There are many advantages of geothermal energy as an environmentally friendly resource; however, there are quite a several challenges that need to be overcome to completely harness sustainable and renewable energy that is also natural. The primary aim of this study is to examine what influence geothermal energy will have on land use changes among the considered 27 states in the European Union from the time being 1990 to 2021. The study adopts the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL); the findings show that geothermal energy growth could be leveraged to achieve remarkable growth in land use change among the 13 European developing economies than among the 14 EU developed economies. On the other hand, results from analysis further show that a remarkable decrease in land use change could be better attained among the 14 EU developed economies that among the 13 EU developing economies as a result of institutional quality. Furthermore, the result suggests that through economic growth, there could be a remarkable increase in land use change among the 14 EU developed economies than among the 13 EU developing economies. It was further revealed by the study that the level of land use change among the 27 EU nations could be remarkably increased, boosting the level of geothermal energy production that will assist in attaining the aims behind the 2030 energy union. This will eventually help in curbing the incidence of climate change and pollution in the environment; the projected calculations are observed to be valid, as confirmed through the chosen three estimators for this research. The chosen estimators are the pooled mean group, mean group, and dynamic fixed effect. The regulations and governors in 27 European Union countries should give priority to using geothermal in their renewable energy mix to reduce the incidence of changes in land structures. Also, an increased level of efficiency and effectiveness should be made to the generation of geothermal energy by state actors and investors to prompt sustainability and attainability with no further depreciation in agricultural and forest natural states.
This study examines the impact of energy consumption, urbanization, and globalization on environmental degradation proxied by carbon emissions (CO2) in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, namely Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and India using data over the period 1990-2018. The cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL), pooled mean group (PMG), and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D-H) Granger causality techniques are employed for the empirical analysis. First and second-generation panel unit root tests are used to determine the stationary level of all data series which reveals mixed order of integration. The empirical findings show that urbanization, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita income, energy consumption, industrial growth, globalization, and financial development cause CO2 emissions, while the other variables, namely arable land and innovation, put negative effects on CO2 emissions. Moreover, the D-H heterogeneous test results exhibit that bi-directional relationship exists between CO2 and arable land, urbanization, industrial growth, and financial development, while a unidirectional causality exists between CO2 emissions and GDP per head income. These findings suggest that planned urbanization, investment in renewable energy sources, and effective strategies regarding the economic and financial integration with the global economies are required for a clean and green environment.
Prior studies on environmental standards have highlighted the significance of urbanization and transportation in affecting environmental sustainability worldwide. As the empirical and theoretical debates are still unresolved and divisive, the argument of whether urbanization, transportation and economic growth in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries cause greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions remains unclear. This study aim is to examine dynamic linkage between transportation, urbanization, economic growth and GHG emissions, as well as the impact of environmental regulations on GHG emission reduction in ASEAN countries over the years 1995-2018. On methodological aspects, the study accompanies a few environmental studies that check the cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity issues. Moreover, the new cross-sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) methodology is also applied in the study to estimate the short-run and long-run effects of the factors on GHG emissions. Substantial evidence is provided that GHG emissions increase with transportation, urbanization and economic growth but decrease with the imposition of environmental-related taxations. Augmented mean group (AMG) and common correlated effect mean group (CCEMG) also support the findings of CS-ARDL estimates. Finally, the study calls for drastic actions in ASEAN countries to reduce GHG emissions, including environmentally friendly transportation services and environmental regulation taxes. This study also provides the guidelines to the regulators while developing policies related to control the GHG emission in the country.
Leaf structure plays an important role in photosynthesis. However, the causal relationship and the quantitative importance of any single structural parameter to the overall photosynthetic performance of a leaf remains open to debate. In this paper, we report on a mechanistic model, eLeaf, which successfully captures rice leaf photosynthetic performance under varying environmental conditions of light and CO2 . We developed a 3D reaction-diffusion model for leaf photosynthesis parameterised using a range of imaging data and biochemical measurements from plants grown under ambient and elevated CO2 and then interrogated the model to quantify the importance of these elements. The model successfully captured leaf-level photosynthetic performance in rice. Photosynthetic metabolism underpinned the majority of the increased carbon assimilation rate observed under elevated CO2 levels, with a range of structural elements making positive and negative contributions. Mesophyll porosity could be varied without any major outcome on photosynthetic performance, providing a theoretical underpinning for experimental data. eLeaf allows quantitative analysis of the influence of morphological and biochemical properties on leaf photosynthesis. The analysis highlights a degree of leaf structural plasticity with respect to photosynthesis of significance in the context of attempts to improve crop photosynthesis.
