Edwin Muchapondwa

Having a modern cooking stove at the household level provides an incomplete measure of cooking energy access. This limitation has necessitated the introduction of a multi-tier framework (MTF) to provide a more nuanced assessment. Thus, this study examines the overall, gendered, and rural-urban effects of cooking energy access under the MTF on health and time allocation to various household activities. Using the 2018 World Bank/ESMAP MTF dataset on Zambia, the study applies inverse probability regression adjustment with generalized propensity score to estimate pairwise average treatment effect on treated, by categorising households to tiers (0–5) based on six primary cooking energy attributes. The findings reveal that as households move up the MTF tiers, improvements in outcomes – such as reduced respiratory illness and better time allocation – are generally observed, though the magnitude of benefits tends to taper at higher tiers. Furthermore, women experience greater improvements relative to men, particularly in lower-tier transitions.

Successfully analyzing and managing trade-offs between community welfare and wildlife conservation are complex tasks that require a multidisciplinary approach and consideration of various factors. Bioeconomic modeling provides a structured quantitative framework for understanding and evaluating the complex interactions between biological systems and economic activities, aiding in the crafting of more effective and sustainable conservation and rural development strategies. Combined with results from other methods such as economic valuation, institutional analysis, impact evaluation, and framed-field experiments, they can provide guidance on reaching the social planner's optimum. The literature suggests significant roles for comanagement, benefit-sharing, and sustainable financing of conservation as the key ingredients for managing the trade-offs between communities’ welfare and nature conservation in Africa. However, comprehensive research tackling multiple problems simultaneously is required to fully understand and manage the trade-offs. Further, mainstreaming gender and climate change in studies of the trade-offs is increasingly becoming an obligation.

There is competition for land between Maasai pastoralists and the park agency in the Serengeti ecosystem. The park agency wants to use the land for wildlife conservation while the pastoralist community wants to use it for livestock grazing. Predatory wildlife kills livestock while herbivorous wildlife competes with livestock for water and grazing. In retaliation, the Maasai hunt predators and grazers to protect their livestock and also to supply the black market for wildlife products. With both the Maasai and animal populations growing, increased conflicts are inevitable. This paper develops a bioeconomic model with three animal species to analyse the optimal combination of pastoral activities and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti ecosystem. Using Pontryagin's maximum principle, the market problem for each agent is optimized and compared to the social planner's outcome. Results show that the market solutions are suboptimal because of negative externalities affecting both agents and inadequate regard to biodiversity conservation values. Mathematical simulations of the bioeconomic model are used to generate a solution in which the Maasai pastoralists and park agency can optimally share the land for their mutual benefit. The policy implication is that the government should establish an independent regulatory institution with a primary mandate of balancing the contested socioeconomic and ecological needs of stakeholders in prime ecosystems such as the Serengeti.

In terms of policy, the BRICS region has prioritized achieving environmental sustainability. Environmental problems are mostly caused by the area's continuous reliance on fossil fuels to meet its energy requirements. It is also challenging to significantly reduce the region's reliance on fossil fuels because historically, the region has been a big importer of fossil fuels. As a result, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rates of the BRICS countries have been rising over time. Furthermore, the area has enormous untapped reserves of renewable energy sources that can be exploited to produce electricity without negatively impacting the ecosystem. In light of this, this research analyses, while controlling for energy innovation, economic growth, and natural resource rent, the combined effects of green finance (GFN) and financial technology (fintech) in reaching the region's carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2020. The findings for the BRICS economies, which are consistent with the EKC theory, imply that environmental sustainability is promoted by GFN, fintech, and energy innovation (ENI). NRR (natural resource rent) and GDP (economic growth) compromise environmental quality, nevertheless. It has also been demonstrated that there is a two‐way causal relationship between CO₂ emissions and GFN, fintech, and NRR. However, it has been demonstrated that GDP and ENI have a one‐way causal relationship with CO₂ emissions. It is recommended that the BRICS nations speed up the development of green financial products and increase the capacity of banks and financial institutions to offer green credit facilities based on the empirical findings. The basic study of how green finance solutions might be used while lowering the related risks should receive more funding.

