Exploring the Impacts of Renewable Energy, Environmental Regulations, and Democracy on Ecological Footprints in the Next Eleven Nations

Economies are making environmental regulations to achieve sustainable development and mitigate environmental pollution. However, these regulations cannot provide effective results unless implemented properly. The role of the government is fundamental in this regard. In this context, this research probes the impacts of democracy, environmental regulations, renewable energy, globalization, and economic growth on ecological footprints in N-11 countries from 1990 to 2018. For statistical analysis, this work applies the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lags (CS-ARDL) methods. This method efficiently provides robust findings for panel time series data because they counter the cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity while providing the results. Moreover, augmented mean group (AMG) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) are used to check the robustness of the findings. The results show that environmental regulation significantly mitigates ecological footprint, while economic growth escalates footprints in N-11 countries. In addition, democratic quality, renewable energy consumption, and globalization are contributing factors to environmental quality. Hence, this research presents important policy implications for the N-11 countries in that they need to enhance democratic accountability. This will assist them to launch an effective environmental policy. Effective environmental policy will assist in increasing renewable energy, which will ultimately enhance the environmental quality. © 2022 by the authors.Shandong Social Science Planning Fund, (08CJGZ18)Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, MinobrnaukaThis work was supported by the Shandong Social Science Planning Fund Program: Estimation and convergence of agricultural productivity in Shandong Province, 08CJGZ18 (Grant No. 08CJGZ18). The research funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Federal University Program of Development within the Priority-2030 Program) is gratefully acknowledged

Evaluating the Influences of Natural Resources and Ageing People on CO2 Emissions in G-11 Nations: Application of CS-ARDL Approach

Globalization as well as the ratio of ageing people in the group of 11 (G-11) countries has seen a rapid increase in recent years. Therefore, this study aims to provide effective policy recommendations for sustainable development goals 13, 8, and 7, for the G-11 countries. This work estimates the impact of natural resources and the ageing population on the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) in G-11 countries using panel data from 1990–2020. For empirical results, second-generation methods were applied. The Westerlund co-integration test that assesses co-integration confirms the firm association among the parameters, and the values of coefficient of the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) approach show that a 1% increase in the ageing population will lower the emissions of CO2 by 13.41% among G-11 countries. Moreover, the findings show that there exists an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) among natural resources, globalization, economic growth, ageing people, and the emission of CO2. Based on the findings, this work presents some important policy implications for achieving sustainable growth in the G-11 countries. These countries need to lower the amount of energy obtained from fossil fuels to improve air quality. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Associating Renewable Energy, Globalization, Agriculture, and Ecological Footprints: Implications for Sustainable Environment in South Asian Countries

The main purpose of this work is to investigate the impacts of globalization (GL), renewable energy (RE), and value-added agriculture (AG) on ecological footprints (EF) and CO2 emissions. For quantitative analysis, this research paper includes yearly data from 1990–2018 for four South Asian nations: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. These countries are most vulnerable to climate hazards and rapid economic transitions. The Westerlund test provides a strong association among the panel data. The findings of ordinary least squares (DOLS) and fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) show that RE is lowering CO2 emissions and EF in the long run. A 1% increase in RE results in a 10.55% and 2.08% CO2 decrease in emissions and EF, respectively. Globalization and AG are contributing to environmental degradation in selected South Asian countries. Therefore, these countries need to exploit solar energy to its full capacity. Moreover, these countries need to explore more RE resources to reduce their dependence on non-RE sources. These countries can make their agricultural sectors sustainable by following efficient farming practices. Environmental awareness should be enhanced among the farmers. Farmers can use animal fertilizers and clean inputs in AG to achieve sustainable agricultural products. Overall, this work suggests that these countries can achieve a cleaner environment by adopting RE and by promoting efficient technologies through globalization. © 2022 by the authors.Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, MinobrnaukaThe research funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Ural Federal University Program of Development within the Priority-2030 Program) is gratefully acknowledged

Appraisal of Nuclear Energy as an Alternative Option in South Africa’s Energy Scenario: A Multicriteria Analysis

