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

Today’s world faces two major crises including environmental pollution due to fossil fuels and the reduction of these fuels, so energy supply through renewable energies has been considered a sustainable solution. The purpose of this study was to assess factors affecting the tendency to use biofuels among villagers. Heads of households in rural areas in Chavarzagh district, Tarom township, Zanjan province formed the statistical population of the study (N=2742). The sample size was estimated using the Cochrane formula (n=161) and samples were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling method. The descriptive and correlational research method was used in this study. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by a panel of related faculty members. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to confirm the reliability of the questionnaire (0.70-0.83). Data was analyzed using SPSS 21. Regression analysis showed that risk, attitudes towards biofuels, self-efficacy, training, eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels and encouraging the use of biofuels, increasing public awareness about the benefits of biofuels and perceived barriers explained 40.6 percent of the variation of villagers’ tendency to use biofuels.

This paper evaluates the threshold effect of income on carbon dioxide emissions intensity in the MENA countries using panel smooth transition regression model. For this purpose, the variables of financial development, openness, energy intensity, income per capital and carbon dioxide emissions intensity over the period 1980 to 2011 are employed. While the results strongly indicated the existence of a nonlinear relationship, considering one transition function and two threshold parameters is sufficient to specification of nonlinear relationship among variables. The empirical results show that the slope parameter in which the speed of adjustment represent from one regime to another one is estimated equivalent of 78762, and two threshold parameters estimated 1176 $ and 11614 $ based on income per capita respectively. The variables of openness and income per capital lead to reduce carbon dioxide emissions intensity in both regimes in which the impact of income per capital in first regime and openness in second regime is greater than another regime. Although, financial development leads to slight increase in carbon dioxide emissions intensity in the first regime, but in the second regime leads to decreases it.

Economic growth planning and policy making is one of the macrocosmic goals which it need to pay specific attention to energy and environmental sector and their relationship with production. Therefore, this study has conducted to investigate the relationship between economic growth, energy consumption and environmental pollution using a Spatial Panel Simultaneous-Equations model for 9 developing countries during 2000-2011. Empirical results of this method show that energy consumption, economic growth and environmental pollution in each country is affected by these factors in neighboring countries. The results of research confirm there exists bidirectional causality between energy consumption and environmental pollution, economic growth and environmental pollution. Thus, there is a bidirectional causal relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. Regarding to result of this study suggests to achieve the sustainable economic growth should be used tax tools for controlling the emissions of CO2 and replacement of the renewable energies with fossil fuels.

In spite the global efforts to reduce energy intensity; Iran’s energy intensity has been increasing during the recent decades. To get a more detailed investigation of energy intensity, this study aims at decomposing energy intensity into its components including efficiency and structural change as well as at examining driving forces behind Iran’s energy intensity components during 1973-2011. Energy intensity decomposition showed that efficiency changes accounts for the most of increased energy intensity. It is found in this study that income (GDP), capital- labor ratio and urbanization are the most determinants of energy intensity and its components. Regarding the non-linear relationship between energy intensity and driving forces of income and capital-labor ratio as well as the estimated turning points, income plays a significant role in increase of energy intensity while capital-labor ratio tends to induce a reduction in energy intensity. Although urbanization has a positive contribution to energy intensity via structural changes component, its dominant effect on improved energy efficiency leads to an overall effect of reduced energy intensity by more than 1.8% as 1% increase in urbanization. The results showed a limited effect for price and share of industry in GDP and left no significant role for economic integration and foreign direct investment. The corresponding value for these variables remain less than 0.05%. 1.0pt;line-height:85%;font-family:"B Zar";letter-spacing: -.2pt;mso-bidi-language:FA;mso-ansi-font-style:italic'>کار با شاخص‌های شدت انرژی و نقطه عطف مترتب بر آنها در مجموع اثر درآمد در جهت افزایش شدت انرژی و اثر سرمایه در جهت کاهش شدت انرژی ارزیابی شد. اما شهرنشینی با وجود افزایش شدت انرژی از طریق تغییرات ساختاری از طریق بهبود کارایی در مجموع موجب کاهش شدت انرژی فراتر از 8/1 درصد به ازای 1 درصد افزایش شهرنشینی خواهد شد. اثر قیمت و سهم صنعت از تولید ناخالص داخلی بر شاخص‌های فوق محدود و اثر متغیرهای شاخص ادغام تجاری و سرمایه‌گذاری خارجی قابل اغماض ارزیابی شد. رقم متناظر برای متغیرهای یاد شده بیشتر کمتر از 05/0 درصد به دست آمد.

