• Energy Research
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The global community has set intensive targets in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to better people’s lives after closing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It corresponds to the 2030 aspirations of the United Nations to enhance and promote the sustainable development of human society. The current paper explores the impact of fiscal hedging and R&D in energy Using a green-energy system in SDGs. To do this, we used TOPSIS and QARDL methodologies on a 21-year dataset of South and Southeast Asian economies from 2000 to 2020. The study results show that fiscal hedging contributes favourably to the environmental degradation of the underlying economy. Research and development (R&D) in renewables has contributed negatively to ecological degradation and SDGs in the economies of South & Southeast Asia. This study suggests policy guidelines for advanced and developing economies based on fiscal stability and technical innovation through R&D to meet SDG.

Renewable energy is seen as a key tool in addressing the dual issue of increasing energy demand and climate change mitigation. In the current geopolitical climate, it may also play a key long-term role in increasing energy security. In order to reach the ambitious green energy targets set for each European Union member state public support for fiscal and other support mechanisms is required. The purpose of this paper is to determine to what extent the population in the North-East region of Romania is willing to make financial sacrifices for further development of renewable energy. We also explore what lifestyle and socio-demographic factors influence willingness to pay. We applied a discrete choice experiment on a sample of 602 households from the populous North-East region of Romania. Our results show that the creation of new jobs and the increase of the national energy independence, followed by the reduction of pollution are societal benefits that would convince households to pay a premium in order to support renewable energy development. Increased local budgets for rural communities resulting from the taxation of new energy companies is not one of the desired outcomes of green energy development. The study is useful in the design of adequate fiscal and renewable support policies and serves companies by identifying willingness to pay influence factors, as well as by demonstrating a market segmentation procedure.

Interconnected food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus systems face many challenges to support human well-being (HWB) and maintain resilience, especially in arid and semiarid regions like New Mexico (NM), United States (US). Insufficient FEW resources, unstable economic growth due to fluctuations in prices of crude oil and natural gas, inequitable education and employment, and climate change are some of these challenges. Enhancing the resilience of such coupled socio-environmental systems depends on the efficient use of resources, improved understanding of the interlinkages across FEW system components, and adopting adaptable alternative management strategies. The goal of this study was to develop a framework that can be used to enhance the resilience of these systems. An integrated food, energy, water, well-being, and resilience (FEW-WISE) framework was developed and introduced in this study. This framework consists mainly of five steps to qualitatively and quantitatively assess FEW system relationships, identify important external drivers, integrate FEW systems using system dynamics models, develop FEW and HWB performance indices, and develop a resilience monitoring criterion using a threshold-based approach that integrates these indices. The FEW-WISE framework can be used to evaluate and predict the dynamic behavior of FEW systems in response to environmental and socioeconomic changes using resilience indicators. In conclusion, the derived resilience index can be used to inform the decision-making processes to guide the development of alternative scenario-based management strategies to enhance the resilience of ecological and socioeconomic well-being of vulnerable regions like NM.

The objective of this paper is to analyse impacts of COVID-19 on the nexus of food systems, the environment and sustainable development and propose ways for governments and international agencies to mitigate impacts in the short and medium term. It covers the historic period from early 2020 to early 2021 and also makes an assessment on future prospects. Although evidence is collected from all around the world, the focus is primarily on developing countries. The methods used are a review of the announced actions and preliminary findings in the academic and grey literature as well as on reliable websites from global and international institutions. By October 2020, governments around the world had invested about $12 trillion to counteract the economic effects of COVID-19. This investment could contribute to progress on the SDGs and global climate targets insofar as it was invested within a framework that supports both socio-economic recovery and sustainability. Initial analysis indicates that investments for economic recovery did not sufficiently address food security and sustainability, concentrating instead on immediate economic risk management. The global sustainable development agenda must promote the resilience and sustainability of food systems through policies and measures that: i) account for environmental thresholds and trade-offs; ii) promote food security and healthy diets; iii) enhance and protect rural livelihoods; and iv) address the inequalities and injustices that have emerged and will prevail during a post-COVID transition. National stimulus programs and the actions of international agencies must be assessed and monitored to deliver multiple benefits simultaneously and guide building back better.

The topic of whether globalization, energy consumption and financial development can substantially reduce emissions during the globalization era remains unanswered. In this context, this research highlights empirical indications supporting this theoretical discord; assessing the effect of globalization, energy consumption and financial development on the CO2 emissions in Japan (utilizing a dataset that spans between 1990 and 2019). The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique and frequency domain causality to probe these relationships. Unlike other conventional causality tests, the frequency domain causality test can capture causality at different frequencies. The findings from the ARDL analysis disclosed that globalization and renewable energy contribute to the mitigation of CO2 emissions while fossil fuel, economic growth and financial development caused an upsurge in CO2 in Japan. Furthermore, the frequency domain demonstrated that all the exogenous variables can forecast CO2 mostly in the long-term which implies that any policy initiated based on the exogenous variables will impact emissions of CO2. Based on the results obtained, Japan has to improve its financial systems and increase its use of renewable energy. Furthermore, Japan needs to restructure its policy regarding globalization owing to the fact that it contributes to the degradation of the environment. Since globalization is a major driver of economic growth, the government should concentrate on luring and licensing investors that use environmentally beneficial (net-zero) technology.

This study explores the relationship between ESG investments and carbon emissions in China. Our results show that 1% increase in environmental investments would cause 0.246% decrease in CO2 emissions and 0.558% decrease in carbon emission intensity. The impact of ESG investment is heterogeneous across the developed and underdeveloped regions. Environmental investments in the advanced eastern region have significantly improved carbon productivity. In contrast, environmental investments in the central and western regions significantly reduced carbon emissions, but they have little impact on carbon productivity.

This study investigates the relationships between infrastructure development, human development index (HDI), and CO2 emissions in China. Infrastructure has played an essential role in achieving social and economic developmental goals in China, but environmental pollution has significantly increased in the country in the last two decades. Our analysis uses time series data from 1990 to 2021 and quantile regressions, and we find that infrastructure has positive and statistically significant relationships with HDI, CO2 emissions, and GDP in all quantiles. Recent infrastructure upgrades improve living standards and increase HDI but damage the environment, and infrastructure is the main source of CO2 emissions in the country. Therefore, the government should invest in sustainable infrastructure to mitigate CO2 emissions. The government may consider infrastructure options such as low carbon transportation, including railway infrastructure, urban metros, and light rail.

Ensuring sustainability of sanitation infrastructure assets and services over the long-term is crucial for achieving safe sanitation for all. Co-management is an emerging approach that balances state and citizen responsibility for services, with applicability to community-scale (or decentralized) sanitation systems in a city-wide context. In Indonesia more than 30,000 of these systems are typically managed solely by communities, however, due to challenges in technical, social and financial aspects, commonly fall to disrepair. This paper presents qualitative research comprising document review, interviews and co-design workshops with local government and community management groups that developed a model for co-management of community-scale systems. The co-management model articulated four minimum responsibilities for local government: monitoring and corrective action; provision of technical and institutional support to community groups; formalization of fee collection; and funding of large costs for rehabilitation and expansion. This model was developed and tested in two case study locations, and through this process, was deemed appropriate, acceptable and feasible for both local government and community management groups. Related changes to Indonesia’s national program guidelines were also identified to clearly articulate local government’s role. The agreed co-management approach aligns with the human right to sanitation by supporting local governments fulfill their legal mandate for services, promotes professionalized sustainable management arrangements, ensuring community-scale systems can contribute effectively to future citywide solutions.