Human emissions of carbon dioxide are causing irreversible changes in our oceans and impacting marine phytoplankton, including a group of small green algae known as picochlorophytes. Picochlorophytes grown in natural phytoplankton communities under future predicted levels of carbon dioxide have been demonstrated to thrive, along with redistribution of the cellular metabolome that enhances growth rate and photosynthesis. Here, using next-generation sequencing technology, we measured levels of transcripts in a picochlorophyte Chlorella, isolated from the sub-Antarctic and acclimated under high and current ambient CO2 levels, to better understand the molecular mechanisms involved with its ability to acclimate to elevated CO2. Compared to other phytoplankton taxa that induce broad transcriptomic responses involving multiple parts of their cellular metabolism, the changes observed in Chlorella focused on activating gene regulation involved in different sets of pathways such as light harvesting complex binding proteins, amino acid synthesis and RNA modification, while carbon metabolism was largely unaffected. Triggering a specific set of genes could be a unique strategy of small green phytoplankton under high CO2 in polar oceans.
The carbon dioxide (CO2) crisis is one of the world's most urgent issues. Meeting the worldwide targets set for CO2 capture and storage (CCS) is crucial. Because it may significantly reduce energy consumption compared to traditional amine-based adsorption capture, adsorption dependant CO2 capture is regarded as one of the most hopeful techniques in this paradigm. The expansion of unique, critical edge adsorbent materials has received most of the research attention to date, with the main objective of improving adsorption capacity and lifespan while lowering the temperature of adsorption, thereby lowering the energy demand of sorbent revival. There are specific materials needed for each step of the carbon cycle, including capture, regeneration, and conversion. The potential and efficiency of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) in overcoming this obstacle have recently been proven through research. In this study, we pinpoint MOFs' precise structural and chemical characteristics that have contributed to their high capture capacity, effective regeneration and separation processes, and efficient catalytic conversions. As prospective materials for the next generation of energy storage and conversion applications, carbon-based compounds like graphene, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes are receiving a lot of interest. Their distinctive physicochemical characteristics make them suitable for these popular study topics, including structural stability and flexibility, high porosity, and customizable physicochemical traits. It is possible to precisely design the interior of MOFs to include coordinatively unsaturated metal sites, certain heteroatoms, covalent functionalization, various building unit interactions, and integrated nanoscale metal catalysts. This is essential for the creation of MOFs with improved performance. Utilizing the accuracy of MOF chemistry, more complicated materials must be built to handle selectivity, capacity, and conversion all at once to achieve a comprehensive solution. This review summarizes, the most recent developments in adsorption-based CO2 combustion capture, the CO2 adsorption capacities of various classes of solid sorbents, and the significance of advanced carbon nanomaterials for environmental remediation and energy conversion. This review also addresses the difficulties and potential of developing carbon-based electrodes for energy conversion and storage applications.
Carbon dioxide emission is a high-profile issue that can affect both the human economy and human existence, but few scholars have studied the relationship between these two. Therefore, this study constructs the panel threshold regression (PTR) based on the National Bureau of Statistics of China's panel data from 2002 to 2019 in 19 regions. One of the advantages of PTR is to leverage segmented functions, allowing for a more detailed analysis of the data. Besides, by introducing the idea of a threshold, PTR can effectively avoid structural changes in the data. The different between this study and other research is that this study divides 19 regions into two parts: Eastern China and Central China. Based on that, this study researches and compares the different influences of the aging population on carbon emissions in these two regions. The results show that although the Environment Kuznets Curve has been confirmed in both Eastern China and Central China, with the development of the economy, the carbon emissions will increase in Eastern China and decrease in Central China, respectively. In addition, the key factors affecting carbon emissions in Eastern China and Central China are trade dependence and urbanization rate separately. Hence, this study suggests that the regional governments in Eastern China may guide and encourage more international trading companies to move to Central China, and at the same time, the regional governments in Central China should issue more policies to attract these companies, such as: reducing land lease fees and building better transportation infrastructure. Apart from that, the governments in Central China should vigorously increase the rate of urbanization to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency.
