Search

Recently, there has been rising global concern regarding the importance of achieving environmental sustainability. Consequently, researchers and policymakers have focused on identifying and evaluating the various elements that contribute to an individual's ecological footprint and environmental consequences. Therefore, this study provides an in-depth understanding of the roles of green technology, research and development (R&D), and environmental policies that help attain environmental sustainability in Ghana. The present study utilized both the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag (NARDL) and autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) techniques to evaluate the long and short-run relationships between explanatory variables from 1990 to 2022. The study compares the results of NARDL and ARDL techniques. The findings reveal that the NARDL (0.999) analysis had a greater impact on the ecological footprint in Ghana than the ARDL (0.996) analysis. Under the ARDL technique, green technology has a negative impact on ECF in both the short and long run, and R&D also decreases ecological footprint (ECF) in the long run. Environmental policies had a negative impact on ECF in both the short and long run. Based on the NARDL approach, an adverse change in GT had a negative impact (0.004) on the ECF in both the short and long run. In contrast, a negative change in R&D has a negative impact (0.007) on the ECF in the short run, and a positive change in R&D negatively affects the ecological footprint in the long run. Notably, a positive change in environmental policies had a significant negative impact (0.040) on the ECF in the short and long run. This study suggests that policymakers should encourage and support the adoption and application of green technology and the development of robust environmental policies, as these measures can significantly contribute to decreasing the ecological footprint and fostering environmental sustainability. • This research assesses factors for attaining environmental sustainability in Ghana. • This study utilizes the ARDL and NARDL methodologies. • Research and development decrease ecological footprint. • Green technology can contribute to reducing ecological footprint in the long run. • Environmental policies decrease ecological footprint in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution caused by many factors including energy use has been a major problem around the world. A sustainable energy structure can help improve environmental sustainability. The roles of green innovation and environmental policies in determining an effective energy structure and achieving environmental sustainability have gained attention in recent research, but there are gaps to fill. Given the rapid development and unification of Africa to boost economies, this article aims to establish whether or not green innovation and environmental policies have influenced energy structure and environmental sustainability. Thirty-one (31) countries out of the 55 African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) countries were used in the analysis. The study adopted the Fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the Dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) models in its analysis. Major empirical results revealed that a 1% increase in green innovations reduces ecological footprints by 0.7% and 1% (DOLS and FMOLS). Also, a percentage increase in environmental policies can reduce ecological footprints by 10.12% (DOLS) and 21.87% (FMOLS). A 1% rise in renewable energy improves their environmental sustainability by 3.26% (DOLS) and 1.82% (FMOLS). A 1% consumption of non-renewable energy reduces environmental sustainability by 4.59% (DOLS) and 1.55% (FMOLS). These results provide insights into the importance of green innovation, environmental policy, and renewable energy in improving environmental sustainability. Stringent measures and policies to boost green investment, sustainable energies, and environmental sustainability are necessary for the region. • Role of green innovation in energy structure and environmental sustainability is examined. • Thirty-one AfCFTA countries were examined. • Green innovation and environmental policy influence energy structure. • Policy implications to boost environmental sustainability are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia has the world's largest population and the largest number of biogas digesters, with implementation across 25 countries. These countries can be categorised into four groups based on their biogas development status. Asia has approximately 45.03 million biogas digesters, of which about 99.72% are household units and 0.28% are industrial digesters. Predominantly located in less developed rural areas, a substantial number of household digesters have ceased operation or been abandoned. Some Asian countries and regions are witnessing a transition from household to industrial digesters, driven by economic growth and favourable environmental policies. However, many industrial digesters smaller than 500 m3 are underperforming, unprofitable, or inactive. Larger digesters are better managed and more sustainable. From 1958 through 2023, 163 biogas safety incidents were recorded in seven Asian countries, resulting in 321 fatalities, 220 injuries, and substantial property damage. This study identifies and discusses seven key factors influencing biogas development in Asia: climate conditions, energy demand, biowaste resources, economic development, government policy, technical service, and biogas programs. These factors range from objective and independent to external dependencies and direct, dynamic influences. Future biogas development in Asia will benefit from favourable technoeconomic growth and increased climate change awareness, supported by societal priorities and government policies. However, it must also confront and address several significant challenges. [Display omitted] • Biogas development activities have been in 25 Asian countries. • Asia has approximately 45.03 million biogas digesters and 99.72% are household units. • From 1958 through 2023, 163 biogas accidents resulted in 321 deaths and 220 injuries. • Seven key factors influence biogas development in Asia. • Future biogas development is optimistic, but challenges must be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the persistent constraints faced by Taiwan's government in its departure from a high carbon economic pathway, resulting in a climate governance lag, despite robust international climate regulations, decarbonization value drivers, a global market, and civil society influences. This research in the study investigates Taiwan's national carbon reduction targets across various stages of climate proposals (1998, 2005, 2010,2015, and 2022), focusing on symbolic formalism rather than genuine efforts to curb carbon emissions. Additionally, this research contends that green energy policies linked with carbon reduction targets have evolved into primary objectives competing for the forthcoming wave of technological industries. Consequently, national carbon reduction strategies have succumbed to the logic of economic competition rather than tangible carbon reduction initiatives; namely, they portray the typical approach of East Asian developmental environmentalism. Owing to geopolitical and economic competition, the Taiwanese government did not declare net zero carbon emissions until April 2021, later than South Korea, China, and Japan. Furthermore, the government presented only a vague 2050 net zero roadmap, limited carbon fee, and scaled back 2030 carbon reduction objectives. When combined with nontransparent energy reviews for new investment in Taiwan, a conservative Climate Change Act, and limited civil society participation, these factors demonstrate the continuing influence of the government's authoritarian, centralized, and bureaucratic policy-making model. This research coins the term "developmental netzeroism" to describe the transformational thresholds and structural impediments that a society characterized by a high carbon emissions regime encounters, resulting in transitional delays and governance deficiencies that necessitate bold breakthroughs. [Display omitted] • This research focuses on the net zero emissions transition from a high carbon economic pathway. • National carbon reduction targets have succumbed to the logic of economic competition logic. • The current centralized, bureaucratic policy-making model significantly impacts sustainable transition. • This research critically investigates transitional lag and governance deficiencies. • "Developmental netzeroism" emphasizes the transition predicament of a carbon-intensive manufacturing country in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainability paradigm has gained global attention, and the same has been expected from the economies having increasing levels of environmental footprints over the past couple of decades. This research aims to investigate the nexus between clean energy technologies and climate change mitigation among the top ecologically pollutant (TEP) economies during 1996–2020. The research incorporated other drivers of climate change, including energy efficiency, industrialization, and sustainable policies through environmental regulations. The methodological context covers the necessary preliminary tests and the Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR). The preliminary results indicate that TEP economies are interdependent with the heterogenous slope coefficients, stationarity data trends, and cointegrated relationships. The findings from the MMQR unveiled that clean energy technologies tend to mitigate climate change from 0.10th to 0.70th quantiles. Relatedly, energy efficiency reduces the environmental burden across all the quantiles except for the 0.10th one. Conversely, industrialization and economic growth cause an upward shift in climate change among TEP economies across all the quantiles, suggesting a need to shift production-based economies to more service-intensive ones. However, the study found no significant evidence for the nexus between sustainable environmental policies and climate