Energy generation from carbon fuels produces a major portion of the greenhouse gases that envelop the planet and trap the sun’s heat. Fossil fuels, including coal, oil, and gas, account for approximately 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and almost 90% of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to finance cleaner, efficient, low-cost, sustainable, and energy-reliable alternative fuels. Therefore, we investigated the effect of oil prices, ecological footprint, banking sector development, and economic growth on energy consumption in South Africa. We employed the newly developed bootstrap autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to the link between explanatory antecedents and explained facets in the short and long term. The outcome of our study witnessed the positive and significant effect of economic growth and ecological footprint on energy consumption in the short and long run, in the case of South Africa. This suggests that a drastic boost in South African economic growth and environmental quality results in the increased use of energy. However, ARDL outcomes affirm that industrial structure has effects positively and significantly in the short run only. Moreover, oil price shocks have a negative and significant link with energy use in the short and long run, suggesting that in the case of South Africa, increased oil prices reduce the use of energy. Based on the evidence obtained from the results of our study, we proposed several policy suggestions and recommendations to the government authorities, policymakers, environmentalists, and other stakeholders in order to develop an energy strategy in line with sustainable economic growth and the environment.

The transition to sustainable, innovation-driven economies has become a global imperative, particularly for resource-dependent regions like the Middle East, where environmental challenges, fossil fuel reliance, and economic diversification pressures intersect. In this context, green innovation plays a pivotal role in mitigating environmental degradation while supporting long-term economic growth. This study examines the short-term and long-term drivers of green innovation across 13 Middle Eastern countries from 1990 to 2023, with a focus on environmental governance, environmental pollution, economic growth, and natural resource abundance. Using a balanced panel dataset, this study applies Frees, Friedman, and Pesaran CSD tests to address cross-sectional dependency and second-generation unit root tests for data stationarity. Both first- and second-generation cointegration tests confirm long-run relationships among variables. The empirical analysis employs the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model, alongside Pooled Mean Group (PMG-ARDL), Average Mean Group (AMG), and Common Correlated Effects CCEMG estimators, ensuring robustness. The findings indicate that, in the long term, environmental governance, economic growth, population size, and natural resource abundance significantly promote green innovation, with respective coefficients of 0.3, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.4. Conversely, human development and environmental pollution exert a negative influence on green innovation, particularly over the long term. These results suggest that, while economic and governance factors drive innovation, human capital development may prioritize immediate growth over sustainability, and pollution may hinder long-term innovation. Enhancing environmental governance, accelerating renewables, using strategic resource revenue for green projects, integrating green growth, and regional collaboration can position Middle Eastern economies as green innovation leaders.

Improving environmental quality is essential for achieving sustainable economic development when nations pursue growth. Although previous studies looked into different factors of sustainability, the precise effects of natural resource rents as well as renewable energy on CO₂ emissions are yet to be studied in depth. This dissertation attempts to fill the gap by looking at the relationship between economic growth, natural resource rents, renewable energy, and the level of financial development with the environmental quality in eleven regions of emerged and developing economies over the time period of 1990 to 2022. The findings from the Pedroni cointegration analysis reveal a long-run association among financial development, renewable energy, natural resource rents, economic growth, and carbon emissions. Further analysis using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQREG) indicates that renewable energy and natural resource rents significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, particularly at higher quantiles, enhancing environmental quality. Conversely, financial development exacerbates CO₂ emissions, negatively affecting environmental sustainability. Economic growth demonstrates a nonsignificant negative relationship with carbon emissions. The study highlights the critical contributions of renewable energy and natural resource rents to improving environmental quality, while emphasizing the adverse environmental effects of financial development. Policymakers are encouraged to prioritize investments in renewable energy and the effective management of natural resources to mitigate carbon emissions and achieve sustainability in these economies.

The global push for sustainability has driven firms to adopt green supply chain management (GSCM) practices to mitigate environmental impacts and enhance performance. However, the link between GSCM and environmental performance (EP) remains inconclusive, particularly in developing economies and polluting industries, such as textiles. This study investigates the impact of GSCM on EP in the Turkish textile sector, addressing gaps in the understanding of the mediating role of competitive pressure (CP) and the moderating influence of adaptive green culture (AGC). Grounded in the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and stakeholder theory, this study employs a quantitative approach. Data were collected through a structured survey of 408 Turkish textile industry managers using purposive sampling. The findings confirm that GSCM positively affects EP and CP and that CP mediates the relationship between GSCM and EP. AGC further enhances the direct and indirect effects of GSCM on EP. This research contributes by demonstrating how cultural adaptability and competitive pressure optimize green practices, providing valuable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to advance sustainable supply chains in emerging economies.

Amid growing environmental concerns and an increasing push for sustainable development, countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have taken proactive steps toward green growth, energy transition, and technological innovation. As a result, this study examines the effects of green growth, energy transition, technological innovation, financial inclusion, and urbanization on environmental sustainability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Moreover, this study breaks new ground by exposing the hidden environmental costs of financial inclusion, urbanization, and technological innovation in the MENA region’s development trajectory, thereby providing compelling evidence for rethinking sustainability through an integrated approach that aligns economic ambition with ecological responsibility. Data for the studied variables were sourced from the World Bank database covering the period 1990 to 2021. The results show that green growth and energy transition significantly reduce CO₂ emissions, supporting the idea that economic expansion aligned with environmental priorities can contribute to ecological improvement. However, the impact of technological innovation is statistically insignificant, indicating that innovation in the region has not yet translated into meaningful environmental gains, possibly due to the dominance of non-green or industrial-focused innovation. Financial inclusion is found to increase CO₂ emissions, likely by facilitating greater access to credit and financial services that fuel energy-intensive consumption and production activities. Similarly, urbanization also contributes to rising emissions, reflecting the unsustainable nature of urban growth in many MENA region. Based on this study, we advocate for a coordinated regional approach to climate and energy policy, underpinned by shared governance and collective action.

This study examined how green innovation (GIN), environmental governance (EGR), and renewable energy transition (RET) influence trade-adjusted resource footprints (proxied by material footprint, MFP) in the top 15 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from 1970 to 2022. After confirming the cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the dataset, second-generation panel econometric techniques, including the cross-sectionally augmented Dickey–Fuller (CADF) unit root test and Kao cointegration test, were employed to establish stationarity and long-run equilibrium relationships. The Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) revealed heterogeneous effects across quantiles: GIN exhibited a positive impact on MFP, intensifying at higher quantiles (resource-intensive economies), while GDP per capita (GDPC) reduced MFP, with effects strengthening as quantiles raised. Conversely, EGR and RET exacerbated MFP across all quantiles, suggesting that governance and energy policies may inadvertently spur resource exploitation in SSA’s transitional economies. The Dumitrescu–Hurlin (D-H) causality test confirmed a unidirectional relationship from all independent variables to MFP, highlighting the need for integrated policies to decouple growth from material consumption. This suggests that while governance, innovation, and renewable energy transition influence resource footprints, MFP does not, in turn, impact these factors, reinforcing the importance of proactive policy interventions.