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The desire for a sustainable environment has led to the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and increase renewable energy usage. Empirical evidence generally shows that financial development has a significant effect on these two variables. However, little is known about how the financial strength of financial institutions influences them in the fight against climate change. This study aims to assess the effect of the financial strength of listed financial institutions on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana.

Regression analyses were used to estimate the effect of asset quality, credit management, return on equity/asset and firm size on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions for data covering from 2009 to 2018.

The results revealed that return on equity reduces renewable energy consumption and increases carbon dioxide emissions. It is also found that credit risk management and asset quality positively influence renewable energy consumption but reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Ghana.

Policymakers need to identify profitable but less polluting ventures and draw the attention of financial institutions in the country. This may cause banks and other lending-giving institutions to desist from giving credits to support environmentally harmful ventures.

The paper assessed the effect that the financial strength of financial institutions has on renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of urbanization on per capita energy consumption and emissions in India.

The present study analyses the effects of urbanization on energy consumption patterns by using the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology in India. Time series data from the period of 1960 to 2015 has been considered for the analysis. Variables including Population, GDP per capita, Energy intensity, share of industry in GDP, share of Services in GDP, total energy use and urbanization from World Bank data sources have been used for investigating the relationship between urbanization, affluence and energy use.

Energy demand is positively related to affluence (economic growth). Further the results of the analysis also suggest that, as urbanization, GDP and population are bound to increase in the future, consequently resulting in increased carbon dioxide emissions caused by increased energy demand and consumption. Thus, reducing the energy intensity is key to energy security and lower carbon dioxide emissions for India.

The study will have important policy implications for India’s energy sector transition toward non- conventional, clean energy sources in the wake of growing share of its population residing in urban spaces.

There are limited number of studies considering the impacts of population density on per capita energy use. So this study also contributes methodologically by establishing per capita energy use as a function of population density and technology (i.e. growth rates of industrial and service sector).

This study aims to investigate low-carbon footprint travel choices, considering both destination attributes and climate change perceptions, and examine the impacts of nudging (a communication tool to alter individuals’ choices in a predictable way) on tourists’ preferences for carbon mitigation in destinations.

A discrete choice experiment questionnaire was administered to a sample of 958 Hong Kong respondents. Hybrid choice modeling was used to examine the respondents’ preferences for destination attributes and to explain preference heterogeneity using tourists’ climate change perceptions. The respondents’ willingness to pay for the destination attributes was also calculated to measure the monetary value of the attributes.

Destination type, carbon emissions and travel cost had significant effects on tourists’ choices of destination. Nudging increased tourists’ preference for low-carbon footprint choices. Tourists with higher climate change perceptions were more likely than others to select low-carbon destinations with carbon offset projects.

The findings of this study provide an impetus for destination management organizations to support local carbon offset projects, implement policies that mitigate carbon emissions and develop sustainable tourism to fulfill tourists’ demand for low-carbon footprint travel choices. Based on the findings, policymakers could promote sustainable tourism by publishing relevant climate change information on social media.

This study addressed a gap in the literature on tourist travel choice by considering carbon emission-related attributes and climate change perceptions and by confirming the role of nudging in increasing the choice of low-carbon destinations.

It is widely recognised that the human development index (HDI) does not totally capture the rich content of the human development concept, necessitating a more adequate measure of human development. This paper introduces an ethics‐augmented human development index (E‐HDI) as a new indicator of socio‐economic change and development. The E‐HDI incorporates freedom, faith, environmental concerns and the institution of family in the HDI and ranks countries of the world accordingly. It is envisaged to be of practical use in national policy making and may also be related to agenda of the bilateral and international development agencies. Just as the HDI has managed to shift discussions beyond gross national product, the E‐HDI is expected to inject ethical concerns more explicitly into policy making in the contexts in which the human development reports are used.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether there is a unidirectional or a bidirectional relationship between women and the environment, and to further study the effect of women on environmental quality.

To achieve this purpose, a Granger causality test and a random effects panel data model are used to study women–environment relationship in developing countries. Error correction model (ECM) is the chosen estimation technique. A Granger causality test is used because of its frequent use in examining the existence of a unidirectional or a bidirectional relationship between two or more variables. A random effects panel data model is used as it has proven to be more efficient than the fixed-effects panel data model.

