This study examines the relationship between sustainability expenditures and Environmental, Social, and Governance performance, emphasizing the moderating role of Financial Reporting Quality, proxied by value relevance and income smoothing. Using a panel of 1770 firm-year observations from 177 industrial, energy, and basic materials firms in the United Kingdom over the period 2014-2023, the study employs Fixed Effects regressions as the main estimation strategy, complemented by Heckman correction for sample selection bias and GMM to address potential endogeneity. The results indicate that Environmental Expenditure, Environmental Expenditure Investments, and Research and Development expenditures have a positive and significant impact on ESG performance. This effect is significantly moderated by FRQ; value relevance amplifies the impact of sustainability expenditures, while income smoothing supports long-term strategic consistency. These findings highlight the importance of transparent, informative reporting to enhance the effectiveness of sustainability investments. The study contributes to the ESG literature by showing that sustainability expenditures function as strategic investments rather than mere costs. From a practical perspective, the results suggest that managers should align sustainability strategies with high-quality financial reporting practices, while policymakers should promote clearer disclosure standards to improve ESG outcomes.
The origin of consciousness constitutes one of the most enduring challenges in contemporary science, with implications for neuroscience, philosophy, medicine and ethics. Traditional accounts have emphasized the cerebral cortex as the seat of conscious awareness, largely due to its expansion and complexity in humans. However, converging evidence suggests that the foundations of consciousness lie not in higher cognition, but in more ancient subcortical systems responsible for affective experience. Central among these are the ascending arousal networks of the upper brainstem and the periaqueductal gray, which together sustain wakefulness and imbue it with valence. This reframing positions consciousness as an embodied biological function grounded in feeling, rather than as a component of higher cognition. From a developmental perspective, the relevant subcortical structures mature relatively early in gestation, raising the possibility that a primitive form of subjective feeling may emerge during the third trimester, well before cortical maturation. Such a view has far-reaching ethical consequences, informing debates on fetal pain perception, neonatal care, and the treatment of individuals with profound cognitive impairment. By synthesizing recent neuroscientific findings with developmental data, this paper argues for a subcortical basis of consciousness, and highlights the need for an integrative approach that situates the origins of consciousness within affective brainstem systems.
Existing literature on the relationship between ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been mainly focused on non-financial firms. While a few studies have explored how ownership influences banks’ CSR, most of them are based on Western or Islamic finance contexts. Our study contributes to the literature by examining the effects of different ownership types in CSR engagement among 110 large Chinese banks from 2009 to 2020, including state ownership and foreign ownership. Our findings reveal a significant positive correlation between CSR engagement and foreign ownership, whereas state ownership does not show a similar association with the CSR index. This suggests that different owners impact CSR involvement due to their distinct economic roles in society. Our research underscores the importance of considering the diverse effects of ownership structure on CSR engagement within the Chinese banking sector, highlighting the need to account for shareholder background in discussions of shareholder activism. Additionally, it emphasises the necessity of addressing the multidimensional nature of banks’ CSR, providing new insights into the dynamics of shareholder influence on corporate social responsibility.
Mediterranean agroecosystems are vulnerable to extreme heat-stress, especially because of their low organic matter content. Organic amendments may enhance soil nutrient content and microbial resilience to heatwaves, whose frequency is increasing in Mediterranean regions. However, their effectiveness under these conditions is still unclear. We investigated the effect of composted organic amendments (olive mill pomace, biosolids and solid urban residue) and a mineral fertiliser (diammonium phosphate) on microbial carbon use efficiency (CUE) and soil biogeochemistry in two different soils, a calcareous Vertisol and a non-calcareous Inceptisol, with low P availability, subjected to extreme heat-stress. We conducted incubation experiments (20 degrees C, 30 degrees C, 40 degrees C or 50 degrees C) to monitor C-14-glucose mineralisation and to evaluate modifications in soil biochemical properties. As a result of warming, soil microorganisms exhibited thermotolerance up to 40 degrees C, with a critical shift in microbial respiration observed at 50 degrees C. Consequently, microbial CUE, which was a function of the organic amendments and soil type, significantly declined from 0.47-0.65 at 20 degrees C to 0.27-0.45 at 50 degrees C (p < 0.05), with the unamended control decreasing by 0.010 +/- 0.001 degrees C-1 (Vertisol) and 0.007 +/- 0.001 degrees C-1 (Inceptisol). Moreover, composted olive mill pomace enhanced the resistance of soils to heat stress as they produced the highest microbial CUE at 40 degrees C in the Inceptisol and 50 degrees C in both soils (0.43 +/- 0.02 Inceptisol vs. 0.45 +/- 0.02 Vertisol). Soil biogeochemistry varied with temperature and treatment, whilst available P in soils treated with diammonium phosphate was reduced with temperature in both soils, but it was increased with biosolids for all temperatures in the Inceptisol. In conclusion, organic matter-rich organic amendments (composted olive mill pomace) may enhance the resistance of Mediterranean agricultural soils subjected to extreme heat-stress events (50 degrees C).
Aim: A key element of the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 is 'representativity', which refers to the inclusion of the full range of existing ecosystems, ecological processes and regions within protected areas, with the aim of ensuring that the full spectrum of biodiversity is protected. Here we use the New Zealand Seafloor Community Classification (NZSCC), which depicts compositional turnover of 1716 taxa (demersal fish, reef fish, benthic invertebrates and macroalgae) classified in 75 groups representing seafloor communities, and the conservation planning software Zonation to explore how representativity of benthic communities could be enhanced across spatial management areas (including protected areas) in New Zealand's marine environment. Location: New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. Methods: 154 Spatial layers derived from the NZSCC [Correction added on 3 March 2026, after first online publication: "NZSSC" has been corrected to "NZSCC"] depicting within- and between- group similarity/dissimilarity and taxonomic richness, representing beta and alpha diversity respectively, are used to explore scenarios to provide an optimal expansion of the current network of spatial management areas. Results: Results indicate that a relatively small increase in spatial protection (1.5%) to the existing spatial management network can result in large increases in the representativity of all NZSCC groups, including 46 groups (out of 75) currently underrepresented. Main Conclusions: The use of within- and between-group similarity/dissimilarity is a significant improvement on spatial prioritisation processes that consider groups within benthic classifications to be homogenous. These results provide a solid base for informing the development of improved future protection measures within New Zealand that can meaningfully contribute to the representativity element of the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3, and the approach presented here can be applied to other regions.