The Paris Accord has brought the world's governments together to begin implementing plans for their individual economies to become carbon‐free. The goal of attaining low‐carbon growth is not, however, as simple as it would appear since the world economies, which are dependent on fossil fuels and are fast expanding, are concentrated on accelerating economic expansion at the price of worse environmental effects. In light of this, the study aims to investigate the combined effects of the composite risk index (CRI), green innovation (GINOV), and environmental policy stringency (EPS) on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in the context of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries while controlling for gross domestic product (GDP) and renewable energy research and development (RERD) over the period from 1960 to 2020. The research addresses the problems of cross‐sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity in the data set used for analysis by using the second‐generation cross‐sectionally augmented autoregressive distributed lags framework to evaluate long‐ and short‐run models. The corresponding findings show cointegrating relationships between the research variables. Additionally, the results of the regression demonstrate that EPS, GINOV, and RERD contribute to a long‐term decrease in CO₂ emissions. CRI and GDP, however, increase CO₂ emissions. It is suggested that environmental policies be tightened, GINOV and RERD expenditures be promoted, political stability and institutional quality be maintained, and clean economic growth strategies be adopted in order to help the BRICS countries reduce sectoral risks, create a sustainable environment, and decarbonize their respective economies.

Reaching decarbonization goals has become a top focus for several industrialized and emerging economies globally. The greatest effect of human behavior is global warming. Utilizing fiscal decentralization (FDST), export diversification (EDI), and environment‐related technological innovation (ERTI) may be necessary to address global pollution and accomplish environmental sustainability goals. Additionally, these strategies could aid various levels of government and nations in pursuing what they define as sustainable development. This study evaluates the combined benefits of FDST, EDI and ERTI in meeting the environmental sustainability goals of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa ( BRICS ) economies from 1970 to 2020. Using the augmented mean group method, the long‐run dynamic equilibrium between the chosen variables is examined. The findings demonstrate that while the adoption of ERTI and renewable energy (REC) benefits the environment, EDI, FDST, and economic growth exacerbate environmental deterioration. Our findings suggest that the BRICS countries should proceed cautiously when adopting FDST and EDI plans. The adoption of ERTI and REC should be promoted by the government to increase environmental sustainability.

The BRICS region has considered achieving environmental sustainability a top priority in terms of policy. Environmental distress is mostly brought on by the region’s continued reliance on fossil fuels to supply local energy needs. Besides, the region has historically been a significant importer of fossil fuels, making it difficult to substantially reduce the region’s reliance on them. As a result, the BRICS nations’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emission rates have steadily increased over time. Moreover, the region offers vast untapped amounts of renewable energy sources that may be used to generate power without adversely harming the environment. In light of this, this paper examines the combined effects of green finance (GFN) and financial technology (fintech) in achieving the region’s carbon neutrality goals from 1990 to 2020, while controlling for energy innovation, economic growth and natural resources rent. The results for the BRICS economies, which are supported by the EKC hypothesis, suggest that GFN, fintech and energy innovation (ENI) promote environmental sustainability. However, natural resources rent (NRR) and economic growth (GDP) degrade environmental quality. Additionally, it has been shown that the bidirectional causality exists between CO2 emissions and GFN, fintech, and NRR. However, GDP and ENI have been shown to exhibit unidirectional causality with CO2 emissions. Based on the empirical findings, it is suggested that the BRICS countries should speed up the development of green financial products and expand the ability of banks and financial institutions to provide green credit facilities, and put into the research on the usage of GFN solutions.

We investigate the behavioural responses of natural common-pool resource users to three policy interventions—sanctioned quotas, information provisioning, and a combination of both. We focus on situations in which users find utility in multiple resources (pastures and wild animal stocks) that all stem from the same ecosystem with complex dynamics, and management could trigger a regime shift, drastically altering resource regrowth. We performed a framed field experiment with 384 villagers from communities managing common-pool wildlife in Zimbabwe. We find that user groups are likely to manage these natural resources more efficiently when facing a policy intervention (either a sanctioned quota, receiving information about a drastic drop in the stocks’ regrowth below a threshold, or a combination of both), compared to groups facing no intervention. A sanctioned quota is likely to perform better than providing information about the existence of a threshold. However, having information about the threshold also leads to higher efficiency and fewer depletion cases, compared to a situation without any intervention. The main contribution of this study is to provide insights that can inform policymakers and development practitioners about the performance of concrete and feasible policy interventions for community wildlife conservation in Southern Africa.