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Abstract Reaching universal access to electricity by 2030 requires a massive deployment of mini-grids in rural areas of developing countries. Among the many challenges hindering this process, there are the high uncertainties in assessing demand patterns in rural communities, the costs of field survey campaigns, and the absence of ample and reliable datasets coming from existing projects. This paper tries to address these issues by presenting and discussing a database of load profiles from sixty-one off-grid mini-grids from developing countries worldwide, gathered from the literature, private developers and fieldworks, and reported with technical, socio-economic and geographical characterization factors. A clustering procedure led to the identification of five archetypal load profile clusters, which are presented and analyzed together with their load duration curves. Subsequently, the distribution among the clusters of the various characterization factors selected is studied. The proposed approach allows to widen the range of load profiles usually considered, and to seek correlations between the load profile shapes, the peak power and average energy consumption per connection, the number of customers, the age of measurement, geographical position, operator model, type of tariff and generation technologies present. This work establishes a first step in the creation of a shared database for load profiles of rural mini-grids, helping to overcome the lack of available data and difficulties of demand assessment, proposing original insights for researchers to understand load patterns, and contributing to reduce risks and uncertainties for mini-grid developers.

Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyse, in the humanitarian context, the key links between energy and food security, energy-related challenges faced by affected populations, current barriers to sustainable energy access, opportunities for addressing energy needs and existing gaps in current research on energy issues. Ensuring access to energy is a major challenge for some 3.1 billion people living in low- and middle-income countries, especially in remote and off-grid areas. Lack of safe, affordable and sustainable energy for cooking, heating, lighting and powering has cross-sectoral implications and is particularly constrained for the roughly 60 million people living in complex emergencies and protracted crisis. Some 80 percent of refugees and displaced people in camps have little access to energy entailing additional exposure to security risks, health hazards and restricted economic and education opportunities. Often people have no choice but to depend on biomass to meet their immediate energy needs. The traditional use of solid biomass and inefficient technologies for cooking, heating and other energy needs, can be harmful to their well-being and food security while being largely unsustainable. The consumption of safe, healthy and nutritious meals often depends on access to energy, allowing for proper preparation and utilisation of food. The inability for people to meet their energy needs for cooking may seriously affect food and nutrition security not only in terms of utilisation, but also has the potential to impair sustainable food systems. The humanitarian system is unable to face the energy challenge and increasing needs if current response measures are not improved. Actions and a substantial change in policy are needed, in order to significantly reduce the total number of people relying on solid fuels by 2030. This article will discuss how underlying barriers are contributing to inadequate access and use of energy and cooking technologies in humanitarian settings and the subsequent adverse impacts on people’s lives and environments. The projected effects of the current energy poverty crisis in humanitarian settings is discussed while some of the solutions to address energy needs, including examples based on innovative technologies and new mechanisms, are examined in general terms. Furthermore, the challenges, opportunities and future areas of interest associated with these technologies and mechanisms are also considered.

Challenges posed by changes in livestock production in emerging food producing areas and demographic development and climate change require new approaches and responsibilities in the management of food chains. The increasingly recognized role of primary food producers requires the support of the scientific community to instruct effective approaches based on scientific data, tools, and expertise. Mali is an emerging food producing area, and this review covers (i) the dairy farming scenario and its environment, (ii) the role of dairy production in food security, including the greatly different animal rearing systems in the Sahel and tropical regions, (iii) risk management pillars as modern infrastructures, effective farmer organizations, and institutional systems to guarantee animal health and safety of products, and (iv) feasible interventions based on good practices and risk assessment at the farm level (e.g., sustainable use of fertilizers, feeds, veterinary drugs, and pesticides) to protect consumers from food safety hazards. Social innovation based on the empowerment of the primary food producers emerges as crucial for sustainable and safe food production. Sustainable policies should be supported by the mobilization of stakeholders of One Health, which is a science-based approach to linking human health and nutrition with the health and management of food producing animals and environmental safety. In the context of the complex, multifaceted scenario of Mali dairy production, this article presents how a cost-effective animal health and food safety scheme could be established in the dairy production chain. Because milk is a major commodity in this country, benefits could be derived in food security, public health, the resilience of the farming system, animal husbandry, and international trade.

Electricity prices have risen sharply in Spain in recent years, to the point where they are now among the highest in the EU. The scant competition between power utilities, changes in the law, and the tariff deficit (accumulated debt in favour, mainly, of the electricity firms), have driven up the cost of electricity, affecting numerous other industries such as irrigated agriculture, a sector that has significantly increased its electricity consumption as a result of modernization processes over the past twenty-five years. We examine these issues through a case study of an irrigation scheme in Spain that provides irrigation water and infrastructure to 58 farming communities in north-eastern Spain, and is highly representative of the Ebro Valley. Based on the results of direct estimations and simulations of different tariffs, we propose the lowering of capacity-based tariffs to reduce sector problems and cut energy costs, especially for farmers. We also raise the possibility of increasing self-consumption, a complementary measure for many farmers and for medium-size firms.

