An environmental impact assessment of economic complexity and energy consumption: Does institutional quality make a difference?

The relationship between ecological footprint and economic complexity has important policy implications for environmental sustainability. Furthermore, institutional quality can be an imperative tool to ensure environmental sustainability, and it may also moderate the nexus between economic complexity and ecological footprint. Therefore, this study investigates the linkage between economic complexity, institutional quality, disaggregated energy consumption, and economic growth on environmental degradation in emerging countries from 1984 to 2017. In addition, it also probes the moderating effect of institutional quality in the nexus between economic complexity and footprint. To do so, the study applies an advanced econometric approach, cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) estimator, for short-run and long-run estimation, that allows heterogeneity in the slope parameters and dependencies across countries. The analytical outcomes demonstrate that economic complexity increases environmental degradation by exacerbating ecological footprint, while a high level of economic complexity mitigates ecological footprint. The findings of the study unfold that institutional quality supports environmental sustainability by reducing the ecological footprint. The outcomes also indicated that institutional quality promotes environmental sustainability by moderating the nexus between economic complexity and ecological degradation. Moreover, renewable energy is found to decrease ecological footprint, whereas non-renewable energy use leads to intensifying the ecological footprint. It was also found that there is an inverted u-shaped association between ecological footprint and economic growth. Based on the results, the study suggests that emerging countries should accelerate economic complexity along with a stronger institutional framework to combat environmental issues without compromising sustainable economic growth.     

Is Globalization Detrimental to CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions in Japan? New Threshold Analysis

Using annual data from 1970 to 2014, this paper examines the effects of globalization on CO₂ emissions in Japan while accounting for economic growth and energy consumption as potential determinants of carbon emissions. The structural breaks and asymmetries arising due to policy shifts require attention, and hence, an asymmetric threshold version of the ARDL model is utilized. The results show the presence of threshold asymmetric cointegration between variables. Threshold-based positive and negative shocks arising from globalization increase carbon emissions, while the impact of the latter is more profound. Energy consumption (economic growth) also has a significant positive effect on carbon emissions. Globalization, economic growth, and energy consumption significantly increase carbon emissions in the short run. We suggest that policy makers in Japan consider globalization and energy consumption as policy tools in formulating their policies regarding protecting sustainable environmental quality in the long run. Otherwise, the Japanese economy may continue to face environmental consequences such as undesirable climate change and massive warming at the micro and macro levels as a result of potential shocks arising from globalization and energy consumption.     

Technological innovation and sustainable development : Does the stage of development matter?

Technological innovation has generated much interest among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers as a critical instrument for achieving sustainable development. Although the relationship between technological innovation and sustainable development has been extensively discussed in the academic and policy circles, little studies have empirically examined the simultaneous impact of technological innovation on the three pillars of sustainable development. To fill this gap, the present study examines the ability of technological innovation to simultaneously promote economic progress and advance social and environmental conditions in the case of 75 low-, middle-, and high-income countries by demonstrating how this impact differs across the stages of economic development. From both long-run estimates and causality analysis, our findings reveal that technological innovation contributes simultaneously to the three pillars of sustainable development only in the case of rich countries; however, it only affects the economic and environmental dimensions in the middle-income countries, and no impact is found in the case of low-income countries. Future research directions, policy and managerial implications are also discussed.     

An environmental impact assessment of fossil fuel subsidies in emerging and developing economies

The impact of fossil fuel subsidies on environmental degradation has not been adequately examined in the existing literature. However, environmental degradation is often suggested as one of the causes of climate change. This paper examines the factors driving environmental degradation, emphasising the role of fossil fuels, in 35 emerging and developing countries. The ecological footprint is used as a proxy for environmental degradation. Using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), the results show that an increase in fossil fuel subsidies leads to an increase in ecological footprint. Specifically, a 10% increase in fossil fuel subsidies will increase the ecological footprint by between 0.3% and 1.5%. The results further suggest that variables such as population size, real GDP per capita, urbanisation and the non-dependent population also boost environmental degradation. It is also shown that primary energy supply per capita, industry share, resource rent and globalisation have a positive effect on environmental degradation. However, the global oil price and human capital development do not have a significant impact on environmental degradation. The implications of these empirical findings are analysed in the paper.     

