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One major concern about foreign direct investment (FDI) is the potential negative environmental impact due to increased CO2 emissions. However, there is a possibility that FDI mitigates CO2 emissions through green innovation and creates a cleaner environment. In the existing literature, there is no significant empirical evidence on the linkage among FDI, green innovation and CO2 emissions in the context of BRICS countries. Hence, this study aims to analyze the impact of FDI and green innovation on the environmental quality of BRICS economies for 1990–2014. The study employed Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimators for empirical data analysis. The study’s findings depict that foreign direct investment, energy use, and economic growth have a significant and positive impact on the CO2 emissions of BRICS economies. Moreover, green innovation has a significant inverse impact on CO2 emissions. The results show bidirectional causalities between CO2 emissions and green innovation, trade openness and CO2 emissions, energy use and CO2 emissions, and urbanization and CO2 emissions. Additionally, the findings reveal a one-way causality from CO2 emissions to GDP and CO2 emissions to urbanization. This study offers essential policy recommendations for the environmental sustainability of BRICS countries through green innovation.

Scholars of gender and climate change argue that gender-blind climate change actions could exacerbate existing inequalities and undermine sustained climate change adaptation actions. For this reason, since 2017, the Green Climate Fund placed gender among its key programming prerequisites, making it the first multilateral climate fund to do so worldwide. However, to date, no lessons to inform planned gender-responsive ecosystem-based interventions in Namibia have been drawn from community-based natural resource management. Thus, this paper aims to share key lessons regarding the way in which gender assessment is useful in enhancing equity in an ecosystem-based adaptation programme for the Green Climate Fund. To this end, we conducted in-depth interviews and group discussions in the 14 rural regions of Namibia with 151 participants from 107 community-based natural resource management organisations (73.5:26.5; male:female ratio). The results identified gender imbalances in leadership and decision-making due to intersecting historic inequalities, ethnicity and geography, as well as other socio-cultural factors in local community-based natural resource management institutions. We also identified income disparities and unequal opportunities to diversify livelihoods, gendered differentiated impacts of climate change and meaningful participation in public forums. Overall, the assessment indicates that considering gender analysis at the initiation of a community-based climate change adaptation project is crucial for achieving resilience to climate change, closing the gender gap, building capacity to increase equity and empowering women in resource-dependent environments in Namibia and Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.

Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in rural areas and is considered the backbone of the Indian economy. In Sikkim, agriculture is being practiced by 80% of the rural population, and having no other major livelihood options has created immense pressure on the farmers and agricultural land. Agriculture sector is under great stress as the farmers are being confronted by various challenges in Sikkim Himalaya in recent years, such as land degradation, climate change and socio-economic problems. Despite the number of indigenous agriculture management methods being practised in Sikkim Himalaya, the agricultural production system is weakening. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of challenges faced by indigenous communities, local farmers and potential sustainable strategies for their management in Rani Khola watershed of Sikkim Himalaya. Data and information were collected by field observation, questionnaire surveys of 300 households, key informant interviews and focus group discussions conducted during 2017–18. Data processing and analysis were carried out with a combination of techniques, such as the application of remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS)-based data processing and descriptive statistics. Major challenges identified in the watershed are water scarcity (80%), climate change (88%), soil erosion and runoff (72%), higher investment cost (100%), lack of irrigation facilities (77%), fragmentation and size of landholdings (100), human–wildlife conflict (59%) and pests and disease (60%). Some possibilities and innovations that could address these problems are the use and retaining of various indigenous soil and water conservation (SWC) measures, diversified farming systems, community involvement in the government development process, better irrigation facilities, strengthening the local economy, coordinated planning between stakeholders and development of market feedback mechanism within the system.

