The World at Fingertips: Central Bank Digital Currency Mediated Connectivity to Elevate Digital Trade

Abstract

This panel data study examines the relationship between Asia Pacific’s movement towards renewable energy for a sustainable blue economy and the role of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) by explicitly considering its prevailing political economy. Data was extracted from The World Bank, The Asian Development Bank, and the Global Risk Profile report from 2018-2021. This study uses fixed and random-effect models as econometric techniques. This study concludes with two significant findings: (1) Politically motivated economic policies resulting in wealth distribution inequalities significantly harm the environmental protection effort. Economic disparities resulting from the politically motivated economic policy indirectly legitimize people’s action to exploit nature by any means necessary to survive. Therefore, the basic human right mandating social justice for everyone can best explain this social jealousy phenomenon. (3) ESG index shows a huge impact on the environmental protection effort in achieving higher renewable energy proportion in the Asia Pacific..