Search Results (59)

The effectiveness of policy tools used to combat global environmental degradation and climate change is gaining importance. The role of environmental policies in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and whether rising emissions levels lead to tightening of environmental policies are the main research questions of this study. Using panel causality methods, this study examines the relationship between the Environmental Policy Stringency Index (EPS) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions across 23 OECD countries from 1991 to 2020. The results of the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test show bidirectional causality between EPS and CO₂. According to the asymmetric causality test, we find causality from EPS to CO₂ during positive shocks. Furthermore, when examining negative shocks, we report a unidirectional causality originating only from EPS in the US. Our results demonstrate that the bidirectional relationship between EPS and CO₂ can contribute to the development of effective and balanced environmental policies if policymakers and society consider this interaction. Full article

The relationship between economic development and environmental degradation in Brazil was studied over the period 1970–2022, using ecological footprint (EF) as an environmental indicator. A contribution to the scientific literature exists here because biomass energy (BIO) has been separated from other types of renewable energy sources, and environmental policy stringency (EPS) and energy depletion (END) have been simultaneously analyzed for their joint impacts on EF in Brazil. In this research, four hypotheses were formulated for the relationships of: GDP, BIO, EPS, RE, and END with EF. The ARDL method was used in this analysis due to the different orders of integration for some of the variables and sample size limitations, both of which make alternative cointegration techniques inappropriate. All four hypotheses were supported in the empirical estimates of this study. In the long run, increases in GDP will result in increased EF, decreases in BIO and EPS will decrease EF, and no long-run relationship exists between RE and EF. However, RE has a short-term rebound effect. Increases in END will increase EF, indicating the environmental costs associated with the extraction and consumption of non-renewable resources. The statistically significant error correction term also supports the idea that there will be a quick adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium. The implications of these results suggest that Brazil continues to operate within a stage of growth driven primarily by scale rather than intensity, yet well-regulated biomass energy and strict environmental regulations provide a pathway for achieving decoupling in alignment with SDG 13 and SDG 15. Full article

This study examines how digital trade contributes to decarbonization within global value chains (GVCs), focusing on the roles of AI-enabled logistics, carbon pricing, and renewable energy policy. Using a monthly panel of 38 OECD economies from 2000 to 2024, we combine econometric models with machine-learning techniques to identify threshold effects and conditional relationships. The empirical specification includes fixed effects, interaction terms for AI-enhanced logistics, and carbon-pricing threshold analysis. At the same time, structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to assess mediation through renewable energy and regulatory stringency. The results indicate that GVC participation is significantly associated with lower CO₂ emissions (β = −0.064, p < 0.01). Digital trade alone is not statistically significant (β = −0.030), but its environmental effect becomes stronger when combined with AI-enhanced logistics. We identify a carbon-pricing threshold of USD 40 per tonne, above which emissions decline significantly (Δ = −15%, p < 0.01). Renewable energy adoption further reinforces the beneficial effect of digital trade under stronger regulatory conditions. These findings suggest that the emissions effects of digital trade are conditional rather than uniform and depend on complementary policy, technological, and energy factors. While the analysis is limited to OECD economies and monthly aggregate data, the study helps explain mixed findings in the literature by identifying the conditions under which digital trade is more likely to support emissions reduction. Full article

This study examines how regulatory heterogeneity in digital services trade relates to the carbon intensity of bilateral trade flows. Using a structural gravity framework estimated with Poisson pseudo maximum likelihood (PPML), we analyzed 10,719 bilateral observations from the Eora Multi-Region Input–Output (MRIO) database over 2014–2020. Bilateral gaps in the OECD Digital Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (DSTRI) were used as the main measure of regulatory heterogeneity, and the overall gap was decomposed into infrastructure-related hard barriers and institutional soft barriers. The results suggest that digital regulatory gaps are associated with a higher carbon intensity in trade while also being associated with lower total embodied emissions through reduced trade volumes. This indicates that lower aggregate emissions under regulatory divergence may reflect contraction in trade activity rather than genuine environmental improvement. The decomposition analysis further suggests that infrastructure-related misalignment is more closely associated with carbon inefficiency, whereas institutional divergence operates mainly through its association with trade volume. In addition, environmental policy stringency in the importing country appears to strengthen the positive association between institutional regulatory gaps and carbon intensity, consistent with the possibility of regulatory overload. The study contributes to the sustainability literature by showing that carbon intensity provides a more informative indicator of sustainable trade performance than aggregate emissions alone in fragmented regulatory environments. It also suggests that digital governance, trade policy, and environmental policy should be considered together in promoting more sustainable forms of international trade, particularly in the context of emerging policy frameworks such as WTO digital trade negotiations, OECD digital governance initiatives, and carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs). Full article

