Energy is the cornerstone of today's social development, and it is of great significance to comprehensively and objectively reflect the level of energy efficiency (EE) and regional differences. Taking the Huaihe Eco-economic Belt (HEB) as an example, the EE of 28 cities in the HEB from 2008 to 2021 was measured and analyzed by using the super-efficiency SBM model with non-expected outputs; Using Dagum Gini coefficient to explore regional differences in EE levels and their sources; It also explores the dynamic evolutionary pattern and spatial correlation of EE levels using kernel density estimation, Markov transfer probability matrix, and Moran index. The results are as follows: (1) The value of EE in the HEB shows a trend of change that first declines and then rises, with relatively small changes; (2) Regional differences in EE show a fluctuating and increasing trend, with hypervariable density being the most important source of overall regional differences, which are much greater within regions than between regions; (3) The development of EE has been polarized, and the hierarchy of EE levels is relatively stable, with the phenomenon of “club convergence”; (4) There is spatial agglomeration in the level of EE development, with cities in the midwest parts of the country mostly falling in the high-value agglomeration area of the first quadrant, and cities in the northern part of the country mostly falling in the low-value agglomeration area of the third quadrant, with a few cities experiencing spatial and temporal jumps. This paper will be valuable to the government in identifying energy-inefficient cities, formulating targeted policy measures, and promoting the synergistic sustainable development of HEB.

In these modern times, developed and developing economies use different means and strategies to attain economic growth and financial development. Still, environmental recovery instruments are not yet empirically explored in developed regions. The prime objective of this study is to unveil the nexus between electricity use, environmental policies, and financial development to report novel approaches through the lens of sustainable development. The present research examines the heterogeneous impacts of climate policies and ecological taxes on financial development. In doing so, the study has considered greener energy and institutional quality variables as policy factors for financial development. The authors employ the 29 OECD economies data from 1994 to 2020. This research gathered the data from authentic sources such as the OECD, the World Bank, and ICRG. The pre-estimation diagnostic (residual cross-section dependence, unit root, and cointegration) tests asserted cross-section dependence between countries, variables’ stationarity, and cointegration between the variables. Due to the asymmetrical behaviour of data shown by the Jarque and Bera (Int Stat Rev 55:163–172, 1987) test, this study uses non-parametric panel quantile regression. It asserts environmental policies and green electricity use have a substantial yet mixed influence on financial development. In contrast, trade openness and GDP are the significant factors of economic development in the region. Overall, Environmental taxes adversely affect financial development in developed countries across quantiles. This study suggests promoting and improving green investment, trade, and efficient environmental policies to encourage financial development in developed countries without affecting ecological quality.

The present study explores the impact of energy natural resource productivity and environmental tax on environmental sustainability in six major CO2-emitting economies: the Euro Area, China, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, from 1997 to 2019. This analysis aims to reveal novel findings and implications for different energy natural resource productivity types and environmental regulations. We employed data regarding leading national and regional CO2 emitters from 1997 to 2020 to conduct an empirical analysis using the panel non-linear auto-regressive distributed lag (NARDL) and panel quantile ARDL (QARDL) methods. The results show that energy natural resource productivity and environmental tax are crucial components in reducing CO2 emissions by controlling for innovation technology and renewable energy consumption. The main findings demonstrate that the impact is stronger in the presence of increased energy natural resource productivity and vice versa. These findings have novel implications for sustainable development and carbon neutrality.

HPWS is currently perceived as potential source of the competitive skills, capabilities and knowledge of human resources. This study aim to illustrate how high-performance work systems (HPWS) offer the foundation for strategic business performance (SBP) through the mediating function of organizational flexibility and contextualizing manufacturing firms of developing countries by providing an empirically tested framework for analyzing SBP. The current study is based on a quantitative research design. Data were gathered from manufacturing firms from the top, middle and operational management firms. SEM was used to analyze our 589 samples. Findings revealed that HPWS is the only component aiding manufacturing firms’ growth. The results illustrate that HPWS will take a long time to achieve SBP if organisational flexibility does not mediate the relationship between HPWS and SBP. Utilizing actual data, this study reveals practical strategies for enhancing the mechanism of business development performance among manufacturing organizations. Furthermore, this research helps to understand the relationship between HPWS and organizational flexibility in attaining SBP.