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Rapid urbanization has resulted in often unplanned increases in population, and food demand in cities. Historically, hinterlands to these cities have acted as breadbaskets producing food to the urban residents. Accordingly, a large amount of available freshwater has been needed to support these croplands. However, the rapid expansion of cities in developing countries has significantly changed both the croplands around cities and the water demand. It is thus important to quantitatively investigate the water-food nexus of cities related to the changing hinterland agriculture. Water footprint is an indicator reflecting the human impact on water. In this study, we quantified both the blue and green water footprint of major crop products in Suzhou city, China using a bottom-up accounting method. A novel decomposition analysis was carried out with a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to study the driving forces that changed the water footprint during the period 2001-2010. The drivers were designed to reflect the factors related to farmland, such as yield and crop area. This is different from previous decomposition analyses, which focused on economic factors such as GDP. The results show that the crop water footprint of Suzhou city has seen a general decreasing trend between 2001 and 2010. The decomposition analysis showed that the decline of crop area was the main driver that decreased the crop water footprint, followed by the virtual water content (water consumption per unit of production). In contrast the changes of crop combination and yield contributed to an increase in the crop water footprint. Although the shrink of urban croplands decreased the water footprint of crop products. Cities’ increasing demand for food will increase the crop water footprint of consumption. This will increase the dependence of cities on external water footprint of crop products (water embodied in imported crops), which may impact upon food security in cities in the long term.

Resource depletion remains central to human economic activity with resulting negative consequences for the local and global environment. Material and energy consumption patterns are also increasing globally, as developing countries follow the trail blazed by more industrialized countries. Consumers play a role in shifting towards more sustainable forms of consumption. However, consumer-oriented public-policy measures are often restricted to informational campaigns based on moral and price arguments. A multidisciplinary approach to sustainable consumption must go beyond this limited vision of consumers if transitions toward more environmentally friendly consumption patterns are to be made possible. Both a biophysical and social understanding of consumption is necessary. This paper proposes a systemic approach to consumption studies, combining an assessment of consumption patterns with an understanding of the drivers behind them. The concepts will be illustrated using a case study of the government-led promotion of compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) in Metro Manila, the Philippines. Conclusions will include general policy-recommendations.

In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries are launching economic recovery programs to mitigate unemployment and stabilize core industries. Although it is understandably difficult to contemplate other hazards in the midst of this outbreak, it is important to remember that we face another major crisis that threatens human prosperity—climate change. Leveraging COVID-19 recovery programs to simultaneously advance the climate agenda presents a strategic opportunity to transition toward a more sustainable post–COVID-19 world.

The European Union stresses the accent on the need of energy consumption and expenditure data relatedto housing stock (EP, 2010). Most of housing and living conditions databases of Member States investigatethe housing status of a concerned region through a survey to be submitted to the sampled households. Theassessment of energy performance then requires a simplified energy performance certification method,based on qualitative variables.In this paper the French Enquete Nationale Logements (ENL) is considered. A conversion algorithm iselaborated to refer each of the ENL housing units to a reference building and a reference HVAC systemof the European Typology Approach for Building Stock Energy Assessment database (TABULA–EPISCOPE,2013) for France. The ENL housing stock is better specified in its technical and energetic features througha typological data crossing. As a result, an energy label and an energy performance index expressed in[(kWh, ep)/(m2year)] are issued for every single ENL row.The calculation outcomes are assessed through a sensitivity analysis and compared to other nationalstatistics; finally the distribution of energy labels is discussed. Many purposes of results exploitationsare cited, concerning in particular the fuel poverty evaluation and the energy expenditure per householdestimation.

We track US imports of advanced technology wind and solar power-generation equipment from a panel of countries during 1989–2010, and examine the determining factors including country size, sector-specific US FDI outflow, and domestic wind and solar power generation. Differentiating between the core high-tech and the balance of system equipment, we find US imports of both categories have grown at significantly higher rate from the relatively poorer countries, and particularly China and India. Larger countries are found to be exporting significantly more, and US FDI is found to play a significant positive role in the exports of high-tech equipment for the poor countries. For the core wind and solar high-tech equipment, we find domestic renewable power generation of the exporting countries also played a significant positive role.

