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Energy is essential for crucial development in Africa. The current electricity shortages and load shedding in South Africa show that the country faces significant challenges in reaching positive economic growth. For industries to operate sustainably, an innovative mechanism must be tailored to solve the negative impacts of industrial energy use, particularly climate change. This study aims to show how renewable energy technologies can provide new economic opportunities, contribute to higher standards of living, and reduce the impacts of society on ecosystems, among other things. This paper presents a feasibility analysis and optimization of new energy technologies by designing and simulating a grid-connected PV system for sustainable development. PV Syst software (PV Syst 6.8.8) was used to simulate and optimize the PV system. The software was employed to design and model the PV systems, calculating energy production, economic performance, and environmental impact. Using simulation data, the researchers compared PV system performance across three scenarios and identified the optimal system. Scenario A was chosen as the best system, with an energy production of 1720 MWh/year. Overall, the findings of this study suggest that grid-connected PV systems are a feasible and sustainable option for meeting South Africa's energy needs. By implementing the results and recommendations, the government, investors, and community can work together to develop and deploy a successful PV system that will benefit all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oil and gas (O&G) sector is a critical energy infrastructure to a Nation's welfare. As developed as the O&G industry may seem, its aging infrastructure gradually shows numerous challenges to keep up with the growing energy demand, increasing operation costs, and environmental concerns. A robust O&G infrastructure that is risk-free, reliable, and resilient towards expected or unexpected threats can offer an uninterrupted supply of O&G to downstream stakeholders, competitive prices to customers, and better environmental footprints. With the shift towards renewable energy, the notion of sustainable development should be firmly embedded in O&G infrastructure and operations to facilitate the smooth transition towards future renewable energy generation. This paper offers a comprehensive and innovative approach to achieving sustainable development for O&G infrastructure by examining it from a holistic risk, reliability, and resilience (3Rs) perspective. The role of each individual concept and their collective influence on sustainable development in the O&G industry will be thoroughly discussed. Moreover, this paper will highlight the significant impact of the holistic 3Rs approach on sustainable development and propose future research directions. Given the complexity of O&G infrastructure, it is crucial to incorporate sustainable development practices into every dimension of the O&G infrastructure, iteratively and continuously, to achieve the ultimate goal of long-term sustainability. This paper makes a significant contribution to the field by providing valuable insights and recommendations for achieving sustainable development in the O&G industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas constitute one of the main issues of sustainability as defined by the United Nations with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The recent smart city concept represents a way for achieving the urban sustainability goals. The European Commission (EC) bases the smart city concept on three pillars: energy, transport and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The main objective of the paper is to investigate the European smart city process, by focusing on urban mobility and their interconnections with the other two pillars. The methodological approach of territorial planning is used by identifying the plan dimensions and then analyzing the processes at master and sectorial level. The applied processes are verified with a review of the European documents that constitute the rules for defining and implementing the smart city concept. European guidelines indicate the SUMP as the integrated master plan that contributes to reach the convergence among energy, transport and ICT processes. By focusing on people mobility sector, European cities are implementing the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) plan at the sectorial level. This implies the necessity to enhance the knowledge of mobility phenomenon, in relation to emerging ICT and their impact on energy consumptions. The contribution of the work is given by the identification of a planning and implementation path focused on smart city, in urban areas, which connects the general goals of Agenda 2030 with the daily implications for citizens and therefore with the specific results. The paper results are useful: from one side, for researchers that work on advancements of theories, and from another side, for planners and decision makers to explore the European attempts towards urban sustainability and the real implementations on urban mobility systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and society has gained the interest of academics and policymakers in recent years. Our paper aims to investigate and systemize the evidence from 1901 publications belonging to the top 1% of worldwide topics by prominence. This paper helps estimate a pandemic's short-run and longer-run effects on energy economics and environmental pollution. By systematizing the literature, we analyze key parameters influencing the deviation of previous worldwide economic and environmental development trajectories due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines research on the consequences of COVID-19 in five dimensions, particularly the impact of COVID-19 on (1) the environment and climate change, (2) sustainable development, (3) renewable energy and energy policy, and (4) methodology for forecasting and evaluating the energy sector and economic sectors. Our results indicate that the pandemic crisis's impact on achieving sustainable development goals in the