• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
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With the fast growth of the global economy, energy supply and demand have a strong impact on social, economic, and environmental aspects. As a consequence, this has pushed the decision-makers to formulate objectives, guiding economic policies toward sustainable goals. The process is known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that have been proposed by the United Nations. This being said, the energy sector is a vital domain with a vast potential for improvments in terms of technologies and ligistalations. Solar energy is among the most efficient solutions proposed to reduce the economic and environmental footprints of energy. In this frame, the current paper aims to localize solar energy within SDGs and analyze the contribution of the solar energy towards the achievement of the SDGs. Moreover, the current work highlights the contributions of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) Solar Park in the United Arab Emirates to achieving the SDGs. Indeed, the MBR Solar Park concept offers valuable insights of environmental impacts by deploying clean and affordable energy sources in place of conventional fossil fuel power plants that are still heavily used in the region. The MBR Solar Park operation has already mitigated 6.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and this number will likely rise when all phases are installed and operational. Moreover, it has been shown that MBR Solar Park achieve several SDGs such SDG 8: decent work and economic growth, SDG 9: industry, innovation and infrastructure, SDG 11: sustainable cities and communities, and SDG 15: life on land.

Pakistan is an energy deficient country with depleting energy reserves and increasing energy demand. Due to excessive population growth, the domestic and commercial energy sectors are experiencing rising demand. To meet the requisite demand, renewables are favored rather than conventional counterparts. In this study, we model hybrid power systems using solar, wind and biomass resources for electrifying remote areas. The four locations are chosen for the study around a developing country, Pakistan, where each site is designed according to an isolated microgrid with maximum indigenous resources potential as per the requisite demands. A survey is conducted for the load demand and biomass availability. Optimization is conducted across objectives of minimum levelized cost of the generated energy, least the net present cost and lesser payback period. The optimal results were achieved in-terms of required objectives across southern sites as compared to northern counterparts. The cost of generated energy is comparable to grid electricity and ensures 24 h power supply without cut off and load shedding to the un-electrified rural area. The hybrid power system has a low carbon footprint across emissions due to the use of renewable resources. All the estimated load of rural communities is met with the available resources and mid-career impact has also been conducted across 10 years of the project life to fulfill the increasing load demand of the communities after installation. The results are validated via comparative analysis and show the effectiveness of the proposed study.

A sustainable financial and economic system is the need of the hour, especially in the context of a deteriorating environment. Environment quality is very important for healthy labour life, contributing to economic growth more effectively. China is one of the largest economies in the world, which is the residency of 18.47% of total humans on planet earth. Keeping environment is a major policy concern; this study investigates the relationship between environmental quality and economic growth in the presence of human capita and renewable energy use. The study uses the data for the time period of 1995–2017. While conducting nonparametric tests, the study applied QMMR regression approach to hand the issues of cross-sectional heterogeneities and endogeneity simultaneously. The study found that GDP is positively associated with carbon emissions throughout all the quantiles. Foreign trade is showing mixed results, most probably due to changes in trade patterns, and a hidden heterogeneity across provinces in China.

Achieving carbon-neutrality has become a global agenda following the ratification of the Paris Agreement. For the developing countries, in particular, attaining a low-carbon economy is particularly important since these economies are predominantly fossil-fuel dependent, to which Bangladesh is no exception. Therefore, this study specifically aimed at evaluating the environmental impacts associated with energy consumption and other key macroeconomic variables in the context of Bangladesh over the 1975-2016 period. As opposed to the conventional practice of using carbon dioxide emissions to proxy environmental quality, this study makes a novel attempt to use the carbon footprints to measure environmental welfare in Bangldesh. The outcomes from this study are expected to facilitate the carbon-neutrality objective of Bangladesh and, therefore, enable the nation to comply with its commitments concerning the attainment of the targets enlisted under the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals declarations. The econometric analysis involved the application of methods that are suitable for handling the structural break issues in the data. The overall findings from empirical exercises reveal that aggregate energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, and natural gas consumption boost the carbon footprint figures of Bangladesh. In contrast, nonfossil fuel consumption and hydroelectricity consumption are witnessed to abate the carbon footprint levels. Besides, economic growth and international trade are also evidenced to further increase the carbon footprints. Hence, these findings suggest that a clean energy transition within the Bangladesh economy can be the panacea to the nation's persitently aggravating environmental hardships. Furthermore, the causality analysis confirmed the presence of unidirectional causalities stemming from total energy consumption, fossil fuel consumption, natural gas consumption, hydroelectricity consumption, economic growth, and international trade to the carbon footprints. On the other hand, nonfossil fuel consumption is found to be bidirectionally associated with carbon footprints. In line with these aforementioned findings, several key policy suggestions are put forward regarding the facilitation of the carbon-neutrality agenda in Bangladesh.

