Mitigating poor environmental quality with technology, renewable and entrepreneur policies: A symmetric and asymmetric approaches

The contribution of structural transformation and urban development is considered crucial for the long run socio-economic growth but has adversely affected environmental sustainability over last few decades. This empirical research makes an innovative and holistic addition to the prior literature by examining the non-linear effect of economic growth and urban dynamics on environmental degradation in a comprehensive panel data of 66 countries and across respective income groups for the period 1990–2016. For empirical analysis, the robust econometric methods of two-way fixed effects (2W-FE), panel fully modified ordinary least squares (PFMOLS), and Driscoll-Kraay regressions have been applied to account for all econometric issues. The study unveils the bell-shaped effect of economic growth on environmental degradation which confirms the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and structural change hypotheses. The results of this study signifies the inverted U influence of urbanization and urban agglomerations on CO2 emissions and hence supports Ecological Modernization Theory (EMT). Our empirical findings also unfold the heterogeneous non-linear effects of urban dynamics across various income categories of selected economies. By employing the heterogeneous Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) (Granger non-causality tests), the findings of this study confirm the prior estimations and establish significant unilateral and bilateral causal nexus of structural change and urban dynamics with environmental degradation. By verifying the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve phenomenon in Low and Lower Middle Income (LLMI) and Upper Middle Income (UMI) group countries, this study necessitates for the policy makers to adopt the eco-friendly industrial and energy policies for the long run social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 71%

Testing non-linear effect of urbanization on environmental degradation: Cross-country evidence

Talib

Hashmi²,

Aamir³

et al. 2022

“…China leads the world in carbon emissions and its environment is in dire need of improvement. Udemba et al (2022a) argue that China has the capacity to achieve its climate and sustainable development goals by developing policies around the energy sector and strengthening technology through strong institutions. In fact, in addition to urbanization, entrepreneurial activity (Udemba et al, 2022b), foreign direct investment (FDI), and institutional factors (Udemba et al, 2022a), the presence of digital factors also provides a powerful force for solving environmental problems.…”

Section: Digitalization and Green Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Udemba et al (2022a) argue that China has the capacity to achieve its climate and sustainable development goals by developing policies around the energy sector and strengthening technology through strong institutions. In fact, in addition to urbanization, entrepreneurial activity (Udemba et al, 2022b), foreign direct investment (FDI), and institutional factors (Udemba et al, 2022a), the presence of digital factors also provides a powerful force for solving environmental problems. With the increase of resource and environmental pressure, the rise of labor costs and the intensification of industry competition, traditional enterprises will only gain the upper hand in the rapidly advancing digital trend by further accelerating the construction of digital infrastructure and increasing the investment in digital technology .…”

Section: Digitalization and Green Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digitalization and green innovation of enterprises: Empirical evidence from China

Fan

Quan

Wang

et al. 2023

With the acceleration of the digital technology construction process, digitalization has given impetus to the transformation and upgrading of China’s economy and micro businesses. China’s social and economic sectors have begun to integrate and develop in-depth with digital technology. Whether the digitalization of enterprises can drive their green innovation is an urgent question to be explored. The aim of our study is to answer this question and investigate whether digitalization has finally affected corporate green innovation. On the basis of theoretical discussion, the data of 3,547 Chinese listed companies from 2014 to 2019 were selected as samples. The fixed effect model was used to empirically test the relationship between digitization and green innovation, and then the intermediary effect model was used to analyze the influence mechanism. Research has found that digitalization is genuinely driving green innovation in business. After the robustness test, the conclusion remains the same. In order to deepen the understanding of the impact of digitalization on the green innovation of enterprises, this study additionally analyzed the impact mechanism. We find that digitization can promote corporate green innovation by easing corporate financing constraints and enhancing corporate awareness of fulfilling social responsibility. Moreover, we also find that the impact of digitalization on firm performance is more obvious in the samples with high level of internal control, state-owned enterprises and senior executives with IT background. The findings of this study enrich the related theories of digitalization and sustainability and provide empirical evidence for the positive externalities of digitalization.

“…This study asserts that when considering the dual carbon goal, the policy should make the following improvements according to the situation of smallholders. First, depending on modern technology, the transformation of smallholders' operations to develop high-value-added ecological agriculture should be supported (Udemba et al, 2022). Smallholders' production has the attribute of collaborative production with nature.…”

Section: Policy Enlightenmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of structure and organization of smallholders on agricultural carbon emissions

2022

Achieving carbon neutrality in agricultural production is a common challenge faced by agricultural development around the world. If China’s agriculture sector intends to achieve the “dual carbon” goal, the focus should be on the agricultural carbon emission of smallholder farmers and their organized production. This study discusses the impact of smallholder structure and organized production on carbon emission, and the interaction mechanism. To describe the causal relationship and mechanism, the structural degree of smallholder farmers and the total carbon emission in the regions were measured, the provincial panel data were constructed, and then the fixed-effects model and intermediary mechanism test were used for empirical analysis. The results show that in the current stage of agricultural development, the high proportion of smallholders in the region will lead to more agricultural carbon emissions. Although organized production services can reduce carbon emissions, the structure of smallholders will inhibit the scale of the organization, thus hindering carbon emission reduction. It is stated that inhibition is the intermediary path for carbon emissions. This study suggests that the government should improve policies to guide smallholders to operate on an appropriate scale, strengthen policies to encourage smallholders to use socialized agricultural production services, and support smallholders in developing highly valuable ecological agriculture.