Women Granger-cause environmental quality while the opposite is not true in developing countries in the long run. This indicates the existence of a unidirectional relationship between women and the environment when the long-run relationship is considered. However, when considering the long- and short-run relationship together, the results indicate the presence of a bidirectional relationship. The empirical results of the random effects panel data model through ECM estimation indicate the positive effect of women on improving environmental quality as illustrated by the coefficient of the current change of women. This shows that women are concerned about environmental degradation. In addition, the empirical results highlight the persistence of CO₂ emissions. Results also confirm that foreign direct investment inflows lead to further environmental degradation. However, education and trade openness coefficients are found insignificant at the current period.

The research results have great implications on women empowerment, the reduction of gender bias and the increase in government expenditure on women’s education and health because of women’s positive effect in improving environmental quality.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper that examines the two-way relationship between women and the environment and, hence, it fills the gap present in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an alternative new ternary geopolymer mortar (MKSP) to resolve a traditional mortar problem which exhibits several disadvantages, including poor strengths and surface microcracks and the CO₂ air pollution.

The MKSP ternary binder was produced using metakaolin (MK), slag (S), and palm oil fuel ash (POFA) activated with an alkaline mixture of sodium silicate (Na₂SiO₃) and 10 M NaOH in a mass ratio of 2.5. Seven different mix proportions of MK, slag, and POFA were used to fabricate MKSP mortars. The water-to-binder ratio was varied between 0.4 and 0.5. The mortars were heat cured for 2 h at 80°C and then aged in air. Flexural stress and strain, mortars flow and compressive strength were tested. Furthermore, the mortars were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses.

The results showed that the sample MKSP6, which contained 40 percent MK, 40 percent slag, and 20 percent POFA, exhibited high compressive strength (52 MPa) without any cracks and flexural strength (6.9 MPa) at 28 days after being cured for 2 h at 80°C; however, the MKSP7 mortar with optimal strength of 55 MPa showed some surface cracks . Further, the results of the XRD, SEM, and FTIR analyses indicated that the MKSP mortars primarily consisted of a crystalline (Si+Al) phase (70 percent) and a smaller amorphous (Si+Ca) phase (30 percent).

The MKSP ternary geopolymer mix has three limitations as an importance of heat curing for development early strength, POFA content less than 20 percent to gain high normal strength and delaying the sitting time by controlling the slag content or the alkali activator type.

The use of geopolymer materials binder in a real building is limited and it still under research, Thus, the first model of real applied geopolymer cement in 2008 was the E-Crete model that formed by Zeobond company Australia to take the technology of geopolymer concrete to reality. Zeobond Pty Ltd was founded by Professor Jannie S.J. van (van Deventer et al., 2013), it was used to product precast concrete for the building structure. The second model was PYRAMENT model in 2002 by American cement manufacturer Lone Star Industries which was produced from the development carried out on inorganic alumino-silicate polymers called geopolymer (Palomo et al., 1999). In 2013 the third model was Queensland’s University GCI building with three suspended floors made from structural geopolymer concrete containing slag/fly ash-based geopolymer (Pathak, 2016). In Australia, 2014, the newly completed Brisbane West Wellcamp airport becomes the greenest airport in the world. Cement-free geopolymer concrete was used to save more than 6,600 tons of carbon emissions in the construction of the airport. Therefore, the next century will see cement companies developing alternative binders that are more environmentally friendly from a sustainable development point of view.

Production of new geopolymer binder of mortar as alternative to traditional cement binder with high early and normal strength from low cost waste materials, less potential of cracking, less energy consumption need and low carbon dioxide emission.

One of the major negative effects of the Coronavirus outbreak worldwide has been reduced investment in green energy projects and energy efficiency. The main purpose of this paper is to study the role of green bond proposed by the World Bank in 2008, as a reliable instrument to enhance the capital flow in energy efficiency financing and to develop green energy resources during and post the current challenging global time.

We model energy efficiency for 37 members of OECD through a panel data framework and quarterly data over 2007Q1–2020Q4.

The major results reveal the positive impacts of issued green bonds and regulatory quality index on energy efficiency, while any increase in inflation rate and urbanization decelerates the progress of raising energy efficiency.