Abstract Considering residential per capita electricity consumption as one of the most suitable economic welfare indicators, the aim of this paper is to explore worldwide differences on this variable over the period 1980–2007. The paper adds to the standard practice of σ and β convergence analysis by tracking the external shape and time evolution of the entire distribution, applying nonparametric techniques (density functions and stochastic kernels) to a sample of 98 countries. The main finding is that a weak process of electricity consumption convergence has taken place. This reduction of disparities is clearly related to at least three issues: firstly, the rapid economic changes experienced by some developing countries; secondly, the energy conservation policies implemented by most developed countries following the first oil shock; and, thirdly, the growing awareness on energy issues in rich countries. Notwithstanding this, the ergodic distribution on per capita electricity consumption indicates that large cross-country disparities will persist in the long-run.

Abstract The low adoption rates of modern bioenergy systems in the rural areas of Zambia indicate shortcomings within the existing institutional arrangements for a conducive enabling environment for their deployment. To address them, this study employed the SWOT–AHP (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats-Analytic Hierarchy Process)-TOWS (Threats, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Strengths) technique to assess the effectiveness of such arrangements by building on the insight of the identified stakeholders. This led to the generation of ideas for further policy development for rural-based bioenergy systems. The SWOT-AHP analysis shows that the negative aspects (weaknesses and threats) associated with the enabling environment for the promotion of rural-based bioenergy systems dominate their positive counterparts (strengths and opportunities). Among others, the following policy considerations are vital to the enhancement of the enabling environment in this context: (1) building relevant policy actors' analytical capacity in biomass supply chains for cooking and heating fuels, (2) seeking developed-country support for the effective transfer of bioelectricity technologies, and (3) developing a framework used in planning for the sustainability of rural-based bioenergy systems. To increase the likelihood of their adoption, these strategies must be aligned with the country's higher-level national development goals.

Abstract By considering spatial relationships, this study aims to analyse to what extent per capita CO2 emissions are determined by renewable energy consumption, the share of the services sector in GDP, energy intensity and real per capita income. A panel data set composed of 173 countries over the 1990–2014 period is used to estimate an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) augmented by neighbouring per capita income and energy intensity. Both standard and spatial forms are estimated for seven different sets of countries to assess the robustness of the results. Finally, several forecasts are performed to verify global sustainability and to provide some policy suggestions for the period 2015–2100. The empirical results indicate that (i) most areas support the standard EKC, (ii) there seems to be an inverted U-shaped relationship between neighbouring per capita income and national per capita emissions in Europe, Asia and the World as a whole, (iii) neighbouring energy intensity increases national per capita emissions, and (iv) forecasts show that economic growth will accelerate climate change. However, a steady annual growth in renewable energy consumption and a steady decrease in energy intensity, both close to 2.5%, may guarantee environmental sustainability prior to 2100.

The comparison of the Ecological Footprint and its counterpart (i.e. biocapacity) allow for a classification of the world's countries as ecological creditors (Ecological Footprint lower than biocapacity) or debtors (Ecological Footprint higher than biocapacity). This classification is a national scale assessment on an annual time scale that provides a view of the ecological assets appropriated by the local population versus the natural ecological endowment of a country. We show that GDP per capita over a certain threshold is related with the worsening of the footprint balance in countries classified as ecological debtors. On the other hand, this correlation is lost when ecological creditor nations are considered. There is evidence that governments and investors from high GDP countries are playing a crucial role in impacting the environment at the global scale which is significantly affecting the geography of sustainability and preventing equal opportunities for development. In particular, international market dynamics and the concentration of economic power facilitate the transfer of biocapacity related to “land grabbing”, i.e. large scale acquisition of agricultural land. This transfer mainly occurs from low to high GDP countries, regardless of the actual need of foreign biocapacity, as expressed by the national footprint balance. A first estimation of the amount of biocapacity involved in this phenomenon is provided in this paper in order to better understand its implications on global sustainability and national and international land use policy.

Most nations are predominately preoccupied with the need to increase economic growth amidst pressure for increased energy consumption. However, higher energy consumption from fossil fuel has its environmental implication(s) especially in a high industrial economy like China. In this context, the current study explores the interaction between pollutant emission, foreign direct investment, energy consumption, tourism arrival, and economic growth for quarterly frequency data from 1995Q1 to 2016Q4 for econometrics analysis. Pesaran's autoregressive distributed lag-bound test traces long-run relationship between all outlined variables over the investigated period. Empirical results show positive relationship between pollutant emissions with all other variables with the exception of economic growth. This further exposes the environmental degradation in China with the curtailing strength from the GDP. The Granger causality analysis detects that CO2 emissions and energy consumption show a two-way causality observed. Also, one-way causality existing between growth and foreign direct investment is seen running to pollutant emission. Furthermore, one-way causality is observed among foreign direct investment, energy consumption, pollutant emission, and tourism arrivals with economic growth, and this established their impact on the economic growth which will be a guide to the policy implication on how to ameliorate environmental degradation from the effect of consumption of fossil energy sources and foreign direct investment-induced pollutant emission.