medium- and small-scale hydroponics operations across the world.

Green bond issuance and corporate ESG performance: Steps toward green and low-carbon development

Green financial instruments play an extremely important role in promoting green, low-carbon development and helping to achieve carbon neutrality. But they have also been criticized for the diversion of green funds by companies to “greenwashing”. This paper constructs the empirical models to test the impact of green bonds on corporate ESG performance. It is found that green bond issuance can significantly improve the ESG performance of corporates, on average increasing the ESG scores by about 20.5%. The mechanism test shows that green bond issuance can improve the ease of corporate financing, reduce financing costs and improve the maturity structure of corporate debt. In addition, the easing of financing constraints and the “earmarking” of green funds by green bond can benefit corporate governance and corporate environmental governance, as evidenced by the fact that green bond issuance can improve corporate profitability, growth, green innovation, and green responsibility. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of green bond issuance on ESG performance is more pronounced among private corporates and corporates with high media attention.

Role of green finance and regional environmental efficiency in China

High-quality green finance development and environmental efficiency are made possible through economic growth. This study examines the factors affecting investments in green finance and regional environmental efficiency in China from 2008 to 2020, using the GMM model. Results show that green financing positively impacts energy usage restructuring at the national level. However, the impact is limited, despite positive coefficients between financial growth, energy prices, and energy usage patterns. In the central area, green financial development benefits energy usage structure, while in the eastern region, economic and industrial development have little effect. The study provides strategic recommendations for China's green funding to support the adaptation of energy use structures.

Development and evaluation of Islamic green financing: A systematic review of green sukuk

The threat of the global climate crisis demands improvement and adjustment from various sides, including the financial sector. Islamic finance responds to environmental responsibility by presenting environmentally friendly financing products in green sukuk. This study aims to show the development trend of the number of publications in green sukuk and systematize the results of studies that explain the development and evaluation of the emergence of green sukuk investments. This study analyzed 15 publications on green sukuk during the 2016-2022 years indexed by the Scopus database. As for methodology, the descriptive analysis was used to explain the green sukuk data quantitatively; the synthesis analysis was used to describe data based on four directions (the development of models (10 sources), opportunities (12 sources), challenges (12 sources), and evaluations of green sukuk (10 sources). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses standard were used to choose samples for this investigation. The green sukuk challenge is dealing with the sukuk market after the pandemic. Several evaluation findings regarding managing commitment from the government and investors for the renewable energy sector and efforts to provide low-cost sukuk financing and risk minimization are found. Green sukuk demands efficient management to be more viable, competitive, and attractive to investors if the operational area supports it. Green sukuk projects face expanding green funding, global climate financing, managing renewable energy, and validating greenhouse gas emissions. The green stock market reaction requires coordination amongst economic subsectors.

Testing the role of digital financial inclusion in energy transition and diversification towards COP26 targets and sustainable development goals

This study investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion, energy transition, and diversification on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Change Conference (COP26) targets in the context of emerging seven economies (E-7). The SDGs include objectives related to sustainable energy consumption, the availability of sustainable energy, economic growth, sustainable development through technology, and climate change actions. This research employs novel econometric panel quantile regression and ordinary least square methods for benchmark estimations and pooled mean group for causality analysis. The empirical results indicate that energy transition and diversification, technological innovation, and foreign direct investment negatively correlate with CO2 emissions across all quantiles. Conversely, digital finance inclusion, energy consumption, and economic growth are the primary contributors to the environmental deterioration in the E-7 region. The PMG causality findings demonstrate a feedback effect for the indicators. Furthermore, our results are robust to alternative measures by Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG), which may assist policymakers in developing long- and short-term environmental protection initiatives. Based on the outcomes, we suggest that strategies to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the SDGs and COP26 targets should prioritize sustainable energy, and policymakers should enhance incentives for inclusive green funding. The findings recommend a comprehensive policy framework through which E-7 states may proceed toward reaching the SDGs (7-8-9-11-12 and 13) and COP26 commitments.

