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This paper probes the effectiveness of competitive industrial performance (CIP) and renewable energy in enhancing load capacity factor in top-10 CIP economies for the period 1990–2018. We run panel econometric techniques that address cross-sectional dependence, endogeneity and heterogeneity to provide policy recommendations with the applications of industry, innovation, and infrastructure (SDG 9), which is linked to affordable and clean energy (SDG 7) and climate action (SDG 13). In the empirical analysis, two different environmental quality indicators such as CO 2 emissions and load capacity factor are used. While cointegration between variables cannot be detected in the emissions model, evidence for the existence of cointegration is presented in the load capacity factor model. The findings in the paper suggest that economic growth and competitive industrial performance adversely impact environmental quality, while renewable energy consumption and human capital can improve load capacity factor. The result shows that human capital and renewable energy consumption can be strong tools for stimulating load capacity factor in top-10 CIP economies. Countries with high competitive industrial performance need to return to a green economy without losing their competitiveness. • SDG-based environmental policies was presented for the top-10 CIP economies. • A battery of second generations methods was employed. • Investigating the impacts of Competitive industrial performance on environmental quality. • Competitive industrial performance has a negative impact on environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A life cycle assessment (LCA) of solid recovered fuel (SRF) was conducted. • SRF production process contributes to about 35.6 kg CO 2 -eq per ton. • A maximum of −1752.03 kg CO 2 -eq was obtained with about 80 % of SRF biogenic carbon. • A footprint of −542.09 to −1729.05 kg CO 2 -eq can be found due to coke substitution. • The study recommended SRF production to mitigate the global carbon footprint. Solid recovered fuel (SRF) from non-recyclable waste obtained from source separation and mechanical treatments can replace carbon coke in cement plants, contributing to the carbon neutrality. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SRF production from non-recyclable and selected waste was conducted in an Italian mechanical treatment plant to estimate the potential environmental impacts per ton of SRF produced. The analysis would contribute to evaluate the benefits that can be obtained due to coke substitution in best- and worst-case scenarios. The avoided impacts achieved were assessed, together with an evaluation of the variables that can affect the environmental benefits: SRF biogenic carbon content (in percentage of paper and cardboard); transportation distances travelled from the treatment plant to the cement kiln; the renewable energy used in the mechanical facility. On average, about 35.6 kgCO 2 -eq are generated by the SRF transportation and production phase. These impacts are greatly compensated by coke substitution, obtaining a net value of about −1.1 tCO 2 -eq avoided per ton of SRF. On balance, the global warming potential due to SRF production and consumption ranges from about −542 kgCO 2 -eq to about −1729 kgCO 2 -eq. The research recommended the use of SRF to substitute coke in cement kilns also in low densely-populated areas to mitigate environmental impacts and achieve carbon neutrality at a global level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has sorted out the general logic of the impact of COVID-19 on energy consumption. In the short term, the epidemic has forced governments to adopt different levels of lockdown measures. The total electricity consumption decreased and the share of renewable energy has increased. Based on the International Energy Agency's (IEA) data on electricity production and consumption, this paper analyzes the long-term effects: The COVID-19 pandemic does affect overall electricity demand and market structure in the short term, but in the long term, the impact of the pandemic is detrimental to the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources. Increased, especially in hard-hit countries. The impact on countries with different levels of development is different, and countries with higher levels of economic development are better able to resist such exogenous shocks. The pandemic is still ongoing, how to steadily promote sustainable development? In this paper we suggest that to cope with climate change, to accomplish energy transformation and upgrading or even sustainable development, we should not only rely on reducing human activities, but give more support to countries with low development levels in realizing sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy trilemma, which includes energy security, affordability, and sustainability, is vital for India's path towards green development. A practical assessment of the energy trilemma's level is crucial for assessing the current state of India's energy landscape and making substantial progress towards Sustainable Development Goals 7 and 13. Based on time series data from 1990 to 2021, this paper investigates the direct and indirect effect of renewable energy use and green technology innovation on India's energy trilemma by using the dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (DYNARDL) simulation model. Our findings indicate that renewable energy use impacts the energy trilemma positively in both the short and long run. However, the effect of green technology on energy trilemma is positive but insignificant, suggesting the need for further technological advancement. The mediation analysis highlights that environmental regulation and energy efficiency are crucial through which both renewable energy and green technology innovation influence energy trilemma, while R&D shows an insignificant mediation effect. Based on the above findings, the study provides implications for policymakers to focus on strengthening environmental regulation, enhancing energy efficiency, and increasing the financial flow for R&D investment to incentivize the mitigating effect of green technology on renewable energy use on energy trilemma. • Striking a balance on India's energy trilemma is investigated. • Dynamic ARDL Simulation is employed to examine short-run and long-run elasticities. • Renewable energy is vital for balancing the energy trilemma. • Green technology innovation improves the energy trilemma but is deemed insignificant. • This paper provides a broader policy framework to achieve the goal of SDG7. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global economic costs of environmental pollution increase the importance of renewable energy sources. This paper analyzes the impact of financial development on renewable energy consumption in 34 upper middle income developing countries from 1994 to 2015. The long-term relationship between variables is estimated by applying Panel Pedroni cointegration and Kao cointegration tests. The long run effect of financial development on renewable energy consumption is investigated by using Fully-Modified OLS (FMOLS) approach. The empirical results indicate the presence of long run relationship between renewable energy consumption and financial development. Moreover, financial development increases the demand for renewable energy. Economic growth has a negative effect on renewable energy consumption, but consumer prices have a statistically insignificant impact on renewable energy consumption. The empirical evidence reveals that financial development triggers in increasing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources, i.e., renewable energy. Renewable energy consumption reduces the amount of greenhouse gases in nature as opposed to fossil energy consumption. Therefore, to achieve sustainable development goals, governments should implement incentives and tax policies that increase the demand of enterprises for renewable energy resources. In addition, investment opportunities in renewable energy resources to be created by public-private cooperation via financial arrangements should be increased. - This paper examines how financial development affects renewable energy consumption? - The panel Pedroni cointegration and Kao cointegration approaches are applied. - The Fully-Modified OLS (FMOLS) approach is employed for long run association. - Financial development promotes renewable energy demand. - Economic growth declines renewable energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzes the impact of green finance and renewable energy on energy efficiency in E−7 economies. We analyzed the nonlinear and asymmetric effects of green finance and renewable energy on energy efficiency. We collected data from 1985 to 2017 and applied the NARDL and 2SLS methods. The results reveal that the differences in green finance development in the E−7 region are as follows: China (0.61), Brazil (0.55), India (0.53), Indonesia (0.49), Mexico (0.37), and Russia (0.39). In 2019, the Gini coefficient was the largest in Russia (0.57), followed by Turkey. Based on empirical findings, the largest barrier to green energy efficiency is insufficient private and governmental investment in