Narrow Results

The developing world is facing multidirectional challenges of socioeconomics in the era of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-2030). Fiscal indicators like fiscal imbalance and debt financing are the key hurdles in financing sustainable environment projects. This study attempted to probe the impact of the fiscal indicators on the environmental conditions of the South Asian region. For a comprehensive analysis, the study utilized a dataset of all eight countries of South Asia for 19 years. Per capita greenhouse gas emission has been used as a dependent indicator, while fiscal imbalance anddebt to gross domestic product (GDP) have been taken as independent indicators along with energy consumption, energy intensity and GDP growth rate. The generalized least squares and quantile autoregressive distributive lag methods have been adopted from econometric for this empirical analysis. Both ways confirm that fiscal imbalance and debt financing play a significant role in greenhouse gas emissions accumulation in the entire region of South Asia. Energy consumption and the cost of producing energy (energy intensity) are the other sources of greenhouse gas emissions accumulation in the area. This study suggested that developing economies of South Asia may not be able to fulfill their commitments regarding SDGs-2030 if their issues of fiscal imbalance and debt financing have not been treated initially.

The Paris Agreement signals increased climate awareness and potential changes in the business environment as an economy decarbonizes. Ratification of the Paris Agreement could heighten climate-related transition risks, especially for companies in high-emitting industries. This research analyzes the impact of Paris Agreement ratification on the debt financing decisions of publicly listed companies in Southeast Asian economies. Our empirical evidence shows that, after announcement of Paris Agreement ratification, firms in high-emitting industries have leverage and financial leverage that are an average of 1.8% and 4.2% lower, respectively, than firms in low-emitting industries. Firms in the region also witnessed higher risks 2 years after ratification, and these risks do not differ significantly between high- and low-emitting industries. This finding implies that firms become riskier under heightened transition risks, and this influences their financial decisions. Governments might thus consider introducing policies that facilitate their response to a low-carbon transition.