The Role of Green Finance in Green Innovation: Global Perspective from 75 Developing Countries

ABSTRACT Green finance provides an important impetus to green innovation and sustainable development. This study investigates the connection between green finance and green innovation using cross-country panel data that cover 75 developing countries from 2000 to 2019. First, we find that green finance significantly boosts the number of green patent applications in developing countries, which is crucial for promoting green development. Second, we divide countries according to whether they are members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or the Belt and Road Initiative, and their environmental performance. Heterogeneity results show in countries with poor environmental performance, non-RCEP member countries, and non-BRI member countries that the contribution of green funding is more obvious and significant. Furthermore, we consider several cross-items to explore how green finance influences green innovation differently depending on the circumstance, such as the degree of corruption, political stability, and government effectiveness. Overall, our findings highlight the key role that green finance plays in advancing green innovation, particularly for emerging economies that urgently need a policy foundation for green innovation and sustainable development.

Green Financing : One Effort Achieving Sustainable Development

The scope of the economy is to increase revenue and minimize costs, social, namely the welfare of employees, fair trade/business, and participation in charity programs. Green financing encourages the formation of a green industry; stimulates the development of technological innovations through the creation of clean, energy-efficient, and radiation-free environmental technologies; and creates new business growth in the financial industry through the establishment of financial instruments, such as green loans, green bonds, green investments, green funds, and various other financial business opportunities. The purpose of this study is to determine (1) the concept of green financing and sustainable development (2) the dimensions of green financing and (3) the efforts that must be made so that green financing is implemented optimally. The method used is descriptive qualitative. The results of the research are (1) there are 3 (three) concepts of green finance: greening the banking system, greening the bond market, greening institutional investors (2) the dimensions of green financing are achieving industrial, social, and economic excellence; (3) efforts that must be made so that the application of green financing in sustainable development can be further enhanced namely increasing government participation, support and regulation.

Spatial pattern and the development of green finance trends in China

As China continues to experience rapid economic growth and urbanization, there is growing concern about the environmental impact of this development. To address this issue, China has made significant efforts to promote green finance, such as through the issuance of green bonds and the establishment of green credit policies. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by analyzing the spatial pattern of green finance initiatives and identifying factors that contribute to this pattern. This study analyzes data on green finance initiatives in China from 2014 to 2021. This study applies difference-in-differences, mediation effects, and panel vector autoregression models to empirically examine the impact mechanism and policy intervention effects of inclusive green funding on the development of green finance. According to the results, green grants enormously boost green innovation, and these impacts hold across estimators.The results of this study indicate that the spatial pattern of green finance in China is strongly influenced by regional economic development, with more developed regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong having higher levels of green finance activity. The findings of this study have important implications for policy makers in China and other countries that are looking to promote sustainable development through green finance initiatives.

Comparative Assessment of the Functional Efficiency of Arboriflora Species Composition in Urban Green Spaces

The article discusses the results of a comprehensive analysis of the ecological state and environment-stabilizing functions of the species composition of arboriflora in the urban planting structure. It’s based on a large amount of factual material obtained during the course of a long-term monitoring of Vladivostok’s urban greenery. A methodological substantiation has been developed for a comprehensive qualitative-quantitative assessment of species using the applied qualimetry techniques. An integral indicator, named the coefficient of the functional efficiency of the species (JFEC) was proposed as the main evaluation unit. It is a relative-quantitative magnitude of plants quality that characterises their functional efficiency and significance in urban ecosystems: prevalence in greenery planting, vitality, the ability for accumulation of the priority pollutant metals in the urban environment, their concentration relative to the local ecological background; the capability for accumulating metals from the soil. Comparative analysis of the functional efficiency of 80 species of trees and shrubs forming the urban greenery of Vladivostok on the basis of the proposed coefficient was carried out. Among the compared sample of plants, the JFEC decreases from 3.70 (Crataegus pinnatifida) to 1.13 (Malus mandshurica). This values measure up to 74 and 23% of the quality standard (QS), which corresponds to the ideal plant species. The groups of species of different functional significance in the urban green spaces structure have been identified. The best efficiency in creating the comfortable environmental conditions in the city was demonstrated by species widespread in landscaping: Fraxinus mandshurica, Ulmus japonica, Betula platyphylla, Physocarpus opulifolia et al. They are characterized by the maximum participation in the formation of the urban greenery structure and a high ability to absorb the main pollutants of the urban environment. The JFEC of these species is within 3.26–2.61, which corresponds to 65–52% of the QS. In conclusion, author makes a suggestion on a rational use of species for the formation of a comfortable urban environment and introduction of the results into the practice of managing the urban green fund.

