ABSTRACT
The study hypothesizes that the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) of the host country have a significant effect on clean development mechanism (CDM) implementation. As CDM incorporates sustainable development as one of the objectives for the green transition, many countries endeavor to adopt and implement CDM as their cleaner production method. Based on the institutional theory, the study aims to investigate the mechanism by which the institutional process of each ESG pillar makes an opportunity for a host country and to see how such country-specific factors influence the implementation of CDM projects. A county-year unbalanced sample drawn from World Bank and multinational CDM project data was analyzed using panel logistic and Poisson regression. Panel regression results show that high-energy intensity and low renewable electricity output as an environmental pillar positively affect CDM implementation. Unemployment and undernourishment as a social pillar positively affect CDM whereas low government effectiveness and the high rule of law positively affect CDM. In the results of zero-inflated Poisson regression, the direction of government effectiveness was upturned. The findings have broadened and deepened the ESG pillar based on the institutional theory and emphasized sustainable development rather than economic outputs.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to explore the operational potential of forest-photovoltaic by simulating solar tree installation. The forest-photovoltaic concept is to maintain carbon absorption activities in the lower part while acquiring solar energy by installing a photovoltaic structure on the upper part of forest land. This study was conducted by simulating solar tree installation using Google Earth satellite imagery in a mountainous area where an agrophotovoltaic system was already installed. When the simulation results were evaluated based on the installation guideline of the agrophotovoltaic system, it was confirmed that the operational potential of forest-photovoltaic was very high in almost all items of the guideline. Therefore, forest photovoltaic can be a possible alternative with priority in South Korea, where it is challenging to secure spatial competitiveness with a conventional flat fixed panel due to costly land prices. Although South Korea has been selected here as a case study, this discussion can be applied to other countries facing the disturbance risk to the forestry landscape due to solar power projects. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the world's first study exploring the possibility of the forest-photovoltaic.
