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The global energy sector is in a period of transition, during which time it is expected that renewable and low-carbon energy sources, such as wind and solar, will replace traditional fossil fuels, including oil, gas, and coal. The energy transition is happening not only to limit the environmental impact of fossil fuel production and consumption but also to ensure energy security, reliability, access, affordability, and sustainability. The importance of the energy transition has been amplified by recent events, notably the Russian-Ukraine conflict. Economic, financial, and trade sanctions against Russia, and in particular its oil and gas industry, have forced countries to find new suppliers in the short term, but also to investigate new and more sustainable sources to guarantee long-term energy security. Given the importance of energy, it is perhaps not unexpected that there is a considerable body of recent academic literature, particularly over the last 4–5 years, studying what industries, consumers, governments, and markets can do to help bring about a faster energy transition. In this paper, we provide a review of the literature that pertains to the economic aspects of the energy transition. While our initial search of the literature is targeted at uncovering all relevant articles on the subject, we focus most of our discussion on the most influential articles in prominent journals and articles published in this journal—Energies. This review is intended to help identify active topics and potential research gaps and provide future direction, so we hope it will prove useful to the readers and authors interested in this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the 10 priorities of the Green New Deal is sustainable transportation. It should be considered in the perspective of long-term ecological and economic sustainability, according to the trend of opportunities for sustainable development. The economic and environmental aspects of transportation related to the harvesting and movement of timber play a special role in the energy cost and their environmental impact per distance of raw material supply. The principles of rational and energy-efficient use of transportation equipment play a key role in the movement of raw timber. These are influenced by the availability of timber resources, limitation of vehicle payloads, reduction of energy consumption expressed in terms of reduction of fuel combustion, or current legal and road regulations for timber transportation. The paper evaluates economic and environmental factors in relation to the demand for fuels necessary for the implementation of road transportation of softwood timber. The aim of this paper was to present the current situation of the use of transportation means in the movement of bulky timber, as well as opportunities to optimize fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, affecting the economic and environmental effects. Previous studies on fuel consumption in the transportation of roundwood indicate irrational use of vehicles. This indicates unused payload capacity increasing energy inputs expressed in fuel consumption. It has been empirically investigated that this is the result of improperly approved transport sets adapted to the material being transported. In addition, it was shown that there is a clear correlation between the vehicle payload utilization rate and economic and environmental factors. The results of this study point to the potential to increase the use of transportation vehicles for timber transportation and reduce fuel combustion and CO2 emissions by 7–20%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is directly linked to a broad array of changes because of disorganized activities within the economic system and human intervention. Climate change affects the well-being status of both non-living and living things. Relevant policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change conditions concentrate on solutions that intend to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels or other conventional energy sources. This study aims to process a review focused on how renewables advance environmental quality and create relevant benefits within severe economic activities. This study elaborates on the case of China for two main reasons. First, China has a pivotal role in the economic system worldwide. Second, China is making serious attempts to transition into a low-carbon economy. An integrative review was processed to receive selected publications. The advantage of this process is that it considers empirical and non-empirical studies, policy papers, and conceptual frameworks. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to retrieve the final number of publications. Review results from 39 well-acknowledged Journals provided 180 selected publications categorized into seven study groups: data analyses, model optimization studies, market issues, renewable energy technology publications, nuclear energy publications, ocean energy publications, and policy-related studies. Policy implications concern China's efforts to accelerate the integration of renewables in the energy mix. Hence, the country should increase energy efficiency in consumption and process investment plans based on robust research and development efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for food, the lack of natural resources and arable land, and the recent restrictions on energy consumption require an immediate solution in terms of agricultural activities. This paper's objective was to review hydroponics (a new soilless cultivation technology) and compare it with conventional agriculture (soil cultivation) regarding its environmental impact and water and energy consumption. The soil loss, the crop/soil contamination, and the greenhouse gas emissions were the criteria for the environmental comparison of conventional agriculture and hydroponics. As for resource consumption, the water consumption rates (L/kg), energy consumption rates (kWh), and energy required (kW) were the criteria for comparing conventional agriculture with hydroponics. Tomato and cannabis cultivation were used as case studies in this review. The review results showed that the advantages of hydroponics over conventional cultivation include zero-soil cultivation, land-use efficiency, planting environment cleanliness, fertilizer and resource saving, water consumption reduction, and conservation. The disadvantages of hydroponics versus conventional cultivation were found to include the high investment costs, technical know-how requirements, and higher amount of demanded energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aspiration