The Russian coal industry in an uncertain world: Finally pivoting to Asia?

Despite the urgent need to reduce coal consumption to mitigate climate change, coal has received renewed interest as a source of energy due to the perfect storm of climate, health, geopolitical and energy crises. Post-COVID recovery boosted global coal production and Asian coal consumption. Because of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, coal saw a rise in demand in Europe to replace sanctioned natural gas and oil. Combined with volatile prices, these developments highlight profound uncertainties for the world's coal exporters. This paper focuses on Russia, which so far has been the world's largest fossil fuel exporter and third-largest coal exporter and where the coal sector is the backbone of several regional economies and local communities. Using the Triple Embeddedness Framework (TEF), the paper reviews internal and external pressures on the Russian coal industry and evaluates its capacity to adapt to the rapidly changing socio-political and techno-economic environment. Russian coal exporters have attempted to accelerate their shift to the East following the European Union's sanctions over the war in Ukraine and the Russian coal infrastructure is being expanded to serve the Asia-Pacific market. The analysis concludes that the Russian coal industry is not preparing for more long-term changes in international coal markets, and this exacerbates the magnitude of risks for local communities and regional economies within Russia as well as for global decarbonisation.

GCC Hydrocarbon Economies and COVID: Old Trends, New Realities

The book considers the impact of COVID-19 on the GCC member states through the prism of challenges faced by their hydrocarbon sector. Yet, the publication's discourse is not solely focused on the problems experienced by the oil and gas industries of the GCC member states after the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Instead, the contributors will analyze how these challenges and subsequent response to them affected other aspects of the GCC socio-economic and political development, from direct impact of the COVID on the energy sector of the GCC to socio-economic consequences of the oil market crisis for the region and its potential fallouts for the international relations of the Gulf. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023, corrected publication 2023.

Alternative Energy Investments as a Part of Global Smart Green Innovations

Concerns about the global environmental situation are leading to a search for new climate solutions, one of which is to stimulate an energy transition at the global level by expanding the use of alternative energy sources and introducing smart energy-saving technologies. Significant financial resources are needed for this purpose. Therefore, it is vital to assess the prospects for alternative energy in the post-COVID economy by analyzing the current state of this segment of the global energy market and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on it. The research uses statistical data from the World Bank, the International Energy Agency, and Bloomberg Information and Analysis Agency. The authors apply the methods of retrospective and comparative analysis and the least squares method. The analysis showed the growing importance of alternative energy, especially in developed countries, the serious impact of global energy inflation, and the favorable prospects for renewable energy sources in general. The study has drawn conclusions about the possibility of increasing investment in alternative energy. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Energy Resilience and Climate Protection: Energy systems, critical infrastructures, and sustainability goals

The increasingly interconnected, fast-moving, unmanageable and unpredictable world brings with it an unprecedented variety of known and as yet unknown challenges and risks. Some of the global risks have a direct impact on critical infrastructures as well as those of energy supply in particular. A high level of functionality of critical infrastructures (CRITIS), which include the sectors of energy, information technology and telecommunications, transportation and traffic, health, water, food, finance and insurance, government and administration, as well as media and culture, is indispensable for a modern industrial society. In the context of the Corona crisis of 2020/2021, the worldwide inadequate preparation for pandemics became obvious, although the probability of epidemic outbreaks and their global spread has increased significantly in recent decades and was thus predictable to a certain extent. Moreover, it has been shown that in a globally interconnected world, complex crisis phenomena can mutually amplify and thus escalate within a short period of time. In particular, the deficits in preparedness for major risks that became apparent in the course of the Corona pandemic cannot be managed by nation states alone, especially since the probability of such events has risen continuously in recent decades and will continue to increase with growing globalization and urbanization and, in particular, as a result of climate change and its consequences. This publication addresses the challenges of energy resilience and climate protection, which will require immense attention in the future. © Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2022. All rights reserved.

