World Development Sustainability最新文献

In the context of climate change, there is a need to identify the most vulnerable "hotspots" to the various risks that should attract the most attention from analysts and decision-makers. In this paper, we focus on territories’ exposure to the main consequences of climate change, considering both intensity and the level of physical exposure to main climate change hazards. We propose a composite indicator that can be computed globally but at the sub-national level, covering 47,138 administrative units in the World (all land but Antarctica). It should be helpful as a first step to assess risks for countries characterized by high geoclimatic diversity but also transboundary risks. It would help identify the most vulnerable subnational administrative units and serve as one tool for adaptation planning.

Historically, agricultural credit programs have been used as a policy instrument to improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The effectiveness of such credit programs has been widely deliberated with an opaque unanimity being reached since yield is stochastic. Therefore, this study examines the impact of agricultural credit provided by the Government of Kenya as an intervention to boost coffee productivity. Over the years, there has been little – if any – in-depth analysis that has been dedicated to establishing the impact of this agricultural credit on coffee productivity. This study surveyed 174 smallholder coffee farmers (participants and non-participants in the credit program) in Kiambu County in Kenya between 2015 and 2019. The paper espouses the DEA Malmquist index to estimate the efficiency of coffee productivity for participating and non-participating coffee farmers in the credit program. The empirical results disclose that participating farmers had the highest geomean for productivity change (152 %), efficiency change (40.5 %), technical change (53.2 %) and scale efficiency (40.5 %). Bayesian Modelling Average was used to assess determinants of coffee productivity. Bayesian Modelling Average (BMA) was used to assess determinants of coffee productivity. The findings from BMA analysis indicated that variety, education, extension visits and crop system had a positive impact on coffee productivity. Gender and age of farmer had a negative impact on coffee productivity. Thus, these insights from the empirical work would be instrumental in providing policy directions in terms of agricultural lending and crafting policies aimed at enhancing the efficiency of coffee productivity.

This study examines the effect and role of total factor productivity with other major determinants on economic growth in the Sub – Saharan Africa(SSA).It employs the data obtained from the World Bank Development Indicators spanning from 1990 to 2022 using panel ARDL, GMM and their extended asymmetric non-linear (NARDL) and (NGMM) models. The NARDL and NGMM are more superior to the counterpart ARDL and GMM symmetric models in the long-run than the short-run estimation, ensuring more efficient and reliable information regarding the effects of productivity on economic growth analysis. Finally, the robust dynamic inter-temporal Granger causality tests show that asymmetrically there is bi-directional causality between the growth rate of an upward movement in total factor productivity and real GDP. There is also bi-directional causality of a downward movement in the growth rate of the terms of trade and real GDP growth rate. The empirical findings of the study are extremely important indicators for sustained economic growth in the SSA region. Hence, this research work recommends that governments should enhance total factor productivity and terms of trade through job-trainning provision and promote trading among themselves as policy tools.

Agricultural cooperatives play an important role in increasing rice production and contribute to the rural economy of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, but their resilience can be influenced by community governance and the social capital of members. This study investigated the comparative importance of social capital of members in two agricultural cooperatives in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. We focused on two primary research questions: (1) How has social capital influenced the resilience of agricultural cooperatives for rice production? (2) What key factors influenced social capital in the two cooperatives? The study applied qualitative and quantitative data collection methods including focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and household surveys. Measures of social capital of members in the cooperative in An Giang scored higher than that of members in the cooperative in Can Tho. Our study found that low levels of education amongst members and weak bonding social capital between subgroups with different social networks and different farming outputs in the same cooperative were two key factors impacting adversely on the resilience of the two cooperatives. Trust was revealed to be a very important component of successful ACs. These are critical areas that need to be addressed by policy makers in order to improve the community governance and resilience of rice farming cooperatives in the Mekong Delta.

Global warming, induced by human-generated greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO₂), threatens the planet's ecology, economic development, and long-term viability in unparalleled ways. Vietnam's utilization of energy and CO₂ emanations are on the increase as a consequence of the country's increasing economic and improving agricultural practices. Governments seeking to accomplish an equilibrium between combating climate change and sustainable development would benefit from a deeper understanding of Vietnam's climate change vulnerability. A better understanding of the trade-off between pollution and economic growth is crucial if Vietnam is to slow the rate at which its environment is being damaged. So, the current study empirically examined the connections between GDP development, energy consumption, technical advancement, agricultural output, forest region, and carbon dioxide emissions in Vietnam. This study collected annual data from 1990 to 2020 and analyzed it using the Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares method. Based on the projection, Vietnam experiences a direct correlation between energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. This implies that an increase in energy consumption and economic growth corresponds to a corresponding emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge that this pattern might be alleviated by means of technological innovations, increased agricultural output, and initiatives to broaden forested regions. A negative correlation exists between these variables and CO₂ emissions; technological innovations, more sustainable agricultural methods, and forest preservation initiatives may contribute to the gradual reduction of CO₂ emissions. Therefore, environmental sustainability could be achieved through reduced emissions if the policies advocated in this article were implemented. Some of these policies include using renewable energy sources, encouraging innovations in technology, encouraging climate-conscious agriculture, and encouraging careful forest management.