the energy sector to improve access to power, to increase energy security and promote economic growth in an environmentally sustainable manner. The findings point to a promising but vulnerable future for renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment in E−7 countries. This paper emphasizes that green financing and renewable energy policy limitations must be addressed to realize the funding potential of energy efficiency in E−7 countries. • We have analyzed the barrieres for renewable energy and energy efficiency. • Non-linear and asymmetric effects is observed on energy efficiency. • We have applied NARDL model to examine the relationship among variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power to hydrogen (P2H) system with renewable energy sources is an important research point for sustainable development. Developing a comprehensive model to accurately capture the thermal-electric characteristics of an electrolyzer and utilizing it to optimize the system's performance pose a significant challenge. In this paper, we develop an energy conversion model of the Alkaline Water Electrolyzer (AWE), describing the impact of temperature on AWE's operation. Then, using experimental fitting methods, we fit the important formulas of the model: the maximum power (MMP) function and the efficiency function. Subsequently, based on the proposed energy conversion model, we propose an active variable temperature (AVT) operation strategy for the P2H system with renewable energy aimed at maximizing hydrogen production. At last, cases for both the day-ahead and hour-ahead situations are conducted with real photovoltaic power. The simulation results show that the AVT operation strategy achieves up to 3% higher hydrogen production and nearly 100% renewable energy utilization rates. • A detailed energy conversion model for alkaline water electrolyzer is proposed. • A novel operation strategy combined with the proposed energy conversion model is introduced. • Considering temperature in the alkaline water electrolyzer model and operation strategy is crucial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transport is one of the sectors of the energy consumption where the presence of renewable energies is lower and its increase is hard to achieve especially in countries that import all the fuels that they consume. This paper addresses the progress that Portugal is making toward a more sustainable transport sector. A near- and medium- term scenario analysis is performed, based on the energy consumption in the past and on a detailed evaluation of the trends for renewable energy in the transport sector. The near-term scenarios aim at portraying the conditions that allow the country to fulfill the target of 10% renewable share in transportation established by the European Union. The medium-term scenarios highlight the implications, in terms of emission reduction and of energy independence, deriving from the use of electric vehicles and natural gas, synthetic and fossil, as alternatives to liquid fuels. The results show that electric vehicles would substantially reduce the total energy consumption and the greenhouse gas emissions, while the promotion of routes for synthetic natural gas would contribute to taking advantage of local resources. The paper also provides some insights about the design of future policies to build a more sustainable transport sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important energy base of China, Xinjiang is the key part of the “Silk Road” economic belt development strategy and is in an superior position. This paper analyzes the problems exist in the sustainable energy industry based on the distribution status of sustainable resources of Xinjiang. The evaluation index system of the application level of Renewable Energy Systems (RESs) is discussed using the wind farm as an example. Besides it investigates the advantages and disadvantages of the development process of each node in the “Silk Road” economic belt areas according to the current situation of the resources, economic and social development. Suggestions for the development of each area are proposed in the end. This paper will contribute to the sustainable development of renewable energy industry and economy in Xinjiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the strategies for achieving sustainable development goals is to close the gap between environmental vulnerability and economic progress (SDGs). The significance of renewable energy in harmonizing environmental and economic conditions is becoming a touchy subject in current debates. Against this backdrop, the major objective of this paper is to assess whether economic growth and environmental sustainability can promote renewable energy consumption in the Indian economy by using ARDL and Novel Dynamic ARDL estimation techniques. The results obtained from both the methodology shows that rising efficiency in the economic growth coupled with environmental sustainability leads to an increase in renewable energy consumption. We also find, from the frequency domain causality test, that there is a unidirectional causality between renewable energy consumption and economic growth & renewable energy consumption and environmental sustainability in both the short- and long run. The former causation validating the conservation hypothesis for the Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, Governments of South Asia have faced the challenge of achieving the goal of sustainable development. On the one hand, they must satisfy the ever-growing demand for energy and, on the other hand, the interminable deterioration of the environment is causing great concern among political economists. The widening gap between the demand and supply of energy, over-reliance on the use of fossil fuels, and increasing import bills due to rising global prices are the challenges that South Asia is facing. These can be overcome by using its great potential in renewables. This paper uses SWOT methodology to identify that the poor financial situation of the distribution companies, due to power losses and non-cost-reflective tariffs, and the lack of credit opportunities, due to high interest rates and inaccessibility of loans for the long-term, are the major impediments to the growth of the renewable energy sector of the region. Moreover, there is a conflict of interest between the manufacturers of renewable energy equipment and the developers of renewable energy projects in terms of Government policy concerning the imposition of import duties. India is moving towards protection of the former, while the latter see opportunities in the renewable energy sector of Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy demand in China has risen rapidly and reached an unprecedented level due to the high-speed economic growth and modern development. As a result, the Chinese government faces a growing pressure to address the energy shortage and environmental deterioration, mainly resulting from an over-dependence on fossil energy. China has become both the largest energy consumer and CO 2 emitting country in the world in 2015. Utilization of potential for renewable energy is necessary for changing inappropriate energy consumption structure, protecting environment and achieving sustainable economic and social development. In view of such mentioned situation, this paper firstly introduces the energy structure as well as the development status of renewable energy in China, which includes hydropower, wind power, solar power, biomass power and other renewable energy. Besides, based on the current situation in China, the paper makes a preliminary prediction of the development of renewable energy in the country for the future decades, and proposes targeted countermeasures and suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey’s rapid economic growth followed by increasing gap between domestic energy production and consumption signifies the large-scale integration of low-carbon and renewable resources into energy system. Turkey’s energy demand is increasing and supplying fossil energies such as oil and gas is becoming more challenging due to the lack of domestic hydrocarbon resources. The country is facing two main issues; first, maintaining energy balance and second, handling environmental issues. Nevertheless, Turkey has substantial renewable and low-carbon energy resources with co-benefits for the country’s fast growing economy and environmental sustainability. This paper aims to present a comprehensive update on Turkey’s renewable and low-carbon energy sector. It reviews not only the current status of the technology, policy and economy, but also provides an insight into the social aspects as well. From a policy point of view, the paper critically discusses Turkey’s energy strategy and perspectives and from the social point of view, the paper argues that there is a research gap in recent literature regarding public awareness and social acceptance of low-carbon energy technologies. Also, the future challenges for promoting low-carbon society in Turkey are discussed in terms of sustainable development and socio-environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and fossil fuel reserve depletion both pose challenges for energy security and for wellbeing in general. The