of this paper is to learn about the effects of economic growth (GDPG) and energy consumption (ENRC) on environmental pollution (EP) in G-3 countries and to show the significance of renewable energy consumption (RENEW) on environmental pollution (EP). The data covers the period from 1970 to 2020 by applying the "Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive Distributed Lag" (PMG-ARDL) model. The results indicate that GDPG is negatively co-integrated with CO2 emissions (pollution) in the short run (SR) but positively co-integrated in the long run (LR). Energy consumption has a positive impact in the long run, but there is no positive impact in the short run to accelerate pollution. In both the short and long run, renewable energy has a significant role in reducing environmental degradation. However, according to the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel, there was bidirectional causality (BC) involving energy consumption and pollution. Because of the large volume of energy emphasized in economic growth and development activities, energy use increases pollution. In addition, there was a BC involving energy consumption and economic growth. At the country level, a significant contribution implies sustainable development and the implication of environmental quality assurance policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Striving towards a resource efficient society requires an adjustment of energy systems towards renewable options. It is also of high importance to make use of products and materials to a higher degree. Biogas production has the potential to recover nutrients and energy from organic by-products, as well as to substitute fossil fuels in the energy system. Resource efficiency relates to the economic, energy and environmental performance of the system studied. A comprehensive research design for assessment of the resource efficiency of biogas production systems is described in this paper. The research design includes the following parts: identification of cases, defining scenarios, system development, evaluation perspectives and systems analysis. The analysis is performed from three perspectives; economy, energy and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have scarcely been considered in studies on green consumption. Likewise, little attention has been paid to the effects of informational feedback on household energy ICT-related consumption. This paper aims to fill these gaps in the literature. Using microdata from a representative sample of the European Union population, this paper analyzes, in a novel way, whether the provision of information about the energy consumed by online services would make internet users change to a greener ICT consumption behavior. To assess this issue, Heckman type selection models are estimated. The results show that people's concerns about environmental problems, their environmental activism and self-perceived efficacy as consumers are directly related to the influence that information provision exerts. We also find that frequent internet users and those with better digital skills are more willing to change their online behavior if given information on energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technology is developing in order to achieve higher energy efficiency, reduced economic costs, and improved firmness and dispatchability in the generation of power on demand. To this purpose, a research project titled HYSOL has developed a new power plant, consisting of a combined cycle configuration with a 100 MWe steam turbine and an 80 MWe gas-fed turbine with biomethane. Technological developments must be supported by the identification, quantification, and evaluation of the environmental impacts produced. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the environmental performance of a CSP plant based on HYSOL technology using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology while considering different locations. The scenarios investigated include different geographic locations (Spain, Chile, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and South Africa), an alternative modelling procedure for biomethane, and the use of natural gas as an alternative fuel. Results indicate that the geographic location has a significant influence on the environmental profile of the HYSOL CSP plant. The results obtained for the HYSOL configuration located in different countries presented significant differences (between 35% and 43%, depending on the category), especially in climate change and water stress categories. The differences are mainly attributable to the local availability of solar and water resources and composition of the national electricity mix. In addition, HYSOL technology performs significantly better when hybridizing with biomethane instead of natural gas. This evidence is particularly relevant in the climate change category, where biomethane hybridization emits 27.9-45.9 kg CO2 eq per MWh (depending on the biomethane modelling scenario) and natural gas scenario emits 264 kg CO2 eq/MWh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geothermal energy has emerged as an alternative heating source that can replace fossil energy. This mature technology is already in use all over Europe, but there are significant differences in its use between European countries. One possible explanation for this phenomenon concerns societal differences directly related to geothermal energy, the topic that is investigated in this study. The present work proposes using the societal embeddedness level (SEL) method to analyze and compare the status of non-technical factors affecting geothermal energy use in Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland, and Slovakia. The method considers four dimensions: environment, stakeholder involvement, policy and regulations, and markets and financial resources. Only Iceland fully covers the four dimensions by reaching all the milestones in the SEL framework. Iceland has the advantage of a long history of active use of geothermal energy for domestic use. The other countries face challenges within several of the dimensions, while the form and cause of these challenges are specific to each country. The findings illustrate that to mitigate climate change and drive the energy transition forward, both technical and societal factors related to various renewable energy sources must be assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents theoretical and practical contributions to the environmental dimension of enterprises' corporate social responsibility (CSR) in sustainable development. Interest in the environment is related to CSR through environmental cost optimization and