{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,28]],"date-time":"2026-02-28T07:30:58Z","timestamp":1772263858277,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,10]],"date-time":"2025-01-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1736467200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["UIDB\/05064\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["UIDB\/05064\/2020"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Environmental sustainability concerns have led to an increased focus on climate finance, resulting in substantial investments to boost financial sector development. However, recently, climate initiatives have encountered multiple policy uncertainties. This study aims to empirically investigate the impact of U.S. climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on Indian financial inclusion, in addition to exploring the moderating role of institutional quality on the aforementioned relationship. To achieve the above objectives, we first constructed two separate indexes for financial inclusion using the weighted method and principal component analysis. Next, to empirically estimate the above relationship, we employed the two-step system-generalized method of moments (Sys-GMM) and the sequential (two-stage) linear panel data model (SELPDM) on the sample data from 2000\u20132022. The Sys-GMM estimate test validated that climate policy uncertainty negatively influences India\u2019s financial inclusion. However, institutional regulation and governance assist in moderating the negative influence of U.S. climate policy uncertainty on Indian financial inclusion initiatives. Furthermore, the study also confirmed that various dimensions of institutional regulation and governance exert a positive and significant effect on financial inclusion. Finally, the study validates that economic growth and technological advancement assist financial inclusion initiatives in India. The study is an original work and offers several policy recommendations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su17020520","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,10]],"date-time":"2025-01-10T11:24:57Z","timestamp":1736508297000},"page":"520","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Does Climate Policy Uncertainty Abate Financial Inclusion? An Empirical Analysis Through the Lens of Institutional Quality and Governance"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5510-7644","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Aamir Aijaz","family":"Syed","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Management, Commerce, and Economics, Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Barabanki 225003, India"}]},{"given":"Sajid Hussain","family":"Mirani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Public Administration, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur 66020, Pakistan"}]},{"given":"Muhammad Abdul","family":"Kamal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economics, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1951-889X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo Jorge","family":"Silveira Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Economic and Organizational Sciences, Portalegre Polytechnic University, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal"},{"name":"VALORIZA\u2014Research Center for Endogenous Resource Valorization, 7300-555 Portalegre, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"63","article-title":"Environmental sustainability practices in the transport and logistics service industry: An exploratory case study investigation","volume":"12","author":"Evangelista","year":"2014","journal-title":"Res. Transp. Bus. Manag."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101962","DOI":"10.1016\/j.irfa.2021.101962","article-title":"Green and climate finance: Challenges and opportunities","volume":"79","author":"Managi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. Rev. Financ. Anal."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dikau, S., and Volz, U. (2018). Central Banking, Climate Change and Green Finance, Asian Development Bank Institute.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-13-0227-5_17"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"420","DOI":"10.1108\/JFRC-08-2022-0093","article-title":"Impact of financial inclusion on economic growth in secular and religious countries","volume":"31","author":"Ozili","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Financ. Regul. Compliance"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"65521","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-022-19947-9","article-title":"How green finance and financial development promote green economic growth: Deployment of clean energy sources in South Asia","volume":"29","author":"Sadiq","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"77","DOI":"10.1108\/JED-03-2020-0027","article-title":"Measuring financial inclusion: A composite FI index for the developing countries","volume":"23","author":"Nguyen","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Econ. Dev."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3839","DOI":"10.1007\/s10644-022-09419-y","article-title":"Role of green financing and financial inclusion to develop the cleaner environment for macroeconomic stability: Inter-temporal analysis of ASEAN economies","volume":"56","author":"Saydaliev","year":"2023","journal-title":"Econ. Change Restruct."