Climate anomalies and environmental quality in Germany: evaluating the moderating role of ESG-based sustainability uncertainty

Modelling Carbon Emissions and Associated Factors Towards Environmental Sustainability in Bangladesh

Understanding the underlying drivers of carbon emissions is critical for designing effective climate mitigation policies in highly vulnerable emerging economies. This study investigates the long-run and dynamic impacts of economic growth, fossil fuel energy consumption, population dynamics, and forest area on carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions in Bangladesh from 1990 to 2022. Utilizing advanced time-series econometric techniques—including Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing, Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS), Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS), Canonical Cointegration Regression (CCR), and pairwise Granger causality tests—the analysis confirms a stable long-run cointegrating relationship among the variables. The empirical findings reveal that economic expansion and fossil fuel energy consumption significantly increase CO 2 emissions, yielding long-run elasticities of 0.58 and 1.58, respectively. Conversely, forest area exerts a substantial moderating effect; a 1% increase in forest cover reduces carbon emissions by approximately 8.65%, underscoring the critical role of forest ecosystems as vital carbon sinks. While population growth exhibits a statistically significant direct impact in the long-run model, it influences emissions indirectly by driving energy demand and economic activity. These results highlight the urgency of an integrated policy framework that simultaneously promotes sustainable growth paths, accelerates the clean energy transition, and strengthens forest conservation strategies.

How Does ESG Uncertainty Affect Green Finance: The Top ESG Performing Countries

In light of the current climate crisis, sustainable development has become a strategic element of economic policies. This has led to the step of green finance instead of traditional financial methods, adopting an approach based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. In this context, this study examines the effects of environmental protection (ESG) on green finance. The analysis covers seven countries (Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, and Sweden) that scored 85 points or higher in the ISESG 2025 global ESG ranking and covers the period 2002–2021. The cointegration test of Westerlund and Edgerton is utilized in the study. Long-term coefficients are then obtained through AMG and rCCE estimators. Green finance is measured by the share of environmental protection expenditures in GDP, while ESG uncertainty (ESGUI), inflation, and financial development are included in the model. The analysis results reveal a long-term relationship between the variables and significant heterogeneity among countries. The findings display that ESG uncertainty negatively affects green finance in Ireland and Sweden, but positively affects it in Belgium. Inflation has a negative impact on green finance only in Germany, while the supportive role of financial development is found in Ireland and the Netherlands. Therefore, analyses reveal that high ESG performance alone does not guarantee the stability of green finance, and that ESG uncertainty plays a decisive role in this process. This study is the first to directly examine the empirical relationship between country-based ESGUI and green finance, focusing on the group of countries with the highest ESG scores.

Unlocking Climate Mitigation in BRICS: The Role of Economic and Technological Drivers

The study uses Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling to analyze the dynamic link between carbon emissions and economic and environmental factors. Agriculture, energy consumption, financial development, forestry, economic expansion, and ICT are used to assess short- and long-term environmental impacts. The Panel data set for the period of 1991-2022 for BRICS Economies was used for estimation. Strong emissions persistence and important short-term changes toward long-run equilibrium are shown empirically. Energy consumption is the main cause of environmental deterioration over both time periods, indicating structural dependency on energy-intensive manufacturing processes. Short-term findings show that agriculture and forestry reduce emissions, but financial development raises environmental strain. Economic development and ICT have little direct impact. Long-term projections show that agriculture and energy use raise emissions, while forestry conservation and technology enhance the environment. Long-term consequences of financial development and GDP are insignificant. The error correction process verifies convergence toward equilibrium, although adjustment is sluggish. Diagnostics confirm model stability despite heteroscedasticity and non-normal residuals. To reduce emissions and stabilize the climate, combined economic and environmental measures are needed.

Unveiling the determinants of resource depletion and air quality in BRICS countries

Factors influencing the low-carbon transition: Evidence from the EU economies

Decarbonizing the economy effectively mitigates climate change, accelerates the transition to sustainable development, and corresponds to the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Climate Accords. The key objective of this research is to estimate the influence of different social, economic, political and technological factors on decarbonization processes. The scientific novelty of the study is that it investigates decarbonization from a dual perspective, assessing it both in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions levels and carbon intensity of gross domestic product (GDP). This research applies random-effects generalized least squares regression, fixed-effects robustness checks and dynamic System GMM for 27 EU economies in 2013–2021. The results indicate that (i) renewable energy is a vital decarbonization driver (a 10-percentage-point increase in the share of renewable energy leads to a decrease in the amount of GHG emissions by 1.52 thousand metric tons and to a decrease in the carbon intensity of GDP by 0.14 metric tons/thousand USD). (ii) A larger service sector and higher technological employment also contribute positively to the low-carbon transition, while (iii) corruption acts as an important institutional barrier. (iv) GDP per capita is associated with lower carbon intensity and emissions, supporting the view that more advanced economies are better positioned to implement sustainable transformation. Research results provide specific policy implications for designing more effective climate and energy policies, including green finance development, virtual economy growth, and innovation implementation.

The Resilience-Enhancing Effect of Climate Policy Uncertainty Perception: A Capability Driven Mechanism from Enterprises

Climate risks drive dynamic adjustments to global climate policies, creating significant climate policy uncertainty (CPU). This uncertainty profoundly affects enterprises’ survival and sustainable development. A key question emerges: how do enterprises’ perception of CPU influence their resilience? To answer this, this study adopts a capability perspective and empirically examines the impact of climate policy uncertainty perception (CPUP) on enterprise resilience (RESI) and the underlying mechanism. Using panel data on Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2009 to 2023, the study defines CPUP as the interaction between a news-based provincial CPU index and the frequency of climate risk words in annual report texts, and measures RESI with the entropy weight method across four dimensions (business volatility, long-term growth, short-term performance, and enterprise survival). Panel regression with fixed effects indicates that CPUP significantly enhances RESI. A one-standard-deviation increase in CPUP raises RESI by approximately 0.0019 index units, equivalent to about 2.2% of the standard deviation of RESI. This effect is more pronounced for enterprises in the eastern and central regions and in high-carbon industries. Mechanism tests confirm that CPUP boosts RESI by optimizing management capabilities and strengthening development capabilities, revealing a capability-driven path between CPUP and RESI. This study enriches the theoretical understanding of CPU’s economic consequences and RESI antecedents from a capability perspective. It also provides empirical references for enterprises to build resilience amid policy fluctuations and for policymakers to formulate regionally differentiated climate policies.