Environmental regulation intensity, green finance, and environmental sustainability: empirical evidence from China based on spatial metrology.

With carbon emissions becoming more and more closely related to human activities and China being the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, the cost of environmental quality deterioration is high and environmental sustainability is low. Against this background, it is urgent to implement low-carbon recycling and green development by introducing green funds based on the role of environmental regulation intensity. Therefore, based on the data of 30 provinces from 2004 to 2019, the paper considers the dynamic impact of environmental regulation intensity and green finance development on regional environmental sustainability. The provincial data involve specific spatial locations and focus on the economic interactions among provinces, and the spatial econometric model is very applicable. Based on the spatial econometric model, this paper empirically examines the direct effect, spatial spillover effect, and total effect, considering both spatial and temporal patterns. The research shows that (1) China's provincial environmental sustainability shows a noticeable spatial agglomeration effect, which is significantly and spatially autocorrelated and clustered. (2) Based on the national level, an increase in the intensity of environmental regulation will significantly increase regional environmental sustainability, and the development of green finance will also significantly increase regional environmental sustainability. Additionally, the environmental regulation intensity has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, which may increase environmental sustainability in neighboring provinces. There is also a significant positive spatial spillover effect of the impact of green finance development on environmental sustainability. (3) Based on the provincial level, the impact of environmental regulation and green financial development on environmental sustainability in each region is significantly positive, with the most significant impact in the western region and the smallest coefficient in the eastern region. The paper proposes policy and managerial implications to promote regional environmental sustainability based on the above findings.

Enterprise sustainable development and green fund concern: The analysis and test of R&D from listed companies in China

According to active ownership, the development of green funds in the capital market should promote the sustainable development of enterprises. However, when green funds practice green screening strategies, myopic managers may ignore the long-term innovation activities of enterprises because of the attraction of capital flow and the construction of managers' reputations. This study uses long-term and external corporate R&D to explain changes in green fund holdings and further examines the impact of fund characteristics and corporate heterogeneity on green fund holdings. The results show that the greater the corporate R&D, the less the green fund holdings, and the better the short-term financial performance, the weaker the negative relationship, indicating that green funds may be myopic and not concerned about corporate innovation. In particular, this study did not find that the traditional fund adopted a negative screening strategy for enterprises like the green fund. In addition, myopic green funds pay more attention to capital flow attraction and performance ranking improvement and do not pay attention to long-term, sustainable, and market-oriented corporate governance behavior. This conclusion has important implications for understanding and developing China's green fund market.

The role of green financing to enhance tourism growth by mitigating carbon emission in China.

The tourism industry has undergone rapid inquiry in modern times. Based on climatic importance, current research intends to inquire about the role of green financing in enhancing tourism growth by mitigating carbon emissions in China. The study used Data Envelopment Analysis to infer the efficiency of the study model in the study context based on research topicality. Our findings highlighted that China's local tourism destination, renowned for its health and wellness tourism, indicated tourist inspiration to visit climate-supporting visit stations. Study results extended that using green financing for climate change mitigation in a Chinese tourist destination is essential. Empirical results confirmed that green funding directly mitigated climate change and enhanced tourism growth in Chinese settings by solving related issues. On such findings, the study yielded the practical implications for green financing institutions, climate change policymakers and Chinese officials for tourism development.

