Energy & Environment

Meskini, Meriem; Mahmud, Tanvir S.; Ray, Sagar; Richter, Amy; Sithi, Tahlima T.; Ng, Kelvin Tsun Wai

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241239896

The size of the global textile market was estimated at nearly one trillion USD in 2021 and the circularity of fashion items are of utmost practical and economic interests. Many postconsumer textile wastes are not recycled, and are sent to landfills for permanent disposal. This study examines the profitability of the selected fashion companies and compares the financial performance through weighted average net profit margin and business characteristics. The 10 companies are divided into 2 groups (conventional and sustainability) for analysis. The conventional fashion companies have a total sales revenue approximately 23 times higher than that of the sustainability fashion companies. The weighted average net profit ratio of the conventional fashion industry averaging +4.7 during the 5-year study period, much higher than the sustainability fashion group. Sustainability fashion industry is emerging and appears more sensitive to fluctuations in business expenses and COVID lockdowns. Net profit was negative for the sustainability group in 2022, and more aids such as government initiatives and incentive programs may be critical to the growth of the sustainability fashion sector. Both sustainability and conventional groups have positive relations between net profit and number of employees and net profit and market shares, respectively. The results suggest that fashion industry has opportunities to be more profitable by adopting socially responsible goals.

Jiang, Zhuqing; Liu, Jianjiang; Chen, Weitao; Dong, Fangyuan

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241236264

Promoting structural transformation and energy efficiency improvement by grouping productive services is a significant action for China's targets of realizing carbon neutrality and carbon peak. This study employs the spatial Durbin model to explore the influences of the agglomeration of producer services (producer services agglomeration) on industrial energy efficiency using panel data from China, specifically from its prefecture-level cities. It turned out that the specialization producer services agglomeration has effectively improved the industrial energy efficiency of the city and its adjacent areas. However, the producer services agglomeration in diverse fields only plays a positive stimulating role in the energy efficiency standards of the city. After changing the industrial energy efficiency index, and sample size and considering endogeneity, the test results agree with the benchmark estimation outcomes. Additional research indicates that technological spillovers and manufacturing production costs exert a significant mediation influence in the process of promoting energy efficiency by producer services agglomeration. Furthermore, the producer services agglomeration has a substantial heterogeneous effect on the industrial energy efficiency due to differences in industry types of producer services. The conclusion of this article is of considerable relevance for China to rely on the producer services agglomeration to support effective energy utilization, as well as green and sustainable economic development.

Zhang, Hengshuo; Qian, Xuesheng; Bing, Yan

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241268911

The emergence of the digital economy has challenged many of the theories of traditional environmental resource economics. As an emerging production factor, data have a significant impact and substitutability with digital technology on fossil energy utilization, which also makes the impact of digital infrastructure construction (DIG) on the allocation of mineral resources easily underestimated. This study is based on China's DIG and explores its impact on regional mineral resource dependence (NRD) in 30 provinces of China. We find that, with a 1% increase in DIG, NRD declines by 7.6%, with a lag effect between the two. The analysis of heterogeneous characteristics revealed the heterogeneous effects and dissimilation roles of DIG's effect on NRD. In terms of heterogeneous effects, in regions with high levels of resource endowment and low digital-economy contributions, DIG's empowering effects were more obvious. In terms of dissimilation roles, the facility foundation has played a more prominent role than digital access. We also find that, enhancing resource allocation efficiency, innovation output efficiency, and energy utilization efficiency can mediate the effects of DIG on NRD. Our findings can offer policy insights for reducing NRD to promote high-quality DIG, achieving differentiated digital empowerment patterns, and building multichannel resource reduction paths. This work also has reference value for green transformation in other developing countries and resource-based industries under the 2030 sustainable development goals.

