Vol. 3 No. 1 (2025)

This study highlights the potential of stormwater fees, commonly referred to as “rain taxes”, as a solution to urban stormwater management challenges within Canada, attributed to the increased urbanization and climate change impacts. A comprehensive SWOT analysis reveals the rain taxes ability to generate dedicated funding to be utilized for sustainable stormwater infrastructure, incentivizing property owners to reduce runoff, and enhance climate resilience. However, challenges such as administrative complexities, public resistance and possible uneven economic impacts may limit the taxation’s widespread adoption. The paper highlights the importance of communication, equitable fee structures and community engagement to develop public acceptance and develop fairness. Opportunities for leveraging these taxes in order to drive green infrastructure investments, advancements within technology and inter-municipal collaboration are emphasized. Moreover, the study underscores the need for adaptive management strategies and consistent policy frameworks to approach long-term sustainability goals. Limitations of the SWOT analysis comprising of the subjectivity and possible lack of depth are acknowledged, emphasizing the importance of iterative reassessment in dynamic urban and environmental contexts. The findings within this analysis provides actionable insights for policymakers, stakeholders and municipalities to design and implement rain taxes effectively, ensuring their role as a key tool within Canada’s urban sustainability strategies on the basis of stormwater management.

Climate change poses a critical global challenge necessitating innovative financial mechanisms to facilitate the transition to a low-carbon economy. This study explores emerging trends in climate finance, using Denmark as a case study, to evaluate their role in achieving carbon neutrality. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates quantitative data analysis with qualitative insights, utilizing descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and time-series analysis to assess the effectiveness of green bonds, carbon pricing mechanisms, climate insurance, and climate-focused venture capital in mobilizing resources and promoting low-carbon investments. The findings indicate substantial growth in green bond issuance, significant emission reductions through carbon pricing, enhanced resilience via climate insurance, and increased innovation driven by climate-focused venture capital. Statistical analysis reveals that higher carbon tax rates and increased emissions trading volumes are strongly correlated with greater reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The study underscores the effectiveness of these financial instruments in advancing Denmark’s carbon neutrality goals and offers a scalable model for other nations. Nonetheless, challenges such as standardization, political acceptance, and economic competitiveness must be addressed to maximize the global impact of climate finance. This research contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive evaluation of climate finance mechanisms within Denmark and demonstrates their potential for global adaptation and scaling. The findings provide actionable insights for policymakers, investors, and stakeholders to strengthen the role of finance in achieving carbon neutrality.

This paper empirically examines the impact of institutional quality on FDI-driven economic growth in 135 developing countries from 1996–2020. Given that improved institutions lower business costs, reduce uncertainty, and attract FDI inflow, the study hypothesizes that enhancing institutional quality will likely foster higher economic growth in developing countries through FDI. We apply dynamic and static panel estimation techniques for this investigation. The research employs six measures of institutional quality from the World Governance Indicators (WGI) and their interaction with FDI inflow to identify key institutional quality indicators for developing countries. Results indicate a positive and significant effect of FDI on economic growth in developing countries. Moreover, enhancements in three specific institutional quality indicators—government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and the rule of law—strengthen FDI’s impact on economic growth. The study also underscores the greater significance of institutional quality in driving FDI-led economic growth in developing countries, compared to its limited impact on all countries. Ultimately, the study recommends that policymakers in developing countries devise effective strategies to enhance government effectiveness, regulatory quality, and the rule of law to expedite economic growth through FDI.

This study delves into the intricate interplay between economic development and environmental quality in Asia-Pacific nations. It examines key economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), gross national income (GNI) per capita, imports and exports, and their influence on environmental metrics like water productivity, carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, forest rents, and total resource rents. The results reveal a nuanced relationship: GDP per capita correlates positively with water productivity, suggesting enhanced efficiency, and is associated with lower CO₂ emissions, hinting at potential ecological benefits from economic progress. Conversely, GNI per capita shows a positive link with CO₂ emissions, possibly reflecting income disparities and consumption patterns. While exports show no clear influence on environmental factors, imports are found to have adverse effects on water efficiency. To tackle environmental challenges arising from economic development, the study emphasizes the importance of adopting sustainable development practices and calls for a deeper investigation into the specific variables influencing this relationship at a local level.

