• Energy Research

Climate change is considered the greatest threat to human life in the 21st century, bringing economic, social and environmental consequences to the entire world. Environmental scientists also expect disastrous climate changes in the future and emphasize actions for climate change mitigation. The objective of this study was to explore the influence of climate mitigation finance on climate change in the region most vulnerable to climate shock, i.e., South Asia, in the period from 2000 to 2019. The panel autoregressive distributed lag model was used to estimate the influence of climate mitigation finance on climate change. The findings of this study demonstrate that, in the long-run, climate mitigation finance has a significant role in mitigating climate change, while in the short-run, climate mitigation finance has an insignificant effect on climate change. The result also shows that, in the long-run, climate change has a negative causal relation with GDP and globalization, but it has a positive causal relationship with energy consumption. The short-term effects of all independent variables are insignificant. Finally, based on the outcome of this study, several policy measures are recommended in order to mitigate climate change.

This study analyzed the asymmetric impact of the physical infrastructure and trade openness on Pakistan’s ecological footprint over the period 1970–2019 using the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model. The study results posit that positive and negative shocks to physical infrastructure increase and decrease the ecological footprint asymmetrically in the short-run and symmetrically in the long-run. Likewise, the positive and negative shocks to trade openness increase and decrease the ecological footprint asymmetrically, both in the short and in the long run. Furthermore, urbanization also positively and significantly increases Pakistan’s ecological footprint in the short and long run. Moreover, a 1% increase in physical infrastructure increases the ecological footprint by 0.32%, while a 1% decrease in physical infrastructure decreases the ecological footprint by 0.33% in the long run. Similarly, a 1% increase in trade openness causes a 0.09% increase in the ecological footprint in the long term, while a 1% reduction in trade openness causes a 0.61% reduction in the ecological footprint. The results also conclude that urbanization is a major determinant of Pakistan’s long-term ecological footprint. Thus, a 1% increase in urbanization causes a 1.31% increase in the ecological footprint in the long run. Finally, this study recommends that policies regarding physical infrastructure be formulated keeping in view its environmental impact. In addition, strict environmental policies should be implemented to reduce the environmental degradation effect of trade openness.

Carbon emissions constitute a large portion of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming and climate change. This study examines the impact of export variety on carbon emissions along with foreign direct investment (FDI) and technological development as determinants of environmental degradation in Pakistan. Moreover, this study is conducted in the context of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis (EKC). This study applies dynamic ordinary least squares and error correction models for long-term and short-term estimates, respectively. The results indicate that the EKC hypothesis is valid in the long term. This implies that Pakistan’s economy reached the threshold level of income, after which an increase in income was not responsible for environmental degradation. Export variety restrains environmental degradation in the short term and is not a significant factor in the long term. Energy consumption has aggravated environmental degradation, while FDI and technological development are restraining environmental degradation. Policy measures are recommended to curb environmental degradation in Pakistan.

Climate change has marked its effects on Pakistan in form of different problems like floods, droughts, change in crop patterns, heat waves, changes in weather conditions and health issues. One of the reason of climate change is environmental degradation that’s why several studies are conducted in case of Pakistan to examine the factors of environmental degradation. This study also explores the factors of environmental degradation for Pakistan and is unique study as so for none of the empirical studies conducted in context of Pakistan analyzed the effect of economic structure on environmental degradation. So, the prime objective of this study is to explore the impact of economic structure on environmental degradation. The economic structure for Pakistan’s economy is being captured through agriculture, industrial and service sector over the years. As energy and trade openness grab attention from researchers in examining factors of environmental degradation thus; energy consumption and trade openness are introduced in the study model as control variables. Once order of integration of time series data is determined, long run relationship is found through bound testing approach. Agricultural and service sector are found to have negative impact on environmental degradation but; service sector has insignificant effect on environmental degradation. The industrial sector is aggravating environmental degradation in long run but; is abstaining environmental degradation in short run. Hence; the different effect of industrial sector on environmental degradation in long run and short run is providing the opportunity for policy makers to come up with different policy measure for long run and short run. Energy is found to have positive and significant effect on environmental degradation in both time spans whereas trade openness has negative and significant effect on environmental degradation in long run. Policy implications are suggested on basis of findings of this study for Pakistan.