South Africa is being confronted with an irregular power supply, leading to persistent load shedding due to aged and unreliable coal-fired power plants. Connected with coal as a generating source for electricity from fossil fuels are environmental concerns such as emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change impacts. Nuclear energy can allay the country’s dependence on coal as a source of energy. This article, therefore, reviews the feasibility of nuclear energy using a multicriteria analysis technique. A combination of Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to evaluate the external and internal factors that could either positively or negatively affect the country’s nuclear energy expansion drive. From the analysis, the country’s enabling laws and regulatory framework recorded the highest score of 39.2% under the strengths for the sector. In the case of the weaknesses, the high cost of construction and long construction framework recorded the highest weight, of 50.47%. Energy export and demand under the opportunities recorded a weight of 52.09%, ranking it as the highest opportunity for the sector. Seismic events were identified as the biggest threat for nuclear power expansion in the country, and the experts assigned a weight of 42.5% to this factor. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Acknowledgments: The authors acknowledge with thanks the Centre for Postgraduate Studies and the Postdoctoral Fellowship/Research Committee of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and the Directorate of Research and Innovations of the University of Venda

Socio-Economic Drivers of Renewable Energy: Empirical Evidence from BRICS

There is a need to implement efficient strategies to mitigate the challenges of climate change and income inequalities in developing countries. Several studies have been conducted to address the relationship among different econometric and environmental indicators of renewable energy (RE) but overlooked the relationship between RE and income inequalities. This study investigates the influence of the distribution of income on the RE in Brazil, Russia, China, and South Africa (BRICS) between 1988 and 2017. The econometric (economic growth and trade), environmental, and institutional parameters are also integrated into the model. The outcomes reveal that reduced inequality in income distribution increases the consumption of RE. In contrast, CO2 emissions have a positive correlation with RE. The governments should implement environmentally friendly policies and increase the consumption of renewable energy in the future with regards to reducing environmental pollution. Furthermore, findings from the study indicate a positive effect on the reduction of corruption in renewable energy. This shows that institutional quality can affect the uptake of renewable energy. The study further identified that growth in a country’s economy decreases RE consumption, suggesting that these countries prefer fossil fuels to gain economic growth. The Granger causality results show that a bidirectional causality exists between income inequality and RE consumption. Bidirectional causality is observed between income distribution and CO2 emissions. The results from this study are important for policymakers to achieve sustainable development because fair income distribution and environmental quality are considered as two key factors for sustainable development. Strong institutions and control on corruption can bring sound social and economic gains. Therefore, fair distribution of income and strong institutional policies can increase RE consumption to achieve a clean environment. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Modeling of Efficient Control Strategies for LCC-HVDC Systems: A Case Study of Matiari–Lahore HVDC Power Transmission Line

With the recent development in power electronic devices, HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) systems have been recognized as the most prominent solution to transmit electric power economically. Today, several HVDC projects have been implemented physically. The conventional HVDC systems use grid commutation converters, and its commutation relies on an AC system for the provision of voltage. Due to this reason, there are possibilities of commutation failure during fault. Furthermore, once the DC (Direct Current) system power is interrupted momentarily, the reversal of work power is likely to cause transient over-voltage, which will endanger the safety of power grid operation. Hence, it is necessary to study the commutation failure and transient over-voltage issues. To tackle the above issues, in this paper, the dynamic and transient characteristics of Pakistan’s first HVDC project, i.e., the Matiari–Lahore ±660 kV transmission line has been analyzed in an electromagnetic transient model of PSCAD/EMTDC. Based on the characteristics of the DC and the off-angle after the failure, a new control strategy has been proposed. The HVDC system along with its proposed control strategy has been tested under various operating conditions. The proposed controller increases the speed of fault detection, reduces the drop of AC voltage and DC and suppresses the commutation failure probability of LCC-HVDC (line commutated converter-high voltage direct current). © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Development of a Comprehensive Conceptual Framework for Biogas Technology Adoption in South Africa

This article focuses on the development of a conceptual framework guiding the adoption of biogas technology in selected rural areas of the Limpopo province. The theoretical framing of the study emanated from the critical evaluation of models and work that privileged the technical design and optimisation of a biogas system over the adoption of the technology at the household level. Based on the empirical evidence, and using logistic regression analysis, the study highlighted that determinants of biogas technology adoption in communities are complex, context-dependent and spatially varied. Hence, the policy of biogas adoption should be tailored based on the principle of fit-for-purpose, instead of using existing unimodal approaches for all settings. Based on the findings, the study developed a robust conceptual framework that harnesses the relationships between the influencing variables that can enhance the adoption of biogas technology