top ten among them include: Decarbonising the world economy; Enhancing the energy efficiency and energy savings in buildings; Advancing the energy technologies; Moving towards energy systems based on variable renewables; Electrifying the transport and some industrial processes; Liberalizing and extending the energy markets; Integrating energy sectors to Smart Energy Systems; Making the cities and communities smart; Diversifying the energy sources; and Building more biorefineries. Presenting the contributions of selected conference papers published in the special issues of leading scientific journals (including all the papers from the current Energy special issue), this review demonstrates the capacity of the Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems for generation of knowledge which could serve as the centrepiece of a pertinent response to those challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green financing is essential because it guarantees that initiatives that seek to reduce the world's reliance on fossil fuels receive the necessary funding to be successful. Green financial metrics can be simultaneously made possible by specialized technological innovation and natural resource rent, thereby encouraging the adoption of sustainable energy. In this paper, we investigate the mediating mechanisms underlying the relationship between green financial indicators and renewable energy consumption RNEC and we contribute to the ongoing discussion surrounding this relationship. Our observational example is derived from data collected for 66 countries between 2004 and 2019 using a panel threshold regression model defined with the difference generalized method of moments (GMM). We find that green funding initiatives have accelerated the adoption of renewable energy sources by encouraging increases in the proportion of renewable energy in the fuel supply. Multiple analyses of reliability corroborate the existence of this link. Green funding has been shown to have an encouraging effect on the transition to renewable energy, and our findings indicate that technological advancement and natural resource leasing serve to mitigate this effect. To assist policymakers in reducing the world's reliance on polluting energy, our study demonstrates how green financial markets can be established through improved technological innovation and natural resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coherency of research, development, and innovation processes are vital in promoting a more resource efficient society. Sustainability-oriented innovation systems define specific kinds of innovation systems, i.e. those that are directed to the aims of sustainable development. This paper develops an integrated method with four layers of analysis to evaluate the priorities and performances of such systems. The method is applied to a sample of emerging and innovation based economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Turkey, and Singapore. The analyses consider the 6 main activities or functional dynamics of innovation systems and a set of 19 keywords. The keywords relate to the thematic clusters of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency, and environmental management. The priorities of the countries in each main interaction of the system are classified accordingly. The priorities are compared to the existing level of specialization in the keywords based on the intermediate outputs of the system. The analyses cover 153,838 papers and 15,138 patents between the years 2003 and 2014. A Sustainable Innovation Index is developed to aggregate the normalized values of country performance across all keywords. Singapore receives the highest value (21.17) and the average of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa is 14.91. The results determine the ability of countries to align priorities and performance towards more mature innovation systems for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy has become the world's strategic choice to solve environmental pollution, address the energy crisis and achieve social sustainable development. The establishment of a regulatory system coincides with the development stage of renewable energy and electricity market operation is significant in standardizing the market competition and guaranteeing healthy development of renewable energy in China. This paper analyses the current situation of renewable energy development and the existing renewable energy regulation system in China, pointing out that the main problems restricting renewable energy development are institutional mechanisms and market factors. The existing regulatory mechanisms also have deficiencies, such as the inclination towards economic regulation and the lack of a market adjustment mechanism. This paper proposes that China should comprehensively consider the renewable energy development stage, electricity market trading mechanisms and other factors in electricity regulatory requirements when policy making, actively exploring a new renewable energy regulation model adapted to different development phases. In addition, this paper suggests China's regulatory policy path based on the forecasting of renewable energy developing models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the sustainability of urban ecosystem is becoming a key area in global sustainable development. Urban metabolism is an effective analysis tool for the study of urban ecosystem. In this regard, how to evaluate the level of urban sustainable development and identify the key factors that affect urban metabolism is critical. Many studies on urban metabolism have been explored during the past half century, but few concerns about the key factors that affect urban metabolism. Therefore, this paper fills such a gap by combining emergy and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) methods in order to analyze the sustainable development level and identify the driving forces of emergy utilization, respectively. A typical industrial city, Shenyang in northeast China, was chosen as a case study city in this paper. Results show that renewable resource utilization in Shenyang was very limited from 2000 to 2010, while nonrenewable resources and the imported resources increased rapidly. During this period, total emergy utilization of Shenyang increased from 8.52 × 10 22 sej to 21.53 × 10 22 sej, and emergy density increased with annual increasing rate of 10.34%, demonstrating a fast development of the economy and high level of resident's consumption. LMDI method was employed to analyze the driving forces of emergy consumption from the aspects of scale, structure and intensity. Results show that the rapid increase of emergy utilization in Shenyang was mainly caused by the expansion of economic scale, while emergy intensity greatly contributed to offset total consumption, and industry structure played a marginal role, with a minor value for its growth. Based upon these results, several policy recommendations were raised, including the use of more renewable and clean energy sources, a regenerative and preventative eco-industrial development approach, and capacity-building efforts, so that the overall environment pressure on urban development can be reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sustainable energy system can be treated as a development of the distributed generation concept. It meets energy demands locally from renewable energy or/and high-efficiency polygeneration production technologies, and is characterized by energy and cost efficiency, reliability, and environmental-friendliness. Distributed energy systems typically use renewable energy resources to supply all energy demands, such as heat, cooling, and electric power in an integrated way. However, it seems that too much emphasis is placed on power and associated renewable energy-based power technologies for dealing with sustainability issues in public discussion and the research community. Often, equally important thermal energy (heat and cooling) and polygeneration are ignored. Polygeneration is an energy-efficient technology for generating simultaneously heat and power as well as other energy products in a single integrated process. Energy efficiency contributes significantly to CO 2 emission reduction. This paper discusses the role of polygeneration in a distributed energy system and the contributions of polygeneration to the development of sustainable energy systems. The paper also stresses that efficient decision support tools for sustainable polygeneration systems are important to achieve sustainability. First, the joint characteristic of a polygeneration plant that defines the dependency between different energy products is reviewed. Then, typical methods for dealing with polygeneration systems are reviewed. The review attempts to highlight the complexity of polygeneration systems and potential of polygeneration systems to adjust output of different energy products. Next, the challenges of sustainable polygeneration energy systems are discussed. Then some practices for operating polygeneration plants are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of alternative energy sources has become a necessity as fossil energy resources are declining. At the same time, energy demand is rapidly