change. The robustness checks also validate the MMQR estimations; however, their parameters' magnitude substantially varied. These outcomes encourage policymakers to implement holistic strategies supporting energy innovation, technologies, and efficiency improvements while controlling the adverse effects of industrialization and traditional growth models. [Display omitted] • Mitigating climate change needs a universal call. • A novel approach, MMQR, has been applied. • Both clean energy technologies and energy efficiency reduce ecological footprints. • Industrialization and economic growth disturb the sustainability paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even before China's commitment to carbon neutrality and peak in September 2020, many programs had been implemented to save energy. One such program was the "Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Low-Carbon for Ten Thousand Enterprises" (hereafter Top-10,000 Enterprises Energy-Saving Program, or Top-10,000 Program, or Program) launched in 2011, which targets high energy users. The official assessment of this program, which began during China's 12th Five Year Plan period (2011–2015), claimed that it had achieved its goals. However, there has been no precise measurement of how much it has contributed to China's total energy conservation achievements and how enterprises responded to it. Employing the regression discontinuity design approach and Chinese taxation survey data, this study represents a pioneering attempt to assess the energy savings resulting from this program. Our study estimates that this program accounted for an average of 5.8% of nationwide energy savings. The primary methods employed by enterprises to save energy were enhancing energy efficiency and dynamically adjusting production scale. The results of our study suggest that regulatory environmental policies should not be hindered by short-term scale effects. Instead, further innovations are required to minimize the cost of energy savings. • The energy saving effect of China's Top-10,000 program is quantified • Utilization of a vast firm-level dataset employing regression discontinuity design • A pioneering assessment of the energy savings achieved through the Top-10,000 Program • Firms reduce production scale in the short-term responding to energy-saving policies • Firms expand production scale in the long-run reacting to energy-saving policies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2017, China enacted its "most stringent command-and-control" directive for regulating air pollution in major Chinese cities as part of the initiative to achieve the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan established by the government. This study explored the directive's effects on the public's risk perceptions of haze in the country. Specifically, we identified public views regarding haze-related risks, the factors that influence their perceptions, and the changes in such perceptions by administering questionnaires to residents of implementation and non-implementation areas in Tianjin City before and after six months–regulation application in the metropolis. The panel data obtained from the survey were then subjected to difference-in-differences analysis. Surprisingly, the analysis showed that the directive significantly reduced the public's perceptions of risk, even when we controlled for factors related to knowledge, attitudes, health conditions, and expectations from government governance of air pollution. This finding suggested that the evaluation of other control measures that prohibit all construction-related activities during winter and the subsequent formulation of optimal solution and clarification as to what constitutes sustainable energy usage. The external costs of such use should be considered in policy making. • Haze persists in the Beijing–Tianjing–Hebei region. • Urban and rural areas had nearly parallel risk perceptions before regulations. • The public prioritizes the short-term effects of regulation over its sustainability. • The regulation significantly reduced the public's risk perceptions of haze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The current global momentum for carbon pricing has lately produced innovative hybrids: carbon taxes allowing the use of offsets from emission sources not targeted by the carbon tax for compliance with the tax load. This study aims at filling the knowledge gap in existing literature by exploring the potential impacts of domestic offset components in carbon taxes on mitigation of national emissions, including the country examples Colombia, Mexico and South Africa. The findings indicate that the use of offsets in carbon taxes may significantly influence mitigation of national emissions both positively and negatively. On the one hand, this model may result in real emission reductions from offset projects and positive spillover effects of efforts to reduce emissions from emission sources covered by the carbon tax to other emission sources. Furthermore, the offsetting component can be used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations facilitating the introduction of mitigation policies and measures and/or strengthening their ambition level. On the other hand, it also entails serious risks: Offsetting could compromise the environmental integrity of the carbon tax through low-quality offsets. Furthermore, offsets reduce incentives to curb emissions in the emission sources covered by the carbon tax, potentially leading to carbon lock-in effects. Moreover, an offsetting component could provoke opposition to further climate policies and measures for emission sources generating offsets, as replacing the offsetting component with mandatory emission reduction policies would eliminate revenues from offset credits. General opposition of stakeholder groups to the introduction of offsets may even hinder the introduction of carbon pricing instruments and offsetting altogether. The study identifies options that could be employed to increase potential positive effects of introducing an offset component to a carbon tax and mitigate related risks, pointing to the country examples included, where appropriate. Highlights • Allowing the use of offsets for compliance with a carbon tax may significantly influence national emissions mitigation. • The use of offsets may seriously affect the amount of revenues from the carbon tax. • Meaningful and comprehensive stakeholder involvement is key for increasing support and reducing opposition to offsetting. • Opportunities and risks of design options should be considered carefully to reach a balance between different policy goals. • Offset regulations have to ensure environmental integrity to not undermine the carbon tax's impact on emissions mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract How can leaders successfully craft energy or climate policy to support an initiative that citizens oppose? This paper considers this challenge from a change management perspective applied to public governance. It first draws on change management theory to develop a framework for altering mass public perspectives. The framework consists of four phases: i) problematizing the issue, ii) laying a foundation for change, iii) reshaping perspectives, and iv) entrenching support. Drawing from the insights gleaned from the establishment of Japan's nuclear power program, the paper further argues that in order to succeed in mass perceptual change, policymakers must first clearly understand the contextual environment in which the policy is being formulated. In doing so, policymakers will be better able to customize policy design to appeal to stakeholder perceptions and sentiments. Although the context of this paper is the perceptual modification of public opinion to support nuclear power, the authors suggest that the same framework can be applied to perceptual modification of any policy that the general public might be opposed to. In the energy sector, this could apply to fostering a transition to renewable energy as easily as it applies to nurturing nuclear power development. However, the Japanese case puts forth a caveat in this regard, there is evidence that the mindsets of the Japanese policymakers were predisposed to advocacy of nuclear power and once policymakers commit to a technological trajectory, it is hard to engender a change of course. Therefore, the article concludes by speculating on how the perceptions of policymakers might be similarly altered through efforts from the alternative energy sector to foster policy change. Highlights • 4 elements frame pace, scale and scope of technological change. • The elements are change incentives, alternatives, stakeholder perceptions & contextual influence. • Altering public perception requires 4 strategic steps. • 4 Steps: i) problematize, ii) lay a foundation for change, iii) reshape perceptions, and iv) entrench. • The paper applies this to explain rise of Japan's nuclear power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven years on since the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its efforts in combating climate change, fossil fuels remain the most dominant global energy source. As the total replacement of fossil fuel energy is not expected to take place immediately in the near future, the International Energy Agency has repeatedly declared carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as a key technology for mitigating climate change. However, CCS lacks the scale required for substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power generation. Even though CCS is one of the key technologies for mitigating climate change, why has this technology not had an international breakthrough? To shed light on this question, this paper employs a simple model of energy generation, scrutinizes the economic drivers of CCS based on the analytical results, and discusses the possible obstacles that can prevent a widespread rollout of the technology. This is followed by a state-of-the-art in literature pertaining to the economics of CCS, and a discussion that points to a dichotomy between the economic theory and reality. The study concludes with some policy suggestions