Global warming and environmental degradation caused essentially by changes in climate have attracted enormous surveillance considering the menace of its reverberation on the health of humans during the past two decades. Utilization of energy and financial development (FD) are among the key drivers of climatic change. Thus, using second-generation panel cointegration (the Westerlund, 2007 error-correction model), pooled mean group autoregressive distributive lag model (PMG-ARDL), and the panel dynamic ordinary least square (PDOLS) estimation techniques, the paper scrutinized the nexus between financial development, clean energy usage, economic growth, and environmental quality (proxied by CO 2 emissions) of BRICS countries starting from 1980 to 2018. The findings from the study reveal that economic growth and labor force participation, in the long run, deteriorate the environmental quality by increasing the effusion of carbon. Contrarily, financial development, industrialization, trade openness, and renewable energy usage enhance the environmental quality of BRICS countries in the long run.In the short run, financial development was found to have a significant positive impact on the environmental quality of Brazil, China, and Russia, while it is negative for South Africa and India. The outcome of the PVECM Granger causality test reveals a two-way Granger causality that runs from renewable energy to carbon emissions in the short run. The policy implication of this study is that the government of BRICS countries needs to concentrate on improving their clean energy sources and also work on their industries. The BRICS nations' governments should formulate financial and trade policies that promote a sustainable environment and economic development.

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Global value chains (GVC) have propelled substantial expansion in international trade across the globe over the last two decades. Yet, the institution-GVC nexus in Africa suffers complete neglect in literature. Therefore, we evaluate the impact of different components of political and economic institutions on backward (BWDGVC), forward (FWDGVC), total GVC participation, and GVC position (upstreamness) in Africa. Using system-GMM with United Nations Conference on Trade and Development GVC database (UNCTAD-Eora MRIO) for 47 African countries over the period 2000-2018, the key findings show that the effects of the political and economic institutions on GVC participation are diverse. Specifically, property rights, government spending, monetary freedom, and tax burden negatively affect BWDGVC participation while government integrity, investment freedom, and financial freedom stimulate the BWDGVC. Also, all the components of institutional quality that propel BWDGVC, hinder FWDGVC participation and upstreamness, except investment freedom which promotes both BWDGVC and FWDGVC. Nonetheless, property rights, government integrity, monetary freedom, financial freedom, and tax burden engender total GVC participation, whereas government effectiveness, and investment freedom hinder the total GVC participation. Furthermore, good political institutions promote BWGVC and total GVC but reduce upstreamness. Thus, institutions are fundamental drivers of GVC participation in Africa.

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