increasing, putting the world on the verge of a global energy crisis. Moreover, the extensive use of conventional energy sources is polluting the environment and causing global warming. On the other hand, wind and other renewable energy sources are viable and clean alternatives to fossil fuels. Low operating cost and extensive availability make wind one of the most advantageous and effective renewable energy sources. This paper provides an exposure to the necessity for deployment of renewable energy sources and the worldwide installed capacity of wind power as well as a review of various wind technologies in conjunction with their applications and devices of operation. Furthermore, this paper discusses the cost of electric generation in wind power plants as well as the economic and environmental policies that advocate the installation of wind energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of various environmental problems and challenges concerning resource allocation, the utilisation of renewable resources is increasingly important for the efficient use of raw materials. Therefore, cascading utilisation (i.e., the multiple material utilisations of renewable resources prior to their conversion into energy) and approaches that aim to further increase resource efficiency (e.g., the utilisation of by-products) can be considered guiding principles. This paper therefore introduces the Special Volume "Improved Resource Efficiency and Cascading Utilisation of Renewable Materials". Because both research aspects, resource efficiency and cascading utilisation, belong to several disciplines, the Special Volume adopts an interdisciplinary perspective and presents 16 articles, which can be divided into four subjects: Innovative Materials based on Renewable Resources and their Impact on Sustainability and Resource Efficiency, Quantitative Models for the Integrated Optimisation of Production and Distribution in Networks for Renewable Resources, Information Technology-based Collaboration in Value Generating Networks for Renewable Resources, and Consumer Behaviour towards Eco-friendly Products. The interdisciplinary perspective allows a comprehensive overview of current research on resource efficiency, which is supplemented with 15 book reviews showing the extent to which textbooks of selected disciplines already refer to resource efficiency. This introductory article highlights the relevance of the four subjects, presents summaries of all papers, and discusses future research directions. The overall contribution of the Special Volume is that it bridges the resource efficiency research of selected disciplines and that it presents several approaches for more environmentally sound production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a generalized framework to construct composite indicator, which can be used in static and dynamic analysis. By grouping DMUs (decision making units) first, the proposed approach is more flexible to derive weights for entities featuring diverse characteristics. A more neutral set of weights can be obtained through investigating the lower and upper bound of possible weights. Subsequently, we introduce a slack-based composite indicator from the perspective of distance function, which facilitates studying entities' improvement potential in sub-indicators. Furthermore, the slacks-based composite indicator is combined with the Malmquist index to conduct dynamic assessment, aiming to quantify the evolvement of composite indicator over time and the underlying driving forces. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach, it is applied to construct the Sustainable Energy Index for 109 countries worldwide in 2005–2010. Our results show that the high-income country group has the best sustainable energy performance among all the three country groups in 2010. The dynamic assessment indicates the worldwide sustainable energy development level declined during 2005–2010, and the efficiency change was the main negative driving force. More discussions and implications are presented in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is vast, abundant and particularly plentiful in energy sources, due to which it has obtained remarkable achievements on economy. However, its energy structure is too simple to support the sustainable development of economy as coal still contributes to the majority of energy consumption in China. As a consequence, Renewable Energy Law was enacted in 2005, and Chinese government announced a series of policies to boom renewable energy industry. Subsidy policy is one of the major forms of these policies. This paper aims to present these subsidy policies and to analyze their effects according to relative data in energy industry 2005–2013, to find out the deficiencies and enlighten possible policy improvements. The original intentions and abstracts of 5 different levels of subsidy related policies are summarized, and the effects in reality are attentively analyzed. It can be concluded that subsidy policies have different short-term effect on different renewable energies, and they all show some negative effect to a certain extent. 6 core problems are summarized in this paper, and remedy strategies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the environmental sustainability performance of a nation is complex. This paper considers the merits of environmental indices, and how effective they are when assessing the environmental sustainability of any nation. The simplicity and generic qualities of environmental indices currently necessitates a much broader analysis in order to evaluate any nation׳s genuine environmental sustainability credentials – ultimately the development of a synthetic Environmental Sustainability Index is required to fulfil this task. Using Iceland as a case study, this paper reviews the usefulness of four selected environmental indices (Environmental Vulnerability Index, Environmental Performance Index, Ecological Footprint and Happy Planet Index) for governance institutions when formulating reasoned responses to challenges. By adopting a holistic methodology, Iceland׳s environmental sustainability credentials are critically examined in this paper, with particular focus given to the impacts deriving from expanded renewable energy utilisation in recent years. Abundant geothermal and hydropower energy resources have been increasingly used to power heavy industry, particularly aluminium production. The wider health implications and long-term environmental sustainability consequences of renewable energy utilisation have not been analysed in depth within any of the indices. Socio-economic progress in Iceland has also been attained alongside the imposition of the highest ecological footprint of any nation in the world. As such, economic activities in Iceland have not occurred in accordance with commonly accepted notions of sustainable development, which is focused upon the reconciliation of economic, environmental and social objectives, together with recognition of current and future need across these domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the deployment and penetration of renewable energy is considered to be the fundamental way to solve environmental problems, but whether higher penetration of renewable energy means higher energy efficiency remains to be empirically tested. To reveal the relationship between cleanliness and efficiency in the energy sector, this paper first uses the three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA)method to measure the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of 30 provinces in China, and then applies static and dynamic panel threshold regression (PTR)models to estimate the nonlinear effect of renewable energy share on TFEE. The results show that renewable energy is usually beneficial for improving TFEE, but there are prominent heterogeneity and nonlinear characteristics in net electricity exporting and net electricity importing provinces. Renewable energy in low rather than high regimes can significantly improve energy efficiency, indicating that provinces with lower levels of economic development and energy consumption receive higher marginal energy efficiency and are more likely to achieve sustainable development goals. More renewable energy quotas should be given to economically developed and high energy consuming provinces, and comprehensive energy efficiency guarantees and improvement measures must be provided to achieve optimal emission mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: With rapid urbanization and industrialization, China has become both the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitting country in the world. As a clean and low-carbon energy source, renewable energy is a good choice to substitute for the exhausted fossil energy. The Chinese central and local governments have made a series of policies and optimistic plans to promote a rapid development of renewable energies. China′s renewable energy development has become a key to the sustainable development of socio-economic system. Unlike most of the current studies which mainly identified the challenges regarding policies and technologies around renewable energy or performed specific analyses for a certain kind of renewable energy, this paper summarizes the spatial disparity and consistency among the major renewable energies, coal resources, energy consumption and its major influencing factors in China, and reviews the positive and negative environmental impacts of major renewable energies. Based on the geographical and environmental perspectives, this paper recommends that the Chinese government: constructs the national energy production bases according to the resource distribution; integrates different energies on the basis of their natural features and spatial consistency; adjusts the overall layout of socio-economic development consistent with renewable energies; and promotes a moderate renewable energy development to maximize the environmental benefits. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Following the 2015 Paris Agreement and other agreements which have been signed after, sustainable energy development is becoming the major goal in many countries. EU have set the targets to reduce the annual greenhouse gas emission by 40% in 2030 and 80% for 2050 compared with 1990 levels. For achieving this ambitious energy policy, three major technological changes are available: energy savings on the demand side, efficiency improvements in the energy production, and replacement of fossil fuels by various sources of renewable energy. Also, for realization cited three major technological changes the support of the multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge is needed. Therefore, from the beginning of the 21st century, since 2002, a series of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conferences were founded. This paper presents an overview of published researches in special issues of leading journals dedicated to the series SDEWES Conferences, including also the papers in current special issue. The focus is on five main fields: (1) energy policy and analysis of smart energy systems; (2) energy savings in the building sector; (3) co/polygeneration - integrated heating, cooling and electricity systems and district heating; (4) biomass for energy; and (5) measurement of energo-environmental sustainability of processes and systems. Researchers are focused on the development of methods, policies and technologies for both efficient production of energy, mainly from renewable sources, and consumption in industry, buildings and transport. Undoubtedly, the researches presented in the papers in this special issue as well as in previous ones, dedicated to SDEWES conferences, will contribute to the promotion of sustainable development and thus to the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive understanding of the impact of renewable/non-renewable energy consumption on ecological quality and economic growth can serve to the sustainability of energy, ecology, and economy. This paper provides a new perspective of the comprehensive system of the 3E model, and introduces indicator of social factor to examine the non-linear effects of urbanization on energy, economy, and the environment. A threshold panel regression model is developed using the data of 120 countries in the last 20 years. In the proposed model, renewable energy and non-renewable energy are explanatory variables, economic growth and ecological footprint are explained variables, and urbanization are threshold variable. Non-linear relationships are concretized and quantified in the research of global and different income groups. The results show that global renewable energy can promote economic growth while improving the environment. As the urbanization rate increases, the negative effect of renewable energy on the ecological footprint first weakens and then increases, and the positive coefficient on the economy maintains a growth trend. Non-renewable energy has a more obvious positive effect on economic growth, but it increases the ecological footprint. The development of urbanization strengthens its promotion of the economy and reduces its pressure on the environment. From the perspective of different income groups, renewable energy does not always suppress the ecological footprint. The energy transition reduces economic growth in the initial stages of urbanization in certain regions. After crossing the threshold, the coefficient changes of different income groups have similarities and differences. Based on the conclusions, some recommendations are put forward, including promoting the transformation of energy consumption structure, improving energy efficiency and accelerating the process of urbanization. The model in this paper is suitable for investigating the nonlinear impact of urbanization on the 3E system through panel data, and can provide theoretical support for studying the threshold effect of a country or economy. This study also shows the importance of renewable energy and the indirect effects of urbanization, which is helpful for formulating global sustainable and coordinated development policies. [Display omitted] • A new perspective of the energy-economy-environment (3E) model is proposed. • Threshold models enable the non-linear relationships to be concretized and quantified. • Global renewable energy improves the environment while promoting economic growth. • Urbanization reduces the pressure on the environment from energy consumption. • Urbanization strengthens the positive effect of energy on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In order to improve living environment for the villages in Tibetan areas of Yunnan, this paper takes Shangri-La’s wooden architecture as research objects, analyses the site selection, plane layout, facade design, building materials and fabric detail of traditional rural housing by investigation. The paper also extracts the local inherent eco-technologies, and identifies the shortcomings of rural housing. Aimed at the flawed characteristics of Tibetan building such as the scattered building location, high Shape coefficient, less–story, poor insulation, massive energy consumption and redundant land occupation, this paper researches adaptable design strategies of green rural housing which is suitable to local condition, so as to boost the sustainable development of rural construction of Tibetan areas in Yunnan. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Energy is indispensible in modern society and is one of the most important components of socio-economic development. Nepal is one of the least developed countries with more than 80% of its population residing in rural communities. Per capita energy usage – often viewed as a key index of the development – in the country is far less than the global average per capita energy usage. The energy sector is dominated by the traditional energy sources such as fuel woods, crop residues and animal dung mainly for domestic usage contributing to about 86% of the national energy consumption. Currently 40% of the population has access to electricity, and the rural electrification accounts for only 29%. The majority of rural populations are meeting their energy needs by burning biomass in traditional stoves which has several environmental and public health issues. Nearly all fossil-derived fuels consumed in the country are imported in a refined form, and the perpetual increase in petroleum imports has adversely impacted the existing fragile economy of the country. Despite a huge potential in harnessing various renewable energy resources such as hydropower, solar power, wind energy and biofuels/bioenergy, these resources have not been sustainably captured due to geographical, technical, political and economical reasons. This paper presents a brief account of Nepal''s renewable energy resources and the current status of various renewable energy technologies (RETs) such as micro-hydro, solar power, wind energy, biofuel/bioenergy, improved cook stoves, and improved water mill. It also highlights the opportunities and barriers for the development of RETs. Finally this paper presents some recommendations for the promotion, development and implementation of RETs in the country. