Causes of energy poverty in a cold and resource-rich country: evidence from Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is an upper-middle-income country and one of the coldest countries in the world with rich energy resources and energy prices considerably lower than in developed countries. This paper presents the first comprehensive overview of household fuel use in Kazakhstan and assesses the causes and extent of energy poverty using the Households Living Conditions Survey dataset of 12,000 households. The results show that there is an overwhelming reliance on coal in Kazakhstan: 40% of all surveyed households use coal for heating, cooking and other needs. In general, liquefied petroleum gas is mainly used for cooking, coal and firewood for heating, while electricity is rarely used for heating. Energy poverty was less prevalent in oil and gas rich regions, due to low gas prices and higher income levels in those regions, while households located in the North Kazakhstan, Central and East Kazakhstan mainly suffer from lack of cleaner fuel options, income poverty, longer and colder winters and consequently energy affordability. Despite low energy prices in Kazakhstan, the results demonstrate that 28% of surveyed households spend more than 10% of their income on energy. Gas and district heating infrastructure coverage and income inequality across its regions contributed the most to energy poverty in Kazakhstan. Energy prices are regulated and indirectly subsidised. Removing energy subsidies alone may worsen energy affordability of households. Offering direct subsidies to cover part of the energy expenditures may not fully solve the problem, but subsidies, interventions for efficient technologies and fuels, dwelling energy-efficiency improvements are necessary.     

Reducing carbon emissions in Portugal: the relative roles of fossil fuel prices,energy efficiency,and carbon taxation

We assess the role of fossil fuel prices, energy efficiency, and carbon taxation in achieving climate policy goals using a dynamic general-equilibrium model of the Portuguese economy. Given the forecasts for international fossil fuel prices, improving energy efficiency and implementing a new carbon tax have significantly different economic and budgetary effects. Greater energy efficiency reduces emissions and has a positive economic effect, but increases public and foreign debt. A carbon tax reduces emissions at a cost for the economy, but leads to positive effects on public and foreign debt. Thus, it is important to pursue both strategies. We estimate that under the reference-price scenario, a steady energy efficiency gain of 2%–2.5% per year and a carbon tax of at least 35 € per tCO₂ are needed to achieve the stated goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 by an amount equivalent to 40% of the emissions in 1990. These views were fully integrated in a proposal presented by the Commission for Environmental Tax Reform to the Portuguese Government in September 2014, and then discussed in Parliament in November 2014, before enacting a new carbon tax on 1 January 2015.     

Reducing carbon,tackling fuel poverty: adoption and performance of air-source heat pumps in East Yorkshire,UK

Deploying heating technologies, such as air-source heat pumps (ASHPs), can respond to the dual challenges of tackling fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions from domestic energy consumption. In the UK, ASHP performance has been found to be below design levels. Elements of three strands of literature – innovation diffusion, environmental psychology and neighbourhood effects – are combined to gain insights into why the adoption and performance of ASHPs are lagging policy targets and design potential. Evidence from users, installers and area-based scheme facilitators suggests that the perceived complexity of the technology is a barrier. The level of technology maturity and the typical profile of the elderly fuel poor do not match; the target group might prefer to be late adopters or laggards in adopting technology. The role of installers is critical as the disruption from installation is a barrier to adoption and ASHPs place demands on users to change existing practices.     

Greenhouse gas emissions and poverty alleviation nexus in the Economic Commission of West African States

This paper investigates the nexus between greenhouse gas emissions and poverty alleviation in the Economic Commission of West African States between 1985 and 2020 applying autoregressive distributed lag and Granger causality techniques. The results reveal that carbon dioxide non-significantly relates to gross domestic product per capita positively while nitrous oxide and foreign direct investment impacts gross domestic product per capita positively. Methane negatively impacts gross domestic product per capita. The governments should use conventions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions’ effects on environmental degradation regionally and globally. The study underscores that countries should diversify to cleaner energy sources. This would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. Massive technological investment is required to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions’ negative impacts on the environment which create poverty. This policy implication ensures environmental sustainability and reverses the ugly trend of greenhouse gas emissions on poverty.     

