Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are biological pollutants that cause detrimental ecological, economic, and human-health effects in their introduced communities. With increasing globalization through maritime trade, ports are vulnerable to AIS exposure via commercial vessels. The Cuban Port of Mariel is poised to become a competitive transshipment hub in the Caribbean and the intent of this study was to evaluate present and potential impacts AIS pose with the likely future increase in shipping activity. We utilized previous assessment frameworks and publicly accessible information to rank AIS by level of threat. Fifteen AIS were identified in Cuba and one, the Asian green mussel Perna viridis (Linnaeus, 1758), had repeated harmful economic impacts. Five species associated with trade partners of Port Mariel were considered potentially detrimental to Cuba if introduced through shipping routes. The results presented herein identify species of concern and emphasize the importance of prioritizing AIS prevention and management within Cuba.

Climate change resulting from a rapid increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is adversely affecting humanity. If the GHG emission continues to rise at the current pace, humanity will face severe consequences and reverse all the progress made. This paper, therefore, uses relevant data from 14 developing countries in Asia from 1990 to 2018 to examine the potential impact of environmental innovation on CO₂ emissions by controlling globalization, urbanization, and economic growth. The number of environmental-related technology patents is used as a measure of environmental innovation. We employed a panel long-run regression model — FMOLS, PCSE, and FGLS to estimate the elasticity of CO₂ emissions. For causal association among variables, we used Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality tests. Our results show that renewable energy consumption and globalization have a significant impact in reducing CO₂ emissions, while environmental technology innovations play a meager role in reducing emissions and only when economic growth support those type of investment. Furthermore, we found urbanization, oil consumption, and economic growth is detrimental to the environment, which is also evident in past studies. Therefore, countries should invest in renewable energy and environmental innovation aligned with the growth to reduce GHG emissions.

Research scholars have diverted their attention towards the effect of biomass energy use on ecological footprints. Although recent research has investigated this association, the link between ecological footprints and biomass energy consumption has not provided consistent results. Therefore, this research attempts to fill the gap by examining the ecological footprints-biomass energy consumption nexus in the context of environmental Kuznets curve over the period of 1990–2016 in South Asian Association for Regional Corporation (SAARC) countries. Moreover, this work incorporates globalization, natural resources, and economic growth (GDP) for empirical analysis. In doing empirical analysis, we applied some econometric analysis to deal with the issue of cross-sectional dependence in the data. The outcomes of fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares estimations show that biomass energy consumption increases ecological footprints in SAARC countries. Moreover, globalization and GDP are also increasing ecological footprints. Environmental Kuznets curve cannot be validated in estimated countries. The Dumitrescu-Hurlin causality test confirms one-way causality from biomass energy usage to ecological footprints. On the base of empirical results, several policy implications are suggested for SAARC countries.

One of the major problems the world is currently facing is climate change. This is due to the use of fossil fuel combustion, which increases the presence of CO₂ emissions and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in several countries of the world, which Nigeria is not exempted from. Against this background, this study examines the impacts of globalization, real income, urbanization, and energy consumption on environmental degradation; and proffer way forward to achieving environmental sustainability targets in Nigeria, using quarterly frequency time series data over a period 1971–2018. To achieve our study objectives, this study makes use of quantile-quantile (Q-Q) approach, developed by Sim and Zhou J Bank Financ 55:1–8, (2015). This approach groups together nonparametric estimation and quantile regression. Empirical results show that, in all quantiles, globalization, real income, urbanization, and energy consumption impact positively on environmental degradation. Thus, we are of the opinion that for the nation to achieve any meaningful environmental sustainability targets, (i) it must shift from economic activities that are dependent and driven by non-renewable energy sources; (ii) enact environmental laws and regulations that prevent indigenous and multinationals firms from using non-renewable energy sources in production activities; (iii) discourage rural-urban migration by enacting policies that would improve life in the rural areas, such as diverting investment of indigenous and multinational companies to be situated in the rural areas; and lastly, (iv) learn from jurisdictional experiences that have successfully replaces non-renewable energy sources with renewable ones for an overall economic growth and environmental sustainability targets for both the immediate and future generations.

Environmental consequences of financial aspects, policy uncertainties and rapid globalization is the topic of intense debate in present years. However, this study contribute to existing literature in an innovative way. We classified the 33 OECD economies in two group’s lower globalized economies (LGE) and highly globalized economies (HGE), based on their level of globalization. Considering the cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity in the data this study employed the Augmented Mean Group method to estimate the influence of financial inclusion, economic policy uncertainty and globalization on the environment quality of both groups for the period 1996–2019. The results revealed a negative significant impact of financial inclusion, while a positive significant impact of economic policy uncertainty on CO2 emissions in both groups, LGE and HGE. However the globalization estimated to have positive impact on CO2 emission in LGE’s, in HGE’s it is significantly impeding the CO2 emission. The interaction of globalization with financial inclusion and economic policy uncertainty respectively found negative and positive to effect the CO2 in both LGE’s and HGE’s. The study suggests that, LGE’s are need to prepare for economic globalization, move toward adopting energy-efficient technology and promote trade in less-polluting products in order to sustain their environment quality. The outcomes of this study are robust by employing different model specifications.