In the struggle to limit global climate change and rising temperatures, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) was held in Egypt last November. Bringing together nations to recognize climate change as a global concern and to create new "building blocks" to enhance the implementation of the Paris Agreement through actions that can move the world toward a greener, and carbon free future. This study examines a panel of high-income economies from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to investigate the empirical linkage between Green Innovations (GI), Disaggregated trade (exports and imports), Environmental policy stringency (EPS), and Consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2020. We proceed with the panel cointegration check based on the results of the diagnostic tests. The method of moment quantile regressions (MMQR) is used to investigate the relationships between CCO2 and various variables in different quantiles. The data show that GI, export, imports, and EPS are major contributors in explaining the substantial variance in CCO2 emissions in the chosen panel. Specifically, severe environmental rules boost the benefits of green technologies through the use of environmentally friendly technology. Imports, on the other hand, have been determined to be harmful to environmental quality. As a result, member economies should reform their environmental policies to include consumption-based emissions objectives and discourage people' desire for carbon-intensive items from developing countries. This will eventually result in a decrease in consumption-based carbon emissions, assisting in the achievement of true emissions reduction goals and COP27 targets.

Abstract Government support in the form of so-called feed-in tariff policies (FITs), which combine long-term, fixed-price electricity purchase agreements and guaranteed grid-access, has attracted large private-sector investments in sustainable electricity generation in the industrialized world. In an effort to replicate these experiences globally, a number of international organizations, NGOs, banks and donor countries are proposing mechanisms to cover part of the cost of FITs in developing countries. This paper reviews these proposals for supported FITs and then uses a case study of Thailand’s Alternative Energy Development Plan 2013–2021 to investigate the opportunities and challenges of supporting FITs at a global scale. The review highlights that these proposed mechanisms foresee different roles for national governments and supporting entities, particularly in terms of who is responsible to balance fixed FIT payments with uncertain revenues and savings from carbon markets, donors and avoided fuel consumption. The case study results then show that the uncertainty about the actual cost of supported FITs is so significant that the responsibility to balance the FIT budget has to be considered carefully in the design of any mechanism that is to be employed at scale. To a considerable extent, the uncertainty is driven by the counterfactual analysis, i.e., by assumptions about the future savings from avoided fossil fuel consumption: for example, depending on the fossil fuel price scenario the FIT may result in a cost of USD 17bn or savings of 23bn. Unlike uncertainty about the necessary level of FIT payments, uncertainty about the avoided fossil fuel cost materializes only over the course of the policy’s lifetime, making it politically challenging. This suggests that an international support mechanism that differentiates the allocation of responsibility depending on the income-level of the recipient country is more suitable for global-scale support than a one-size-fits-all approach.

The research presented in this paper investigates the welfare effects of a Personal Carbon Trading Scheme (PCTS). A consumer surplus analysis is used to determine the welfare loss to individuals who undertake travel-to-work trips in the Dublin and the Western Border Region (WBR) of Ireland. Three CO2 price scenarios are analysed: a low, medium and high carbon price. These results are compared at an aggregate level for each electoral division to existing measures of deprivation derived from the Census 2006 to determine if electoral wards designated as relatively deprived also incur the largest welfare losses. The results are also compared to the density of population in each electoral division to investigate any link between density levels and welfare changes, particularly in rural regions. The welfare model found a significant divergence in the changes in consumer surplus between both the study regions. While welfare changes were minimal in the low price scenario, divergences occurred in the medium and high price scenarios as individuals using more sustainable modes in urban areas benefited from the higher market price. Large welfare losses were found in the more rural WBR whilst most areas in Dublin were found to experience a welfare gain.