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The growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in a significant increase in construction and demolition waste (CDW), and regional differences in CDW generation are gradually increasing. The purpose of this study is to investigate the regional differences in CDW generation and the driving factors that influence CDW generation in different areas of China. To provide a systematic advisement for local governments to select the appropriate policy, reduce CDW generation.

The generation of CDW was calculated by region, based on the area estimation method, from 2005 to 2018. The relationship between CDW generation and economic development, and the driving factors of CDW generation in different regions of China, was investigated using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) model and the STIRPAT theoretical model.

CDW generation of China increased at the average annual growth rate of 10.86% from 2005 to 2018. The main areas of CDW generation were concentrated in the eastern and central regions, while the proportion of CDW generation in the northeast region decreased gradually, and the changes varied significantly across different regions. The EKC between CDW generation and economic development was established for the whole country, North China, Northeast China, East China, Central South China, Southwest China and Northwest China. Three main factors based on the STIRPAT theoretical model were identified and explained into a framework to reduce CDW generation. The results provided a useful theoretical basis and data support guide for devising effective policies and regulations for the Chinese context.

The findings from this study can ultimately support policymakers and waste managers in formulating effective policies for waste management strategies and CDW-specific legislation. Additionally, it can help the coordinated reduction of CDW generation across regions in China and can support construction enterprises (in their development strategies), similar developing economies and foreign firms planning to operate in China.

This study contributes to the field through the STIRPAT model on driving factors of CDW generation in the Chinese context, in different regions.

Modern renewable energy is crucial for environmental conservation, sustainable economic growth and energy security, especially in developing East African nations that heavily use traditional biomass. Thus, this study aims to examine urbanization and modern renewable energy consumption (MREC) in East African community (EAC) while controlling for gross domestic product (GDP), population growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), industrialization and trade openness (TOP).

This study considers a balanced panel of five EAC countries from 1996 to 2019. Long-run dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least squares estimations were used to ascertain the relationships while the vector error-correction model was used to ascertain the causal relationship.

Results show that urbanization, FDI, industrialization and TOP positively affect MREC. Whereas population growth and GDP reduce MREC, the effect for GDP is not that significant. The study also found a bidirectional causality between urbanization, FDI, TOP and MREC in the long run.

Investing in modern renewable energy facilities should be a top priority, particularly in cities with expanding populations. The governments of the EAC should endeavor to make MREC affordable among the urban population by creating income-generating activities in the urban centers and sensitizing the urban population to the benefits of using MREC. Also, the government may come up with policies that enhance the establishment of lower prices for modern renewable energy commodities so as to increase their affordability.

MREC is a new concept in the energy consumption literature. Much of the research focuses on renewable energy consumption including the use of traditional biomass which contributes to climate change negatively. Besides, the influence of factors such as urbanization has not been given significant attention. Yet urbanization is identified as a catalyst for MREC.

The contradiction between urban development and urban ecology is becoming more distinct with the global population growth and rapid economic development. This study investigated the construction of an evaluation index system for the ecological planning of modern industrial cities based on the low carbon concept to address the ecological crisis brought by the economic development of industrial cities. The entropy and weight calculation methods were adopted. The three-level evaluation system of the low-carbon ecological planning evaluation index was constructed. The basic model STIRPAT and the SPSS statistical analysis method were adopted. Regression analysis was conducted on the influencing factors of the low carbon ecological planning of a port city. The analytic hierarchy process was used, and the ecological construction of an industrial city was evaluated. Research results show that the evaluation index system of this study is suitable for the low carbon planning of industrial cities. The results of the ecological planning in Tianjin were analyzed, and several countermeasures and suggestions for the ecological planning and construction of industrial cities were provided. Thus, this study has a significant reference value.

The literature argues that human activities are responsible for environmental pollution and world climate change. Africa is the second-largest continent by population and its socio-economic conditions are adversely affected by climate change due to environmental pollution. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between human activities, the environment and the economic growth of 38 African countries from 2000 to 2018.

