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This dataset underpins the study "Synergies and conflicts of energy development and water security in Africa". The study provides insights into energy supply and demand, power generation, investments and total system costs, water consumption and withdrawal as well as carbon dioxide emissions for the African continent. We developed a model to evaluate energy supply and water requirements to cover the energy needs of the African continent during the period 2015-2065. The model was developed using the open-source modeling system for long-term energy planning OSeMOSYS. The objective function is to minimise total energy system costs, rather than, for example, co-optimise the energy and water sectors. Other energy resources were also included in the model except for adding the water analysis, and the dataset was updated based on the latest available information. The OSeMOSYS model developed to conduct the study “Energy projections for African countries”, itself extended from the Electricity Model Base for Africa (TEMBA), was further extended, included exports for all fuels, water loss due to evaporation in hydropower plants and more scenarios examined. Furthermore, the latest available data on the energy system of Africa was also updated. The TEMBA model produces aggregate energy, and detailed power system results in each country in the African continent. The power sector results are also reported with power pool aggregation. The OSeMOSYS model and input data used to produce these results can be found at KTH-dESA/jrc_temba: TEMBA 2.1 (Version v2.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4889373 (Authors: Ioannis Pappis, Vignesh Sridharan, Will Usher, & Mark Howells. (2021). The initial study was funded by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (contract number C936531 - JRC/PTT/2018/C.7/0038/NC).

Nowadays in India the renewable energy sources are continuum growing to accommodate the current demands of energy. Therefore, for an effective use of this energy, a careful and critical analysis is required. As per literature review, India was reported having a massive potential as superpower source in terms of wind energy In the present research, an effort has been carried out to explore various decision making approaches such as TOPSIS, VIKOR, and Fuzzy analysis, to subsequently rank various Indian states with respect to their wind energy potential. In this perspective, potentiality indices have been found on the justification of five significant factors that influence the effective use of wind energy and then a classification has been proposed. It was found that the wind power density is the most significant parameter while the technical expertise has been found as the least significant among identified parameters. The results presented here indicates that among all alternative states of India, Tamilnadu and Maharashtra have the maximum potential to tap the wind energy potential. This study will act as a guide for various government agencies to re-evaluate and re-formulate their energy policies as well as will help various investors (under the ‘Make in India’ campaign) orientated to do business here, to take a well informed decision. The present study also provides a way to make strong policies, in the area of high wind energy potential, in order to maximize the use of renewable source of energy which allows to tackle the societal need and poverty.

In the light of the COP27 Climate Change Conference, the concept of the circular economy has come to the fore with promotion of reuse and recycling of appliances and materials from electronics to clothes. This concept has not been widely taken up by healthcare systems. In this perspective article, we discuss the idea of the circular economy and how, by extension, the concept of "circular medicine" with optimised hospital and medical clinic waste recycling might be promoted in the context of better stewardship of resources in healthcare management.

Abstract Due to various pressures and desires more and more developing countries embark on power sector reform programmes. Yet, there are a wide range of reform options and at present insufficient evidence is available as to which path will deliver best the desired objectives. Presently, most Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are dependent on high-cost fossil fuel imports for power generation. In spite of evidence that harnessing abundant domestic renewable sources of energy can deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. However, depending on the type of power sector reform the transition towards renewable energy technologies (RETs) can be either undermined or facilitated. The specific focus on SIDS is justified because they have inherent characteristics that limit the degree to which the power sector can be transformed in comparison to larger continental developing countries. With specific reference to SIDS this manuscript reviews the drivers and desires for power sector reform, as well as presenting the available reform options and their implications on the up-take of RETs. In addition to elaborating aspects of market governance, other barriers to the consideration of RETs, such as financial bias in investment, human capacity and environmental policy are discussed. In view of this discussion, which is based on evidence from recent reform programmes and theoretical academic literature, recommendations are formulated that discourage full privatisation of the power sector, as well as proposing less dogmatic lending conditions by international assistance bodies.

