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Priorities for the Modernization of National Economy
Published in Vladimir L. Kvint, Sergey D. Bodrunov, Strategizing Societal Transformation, 2023
Vladimir L. Kvint, Sergey D. Bodrunov
The global trend of the global economy in the twenty-first century shows not growth, but the decline in demand for traditional materials, raw materials, and energy. This is inevitable when the role of industrial knowledge, technology, its acquisition, absorption, implementation in the real sector, development, etc., increases dramatically. The decline in oil and gas prices, which has been underway for several years now, is a harbinger of a new era: natural resources will be much less important for developing a new industrial economy in the NIS.2. The transition to a so-called low-carbon economy, characterized by a reduction of the environmental load by reducing the use of fossil fuels and CO2 emissions, has been a global challenge for years. It is not just a question of the technological challenges, or the costs involved, but of reconciling the transition to a low-carbon economy with progress toward meeting our society’s social and economic development challenges.39 This is not possible without a broader reliance on the application of new scientific knowledge.
Future mineral demand
Published in Natalia Yakovleva, Edmund Nickless, Routledge Handbook of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development, 2022
Patrice Christmann, Elias T. Ayuk, Antonio M. A. Pedro, S. Vijay Kumar
A rapid global transition towards a low-carbon economy is internationally recognised as essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, the fast decline of the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) production from renewable sources makes the use of solar and wind energy more and more attractive. The latest Lazard (2020a) estimate shows that unsubsidised electricity produced at a utility scale, using the existing industrially available photovoltaic (PV) technologies (polycrystalline or monocrystalline silicon, CdTe or CIGS - Copper Indium Gallium selenide thin-film) has an LCOE ranging between 29 and 42 nominal $US per MWh, whereas electricity production from wind energy LCOE ranges from 26 to 54 nominal $US per MWh. In comparison, the cheapest possible production from fossil energy sources is the Gas Combined Cycle technology that ranges from 44 to 73 nominal $US per MWh. Moreover, both PV and wind energy LCOE are continuously declining. In 2019, Lazard reported PV LCOE ranging from 32 to 44 nominal $US, and wind energy LCOE ranging from 44 to 68 nominal $US per MWh.
Sustainable Engineering: Concepts, Principles, and Frameworks
Published in Toolseeram Ramjeawon, Introduction to Sustainability for Engineers, 2020
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines green economy (GE) as an economy “that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities.” This definition emphasizes the importance of “getting the economy right” as a precondition for achieving sustainability (UNEP, 2011). A low-carbon economy or decarbonized economy is an economy based on low carbon power sources, which therefore has a minimal output of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the biosphere, but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Many countries around the world are designing and implementing low emission development strategies. These strategies seek to achieve social, economic, and environmental development goals while reducing long-term GHG emissions and increasing resilience to climate change impacts. The concepts of green economy and low carbon economy complement the concept of sustainable development by emphasizing the importance of the economy, and especially of innovations, for achieving sustainability (Olsen, 2012).
A longitudinal study of the occupancy patterns of a university library building using thermal imaging analysis
Published in Intelligent Buildings International, 2023
Qian Wang, Hiral Patel, Li Shao
Reducing energy consumption is a central pillar of effectively designing a low-carbon built environment and, by extension, a low-carbon economy and society. However, several studies have found that low-energy building designs may not achieve their anticipated energy-saving goals due to how buildings are used and occupied (cf. Guerra-Santin and Itard 2010; Janda 2011; Palmer, Terry, and Armitage 2016). The current debates on the ‘performance gap’ have further highlighted the need to study changes in building occupancy patterns over time to improve design solutions and better understand space utilisation (Coleman et al. 2018; Lowe, Chiu, and Oreszczyn 2018; Patel and Green 2020). In order to close the performance gap, better tools and methods to collect building use data, including building occupancy data, are required (Gupta and Chandiwala 2010; Palmer, Terry, and Armitage 2016; Coleman et al. 2018). Capozzoli et al. (2017) noted that good-quality occupancy data with high resolution could be expensive to obtain and analyse, while low-quality data can lead to poor analysis. Additional difficulties in collecting building use data include the high installation costs of monitoring equipment and sensors, data accuracy, and privacy issues. Addressing these challenges, this paper presents insights on thermal imaging analysis to understand variations in the occupancy patterns of an academic library building over one year. The paper also discusses the ‘performative’ aspects of sensors, which provides a critical lens to review occupancy monitoring strategies.
Does energy innovation play a role in achieving sustainable development goals in BRICS countries?
Published in Environmental Technology, 2022
Muhammad Awais Baloch, Yiting Qiu
To sum up, empirical literature shows inconsistent evidences regarding the nexus between energy innovation and GHG emissions, indicating that this area of research deserves more attention. Second, relevant studies rarely have taken BRICS countries in to account (see, for example, Rafique et al. [30] Khattak et al. [31] and Santra [32]). These limited studies have investigated the impact of technology innovation on CO2 emissions by employing the proxy of ‘number of patent applications’ for technology innovation. Whereas, Santra [32] has tested innovation of environmental-related technology on production-based CO2 emissions. None of the studies have considered the impact of energy innovation on GHG emissions for the prestigious panel of BRICS countries. Therefore, this study examines the impact of energy innovation by taking the proxy of ‘patents for energy-related technology1’ on GHG emission for BRICS economies. Energy innovation is an effective way to achieve a low-carbon economy. Energy innovation is considered as a knowledge innovation aiming to promote energy-related technology. It also encourages energy-related technologies in production and its commercial viability. It is believed that energy innovation is shifting the paradigm of world’s energy consumption system [33].
CO2 intensity of GDP, energy productivity and environmental degradation in Iceland: evidence from novel Fourier based estimators
Published in Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 2023
Kashif Raza Abbasi, Modupe Oluyemisi Oyebanji, Dervis Kirikkaleli
The transition to a low-carbon economy may be sped up by investing in the research and development of innovative low-carbon technology and business models. Government subsidies, tax breaks, and public-private partnerships may all help with this. Iceland should try to boost per-unit energy usage and CO2 productivity increases in order to reach a win situation of economic advancement and emission reduction, which includes drastically decreasing GDP’s energy density and CO2 intensity. Iceland should implement tighter environmental measures to mitigate the effects of environmental deterioration as the nation grows rapidly.