High-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive service industries exert significant spatial spillover effects on economic growth, which arise from their close coupling in innovation-driven development, value chain upgrading, mutual complementarity and synergy, spatial diffusion and spillover, as well as policy guidance and regional competition. First, their collaborative agglomeration enhances regional innovation capacity and industrial competitiveness, directing industrial structures toward higher value-added and more technologically advanced levels. Second, it enables the cross-regional flow and exchange of knowledge, technology, and talent, thereby fostering broader coordinated development and narrowing regional disparities. Empirical evidence indicates that such collaborative agglomeration is substantially more pronounced in the relatively developed central and eastern regions, yet remains comparatively weak in the western region, resulting in a nationwide spatial pattern characterized by the coexistence of “high-high” and “low-low” clusters. Further analysis using the Spatial Durbin Model confirms a significant positive impact of the joint agglomeration of high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services on regional economic growth, underscoring the vital importance of inter-industry collaboration. Spatial heterogeneity analysis reveals notable discrepancies in industrial agglomeration across regions. Consequently, strengthening the collaborative agglomeration capacity of these two industries is pivotal for establishing a new agglomeration model that aligns with their developmental requirements. Such efforts not only promote knowledge and technology spillovers but also help mitigate resource misallocation caused by congestion, thereby contributing to a reduction in regional development disparities.

This empirical study investigates the factors influencing Australian millennial consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors towards sustainable apparel. The study deploys a qualitative research method exploring millennials traits such as purchasing habits, social and sustainable knowledge, and perception of labels within the Australian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 Australian millennial participants. Key factors identified include product likeability, price, sustainable preferences, sustainability knowledge, and trust in the brand. The findings reveal that while millennials prioritize fashion and comfort, a significant sub-group is motivated by ethical concerns and sustainability knowledge. However, the study also highlights the pervasive skepticism towards brand claims, driven by fears of greenwashing, and the critical role of education in fostering sustainable practices. Despite a growing awareness of environmental and social impacts, practical considerations such as price and quality often dominate purchasing decisions. The study underscores the importance of transparency and detailed communication from brands, as well as the need for government initiatives to educate consumers and regulate sustainability claims. These insights are crucial for developing effective marketing strategies and fostering a genuine commitment to sustainability in the fashion industry.

In light of the global aim of reaching net-zero emissions, numerous studies have examined the leading causes of ecological decline, including carbon dioxide emissions, ecological footprints, and other greenhouse gases. These measures only consider the ecosystem’s demand side, ignoring its supply side. To fill this gap, this research investigates the Load Capacity Factor (LCF) determinants in four GCC economies from 1992 to 2021 using the Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL), Panel Vector Autoregression (PVAR)-Granger Causality test, and JKS test. The determinants considered in this study include Total Natural Resources Rents (RENT), Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDP), and Financial Globalization (FGLO). The PMG–ARDL’s result demonstrates that, in the short term, GDP, and RENT spur LCF, while FGLO is marginally beneficial. The JKS and PVAR-Granger Causality tests reveal a strong causal movement from RENT, GDP and FGLO to LCF, validating the PMG-ARDL findings. The study recommends that the GCC economies develop strategic ways to expand their economies while ensuring ecological quality. These strategies could entail the adoption of new technology, which will provide better ways of using fossils and adopting renewables, which can contribute to environmental progress.

Sustainable economies have demand for natural resources (i.e., ecological footprint) less than nature’s renewable supply of resources (called biocapacity) to support clean production, development and equity in societies. The goal of this study is to identify new technologies that can support energy change from fossil fuels to renewable sources directed at zero-carbon and sustainable economies having lower environmental pollution and higher social well-being. Using data from scientific publications and patents until 2024 and a liner model for regression analyses, empirical results reveal that sustainable technologies having rapid growth and supporting the transformation of the energy sector, economic system and society are blue hydrogen, floating photovoltaic systems, carbon capture storage and utilization, green hydrogen and liquid metal batteries. The implications of findings here for sustainable policies oriented to new technologies are discussed to have, whenever possible, zero-carbon economies directed to long-run sustainable development. The purpose of this study here is basic to support sustainable economies with new technologies that provide the greatest level of general well-being of people with the least amount of resource use and with low environmental harm to support the “one health” of people, animals and natural ecosystems (i.e., optimal health results considering the interaction between population, zoologic, botanic and total environment ecosystems).