Small to medium-sized enterprises suffer from loss of competitive advantage, low productivity, and poor performance because of inadequate competencies. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was to examine the effect of selected motivational dimensions (i.e., self-improvement, self-confidence, openness to change, pull factors, and the need for achievement) on entrepreneurial competency among micro-entrepreneurs. We used a cross-sectional design and collected quantitative data from 403 micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia using random sampling. SEM-PLS was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that self-confidence, openness to change, and pull factors positively influenced entrepreneurial competencies. Moreover, there was a positive effect of self-confidence, pull factors, need for achievement, and entrepreneurial competency on enterprise sustainability performance. Furthermore, entrepreneurial competencies significantly mediated the effect of self-confidence, openness to change, and pull factors on enterprise sustainability performance. Apart from extending the lens of a resource-based view, this study enriches enterprise sustainability literature from emerging nations’ perspective. Policymakers can strengthen their programs and policies to improve the entrepreneurial competencies of micro-entrepreneurs and their business sustainability.

This paper investigates the relationship between two characteristics of corporate governance (concentrated and state ownership) and firm financial performance by bringing new and extensive evidence from an emerging market. Further, this study examines the impact of the recent stock split reform in China on the corporate ownership characteristics–firm performance relationship. The final sample of this study is comprised of 234 firms with 2340 annual observation values. The study hypotheses are examined using regression analysis of panel data. We found that concentrated ownership is positively and significantly related to firm performance. However, state ownership has a significant negative impact on firm performance. Further, we observed that the stock split reform has a substantial and positive effect on the ownership–corporate financial performance relationship. In particular, the positive relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance has increased following the split-share structure reform. The negative relationship between state ownership and corporate financial performance has been mitigated following the split-share structure reform. We contribute to the existing literature on corporate governance by investigating the ownership–corporate financial performance relationship in a unique research setting based on the impact of an exogenous regulatory change, namely, the split-share structure reform in China. The study presents implications for regulators, investors, and researchers interested in examining developing markets such as China. Our results imply that the institutional reform of the Chinese stock market has benefitted investors through enhancing corporate financial performance. The findings suggest that the reform of the Chinese stock market has significantly shaped the impact of ownership structure on corporate financial performance in a valuable way for effective capital allocation. Thus, collectively, the split-share structure reform enhances the quality of corporate governance, which is pivotal to the growth of the country’s economy. This, in turn, has policy implications for other emerging economies.

Agriculture is the major source of livelihood in rural areas and is considered the backbone of the Indian economy. In Sikkim, agriculture is being practiced by 80% of the rural population, and having no other major livelihood options has created immense pressure on the farmers and agricultural land. Agriculture sector is under great stress as the farmers are being confronted by various challenges in Sikkim Himalaya in recent years, such as land degradation, climate change and socio-economic problems. Despite the number of indigenous agriculture management methods being practised in Sikkim Himalaya, the agricultural production system is weakening. In this context, this paper presents an analysis of challenges faced by indigenous communities, local farmers and potential sustainable strategies for their management in Rani Khola watershed of Sikkim Himalaya. Data and information were collected by field observation, questionnaire surveys of 300 households, key informant interviews and focus group discussions conducted during 2017–18. Data processing and analysis were carried out with a combination of techniques, such as the application of remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS)-based data processing and descriptive statistics. Major challenges identified in the watershed are water scarcity (80%), climate change (88%), soil erosion and runoff (72%), higher investment cost (100%), lack of irrigation facilities (77%), fragmentation and size of landholdings (100), human–wildlife conflict (59%) and pests and disease (60%). Some possibilities and innovations that could address these problems are the use and retaining of various indigenous soil and water conservation (SWC) measures, diversified farming systems, community involvement in the government development process, better irrigation facilities, strengthening the local economy, coordinated planning between stakeholders and development of market feedback mechanism within the system.

Today, the world is confronted with the issue of environmental pollution as a result of our dependence on fossil fuels for our energy needs. Developed and developing countries are therefore adopting different strategies to curb environmental problems. This work is thus designed to probe the effect of renewable energy (RE), information and communication technologies (ICT), government stability, and GDP on ecological footprints (EF) in G11 nations. We utilized the annual data from 1990–2020 and applied robust methodologies to present the findings. The CS-ARDL method shows that renewable energy, ICT, and government stability are essential factors in lowering environmental pollution in G11 countries. Therefore, in light of the findings, this work suggests an increase in the use of RE sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower in the total energy mix of the various countries. RE usage improves air quality and saves the natural environment from further destruction. The countries also need to enhance their communication technologies in the economic sector. Moreover, policymakers must also introduce the required policies that would promote the use of RE in various countries. This will make people adopt clean energy sources at the domestic and commercial levels.