• Energy Research
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Abstract The buildings and construction sector is responsible for nearly 40% of the total greenhouse emissions (GHG). Considering 50% of the building stock that will exist in 2050 is yet to be built and most of it will be devoted to housing; the sector is a determinant and transformative force to strengthen sustainability, reducing CO2 emissions and environmental degradation worldwide. Most of the increase in construction and housing is set to occur in developing countries and mainly in cities in Asia and Africa. This global picture places new housing programs in the rapidly urbanising regions as potential agents of sustainable transformation, with positive outcomes for both communities and the environment. Investing in sustainable housing has significant and real value in reducing emissions, confronting climate change, and generating better planned, inclusive, and sustainable cities. The holistic benefit achieved with the implementation of carbon neutral and carbon negative technologies is often scattered, and an integrated view of it would be a key tool to support the development of sustainable housing programmes. Considering that technologies to decarbonize and render the construction sector more sustainable have already been developed, there is a need to contrast their applicability to different countries and contexts in order to verify their functionality and identify gaps for improvement. The recent decade has witnessed a significant improvement at the global level with regards to the application of the concept of sustainability to the built environment, this being demonstrated by the multiple sustainability ratings and frameworks being developed to certify building performance. Their adoption has been critically important in most regions in the so-called Global North, where countries have started enforcing them at a normative level. While these tools’ accuracy and comprehensiveness could be disputed, their importance in promoting a systematic standardisation of the adoption of sustainability measures in the built environment is endorsed. Nevertheless, the diffusion of such tools and frameworks across rapidly urbanising middle and low-income countries has been so far extremely limited. There are myriad reasons why this is the case: tools based for high-income country contexts, their complexity, the need for accurate data and specific capacity for their adoption and diffusion, the lack of contextual relevance with regards to the specific market, culture and behavioural dynamics, and more. The following paper aims at demonstrating the value of shifting toward sustainable building practices by a comparative analysis of existing global tools and certifications and their applicability to low and middle-income countries undergoing a rapid urbanisation process. It proposes a three-phased multi-stakeholders methodology. The outcome of these three phases is combined, providing a more appropriate definition of effective and operative guidelines and tools for sustainable housing in rapidly urbanising middle and lowincome regions.

Abstract This paper investigates the short-run and long-run causality issues between electricity consumption and economic growth in the selected 11 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries by using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach of cointegration and vector error-correction models. It employs annual data covering the period from 1971 to 2006. The unit root tests results indicate that some of the variables for Algeria, Jordan, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates do not satisfy the underlying assumptions of the ARDL bounds testing approach of cointegration methodology before proceeding to the estimation stage. Thus, we drop these countries from the ARDL bounds testing approach of cointegration and causality analysis. The cointegration test results show that there is no cointegration between the electricity consumption and the economic growth in three of the seven countries (Iran, Morocco and Syria). Thus, causal relationship cannot be estimated for these countries. However, the cointegration and causal relationship is found in four countries (Egypt, Israel, Oman and Saudi Arabia). The overall results indicate that there is no relationship between the electricity consumption and the economic growth in most of the MENA countries. Further evidence indicates that policies for energy conservation can have a little or no impact on economic growth in most of the MENA countries.

Central Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to the risks associated with climate change. In a predominantly desert country like Turkmenistan, water and arable land are scarce, and consequently, valuable. The reconstruction of the traditional sardob water reservoirs and their modernization with solar-powered pumping stations is one of many initiatives aimed at boosting climate resilience at a local level. This pilot project's strategic management of water and solar electricity generation can contribute to reducing the threat of natural disasters and ecological variability on the population, and especially the agriculture sector. This article reflects on their progress and utility within the larger perspective of the water-energy-food security nexus in Turkmenistan and the country's pursuit of sustainable development. Kapadokya Üniversitesi

This study utilizes a threefold empirical analysis in order to examine the relationship between income and water equity in Bulgaria, the fastest shrinking country in the world in terms of population, and the most unequal member of the EU in terms of regional income distribution. First, in line with this goal, the income elasticity of regional water demand in the country is calculated using the Tapio decoupling model. Second, the WPAT equation which measures the weighted impacts of population, per capita income and intensity on water demand, is utilized. And finally, using the local dissimilarity index, spatial differences in access to water by region are measured. Underscoring the essence of regional level analyses based on specific decomposed sub-groups, findings are thus compatible with the economic and demographic characteristics of the regions handled in the study. In the northern regions where income and population levels are relatively low, during periods when income and water demand both increase, the rise in water demand is usually higher than the increase in income; conversely, when income decreases, the water demand also falls. The effect of population dominates the changes in water demand in the northern regions, with the exception of the Northwestern Region, where water intensity is the leading factor, possibly because the Balkans' largest nuclear power plant is located in the region. In the southern regions where income is higher, income has been the most important determinant of water demand, particularly in recent years.

