Would internalisation of external costs change cost-competitiveness of different energy sources?

The world currently stands witness to increasing energy demand mainly because of population growth and improvements in the standard of living. This causes highly negative environmental constraints since energy production, especially from conventional energy sources, is a very intense polluter. Therefore, any new energy infrastructure, especially new energy production facilities, must be carefully planned and designed and their cost competitiveness must be studied in details. Along with more traditional studies, considering mainly investment and production costs, external costs must be taken into account when making a feasibility study of a new power plant on a new country energy mix. Consideration of external costs is also crucial for efficient long term re-evaluation of different energy sources and technologies used in energy industry. The internalisation of external costs shows us the way to evaluate energy systems with inclusion of all environmental and social costs generated in the energy industry. In this paper we attempt to show which renewable energy sources are competitive with conventional energy sources if we internalize external costs. The study is made on the basis of external costs data for the European States which are interesting for the States of former Yugoslavia as well. The results have shown that competitiveness of renewables would change dramatically if all costs are taken into account

Review of low emission zones in Europe: Case of London and German cities

Over 72% of population in Europe lives in cities nowadays, using a variety of different transportation vehicles for their intercity mobility. A high density of transportation vehicles in cities is a substantial problem in urban areas, since these vehicles are almost exclusively powered by fossil fuels. Fossil fuels have an impact on human health and emit harmful emissions to the environment when burned. Nevertheless, modern lifestyle is highly dependent on fossil fuels and therefore also highly vulnerable in the case of supply shortfalls. Nowadays, environmental problems and the impact of concentrated transport on human health, especially in cities, gained importance and lead to the detection and greater implementation of alternative technologies and advanced sustainable solutions in the field of environmental protection in cities. Since the EU is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels and has very small oil reserves and a high share of urban population affected by transport pollutants, it is particularly important for the EU to reduce their impact as efficiently as possible and to implement new solutions for a more sustainable future. One such solution is represented with Green zones - areas where we try to minimize harmful transport related environmental and social impacts such as emissions, noise, smog, particle matter, etc. Therefore, this paper consists of an identification and examination of green zones in the selected EU member states (including UK) with special emphasis on German cities and London and analysis of their pros and cons

Review of Policies for Promotion of Electric Vehicles.

This paper presents the review of policies and their possible effects for promoting the use of electric vehicles. Suggestions on faster implementation of electric vehicles can also be identified within best practices from abroad. Various countries have adopted different policies to promote the use of electric vehicles which include fiscal or other forms of incentives that would persuade people into buying electric vehicles. Possible effects are hard to determine since many variables affect a consumer's purchasing decisions. That is why identification of policies that have proven to be successful and those that have not achieved projected results and should be improved is necessary. Research has shown that countries with most promising policies for promotion have the biggest share of electric vehicles and invest the most in their promotion (fiscal incentives)

Sustainability topics integration in supply chain and logistics higher education

The global logistics industry has grown significantly in the last decade and has become essential to global business activities. In addition, the logistics industry is vital in transportation, urbanization in the Middle East, and transshipment through the Middle East. Due to their increasing importance and size, there is an increasing demand for adequately qualified people capable of managing the logistics systems and supply chains holistically and sustainably to avoid problems caused by unsustainable practices in mobility, transport, and supply chains. However, it is unclear whether the logistic and supply chain education of future leaders, managers, and engineers will follow SDG goals, the rise of new trends, and green technologies or lag behind. This paper pioneered a systematic approach and analyzed Middle Eastern countries regarding their sustainability integration into higher education programs related to supply chain management and logistics studies. It revealed enormous differences among countries and a lack of sustainability topics in most studied countries. Some countries are also significantly more oriented toward partial logistics challenges such as transport efficiency instead of sustainable supply chains, which are becoming critical challenges for the near future and must be accompanied by formal and life-long learning on sustainability-related topics. The circular economy and corporate social responsibility are especially neglected. It was also revealed that sustainability integration in higher education does not correlate with sustainability scores and the ranking of countries within the sustainability index

How much sustainable knowledge will soon-to-be experts in Slovenia have?

Environmental topics are gaining more and more important both in the European Union and in Slovenia in the last decade. Climate changes (floods, droughts, and heat waves), pollution (soil, water, and air), management of invasive species, noise pollution, food self-sufficiency, sustainable development in the field of tourism, etc. are particularly present both in Slovenian Eastern and Western cohesion region. However, the level of knowledge about environmental challenges and competences of current experts and leaders to effectively manage and deal with them is perceived to be too low. The paper examines the inclusion of sustainable competences, knowledge, and skills in higher education programs in Slovenia to predict the level of sustainable knowledge. Slovenian soon-to-be professionals will be empowered by the Slovenian higher education system (Daneshjoo et al., 2020). Analysis included the content of 956 higher education study programs on the individual course level. In the next phase, a comprehensive comparative analysis of the situation in the areas of higher education and environmental education was performed. The factors based on which comparison was made are field of study, type of institution, level of study and number of subjects in the program that include some sustainable content. Non-parametric tests were used to determine statistically significant differences are the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis H test

Green logistics - development and implementation

Environmental problems, material depletion, and high dependency on fossil fuels are core problems of logistics in the EU as well as globally. Therefore, numerous countries, in particular Member States of the EU, have ambitious goals for the increased use of renewables, increased energy efficiency, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, transition to sustainable transportation and similar changes. EU companies are, therefore, strongly committed to reducing their environmental impact, reducing the use of fossil fuels and becoming more sustainable. Logistics companies are no exception due to the impact of logistics processes, such as transportation and distribution that impact human health, ecosystem and air quality, climate changes (with noise, vibrations, fossil fuel related harmful emissions etc.), warehousing (especially with energy used for heating and cooling) and packaging (especially with the use of material). Therefore, the implementation of green logistics is necessary for the sustainable future of our planet. This chapter identifies how the idea of green logistics was developed and has evolved, analyses key problems for its implementation, and presents the current status of green logistics, including the best practices of green logistics implementation in selected organizations