Trade Liberalization and Environmental Performance Index: Mediation Role of Climate Change Performance and Greenfield Investment

At present, concerns regarding climate change are common, especially in countries more vulnerable to environmental degradation. Greenhouse gases, including carbon emissions, are mainly considered to deteriorate the environment. Despite substantial agreement on many environmental issues, there are also important differences between regions and countries, and often, within nations. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the environmental performance of South and East Asian countries and its association with trade and other economic variables. Panel regression techniques and robust checks are used to examine the data, which covers 15 years from 2002 to 2016. The findings suggest an extensive negative association between trade liberalization and the environmental performance of selected countries. It is also shown that climate change performance is an important channel for the overall environmental change. The results regarding heterogeneous differences affirm the concept of sustainability and the pollution halo hypothesis. However, it is suggested that each country should make an effort to improve its environmental performance along with economic development. The role of green innovation and renewable energy is very crucial in this regard. The outcomes of this study could be helpful for researchers and policymakers to form better policies regarding the environment and climate change.

Non-Linear Nexus between CO₂ Emission, Economic Growth in Nigeria

CO2 levels are often seen as a major global problem faced by most countries; our study aims to examine the impact of Foreign Direct Investment on CO2 emission in Nigeria. Based on the “Pollution Heaven Hypothesis” and the “Pollution Halo Hypothesis” standards using the STARPAT standards model, this article assess the impact of economic factors on CO2 emission. Based on our findings, energy consumption is not sustainable in Nigeria, that is there is a high concentration of CO2 emission. U-lines with the traditional EKC data and the use of N-type foreign investments are now raising CO2 in Nigeria's cities through their “predictive” carbon emissions. Based on the results of previous studies, we report that changes are needed to be made in order to reduce carbon emissions in Nigeria which represent one of the challenges faced in developing countries.

Foreign-Funded Enterprises and Pollution Halo Hypothesis: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of Thirty Chinese Regions

China is one of the world’s major environmental polluters, therefore, Chinese environmental efficiency is an issue of global importance. In this study, we aim to identify economic factors affecting environmental efficiency scores in different regions of China from a spatial econometric perspective. We measure environmental efficiency scores, relative to the theoretically consistent production possibilities frontier estimated, according to a novel iterative methodology. As expected, we find that environmental efficiency scores are negatively affected by the prevalence of heavy industry sector in the economy, with a higher share of coal as a source of energy exacerbating the problem. We also find evidence that strongly support the pollution halo hypothesis, which credits foreign-funded enterprises with producing in a more environmentally-friendly way. Surprisingly, we find a negative association between the share of tertiary sectors in a regional economy and environmental efficiency—emphasizing the need to address the indirect effects produced on the environment by the seemingly innocuous sectors, such as the hotel sector. We encourage the creation of foreign-funded enterprises, and support formulating environmental protection policies that consider the indirect effects various economic sectors have on the environment.

The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on CO2 Emission

In the literature, the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is explained by two different hypotheses: Pollution Halo and Pollution Haven Hypothesis. While Pollution Halo hypothesis states that FDI provides advanced technology to countries and accordingly decreases CO2 emissions, Pollution Haven Hypothesis indicates that there is a positive relationship between FDI and CO2. In this regard, in this study, the impact of FDI on CO2 emissions in the selected 10 of G-20 countries in the period of 1970-2010 is investigated by using panel data analysis. The empirical findings show that panels have cross-section dependence and these two panels are stationary in different levels. Moreover, the existence of long term relationship between panels is found by using Durbin Hausmann panel cointegration test. The results of the study also show that while Pollution Halo Hypothesis is valid for USA, France and Argentina, Pollution Haven Hypothesis is valid for UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.