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Trying to understand how the interdependence relationship among the sectors of a given economy and its impacts on the environment is fundamental to the identification of sectors that are more polluting and those that are considered key in the sense of being less polluting. In order to describe this relationship, this work has as general objective to measure the level of CO2 emission from the level of production in function of the consumption of electric energy in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In order to meet the general objective, from the state energy balance and the input–output matrix of 2010, a hybrid input–output matrix was derived. Thus, it was possible to identify that the service sector, although is the engine of the state GDP, represents only 16% of the emissions, agriculture and cattle raising 6% and industry 78%. The main sectors in CO2 emission are rubber and plastic articles and the pulp and paper production sector. Considering the estimates of growth of the state, the concern with the environment is emphasized as the driving sectors of the expansion being precisely those that emit more CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water, ecology, energy and food are indispensable resources for human survival and social progress, as well as the core of the regional sustainable development. They are interdependent and closely related. The importance of ecology support and feedback capability has been overlooked in traditional studies of the water–energy–food nexus. In this paper, the concept of water–ecology–energy–food (WEEF) nexus was proposed. Then, a comprehensive evaluation indicator system of WEEF nexus was established from three criteria of stability, coordination and sustainability based on synergy theory. A comprehensive variable fuzzy evaluation model was constructed to evaluate the coordinated development level of WEEF nexus in Tianjin, China. And the main obstacle factors that constrained the coordinated development of WEEF nexus were analyzed through the obstacle degree model. The results showed that: from 2010 to 2021, the comprehensive coordinated development level of the WEEF nexus showed an upward trend, with an average growth rate of 4.0%. The stability, coordination and sustainability all significantly affected the comprehensive coordinated development of regional WEEF nexus. The coordination of water–ecology, energy–ecology and food–ecology subsystems was relatively low. Food self-sufficiency rate, average water consumption for energy production, annual rainfall and ecological environment index were the main obstacle factors of WEEF nexus. In summary, the nexus framework and evaluation method proposed in this paper can provide a new perspective on the basic theory and application of regional WEEF nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the exogenous shock of China's formal implementation of the environmental information disclosure system in 2008 to construct a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2019, the propensity score matching and difference in difference (PSM-DID) approach was used to systematically evaluate the impact of environmental information disclosure on energy efficiency. Overcoming the difficulties in measuring environmental information disclosure and the endogenous problem, this paper investigates the energy-saving effect of environmental information disclosure and illustrates its mechanism for the first time. The results show that environmental information disclosure significantly improved energy efficiency, and public participation played an important role in energy conservation, a conclusion that remained true after a series of robustness tests. The test of the impact mechanism shows that environmental information disclosure can achieve the goal of improving energy efficiency by promoting industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation. This paper enriches the discussion on the relationship between environmental information disclosure and energy efficiency, and provides useful policy inspiration for improving the level of energy efficiency and achieving sustainable economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to determine the environmental benefits associated with the implementation of a solar PV system to complement the conventional Electricité Du Liban/genset electrical system for the delivery of energy to an industrial facility. The selected case study is a juice manufacturing industrial facility located in Lebanon. Its energy demand is 6000 MWh/year. The components of the PV/hybrid energy system are the following: one 420 modules PV generator, seven three-phase grid-dependent inverters, three 1000 kW generators and one 500 kW generator. The ecoinvent database is used to model the life cycle inventory, and the IMPACT 2002+ methodology is used for the life cycle impact assessment. Results show at the assembly level that the manufacturing of the photovoltaic modules, mounting system components, inverters and cables results in harmful emissions that increase the system's environmental impacts. However, a comparative analysis between the entire life cycle of the PV/hybrid system and the conventional system indicates that the incorporation of the photovoltaic system results in a reduction in environmental impacts across all categories. The end-of-life scenario comprises landfilling/incineration and recycling of the components. Results show that the end-of-life stage poses a minor contribution to the overall life cycle impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy is known as the lifeline of national development, and from the last decade or so, the security of human energy supply has been frequently disturbed by natural disasters due to global warming and frequent geological activities. In this paper, by combing the literature, we found that the past literature on the relationship between energy and natural disasters mainly focused on measuring energy consumption under natural disasters, but less on the integrated evaluation of human economic activities, energy security and natural disasters, and less on the evaluation of the energy governance efficiency of each provincial, municipal, and autonomous region government in preventing and managing exposure to natural disasters from the perspective of Chinese provinces. Therefore, in order to fill the gap in the literature in this field, this paper collects panel data of energy consumption efficiency stages and natural disaster treatment stages from 2013 to 2017 for 30 provinces in China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as Tibet Autonomous Region) and uses the two-stage undesirable dynamic DDF model as a framework to study the relationship between economic, environmental pollution and natural disasters for the sample data and to analyze the phase-by-phase evaluation of energy and natural disaster efficiency and make corresponding policy recommendations. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) The overall efficiency of China's eastern coastal provinces is higher than that of the central and western provinces. (2) The first-stage efficiency of Chinese provinces is better than the second stage, and the difference in efficiency of the first stage of each province is smaller than that of the second stage. (3) In terms of the efficiency of disaster prevention and relief inputs, the efficiency values are generally lower in most regions of China. (4) Finally, the annual efficiency of natural disaster losses is not high in all regions, and the efficiency values are higher in the eastern coastal regions than in the central and western regions. Accordingly, this paper proposes that each province should formulate relevant disaster prevention and economic development strategies according to regional characteristics, while the central government should also propose locally appropriate coordinated governance policies to effectively control carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution, as well as increase disaster prevention publicity and incorporate disaster prevention education-related work into the performance assessment mechanism of local governments to promote the interactive development of the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the background of carbon neutrality targets, panel data of 30 Chinese provinces during 2000–2019 were selected in this paper to explore the nonlinear correlation mechanism among transportation, tourism development, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth. Firstly, by employing a fixed effects model as the base model, we confirmed the existence of correlations among these variables. And the nonlinear moderating effects were also verified by setting interaction terms in the model. Secondly, we further discussed the characteristics of the nonlinear relationship among the variables by employing a threshold effects model. Our results demonstrated that the effect of transportation on economic growth is positive and significant if and only if renewable energy consumption surpasses a certain threshold. Meanwhile, we also found that the effect of tourism development on economic growth is positive when non-renewable energy consumption is under a certain threshold. Finally, our study indicated that transportation maintains a positive and significant effect on economic growth within any threshold of tourism development, and the positive effect gradually increases as the threshold rises. The findings of this paper suggested that for China, the contribution of transportation and tourism to economic growth can be expanded by further expanding