• Energy Research
• natural sciences close
• 1. No poverty close
• 8. Economic growth close
• CZ close

The research presented in this paper explored multiple objectives. First, what are the requirements for establishing a new composting business that embraces the principles of circular economy? Second, how can employment opportunities for at-risk youths from the most impoverished neighborhood in Guatemala City be created, while adhering to the tenets of social sustainability, of which human rights is the corner stone? Third, what were the requirements involved in making compost in the challenging climatic conditions of Guatemala City? And finally, from an educational perspective, how can this be taught to university students incorporating community service learning in its pedagogy, coupled with the model of action research? What are the obstacles to overcome when initiating a startup business, balancing what appeared to be a mix of complex economic, environmental, and social elements? These three elements are the recognized pillars of sustainability, and as such, there existed a great opportunity to meld the principles of circular economy, community service learning, and action research within the context of putting theories into practice. This applied research attempted to explore how effectively this could be accomplished in Guatemala while overcoming complex cultural, environmental, and economic barriers.

This paper aimed to present a model of natural environment management in national parks in Poland in the context of increased tourist traffic. The research area comprised Polish national parks as they are characterized by barely altered nature, little human impact, and undisturbed natural phenomena. The methods involved the observational method, literature analysis and criticism, and the in-depth interview method employed in November 2019. The respondents included national park management staff. The questions were prepared in accordance with the Berlin Declaration principles of sustainable tourism development and were extended with the authors’ own items. The questionnaire contained 17 questions, grouped in four parts: science and documentation; tourism; cooperation and education; environmental threats. The results indicate that in order for actions to prove efficient in a park, a conservation plan should be carefully developed. Its correctness requires monitoring the state of the environment, tourist traffic size and trends, and tourists’ impact on the environment. An important condition for effective tourism management in parks is to increase the competences of the administering bodies and knowledge regarding individuals’ responsibilities. Boards should be able to evaluate and modify conservation plans, spatial development plans, municipality development strategies, and projects for investments within the parks.

Cities have intensified the adoption of Low Emission Zones (LEZs) to improve urban livability. Despite the high social controversy caused by LEZs in many cities, the scientific literature has paid little attention to study their public acceptability. This paper conducts a modelling approach exploring the impact of four groups of variables on the public acceptability of LEZs: (i) socio-economic and demographic characteristics; (ii) personal attitudes; (iii) travel-related variables; and (iv) perceptions and mobility habits linked to LEZs. The city of Madrid, Spain, is a case study of great interest because a LEZ called “Madrid Central” has been recently implemented. A total of 799 individual questionnaires were used to calibrate an ordered logit model. Results indicate that socio-economic and demographic variables are weakly related to the level of public acceptability towards the LEZ. On the contrary, the political ideology of individuals, their environmental awareness, their primary transport mode, the use of shared mobility systems, and the frequency of access to “Madrid Central” have a higher explanatory power. The results may be useful for policy-makers to understand the factors that increase the public acceptability of LEZs.

Electrical energy is one of the most important daily needs. Shortage of energy can be very dangerous for any society. This can affect the standard of living and quality of life of the people and even endanger the lives of those in hospitals, and so forth. Developed countries do not face such risks in general because they have well organized electrical systems and high energy security. The developing countries are faced daily with electric system collapses, especially in the case of wars, where many parts of the electrical grid in the country can be damaged and fuel transmission lines for generators cut off. Urban areas in developing countries should have a strategic plan to deal with any unexpected occurrence of energy shortages using any available renewable energy sources. City of Latakia is located in the region which has been suffering from the consequences of war for more than six years. The fact that a high number of migrants from other cities have come to Latakia along with a lack of fuel makes the energy shortage in the city worse. An emergency system could use the cheapest available renewable energy sources in addition to few big portable generators to provide an acceptable energy supply for the most needed requirements of daily life.