Lee, Wen Hui; Husaini, Dzul Hadzwan; Lean, Hooi Hooi

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241293729

While renewable energy deployment is essential to mitigate climate change, the interplay between renewable energy consumption and environmental degradation may not be linear. The environmental aspect of renewable energy consumption may change over time, depending on the scale and technique effects. This may be due to asymmetry in the relationship. Nonetheless, most current literature either assumes linearity, or ignores the turning point of the behavioral change. This results in inconclusive empirical findings at the disaggregated level of renewable energy consumption. This paper utilizes threshold estimation technique to capture the asymmetry in the renewable energy-CO2 emissions relation in the top ten renewable energy consumers covering the period 1990–2020. The literature gap is addressed by deriving the threshold effect at the aggregate and disaggregated levels to prevent aggregation bias. Understanding the thresholds of different renewable energy sources would improve policy effectiveness and resource allocation at different consumption levels to better curb climate change. The threshold estimation technique measures total renewables, hydro, solar, wind, and others (bioenergy and geothermal) as threshold variables. The findings indicate that total renewables and solar consumptions have stronger mitigating effects on CO2 emissions beyond the consumption levels of 4363.37 and 43.58 kWh, respectively. The advantageous environmental effect of wind consumption only manifests above the consumption level of 657.40 kWh. For policy implication, this study recommends an increase in the weightage of renewables in the energy mix by formulating energy-specific policies, in order to optimize the environmental benefits of renewable energy adoption.

Jaffar, Haleema; Javed, Nasir; Riaz, Ahmad; Ahmad, Hafiz Abrar; Iqbal, Abdul Mueed; Zhou, Chao; Zhang, Jili

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241300428

Adaptive transparent system (ATS) is an aspiring and effective building system that can adapt itself through environmental changes in spontaneous and reversible ways. It proposes an automatic and real-time response to indoor and outdoor conditions by increasing building energy efficiency and user comfort. This research presents a critical analysis to provide a preference order of the smart materials being used in the adaptive transparent systems. The approach of using smart material technologies in the building façades is discussed as the promising research direction for the future. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to identify the smart materials used in adaptive transparent systems along with their properties. Seven types of smart materials that are aerogel (AG), phase change material (PCM), photovoltaic (PV), electrochromic (EC), thermo-chromic (TC), thermo-tropic (TT), and liquid crystal polymers (LCP) are selected based on evaluation criteria determined by the literature. The identified criteria are bulk density (BD), thermal conductivity (TCd), sound insolation (SI), fire retardation (FR), heat transfer coefficient (HTC), solar transmittance (ST), air purification (AP), annual energy saving (AES), cost saving (CS), ultraviolet (UV)/near infrared (NIR) control (UNC), and embodied carbon (EC). The identified seven smart materials are investigated with the help of two multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques named analytical hierarchical process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for analysis and ranking of materials. Results of the analysis demonstrate that PV is the most optimum material for adaptive transparent systems while others are ranked according to their performance.

Gao, Jiazhan; Hua, Guihong; Randhawa, AbidAli; Huo, Baofeng

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241270274

China, as the world's largest carbon emitter, is striving for green transformation through the implementation of various environmental policies. This study employs panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2000 and 2022 to analyze in-depth the heterogeneous effects of three types of environmental regulations. The findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between both general public environmental regulation (GER) and mandatory environmental regulation (MER) and carbon emission efficiency (CEE). Conversely, stimulating environmental regulations (SERs) exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship with CEE. Mechanism analysis further reveals that environmental regulations enhance CEE by promoting industrial structural upgrades and technological innovation. Notably, SERs are particularly effective in improving the CEE in resource-rich and moderately resourced provinces. However, GER exhibits a masking effect on the pathway of technological innovation, indicating potential inefficiencies in its implementation. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that mandatory environmental regulation has a more pronounced impact on improving the CEE in resource-rich and moderately resourced provinces, whereas this impact is relatively weaker in resource-poor provinces. This finding underscores the importance of tailoring environmental policies to the specific resource characteristics of different regions. The insights from this study offer critical guidance for policymakers in designing and implementing differentiated environmental regulation policies, particularly in advancing China’s transition toward a sustainable, green, and low-carbon future.

Li, Chuang; Wang, Xiaoman; Wang, Liping

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241251405

Enhancing consumers’ purchase intention for carbon-labeled products is crucial for the sustainable development of the market economy. This study aims to address a key challenge by exploring the often-overlooked impact of external incentive mechanisms in the existing literature. Utilizing partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA), the research dissects survey data from 730 Chinese consumers. It reveals the complex influence of four social incentives (i.e., monetary incentives, price incentives, spiritual incentives, and information incentives) on purchasing intentions from the perspective of perceived value. The results indicate that consumers’ awareness and trust in carbon labels are highly important but show modest performance. To be specific, among the four incentive measures, information incentives significantly promote purchasing intentions, followed by spiritual incentives. Interestingly, although the price incentives are a key precondition for increasing purchasing intentions, they do not show a direct and statistically significant effect. Besides, monetary incentives specifically facilitate the formation of purchasing intentions by enhancing consumers’ perception of the efficacy of carbon-labeled products, while information incentives promote intentions by influencing consumers’ desire for value expression. Benefiting from these four incentive measures, this study provides valuable insights to help develop effective strategies for promoting carbon labeling and green products, refine the design of environmentally friendly choice architectures for public policy, and enhance our understanding of consumer behavior in contemporary culture.