As highlighted concluding remarks and policy implications, it can be expressed that the tool of green bond is a potential policy to drive-up energy efficiency financing and enhancing environmental quality during and post-COVID period. It is recommended to follow green bond policy with an efficient regulation framework and urbanization saving energy planning.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, although a few scholars have investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on green financing or examined the energy efficiency financing, the matter of modeling energy efficiency–green bond relationship has not been addressed by any academic study. The contributions of this paper to the existing literature are: (1) it is the first academic study to discover the relationship between energy efficiency and green bond in OECD countries, (2) since our empirical part provides estimation results based on quarterly data covering the year of 2019 and 2020, it may offer some new policy implications to enhance energy efficiency financing in and post-COVID period, (3) furthermore, we consider energy efficiency indicator (mix of industrial, residential, services and transport energy efficiency) as the dependent variable instead of using the simple energy intensity variable as a proxy for energy efficiency.

This paper aims to explore the divergences and commitments between the lean, agile, resilient and green paradigms while investigating the effect of paradigms' practices within supply chain attributes.

A conceptual model with lean, agile, resilient and green practices and supply chain management attributes is proposed. Causal diagrams were used to represent the relationships between paradigm practices and supply chain attributes. The four diagrams were aggregated to build the conceptual model.

The conceptual model allows for the identification of synergies and divergences resulting from the paradigms practices implementation. The synergies between paradigms are related to “information frequency” and “integration level” increasing as well as reduction of “production lead time” and “transportation lead time”. However, other supply chain attributes such as “capacity surplus”, “inventory level” and “replenishment frequency” are affected in opposite directions by some paradigms creating divergences.

The model relationships were established using an anecdotal approach derived from the literature review, reflecting only a partial view of supply chain dynamics. More research related to other supply chain attributes and/or paradigm practices, and validation of the proposed relationships is suggested.

The proposed model can be the basis for further research in lean, agile, resilient and green paradigms, contributing to a more sustainable and competitive lean supply chain with the necessary agility toward a quick response, resiliency to disruptions, and harmonization with the ecologic and environmental aspects.

To the authors' knowledge this paper is the first to provide an understanding about the tradeoffs among lean, agile, resilient and green supply chain paradigms.

This paper seeks to give empirical examples of the processes whereby networks learn to collaborate. Specifically, the authors aim to examine efforts to learn to collaborate in response to the challenge of climate change.

The paper uses case study research methods to examine concepts previously developed in the literature and propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate.

Existing research on collaboration over environmental issues highlights the prevalence of cognitive deficiencies, an abundance of conflicts and disputes and the ignorance of exchange opportunities among interdependent actors. Based on a theoretical review and an empirical case study, the authors put forward a framework that involves three stages. The paper proposes that networks learning to collaborate undergo a process of: framing the problem; negotiating; and achieving wise trades.

At all three of the stages given above, there are significant cognitive biases, which can lead to failure to learn to collaborate. The paper gives examples that should help businesses and regulators to understand and avoid in‐built barriers that could lead to a failure of the network to learn to collaborate.

The paper reviews a number of research disciplines linked to collaboration and gives an empirical case study that explores their links. The authors then propose a conceptual framework of barriers to learning to collaborate, which can be used to help guide practitioners. Failure to learn to collaborate can be found in the many contemporary cases of conflicts and disputes; such as in the areas of intellectual property rights, international trade, inter‐firm alliances and vertical marketing systems.

During the current century, environmental sustainability and waste reduction processes have always been subject to scrutiny in developed societies. Developed communities have gained considerable momentum by investing in environmental infrastructure and integrating corporate performance disclosure and less developed communities are involved with it. Carbon disclosure is one of the aspects of green accounting in “corporate strategies,” especially those operating across the capital market. Adherence to the disclosure of facts can facilitate sustainable development in societies. This study aims to present strategic reference points matrix-based model to develop a framework for carbon disclosure strategies through institutional and stakeholder pressures throughout the capital market.

As a case study, by reviewing similar research on carbon disclosure, this study seeks to illustrate various carbon disclosure aspects and strategies in a matrix based on institutional (vertical axis) and stakeholder (horizontal axis) pressures

The study attempts to states that carbon disclosure is affected solely by the company because of the presence of agency gaps between external stakeholders and corporate executives.

However, the firm’s decision to adopt a carbon disclosure strategy depends on the performance of stakeholder pressure (stakeholder salience level) and managers’ perceptions of institutional pressure (institutional pressure centrality level).