Khatib Ahmad Khan

Environmental degradation, particularly rising carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, poses a major threat to human welfare and sustainable development. This study examines the effects of tourism and human development on CO₂ emissions within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework using threshold regression for a panel of 112 countries over 1995–2022. The results reveal significant threshold-dependent effects of tourism on CO₂ emissions, with tourism exerting both positive and negative effects across the two country groups. This finding indicates that the environmental consequences of tourism are heterogeneous and depend on country-specific development conditions. The study highlights the importance of integrating environmental sustainability into tourism and development policies. In particular, policymakers should promote environmental education and public awareness regarding renewable energy, incentivize hotels and accommodation facilities to adopt clean energy technologies, and encourage sustainable transportation in tourism. These measures can help reduce the carbon intensity of tourism activities while supporting economic development and improved living standards. The findings provide important policy implications for advancing sustainable tourism and achieving climate-related Sustainable Development Goals.

Achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) remains a complex challenge even for advanced economies. In this context, G7 leaders have committed to attaining the SDGs by 2030 and achieving net‐zero emissions by 2050. This study examines how e‐government (EGDI), economic globalisation (EGI), economic complexity (ECI), natural resource management (NRM) and renewable energy consumption (REC) influence the Sustainable Development Goal Index (SDGI) in G7 countries over the period 2003–2020. Using the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR), supported by bootstrap quantile regression (BQR) and a set of preliminary diagnostic tests, the analysis captures heterogeneous effects across different quantiles of the SDGI. The results show that EGI, ECI and REC exert positive and statistically significant effects on SDGs achievement across most quantiles. In contrast, NRM exhibits a consistently negative and significant impact, revealing a counterintuitive sustainability penalty associated with resource reliance in G7 economies, consistent with a modified resource curse interpretation. Another notable and unexpected finding is that EGDI is negatively associated with SDGs performance across quantiles, although the effect remains statistically insignificant, This suggests that digital governance alone may not be sufficient to generate measurable sustainability gains in contexts characterized by relatively advanced institutional frameworks. These findings underscore the importance of moving beyond resource dependence, aligning ECI with low‐carbon sectors and strengthening renewable energy investment. We also highlight the need for sustainability‐oriented reforms in digital governance to ensure that technological advancement supports, rather than merely accompanies, progress towards the SDGs.

As a developing country, India has experienced considerable social progress and economic growth (EG) that has driven higher energy use, which has affected the economic welfare. To identify these problems, this study investigates the impact of electricity generation, particularly from renewable and non-renewable sources, on economic welfare in India from 1990 to 2019. This study employing the ARDL model, augmented by the application of principal component analysis (PCA) to diverse indicators of economic welfare (EWI), including Employment (EMP), Human Capital (HC), CO2 emission (CO2), Economic Growth (GDP), Consumption (CCON), life expectancy (LE) and Work Engagement (AVH). The findings reveal that wind and solar power negatively affect EWI in the long run, while hydropower positively affects EWI in the long term. Furthermore, non-renewable sources, except nuclear power, show a significant positive impact on EWI in the long term and nuclear power negatively impacts it. This study contributes to existing literature by revealing that not all renewable energy sources equally promote economic welfare, emphasising the need for differentiated renewable energy policies in developing economies like India. The study underscores the importance of a balanced energy strategy, advocating for investments in renewable energy sources (RES) and non-renewable energy sources (NRES) to enhance EWI in India and offering valuable insights for policymakers aiming to ensure universal access to energy. The study suggests that India should have a balanced energy strategy that improves the economy by building up renewable energy sources and carefully controlling the usage of fossil fuels.