This study employs a simultaneous equations model called Seemingly unrelated regression.

Human capital development (HDI) and environmental health (EH) have a positive and non-linear relationship, while HDI and ecosystem vitality (EV) are negative and non-linear. The relationship between gross domestic product per capita (GDPPC) and EH is negative and non-linear. However, the GDPPC-EV link is insignificant. Trade openness (TO) and EV have a negative and non-linear relationship, but trade significantly improves EH. Urbanisation-EV relationship is positive and non-linear. However, urbanisation significantly reduces EH. Technology has a positive and non-linear relationship with EH and EV. The study also found that EH and EV positively affects the economy.

This is the first study to analyse the most concerned countries in-depth. Thus, it provides appropriate and sound policies that consider the unique characteristics of the nations. Moreover, it uses a robust estimation technique that overcomes the endogeneity problem and offers insight into the relationship between the variables, including the feedback effect of the environment on growth.

This study is aimed to measure the intertemporal financial efficiency of 16 emerging economy countries (BRICS and N-11) and further to investigate the mechanisms of financial development on energy efficiency covering the period 2008–2020.

The dynamic data envelopment analysis model is used to measure financial efficiency dynamically. The generalized method of moments is used to investigate the effects of financial efficiency on energy efficiency. In the proposed approach, energy efficiency is the dependent variable, whereas financial efficiency, GDP per capita, industrial structure upgrade index, urbanization level and export trade structure are the regressors. Generalized moment estimation is performed.

There is heterogeneity in the level of financial development at different stages of economic development. The impact of financial efficiency on energy efficiency is related to the type of industries to which financial institutions are allocated. With the financial development of emerging economies, enterprises in technology-intensive industries are becoming the main contributors to higher profits for financial institutions, the products and results of these enterprises reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency. In addition, residents with rising levels of wealth holdings prefer low-carbon and environmentally friendly products, which indirectly improves energy efficiency. Per capita GDP and urbanization have no significant impact on the energy efficiency of emerging economies. The optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure of emerging economies has played a role in promoting energy efficiency. The export trade structure has a restraining effect on energy efficiency.

The findings contribute value by supporting a positive link between Financial Development and Energy Efficiency in the emerging economies. Enterprises in technology-intensive industries have gradually become the main force that brings higher profits to financial institutions. The products and achievements of these enterprises will reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency. The findings of this study provide emerging economies with an objective view of their financial development and energy efficiency, while also providing governments and policymakers with ways to improve energy efficiency and achieve sustainable development.

Motivated by the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-7: clean and affordable energy, SDG-8: sustainable economic growth, SDG-13: climate action), this study aims to investigate the role of economic complexity, disaggregated energy consumption in addition to economic growth, financial development, globalization and urbanization on the ecological footprint of United Arab Emirates (UAE).

This study adopts unit root tests (with and without a structural break), autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test and dynamic ordinary least squares.

The results obtained from the ARDL model suggest that economic complexity (EC), nonrenewable energy and economic growth increase the ecological footprint in both the short and long run, thus deteriorating the environment. However, renewable energy and urbanization reduce the ecological footprint in UAE during the two periods, thus improving environmental quality. Globalization and financial development have different influences on ecological footprint during these periods. These findings are robust to other estimation techniques.

Based on these results, this study offers significant policy implications such as increasing renewable energy supply, particularly solar energy and aligning the product manufacturing structure and complexity toward producing environmentally friendly products which can be used to realize the nation’s agenda of reducing fossil fuels consumption to 38% by 2050 and achieving sustainable environment and growth.

This study provides an empirical attempt to investigate the influence of EC and renewable and nonrenewable energy on the ecological footprint of the UAE.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of the gender gap on the ecological footprint (EFP) corresponding to its different quantiles.

Quantile panel regression for 24 countries from the period 2006 to 2017 will be used, for the gender gap and other determinants of EFP.