context of energy change and pollution is controversial and complex. On the one hand, scientists are unequivocal about the positive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on improving air quality and reducing CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, the long-term effects are threatened by gaps between countries in economic prosperity and different vaccination rates. Most studies have found that only a joint social effort and international collaboration can move to a clean energy system. In addition, using the Scopus database and modern tools of machine analysis, we determine leading authors in the subject area of "renewable energy, sustainability, and the environment", as well as the top networks and scientific communities that appear within energy. The analysis of this manuscript can be helpful to policymakers and stakeholders in developing comprehensive energy efficiency programs and energy-saving strategies to achieve SDG targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Thomson Reuters DataStream database, 22,458 merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions with a deal value exceeding 7016 billion Euros have occurred in the energy worldwide sector during 1995–2020. International M&A enable promotion of sustainable competitive advantages, accelerates industry developments and helps to promote sustainable social and economic development. Our research aims to systemize empirical studies, which would enable assessment of the relationship between M&A transactions and the principles of sustainable development in the energy sector. To do so, SALSA (search, appraisal, synthesis and analysis) methodology with additional snowballing technique (chain-referral sampling) is conducted. The current research contributes to existing knowledge by providing an extensive systematic literature review of the academic publications on sustainable development and M&A deals. This paper may be insightful for practitioners and scholars because it highlights the most relevant lines of research on the topic and provides a synthesis of the interdisciplinary literature. Practical contributions of this paper come from its synthesis of interconnections between sustainable development and M&A deals in the energy sector, because sustainability matters may be reflected during different M&A processes: target selection, deal due diligence, deal valuation and post-acquisition integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the publication of the 2011 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Green Economy Report, the UNWTO published the Tourism in the Green Economy report as clear evidence of the tourism sector's growing influence on green economy. This paper provides the first narrative review on green tourism economy based on all available published research. The paper synthesizes existing knowledge, reviews responses and initiatives on green tourism, and suggests future research and methodological approaches to help advance this field. The Scopus and WoS databases were used for the bibliometric study. The results are structured into three sections—challenges, opportunities, and enabling conditions—which comprehensively cover the main themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China agricultural development has been facing the problem of resource constraints because its resources per capita such as land and energy are relatively lower than the global average. By applying the provincial agricultural panel data from 2000 to 2015 and fixed effect model based on the translog production function, this paper estimates both output elasticities and substitution elasticities of agricultural inputs, which may provide insights into sustainable agricultural development. The results show that, except for capital, the output elasticities of other production factors are all positive. Energy has always played an important role in agricultural production, whose elasticity in agriculture increased from 0.0203 in 2000 to 0.1694 in 2015. We also find a severe scarcity of land, and the high intensity of energy in the field of agriculture. Moreover, there exists a substitute relationship between all factors, which means that in the short term, one production factor can be employed to replace another to maintain agricultural development. From the empirical results of this paper, some policy suggestions are proposed as follows: it is crucial that more attention should be placed on land and to plan energy use wisely. In addition, on account of the current situation in China, the input of labor force should be stepped up and energy should be used more efficiently to make up for the shortage of land resources. The empirical results and policy suggestions in this paper may benefit the sustainable development of China's agricultural economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morocco has resolutely committed to the green transition of its economy by opting for industry decarbonation, which now imposes itself as an essential access criterion to foreign markets. Intending to include energy efficiency in the leading players in energy-intensive industries, this paper has the main objective of contributing to a better understanding of the decarbonation plans potential impact, taking the example of solar energy integrating opportunities as an action for a thrifty, sustainable, and low carbon Moroccan industry. Indeed, the paper focuses on the industrial textile sector, such as the energy-intensive industry. This sector is the first employer and the most important industrial activity; it is also an icon and the oldest industry in Morocco. This study examines the energy, economic and environmental fallout, evaluating the productions, the investment and the CO2 emissions limit. Besides, the energy industrial sector is characterized by a strong dependence on fossil imports, which increases the energy factor and price. In this regard, several geographical sites and factories were studied under six climatic regional conditions, proposing the most optimal and sustainable configurations for each location and present models with scopes and levels of energy and environment gains and investments