Research concerning energy transition has grown at a high pace over the past decade, exploring a variety of topics. This paper provides a systematic literature review focused on the factors and policy routes that can support and expedite the transition to a low-carbon energy paradigm. The results of the bibliographic search follow a theoretical organizational lens and are grouped into four main categories – economic, technological, social, and policy. Key findings include the role of environmental policy as the crucial driver for progress, as well as the need for active participation from industry, economic, and policy agents, along with energy experts. In addition, the lack of literature regarding developing and lower-income nations is highlighted. A discussion and practical implications of the results are provided within the context of the four main categories and with a prosperous post-transition society in mind. Our findings are relevant for policymakers, administrators, and all stakeholders involved in integrating low-carbon initiatives and policies within their organizational structures.
The contemporary corporate landscape is undergoing a major shift, marked by a dual transformation toward sustainability and intelligent automation. As the world faces complex social and environmental challenges, entrepreneurs find themselves at a crossroads of unprecedented opportunities and daunting challenges. This study addresses the critical point where sustainability intersects with business automation, focusing on the complicated dynamics that entrepreneurs must navigate. The main concern is the need for entrepreneurs to effectively infuse the principles of sustainability and intelligent automation into their businesses. Recognizing the growing demand for environmentally conscious products and services alongside the profound impact of automation, entrepreneurs face the pressing challenge of crafting strategies that holistically embrace these paradigms. Thus, the study aims to discern the multifaceted landscape of entrepreneurial endeavors in this context. Methodologically, a combination of qualitative interviews with experienced entrepreneurs and quantitative surveys from various industries will be used, followed by thematic analysis to highlight general patterns. The study is based on a fusion of sustainable business frameworks and technology adoption models that support the exploration of entrepreneurial resilience in the context of sustainability and automation. The outcomes include an enriched understanding of the complex interplay between these dimensions and the discovery of strategies that fuel entrepreneurial triumph. This study’s exploration of the intersection of sustainability, automation, and entrepreneurship resonates deeply with the principles of the green economy. By dissecting the challenges and strategies entrepreneurs use to embrace sustainability and automation, the research contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on sustainable business practices within a burgeoning green economy. The findings will assist policy makers by providing useful information to cultivate an environment conducive to sustainable, technology-based entrepreneurship.
Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) are being disproportionately affected by climate change. While no country wants to accept legal liability for their emissions, the Caribbean region faces an urgent need to mobilize financing to address loss and damage. This study proposed a voluntary insurance to address the loss and damage from climate change. Voluntary insurance can be used to pool risk across countries and make a payout to cover the loss from extreme weather events. The insurance payout could be parametric, which can eliminate the trouble assessing of losses in indemnity insurance. The key features affecting the trigger for the payout could be the occurrence of the named peril, and meteorological data such as precipitation. The size of the payout would be determined by estimating the loss and damage of Caribbean SIDS from extreme weather events. The premium could be based on solidarity and thus can be the average cost of the total payout per annum. Wavelet coherence could be used to measure the dependence between the precipitation and loss and damage estimate rather than correlation. Payouts to governments provide crucial financial resources for rebuilding infrastructure more sustainably.
The global obesity rate has risen at an alarming rate in recent decades, and “fatness” has become an increasingly serious public health problem. At the same time, the loss of working hours and increased medical costs caused by air pollution have a wide range of direct and indirect effects on the health of the population and the macroeconomy. Against this background, using data from the China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) and thermal inversion as instrumental variables, this study analyzes the effect of air pollution on the risk of obesity among residents. We employ a two-stage least squares method to identify the effects of air pollution on the risk of obesity. The findings indicate that for a 1 μg/m3 increase in the annual average PM2.5 concentration at the county level, the obesity level increases significantly by 0.0286. This result is credible after a series of robustness checks; male groups, less-educated groups, and rural residents are more sensitive to the negative effects of air pollution. Finally, policy suggestions are provided.
The Hindu Kush Himalayan region presents an immense opportunity for implementing decentralized, sustainable energy solutions that rely on renewable energy (RE) sources. However, the region remains vulnerable to energy poverty due to inadequate capacity at various levels for deploying RE and energy efficiency (EE) solutions in mountainous areas. To achieve sustainable economic, social, and environmental performance, a thorough understanding of capacity development in RE and EE deployment within the value chain concept is crucial. This paper introduces a capacity needs assessment framework for the mountainous context, which was developed and applied to Nepal’s cardamom value chain to explore the interplay of different core capabilities at individual and organizational levels. The survey study aimed to identify the specific capacity requirements necessary for the effective deployment of RE and EE solutions in the cardamom value chain. The analysis revealed significant capacity development needs on core capabilities affecting RE and EE deployment within the value chain, including technical skills, knowledge transfer, institutional strengthening, and policy development. The study also identifies challenges encountered when implementing RE and EE solutions in the cardamom value chain, such as financial constraints, technical challenges, and lack of awareness and education. Based on the study’s findings, policymakers can design and implement effective capacity development initiatives that address the identified gaps and challenges and promote the deployment and implementation of RE and EE solutions in Nepal’s mountain regions. This framework’s applicability can extend to other value chains, such as tourism, dairy, poultry, and transportation sectors, by considering appropriate study dimensions and key indicators for value chain analysis.
