• Energy Research
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The article discusses the problems associated with the tourism industry and the hotel business during the pandemic. A study was carried out and relevant conclusions were presented on how the pandemic affected the hotel business in Europe and Russia. The authors examined and analyzed in detail the indicators of forecasts in the sphere of the Russian hotel business, particularly in the regions. The authors paid special attention to the study of open public spaces and conducted a detailed analysis, which made it possible to identify the opportunities for the development of the hotel business. In the article the main trends of a pandemic and post-pandemic are studied – the need to reinforce sanitary measures. The research focuses on identifying the features of the economic state of the regions during the pandemic. The authors developed and substantiated the areas that are relevant, useful and applicable for the hotel business; revealed the features of the process of restoration of the hotel business. Special attention is paid to the study of state support measures; the features of their further actualization for the development of the tourism industry are presented. The authors have proposed the ways to overcome the crisis, contributing to a slow, but accurate and safe recovery of the hotel business and an increase in demand.

In the framework of the study, the authors consider conceptual approaches to improve the management system of agrarian sphere development of regions in the realities of this industry functioning in the Russian Federation. Agrarian sphere is shown in aspects of socio-economic territorial system with its subsystems. The transition mechanisms of the agrarian sphere to the rails of sustainable development due to the choice of priority development directions within the life cycle are presented. The necessity of applying an integrated approach to the solution of industrial and social problems of the agricultural sector of the country is proved and reasoned.

This study investigates the relationship between violent conflict, food price, and climate variability at the subnational level. Using disaggregated data on 113 African markets from January 1997 to April 2010, interrelationships between the three variables are analyzed in simultaneous equation models. We find that: (i) a positive feedback exists between food price and violence - higher food prices increase conflict rates within markets and conflict increases food prices; (ii) anomalously dry conditions are associated with increased frequencies of conflict; and (iii) decreased rainfall exerts an indirect effect on conflict through its impact on food prices. These findings suggest that the negative effects of climate variability on conflict can be mitigated by interventions and effective price management in local markets. Creating environments in which food prices are stable and reliable, and markets are accessible and safe, can lower the impacts of both climate change and conflict feedbacks.

This study highlights how Chinese economic development detrimentally impacted water quality in recent decades and how this has been improved by enormous investment in environmental remediation funded by the Chinese government. To our knowledge, this study is the first to describe the variability of surface water quality in inland waters in China, the affecting drivers behind the changes, and how the government-financed conservation actions have impacted water quality. Water quality was found to be poorest in the North and the Northeast China Plain where there is greater coverage of developed land (cities + cropland), a higher gross domestic product (GDP), and higher population density. There are significant positive relationships between the concentration of the annual mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the percentage of developed land use (cities + cropland), GDP, and population density in the individual watersheds (p < 0.001). During the past decade, following Chinese government-financed investments in environmental restoration and reforestation, the water quality of Chinese inland waters has improved markedly, which is particularly evident from the significant and exponentially decreasing GDP-normalized COD and ammonium (NH4+-N) concentrations. It is evident that the increasing GDP in China over the past decade did not occur at the continued expense of its inland water ecosystems. This offers hope for the future, also for other industrializing countries, that with appropriate environmental investments a high GDP can be reached and maintained, while simultaneously preserving inland aquatic ecosystems, particularly through management of sewage discharge.

Abstract The housing growth programme could offer an opportunity for accelerating the deployment of decentralised renewable energy systems (DRES) in the UK. The Government hopes to leverage private sector investment into DRES as part of new housing projects. The aim of this paper is to assess whether current regulatory and funding frameworks are sufficient to achieve this. The question is explored by drawing on the experience of developers, local authorities, energy utilities and service companies operating in the largest housing growth region in the UK–Thames Gateway. Their experience suggests that the current low intervention approach will be insufficient to generate the shift required in both industries. In order to be more successful economic and regulatory instruments should focus on producers (house-builders and energy providers) rather than consumers (households). Tighter regulation is needed to ensure that producers have a responsibility to install DRES as part of new developments, to enable connection to the grid, to ensure a sustained financial return from investment and revenue is spent on the expansion of new renewable energy infrastructure. This regulatory framework must be under-pinned by substantial funds focused on producers. Greater intervention is needed if DRES is to be included in new housing development.

Local renewable energy resources (RES) are often considered as an alternative to the conventional power supply by means of power lines. This is an urgent approach for rural electrification if there are long distances from main substations, and distribution feeders’ construction and service is not cost effective for grid companies. Nevertheless, the real potential for RES implementation at some regions could be limited by economic, geographical and climatic factors especially. The paper gives a review of the experience of power supply type selection for distant consumers given the specific northern continental conditions. The main goal of the paper is the methods estimating technical and economical efficiency of power supply system alternatives including centralized power supply and standalone microgrid implementation to select suitable power supply variant.

Abstract In this paper, we discuss a number of ways to define and measure the affordability of energy consumption, and we examine the emergence of energy poverty in Italy in the period from 1998 to 2011. The paper examines the eligibility criteria for claiming the benefits available to support energy consumption for vulnerable families and it identifies the potential beneficiaries. The study assesses the appropriateness of the eligibility criteria by comparing the population targeted by the policy with the population actually facing affordability problems. A simulation exercise, using the hypothetical scenario most likely to result in energy benefits being made available, shows that, regardless of the affordability index adopted, the provision of state energy benefits has little impact on fuel poverty.