Exploring the roles of green finance and environmental regulations on CO2es: defining the roles of social and economic globalization in the next eleven nations

Achieving sustainable environmental growth and preventing further environmental degradation are challenging goals for policymakers. This study looks at environmental laws and green finance's role in fostering a more sustainable environment. The literature still needs to empirically or theoretically investigate how environmental laws and green financing affect carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, particularly when combined with moderating factors such as social and economic globalization. As a result, this study investigates how environmental laws and green funding can help the N-11 nations cut their CO2 emissions. Our research uses empirical data from a group of the N-11 nations that span the years 2000 to 2019. To handle issues with panel data analysis, such as cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, we use advanced panel approaches (CIPS and CADF unit root and cointegration test and cross-sectional augmented ARDL). This research demonstrates that green financing (GFI) and environmental laws (ENV) have a negative but significant effect on CO2 emissions. While social globalization moderates the causal relationship between energy consumption and GDP while negatively and significantly causing GFI and ENV with CO2 emissions among the N-11 countries, economic growth has had a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions in the N-11 countries. According to our research, nations could achieve the SDG-7 and SDG-13 goals if they adopted green financial and environmental policies.

Investigation of the Indian Forest sector’s performance during the last three and half decades

About seventy years ago, independent India’s first National Forest Policy, 1952 clearly mentioned covering one-third of the country’s geographical area under forest cover, but going by the trend of growth in forest cover during the past three and half decades, it is evident that this target is not going to be fulfilled in the near future. The quality of the country’s forests in terms of average productivity, per capita availability, growing stock, and forest type/composition have also declined during the last 35 years as evident from available research articles/reports through secondary literature survey. A multi-pronged strategy giving more emphasis to agroforestry, adopting an innovative result-based Telangana state afforestation model, creating sustainable green funds by different states, and restoring degraded forest lands by strengthening participatory forest management has been suggested in the paper to achieve forest and tree cover target and for improving forest quality.

Time and Frequency Connectedness Among Emerging Markets and QGREEN, FinTech and Artificial Intelligence-Based Index: Lessons from the Outbreak of COVID-19

The study is about contributing to the ongoing discussion on the diversification opportunities for emerging markets with non-conventional asset class. The limited literature in the era of fourth industrial revolution motivates us to gauge diversification opportunities. This study is focusing on identifying diversification opportunities with a set of unique asset classes that are the proxies for Green Funds, FinTech and Artificial Intelligence-based index funds. The method and model applied in the study are time and frequency connectedness in a Wavelet Coherence, and for the robustness check—Network analysis has been applied. The originality of the study lies in identifying the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19. The results captured that FinTech-based asset was the most resilient asset class during the pre- and post-outbreak of COVID-19, followed by AI-based fund and finally by Green fund. Henceforth, FinTech provides superior diversification opportunities among all with MSCI Emerging Market. AI and Green funds are captured to be invested in the long term for diversification, whereas FinTech is suitable for both long- and short-term assets. The results are relevant for investors in emerging markets and for policymakers as well.

Proposed Gamification Concept to Increase Donor Engagement for Green Fund Digital Philanthropy Platform Case Study: Greeneration Foundation

Humans and the environment are two natural elements that can never be separated. The environment provides all human needs for survival and humans have also used the environment from 2.5 million years ago to this moment. Currently, the environmental damage that is accelerating cannot be separated from human intervention itself, and the solution should also start from human hands as well. One of the solutions that the government can do is to provide a space for cross-stakeholder collaboration such as the community, non-profit organizations, youth communities in Indonesia with the same enthusiasm to present solutions for environmental restoration, it is hoped that this can accelerate solutions to environmental damage. From this problem, the Greeneration Foundation is trying to be present to offer a concrete solution by inviting the public to donate a minimum of Rp. 10,000 for a sustainable environmental solution by adapting technological developments that are implemented on an online Green Fund Digital Philanthropy donation platform. As a new institution that operates as a fundraiser, the Greeneration Foundation has quite a tough challenge to be able to improve aspects of donor involvement so that they can continue to donate to the Green Fund Digital Philanthropy platform. One way that can be done to increase donor involvement is to implement a gamification scheme on the donation platform, but in its implementation it requires a big commitment from the Greeneration Foundation and must pay attention to the needs of donors. To answer these problems, the methodology used uses a mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative). In-depth interview data is used as qualitative data as an internal consideration for the gamification scheme development process, and survey data is used as quantitative data to illustrate user/donor awareness of the gamification scheme that will be implemented on the donation platform. The results will be calculated using several tools such as the value proportion canvas.