As several contributions in this issue of International Journal of Public Health suggest (in particular that from Kjellstrom 2009), there is a wide range of potential—direct and indirect—health consequences of climate change. However, the science of such effects is still in its infancy and faces considerable challenges, as we try to suggest in our contribution (Xun et al. 2009). Possible events attributable to climate change range from rapid and catastrophic to slow and mild. For example, IPCC does not rule out (though it is very unlikely) a cascade of events leading to Bangladesh being swept away because of rapid Himalayan glacier melting. Apart from extreme and unlikely effects, some of the direct consequences of climate change are rather obvious and can be easily perceived, such as the deaths related to heat waves in Europe in 2003. The causal pathway in these cases is clear, and does not require any particularly sophisticated epidemiological technique. Confounding is irrelevant as far as we consider the causal association between the climate event (heat wave) and its direct health consequences. But still: were all heat waves in the recent past due to what we call climate change, i.e. a man-made trend in temperature and its related epiphenomena? Was the flood in Bangladesh in 1974 the first attributable to climate change, or the last not due to it? And what about the one in 1998? Clearly borders are fuzzy, and causal chains intricate. Uncertain inferences on the causal nature of events also concern the attribution to climate change of indirect health effects, such as infectious disease outbreaks, changes in food quality and availability, water salinization and the ensuing epidemic of hypertension (Xun et al. 2009). Even wars and conflicts (like in Darfur), mass migrations and effects on mental health have been attributed to climate change. In a survey conducted among children aged between 2 and 9 in Bangladesh, Durkin et al. (1993) found post-flood changes in behaviour and bedwetting. Children were reported to have ‘‘very aggressive behaviour’’ after floods, with a significant increase compared to the preflood situation. A qualitative study explored the experiences of female adolescents during the 1998 floods in Bangladesh, focusing on the implications of sociocultural norms related to notions of honour, shame, purity and pollution. A number of the girls were vulnerable to sexual and mental harassment through exposure to unfamiliar environment of flood shelters and relief camps. Common mental health disorders following climate-induced displacement include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, irritability, sleeplessness and suicide. Moreover, conflict situations that may arise among farmers in times of climate-induced natural disasters like droughts and floods need to be addressed. Is all of this attributable to what we call climate change? Where are the borders between the burden of events that would occur anyhow, particularly in low-income countries, even in the absence of climate change, and those attributable to the latter? How can we identify the chain of events that eventually explains the local outbreak? Again, fuzzy borders have to be acknowledged. It should be noted that the effects we have described are mainly occurring or Paolo Vineis is Chair of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College, London. His main interests are in the field of molecular epidemiology and gene–environment interactions. He also works on climate change with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change in London.

IntroductionNigeria faces enormous challenges to meet the growing demands for maternal healthcare. This has necessitated the need for digital technologies such as mobile health, to supplement existing maternal healthcare services. However, mobile health programs are tempered with gender blind spots that continue to push women and girls to the margins of society. Failure to address underlying gender inequalities and unintended consequences of mobile health programs limits its benefits and ultimately its sustainability. The importance of understanding existing gender dynamics in mobile health interventions for maternal health cannot be overstated.ObjectiveThis study explores the gender dimensions of Text4Life, a mobile health intervention for maternal healthcare in Edo State, Nigeria by capturing the unique perspectives of women who are the primary beneficiaries, their spouses who are all men, and community leaders who oversaw the implementation and delivery of the intervention.MethodThis qualitative study used criterion-based purposive sampling to recruit a total of 66 participants: 39 women, 25 men, and two ward development committee chairpersons. Data collection involved 8 age and sex desegregated focus group discussions with women and men and in-depth interviews with ward development committee chairpersons in English or Pidgin English. Translated and transcribed data were exported to NVivo 1.6 and data analysis followed a conventional approach to thematic analysis.ResultsWomen had some of the necessary resources to participate in the Text4Life program, but they were generally insufficient thereby derailing their participation. The program enhanced women's status and decision-making capacity but with men positioned as heads of households and major decision-makers in maternal healthcare, there remained the possibility of deprioritizing maternal healthcare. Finally, while Text4Life prioritized women's safety in various contexts, it entrenched systems of power that allow men's control over women's reproductive lives.ConclusionAs communities across sub-Saharan Africa continue to leverage the use of mHealth for maternal health, this study provides insights into the gender implications of women's use of mHealth technologies. While mHealth programs are helpful to women in many ways, they are not enough on their own to undo entrenched systems of power through which men control women's access to resources and their reproductive and social lives.