that can inspire the sector actors. Then the present work must install concepts by inspiring local factories, accompanying the national vision, and resizing the industrial ecology. In this paper, a power of 8.88 MW is the total power installed, which provides an annual total of 8484.65 tonnes of CO2, with an average payback time between 2.6 years and 4.5 years, and attractive economic parameters, with an LCOE of 0.034 $/kWh and $181,863 for the NPC, those outputs shows the importance of environmental gains that the generalization of this strategic vision can achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to analyze how regulatory design and its framework's topics, other than macroeconomic factors, might impact green innovation by taking into consideration a brand-new renewable source of energy that is becoming more and more important in recent years: hydrogen and fuel cell patenting activities. Such activities have been used as a proxy for green technological change in a panel data of 52 countries over a 6-year period. A series of sectorial, energy regulation, and macroeconomic variables were tested to assess their impact on that technological frontier of green energy transition policy. As might have been expected, the empirical analysis carried out with the model that was prefigured confirms significant evidence of lock-in effects on fossil fuel policies. The model confirms, however, another evidence: countries already investing in renewables might be willing to invest in hydrogen projects. A sort of reinforcement to the further development of green sustainable strategies seems to derive from having already concretely undertaken this direction. Future research should exploit different approaches to the research question and address the econometric criticalities mentioned in the paper, along with exploiting results of the paper with further investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is facing several challenges, and the problem of sustainable development is one of the most important. It is worth considering that European countries are playing a significant role as pioneers in building a sustainable world, such as those promises made by signing the Paris Agreement and European Taxonomy. To achieve ambitious targets within sustainable development, a huge amount of capital is necessary, while financial and capital market participants are expected to demonstrate a high level of engagement in the domain of sustainability. Facing growing interest and demand, a relatively new product—the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investment fund—was introduced. Scientific literature is providing some controversial views regarding the overall evaluation of this product. Therefore, additional research providing different angles would contribute to a better understanding. This study examines European ESG funds in the energy sector, from the perspective of news flows and investors. It is worth noting that the authors use the word "European" to refer to members of the European Union (EU). The paper consists of the following parts. In the introduction, the current state of this issue is discussed. The following section offers a literature review and a news flow analysis that contributes to a deeper understanding of these issues. A description of the methodology applied for the data analysis follows this, and the final section presents the research results and conclusions. The authors apply statistical analysis and the Carhart model to determine the differences in the performance of the ESG and conventional funds and use their own tool for text analysis to examine the relevance of the topic of ESG to attract client interest. The authors claim that the performance of the European ESG equity funds do not show a statistically significant difference from the non-ESG equity funds in the majority of the periods examined. The application of the adjusted Carhart model demonstrates that the factor of sustainability has a non-significant and negative effect on the fund performance. Finally, the authors highlight the urgent necessity for the unified usage of keywords and terminology, such as "ESG", "sustainability", etc., to ensure comparison and attribution possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sixth Assessment Report of Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has highlighted the urgency of accelerated climate actions harnessing synergies and minimizing trade-offs with various SDG. This calls for a clear understanding of linkages between climate goals and other SDGs at national level for formulating synergistic policies and strategies and developing different sectoral programs and coherent cross-sectoral policies. This is even more important for least developed countries such as Nepal where these linkages are less understood and development challenges are multifaceted. In this context, this paper aims to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs among selected SDGs and their associated targets in Nepal in a linear pairwise comparison. Synergies and trade-offs related to climate action (SDG 13), access to energy (SDG 7), sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), and life on land (SDG 15) have been evaluated using historical data for the period from 1990 to 2018 employing a mixed methods approach. Network analysis to map the conceptual linkages between the SDGs and their targets was combined with the advance sustainability analysis (ASA) to quantitatively evaluate the synergy and trade-offs between SDGs. The results illustrate the presences of a continual trade-off between emission reductions targets of SDG 13 with per capita energy consumption and share of renewable energy of SDG 7, land use for agricultural production target of SDG 12, and forest area target of SDG 15. This indicates that climate action is strongly interlinked with GHG emissions from economic activities and energy consumption. The results of the study represent a valuable input for the policy makers, supporting coherent and sustainable development planning as Nepal plans to graduate to a middle-income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world faces the detrimental