Evaluating environmental impact assessment (EIA) in the countries along the belt and road initiatives: System effectiveness and the compatibility with the Chinese EIA

BRI has a great potential to improve necessary infrastructure, regional development, connectivity, and industrialization, and promote the sustainable transformation of the countries along the routes. Despite the remarkable aims, economic growth ambition of BRI may clash with the sustainability of the ecosystem given the scales of operations in environmentally sensitive regions, and the amount of material and energy needed. Therefore, the sustainable potential and environmental stewardship of the BRI will largely depend on the standard of strategic environmental and social management, and integration between China and partner countries of respective priorities, policies, and regulations. The effectiveness and compatibility of environmental impact assessment systems (EIA) remain largely unknown, especially across the diverse ecological, social, economic and political contexts represented in countries along the BRI. We review and compare EIA systems on the contextual factors that moderate the effectiveness and compatibility with China's policy. This work helps to identify strategies to more efficiently and effectively implement BRI towards sustainable development.     

Disembodied and Disembedded? The Social and Economic Implications of Atmospheric Change and Biodiversity

The social and economic implications of atmospheric change on biodiversity need to be seen in a global context of major shifts in the conceptualization and management of our relationship with nature. Traditionally, we have conceptualized the atmosphere and the other creatures of the biosphere as separate from the human, but their quasi-autonomy is now becoming subject to more and more human management. This raises not only economic issues, but social, political, and ethical concerns that will have substantial influence on public policy. Among these are the commodification of genetic material; the privatization of traditional knowledge; and the management of information. In this broader context, the paper examines an array of current and proposed strategies of response to changes in biodiversity as a result of climatic and other stresses.     

Exploration of sustainable development by applying green economy indicators

Following the global trend of sustainable development, development of green economy is the best way of slowing the negative ecological and environmental impact. This research establishes the Taiwan's green economic indicators based on the ecological footprint and energy analysis. The results are as follows: Taiwan's ecological footprint in 2008 intensity index was at 4.364; ecological overshoot index was at 3.364, showing that Taiwan's ecological system is in overload state. Moreover, this study utilizes energy analysis model to study the sustainable development of Taiwan. Findings showed that total energy use in 2008 was 3.14 × 10(23)?sej (solar energy joule, sej), energy of renewable resources was 1.30 × 10(22)?sej, energy of nonrenewable resources was 2.26 × 10(23)?sej, energy of products from renewable resources was 1.30 × 10(22)sej, energy of currency flow was 8.02 × 10(22)?sej and energy of wastes flow was 6.55 × 10(22)?sej. Taiwan's energy per capita and the utilization rate of energy is lower while the environmental loading rate is significantly higher comparing to some other countries. The foregoing findings indicate that Taiwan currently belongs to an economic development pattern based on high resource consumption. The economic development is mainly established on the exploitation and utilization of nonrenewable resources. Therefore, Taiwan should change the development pattern, regulate the industrial structure, promote the utilization rate of resources, develop green pollution-free products, and enhance the sustainable development of ecological economic system.     

What is the influence of FDI and international people flows on environment and growth in OECD countries? A panel study

Recent years have witnessed an international increase of capital and human flows, this being accelerated by globalization. Several studies show that this phenomenon positively influences growth whilst being detrimental for the environment. This article aims to shed a light on the relationship between environment, growth and international capitalism and human flows. By making use of yearly data in a panel constructed around 36 OECD countries over the timespan 2000–2017, we run Pooled Ordinary Least Squares, Fixed Effects and Random Effects regressions with Driscoll-Kraay standard error correction, as well as the Generalized Method of Moments and the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares, to obtain both short and long-run relationship. The main results provide evidence supporting the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis in the short-run, while offering some variation in the long-run. The FDI bolster the economic growth by means of no green technologies. The international touristic demand just impacts on the growth, while the migration flows improve the environmental performance both in the short and long-run, implying that international human flows generate positive spill-over in terms of environmental behaviours and growth.     