Processes for recycling or reusing material resources have naturally appeared along with the history of technology development when need, resource scarcity, opportunities, and enabling technologies have combined conveniently with insight, intuition, and fortune. The current pressure for saving resources by efficiently integrating production and consumption processes requires the development of systematic approaches exploring opportunities and determining the best alternatives. While recent research has addressed the problem of directly connecting sources and sinks, we turn our attention to doing so with improved efficiency and at a lower cost. This work addresses the event of a systematic framework for the synthesis and optimization of the industrial process networks required by an economic system aimed at adding value to waste and minimizing the continuous need for non-renewable resources from a circular economy perspective. The systematic framework presented relies upon a novel model formulated as a superstructure that includes the transformation technologies needed for the revaluation of waste, which, in turn, raises resource-sharing opportunities otherwise ignored. The model is flexible enough to address primary uncertainty sources and manage different objectives (e.g., economic and environmental. A case study on hydrocarbons recovery from waste plastic illustrates the capabilities of the model, which proves to be a useful tool for the identification of the most promising routes for waste transformation and the less efficient processes where substantial improvement is required to increase their competitive edge. The methodology is valuable for the multiple actors involving the waste revaluation sector, from private companies to policymakers. Peer Reviewed

AbstractBackgroundTemperature and precipitation are known to affectVibrio choleraeoutbreaks. Despite this, the impact of drought on outbreaks has been largely understudied. Africa is both drought and cholera prone and more research is needed in Africa to understand cholera dynamics in relation to drought.MethodsHere, we analyse a range of environmental and socioeconomic covariates and fit generalised linear models to publicly available national data, to test for associations with several indices of drought and make cholera outbreak projections to 2070 under three scenarios of global change, reflecting varying trajectories of CO2emissions, socio-economic development, and population growth.ResultsThe best-fit model implies that drought is a significant risk factor for African cholera outbreaks, alongside positive effects of population, temperature and poverty and a negative effect of freshwater withdrawal. The projections show that following stringent emissions pathways and expanding sustainable development may reduce cholera outbreak occurrence in Africa, although these changes were spatially heterogeneous.ConclusionsDespite an effect of drought in explaining recent cholera outbreaks, future projections highlighted the potential for sustainable development gains to offset drought-related impacts on cholera risk. Future work should build on this research investigating the impacts of drought on cholera on a finer spatial scale and potential non-linear relationships, especially in high-burden countries which saw little cholera change in the scenario analysis.

Universal access to clean electricity (SDG7) in remote areas of the rural South remains a key challenge for economic growth, and has particular implications for equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. In Pakistan, techno-economic constraints in grid expansion for last-mile users, combined with the country’s high solar energy potential make off-grid solar energy generation a viable solution, provided its technological, social and economic implications are well-understood in terms of actual energy demands and designed for equitable distribution. This paper presents a socio-technical feasibility assessment for designing equitable and inclusive off-grid solar systems using the case-study of Helario village in Tharparkar, Pakistan, with a key focus on gender-specific benefits. A mixed-methods approach is used to conduct a baseline field assessment of existing energy sources, community needs, women’s access and energy use, affordability, future energy aspirations and social acceptability of renewable energy technologies. Results indicate gendered differences in mobility, education, everyday practices and income that have socio-economic implications, whereby women can benefit more from electrification, particularly when electricity is interlinked with access to clean water. Results are used to model, simulate and optimise a solar-battery mini-grid system for tiered and equitable energy access using CLOVER. Analysis shows that a system designed with a 10-year lifetime provides the lowest levelised cost of electricity and minimum emissions intensity, emphasising the need for long-term energy system planning. This paper serves as a demonstration for policymakers, project developers and rural communities for designing more equitable and inclusive energy systems with clear gendered implications for sustainable future access.