• Energy Research
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The energy resource is an essential input of economic growth, which has an important impact on the ecological environment and social welfare. From the perspective of social welfare, considering the radial and non-radial characteristics of different input and output indicators, and the inseparability of the energy input and undesirable output, this study employs the non-separable hybrid DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model to evaluate the total energy efficiency of Chinese provinces between 2012 and 2016. Furthermore, this study calculates the energy saving and emission reduction potentials of China. The results reveal that the average total factor energy efficiency in China from 2012 to 2016 is 0.694, which means that there are still 30.6% energy efficiency losses. There is great potential for China to save energy, reduce pollutant emissions, and increase the output of social welfare. There are great differences in the total factor energy efficiency among provinces. The average energy saving potential of the whole country is 60.5%. If the energy efficiency of all provinces can reach the frontier, the whole country can save more than half of the energy consumption. The highest national average emission reduction potential is SO2, followed by dust, CO2, and NOX. The implication of the conclusion is that in the development of regional economy, we cannot sacrifice the social welfare and sustainable development and take the growth rate of GDP as the only objective. Different energy saving and emission reduction policies should be put forward according to the characteristics of different provinces.

Addressing the intricate associations between green energy consumption, natural resources, economic globalization, and environmental taxes is central focus of Europe's ecological sustainability. This study uses cutting-edge techniques to investigate the impacts of green energy consumption, economic globalization, environmental taxation, as well as the potential moderating effects of natural resource rent in conjunction with environmental taxation in European countries during 1995–2020. The empirical findings of this study show that green energy, environmental tax and globalization are negatively associated with ecological footprint, while natural resource is positively linkedwith ecological footprint. Green energy consumption in conjunction with environmental tax has a significant and negative moderating impact on ecological footprint. Similar findings were observedfor the concurrence between natural resources rent and environmental tax, which means that environmental tax has some ability to improve the natural resources management and consequently contribute to improve environmental quality. The establishment of environmental taxation schemes and the use of green energy enable the pursuit of environmentally conscious economic, and energy policies by better-aligning industries with sustainable practices and promoting a balance between economic growth and environmental stewardship. Environmental tax system should support a larger adoption of green energy into European countries for reaching the target of carbon neutrality until 2050. It also contributes to the worldwide effort to achieve carbon neutrality and a sustainable future by offering useful insights and concrete recommendations for the development and implementation of environmentally responsible economic and energy strategies.

This paper aims to examine the effects of economic policy uncertainty (measured by the World Uncertainty Index—WUI) on the level of CO2 emissions in the United States for the period from 1960 to 2016. For this purpose, we consider the unit root test with structural breaks and the autoregressive-distributed lag (ARDL) model. We find that the per capita income promotes CO2 emissions in the long run. Similarly, the WUI measures are positively associated with CO2 emissions in the long run. Energy prices negatively affect CO2 emissions both in the short run and the long run. Possible implications of climate change are also discussed.

Abstract In the modern era of globalization, financial and natural resources are considered the vital indicators that intensely contribute to mitigate environmental degradation and boost economic growth. Therefore, it is necessary to realize a more significant assessment of the intricacies of determining greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic growth. The current research analyzes the dynamic association between financial development, natural resources, globalization, non-renewable, and renewable energy consumption on GHG emission and economic growth for eight Arctic countries from 1990 to 2017. Additionally, the current study confirms the presence of cross-sectional dependency by employing the second-generation panel unit root, cointegration, and long-run elasticity estimation tests for robust and efficient outcomes. The findings explored that financial development and renewable energy consumption considerably condense environmental deterioration, while other potential factors like globalization, economic growth, and non-renewable energy contribute to increased environmental degradation. Moreover, financial development, natural resources, globalization, non-renewable, and renewable energy boost economic growth. Based on these empirical outcomes, several policy recommendations are formulated to overcome and control the environmental damages without hindering economic growth for the Arctic region.

Abstract The world is facing the challenges of climate change and energy structure adjustments. The role of digital finance, a new branch of business that combines digital technology and traditional financial products, in reducing global carbon emissions needs to be studied. This paper uses panel data on 280 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 to empirically examine the efficacy of digital finance for governing carbon emission reductions and the mechanism by which it does so. The results show that: 1. digital finance can facilitate carbon emission reductions and help reduce carbon emission intensity within regions.2. Digital finance helps promote the rational allocation of resources and alleviates factor distortions by encouraging firms to rationally use their own factor endowments so as to reduce carbon emission intensity, which holds robustly after considering the endogenous issues such as possibly omitting variables, collinearity and so on. 3.Differences in geographical location, the vitality of regional innovation and entrepreneurship, regional willingness to protect the environment, and environmental protection levels lead to heterogeneity in the effect of digital finance on carbon emission intensity. Therefore, it is necessary to vigorously develop digital finance as a long-term tool for carbon governance.

For successive economic growth of any society, sustainable energy plays a pivotal role. Considering this view, developing countries are facing serious challenges of energy at the present time. However, policymakers have outlined numerous policies to satisfy energy demand but still remain incapable to fill the gap between demand and supply. At a halt, 11% of the world population lacks access to different formulae of energy supply and access. Additionally, in different time periods, distinct policies have erupted for the progress of renewable energy. It includes especially those households of the far-flung areas having no gas and electricity availability. However, the basis of this research study is to determine the significant renewable energy source for Pakistan's economy with the economic benefits such as job creation in energy sector. This research study aims in finding ways to secure energy supplies and achieving economic benefits. The research study concludes by engaging renewable energy technologies with the least operational and externality cost that is the utmost choice in the future. In policy perspective, Pakistani government should take actions in favor of renewable energy and technological innovation that necessitates biomass resources to be tied to non-sustainable prolonged investments.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between renewable energy sources and economic growth of the South Asian Association for regional cooperation (SAARC) countries. This study uses three main renewable energy sources, namely geothermal, hydro, and wind.This study collects data set from SAARC countries from 1995 to 2018 and applies a fixed effect test and panel vector error correction model (PVECM) for data analysis. The overall results show that all three renewable energy sources have a positive significant impact on economic development among SAARC countries’ economies. Moreover, hydropower renewable energy has more effects and influences on economic growth as compared to the other two individual sources of renewable energy.

Along with a series of reforms of the household registration, or the hukou system, there has been a sustained call for its reforms to further integrate rural migrants into cities and sustain the national strategy of urbanization. Nevertheless, does hukou still matter? Is it still a major obstacle to the inclusive development of post-reform urban China? Recently, the effect of the hukou system and its reforms has become a debatable topic. To address the question, in this article, we examine the “luohu” of rural migrants, i.e., rural people who work and/or live in the city obtaining urban hukou, to evaluate the effects of hukou reforms. We argue, along with the improvement of China’s social security system in both urban and rural areas, as well as the increased rights of rural migrants in cities, that the gap between the “value” of urban and rural hukou is decreasing: the boundaries set between urban and rural territories have been diminished; meanwhile, the intentions of rural migrants to luohu in the city have declined. This dilemma indicates that the impact of hukou system per se is fading, which is closely linked to the reforms of other social policies such as welfare and pension systems. As such, to promote the integration of rural migrants in Chinese cities, the focus of China’s hukou reforms should shift from the registration system to more inclusive social policies.