the substitution of renewable energy for non-renewable energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the persistence of shocks on non-renewable and renewable energy consumption for 15 leading countries by renewable energy consumption, over the period 1980–2018. For this aim, we apply Christopoulos and Leon-Ledesma (J Int Money Finance 29(6):1076–1093, 2010) Fourier ADF unit root test which structural breaks are included by using a trigonometric function to allow for smooth temporary mean changes rather than jump functions. In application, we do not need to specify the numbers, locations and the forms of the structural breaks a priori. The results give that shocks on non-renewable energy consumption per capita are persistent for 13 countries except Sweden and the United States; shocks on renewable energy consumption per capita are persistent for 12 countries except Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Overall, we conclude that persistent policy implications on non-renewable energy consumption are more effective tool than transitory policy stances for 13 countries except Sweden and the United States whereas persistent policy implications on renewable energy consumption are more effective for 12 countries except Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In other words, since the energy consumption returns to its trend path quickly, any policy will not be effective on non-renewable energy consumption for Sweden and the United States, and also on renewable energy consumption for Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green consumption has become an important part of an environmentally friendly society. Policy guidance can effectively promote green consumption. Green consumption policies are extensive because of the diversity of green consumption objects. However, the various objects are not completely isolated, and policy must have a certain level of consistency. Therefore, from the perspective of green consumption objects, this paper first uses the text mining method to mine 308 green consumption policies in China, analyzing the objects covered in China's green consumption policies. Then, the evaluation system of green consumption policy consistency was built, seven key policies were selected, and the PMC-index method was used to measure policy consistency. The results show that (i) the main objectives of China's green consumption policy are the promotion of green products and the efficient use of energy. Green services and green recycling have been subject to fewer policy efforts. (ii) In terms of the links involved in green consumption, China pays more attention to the supply and the consumption chain and less attention to the recycling chain. (iii) The quantitative evaluation results of the seven typical policies show that the policy consistency is good but not perfect. The policy shortcomings are mainly reflected in the incentive methods. Therefore, it is recommended to further improve the green consumption objectives and enrich the means and methods of green consumption guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between energy consumption, environmental pollution, and economic growth has been the subject of intense research over the past few decades. However, empirical evidence remains scarce and with mixed results. This paper throws a new light on the nonlinear impact of environmental degradation on economic growth depending on the level of energy intensity. This study provides an original approach in the context of Malaysia by utilizing an innovative threshold regression approach suggested by Hansen (Econometrica 68(3):575–603, 2000), which allows the data to endogenously divided into two regimes with an exogenous threshold variable. We find strong evidence that environmental degradation has a nonlinear effect on economic growth in Malaysia. In particular, CO2 has a negative effect on growth, but only after the primary energy intensity reaches a threshold level of 91.33 tons of oil equivalent (TOE)/GDP and the final energy intensity reaches 51.56 TOE/GDP, respectively. Our results are robust in terms of ecological footprint. Several policy implications are highlighted which aim to encourage sustainable energy use for sustainable growth in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy has played a vital role in changing economic and social development patterns and has had a multifaceted impact on carbon neutrality. This paper strives to contribute to the existing research by analyzing the relationship between the digital economy and electricity consumption intensity and providing a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms that influence the digital economy and energy consumption, particularly focusing on electricity consumption intensity through the construction of a theoretical model. To fulfill this objective, this study introduces the development level of the digital economy into the production function of representative power enterprise, constructs a partial theoretical equilibrium analysis framework, calculates provincial digital economy development indices for Chinese provinces from 2013–2021 using the CRITIC method, and examines the impact of the digital economy on power consumption intensity. The results show that the digital economy can reduce the intensity of power consumption. A unit standard deviation increase in the digital economy development level reduces power consumption intensity by 0.1008 standard deviations. The study also conducts a mechanism analysis with economic growth as the mediating variable, which shows that the digital economy promotes economic growth and reduces electricity consumption intensity. The moderating effect of the digital economy on power consumption is further examined using local government fiscal pressure as the moderating variable. The results show that the impact of the digital economy on reducing power consumption intensity decreases with the increase of government fiscal pressure. This study not only contributes to practical applications but also enhances our comprehension of the interplay between the digital economy and power consumption. On the one hand, the development of the digital economy can reduce power consumption, thus reducing carbon emissions and achieving low-carbon growth. On the other hand, central governments can promote the development of the digital economy by reducing the fiscal pressure on local governments through transfer payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unflinching upsurge in global warming has put the world into a state of disarray, and policymakers are not sure of what the future holds for the ecosystem. To get the global environment back on track of sustainability, efforts are relentlessly emanating from both developed and developing economies to identify the hindering and enhancing factors. Given the preceding narratives, this paper investigates the tripartite impacts of renewable and nonrenewable energy, trade openness, and institutions on sustainable environment in 54 African countries from 1996 to 2019. The study employs the two-step system generalized methods of moment (SYS-GMM) in estimating the effects of the regressors on four indicators of sustainable environment. Six findings are prominent from the study. First, nonrenewable energy (NRE) and trade openness (TO) hinder sustainable environment, while renewable energy enhances it. Second, the unconditional impacts of institutions drive the path to a sustainable environment. Third, the interaction of institutions with NRE and TO hinders sustainable environment. However, after conducting institutional enhancement estimations, the interactive terms became supportive of sustainable environment. Fourth, the thresholds are policy-relevant across the specifications. Specifically, a 31.11% utilization of nonrenewable energy and 43.75% openness to trade contribute to a sustainable environment. Sixth, the impacts of economic growth and its square empirically support the inverted U-shaped EKC. This study suggests the adoption of carbon-taxing on nonrenewable energy products, price-subsidization for renewable energy goods and services, and institutional quality reforms as pathways towards achieving a sustainable environment in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have given enormous attention to the roles of energy use and trade in economic growth strategies; however, recent international trade literature suggests that not merely the volume of trade but the diversification of goods may have a potential effect on economic growth. Thus, this paper uses the diversification of export goods and diversification of import goods as explanatory variables along with energy consumption and assessed the role of these important variables in economic development. The empirical results from Westerlund's (J Appl Econom 23:193–233, 2008) and Westerlund's (Oxf Bull Econ Stat 69:709–748, 2007) tests disclosed the existence of cointegration. The long-run estimations obtained from the CUP-FM technique revealed that both import and export product diversifications positively influence economic growth. This presents a vital opportunity for emerging nations to expand growth by diversifying export and import products. Likewise, energy use, labor, and capital contribute to increasing economic growth. The estimates from the causality test illustrated bidirectional causality between export diversification and economic growth and unidirectional causality from energy to export diversification. Finally, policy suggestions to expand economic progress are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban energy issues have attracted global attentions