Air Pollution,Environmental Awareness,and Well-Being

The extreme effects of climate change have been experienced throughout the world,especially by the countries of South Asia on account of their vulnerability to environmental effects and a minimal degree of their general understanding about adaptations and mitigation of climate effects.Pakistan happens to be one of those countries that have been affected enormously by climate change in the form of temperature rise,drought,air and industrial pollution,smog,health-related problems,and seasonal and lifestyle changes with an enormous likelihood of continuation.Like other developing countries,Pakistan faces the major issue of environmental sustainability.The country is also known for higher population growth,dearth of awareness among citizens regarding environment and education,dereliction of natural resources,and poor urban planning and industrial growth.With a 2.4%yearly population growth rate,Pakistan is a country with approximately 219.89 million population,including 36.4%of people living in cities.The Punjab stands out to be the most populous province in Pakistan,having 110,012,442 population,an area of 205,344 km2 and a population density of 445.01/km2.This study has used two different data sets for achieving the proposed research objectives.Firstly,this study has used data from World Development Indicators(WDI).Secondly,we have chosen two Pakistani cities of the Punjab province:Lahore and Faisalabad as a sample.The two selected cities have found their place among the 10 worst cities in terms of air pollution having the air quality that is far worse than the recommended universal standards.The current study emphasizes the role of green innovation to make better environmental quality and the theoretical perspective of happiness in the direction of climate change and policymaking in Pakistan.In this dissertation,we examine three objects which are as follows:Firstly,this study investigates the effects of green innovation,energy consumption,economic growth,foreign direct investment,and technological progression on air pollution in Pakistan.It aims to address the existing gap by employing Autoregressive Distributed Lag(ARDL)model to examine the long-run and short-run impact among these variables in Pakistan specific scenario covering a period of 28 years,i.e.,1990 to 2017,where all inputs are subject to change.The results suggest that energy consumption,economic growth,and technological progression carry a significantly positive relationship with air pollution both in the short and long-run.In contrast,green innovation and foreign direct investment exert negative and significant effects on air pollution in the long and short-run,indicating that air pollution can be reduced by increasing green technology usage.Similarly,the results indicate the continued influence of green innovation and energy consumption over air pollution for the next 10 years.After applying the ARDL method,the study checks the robustness of the model through other tests,which include fully modified ordinary least square(FMOLS),dynamic ordinary least square(DOLS),and system GMM.Our results are robust to alternative model specifications.Secondly,pro-environmental behavior and awareness play a pivotal role in moving today’s rapidly transforming societies toward sustainability.The existing research provides a deep understanding of how predictable feelings emanating from ecologically-oriented actions contribute to eco-friendly behavior.This study investigates the impact of environmental awareness and behavior(green consumption)on subjective well-being by employing the ordered probit methods on a sample of 600 individuals.The results of statistical analysis reveal a positively significant relationship between life satisfaction and eco-friendly behavior,which aligns with green consumption being less than individually optimal.Our results appear robust after controlling for socio-demographic attributes and variations in environmentally-oriented individual approaches.The concern about the environment and pro-environment voluntary activities are found to be related to subjective well-being.The collective impact of these two variables,individual concern,and voluntary activities,on subjective well-being is found higher.The findings of this study establish the position of subjective well-being in the knowledge-concern-action paradox,which means that a person’s concern about the environment does not necessarily lead to individual action for the preservation of environment.The study reveals that subjective well-being can be either positively or significantly influenced by actions and awareness,but never negatively.Finally,the present study aims to investigate the impact of air pollution on urban residents’happiness and analyzes their willingness to pay for the prevention of pollution and its determinants.The cities of Pakistan are among the worst South Asian urban areas in terms of air pollution.Because of this problem,the health and wellbeing of citizens are affected.This study discovers the value of willingness to pay for air pollution investigating several factors,for instance,demographic characteristics,knowledge of air pollution,and public attitude towards taxes.Other essential determining factors,for example,variables associated with risk perception concerning air pollution,are not included.To our best knowledge,in this narrow domain,no study has ever been carried out to investigate the willingness to pay value and determinants of air pollution in diverse Pakistani urban areas.In order to fill the gap mentioned above,the current study aims to assess people’s willingness to pay for reduction in air pollution using the case of two Pakistani cities:Lahore and Faisalabad.The results confirm significantly negative impact of air pollution on happiness.The willingness to pay is differentiated in the form of tax and social contribution.Our findings suggest that people’s apprehension concerning the environment influences their willingness to pay.Moreover,the study also finds a significant positive association of willingness to pay with tax payment incentives,trust in the incumbent government and environmental institutes,attitudes toward the responsibilities about the protection of environment,and family income highlighting the need for efficient and practical environmental policymaking and its execution.The study concludes that despite Pakistan’s underdeveloped economic stature and its poor and flexible budgetary allocation for the betterment of air quality,the majority of Pakistanis showed their willingness to pay taxes for a decrease in air pollution.Only 13.5%of the sample population felt disinterested in paying taxes for the improvement of air quality reporting indifferent attitude and insufficient knowledge on the environment.The environmentally-oriented concern,for instance,air pollution,environmental degradation,and traffic congestion have been found causing a reduction in happiness level for the population living in bad environmental conditions than the people in sound environmental conditions.The study concludes that climate change can pressurize several key areas or factors related to happiness including climate and societal circumstances such as a feeling of being safe,secure,and stable.The happiness effect caused by a strict climate policy that can reduce earnings,and thereby consumption,will be marginal and temporary rather than the lasting decrease in happiness linked to expected effects of harsh climatic events connected to health,environment,and society.The trading emission permits should be imposed on the polluters in the line with minimizing harm to human well-being.This research aims to provide insights for policymakers and professionals to improve the perceived lives of Pakistani people.