Energy and Ecological Sustainability: Challenges and Panoramas in Belt and Road Initiative Countries

Abstract

Innovation and globalization fosters a tendency towards multiparty collaboration and strategic contacts among nations. A similar path was followed by the Chinese administration in 2013, with its “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). The most important objective of the present fact-finding study was to demonstrate the links between economic growth, energy consumption, urbanization, gross fixed capital formation, trade openness, financial development and carbon emissions (ecological degradation) from a panel of 47 BRI economies, over a time span of 1980 to 2016. Dynamic panel estimations (dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS)) were engaged to examine the long-run links between the subjected variables. Synchronized outcomes for the full panel show that energy consumption, gross fixed capital formation, economic growth, financial development, and urbanization unfavorably led to environmental degradation (CO2 emissions). However, trade openness is negatively correlated with emissions. Furthermore, pairwise panel Granger causative estimations justified bi-directional links from all regressors towards CO2 emissions, except for trade openness, which had unidirectional ties with environmental quality. In cross-country, long-run assessments, different results were found, with CO2 emissions being greatly increased by economic growth in all countries and energy consumption in 30 countries; other predictors testified to some mixed interactions with CO2 emissions in the country-level examination. The reported investigation provides some noteworthy guiding principles and policy inferences aimed at governments and ecological supervisory administrations, suggesting assertive moves towards truncated used of carbon fossil fuels and dependency on renewable energy, establishing waste and water treatment plants, familiarizing themselves with the concept of a green economy, and making the general public aware of eco-friendly investments in BRI economies.

Tourism and Environmental Pollution: Evidence from the One Belt One Road Provinces of Western China

“…Rauf et al [14] enlarged that, Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) 47 nations by counting time frame of 1980 to 2106, where panel dynamic estimations declared that energy usage, financial development, urbanization intensity, gross fixed capital formation, and growth output damagingly led to ecological worsening, except trade openness is negatively associated with CO 2 emissions. Furthermore, cross-country, long-run assessments delivered mix results for 47 states.…”

Does Energy-Growth and Environment Quality Matter for Agriculture Sector in Pakistan or not? An Application of Cointegration Approach

“…However, in short run results under the VAR technique, only real economic growth is an impacting factor for energy consumption. Furthermore, [23] broadened the literature with respect to Belt and Road Initiative countries for 1980-2016, where a panel of 47 nations acknowledged that financial development, energy consumption, capital formation, economic output and urbanization detrimentally fronting to the environmental abatement excluding trade openness which has a favorable link with CO 2 emissions. Similarly, [24] explored an EKC hypothesis considering to BRI 65 countries, results offered that mean group model authenticate it in all six regions.…”

Trade Openness and Carbon Emissions: Evidence from Belt and Road Countries

“…China's growing urban development means that the construction industry, accompanied by electricity production, accounts for a substantial share of emissions from households [16]. Although studies have recently been conducted on the trade-emissions nexus [8,[17][18][19][20][21], very few have investigated this relationship in Belt and Road countries as a whole [20][21][22]. These countries have been recognized over the past years as major drivers of world economic growth within emerging markets, and current research has forecasted them to be among the most dominant economies in the coming years.…”