energy-efficiency management. The practical stage of the research, obtained using the computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) method, allowed for presenting case studies of the best practices used by international enterprises operating in Poland. This study describes the practical tools and advice companies can use to improve efficiency and environmental responsibility. The article is an in-depth study of the growing role of enterprises in shaping sustainable and socially responsible businesses and aims to assess the extent to which these companies prioritize energy efficiency as a part of their CSR initiatives. The authors highlight the role of energy efficiency in achieving broader corporate environmental responsibility. This research aims to encourage businesses to adopt responsible environmental strategies for a greener and more sustainable future. The implementation of this goal helped develop and indicate conclusions regarding the development of environmental tools related to corporate responsibility in sustainable development, encouraging scientific debates and promoting responsible monitoring of the implementation of this concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demand for energy is accelerating the process of consuming non-renewable energy sources, so special attention should be paid to the development of renewable energy as the energy obtained from renewable energy sources (RES) will reduce the consumption of primary raw materials and reduce emissions of harmful substances entering the atmosphere. The aim of this article is thus to investigate the attitude of Polish consumers towards renewable energy sources and to discover the relationship between the level of awareness and other factors such as age and education. The results of the research revealed that there was a correlation between the age and level of education of the respondents and their willingness to consider the issues related to renewable energy sources and implement solutions in their households that take into account the consumption of natural energy sources (p-value of the significance test for age is 0.0001227, and p-values of independence test for the level of education are 0.00013). The discovery of such correlations will allow knowing in which direction the efforts should be intensified in order to reach the largest part of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major demand of energy in today's world is fulfilled by the fossil fuels which are not renewable in nature and can no longer be used once exhausted. In the beginning of the 21st century, the limitation of the fossil fuels, continually growing energy demand, and growing impact of green-house gas emissions on the environment were identified as the major challenges with current energy infrastructure all over the world. The energy obtained from fossil fuel is cheap due to its established infrastructure; however, these possess serious issues, as mentioned above, and cause bad environmental impact. Therefore, renewable energy resources are looked to as contenders which may fulfil most energy requirements. Among them, hydrogen is considered as the most environmentally friendly fuel. Hydrogen is clean, sustainable fuel and it has promise as a future energy carrier. It also has the ability to substitute the present energy infrastructure which is based on fossil fuel. This is seen and projected as a solution for the above-mentioned problems including rise in global temperature and environmental degradation. Environmental and economic aspects are the important factors to be considered to establish hydrogen infrastructure. This article describes the various aspects of hydrogen including production, storage, and applications with a focus on fuel cell based electric vehicles. Their environmental as well as economic aspects are also discussed herein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work at hand assesses several driving factors of carbon emissions in terms of urbanization and energy-related parameters on a panel of emerging European economies, between 1990 and 2015. The use of machine learning algorithms and panel data analysis offered the possibility to determine the importance of the input variables by applying three algorithms (Random forest, XGBoost, and AdaBoost) and then by modeling the urbanization and the impact of energy intensity on the carbon emissions. The empirical results confirm the relationship between urbanization and energy intensity on CO2 emissions. The findings emphasize that separate components of energy consumption affect carbon emissions and, therefore, a transition toward renewable sources for energy needs is desirable. The models from the current study confirm previous studies' observations made for other countries and regions. Urbanization, as a process, has an influence on the carbon emissions more than the actual urban regions do, confirming that all the activities carried out as urbanization efforts are more harmful than the resulted urban area. It is proper to say that the urban areas tend to embrace modern, more green technologies but the road to achieve environmentally friendly urban areas is accompanied by less environmentally friendly industries (such as the cement industry) and a high consumption of nonrenewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research emphasizes the analysis and assessment of the environmental impact in the construction sector. It aims to propose a model for analyzing the management of environmental resources in the building process. This specific sector presents a significant potential risk of negatively affecting the environment, through pollution, energy consumption, and waste generation. Environmental responsibility involves analyzing the environmental impact and implementing effective solutions for an adequate governance of the environmental resources. Various life cycle assessment methods are employed to design a new model of management of environmental resources, starting from the factors impacting the environment. The resulting model takes these factors into account and carries several advantages from an organizational point of view. One novel result is that the model can be applied at a microeconomic level as well as at a macroeconomic level. By implementing this model, the preconditions for reconfiguring operational conditions and processes with significant impact on resource consumption within construction projects can be created at a company level. As such, the objective for the construction sector is to manage the use of resources efficiently and, at the same time, to restore the areas possibly affected by the specific operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]