Rapid urban growth coupled with the rising scale of complex city-level risks require new approaches to sustainable urban development and urban governance. Contemporary cities must not only improve the quality of life of their inhabitants but also ensure long-term stability, safety and sustainable development. In this context, the concepts of the smart city and the resilient city have emerged as pivotal themes in both scholarly discourse and urban governance.. The aim of this article is to analyse the conceptual synergy between these two concepts and to demonstrate that resilience should be considered one of the key features of a smart city and is in compliance with Sustainable Development Goal 11. The research is based on a leading academic publications concerning smart cities and urban resilience. The analysis focuses on identifying the main assumptions of both concepts and examining their areas of convergence. Based on its findings, a conceptual framework linking smart city development, urban resilience and sustainable urban development is proposed. The results of the analysis indicate that the smart city and resilient city concepts are complementary rather than competing approaches. Smart city strategies, based on technology, participatory governance and efficient resource management, provide a structural foundation for building urban resilience. At the same time, resilience strengthens the capacity of cities to respond to threats, adapt to changing conditions and maintain essential urban functions. The study concludes that resilience should be seen as an essential feature of smart cities, supporting their sustainable development.
Amid accelerating climate change impacts, sustainable public finance has become a core prerequisite for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). This study examines the transformation of national budget expenditure structures to support climate adaptation measures in line with the Glasgow Climate Pact, emphasising the need for predictable, equitable, and sustainability-oriented financing mechanisms The paper proposes a comprehensive mechanism for determining firm national commitments to climate adaptation financing and for strengthening the institutional foundations of the Adaptation Fund. The mechanism integrates (a) categorisation of countries based on decoupling performance and the sustainability of their economic–environmental trajectories; (b) an assessment of the historical relationship between economic growth, emissions intensity, and environmental degradation; and (c) forecasting of sustainability-related indicators to determine the required structural adjustments in budget spending. The analysis shows that sustainable budgeting based on transparent environmental criteria and long-term sustainability goals can enhance countries' ability to finance adaptation, reduce vulnerability to climate change, and align budget strategies with the broader global sustainable development agenda.
The global transition toward renewable energy has intensified not only efforts to mitigate climate change and enhance energy security but also expectations regarding the creation of decent and high-quality green jobs. While existing studies largely focus on the quantity of green employment, limited attention has been paid to job quality and how major global shocks reshape green labour markets. This study examines the determinants of green job penetration and green job quality across the eight largest global economies, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Spain, and the United States, over the period 2013–2023. Drawing on structural transformation, energy security, and regulatory theories, the analysis evaluates the roles of renewable energy investment, regulatory quality, energy import dependence, and global supply chain pressure, while explicitly accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Using a combination of Panel-Corrected Standard Errors, Driscoll–Kraay fixed effects, and bias-corrected dynamic panel estimators, the study further decomposes outcomes into pre-COVID (2013–2019), COVID shock (2020–2021), and post-COVID recovery (2022–2023) periods. The findings reveal a clear trade-off between green job penetration and green job quality. Renewable energy investment generally increases green job intensity but, in the post-COVID period, is associated with weaker job quality, suggesting that recovery programmes prioritised speed and scale over employment conditions. Regulatory quality and energy import dependence enhance green job quality but tend to constrain job penetration. Global supply chain pressure stimulates green job creation before COVID-19 but weakens both penetration and quality after the pandemic. Overall, the results underscore the need for integrated energy, labour, and industrial policies that balance employment expansion with decent work standards, thereby advancing SDGs 7, 8, 9, and 13 in the post-pandemic green transition.
In recent years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-oriented investments have emerged as a key pillar of sustainable finance. This study analyses the resilience of the ESG Leaders indices of G7 countries to global economic and geopolitical shocks, as well as their dynamic relationships with alternative assets such as Bitcoin, gold, the Japanese yen, and the Swiss franc. Covering the period from January 2019 to May 2025, the analysis incorporates major global developments, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine war, the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, the Israel–Palestine conflict, and U.S. tariff policies targeting China. The empirical findings reveal that ESG indices are significantly affected by such shocks and emphasize the necessity for investors to adapt their portfolio diversification strategies to evolving market conditions. The results show that the Japanese yen (excluding Japan) consistently exhibits the lowest correlation with the G7 ESG indices and provides considerable cost efficiency. While gold and the Swiss franc also serve as effective diversifiers under high uncertainty, Bitcoin generally offers a cost-effective diversification option.
Expanding financial systems and energy infrastructure is widely assumed to reduce poverty, yet evidence on how these systems interact remains limited. This study investigates whether financial inclusion and energy access independently and jointly influence poverty reduction in BRICS Plus economies. Using a balanced annual panel dataset covering ten emerging economies across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the period 2004–2023, the analysis employs two-way fixed effects with Driscoll–Kraay and Panel-Corrected Standard Errors to address heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence. Poverty reduction is proxied by household final consumption expenditure per capita, while financial inclusion is measured through a principal component index and energy access by electricity access rates. The results show that energy access and financial inclusion individually exhibit negative associations with household welfare, suggesting that infrastructure expansion and financial deepening do not automatically translate into improved living standards when affordability constraints, tariffs, and financial costs are present. However, the interaction between financial inclusion and energy access is positive and highly significant, indicating strong complementarity. Financial systems enable households to convert electricity access into productive activities that enhance income and consumption. The interaction effect is particularly strong in lower-middle-income economies, while it weakens in higher-income contexts where financial and energy systems are already mature. The complementarity also declines during the COVID period, highlighting the vulnerability of development channels to global shocks. The study contributes to the literature by providing new evidence that the poverty effects of energy access depend critically on financial system inclusiveness. The findings underscore the importance of integrated finance–energy policies for advancing inclusive growth and sustainable development in emerging economies.