The Italian energy transition in a human rights perspective

Albeit not being formally recognized in conventional provisions, the right to a healthy environment has become a relevant topic, both globally and regionally. Indeed, Italy is called by regional and international instruments to undergo a process of energy transition, because of environmental reasons. Moreover, the economic crisis due to the measures adopted to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease may be a breeding ground for innovation;considering also the extraordinary funds for recovery allocated to Italy by the EU, the energy transition is possible and may be easier than before. This may have positive effects on national economy as well. The Italian action on the matter at issue has to be seen in a wider program on energy and environment. As sustainable energy is strictly linked to environmental issues, the energy transition is part of a process towards a stronger environmental protection, established at both the international and regional level. For instance, the sustainable development goal no. 7, established by the UN Agenda 2030, pursues the universal access to sustainable energy. The energy issue has been addressed by several EU strategies as well. This is particularly relevant, considering that Italy has to implement the measures adopted by the EU, submitting plans for the energy transition in the Country. In this regard, the European Green Deal, adopted within the context of the Next Generation EU, should be mentioned. Italy plans at improving implants and infrastructures for energy distribution in order to increase the percentage of energy from renewable resources. The energy transition would thus positively affect both the environment and the economy, with ultimate positive effects on the enjoyment of human rights. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Impacts of environmental policy uncertainty on urban environmental pollutant emissions in China: a study based on textual analysis

How to accelerate the clean use of fossil energy and promote the transformation and upgrading of energy structure is an important challenge commonly faced by countries around the world. In the post-Covid-19 era, the uncertainties faced by countries around the world are increasing and the frequency of policy adjustments in various countries is accelerating. The discharge of pollution by enterprises is significantly impacted by environmental regulatory policies. Under the carbon neutrality goal, the uncertainty of environmental policy caused by multiple political factors can directly influence the decisions made by businesses and residents, in turn, affect their confidence and expectations. However, researchers have given limited attention to measuring the environmental policy uncertainty index (EPUI). In this paper, we select 460 newspapers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) newspaper database from 2001 to 2016 and use the text analysis method to directly construct China's national, provincial, and prefecture-level EPUI. The results show that China's EPUI has obvious stage characteristics and regional characteristics. By applying the Chinese city-level EPUI to the field of urban pollution reduction, we have obtained an important finding that when urban environmental policy uncertainty increases by 1%, urban industrial sulfur dioxide emission decreases by about 0.145%, and carbon dioxide emission decreases by about 0.053%. We believe that this is due to an increase in environmental policy uncertainty inhibiting the development and scaling of secondary industries.

Actualization and Adoption of Renewable Energy Usage in Remote Communities in Canada by 2050: A Review

Remote community initiatives for renewable energy are rapidly emerging across Canada but with varying numbers, success rates, and strategies. To meet low-carbon transition goals, the need to coordinate technology deployment and long-term policy to guide the adoption is critical. Renewable resources such as wind, solar, hydro, and biomass can provide energy at a subsidized cost, create sustainable infrastructure, and provide new economic viability in social value integration. The renewable energy transition is crucial to Canada in sustaining remote and indigenous communities by providing local, clean, and low-carbon-emission energy for heat, power, and possibly transportation. This paper identified 635 renewable resources projects deployed to improve and increase electricity supply. To an extent, balancing demand within the remote and indigenous communities of Canada and highlighting sustainable renewable energy development through ownership participation within the communities is achievable before 2050 and beyond through energy efficiency and the social value of energy. The article identifies clean energy targets as mandated by the different provinces in Canada to reach net-zero GHG emissions.

Coal Is a Priority for Energy Security, until It Is Not: Coal Phase-Out in the EU and Its Persistence in the Face of the Energy Crisis

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many countries see coal as the easiest solution to their energy sector challenges, despite the consequences for climate goals. Several countries of the European Union started to re-evaluate their coal policies vis-à-vis the current energy crisis and, although such a change is expected to be short-term in nature, it nevertheless has negative consequences for the Union's 2050 climate goal. However, most of the EU countries did not revise their phase-out goals. This paper examines Slovakia as a country that embarked on a coal phase-out trajectory only a few years before the pandemic broke out and stayed firmly on this path despite benefits stemming from the continued use of domestic coal. Domestic coal used to be considered a safeguard of energy security in Slovakia, especially after the 2009 gas crisis. However, a decision was made in 2018 to phase out coal by 2023, and this has not changed despite increased focus on domestic energy sources as energy security guarantors during the current energy crisis. This paper explains the decision in favour of a coal phase-out and its support vis-à-vis the energy crisis using the concept of ‘financial Europeanisation', which stresses the importance of EU funds for the development of the domestic policies of EU member states. While the expected funds serve as a catalyst for the coal phase-out needed to reach climate goals, short-term advantages of revising a coal phase-out were outweighed by long-term benefits provided by EU funds.