In rural and peri‑urban areas of Central America, community water organizations (CWOs) provide water to 60 % of the population, thereby playing a pivotal role in achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals. However, the underlying environmental, climatic, and institutional factors explaining the adoption of volumetric pricing from these water providers and its effect on service delivery are typically overlooked in the literature. In this paper, we address two issues. First, we test whether volumetric pricing affects the service water delivery in a rural setting, drawing on a random sample of cross-sectional data on 154 CWOs in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. We find that volumetric pricing is associated with substantially more successful water delivery, even when conditioned on institutional capacity, environmental attributes, climatic conditions, and country-fixed effects. Despite this strong relationship, volumetric pricing has yet to be widely adopted, particularly in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Therefore, as the second goal, we try to identify the institutional and socio-ecological conditions in which volumetric pricing is adopted. We find that volumetric pricing is more likely used when communities (1) experience adverse environmental and climatic conditions associated with water scarcity and (2) have greater institutional capacity. Our results highlight the importance of examining the social-ecological system to assess the performance and adoption of water management institutions

Each economy faces the challenge of escalating carbon emissions, a factor which leads to environmental degradation. This study explores the impact of GDP per capita, FDI and energy use on ecological footprint in Finland during 1990–2021 using the ARDL model and checks the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve. Three hypotheses were proposed and empirically tested. The long-run ARDL dynamics show that: (i) GDP negatively influences ecological footprint; (ii) FDI negatively impacts ecological footprint; (iii) energy use positively influences ecological footprint. Another result of the paper is the existence of a U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve between GDP and ecological footprint. The findings are deliberated along with policy implications and proposed avenues for future research.

Increasing agricultural productivity through the uptake of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) offers a credible pathway to addressing food insecurity while preserving vital ecosystem resources, as such, factors that drive farmers' decisions to adopt these SAPs need examination. Most extant studies, on the adoption of SAPs, however, tend to place emphasis on socioeconomic incentives, giving little attention to the role of professional networks and institutional factors especially on oil palm which has strong links to deforestation and reduction in tree cover despite the numerous economic benefits. Using cross-sectional data from six oil palm producing regions in Ghana, this study analyses the role of producer membership, links with institutions such as NGOs, and extension access in the adoption of improved seeds, fertilizers, pest management practices, soil and moisture conservation practices, and legume cover crops among oil palm farmers in Ghana. The study employs a multivariate probit model to examine the probability of adopting SAPs and a poisson regression to model the intensity of SAPs adopted. The study also uses the instrumental variable approach to circumvent the issue of endogeneity. Results indicate that these networks and institutions significantly affect farmers’ adoption of SAPs. The study also finds heterogeneous associations with the adoption decisions depending on the type of innovation. In particular, we show evidence that farmers’ link with formal institutions is negatively associated with the adoption of diverse input intensive technologies, whereas it is positively associated with the adoption of natural resource management technologies. However, we find a consistent positive association of membership of producer organization on the adoption of different SAPs except legume cover cropping. Though differing relationships, we find that extension access and membership of producer organization are significantly associated with the intensity of SAPs adoption. Taken together, our findings suggest an integrated approach by the actors in the promotion of SAPs.

This study investigates the relationship between environmental sustainability and economic growth in Tunisia by employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and Granger Causality on annual data from 1990 to 2022. It aims to understand how environmental sustainability influences Tunisia's economic growth, revealing a substantial positive long-term association. The research is crucial in the global discourse on sustainability, providing insights for informed policy-making and sustainable development, particularly in developing nations like Tunisia. By utilizing the PCA, the ARDL approach, and Granger causality, the analysis gains robustness, offering a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship. The originality lies in its Tunisia-specific focus, contributing perspectives to the broader conversation on environmental sustainability and economic growth. Notably, we identify a positive long-term impact of environmental sustainability on Tunisia's economic growth, with implications for policymakers, economists, and environmental advocates. The robustness of the results to different proxies reinforces the credibility and applicability of the findings, advancing both academic understanding and providing actionable insights for policymakers aiming to balance economic prosperity and environmental sustainability in Tunisia and similar developing economies. A green economy model mut be embraced in Tunisia, that meets economic and environmental goals, particularly decarbonization through energy security, creating quality jobs through trade openness and FDI, promoting entrepreneurship and technology start-ups.