Import product diversification is a major parameter in international trade. Import diversification contributes to economic growth and affects the environment due to its impact on energy consumption. In this article, we investigate the impact of import product diversification along with income, oil prices, natural resources, population, and foreign direct investment on energy demand, covering a composite sample of 102 developing and 36 developed economies over the period from 1995 to 2020. We also assess the impact of import diversification on energy demand considering all sub-samples. We find a significant long-run cointegration between total energy demand and import diversification for both developed and developing countries, confirmed by Pedroni cointegration tests. We further denote that import diversification together with other independent variables is stationary after the first differences in LLC unit root tests. Contrary to traditional methods, we apply panel quantile regression and conclude that import diversification, GDP, oil prices, foreign direct investment, natural resources, and population share long-run integration with total energy consumption for both developed and developing countries. The Dumitrescu and Hurlin short-run causality test confirms the existence of pair-wise bidirectional causality between all independent variables including import diversification, GDP, oil prices, natural resources, foreign investment, and population with energy demand. Our empirics conclude with important policy implications for sustainability.

The prime objective of this article is to examine the policy-making role of metal markets, gold resources, and clean energy markets in the post-COVID-19 era and the Russia-Ukrainian military conflict. In doing so, we analyze the role of fossil fuels, clean energy, and metals markets, considering the military conflict in Ukraine in 2022. The study employs event study methodology (ESM), Total connectedness index (TCI), and network analyses. The results indicate that natural gas and clean energy prices are less affected by conflict in the aftermath of an invasion than traditional energy and metals markets. In addition, we observe an increase in the TCI in the energy markets during announcement days. The TCI of the metals market is greater than that of the energy market. According to network connectivity, the key asset class transmitters of the shock in Europe are the Geopolitical index (GPR), gold, and the clean energy stock index (ERIX). The U.S. markets are less affected by the situation in Ukraine. The average hedge suggests that the optimal hedge differs from one market to the next, with fossil fuels and renewable energy, respectively, being more hedge effective and reducing risk by an average of around 0.80 and 0.59, given their ability to function as a hedging instrument.