Sustainable Futures最新文献

This study examines the electric vehicle (EV) industry's impact on sustainable economic growth (SEG). Using the entropy weight method, it evaluates the EV industry's development and SEG levels. A coupling coordination degree model measures their interaction. Results show a positive trend in both areas, with charging infrastructure expansion and foreign investments being key drivers. The study finds a progressive shift from imbalance to high-quality coordination between the EV industry and SEG, highlighting their increasingly synergistic relationship. This growth in the EV industry fosters technological innovation and drives green advancements throughout the industry chain, thereby enhancing SEG.

Globally, the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement is gaining significant attention. The existing frameworks need to be more standardized and applicable to socio-economic dynamics. A three-phased approach was developed comprised of a comprehensive review and a research survey involving 62 experts. The results showed that the environmental component is ≈5–14 % more important than the social and governance components. The design, operational life, and material sourcing are relatively more important (i.e., ≈14–20 %) than the project type. Risks related to water and air pollution are ≈34–38 % more important than solid wastes. This research offers insights into ESG criteria and metrics.

With the aggravation of global environmental issues and the rise in health consciousness, green consumption behavior (particularly the purchase of green furniture) has become a crucial pathway to promote sustainable development. This study aims to explore how environmental awareness, health consciousness, and personal basic conditions (gender, age, education, and income level) influence the intention to consume green furniture by extending the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Through a survey of 1,024 consumers, the study finds that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively impact green consumption intentions, consistently supporting the basic assumptions of TPB. Further analysis reveals that environmental awareness and health consciousness not only directly influence consumers' purchase intentions but also indirectly promote the intention to buy green furniture by affecting attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Additionally, education and income levels significantly enhance environmental awareness and health consciousness, while the effects of gender and age are relatively limited. These findings highlight the need to comprehensively consider the multidimensional influences of consumers' psychological attitudes, perceived social pressure, personal control, environmental and health consciousness, and personal basic conditions when promoting green consumption behaviors.

China's rural e-commerce (EC) has grown significantly, recognized as a crucial tool for rural development. However, income effects of rural e-commerce vary among different groups of farmers due to their distinct roles and benefits, raising the possibility of a "mean trap" in previous studies whereby regional farmer income averages have been used to indicate rural e-commerce benefits. Using Meta-Regression Analysis (MRA), the study found that the income effect is more common in EC-active minority groups with higher access and participation levels. Enhanced incomes mainly occurred among marketing-oriented farmers, with limited impact at the village level and predominantly at the county level.

Energy aid to Asia Pacific countries seems attractive for decarbonization and renewable energy transition. However, no clear picture has been drawn on the synergetic connections between the energy aid and the transition to renewable energy in the Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) paradigm. Therefore, this study is designed to fill this gap by examining the energy aid and its response to energy transition, measuring it with four sub-indicators of SDG7. Using a robust econometric framework, the empirical findings indicated that total energy aid has substantial potential in transitioning to renewable energy, and the link is more pronounced with energy policy aid and renewable energy aid in the Asia Pacific. The response of energy aid through the moderating effect of government regulatory quality on energy transition is also strong. These results carried similar signs and magnitude across the regional panels, estimates with multiple estimators, including asymmetric analysis, making the results robust for theoretical foundations. The novel findings from this study have scope for policymakers to design a practical policy roadmap for the transition of renewable energy to reach a carbon-neutral globe.

The existing body of literature has extensively investigated and debated the pivotal role of natural resources in the dynamics of economic growth. However, the explicit impact of natural resources on the quality of the environment is yet to be explored comprehensively. Amid this backdrop, this study explores the significant role that natural resources play in the growth processes of OECD member economies and the potential impact on environmental management. For our research model, the data for the OECD member countries (1997–2021) was collected from the “World Development Indicators (WDI)”. We applied econometric tools namely, fixed effects, generalized least squares and two stages least squares for empirical results. A causality exercise based on the Dumitrescu and Hurlin (DH) is conducted to identify the direction causation. Our results show that the use of natural resources adversely impacts the quality of the environment in OECD economies. The square term of natural resources is negative and significant, confirming the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis between the use of natural resources and environmental degradation. When the cubic term of natural resources is entered into the estimated model positively, it shows that the potential shape of the EKC hypothesis is N-shaped. Our results also demonstrate that energy consumption and urbanization have worsened environmental quality, while trade openness and per capita income have improved the quality of the environment in OECD countries. The causality analysis showed several one-way as well as two-ways relationships. Our study's findings provide valuable insights from the OECD economies, which can be used to design and execute policies for managing natural resources to address environmental problems.