Background and aims: Fossil fuels Emission and their limited resources make to use renewable energy with more sustainable energy sources and less minimal environmental impacts. One of the most appropriate renewable energies considered lots of advantages including being renewable and environmentally friendly and containing social and economical interests, is Biomass. “Biomass” means a power source that is comprised of, but not limited to, combustible residues or gases from forest products manufacturing, waste, byproducts, or products from agricultural and orchard crops, waste or co-products products from livestock and poultry operations, waste or byproducts from and food processing, urban wood waste, municipal solid waste, municipal liquid waste treatment operations, and landfill gas. Due to the wide availability of biomass worldwide, mainly because it can be obtained as a by-product of many industrial and agricultural processes, biomass represents a growing renewable energy source with high growth potential. Biomass helps reduce the amount of GHG that give more impact to global warming and climate change. The biomass emissions level is far smaller compared to fossil fuels. The basic difference between biomass and fossil fuels when it comes to amount of carbon emissions is: all the CO2 which has been absorbed by plant for its growth is going back in the atmosphere during its burning for the production of biomass energy. While the CO2 produced from fossil fuels is going to atmosphere where it increases greenhouse effect. Another great advantage of biomass energy is that it is an indigenous fuel. The fuels from biomass materials can be produced locally and no high technology is required. Producing fuel from biomass materials reduces the dependence of a country on foreign resources for their fuel requirements. Moreover, since this indigenous fuel is labor intensive, it can contribute to the generation of new jobs, particularly in rural and farming communities. The number of employed workers required is 3-6 times greater than the fossil energy production in the associated processes. This study was aimed to identification and green grading of environmental management in that’s jobs. Some other socio-economic benefits can be counted such as slowing down the migration from the rural areas to cities, decreasing the issues associated with rapid urbanization, and developing a biodiesel production industry. Among its great benefits is the forest use of the territory, which would also serve to clean the forest and thus prevent forest fires, and the ability to generate jobs. Biomass generates continuous employment such as the extraction of raw materials from the countryside and the bush. This study was aimed to identification and green grading of environmental management in that’s jobs. The research questions are: 1. What are green job indicators? and 2. has renewable energy biomass business indicators of green jobs? Methods: This study was qualitative – quantitative, first according to the grounded theory qualitative method semi-deep interviewed with 50 environmental experts in the Environmental Protection Agency, the municipality, faculty members of the universities, the natural resources and watershed management, agriculture ministry and NGOs active in the environment conducted a with purposeful sampling (snowball). Regarding qualitative data validation were used constant data comparison, reviewing the observers and handwriting by participants and use of foreign and expert researchers familiar with qualitative research as an observer. Then, data was analyzed using the grounded theory of open, axial and selective coding analyzed in MAXQDA software. Once coding categories emerge, the next step is to link them together in theoretical models around a central category that hold everything together. In order to explain the grounded theory, green jobs are considered as the central variable, and the main line of research is defined using reminders and diagrams around it, and finally the green indicators derived from it are developed. Based on them, researcher-made questionnaire was designed in a combination, closed response with 5-rate likert scale. In order to determine the validity of the questionnaire, the content validity was used with the lawshe model and with reviewing previous studies was determined, the scope of the questionnaire in greenness of the job, and the reliability of the questionnaire was obtained using Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient for internal consistency. Cronbachchr('39')s alpha value for each research question was more than 0.7, the reliability of the questionnaire was approved. Also, the Cronbachchr('39')s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.890. In order to estimate the repeatability, the retest method and the ICC index were used that index was 0.996 (p <0.001), indicating its high repeatability. For estimating the results of greenness and its degree in the jobs of renewable energy biomass, were used statistical analysis of Kolmogrov-Smirnov test, single-sample t-test and Friedman test in SPSS software. Result: Findings of the qualitative research on the structure of green job identification and prioritization were discussed in six categories including establishment in accordance with the legal and technological infrastructure of the green job as