The rise of financial inclusion in recent years has attracted the attention of environmental economists to assess its role in environmental degradation. Therefore, this study was carried out with the aim of exploring the impact of financial inclusion on environmental degradation in the ASEAN region using balanced panel data for the period 2000–2019. First, panel unit root tests were employed to examine each data series for stationarity. Findings of the panel unit root tests depicted that all data series are stationary at the first difference. Second, Westerlund and Edgerton’s error correction panel cointegration test was employed to handle heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. Third, the PMG-ARDL approach was used to explore the long- and short-term effects of financial inclusion on environmental degradation. Findings of the PMG-ARDL found that financial inclusion, energy use, economic growth and urbanization are causing environmental degradation in the ASEAN region. Furthermore, the financial inclusion coefficient is 0.15, which is statistically significant at 5%. In the short run, a 1% increase in financial inclusion results in a 0.15% increase in environmental degradation, ceteris paribus. In the long run, financial inclusion and CO2 have a positive association that is statistically significant at 5% and has a coefficient value of 0.42. This implies that a 1% increase in financial inclusion results in a 0.42% increase in environmental degradation in the long run. Finally, this study recommends that financial inclusion must be incorporated into climate change adaptation efforts at the local, national and regional levels to address the side effects of increased CO2 emissions.

The COVID-19 pandemic is considered to be the world’s most urgent health disaster and the greatest challenge humanity has faced since World War II. One of the most significant concerns is the effectiveness of the extraordinary efforts undertaken around the world to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. This study applied the Westerlund cointegration test and the Pooled Mean Group–Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model to investigate the effectiveness of government policy measures in reducing the COVID-19 pandemic using weekly data for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2021. The results of the Westerlund cointegration test validate the presence of a cointegration relationship between government policy measures and the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, results of PMG-ARDL show that economic support, stringency, and health and containment measures play a significant role in reducing the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study concluded that pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical measures have a substantial impact on mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia. Policy implications such as government financial support for poor families, stringency, and health and containment measures must be adopted during the pandemic to curb/reduce the spread of COVID-19. Furthermore, it is also recommended to provide vaccines free of charge to developing countries and a stimulus package to support health research to expand the capacity for rapid vaccine in this region.

Abstract Despite differences in carbon emissions shares and differences in ecological footprint patterns of each nation, these differences are guaranteed to show similar features in long run, thus making it a global issue.An increase in economic growth contributes to an increase in waste production with an impact on environmental degradation and climate change. An ecological footprint is a relatively comprehensive measure than previously used CO2 emission as an environmental proxy as it includes comprehensive multi-facets environmental indicators because ecological footprint includes built-up land, CO2 emission, cropland, fishing ground, grazing land, and forest products which has included all environmental dimensions. This research has focused to empirically investigate the long-run impact of fiscal policy on the ecological footprint in Pakistan keeping different socio-economic factors into consideration. Per annum, time-series data have been collected between 1976 and 2018. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test has been employed to determine the unit root of the data. To investigate the long-run association between fiscal policy and ecological footprint, modern econometric techniques such as Johansen co-integration test, ARDL Bounds test, different diagnostic tests, and variance decomposition analysis are used. Johnson co-integration test depicts significant long-run co-integration between fiscal policy, ecological footprint, and its major socio-economic determinants in Pakistan. Conclusion of ARDL model shows that 1% increase in public development expenditures, total population, GDP, and energy consumption increase 0.19, 2.17, 1.16, and 2.17% ecological footprint respectively in Pakistan between 1976 and 2018 and vice versa. However, it is also derived that a 1% increase in public tax and non-tax revenue and public current expenditures (in health, education, and other social sectors) shrink 0.36 and 0.013% ecological footprint in the long-run in Pakistan. The stability, reliability, and credibility of the ARDL model are found correct based on different diagnostic tests. Variance decomposition analysis also depicts fiscal policy significantly cause ecological footprint in Pakistan.