With the rapid development of technology and increasing material consumption, the efficient management of waste streams has become a critical challenge within the circular economy, particularly in resource-intensive sectors such as electronic waste recycling. This study examines how artificial intelligence can improve the assessment and forecasting of circular economy investment efficiency, with particular attention paid to resource-intensive sectors such as electronic waste recycling. The study reviews data from European Union countries for the period 2010–2024, including economic, technological, and environmental indicators. A machine learning model system based on ensemble predictive methods was developed to assess the effectiveness of circular economy investments. The results show that artificial intelligence-based models have higher forecasting accuracy than traditional econometric methods, and the most important factors determining investment efficiency are the level of automation, recycling efficiency, and the stringency of environmental policies. The study provides a new, data-driven methodological approach to assessing circular economy investments and discusses their implications for sustainable real estate development and resource management. Full article

Financial volatility increasingly challenges firms to maintain operational sustainability; yet the mechanisms through which cash flow uncertainty (CFU) shapes environmental practices remain unclear. Based on an international unbalanced panel of 14,798 firm-year observations (2010–2021), this study analyzes how CFU affects waste generation and recycling. Panel regression models are employed, complemented by robustness checks using generalized method of moments (GMM) estimations to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The findings suggest that higher CFU is associated with lower waste generation at the source due to more disciplined resource allocation, alongside higher recycling levels, reflecting a strategic response to operational risk and stakeholder expectations. Moreover, these effects are amplified in contexts characterized by stricter environmental policy stringency, the existence of corporate social responsibility committees, and sustainable supply chain management, underscoring the importance of institutional and organizational settings in shaping environmental operational outcomes. Overall, the results indicate that financial uncertainty can act both as a constraint and a catalyst, encouraging more efficient and circular practices. This study offers novel empirical evidence on the operational implications of CFU, providing valuable insights for managers and policymakers aiming to align financial management with sustainable and resilient production strategies. Full article

Within closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs), limited attention has been given to firms’ production and abatement decisions involving carbon permit transfer between an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and an independent remanufacturer (IR) under a cap-and-trade policy (CTP). Several questions remain unresolved: How does CTP reshape production and abatement decisions through carbon permit transfer under binding emission constraints? Can such regulation reallocate abatement responsibilities between firms and generate environmental and economic benefits? To address these questions, this paper develops a constrained Cournot game model capturing competitive interactions between an OEM and an IR under regulation. The results show that CTP reallocates abatement responsibilities toward the firm with a lower abatement difficulty, inducing full abatement as a corner solution. When remanufactured products exhibit a high low-carbon level, a moderate increase in cap stringency promotes remanufacturing output and market share. By contrast, once full abatement is reached, stricter regulation expands output. Moreover, when remanufacturing features substantial cost savings and a high low-carbon level, CTP consistently improves social welfare. This study provides insights into how cap-and-trade policies shape production and abatement decisions in CLSCs. Full article

This paper examines the relationship between corporate carbon-reduction pledges and the subsequent adoption of renewable energy by pledging firms, and whether this relationship depends on the institutional conditions in which they operate. We propose a pressure-capacity model, highlighting two different institutional dimensions, (1) environmental policy stringency (institutional pressure) and (2) renewable energy infrastructure (institutional capacity), that may shape when firms’ symbolic pledges lead to observable change in their energy procurement behavior. We estimate random-effects logistic regression models with panel data on 552 publicly listed firms in South Korea, China, and Japan from 2002 to 2017. We find that the relationship between carbon-reduction pledges and renewable energy adoption is strengthened by both the stringency of environmental policy and the availability of renewable energy infrastructure. The marginal effects analysis indicates that the pledge effect is close to zero when institutional capacity is low. However, it increases to about 13 percentage points when policy stringency is high and 9 percentage points when renewable supply is high. The country-specific subsample analysis further uncovers that the conditional effect of institutional capacity is particularly pronounced among Japanese companies. The analysis of correlated random effects shows that these patterns remain robust even after controlling for between-firm confounding. Overall, our findings indicate that the extent to which voluntary corporate climate change commitments translate into actual green implementation depends on the regulatory and infrastructural environment in which firms operate. Full article

