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Environmental Sustainability and Energy Economy
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Environmental Sustainability and Energy Economy

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 June 2025 | Viewed by 1733

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Susana Silva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CEF.UP, Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, Rua Dr Roberto Frias s/n, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal
Interests: data analytics regarding economic, social, and environmental issues; policy making; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Erika Laranjeira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. COMEGI, Centro Universitário Lusíada Norte, Rua de Moçambique 21 e 71, Aldoar, 4100-348 Porto, Portugal
2. CEF.UP, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto, R. Roberto Frias, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal
Interests: economics; energy; environment; sustainability; health economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and environmental problems are forcing all countries in the world to work together to reverse the situation. Policies worldwide are attempting to minimize, as much as possible, the negative environmental impacts of economic activities, since this is key to detaching economic growth from environmental degradation. Furthermore, the energy sector is one of the main sectors responsible for greenhouse gas emissions; hence, it is under the pressure to take strong and urgent measures to reduce its environmental impact.

This Special Issue will contribute to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the connections between energy, the environment, and the economy.

Topics to be covered in this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Environmental impacts and sustainability of the energy transition;
  • Renewable energy sources;
  • Energy efficiency;
  • Impact on energy markets and energy prices;
  • Stability of supply and energy security;
  • Demand-side management;
  • Energy and the circular economy.

Dr. Susana Silva
Dr. Erika Laranjeira
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy
  • environment
  • renewable energy
  • economy
  • energy transition
  • sustainability
  • circular economy

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 836 KiB  
Article
Assessing the Environmental Sustainability Corridor in South Africa: The Role of Biomass Energy and Coal Energy
by Ahlam Sayed A. Salah, Serdal Işıktaş and Wagdi M. S. Khalifa
Energies 2025, 18(3), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030676 - 31 Jan 2025
Viewed by 362
Abstract
South Africa’s national development plan has outlined aspirations to achieve a sustainable environment. However, the country remains bound for an unsustainable trajectory. Despite this ecological issue, no studies have probed how biomass and coal energy impact ecological quality. In light of this gap, [...] Read more.
South Africa’s national development plan has outlined aspirations to achieve a sustainable environment. However, the country remains bound for an unsustainable trajectory. Despite this ecological issue, no studies have probed how biomass and coal energy impact ecological quality. In light of this gap, this study inspects the environmental effect of political risk, coal energy, and biomass energy in South Africa. Also, this study integrates economic growth and natural resources into its framework. This study uses the load capacity factor (LC), which is a more aggregate proxy of ecological quality due to its accounting for the demand and supply aspect of the environment. This study uses the dynamic autoregressive distributive lag estimator (ARDL), which is capable of not only providing details of the influence of each determinant on LC in the long and short term but also of capturing the counterfactual shock of positive or negative exogenous variables on the LC. The kernel regularized least squares (KRLS) method is used for a robustness analysis of the dynamic ARDL approach. Furthermore, the findings of the dynamic ARDL simulation estimator disclose the negative impact of economic growth on the LC, thereby contributing to environmental deterioration by 0.552%. Natural resources and coal energy have an adverse impact on the LC, indicating a reduction in environmental sustainability by 0.037% and 0.290%, respectively. Meanwhile, biomass contributes to the LC, thereby promoting ecological quality by 0.421%. Political risk contributes to the reduction in the LC. This research provides pertinent policy considerations for policymakers and governments in South Africa, suggesting that the government of South Africa should invest in biomass energy and sustainable extraction procedures since biomass energy has a vital role in increasing ecological quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Sustainability and Energy Economy)
20 pages, 2984 KiB  
Article
Environmental Assessment of Hybrid Waste-to-Energy System in Ghana
by Ekua Afrakoma Armoo, Theophilus Baidoo, Mutala Mohammed, Francis Boateng Agyenim, Francis Kemausuor and Satyanarayana Narra
Energies 2025, 18(3), 595; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18030595 - 27 Jan 2025
Viewed by 422
Abstract
Waste management in most parts of Africa is characterized by the disposal of mixed waste in unengineered landfills. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of mixed waste received at a waste-to-energy plant in Ghana relative to the current [...] Read more.
Waste management in most parts of Africa is characterized by the disposal of mixed waste in unengineered landfills. The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of mixed waste received at a waste-to-energy plant in Ghana relative to the current model of landfilling. A Life Cycle Assessment was conducted using OpenLCA software version 2.3.1 based on the ReCiPe Midpoint method. For landfilling, LandGEM software version 3.03 was used. The results indicate that waste-to-energy has the potential to provide carbon savings of 3.52 tCO2eq/ton of waste treated compared to landfilling. Pyrolysis is observed to have high avoided burden across all impact categories, with the lowest Global Warming Potential of −2.3 kgCO2eq. Anaerobic digestion shows a near neutral environmental impact with the highest value of 47.56 kg 1,4DCB for Terrestrial Ecotoxicity, while Refuse-Derived Fuel and segregation processes show low environmental burdens. The net avoided burden is highest for global warming and non-carcinogenic human toxicity potential. Overall, the hybrid waste-to-energy model is concluded to be an environmentally preferred waste management option compared to conventional landfilling methods, and we recommend that decision-makers facilitate investments into it. It is also recommended for the development of local inventories and databases to encourage more country-specific environmental impact studies and to reduce uncertainty. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Sustainability and Energy Economy)
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19 pages, 1462 KiB  
Article
The Quantile Effects of Climate and Global Economic Policy Uncertainties on Renewable Energy Demands in the BRICS Nations: The Role of Green Ecological Policies
by Dima AlAyoubi, Tarik Atan and Majdi Awad
Energies 2025, 18(2), 369; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18020369 - 16 Jan 2025
Viewed by 503
Abstract
Renewable energy has an important role in attaining environmental quality. Numerous studies have determined the factors driving the diminishment or promotion of renewable energy consumption (REC) globally. Despite the findings of prior studies, the specific effects of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and global [...] Read more.
Renewable energy has an important role in attaining environmental quality. Numerous studies have determined the factors driving the diminishment or promotion of renewable energy consumption (REC) globally. Despite the findings of prior studies, the specific effects of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU) on REC have not been probed in the case of BRICS economies. Furthermore, fewer considerations have been taken into account to explore whether green environmental policies (EPs) have a moderating role. Therefore, the present work contributes to filling the gap by providing an empirical model and assessing the panel quantile data and fixed-effect methods used between 2010 and 2020. The findings reveal that the expansion of the financial market, inflowing FDI, rising international remittances, developing environmental innovation, and increasing CPU are significant factors promoting REC while unfavorably increasing CO2, economic activity, and GEPU impact. Notably, the results underscore that EPs have a significant positive effect, and stricter ecological strategies lead to a rise in REC. In addition, the findings highlight that by implementing stricter EPs, the effect of CPU on REC becomes more positive, and the negative effect of GEPU on REC is more controlled. In particular, the significant interaction effects highlight that the beneficial role of EPs is more pronounced in nations with strong EPs relative to low EPs. Overall, EPs have a substantial beneficial role in promoting REC when CPU and GEPU arise. These findings are reliable after using numerous measurements and methods, and several policy recommendations are suggested to governments, policymakers, and regulatory bodies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Sustainability and Energy Economy)
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