and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to low-carbon technologies is essential to meet international climate change agreements. While market dynamics are contributing to make technologies increasingly affordable, experience has shown that other factors as well play a role in investment decisions. Uncertainty is one of them. Focusing on the power generation sector, this paper reviews the most recent literature on the subject, under the specific conditions that at least one adoption driver is uncertain and that a technology and/or environmental policy is in place. To understand how uncertainty affects adoption decisions, the survey considers economic parameters (e.g., investment costs or electricity prices) first and then focuses on the role of policy. While the deterring effect of uncertainty over investments is largely confirmed, several mitigating and underexplored issues are also identified, such as the role of heterogeneous investors’ characteristics or the welfare implications of different policy designs. Moreover, by explicitly considering policy uncertainty, this survey provides a clearer understanding of the effects of a lack of government commitment on the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies in the energy sector. Related challenges for policymakers and investors are carefully delineated, together with directions for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical econometric assessment of environmental policy effectiveness is capable of demonstrating which tools have been helping to achieve the desired effect of reducing harmful emissions or stimulating technological change. This paper employs an econometric approach to analyse the effectiveness of energy and carbon taxes in Sweden, the country, which was one of the first to introduce a CO 2 tax as well as an extensive environmental tax reform. The results showed that taken in isolation a CO 2 tax was not sufficient to result in a significant change in CO 2 emissions in Sweden, except in the case of petrol. On the other hand, energy taxes for coal and LPG have been statistically significantly effective. It was also clear that a technological innovation in the form of development of nuclear and hydro energy played a significant role in reducing CO 2 emissions and higher oil price was also important in reducing national CO 2 emissions in Sweden. At the same time, renewable energy (excluding hydro), a more recent innovation, has not been a statistically significant driver of CO 2 emissions reduction, perhaps due to the fact that wind and solar play a much lesser role in Sweden at the moment. The net electricity imports from other countries have contributed positively towards reducing CO 2 emissions in Sweden, while the use of coal and biomass tended to increase CO 2 emissions. Compared to the ex-ante modelling results from the literature review, the findings confirm the role of environmental taxation as a viable policy instrument effective in reducing CO 2 emissions in Sweden, although point towards a more nuanced picture. The paper raises important policy questions focused on the effectiveness of environmental policy tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of public policies have emerged worldwide as a response from governments facing climate change effects, drawing the attention of the scientific community to the outcomes and actual effects/benefits these policies have brought so far. One of the challenging aspects related to this context is the integration of the objectives set by climate change policies within the sectoral and regional planning. In this respect, the literature recognizes the relevance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as an instrument to deal with climate change issues in the planning process and to support the development of alternatives to respond to climate change policies. The influence of climate change policies on the plans and programs supported by SEA in emerging economies is yet to be verified. The paper relies on the case of Brazil, recognized by its relevance in terms of biodiversity, water resources and climate regulation. In 2009, Brazil introduced the National Policy of Climate Change (NPCC), which established guidelines to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020. The present paper is based on the analysis of the current SEA practice and the corresponding level of integration of climate change issues, considering the objectives of the NPCC. A set of 29 statements, delivered by the literature, was applied, combined to the content analysis techniques to review the quality of 35 SEA reports produced in Brazil between 1997 and 2014 (out of 40-odd cases). The outcomes indicate the performance is similar to what was found in other contexts, i.e., SEA areas barely address climate change issues. This thus reveals an important gap between the objectives of NPCC and sectoral/regional planning. SEA can contribute to reducing this gap, but it needs more strength to influence the development of sectoral and regional policies and plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union launched a set of policies as part of its 2020 climate and energy package aimed at meeting its 20/20/20 headline targets for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. This paper evaluates how successful new-to-the-market climate change mitigation technologies (CCMT) are in helping EU member states (MS) reach these goals and, furthermore, whether there are differences between sectors subject to EU-wide polices. To do so, we relate CCMT patent counts to two specific headline targets: (1) achieving 20% of gross final energy consumption from renewables, and (2) achieving a 20% increase in energy efficiency. Our results provide the first ex-post evaluation of the effectiveness of these technologies for combating climate change. Moreover, our sectoral impact assessment points to significant differences in the way in which these technologies contribute to policy goals across the sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban development, especially in disadvantaged regions, has increasingly gained a major strategic priority. New settlements and urban regeneration programs have to achieve an improvement of social life quality, promote economic growth and increase environmental protection practices and proper use of local resources. In this framework, building environment development must exploit natural resources with responsible approach by using local materials and traditional techniques. In this end, indoor comfort and energy consumption have to match the territories needs. Low energy and passive heating/cooling techniques should be considered as a valid option in many building projects. The paper reviews some models evaluating thermohygrometric comfort in natural ventilated buildings, based on adaptive approaches. A focus is given on Mozambican building traditions, and, finally it proposes a case study where, by the recovery of Mozambican old traditions, a new healthcare facility is designed to be energy autonomous also including large use of natural ventilation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Superstorm Sandy hit the northeastern United States in October 2012, knocking out power to 10 million people and highlighting energy and critical infrastructure system vulnerabilities in the face of a changing climate. The increased frequency and intensity of such disruptive events is shifting priorities in electricity system planning around the world, including how multiple stakeholders consider linkages between climate vulnerability and energy. This research links smart grid development with adaptation to changing climates and explores how different stakeholders grapple with system vulnerabilities and climate disruptions. To illustrate this, the in-depth case study assesses post-Sandy discourse to compare how electricity sector stakeholder groups in New York, Massachusetts and Vermont associate energy, smart grid, and climate change. To explore how different energy system stakeholders frame the impacts of Superstorm Sandy on energy system planning, we conducted 22 focus groups with a broad range of organizations representing diverse aspects of the electricity system including utilities, regulatory authorities, research and development agencies, regional transmission organizations, academic research institutions, consumer advocacy and environmental organizations across the three states. We used these data to examine post-Sandy discourse about climate mitigation and climate adaptation, routine system management, and the potential value of “smart grid” for future energy system planning. We found that both New York and Massachusetts stakeholders focused more on climate adaptation than climate mitigation, while stakeholders in Vermont focused more on mitigation. In all three states stakeholder discussions of adaptation focused most heavily on system resilience and reliability, whereas discussions of mitigation focused on demand-side management and demand response followed by alternative energy strategies. These results suggest that extreme weather and climate disruptions will differentially shape discourse around smart grid and energy system change and shift the focus among energy system stakeholders on climate adaptation compared to climate mitigation. This research demonstrates variation between political jurisdictions (states) and energy system stakeholders in energy system planning in the face of new challenges related to an uncertain and rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various “smart grid” technologies can help achieve a region's environmental and climate mitigation goals by facilitating the deployment of renewable energy sources, transportation electrification, energy conservation and load-shifting of electricity use. This study reviews and explores the role of environmental framing in the socio-political acceptance of smart grid technologies by citizens, media, and key stakeholders, using the case study of British Columbia, Canada—a low carbon electricity-based region where smart grid deployment has been mandated as part of climate change legislation. We collected and analyzed data from British Columbia via a survey of