Energy justice in the transition to low carbon energy systems:Exploring key themes in interdisciplinary research

With the dual challenges of reducing emissions from fossil fuels and providing access to clean and affordable energy, there is an imperative for a transition to a low carbon energy system. The transition must take into consideration questions of energy justice to ensure that policies, plans and programmes guarantee fair and equitable access to resources and technologies. An energy justice framework is outlined to account for distributional, procedural and recognition inequalities, as well as emerging themes such as cosmopolitan and non-Western understandings of justice, in decision-making relating to energy systems. The spectrum of research offers critical perspectives on the energy transition as well as tools for decision-making and policy processes. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods all contribute to our understanding of the problems and the success of responses. The studies presented in this special issue illustrate that the field of energy justice is a rapidly growing arena. There is constant innovation taking place in enabling the transition with new structures, processes and metrics being introduced to guide decision-making and a more holistic view of the community emerging where acceptance, mobilisation and empowerment are opening possibilities for a just transition to a low carbon energy system. The importance of introducing the interdisciplinary approach between social sciences and natural sciences as well engineering implementation supported by scientific data and experiments shall be emphasized in future studies

Adherence of healthcare providers to malaria case management guidelines of the formal private sector in north-western Ethiopia: an implication for malaria control and elimination

Abstract Background Malaria is an infectious disease which has been globally targeted for elimination in at least 35 of 90 endemic countries by 2030. Most successful malaria elimination country programmes have engaged the private health sector in an effort to identify, document, investigate, provide effective treatment, and follow-up cases. However, there has been limited rigorous research showing evidence of adherence among healthcare providers of the formal private health sector to national malaria diagnosis and treatment guidelines in Ethiopia, starting from malaria control to elimination phases. The aims of this study were to investigate and explain the level of adherence to malaria diagnosis and treatment guidelines among healthcare providers working in formal private health facilities in north-western Ethiopia. Methods An explanatory sequential mixed method design was conducted in the West Gojjam Zone of Ethiopia. Quantitative data were extracted from 1650 medical records of adult uncomplicated malaria outpatients served in 11 private-for-profit health facilities. In addition, using a qualitative approach, 33 in-depth interviews (IDIs) with healthcare providers were conducted. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using eight steps. Results Of 1650 suspected malaria cases in adult outpatients, 80.6% (1330/1650) were screen tested using microscopy and the remainder 19.4% (320/1650) were tested using multispecies rapid diagnosis tests (RDTs). Hence, the results revealed that private healthcare providers universally adhered to diagnosis guidelines. In addition, after following-up and excluding other causes of fever, 4.1% (56/1376) patients were clinically diagnosed with uncomplicated malaria. Despite this, the proportion of private healthcare provider adherence with confirmed malaria case treatment guidelines was 20.9% (69/330). In addition, 1320 (95.9%) of adult outpatients with negative laboratory results were not treated. Some of the identified determinant factors for sub-optimal adherence of healthcare providers to malaria guidelines were interruptions in supply and lack of availability of recommended anti-malarial drugs, lack of availability of quality assured laboratory supplies, and poor knowledge of the recommendations of the national standards. Conclusions Private healthcare providers adhered to universal parasitological diagnosis, providing comprehensive counseling, and linking patients with community health workers. In addition, almost all laboratory negative patients were not treated with anti-malarial drugs. However, only one-fifth of confirmed patients were treated in line with national guideline recommendations. Malaria control and elimination efforts across Ethiopia could be improved through establishing a collaborative function of a win-win public private mix partnership model. In addition, including the data of the private health sector in the health information system could show real malaria burden and use the information to improve the adherence to malaria diagnosis, treatment, and reporting standards within the targeted era of elimination. Therefore, building the capacity of private healthcare providers and ensuring the availability of all nationally recommended drugs and supplies in private health sector facilities is recommended to improve the quality of services

Strategy framework for sustainable industrial development in sub-Saharan Africa: Systems-evolutionary approach