Southwest climate gap: poverty and environmental justice in the US Southwest

This article examines the “climate gap” in the Southwest US (Arizona and New Mexico), referring to the “disproportionate and unequal implications of climate change and climate change mitigation” for “people of color and the poor” [Shonkoff, S.B., et al., 2011. The climate gap: environmental health and equity implications of climate change mitigation policies in California. Climatic Change, 109 (Suppl. 1), S485–S503]. The climate and poverty relationship is examined using multi-scaled analysis across three indicators of climate vulnerability, focusing on connections to health, food, and energy during the period 2010–2012. We provide an overview of climate-related social vulnerability in the Southwest based on available federal, state, and county-level census data. We then summarise the results from a stakeholder workshop and in-depth interviews about climate vulnerabilities with social service providers in southern Arizona. We identify a significant Southwest climate gap based on census data and interview findings about climate vulnerability especially relating to high levels of poverty, health disparities, and increasing costs for energy, water, and food. We find that grassroots and community organisations have mobilised to respond to climate and social vulnerability, yet resources for mitigation and adaptation are insufficient given the high level of need. Confronting a changing climate that is projected to be hotter, drier, and with the potential to reach new thresholds, we suggest that more research needs to be done to understand the social and spatial characteristics of climate risk and how low-income populations embody and experience climate risk, and adapt to a changing climate.     

Sustainable agriculture and eradication of rural poverty in Pakistan

Poverty is rampant in the rural areas of Pakistan, where people are in a state of deprivation with regard to incomes, clothing, housing, healthcare, education, sanitary facilities and human rights. Agriculture generates nearly 20.9 percent of the country's GDP and provides employment for 43.4 percent of its workforce. Most importantly, 65.9 percent of the population living in rural areas is directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. Rising population, shrinking agricultural land, increasing demand for water resources, widespread land degradation and inadequate infrastructure appear to be major concerns of the agriculture sector in Pakistan. An attempt has been made to examine the population growth–agriculture growth–poverty alleviation linkage. It is argued that agriculture will continue to be one of the most important sectors of Pakistan's economy for years to come. To alleviate poverty, it is suggested that Pakistan enhance the productivity of the agriculture sector through the provision of a series of inputs including provision of easy credit to the small farmer, availability of quality fertilizers and pesticides, tractor and harvester services, improvement in the effectiveness of the vast irrigation system and, finally, farmer education. It is concluded that the high rate of population growth needs to be curbed for increased agricultural productivity to have any significant effect on poverty in rural areas of Pakistan.     

Fuel poverty and vulnerability in the EU low-carbon transition: the case of renewable electricity

The European Union (EU) and member states alike are following a tradition of addressing fuel poverty and vulnerability at the point of purchase by final consumers by seeking to influence the impact of income, energy price and the built environment on the ability of household consumers to access the energy that they need. By focusing on the conditions of energy transmission in the most rapidly growing renewable electricity sector in the UK – offshore wind – this paper aims to question whether the regulatory socio-technological framing of renewable electricity transmission is reproducing conditions for fuel poverty and vulnerability in the UK. By drawing a comparison with renewable electricity transmission in Bulgaria, this paper argues that the problem might be symptomatic of the EU as a whole. While not arguing against the proliferation of renewable electricity and its importance in meeting the 2020 targets, this paper calls for expanding the scope of fuel poverty alleviation policy throughout the whole renewable electricity supply chain, building on Helm's argument that energy companies at the middle of the supply chain are better suited to deliver fuel policy.     