Canadian citizens implemented in 2013 (n = 2930), a media analysis of newspaper articles from 2007 to 2012, and interviews with key stakeholders in 2013. We find that overall citizen acceptance of one smart grid technology (smart meters) is relatively low in British Columbia, but acceptance doubles when the survey explicitly describes smart meters according to positive frames, namely environmental benefits without installation costs or mandatory enrolment. In contrast, we find that media and key stakeholders in British Columbia focus more on economic frames of smart grid deployment (e.g. reducing electricity costs) than environmental frames (e.g. climate abatement). Further, we find that news media mention smart grid risks 50% more frequently than benefits. By comparing these different aspects of socio-political acceptance, we suggest that key stakeholders seeking to deploy smart grid technology could better stimulate citizen support in certain jurisdictions by more actively using positive, pro-environmental frames and by better engaging with citizens earlier in the technology and policy design and deployment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the editorial for the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews joint special issue devoted to the research work discussed and presented at the 11th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES), held from the 4th September to the 9th September 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal and the 2nd South East European (SEE) SDEWES Conference held from June 15th to June 18th, 2016 in Piran, Slovenia. This special issue is in line with the journal's aim of publishing research from across the ever-broadening field of renewable and sustainable energy with a strong review element. Previous SDEWES conference special issues have gathered a significant knowledge base in the field of sustainable development that reflects the continuous research efforts of the SDEWES research community. Therefore, this editorial provides not only an overview of the papers published in this particular special issue, but also a wider overview of the current trends in the domain of sustainable and renewable energy. This year's special issue focuses particularly on the benefits of the bio-based economy, energy security issues, fossil fuel thermal plant alternatives and environmental constraints, district heating and cooling together with cross sector energy efficiency and energy conservation issues. Sustainable transport systems, the issue of fuel poverty in urban neighbourhoods and renewable energy to support development of peripheral rural areas, optimising passive building design for hot climates and solar-powered heating and cooling are further topics featured in this special issue. In the process of selecting papers for this special issue, the guest editors invited in total 23 extended manuscripts for consideration for publication. After a rigorous review process by expert reviewers overseen by the guest editors a total of 16 articles were accepted for publication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tackling fuel poverty has become an increasingly important issue on many European countries’ political agendas. Consequently, national governments, local authorities and NGOs have established policies and programmes to reduce the fuel poverty vulnerability of households. However, evaluations of such policies and programmes show that they barely reach those who are most in need. The reasons for this failure are diverse and include fuel poverty measurement metrics, local scale data availability and policy design. This raises the question of how fuel poor homes can be more effectively identified and targeted to ensure that limited local and national budgets are used to benefit those who most need help. Area-based approaches, which pinpoint spatial units highly affected by fuel poverty due to their specific characteristics, offer an opportunity for creating more tailored policies and programmes. In this study, the author developed a GIS-MCDA (Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis), using an AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) and applied the approach to the German city of Oberhausen. The overall issue of fuel poverty was broken down into three vulnerability dimensions (heating burden, socio-economic and building vulnerability), the relative importance of fuel poverty criteria and the dimensions were evaluated by experts, and an overall Fuel Poverty Index was created to assess the relative fuel poverty vulnerability of 168 urban neighbourhoods. The analysis offers insights into the spatial pattern of fuel poverty within a city and thus provides an opportunity to channel efforts towards households in those neighbourhoods most in need. It also demonstrates that a trade-off between ecological and social targets should be considered in the development of future policies for tackling fuel poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart grid technologies are an important dimension of electricity system change and governments have been actively involved in their diffusion in a number of jurisdictions. Deployment rates for technologies involving the public have varied, despite governments pursuing similar policies/programs and implementing comparable technologies, such as smart meters. An important question is why. Examining smart grids in the media can be helpful in understanding these differences. Media coverage represents a means through which to gauge how issues are being framed, which can in turn influence public perceptions of these technologies. We examine media coverage of smart grids in national-level Canadian newspapers over time to explore how often and what aspects of smart grids are emphasized within this context. We found that while initially more positive aspects of smart grids were highlighted, over time media coverage of smart grid technologies and deployment programs became more negative. This suggests that people's perceptions of technologies are likely entwined with the processes in which people become exposed to them – negative experiences with the implementation programs often correlated to negative perceptions of technologies. We also found that negative technology and program attributes were more pronounced in certain regions of Canada versus others despite embarking upon similar policies and programs aimed at advancing smart grids (introducing smart meters). In addition, the specific risks and benefits differed, depending on the sub-national geographic setting. Thus, in designing and executing policies, decision makers ought to be cognizant of issue framing and which ones will resonate more within their local context. As smart grid proponents seek to introduce a further array of technologies into societies, we suggest that they concurrently carefully consider the channels in which people become exposed to and experience these technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The December 2013 Medium Combustion Plants Directive (MCP Directive) proposal was evaluated by the national governments. In the Czech Republic, there are 6710 plants affected by this Directive, which is about 4.6% of the total of 143,000 relevant European plants. The paper introduces our approach of policy impact assessment called SimTool. The costs estimated for the European Commission in the background study (AMEC, 2014) are assumed to reach EUR 5.9 million for the Czech Republic for the preferred scenario by the European Commission. Further presented national impact assessment estimates the induced annual costs of the proposal at EUR 61 million, which is about 10 times greater than the European impact assessment estimate. As part of the national impact assessment, the different fuel categories had to be analyzed separately due to their specific features and different options for achieving the emission limit target values. During the impact assessment, a survey was made in order to determine the source operators’ preferences and responses to the potential adoption of the MCP Directive. Based on the analysis of data from the operators and consultations with experts about the different technologies, technical options for achievement of the proposed emission limits, including an estimate of the operating and investment costs, were proposed. The paper concentrates on the Czech impact assessment approach and discusses the reasons of the discrepancy between the European impact assessment and the Czech version. We argue that the inaccuracies of the European impact assessments are given by usage of the general abatement cost curves in the models which do not reflect the reality sufficiently. This paper states an argument for the necessity to carry out analysis at the local level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming increasingly mainstream as an early-stage design-decision tool for buildings. Still, there are considerable variations in how the method is currently used, leading to limitations in comparing the results and the conclusions that can be drawn. These variations are due to several factors and LCA modellers must make multiple methodological decisions during an assessment. This has resulted, unsurprisingly, in a variety of approaches, and a wide range of outcomes. Academics have produced numerous case studies on particular buildings, aiming towards a detailed understanding of the energy and carbon impacts. However, very few case studies are detailed enough to allow for an in-depth comparison. This article investigates in detail these embodied carbon assessments, considering the data used and the methodological assumptions made. An in-depth analysis shows that there are still considerable variations in how the methodology is applied, leading to substantial limitations in comparing results and drawing conclusions. Results may differ by two orders of magnitude, thus limiting the understanding of how real mitigation might best be achieved. Without immediate action, embodied carbon will become a ‘second wave’ of performance gap in environmental assessments of buildings. Both greater transparency and greater conformity must be embraced by the LCA community and enforced by