This study re-examines the impact of ESG (economic, environmental, social, and corporate governance performance) on the financial performance of UK firms. Most recent sample of 351 firms from FTSE350 for the time period 2002-2018 is used. The study estimates the impact of total ESG and individual dimensions of ESG on corporate financial performance using static and dynamic panel data techniques, and it also examines the impact of high and low ESG on firm financial performance. Further, the study investigates the role of firm size as a moderator in the relationship between ESG and firm financial performance. The results of total ESG performance indicate that ESG has a positive and significant impact on firm financial performance. However, in the case of the individual ESG performance, the results are mixed. Overall, the results confirm that high ESG firms show high financial performance as compared to low ESG firms. Results indicate that firm size moderates the relationship between ESG performance and firm financial performance.

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This study sets out to explore the nexus between energy consumption, economic growth, and quality of the environment within the separate contexts of BRICS and the Next 11 Countries. The empirical analysis is carried out using the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) modeling approach, which considers cross-sectional dependency analysis, cross-sectional heterogeneity, and cointegration analysis. The empirical results show that BRICS countries support the EKC hypothesis, but the Next-11 countries have a U-shaped path between economic growth and environmental degradation, which is contrary to the conventional EKC hypothesis. Moreover, the nexus between economic growth share in the quality of the environment and energy consumption is also seen to exhibit nonlinearity. Besides, unidirectional causations are confirmed between CO2 emissions and energy consumption for BRICS countries. However, a unidirectional causal linkage moves from CO2 emissions to energy consumption for the Next 11 countries. Thus, these findings have profoundly important policy consequences for the achievement of the BRICS and the Next 11 countries' energy stability and environmental protection, mainly by reducing the higher energy usage of these countries.JEL Classification: C51, F64, O13, O44, P18