A review of EIAs on trade policy in China: Exploring the way for economic policy EIAs

During the discussion on the “Environmental Protection Law Amendment (draft)” in 2011, it was decided to drop the proposed clauses related to environmental impact assessments (EIAs) on policy, which means that there remained no provisions for policy EIAs, and China's strategic environmental assessment system stayed limited to the planning level. However, considering that economic policy making is causing significant direct and indirect environmental problems and that almost every aspect of governmental policy has an economic aspect, EIAs on economic policies are of the utmost urgency. The purpose of this study is to review the EIA work that has been carried out on trade policy in China through four case studies, and illustrate how trade policy EIAs can be helpful in achieving better environmental outcomes in the area of trade. Through the trade policy EIA case studies we try to argue for the feasibility of conducting EIAs on economic policies in China. We also discuss the implications of the case studies from the point of view of how to proceed with EIAs on economic policy and how to promote their practice.     

江苏省环境与社会经济发展特征分析及对策

环境与社会经济发展既相互促进又相互制约,研究经济持续增长背景下的两者发展特征与关系,对于采取经济环境一体化的综合决策、促进可持续发展具有现实指导意义。利用1991—2010年江苏省社会经济、污染物排放和环境质量数据,采用相关性分析、趋势分析等方法,对江苏省主要社会经济与环境指标发展变化特征进行了系统分析。结果表明,1991—2010年间江苏省社会经济发展呈现持续增长态势,由此带来的资源能源与环境压力亦持续增加;同时,由于实施了一系列政策措施,有效减缓、控制了污染排放和环境质量恶化趋势,但仍面临环境承载能力薄弱、经济结构偏重、能源消费不合理、区域发展不均衡等影响环境与社会经济协调发展的问题。为此,提出进一步处理好经济发展、社会进步与生态环境保护关系的对策建议。     

Impact of land use and land cover changes on ecosystem services in Menglun, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China

Changing the landscape has serious environmental impacts affecting the ecosystem services, particularly in the tropics. In this paper, we report changes in ecosystem services in relation to land use and land cover over an 18-year period (1988--2006) in the Menglun Township, Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. We used Landsat TM/ETM and Quickbird data sets to estimate changes in ten land use and land cover categories, and generalized value coefficients to estimate changes in the ecosystem services provided by each land category. The results showed that over the 18-year period, the land use and land cover in the study area experienced significant changes. Rubber plantations increased from 12.10% of total land cover to 45.63%, while forested area and swidden field decreased from 48.73 and 13.14 to 27.57 and 0.46%, respectively. During this period, the estimated value of ecosystem services dropped by US $11.427 million (approximately 27.73%). Further analysis showed that there were significant changes in ecological functions such as nutrient cycling, erosion control, climate regulation and water treatment as well as recreation; the obvious increase in the ecological function is provision of raw material (natural rubber). Our findings conclude that an abrupt shift in land use from ecologically important tropical forests and traditionally managed swidden fields to large-scale rubber plantations result in a great loss of ecosystem services in this area. Further, the study suggests that provision of alternative economic opportunities would help in maintaining ecosystem services and for an appropriate compensation mechanisms need to be established based on rigorous valuation.     

Structural change and environmental impact: Empirical evidence on thirty-one countries in east and west

Although structural change in many industralized countries has increased since the early 1970s, the environmental policy aspects of this change have hardly been investigated. The more pronounced the positive environmental effects of structural change become, the more positive will be the structure-oriented options of environmental policy.Using a set of four indicators, in this study thirty-one Eastern and Western industrialized countries are being tested with regard to economic structure and environmentally significant structural change. The authors come to the conclusion that the strong correlation between economic performance and environmental pollution, unequivocal in 1970, had become much weaker by 1985. The de-linking of economic growth from material-intensive industrial production processes is particularly evident. In some cases automatic environmental benefits (environmental gratis effects) were generated in this way.However, the development profiles of the countries investigated differ greatly. There are countries, in particular Sweden, with absolute structural improvement in the ecological sense; countries like Japan and Norway with structural improvement relative to economic growth; and countries, including most Eastern and Southern European states, featuring no structural improvement or even environmentally negative structural change.The question is being left open to what extent the modernized economic structures are accompanied by modernized forms of environmental pollution.     

