• Energy Research

Abstract The relationship between natural resources and the ecological footprint has critical environmental implications. However, as critical as it is, this domain is insufficiently examined by researchers, and shows ambiguous results. Moreover, these studies do not address the role of technological innovation in shaping the ecological footprint, in an open and explicit manner. Therefore, realizing the need for a more critical evaluation of the intricacies involved in studying the ecological footprint, this study analyzes the linkages between natural resources, technological innovations, economic growth, and the resulting ecological footprint in emerging economies. Drawing on the data from 1984 to 2016, we employed the second-generation panel cointegration methodologies to study the findings of this research. Results of Pesaran's CD test and P&Y's slope homogeneity test confirm the existence of a slope heterogeneity across countries, and correlation amongst cross-sectional units. Moreover, Cointegration results confirm a stable, long-run relationship between the ecological footprint, natural resources, technological innovations, and economic growth. In the long run, natural resources and economic growth increase and expand the ecological footprint, while technological innovations are helpful in abating environmental degradation that takes place a result of this phenomenon. Furthermore, the quadric term for economic growth showed a negative impact on the ecological footprint, i.e., in the presence of the Environment Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis. Additionally, the results from CS-ARDL were reconfirmed by utilizing the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) method. Also, the result of the Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test shows that any policy to target natural resources, technological innovations, and economic growth significantly alters the ecological footprint and vice versa. Our key findings lead towards the manifestation and emphasis of the importance of appropriate policies for restoring natural resources and at the same time, upgrading technological innovations in order to attain sustainable development goals.

The purpose of the present study is to explain the long-run and causal effects of innovation, financial development, and transportation infrastructure on CO2 emissions using the combined cointegration and wavelet coherence approaches over the period from 1971 to 2018, while using economic growth as a control variable in the model. The outcomes of the Bayer-Hanck cointegration test show that there is an important cointegration equation among CO2 emissions, innovation, financial development, transportation infrastructure, and real GDP. Moreover, the findings from a wavelet power spectrum reveal that there is a significant vulnerability in innovation, financial development, transportation infrastructure, and CO2 emissions at different time frames and frequencies. Furthermore, the outcomes of wavelet coherence approach reveal that (i) Innovation is observed as a significant predictor of CO2 emissions over the period from 2007 to 2013; (ii) In the long run, there are negative correlations between CO2 emissions and financial development; (iii) Over the periods from 2000 to 2015, and from 1985 to 1989, transportation significantly causes CO2 emissions. Our findings have substantial policy implications that suggest there is a need to strengthen innovation and transportation infrastructure to achieve environmental sustainability targets.

Abstract This paper employs bootstrap full- and sub-sample rolling-window Granger causality tests to explore the time-varying interaction between oil price and wage arrears in Russia. The empirical results reveal that the decline in oil price leads wage arrears to increase, which indicates that there is an oil curse in Russia, as high wage arrears caused by low oil price may hinder the healthy development. Also, the rise in oil price causes wage arrears to decrease, and then the economic and social progress in Russia can be promoted. These results are supported by the Dutch-disease endogenous growth model, which highlights that oil price negatively affects wage arrears. In turn, there is a negative influence from wage arrears to oil price, which points out that the macroeconomic situation in Russia plays an important role in reflecting the changes of oil system. In the situation of international oil market uncertainty and the high dependence on the resources in Russia, investors can benefit from the above conclusions to diversify the investment risks. Also, it can provide implications for enterprises and governments to prevent potential wage arrears and improve the public confidence, as well as turn the resource curse into bonanza.

The evolution of green financing is essential for emerging markets to facilitate sustainable development. The banking channels can provide the necessary funds that can foster the transition to eco-friendly business processes. This role is more critical in the case of SMEs who face funding constraints but can play a significant role to achieve net zero emissions. The literature on the relationship between sustainable bank financing and SMEs is non-existent and in this paper, we attempt to fill this gap. We employ a comprehensive dataset of commercial banks in the BRIC for eleven years. Our results show a positive relationship between green SME lending and net interest margin. We also observe a negative relationship between sustainable lending to small firms and the default risk of the banks. These findings demonstrate that if banks expand their sustainable SME lending, they are likely to get bottom-line support from improvement in net interest margin and a reduction in default risk. These observations suggest that there are financial incentives for the banks to extend sustainable credit to SMEs and commercial banks can contribute to sustainability goals by tapping these opportunities.

From the perspective of crude oil price, this paper investigates the effects of new energy vehicles on air quality by applying a time-varying parameter–stochastic volatility–vector autoregression model. NEVs benefits from the continuous adjustment and improvement of subsidy standards by the Chinese government, and the share of new energy vehicles in the market has been continuously improved. The empirical results show that the increase in new energy vehicles can reduce PM2.5 emissions, which is also consistent with the energy and environment theoretical model, and replacing traditional energy with new energy is helpful for controlling environmental pollution. Oil price has a direct negative impact on PM2.5 concentration, and the influence of new energy vehicles on air quality is also regulated by changes in oil price. A high oil price leads to an increase in driving costs, and consumers are more inclined to purchase new energy vehicles, which achieves the purpose of improving air quality to a certain extent. To improve the air quality, the relevant departments should adjust the subsidy policy of new energy vehicles according to the change in oil price and appropriately increase gasoline or diesel consumption taxes to provide development space for the new energy vehicle market.

Carbon allowance is a market mechanism that is used to deal with climate change in the scientific community, and is gradually regarded as a financial asset. Uncertainty plays a vital role in affecting financial assets, and whether it affects carbon prices is an important question. Therefore, this article aims to examine the impact of four economic policy uncertainties (EPU) on China's carbon emissions trading (CET) market price from the year 2013 to 2021, by employing the nonlinear ARDL model and the asymmetric causality test. Empirical results show that the trade policy uncertainty (TPU) and monetary policy uncertainty (MPU), both positively affect the CET market price, while the exchange rate policy uncertainty (ECPU) comes with negative influences. Furthermore, the increase of TPU, MPU, and ECPU has a greater impact on the CET price. Our findings are consistent with the real effects of uncertainty shocks by Bloom (2009) who asserts that the uncertainty transfer mechanism has an asymmetric pattern. Therefore, policymakers should pay careful attention to the increasing fluctuations of different economic policies. Moreover, Chinese authorities should adopt firmer policy stances to avoid high volatility in the CET market price to achieve the goal of low-cost emission reductions through market mechanisms.

Abstract This paper employs the mixed-frequency vector autoregression (MF-VAR) to assess the causal relationship between geopolitical risk (GPR) and crude oil security (COS) for China. In contrast to prior papers, we regard GPR as an independent variable rather than including it in the indicator system and construct oil supply and price channels to better understand how GPR influences Chinese COS. The mixed-frequency data regression provides a new insight that quarterly geopolitical risk threatens Chinese oil security, and a time-varying nexus is discovered in different quarters within a one-year period. Therefore, the Chinese state-owned oil giants should implement diversified strategies such as equity acquisition and oil field investment to ensure a stable crude oil supply. China also needs to construct friendly relations with oil-exporting countries and join United Nations activities such as Somali escorts and peacekeeping in Africa to protect oil production and transportation. The establishment of crude oil futures dominated by the RMB is an effective way to strengthen oil affordability to cope with the oil price volatility caused by geopolitical instabilities.