Reputation of Electric Vehicles in the Environment of Carbon Reduction and Accelerated Digitization

The accelerated digitization of the third decade of the twenty-first century poses a challenge both for science and for practice. The study presents partial results of continuous research on online reputation management of entities operating in the environment of low-carbon economy. The aim of the study is the application of a standardized methodology for calculating the Total level of Online Reputation (TOR) to determine the market position of selected Electric Vehicles (EVs) compared to the market position of conventional Vehicles with Internal Combustion Engines (ICEVs) in the online environment. The research sample consists of the ten best-selling Vehicles and the ten best-selling Electric Vehicles in the world by sales in the year 2021. Based on the measurement results and the subsequent analysis of the context, it can be concluded that the EV market shows the parameters of a developing market not only from the point of view of sales but also in terms of the overall level of Online Reputation as such. At the same time, it is possible to point out a high geographical specificity and significant disproportionality of the EV market compared to ICEVs. From the overall market perspective, the future of cars in the EV category is still unclear, as building trust in low-carbon products is limited by historical tradition. The main representatives of the EV industry thus represent the first forays of the onset of the low-carbon era in individual transport. The description of the issue will require the monitoring of status indicators over time. The results of the presented study can thus serve as a baseline and methodological framework for further research of the adoption of low-carbon policies in common practice.

Carbon Footprint Analysis of Tourism Life Cycle: The Case of Guilin from 2011 to 2022

Low-carbon tourism is an important way for the tourism industry to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. In order to promote the development of Guilin as a world-class tourism city and ensure the sustainable development of the tourism industry in Guilin, this paper combines the concept of carbon footprint and the theory of life cycle to build a tourists' carbon footprint life cycle analysis model of Guilin. Taking tourists in Guilin as an example, the composition and changes of tourists' carbon footprint are dynamically analyzed. The research shows that: (1) The overall tourism carbon footprint of Guilin showed an upward trend during 2011–2019. From 2020 to 2022, due to the impact of COVID-19, Guilin's tourism carbon footprint has decreased significantly. The per capita carbon footprint of tourism in Guilin showed a downward trend from 2011 to 2022;(2) The order of the size of Guilin's tourism carbon footprint is tourism transportation > tourism catering > tourism accommodation > tourism activities;(3) From 2011 to 2022, the carbon footprint of tourism transportation in Guilin showed an obvious narrowing state, while the carbon footprint of tourism accommodation, tourism activities, and tourism catering showed an obvious expanding trend. Based on the characteristics of the carbon footprint of Guilin's tourism and the current situation of the development of Guilin's tourism, this paper puts forward suggestions on reducing carbon emissions, forms a new tool for evaluating and constructing low-carbon tourism, and provides a scientific basis and practical reference significance for the sustainable development of low-carbon tourism in Guilin.

Effects of COVID‐19 lockdown measures on nitrogen dioxide and black carbon concentrations close to a major Italian motorway

During the first half of 2020, the Italian government imposed several restrictions to limit the spread of the COVID‐19 pandemic: at the beginning of March, a heavy lockdown regime was introduced leading to a drastic reduction of traffic and, consequently, traffic‐related emissions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of these restrictions on pollutant concentrations close to a stretch of the Italian A22 motorway lying in the Alpine Adige valley. In particular, the analysis focuses on measured concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and black carbon (BC). Results show that, close to the motorway, NO2 concentrations dropped by around 45% during the lockdown period with respect to the same time period of the previous 3 years. The equivalent analysis for BC shows that the component related to biomass burning, mostly due to domestic heating, was not particularly affected by the restrictions, while the BC component related to fossil fuels, directly connected to traffic, plummeted by almost 60% with respect to the previous years. Since atmospheric concentrations of pollutants depend both on emissions and meteorological conditions, which can mask the variations in the emission regime, a random forest algorithm is also applied to the measured concentrations, in order to better evaluate the effects of the restrictions on emissions. This procedure allows for obtaining business‐as‐usual and meteorologically normalized time series of both NO2 and BC concentrations. The results derived from the random forest algorithm clearly confirm the drop in NO2 emissions at the beginning of the lockdown period, followed by a slow and partial recovery in the following months. They also confirm that, during the lockdown, emissions of the BC component due to biomass burning were not significantly affected, while those of the BC component related to fossil fuels underwent an abrupt drop.

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.

Policy Analysis of Low-Carbon Energy Transition in Senegal Using a Multi-Criteria Decision Approach Based on Principal Component Analysis

Senegal has been investing in the development of its energy sector for decades. By using a novel multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) based on the principal component analysis (PCA) method, this paper develops an approach to determine the effectiveness of Senegal's policies in supporting low-carbon development. This was determined using six criteria (C1 to C6) and 17 policies selected from the review of Senegal's energy system. In order to determine the optimal weighting of the six criteria, a PCA is performed. In our approach, the best weighted factor is the normalized version of the best linear combination of the initial criteria with the maximum summarized information. Proper weighted factors are determined through the percentage of the information provided by the six criteria kept by the principal components. The percentage of information is statistically a fit of goodness of a principal component. The higher it is, the more statistically important the corresponding principal component is. Among the six principal components obtained, the first principal component (comp1) best summarizes the values of criteria C1 to C6 for each policy. It contains 81.15% of the information on energy policies presented by the six criteria and was used to rank the policies. Future research should take into account that when the number of criteria is high, the share of information explained by the first principal component could be lower (less than 50% of the total variance). In this case, the use of a single principal component would be detrimental to the analysis. For such cases, we recommend a higher dimensional visualization (using two or three components), or a new PCA should be performed on the principal components. This approach presented in our study can serve as an important benchmark for energy projects and policy evaluation.