due to the key role in controlling climate change. As one of the world's largest metropolises, Beijing has been focusing on improving urban energy performances to achieve green transition and sustainable development during the past decades, for which purpose the measurement and decomposition of energy performance is of vital importance. In this paper, exergy is introduced as one of the indicators under the frame of index decomposition analysis. An hierarchical framework is constructed to reveal the contributions from different level of urban energy system to overall energy performance. Beijing's energy and exergy consumption and intensity are then analyzed and compared from the city and sector level during 2008–2017. Results suggest that Beijing's city and sector-level energy performance has been improving during the last 10 years and technical improvements contribute significantly from both energy and exergy perspectives. Meanwhile, changes from Beijing's industrial structure and energy supply structure display neutral contributions, which probably indicate the underestimation of structural contribution is caused under the IDA framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed a severe challenge to the global economic recovery and China's economic growth. Although China has achieved stage victory against the epidemic, the impact and influence of the epidemic on China's economy will linger. On the positive side, the epidemic has led to a dramatic reduction in air pollution levels and a sharp slowdown in greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2. Forecasting China's CO2 emissions under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic is crucial for formulating policies that contribute to smooth economic development and rational energy consumption. To this end, this paper improves on the traditional grey model, GM(1, N), by developing a novel fractional multivariate nonlinear grey model, FMNGM(q, N). These improvements include two key points. First, different power exponents are assigned to each relevant factor variable to explain their nonlinear, uncertain, and complicated relationships with the system characteristic variables. Second, the integer accumulation is changed to fractional accumulation to preprocess the data, and the Caputo-type fractional derivative is used to characterize the endogenous relationships among the system characteristic data. In addition, the quantum particle swarm optimization (QPSO) algorithm is used to optimize the above parameters with the goal of minimizing MAPE. The collected data on China's CO2 emission from 2001 to 2018 were divided into two parts according to different stages of economic development: 2001–2009 and 2010–2018. Both sets of data were modelled and analysed separately and compared with other models. Results showed that the proposed model had better prediction accuracy than other models. Finally, the model built using the 2010–2018 data was used to forecast China's CO2 emissions. Results show that China's CO2 emissions in 2020 under the impact of COVID-19 will decrease by approximately 3.15% from 2019 to 9893 million tons. The results bear important policy implications for planners in investment in clean energy and infrastructure to achieving the goal of a low-carbon transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature of the economic activity–energy use nexus for 82 countries and the period from 1971 to 2014. Compared to all other papers, the current study is based on a significantly larger number of observations and was carried out by using new and advanced non-stationary panel data econometric techniques that overcame most of the existing methodical failures. The findings of the Granger non-causality test quite robustly lead to the conclusion that there is bi-directional causality both in the short and the long run. Finally, the obtained estimation results suggest that the increase of energy consumption by 1% results in an increase of GDP per capita between 0.54 and 0.56%. Also, the increase of GDP by 1% results in an increase in energy consumption between 0.47 and 0.48%. Governments cannot simply apply energy conservation policy by reducing total consumption of fossil fuels without negatively affecting economic activity and generating of spiral of mutual effects with positive ecological and very negative economic consequences. It is therefore necessary to make significant efforts to modernize the energy sector and to stimulate companies to invest in new energy-efficient production technologies relying on alternative environmentally friendly energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether carbon dioxide (CO2) intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) matters for environmental deregulations in Southern European countries over the period of 1990–2018 while controlling economic growth, globalization, and energy consumption. The present study uses the second generation panel based techniques, namely cross-sectional dependency test, cross-sectional unit-root test, Westerlund cointegration test, augmented mean group and common correlated effects mean group estimators, and Dumitrescu–Hurlin causality test to measure the effect of CO2 intensity of GDP, economic growth, globalization, and energy consumption on environmental degradation. The empirical finding of the present study reveals that the CO2 intensity of GDP is an important factor in determining environmental degradation in South European countries, as the outcomes show that a 1% boost in CO2 intensity of GDP is causing a 1.7728% increase in CO2 emissions. Moreover, a 1% increase in economic growth caused a 0.2568% boost in CO2 emissions. The result is crucial for policy decision-making and can perhaps be applied to take decisive policy actions to mitigate environmental issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the dynamic and causal relationship among energy intensity, economic growth, urbanization, energy consumption, FDI, and PM2.5 in 1995–2019 period for China, India, Germany, Canada, USA and United Kingdom countries through Panel Fourier Bootstrapping ARDL (PFBARDL) model and Panel Fourier causality test. According to PFBARDL results, the evidence of cointegration between the variables was detected. In the PFBARDL model, the error correction coefficient is determined as -0.169. Results showed that there is a bidirectional causality between economic growth and PM2.5 release, between fdi and PM2.5 release, between energy intensity and PM2.5 release. Rising economic growth, energy consumption structure, and urbanization will have an adverse effect on PM2.5 concentrations. Policy makers must carefully balance the connection between mitigation of PM2.5 and diminishing energy consumption, and increasing economic growth, urbanization, and energy intensity for determining policies to control PM2.5 concentrations. Thus, in order to reduce PM2.5, the governments must explore a new economic pattern to decouple the linkage between PM2.5 and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparative "cradle to grave" Life Cycle Analysis between the production processes of ceramic stoneware products and geopolymeric materials obtained by valorizing ceramic wastes is reported. This study presents an effective eco-design approach to obtain sustainable materials through a low energy consumption manufacturing process, a feature that is essential in a historical period of high geopolitical instability which makes the supplying of fossil fuels difficult and particularly expensive. In particular, the possibility of lowering production costs (saving on the cost of waste disposal, using a raw-second material, and a low-temperature production process) could represent a strong contribution to the environmental and economic sustainability of the Italian ceramic industry, which is going through a time of severe financial crisis which due to the unprecedent high cost of raw materials and energy. Finally, the new geopolymeric systems proposed in this paper could be profitably used in the field of green building, art, eco-design, and technical-artistic value-added applications, such as restoration, conservation, and/or rehabilitation of historic monuments, or simply as materials for building revetments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dual-credit policy, implemented by the Chinese government on April 1, 2018, aims at boosting the production of new energy vehicles and further reducing fuel consumption of internal combustion engine vehicles. However, whether the policy is effective has caused controversy among many scholars in China and one of the hot spots of debate is about the effectiveness of the pricing method. In this paper, the government pricing model of dual-credit policy and the market pricing model are compared by the optimization theory. The factors include the transaction price of credits, the quantity of vehicles, the monopoly manufacturer's profits, and social welfare. Our results show that the dual-credit policy benefits energy saving and emission reduction in the transport sector. In addition, it is suggested that the government should formulate the transaction price of credits and subsidy the automobile enterprise in the early stage of the policy while adopting free market pricing in the late stage of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current period of rapid industrialization has not only brought about rapid economic growth but also caused serious energy shortages and environmental pollution, which have affected the sustainable development of the economy. Therefore, it is of great significance to analyse the changes in regional economic, energy, and