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper deals with fundamental policy mistakes in Pakistan for the cause of sustainable development through renewable energy. It then identifies that the low level of awareness regarding the potentials of renewable energy is the key hurdle in achieving the said cause. The paper further traces the root cause of this low awareness in educational and S&T policies of Pakistan and finally provides some recommendations to avoid dilemmas related to such policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: India''s energy challenges are multi-pronged. They are manifested through growing demand for modern energy carriers, a fossil fuel dominated energy system facing a severe resource crunch, the need for creating access to quality energy for the large section of deprived population, vulnerable energy security, local and global pollution regimes and the need for sustaining economic development. Renewable energy is considered as one of the most promising alternatives. Recognizing this potential, India has been implementing one of the largest renewable energy programmes in the world. Among the renewable energy technologies, bioenergy has a large diverse portfolio including efficient biomass stoves, biogas, biomass combustion and gasification and process heat and liquid fuels. India has also formulated and implemented a number of innovative policies and programmes to promote bioenergy technologies. However, according to some preliminary studies, the success rate is marginal compared to the potential available. This limited success is a clear indicator of the need for a serious reassessment of the bioenergy programme. Further, a realization of the need for adopting a sustainable energy path to address the above challenges will be the guiding force in this reassessment. In this paper an attempt is made to consider the potential of bioenergy to meet the rural energy needs: (1) biomass combustion and gasification for electricity; (2) biomethanation for cooking energy (gas) and electricity; and (3) efficient wood-burning devices for cooking. The paper focuses on analysing the effectiveness of bioenergy in creating this rural energy access and its sustainability in the long run through assessing: the demand for bioenergy and potential that could be created; technologies, status of commercialization and technology transfer and dissemination in India; economic and environmental performance and impacts; bioenergy policies, regulatory measures and barrier analysis. The whole assessment aims at presenting bioenergy as an integral part of a sustainable energy strategy for India. The results show that bioenergy technology (BET) alternatives compare favourably with the conventional ones. The cost comparisons show that the unit costs of BET alternatives are in the range of 15–187% of the conventional alternatives. The climate change benefits in terms of carbon emission reductions are to the tune of 110T C per year provided the available potential of BETs are utilized. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sustainable development requires methods and tools to measure and compare the environmental impacts of human activities for various products (goods and services). Providing society with goods and services contributes to a wide range of environmental impacts. Environmental impacts include emissions into the environment and the consumption of resources as well as other interventions such as land use, etc. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a technique for assessing environmental loads of a product or a system. The aim of this paper is to review existing energy and CO2 life cycle analyses of renewable sources based electricity generation systems. The paper points out that carbon emission from renewable energy (RE) systems are not nil, as is generally assumed while evaluating carbon credits. Further the range of carbon emissions from RE systems have been found out from existing literature and compared with those from fossil fuel based systems, so as to assist in a rational choice of energy supply systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The cost of desalination is mainly based on the energy cost since the process is very energy-intensive. Previous reviews have considered individual topics such as renewable energy sources, membrane materials, and the energy-environment nexus. However, there are few thermal-based desalination studies for systems using renewable energy resources and waste heat that give low-carbon footprints. This paper reviews the use of renewable energy resources and waste heat for desalination with a particular interest in analyzing the energy efficiency and cost. Cost-effective roadmaps are presented for thermal-based desalination plants with energy storage for renewable energy, a heat pump for low-grade waste heat, and an integrated energy system for various energy sources. This paper summarizes integrated system designs and energy storage materials for desalination for renewable energy. Various heat pump systems are evaluated to improve low-grade waste heat utilization. Recent developments in using multiple energy resources for desalination, such as energy internet systems, integrated energy utilization systems, and coastal multi-source multi-load energy systems, are also reviewed. Finally, this review presents a guideline for reducing energy costs and carbon dioxide emissions in the thermal-based desalination industry. • A review to show the roadmap for reducing desalination cost. • A guideline for reducing CO 2 emissions in the thermal-based desalination. • An outlook for the development of green, portable, multi-functional desalination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sun is the primary energy source for all life on Earth. Solar energy is clean and is available all over the world. The total energy produced, in 2016, was 7236 MWh, while the total consumed was 6660 MWh. The average photovoltaic energy generated was 255 MWh, which accounts for 3.5% of the total production and 8.2% of the RES (3096 MWh). Investments in renewable energy in Romania began in late 2008, when Green Certificates were granted by Law no. 220. In this paper, we review the photovoltaic system development in Romania, from 2011, when the market began to develop, to the present day. The climate change and air pollution have to be slowed down and reduced by implementing renewable and sustainable solutions in order to generate electricity. The photovoltaic industry has an important role in Romania's development, both economically and environmentally and by having the “unlimited resource” advantage, it is a good alternative to fossil fuels. Now, the largest solar park in Romania, with 332,000 operational PV units, located in Ucea de Sus, Brasov County and commissioned in 2013, has an installed capacity of 82 MW, and covers a land surface of 200 ha. 178 years ago, French physicist Edmond Becquerel discovered the photoelectric effect, in 1839. At the moment, the typical power of solar PV modules is less than 500 W, depending on efficiency and temperature sensitivity. Currently, long-term research on photovoltaic cells focus on increasing the power output, increasing the efficiency and reducing the temperature sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past three decades, the notion of sustainable cities has become central in planning and managing urban areas in the world and the large-scale city formation has been formed in big cities. As a result of economic growth and urban transformation, Shanghai, a major Chinese international metropolis, faces ongoing issues with resource waste and low energy utilization. Therefore, this paper aims to consider the availability of water for energy production from a consumption-based perspective and estimate the water footprint of the energy supply using a regional input-output analysis approach for Shanghai. As a result, we conclude that the water footprint of the energy supply of Shanghai is about 1.28 billion m 3 in 2007, with 46.1% of water used for electricity and heat supply. The total water withdrawal by the energy sector is about 2.35 billion m 3 and additional water withdrawal needed is about 35% of the total water withdrawals by the energy sector in Shanghai. Furthermore, an energy self-sufficiency scenario was developed, and the scenario analysis reveals that 55% more water would be required to ensure a self-sufficient energy sector. To guarantee future regional energy security, it is important to manage water resources effectively by allocating water resources among sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable energy resources are currently being deployed on a large scale to meet the requirements of increased energy demand, mitigate the environmental pollutants, and achieve socio-economic benefits for sustainable development. The integration of such distributed energy sources into utility grid paves the way for microgrids. The microgrid concept is introduced to have a self-sustained system consisting of distributed energy resources that can operate in an islanded mode during grid failures. In microgrid, an energy management system is essential for optimal use of these distributed energy resources in intelligent, secure, reliable, and coordinated ways. Therefore, this review paper presents a comparative and critical analysis on decision making strategies and their solution methods for microgrid energy management systems. To manage the volatility and intermittency of renewable energy resources and load demand, various uncertainty quantification methods are summarized. A comparative analysis on communication technologies is also discussed for cost-effective implementation of microgrid energy management systems. Finally, insights into future directions and real world applications are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores opportunities for the built environment to fulfill a far-reaching greenhouse gas (GHG) emission target in Sweden in 2050, in a context of low or no economic growth. A spreadsheet model was created, allowing for a quantitative estimation of GHG emissions and operational energy use for the built environment. Building on previous qualitative descriptions of four future scenarios, the model was run to investigate what reaching the target would require in each scenario. The results can inform policy discussions and provide insights on what strategies appear to be significant, and what they entail in terms of operational energy use in 2050 and cumulated embodied emissions from investments prior to 2050. It thus