Abstract Implementation of environmental taxation to internalize environmental externalities has been conducted for several decades in developed countries. With social and economic development, many developing countries arrive at their stage of carrying out environmental taxation reform in order to realize cleaner production and sustainable development. Aiming at providing experiences on establishing environmental taxation system for developing countries, current study reviewed scope, tax base, tax rate, tax preferences, monitoring and calculation method of pollutants, collection and management modes and implementation effects based on data retrieved from institutional and governmental website, and related research articles. The structure of tax base, typical economic instruments used, operation mechanism, and management mode were summarized. Legislation and Institutional design, education and publicity, and administration and management were found to be the key aspects of implementation. Current trends in development were also discussed. This work contributes to provide reference and inspiration for developing countries to establish environmental taxation system in accordance with their national conditions based on social and historical background and economic structure.

AbstractSoil micronutrients are capital for the delivery of ecosystem functioning and food provision worldwide. Yet, despite their importance, the global biogeography and ecological drivers of soil micronutrients remain virtually unknown, limiting our capacity to anticipate abrupt unexpected changes in soil micronutrients in the face of climate change. Here, we analyzed >1300 topsoil samples to examine the global distribution of six metallic micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Co and Ni) across all continents, climates and vegetation types. We found that warmer arid and tropical ecosystems, present in the least developed countries, sustain the lowest contents of multiple soil micronutrients. We further provide evidence that temperature increases may potentially result in abrupt and simultaneous reductions in the content of multiple soil micronutrients when a temperature threshold of 12–14°C is crossed, which may be occurring on 3% of the planet over the next century. Altogether, our findings provide fundamental understanding of the global distribution of soil micronutrients, with direct implications for the maintenance of ecosystem functioning, rangeland management and food production in the warmest and poorest regions of the planet.

Management of natural resources is pivotal for sustained economic growth—the increasing ecological footprints causing biocapacity deficit threaten the resource conversation agenda. The study identified the potential causes and consequences of natural resource depletion in a broad cross-section of 138 countries. Ecological footprints, international migrant stocks, industrial value-added, and population growth influenced natural resource capital across countries. The results show that ecological footprints, industrial value-added, and population growth are the detrimental factors of resource capital. In contrast, continued economic growth is helpful to conserve natural resources for future generations. The rise and fall in the natural resource degradation are evident in the wake of international migrants’ stocks to support an inverted U-shaped relationship between them. The Granger causality inferences confirmed the one-way linkages, running from international migrant stocks, economic growth, and population growth to natural resource degradation. It verifies migrants-led, affluence-led, and population-led resource degradation. Ecological footprints Granger causes industrial value-added across countries. The forecasting estimates suggested that economic growth would likely to influenced greater in magnitude to resource degradation by its innovation shocks of 4.791%, followed by international migrant stocks, population growth, ecological footprints, and industrial value added by their innovation shocks of 4.709%, 1.829%, 1.247%, and 0.700%, respectively. The study concludes that international migrant stocks should manage smartly, causing more resource degradation via a channel of increasing biocapacity deficit across countries.

Were the large investments in energy and transportation infrastructure effective in fostering economic growth? Or did economic growth trigger these infrastructure developments? To answer these questions, we develop a simple model of production capacity constraints and use China’s Western Development Strategy (WDS) as an example to investigate how the relationships among energy investment, transportation infrastructure expansion and economic growth differ in the pre- and post-WDS periods. Our Granger causality analysis uses a panel data sample for China’s 30 provinces in the Western and non-Western regions for the period of 1991-2012. We find Granger causality only in the post-WDS period from transportation infrastructure expansion to economic growth and from economic growth to energy investment. These results suggest energy and transportation capacity constraints in the post-WDS period but not the pre-WDS period. Their policy implication is that China should continue its energy and transportation infrastructure investments with improved coordination.