This study investigates the impact of Environmental Policy Stringency (EPS) on GVC functional specialization. We find that EPS promotes high value-added, low-carbon upstream and downstream specialization—supporting the “Porter Hypothesis (PH)”—while simultaneously driving carbon-intensive production to regions with lax regulations, validating the “Pollution Haven Hypothesis (PHH)”. These findings demonstrate that both effects coexist across distinct GVC stages. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impacts of EPS vary across policy instruments: market-based instruments primarily promote upstream functional specialization, whereas non-market instruments exert stronger effects on downstream functional specialization. In terms of temporal dynamics, the Paris Agreement intensified the PHH in production activities while catalyzing medium-to-long-term incentives for upstream and downstream specialization. The influence of EPS on GVC structural adjustments has strengthened notably since the Paris Agreement, reflecting a significant temporal lag and long-term efficacy. Mechanistically, low-carbon innovation serves as the primary channel for functional upgrading, an effect significantly amplified by robust national innovation systems (NIS) and entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, NIS and entrepreneurship partly amplify the positive effect of EPS on high-end functional specialization. From a GVC functional perspective, this study offers new evidence reconciling the PH and the PHH. Full article

Our study addresses a critical gap in the trade–environment literature by introducing Green Trade Transition (GTT), defined as the share of green goods trade in total trade, and investigating its determinants across OECD countries between 2000 and 2020. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) methodology to address unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity, we analyze the roles of green technology, renewable energy, globalization, environmental policy stringency, and CO₂ emissions. Our findings indicate that green technological development, renewable energy, and stringent environmental policies positively contribute to the green trade transition, while CO₂ emissions and globalization have negative effects. A key conclusion of our analysis is the “globalization paradox”: Globalization is associated with a weaker GTT, largely because its economic dimension continues to favour non-green industries. This study contributes to the trade-environment literature by formalizing the GTT and identifying its structural determinants. The results offer practical guidance for policymakers aiming to align global trade flows with long-term sustainability objectives. Full article

In pursuit of global climate goals and sustainable development, countries have adopted a wide range of environmental policy instruments. This study examines the relationship between environmental policy stringency (EPS) and environmental outcomes, measured by carbon intensity (CI) and renewable energy intensity (REI), in 16 G20 countries from 1990 to 2020. The empirical findings reveal that more stringent environmental policy is a significant predictor of reduced CI and increased REI, although effects vary by policy type, time horizon, and country group. A novel sub-index-level analysis reveals that market-based incentive instruments, particularly trading schemes on CO₂ emissions and renewable energy, as well as technology support instruments, particularly wind and solar initiatives, exhibit the strongest and most robust effects. Emerging economies generally display greater responsiveness to policy interventions than advanced economies. By identifying which specific policy instruments are most effective across different development contexts, this study provides actionable insights for designing targeted climate policies that support both energy transition and sustainable development pathways. Full article

The development of renewable energy has emerged as a cornerstone of sustainable economic transformation, offering a pathway to reduce carbon dependence and enhance long-term energy security. As a result, this study examines the influence of supply chain digitalization, economic growth, and environmental stringency policies on renewable energy consumption (REC) across 33 OECD countries from 2000 to 2021. Using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach, the research provides robust, distribution-sensitive insights into how these factors shape renewable energy dynamics. In addition to the main variables, financial development and economic globalization were included as control variables to capture broader macroeconomic effects. The empirical results reveal that supply chain digitalization exerts a negative and consistent influence on REC across all quantiles, suggesting that technological advancement within supply chains may still be heavily dependent on non-renewable energy inputs. Conversely, environmental stringency policies demonstrate a positive and significant impact on REC at all quantiles, indicating that stricter environmental regulations effectively drive the transition toward cleaner energy sources. However, the effect of economic growth varies across quantiles, reflecting a nonlinear relationship—fostering renewable energy use in some instances while increasing conventional energy demand in others. Among the control variables, economic globalization enhances REC, implying that greater international integration facilitates technology transfer and access to green innovations. In contrast, financial development negatively affects REC, suggesting that current financial systems may still prioritize fossil fuel investments. Overall, the study emphasizes the need to align digital transformation strategies, financial reforms, and policy frameworks to strengthen renewable energy development and ensure a sustainable, low-carbon future across OECD nations. Full article

