• Energy Research
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In Zimbabwe trade has been a driver of economic growth, rising incomes, and progressive empowerment of Zimbabweans through rising standards of living and the promise of better jobs. Since 1980, through good years and bad years, increases in exports have been positively associated with increases in national income. Zimbabwe's location and resource base, together with a low-cost but relatively well educated labor force, have endowed it with a naturally high trade ratio built on a diversified base that facilitates using trade as an engine of growth. While trade volumes have rebounded smartly from the deep recession of 2007-2008, these do not offset other worrisome longer-term trends: 1) export growth during the last decade has been lackluster and failed to drive high growth; 2) agricultural exports, other than tobacco, have lost their once dominant role in the region, and are no longer a source of diversification; 3) manufacturing has withered in a continuing secular decline; and 4) Zimbabwe's export basket has become less diversified and more dependent on a narrow range of mineral and, to a lesser extent, agricultural products. In short, exports have become less diversified, less-technologically sophisticated, and less labor-intensive, and ever more dependent on a few large mining activities to provide foreign exchange and employment. This report traces the roots of this poor performance to several policy issues: poor predictability of macroeconomic policy and economic governance has created an unfavorable climate for private investment and trade; a tariff structure that dampens export profitability; industrial policies (indigenization policy in particular) that undermine investor confidence and inhibits private investment; and finally, competition-limiting policies toward services that limit connectivity of Zimbabweans and raise trade costs. The good news arising from the study is that the remedies for these policy shortcomings lie in Zimbabwean hands. If the government were to adopt reforms that reconfigure economy-wide incentives and trade and industrial policies, it could promote sustained growth, economic diversification and empowerment of poor people.

The Global concern is moving toward making a revolution in favor of exploitation of renewable energy in order to improve environment conditions, limit emissions and minimizes consumption of non-renewable resources within the planet. In this context, it is necessary to focus on the transport sector as it contributes of at least 30% of the total primary energy consumption. Therefore, a set of rules must be developed to maintain economic, environmental and social sustainability to address the problems so as not to increase their severity and these cannot be done unless there are joint measures and regulations from governments, companies, manufacturers and users. Unfortunately, the Jordanian transport system mostly depend on the individual transport which supported by cars, and that because of the weak role played by the public transport sector, especially at the capital, Amman. Buying hybrid cars (internal combustion engine + electric motor) and Electrical Vehicles (EV), in the past few years in Jordan is increasing, which is compatible with the global trend to use Electrical Vehicles (EV) instead of Internal Combustion Engine vehicles (ICE) powered by fossil fuels, this issue will have a direct and indirect impact on gas stations companies, also it will have direct impact on labor sector and the current car industry since electric charging stations as well as EV manufacturing is not labor intensive. The main purpose of the study is to show how much it is necessary now to start theoretical assumptions through studying the expected annual increase in passenger cars and its impact on sustainability and predicting the future fuel consumption and emissions and compare them with the base situation.

The article presents general principles of development of the lower Vistula channel in the Holocene period, with a particular emphasis on the unintentional human interference in the fluvial processes associated with deforestation and cultivation of cereals and root crops. It also characterises the basic hydraulic engineering works in the form of construction of embankments, adjustment of the bed and construction of the Włocławek barrage as factors of deliberate human interference and their impact on channel changes. The article characterises morphological and morphodynamic conditions of the basic bed forms, i.e. sandy and gravel bars and pools determining the possibility of river transport, and its development in time and space (depth of navigable route). Perspectives of multi-directional hydraulic development are presented, including the main cascade developments of the lower Vistula. The article presents the opportunities for a comprehensive use of the waterway, which forms route E40 in the section of the lower Vistula, taking into account sustainable development and compensation in the form of restoration of the valley bottom.

Freight transport has emerged as one of the most critical and dynamic aspects of the transport sector where change has become the norm. It is now the main element supporting global commodity and more generally supply chains. Yet the lack of seamlessness and inefficiencies in general as well as the rising costs and complexities of shipping and delivering goods are adding to profit pressures faced by manufacturers across the globe. Our paper first discusses the concept of seamlessness, and then examines some of the consequences of the lack of seamlessness in terms of freight transport inefficiencies. We then begin to examine the new developments in which intermodality, technology (e-commerce), and logistics are changing and will have the impact of heightening competitive advantage and reducing constraint points in production value chains and global production networks. Finally the intent is to show how research on this theme might be advanced in a trans-Atlantic framework.