Natural capital in ecology and economics: an overview

The Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future, defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of futuregenerations to meet their own needs. Although the idea of sustainable development has been widely accepted, it has proveddifficult to identify and implement policies and practices thatpromote sustainable economic growth. Some economists, environmental scientists and policy analysts believe that they can transform the consensus about sustainability into manageablepractices. They propose to accomplish this feat with a set of new ideas about the relationships between the economy and theenvironment offered under the banner of 'natural capital'. An ideal account of natural capital would be one or more standard measures or models that would allow the direct comparison of environmental goods, like forests, fresh water and clean air, with economic goods, like money, capital and productivity. By bringing economic science and environmental science to an objective common ground, a natural capital model has the potentialto provide a concrete means of comparing the economic and ecological costs and benefits of particular policies and programmes. This paper offers a survey and analysis of several new contributions to the formation of the natural capital concept from economists, ecologists, policy analysts, biometricians, foresters and a philosopher. The paper concludes that existingmicroeconomic theory may be 'ungreenable', if it is not reformulated. While macroeconomic approaches to natural capitalhave been more successful, they share the limitation that ecosystems and species are valued solely in monetary terms. These problems are taken to suggest that the development of a successful natural capital model may require economic theory tobe recast to include non-monetary social preferences and values.     

Synthesis evaluation with entire-array-polygon method to ecological economic system of Funing County in Jiangsu Province

Based on the theory of ecological footprint this paper analyzed the ecological economic system in Funing County in the view of demands of economic system to natural resource and supply of ecosystem for natural resources. It was proposed that the concept of ecological deficit (ecological remainder) per ten thousands yuan GDP be used to evaluate development of ecological economic system. With a synthesis appraisement to the ecological economic system using entire-array-polygon method combined with Ulanowicz development ability and with ecological deficit (ecological remainder) per ten thousands yuan GDP, it provids a theoretical base for reconstructing and managing of demonstration eco-region.     

“省公顷”下渭河干流甘肃段生态安全评价及预测

摸清流域生态需求和生态供给是流域生态治理和促进其高质量发展的基础。文中应用改进生态足迹法对2009—2018年渭河干流甘肃段生态足迹和生态承载力进行核算,并运用GM(1,1)模型对流域未来的生态供需趋势进行预测。结果显示,2009—2018年渭河干流甘肃段生态足迹和生态承载力呈波动下降趋势,生态足迹下降2.26%,下降趋势低于生态承载力的4.18%;生态赤字以每年0.58%的速率波动减小。如果继续当前的发展模式,那么预计到2028年,生态赤字较2018年降低16.27%,流域生态安全状况将得到缓解。     

Good governance for sustainable development goals: Getting ahead of the pack or falling behind?

This article extends previous sustainability literature by demonstrating the effectiveness of good governance in rebalancing the economic, environmental, and social components of sustainable development. Good economic, political, and institutional governance are considered as conditional variables, which allow rebalancing these three components in the case of 20 selected MENA economies for the period 1996–2014. Using simultaneous-equation modeling approach, we find that (i) political and institutional governance positively contribute to the three components of sustainable development; (ii) there exists a two-way linkages between human development and economic growth, meaning that they are interrelated and may very well serve as complements to each other; (iii) increased economic growth conducts to further emissions, which, in turn, decreases economic growth; (iv) enhancing human development conducts to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, which, in turn, negatively affects human development; (v) improving both political and institutional governance permits MENA governments to moderate both the negative impacts of carbon emissions on economic growth and human development and the positive impact of economic growth on increasing emissions, and as a result sustainable development.     