effects of humanity on the environment, the circular economy has started receiving a lot of attention as a tool to keep the value of resources. Although in Europe, circular economy principles have become a trend much earlier, CACs still face challenges in adopting them. The current research aims to review the available literature on sustainability, green economy, and circularity development through the adoption of political, industrial, and financial instruments, followed by an assessment of the barriers and opportunities to circular economy development in the CACs. The novelty of this research lies in the systematic review of different state-of-the-art data resources (journal papers, policies, news, and reports) of CACs by different categories: policy regulations, energy, waste, education, water, and agriculture. This research addresses that the CACs have similar circular economy development barriers (e.g., wide use of fossil fuels, water shortage, and lack of effective waste management) and opportunities (e.g., orientation towards sustainable development, foreign cooperation, and green financing). Therefore, performing effective strategic plans that are already directed to circularity, ensuring stakeholders' involvement, and providing sufficient funding could benefit their circular economy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development represents an optimistic scenario for the evolution of contemporary civilization. The object of this paper is to define certain evaluation criteria regarding the performances of water discharge networks from mining works, and propose a method for aggregating the specific indicators for monetary costs, energetic costs, and environmental impact-related costs. The global pollution index (GPI) represents a method for assessing environment health status or pollution levels. The GPI quantitatively expresses this status based on its index, which results from a ratio between the ideal value and the given value of certain quality indices that are considered specific for the analyzed environmental factors at certain moments. The proposed method in this paper tries to perform a synergistic aggregation of the balance sheet of harmfulness and classic balance sheets for matter and energy for an industrial process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low energy efficiency and severe environmental pollution are two growing issues haunting China's fast economic development. Under China's current development model, economic growth still heavily depends on massive energy input, which makes energy efficiency one crucial topic in order to secure future sustainable development of China. This paper focuses on the unique energy ownership structure of China, and designs and adopts MATLAB programming for optimization solutions of multi-variable constrained nonlinear functions to obtain results that can better reflect China's energy efficiency and solutions to sustainable development of China. Using this model, this paper conducts an empirical analysis on the impact of difference energy investment behaviors between China's state-owned entities and non-state-owned business on China's Total Factor Energy Efficiency (TFEE) and sustainable development from 2003 to 2014. We find that Beijing and Shanghai represent the highest energy efficiency level in China. However, except for the more developed regions in Eastern China, for other provinces in Northeast China, Central China and Western China, the TFEE of energy investment by state-owned and non-state-owned economies are both quite low compared with the optimal level. Based on the above findings from the empirical study and detailed analysis by region, this paper discusses the possible reasons for China's low TFEE and provides implications and policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a reality all over the world, and its complexity is increasing. Therefore, sustainability has become a national and international concern, ingrained in many organizational processes. The ability of organizations to respond to sustainability concerns is sometimes hindered by the complexity of integrating sustainability into business models and by the need to rethink their strategic directions. In Romania, sustainable development has become a priority for businesses, but even though companies are showing some concern, there are yet to demonstrate any full commitment (they are mainly concerned with areas such as society and the environment). This paper assesses Romania's involvement in the adoption of actions directed toward the reduction of pollutants and greenhouse gases, namely actions focused on reducing the main causes of pollution. This analysis compares the situation in Romania with that of the European Union. The main concerns can be categorized according to four sectors, which produce the highest quantity of carbon dioxide emissions in the world: the energy sector, the transport sector, the waste sector and the industry sector. The last section of this paper deals with the carbon footprint of Romania and its implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has experienced increased impacts of anthropogenic global warming due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which include carbon dioxide (CO2). Anthropogenic activities that contribute to CO2 emissions include deforestation, usage of fertilizers, and activities related to mining and energy production. The main objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of agriculture and energy production on CO2 emissions in Zambia. This research used econometric analysis, specifically the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds Test, to analyze the relationship between CO2 emissions and GDP, electricity consumption, agricultural production, and industry value added. The results showed the presence of cointegration, where the variables of CO2 emissions, GDP, electricity, and agriculture converge to a long-run equilibrium at the rate of 74%. Further, there was a short-run causality towards CO2 emissions running from agriculture and the consumption of energy as indicated by the Wald test. This is the first study of its kind that empirically shows