Constraints to managing urban and housing land in the context of poverty: a case of Epworth settlement in Zimbabwe

This paper makes a proposition that Epworth's current housing management policies, regulations and practices do not promote easy access to formal standard housing and secure tenure in peri-urban and urban areas for low-income groups. In constructing this paper, both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used. The qualitative methods adopted include key informant interviews, observations of the environmental aspects of the study area and documentary analysis of secondary data housed in the local board (Epworth Local Board) offices. The major findings demonstrate the reasons for high levels of squatting in Epworth, the local board's housing and development control policy, the relationship between poverty and informal settlements, the informal settlers' capacity to meet the costs of planned and serviced stands and policy options for both the central government and the local board which can be adopted to alleviate poverty in informal settlements. Evidence on the ground points to the fact that perpetuated animosity among groups in a settlement hinders the growth and development of that place. Epworth is a victim of disharmony of the groups residing there. It is the group dynamics that are very influential in making or breaking development in a place. The government official position on Epworth in this study stands unconvincing regarding the jeopardy of bad stewardship by the so-called responsible authority.     

Greening the Brazil,Russia, India,China and South Africa (BRICS) economies: Assessing the impact of electricity consumption,natural resources,and renewable energy on environmental footprint

Electricity consumption is a crucial factor in the environmental pollution process, and therefore, its impact needs to be carefully considered by policymakers. This study investigates the relationship between energy consumption, electricity generation, natural resource utilization, and environmental pollution in BRICS nations, which have a substantial share in global resource consumption. To this end, we employed a novel methodology, namely the Method of Moment Quantile Regression (MMQR), for the time period between 1990 and 2018, within the framework of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory. The study's outcome shows that natural resources and renewable energy are efficacious and significant in curbing environmental degradation among the sample countries. The investigation reveals a positive correlation between electricity consumption and environmental degradation, thereby highlighting this vital resource's role in exacerbating the BRICS nations’ ecological footprint. The findings from this research can provide crucial insights for policymakers to achieve sustainable development and carbon neutrality in these countries.     

Toward sustainable use of natural resources: Nexus between resource rents,affluence, energy intensity and carbon emissions in developing and transition economies

Sustainable use of natural resources would entail ensuring that derived economic benefits today do not undermine the welfare of generations to come. On this basis, this study examines the nexus between natural resource rents and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions disaggregated into production and consumption-based (i.e., trade-adjusted) CO₂ emissions for a selected panel of 45 developing and transition economies over the period 1995–2017. The empirical model also incorporates the impacts of population, affluence, and energy intensity. The results show that affluence increases production-based CO₂ emissions by 1.407%, with the EKC's predicted inverted U-shaped curve only explaining consumption-based CO₂ emissions. Economic reliance on natural resource rents and energy intensification contribute 0.022% and 0.766%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in territorial production inventories and 0.035% and 0.583%, respectively, to CO₂ emissions embedded in consumption inventories. The bootstrap non-causality test shows that historical data on each variable has significant predictive power for future CO₂ emissions from both sources. The historical information about natural resource rents has significant predictive power over the future levels of affluence and energy intensity. Clearly, the results show that the environmental impact of natural resource rents is stronger when CO₂ emissions are adjusted for trade and varies among the countries, with Bangladesh, Guinea, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe among the most affected countries. Overall, this study provides motivation for policies to keep the use of natural resources within sustainable limits.     

我国天然气分布式能源产业政策发展及相关建议

天然气分布式能源具有能效高、清洁环保、安全性好、削峰填谷等诸多优点。发展天然气分布式能源是扩大天然气应用和实现资源就地转化的重要方向和选择,是我国能源发展战略的一部分,同时也能够提升天然气优化利用水平,提高能源利用效率,促进节能减排和绿色低碳发展,深化能源行业及电力行业供给侧结构性改革。对我国天然气分布式能源产业政策进行详细分析,对江苏、上海、浙江等重点地区天然气分布式能源项目调研基础上,系统提出当前天然气分布式能源存在的问题,并在合理布局、天然气价格市场化、经济政策、核心技术研发等多方面提出相关政策建议。     

Questioning the local: environmental regulation,shale gas extraction,and the politics of scale

