• Energy Research

The topic of whether globalization, energy consumption and financial development can substantially reduce emissions during the globalization era remains unanswered. In this context, this research highlights empirical indications supporting this theoretical discord; assessing the effect of globalization, energy consumption and financial development on the CO2 emissions in Japan (utilizing a dataset that spans between 1990 and 2019). The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique and frequency domain causality to probe these relationships. Unlike other conventional causality tests, the frequency domain causality test can capture causality at different frequencies. The findings from the ARDL analysis disclosed that globalization and renewable energy contribute to the mitigation of CO2 emissions while fossil fuel, economic growth and financial development caused an upsurge in CO2 in Japan. Furthermore, the frequency domain demonstrated that all the exogenous variables can forecast CO2 mostly in the long-term which implies that any policy initiated based on the exogenous variables will impact emissions of CO2. Based on the results obtained, Japan has to improve its financial systems and increase its use of renewable energy. Furthermore, Japan needs to restructure its policy regarding globalization owing to the fact that it contributes to the degradation of the environment. Since globalization is a major driver of economic growth, the government should concentrate on luring and licensing investors that use environmentally beneficial (net-zero) technology.

Environmental goods and low-carbon technologies have long been identified as having the potential to drive long-term economic progress without compromising environmental quality. However, their exact role in mitigating environmental degradation are yet to be unravelled. In addressing this shortfall, the extant literature relied on research funding and patent application as proxies for green technologies. Having established the weaknesses in the use of these variables as proxies for green technologies, this study explored the role of trade in environmental goods and low-carbon technologies in boosting environmental quality among G20 nation using a panel dataset from 1994 to 2018. The study employed the Method of Moment quantile regression for the model estimation and the Ridge regression, Discroll-Kraay standard error, and the Newey-West standard error estimators to test the robustness of our findings. Our findings indicate that whereas environmental goods promote environmental quality, low-carbon technologies decrease same. Also, the study found economic growth to exert an aggravating effect on environmental quality, while foreign direct investments, natural resource rents, human capital development, and renewable energy consumption exert positive influence on environmental quality. Based on the findings of the study, G20 nations are encouraged to improve green market structures to improve the trade in environmental goods and low-carbon technologies. Also the share of renewable energy sources in the overall energy basket must be improved to help improve environmental quality.

Energy recovery from waste presents a promising alternative for several countries, including Ghana, which has struggled with unsustainable waste treatment methods and an inadequate power supply for several decades. The current study adopts a comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making approach for the selection of an optimal waste-to-energy (WtE) technology for implementation in Ghana. Four WtE technologies are evaluated against twelve selection criteria. An integrated AHP-fuzzy TOPSIS method is applied to estimate the criteria’s weights and rank the WtE alternatives. From the AHP results, technical criteria obtained the highest priority weight, while social criteria emerged as the least important in the selection process. The overall ranking order of WtE technologies obtained by fuzzy TOPSIS is as follows: anaerobic digestion > gasification > pyrolysis > plasma gasification. The sensitivity analysis indicates highly consistent and sturdy results regarding the optimal selection. This study recommends adopting a hybrid system of anaerobic digestion and gasification technologies, as this offers a well-balanced system under all of the evaluation criteria compared to the standalone systems. The results of the current study may help the government of Ghana and other prospective investors select a suitable WtE technology, and could serve as an index system for future WtE research in Ghana.

Facts have proven that humanity has incurred a significant environmental cost in the process of gaining economic success due to a surge in carbon dioxide emissions. Nevertheless, if carbon emissions are not curbed at the same time, economic growth may be slowed or stopped completely. It is for this reason that OECD member countries have set out plans to cut emissions. For this reason, the current paper scrutinizes the consequence of renewable energy intake, nonrenewable energy usage, economic globalization and economic progress on environmental destruction among 28 OECD countries by means of data spanning 1990 to 2019 period. The augmented mean group heterogeneous panel model and the common correlated effects mean group regression technique revealed evidence of a positive and negative significant connection between economic progress, and square of economic progress and carbon emission respectively (thus justifying the presence of the reversed U-shaped curve hypothesis) for OECD countries. Moreover, both renewable energy intake and economic globalization reveal a destructive connection with environmental destruction while nonrenewable energy intake has positive significant relationship with the environment. It was also disclosed that renewable energy intensifies the environmental destruction reducing effect of globalization and negatively moderates the impact of economic progress on environmental destruction. On the basis of the findings, appropriate policy recommendations have been developed to assist these economies in their efforts to dissociate economic progress from environmental destruction.

Achieving economic development is one of the most important economic goals of every country. Identifying the determinants of economic growth, is a useful tool for adopting appropriate economic policies. This study, therefore, empirically examines the impact of trade openness, foreign direct investment, and financial development on economic growth, across 62 countries over the period 1995–2016. These countries are divided into two groups: low-income and high-income countries. We employ the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) estimation techniques on the cross-country panel data. The findings show a positive long run association between trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development, labor, government expenditure, and economic growth in low-income countries, with a positive and negative short run effect from capital and government expenditures, respectively. For high-income countries, a positive long run association between trade openness, FDI, capital, and economic growth exist. The short run estimates indicate a positive effect on trade openness and capital as well as a negative effect on government expenditure. Our study shows that the adoption of policies that improves access to skilled labor and international trade, affect the attainment of a sustainable economic development.