Income distribution can cause large-scale transformations in human resources structure, essential changes of economic outputs via its impact on life satisfaction and motivation of work. Thus, the overall objective of this research is to improve methodological tools of income distribution analysis based on identifying the links between different structural indicators of income inequality and the most essential features of social and economic well-being. We conducted comparative analysis of EU Member States and Ukraine. We used structural analysis based on two forms of income distribution—functional (share of “labour” in Gross domestic product - GDP) and household one (ratio of incomes measured by special decile coefficients) to identify income inequality and inconsistencies in distributive strategies. By grouping European countries according to economic well-being (described as GDP per capita) and inequality in income distribution (based on Gini coefficient), we determined apparent tendencies in distributive policies and revealed links between income distribution and connected social-economic features of well-being. We conclude that countries with the most stable and clear patterns in income distribution have distinct connections between the share of labour costs in GDP and successes in social and economic spheres, including human development level, property rights protection, GDP growth, possibilities for taxation and budgeting of social programmes.

Renewable sources play a crucial role in the decarbonisation process of the current linear economy, aimed at reaching the 2030 climate objectives and fulfilling the EU’s long-term strategy of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. All economic subjects, including households, can contribute to the Green Deal goals. The main goal of this paper is to evaluate households’ consumption of energy sources for heating purposes in the Czech Republic in the period 2003–2020 and depict possible drivers of switching to biomass. For this, various data were collected, such as data published by the Czech Statistical Office, ministries, and other national authorities, as well as data from Eurostat. Concerning methods, data analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were used. Different models focus on the substitution effect, rebound effect, and behaviour of different kinds of households. The results show a substitution effect connected with the consumption of coal, electricity, and biomass for heating purposes. Many households substituted coal for biomass in the observed period. On the other hand, the environmental impact of such substitution is not significant, as carbon emissions and emissions of other pollutants are stable. The substitution of fuels should be accompanied by technological change, e.g., improvement of combustion boilers. Moreover, households of pensioners are the key economic subjects with the highest impact on biomass consumption for heating purposes. Against this background we recommend policies to support households in replacing their boilers for more environmentally friendly ones.

Improving the logistics industry’s resource efficiency (LIRE) is one of the most significant measures for ensuring sustainable development. We offer a data-driven technique for analyzing and optimizing the LIRE to improve it and achieve sustainable development. A LIRE index system is built based on relevant data gathering and a complete examination of the economy, society, and environment. The Super-EBM-Undesirable model was used to calculate the LIRE; the Global Malmquist–Luenberger index model was used to calculate the LIRE’s dynamic change characteristics, and ArcGIS and spatial autocorrelation models were used to analyze the LIRE’s spatial evolution pattern. The LIRE in 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 2011 to 2019 is used to illustrate the method implementation process. The results indicate the following: (1) The overall LIRE is low, with an average value of 0.717, and there are regional variances with a decreasing gradient pattern of “East–Northeast–Central–West”. (2) Changes in pure technical efficiency have a bigger impact in general; increasing technical efficiency is the LIRE’s principal motivator. (3) Improving the LIRE should take spatial spillover and inhibitory effects into account. This study provides theoretical and methodological support for the evaluation and optimization of the LIRE and a theoretical foundation for the logistics industry’s sustainable development (LISD).

AbstractRural areas particularly suffer from economic crises where they overlap with long‐term negative effects of climate change. Here, we introduce the concept of mycotourism by means of mushroom‐related industries in central‐northeastern Spain. We describe how this novel branch of eco‐tourism can help stabilize social and political structures. Likewise, we illuminate the potential of mycotourism to compensate for some losses related to widespread unemployment and summer drought, as well as to generate unexpectedly fruitful research opportunities. Focussing on Spain's emerging black truffle industry, we recommend a stronger involvement of natural sciences, conservation services, and management strategies in commercial endeavors. We emphasize the relevance of direct and indirect climatic impacts on ecological and societal systems as well as on economic markets. Moreover, we stress the importance of a vital science–policy interface at various scales, with immediate opportunities for sustainable landscape protection and the preservation of biological diversity.