appears particularly important to decarbonate the energy mix and reduce floor areas through space sharing and optimization. When emission factors for heat and electricity are very low, the climate impact of construction materials becomes an important issue, on par with operational energy use, and strategies aimed at improving construction processes or avoiding new construction gain relevance. Extensive renovation for energy efficiency exhibits in this case a tradeoff between embodied emissions from prior investments and energy use, as decreasing one means increasing the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is experiencing an unprecedented transition towards a low-carbon and renewable-based energy system, driven by the imperatives of mitigating climate changes, building climate resilience and ensuring sustainable development. Recently, polygeneration systems based on renewable energies have emerged as a viable solution to support the energy transition since they can improve resource utilization and energy efficiency, thus reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and the environmental impacts on ecosystems. Renewable polygeneration systems can play a significant role in the decarbonization of the food processing industry due to its high thermal energy demand at low and medium temperature levels. This paper presents a detailed analysis of a renewable polygeneration system integrating solar, geothermal and biomass energies and able to produce electricity, heat and cold water. The novelty of this study is the analysis of polygeneration system configurations relying solely on renewable energies and the optimization of the strategy to control the energy exchange between power systems, storage facilities and utilities. Two system configurations based on different power technologies and control strategies are investigated and compared, considering as end-user a milk production process with hot and cold water requirements at different temperature levels and load profiles. To this end, a dynamic model in Matlab/Simulink has been developed to simulate the behaviour of the polygeneration system over time and evaluate its overall energy performance parameters. For each system configuration, the optimal operating strategy has been identified by maximizing the energy conversion efficiency and minimizing the unmet thermal and cooling loads. Simulation results highlighted that, compared to polygeneration systems relying only on fluctuating renewable energies, those including a backup heat source (i.e., a biomass boiler) were able to meet the thermal energy needs of larger and more complex milk production processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of globalization on progress toward SDG 7, with a particular focus on electricity access, renewable energy consumption, and energy intensity. Data are on 42 African countries over the 2000 – 2015 period. Findings from the fixed-effects model with the Driscoll-Kraay estimator show that overall globalization improves electricity access, while its effect on renewable energy consumption and energy intensity is insignificant. Additional findings show that economic globalization improves electricity access and energy efficiency; social globalization undermines renewable energy consumption while improving energy efficiency; political globalization increases electricity access and renewable energy consumption. Some recommendations are provided. • The contribution of globalization to the progress toward SDG 7 is investigated. • The data are based on a sample of 45 countries over the 2000–2019 period. • Globalization increases electeicity access with no relevant effects on renewable energy consumption and energy intensity. • Distinguishing between various dimensions and aspects of globalization provides more specific findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy sectors of all the countries around the world are faced with a big challenge: the energy transition under the imperative of continuous reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The energy transition and the sustainability constraints pose a significant challenge for engineers, researcher and scientists developing new and clean energy-efficient technologies. Energy production and transformations, along with its storage, distribution and consumption, are achieved by utilising new and clean energy technologies, with the goal of the continuous increase of energy efficiency, the growth of renewable energy sources utilisation, the uninterrupted switch from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources, and the continued reduction of CO2 emissions. This editorial paper addresses the latest progress and the findings in research and developments in the sustainable energy technologies, energy and environment systems from selected papers of the conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems held in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central Africa possesses important renewable energy potential that continues to suffer from poor development. The primary cause of the poor use of renewable energy is the poor commitment and dedication among the region's governments who have not taken the necessary measures to support the sector. The primary purpose of this paper is to emphasize the renewable energy resources of Central Africa that they may be used optimally. The report also describes the availability of renewable energy resources and suggests actions to promote and sustain their development by improving access to sustainable, environmentally friendly, and affordable energy services, making significant improvements to energy infrastructure in Central Africa, and promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency. The work presents the potential for solar, biomass and hydropower, indicating where development is available. Next, the identified obstacles of clean energy promotion are targeted. Finally, suggestions are offered to help countries develop a vision aimed at developing good clean energy policy that increases the status of environmentally friendly energy. A Cameroon case study is examined as an illustration. Several documents are cited from institutions in the region and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of cities and their commitment to meet the European targets on energy and climate has steadily increased in the latest years as testified by the large number of ambitious initiatives undertaken by European cities to face multiple challenges towards sustainability. Many projects and initiatives have arisen all around Europe to support cities in the achievement of the Europe 2020 targets of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. RE-SEEties “Towards resource-efficient urban communities in SEE” is one of the projects funded under the South East Europe program aimed to enhance the policy-making and strategic planning competences of municipalities in the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and waste valorization. This paper focuses on the methods developed and the main results achieved in the framework of RE-SEEties. The main focus is on the eight partner cities (The Local Government of Budapest District 18 – Hungary/HU, Municipality of Aigaleo – Greece/EL, Municipality of Potenza – Italy/IT, City of Nitra – Slovakia/SK, City of Skopje – Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia/FYROM, City of Miercurea Ciuc – Romania/RO, Municipality of Ptuj – Slovenia/SI, City of Ivanić-Grad – Croatia/HR) and how they were assisted by professional institutions in translating their commitments towards resource efficiency into Local Strategies and Action Plans. A critical comparison of these final results points out differences and similarities in the state-of-the-art of cities across South East Europe as well as a the level of ambition and difficulties faced to turn into resource efficient urban communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Military expenditures in the Asia-Pacific region have grown rapidly in tandem with economic growth over the past few decades. The military sector's impact on environmental change has not been given enough attention. Renewable energy utilization in the Asia-Pacific region also has increased significantly. This paper examines the relationship between militarization, economic growth, renewable energy utilization, and environmental change in the 15 countries participating in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (RCEP) agreement using data that covers 1990–2018. The panel cointegration and cross section autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) models are used to examine the long- and short-term relationships among variables. The empirical results show that economic growth and rising levels of militarization have a positive impact on a country's ecological footprint. The increase in military capital intensity has aggravated the environmental harm caused by the military. Improving the utilization rate of renewable energy can alleviate detrimental environmental effects in the long term. This study also puts forward policy recommendations from the policy perspective of sustainable development to reduce the level of regional militarization and improve the utilization of renewable energy. • Militarization