Novel technologies for the sustainable development of energy, water and environmental systems

Abstract

Environmental crisis is becoming an increasingly important topic with urgent solutions required to mitigate climate changes and eventually reverse them in a positive direction. Several different policies have been adopted recently throughout the world in an effort to follow Sustainable Development Goals. The International Centre for Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) is one of the leading organizations aiming to improve and disseminate knowledge on methods, policies and technologies for increasing the transition by de-coupling growth from natural resources and introducing knowledge-based economy, while including economic, environmental and social sectors. SDEWES is holding yearly conferences, where scholars from all over the world gather to exchange information, present new ideas and form working partnerships with a common goal of developing novel technologies for sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems. The current Virtual Special Issue (VSI) of the Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments is dedicated to the SDEWES 2023 conference in Dubrovnik, which brought together 646 scientists, researchers and experts in the field of sustainable development from 58 countries and six continents. This editorial covers the papers accepted in the SETA VSI edition for the 2023 SDEWES conference. The papers represent thorough investigations on the latest technology advancements and methodological approaches aimed to move towards a sustainable energy use and reduce its environmental impact in the area of sustainable energy and material efficiency. Only high-quality archival papers from the conference, rigorously chosen based on scientific quality standards of the Journal, were accepted.