Energy governance in Turkey

Energy governance has been widely prescribed to address the energy trilemma (i.e., energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability) at global, regional, and national levels. This is a particularly daunting task for those net energy importer developing countries with growing energy consumption levels to fuel their growth. Drawing on primary documents and statistics along with the relevant academic literature and reports, the chapter scrutinizes energy governance in Turkey with a particular emphasis on the neoliberal developmentalist model of its carbon-intense economy with ambitious regional energy diplomacy (i.e., pipeline politics). Albeit its generous renewable energy resource endowment and renewable energy support mechanisms/initiatives, energy governance deficits with limited norm diffusion/policy transfer/convergence prospects from the EU slowdown energy transition of the country. The chapter concludes that the new normal of the post-COVID-19 provides a significant opportunity not only for the revitalization of its economy based on the renewable energy sector and energy-efficient technologies but also harnesses the energy transition of Turkey towards a green economy. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DELIVERY FOR AFRICA'S CHANGING CLIMATE: AN ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT

This paper assesses Africa's energy future in a changing global climate to inform development policy. In the midst of economic and energy challenges, coupled with COVID-19 pandemic recovery, Africa is expected to meet global climate obligations. While it makes sense to develop climate resilient economies, Africa appears stuck in its pre-climate change energy delivery systems. The economic, social and environmental consequences of this stagnation are suboptimal for the continent, calling for urgent transition to more sustainable energy delivery. The study analyzed fossil fuel use in Africa from 1960 to 2016, based on a modified Hotelling Rule. Through time series data, the sustainable marginal cost of energy for Africa was estimated. The study further derived the optimal point in time when Africa should switch from fossil fuels as a main source of electricity generation to renewable energy, due to climate change. The study finds more than 70 percent increase in the marginal cost of fossil fuel compared to a cumulative reduction of 80 percent in the marginal cost of solar photovoltaic over the study period. Also, the switch point to renewable energy as the main source of electricity in Africa was found to be 2003. For sustainable delivery of energy in Africa, the study recommends policies to internalize the externalities of fossil fuel, backed by recovery subsidies to make up for the loss of welfare from fossil fuel use, and to create an enabling environment for a speedy energy transition in Africa's changing climate. © 2020 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Energy system analysis with a focus on future energy demand projections: The case of Norway

Post Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian war are significantly impacting energy systems worldwide, faltering investments and threatening to throttle the expansion of primary clean energy technologies, even in the case of a well-structured and managed energy system, such as Norway. This unprecedented crisis requires deeper analyses and well-measured actions from the main actors in Norway's energy and climate sector. Hence, providing and highlighting needed interventions and improvements in the energy system is crucial. This study analyzes demand-side energy in Norway's households, industry, transport, and "other” sectors. LEAP model, a powerful energy system analysis tool, was used to conduct the analysis based on Baseline and Mitigation scenarios. The energy demand by sector and fuel type toward 2050 is forecasted, firstly by considering a set of parameters and key assumptions that impact the security of supply and secondly on the ambitious target of Norway's government in decreasing GHG emissions by 55% in 2030 and 90–95% by the year 2050 compared to 1990 levels. The mitigation scenario aims to diversify the overall national energy system and technological changes based on large-scale renewable energy sources (RES) integration. From the perspective of climate change issues, EV's include an attractive option for deep decarbonization, including other sustainable fuel sources such as H2, biofuel mixed with diesel, the use of excess heat deriving from industry to cover households' heating demand, and integration of large-scale heat pumps driven by RES during off-peak demand is applied. Energy demand projections are uncertain, and the main goal is to show how different scenario projections up to 2050 affect the whole of Norway's energy system, leading to a combined global warming potential (GWP) of around 7.30 MtCO2 in the mitigation scenario from 56.40 MtCO2 tones released in the baseline scenario, by reaching only 77.5% reduction referring to 1990 level. This study's findings show that the net-zero ambitions by the end of 2050 are impossible without the carbon tax application and carbon capture storage (CCS), especially in the oil and gas industry. © 2023 The Authors

