Transitioning from fossil fuel usage to the adoption of green energy is crucial for mitigating the adverse impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. There is an urgent imperative to shift the economy away from reliance on non-renewable energy sources towards renewable alternatives to address environmental pollution effectively. This research aims to analyze the impact of non-renewable energy, green technological innovations, GDP, population, and industry on CO2 emissions across five South Asian countries, namely Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and NARDL, the present study examined data spanning from 1985 to 2021. This study used STATA software to determine the association between variables. The findings indicate that an increase in non-renewable energy consumption leads to higher CO2 emissions across all five studied countries, while a decrease in non-renewable energy consumption helps reduce CO2 emissions. Population growth and GDP contribute to increase carbon emissions, whereas green technological innovations lead to a reduction in CO2 emissions in India, Sri Lanka and Nepal but boost CO2 levels in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Industrialization also showed different impact in different countries as it mitigated CO2 emissions in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal but degrades the environment in India and Sri Lanka.

This study investigates the roles gold and the US dollar play as safe-haven, hedging, or diversifier assets relating to six important financial stock market indices: the S&P 500, FTSE 100, Hang Seng, CAC 40 (Paris), Shanghai Composite Index, and Nikkei 225. This paper applies the bivariate dynamic copula technique and the DCC-GARCH econometric advanced methods from January 2013 to July 2024 by focusing on four serious market crashes: the Chinese stock market meltdown (2015–2016), the trade war between the US and China (2018–2020), the COVID-19 pandemic (2020–2022), and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine (2022–2024). The results show that the US dollar displays reliable hedging and safe-haven characteristics with strong evidence mainly for its role as a safe-haven asset against the FTSE 100, Hang Seng, and S&P 500. Our findings support the idea that the US dollar serves consistently as a safe-haven asset. In contrast, gold showcased a twofold function, serving as a hedge for the FTSE 100 and the S&P 500 during crisis times and acting as a diversifier for the CAC 40 and the Shanghai Composite Index in times of market stability. This dynamic was specifically noticeable in the COVID-19 period, when gold’s hedging properties were outstanding and its role as a diversifier became more pronounced in the Paris and Shanghai markets. Our results suggest that the consistent reliability of the US dollar as a safe-haven asset combined with gold’s dual role presents a compelling argument for including both in well-diversified portfolios. This strategy enables investors to mitigate risk and safeguard their wealth, especially during periods of financial market volatility.