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"177","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2019.05.012","article-title":"Uncertainty of climate policies and implications for economics and finance: An evolutionary economics approach","volume":"163","author":"Monasterolo","year":"2019","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102047","DOI":"10.1016\/j.intfin.2024.102047","article-title":"Global climate policy uncertainty and financial markets","volume":"95","author":"Ji","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Int. Financ. Mark. Inst. Money"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ozili, P.K., and Syed, A.A. (2024). Financial Inclusion and Fintech Research in India: A Review. Decentralized Finance and Tokenization in FinTech, IGI Global.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.4900220"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106072","DOI":"10.1016\/j.eneco.2022.106072","article-title":"The contribution of climate finance toward environmental sustainability: New global evidence","volume":"111","author":"Lee","year":"2022","journal-title":"Energy Econ."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102579","DOI":"10.1016\/j.irfa.2023.102579","article-title":"Climate policy uncertainty and risks taken by the bank: Evidence from China","volume":"87","author":"Dai","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. Rev. Financ. Anal."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102671","DOI":"10.1016\/j.irfa.2023.102671","article-title":"The impacts of climate policy uncertainty on stock markets: Comparison between China and the US","volume":"88","author":"Xu","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int. Rev. Financ. Anal."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2250025","DOI":"10.1142\/S1464333222500259","article-title":"How does climate policy uncertainty affect excessive corporate debt? The case of China","volume":"24","author":"Ren","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Environ. Assess. Policy Manag."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"121037","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jenvman.2024.121037","article-title":"Financial regulations and sustainability: The role of energy price and climate policy uncertainty","volume":"359","author":"Shahbaz","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Environ. Manag."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Azam, M., Hunjra, A.I., and Taskin, D. (2023). Macroeconomic-financial policies and climate change nexus: Theory & practices. Crises and Uncertainty in the Economy, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-19-3296-0_3"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"55326","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-023-26257-1","article-title":"Effects of climate policy uncertainty on sustainable investment: A dynamic analysis for the US","volume":"30","author":"Akadiri","year":"2023","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"18956","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-022-23464-0","article-title":"Connectedness and spillover effects of US climate policy uncertainty on energy stock, alternative energy stock, and carbon future","volume":"30","author":"Hoque","year":"2023","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111443","DOI":"10.1016\/j.econlet.2023.111443","article-title":"How does climate policy uncertainty affect financial markets? Evidence from Europe","volume":"234","author":"Tedeschi","year":"2024","journal-title":"Econ. Lett."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101465","DOI":"10.1016\/j.esr.2024.101465","article-title":"Does climate policy uncertainty predict renewable energy stocks? A quantile-based (a) symmetric causality analysis","volume":"54","author":"Alharbey","year":"2024","journal-title":"Energy Strategy Rev."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102286","DOI":"10.1016\/j.irfa.2022.102286","article-title":"Nonlinear effects of climate policy uncertainty and financial speculation on the global prices of oil and gas","volume":"83","author":"Guo","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int. Rev. Financ. Anal."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Noailly, J., Nowzohour, L., and Van Den Heuvel, M. (2022). Does Environmental Policy Uncertainty Hinder Investments Towards a Low-Carbon Economy? (No. w30361), National Bureau of Economic Research.","DOI":"10.3386\/w30361"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"301","DOI":"10.1080\/15228916.2022.2078938","article-title":"Determinants of financial inclusion: A comparative study of Kenya and Ethiopia","volume":"24","author":"Bekele","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Afr. Bus."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"277","DOI":"10.2307\/2297968","article-title":"Some tests of specification for panel data: Monte Carlo evidence and an application to employment equations","volume":"58","author":"Arellano","year":"1991","journal-title":"Rev. Econ. Stud."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1016\/S0304-4076(98)00009-8","article-title":"Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models","volume":"87","author":"Blundell","year":"1998","journal-title":"J. Econom."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Almugren, H.Z., Kijas, A.M., Sarabdeen, M., and Binsuwadan, J. (2024). Does Quality Education and Governance Matter for Women\u2019s Empowerment? The Role of Structural Factors and Governance in the MENA Region. Sustainability, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/su162310277"},{"key":"ref_27","unstructured":"Kripfganz, S. (2017). Sequential (two-stage) estimation of linear panel-data models. German Stata Users\u2019 Group Meetings 2017 (No. 03), Stata Users Group."