The European Union’s twin of green and digital transition has increased interest in whether digital financial development (FinTech) supports more sustainable and resource-efficient economic systems. However, empirical evidence on how FinTech influences the circular agrifood economy remains limited. Therefore, this study examines these relationships across 29 European countries using panel data from 2000 to 2024. For this study, an entropy-weighted Fintech Development Index using ICT capital, financial-market scale, digital financial adoption, and rural connectivity. A dynamic panel ARDL-PMG-Fourier approach is used to capture the long-run relationships and short-run dynamics for resource productivity, circular waste, livestock emissions, and soil emissions. The results reveal the heterogeneous environmental effects of FinTech development. FinTech is associated with lower resource productivity in both the long and short run, suggesting a rebound effect in which digital financial expansion stimulates production and material use faster than efficiency gains. It also increases packaging-based circular waste in the long run, reflecting that digital financial expansion generates both environmental benefits and trade-offs. In addition, FinTech significantly increases livestock emissions and decreases soil emissions, indicating that it facilitates access to credit, increases herd size, and promotes precision agriculture and environmentally efficient production technologies for soil emissions. Furthermore, the robustness and heterogeneity analyses demonstrate that these effects differ between the 14 old members of the European Union and the 13 accession economies. These findings contribute to the literature by showing that digital financial innovation does not automatically promote circularity. It contributes to twin transitions through governance mechanisms, green finance, and technology-based regulatory frameworks that align FinTech with the circular economy.
Bisphenols (BPs) are widely used environmental chemicals with endocrine-disrupting and immunotoxic potential. However, their molecular links with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remain unclear. We integrated network toxicity, multi-omics framework, and in vitro experiments to investigate BP-associated molecular mechanisms in IBD. Candidate BP–IBD genes were screened by intersecting BP-related targets with IBD-related genes and were further prioritized using transcriptomic and genetic evidence. Immune infiltration and single-cell analyses were used to explore immune-related expression patterns. An IL-17A-stimulated HT29 model was used to assess the effect of BPs expsoure on epithelial inflammatory responses. Fifty overlapping BP–IBD genes were identified and were mainly enriched in IL-17 and TNF signaling pathways, oxidative stress, and lipid metabolic processes. MR combined with bulk RNA-seq prioritized FTO, CDH1, and RORC, while SMR sensitivity analyses further supported RORC and CDH1. Colocalization provided strong evidence for shared causal variants between RORC expression and IBD risk (PPH4 = 0.934), highlighting RORC as the key candidate. Immune infiltration and single-cell analyses suggested that RORC was related to CD4+ T-cell-associated immune regulation in IBD. Molecular docking predicted favorable interactions between RORC and BPs. in vitro experiments showed that BPA further enhanced IL-17A-induced epithelial inflammatory responses, including increased chemokine production and inflammatory signaling activation. BPs may promote IBD-related inflammatory responses through immune-associated mechanisms. RORC may be a key immune-related candidate linking BP exposure to IBD risk.
Irrigation-driven nutrient dynamics in groundwater is important for regional water resources utilization and ecological environmental security, especially in arid and semi-arid agricultural areas. The Hetao Irrigation District is the third largest irrigation district in China, and the annual irrigation schedule repeats the same sequence each year. The quantification of irrigation-induced lateral nutrient fluxes in the drainage channel remains poorly understood. In this study, we established a typical field in the Hetao Irrigation District in Bayannur, conducted groundwater samplings during the whole year drainage period from April to November 2023, and estimated lateral subsurface seepage of water and nutrients. Results indicated that nitrate-nitrogen was the dominant form of total nitrogen (TN), while dissolved organic nitrogen was the second dominant form. Dissolved organic phosphorus was the dominant form of total phosphorus (TP), while dissolved inorganic phosphorus was the least significant component of TP. Irrigation amount was the highest in May, and decreased from May to November. Lateral subsurface seepage increased from April to July and fell gradually from July to November, showing a lag relative to irrigation. In the typical field, TN and TP fluxes via lateral subsurface seepage were 8.773 9.654 kg/ha and 0.306 0.334 kg/ha in the whole growing season, respectively. Nutrient fluxes showed fluctuations, which were related to irrigation amount, precipitation and evaporation, and fertilizer applications. The research provides methodological guidance for estimating agricultural non-point source pollution in similar irrigation districts.
Insurance and digital government can play important roles in reducing climate risk by strengthening financial protection and improving the efficiency of disaster management. However, evidence on the insurance–digital government–climate risk nexus remains limited and inconclusive. This research gap motivates the present study to examine whether insurance and digital government can serve as effective tools for climate risk mitigation. Therefore, this study examines the effects of insurance and digital government on climate risk across 84 global economies over 2003–2022 using the MMQR approach. The results show that both life and non-life insurance significantly help reduce climate risk at most levels. Likewise, digital government also helps reduce climate risk at all levels. Moreover, economic growth, government spending, and trade openness also reduce climate risks across most quantiles. The results suggest that policymakers should strengthen climate insurance systems and accelerate digital governance to manage and reduce climate risks.
Prospective environmental risk assessment (ERA) is central to regulatory decision-making for plant protection products (PPPs) in the European Union (EU). Although the current framework is generally considered procedurally mature and harmonised, concerns remain about its efficiency, growing complexity, and capacity to reflect real-world environmental conditions. To explore these issues, this policy brief draws on a survey of regulatory practitioners across Europe and follow-up workshops organised under PARC in collaboration with PollinERA and SYBERAC. The survey collected responses from 114 practitioners, predominantly regulatory risk assessors, from 31 regulatory organisations across 25 European countries and all three EU PPP regulatory zones. Respondents generally considered PPP ERA effective in meeting formal regulatory requirements but expressed only moderate confidence in its ability to predict and manage environmental impacts of PPP use under real-world environmental conditions. They attached high importance to the scientific quality and societal relevance of their work, while identifying limitations in the ecological realism of current approaches. Practitioners also highlighted procedural complexity, the interpretative demands of guidance, fragmented data systems, limited opportunities to reuse information across dossiers, and increasing workload pressures as major constraints on assessment efficiency. Collaboration was viewed as essential for quality assurance, uncertainty management, and harmonisation. However, while collaboration was generally well established within organisations, it was reported to be less systematically embedded across organisations and Member States, limiting opportunities for harmonised interpretation, knowledge exchange, and collective learning. Taken together, the findings portray a PPP ERA system that is procedurally robust but increasingly challenged by operational complexity. Practitioners reported devoting growing effort to navigating guidance, managing fragmented information, re-assessing information, and conducting increasingly complex assessments, raising questions about whether greater complexity translates into better regulatory predictions or decisions. The findings point to the need for clearer ERA objectives and operational protection goals, stronger cross-organisational collaboration, and more proportionate, problem-driven assessment approaches. Together, these changes could enhance ecological realism, efficiency, and regulatory credibility while maintaining scientific rigour and legal robustness.