An increase in energy consumption indicates increased economic activity; whether it leads to prosperity depends on the sustainability and stability of the energy source. This study has selected the top ten highly carbon emitting countries to assess renewable energy consumption dynamics for 1991 to 2018. The development of renewable energy ventures is not an overnight transformation. Further, it also entails an infrastructure development gestation which may increase CO2 emissions for the short term. To assess this non-linear pattern with CO2 and its heterogeneities, renewable energy consumption and its three types (Wind, Solar and Hydropower) are used. The empirical results estimated with a pooled mean group (PMG) method indicate that renewable energy consumption and hydropower follows inverted U-shaped behavior, with wind and solar energy consumption behavior also U-shaped. Forest area and patents are responsible for carbon remissions, while economic growth is responsible for increasing carbon emissions in sampled countries.

Forests of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) have a rich diversity of valuable non-timber forest products (NTFP) that local communities extract for their sustenance and income. The region is home to over 60% of species recognized for novel bio-medicinal properties in the Indian Himalayas. There is significant national and international demand for these species, providing income and employment for more than 60% of the population of J&K. Despite this, NTFP are not adequately recognized for their contributions to rural livelihoods and the regional economy due to the lack of appropriate policy and governance mechanisms. In this study, we embrace a bioresource vision to examine challenges and opportunities for transition to a sustainable bioeconomy in J&K. Selected NTFP were considered for valuation to showcase their bioeconomy potential using two approaches. First, we used the ‘market price method’ to estimate the contribution of NTFP to the local economy. Second, the ‘maximum willingness to pay method’ was used to project the bioeconomy potential of NTFP in the region. The analysis reveals that local communities’ revenues could increase by as much as 18 times their current price with appropriate actions to include NTFP. However, to realize this potential, policies and governance frameworks based on increased access and benefit sharing with inclusive institutional models would support the transition of the local economy into a bioeconomy. Fostering public–community partnership by improving the local participation of producers and processors in NTFP value chains for overcoming the existing governance barriers is needed.

This study was designed to research the impact of pandemic situations such as COVID-19 in digital transformation (DT). Our proposed study was designed to research whether COVID-19 is a driver of digital transformation and to look at the three most positive and negative DT disruptors. Our study suggests that COVID-19 is a driver of digital transformation, since 94 percent of respondents agreed that COVID-19 is a driver of DT. The second phase of our study shows that technology, automation, and collaboration (TAC) is the most positive significant factor which enables work from anywhere (WFA) (or work from home) arrangements and also leads to the third positive factor of a work-life balance (WLB). The top three negative factors are no work-life balance (NWL), social employment issues (SEI), and data security and technology issues (DST). The negative factors show a contradictory result since NWL is the most negative factor, even though WLB is the third most positive factor. While the pandemic situation is leading to a positive situation for economies and organizations at a micro level, the negative impacts, which will affect overall economic growth as well as social, health, and wealth wellbeing, need to be kept in mind. The motivation of this study was to research positive and negative effects of COVID-19 on DT, since COVID-19 is impacting everyone and everyday life, including businesses. Our study developed a unique framework to address both positive and negative adoption. Our study also highlights the need for organizations and the economy to establish mitigation plans, as the pandemic has already been disrupting the entire world for the past three quarters.

Technology transfer is one of the facets of academic entrepreneurship and acts as a vital element of the innovation system. It forms a sustainable link between research and business communities. A holistic model for successfully transferring technology in developing countries is an unmet need in the context of technology transfer from public-funded academic research institutions to small and medium enterprises. In this work, we developed a conceptual model and undertook an empirical study for the determinants of successful transfer. A questionnaire was prepared and administered to key stakeholders involved in technology transfer. Overall, 321 respondents participated in the survey with congener demography. The conceptualized input factors, viz. micro-level, meso-level, and macro-level factors, are significantly interrelated. The contribution of input factors towards the successful transfer of technology was extensively analyzed and tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling. The results show that the model is a good fit. The study revealed that communication, innovativeness, knowledge, quality of the product, and motivation were the five most important factors for successfully transferring technology.