Environment, Development and Sustainability最新文献

As the world increasingly turns to sustainable finance and green investments, India has positioned itself as a prominent player in the green finance sector, driven by the pressing need to confront environmental challenges. This study proposes a conceptual model through three primary drivers of Green Banking Initiatives, which include Green Corporate Social Responsibility (GCSR), Green Internal Processes (GIP), and Green Product Development (GPD). These driving factors result in two critical consequences: improved Green Brand Trust, or GBT, and better Green Brand Image, or GBI. Qualitative research method was used to gather information from the respondents to explore the study in detail. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 50 bank employees, spanning middle to top-level positions, representing 10 public and private sector banks in India This study offers insightful understanding of bank employees' internal perceptions regarding the implementation of green banking practices. Green corporate social responsibility has emerged as an essential cornerstone in these banking efforts, driving environmental commitment at an organizational level. The results indicate that the banks are adopting eco-friendly financial products and services within their operations, and these adoption activities have been established to be associated with positive impacts upon customer perceptions that lead to enhanced green brand trust and brand image. Indeed, these results are encouraging but only a step in the direction toward understanding how green banking might drive sustainable development without any claims about broader impact. The present research further strengthens the literature on green finance by advocating in-depth analysis on how sustainable development can be driven through green banking in the Indian banking system.

Drawing upon role identity theory and situational strength theory, this paper investigates the mechanisms that connect employees’ green activities with responsible leadership. Using information from a survey of 260 workers across multiple enterprises in Anhui Province, this study reveals that responsible leadership enhances employees’ green role identity, subsequently motivating them to adopt green practices. Furthermore, the association between employees’ green behaviors and responsible leadership is mediated by green role identity. Higher levels of green human resource management reinforce the favorable association between employees’ green behaviors and their green role identity, while green human resource management moderates this relationship. Furthermore, the association between responsible leadership and employees’ green actions is mediated by green role identity, which is moderated by green human resource management. The mediation is amplified at higher levels of green human resource management. This paper deepens our comprehension of the mechanisms and boundaries conditions of responsible leadership, offering valuable insights for enhancing organizational environmental management and guiding employee green behaviors.

Universities undertake critical duties in the development of countries and increasing the level of welfare. Therefore, to achieve sustainable development goals, it is important that they focus their efforts on sustainable campus practices and contribution to society. In this work, organizational life cycle assessment was conducted to identify major environmental aspects and the most impactful processes related to the education and research activities of Kocaeli University. Life cycle impact assessment was performed by EF 3.0 method to evaluate sixteen environmental impact categories and they were comparatively assessed for the two scenarios: present situation (PS) and alternative scenario (AS—which includes increasing renewable energy rate in electricity generation). The major environmental aspects were identified as climate change and use of fossil resources. They constituted approximately 41% and 20% of overall environmental burden of the university campus for the year of 2022; respectively. Considering the processes related to the university campus activities, electricity consumption and heating with natural gas were determined as the most impactful processes which accounted for approximately 80% of the overall environmental burden. On the contrary, treatment of wastewater in the biological wastewater treatment plant located on the university campus ensured 6% environmental saving on overall environmental burden. Comparing two scenarios, it was determined that all impact categories decreased in AS compared with PS; except from the impact category for mineral and metal resource use. According to the uncertainty analysis, AS performed better than PS by 60% of the iterations for overall environmental burden.

With the rapid expansion of the digital economy, it is critical to investigate the influence and mechanisms of digital economy on environmental pollution in order to promote green urban economic growth. Based on data from 258 Chinese cities between 2005 and 2019, we employed fixed effects models, moderating effects models, and spatial Durbin models to evaluate the impact of the digital economy on environmental performance. The result is as follows. Firstly, the digital economy increases environmental performance dramatically. Secondly, in terms of heterogeneity, the influence of the digital economy on environmental performance is bigger after the 13th Five-Year Plan, and its promoting effect is stronger in cities with low environmental regulation intensity, high government intervention, and large market size. Thirdly, from the standpoint of the impact mechanism, optimizing industrial structure and increasing marketization can greatly boost the promotion effect. Fourthly, because the digital economy has strong spatial spillover effects, it not only improves local environmental performance but also greatly improves the environmental performance of nearby cities through spatial spillover effects. Finally, this study proposes strategies for improving the building of urban network infrastructure, adopting diversified digital economy regulations based on local situations, and implementing regional joint prevention and control. These findings presents a new theoretical foundation for the digital economy's contribution to environmental governance.

Agricultural production and food security are hindered by abiotic stress in plants. Consequently, novel approaches are needed to overcome these problems and achieve sustainability. Crop production has been demonstrated to be improved by nanoparticles under several biotic and abiotic stress conditions. This experiment examined the effect of different concentrations of green synthesized silver nanoparticles AgNPs (15, 25, 35, 45, and 55 ppm) on the growth and physiological responses of pearl millet subjected to NaCl stress levels (50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mM); (3) Results: In the current research, the NaCl stress levels significantly reduced the growth metrics (shoot length, root length, shoot fresh and dry weight, and root fresh and dry weight) chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and soluble protein, compared to control. Contrary to this, all stress levels induced an increase in osmolytes (soluble sugars and proline) and antioxidant enzymes including superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase. It is likely that the diminished growth metrics of NaCl-treated seedlings are due to the increased effort put forth in osmotic adjustment and antioxidant defense mechanisms to counteract reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress. The foliar spray of AgNPs, however, further enhanced osmotic and O₂^--H₂O₂ scavenging mechanisms in NaCl stressed seedlings to reduce the oxidative stress damages, resulting in improved growth. Overall, AgNPs application improved the growth metric, chlorophyll pigments, osmolytes, and antioxidant mechanism of salt-stressed seedlings in a dose-additive manner. However, further testing of AgNPs is required with pearl millet and other cereals in the field to validate these results.