policymakers and professional bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High levels of observed city involvement in energy and climate initiatives indicate that free-riding has been much less of a barrier to local climate protection efforts than suggested by theories of collective action. This study investigates why local governments have adopted various energy and climate change policy instruments despite the non-excludability of climate benefits. This paper advances theories of institutional collective action (ICA) and policy diffusion by testing ICA based hypotheses that local officials are able to overcome collective action problems to the extent that the costs of these initiatives are minimized through policy network interactions, the extent to which climate action produces localized benefits or compliments local environmental, development or growth management efforts, and the extent to which energy and climate protection efforts generate selective benefits to elected and appointed local government officials who advance their career interests depending on the existing configurations of political system institutions. Analysis of adoptions of the Climate Protection Agreements by Florida Cities indicates larger cities are more likely to adopt climate agreement, while district elections decrease the likelihood of climate policy adoption. Moreover, economic development rather than growth management or environmental problem situation is linked to climate initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) is now a part of daily life. When this equipment becomes waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or E-waste), however, it needs to be properly processed, for use as a source of materials for future production and renewable energy, and to minimize both the exploitation of raw materials and the deleterious effects on both the environment and human health. A large quantity of e-waste is generated in both India and China, and both countries still suffer from an entrenched informal e-waste processing sector. Consequently, valuable materials in e-waste are disposed in open land, rather than being properly extracted for reuse and recycling. In this article we note that the major portion of e-waste in China and India is collected by the informal sector and treated with primitive methods. Additionally, illegal shifting agents also play a role by mislabeling e-waste and exporting them to developing countries. This article proposes that: the implementation of e-waste management laws and policies for proper e-waste collection, treatment and recycling, better educate consumers on the dangers of e-waste contamination, restrict the illegal movement of e-waste across borders, and support the development of a formal, regulated e-waste processing industry by funding incentive programs constructing recycling infrastructure. These measures should increase the recycling capacity and decrease the amount of WEEE contaminating the environment and endangering human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important policy reforms for the European Union (EU) agriculture was the implementation of the Agenda 2000, which establishes a new framework for subsidies management, decoupled from both crop and animal production for the vast majority of products. One of the main goals of this new policy framework is the improvement of its environmental impact. Additionally, there is a need for the implementation of new efficiency assessment and prognostication tools for the evaluation of EU farming, because the influence of market forces has been increased substantially. Having in mind the efficacy of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology, it is used to calculate and quantify the environmental efficiency of EU countries' primary sectors. In this paper, the DEA Window methodology is used to assess GHG emissions efficiency and identify efficiency change of EU countries' primary sectors, under the strong influence of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), quantifying by this way its positive or negative impact on a national basis, providing at the same time hints for counteractive actions. The main results provide the significant differences among EU countries, with the less developed ones to perform low environmental efficiency rates. Moreover, countries which their output depends to a large extend on arable crops achieve low efficiency rates too. Finally, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are being used as a tool to estimate future performance of EU countries primary sectors on the topic of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions as an undesirable output of agricultural production process. The validation performance characteristics, as well as the linear fit to this output-target relationship, closely intersect the bottom-left and top-right corners of the plot. The combination of these methodologies provides a new methodological approach for CAP evaluation and prognostication, appropriately adjusted to the new market oriented framework for EU agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and other adverse climate change impacts induced by anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are a major public policy concern around the world including transitional economies. This paper, therefore, examines the impacts of market-based economic reforms on per capita CO 2 emissions in the European and Central Asian transition economies where environmental degradation was pervasive prior to these reforms. A dynamic panel data model is employed for this purpose for 28 countries covering 22 years from 1990 to 2012. Our overall results suggest that economic openness may not necessarily result in sustainable development although reforms in competition policy and corporate governance were the significant drivers of emissions reductions in the region. Hence, advances in competition policy and governance reforms are desirable given the available scope to extend these reforms. The structural shift to and emergence of light industries also contributed to declining CO 2 emissions in the transition process. The direct impact of the Kyoto Protocol in reducing emissions is debatable which also raises doubts on the effectiveness of the Paris agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of renewable energy sources has been primarily justified on the ground of environmental policies and energy security, but new jobs opportunities and establishment of new economy sectors may be equally important co-benefits from investments in this sector. The main goal of this paper is to assess the employment benefits of investments in renewable energy in the Czech Republic. We examine the level and rate of the development of the renewable energy sector in the Czech Republic in terms of ('green‘) job creation for the period 2008–2013, in comparison to data from other EU countries, including Germany as a leading early investor in renewables. Whilst the deployment of renewable energy in the Czech Republic has succeeded to create a significant number of jobs (more than 20 000 employees in 2010), our analysis illustrates a strong dependency of job creation on the continuation of financial incentives. We also find that biomass and waste energy processing offer the highest employment per MWh, which benefits employment in (economically fragile) rural areas. We discuss the question of competitiveness of a country that was not amongst the early adopters of renewables, arguing that the technical skills of the labour force in the Czech Republic provide a potential for more sustained investments in the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different carbon emitting nations and regions use different production technologies. To analyze potential sources of carbon intensity reduction, this study applied a metafrontier function and a non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to propose a new carbon emission performance index. An empirical study of carbon emissions from 58 countries between 2001 and 2007 led to three key findings. First, different reference technologies lead to significant differences in carbon emission performance. Assessing carbon emission performance using the group frontier as the evaluation criterion consistently yields equal or greater performance than when using the metafrontier as the benchmark. Second, the carbon emission performance of Asia is lower than that of Europe and the Americas, but Asia has the greatest potential to reduce carbon intensity. Production technology levels in Asia have lagged behind levels in Europe and the Americas; these gaps, however, have gradually narrowed. Finally, ineffective management and gaps in production technologies are the two main contributors to carbon dioxide intensity. Management factors are more significant overall for Asia, Europe and America; However, different individual countries have different perspective on the sources of potential carbon intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generation expansion planning consists of finding the optimal long-term plan for the construction of new generation capacity subject to various economic and technical constraints. It usually involves solving a large-scale, non-linear discrete and dynamic optimisation problem in a highly constrained and uncertain environment. Traditional approaches to capacity planning have focused on achieving a least-cost plan. During the last two decades however, new paradigms for expansion planning have emerged that are driven by environmental and political factors. This has resulted in the formulation of multi-criteria approaches that enable power system planners to simultaneously consider multiple and conflicting objectives in the decision-making process. More recently, the increasing integration of intermittent renewable energy sources in the grid to sustain power system decarbonisation and energy security has introduced new challenges. Such a transition spawns new dynamics pertaining to the variability and uncertainty of these generation resources in determining the best mix. In addition to ensuring adequacy of generation capacity, it is essential to consider the operational