• Energy Research
• 1. No poverty close
• GB close

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has faced a persistent fiscal deficit for the last three decades. In the vast literature, a question is still arising: is ASEAN’s fiscal deficit alarming? This study explores the fiscal deficit with different perspectives to provide guidelines for policymakers to answer this question. For this purpose, we offer fiscal causal hypotheses estimates, including the contribution of Government expenditures (GEs) and Government revenues (GRs) towards sustainable economic growth; we then evaluated two additional deficit hypotheses, the impact of fiscal deficit and deficit financing on inflation. This empirical analysis covered annual financial data for the years 1990 to 2019 of ten member countries of ASEAN by applying panel econometric techniques, which include unit root Levin, Lin, and Chu (LLC) and Im, Pesaran, and Shin (IPS) tests; the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for cointegration; and the Dumitrescu–Hurlin (DH) test for causality. The findings revealed that government expenditures contribute more towards sustainable economic growth while government revenues are inversely related to growth in the long run. The DH causality test supported the fiscal synchronization hypothesis and current account targeting hypothesis in ASEAN. The interest rate is found as a moderator between fiscal and current account deficits. Furthermore, the findings showed that the fiscal deficit of ASEAN could generate inflation while relying on outstanding debt. Overall, our findings concluded that the fiscal deficit of ASEAN is alarming based on the behavior of government revenues, interest rate dynamics, political stability, and outstanding debt in deficit financing.

Climate plays an important role in human health and it is well established that climate change can have very significant impacts in this regard. In partnership with The Lancet and the MJA, we present the inaugural Australian Countdown assessment of progress on climate change and health. This comprehensive assessment examines 41 indicators across five broad sections: climate change impacts, exposures and vulnerability; adaptation, planning and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. These indicators and the methods used for each are largely consistent with those of the Lancet Countdown global assessment published in October 2017, but with an Australian focus. Significant developments include the addition of a new indicator on mental health. Overall, we find that Australia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change on health, and that policy inaction in this regard threatens Australian lives. In a number of respects, Australia has gone backwards and now lags behind other high income countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Examples include the persistence of a very high carbon-intensive energy system in Australia, and its slow transition to renewables and low carbon electricity generation. However, we also find some examples of good progress, such as heatwave response planning. Given the overall poor state of progress on climate change and health in Australia, this country now has an enormous opportunity to take action and protect human health and lives. Australia has the technical knowhow and intellect to do this, and our annual updates of this assessment will track Australia's engagement with and progress on this vitally important issue.

Across the world, different communities will be more or less able to adapt to the impacts of climate change based on their levels of exposure, access to a diversity of livelihood assets and adaptive capacity. Pacific communities are highly exposed to many of the projected impacts of climate change, which has garnered much media and government attention over the last decade. This article investigates how the government and non-government actors in Tuvalu and Kiribati, two low-lying Pacific nation-states, are responding to the challenges of climate change, particularly in relation to how they view migration as an adaptation ‘solution’. A brief contextual overview of terms such as ‘migration’ and ‘relocation’ indicates how they have only been used more recently at the multilateral level, most notably by the President of Kiribati. Building on a historical overview, interviews (n = 10) with government officials, and representatives from non-governmental organizations and donor agencies revealed that although e...

Abstract Renewable energy technologies for sustainable development are rapidly attracting attention across many disciplines despite technical, economic, and social barriers that limit application beyond the laboratory. This study proposes novel semi-automated and automated domestic hot water and electricity demand simulation experiments to evaluate the performance of a proof-of-concept prototype under simulated solar conditions. The prototype is a Partially Hybridised Solar Technology (PHST) which integrates photovoltaic (PV) and low-temperature solar thermal technology for low-cost electricity and domestic hot water supply. The domestic hot water and electrical demand profiles, and the solar radiation utilised during the study represent typical conditions of off-grid households in Sub-Saharan Africa. The prototype delivered a thermal energy supply potential of 2 , 073 ± 75 k J per day at an average solar thermal conversion efficiency of 29.4 ± 1.0 % . The average yield of Direct Current (DC) electricity was 273 Wh per day at a corresponding PV module efficiency of 12.1% but depended on the type of charge controller. These results provide essential baselines for future computer modelling work and techno-economic predictions for Sub-Saharan Africa. The study has important future implications to test standards guiding laboratory-based evaluation of Solar Home Systems (SHSs) for electricity and domestic hot water.

In this paper, we explore the practices and spaces of mobile phone charging in The Gambia and Sierra Leone through the lens of 'electricity scarcity‘ as a means to conceptualise electricity access in West Africa. The International Energy Agency (IEA) is seen as the leading authority on the state of global energy access, and is frequently cited by government and non-government bodies. We, however, suggest that the IEA‘s quantitative and binary framing of electricity access is analytically problematic for understanding energy poverty. Using ethnographic methods, including observation and semi-structured interviews, we provide insights into the changing socio-technological, socio-political and socio-economic dimensions of mobile phone charging including its relationship with the built environment. Comparing mobile phone charging in The Gambia and Sierra Leone, clearly shows that the notion of absolute electricity scarcity which is promulgated by IEA statistics only offers a limited picture of energy poverty, especially at the locale. Instead, drawing on political ecology scholarship, we propose a concept of political electricity scarcity as an approach enables a more human-centred and nuanced understanding of how energy poverty operates or is mitigated through community-based structures or at a household level. By reframing energy poverty issues through this lens, we are able to illustrate the role that political economy dynamics play in shaping the electricity flows in rural Sub-Saharan Africa and who ultimately gets what kind of electricity access.