Fakher, Hossein Ali; Nathaniel, Solomon Prince; Ahmed, Zahoor; Ahmad, Mahmood; Moradhasel, Niloofar

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241270216

This study is significant because it fills the gap in future literature by looking at the panel of 5 Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) economies regarding the important role of financial development (FD) in environmental deterioration under the holistic measures of FD and environmental quality, something that has been largely overlooked in preceding studies. Consequently, this study explores the environmental effects of FD, employing a composite environmental quality proxy (CEQP) and a composite FD proxy (CFDP). In pursuit of this objective, the continuously updated fully modified (Cup-FM) and continuously updated bias corrected (Cup-BC) procedures are applied. These procedures enabled us to comprehensively explore the dynamic interactions between the combined index for FD and CEQP controlling agricultural activities, economic growth, renewable energy consumption, and nonrenewable energy consumption (NREC) in the panel of 5-BRICS economies from 2005 to 2019. The empirical results show that CFDP appeases environmental deterioration and thus improves environmental quality. The agricultural activities intensify environmental deterioration. The analysis also reveals a U-shaped relationship between the CEQP and economic growth (inverted U-type environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis) for the BRICS nations. Additionally, renewable energy improves environmental quality, whereas NREC decreases it. As supported by the results of the study, BRICS policymakers should encourage the financial sector to support green energy initiatives and achieve environmental stability.

Nimker, Vanshika; Dong, Cheng-Di; Patel, Anil Kumar; Chauhan, Ajeet Singh; Chen, Chiu-Wen; Singhania, Reeta Rani

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241251394

Cellulose is the most abundant renewable polymer on Earth which is extensively distributed in diverse ecosystems. It is present in higher plants, marine organisms, and also produced through microbial processes in organisms like algae, fungi, and bacteria. From an industrial perspective, the semicrystalline nature of cellulose present in different plant and microbial sources enables the fabrication of various types of nanocellulose, such as nanofibre and nanocrystals, through mechanical disintegration and chemical methods, respectively. Nanocellulose distinguishes itself as a sustainable, nonharmful, and biodegradable polymer. It will enable sustainable development for responsible consumption and production. Possessing a range of excellent properties, it can be seamlessly integrated into various materials. Research on nanocellulose is gaining momentum in response to current issues related to fossil fuels, including concerns about CO2 emissions, plastic pollution, and the need for renewable energy sources. This review addresses nanocrystals production method from cellulose found in agricultural, microbial sources, and its applications in fields such as materials science, electronics, medicine, and environmental science.

Wang, Fu; Zha, Donglan; Geng, Hong; Zhang, Chaoqun

2024 Energy & Environment

doi: 10.1177/0958305x241268913

Due to the pressing need to attain sustainable development goal 7, global attention on addressing energy poverty has increased. Improving rural education has been recognized as a strategy to mitigate energy poverty in rural China. However, the presence of education inequality remains a substantial challenge to energy poverty alleviation and underexamined. Our research aims to evaluate rural energy poverty levels systematically and investigate the impact of education inequality on rural energy poverty. This study begins by employing a novel weighting approach to develop a comprehensive indicator system, which accurately measures the extent of energy poverty in rural China. Subsequently, a panel fixed-effects model is utilized to analyze the causal impact of education inequality on rural energy poverty. Furthermore, the study explores the heterogeneity and potential mechanisms of education inequality on rural energy poverty. Findings reveal a decline in rural energy poverty from 2005 to 2020, and the nature of energy poverty has substantially transformed, with a greater prominence of using unclean and unaffordable energy sources. Education inequality increases rural energy poverty and indirectly affects it by reducing the income of rural residents. The influence of education inequality on rural energy poverty exhibits heterogeneity in both time and region. Policy recommendations are proposed for mitigating energy poverty and promoting education equality in rural areas.