The current study examines sustainable electricity consumption for economic growth in a small open and tourist economy. The energy-tourism nexus is evaluated for the relationship between sustainable electricity consumption and the international tourist arrival for the South African economy. The present study leverages on annual frequency data for South Africa from 1995 to 2019 for empirical analysis using the ARDL technique. Accordingly, empirical findings indicate a significant direct connection between the sustainable electricity consumption and the international tourism arrival; the study affirms that tourism-induced energy hypothesis is valid in South Africa. However, from a policy standpoint, alternative energy efficiency mechanisms such as renewable energy systems and emancipation of current energy management capabilities are recommended in South Africa. This is necessary for sustainable eco-friendly tourism that engenders clean energy consumption for the study area. More insights into policy caveats are presented in the concluding section.
China is responsible for the biggest shellfish and macroalgae production in the world. In this study, comprehensive methods were used to assess the CO2 release and sequestration by maricultured shellfish and macroalgae in China. Through considering CaCO3 production and CO2 release coefficient (Φ, moles of CO2 released per mole of CaCO3 formed) in different waters, we find that cultured shellfish released 0.741 ± 0.008 Tg C yr-1 through calcification based on the data of 2016-2020. In addition to calcification, maricultured shellfish released 0.580 ± 0.004 Tg C yr-1 by respiration. Meanwhile, shellfish sequestered 0.145 ± 0.001 and 0.0387 ± 0.0004 Tg C yr-1 organic carbon in sediments and shells, respectively. Therefore, the net released CO2 by maricultured shellfish was 1.136 ± 0.011 Tg C yr-1, which is about four times higher than that maricultured macroalgae could sequester (0.280 ± 0.010 Tg C yr-1). To achieve carbon neutrality within the mariculture system, shellfish culture may need to be restricted and meanwhile the expansion of macroalgae cultivation should be carried out. The mean carbon sequestration rate of seven kinds of macroalgae was 174 ± 6 g m-2 yr-1 while some cultivated macroalgae had higher CO2 sequestration rates, e.g. 356 ± 24 g C m-2 yr-1 for Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis and 331 ± 17 g C m-2 yr-1 for Undaria pinnatifida. In scenario 0.5 (CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage) sequesters 0.5 Gt CO2 per year), using macroalgae culture cannot achieve China's carbon neutrality by 2060 but in scenarios 1.0 and 1.5 (CCUS sequesters 1.0 and 1.5 Gt CO2 per year, respectively) it is feasible to achieve carbon neutrality using some macroalgae species with high carbon sequestration rates. This study provides important insights into how to develop mariculture in the context of carbon-neutrality and climate change mitigation.
Information on temporal and spatial variations in soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from tropical peat forests is essential to predict the influence of climate change and estimate the effects of land use on global warming and the carbon (C) cycle. To obtain such basic information, soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes, together with soil physicochemical properties and environmental variables, were measured at three major forest types in the Maludam National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, for eight years, and their relationships were analyzed. Annual soil CO2 fluxes ranged from 860 to 1450 g C m⁻2 yr⁻1 without overall significant differences between the three forest sites, while soil CH4 fluxes, 1.2-10.8 g C m⁻2 yr⁻1, differed. Differences in GHG fluxes between dry and rainy seasons were not necessarily significant, corresponding to the extent of seasonal variation in groundwater level (GWL). The lack of significant differences in soil CO2 fluxes between the three sites could be attributed to set-off between the negative and positive effects of the decomposability of soil organic matter as estimated by pyrophosphate solubility index (PSI) and GWL. The impact of El-Niño on annual CO2 flux also varied between the sites. The variation in soil CH4 fluxes from the three sites was enhanced by variations in temperature, GWL, PSI, and soil iron (Fe) content. A positive correlation was observed between the annual CH4 flux and GWL at only one site, and the influence of soil properties was more pronounced at the site with the lowest GWL and the highest PSI. Variation in annual CH4 fluxes was controlled more strongly by temperature where GWL was the highest and GWL and plant growth fluctuations were the least. Inter-annual variations in soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes confirmed the importance of long-term monitoring of these at multiple sites supporting different forest types.
