Energy, Ecology and Environment最新文献

Offshore wind energy is increasingly becoming an important part of European and global low-emission power systems. The aims of this paper are to create a shared understanding on the major drivers of offshore wind development in Finland and to explore how these drivers, and opportunities for the entire industry, may develop over the twenty-first century, under different global futures. This research develops extended shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) narratives for the offshore wind industry by using a virtual participatory workshop with expert stakeholders. According to our results, the five key drivers shaping the prospects of offshore wind development are public acceptability of offshore energy, global and national demand for low-emission energy, technological development and relative competitiveness of offshore energy, availability of space and wind resources, and energy markets and transmission infrastructure. Nationally extended SSP narratives, building on these key drivers, describe a wide range of alternative future risks and opportunities for developing offshore energy. Under sustainable development (SSP1), offshore wind is likely to soon become a major source of energy in the area, if developed in a balanced manner alongside other uses of the marine space. Under fossil-fuelled development (SSP5), offshore wind grows slower and may experience rapid uptake only in the latter half of the century. Under the regional rivalry scenario (SSP3), the need for local energy sources drives the national energy policies and may create new opportunities for offshore wind. Under the inequality scenario (SSP4), local municipalities and the residents decide on locations of new wind turbines and the overall magnitude of future offshore wind.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40974-022-00252-7.

Pollution-free rivers give indication of a healthy ecosystem. The stretch of Tawi river particularly in the Jammu city is experiencing pollution load and the quality is degraded. The present study highlights the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the water quality of Tawi river in Jammu, J&K Union Territory. Water quality data based upon the real-time water monitoring for four locations (Below Tawi Bridge, Bhagwati Nagar, Belicharana and Surajpur) have been obtained from the web link of Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Board. The important parameters used in the present study include pH, alkalinity, hardness, conductivity, BOD and COD. The river was designated fit for bathing in all the monitoring locations except Bhagwati Nagar which recorded a BOD value >5 mg/L because of domestic sewage and municipal waste dumping. The overall water quality in the river during lockdown was good and falls in Class B with pH (7.0-8.5), alkalinity (23.25-185.0 mg/L), hardness (84.25-177.5 mg/L), conductivity (117-268 ms/cm). The improved water quality obtained during lockdown is never long-lasting as evident from the BOD and COD values observed during Unlock 1.0 due to accelerated anthropogenic activities in response to overcoming the economic loss, bringing the river water quality back to the degraded state. The statistical analysis known as cluster analysis has also been performed to evaluate the homogeneity of various monitoring sites based on the physicochemical variables. The need of the hour is to address the gaps of rejuvenation strategies and work over them for effective river resiliency and for sustainable river basin management.

The construction of a 'zero-waste city' is a flagship policy to accelerate the development of a green, low-carbon circular economy system in China. Enhancing social participation is an important dimension to evaluate the effect of 'zero-waste city' policy construction and an effective way to promote the full achievement of correct waste classification, management, and supervision of solid waste. Based on policy communication theory, this paper aims to take advantage of social media to quantitatively measure the environment policy communication effect and provide a comprehensive panoramic measurement from dynamic characteristics and trend, communication scope, attributes of communicators, and contents dimensions. Based on post data related to 'zero-waste city' on Weibo platforms from June 2018 to November 2020, this paper innovatively constructs a measurement system of environmental policy communication that combines social media data with social network analysis and text topic analysis. Results show that from the angle of communication trend, a 'zero-waste city' public environment policy is continuously promoted on social media with an increasingly growing volume and is a subject of wide concern for the public. This study confirms the value of social media data in assessing environment policy communication effect and presents several policy implications: Government departments should strengthen environmental policy communication by using Weibo and other social media tools to improve the public's attention toward the policy and increase their participation in environmental governance; focus on people's livelihood interest in policy communication content; strengthen the interaction of the public with the content of policies by using a popular and understandable public discourse system and encourage multiple social subjects to participate in policy communication and strengthen the communication of the 'zero-waste' cultural concept.

Obsolete electronics or E-waste has observed significant escalation in the recent years. Young adults, in particular, are one of the largest consumers of electronic equipments in the contemporary world, although research on their perceptions, awareness and disposal behavior of E-waste has been far and few in between. Considering the growth trajectory of E-waste in the emerging economies, a study has been carried out in the capital city of India, New Delhi with 1039 respondents in the age group of 18-22. Contemplating its aggressive generation, obsolete mobile phone was considered as a representative of E-waste. Both purchase and disposal behaviors of mobile phones were evaluated through the lens of theoretical frameworks such as conspicuous consumption and throwaway society. The concepts of planned and premature obsolescence were also explored. A structured questionnaire survey was carried out through a respondent driven snowball sampling method. We observed that the functional need is the foremost consideration while deciding to purchase a new mobile phone within our study sample. Over 49% of our respondents change their mobile phones between 1 and 3 years. This corresponds to the fact that mobile phones are discarded very much within their actual functional lifespan. Overall, it could be concluded that the major attributes of conspicuous consumption and a throwaway society are still not dominant in our study sample. The experiences of India's E-waste have the potential to provide important insights for policy formulation and sustainable management particularly in other emerging economies and developing countries.

This study investigates the behaviour of residential demand for electricity, employing a pseudo-panel methodology. The case of Greece, over the period 2009-2018, is taken as an example for our empirical investigation. The empirical analysis uses annual household panel data for the construction of 330 cohorts. The specification of cohorts is based on the date of birth, education level and geographical location of the head of the household. The econometric analysis is carried out using static and dynamic specifications and a quantile regression model. The results show that residential demand for electricity is price and income inelastic, both in the short and the long run. Electricity and heating oil appear to be complementary energy sources, while the household size and the education level are important determinants of residential demand for electricity. Income status has a marginal effect on demand for electricity, and the impact of urbanisation is insignificant. The quantile regression results show that, as the level of electricity use increases, demand for electricity becomes less income responsive and more price responsive. Our results show that a mix of structural energy measures along with economic policies could result in a decrease in electricity use and improve energy efficiency.