• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
• engineering and technology close
• 1. No poverty close

Abstract This study investigates the non-linear relationship between urbanization paths and CO2 emissions in selected South, South-East, and East Asian countries over the period 1971–2014. Based on the STIRPAT (Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology) framework, we applied the advanced and robust methods of dynamic seemingly unrelated regression (DSUR), dynamic OLS (DOLS), and fully modified OLS (FMOLS) to estimate the long-term effects. The empirical findings revealed the inverted U-shaped effects of urbanization and urban agglomeration and the U-shaped impact of the largest city ratio on CO2 emissions. Urbanization and urban agglomerations improve environmental quality in the long-run and support ecological modernization theory. However, excessive concentration in the largest cities have severely affected the environmental quality and violates the notion of compact-city efficiencies. Moreover, energy intensity and economic growth positively affect CO2 emissions, while trade openness negatively influences CO2 emissions. Our robustness analysis at the country-level applies the augmented mean group (AMG) panel ARDL technique, which further supports the non-linear effect of urbanization paths on CO2 emissions except for a few countries. The results of the panel Granger non-causality approach unveil bidirectional causality of energy efficiency, economic growth, urbanization, and largest city ratio with CO2 emissions. In contrast, unidirectional causality runs from urban agglomeration to CO2 emissions. Our findings have important policy implications as we suggest green urban infrastructures, eco-friendly dwellings, smart cities, country-specific trade policies, and renewable energy options to improve the environmental quality.

The study assessed the effects of firewood usage on rural women health in Ogun State. Samples of 128 respondents were randomly selected from four local government areas of Ogun State. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire. Percentages were used for data analysis. Majority of the respondents were married (91%) with a mean age of 50 years. Most of the respondents (86.7%) used firewood for cooking, the preference of the utilization of firewood over other alternatives was due to non-availability of other sources (40%) and availability of firewood (33%). Some perceived health effects on the respondents were discomfort caused by the smoke from the firewood (𝑥 ̅ = 2.81) and eyes irritation (= 2.53). The study recommended alternative energy sources that are with lesser health hazards be made readily available at subsidized rate in the rural areas since this was the major attractive driving force for the use of firewood.

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.

Abstract Kenya has made considerable policy efforts to expand its renewable energy portfolio to meet energy demand and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Development of proper policies requires a robust framework for analyzing the benefits of renewable energy investments. Towards this end, this study applied a choice experiment analysis to determine how attributes (type of energy, ownership, impact on environment, distance and visibility, community job creation, and yearly renewable energy tax) impact the public willingness to pay for renewable energy development in Kenya. A nationwide survey of 1020 households was conducted in nine counties using conditional logit (MNL) and random parameter logit (RPL) frameworks. The results reveal that the Kenyan public places a high value on environmental impact, followed by type of renewable energy and community job creation, respectively. On the other hand, respondents do not place much emphasis on ownership or distance and visibility. Policy simulation suggests that while renewable energy adoption is highly valued by households, the total willingness to pay is not enough to cover the higher capital cost for the development of various renewable energy technologies.

In recent years, sustainability concerns have gained increasing attention among countries and stakeholders worldwide. Towards the transition to sustainable rural development, the rural web framework (RWF) has become a consistent tool. Indicators from the RWF have been used to explore sustainable rural development for decision-making tasks, which improves the social, economic, and environmental performance of rural regions. However, the application of the RWF in studies is on the decline. Furthermore, there is a lack of literature reviews on the importance of the RWF and its relationship with different facets of sustainable development. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) (a) to explore how studies have used the RWF in the context of sustainable development and (b) to identify areas for further research. This study found that the RWF has mostly been used in developed countries, with fewer applications in developing countries. We suggest that there should be increased application of the RWF, particularly in developing countries, to broaden the rural web–sustainable development discourse and its relevance. This paper presents several areas where the indicators of the RWF can be applied to illustrate their relevance for policy decisions towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

Abstract Eradicating poverty and mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are core issues of global sustainable development goals (SDGs), and China is struggling in realizing these targets. The poverty reduction that leads to popualtion structure and lifestyle changes would have an impact on GHG emission changes. However, few studies have assessed the historical and future impacts of the poverty allevation on China's emissions. Here by linking Chinese Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) database to the global MRIO database EXIOBASE, and using provincial household consumption data, we identified the distribution of Chinese household greenhouse gas footprints (HGFs) by income groups in 2015 at the national and provinical levels. Moreover, we focused on the historical impact of poverty alleviation on HGFs during 2010–2015, and developed four scenarios to project future HGFs changes due to poverty alleviation by 2030. We find that eradicating extreme poverty in the secanrio S2, i.e., bringing people to an income above $1.9 daily, does not cause a large emission impact with current technological level. However, lifting people from a higher poverty line of $5.5 per day in the sceanrio S4 results in a 1.6% increase in emissions compared with the scenario S1 without any poverty reduction goals. Furthermore, realizing a higher poverty reduction target will result in an increase of emissions contribution from internatioanl supply chains due to the differences in consumption patterns among different income groups. Our study highlights the conflict between the high poverty alleviaition goal and emission reduciton in China, and reminds us of the need to make more technological efforts for avoiding the large emissions embodied in international supply chains.

Abstract Theft of electricity is a problem in many developing countries. But AMI is paving the way for data-centric architecture to help in theft detection. However, a smart grid or even AMR is a long shot for many developing countries due to the costs involved in its large-scale deployment. This paper presents a technique to detect outliers among electricity users that further investigates electricity theft using data analytics on monthly usage data available to every utility company. Using this technique, we have reduced the search space for theft identification to as low as 3.4% of the total customer base.

The global community has set intensive targets in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to better people’s lives after closing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It corresponds to the 2030 aspirations of the United Nations to enhance and promote the sustainable development of human society. The current paper explores the impact of fiscal hedging and R&D in energy Using a green-energy system in SDGs. To do this, we used TOPSIS and QARDL methodologies on a 21-year dataset of South and Southeast Asian economies from 2000 to 2020. The study results show that fiscal hedging contributes favourably to the environmental degradation of the underlying economy. Research and development (R&D) in renewables has contributed negatively to ecological degradation and SDGs in the economies of South & Southeast Asia. This study suggests policy guidelines for advanced and developing economies based on fiscal stability and technical innovation through R&D to meet SDG.