In recent years, an ‘international’ unanimity has been reached as to the importance of collective collaboration to avoid the negative effects of climate change. This requires rethinking the old or traditional development model based on economic growth as the exclusive indicator of wealth. Thus, humanity has an urgent need to adopt a new, more humane and fairer economic model that constitutes an alternative to the models of exponential growth that have dominated in the last two centuries. To do so, humanity is looking to the Degrowth model as a potential concept that aims to reduce wealth from pollutants, seeks more justice (as equity), and the improvement of the capabilities of those who are poor and disadvantaged (in the sense of Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum). The purpose of this article is to question this model and whether it actually does improve environmental quality. Additionally, if the response is positive, another question arises: How to finance degrowth especially when we seek other less polluting energy sources whose costs seem to be very high?

The author puts forward the idea that decentralized finance doesn’t act without managerial influence. The management moves from the external circuit to the internal one, there occurs self-ruling and “self-regulation” of the financial system. This indicates the appearance of a new type of financial intermediation—a cyber-social one. The potential of using decentralized finance in post-Soviet countries are formulated the following: freeing up the time of transaction participants due to the autonomy of transactions; a superior degree of information security compared to traditional forms of financial intermediation; financial intermediation cost saving, freeing up human resources; reduction in the speed of transactions; increasing accuracy in contractual relations due to the elimination of the human factor influence; stimulating the development of new business areas expands the competitive environment; information safety due to the constant creation of a large number of backup copies. At the same time, the author identified and substantiated the risks associated with decentralized financial flows, which may have an impact on the well-being of the population of post-Soviet countries. The purpose of this study is to determine the prospects for applying decentralized finance as a growth factor in the well-being of the population in post-Soviet countries.

Being supposedly the ground for an exchange system that does not depend on central, top-down regulation, cryptocurrencies increasingly need new algorithmic and policy-driven rules to maintain their trustworthiness and capacity to exhibit empirically supported growth. The present paper offers a conceptual and philosophical discussion on whether and how cryptosystems could be able to generate resilient development in a way that is coherent with a non-reductionist view of positive economics. As proposed, a plausible way to understand them can be achieved considering their complexity and their concrete, local features, which have to be grasped both in terms of formal and material specificity.

This study investigates the impact of tourism and institutional quality on environmental preservation, utilizing principal component analysis to generate three composite indices of environmental sustainability for 134 countries from 2002 to 2020. The results reveal that environmental sustainability indices have generally improved in lower- and middle-income nations but have declined in certain high-income countries. The findings also underscore the critical role of institutional quality—particularly regulatory standards, government effectiveness, anti-corruption efforts, and adherence to legal frameworks—in promoting environmental sustainability. However, the study shows that both domestic and international tourism expenditures can have adverse effects on environmental sustainability. Notably, these negative effects are exacerbated in countries with well-developed institutions, which is an unexpected outcome. This highlights the need for careful, thoughtful policymaking to ensure that the tourism sector supports sustainable development, rather than undermining environmental objectives.

Using a qualitative research methodology and explanatory approach to collect data, we assessed whether the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a promoter or threat to Africa’s pathway to sustainable development. The collected data were analysed using document and content analysis techniques. Analysis of the data revealed that the Beijing Consensus diplomacy in Africa is a positive initiative that has created a win-win situation, promoting sustainable development. The Beijing Consensus is opposed to the Washington Consensus, which influenced a win-lose situation that has deepened poverty, making Africa unable to move towards achieving sustainable development. The study found that China’s resource-for-development approach has similarities with pre-colonial Africa’s barter trade approach, which Africans practised in the entire continent. The analysis showed that applying the Beijing Consensus diplomacy to Africa has led to economic growth and development. The results showed that China’s Belt Road Initiative has transformed Africa, changing the continent from poverty to economic productivity, as road infrastructure is associated with economic growth and development. Moreover, it was evident from the analysis that without an African continental foreign policy rooted in continental sovereignty with transparent terms and conditions, Africa’s current benefits from China’s investments would lead to poverty instead of sustainable development. A continental foreign policy would create an African Consensus, which would act on behalf of the entire continent. This African Consensus diplomacy would thus become a continental foreign policy defining Africa globally. However, as it stands, the Beijing Consensus diplomacy is a promoter of sustainable development, but this promotion would not last long without African Consensus diplomacy. The study recommends that Africa should establish a continental foreign policy with African Consensus diplomacy to enable the continent to have one standard foreign policy and goal when trading with China and any other external world.