The effect of removal of resultant gas resulted in enhancement of the H2 yield. The technique of CO2 scavenging resulted in H2 yield being improved from 408 mL g(-1) to reach the maximum of 422 mL g'. The highest hydrogen productivity of 87.9 ml L(-1) h(-1) was obtained by CO2 scavenging. Biomass concentration was enhanced to 1.47 g L(-1), Y(P,X) of 287 ml g(-1) L(-1), Y(X/S) of 0.294 and Y(H2/s) of 0.0377 by the use of CO2 scavenging. The results suggested that the presence of the gaseous products in fermentation medium and headspace adversely effect biomass growth and hydrogen production.
The determinants of environmental degradation have been investigated many times by utilizing carbon dioxide emissions and/or ecological footprint. However, these traditional environmental degradation indicators do not consider the supply side of environmental problems. Therefore, this study focuses on the dynamic influence of financial development, energy efficiency, economic growth, and technological innovation on environmental degradation in India through the load capacity factor, including both the supply and demand sides of environmental problems. For that purpose, the recently developed dynamically simulated autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method is employed using the annual time-series data extending from 1980-2020. The dynamically simulated ARDL results demonstrate that financial development, economic growth, and technological innovation have a dynamic adverse impact on the load capacity factor, whereas energy efficiency has a positive dynamic influence on environmental quality. In addition, the results support the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis as the negative effect of economic growth on environmental quality decreases over time. Based on the study findings, policy recommendations are provided for India. Finally, this study utilizing load capacity factor as an indicator for environmental quality will provide new topics in exploring the determinants of environmental degradation.
The world faces immense pressure regarding the negative impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, global warming, droughts, and many other environmental problems. Australia is also facing the same issues and requires urgent attention. In this research, we have examined the effect of hydrogen firms on Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. We employed the monthly data from January 2002 to December 2021 for econometric estimations. Through quantile regression, it is noted that the expansion of hydrogen firms contributes to environmental pollution instead of controlling the emissions. Most hydrogen energy still emits carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change. Around the world, carbon-containing fossil fuels produce more than 95% of hydrogen energy. However, as a policy suggestion, it is recommended that green hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources will succeed in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Addressing global environmental concerns requires the widespread adoption of renewable energy sources. More research is needed to examine the relationships between renewable energy (RE) and globalization, economic growth, and environmental quality in Indonesia. Therefore, we examined how renewable energy usage in Indonesia has changed due to the dynamic effects of globalization, financial development, and environmental quality. Time-series data were analyzed using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to test for cointegration and long-run/short-run dynamics between 1990 and 2020. In addition to ARDL bounds testing, we used the Johansen and Engle-Granger cointegration methods for confirmation. Globalization, financial progress, human capital, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic expansion have favorable long- and short-term effects on renewable energy sources. Globalization has enabled Indonesia to expand trade, FDI, and financial investment. It has also increased energy-efficient technology use due to environmental policies. The computed results are robust enough to substitute estimators, such as dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). We recommend the implementation of policies that support financial and environmental development by utilizing renewable resources and increasing investments in renewable energy ventures.
The natural gas (NG) forms the sizeable portion of the primary energy consumption in Pakistan. However, its depleting domestic reserves and increasing demand is challenging to balance the supply-demand in the country. This paper investigates the relationship between NG consumption and driving factors using LMDI-STIRPAT PLSR framework. It is learned that fossil energy structure and per capita gross domestic product (GDP) are most influencing factors on NG consumption, followed by non-clean energy structure, energy intensity, and population. The factors were further modelled to forecast the future values of NG consumption for various scenarios. It is found that NG consumption would be 42.107 MTOE under the high development scenario which would be twice the baseline scenario. It is projected that indigenous NG production will fall from 4 to 2 billion cubic feet/day and demand will increase by 1.5 billion cubic feet/day. Therefore, an optimized strategy is required for a long-term solution to cater this increasing supply-demand.
To tackle the growing menace of environmental degradation, the idea of green entrepreneurship has gained popularity, which is the process of creating new goods and technologies to solve environmental problems. Like traditional entrepreneurs, green entrepreneurs also need financial backing from financial institutions. However, no empirical evidence was found regarding the relationship between formal credit and green entrepreneurship. This analysis is an effort to plug this vacuum into the literature by analyzing the impact of formal credit on green entrepreneurship in high, middle, and low-income economies from 2011 to 2021. The study has employed various econometric techniques such as fixed-effects, random-effects, 2SLS, and GMM. The results show that formal credit substantially develops green entrepreneurship in high, middle, low-income, and full samples. Besides formal credit, GDP, environmental pressure, trade openness, technological development, and human capital are crucial in green entrepreneurship development in all samples. Policymakers may collaborate with financial institutions to create and provide specialized financial products and services catering to green entrepreneurs.
