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The world faces a high alert of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), leading to a million deaths and could become infected to reach a billion numbers. A sizeable amount of scholarly work has been available on different aspects of social-economic and environmental factors. At the same time, many of these studies found the linear (direct) causation between the stated factors. In many cases, the direct relationship is not apparent. The world is unsure about the possible determining factors of the COVID-19 pandemic, which need to be known through conducting nonlinearity (indirect) relationships, which caused the pandemic crisis. The study examined the nonlinear relationship between COVID-19 cases and carbon damages, managing financial development, renewable energy consumption, and innovative capability in a cross section of 65 countries. The results show that inbound foreign direct investment first increases and later decreases because of the increasing coronavirus cases. Further, the rise and fall in the research and development expenditures and population density exhibits increasing coronavirus cases across countries. The continued economic growth initial decreases later increase by adopting standardized operating procedures to contain coronavirus disease. The inter-temporal relationship shows that green energy source and carbon damages would likely influence the coronavirus cases with a variance of 17.127% and 5.440%, respectively, over a time horizon. The policymakers should be carefully designing sustainable healthcare policies, as the cost of carbon emissions leads to severe healthcare issues, which are likely to get exposed to contagious diseases, including COVID-19. The sustainable policy instruments, including renewable fuels in industrial production, advancement in cleaner production technologies, the imposition of carbon taxes on dirty production, and environmental certifications, are a few possible remedies that achieve healthcare sustainability agenda globally.

A solar drying was investigated as one of perspective techniques for fish processing in Cambodia. The solar drying was compared to conventional drying in electric oven. Five typical Cambodian fish species were selected for this study. Mean solar drying temperature and drying air relative humidity were 55.6°C and 19.9%, respectively. The overall solar dryer efficiency was 12.37%, which is typical for natural convection solar dryers. An average evaporative capacity of solar dryer was 0.049 kg·h−1. Based on coefficient of determination (R2), chi-square (χ2) test, and root-mean-square error (RMSE), the most suitable models describing natural convection solar drying kinetics were Logarithmic model, Diffusion approximate model, and Two-term model for climbing perch and Nile tilapia, swamp eel and walking catfish and Channa fish, respectively. In case of electric oven drying, the Modified Page 1 model shows the best results for all investigated fish species except Channa fish where the two-term model is the best one. Sensory evaluation shows that most preferable fish is climbing perch, followed by Nile tilapia and walking catfish. This study brings new knowledge about drying kinetics of fresh water fish species in Cambodia and confirms the solar drying as acceptable technology for fish processing.

Deploying small cells in cellular networks, as a technique for capacity and coverage enhancement, is an indispensable characteristic of future cellular networks. In this paper, two novel online approaches for enabling energy trading in multitier cellular networks with noncooperative energy-harvesting base stations (BSs) are proposed. The goal is to minimize the nonrenewable energy consumption in a multitier cellular network with an arbitrary number of tiers. In the first approach, a decentralized energy trading framework is established in which BSs are stimulated to compensate their energy shortage with the extra harvested energy from other BSs rather than using the nonrenewable energy. Matching theory is used to assign BSs with energy deficit to the BSs with extra harvested energy. In the second approach, which is centralized, BSs with extra harvested energy and BSs with energy deficit enter a double auction for energy trading. The centralized approach also motivates the BSs with deficient energy to use other BSs extra harvested energy and satisfies a number of properties including truthfulness, individual rationalities, and budget balance. Both approaches achieve Nash equilibrium and motivate noncooperative BSs to share their extra harvested energy. The extra harvested energy is exchanged by the smart grid. We show that the amount of information exchanged in the network to enable BSs to trade energy is reduced in the centralized algorithm compared to the decentralized algorithm at the expense of using a control center. Simulation results verify that the proposed approaches reduce the nonrenewable energy consumption conspicuously. Furthermore, by applying the proposed approaches, BSs gain more profit, and consequently, their utility functions enhance.

