In selected South Asian countries, the study intends to investigate the relationship between urban population (UP), carbon dioxide (CO₂), trade openness (TO), gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment (FDI), and renewable energy (RE). Fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least square (DOLS) models for estimation were used in the study, which covered yearly data from 1990 to 2019. We used Levin–Lin–Chu, Im–Pesaran–Shin, and Fisher PP tests for the stationarity of the variables. The outcomes of the panel cointegration approach looked at whether there was a long-run equilibrium nexus between selected variables in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka. The FMOLS approach was also used to assess the relationship, and the results suggest that there is a significant and negative nexus between FDI and renewable energy in south Asian nations. The study’s findings reveal a strong and favorable relationship between GDP and renewable energy use. In South Asian nations (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh), the FMOLS and DOLS findings are nearly identical, but the authors used the DOLS model for robustification. According to the findings, policymakers in South Asian economies (Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh) should view GDP and FDI as fundamental policy instruments for environmental sustainability. To reduce reliance on hazardous energy sources, the government should also reassure financial sectors to participate in renewable energy.

For the last few years, the execution of the Belt and Road Initiative (hereinafter referred to as the BRI) and China’s outward foreign direct investment (hereinafter referred to as OFDI) in Europe have seen a significant upward trend. For our current paper, we collected empirical data pertaining to China’s OFDI and foreign trade (gathered from 21 European countries in the trade gravity market for the period 2003 to 2016) that yielded the following results: (a) China’s OFDI to Europe has significantly promoted international trade between China and European countries. On the other hand, OFDI has equally promoted China’s exports to European counties, while it has not encouraged China’s imports from European counties. (b) The Belt and Road Initiative has had a positive impact on China’s exports to European counties and has had a negative impact on China’s imports from European counties. (c) There have been both complementary trade impacts and substitution trade impacts when China has directly invested in European countries, but the complementary impact was much stronger than its substitution impact in the chosen sample period.