This paper studies the connection between green bonds (GBI) and carbon price (CP) in China spanning from January 2014 to August 2023. Using a rolling window sub-sample causality method, the paper investigates the dynamic interaction between GBI and CP. The findings reveal that GBI negatively impacts CP across three distinct periods. The advancement of green finance has effectively curtailed carbon emissions, thereby influencing carbon price. Conversely, CP negatively affects GBI in two different time frames. Stringent environmental policies have heightened expectations of rising carbon price, prompting industries to issue more green bonds to mitigate future emission costs. As carbon price stabilize at lower levels, the predictable returns on green bonds increase, driving up demand for them. The quantitative analysis precisely identifies causality directions across various periods and provides a reasoned interpretation of results based on data trends and theoretical frameworks. These findings are crucial for guiding China in establishing an effective national carbon emissions market aligned with sustainable development goals. The empirical evidence underscores the importance of governmental measures to foster green finance development, alleviating corporate emission pressures while enhancing the carbon market infrastructure.

The association between high-quality economic development (HED) and carbon emission performance (CEP), remains vital in promoting sustainable development. We investigated the degree of coupling coordination between HED and CEP (DCCHC) in 173 prefecture-level cities throughout China from 2011 to 2019, looking at its spatiotemporal development and influential factors. Findings demonstrate that the DCCHC grew with time, predominantly characterized by seriously unbalanced and moderately unbalanced conditions. The DCCHC showed a strong positive spatial autocorrelation and a “high in the east, low in the west” distribution pattern. Additionally, the region’s DCCHC followed a “U-shaped” trajectory in relation to economic development. The opening-up and digital economy promoted the region’s DCCHC, whereas the energy consumption structure posed inhibitory effects. Conversely, the DCCHC of neighboring regions displayed an inverted “U-shaped” association with economic development. Technological innovation hindered neighboring regions’ DCCHC, while environmental regulation contributed to the DCCHC of adjacent areas. Technological innovation, environmental regulation and digital economy emerged as the primary factors affecting the DCCHC in 2011, shifting by 2019 to digital economy, technological innovation, and economic development. The interaction between these factors exhibited two-factor enhancement, nonlinear enhancement, and single-factor nonlinear weakening. These findings not only aid in refining China’s economic and environmental policies but also offer important lessons for other nations in shaping similar strategies.

Sustainability is a growing theme in society, and associated with it is the concept of circular economy (CE) that tries to reuse products for greater durability, thus contributing to reducing waste and pollution. A very important agent in this topic is eco-innovation (EI), which can be developed to promote the growth of this new economic concept. This study intends to determine the key drivers of EI for Portuguese companies, considering their evolution towards a circular economy. Using a Tobit model and data from the CIS, all the variables identified in the literature review were tested to understand their impact on firms’ performance by measuring turnover growth (TG). Verifying all variables’ effects was impossible from the estimations because not all were significant. Our findings allow concluding that not all drivers that appeared to have a positive impact on the TG had one. Therefore, the results show that not all theoretical drivers of eco-innovation are, in fact, drivers and may even represent negative impacts for the company, contrary to what one would predict. The negative effect that is still notorious regarding the costs that companies have associated with the implementation of these new measures should also be highlighted. It represents one of the biggest inhibitors for companies to integrate this action into their internal strategies.

The intergovernmental fiscal transfer, which aims to balance the fiscal capacity of local governments and fulfill the policy goals of higher-level governments, helps promote social equity, but it may also have an impact on the efficiency of economic activities. This paper evaluates the impact of the intergovernmental fiscal transfer on industrial firms’ energy efficiency by using the panel data of 32,738 industrial firms from 2001 to 2007 in China. Our study shows that intergovernmental fiscal transfer significantly negatively affects industrial firms’ energy efficiency. One mechanism that may generate such variation is that the intergovernmental fiscal transfer will induce local governments to adjust their supporting strategies to lower energy-efficient firms that lack comparative advantages, which in turn hurts energy efficiency. It shows that the intergovernmental fiscal transfer promotes social equity but hurts energy efficiency. We then present four pieces of evidence supporting this mechanism: subsidy, tax incentive, financial support, and employee salary. Specifically, the suppression effect is more pronounced in counties with higher government intervention. We also find that the intergovernmental fiscal transfer has a significant negative impact on NSOEs’ energy efficiency while having little impact on SOEs’ energy efficiency, and the special fiscal transfer shows significant negative impacts on industrial firms’ energy efficiency, while the general fiscal transfer and the tax rebate have little impact on industrial firms’ energy efficiency. These findings suggest that government should pay more attention to the design of the intergovernmental fiscal transfer system and guide local governments to focus more on low-carbon development. In addition, in the process of implementing multiple policy objectives, local governments should pay attention to compatibility issues to avoid the distorted effect of government behavior on resource allocation.