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The MENA region faces energy security and environmental challenges, necessitating the adoption of sustainable energy for sustainable development. Green innovation has emerged as a crucial factor in promoting renewable energy adoption and building an enduring and eco-friendly energy system. This research examines the influence of green innovation on clean energy adoption from 1985 to 2019.

To ensure the robustness of the analysis, this study employs three indicators as proxies for renewable energy and develops three models that incorporate urbanization, CO2 emissions, and economic growth as control variables. Various statistical tests, including panel unit root tests, diagnostic tests, the Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV) method, and a Granger causality test, are utilized. In addition, the study incorporates the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) method as a robustness check.

The findings reveal a positive relationship between green innovation and the advancement of renewable energy across all models. This highlights the significance of investing in green innovation as a fundamental driver for promoting sustainable energy generation in the MENA region. The research also emphasizes the positive impact of economic growth on renewable energy development. Furthermore, urbanization contributes to the progress of renewable energy. Additionally, the study demonstrates that increased CO2 emissions are associated with higher levels of sustainable energy generation.

This study addresses a research gap by investigating the impact of green innovation on clean energy progress in the MENA region, an aspect overlooked in existing literature that primarily focuses on regulatory barriers. Specifically, it examines the influence of green innovation, measured through environmental-related technology patents, on sustainable energy systems in MENA. Utilizing patents as a metric offers advantages by directly assessing innovation deployment and providing broader geographical coverage.

Women's financial empowerment (WFE) is one of the sustainable development goals. This research examines the effect of financial inclusion through FinTech (FIF) on WFE at the international level. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

The authors analyze the dataset of 113 countries from the Global Findex (2017) and World Bank databases using principal component analysis (PCA) and cross-sectional data methodology. Initially, they calculate the overall index for FIF with PCA. Then, they investigate the effect of FIF on WFE in two groups of countries classified by low and high levels of gender discrimination.

The results show that the relationship between FIF and WFE is positive and significant in countries classified by low levels of gender discrimination. However, this effect is insignificant in countries with high gender discrimination. Hence, gender inequality is a barrier and denies financial independence to women.

Given these results, it seems unlikely that FinTech will be able to eliminate the gender gap in financial inclusion on its own for women's empowerment. To directly address the gender gap and alter attitudes and social norms across demographics, FinTech development may need to be supplemented with focused policy initiatives.

This study provides evidence of FIF's impact on WFE at the international level.