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Improving access to sustainable energy services and reducing the carbon footprint and deforestation of developing countries presents a substantial challenge to the development industry. This paper aims to critically assess two prevalent business models emerging to meet this challenge: financial institution–technology provider partnerships and the one-stop-shop, pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model. The authors find that collaborations between financial institutions and energy providers need to address grey areas such as product quality standards, marketing, and post-sales services, and incorporate feedback loops to continually evaluate the performance of the partnership. Pay-as-you-go presents an intriguing business case to leapfrog more traditional energy access programmes. However, more robust results from the field need to be reported before the PAYG movement can claim success. Ultimately, collaborative and integrated actions by all stakeholders are needed to achieve universal energy access.

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of urbanization on energy consumption by applying the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) in case of Malaysia. The study covers the time period of 1970Q1–2011Q4. The unit root test and the ARDL bounds testing approach have been applied to examine integrating properties and long run relationship in the presence of structural breaks. Our results validated the existence of cointegration and exposed that urbanization is a major contributor in energy consumption. Affluence raises energy demand. Capital stock boosts energy consumption. Trade openness leads to affluence and hence increases energy consumption. The causality analysis finds that urbanization Granger causes energy consumption. The feedback effect is found between energy consumption and affluence and, energy consumption and capital. The bidirectional causality exists between trade openness and energy consumption.

The European Union is currently in the process of transformation toward a circular economy model in which different areas of activity should be integrated for more efficient management of raw materials and waste. The wastewater sector has a great potential in this regard and therefore is an important element of the transformation process to the circular economy model. The targets of the circular economy policy framework such as resource recovery are tightly connected with the wastewater treatment processes and sewage sludge management. With this in view, the present study aims to review existing indicators on resource recovery that can enable efficient monitoring of the sustainable and circular solutions implemented in the wastewater sector. Within the reviewed indicators, most of them were focused on technological aspects of resource recovery processes such as nutrient removal efficiency, sewage sludge processing methods and environmental aspects as the pollutant share in the sewage sludge or its ashes. Moreover, other wide-scope indicators such as the wastewater service coverage or the production of bio-based fertilizers and hydrochar within the wastewater sector were analyzed. The results were used for the development of recommendations for improving the resources recovery monitoring framework in the wastewater sector and a proposal of a circularity indicator for a wastewater treatment plant highlighting new challenges for further researches and wastewater professionals.

Abstract A linear economy approach results in many environmental challenges: resources become depleted and end up as waste and emissions. One of the key strategies to overcome these problems is using waste as a resource, i.e. evolving toward a circular economy. To monitor this transition, suitable indicators are needed that focus on sustainability issues whilst taking into account the technical reality. In this paper, we develop such an indicator to quantify the circular economy performance of different plastic waste treatment options. This indicator is based on the technical quality of the plastic waste stream and evaluates resource consumption by using the Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment (CEENE) method. To illustrate the use of this new indicator, it was applied in a case study on post-industrial plastic waste treatment. The results show that the indicator can be a very useful approach to guide waste streams towards their optimal valorization option, based on quality of the waste flow and the environmental benefit of the different options.

Spatial data on Low-and-Middle-Income-Country (LMIC) cities, and deprived areas within cities, are often not readily available in support of local and global information needs. To address this information gap, we propose the systematic semi-automated SLUMAP framework that provides policy-relevant information on deprived urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), based on free open-source software (FOSS). First, we assess user needs for spatial information on deprivation (ranging from local communities to global research and policy support). Second, we show how free or low-cost image datasets can be used for mapping the location of deprived areas at the city scale and providing an overall assessment of their spatial patterns. This is implemented as a grid-based approach using machine learning and assessing the contribution of a large number of spectral and spatial features derived from open or low-cost imagery. Third, we show how higher (spatial and spectral) resolution data can provide a detailed characterization of such areas, with a GEOBIA/machine-learning workflow and deep learning techniques. We illustrate the experiments and results on the city of Nairobi (Kenya)and discuss transferability to SSA cities.

The steel industry is the largest consumer of energy in the world among industrial sectors. It is generally acknowledged that energy and environment are intimately related. Steel production is an energy intensive process that has a significant environmental impact. This paper reviews the progress made on energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption in the steel industry worldwide. The reduction in the availability of fresh water resources combined with the effects of global warming and climate change have increased pressure on industries, especially steel, to reduce its overall pollution, and specifically its water and carbon footprint. The implications of these effects on the value chain is discussed in this review. The contribution of new emerging technologies of iron and steelmaking is also reviewed. Finally, the important issues that contribute to define a sustainable industrial activity such as the recycling of steel and of by-products of steel production are studied. The history of steel industry is full of lessons, one of which is the need to keep the dreams alive. There are indeed expectations to solve problems created by technical progress.

The bankruptcy of the fourth largest investment bank in the world Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008 remains the largest bankruptcy in the history of United States. This bankruptcy is viewed as a turning point in the Global Financial Crisis. Paradoxically, even though the financial system had many safeguards (auditors, audit committees, the board of directors, credit rating agencies, government supervisors) whose purpose was to inform the investing public about the actual financial situation of the institution, Lehman Brothers bankruptcy came as a shock to financial markets across the globe revealing that many of the “gatekeepers” failed. Comparative analysis of liability cases after bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and financial institutions in Lithuania shows that contrary to Lehman’s case, the demise of financial institutions in Lithuania cannot be attributed to sub-prime mortgages caused financial crisis, real estate market fluctuations or any other external variable. Problems are related to weak supervision, inefficient regulation, and common unethical behavior in the financial sector.

This exploratory essay aims to provide a reflection on the possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for urban development and to sketch a plausible picture of the urban future. It serves as an introductory contribution to the Special Issue of this journal on ‘happy and healthy cities’, with particular emphasis on the implications of COVID-19 in pluriform cities. There is no doubt that contemporary cities are growing, and have become more dynamic and crowded. The more people, the bigger the challenges are to manage urban growth and to cope with—and control—density frictions, such as pandemics (e.g., COVID-19). Cities have the task to satisfy the essential needs of many heterogeneous people and to develop appropriate people-based strategies in order to make or keep people happy and healthy. The current COVID-19 disaster is a real urban challenge. The deployment of smart cities’ strategies and the use of digital technology tools in order to capture and provide intelligent internal and external online information and communication opportunities may help cities—in active partnership with their residents (‘smart citizens’ voice’)—to manage shocks and disruptions in the urban system. Clearly, cities are dynamic and adaptive organisms with a high resilience capacity. A key question addressed in this paper is whether urban inhabitants may be inclined to move out of the city due to human health threats, or whether intelligent digital technology tools will be able to overcome the current challenges to the ‘urban way of life’. The paper argues that modern information and communication technology offers a range of opportunities for a healthy city life, so that the COVID-19 pandemic will most likely not lead to a massive demographic outflow from urban agglomerations to less densely populated areas in particular rural areas. Instead, what is called the ‘corona crisis’ may cause just a ripple in the permanent dynamic evolution of cities.