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Economic complexity, greenfield investments, and energy innovation: policy implications for sustainable development goals in newly industrialised economies

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Abstract

The crucial role of environmental assessment quality has been recognised by environmental and sustainable development goals in addressing climate change challenges. By focusing on the key identifier of environmental assessment, progress can be made towards overcoming climate change issues effectively. The current study considers environmental commitments under COP28 to study the role of economic complexity, greenfield investments, and energy innovation in environmental degradation in newly industrialised economies from 1995 to 2021. We employ novel panel estimations from CS-ARDL, CS-DL, AMG, and CCEMG to confirm that economic growth and greenfield investments degrade environmental quality. On the other hand, energy innovation and urbanisation improve environmental sustainability. Lastly, we confirm the EKC hypothesis for economic complexity as well. Given the reported empirical findings, the study suggests policymakers must focus on economic complexity to transform industrial sectors’ economic potential. Furthermore, foreign investment projects must be linked with environmental goals to increase renewable energy capacity.

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Data availability

Data and relevant materials will be available from the corresponding author.

Notes

  1. Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, Philippines, Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, Brazil.

  2. Hydrofluorocarbons sulphur, hexafluoride, and perfluorocarbons.

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Funding

Moreover, we acknowledge funding support from Project (Grant No:2023JJ40061) supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Farhan Bashir

  2. Department of Economics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Roula Inglesi-Lotz

  3. Department of Economic and Finance, Sunway Business School, Sunway University, Subang Jaya, Malaysia

    Ummara Razi

  4. Department of Business Administration, ILMA University, Karachi, Pakistan

    Ummara Razi

  5. Independent Researcher, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Luqman Shahzad

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  1. Muhammad Farhan Bashir
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  2. Roula Inglesi-Lotz
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  4. Luqman Shahzad
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Contributions

Muhammad Farhan Bashir: conceptualization, methodology, writing draft, writing—revision; Roula Inglesi-Lotz: data curation, writing draft, methodology, data analysis; Ummara Razi: writing draft; Luqman Shahzad: data curation; methodology.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Farhan Bashir.

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Bashir, M.F., Inglesi-Lotz, R., Razi, U. et al. Economic complexity, greenfield investments, and energy innovation: policy implications for sustainable development goals in newly industrialised economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 36013–36027 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33433-4

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