Circular Economy (CE) is a necessary intervention for enabling resource efficiency, energy conservation, waste minimization, and sustainability within the construction industry (CI). Among its many facets, circular procurement (CP) is a nascent concept that enables CE in CI. Despite the extensive literature and review studies conducted on CE and its intricacies, critical studies documenting the barriers to the adoption of CP within the CI remain scarce. This study systematically reviews the existing literature on CP in CI retrieved from the Scopus database. A systematic literature review was conducted on 46 shortlisted articles published between 2010-2023 using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol, and the key barriers to the adoption of CP in CI were identified. The results reveal both hard barriers (HB), such as lack of circular design and production, lack of reverse logistics, lack of standardization, lack of reliable information management, and lack of profitable business models, and soft barriers (SB), such as lack of stakeholder engagement, lack of trust on CP routes, resistance to change, perceived performance issues and lack of collaboration as impediments to adoption of CP in CI. Further, the measures and strategies to mitigate the identified barriers were also identified from existing literature that are presented in the current study. Finally, a conceptual framework to facilitate the adoption of CP in CI is presented as a way forward to enable the transition from traditional to circular practices.

Clean and sustainable energy has become a main objective in the modern world. However, achieving clean and sustainable energy required active participation from customers and widespread adoption of Renewable Energy Resources (RERs). Inadequate awareness about the economic benefits of RERs could result in reduced customer engagement and diminished interest from governments in promoting the installation of RERs. The paper proposes an exploration of the economic, environmental, and social benefits associated with the widespread integration of RERs in the power distribution network to effectively address the benefits of widespread RERs integration. It also highlights how this extensive integration of RERs has the potential to foster economic growth in the region and benefit consumers. In addition, the paper examines the power-sharing dynamics between the grid and RERs to analyze the reduction in grid burden, load and energy management, and conduct sensitivity analysis considering various customer responses for the installation of RERs. The paper presents a comprehensive case study that includes four districts within the region of East Kashmir. In the case study, revenue climbed to $103.6 million with a 70% surge in renewable energy use, drastically cutting carbon emissions to 285.8 million kg/year and energy costs to $0.10/kWh. Moreover, energy self-sufficiency was highlighted by a 47% renewable penetration and 110 million kWh sold at 70% customer engagement.

Heritage plays a critical role in sustainability. The absence of studies examining core competencies among UNESCO actors for disaster risk management (DRM) and preparedness in heritage sites prompted this survey. Respondents from 59 countries revealed a high rating of all listed competencies with significant discrepancies concerning relationship-building requiring attention. Additionally, substantial variations in competencies were linked to factors such as age, job positions, and previous experiences with disaster damages. Holistic DRM proficiency is the primary predictor of disaster preparedness within heritage sites. Thus, enhancing preparedness through experiential learning and coordinated knowledge-sharing mechanisms will preserve our collective heritage for sustainable futures.

The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) have been significantly adopted over the last three decades as a mechanism for the delivery and financing of projects. Various infrastructure project types in the energy and the transport sectors have adopted this procurement system for their ‘anticipated’ effectiveness in risk distribution and value for money. Yet, their acclaimed benefits, particularly in ensuring value for money in the waste to energy – or energy-from-wastes (EfW) – sector are under significant scrutiny. Governments and investors are increasingly questioning their fiscal efficiency and overall benefit to taxpayers. Despite these concerns, studies investigating whether PFI provides value of money of PFI in EfW are lacking. This study addresses this gap by comparing the PFI models used in the UK and Canada in currently operative EfW projects using mixed risk epistemology approach combining methods that provide both a real and objective evaluation of issues and risks and a subjective (or opinion-based) evaluation. The former is achieved through a quantitative probabilistic model for simulating EfW feasibility at the operation phase. The quantitative probabilistic model is capable to model and capture how operational phase costs and profitability are affected by lifecycle risks (such as quality of service driven by contractual requirements that are usually passed on to the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) contractor) and a range of technical, payment and incentive dynamic variables and their fluctuations. If the impact of these variables is not considered and modelled accurately, the O&M contractor could incur significant losses undermining the viability of the EfW project. The latter employs a psychometric methodology to delve into the primary concerns of professionals involved in EfW projects regarding associated risks. The results show that common O&M risks identified in EfW PPP projects in UK and Canada prevail around unplanned maintenance, infeed waste reduction, market price, unsustainable debts, and policy changes.