Sustainable Environmental Quality Research Articles

Environmental fiscal policy and carbon emissions in Turkey: evidence from cointegration and causality analysis with structural breaks

Environmental degradation, a critical issue in academic literature, arises from multiple factors including increased carbon emissions, urbanization, industrialization, mass production, and extensive use of non-renewable energy sources. These factors notably impact sustainable economic growth and environmental quality. Globally, efforts are directed towards optimizing carbon emissions to minimize their adverse effects. This necessitates effective environmental policies. This study examines the effectiveness of Turkey's environmental policy using cointegration and causality tests that account for structural breaks. The analysis utilizes data from 1990 to 2020, the most comprehensive dataset for Turkey to date. Findings indicate that Turkey's environmental policy is effective in reducing carbon emissions, highlighting a need for policy reassessment.

Are remittances an opportunity or a threat to sustainable environmental quality in India? Evidence from nonlinear smooth transition models

Are remittances an opportunity or a threat to sustainable environmental quality in India? Evidence from nonlinear smooth transition models

Assessment of the heterogeneous impacts of global value chain participation on Sustainable economic growth and environmental quality

The Global Value Chain (GVC) is an essential aspect of sustainable economic growth and environmental quality in countries that participate in it. Therefore, comprehending the relationship between GVC and economic growth and carbon emissions is critical to achieving global climate neutrality targets. However, there is a paucity of knowledge regarding the impacts of disaggregated levels of GVC on economic growth and carbon emissions in countries with different income levels. In this study, we utilized the SYS-GMM model to explore the relationships between backward and forward GVCs and the economic growth and carbon emissions of 42 lower-middle, 36 middle-upper, and 48 high-income countries using data from 1995 to 2018. Our key findings suggest that forward GVC significantly increases economic growth and reduces CO2 emissions. Conversely, backward GVC reduces the economic growth and CO2 emissions of high-income countries. We also found that upper-middle-income economies can enhance their economic growth and reduce CO2 emissions by increasing their backward GVC. In contrast, lower-middle-income economies can increase their economic growth by participating in both forward and backward GVCs. However, higher levels of participation in both GVC components result in increased CO2 emissions. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering income levels when analysing the impact of GVC participation on economic growth and environmental sustainability. Overall, the relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions with backward and forward GVCs varies significantly across country categories.

Modelling the dynamics of urbanization for urban sustainability in West Africa

The West African region, one of the largest urban agglomerations in Africa has over decades experienced rapid rate of urbanization. The urbanization processes have been associated with manifold environmental and socioeconomic challenges including inefficient urban infrastructure, unaffordable housing, poor sanitation and informal settlements. Urban scholars following the rise of urbanization and climate change in West Africa have advocated for policies and programmes towards the reduction of carbon footprints and sustainable human settlements, while emphasizing on the needs to plan for urban sustainability. Yet limited studies have so far analysed the dynamics of urbanization in West Africa, especially in relations to sustainability. Motivated by the evolving debates on urban sustainability, this study contributes to urban planning discourse, by exploring the dynamics of energy consumption, gross domestic product, employment levels and productivity in six countries in West Africa and demonstrate the implications for urban sustainability. Using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR)-Mean Group (MG) model, we analysed annual data from 1991 to 2018 of Urban Population Growth, Gross Domestic Product, Energy Consumption, and Greenhouse gas emissions. The study revealed variation across the selected countries in terms of rate of urbanization, productivity, and energy consumption. The results suggest the need for commonalities as well as differentiated approaches towards improving urban environmental quality for urban sustainability. Furthermore, while there is a need to promote green urban infrastructure, concerted efforts are required towards promoting sustainable urban environmental quality.

Nexus of Human Development and Environmental Quality in Low-Income and Developing Countries: Do Renewable Energy and Good Governance Matter?