According to the Paris Agreement, the European energy system transition is essential to achieve GHG emission reduction targets set by the EU and limit the growth of global temperatures. Investigating the role of emerging mitigation technologies and their uncertainties together with the different GHG reduction targets is crucial to realize this transition. This study analyzes the uncertainties of electric vehicles' learning paths and biomass availability for biofuels, considering policy uncertainties. Since these technologies are considered possible alternatives to conventional fuels to reduce CO2 emissions in transport, it is critical to understand their future role and the possible impact of their uncertainties during the European energy system design in case of different climate ambitions. Stochastic modeling is applied to analyze associated uncertainties as an additional approach to a traditional sensitivity analysis. Our results show that decarbonization of car transport is prioritized, and electric cars appear as no-regret options in the sector's design during the energy transition. Therefore, early deployments of EVs are essential to hedge the given uncertainties independent of the hedging period's length. Longer resolution time reduces the deployment of electric vehicles in the recourse strategies compared to having a shorter one due to a delay in the cost reductions. This decline becomes more evident with the stochastic analysis. The policy uncertainty of decarbonization targets has the highest impact on the studied uncertainties on the development of the transport sector. The transport sector can show faster adjustments considering the technology portfolio's shorter lifetime. Thanks to this adjustment, the sector depicts higher decarbonization in the hedging as well as in the recourse strategies.

It is, undoubtedly, a widespread belief that the electric vehicle (EV) is considered sustainable. However, in the manufacturing and retirement phases, EVs do not appear to be as sustainable as internal combustion vehicles (ICVs) and during the use phase, the pollution produced by EVs depends on the source of electricity generation to recharge the batteries. From an economic point of view, EVs do not appear to be competitive compared to ICVs either. However, current market trends push hard on battery EVs (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). This study aims to analyze which of the possible mobility alternatives has more sense to be considered as the option with higher penetration in the future. To this end, four known mobility technologies (ICVs, PHEVs, BEVs, and hydrogen fuel cell EVs or FCEVs) are compared for a mid-size car using published data, through environmental and techno-economic criteria, by applying the analytic hierarchy process method in an objective manner on multiple scenarios. Putting all criteria together, it seems that the ICV alternative is the one receiving the best results in most of the scenarios, except in the case where the environmental criteria have the greatest weight. The BEV solution has almost always turned out to be the worst alternative, but it is the only choice we have right now.

Logistics systems constitute the backbone of international trade. For developing countries, establishment of sustainable logistics systems reduces costs, and makes supply chains strong to become able to compete. Without setting indicators for sustainable logistics, it is not possible to understand what policies are necessary for success. Logistics systems situations become worse in especial industries such as Fast-Moving Consuming Goods (FMCG) industry that are facing observable challenges such as old-fashioned goods or product corruption. The objective of this paper is to determine a set of indicators, which can be helpful in enhancement of sustainable logistics systems in developing countries. An initial set of indicators is determined through literature review and justified by asking experts’ opinions who have experience of management in logistics systems in developing countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, especially in logistics management in FMCG industry. The indicators are prioritized using Best–Worst Method (BWM), which is a newly introduced decision-making model. Results of prioritization of finalized dimensions and indicators by use of BWM show that “Governance” has the highest importance among dimensions and “management commitment to sustainability” is the most important indicator among all indicators. The results are applicably acceptable as we can see in business circumstances that only when managers believe in perusing sustainability principles as an important factor under each type of economic circumstance, an efficient vision will be set. Risk management has gained the least weight in this study. Based on experts’ opinions, if policies and procedures are set and performed correctly, risks will be less probable by themselves. The results help mangers in assignment of limited budgets to improvement projects related to each indicator.

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships between urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers written by young researchers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Urban planning literature review section aims at presenting recent books and journals, within global scientific panorama, on selected topics and issues. This contribution aims at defining the definition and intervention domain of ecological transition. The outbreak of a novel coronavirus and consequent health, economic and social crisis is leading to a new era: significant financial resources, plenty room for economic manoeuvres may turn the ongoing pandemic into an opportunity, for the next years, to build more sustainable societies and environments. Within this scenario, urban areas play an essential role, as proved in the second paragraph with the support of interesting scientific publications, which are reviewed in the contribution. TeMA - Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 15 No 1 (2022): The city challenges and external agents. Methods, tools and best practices