characteristics of the generation sources in the planning process. In this paper, we first review the evolution of generation expansion planning techniques in the face of more stringent environmental policies and growing uncertainty. More importantly, we highlight the emerging challenges presented by the intermittent nature of some renewable energy sources. In particular, we discuss the power supply adequacy and operational flexibility issues introduced by variable renewable sources as well as the attempts made to address them. Finally, we identify important future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we combine data collected from two strands of literature dealing with revealed preferences expressed by conventional vehicle drivers for fuel price variation and stated preferences expressed by consumers for alternative fuel vehicles. We employ a meta-analysis approach drawing data on 30 primary studies, reflecting two important policy interventions, which are fuel price taxation and subsidies for alternative fuel vehicles. This is a new contribution in environmental and energy economics in that we rescale all primary information into a unique index, which captures consumers’ economic attitude towards carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emission reduction in monetary terms. Focusing on the transport sector, we compute the implicit price for the avoidance of a kilogram of CO 2 emissions, named PCO 2 , explaining the existing heterogeneity from several points of view. The results of the meta-analysis show that contextual and individual characteristics influence the implicit price for CO 2 emissions avoidance. This implicit price is on average positive in the case of revealed preferences studies, whereas it is negative in the stated preferences studies. Although there are some important geographical differences, our results show that fuel taxes could be an important additional instrument for environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A trigeneration system uses only one source of primary energy, while providing power, heating and cooling simultaneously. This primary source can be represented by either fossil fuels or some appropriate renewable energy sources (biomass, biogas, solar energy, etc.). In this paper a brief review of micro-trigeneration systems for residential applications was reported. An innovative building-integrated micro-trigeneration system was proposed. This proposed system was based on a natural gas-fueled internal combustion engine micro-cogeneration unit for heating purposes and domestic hot water production. The cogeneration device fed an electric air-cooled vapor compression water chiller for cooling purposes. The micro-trigeneration system was coupled with a multi-family house characterized by transmittance values of the building envelope compliant with those imposed by Italian Law. The considered building is representative of a typical Italian residential application. The feasibility of the proposed trigeneration system was investigated by using the dynamic simulation software TRNSYS in comparison to a traditional supply based on separate energy production. The analyses were performed by varying the climatic conditions and considering buildings located in three different Italian cities (Palermo, Naples and Milan), which are representative of the different climatic regions of Italy. The primary energy consumption, the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions as well as the operating costs of the proposed system were evaluated based on the simulation results according to the Italian scenario and compared with those associated to a conventional system composed of a natural gas-fired boiler coupled with the same air-cooled water electric chiller fed by the electric grid. The performed analyses allowed to assess the energy, environmental and economic suitability of the proposed scheme as well as its potential benefits in comparison to the reference plant based on separate energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Commission has set clear targets for 2020 regarding energy and environment policy; these targets include 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions against the 1990 levels. It is believed that adopted strategy has encouraged the renewable energy applications during the last two decades. Moreover, measurement deviations of carbon dioxide flux occurring in respiration chambers has been seen of a great importance to explain the biochemical parameters affecting the climate change issue. This is attributed on many occasions to chamber design constraints and the way they are coupled with the studied site location. This is illustrated by external disturbances whereby when they happen while gas measurements are taken measurement deviations become more evident. This paper surveys the different soil physical, biological and geotechnical parameters and links them to meteorological ones. Consequently it explores their direct and indirect effects to the produced soil efflux. Furthermore this paper proposes several soil temperature models according to the studied case constraints to see what affects soil efflux production. Moreover a clear understanding of what affects the measurement process was achieved through surveying all the internal and external pressure parameters and how they influence the chamber in relation to time. The conclusion is that respiration chamber designers need to preserve chamber internal temperature and pressure to be equal to the outer atmosphere for the case of stabile external conditions. For the case of unstable external conditions design counter measures are incorporated. Furthermore the appropriate gas sensor needs to be selected professionally with emphasis on the importance of installation location inside the chamber. Likewise soil bacterial type and soil temperature also has an influence on efflux production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explain the effectiveness of green policies on the basis of development stage of countries. The analysis conducted on developing and developed countries in the time span 2004–2011, following a two-step approach: in the first step, we consider the green policy sectors (regulatory policies, fiscal incentives, and public investments) while in the second step we analyze individually the policies adopted by countries. Results confirm that not all policies promote the investments in Renewable sources and their effectiveness depend by the stage of development of the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural household energy consumption is an important component of national energy consumption and plays an important role in rural social and ecological environment developments. In this paper, energy consumption of 1440 households in 8 typical counties of 8 China's economic zones was investigated. The investigation data analysis revealed significant difference of different economic zones in rural household energy consumption level and structure. For 8 studying counties, the annual average energy consumption per capita was 26.7 GJ, 10.4 GJ the lowest (Shanghang County) and 86.6 GJ the highest (Shulan County). In energy consumption, straw, biogas, fuel wood and electricity accounted for 44.33%, 23.13%, 12.79% and 9.61%, respectively. Rural families with high incomes preferred commercial energies (e.g. electricity and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)) to biomass energy (e.g. straw and fuel wood). The traditional biomass energy is still the main energy source for China's rural household. Research results provide references to understand current situations and future development of China's rural household energy consumption, and formulate related energy and environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of solar parking lots aims at coupling the development of clean solar electricity and electric mobility. Solar panels provide shade and generate electricity to charge parked electric vehicles. In a vehicle-to-grid approach, the vehicles may also feed the grid and support it with ancillary services. In this paper, we explore the potential of this solution, starting with a concise overview discussing the technical, environmental and financial issues constraining the development of solar parking lots. A comprehensive review of the literature follows, and finally open issues and prospects for future work are identified. It is intended that this paper may serve as a standalone summary of the most important work on this topic to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable Energy (RE) has been identified as a key tool to counter climate change and enhance energy security. Countries across the globe have been promoting this sector by several policy measures. However, limited research has been undertaken on the economic and environmental efficacy of RE policy instruments, especially in context of emerging economies like India, which have witnessed substantial capacity addition and have set ambitious targets to de-carbonize their economy. This paper identifies 25 innovative practices followed in India which have enabled accelerated RE capacity addition with minimal financial obligations. These include energy entrepreneurship, energy democratization, private sector participation, hedging and apportioning RE procurement, use of auctions with stringent participatory norms, creditworthy counter-party, leverage of risk capital by developmental institutions, regular revision of tariffs, environmental cess on polluting industries, long-term RE purchase trajectory and incentivizing green power output. Results indicate high financial impact of instruments (support of US$ 3–5/MW h over applicable tariff) which gets neutralized when tax inflow is considered. Lower carbon abatement cost (US$ 3–6/tCO2eq) depicts high environmental efficacy. The paper shares best practices from India in terms of efficient use of RE policy enablers, which may be contextualized in other emerging economies as per the local requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the impact of expenditures of household, firm and government on aggregate and sectoral carbon emissions in the world economies during 