Many building assessment tools exist for guiding building facilities toward sustainability. Some tools are internationally recognized while others are for specific countries based on local needs. This study endeavored to develop a building sustainability assessment framework for Kazakhstan. The framework was developed based on the review of building performance assessment methods such as leadership in energy and environmental design (LEED), building research establishment environmental assessment methodology (BREEAM), comprehensive assessment system for building environmental efficiency (CASBEE), and international initiative for sustainable built environment (SBTool), and considering the local conditions in Kazakhstan. A two-round Delphi survey was employed to develop the assessment categories and indicators by local experts from the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Mean and standard deviation values were used to analyze the survey data and to make the decision on the level of agreement amongst the Delphi panelists. The proposed framework consists of nine assessment categories, 46 assessment indicators, and 142 parameters covering the four climatic regions in Kazakhstan and considering the environmental, social, and economic perspectives of the country’s sustainable development goals. The introduction of the framework is expected to serve as a reference for establishing the regional building sustainability assessment tool that will aid to increase the awareness of the public and help policymakers to solve sustainability-related issues in Kazakhstan.

Abstract The purpose of the study is to research the policy documents aimed at forming clusters in the Republic of Kazakhstan – making of recommendations on improvement of existing approaches to the development of cluster initiatives. The empirical basis of the analysis was obtained from the results of studies carried out as part of the research work "Improvement of the state policy regulation for accelerated clustering of the industrial regions", executed under grant financing of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study is based on the use of methods and techniques of logical, systemic, structural functional and comparative analysis.

The core properties of the wave climate and its changes in the Caspian Sea are established in terms of the annual mean significant wave height and its regional changes in 2002–2013 based on the outcome of the satellite altimetry mission JASON-1. Remotely estimated wave heights are validated against properties of the empirical distribution of instrumentally measured wave heights in the southern Caspian Sea and monthly averages of visually observed wave heights at three locations. A correction for systematic differences leads to very good correspondence between monthly averaged in situ and satellite data with a typical root mean square difference of 0.06 m. The average significant wave height in the Caspian Sea is 0.5–0.7 m in the northern basin of the sea, around 1.2 m in large parts of the central and southern basins and reaches up to 1.8 m in the northern segment of the central basin. The basin-wide average wave intensity varied insignificantly in the range of 1.02–1.14 m in 2002–2013. These estimates overestimate the wave heights by about 30% because low wave conditions are ignored. Substantial and statistically significant changes in the wave height occurred in certain areas. The wave height decreased by 0.019 ± 0.007 m/yr in the eastern segment of the central basin and by 0.04 ± 0.04 m/yr in the western segment of the southern basin. These changes can be explained by an increase in the frequency of westerly winds at the expence of southerly winds. Both basin-wide and regional extreme wave heights exhibit large interannual variations but do not show any significant trend. The patterns of changes in mean and extreme wave height are different. The average wave height has increased while the extreme wave height has decreased in the eastern segment of the southern basin.

The object of the study is energy efficiency and innovation activity of industrial enterprises. The literature review has shown that the problem of the nature of mutual influence of energy efficiency and innovation activity of the enterprise remains unresolved. The following problem was investigated: existence and nature of dependence of energy efficiency and innovation activity of industrial enterprises. This problem is solved in this study based on the construction of trend lines on the average annual dynamics of changes in energy efficiency, the share of intangible assets and the share of R&D results of large industrial enterprises for 2018–2022. The following results were obtained: – indicators of the share of intangible assets and R&D results directly affect the energy efficiency indicator; – the indicator of energy efficiency does not affect the indicator of the share of intangible assets, while it has a direct impact on the indicator of R&D results. These results explain the priority of the indicator "share of R&D results" in innovation activity for the energy efficiency of enterprises, as it is based on real production. The features of the obtained results consist in the application of comparable correlation analysis coefficients, confirming the existence of a direct relationship between these parameters. The paper provides recommendations on the use of the obtained results at the level of strategic management of an industrial enterprise. The practical significance of this study is the possibility of applying the findings and recommendations to improve the energy efficiency of industrial enterprises in their innovative development in the scope and conditions corresponding to the developing economy

This article discusses the current state and trends in the development of the electric power industry in Kazakhstan. An analysis of the energy supply and energy intensity of Kazakhstan’s GDP is provided in this paper. The results of the foresight of the risks and opportunities of the energy industry are described. This study identifies the relationship between the traditional development of the energy industry and the development of alternative energy sources. In addition, the work examines the risks and consequences of various trends in the development of national and global energy. Previous studies have shown that government efforts are insufficient in developing an alternative energy sector in Kazakhstan. The research results show that there is a need to transform energy production from traditional sources towards greater efficiency and environmental friendliness, as well as the active involvement of the business community in the development of an alternative energy market. This is expected to attract more investments and transfer technologies to maintain the country’s position in the energy market of the future.