The reduction of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a priority due to climate change. Scientists across disciplines promote carbon taxation or carbon pricing as an instrument to mitigate the negative externality of fossil energies. We exhibit two insufficiencies of today’s regulatory policy by utilizing a novel natural experiment. First, carbon taxation is only effective if it is implemented on a global scale because fossil energy markets and emissions are cross-border and global. Second, carbon taxation is based on an extrinsic mechanism and does not alter intrinsic behavior sustainably. Our applied theory and modeling approach are corroborating these findings. The present regulatory approach is doomed to fail due to overambitious European countries and unambitious (partly realistic) rest of the world. Our interdisciplinary analysis unravels a new agenda to achieve the essential aim. What is needed is a global climate club, as proposed by Nobel Laureate William Nordhaus, with a least but global GHG reduction.
Today, the cement industry has gone through a growing trend. Achieving the country’s economic development, social development, and cultural development goals is essential. However, in line with these benefits, the environmental damage caused by cement factories is inevitable. In the present research, which was carried out to reduce environmental losses, value flow mapping and simulation by Arena software were used in two stages. It was determined in the first stage using the current simulated situation and the waste and environmental pollution created. Then by redrawing the future value flow map and using experts’ opinions, the amount of reduced pollution caused by some measures was estimated. Then, in the second stage a new simulation was done to evaluate the reduced environmental pollution. The results of this research showed that by using the methods mentioned above in the primary production line process of the cement company, about 30% of waste and pollutions were reduced.
This study examines the influence of consumers’ subjective knowledge, environmental attitude perceived usefulness and socio- demographics on their intentions to accept biobased products as an alternative to fossil based products. The study employs a five-point Likert scale questionnaire-based survey (N = 465) conducted in Lagos, Nigeria in the year 2022. Both descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) are employed in fulfilling the study objectives. Acceptance of biobased products is influenced by individual-level socio- demographic and psychological factors. Male respondents exhibited a greater perceived usefulness from biobased products and higher intention to accept biobased products compared to their female counterparts. Additionally, the Silent generation, similar to residents in peri-urban areas, showed a more favorable perceived usefulness and a stronger intention to accept biobased products than other generational cohorts. The strong positive relationship between perceived usefulness and intention to accept biobased products is in agreement with technological innovation acceptance studies. The findings are interpreted relative to industry and societal implications including the need to make individual oriented strategies the centerpiece of bioeconomy policies and promotional campaigns in order to enhance acceptance of biobased products.
Humanity is currently confronted with unprecedented environmental challenges, prompting an urgent shift toward the widespread adoption of clean energy. Among the diverse alternatives, ammonia stands out as a highly promising candidate due to its relatively high volumetric energy density, advanced technical readiness level, and well-established infrastructure with established standards. However, the safety of ammonia transport via pipelines demands particular attention, as several past accidents have shown. Given the inherent risks associated with ammonia pipeline accidents, a thorough safety analysis is essential, especially for densely populated countries like Singapore. While Singapore explores using ammonia, a detailed assessment of potential pipeline leaks is currently lacking. To address this, this study employed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations using Phast software. Simulations modeled ammonia leaks at various pressures and weather conditions, and the results highlighted the significant hazards of ammonia leaks, including toxicity and flammability. Notably, the potential hazardous zone resulting from these leaks could span up to 1,000 meters. Furthermore, the study proposes effective countermeasures based on insights derived from the simulations, offering valuable perspectives to enhance safety and efficiency in clean energy applications. These measures include the implementation of safety instrumented systems, among others. The results from this study lay the groundwork for future laboratory-based experiments aimed at improving the safety of ammonia pipelines.
This study examines the dynamic effects of tourism and institutional governance along with other variables on CO2 emission (COE) in the 15 selected European Union (EU) economies over the period 1995–2018. The novel empirical evidence of this study is twofold. First, countries’ bloc effect is controlled based on the entry and exit information of EU countries, and second, in order to capture and better apprehend the aspects of institutional quality meaningful for carbon-neutral tourism in sample countries, interaction effects of tourism receipts and index of institutional quality are examined. For the robust results, non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), fixed effects, and generalized method of moment-based models are estimated, wherein the results of the non-linear ARDL approach reveal that there are no asymmetric effects of tourism and institutional quality, which intrinsically affect pollution. Specifically, the findings reveal that tourism development and trade openness can reduce COE. Also, there is evidence of the existence of an environmental Kuznets curve in the region. Though institutional quality alone has been found to have an unfavorable impact on the environment, the interaction term of tourism and institutional quality into the framework reveals a significant and negative impact on COE in the selected region. Therefore, it is suggested that the EU economies should develop effective strategies to improve their present institutional governance framework in such a manner that will help to promote tourism, green purchase intentions of tourists, economic development, trade liberalization, and environmental quality.