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As it emerges from the literature, electricity access in rural contexts is deeply intertwined with socioeconomic dynamics. However, the advent of a reliable and sufficient source of electricity is not the sole driver that might contribute to local development. Indeed, complementary activities might have a crucial role in sustaining the development of rural communities as well as the electricity access. The current research addresses the lack of counterfactual scenarios in which the impact of complementary activities on electrification projects can be investigated. The authors introduce the case study of Matembwe village, a rural community in the Njombe region of Tanzania. The data collection includes the electricity consumption, number of electricity connections, and number of income-generating activities in a timespan ranging from 1989 to 2015. The analysis is based on system dynamics. The study considers different scenarios representing the dynamics related to the following complementary actions: access to market measures, access to credit measures, and access to usable skills. On the one hand, the study reveals that the effectiveness of the considered complementary actions is limited except from the access to microcredit which fosters an increase in electricity connections by 17%. On the other hand, both access to microcredit and the starting up of a local cooperative by CEFA Onlus that reinvests its profits in the local market impact the socio-economic dimension by 69% and 22%, respectively.

This article describes the results of a study of Ecuador’s energy status, using the system dynamics methodology to model supply, demand and CO2 emissions scenarios for the year 2030. Primary energy production increased in the different projected scenarios, with oil as the most important source of energy. The increase observed in final energy consumption was mainly associated with the transport and industry sectors. A reduction in energy intensity was projected for the different scenarios, which could be associated with the projected economic growth. The results obtained were used to build a proposal for energy policies aimed at mitigating emissions. The proposed changes to the national energy matrix could be the factors that will contribute most to the achievement of carbon emission reductions projected by the different scenarios; changes in the energy matrix are mainly associated with the development of projects to replace fossil fuels with renewable energies, mainly hydropower.

Household carbon emissions are important components of total carbon emissions. The consumer side of energy-saving emissions reduction is an essential factor in reducing carbon emissions. In this paper, the carbon emissions coefficient method and Consumer Lifestyle Approach (CLA) were used to calculate the total carbon emissions of households in 30 provinces of China from 2006 to 2015, and based on the extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model, the factors influencing the total carbon emissions of households were analyzed. The results indicated that, first, over the past ten years, the energy and products carbon emissions from China’s households have demonstrated a rapid growth trend and that regional distributions present obvious differences. Second, China’s energy carbon emissions due to household consumption primarily derived from the residents’ consumption of electricity and coal; China’s products household carbon emissions primarily derived from residents’ consumption of the high carbon emission categories: residences, food, transportation and communications. Third, in terms of influencing factors, the number of households in China plays a significant role in the total carbon emissions of China’s households. The ratio of children 0–14 years old and gender ratio (female = 100) are two factors that reflect the demographic structure, have significant effects on the total carbon emissions of China’s households, and are all positive. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita plays a role in boosting the total carbon emissions of China’s households. The effect of the carbon emission intensity on total household carbon emissions is positive. The industrial structure (the proportion of secondary industries’ added value to the regional GDP) has curbed the growth of total carbon emissions from China’s household consumption. The results of this study provide data to support the assessment of the total carbon emissions of China’s households and provide a reasonable reference that the government can use to formulate energy-saving and emission-reduction measures.

In China, environmental pollution responsibilities are divided according to administrative regions. However, because of the strong externality of environmental pollution, the movement of environmental pollution undoubtedly increases the complexity of pollution governance. To divide the responsibility of environmental pollution governance in each province, we effectively quantify the unequal relationship between environmental pollution costs and economic benefits in each province to understand the mechanism and characteristics of inter-provincial environmental pollution movement. Based on the regional input–output model and an inventory we compiled of sulfur dioxide(SO2) emissions of air pollutants in 2012, we calculate the implied inter-provincial environmental pollution emissions and economic benefits from trade, based on production and consumption (supply-side and demand-side). In addition, the movement relationship is explored, and the cost and economic value-added indexes of air pollution control are further constructed to provide effective evidence for a reasonable division of responsibility for environmental pollution control. The results show that there are obvious environmental inequities in the regional trade process in each province, indicating that environmental pollution has been moved. Developed provinces have more economic benefits but pay less in the process of trading goods with less-developed provinces due to the advantages of their industrial structure, while the opposite is true for less-developed provinces. Finally, we propose corresponding policy recommendations to change this condition.

Promoting energy efficiency is a key element of the strategic commitment of the European Community. Prominent among the binding measures established by the 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive to further this vision is the requirement for large companies to conduct energy audits every four years. After receiving the second cycle of energy audit reports in December 2019, a new description of the energy situation of Italian companies was made available. This presented the previously inaccessible possibility of comparing the two situations reported in 2015 and 2019 to assess the development of energy efficiency practices in organizations subject to the legislative obligation of energy audits in the country. To this end, in collaboration with the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), a project was initiated with the aim of developing the tools and methodologies necessary to assess in more detail the evolution that has occurred in the four years since 2015. In this paper, the findings of the analysis conducted on a significant sample of companies in Italy are presented. Through the design of a maturity model to assess the degree of progress achieved in a company’s energy management, the results of the two situations were analyzed. The analysis was deepened by assessing the progress achieved in different aspects of Energy Management: “Strategic Approach”, “Awareness, Competence, and Knowledge”, “Methodological Approach”, “Organizational Structure”, “Energy Performance Management and Information System”, and “Best Practices”. Furthermore, the observed variations were statistically tested using a pairwise t-test to make statistical inferences about the maturity of the total population of Italian enterprises under legislative obligation. The results have shown an increase in overall energy management maturity in each maturity dimension.

The electricity consumption and economic growth are highly correlated. The financial crisis in 2008 brought a negative effect on China’s economic growth, which also influenced the electricity consumption. The electricity demand of North China region was also greatly influenced by this financial crisis, the whole social electricity consumption growth rate of which decreased by 14.31% in 2008 compared to that in 2007. In order to analyze the random impulse effect of the financial crisis on the demand of electricity in North China, the monthly data is decomposed into deterministic trend, stochastic impact effect, and periodic trend using the Beveridge-Nelson decomposition method. After comparatively analyzing the impulse effect of the financial crisis on electricity consumption of six provinces in North China, we can draw the conclusions: (1) the electricity consumption of the whole society and the secondary industry are under larger negative impacts, and the random impulse effect of the secondary industry is more intense; and (2) the impact of the financial crisis on the tertiary industry, which is mainly influenced by seasonal changes, is smaller. Finally, some policy implications are proposed.

The primary objective of this research was to determine the impact of renewable energy, alternative and nuclear energy, urbanization, energy use, and fossil fuel energy consumption on Romanian economic development. To investigate the relation between variables, we employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique in conjunction with FMOLS (Fully Modified Least Squares) and CCR (Canonical Cointegrating Regression). Long-run and short-run findings suggest that alternative and nuclear energy, as well as fossil fuel consumption, has a positive association with economic growth, but renewable energy, urbanization, and energy usage have an adversative relationship with economic growth. Similarly, FMOLS and CCR statistics indicate that alternative and nuclear energy and fossil fuel consumption have a favorable impact on economic development. Renewable energy consumption, urbanization, and energy use, on the other hand, revealed a negative connection with economic progress. Conservative solutions are necessary to implement appropriate policies to address energy consumption concerns in Romania in order to improve economic development.