Each factor affecting EFP differs in its impact depending on the level of EFP quantile it corresponds to. Gender gap was found to be increasing EFP for the higher quantiles and decreasing EFP for the lower quantiles.

Environmental institutions should be considering the role of gender equality as a factor affecting the environment. Socioeconomic factors sometimes hamper the role of the female gender in preserving the environment. There are variations on how EFP factors differ between individual countries and this opens areas for further studies.

This research contributes to the current research studies by testing the impact of the gender gap on EFP instead of CO₂ emission which is widely used in the literature. This topic is considered understudied and one of the few that uses the quantile panel regression to investigate this impact, none of which is used in gender and environment studies. Finally, the model used in the study uses a more comprehensive extension of the “Stochastic Impact by Regression on Pollution, Affluence and Technology” model compared to the existing empirical studies in this area.

This study is motivated by the Compact with Africa (CWA) initiative to promote foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa. However, FDI is argued to be one of the primary causes of environmental pollution (CO2 emissions). In that regard, this study estimates the impact of the CWA initiative on FDI and environmental pollution.

The study utilized the difference-in-difference (DID) and triple difference (DDD) estimation strategies to examine the causal impact of the CWA initiative on FDI and environmental pollution from 2005 to 2019. The study selected nine CWA countries and nine non-CWA countries as treatment and control samples.

The authors found that the CWA initiative positively promotes FDI in the participant countries compared to non-participant countries. The CWA initiative also promoted environmental pollution in the CWA countries compared to non-CWA countries. Furthermore, the DDD estimates show that the effect of the CWA initiative on environmental pollution is through FDI.

The authors recommend policies to attract environmentally friendly FDI for both Compact and non-Compact economies.

The study is the first to provide empirical evidence on the CWA initiative on FDI and environmental pollution in Africa. The study used a quasi-experimental method on the relationship between FDI and environmental pollution in Africa.

Ascientific consensus has emerged indicating that the global climate is changing due to anthropogenic (i.e., human induced) driving forces. Our previous research reformulated the well‐known I=PAT (environmental Impacts equal the multiplicative product of Population, Affluence, and Technology) model into stochastic form, named it the STIRPAT model, and used it to assess the effects of population and affluence on carbon dioxide loads. Here we extend those findings by examining the impacts of population, affluence and other factors on the emissions of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), as well as the combined global warming potential of these two gases. We also assess the potential for “ecological modernization” or an “environmental Kuznets curve” (EKC) effect to curb GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that population is a consistent force behind GHG emissions, that affluence also drives emissions, that urbanization and industrialization increase emissions, and that tropical nations have lower emissions than non‐tropical nations, controlling for other factors. Contrary to what ecological modernization and EKC theorists predict, we find that to date there is no compelling evidence of a decline in emissions with modernization. These results support both the “treadmill of production” thesis and the “metabolic rift” thesis.

Even though many studies have attempted to understand the drivers of carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption to help tackle environmental issues, not much has been done to estimate the effect of natural resources extraction on these two variables. This paper aims to analyze the long-run and short-run carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption effect of natural resources extraction in Ghana.

The theoretical foundation for this study is the Stochastic Impacts Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model. Secondary Data sourced from World Development Indicators (2018) for the period of 1971-2013 were used. Estimation was done by using the autoregressive distributed lag.

It was found among other things that urbanization, and extraction of natural resources contribute to Ghana’s carbon dioxide emission, while official development assistance helps in reducing carbon dioxide emission in the long run. Again, while income and extraction of natural resources increase energy consumption, urbanization and official development assistance reduce environmental degradation in the long run. Regarding the short run, income and urbanization both increase energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission; trade openness and official development assistance decrease both carbon dioxide emission and energy consumption.

The implications from the results include the need to strictly enforce laws regulating extractive activities in the country to ensure a safe environment; and also to raise tariff and non-tariff barriers on products that do not promote a friendly environment and vice versa.

The effect of natural resources extraction on carbon emission and energy consumption is examined.