Worldwide, the demand for energy has increased significantly in last two decades, leading to an increased use of non-renewable energy resources. The global agenda aims to reduce the carbon intensity of energy in long-term climate change mitigation strategies, and to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG-7) on affordable and clean energy. Use of renewable energy (RE) can contribute to reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while providing incremental financial resources to stimulate clean development mechanisms. Hydropower continues to be the leading RE option and has the additional benefits of water storage for agriculture and other uses. Drawing on the position of four Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) countries – Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan – this paper investigates the current status of hydropower generation and related policies, and attempts to identify the key challenges to and opportunities for hydropower development in the region. Collectively, four HKH countries have commercially feasible hydropower potential of nearly 190 GW. However, only one-third of this potential has actually been tapped so far. Nepal and Pakistan have tapped 2% and 12%, respectively, of their hydropower potential. The current hydropower supply has not been able to fulfill the electricity demand in the region, where 26–37% of the rural population is living without access to electricity, and future demand for electricity is likely to increase sharply. There are several economic, social, technical, environmental, ecological and political challenges to hydropower production in the HKH countries. Despite these challenges, hydropower remains an important option for achieving renewable energy goals in the region. To achieve these goals, we suggest capitalizing on emerging opportunities such as large hydropower development using a ‘smart approach', micro-hydropower promotion, energy trade, and regional cooperation for collective energy development programs.

Hydropower development in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region: Issues, policies and opportunities

This study explores the symmetric and asymmetric effects of the shadow economy on clean energy and air pollution of South Asian countries over the period 1991–2019 The short-run ARDL findings for the clean energy model suggest that shadow economy increases clean energy consumption in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, whereas this effect is negative for India and insignificant for other countries The long-run results indicate the adverse impact only for India and the effects of tax revenue on clean energy are positively significant in Sri Lanka while negatively signiicant in Nepal and Bangladesh Institutional quality significantly increases clean energy in Pakistan, India, and Nepal However, in the case of Pakistan and Nepal, institutional quality deteriorated the environmental quality The results for the pollution model confer that shadow economy increases emissions in Pakistan, decreases in Bangladesh and Nepal, and has no effect in India and Sri Lanka The nonlinear ARDL results reveal that the positive components of the shadow economy significantly increase clean energy consumption only in Pakistan; however, the negative components of the shadow economy are negatively significant in all countries except Sri Lanka and Nepal However, the negative component of the informal sector of the economy reduces CO2 emissions in India and increases CO2 emissions in Bangladesh and Nepal The results offer important policy implications for achieving clean energy and better environmental quality in South Asian countries

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The shadow economy in South Asia: dynamic effects on clean energy consumption and environmental pollution.

Groundwater is the most important water resource, on which depends human geo-economic development and survival. Recent environmental changes and anthropogenic activities render groundwater severely vulnerable. Groundwater in Central Sindh, Pakistan, is facing a similar situation. Hydrogeochemical characteristics of the groundwater in the said region were investigated by analyzing 59 groundwater samples via agricultural and drinking indices, using various statistical methods and graphical approaches to identify factors affecting groundwater. Major reactions occurring in the groundwater system were quantified by hydrogeochemical modeling. A statistical summary reveals the abundance of cations is Na+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+, while the abundance of anions is HCO3− > Cl− > SO42. Groundwater chemistry is mainly of rock dominance. Correlation analysis and graphical relationships between ions reveal that ion exchange and rock weathering such as the dissolution of halite, albite, and dissolution of carbonate minerals are important rock–water interactions, governing the evolution of groundwater chemistry. Hydrochemical facies are predominantly of mixed CaMgCl and Na-Cl type, with few samples of Ca-HCO3 type, which constitutes fresh recharged water. Based on the Water Quality Index (WQI), 28.82% samples were found to be unsuitable for drinking. A United States Salinity Laboratory (USSL) diagram, Wilcox diagram, and other agricultural indices indicate that majority of the groundwater samples fall within the acceptable range for irrigation purposes.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/5/886/pdf

Hydrogeochemical Characterization and Suitability Assessment of Groundwater: A Case Study in Central Sindh, Pakistan.