the impact of agricultural activities and energy consumption on the Zambian environment through their contribution to CO2 emissions at a macro (country) level. This paper also presents recommendations that are pertinent to mitigate these effects. To deescalate environmental degradation, we propose increasing the number of access points for multiple renewable energy sources across the country; discouraging deforestation, the usage of conventional fertilizers, and the burning of vegetation for fertilizers; encouraging afforestation and reforestation, in addition to providing subsidies, training, and financial support to farmers and entrepreneurs who decide to use environmentally friendly agricultural methods and renewable energy. This research highlights the serious impacts of anthropogenic activities on CO2 emissions. The study was intended to assist Zambian policymakers in formulating and implementing environmentally friendly policy measures or systems that will contribute towards environmental protection commitments and sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main part of mankind's ecological footprint is the carbon footprint, a measure of the environmental impact of humanity's energy release from fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels will have to change in the forthcoming decades to a largely climate-neutral use of solar energy enabled by dramatic cost reductions for PV and wind energy systems. The impact of this trend on world society has been discussed in a previous paper. In connection with these important technical developments, the role of electricity, its transport and storage will alter in the coming decades, allowing the design and use of larger and larger electricity grids and a parallel use of hydrogen for both storage and energy transport. This will further change the energy landscape of the world. All these developments and their relationship to global sustainable development are elaborated in this cross-disciplinary paper by specifically analyzing whether the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations are an effective road map for humanity to handle global climate change risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption in cellular networks is receiving significant attention from academia and the industry due to its significant potential economic and ecological influence. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are the main pillars of sustainability and environmental compatibility. Technological advancements and cost reduction for photovoltaics are making cellular base stations (BSs; a key source of energy consumption in cellular networks) powered by solar energy sources a long-term promising solution for the mobile cellular network industry. This paper addresses issues of deployment and operation of two solar-powered global system for mobile communications (GSM) BSs that are being deployed at present (GSM BS 2/2/2 and GSM BS 4/4/4). The study is based on the characteristics of South Korean solar radiation exposure. The optimum criteria as well as economic and technical feasibility for various BSs are analyzed using a hybrid optimization model for electric renewables. In addition, initial capital, replacement, operations, maintenance, and total net present costs for various solar-powered BSs are discussed. Furthermore, the economic feasibility of the proposed solar system is compared with conventional energy sources in urban and remote areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation is a critical option to cope with climate change, as it alleviates the residual climate damages not avoided by emission reduction measures. However, adaptive actions can consume extra amounts of energy. This paper introduces a framework to identify the energy use associated with adaptation and qualifies its relevance in terms of sustainable development. A qualitative, bottom-up analysis of the policy commitments submitted in the context of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 UN Agenda for sustainable development is complemented with a review of the literature on adaptation, energy, and sustainable development. The analysis of the policy options related to vulnerability reduction in the Nationally Determined Contributions reveals a set of recurring adaptation strategies strongly associated with energy use. By linking the resulting options to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets and indicators, we show that energy-related adaptation options are all connected to at least one SDG, though the strength of the connection varies across adaptation options and SDGs. The descriptive synthesis provided in this paper sets a framework for future research aimed at assessing the energy implications of adaptation strategies, contributing to further understand the nexus between climate policy and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terra Preta Sanitation (TPS) plays a key role in sustainable sanitation (SuSan) and in the sustainable management of resources such as water, energy, soil (agriculture), liquid and solid organic waste streams as well as in the development of sustainable urban environment and infrastructure systems. This paper discusses the advantages of, and requirements for, SuSan systems, focusing on TPS. Case studies showing the stepwise extension and re-development of conventional sanitation systems (CSS) using TPS technologies and system approaches are presented and discussed. Decentralized TPS systems integrated in sustainable urban resource management were implemented in the German cities of Hamburg and Berlin. The compilation of best practice examples and findings using the newest TPS systems illustrates the immense potential of this approach for the transformation from conventional to SuSan systems. For this purpose, the potential savings of drinking water resources and the recycling potential of nutrient components are quantified. The results strongly suggest the need to encourage the development and application of innovative decentralized sanitation technologies, urban infrastructures, and resource management systems that have TP as a key component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare Earths (RE) have been the focus of much attention in recent years as a consequence of a number of converging factors, prominent among which are: centralization of supply (in China), unique applications in high-end technologies particularly in the low-carbon energy industry, and global demand outstripping availability. Despite this focus, RE supply chain sustainability has not been examined in depth or in any systematic manner. This paper provides an initial review of RE sustainability considerations at present, including current initiatives to understand the research and development needs. The analysis highlights a broad range of areas needing consolidation with future research and calls for collaboration between industry and academia to understand the sustainability considerations of these critical elements in more depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the forecasts made by IEA, BP, and Total in early 2021, the demand for hydrocarbons will continue for decades, and their share in the global energy balance will remain significant. Russia, as a key player in the energy market, is interested in maintaining and increasing hydrocarbon production, so further exploitation of the Arctic energy resources is an urgent issue. A large number of onshore oil and gas projects have been successfully implemented in the Arctic since the 1930s, while recently, special attention has been paid to the offshore energy resources and implementation of natural gas liquefaction projects. However, the implementation of oil and gas projects in the Arctic is characterized by a negative impact on the environment, which leads to a violation of the ecological balance in the Arctic, and affects the stability of its ecosystem, which is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems on the planet. The main goal of the present study is to understand how the implementation of oil and gas projects in the Arctic affects the ecosystem, to assess the significance of this process, and to find out what the state and business could do to minimize it. In the article, the authors analyze energy trends, provide brief information about important oil and gas projects being implemented in the Arctic region of Russia, and investigate the challenges of the oil and gas projects' development and its negative impacts on the Arctic environment. The main contributions of this paper are the identification of all possible environmental risks and processes accompanying oil and gas production, and its qualitative analysis and recommendations for the state and business to reduce the negative impact of oil and gas projects on the Arctic ecosystem. The research methodology includes desk studies, risk management tools (such as risk analysis, registers, and maps), brainstorming, the expert method, systematization, comparative analysis, generalization, and grouping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is a multidimensional assessment of the diversification of economic development in EU countries in the context of the progress in the implementation of the concept of sustainable development in 2014 and 2019. The issues discussed in this article are topical and important, given that the spatial disparity of economic development in the EU has never been so pronounced as it is today. While there is a wealth of studies on economic development in the literature, research on the comprehensive approach to this problem in the relation of sustainable development appears to be rather scarce. The article emphasizes the role of energy in economic growth. Authors used taxonomic measures. They were constructed on the basis of selected methods of multidimensional comparative analysis. By using the Hellwig method and the TOPSIS method, taxonomic measures were constructed, and linear ordering of the EU countries was carried out. In addition, using the so-called threshold method, the clustering of EU countries was carried out. The analysis involved 27 EU countries. The conducted research revealed significant disproportions between the respective EU countries in terms of the level of economic development in the relation of implementing the concept of sustainable development. It seems justified to take action aimed at eliminating the differences between the countries in the analyzed aspect. It is necessary both to intensify efforts at the level of individual Member States and the EU, oriented towards pro-development activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lowering the exergy content of heat required for heating purposes decreases the primary energy consumption. District heating systems are often an important link between facilities that generate heat with low exergy content and consumers. Exergetic efficiency of heat distribution is an important performance criterion in heat supply to consumers. It can serve as a criterion for optimization, towards a more sustainable distribution-network design and operation. This paper presents a methodology for an exergy-based distribution-network analysis in a district heating system. Criteria for performance evaluations are defined. They can be used to evaluate heat supply to different points in the network, or individual system components. A case study is performed on an existing district heating system. Energetic and exergetic efficiencies of supply lines are analyzed. Exergy destructions and exergy losses are studied. Large differences in efficiency of heat supply to different points in the network are discovered. Over-dimensioned parameters of the distribution network are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to check the impact of investment and institutional determinants on the energy efficiency gap. The findings of the bibliometric analysis confirmed the growth of research interests in identifying the core determinants of the energy efficiency gap. The central hypothesises are: the increasing quality of the institutions leads to an increase of green investments in the energy sector and the dual relationships between investment and institutional determinants lead to additional synergy effects, which allow boosting the decline of energy efficiency gaps of the national