• Energy Research
• other engineering and technologies close
• 8. Economic growth close
• GB close
• RU close
• CA close

Beyond the anticipated experience associated with tourism destinations, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has further tasked (especially the destination countries) on the importance of tourism to achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). From this dimension, this study employed the ecological footprint of the 10 most visited countries (France, Spain, United States, China, Italy, Mexico, United Kingdom, Turkey, Germany, and Thailand) over the period 1995-2016. Specifically, the study employed an econometric approach and found that increase in tourism arrivals and globalization is detrimental to the attainment of sustainable environmental quality in a long term. Precisely, a 1% increase in international arrivals and globalization is responsible for a 0.18 and 0.89% increase in ecological footprint in the long-run. These impacts of tourism activities and globalization are detrimental to the environmental quality of the destination countries. Meanwhile, the real income per capita and biocapacity in the destination countries improve the environmental quality of the panel of destination countries in the long-run. In addition, the study found significant evidence of Granger causality from tourism and real income to ecological footprint without feedback, the globalization-ecological footprint Granger causality nexus is with feedback. Moreover, potentially effective policies for government and other stakeholders especially toward attaining Global goals were proffered in the study.

SummaryEnvironmentally extended multiregional input‐output (EE MRIO) tables have emerged as a key framework to provide a comprehensive description of the global economy and analyze its effects on the environment. Of the available EE MRIO databases, EXIOBASE stands out as a database compatible with the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounting (SEEA) with a high sectorial detail matched with multiple social and environmental satellite accounts. In this paper, we present the latest developments realized with EXIOBASE 3—a time series of EE MRIO tables ranging from 1995 to 2011 for 44 countries (28 EU member plus 16 major economies) and five rest of the world regions. EXIOBASE 3 builds upon the previous versions of EXIOBASE by using rectangular supply‐use tables (SUTs) in a 163 industry by 200 products classification as the main building blocks. In order to capture structural changes, economic developments, as reported by national statistical agencies, were imposed on the available, disaggregated SUTs from EXIOBASE 2. These initial estimates were further refined by incorporating detailed data on energy, agricultural production, resource extraction, and bilateral trade. EXIOBASE 3 inherits the high level of environmental stressor detail from its precursor, with further improvement in the level of detail for resource extraction. To account for the expansion of the European Union (EU), EXIOBASE 3 was developed with the full EU28 country set (including the new member state Croatia). EXIOBASE 3 provides a unique tool for analyzing the dynamics of environmental pressures of economic activities over time.

Abstract The global steel production has been growing for the last 50 years, from 200 Mt in 1950s to 1 240 Mt in 2006. Iron and steel making industry is one of the most energy-intensive industries, with an annual energy consumption of about 24 EJ, 5% of the world's total energy consumption. The steel industry accounts for 3%–4% of total world greenhouse gas emissions. Enhancing energy efficiency and employing energy saving/recovering technologies such as coke dry quechning (CDQ) and top pressure recovery turbine (TRT) can be short-term approaches to the steel industry to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The long-term approaches to achieving a significant reduction in CO2 emissions from the steel industry would be through developing and applying CO2 breakthrough technologies for iron and steel making, and through increasing use of renewable energy for iron and steel making. Thus, an overview of new CO2 breakthrough technologies for iron and steel making was made.

AbstractMany developing countries are facing the difficulty of choosing between economic growth and energy conservation and emission reduction (ECER). China has strengthened the implementation of ECER by setting environmental accountability as the development goal of local governments, hoping to have better governance effects. To evaluate the actual intervention effect of this approach, this paper constructs panel data covering 46 countries from 1995 to 2014 and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method and the composite control method to quantitatively analyse the policy effect. The results show that China can effectively curb energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP by adding ECER targets to the government’s five-year plan, which has significant effects on ECER. Furthermore, we use an intermediary mechanism to test and identify low-carbon alternatives and an ECER promotion mechanism for technological advancement. The conclusion shows that economic development is compatible with low carbon and energy consumption. Combined with China’s long-term goals for ECER, it can be considered that on the road to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the future, the economy and tertiary industry should be rationally developed, the degree of urbanization should receive more attention, and the proportion of thermal power generation should be reduced.

The article analyzes the current state of energy markets. The basic fundamental factor of the demand for energy resources – the world economy growth – is rather low. At the same time, the USA and China demonstrate steady economic growth, thus rising demand for hydrocarbons. But recent decline of prices for oil and other commodities like metals or grain shows that among various factors, both fundamental and speculative, financial markets are also speeding up the volatility on the markets, thus deepening the gap between “paper” and “fair” oil price. Also, it is necessary to analyze the impact on the situation on the global oil market of such multidirectional factors as influence of “shale revolution” in the USA or Saudi Arabia refusal to reduce oil production. Shale oil helped USA to overcome oil import dependency and to become an exporter in the future. However, production costs in the country are rather high. On the contrary, Saudi Arabia has low production costs and is now trying to keep the international prices at a level that makes the US shale projects infeasible. The Saudi budget 2015 assumed a price of $90/barrel and it can endure $50 as well. However, other oil exporting countries face huge losses. Nevertheless, in the future oil prices will rise and evidently the level of fair price can be determined at $60-70/barrel. The author examines also the break-even prices for oil production and levels of oil prices necessary for formation of budgets of oil exporting countries. The changes on oil and gas markets lead to formation of more complicated global energy space and to shifts in the concept of energy security from ensuring the stability of energy supplies to energy self-sufficiency. The transformation of energy markets and geopolitical risks cause the changes in the transportation logistics and enhance risks of implementation of new trans-border pipelines. Prospects of sustainable and multidirectional development of global and regional energy markets are also considered.

The automated toolkit for assessing environmental and investment attractiveness of a mining region and the results of its application are discussed in the article. This toolkit includes the optimization mathematical model, the algorithms for the interaction between a regional control center and a producer within the territory, as well as the automated software package for their analysis. The use of the optimization mathematical model makes it possible to take into account the maximum economic potential of a producer, which determines, respectively, a mining region’s environment pollution potential. Accounting for environmental risks will allow the control center or other decision makers to identify not only the optimal pattern of eco-economic interaction in the region, but also reflect changes in the environmental and investment climate as a combination of economic potential and involved risks. The model and the algorithms of interaction between a regional control center and a producer, as well as the results of their numerical analysis given in this paper, allow considering this toolkit as an effective decision support tool aimed at improving environmental and investment attractiveness of a mining region by encouraging a producer to use the best available technologies and conserve the natural environment.

A new relationship with our goods and materials would save resources and energy and create local jobs, explains Walter R. Stahel.