Africa faces significant economic and environmental challenges, including waste generation, food insecurity, and energy inefficiency, jeopardizing future generations. To address this, Africa has adopted the 10-year Sustainable Consumption and Production Framework for Africa (10-YFP), evident through national and local projects focusing on sustainable food and agriculture, technology transfer in water irrigation, and related initiatives. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) presents an opportunity for promoting green cooperation and sustainable development in Africa, though its impact on ethical production and consumption remains unexplored. This study evaluates the BRI's role in achieving Africa's Twelve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and catalyzing responsible consumption and production. Through interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) involving 42 participants from 19 African countries, thematic patterns emerged using the thematic inductive method. Findings indicate that BRI initiatives effectively integrate advanced technologies to enhance sustainable agriculture and industrial production. Notably, BRI investments in countries like Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zambia are fostering renewable energy projects to provide electricity to underserved communities. A stronger alignment between national sustainable development plans and the green BRI is essential to maximize the benefits without compromising BRI principles of inclusivity, coordination, coherence, and capacity building. This research fosters dialogue among academics, educators, government officials, business leaders, and investors about the transformative potential of China's BRI in African nations. By shedding light on the positive strides made by BRI programs, this study underscores the need for strategic synergy between international cooperation efforts and localized sustainability agendas, ultimately propelling Africa toward its long-term development goals.
This study's main goal is to evaluate how the research will look at the impact of geothermal energy production on the quality of the subterranean in the 27 European nations from 1990 to 2021. A considerable decline in the subterranean water supply can occur in EU14 emerging nations employing geothermal energy growth compared to EU13 emerging economies, according to research that uses the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL). Fossil fuel use, population growth, and economic expansion are some factors that have a more detrimental effect on the subterranean water supply in EU14 emerging economies than in EU13 emerging nations. In contrast, the study's findings indicate that EU13 emerging nations may be better able to enhance their underground water supply than EU14 emerging economies because of more effective institutional qualities. The findings so indicate that increasing the amount of geothermal energy generation among the 27 European Union countries can accelerate subsurface water degradation at a high capacity and help achieve unionism's 2030 energy-related goals. When this is achieved, climate change will be put to check, as pollution of the environment. All calculations projected were seen to be of a good level of validity, and this is ascertained through three estimators considered in this study.
The present paper implements the quantile autoregressive lagged (QARDL) approach of Cho et al. (2015) and the Granger causality in quantiles tests of Troster et al. (2018) to explore the nonlinear effects of US energy consumption, economic growth, and tourist arrivals on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. Our results unveil the existence of substantial reversion to the long-run equilibrium connectedness between the variables of interest and CO2 emissions. The outcomes show that tourist arrivals decrease CO2 emissions in the long term for each quantile. In addition, we found that the output growth positively influences the carbon emissions at lower quantiles but negatively influences the carbon emissions at upper quantiles. Moreover, our findings of short-term dynamics validate an asymmetric short-run effect of tourist arrivals and economic growth on CO2 emissions in the US economy. Further results and their corresponding policy implications are discussed.
Sustainable consumption is crucial in reducing the growing pressure of environmental crises. This study proposes the Technique of Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach to evaluate sustainable consumption toward green growth. The proposed approach assesses criteria weights in Interval Valued Neutrosophic Sets (IVNSs) using the Method of Maximizing Deviation. The proposed method evaluates sustainable consumption for ten selected developed and developing countries, including Canada, France, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The evaluation process encompasses four main criteria with eight sub-criteria, namely environment (population density, CO2), energy (total natural resource rents, renewable electricity), economics (value added of agriculture, forestry, and fishing, GDP per capita), and health (fertility rate, mortality rate). The countries are ranked based on the relative closeness coefficient. The results reveal that two economic sub-criteria are pivotal in the sustainable consumption rankings. Canada emerges as the country with the highest degree of green growth, attributed to its extensive land area and potential for renewable energy. Based on the findings, this study proposes some policy implications for Vietnam, including balancing fertility and mortality rates and regulating economic growth and resource exploitation.