context, green job as a phenomenon, environmental pollution elimination and the health risks reduction of the community as causal conditions, green management as operational strategies, environmental empowerment of jobs as an intermediary conditions and economic and environmental benefits as a consequence. The results of quantitative to showed that jobs studied are considered green jobs and their green grading are as follows: 1. Maintenance (mean=5/61), 2. System Design (mean=4/83), 3. Training (mean=4/22), 4. Quality Monitoring and Quality (mean=4/03), 5. Collection (mean=3/64), 6. Manufacturer (mean=3/61) and 7. Worker and System Administrator (mean=2/06). According to the results, components of green jobs are defined including: (1. explaining Green Jobs, Productivity of Occupations, 2. environmental Protection and Health, 3. Green potentials and incentives, 4. environmental Standards and Indices of Health and Green Management, 5. environmental and health challenges and solving energy crisis with the help of green jobs, 6. environmental education and green culture, 7.environmental empowerment through a variety of environmental and health education, informing and accompanying NGOs, 8. economic-ecological profitability and the optimistic approach to economic interests (green economy) and impact of economic issues, profitability, financial support, market regulation, and return on investment in the process of greening and green expanding businesses). Results show that green indices of occupations are 1- environmental and health of profile occupational, 2- strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities green jobs, 3- green supply chain management of businesses, 4- impact of green jobs on sustainable development and community health, 5- effect of environmental education on the green performance of occupations, the impact of environmental advertising on green performance and 6- reduce employee costs and increase business profits through environmental management. These green jobs literature extols the virtues of generating energy using “wood waste and other byproducts, including agricultural byproducts, ethanol, paper pellets, used railroad ties, sludge wood, solid byproducts, and old utility poles. Several waste products are also used in biomass, including landfill gas, digester gas, municipal solid waste, and methane. Conclusion: The green features of the biomass business are included solving the problem of fossil fuels, caused by fossil energy and renewable energy sources. identification and green grading jobs diversifying energy sources, sustainable development, securing energy, removing environmental and health problems would help to managers and policy makers for identifying and providing executive solutions and identifying multifaceted priorities for green management. Despite the high potential of bio-economy in renewable energy (biomass) and high amounts of raw materials in the agricultural waste and sewage has not been fully realized. To achieve of developing a competitive economy, low-carbon resources with efficient resources, global economic markets have shifted strategy towards renewable energies, so as to create green jobs in order to reduce environmental problems (waste and climate change). For performance of macroeconomic policy in notification Supreme Leader on the restructuring of the countrychr('39')s economic structure has proposed policies to change reducing dependencies on fossil fuels and external resources towards the creation and development of green jobs in the field of renewable energy, especially biomass, because there are a lot of raw materials in the country, especially in the villages and without necessary to high technologies. Biomass development increase energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy resources and the creation of a favourable environment for investment in energy efficiency measures and the generation of ‘green’ jobs. The rural development prospects for green job growth are mixed. Rural areas contain biomass feedstocks which will be increasingly relied upon to offset fossil fuel dependencies. The distribution of those feedstocks, however, is not uniform across rural areas. Furthermore, the technologies to convert those feedstocks into fuels and other uses are yet to be demonstrated at commercially successful scales. Both policy development and research activities should be focused on the efficient utilization of rural natural resources, human capital, and rural infrastructure in achieving national green policies. The green economy appears to be fertile ground for unbiased, academic research to examine some of the regional consequences of green jobs growth and green jobs policies, to include an examination of rural opportunities, but going well beyond that dimension to include the integration of statewide and multi-state regional development opportunities as well as consequences. This study was not about raw materials (waste and sewage) to produce renewable energy biomass, and it is possible that this section may also be effective in the creation and development of green jobs, then there may be restrictions on the generalized findings, interpretations, and attributes of the causation of variables. Therefore, it is suggested that future research into this part of the process of producing renewable energy biomass should be considered.