Internationalism in climate action and China's role

The world is facing dual challenges of generating an economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, and transitioning to a low-carbon economy to tackle climate change. Strongly interrelated global challenges will require an integrated and coordinated response by all countries to manage the risk and lay the foundation for building back better. As the world's biggest emitter and the second-largest economy, China is a very important player in international collaboration and coordination in climate action. Against this backdrop, this paper looks into the increasingly crucial role that China is playing in global climate action, especially focusing on three aspects: China's domestic and foreign policymaking for the energy transition;its role in promoting multilateralism and international collaboration on building a sustainable world;and how it could accelerate climate action and diplomacy through research, development and innovation. In the critical decade of the 2020s, China has a great opportunity to further transform and upgrade its energy and industrial structures, promote research, development and the application of green and low-carbon technologies and intensify international climate cooperation on climate change. China should aim to be at the forefront of raising climate ambition and accelerating climate action for a sustainable and more equitable world. © 2023 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Global natural gas development trend and enlightenment

In 2021, the contradiction between natural gas supply and demand in various regions around the world was prominent caused by multiple factors, such as the reduced global COVID-19, slowly recovered world economy, resumed growth of energy consumption, intertwined geopolitical and financial risks, significantly risen and violently fluctuated energy prices. The global natural gas development trend is predicted by analyzing the development direction of the petroleum industry, natural gas supply and demand base level, trend of trade volume, and natural gas reserves distribution and output change. The results show that natural gas reserves are abundant in the world, and the investment in natural gas exploration and development has rebounded driven by the demand growth and price rise;The proportion of natural gas in the world energy consumption structure is increasing, which plays an important role in promoting the global energy transition;The global natural gas supply and demand shows a pattern of "tight balance”, in which the Asia Pacific is the major importer of natural gas, and it is expected that natural gas will surpass oil to grow to be the world's largest energy. In the future, it is suggested that China should actively adjust its energy strategy, enhance its linkage with international energy market, improve the energy prices monitoring and judgement mechanism, timely adjust its foreign strategic cooperation in energy business, increase domestic investment in natural gas exploration and development, enhance multilateral international energy cooperation, and stick to the bottom line of energy security, accelerate the construction of natural gas operation system integrating "reserve increase, supply security and price stabilization”, and improve the ability to respond to crises, so as to better cope with the challenges posed by global energy development and natural gas market fluctuations. Copyright © 2022, Petroleum Industry Press, PetroChina. All rights reserved.

Indicator-based assessment of sustainable energy performance in the European Union

The COVID-19 and the resulting global energy crises highlighted the importance of decarbonization and the necessity of shifting the economy from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources. Sustainable energy transition is also a key element of circular economy, social welfare and justice. In this paper we developed an indicator set and we compiled a composite indicator to measure the performance of the EU Member States regarding the sustainable energy transition between 2007 and 2019. Our results show significant differences which do not follow the usual East-West division of the integration. Both convergence and divergence can be revealed.

The role of renewable energy finance in achieving low-carbon growth: contextual evidence from leading renewable energy-investing countries

Although switching from non-renewable to renewable energy is believed to stimulate low-carbon economic growth, the means to establishing this energy transition have largely remained unexplored in the extant literature. Against this backdrop, this study focuses on evaluating how scaling public investment in renewable energy-related research and development projects impacts the carbon productivity levels in the top-10 renewable energy-investing countries. The estimation strategy comprised econometric methods that can handle cross-sectional dependency and slope heterogeneity related concerns in the data. Regarding the key findings, higher public research and development-related investments in renewable energy are observed to boost carbon productivity levels in the concerned countries, while natural resource consumption and net exports are found to reduce carbon productivity. Besides, the results endorsed that public research and development investment for renewable energy development exhibits a moderating role by jointly boosting carbon productivity with higher natural resource consumption and net exports. Moreover, it is also seen to inflict a mediating effect by jointly boosting carbon productivity with urbanization. In line with these findings, the concerned governments are recommended to scale such investment in order to stimulate technological innovation so that renewable energy transition can take place to establish low carbon economic growth. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd

Energy Poverty and Low Carbon Energy Transition

In the recent two decades of recorded literature, energy poverty is increasingly understood as a multi-dimensional issue caused by the low-carbon energy transition. In this study, a literature review was performed, the outcome of which confirmed the contentious nature of energy poverty at the regional and international levels of analysis. Furthermore, the collected literature enabled the identification of those domains under which energy poverty is prevailing. The impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war on energy prices and energy poverty were also considered key issues of interest in recently published studies (published within the last five years). While all the collected studies in the literature review covered a wide geographical context worldwide, a comprehensive analysis of nurturing energy poverty sources and their consequences was primarily and foremost understood in the household sector, which was the research focus of this study, accordingly. Moreover, future research guidelines that should be drawn regarding energy poverty alleviation were also proposed. © 2023 by the authors.