economy. For the analysis, the times series were collected from the World Data Bank, Eurostat, Bloomberg, for Ukraine for the period of 2002–2019. The following methods were used: the unit root test—for checking the stationarity of data—and the Johansen test and VEC-modelling—for the cointegration analysis. The findings prove that to reduce the energy efficiency gaps in Ukraine by 1% next year, it is necessary to increase green energy investments by 1.5% this year, and the political stability and public perception of corruption by 3% and 1%. The increase of the public perception of corruption by 1.47 points and of political stability by 2.38 points leads to maximising the recovery speed of the Ukrainian energy sector. Thus, while developing the policy to decrease the energy efficiency gaps, the Ukrainian government should consider the level of public perception of corruption and political stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a broad consensus worldwide that anthropogenic climate change is a scientific fact. Likewise, the fact is that the UN's efforts to address climate change over the last 28 years have not been successful enough. It is evident that the global average temperature is on the rise (1.1 °C above pre-industrial levels in 2019). A particular concern comes from the fact that the Paris Agreement on keeping increases in the global average temperature to below +2 °C is an unenforceable ambition, since the focus is more on consequences than causes. In addition, economic policies regarding global taxes, as well as adaptation and mitigation measures, are questionable, as there is no evidence that changes in the climate system will proceed at the same rate in the coming years. This paper proposes an engineering approach that considers all relevant aspects of the climate change problem and proposes a new policy, named the "Climate New Deal". It deals with: (i) Reorientation from a high-carbon economy to a green economy; (ii) The intensive use of radically new technology, e.g., "Seawater Steam Engine" technology for the simultaneous production of thermal and electric energy and drinking water; and (iii) The intensive use of energy efficient technologies and RES technologies, especially in transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy resources and energy-efficient technologies, as well as building retrofitting, are only some of the possible strategies that can achieve more sustainable cities and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Subsidies and incentives are often provided by governments to increase the number of people adopting these sustainable energy efficiency actions. However, actual sales of green products are currently not as high as would be desired. The present paper applies a hybrid agent-based model (ABM) integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to simulate a complex socio-economic-architectural adaptive system to study the temporal diffusion and the willingness of inhabitants to adopt photovoltaic (PV) systems. The San Salvario neighborhood in Turin (Italy) is used as an exemplary case study for testing consumer behavior associated with this technology, integrating social network theories, opinion formation dynamics and an adaptation of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Data/characteristics for both buildings and people are explicitly spatialized with the level of detail at the block scale. Particular attention is given to the comparison of the policy mix for supporting decision-makers and policymakers in the definition of the most efficient strategies for achieving a long-term vision of sustainable development. Both variables and outcomes accuracy of the model are validated with historical real-world data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A green economy that simultaneously promotes environmental sustainability, social inclusiveness, and economic growth is expected to benefit the heavily resource-dependent least developed countries. Yet, internationally, there is very little empirically based research on how the "green development" agenda translates into natural resource management policies in the least developed countries. This paper examines the implementation of green economy policies at the national level in the energy and forestry sectors in the Lao PDR and Cambodia. Both countries have adopted green growth targets; however, in terms of natural resources management, two contradictory processes have taken place during the past decade. While there have been some initiatives to decentralize natural resource management by enhancing the role of local communities role, such as community-based forest or fishery management, the far greater trend has been the opening up of the economies of the Lao PDR and Cambodia to large-scale investments by multinational enterprises. Large-scale hydropower projects and increasing deforestation pose challenges to more sustainable natural resource management efforts. This article is based on an analysis of the national green economy strategies and expert interviews with the government, academia, private sector and international and national development organizations. Focusing on the energy and forestry sectors, but also analysing the national green economy strategies as a whole, our analysis sheds light on the choices made in the national development versus green economy strategies. While green economy thinking rests on strong state regulation, the policies are often formulated within a complex dynamic of donor and investor interests. The achievement of a green economy depends on the state; thus, it should steer investments to ecologically less harmful industries and ensure social inclusiveness in land-use decisions. Our results show, however, that implementing a green economy is far more complex. Despite the quest for synergies, at the sectoral level there are still many unaddressed trade-offs between, for example, energy sources and forms of land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water, energy, and biodiversity are essential components for building a sustainable food system in a developing country like Nepal. Green Revolution technologies and the