The relationship between human development and environmental quality has been explored in this study by examining the human-development status and carbon (CO2)-emissions levels of 60 countries from the low, lower-middle, and upper-middle income categories. The roles of renewable energy and some economic and institutional factors such as GDP, the rule of law, regulatory quality, and corruption control have also been investigated to ascertain their impacts on the relationship. The empirical investigations apply the generalized method of moments (GMM), fixed effects (FE), and random effects (RE) methods, and the long-run associations among the variables are investigated by applying the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) techniques. The robust findings support the trade-off relationship between human development and environmental quality in the selected low-income and developing countries. With evidence of an environmental Kuznets’s relationship between economic growth and environmental quality, these findings reveal that the measures pursued to improve human-development status have a contributory impact on CO2 emissions in the selected countries. However, an increased demand for renewable energy, effective enforcement of the rule of law, and improved control over corruption have a mitigating effect on CO2 emissions. The result has also highlighted the policy issues instrumental to increased emissions levels in these countries. Consequently, it is recommended to formulate policies for resolving disparities within the various dimensions of human development while also making deliberate investments in the socio-economic aspects of human development to ensure both sustainable human development and environmental quality.

Environmental Quality Development Strategy in Central Government Areas: Case Study of Dompak Island, Riau Islands Province

Environmental quality refers to the state or condition of the environment in a particular area, taking into consideration various factors that affect the well-being of living organisms, including humans. It encompasses the health and sustainability of ecosystems, air, water, soil, and other natural resources. The interpretation of environmental quality as providing optimal carrying capacity for human survival implies that the environment should meet certain criteria to support human life and well-being. This research aims to find out how to apply and development strategy in providing regional facilities and infrastructure to optimize environmental quality on Dompak Island as the Central Government Area of the Riau Islands Province. This research uses a qualitative method with a descriptive approach through SWOT analysis. The research results found that the strategy for providing facilities and infrastructure to improve environmental quality on Dompak Island is by developing a drinking water supply system (SPAM), increasing drainage capacity, providing street lighting infrastructure, providing green open space, maintaining existing physical infrastructure, utilizing empty land. for the construction of parking lots, collaboration with other parties and strengthening regional management institutions. The novelty of this research involves various infrastructure components, effective use of resources, multi-party collaboration, institutional strengthening, and strategies based on SWOT analysis to achieve the goal of improving sustainable environmental quality on Dompak Island.

Economic globalization-energy diversification nexus and implications for environmental management in China

Every nation on earth has the responsibility to implement effective environmental management measures for sustainable environmental quality. In doing so, this study scrutinizes the relationship between economic globalisation and energy diversification in the Chinese economy from 1995 to 2022 for designing and implanting policies for environmental management. It uses industrialization, foreign direct investment, foreign remittances, and information & communication technology as supplementary factors into augmented energy diversification demand function. This empirical analysis shows cointegration between the variables, with economic globalisation positively impacting energy diversification. Factors such as foreign direct investment, foreign remittances, and information & communication technology contribute to energy diversity. However, industrialization has an adverse relationship with energy diversification. The relationship forms an inverted-U shaped between economic globalization and energy diversification. Our causality analysis indicates that economic globalization positively causes energy diversification. This study also reveals a reciprocal and beneficial cause-and-effect association between foreign direct investment and energy diversification. Lastly, foreign remittances and information & communication technologies positively cause energy diversification.

Enhancing Environmental Quality: Investigating the Impact of Hydropower Energy Consumption on CO2 Emissions in Indonesia

Achieving sustainable environmental quality has become a critical global issue, necessitating the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to mitigate environmental pollution. Hydropower energy has the potential to play a significant role in this effort by providing a clean, renewable energy source that can help reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decrease CO2 emissions. This study examines the dynamic impact of hydropower energy consumption, economic growth, capital, and labor on Indonesia's CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2020. Applying the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) method, the findings demonstrate that hydropower energy consumption has a negative effect on CO2 emissions in both the short and long term, indicating that increasing hydropower energy consumption leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions. Conversely, labor exhibits a positive influence on CO2 emissions in both the short and long term, suggesting that a rise in labor contributes to higher levels of CO2 emissions in Indonesia. Furthermore, the Granger causality analysis reveals a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and hydropower energy consumption. The robustness of ARDL results is confirmed through additional tests using Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), and Canonical Cointegrating Regressions (CCR) methods. The findings underscore the importance of promoting sustainable hydropower energy for effective environmental management in Indonesia. Policymakers should prioritize investments in sustainable hydropower infrastructure, encourage the adoption of energy-efficient technologies, and develop a skilled workforce to mitigate the environmental impact of increased labor force participation.