1990–2015. The modified heterogeneous panel data technique was used to estimate both carbon emission and income models from which both the direct and indirect effects of expenditure categories were estimated along with long-run and short-run analyses. Empirical results indicate that, in the long-run, the negative direct effect of government expenditure was reduced by the positive indirect effects, leading to positive total effect on aggregate carbon emission. However, in the short-run, the negative direct effect was enhanced by the negative indirect effect, culminating into negative total effect. Further, in the long-run, the positive direct effect of investment expenditure was reduced by the negative indirect effects, resulting into negative total effect on aggregate carbon emissions. However, the negative short-run direct effect was reduced by the positive indirect effect leading to marginal positive total effect. The total direct effect of household consumption spending was negative in the long-run and could be relatively large in the short-run. The effect of the household expenditure on sectoral carbon emissions was negative, while that of private investment was positive, and that of public spending was diverse. The policy lessons include the need to conduct value chain environmental pollution implications of any expenditure policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the devastating effects of global warming, the problem of human-induced climate change, and in particular carbon dioxide emissions, has been high on the global policy agenda. In this study, we examine the relationship between national culture, carbon dioxide emissions, and economic growth in the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Applying system GMM panel estimator across 69 developed and developing countries, we confirm the existence of EKC and show that culture significantly affects the income-emission relationship. Moreover, the effects of the six cultural dimensions on EKC can be collapsed into two: (i) masculinity, power distance and indulgence move the EKC upward and shift the income turning point to the left; and (ii) individualism, uncertainty, and long-term orientation move the EKC downward while shifting the income turning point to the right. The impact of culture on EKC remains also robust for alternative specifications. Future policy and global initiatives in sustainable development should incorporate the multidimensional impact of culture on national behavior towards environment and economic growth, a relationship that has been largely ignored in economic decision-making models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constrained by the dual mission of supporting industrial growth and reducing emissions, China׳s traditional, emission reduction-oriented environmental policies unavoidably face a dilemma. This study adopts the GML index to calculate China׳s industrial productivity by considering environmental factors. In addition, based on the assumption of industry heterogeneity, the author examines the non-linear relationship between China׳s environmental regulation and environmental productivity and calculated the optimal regulation environment for industries. According to this study, when impact of undesirable outputs (pollutant emissions) is considered, environmental regulation and environmental productivity are positively correlated, which to some degree validates the Porter Hypothesis. At present, environmental regulation has significant positive effects on clean production industries but shows a lag effect on pollution-intensive industries. The degree of environmental regulation and environmental productivity show an “inverted U”-shaped relation and display three thresholds. It should be noted, however, that the relationship between regulation and productivity may vary across industries. These findings have clear policy implications: rather than continually increasing the level of environmental regulation, the government should establish standards for individual industries that emphasize flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study measures the liquidity and volatility of the operation of the carbon trading and energy markets using liquidity ratio indicators and log return indicators. It adopts China's carbon trading and energy markets as the research objects, and evaluates the mean spillover effects and volatility spillover effects between the two using the vector autoregression (VAR) model and the BEKK-MGARCH model. The findings indicate that: (1) The liquidity of China's carbon trading market is better than that of the energy market. The average liquidity ratio of the Hubei and Shenzhen carbon trading markets is much lower than that of the coal market, 43016.131. It may be attributed to the fact that China's carbon trading market is currently small and easy to regulate. (2) The volatility of both the Chinese carbon trading market and energy market is small, and the absolute values of the mean log return rate are close to 0. It could be because China's carbon trading market is mainly distributed through free quota allocation, while the energy market has been mature and stable for many years. (3) There is a spillover effect between the carbon trading and energy markets in some parts of China, but the direction and degree of spillover effect vary, which may be due to differences in the economic development level, energy consumption structure, and environmental policies of each pilot carbon trading region. (4) The spillover effect between the two markets is stronger, perhaps due to China's current model of using coal as the main fuel. [Display omitted] • Use the VAR and BEKK-MGARCH models to evaluate the spillover effect. • The liquidity of China's carbon trading market is better than the energy market. • The volatility of both the Chinese carbon trading and energy markets is small. • Spillover effects exist between China's carbon trading and energy markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducts a "reality check" on the electricity production and electricity consumption trends in China, in the U.S. and in the Euro area and in the EU. Most of our analyses cover years 1961–2011. The data is based on the World Bank׳s database with supplementary IEA database (2013). In this article we perform various trend analyses, which are linked to electricity production and consumption developments. These regions are major players in global climate change and climate policy. Our trend analyses indicate in many ways that China is now a global trend-setter in climate change and climate policy. Upwards sloping trends were evident in the Chinese energy economy. However, U.S. and the EU are still very important players. Trend analyses of this article indicate that the structures of electricity production and energy mixes are changing. Our benchmarking studies indicate that the role of renewables is increasing in electricity production and the role of oil-based electricity production has drastically decreased. The "Golden age" of nuclear energy in electricity production seems to be over: at least, turning points can be found in trend developments. Empirical trade-off analyses of the study verified conventional research results about high linear correlation coefficients (regression models) between electricity production and GDP as well as between population and GPD in all regions. Correlation coefficients measure the strength of association between two variables. What was interesting is that our comparative analyses revealed some remarkable differences in linear regression equation coefficients. One of them was that the coefficient between population and electricity production is much lower in China than in the U.S. or in the EU. Second finding was that the coefficient of the regression model describing linear relationship between GDP and electricity production is highest in China in comparison to the other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Seas offshore grid serves to connect offshore wind power to onshore systems, and to interconnect power systems in Northern Europe. Its development is a priority for the European climate and energy policy, which has led to a number of studies on the subject. Nonetheless, research questions, assumptions and typologies can vary considerably among them, and thus to guide future research this paper reviews the published works that use bottom–up energy models. This review develops a simple and effective methodology that can be applied to other reviews of energy systems models. It jointly considers the studies of interest, the system characteristics, a categorization framework and relevant indicators. The analysis indicates most studies focus on investment and operation of the grid using optimization models, with rare use of other research questions or other model approaches. Moreover, results vary significantly, and their comparability is limited due to differences in assumptions, methodology and detail of results publication. Nonetheless, integrated typologies frequently present economic, operational and environmental benefits, although the reviewed studies do not unambiguously warrant immediate and full cooperation on grid governance. Lastly, future research should be attentive to the presentation and resolution of data, assumptions and results, as well as consider grid characteristics relevant to the research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 15, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the nation׳s founding, South Korea declared “Low Carbon, Green Growth” as its new national agenda, and announced the country׳s commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions by 30% by 2020, relative to business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. According to the Korean GHG reduction roadmap in 2014, the transportation sector was allocated the highest GHG reduction rate of 34.3% in order to meet the national target. This study examined the effectiveness of policies that the South Korean government has imposed on the transportation sector and analyzed the ripple effect in terms of energy and environmental aspects if the policies are maintained until 2050 using Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning system (LEAP) model. The study considered five policies, in terms of scenarios: improved fuel efficiency (IFE), green cars distribution (GC, CGC), public transportation shift (PTS), and modal shift reinforcement (MS). To distinguish the effects of various eco-friendly vehicle models, the green car distribution scenario was subdivided into two: green car scenario and competitive green car scenario. The green car (GC) scenario is focused on clean diesel and hybrid cars, and the competitive green car (CGC) scenario centered on hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicles. According to the scenario analysis conducted in the current study, the final energy and GHG reduction policies that the South Korean government has imposed on the transportation sector will reduce the final energy demand by 25.2–25.5%, and reduce GHG emissions by 21.3–21.6% in 2020, relative to BAU scenario. However, this number does not meet the national GHG reduction target rate of 34.3% in the Korean transportation sector. Therefore, more powerful and effective policies are needed to achieve the national target vis-à-vis GHG emissions reduction in the transportation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation of climate change are the main aims of the global climate policy. Increased use of renewable energy is a central measure in achieving these goals. However, mitigation of climate change through increased use of renewable energy also has negative environmental impacts. Focusing merely on greenhouse gas emissions may lead to overseeing these other negative environmental impacts and thereby in unwanted side-effects. The aim of this review was to assess the overall life cycle impacts related to the production and use of the different renewable energy sources. Impacts were assessed for unit processes and for the Finnish national renewable energy targets as a whole. The review points out that in order to comprehensively understand the overall environmental impacts of the different renewable energy sources, a thorough life cycle assessment with a unified framework would be needed. Presently there is only limited information available or the published results are not comparable with each another. However, assessment using the Finnish National Renewable Energy Targets for 2020 also indicates that under the present targets, the overall environmental impacts of the renewable energy use are likely to be low. Main impacts or risks of impacts relate to the use of forest energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport is the lifeblood of a nation’s economy. Because fossil fuels are being gradually depleted and global warming phenomena are becoming more and more serious, the aim of this article is to study a low-carbon transport infrastructure based on existing energy efficiency indices and green transport policy formulated by Taiwanese Department of Transportation. First, via data collection and analysis, we observed that small passenger cars and large trucks are the largest energy users in the transport sector due to their high energy intensities and large transport volumes. Therefore, the energy-conserving potentials of these vehicles are the focus of this study. According to “Top-Down” methodology, the most effective and economical energy-saving strategies for Taiwan׳s transport sector are the significant adoption of rail transport and electrification mode. With a maximum energy-saving scenario, including the adoption of Best Available Technologies (BAT) and the comprehensive expansion of public transport infrastructure, the energy savings potential in the land transport sector of Taiwan is 2931 million liters of oil equivalent (MLOEs). This savings is equivalent to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of approximately 5.91 Mt CO 2e with a scale of 16.73% or crediting 2.40% reduction in national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Finally, we suggest that the green transport infrastructure of Taiwan should primarily include railway, mass rapid transit (MRT), and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid growth of China׳s installed wind power capacity in recent years is closely related to the wind energy policies issued by the Chinese government. Using content analysis and quantitative analysis methods, this paper studies the historical evolution of Chinese wind energy policies. Based on 72 wind energy policies issued in the past two decades (1995–2014), this paper analyzes the issuing organization, form, number and stringency of wind energy policies and compares different policy instruments in two periods. The results show that the number and stringency of wind energy policies fluctuated greatly from 1995 to 2014 and that more than twenty organizations had independently or jointly issued the policies. The main organization issuing wind energy policies, however, is the department that controls key economic and administrative resources and not the one that is in charge of wind energy. Of the 72 policies issued, twenty-three took the form of notices, and eleven were measures. As to the policy instrument, environmental policies are most widely applied by the Chinese government, and “regulation control” and “goal-planning” instruments are the ones most frequently adopted. Furthermore, the application of supply- and demand-type policies is inadequate, and few effective instruments have been adopted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building sector in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is experiencing a rapid expansion owing to factors like economic growth, burgeoning population and modernization. The GCC countries are amongst the highest in the world in terms of per capita energy consumption and environmental emissions. The growth in the building sector is therefore having adverse implications on their energy and environmental scenarios. The article reviews the building sector in the GCC region focusing on two of its most important countries: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE). In terms of ongoing investment in the building sector, population and size of economy, KSA and UAE have a collective share of 72%, 80% and 79% respectively in the entire GCC region. The article provides an insight into the policies and practices in the developed countries towards sustainable buildings. In order to drive their building sector towards a sustainable future, the present work recommends that given the wide ranging close ties between the GCC countries, European Union׳s joint action on sustainable development – as is reflected from the 20–20–20 target, a set of legal binding to seek: a 20% reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels; raising the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources to 20%; a 20% improvement in the EU׳s energy efficiency – can be an interesting model to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the competitive uses of straw resources as substitutes for fertilizer nutrients, forage and fossil energy is critical to maximize the mitigation of climate change. Focusing on the mitigation of global warming, we developed an uncertainty model for the optimal use of straw in China based on available studies of life-cycle assessment that have determined the advantages of energy savings and reductions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) of 14 conversion technologies. The current pattern of straw use has saved China 0.75 EJ of energy and has reduced GHGs by 270.76 Mt CO 2 e on average annually. Among all competitive uses, the use of straw as forage was most environmental friendly, followed by the uses of straw as alternative sources of nutrients and energy. Simulated scenarios for policies of competing straw uses suggested that joint decision-making among administrative departments was vital to maximize the national mitigation of global warming (i.e. 1.84–2.26 EJ of energy saved or reductions of GHGs of 464.89–568.61 Mt CO 2 e annually) by considering all straw uses comprehensively instead of overemphasizing a single use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction industry contributes significantly to environmental degradation, and governments in many countries which are endeavouring to address the situation. Malaysia is no exception. This paper examines the path towards green construction project delivery in Malaysia, focusing on current green policies and initiatives by governments. The historical waves in Malaysian approaches to tackling environmental issues are described, starting from the early 20th century, through the 1990s to the present, and the influence of these approaches on construction practices is analysed. Based on the findings of policy review, essential green construction practices aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of construction activities on the environment in Malaysia were identified. This paper paves the way for future studies in construction and sustainability in Malaysia, especially for the Southeast Asian region where sustainability practices are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential of exergy analysis for environment, ecology and sustainable development implications are reviewed in this study. There is perfect relationship between environment, ecology and sustainable development. If a proper balance is maintained among these three aspects then exergy for the welfare of human being is obtained. Efficient energy use which requires exergy analysis is a key solution to the environmental problems. A primary aim of minimizing the environmental impact is to increase the efficiency and decrease the related overall environmental impacts such as global warming, ozone depletion, and acid rain. This study has been written with a view to draw attention and to examine the range of views for integration of exergy for environment, ecology and sustainable development. Much of the information presented in this study is basically to acquire an understanding of exergy relations with environment, ecology and sustainable development. This study will be useful for those involved in exergy activities and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]