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Abstract This study employs the decomposition analysis of CO2 emissions for the period from 2000 to 2012. This technique computes five effects that drive changes in CO2 emissions in five subsectors of the Portuguese tourism industry. The energy over fixed capital, the capital over labour productivity, and the tourism intensity are the most important effects in accommodation, food and beverage services. The carbonisation index constitutes an important effect in transports. The capital over labour productivity intensity effect has the strongest influence, while the carbonisation index exerts a positive influence upon CO2 emissions in tour operators and travel agencies. The energy over gross fixed capital and tourism intensity effects predominate in cultural, sports and recreational services. The results of the econometric analysis further confirm the statistical significance of the aforementioned effects. Policy recommendations are provided.

Abstract The MAESTRI Total Efficient Framework (MTEF) is a recent holistic concept that congregates four complementary dimensions: Efficiency Framework; IoT Platform; Management System and Industrial Symbiosis. MTEF promotes the development of strategies for continuous performance improvement towards a more sustainable manufacturing. The Efficiency Framework supports the integrated assessment of operations efficiency and eco-efficiency, being measured by a new concept: Total Efficiency Index (TEI). The simultaneous assessment of the environmental, economic and efficiency performance of complex production systems is only possible with a digitalized production system, which is aligned with Industry 4.0 paradigm. Thus, with TEI original dashboards and graphical diagram, both static and dynamic assessments of efficiency vs. eco-efficiency can be analyzed. This paper details the fundaments of the Efficiency Framework and TEI, and presents an application case study from the metalworking sector, where the achieved results are discussed for the new concept validation.

This conceptual paper aims to expand the notion of “farming newcomers” in Europe by also including those that we label “involuntary newcomers”, who correspond to the workforce coming unwillingly to farming for reasons associated with spatial (im)mobilities. We fully develop our aim in four steps. Firstly, we present an integrative literature review which describes how the interplay between the key concepts of the sustainable farming framework (i.e., sustained development, networked rural development, and spatial (im)mobilities) tailor the newcomers’ arrival to the farming sector. Secondly, we define involuntary newcomers, describe their profiles and list the barriers to their engagement with sustainable farming. Thirdly, we advance some implications and limitations of our work for mobility research agendas. Fourthly, we conclude with an overview of the main inputs provided by our paper. We contribute to the literature by showing that: (a) newcomers must be defined beyond land ownership; (b) involuntary newcomers are very diverse, due to trends in spatial (im)mobilities; and (c) there is a high risk of the sustainable farming framework failing to meet its ambitions if it continues to ignore involuntary newcomers (and the barriers they encounter) in sustainable forms of agriculture.

Recently, sustainable energy consumption has been a significant factor in reducing environmental degradation due to the high economic growth, and this phenomenon demands more attention of scholars and policymakers. Thus, the current literature examines the impact of economic factors such as economic growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), inflation, and population growth on sustainable energy consumption (SEC), particularly in renewable energy consumption (REC) in China. This study used secondary data collection methods extracted from world development indicators (WDI), incorporating stationary tests like Phillips-Perron (PP) and Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) to check the unit root of the constructs. The time-series data involved are from 1981 to 2019. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model was utilized to examine the association among the variables. The results indicated that economic growth, FDI, inflation, and population growth were positively associated with SEC in China. This study provides the guidelines to the policymakers to develop policies related to the SEC.

Abstract Traditionally fossil fuels have been use as the main resource to obtain energy but its use has several negative impacts, such as global warming and air pollution. Global warming has been mentioned has a key challenge to be addressed due to its expected grave consequences. Air pollution is another important problem and has been responsible for many health problems causing social and economic negative effects. However the use of fossil fuels has another strategic dimension when a sustainability perspective is considered, namely the preservation of natural resources, which is a goal of Circular Economy strategy. In this work fossil fuel energy consumption is analyzed in European countries as well as its relationship with other variables such as energy dependence and share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption. It was possible to conclude that many European countries still depend heavily on fossil fuels.

Abstract Over the last years there have been frequent changes to buildings’ thermal legislation, to cope with increasing environmental restrictions and a wider consumer awareness. This work has a twofold objective: 1 – provide an overall methodology to evaluate changes in buildings’ thermal regulations; 2 – to assess the economic merit of these regulatory changes, which have a profound economic impact especially on homeowners, tenants and the global urban real estate market, but also on the society through wider environmental impacts. The literature has provided several contributions at the scale of buildings, but few at the scale of cities (or even regions). This paper uses the city of Lisbon (Portugal) as a case study to test the methodology and determine the economic impact of the changes made in the thermal legislation by the Government. The economic assessment was made at 3 levels: financial analysis, economic analysis and social-economic analysis. It was found that the new regulation brings not only environmental benefits but also economic benefits in long term at both individual and social level. It was furthermore concluded that the impact of those benefits are geographically uneven, and old areas of the city with worse energy ratings have better economic indicators.

Energy poverty (EP) is a problem that affects a large part of the world population, leaving those most vulnerable to suffer from unhealthy indoor conditions in their homes, being cold in winter months, struggling with their monetary situation, and even reducing social activities with relatives. In this context, it is important to assess EP situations and identify those factors that most affect each one. This paper, through the evaluation and adaptation of the Three-dimensional and Territorial Indicator of Energy Poverty (EPITT in Spanish), developed by the Energy Poverty Network in Chile (RedPE Chile), assesses the different EP situations in a social-housing case study located in south-central Chile. The results show different EP situations depending on the dimensions studied, e.g., 35% of households had food and hygiene issues, 27% had issues with lighting and electrical devices, 72% with climate control in the home, and 68% experienced equality in energy expenditure issues. It is possible to say that energy expenditure is the dimension that most influences the EP situation. Furthermore, the values in the different dimensions are below the national average, mainly because of the poor quality of housing, limitations in access to energy, and low income. In conclusion, the adaptation of EPTTI provides a better understanding of EP vulnerability at the local scale.