Modern advances in nonlinear modeling have exposed that nonlinear models yield more robust results compared with linear models. Research on the effect of air-railway transportation on environmental pollution has now arrived into a new way of asymmetry analysis and captured the real issue among the nexus. This study aims to inspect the asymmetric impact of air-railway transportation on environmental pollution in Pakistan by using annual time series data from 1991 to 2019. The findings show that positive shock in air passenger carried and railway passenger carried increases carbon emissions, which implies that 1% increase in air passenger carried (railway passenger carried) enhances environmental pollution by 0.21% (0.32%) in long run in Pakistan. While positive shock in railway passengers carried increases environmental pollution and negative shock in railway passengers carried decreases the environmental pollution in the short run. The outcomes have also confirmed the short- and long-run asymmetries in Wald statistics. The findings are country-specific and it would be regionally specific.

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Pakistan management of green transportation and environmental pollution: a nonlinear ARDL analysis.

The ecological consequences of military spending is a hugely neglected area, and a veil of mystery surrounds this topic. The environmental threats posed by militaries remain insufficiently investigated in the name of national security. Prompted by the internal and external conflicts and prolonged military dictatorships, the Pakistani military assumes a role that goes beyond that of a traditional army. The current study addresses this significant gap in the literature by investigating the impacts of military spending on economic growth and the ecological footprint in Pakistan from 1971 to 2016 using the combined cointegration test and the bootstrap causality test. The findings of the study unveil a positive impact of military spending on the ecological footprint, while a negative impact on economic growth. The outcomes of the bootstrap causality test of Hacker and Hatemi-J (2012) highlight that economic growth Granger causes military spending, while causality runs from military spending to the ecological footprint. Energy consumption contributes to the ecological footprint and economic growth, whereas education expenditures do not influence economic growth and the environment in the long run. Further, the findings suggest a U-shaped link between GDP and footprint in Pakistan. The authorities should focus on resolving external and internal conflicts, on a priority basis, and reduce military spending to improve economic growth and the environment.

Analyzing the linkage between military spending, economic growth, and ecological footprint in Pakistan: evidence from cointegration and bootstrap causality.

We have human-environment relations inseparable since the creation of mankind. Being a developing country, Pakistan is striving to make developments in all the respective fields which alleviate our hot raising socio- economic issues. But beside the infrastructural and economic growth our environment is also getting polluted leaving behind several drastic and severe environmental crises and one of the adverse repercussions is environmental pollution. The extreme effects of environmental pollution cannot be neglected and through proper and genuine laws and policies implementations we can cope up such issues. This study reveals the history of environmental laws and policies and their implementations in Pakistan. Pakistan has a wide range of laws related to environment but the practice shows there is some problem which hinders to achieve the desired targets. This study mainly includes two main factors of pollution; water pollution and air pollution and their effects on population of Pakistan. Air pollution is top of the list for environmental protection agencies all over the world and same in Pakistan which is acting as a destructive bump for the economic growth of Pakistan. Moreover abruptly elevating health issues are one of the consequences of such factors of environmental pollution. This study also debates some survey of World Health Organization (WHO) and Health institute of USA about the number of people affected by these issues all over the world and in Pakistan. At the end there are concluding remarks concerning the environmental laws and policies in Pakistan, its implementation, current environmental situation with some suggestions and recommendations.

An Analysis of Environmental Law in Pakistan-policy and Conditions of Implementation

The purpose of this study was to elaborate the relation between job satisfaction and some of the facts like work burden, pay benefits, job security, way of promotion, co-worker relation and decision making staff behavior of Academic staff of GC University Lahore, Pakistan, charted Institution by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan. This paper seeks to explore the previous circumstances of job satisfactions among Academics staffs. A Set of questionnaires were collected through survey from the above said university to study these facts. This study is limited to the educational sector and need to implicate to the educational sector only. This research was limited in range among academics staffs of GCUL Pakistan (Professor, Associate professor, Assistant professor, Lecturers). Correlation and regression statistics analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between each independent variables and overall job satisfaction were calculated. The result showed that all variables have moderate to strong relation with job satisfaction.

