Khalid Zaman

Biofuel consumption, biodiversity, and the environmental Kuznets curve: trivariate analysis in a panel of biofuel consuming countries

This study examined the relationship between biofuel consumption, forest biodiversity, and a set of national scale indicators of per capita income, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, trade openness, and population density with a panel data of 12 biofuels consuming countries for a period of 2000 to 2013. The study used Global Environmental Facility (GEF) biodiversity benefits index and forest biodiversity index in an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework. The results confirmed an inverted U-shaped relationship between GEF biodiversity index and per capita income, while there is flat/no relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth, and between forest biodiversity and economic growth models. FDI inflows and trade openness both reduce carbon emissions while population density and biofuel consumption increase carbon emissions and decrease GEF biodiversity index. Trade openness supports to increases GEF biodiversity index while it decreases forest biodiversity index and biofuel consumption in a region.

The impact of hydro-biofuel-wind energy consumption on environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS countries: evidence from three-stage least squares estimator

The renewable energy sources are considered the vital factor to promote global green business. The environmental cost of doing business is the pre-requisite to analyze sustainable policies that facilitate the eco-minded entrepreneurs to produce healthier goods. This study examines the impact of renewable energy sources (i.e., hydro energy, biofuel energy, and wind energy) on the environmental cost of doing business in a panel of BRICS (Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, and South Africa) countries, for the period of 1995–2015. The study employed principal component analysis to construct an “integrated environmental index” by using three alternative and plausible factors including carbon dioxide emissions, fossil fuel energy consumption, and chemicals used in the manufacturing process. The environmental index is used as an interactive term with the three cost of doing business indicators including business disclosure index, the cost of business start-up procedures, and logistics performance index to form environmental cost of doing business (ECDB) indicators. The results of three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimator show that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows supported the green business while trade openness deteriorates the environment, which partially validates the “pollution haven hypotheses (PHH)” in a panel of countries. There is no evidence for environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; however, there is a monotonic decreasing relationship between per capita income and ECDB indicators. The hydro energy supports the sustainable business environment, while biofuel consumption deteriorates the environmental impact on the cost of business start-up procedures. Finally, wind energy subsequently affected the ECDB indicators in a panel of BRICS countries. The overall results conclude that growth factors and energy sources both have a considerable impact on the cost of doing business; therefore, there is a momentous need to formulate sustainable policy vista to magnetize green business across countries.

Energy-water-food nexus under financial constraint environment: good, the bad, and the ugly sustainability reforms in sub-Saharan African countries

Environmental sustainability agenda are generally compromised by energy, water, and food production resources, while in the recent waves of global financial crisis, it mediates to increase the intensity of air pollutants, which largely affected the less developing countries due to their ease of environmental regulation policies and lack of optimal utilization of economic resources. Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are no exception that majorly hit by the recent global financial crisis, which affected the country’s natural environment through the channel of unsustainable energy-water-food production. The study employed panel random effect model that addresses the country-specific time-invariant shocks to examine the non-linear relationship between water-energy-food resources and air pollutants in a panel of 19 selected SSA countries, for a period of 2000–2014. The results confirmed the carbon-fossil-methane environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that turned into inverted U-shaped relationships in a panel of selected SSA countries. Food resources largely affected greenhouse gas (GHG), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions while water resource decreases carbon dioxide (CO2), fossil fuel, and CH4 emissions in a region. Energy efficiency improves air quality indicators while industry value added increases CO2 emissions, fossil fuel energy, and GHG emissions. Global financial crisis increases the risk of climate change across countries. The study concludes that although SSA countries strive hard to take some “good” initiatives to reduce environmental degradation in a form of improved water and energy sources, however, due to lack of optimal utilization of food resources and global financial constraints, it leads to “the bad” and “the ugly” sustainability reforms in a region.

Food-beverage-tobacco consumption, smoking prevalence, and high-technology exports influenced healthcare sustainability agenda across the globe

The objective of the study is to analyze the long-run, causal, and inter-temporal relationships between food-beverage-tobacco consumption, smoking prevalence in male and females, and high-technology exports and their resulting impact on global healthcare sustainability agenda in a panel of 19 European, North American, and Asian countries during a period of 1990–2016. The results show that the sample countries are largely affected by high mass consumption of food, beverages, and tobacco, due to which the health spending is very high in their economies that increase healthcare costs and mortality rates accordingly. The relationship between death rate and per capita income is found negative in a panel of selected countries, where high death rates substantially decrease country’s per capita income. The Granger causality estimates confirm the unidirectional causality running from (i) high-technology exports to CO2 emissions, (ii) smoking prevalence of male and female to health expenditures, (iii) industrial value added to mortality, (iv) health expenditures to per capita income, (v) per capita income to death rates, and (vi) food, beverages, and tobacco consumption to mortality indicators, whereas, the inter-temporal causation confirmed that lifetime risk of maternal death will largely influence health expenditures in a panel of selected countries for the next 10-year time period.

Measuring the impact of global tropospheric ozone, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide concentrations on biodiversity loss

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the impact of air pollutants, including mono‐nitrogen oxides (NOx), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulfur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on ecological footprint, habitat area, food supply, and biodiversity in a panel of thirty‐four developed and developing countries, over the period of 1995–2014. The results reveal that NOx and SO2 emissions both have a negative relationship with ecological footprints, while N2O emission and real GDP per capita have a direct relationship with ecological footprints. NOx has a positive relationship with forest area, per capita food supply and biological diversity while CO2 emission and GHG emission have a negative impact on food production. N2O has a positive impact on forest area and biodiversity, while SO2 emissions have a negative relationship with them. SO2 emission has a direct relationship with per capita food production, while GDP per capita significantly affected per capita food production and food supply variability across countries. The overall results reveal that SO2, CO2, and GHG emissions affected potential habitat area, while SO2 and GHG emissions affected the biodiversity index. Trade liberalization policies considerably affected the potential habitat area and biological diversity in a panel of countries. HighlightsHighlightsTo examine the impact of NOx, N2O, CO2 and SO2 emissions on biodiversity loss.Ecological footprint, forest, and food production are used for biodiversity index.N2O emissions and per capita income both influenced ecological footprints.SO2 and GHG emissions negatively affected biodiversity index.CO2 emissions and trade affected potential habitat area in a panel of countries.