ABSTRACT

The exploration and potential extraction of shale gas – better known as fracking – has emerged as one of the most contentious dimensions to local environmental politics in the UK. Local residents and environmental activists have raised concerns about health, noise, ground water contamination, seismicity, environmental amenity, and other impacts of the industry on communities. Despite the complexities of shale gas extraction, an emphasis on the local has shaped key dimensions of the debate around the appropriate location for well pads to the relative exclusion of other issues. This paper draws on fieldwork in Lancashire, UK, to reflect on the political construction of scale in order to explore how an emphasis on “the local” can restrict political debate over shale gas to narrow concerns with land-use planning thereby obviating a fuller engagement with wider questions concerning risk, energy policy, and climate change. It is concluded that a more nuanced conception of scale is necessary for understanding how concerns with shale gas are diminished rather than strengthened through the current planning policy and regulatory regime operating in the UK.     

Environmental policy stringency,renewable energy consumption and CO2 emissions: Panel cointegration analysis for BRIICTS countries

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between environmental policy stringency and CO₂ emissions in BRIICTS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, Turkey and South Africa) for the period 1993–2014 after controlling for renewable energy, fossil energy, oil prices and income. We believe that this is the first attempt to use the recently OECD-developed environmental policy stringency index to test the effectiveness of environmental stringency policy in reducing CO₂ emission in these countries. Applying the Panel Pooled Mean Group Autoregressive Distributive Lag (PMG-ARDL) estimator, we found an inverted U–shaped relationship between environmental policy stringency and CO₂ emissions. This suggests that initially strict stringent environmental policy does not lead to improvements in the environment but after a certain level or a threshold point, environmental stringency policy leads to improvement in environmental quality. Renewable energy consumption was negatively related to CO₂ emissions while fossil energy consumption and real oil prices and income were positively and significantly related to CO₂. Our findings suggest that strengthening the stringency of environmental policies and promoting renewable energy are effective ways of preventing environmental degradation in BRIICTS countries.     

Drivers of social equity in renewable energy at the municipal level: the case of local Japanese energy policy and preferences

ABSTRACT

Recent research has allowed us to quantify the costs and benefits of adopting renewable energy in specific municipalities, but how do these outcomes vary among communities at the national scale? This study uses survey responses from 47 Japanese municipalities to model these impacts and identifies key technological, social, and demographic factors that shape which communities benefit more from the renewable energy transition. On average, introducing renewable energy improves social equity, any financial burden on electricity prices is born most by wealthier residents, not the poor, and towns are predisposed to benefit from renewables no matter the amount introduced. To improve these impacts, towns can increase the amount of solar they host, or they can adjust the amount of CO2 emissions, PM emissions, tax revenue, jobs gained, or unpopular renewable power plants in their town. However, preferences and demographics matter as well. Age, education, and local preferences in favor of employment and community development all significantly relate to equity potential outcomes. Policymakers should consider adjusting their local energy priorities using these levers if they hope to engineer a renewable energy transition that is both positive and popular for their constituents.     

Panel heterogeneous distribution analysis of trade and modernized agriculture on CO2 emissions: The role of renewable and fossil fuel energy consumption

In line with the global target of reducing climate change and its impact, this study explored the causal relationship between CO₂ emissions, modernized agriculture, trade openness, aggregate and disaggregate energy consumption in 14 African countries from 1990–2013 using a panel quantile estimation procedure. The empirical results showed that value addition to agricultural commodities declines CO₂ emissions in countries with high pollution levels. The study revealed a positive nexus between CO₂ emissions and energy consumption homogeneously distributed across quantiles. Trade openness was found to lower CO₂ emissions in countries with lower and higher levels of environmental pollution. While fossil fuel energy consumption was found to exacerbate CO₂ emissions, renewable energy consumption confirmed its mitigating effect on environmental pollution. The institution of climate‐smart agricultural options will sustainably increase productivity and income while adapting to climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Diversification of energy technologies with clean and modern energy sources like renewables avoid the over‐dependence on fossil fuels for agricultural purposes. Trade policies can stimulate flows of technology and investment opportunities for specialization in production and economies of scale. Hence, the consideration of policies that boost agricultural sector productivity and create an efficient market for international trade in Africa will help in improving livelihoods.     