Differential responses of photosynthesis, yield and soil properties 4 years after a single application of zeolites and biochar in a rainfed olive orchard

AbstractOlive orchards represent a key agricultural system in the Mediterranean Basin. Soil degradation processes associated with unsustainable agronomic practices and climate change could severely impact the sustainability of Mediterranean rainfed olive orchards. In this context, soil amendments are important tools that can be used to enhance soil fertility for sustained environmental quality and plant performance. In this study, a field trial was conducted for 4 years in olive tree (Olea europaea L.) to assess the effects of a mineral fertilizer compound and the combination with a single application of zeolites or biochar on the physiological and biochemical performance, tree nutritional status, crop yield and soil chemical and biological properties to gain knowledge towards more sustainable management. Our results showed that the addition of zeolites and biochar to mineral fertilizer ameliorated the physiological and biochemical performance, as evidenced by consistent increments of relative water content, stomatal conductance and net photosynthesis and by lower signs of oxidative stress during the periods of greater climate adversity. However, crop yield was not significantly different among soil treatments. On the other hand, soil chemical and biological traits at the surface layer (0–10 cm) have shown different and relevant responses after 4 years of soil amendment application. In fact, zeolite supply stood out as increased pH, extractable K, cation exchange capacity, microbial biomass carbon and microbial biomass quotient and reduced extractable Cu. Furthermore, zeolites induced positive changes in soil enzymatic activity, leading to increases in 10 enzymes involved in C, N and P cycles. In contrast, the effects of biochar on soil properties were much more reduced, given that it decreased the microbial biomass nitrogen and enhanced the activities of three P‐cycle enzymes. In summary, our data demonstrated that both soil amendments can be an interesting complement to mineral fertilization, in order to increase trees' resilience under rainfed conditions and to promote soil health, although the use of zeolites appears to be a more promising strategy because of the induction of higher soil sustainability.

Do renewable energy and human capital facilitate the improvement of environmental quality in the United States? A new perspective on environmental issues with the load capacity factor

Recently, countries have been making intensive efforts to alleviate the burden on the environment and to make environmental conditions sustainable. In this context, our study aims to investigate the long-term impact of renewable energy consumption (REC) and human capital (HC) by considering the load capacity factor (LCF). We also investigate the long-term impact of economic growth (Y) and non-renewable energy consumption (NREC) on the LCF. In this context, we analyze annual data for the U.S. for the period 1965–2018 using the newly developed augmented ARDL (AARDL) approach. The long-term empirical results show the following. i) Increases in Y negatively affect LCF and deteriorate environmental quality. ii) Increases in NREC negatively affect LCF and accelerate the deterioration of environmental quality. iii) REC has no significant impact on environmental quality. iv) Increases in HC support the improvement of environmental quality. The empirical results show that contrary to expectations, renewable energy consumption does not have a significant impact on environmental quality in the U.S., whereas human capital is an important factor in improving environmental quality. In this context, US policymakers should pave the way for more investment in eco-friendly renewable energy investments and human capital to establish sustainable environmental quality. Policymakers should also take steps to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Two Decades of Palm Oil Business - Environmental Quality Nexus: A Bibliometric Approach

This study strives in mapping of literature on the link between the palm oil business and environmental quality. It selects a large amount of literature published in the Scopus Database from 2000–2022. The literature was analyzed using a Bibliometric approach. The keywords "palm oil and business" resulted in 672 documents, while "palm oil and environmental quality" resulted in 1.378 documents. The finding expresses that most scholars pay more attention to reveal the impact of palm oil business and sustainable environment. Consequently, the number of documents (literature) increased over time. Journal of Cleaner Production has the highest contribution in the literature on palm oil and environment. Indonesia and Malaysia contribute significantly to qualifying palm oil's sustainable business and environmental quality. A key implication of the findings is that governments and palm oil businesses should ensure palm oil and environmental sustainability in the long-run.