Social practices and energy use at home during the first Italian lockdown due to Covid-19.

During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, cities became large residential consumers of energy. In general, energy demand has decreased, but the users who used the most energy during the pandemic were the people in their homes creating a change compared to the past. How have household habits changed affecting energy use during the lockdown? Has energy demand changed equally in all homes? What factors help explain the change in daily household habits and the change in energy use? Via distribution of a questionnaire completed by 3519 people living in Italy during the first lockdown #StayAtHome, the change in daily habits and consequent energy use were investigated. It collected data on socio-demographic and household characteristics and the material context in which people live. The results were interpreted according to the social practice approach that has been used in the past to analyse energy habits and use of households, for example, for cooking. The results can support the interpretation of energy demand studies in the pandemic period and address decisions and policymaking for sustainable energy transition.

Balancing climate mitigation and energy security goals amid converging global energy crises: The role of green investments

Global energy markets are experiencing an unprecedented confluence of events that are driving up gas prices and bringing energy security to the forefront, adding further complexity to already uncertain prospects following global economic recovery from COVID-19. This article examines the factors that have led to the current surge in natural gas prices and the role of green investment in enhancing energy security and accelerating the transition pace for a sustainable world. It also discusses the potential short- and long-term implications of ongoing spikes in energy prices on global energy transition. The analysis highlights that while renewables could provide a promising solution to enhance energy security, the current energy crisis has revealed that the current scale of renewable energy investments is not ready to address ongoing energy needs, forcing countries to re-unlock further hydrocarbon fuel sources such as coal, putting global energy transition on hold. The paper concludes with policy recommendations that enable unlocking clean energy investments amid a strained geopolitical context.

The influence of COVID-19 on modes of governance for climate change-Expert views from the Netherlands and the UK

While the world is still in the grasp of COVID-19, countries are contemplating how to get their economies back on their feet. With a unique opportunity to do so in a sustainable manner, there is an urgent need to revisit the governance of climate change. Opportunities are clearly there: the resurgence in top-down policies in the pandemic might spill-over to climate governance;green economic stimuli might cause an increase in market-based approaches;or an increased focus on solidarity, inclusion and collective buy-in may drive more inclusive network-based governance. Using the classic trichotomy of hierarchy, market and network governance, we have analysed the findings of 60 interviews with expert representatives from government, industry and third sector parties in the UK and the Netherlands. Their consideration of the key policies and measures needed to help the transition forward point towards a clear desire for a more hierarchical approach. In addition, mixing the three approaches, especially market and hierarchy, is considered the best way forward.

Land-use and food security in energy transition: Role of food supply

Food security in a just energy transition is a growing debate about designing sustainable food secure networks worldwide. Energy transition, land-use change, and food security are crucial factors for food security and provision. The increased demand for food products and customer preferences regarding food safety provide various issues for the current agriculture food supply chain (AFSC). Along with rising sustainability concerns, strict government regulation, food security, and traceability concerns compel managers, business houses, and practitioners working in AFSC to adopt new tools, techniques, and methodologies to model current food supply chain problems. Thus, in turn, design the food logistics network for food security. Hence, this study investigates the core determinants of food security and supply in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Lebanon over the period of 2010–2019. In order to estimate the objectives of the study, we employ the fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares estimators (DOLS) to draw the study findings. However, the estimated results show a negative association of land use with food security and supply. Likewise, energy transition, gross domestic product, and agricultural value added (AVA) contribute to the food security supply. In contrast, urbanization's negative but insignificant contribution to the food supply in selected economies exists. Besides, another core objective of the study is to investigate the moderate role of the energy transition on the gross domestic product, agriculture sector, and land use and find the significant contribution to the food supply. However, the current study also tries forecasting for the next 10 years and employs the impulse response function (IRF) and variance decomposition analysis (VDA). Congruently, this study uses the pairwise panel causality test and finds exciting outcomes. The COVID-19 crisis has posed challenges such as energy consumption and food security issues. On behalf of the results, the current study proposes imperative policies to investigate the desired level of food supply. The findings provide valuable insights for experts, policymakers, and officials to take practical measures for energy use and food security challenges. Copyright © 2022 Zhuang, Abbas, Al-Sulaiti, Fahlevi, Aljuaid and Saniuk.