International efforts to provide global public goods often face the challenges of coordinating national contributions and distributing costs equitably in the face of uncertainty, inequality, and free-riding incentives. In an experimental setting, we distribute endowments unequally among a group of people who can reach a fixed target sum through successive money contributions, knowing that if they fail, they will lose all their remaining money with 50% probability. In some treatments, we give players the option to communicate intended contributions. We find that inequality reduces the prospects of reaching the target but that communication increases success dramatically. Successful groups tend to eliminate inequality over the course of the game, with rich players signaling willingness to redistribute early on. Our results suggest that coordination-promoting institutions and early redistribution from richer to poorer nations are both decisive for the avoidance of global calamities, such as disruptive climate change.

Le phénomène de l'insuffisance de l'approvisionnement en électricité en Afrique subsaharienne (Ass) a suscité un grand intérêt au fil des ans en raison de son caractère insoluble et de son importance pour le développement ; l'Ass accueille environ 55 % des plus d'un milliard de personnes qui n'ont pas accès à l'électricité dans le monde. En outre, dans de nombreux pays d'Afrique subsaharienne, les taux d'accès à l'électricité diminuent parce que les efforts d'électrification sont plus lents que la croissance démographique. Ces dernières années, cependant, certains pays d'Afrique subsaharienne ont démontré qu'avec la volonté politique et l'accès à un financement approprié, l'accès à l'électricité peut être accéléré. On ne saurait trop insister sur les appels pressants en faveur de sources d'énergie propres (vertes) dans le bouquet énergétique. S'appuyant sur différentes disciplines, ce bulletin IDS offre de nouvelles perspectives qui vont au-delà de l'identification des obstacles au développement des énergies renouvelables en Afrique subsaharienne. Le contenu de ces contributions souligne la complexité du défi de l'électrification propre en Afrique subsaharienne ; et démontre les avantages d'une approche multidisciplinaire dans la conception des interventions. El fenómeno del suministro de energía inadecuado en el África subsahariana (SSA) ha sido un tema de gran interés a lo largo de los años debido a su naturaleza intratable y su importancia para el desarrollo; SSA alberga a alrededor del 55 por ciento de los más de mil millones de personas sin acceso a la electricidad a nivel mundial. Además, en muchos países SSA, las tasas de acceso a la electricidad están disminuyendo porque los esfuerzos de electrificación son más lentos que el crecimiento de la población. Sin embargo, en los últimos años, ciertos países SSA han demostrado que con voluntad política y acceso a financiamiento adecuado, se puede acelerar el acceso a la electricidad. No se puede exagerar la abrumadora demanda de fuentes de energía limpias (verdes) en la combinación energética. Partiendo de diferentes disciplinas, este Boletín IDS proporciona nuevas perspectivas que van más allá de la identificación de obstáculos para el desarrollo de energías renovables en SSA. El contenido de estas contribuciones subraya la complejidad que rodea el desafío de la electrificación limpia en SSA; y demuestra los beneficios de un enfoque multidisciplinario en el diseño de intervenciones. The phenomenon of inadequate power supply in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been a subject of great interest over the years because of its intractable nature and its importance for development; SSA accommodates about 55 per cent of the more than one billion people without access to electricity globally. Moreover, in many SSA countries, electricity access rates are decreasing because electrification efforts are slower than population growth. In recent years, however, certain SSA countries have demonstrated that with political will and access to appropriate finance, electricity access can be accelerated. The overwhelming calls for clean (green) energy sources into the energy mix cannot be overemphasised. Drawing from different disciplines, this IDS Bulletin provides new perspectives that go beyond the identification of obstacles to renewable energy development in SSA. The contents of these contributions underscore the complexity surrounding the clean electrification challenge in SSA; and demonstrate the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach in the design of interventions. كانت ظاهرة عدم كفاية إمدادات الطاقة في أفريقيا جنوب الصحراء الكبرى (SSA) موضوع اهتمام كبير على مر السنين بسبب طبيعتها المستعصية وأهميتها للتنمية ؛ تستوعب SSA حوالي 55 في المائة من أكثر من مليار شخص لا يحصلون على الكهرباء على مستوى العالم. علاوة على ذلك، في العديد من بلدان أفريقيا جنوب الصحراء الكبرى، تتناقص معدلات الوصول إلى الكهرباء لأن جهود الكهربة أبطأ من النمو السكاني. ومع ذلك، في السنوات الأخيرة، أظهرت بعض بلدان أفريقيا جنوب الصحراء الكبرى أنه من خلال الإرادة السياسية والوصول إلى التمويل المناسب، يمكن تسريع الوصول إلى الكهرباء. لا يمكن المبالغة في التأكيد على الدعوات الساحقة لمصادر الطاقة النظيفة (الخضراء) في مزيج الطاقة. بالاعتماد على تخصصات مختلفة، توفر نشرة IDS هذه وجهات نظر جديدة تتجاوز تحديد العقبات التي تعترض تطوير الطاقة المتجددة في أفريقيا جنوب الصحراء الكبرى. تؤكد محتويات هذه المساهمات على التعقيد المحيط بتحدي الكهربة النظيفة في أفريقيا جنوب الصحراء الكبرى ؛ وتوضح فوائد النهج متعدد التخصصات في تصميم التدخلات.