Comprehensive human health risk assessment of heavy metal contamination in urban soils: insights from selected metropolitan zones

Introduction: This study aims to assess the extent of heavy metal contamination in urban soils in sixteen selected cities of Pakistan, encompassing the elements cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), cobalt (Co), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), and copper (Cu).Methods: The data utilized for this study was collected from online literature during the period 2005 to 2019. This study investigated potential threats to human health through a comprehensive analysis, considering standards such as Enrichment Factors (EF), Geo-accumulation Indices (Igeo), and Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA).Results: Geo-accumulation Index results indicated varied risk intensities, with Cu, Pb, Co, Mn, and Fe exhibiting “no pollution” levels, while other elements show “moderate to extremely contaminated” values. EF analysis provided evidence of heavy metal presence, revealing a spectrum from “no pollution” to “moderate to extremely high pollution” for Cd, Zn, Cr, Ni, and Cu. The health risk assessment identified both carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic dangers for adults and children.Discussion: These findings highlighted the substantial contribution of identified sources such as industrial processes, vehicular emissions, sewage sludge, urban flooding, and the production and use of metallic materials that have elevated heavy metal levels in the urban soils. This established the link between urban industrial zones, human health, and long-term economic sustainability. This study provides essential guidance for decision makers to develop effective strategies for soil remediation, enhanced industrial practices, and regulatory measures to address heavy metal contamination in urban areas, ensuring the wellbeing and sustainable environmental quality management in cities.

The Influence of New-Type Urbanization and Environmental Pollution on Public Health: A Spatial Durbin Model Study

The rapid pace of urbanization in recent years, accompanied by the tension between urbanization and environmental pollution as well as public health, has become increasingly prominent, potentially constraining the normal pace of urbanization development, environmental sustainability and public health enhancement. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between new urbanization, environmental pollution and public health from both local and spatial perspectives, using a spatial Durbin model and a mediating effects model based on panel data from 275 prefecture-level cities in China from 2011 to 2020 and to test the existence of regional heterogeneity with a sub-sample of three major regions: eastern, central and western China. After incorporating environmental pollution as a variable across the entire scope of China, it was found that the new-type urbanization was related to public health in a ‘positive U-shaped’ form in terms of both local and spatial spillover effects (β2 = 14.5620, β3 = −17.8938, p < 0.05; θ2 = 19.2527, θ3 = −29.0973, p < 0.1) and environmental pollution exerts a negative impact on public health (β1 = 6.3704, θ1 = 2.5731, p < 0.05). A “reverse U-shaped” local effect was observed between new-type urbanization and environmental pollution (β2 = 0.6281, β3 = −0.5315, p < 0.05). Environmental pollution plays a partially mediating role in the impact mechanism of new-type urbanization on public health. There was regional heterogeneity in the relationship between new-type urbanization, environmental pollution and public health. The empirical results for the western regions and the whole of China were generally consistent, but the differences were significant between the eastern and central regions. In the eastern region, new-type urbanization and public health were related in an ‘inverted U-shaped’ form from the perspective of local and spatial spillover effect, and in the central region, there was an ‘inverted U-shaped’ form from the perspective of local effect. There was a threshold effect relationship between new-type urbanization and environmental pollution and between new-type urbanization and public health. At the same time, there was regional heterogeneity in the relationships between the three. Therefore, this paper argues that governments should formulate scientific urban planning and sustainable development policies that take into account the actual situation of each region and aim to promote sustainable urbanization, environmental quality and public health as a whole.