The impact of terrorism and FDI on environmental pollution: Evidence from Afghanistan,Iraq, Nigeria,Pakistan, Philippines,Syria, Somalia,Thailand and Yemen

In this study, the relationships among environmental pollution, terrorism, foreign direct investments (FDI), energy consumption and economic growth is investigated for Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Syria, Somalia, Thailand and Yemen covering the 1975–2017 period utilizing Panel cointegration tests, ANOVA tests, long-run estimators and panel trivariate Causality tests. ANOVA results are in favor of evidence of homogeneity between the selected countries. Long-run estimators reveal that terrorism, FDI, energy consumption and economic growth have statistically significant effects on environmental pollution. Panel trivariate Causality test determines the causal relationship between the variables. Accordingly, one-way causal nexus from terrorism to Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions and from FDI inflows to CO₂ emissions are found in the short-run. In the long-run, with strong causality results, the evidence of bi-directional causality between CO₂ emissions and other variables, namely, terrorism, FDI inflow energy consumption and economic growth are detected.     

Modeling of Ecological Footprint and Climate Change Impacts on Food Security of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong in Bangladesh

This paper presents an integrated and dynamic model for the management of the uplands of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong to predict food security and environmental loading for gradual transition of shifting agriculture land into horticulture crops and teak plantation, and crop land into tobacco cultivation. Food security status for gradual transmission of shifting agriculture land into horticulture crops and teak plantation, and crop land into tobacco cultivation is the best option for food security, but this causes the highest environmental loading resulting from tobacco cultivation. Considering both food security and environmental degradation in terms of ecological footprint, the best option is gradual transition of shifting agriculture land into horticulture crops which provides moderate increase in the food security with a relatively lower environmental degradation in terms of ecological footprint. Crop growth model InfoCrop was used to predict the climate change impacts on rice and maize production in the uplands of the Hill Tracts of Chittagong. Climate change impacts on the yields of rice and maize of three treatments of temperature, carbon dioxide and rainfall change (+0 °C, +0 ppm and +0 % rainfall), (+2 °C, +50 ppm and 20 % rainfall) and (+2 °C, +100 ppm and 30 % rainfall) were assessed. The yield of rice decreases for treatment 2, but it increases for treatment 3. The yield of maize increases for treatments 2 and 3 since maize is a C₄ plant. There is almost no change in food security at upazila (sub-district) level for the historical climate change scenario, but there is small change in the food security at upazila levels for IPCC climate change scenario.     

How does stakeholder involvement affect environmental impact assessment?

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes are grounded on the assumption that producing information about environmental impacts will yield better environmental decisions. Despite the ubiquity of EIA as a policy tool, there is scant evidence of its environmental, social, or economic impacts. Focusing on Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) prepared for water and energy-related projects under the US National Environmental Policy Act, this analysis addresses two questions: (1) What is the balance of environmental impacts associated with infrastructure decisions?; and (2) How does the content of stakeholder feedback received during the review phase differ from draft EIS content, and does this correspond to any changes in the final EIS? We demonstrate the use of automated text mining approaches to identify the distribution of impacts, measure the content of public comments, and observe whether values reflected in comments are associated with a shift in emphases between the draft and final EIS. EISs are shown to convey evenly distributed focus across multiple impact areas. However, we observe no substantive change in focal emphasis between draft and final issuances. This calls into question assumptions about the role that public participation plays in bringing new information to light or changing the course of action.     

Assessing corporate project impacts in changeable contexts: A human rights perspective

Project-level impact assessment was originally conceived as a snapshot taken in advance of project implementation, contrasting current conditions with a likely future scenario involving a variety of predicted impacts. Current best practice guidance has encouraged a shift towards longitudinal assessments from the pre-project stage through the implementation and operating phases. Experience and study show, however, that assessment of infrastructure-intensive projects rarely endures past the project's construction phase. Negative consequences for environmental, social and health outcomes have been documented. Such consequences clarify the pressing need for longitudinal assessment in each of these domains, with human rights impact assessment (HRIA) as an umbrella over, and critical augmentation of, environmental, social and health assessments. Project impacts on human rights are more closely linked to political, economic and other factors beyond immediate effects of a company's policy and action throughout the project lifecycle. Delineating these processes requires an adequate framework, with strategies for collecting longitudinal data, protocols that provide core information for impact assessment and guidance for adaptive mitigation strategies as project-related effects change over time. This article presents general principles for the design and implementation of sustained, longitudinal HRIA, based on experience assessing and responding to human rights impact in a uranium mining project in Malawi. The case study demonstrates the value of longitudinal assessment both for limiting corporate risk and improving human welfare.