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Job Satisfaction surrounded by Academics Staff: a case study of job satisfaction of Academics staff of the GCUL, Pakistan

The agriculture annulus in Pakistan aid 21% towards GDP of the country with mainly agriculture based economy. This ambit represents 45% of the country’s labor force. Rivers are the main essence of water in Pakistan. This accounts for agriculture, commercial and domestic use. The veer in the availability of water of Rivers not only affects the economy but also the climate of the country. Water of these Rivers, directly or indirectly affects the lives of people in Pakistan. Indus River is the radical river which flows through the whole country until the brink of Arabian Sea. Indus Basin commences via Tibet flow from Jammu and Kashmir (India) to Pakistan. This paper is a descriptive study of water flow in the three giant rivers of Pakistan and conspicuously illustrate the past flow history, present condition and unborn recognition of water resources in the realm. The historical scansion and the unborn prediction of the attainment of water in the kingdom along with its consequences on the economy is also the ingredient of this inquest. The fright of critical water shortage is utterly tedious for Pakistan so there is a heinous exigency of ingenuous endeavors from the governance bodies to cope with these challenges. Notions to address this issue are also presented in this paper.

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Indus Basin Waters A Main Resource of Water in Pakistan: An Analytical Approach

Being developed countries both Pakistan and India are striving for the economic development. Pakistan and India share a 1610 km long border. They share same language, dress and culture and also six watercourses, namely the Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, along with their numerous tributaries. Pakistan, like other countries of the region depends heavily on agriculture, with the greater part of the population relying on it for livelihood. As a result, water is not only vital for everyday needs, but a critical source for economic development. Water is a resource on which there is dependency of economy and no substitute. Pakistan and India are close neighbors and lied in South East of Asia. Apart from sharing border and history both the countries have various same customs and traditions.Both countries gained independence in 1947 from British Government, from the day of independence Pakistan has been facing lots of internal and external challenges. Apart from other conflicts, water issues also exist between Pakistan and India. After the nine years negotiation with the help of World Bank, they solved this issue but after some time it started again. Some kind of historical issues including water issues has been discussed in this paper. To judge the public opinion of the both countries, an interview survey was conducted by some international expert and from the people who are directly involved in these kind of profession of Indo-Pak relation. Analyses of interview with some statistic information and on the behalf of history some conclusions and suggestions were including at the end of this study.

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Evaluation of Historic Indo-Pak Relations, Water Resource Issues and Its impact on Contemporary Bilateral Affairs

A review of the relevant research reveals that the concept of “professional growth” is understood to refer to an all-encompassing developmental process that occurs throughout a person’s career as well as their entire life, and it is acknowledged as a phrase that is connected to other ideas. In addition, we can say that human attributes and circumstances are not the only factors that play a role in the process of professional development, but social and institutional experience also play a role in it. After that, this research is shown, which has personal dimensions for beliefs (B), co-workers (CW), culture inheritance (CI), customs (C), information and communications technology (ICT), and learning practice (LP). The research is formed to illustrate that promotion of professional growth in workplaces is connected to the mentioned variables. This study was based on the working experience of different backgrounds people. We tried to check how their attributes could influence their working practices and learning practices. A semi-structured questionnaire was adopted from existing literature and modified as per the study area. B > LP (β = 0.022; p 0.010), CI- > LP (β = 0.368; p 0.000), C- > LP (β = 0.210; p 0.000), and ICT- > LP (β = 0.410; p 0.000) were found to be significant using PLS-SEM direct path analysis.These results offer support to hypotheses H1, H3-H6 accepted and H2 rejected. As control variables, we looked at the respondents’ age, education, and gender. Gender (β = 0.006; p 0.846) showed insignificant relationships with LP, whereas age (β = −0.103; p 0.001) and education (β = −0.072; p 0.034) showed significant relationships with the dependent variable. gender does not have any relationship with learning practices (LP), but age and education can be favorable control variables, and an aged and experienced person can have more impacts on LP and impacts on independent variables.

Huang Delin

Papers

An Analysis of Environmental Law in Pakistan-policy and Conditions of Implementation

Job Satisfaction surrounded by Academics Staff: a case study of job satisfaction of Academics staff of the GCUL, Pakistan

Indus Basin Waters A Main Resource of Water in Pakistan: An Analytical Approach

Evaluation of Historic Indo-Pak Relations, Water Resource Issues and Its impact on Contemporary Bilateral Affairs

An empirical analysis of cultural inheritance and ICT role on learning practice in a working environment; A PLS-SEM analysis