is the cause of environmental degradation. • The increase of military capital intensity will aggravate its damage to the environment. • Renewable energy use can ease ecological footprint expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of recent debates concerning the role of nuclear energy in sustainable development, this paper provides new insights regarding the nuclear and renewable energy-economic growth nexus by considering the role of the quality of governance. The analysis focusing on ten nuclear energy consuming countries from the European Union in the period 2002–2021 revealed few results to support next energy policies. The feedback hypothesis is checked for nuclear energy, while growth hypothesis is validated for renewable energy consumption. The positive impact of renewable energy consumption on growth becomes significant when the analysis is conducted in the period 2010–2021 when nuclear energy consumption has a low and negative effect on economic growth. Control of corruption and rule of law play a central role in supporting renewable energy consumption, while an efficient political framework might make the nuclear energy effective in terms of growth. • Feedback hypothesis is supported for nuclear energy consumption. • Growth hypothesis is validated for renewable energy consumption. • Control of corruption and rule of law enhance the renewable energy use. • Positive contribution of renewable energy to growth only in the short-run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased competition and reduced profit margins are pushing manufacturing plants to find ways to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs. At the same time, government incentives and community initiatives are encouraging the industrial sector to pursue sustainability in operation and energy consumption. This has introduced a paradigm shift where the focus of plant operation is moving from solely cost reduction to one that considers asset management, emission control, and utilization of alternative energy resources. Mathematically speaking, the problem is changing from a single objective optimization to one with multiple objective functions that may at times be contradictory. The focus of this paper is to propose a methodology for management of an industrial plant considering the above factors. It is assumed that the plant is equipped with distributed generation (DG), and can also participate in demand response (DR). Further, the effect of ambient temperature on the lifetime and available capacity of assets such as the plant transformer has been taken into account and incorporated into their daily schedule. The objective is then to find an optimal solution for operating various workstations in such a way that it minimizes the operational costs, the emissions produced, and the loss of life of assets exposed to excess temperatures. A multi-objective optimization problem is therefore formulated through extended lexicographic goal programming, which is further modified to ensure Pareto optimality. A case study has also been presented for a manufacturing plant for luxury vehicle cockpit assembly line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development and environmental protection are key concepts in the European energy policy. The Europe 2020 Strategy establishes the necessity of reducing environmental pressure and resource consumption to increase sustainable development in the EU. In this context, the aim of this paper is to develop an Environmental and Resource Pressure Aggregated Index that considers these two dimensions. This index provides information about the achievement of the targets in the member states as well as the achieved effects of the environmental policies on energy policy and sustainable development. Therefore, it would help policy-makers to plan future policy actions. The results show that, among EU countries, Portugal, Latvia, Italy, Austria and France have low environmental and resource pressure. Recommendations are made for member states with the worst results (Estonia, Poland, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Luxembourg) in order to improve their actions in climate change and energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector situation in Palestine is highly different compared to other countries in the Middle East due to many reasons: non-availability of natural resources, unstable political conditions, financial crisis and high density population. Furthermore, Palestine depends on other countries for 100% of its fossil fuel imports and for 87% of its electricity imports. In addition high growth of population, increasing living standards and rapid growth of industrial have led to tremendous energy demand in Palestine in recent years. The total energy consumption per habitant in Palestine is the lowest in the region (0.79 MW h/inhabitant) and costs more than anywhere else in the Middle East countries. The primary goal of this paper is to analyze the current energy sector situation in Palestine and to highlight the status of the potential of renewable energy as an essential future energy source sector in Palestine. Regarding the main possibilities of RE, the wind speed averages (m/s) for main 5 cities were: Tubas 4.97, Salfeet 4.26, Ramallah 3.09, Hebron 2.90 and Jericho 1.32. With these data, Palestine can be considered as a country of moderate wind speeds. By the other hand, Palestine has a high solar energy potential about 3000 sunshine hours per year with a solar radiation (kW h/m 2 /day) for year 2013 of 8.27 in Ramallah, 7.51 in Hebron, 6.86 in Salfeet and 6.15 in Tubas. These values are encouraging to exploit the solar energy for different applications. This study highlights that the main renewable energy sources in Palestine are solar energy, wind energy and biomass, thereby the energy dependence on neighbouring countries may significantly decrease, when Palestine uses the available renewable energy sources. The renewable energies in Palestine open new perspectives for energy sector in order to prompt practices for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational sector is growing drastically as a result of upward trend of population. These schools require tremendous quantities of energy units to be generated and consumed. As a result, this will impact negatively on the environment by increasing the carbon emissions and depletion of non-renewable energy resources. Moreover, the harsh climate condition contributes substantially to increase the energy consumption in various weather zones in the world. Therefore, several energy efficiency plans have been developed to improve the energy performance of the schools facilities globally. Hence, this paper discusses the energy management program as a sustainable strategy that applicable on the schools. This program is designed for the schools to improve the energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and adopting the best management practices during the operating stages. This research has developed a customized energy management program for one of the schools in UAE. It has concluded the findings by using computerized hourly thermal modeling. The energy model has evaluated the proposed energy conservation measures and the best practices that were generated by the energy management program steps. This case shows that the energy performance could be improved substantially by 35%. Thus, the energy use index of the audited school that adopted the energy management program has reduced from 438 kWh/m 2 /year to 285 kWh/m 2 /year. The proposed energy management program has been articulated in this study as a consecutive and linear progression. This methodology presents several steps to mitigate the carbon emission by addressing the sustainability dimensions; economic, environment and social aspects. This study discusses the steps and the work flow of developing the energy management program and the anticipated outcomes for the school's buildings. The program considers practical ECMs along with the students and teachers participation and interaction. Furthermore, it highlights the success criteria that assure the sustainability of the energy efficiency at the operating life cycle of school's facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to assess the status and progress of rural household energy sustainable development in China. A new composite indicator, rural energy sustainable development index (RESDI), is developed based on the improved grouped principal component analysis method (GPCA) which is the combination utilization of principal component analysis (PCA), factor analysis (FA), and entropy weight method. The improved grouped principal component analysis method keeps the advantages of principal component analysis and factor analysis. To capture the characters of rural energy sustainable development, ten indicators selected based on the criteria presented by OECD are designed to construct the RESDI. The main results are as follows. The RESDI increased from 0.185 in 1991 to 3.189 in 2012. However, the curve of RESDI can be divided into three phases: a slow increase stage between 1991 and 1996, a rapid decrease stage from 1997 to 1998, and a rapid increase stage between 1999 and 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]