Financial globalization has been argued to contribute to the increase/decrease in greenhouse gases and hence global temperature. India, according to International Energy Agency (IEA), is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally, where the consumption of the few rich produces about seven times carbon emissions when compared with the poorest households. This current research explores the asymmetric effect of financial globalization on carbon emissions, while controlling for non-renewable energy utilization, renewable energy consumption, and economic expansion. The study uses yearly data stretching from 1970 to 2018 and batteries of econometric approaches in order to investigate these associations. The outcomes of the NARDL unveiled that (i) a positive (negative) shock in non-renewable energy utilization increases (decrease) carbon emissions; (ii) favorable (unfavorable) variations in renewable energy consumption decrease carbon emissions; (iii) a favorable shock in financial development contributes to carbon emissions; and (iv) a positive shock in growth impacts carbon emissions positively. Based on the empirical outcomes, we are of the opinion that policymakers should intensify efforts in putting in place appropriate environmental policy (green economy) that emphasizes the importance of renewable driven economy via energy-saving and energy-efficient technologies. Else, increased consumption on non-renewable energy sources among the few rich in India and any other countries struggling with implementing green economy would be devastating to both the immediate and future generations.

In recent years, many empirical studies investigated the effects of globalization on the ecological footprint (EF). Most of these studies relied on the KOF index of globalization and studied the effects of total globalization and disaggregated impacts of economic, social, and political globalization on the EF. However, less attention has been given to financial globalization which can also influence the EF. Hence, this study investigates the association between financial globalization (FG), economic growth (GDP), and EF controlling population density (PD) in the selected West Asian and the Middle East (WAME) nations from 1990 to 2017. The study relied upon second-generation methods for checking stationary properties and Westerlund and other techniques to scrutinize cointegration. The evidence showed cointegration in the model. The long-run approximations from continuously updated fully modified (CUP-FM) and continuously updated bias corrected (CUP-BC) tests divulge that financial globalization is an important factor to promote ecological sustainability in the sample countries because it decreases EF. Population density exacerbates EF and worsens environmental deterioration in sample countries. The study detected the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) between EF and economic growth in the presence of financial globalization and population density. Besides, financial globalization Granger causes EF, while the feedback effect exists between EF and economic growth. Based on these results, WAME economies can accomplish ecological sustainability and sustainable development by enhancing their financial globalization levels.

The study inspects the inverted U shape of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis following the influence of economic growth on CO₂ emissions and the reaction of electricity consumption and globalization toward CO₂ emissions in top globalized economies. This study has taken the data of the top 9 globalized countries from 1990 to 2019 while adopting fully modified ordinary least squares and dynamic ordinary least squares panel cointegration approaches to determine the long run effects and Dumitrescu and Hurlin panel causality for the directions of the causality among the variables. According to the long-term findings of the research, economic growth and electricity consumption substantially contribute to CO₂ secretions. On the other hand, the squared growth and globalization mitigate CO₂ emissions and contribute to environmental sustainability. However, the inverse influence of squared growth on CO₂ emissions shows the presence of the inverted U shape of the EKC hypothesis. Furthermore, Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality measures have shown the bi-directional causality of electricity consumption and economic growth with CO₂ emissions and globalization with economic growth. At the same time, unidirectional causality exists from globalization to CO₂ emissions, economic growth to electricity consumption, and electricity consumption to globalization. The study recommends long-term globalization and sustainable development projects to ensure environmental sustainability in these globalized economies.

Recently, the potential role of social indicators in environmental degradation gets immense attention. Environmental degradation and income inequality are two of the hot topics of debate that anticipate urgent solution. However, income inequality-CO₂ emissions nexus has been little investigated in the literature. This study explores the relationship between income inequality and carbon dioxide emission by incorporating globalization and human capital as the determinants of this relationship. The study deploys an innovative technique of dynamic auto-regressive distributive lag simulation to evaluate data covering the period 1980–2015. Findings indicate that unequal distribution of wealth negatively affects carbon emissions. Likewise, the results show that globalization and human capital contribute to environmental degradation. The inclusion of transmission variables validates findings of the study. Policy strategies toward better income distribution and positive externalities of globalization are suggested for sustainability transitions.

Sustainable development and addressing climate change are among the most pressing issues faced by countries around the world. This research investigates the dynamic associations between financial inclusion, globalization and CO₂ emissions of G20 nations from 2005 to 2018, considering the effects of industrial structure, corruption, green energy utilization and economic growth as control variables. In this study, both financial inclusion and globalization index were measured using principal component analysis (PCA). This study examines long-term associations using cross-sectional augmented autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) technique that offers more accurate outcomes. In addition, the VECM Granger causality method was applied to find causal relationships between study variables. Findings show that in financial inclusion, globalization has positive significant effect on carbon emissions. Moreover, corruption and economic have positive impact on carbon emissions, and renewable energy shows negative impact on environmental quality. The findings of this research are critical for achieving sustainable development and pollution control goals. Governments need to work to bring into line the financial inclusion goals with renewable energy consumption habits and environmental strategies.