Mapping crop yield spatial variability using Sentinel-2 vegetation indices in Ethiopia

Crop yield prediction before harvest is a key issue in managing agricultural policies and making the best decisions for the future. Using remote sensing techniques in yield estimation studies is one of the important steps for many countries to reach their agricultural targets. However, crop yield estimates rely on labor-intensive surveys in Ethiopia. To solve this, we used Sentinel-2, crop canopy analyzer, and ground-truthing data to estimate grain yield (GY) and aboveground biomass (AGB) of two major crops, teff and finger millet, in 2020 and 2021 in Ethiopia’s Aba Gerima catchment. We performed a supervised classification of October Sentinel-2 images at the tillering stage. Among vegetation indices and leaf area index (LAI) used to predict teff and finger millet GY and AGB, the enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and normalized-difference VI (NDVI) provided the best fit to the data. NDVI and EVI most influenced teff AGB (R2 = 0.87; RMSE = 0.50 ton/ha) and GY (R2 = 0.84; RMSE = 0.14 ton/ha), and NDVI most influenced finger millet AGB (R2 = 0.87; RMSE = 0.98 ton/ha) and GY (R2 = 0.87; RMSE = 0.22 ton/ha). We found a close association between GY and AGB and the satellite EVI and NDVI. This demonstrates that satellite images can be employed in yield prediction studies. Our results show that satellite and crop canopy analyzer-based monitoring can facilitate the management of teff and finger millet to achieve high yields and more sustainable food production and environmental quality in the area. The results could be reproducible under similar study catchment conditions and boost crop yield. Extrapolation of the models to other areas requires local validation. To improve crop monitoring for farmers and reduce expenses, we suggest integrating time series Sentinel-2 images along with LAI obtained from crop canopy analyzers collected during the cropping season.

Regenerating historical districts through tactical urbanism: A case study of Sarpol neighborhood in Isfahan Province, Iran

This paper examines historical urban fabrics' challenges regarding quality of life and visual disturbances despite their cultural and identity value. Regeneration and social-oriented approaches considering social, economic, and cultural dimensions preserve and enhance these valuable materials. Tactical urbanism, with its people-oriented approach, can address these issues. This study focused on Sarpol in Khomeinishahr County, Isfahan Province of Iran. The city's urban structure divides into two parts: despite its active social structure and valuable spaces, Sarpol is a historic neighborhood with significant deterioration. We followed Corbin and Strauss's version of Grounded Theory in the qualitative research methodology. Purposive and snowball sampling methods were employed to select 21 participants from the Sarpol neighborhood for semi-structured interviews. The analysis involved three stages of coding: open, axial, and selective. The themes included religious participation, identity, sustainable social bonds, indigenous dependence, and low environmental quality. The central issue identified was the crucial role of religious and cultural values as a driving force for tactical urbanism, which emerged as the most critical semantic domain related to the research problem.

Linking governance with environmental quality: a global perspective

Sustainable environmental quality is a global concern, and a concrete remedy to overcome this challenge is a policy priority. Therefore, this study delves into the subject and examines the effects of governance on environmental quality in 180 countries from 1999 to 2021. To maintain comparability and precision, we first classify countries into full and income-level panels and then, innovatively, construct a composite governance index (CGI) to capture the extensive effects of governance on CO2 emissions. Complementing the stationarity properties of the variables, we employ the cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags model to analyze the data. Our survey yields four key findings. First, a long-run nexus between CGI, CO2 emissions, and other control variables is confirmed. Second, the findings indicate that CGI is crucial to improving environmental quality by reducing CO2 emissions across all panels. Third, we find that while CGI maintains a similar magnitude, the size of its effects substantially varies according to the income level of the underlying countries. Fourth, the findings reveal that energy consumption, population growth rate, trade openness, and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation, while financial development and the human development index are significant in reducing CO2 emissions. Our findings suggest specific policy implications, summing up that one common policy is not a good fit for all environmental quality measures.