Smart city data architecture for energy prosumption in municipalities: concepts,requirements, and future directions

ABSTRACT

Big data is gaining visibility and importance, and its use is attaining higher levels of influence within municipalities. Due to this proliferation smart cities are posed to deploy architectures toward managing energy for Electric Vehicles (EV) and orchestrate the production, consumption, and distributing of energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind etc. in communities also known as prosumption. In smart city domain, Enterprise Architecture (EA) can be employed to facilitate alignment between municipality goals and the direction of the city in relation to Information Technology (IT) that supports stakeholders within the city. Hence, the alignment between IT and goals of the city is a critical process to support the continued growth and improvement of city services and energy sustainability. However, despite several research effort focused on data architecture in smart city, there have been few studies aimed at exploring how EA can be applied in smart cities to support residential buildings and EV for energy prosumption in municipalities. Therefore, this study conducts an extensive review and develops an architecture that can be employed in smart city domain based on big data management for energy prosumption in residential buildings and EV. Furthermore, secondary data was employed to present a case study to show the applications of the developed architecture in promoting energy prosumption. Findings suggest that the architecture provides interoperable open real-time, online, and historical data in facilitating energy prosumption. Respectively, this study offers exchange of data for sharing energy resources and provides insights to improve energy prosumption services.     

The adoption of green energy technologies: The role of policies in Austria,Germany, and Switzerland

We contribute to the existing research about policy-induced technology adoption in several ways. First, we suggest a new survey design to measure the energy-related policy environment. Second, we simultaneously estimate the policy effects for the adoption propensity and the adoption intensity simultaneously and, third, we compare the policy effects in the three countries, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Based on a representative sample of firms for all three countries we find that policies essentially promote the adoption of technologies and they are practically ineffective for the intensity, which poses a great challenge to future policy designs. Voluntary agreements or demand-related factors are among the most important drivers for the adoption propensity of green energy technologies. Given the current institutional framework in the surveyed countries, subsidies are more effective in Austria, taxes are more effective in Germany, and demand-related factors are relatively more effective in Switzerland.     

天然气净化厂脱硫装置能耗分析及节能措施探讨

高含硫天然气净化厂需对H2S含量较高的原料气进行处理,溶液循环量大、工艺流程长、公用工程消耗量大、能耗高。通过对天然气净化厂脱硫单元的耗能点及耗能关联因素进行分析,从优化工艺方案、采用先进节能设备、回收可回收的能量、减少工艺过程能量损失等方面,提出了热泵、贫液与半贫液分流工艺及板式换热器在MDEA脱硫单元中的应用及改造措施,详细阐述了各种节能措施的优势及适用条件。充分挖掘天然气净化厂的节能潜力,能够创造良好的经济效益和环境效益。     

Status,stigma and energy practices in the home

Domestic energy practices are a topical policy issue, with implications for climate change, energy security and fuel poverty. Accordingly, a growing body of literature examines ways of promoting energy conservation and generation by individuals. However, there has been relatively little discussion of how status and stigma are implicated in these practices, and may act as facilitators or barriers to “behaviour change”. To help address this gap, this article draws both on existing literature and a new UK-based study of people who are attempting to live sustainable lives, to provide insights into how domestic energy practices may be status-enhancing or stigmatising, and how these risks and opportunities can be managed. While energy practices are often understood as “inconspicuous”, it is argued here that in some circumstances individuals may actively manage the visibility of their energy practices. The discussion considers these findings with regard to social power relations, and identifies issues warranting further exploration within the emerging research agenda on energy and equity.