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Energy acts as a catalyst to boost the human development index (HDI) in a country. However, the overuse of energy leads to environmental deterioration, which is a byproduct of economic development. Due to the utilization of non-renewable energy sources for a long time, worldwide environmental conditions have become alarming. This study investigates the relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, environmental sustainability, and the human development index (HDI) in Pakistan. The investigation incorporates population growth and technology variables to form a multivariate framework. We use a fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) approach to time-series data from 1990–2017. To check the robustness of estimations, we apply the Gregory–Hansen test with a causality test under the VECM to confirm this association’s directions. Our findings confirm that non-renewable energy sources have a positive association with economic growth and CO2 emissions. However, human development, technology, and renewable energy boost economic development and reduce environmental pollution in Pakistan. The co-integration results confirmed the long run connectivity among all variables. The causality outcomes support the bidirectional causality between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, economic growth, and CO2 emissions, both in the short and long run. These outcomes suggest that Pakistan should focus on energy shifts and gradually increase the share of renewables in its energy mix under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Additionally, the government should increase human and technological development to enhance economic and environmental sustainability.

This article examines the policy implementation literature using a text mining technique, known as a structural topic model (STM), to conduct a comprehensive analysis of 547 articles published by 11 major journals between 2000 and 2019. The subject analyzed was the policy implementation literature, and the search included titles, keywords, and abstracts. The application of the STM not only allowed us to provide snapshots of different research topics and variation across covariates but also let us track the evolution and influence of topics over time. Examining the policy implementation literature has contributed to the understanding of public policy areas; the authors also provided recommendations for future studies in policy implementation.

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While central environmental inspection (CEI), a sort of campaign-style enforcement, has been adopted in China to tackle environmental issues, it is unclear if the CEI has promoted industrial structure upgrading. Based on a sample of 279 cities from 2011 to 2018 in China, this study investigates the impact of CEI on industrial structure upgrading and its intrinsic mechanism using the difference-in-differences approach (DID). The results reveal that 1) CEI significantly promoted industrial structure upgrading. 2) Local government environmental attention played a mediating role between CEI and industrial structure upgrading. 3) Heterogeneity analysis revealed that the effect of CEI on industrial structure upgrading differed significantly with regional discrepancies and the officials’ promotion motivation. Specifically, the CEI had greater effects on the eastern region and those cities whose officials have a strong promotion motivation. This study indicates that the central government should continue to promote routine inspection, special inspection, and look-back mechanism construction, thus enhancing the sustainability of the industrial structure upgrading effect. Overall, this study contributes to industrial structure upgrading theoretical research and offers useful insights into the environmental governance of emerging countries.