A new look at environmental sustainability from the lens of green policies, eco-digitalization, affluence, and urbanization: Empirical insights from BRICS economies

Abstract

The unwavering adverse effects of global warming continue to threaten the sustainability of the ecosystem and peaceful human coexistence. Efforts to resolve this ecological matter promulgate the interest in green policies, which the extant studies are yet to explore fully. Consequently, this study provides the first empirical evidence on the roles of green policies vectoring, green energy, green finance, and green innovation amidst eco-digitalization and urbanization on environmental sustainability captured by CO2 emissions, ecological footprint, and PM2.5 air pollutions in BRICS countries from 1995 to 2019. The study relies on the STIRPAT framework alongside second-generation estimators in providing the empirical evidence. Findings indicate that green energy, green finance, green innovation, and eco-digitalization promote environmental sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions, ecological footprint, and PM2.5 air pollutions. Conversely, urbanization and affluence deter environmental sustainability due to their inducing effects the highlighted pollutants. The distributional analysis based on quantile regression and country-level estimation based on fully modified ordinary least squares technique accentuates the empirical regularity of the main findings. Besides, the Granger causality reveals the presence of bidirectional and unidirectional causality relationships in the estimated model. Based on the findings, feasible policies that enhance sustainability of the BRICS environment are formulated.

The Symmetric Effect of Financial Development, Human Capital and Urbanization on Ecological Footprint: Insights from BRICST Economies

“…The findings implied that UP could sustained through integrated urban planning, sustainable infrastructure development, and environmental governance. Wang et al [34] examined the effect of UP on Human capital in BRICST economies. Source: Penn World Table [32].…”

“…The findings implied that UP could sustained through integrated urban planning, sustainable infrastructure development, and environmental governance. Wang et al [34] examined the effect of UP on environmental sustainability by utilizing as STIRPAT model on BRICS countries between 1995 and 2019. The results indicate that UP reduces EF and PM 2.5 pollution.…”

A Study on the Influence of Green Industrial Policy on Urban Green Development: Based on the Empirical Data of Ecological Industrial Park Pilot Construction

“…In addition, eco-industrial parks have established mandatory regulations on the pollution emissions of enterprises in the park. According to Porter's hypothesis, this helps to force enterprises to carry out green innovation, which is regarded as an effective policy and channel to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 [12], and is conducive to maintaining the balance between the benefits of economic growth and the environmental costs brought by natural resources [13] and achieve the dual goals of development and environmental protection [14]. The concept of the eco-industrial park first developed from the "industrial symbiosis" of Kalenburg, Denmark [15], and the essence of the idea is that enterprises can establish a cooperative relationship regarding the use of byproducts.…”

“…Their reasonable construction and application will help China to reduce the emission of pollutants such as greenhouse gases and accelerate the realization of China's goal of building a resource-saving and environmentally friendly society [20]. China is the best-developing economy among the BRICS countries; the formulation and implementation of these green industrial policies will not only help BRICS countries to learn from and learn from each other, so as to lead BRICS countries towards sustainable development, but, more importantly, as BRICS countries currently contribute about 37% of the global GDP, this proportion is expected to reach 50% by 2030 [12,21]. BRICS countries are also listed as one of the largest greenhouse-gas-emitters in the world, so the transformation of their industrial policies is more conducive to global sustainable development [14].…”

“…Commonly used indexes include the Malmquist index, the Luenberger index, and the Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) index [51][52][53]. Secondly, in terms of the influencing factors of green development, the current research perspective is quite rich, covering digital finance [54], foreign direct investment [55], industrial collaborative agglomeration, green innovation [12], financial agglomeration [56], smart city construction and other economic activities, economic phenomena, and government policies [20]. For example, Lin et al found that the distortion of the factor market leads to a reduction in regional exports and foreign direct investment, which will have a negative impact on the level of regional green development [57].…”