Environmental pollution of China to foreign investors: detrimental or beneficial?

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study investigates the dynamic linkage among foreign direct investment, energy consumption, and environmental pollution of China spanning from...     

Towards sustainable consumption: Predicting the impact of social‐psychological factors on energy conservation intentions in Northern Cyprus

The incessant demand and consumption of energy services among individuals’ is increasing throughout the world. Individuals’ electricity consumption in Northern Cyprus has risen considerably. However, the demand for electrical energy services on the island is heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels has adverse effects on its environment. Therefore, sustainable energy consumption is required and individuals are targeted for energy conservation to reduce electricity consumption. Against this background, using the Structural Equation Modeling approach, this research incorporates social‐psychological factors; personal norms, positive and negative emotions into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to assess the relationships among the variables, explain their impact on consumers’ electricity conservation intentions and enhance the explanatory power of the model. Data was conveniently obtained from a quantitative sample of 400 electricity consumers. The results indicate that negative emotions have the strongest significant influence on intentions, but personal norms have the least effect on intentions to save electricity. Furthermore, the study revealed that our expanded TPB model can provide improved explanatory power more than the original TPB. Policy implications, limitations and future research are discussed.     

Ghana's salt industry: A neglected sector for economic development?

The case of poverty in the abundance of plenty mostly extant in resource rich countries is also evident along the coast of Ghana. Despite the huge salt production potential of the country’s coast, the renewable resource remains highly untapped as output levels are less than 10% of potential output. Meanwhile many of the indigenes of coastal communities wallow in poverty amidst high levels of unemployment. Findings of this study reveal that key obstacles inhibiting the growth of the sector relates to land acquisition, lack of investment, and low level of technology adoption. The study therefore recommends a mix of strategies aimed at rejuvenating the sector to achieve optimum harnessing of salt deposits. This would help diversify the export markets of Ghana and help her industrialization drive towards achieving an upper-middle income country status in the short-to-medium-term.     

The influence of technological innovation and human capital on environmental efficiency among different regions in Asia-Pacific

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - This study employs super-efficiency DEA model with desirable inputs and an undesirable output in calculating environmental efficiency values in...     

Responsiveness of Ada Sea Defence Project to salt water intrusion associated with sea level rise

The Ada peninsular in Ghana has suffered rapid coastal erosion and inundation for over half a century, accompanied by loss of property and livelihoods, economic stagnation and salt water intrusion. Government intervened to respond to these threats by implementing a sea defence project. A preliminary assessment indicates the project will deal with some urgent needs of property loss reduction and invigorate livelihood and economic opportunities. However, it will have minimal beneficial impacts on groundwater salinization, and may actually intensify salinity of surface water in the Volta River and adjoining water points by shifting salinity intrusion further upstream to affect hitherto salinity-free areas. The spatial reach of the salinity shift is uncertain. The potential for further sea level rise will aggravate and accentuate the region’s water scarcity dilemma if a coherent water management strategy is not sort sooner. The project demonstrates the limitations of employing static, narrow objectively designed sea defence project as a response to coastal erosion and inundation, because it lacks the capacity to deal with dynamism, complexity and multi-dimensional impacts associated with climate change related sea level rise.     

Comparison of municipal solid waste management systems in Canada and Ghana: A case study of the cities of London, Ontario, and Kumasi, Ghana

Integrated waste management has been accepted as a sustainable approach to solid waste management in any region. It can be applied in both developed and developing countries. The difference is the approach taken to develop the integrated waste management system. This review looks at the integrated waste management system operating in the city of London, Ontario-Canada and how lessons can be drawn from the system’s development and operation that will help implement a sustainable waste management system in the city of Kumasi, Ghana. The waste management system in London is designed such that all waste generated in the city is handled and disposed of appropriately. The responsibility of each sector handling waste is clearly defined and monitored. All major services are provided and delivered by a combination of public and private sector forces.The sustainability of the waste management in the city of London is attributed to the continuous improvement strategy framework adopted by the city based on the principles of integrated waste management. It is perceived that adopting a strategic framework based on the principles of integrated waste management with a strong political and social will, can transform the current waste management in Kumasi and other cities in developing countries in the bid for finding lasting solutions to the problems that have plagued the waste management system in these cities.     

Coastal zone management challenges in Ghana: issues associated with coastal sediment mining

Coastal erosion is a serious environmental problem that has caused the loss of private infrastructure and national assets along Ghana’s coast. Several hard engineering measures have thus been used to protect some communities and vital state assets when they became threatened. Regardless of this problem, sediment mining activities are increasingly practiced along most of Ghana’s coast, further exacerbating coastal erosion intensity and degrading coastal ecosystems. This paper provides an overview of the activities of coastal sediment miners along four administrative Districts in the Central Region of Ghana and identifies how issues arising from the practice are managed at the local community level as well as by state environmental regulators. The study uses a mixed-method approach, involving individual and group interviews, administration of a set of structured questionnaire and field observations, to identify coastal sediment mining and emerging management issues. Overall, three main categories of coastal sediment mining activities were identified in the area. Results indicate that coastal sediment mining is widely practiced by both commercial contractors and community members, giving rise to the high perception among residents that it is the reason for the degradation of the coastline in the studied areas. The study also established that state environmental regulators have weak inter-agency cooperation leading to poor enforcement of environmental laws and non-prosecution of offending individuals. The paper suggests that since each identified sediment mining activity has its own peculiar issues and mode of operation, coastal managers should address each category independently in order to derive lasting impacts in curtailing the practice.     

Investigation on key contributors of energy consumption in dynamic heterogeneous panel data (DHPD) model for African countries: fresh evidence from dynamic common correlated effect (DCCE) approach

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The main aim of this current study is to empirically scrutinize the determinants of energy consumption for 24 African countries sub-grouped into three...     

The connection between urbanization and carbon emissions: a panel evidence from West Africa

Environment, Development and Sustainability - This study examined the nexus between urbanization and carbon emissions in West Africa. Second-generation econometric techniques that are robust to...