This study examines whether historical legal traditions continue to influence contemporary environmental policy and carbon emission outcomes. Using data from the OECD Climate Actions and Policies Measurement Framework (CAPMF) and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators for 50 countries over 1990–2023, this analysis applies ANOVA and post hoc tests to assess differences in climate policy stringency and CO₂ emissions across four major legal families: Common Law, French Civil Law, German Civil Law, and Scandinavian Law. The findings reveal that legal origin significantly affects the stringency of sectoral and cross-sectoral climate policies, particularly after 2006, when international climate commitments intensified. Scandinavian and German Law countries demonstrate stronger adoption of market-based instruments and achieve substantially lower emissions, while Common Law systems display weaker policy stringency and higher CO₂ levels. Differences in non-market regulations and international policy measures are statistically insignificant, indicating convergence driven by global governance frameworks. Overall, the results confirm that legal origin remains a meaningful determinant of environmental performance through its impact on institutional design and policy implementation mechanisms. However, in the case of Scandinavian legal origin, it is worth making an adjustment for the composition of the group of countries more than for the legal tradition. This study contributes to the debate on institutional persistence by linking legal heritage to the dynamics of climate governance and decarbonization pathways. Full article

Accelerating the diffusion of renewable energy requires clear evidence on which determinants enable or hinder deployment across contexts. This study aims to identify the most frequently discussed contemporary determinants of renewable energy deployment. To this end, we conduct a PRISMA-guided systematic review within the SALSA framework, complemented by VOSviewer bibliometric mapping, synthesizing 110 peer-reviewed studies published between 2013 and 2025. We group the most frequently examined determinants into eight domains (economic, environmental, energy, political, regulatory, regional, technological, and social) and summarize the prevalent direction of effect reported in the literature. Economic conditions (e.g., economic growth, financial development, green finance, and trade) and policy/regulation (e.g., institutional quality, instrument stringency, and feed-in and net-billing schemes) emerge as pivotal. Environmental co-benefits (emissions reduction and air quality improvements) and energy system factors (security and energy poverty) are influential, with context-dependent roles for fossil fuel prices and consumption. Regional context (e.g., geopolitical risk) and technological progress (eco-innovation, storage, and grid integration) shape outcomes, while public acceptance, awareness, perceived benefits/costs, and demographics condition uptake. We also document contradictory findings (e.g., foreign direct investment and oil price effects) and gaps (especially social/demographic determinants and causal evaluation of specific policies). Overall, the review offers a coherent synthesis of evidence and an actionable framework of determinants to inform policy design and investment targeting for large-scale diffusion of renewable energy technologies. Full article

Since 2009, China has implemented two important place-based policies to promote e-commerce development in selected cities: “Building National E-commerce Demonstration Cities” and “Comprehensive Pilot Zones for Cross-Border E-commerce”. Previous studies reported that these two e-commerce development policies generated local environmental benefits by reducing air pollution and carbon emissions in the policy implementation areas. However, whether these policies have spatial spillover effects on environmental quality in other regions and the extent of such effects have not been sufficiently analyzed. This study aims to empirically assess the environmental spatial spillover effects of these two policies. Based on panel data from 221 prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2021, this study utilizes a spatial econometric regression method to evaluate the policy effects. The study yields three main findings. (1) The policies significantly reduced air pollution concentrations and carbon emissions while increasing vegetation greenness in non-policy implementation areas. Specifically, the policies led to reductions in carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), as well as increases in the fractional vegetation cover (FVC), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and net primary productivity (NPP). Our findings indicate that the environmental effects of e-commerce development policies extend beyond the policy-implementing areas. (2) Further heterogeneity tests reveal that the beneficial spatial spillover impacts of e-commerce development policies were observed in cities with different geographical locations, servicification levels, economic scale, and population densities. (3) Mechanism analysis shows that although the policies did not alter the environmental regulation stringency in non-policy regions, they promoted industrial structure upgrading, technological advancement, and green innovation in these areas, thereby explaining the detected spatial spillover effects. Full article