The principal objectives of this research were: · to develop a conceptual framework on sustainability and sustainable development and · to propose a strategy framework for sustainable industrial development in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The research was done based on systems evolutionary approach having the following methodological principles as a guide. · The dynamic complexity of environmental and developmental issues can be better understood by utilizing transdisciplinary theories such as ‘General Systems Theory’, ‘General Evolutionary Theory’ and ‘Information Theory’. · The ‘add-on approach’ has limited success both at the macro and micro level. At the macro level, sustainable development requires mainstreaming socio-ecological and socio-economic principles in development policies and strategies. · It is crucial to make a distinction between fundamental and facilitating factors of the development process and to understand the interaction within and among these factors. The following are the major conclusions and recommendation of the research. · Systems can be described by the ‘entity factors’, that define the boundary conditions and the ‘significance factors’, that determine the field of significance of the system. · The interaction between the ‘entity factors’ and the ‘significance factors’ provides the basis for fulfilment of the systemic function. · Sustainability is a systemic property of maintaining the positive slope of the systemic functions through evolutionary succession of systems. · The path and pace of the evolutionary succession of a given system is determined by its ability to identify, process, utilize and accumulate survival-relevant (SR) information. · For societal systems, the ‘entity factors’ are ecological space, demography, and culture while the ‘significance factors’ are institutional structures and norms, capital structures and flows, and technological innovation and diffusion. · Sustainable development is a process of maintaining an optimum interaction between the entity and significance factors of a society to achieve evolutionary succession and productive engagement. · Industrial development strategies that have been promoted in SSA have been of ‘transplanting’ nature instead of being ‘transformational’. This has resulted in a mismatch between the ‘entity factors’ and the ‘significance factors’. · The development of the region’s ability to manage SR information is a fundamental prerequisite for promoting sustainable industrial development. · Identification and utilization of the positive elements of endogenous capacities and indigenous knowledge, as essential repositories of SR information, constitutes the core principle of building such a capacity. · Resource depletion, disoriented property rights regimes, sectoral dichotomy and global inertia were identified as the principal challenges. Hence, valorization of resources is the core element of the strategic framework, supplemented with sub-models on property rights regimes, sectoral synergy global momentum and the sustainability function. The promotion of sustainable development as a social transformation process will require a fundamental reorientation of national, regional and international structures. It is believed that a transdisciplinary approaches provide sound bases to undertake such reorientation at a global scale. This thesis contributes to the promotion of sustainable industrial development in SSA through the application and advancement of transdisciplinary approaches

Corporate social responsibility driven innovation

International audienceThis study identifies the substantial relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation activities of firms. Using the French Vigeo sustainability rating and the Thomson Reuters, we divided 619 firms into groups by their industry sectors, regions, and firm characteristics such as size and age. We premise that innovative investment is needed to prepare tomorrow's profits not only by considering investments in technology and in R&D, but also by dealing with sustainability to human, social, environmental, technical, and economic investments. Consequently, when the firm manipulates its short- and long-run business strategies, the consideration of the correlation between types of investment and CSR initiatives will lead to more cooperating effect on the outcome of investments. The findings provide a comprehensive understanding on the effect of sustainable management strategies on the innovation and sustainability of firms

Ten new insights in climate science 2021: A horizon scan

Non-technical summary We summarize some of the past year's most important findings within climate change-related research. New research has improved our understanding about the remaining options to achieve the Paris Agreement goals, through overcoming political barriers to carbon pricing, taking into account non-CO2 factors, a well-designed implementation of demand-side and nature-based solutions, resilience building of ecosystems and the recognition that climate change mitigation costs can be justified by benefits to the health of humans and nature alone. We consider new insights about what to expect if we fail to include a new dimension of fire extremes and the prospect of cascading climate tipping elements. Technical summary A synthesis is made of 10 topics within climate research, where there have been significant advances since January 2020. The insights are based on input from an international open call with broad disciplinary scope. Findings include: (1) the options to still keep global warming below 1.5 °C; (2) the impact of non-CO2 factors in global warming; (3) a new dimension of fire extremes forced by climate change; (4) the increasing pressure on interconnected climate tipping elements; (5) the dimensions of climate justice; (6) political challenges impeding the effectiveness of carbon pricing; (7) demand-side solutions as vehicles of climate mitigation; (8) the potentials and caveats of nature-based solutions; (9) how building resilience of marine ecosystems is possible; and (10) that the costs of climate change mitigation policies can be more than justified by the benefits to the health of humans and nature. Social media summary How do we limit global warming to 1.5 °C and why is it crucial? See highlights of latest climate science. </jats:sec