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Environmental degradation caused by various human activities has been a subject of attention over the globe. There is a concern on how to maintain a clean environment and at the same time achieve optimum production of food and non-food products amidst global energy demand. To this end, this study examines the impact of agricultural development, energy use, and economic growth on CO2 emissions in the emerging seven countries that comprises China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia, and Turkey for the annual time frequency from 1990 to 2016. The study uses a battery of econometrics techniques for soundness of analysis the consist of pooled mean group autoregressive distributed lag methodology, dynamic ordinary least squares, and fully modified ordinary least squares as estimation techniques alongside Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test for the direction of causality analysis. Empirical results revealed that value-added agriculture and economic growth are drivers of CO2 emission in the E7 countries, and the rise in renewable energy causes a reduction in CO2 emissions, while in the short run, economic growth has a positive impact on emissions in the focus countries. Causality analysis shows that there is a feedback causality between economic growth and emissions, between value-added agriculture and energy usage, between emission and value-added agriculture, and between economic growth and agricultural development. Furthermore, energy use does not cause emissions directly; it causes economic growth and value-added agriculture which causes emissions. This position aligns with the advocacy of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN-SDG) Targets 7 and 13 of clean energy access and mitigation of climate changes issues.

Under current trends, 60% of India's population (>10% of people on Earth) will experience severe food deficiencies by 2050. Increased production is urgently needed, but high costs and volatile prices are driving farmers into debt. Zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) is a grassroots movement that aims to improve farm viability by reducing costs. In Andhra Pradesh alone, 523,000 farmers have converted 13% of productive agricultural area to ZBNF. However, sustainability of ZBNF is questioned because external nutrient inputs are limited, which could cause a crash in food production. Here, we show that ZBNF is likely to reduce soil degradation and could provide yield benefits for low-input farmers. Nitrogen fixation, either by free-living nitrogen fixers in soil or symbiotic nitrogen fixers in legumes, is likely to provide the major portion of nitrogen available to crops. However, even with maximum potential nitrogen fixation and release, only 52-80% of the national average nitrogen applied as fertilizer is expected to be supplied. Therefore, in higher-input systems, yield penalties are likely. Since biological fixation from the atmosphere is possible only with nitrogen, ZBNF could limit the supply of other nutrients. Further research is needed in higher-input systems to ensure that mass conversion to ZBNF does not limit India's capacity to feed itself.

Urbanization is commonly described as the process of population flow from rural to urban areas. As the largest developing country, China has experienced an unprecedentedly fast and large urbanization process since 1980s, which will continue for the coming future. The immense scale of the process has brought multidimensional benefits across all sectors in the country, yet also consumed a vast amount of resources and caused various types of environmental problems. The conflict between limited resources and an unstoppable urbanization process has become a pressing issue, which presents the urgent need for efficiency pursuance in the process of urbanization in order to ensure sustainable urban development. It is considered that the improvement of urbanization efficiency in large developing countries such as China has great implications for global sustainability. There is little existing study conducted to understand what efficiency achieved in the current fast urban development era in China. This study investigates the urbanization efficiency and its changes in the contemporary China. A set of input-output indicators are employed for analyzing the efficiency, in which both desirable and undesirable outputs are considered. The Super-efficiency Slack-based Measure (SBM) model and DEA-based Malmquist Production Index (MPI) are adopted collectively for conducting data analysis. The research is conducted at provincial level in China and the data collected for analysis are from 30 provinces for the period of 2006–2015. The results from this study show that the overall urbanization efficiency in China during the surveyed period is low, although certain improvement has been achieved. The difference between good and poor performers is considerable. In general, those provinces with better social and economic background have better urbanization efficiency performance. East China is much better than the rest of China, whilst Southwest region has the poorest performance.

Livestock systems play an important role in the livelihoods of many rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa while being responsible for an important share of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan livestock systems, related to the improvement in feed, animal husbandry, and grassland management. These practices present productivity and mitigation benefits and in some cases may also contribute to enhance resilience. In this study, we used a data set of 1538 farm households across nine Sub-Saharan countries. A mixed logit model was used to assess the influence on adoption and to estimate the probability of adoption. Our results show that there seems to be stronger influence of physical and financial capitals on adoption than the other capitals. Different types of capitals influence the uptake of different agricultural practices. Yet the probability of adoption would change across countries. The results of this study could help to refine adoption estimates calculated through global or regional modelling approaches and to inform the design of policies to better target investments in order to foster adoption.

Since no previous study assesses the relative efficacy of government versus private investment on energy consumption in South Asia under the reform initiatives, in this study, we try to fill this gap in a panel framework over the period 1980–2016. As the panel data shows cross-dependencies across the cross-sections, the Pesaran’s Cross-Sectionally Augmented Dickey–Fuller (CADF) and Cross-Sectionally Augmented IPS (CIPS) tests are used to check the stationary properties. Besides, a structural break augmented panel unit root is also done to find the stationary properties in the presence of structural breaks. The Durbin–Hausman test is further applied to identify the variables’ cointegrating relationship. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test finds a one-way causality between energy consumption and private investment but no causality between government investment and energy consumption. According to Pool Mean Group (PMG) Panel Autoregressive-Distributive Lag (ARDL) estimation results, there is no significant linkage between government and private investments and energy consumption in the absence of the reform initiatives. On the contrary, in energy sector reform, private investment efficiently stimulates energy consumption in the selected South Asian countries; however, government investment is ineffective in promoting energy consumption. We recommend that policymakers find an optimal institutional reform policy to improve government investment efficiency in South Asia.

Abstract The present study aims to fill an important research gap by investigating the role of environmental-related technologies on energy demand and energy efficiency in a sample of 28 OECD economies. The current study utilizes annual data for the period of 1990–2014 and employs panel estimation techniques, which addresses the issues of cross-sectional dependence, fixed effect, and endogeneity. The results, across various estimates, confirm that environmental technology has a substantial negative influence on energy consumption and also plays an important role in improving energy efficiency by reducing energy intensity. These evidences suggest that environmental technology helps the OECD economies to reduce their overall energy consumption and improves overall energy efficiency in their respective countries. The comprehensive empirical outcomes document that financial development and income are the key determinants of energy demand. Given these results, the study proposes several fruitful implications regarding sustainable development goals of OECD countries.

Numerous nations' policies have integrated the imperative of restraining the expansion of CO2 emissions, recognizing the increasingly dire and unmanageable consequences it entails. Despite empirical literature identifying diverse drivers of CO2, the impact of national security, healthcare, entitlement programs, and total petroleum stocks has largely been overlooked. Thus, this study aims to bridge this gap by investigating, for the first time, the role of these economic variables in determining whether they contribute to CO2 reduction or escalation in the United States. To evaluate the interconnections among these variables, this study utilizes monthly data spanning from 1985 to 2022. Employing contemporary quantile approaches like Recursive CQ correlations, Cross-Quantilogram, and nonparametric quantile causality, the study effectively accommodates the nonlinear nature of the variables. These analytical techniques offer a comprehensive assessment of the relationships among the variables under scrutiny. The outcomes of the Cross-Quantilogram analysis reveal that health care, national security, and entitlement programs enhance ecological quality at different quantiles. Conversely, total petroleum stocks are associated with ecological deterioration. Based on these results, the study recommends a focus on raising awareness regarding sustainable procurement strategies, embracing environmentally friendly technologies, and improving energy efficiency in healthcare facilities.