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"81","DOI":"10.1080\/01973533.2016.1277529","article-title":"Extracting the variance inflation factor and other multicollinearity diagnostics from typical regression results","volume":"39","author":"Thompson","year":"2017","journal-title":"Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref_29","first-page":"242","article-title":"Financial market uncertainties and risk aversion","volume":"111","author":"Patt","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Financ. Econ."},{"key":"ref_30","first-page":"1201","article-title":"Climate policy uncertainty and foreign direct investment","volume":"56","author":"Klein","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. Econ. Rev."},{"key":"ref_31","first-page":"102","article-title":"Exchange rate volatility and inflation in emerging markets","volume":"104","author":"Choi","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Int. Money Financ."},{"key":"ref_32","first-page":"102478","article-title":"Climate policy uncertainty and financial stability: Evidence from emerging markets","volume":"118","author":"Cen","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Int. Money Financ."},{"key":"ref_33","first-page":"105878","article-title":"Climate policy uncertainty and financial inclusion: Evidence from developing countries","volume":"157","author":"Sullivan","year":"2023","journal-title":"World Dev."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Barajas, A., Beck, T., Belhaj, M., Naceur, S.B., Cerra, V., and Qureshi, M.S. (2020). Financial Inclusion: What Have We Learned So Far? What Do We Have to Learn?, International Monetary Fund.","DOI":"10.5089\/9781513553009.001"},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Claessens, M.S., and Kodres, M.L.E. (2014). The Regulatory Responses to the Global Financial Crisis: Some Uncomfortable Questions, International Monetary Fund.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.2423262"},{"key":"ref_36","unstructured":"World Bank Group (2014). The World Bank Group A to Z, World Bank Publications."},{"key":"ref_37","first-page":"105858","article-title":"Impact of institutional quality on financial inclusion in developing countries: A comprehensive analysis","volume":"156","author":"Mishra","year":"2022","journal-title":"World Dev."},{"key":"ref_38","first-page":"106462","article-title":"Financial inclusion and institutional quality: Evidence from emerging economies","volume":"151","author":"Ayyagari","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Bank. Financ."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101510","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pacfin.2021.101510","article-title":"Bank ownership, institutional quality and financial stability: Evidence from the GCC region","volume":"66","author":"Boulanouar","year":"2021","journal-title":"Pac.-Basin Financ. J."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"484","DOI":"10.1504\/EJIM.2024.136453","article-title":"Do institutional quality, innovation and technologies promote financial market development?","volume":"22","author":"Khan","year":"2024","journal-title":"Eur. J. Int. Manag."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ecolecon.2018.05.011","article-title":"Climate change, financial stability and monetary policy","volume":"152","author":"Dafermos","year":"2018","journal-title":"Ecol. Econ."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-12-810441-5.00006-3","article-title":"Mobile technology and financial inclusion","volume":"Volume 1","author":"Chu","year":"2018","journal-title":"Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion"},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"403","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jebo.2017.07.027","article-title":"Is financial inclusion good for bank stability? International evidence","volume":"157","author":"Ahamed","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Econ. Behav. Organ."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"257","DOI":"10.1016\/j.qref.2021.01.003","article-title":"Constructing a composite financial inclusion index for developing economies","volume":"87","author":"Tram","year":"2023","journal-title":"Q. Rev. Econ. Financ."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Meneses Cer\u00f3n, L.\u00c1., van Klyton, A., Rojas, A., and Mu\u00f1oz, J. (2024). Climate Risk and Its Impact on the Cost of Capital\u2014A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 16.","DOI":"10.3390\/su162310727"},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1007\/s10644-024-09596-y","article-title":"Does economic policy uncertainty impede financial inclusion in BRICS economies: The mediating role of quality of governance","volume":"57","author":"Syed","year":"2024","journal-title":"Econ. Change Restruct."}],"container-title":["Sustainability"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/17\/2\/520\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,8]],"date-time":"2025-10-08T10:26:46Z","timestamp":1759919206000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2071-1050\/17\/2\/520"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,10]]},"references-count":46,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1]]}},"alternative-id":["su17020520"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/su17020520","relation":{},"ISSN":["2071-1050"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2071-1050","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,10]]}}}