Dynamic relationship between green bonds and major financial asset markets from the perspective of climate change

In recent years, changes in the climate environment have caused a considerable impact on the economy and finance, especially after the signing of the Paris Agreement decided to prevent the further increase in the earth's temperature and smoothly transformed into a low-carbon society, various markets have been affected to varying degrees, and at the same time, green bonds as an emerging environmental protection tool have sprung up and become the focus of many investors and researchers. The emergence and rise of eco-friendly investment opportunities such as green bonds is bound to have an impact on other markets, but little research has been done on their dynamic correlation with the U.S. stock market, crude oil and gold markets, especially in our current period of COVID-19 tensions, it is necessary to explore the dynamics between markets and the risk aversion of green bonds to climate change. In this paper, we study the dynamic correlation between three green investment vehicles (S&P Green Bond, China Green Bond, and Climate Bond) and three major markets, and explore whether the linkage between each market will be affected by economic risks and climate change risks by adding climate risk proxy indicators and economic policy uncertainties. This is not only of guiding significance for investors who are eco-friendly to judge the effectiveness of asset allocation and hedging in investment decisions, but also has certain reference for policymakers and market participants who want to achieve green investment, which will help the market to maintain a stable and smooth transition to a low-carbon economy in the event of pressure.

Effect of COVID-19 epidemic-led lockdowns on aerosol black carbon concentration, sources and its radiation effect in northeast India

The COVID-19 epidemic-led lockdown (LD) from March 25 to May 31, 2020, had a different level of impact on air quality in the ecologically sensitive region of northeast India, even though the restriction on main anthropogenic activities was expected to reduce particulate matter concentration. The daily average black carbon concentration measured at 880 nm (BC880) was 1.5–15.6 μg m−3 (mean: 5.75±4.24 μg m−3) during the measurement period. It was 9.29±4.11 μg m−3 during pre-LD (February 12–March 21), 4.70±0.95 μg m−3 during LD1 (March 25–April 14), 3.41±0.56 μg m−3 during LD2 (April 15–May 3), 3.69±1.50 μg m−3 during LD3 (May 4–17), 2.94±0.93 μg m−3 during LD4 (May 18–31), and 6.56±5.35 μg m−3 during the Post-LD (June 6–July 3) of 2020. It decreased up to 68% during the lockdowns. The source apportionment based on an improved method showed a significant improvement in the contribution of BC880 sources. The radiation effect determined by Angstrom Absorption Exponent showed that brown carbon accounted for 25% of the aerosol light absorption at 370 nm during the lockdown period. Relative humidity correlates substantially with BC880, while rainfall, temperature, and solar radiation were negatively correlated. The bivariate analysis showed the dominance of local emissions in the BC880 concentrations.Research highlightsBlack carbon concentration decreased up to 68% during the different phases of lockdown.BC associated with fossil fuel was 51–78%, and biomass burning was 22–49%.The fraction of fossil fuel and biomass burning in whole BC fallen to 0.73 and 0.65 during the lockdowns.Air quality improved by about 47–58% on the 4th and 7th day of lockdown.Brown carbon and meteorological parameters significantly impacted aerosol light absorption in this region.

Study on the Effect of Bio-Based Materials’ Natural Degradation in the Environment

The article presents an analysis of the impact of bio-based materials on the environment, with a special focus on polylactic acid (PLA), as it is considered one of the most popular bioplastics in the market. The results show that there are several factors that must be taken into account when choosing the best end-of-life option for this type of material, in agreement with the newly introduced concept of the circular economy, according to the physical–chemical analysis obtained at the end of this study. The ecotoxicity tests showed that all tested materials (PLA spoon, PLA filament, b2w technology bag and cocoa paper tray) could be suitable for incineration with energy recovery without producing dioxines during combustion (chlorine content in all tested materials was below 1.00% w/w). It was also determined that PLA was the material with the highest potential for energy recovery since it presented the highest calorific value and highest carbon content (18.73 MJ/kg and 52.23%, respectively). The biodegradation rate of the different bio-based materials was also tested under different environments during three months, with Baltic Sea water and medium-grain sand being the environments in which the majority of the bio-based materials showed the lowest degradation rates. An additional test in a small-scale electric composter with microbe technology was carried out in order to evaluate the degradation of the studied materials in an environment with controlled conditions, and results showed high values of weight loss for the majority of the bio-based materials (all above 80% weight loss) due to the high temperature that the device could reach during the composting process. Finally, a strategy for providing guidance in selecting routes for the waste management of bioplastics, depending mainly on the available infrastructure and material properties, was proposed as a result of this work. For the case of low- and medium-income countries, an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy is proposed as a provisional solution to control plastic waste pollution, which should be complemented by regulations and systems aimed at the successful introduction of bioplastics.