environmental carrying capacity (3ECC); analyse the interaction among them; and propose corresponding optimization strategies for promoting regional sustainable development. In this study, a 3ECC simulation system is constructed from the pressure and support levels of load-bearing capacity. A system dynamics model is used to simulate the evolution path and action relationship of the 3ECC system, and an empirical test is completed in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region in China. A coupling coordination model and Bayesian vector autoregressive model are used to further explore the degree and action mode of the 3ECC system support and pressure indices. The results show that the model can truly reflect the characteristics of regional development and is suitable for prediction in this study. From 2015 to 2035, driven by technological progress, China's economic aggregate will grow by 223%, oil consumption by 33%, coal consumption by 23%, soil pollution by 197%, water pollution by 134%, and air pollution by 80.9%. Moreover, the coordination degree of the 3ECC supporting indicators gradually increases, while that of the pressure indicators gradually decreases, indicating that economic growth has a synergistic effect on environmental protection and energy conservation, thus further expanding the differences between environmental pollution and energy consumption. Finally, the supporting index of the economic carrying capacity and supporting index of the environmental carrying capacity have the widest influence range, and the optimization of economic and environmental development status is beneficial to the overall improvement of the 3ECC system. The influence range of the energy carrying capacity support index is small, indicating that coal and oil are being gradually replaced by other energy sources. Therefore, the research results of this paper can provide a reference for the sustainable development of other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive energy consumption and air pollution problems have long been posting considerable adverse effects on the development of the economy and society. The Yangtze Delta Region (YDR) is one of China's economic centers with high population concentrations. Hence, it is essential to study the efficiency of the green total factor productivity (GTFP) in this region. This paper uses data from the Chinese City's Census Yearbook and applies data development analysis (DEA) with time windows and Tobit model to analyze the mechanism of the spatial and temporal changes in the GTFP in the Yangtze Delta Region. Based on the input-oriented DEA model and approaches used in existing research, we incorporate sulfur dioxide as an input variable in the analysis. Our study indicates that there are significant regional differences in GTFP among regions within YDR: GTFP levels are higher in areas that have higher economic development levels and the mountainous regions with better ecological environment. However, GTFP levels are lower in locations that have been experiencing rapid economic growth, especially in areas experiencing industrial shifts. No obvious spatial correlation between GTFP and GDP was found. The mean annual GTFP values for all cities over the study years show a reduction trend with volatility characteristics. The dynamic of the GTFP is tied to the changes in local industrial structures. In general, the decrease in heavy industries seems to increase the levels of GTFP, and vice versa. In this regard, we suggest improving the technical levels and changing the industrial structure for achieving higher GTFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of structural change, economic growth, hydro energy consumption, and coal energy consumption on ecological footprint, in the case of India. We employ a novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DYNARDL) method to improve the existing studies' limitations and weaknesses. Thus, the current research contributes empirically and methodological to the literature. The study used the newly proposed DYNARDL simulation method and frequency domain causality using data from 1970–2017 to inspect the impact of structural change, economic growth, hydro energy consumption, and coal energy consumption on ecological footprint in the case of India. Empirical results reveal that institutional structural change decreases ecological footprint in the short and long term, whereas hydropower usage decreases ecological footprint only in the long term. Conversely, economic growth positively affects ecological footprint in both the short and long term. Likewise, coal energy usage increases ecological footprint in the long term. In addition, the findings confirm the validity of the environment Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in India. Furthermore, the results of the frequency domain causality test revealed that structural change, hydro-energy usage, and coal consumption could predict ecological footprint in the long term. In contrast, economic growth can predict the medium- and long-term ecological footprint. We observed that as India's production level continues to surge, so does environmental deterioration, which is associated with the scale effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We are the first to empirically analyze the nexus of digital transformation and energy security (ES). This paper utilizes six indicators to reflect three aspects of ES, including acceptability, develop-ability, and sustainability. Applying the panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs) and the feasible generalized least square estimates (FGLS) model to the international sample of 27 European countries over 2015 to 2019, this research reveals exciting findings. First, a promotion in digital transformation causes a significantly positive effect on the acceptability and sustainability of ES but a negative impact on develop-ability of ES. Second, the ES positively affects the digital transformation, especially the digital transformation in the business and public sectors. Third, results obtained from the dynamic fixed effects (DFEs) estimator for the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method suggest that setting ES goals toward reducing energy consumption and pollution emission promotes the digital transformation process in the business sector of countries in the short run, while the promotion of renewable energy consumption helps countries enhance the digitalization process in the long run. Notably, digitalization is beneficial for sustainable economic development, reflected by a rise in non-fossil and renewable energy consumption and a diminish in CO2 emission, especially in the long run. Fourth, there is a nonlinear effect of the online transaction and digital public services on the acceptability, develop-ability, and sustainability of ES. In a similar spirit, the digital transformation is also accelerated more quickly if the efficiency of the energy system reaches a certain point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of green campus is related to the global sustainable development. Under the guidance of campus energy-saving policy, China's green campus mainly focuses on campus' energy saving. In contrast, the green campus in the USA pays more attention to environmental problems. This study focuses on the impact of "energy saving" on the sustainable development of green campus. On the one hand, it puts forward targeted optimization suggestions for the Chinese universities. On the other hand, it provides the experience reference and new development ideas for the global campus sustainability. Based on the characteristics of the development mode of green campus in China and the USA, this paper studies the motivation of "energy saving" to "sustainability" in the construction of green campus in China. In terms of research methods, this paper selects Zhejiang University a typical representative of China's green campus that combined with the comparative group of four American universities and conducts a quantitative analysis of G-value and S-value that represented energy consumption and sustainability, respectively. Zhejiang University's G-value (0.019) in 2016 is one-sixth of that of the comparative group in the same period, indicating that the implementation effect of the energy-saving monitoring platform is remarkable. From 2014 to 2017, the G-values are basically stable at 0.02, indicating that its future development potential is insufficient. Zhejiang University's scores in the four categories of S-value are significantly lower than those in the comparative group, showing that there are great differences in the construction achievements of the five universities. According to the score rate of 17 sub-items of S-value, the five universities have different advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, the green campus construction of China's case university is too one-sided and only stays at the level of energy conservation. The diversification of construction and the balanced development of all aspects should be paid more attention in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy and waste management sectors are considered important for the country's progress towards adopting sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. However, the rapid pace of urbanization, energy-intensive growth approaches, and generation of large quantities of waste have led to severe environmental degradation of cities in India. While the government has taken several initiatives for increasing resource efficiency, limited research has been done in an Indian context to explore the policy and institutional factors. The