Dynamic association of green financial innovation, eco-financing, carbon tax, economic openness, and sustainable energy transition in Vietnam: fresh evidence using DARDL approach

Sustainable energy (SE) transition and environmental quality have become a predominant part of integral policy worldwide. Besides, economic development policies at global level are being reformulated to make sure that energy supplies are reliable and have the tendency to protect environment. Although, economies are participating in activities which can help to fulfill overarching goals but developing economies specifically face challenges due to high dependency on coal consumption. The article, thereby, intends to explore the role of green financial innovation, eco-financing, carbon taxes, and economic openness on the SE transition in Vietnam. The study also checks the role of inflation and industrialization on the SE transition as control variables. The article also used Dynamic Auto-regressive Distributed Lags (DARDL) to test the connection among the variables. The outcome indicated that green financial innovation, eco-financing, carbon taxes, economic openness, inflation, and industrialization have a positive and significant linkage with the SE transition in Vietnam. These outcomes provide guidelines to policymakers in establishing new policies regarding SE transition.

The impact of Islamic financial development on renewable energy production in Islamic countries

Purpose − This study aims to determine the impact of the development of Islamic finance on renewable energy production in Islamic countries. Two variables representing Islamic finance (Islamic financing and Sukuk) and five control variables (economic growth, foreign investment, CO2 emissions, trade openness, and consumer price index) are also studied.Methodology − Ninety-panel data from 10 Islamic countries over a period of 9 years (2013-2021) were analyzed using panel data analysis with the fixed effect model approach.Findings − The results show that Islamic countries with good development of Islamic banking and Sukuk tend to experience an increase in renewable energy production. Other empirical findings show that economic growth, CO2 emissions, and consumer price index are the next variables that affect renewable energy in Islamic countries.Implications − The results of this study have implications for the policies of Muslim countries to further encourage Islamic finance to be channeled into the renewable energy sector. The government should establish a clear regulatory framework for green Islamic investment and financing and if necessary, they are needed to provide incentives to the green investment sector.Originality − Previous studies that directly examine the effect of Islamic financial development on renewable energy are still limited. Most of the previous studies have examined the impact of Islamic financial development on environmental issues such as sustainable development, climate change, or environmental quality

Text Mining-Based Suspect Screening for Aquatic Risk Assessment in the Big Data Era: Event-Driven Taxonomy Links Chemical Exposures and Hazards

To improve the accuracy of mixture risk assessment, researchers are employing suspect analysis with expanded lists of contaminants in addition to conventional target lists. However, there are some inherent challenges for these instrument-based analyses, including subjective selection of suspect contaminants, no information for chemical bioactivity, requirements for costly verification, and limited regional coverage. As a supplementary approach, we propose a data-driven suspect screening and risk assessment method informed by mining big data from high-throughput screening bioassay platforms and the refereed literature. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) with main event drivers of arylhydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and oxidative stress (ARE) response was examined. Bioactivity concentrations were collected from the CompTox Chemicals Dashboard, which contained more than 900 000 substances. In addition, exposure metadata from 24 986 literature entries for the environmental occurrence and distribution of contaminants in the PRD over the past three decades were mined. Collectively, a regional distribution map of aquatic hazards induced by AhR- and ARE-active compounds was generated, indicating gradients of low to moderate risks. This study specifically reports a novel big data approach for addressing the increasingly common challenge of objectively selecting analytes during suspect screening, which was recently identified as an urgent research question to advance more sustainable environmental quality.

Impact of green technological innovations on environmental quality for Turkey: evidence from the novel dynamic ARDL simulation model.

The contribution of this research is to provide empirical evidence that investing in green technology innovation (GTI) can reduce the ecological footprint in Turkey, which can lead to sustainable economic growth and environmental quality. The research also highlights the importance of controlling energy consumption, GDP, trade openness, and urbanization, as these variables have a positive or negative effect on ecological footprint. The findings of this research can be useful for the Turkish government, policymakers, and environmentalists to promote the implementation of GTI and eco-friendly resources, which can reduce the impact of climate change and contribute to economic prosperity. Overall, this research provides important information for decision-makers to adopt policies that prioritize green innovation and environmental protection in Turkey.