Unveiling the green path: The role of green finance and just energy transition in environmental sustainability

IF 7.2 1区地球科学 Q1 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Gondwana Research Pub Date : 2025-08-21 DOI:10.1016/j.gr.2025.07.024

Sami Ullah , Boqiang Lin

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Abstract

The growing global focus on environmental sustainability has spurred interest in exploring how energy transition and green finance contribute to fostering eco-friendly practices. This research examines the impact of just energy transition (JENT) and green finance (GF) on environmental sustainability in the USA, using the load capacity factor (LF) as a proxy for environmental sustainability alongside control variables, including GDP, urbanization, and trade openness. Utilizing time series data spanning 1990/Q1 to 2022/Q4, the analysis incorporates rigorous stationarity tests, such as QADF and QPP tests, to certify the robustness of the findings. Nonlinear methodologies, including quantile-on-quantile regression (QQR), wavelet quantile regression (WQR), and quantile-on-quantile Granger causality (QQGC), are utilized to capture the dynamic and asymmetric interactions between the variables. The outcome reveals that just energy transition and green finance can promote environmental sustainability at specific quantiles, aligning with the broader goals of mitigating climate change and reducing carbon emissions. In contrast, GDP and trade openness exhibit a detrimental effect on environmental sustainability, indicating that GDP and increased trade openness may pose challenges to eco-friendly practices. Additionally, urbanization is found to have a positive relationship with environmental sustainability, highlighting the potential benefits of urban growth in supporting sustainable development. The discoveries of QQGC reveal that core indicators, such as JENT, GF, GDP, URL, and TO, serve as meaningful analysts of LF at various quantiles. The findings underscore the importance of integrating sustainable energy policies and financing mechanisms into national and international development frameworks. Policymakers should prioritize investments in green finance and energy transition to promote environmental sustainability.

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开辟绿色道路：绿色金融和能源转型在环境可持续性中的作用

全球对环境可持续性的日益关注激发了人们对探索能源转型和绿色金融如何促进环保实践的兴趣。本研究考察了能源转型（JENT）和绿色金融（GF）对美国环境可持续性的影响，使用负荷能力因子（LF）作为环境可持续性的代理，同时控制变量包括GDP、城市化和贸易开放。利用1990年第一季度至2022年第四季度的时间序列数据，分析纳入了严格的平稳性检验，如QADF和QPP检验，以证明研究结果的稳健性。利用非线性方法，包括分位数对分位数回归（QQR）、小波分位数回归（WQR）和分位数对格兰杰因果关系（QQGC）来捕捉变量之间的动态和不对称相互作用。结果表明，能源转型和绿色金融可以促进特定分位数的环境可持续性，与减缓气候变化和减少碳排放的更广泛目标保持一致。相比之下，GDP和贸易开放对环境可持续性表现出不利影响，表明GDP和贸易开放的增加可能对生态友好实践构成挑战。此外，城市化与环境可持续性存在正相关关系，突出了城市增长在支持可持续发展方面的潜在效益。QQGC的发现表明，JENT、GF、GDP、URL和TO等核心指标在各个分位数上都是LF的有意义的分析指标。调查结果强调了将可持续能源政策和融资机制纳入国家和国际发展框架的重要性。政策制定者应优先投资绿色金融和能源转型，以促进环境可持续性。

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来源期刊

Gondwana Research 地学-地球科学综合

CiteScore

12.90

自引率

6.60%

发文量

298

审稿时长

65 days

期刊介绍： Gondwana Research (GR) is an International Journal aimed to promote high quality research publications on all topics related to solid Earth, particularly with reference to the origin and evolution of continents, continental assemblies and their resources. GR is an "all earth science" journal with no restrictions on geological time, terrane or theme and covers a wide spectrum of topics in geosciences such as geology, geomorphology, palaeontology, structure, petrology, geochemistry, stable isotopes, geochronology, economic geology, exploration geology, engineering geology, geophysics, and environmental geology among other themes, and provides an appropriate forum to integrate studies from different disciplines and different terrains. In addition to regular articles and thematic issues, the journal invites high profile state-of-the-art reviews on thrust area topics for its column, ''GR FOCUS''. Focus articles include short biographies and photographs of the authors. Short articles (within ten printed pages) for rapid publication reporting important discoveries or innovative models of global interest will be considered under the category ''GR LETTERS''.