paper focuses on challenges relating to policy enablers within the energy management in buildings and construction and demolition waste sectors; 28 semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders associated with both these sectors. The findings indicate that though India has been integrating climate change measures into its national policies and enhancing the domestic market's readiness for a circular economy, successful implementation of policy framework(s) urgently requires lifestyle and behavioural changes in the society. The study further identified the role of key stakeholders including government, businesses, and consumers, for transition to a low-carbon economy for both these sectors. This paper presents a bottom-up approach to understand the changes required in the enabling environment for the uptake of SCP practices that can be adapted by other emerging economies in the Asia Pacific region for building resource efficiency. The importance of soft factors relating to institutional capacities and governance structure is raised by the analysis in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the rapid development of artificial intelligence, industrial robots, as an important manifestation of artificial intelligence technology application, provide enterprises with a "creative destruction" environment, and play a positive role in energy utilization and environmental governance. Therefore, academics have focused a lot of attention on the question of whether industrial robot application can successfully improve corporate green innovation (CGI), thus achieving green transformation, and upgrading the manufacturing industry. This paper builds a "Bartik instrument variable" to calculate the micro-enterprise robot penetration rate from 2007 to 2019, looks at the effect of industrial robot application on CGI using data from manufacturing listed companies, and discusses the mechanism, heterogeneity, and robustness of this effect. The research finds that industrial robot application significantly improve CGI, indicating that they can promote corporate green technology transformation. This effect not only enhances the scale of CGI but also strengthens the quality of CGI. In addition, the above conclusion still holds after a series of endogeneity and robustness tests. Mechanism research shows that industrial robot application contribute to CGI by improving production efficiency, human capital, and environmental governance levels. It has a good complementary optimization effect on CGI. Furthermore, heterogeneity research shows that industrial robot application has a more significant role in enhancing green innovation for enterprises that are labor-intensive, more intense market competitive, more serious environmental pollution, and have lower level of digital economy development. The research conclusion verifies the effect of artificial intelligence technology and explores its mechanism, which provides empirical references for improving corporate environmental performance and green transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The low-carbon-oriented methods to evaluate college campuses are insufficient, and the indexes are not quantified effectively, which is a normal problem in the world. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a comprehensive low-carbon-oriented evaluation method. Evaluation index system of low-carbon campuses is built that comprehensively considers both subjective and objective factors, which include management mechanism construction, low-carbon culture construction, renewable energy use and other emission reduction measures and propose quantitative evaluation methods by the analytic hierarchy process for subjective empowerment and the entropy weight method for objective empowerment. Both original data and experts' experience are integrated to quantify the index. The result of final comprehensive index weights was management mechanism construction weights 0.137, low-carbon culture construction weights 0.097, renewable energy use weights 0.040 and other emission reduction measures weights 0.123. The validity and discrimination of the method in this paper can be verified by being employed on multiple universities in a municipality. By comparison, the result of the weight of index of low carbon campus was highly corresponding to the soring result of the campuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, industrial symbiosis (IS) is recognized as a key strategy to support the transition toward the circular economy. IS deals with the (re)use of wastes produced by a production process as a substitute for traditional production inputs of other traditionally disengaged processes. In this context, this paper provides a systematic literature review on the energy-based IS approach, i.e., IS synergies aimed at reducing the amount of energy requirement from outside industrial systems or the amount of traditional fuels used in energy production. This approach is claimed as effective aimed at reducing the use of traditional fuels in energy production, thus promoting a circular energy transition. 682 papers published between 1997 and 2018 have been collected, and energy-based IS cases have been identified among 96 of these. As a result of the literature review, three categories of symbiotic synergies have been identified: (1) energy cascade; (2) fuel replacement; and (3) bioenergy production. Through the review, different strategies to implement energy-based IS synergies are highlighted and discussed for each of the above-mentioned categories. Furthermore, drivers, barriers, and enablers of business development in energy-based IS are discussed from the technical, economic, regulatory, and institutional perspective. Accordingly, future research directions are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the European Union, mitigation policies in the energy sector are one of the most important fields of political intervention for reducing emissions to achieve sustainability. Using renewable energy is moreover a central arena for perceived personal and political climate change efficacy, which describes an individual's perceived ability to positively contribute to the fight against climate change and their belief in the effectiveness of government and society to tackle climate change collectively. In this paper, we distinguish between perceived personal and political efficacy beliefs. We use multilevel regression to investigate the relationship between these two dependent variables and trust in national governments as well as renewable energy use in 20 European countries for the first time. Our analysis first finds that socio-demographic predictors for perceived personal and political climate change efficacy operate almost diametrically. Second, we find that trust in governments is a much stronger predictor for perceived political efficacy. Third, we find that renewable energy use is a significant and positive predictor for perceived personal efficacy but correlates negatively with political efficacy. Finally, we find some cross-national variation in our European sample for both dimensions of efficacy beliefs. Understanding what shapes personal and political efficacy is salient to enhance public acceptance for sustainable energy transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter, China is curbing coal consumption and increasing natural gas and renewable energy consumption to curb the increase in carbon emissions. At the same time, China is still the largest developing country in the world. Therefore, it is very important to investigate the links between different types of energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions. In this paper, impulse response functions and Granger causality test based on time-varying parameters vector autoregressive model are used to explore the time-varying relationship among CO2 emissions, economic growth, and heterogeneous energy consumption (coal, gas, oil, and renewable energy) in China over the period 1980–2019. The results show that reducing coal and oil consumption and increasing natural gas and renewable energy consumption will not significantly hinder economic growth. In addition, in the long run, reducing coal and oil consumption and increasing renewable energy consumption can significantly reduce carbon emissions. However, after 1998, increasing natural gas consumption will significantly increase carbon emissions. This study reveals the time-varying relationship between heterogeneous energy consumption, economic growth, and carbon emissions, and provides suggestions for China to achieve low-carbon economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization of crop production inputs to reduce energy input and greenhouse gases emissions with maximizing economic productivity is needed to develop sustainable agriculture under groundwater-based irrigation conditions. This paper examined the effects of irrigated wheat tillage practices on energy indices, greenhouse gases emissions, and economic indices. Research treatments were conventional tillage and no-tillage (environment-friendly) systems in semi-arid environments. This study was conducted in wheat farms under groundwater-based irrigation, and data were monitored and collected for two years between 2012–2013 and 2013–2014. The results indicated that no-tillage practice had lower energy input (13%, 21.12 vs. 24.34 GJ ha−1), energy output (18%, 83.01 vs. 101.11 GJ ha−1), and energy use efficiency (7%), but higher energy productivity (19%) and indirect energy (9%) than conventional tillage practice. Moreover, no-tillage practice produced lower emissions of CO2 (24%, 830.28 vs. 1096.40 kg ha−1) and