Introduction: Identifying the effect of energy consumption, economic growth and foreign trade on CO2 emissions have been studied at both national and international levels. However, there have been very few researches on the effect of financial and banking development on the CO2 emissions, especially in Iran. So, this study aimed to cover this research gap. Methods: This study was a time-series analyses over the period of 1971-2011. In order to investigate about existence of a long-run co-integration relationship between CO2 emissions and banking development indicators in Iran, long-run coefficients were estimated by Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) approaches. Moreover, to carry out the econometric tests Microfit (5.0) and Eviews (9.0) software were used. Results: Findings showed that the ratio of domestic credit to private sector by banks to GDP (Banking Development Indicator) reduces CO2 emissions in Iran. In addition, results confirm with theories and other empirical studies showed that energy consumption has positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions in long-run. Conclusion: The government can help to improve environment quality by establishing a strong policy making on credit to firms by banking system. Because in this framework firms to receive credit from banking system are required codified programs to reduce negative outcomes of energy consumption and this lead to a less CO2 emissions in long-run.

Introduction: Today, the food-energy nexus is a vital issue. Energy in the food production chain is an essential feature of agricultural development and a critical factor in achieving food security. Energy use in the agricultural sector has increased to respond to the growing demand of the population, as well the limited supply of cultivated lands, and the desire for high standards of living. Therefore, the agricultural sector is heavily dependent on energy that affects agricultural prices. Agricultural price fluctuations are one of the most critical challenges for policymakers. The rapid rise in food prices has a significant negative impact on social welfare, especially the poor in developing countries, which is an issue that is more critical in developing countries than in developed countries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report in 2018, the food world price index increased from 89.6 to 229.9 during the period from 2002 to 2011. Our literature review shows a distinct lack of research on modeling and analyzing the linkage between agricultural input price shock, especially energy and agricultural commodity prices in Iran. Materials and Methods: The Markov Switching model is a popular non-linear time-series model that involves multiple equations and can characterize the time-series behaviors in different regimes. This model is suitable for describing correlated data that exhibit distinct dynamic patterns during different periods. So, considering the sensitivity of food security and the impact of agricultural input, the main objective of this paper is to develop an econometric model to gain reliable insight into the impact of energy consumption on agricultural inflation, using the Markov Switching approach. To estimate this equation, we will run a MS-AR model, some preliminary tests, such as unit root test and stability test, are employed to ensure the reliability of MS-AR estimation results. Results and Discussion: Due to use of time series data, it is necessary to check the stationary status of variables. We performed a common non-linear unit root test (Kapetanios, Shin and Shell (KSS), Zivot and Andrews, Lee and Strazicich). These results reveal that we can significantly reject the null hypothesis of unit root for API, PPI, FPI, and EC, implying that all four variables considered in this study are stationary with structural breaks at levels. The Markov-Switching model has the various types that each of these is a particular component of the regime-dependent equation. Therefore, to choose the best type, the Akaike information criterion was used, and the model with the minimum value was selected as the optimal one. After model estimation and selection, the LR test indicated that the hypothesis of linearity could be rejected in favor of a Markov switching model. According to this model, the period of the Markov switching model estimation is classified into two regimes. Approximately, all the estimated coefficients of the MSIAH (2) - AR (5) model are found to be significant at the conventional level. Conclusion: The estimation results are consistent with theoretical foundations illustrating the importance of input prices and energy consumption on agricultural commodity prices. As with most experimental studies reviewed, this study has also shown energy consumption has a negative impact on agricultural commodity prices. In other words, it can be contended that during the study period, agricultural input prices have been influential factors on agricultural commodity prices. The findings revealed that the low inflation rate and high inflation rate regimes are stable and that only extreme events can switch regimes. The results of the MS model showed that the effect of input prices on agricultural inflation is different in regimes. In the case of energy, the impact of energy consumption on agricultural commodity prices in the high inflation rate regime is less than the low inflation rate regime because the elimination of energy subsidies policy has been applied in the second regime (high inflation rate). Thus, the results indicate the asymmetric impact of energy consumption shocks on agricultural commodity prices. The effect of agricultural input prices on agricultural commodity prices indicates that Iranian agriculture is significantly affected by changes in input prices. In this study, changes in input prices were caused by various shocks, such as the elimination of energy subsidies and drought. Therefore, it can be concluded that the elimination of energy subsidies and drought were, directly and indirectly, able to affect agricultural inflations through the price of inputs. In conclusion, planners and policymakers must pay attention to this asymmetry in agricultural commodity prices volatility to increase the price stability in agriculture as much as possible by appropriate policy tools.

This research investigates the existence and direction of Granger causality between economic growth, energy consumption, and carbon emissions in Iran. A multivariate model including economic growth, energy consumption, carbon emissions, capital stock, labor force, and urban population is used to determine eventual causality between variables according to Toda-Yamamoto Approach. Results indicate that there is a bi-directional causality relationship between gross domestic product and CO2 emissions. Also, there is a uni-direction causality relationship from energy consumption to CO2 emissions. Finally, the results maintain that the EKC hypothesis for GDP and CO2 emissions is relevant in the period of study.

Human development is one of the main aspects of development in each country in which different factors could influence this indicator. In this research, interrelationship between gross domestic product (GDP), energy consumption per capita and HDI and their control factors investigate by using simultaneous-equation panel data models based on Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) for a panel of 12 MENA countries during 1997-2015. Findings of this study show that there is a mutual positive and significant relationship between GDP, energy consumption and HDI of the MENA countries. Labor force and investment volume both have positive and statistically significant impact on GDP. On the other hand, Openness of the economy has positive and CO_2 emission have negative relation with HDI of the MENA countries. Also, population and financial development variables have significant and negative relation with energy consumption

A large portion of the world energy consumption is provided by fossil fuels, which cause massive emissions of dangerous pollutants into the environment leading to global warming and climate change. What is certain is the world's energy consumption in order to increase economic growth and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, the consumption of fossil fuels is a growing trend. Therefore in the present study to examine the causal relationship between CO2 emissions (as an alternative to the destruction of the environment variable) and variables of FDI, per capita energy consumption and GDP in the form of an environmental Kuznets hypothesis in Iran during 1980-2008. To that end, The Toda-Yamamoto method, has been used to examine the causality relationship. The main finding of this study shows that there exists bidirectional causality between CO2 emissions and energy consumption and unidirectional causality running from GDP to CO2 emissions. Given the existence of causal relationships between variables, the hypothesis of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in state variables that criterion economic growth CO2 emissions and energy consumption is to be confirmed, but in that case the criterion of economic growth, GDP is confirmed is not.