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Abstract The governance of industrial energy use in recent times has been driven by the quest for greater energy security and sustainable industrial growth. Sustainable use of energy necessitates a rethink in the production, use and governance of energy resources that stimulates and supports transition to a more effective and efficient energy system. However, how do we ensure an effective transition in industrial energy use in the midst of gross energy poverty within a developing country context? This paper explores the motives and drivers of changes in energy use within the industrial sector. Statistical data from published reports, as well as informal interviews of stakeholders in Nigeria's industrial sector were used. Following analysis of data, four important salient phases (eras) of industrial energy transition in Nigeria's manufacturing sector was established. These distinct eras are: (1) Grid-dependent era; (2) Self-generation era; (3) Industrial energy outsourcing era; (4) Industrial energy conservation era. The study reveals that: outsourcing of industrial services; cost reduction; and business realignment motives are key drivers of transitions in Nigeria's industrial sector. This paper concludes by highlighting the implications of these changes for the future of energy and sustainable industrial growth in Nigeria. Highlights • Industrial energy transitions in Nigeria is happening but rather slow. • There is high dependence on biofuels and wastes for certain industrial processes. • Cost reduction and business realignment motives are key drivers of transitions. • Outsourcing industrial energy services is viewed as one way to drive transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past three decades, the notion of sustainable cities has become central in planning and managing urban areas in the world and the large-scale city formation has been formed in big cities. As a result of economic growth and urban transformation, Shanghai, a major Chinese international metropolis, faces ongoing issues with resource waste and low energy utilization. Therefore, this paper aims to consider the availability of water for energy production from a consumption-based perspective and estimate the water footprint of the energy supply using a regional input-output analysis approach for Shanghai. As a result, we conclude that the water footprint of the energy supply of Shanghai is about 1.28 billion m 3 in 2007, with 46.1% of water used for electricity and heat supply. The total water withdrawal by the energy sector is about 2.35 billion m 3 and additional water withdrawal needed is about 35% of the total water withdrawals by the energy sector in Shanghai. Furthermore, an energy self-sufficiency scenario was developed, and the scenario analysis reveals that 55% more water would be required to ensure a self-sufficient energy sector. To guarantee future regional energy security, it is important to manage water resources effectively by allocating water resources among sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve green development, ample environmental subsidies have been invested into many energy-intensive firms (such as thermal power firms) in China. Investigations of the effects of this kind of subsidy can help to provide specific and important implications for ongoing regulations. Unlike previous studies on the national, regional or sectoral level, this paper measures green efficiency and its compositions of thermal power firms and studies the impact of environmental subsidies on green efficiency by using the classical Slacks-based Measure and Tobit model. The results show that the average green efficiency ranges from 0.509 to 0.663 during 2010–2015, which is much lower than the general efficiency. The green scale efficiency is the main reason for the low green efficiency, thus indicating large room for improvement. Environmental subsidies negatively affect green efficiency and its decompositions from 2010 to 2013. The negative effect becomes weak and insignificant in 2014, and the environmental subsidies start to significantly promote green efficiency and its decompositions in 2015. According to our findings, some implications relating to improving green scale efficiency, increasing the intensity of environmental subsidies to firms and strengthening their supervision are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Cleaner Production“(CP) is about less and more efficient energy and materials use and the substitution of more harmful products (for the environment and health) by less dangerous ones. CP was the reply of the industry to the call for sustainable development as launched by the WCED (1987) and further elaborated in Rio's Agenda 21 (UN, 1992). During the past 25 years, the concept was put in practice. During this period it changed in scope, methods, and application area. This provided a deeper socio-economic impact to an idea that was originally launched to awaken industry on its environmental responsibilities. This paper provides a review of essentials that contributed to the fundamental changes in CP during the most recent quarter of a century. It takes off with a review of CP definitions illustrating the changes of the content. Changes in scope are exemplified with the increasing importance of “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR). This includes that post-modern companies have not only responsibilities on their economic performance and the environment, but should also act on issues including human rights and resources, business ethics, and community involvement. The links between CP and green and circular economy are indicated. The CP approach is increasingly applied outside the industry. CP for sustainable tourism is discussed in more detail but is only an example of the wider application in e.g. agriculture or health services. This widening of contents necessitates more and better-adapted methods supporting the measurement of the CP components. Indicators, assessment strategies, and green accounting are increasingly improved and used more specifically and frequently. This evolution is discussed in a context of a dilution of the original environmental targets in a wider, more societal scope and the transition towards a more responsible, proactive and reliable management of the sectors applying CP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To stimulate private sector investments and promote energy efficiency, in recent years through Public Private Partnership arrangements, the public sector uses private companies, the Energy Service Company (ESCO), to perform one or more activities related to the provision of energy services, and the contractual arrangements defining the contracting parties' obligations and rights are traditionally based on Energy Performance Contracting (EPC). Although EPC is a valuable model for delivering public energy efficiency projects, the adoption is still far from its vast potential mainly because of two unresolved issues: the dilemma of equally sharing the benefits between the public and private parties so as assuring a win-win condition, and the lack of adequate public procedures that support the selection of the most appropriate EPC schema given certain circumstances and projects' characteristics. The existing literature have analyzed the advantages of EPC mechanism for delivering energy efficiency projects and explored the critical success factors of EPC. However, it does not provide any solution to address the issues that hamper the adoption of EPCs in public sector. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a model for assessing and benchmarking the net benefits of the different EPC structures, so as choosing the EPC schema that creates a ‘win–win’ solution for both the ESCO and the government, by balancing the private sector's profitability needs and the public sector's economic interests. The assessment of the benefits of the EPC schema for contractual parties and the benchmark among the contracts are based on an economic approach, which expresses the net benefit gained by each party through the three EPC contracts in monetary terms and benchmarks the three EPC schema through the Net Present Value (NPV) method. The win-win condition is ensured by the contract that minimizes the difference between the net profits (NPV) gained by the contractual parties. This will support the public authority in the decision-making process about the EPC structure to be adopted to develop an energy efficiency project as a PPP. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model, we apply it to an energy efficiency project launched by the Municipality of Noci (Southern Italy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging economies account for a fast-growing share of the global energy market. In particular, energy use in China has become significant from both economic and environmental standpoints. This trend makes it necessary to balance the need for affordable, reliable electricity supply with the need to ensure that the power infrastructure is environmentally sustainable. As such, this paper presents a multi-dimensional pinch analysis (MDPA) of the power generation sector in China; the analysis considers five key indices: carbon footprint, energy return on investment (EROI), water footprint, land footprint, and risk to humans. By simultaneously quantifying five different indices under a common methodological framework, we are able to coherently assess the impact on five different environmental concerns. This approach provides a more complete picture of the true environmental impact of China's power sector. This information can thus help policymakers avoid the problem of shifting environmental impacts to other domains, which can occur when the analytic procedure used focuses on a single environmental dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]