package of practices largely ignored the role of ecosystem services, leaving a large population of small farmers' food- and nutrition-insecure. Biodiversity, especially, agrobiodiversity is in decline and this vital cross-cutting element is less discussed and interlinked in nexus literature. The interlinking food system with water–energy–biodiversity nexus, therefore, is essential to achieve a resilient food system. It ensures the vital structures and functions of the ecosystem on which it is dependent are well protected in the face of increasing socio-economic and climatic stress. This paper reviews the food system of Nepal through the lens of the food–water–energy–biodiversity (FWEB) nexus to develop a more robust food system framework. From this approach, food system foresight can benefit from different nature-based solutions such as agro-ecosystem-based adaptation and mitigation and climate-resilient agro-ecological production system. We found that the FWEB nexus-based approach is more relevant in the context of Nepal where food and nutrition insecurity prevails among almost half of the population. Improvement in the food system requires the building of synergy and complementary among the components of FWEB nexus. Hence, we proposed a modified framework of food system foresight for developing resilience in a food system, which can be achieved with an integrated and resilient nexus that gives more emphasis to agro-ecological system-based solutions to make the food system more climate resilient. This framework can be useful in addressing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 13, and 15 and can also be used as a tool for food system planning based on a broader nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data for a set of 19 OECD economies over the 1985–2013 period, we analyzed the effects of green energies on employment through the application of a fixed effects model. After controlling for a set of labor market institutions, innovation, financial development, and three dimensions of globalization, we found evidence of a positive and significant relationship between green energies and employment. Specifically, a 10% increase in the amount of green energies was found to determine a 0.3% increase in employment. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and to possible external shocks. The findings presented in this paper suggest that governments should incentivize firms in investing in green energies via tax cuts or subsidies to improve environmental quality, further stimulating the creation of new jobs and new employment opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has reviewed the international research on the interactions between the Economy, Energy, and Environment (3E) in the 21st century. For this purpose, a bibliometric and cluster analysis by fractional accounting has been carried out based on the two most important databases: Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. The research found and studied 2230 documents from the WoS Core Collection and 3,149 from Scopus. The results show a continuous increase in the number of articles that were published and citations during the whole period. They also showed that China and the United States (U.S.) were the most productive countries and there was a predominance of Asian organizations supporting and fostering researches. The main contribution of this article is the analysis of keywords from 2001 to 2018. The trends show that the main common elements are sustainable development and sustainability and they also include CO2 emissions and consumption. Future research in this field should address the energy transition issue in the area of sustainable development by adapting it to the restrictions of this economic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major challenges faced in the optimization process of existing heating systems is the harnessing and integration of a higher share of renewable energy. Centralized integration at the thermic source leads to high investment costs at the first investment stage, and low values of conversion, transport, and storage efficiencies, due to high levels of heat loss from large-capacity entropic systems. This research paper presents a case study on the partially decentralized integration of thermal solar fields that are used for heat production in crowded urban areas within the optimization process of the existing heating system in the city of Oradea, Romania. A deterministic method was used as the method for the calculation of heat demand, in both stationary—hourly heat demand and dynamic regimes—annual heat demand, and the simulations within the configuration and the optimization process of the hybrid heating systems were carried out. In the case study, four representative urban areas with different thermal densities were analyzed within two working scenarios, which took into account the energy performances of the buildings inside the studied areas before thermal retrofitting, and after a usual thermal retrofit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bio-organic greenhouses that are based on alternative resources for producing heat and electricity stand out as an efficient option for the sustainable development of agriculture, thus ensuring good growth and development of plants in all seasons, especially during the cold season. Greenhouses can be used with maximum efficiency in various agricultural lands, providing ideal conditions of temperature and humidity for short-term plant growing, thereby increasing the local production of fruit and vegetables. This paper presents the development of a durable greenhouse concept that is based on complex energy system integrating fuel cells and solar panels. Approaching this innovative concept encountered a major problem in terms of local implementation of this type of greenhouses because of the difficulty in providing electrical and thermal energy from conventional sources to ensure an optimal climate for plant growing. The project result consists in the design and implementation of a sustainable greenhouse energy system that is based on fuel cells and solar panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]