total global warming potential (GWP) (14%, 1830.03 vs. 2120.43 kg CO2-equivalents ha−1) than conventional tillage practice. In comparison, 53.9% of GWP originated from N2O and 45.4% from CO2. Inputs of electricity, diesel fuel, machinery, and nitrogen fertilizer had 95% contributions in emission from farms. Economically, no-tillage practice had higher productivity (3%, 7.06 vs. 6.86 kg US$−1) but lower net return (18%, 1076.52 vs. 1313.48 US$ ha−1) and benefit to cost ratio (14%, 3.10 vs. 3.61) than conventional tillage practice. However, producing wheat in this agroecosystem is profitable and beneficial under both tillage systems. It was concluded that the promising technique of the no-tillage under groundwater-based irrigation conditions significantly facilitated a cleaner production of wheat through managing energy with controlling greenhouse gases emissions in a semi-arid environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household energy consumption has been one of the most critical factors to climate change. We conducted bibliometric research on household energy consumption by using CiteSpace and HistCite. The Web of Science was used to identify and visualize the evolution of paper citation diagram, the collaboration network, the cocitation network and emerging trends by mapping the knowledge domain of 2984 academic publications between 2011 and 2018 related to household energy consumption. The results showed that the number of academic articles published in the field of household energy consumption and carbon emissions was on the rise, but the number of highly cited articles decreased. The most productive authors and institutions in this subject are in Australia, the USA, China, Britain and Germany. Much of the research has focused on electricity consumption and heat supply, while there have been few studies on other subdomains in the area of energy consumption. The impact of greenhouse gases produced by energy consumption on the environment was the focus of this study. Here, we present an in-depth analysis of household energy consumption and carbon emission research to better understand global trends and hot topics in this field which have emerged over the last few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing is a typical energy-imported city, and the study of energy consumption factors in Beijing is important for the sustainable development of Beijing. There are many influencing factors of energy consumption in Beijing, and the influence degree of each factor differs in different development periods. By constructing the IPAT model of energy consumption change in Beijing, this paper breaks down the factors that cause the change in energy consumption in Beijing into population, affluence, and technological progress. The results show that Beijing is a highly energy-consuming city and the change in energy consumption in Beijing is the superposition of multiple effects. The energy consumption change caused by population growth in Beijing continues to increase through data from 2006 to 2020, but begins to show a downward trend, with a maximum change in energy consumption of 19.8 million tons of standard coal. The largest change in energy consumption is caused by per capita GDP growth, which reached 50.3 million tons of standard coal in 2018–2019, and the effect caused by affluence is greater than the impact of population changes. Technological advances always reduce energy consumption and are increasingly effective. To reduce energy consumption and improve environmental quality, the following two things need to be done: first, to continuously control the population of Beijing, and second, to enhance the development and introduction of innovative technologies for energy conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of 30 provinces (cities) in China, this paper first measures the total factor energy efficiency, technical efficiency index and technological progress index from 2003 to 2018 by using the DEA-GML index method. Then, a panel Tobit model is constructed to analyze the impact of different industrial agglomerations on total factor energy efficiency and its components. It can be found from the empirical results that the agglomeration of manufacturing industry has no significant impact on the performance of total factor energy efficiency, and the agglomeration of producer services and the collaborative agglomeration of manufacturing and producer services promote the improvement of energy efficiency. Among them, the main way for industrial agglomeration to improve total factor energy efficiency is technological progress, and the promoting effect of technological progress is enough to make up for the inhibiting effect of industrial agglomeration on technical efficiency. Further research finds that the impacts of manufacturing agglomeration, producer services agglomeration and collaborative agglomeration in different regions on total factor energy efficiency are different. Specific suggestions to improve total factor energy efficiency are put forward, such as accelerating the deep integration between industries, improving technological innovation ability, implementing differentiated development strategy, and improving the market mechanism about energy conservation and emission reduction strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The streetscape of any city reflects the natural built fabric of the street and adds to the experiential quality of that space. A sustainable streetscape ensures that the spaces are long-lasting and functional as a part of the greater sustainable eco-system. Over the past two centuries, mankind has increased the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from 280 to more than 380 parts per million by volume, and it is still increasing every day. If Earth continues to emit carbon without control, the surface temperature is expected to rise by 3.4 °C by the end of this century. Climate change of that magnitude would likely have serious, long-lasting, and, in many cases, devastating consequences for the planet Earth. Egypt has become one of the biggest emitters of atmospheric pollutants from the transportation sector. The level of carbon emissions and its effect on air quality are placed high on the research agenda. The transportation sector has a great impact on increasing CO2 emissions. The transportation and traffic sectors produce a quarter of the global CO2 emissions due to the heavy use of fossil fuels. This research aims to study the effects of street shape and design on CO2 production. This paper presents an analysis of road transportation in Egypt, taking Helmiet EL-Zaitoun as the main case study, with a focus on energy demand and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Carbon emissions are measured using "Testo 315-3" as a measuring instrument to identify the relationship between street design and quality on the amount of carbon emissions produced. The results of this research suggest that street quality affects the amount of CO2 emissions produced. A car moving at a constant speed will produce fewer CO2 emissions than a car forced to start–stop every while because of external factors such as cracks in the roads occurring from bad streetscape elements. The presented research provides a set of guidelines to enhance the quality of the streetscape and design in order to reduce the amount of CO2 produced in the streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of low efficient cookstoves has several severe negative impacts. Burning solid fuels kills about 4 million people every year, a number which is higher than the combined impact of HIV-AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Moreover, most of the people affected are located in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and other developing countries, where over 80% of the population still relies on biomass as their primary source of energy, being the electricity access only 43%. Low-efficiency cooking systems are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions since solid fuel cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 1.2 and 6% of global CO2 and black carbon emissions, respectively. Furthermore, widespread biomass collection by an increasing population in Sub-Saharan Africa is unsustainable, contributing to deforestation. Therefore, the impact of using traditional cooking systems is a challenge for the achievement of sustainable development targets in Sub-Saharan Africa and as a whole globally. There are several cooking technologies used in those rural locations, but there are no clear frameworks or polices to support sustainable cooking options, as well as a guide for users. This paper assesses several cooking technologies with its associated fuels and evaluated each technology in terms of energy consumption, CO2 emissions, health impacts and costs. It was concluded that compared with traditional wood fuel cookstoves, electric cookstoves can reduce the energy consumption by 95.7%, CO2 emissions by 100% (assuming renewable carbon-free electricity) and the life cycle cost by 94%, also avoiding over 180 mg/m3 PM2.5 concentrations per/household per year. Also, this paper indicates that a strong and collective effort is necessary from key stakeholders to switch from traditional and unsustainable cooking technologies and fuels to cleaner and sustainable cooking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An energy transition is currently underway around the world, in response to the objectives laid out by international agreements. Since the Kyoto protocol and the Paris agreement, countries have been making considerable efforts to replace fossil fuels with alternative sources in the electricity generation mix. The energy transition of each country depends on their starting point, so international agreements on their own, may not be effective in speeding up the transition. In this paper, two energy transition metrics are calculated: clean-energy transition and low-carbon-energy transition. The clean-energy transition describes the transition from fossil to renewable sources, while the low-carbon-energy transition represents the transition from fossil to renewable and nuclear power sources. This paper aims to examine the determinants of energy transition in countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development over a long-time span, from 1971 to 2016. Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and Panel-corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) estimators were applied to deal with heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence phenomena. Generally, the results show that energy security and the carbon-intensity of energy consumption are obstructing a low-carbon transition. Energy-efficiency and trade-openness are driving the energy transition, while the carbon-intensity of energy consumption is constraining it. Energy efficiency measures are needed to accelerate the energy transition, by reducing the use of fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household energy consumption accounts for almost one third of global primary energy demand and significantly affects the environment. As such, it has served as a classic and compelling theme in the literature, with a range of studies having analyzed various aspects of household consumption, including energy conservation, energy poverty, and energy efficiency. Nonetheless, overall trends and frontiers in this research area have not been characterized and are poorly understood. This study aims to assess the current status, evolution, and emerging topics in this area through a bibliometric and network analysis of 1134 extracted publications from 1983 to 2018. This systematic review shows that nearly half the studies on household energy consumption were published in just three journals (namely, Energy Policy; Energy; and Energy Economics) with a focus on three areas (Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Energy and Fuels; Business and Economics). The findings also show that among contributing countries, the USA and China have the closest ties and wield the most academic influence. Furthermore, emerging and pioneering studies on behavioral interventions, energy conservation, and energy poverty and those pertaining to climate and electricity consumption may constitute the research frontier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effects of carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, FDI, and exports on economic growth in BRICS countries from 2000 to 2018. The study uses other variables such as interest rates, labor force, trade openness, and gross domestic savings to determine the long-run relationship among variables. We employ several econometric techniques, such as ARDL, pool mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality tests, to draw empirical inferences. The estimation of the PMG model indicates that carbon emissions, renewable energy consumption, exports, FDI, and savings have a significant positive long-run impact on economic growth, while interest rates and trade openness affect economic growth negatively. FMOLS and DOLS results also confirm the robustness of PMG long-run results. Moreover, the Dumitrescu Hurlin panel causality results indicate a bi-directional causal relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth and between economic growth and foreign direct investment, also one-way causality from exports and labor force to economic growth. It implies that an increase in carbon emissions and FDI leads to an increase in economic growth, also increase in economic growth, the CO2 emissions and FDI increase in BRICS economies. Finally, the current study recommends a vital policy that the primary focus should target toward promoting renewable energy consumption, FDI, exports, and savings to boost economic growth in BRICS countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency in process systems has attracted increasing attention due to the benefits of decreased greenhouse gas emissions and improvements in sustainability. As a vital solution, the retrofit of heat exchanger networks (HENs) mainly focuses on recombining the existing heat exchangers or modifying the HEN topology by adding/removing heat exchangers. Yet, there are still challenges that need to be addressed for HENs retrofit problems. In this paper, a systematic HENs retrofit methodology with exergoeconomic assessment is proposed. To be consistent with the actual industrial application, three retrofit scenarios, namely heat transfer area distribution retrofit, topology retrofit without additional heat exchangers, and topology retrofit with additional heat exchangers, are considered in the retrofit optimization model. A typical HEN retrofit case in the crude distillation unit is tested. The comparative results indicate that the Scenarios 2 and 3 outperform the Scenario 2 since they have a relatively high annual profit ($3.42MM and $3.47MM) and a low exergy destruction coefficient (0.321 and 0.303). This study is helpful to address the engineering target-oriented HENs retrofit problems by considering different practical retrofit levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electricity substitution refers to replacing fossil fuels by electricity in the consumption side. To figure out the actual ways of energy usage, we conduct field survey to obtain energy consumption data in Fujian, as well as potentials for electricity substitution. Based on these data, this paper provides a theoretical analysis for electricity substitution policy. We use the input–output model to estimate the effects of electricity substitution in Fujian during the period of 2016–2020. The results show electricity substitution can significantly increase total output of the power sector and reduce oil demand. Moreover, the electricity substitution policy can also help to control greenhouse gases and pollutants effectively. Replacing fossil fuels with clean electricity will be conducive to sustainable economic development. These findings will shed some light on the future policy of electricity substitution and energy structure change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the nonlinear effect of outward foreign direct investment (ODI) and Export Trade Structure on CO2 emissions in China. A national panel of 30 provinces and two sub-national panels for the time span 2003 to 2016 have been estimated by using SGMM estimator and panel threshold regression model. The results indicate that GDP has a positive and significant impact on carbon emissions and that the scale effect of ODI will increase the CO2 emissions. Additionally, ODI and Export Trade Structure are generally conducive to the reduction of carbon emission intensities, except that the impact of Export Trade Structure is not significant the in northern region. Moreover, GDP, ODI, and Export Trade Structure contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions via the technical effects of energy efficiency, and ODI will help reduce CO2 emissions even as the output of energy-intensive industries grows. Therefore, regions should develop a more effective opening-up strategy based on their industrial distribution characteristics and development stages against the background of trade protectionism affecting the evolution of global value chains, use the spillover effects generated by various channels to effectively mitigate CO2 emissions, and seek sustainable economic growth accompanied by clean technologies and faster development of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although energy supply is not the only factor of the production function, it remains an important driver for any economy despite its negative environmental impacts. This paper examines the determinants of carbon dioxide emissions in a sample of 35 African countries from 1980 to 2016. It uses several econometric methods to ensure robust and reliable findings. Results from Mean group (MG) and Dynamic common correlated effects mean group (DCCEMG) models prove that the environmental degradation in the selected sample is caused mostly by economic growth and non-renewable energy consumption. Moreover, the results confirm that the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis is not significant when consider cross sectional dependence. These finding are contradictive to those obtained from similar studies that used traditional panel estimators. This means that energy consumption and economic growth will continue to increase emissions in the future. Furthermore, the study provides evidence of bidirectional causal relationships between carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth, non-renewable energy consumption and economic growth and between non-renewable energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. These findings imply that a hard work must to be done by the African policymakers and a long corrective measure series have to be adopted to ensure more efficient and clean energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at examining the short- and long-run relationships among consumption of renewable and non-renewable energies, economic growth, and CO2 emissions in Mexico during the period 1973–2018. Data were obtained from the World Bank and the British Oil Company BP. A cointegration model together with a fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) is used to estimate possible associations among all variables. Subsequently, the Granger causality test is applied to empirically verify the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The main empirical results are that the variables under study explain CO2 emissions in the short and long run, with economic growth having the greatest influence on CO2 emissions, which provides empirical evidence of an EKC for Mexico. Moreover, consumption of renewable and non-renewable energies and economic growth causes in the Granger sense the current levels of CO2 emissions. Moreover, lagged GDP and lagged non-renewable energy consumption do influence (Granger cause) current CO2 emissions. Long-term policies should encourage the use of renewable energies in the electricity, transport, manufacture, and construction sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed the relationship between environmental performance and tourism sector development in Mediterranean countries for the period from 2000 to 2014. For this purpose, it is adopted PM2.5 exposure as a proxy of environmental performance indicator. Economic growth, energy consumption, industrial value-added and urbanization are included in model as other explanatory variables. It is applied panel vector autoregression methodology for analyze the relationship. Main result suggests that tourism development causes deterioration in air quality. Furthermore, the U-shaped relationship between growth and pollution is confirmed for the PM2.5, and as urbanization increases, air quality deteriorates. In addition to these, the existence of a bidirectional causality relationship between tourism development and PM2.5 exposure is revealed. The analysis results imply that the nexus among tourism and environment in the Mediterranean countries is also confirmed by a specific environmental performance indicator PM2.5 exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous uptick in world energy consumption, green energy plays an increasingly significant role in alleviating energy depletion and promoting economic development. Due to regional differences, transportation restrictions, national policies and other reasons, there is a mismatch between green energy needs and resources across regions in China, which leads to misallocation of capital and labor between heavily polluting and nonpolluting enterprises. In this context, this paper first proposes a new measurement method: namely, the capital and labor mismatch index. Panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2008 to 2018 are utilized to calculate the index. The results show significant resource mismatch across provinces in China. In addition, we extend the green Solow model by combining capital mismatch, technological progress and environmental regulation into a dynamic analysis framework of economic growth. The empirical results show that all three factors have significant spatial spillover effects. Specifically, capital misallocation exerts a strong negative impact on economic growth, while the other factors increase it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the calculation method of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), this paper measured the carbon emissions of tourism traffic and their evolution process in Beijing from 2005 to 2017. The Tapio model and Logarithm Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) approach were used to discuss the decoupling relationship between economic development and the change of tourism traffic carbon emissions and the influencing factors. There are six major indicators in our analysis, including (1) tourists scale, (2) per capita tourism consumption level, (3) contribution rate of tourism industry to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), (4) passenger traffic volume per unit GDP, (5) energy consumption per unit passenger traffic volume, and (6) energy structure. The results showed that: the main positive drivers are tourists scale, per capita tourism consumption level and energy consumption per unit of passenger traffic volume. In addition, per unit GDP passenger traffic volume is an effective factor to restrain the growth of carbon emissions. And the economic development of Beijing is developing in step with the change of carbon emissions in Beijing's tourism traffic. The research results have important theoretical and practical significance for Beijing to formulate emission reduction policies and develop low-carbon economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to adequately assess energy policies and set clear objectives, a key preliminary step is to know the energy use patterns of the different countries. This paper estimates the evolution of the total energy use over the period 1995–2015 in four European Union (EU) countries, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, and Spain, representative of two different energy patterns, the "Southern" one and the "Eastern" one. For doing so, we employ a Multi-Regional Input Output (MRIO) model. In difference with previous studies, in addition to differentiate between domestic and foreign use we distinguish whether this energy is produced domestically or abroad. The results obtained show a certain convergence in energy intensity across the four countries examined because of the radical transformations experienced by the Czech Republic and Hungary. Nonetheless, energy intensities are still substantially higher in Eastern than in Southern countries which confirms that the first group of countries have still a long road to go, especially regarding the incentives that their industries have to use energy efficiently. Taking our decomposition of total energy use, the reductions in total energy use were mainly caused by a high decrease in the importance of the domestic use of energy produced domestically. At the same time, a growing importance of the role played by the energy produced abroad was observed. These trends confirm the great importance of global value chains and the steady internalization of energy use. This methodology could be further applied to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prior empirical research focuses on examining only the procyclical impact of innovation on carbon emissions (CO2e), in the majority of cases, for advanced economies. The current paper contributes to the extant literature by integrating positive and negative shocks of innovation in the model to scrutinize their potential effects on CO2e for the sample of 46 developing economies. Globalization (GLOB), renewable energy consumption (REC), fossils fuels consumption (FFC), foreign direct investment (FDI), and GDP per capita are embodied as control variables. The application of panel Fully modified ordinary least squares (PFM-LS) and panel Dynamic least squares (PD-LS) approaches exhibits the following results. First, the positive shocks of innovation disrupt the deleterious repercussions of CO2e, while the negative shocks deteriorate the environmental quality. Second, globalization and REC enhance the ecological quality by curbing CO2e. Third, FDI and FFC show the direct association with CO2e and make the pollution issue more alarming. Lastly, the impact of GDP growth also remains unfavorable, and it escalates the ratio of CO2e. The study also includes the positive and negative shocks of globalization and REC in the model to confirm its robustness. Interestingly, the impact of shocks in innovation on the ecological quality remains consistent, indicating the findings' robustness. For a sustainable future, the article's findings suggest to adopt the innovation shocks as a policy instrument for formulating better environmental policies. Also, some study limitations are presented, which may provide some new sights for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid ventilation system combining both natural and mechanical ventilation has proven very promising in moderating indoor climate, based on its ability to ensure indoor air quality with low energy consumption. The system maintains indoor thermal comfort conditions by switching to mechanical mode whenever natural ventilation is not possible. However, the application of such a system in severe arid climates is still very limited and challenging, and almost half the urban peak load for energy demand is used to supply cooling and air-conditioning in summer. This paper assessed the application of the hybrid ventilation mode for an educational building in a hot, arid climate, with the aim of reducing the building's energy consumption without compromising the occupants' thermal comfort. A dynamic simulation was conducted using Integrated Environmental Simulation in a Virtual Environment building energy software, and the outcomes were validated against actual consumption data over one year. The results were then evaluated for indoor thermal comfort and energy reduction and showed the potential of the hybrid system to provide energy savings of 23% across the year. Better energy performance was achieved during the cooler seasons (33.5%) compared to hot (17.1%). When photovoltaic systems were incorporated, by examining different inclination angles and locations for energy savings and carbon emissions (CO2) reductions, the outcomes proved that photovoltaic south and a 25° tilt angle recorded the maximum energy and minimum CO2 emissions annually. This integration of hybrid ventilation and photovoltaics reduced the building's energy consumption from 106.1 MWh to 36.6 MWh, saving almost 85% in total annual energy and cut down the carbon emissions from 55,227 kgCO2 to 6390 kgCO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]