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The Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Energy Policies

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 5264

Special Issue Editors

School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Interests: emission trading scheme; energy finance; energy and environmental policy; Energy-Environment-Economy system modeling
School of Business, Shandong University, Jinan 264209, China
Interests: low-carbon strategy and the development of emerging industries
School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 20003, China
Interests: residents' behavior analysis; energy policy; sustainable development
Department of Economics and Finance, The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: energy economics; macroeconomics; environmental economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, great changes have taken place in the international energy pattern. The rapid growth in energy demand in emerging economies has pushed the global energy pattern towards multi-center development. China's "the belt and road initiative" initiative, the shale gas revolution in the United States and the reformation of the international financial system are new variables that are leveraging the restructuring of the international energy governance system. Against the backdrop of swift structural changes in the global energy pattern and energy governance system, the quality of energy policy formulation has a significant impact on a country and region’s socio-economic development and environmental protection. This Special Issue aims to study the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of energy policies.

This Special Issue on the Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Energy Policies is a scientific and technical platform that publishes original and multidisciplinary research results on various current and future aspects of energy.

The Special Issue publishes original contributions that include, among others:

  • Energy policy effect evaluation;
  • Energy policy prediction and optimization;
  • Energy policy decision support system;
  • Policy effects on energy efficiency;
  • Policy effects on energy transformation and substitution;
  • Policy effects on energy consumption;
  • Policy effects on energy poverty;
  • Policy effects on energy security;
  • Policy effects on sustainability;
  • Policy effects on greenhouse gas emission;
  • Energy policy effects on national and regional economy;
  • Policy effects on enterprises’ green innovation and competitiveness.

The articles covered by the Special Issue must cover at least one of the above research fields. They must identify or point out innovative aspects of the studied systems, technologies, methodologies, or analytical techniques.

Dr. Yigang Wei
Dr. Yan Li
Dr. Xin Liang
Dr. Tsun Se Cheong
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. Sustainability 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 2400 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 policy
  • policy effect evaluation
  • sustainability
  • economy
  • energy efficiency
  • energy poverty
  • greenhouse gas emission
  • energy security

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2923 KiB  
Article
Impact of a Carbon Tax on Energy Transition in a Deregulated Market: A Game-Based Experimental Approach
by Kengo Suzuki and Ryohei Ishiwata
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12785; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912785 - 07 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1262
Abstract
Energy companies in a competitive market face a dilemma between the short-term revenue benefits of using fossil fuels and the long-term market benefits of investing in renewables. This dilemma is caused by uncertainties in price competition, return on investment in renewables, and the [...] Read more.
Energy companies in a competitive market face a dilemma between the short-term revenue benefits of using fossil fuels and the long-term market benefits of investing in renewables. This dilemma is caused by uncertainties in price competition, return on investment in renewables, and the price of fossil fuels. This study experimentally investigated whether a carbon tax contributes to overcoming this conflict using an online multi-player game. The participants played the role of energy companies that produce energy from either fossil fuels or renewables. The game was played seven times each, with and without taxation on fossil fuels. In the with-tax condition, the rate and timing of taxation were informed at the beginning of the game, and the tax was imposed late in the game. The gameplay results showed that the investment in renewables was increased by the actual taxation but not by the information of taxation in advance. The answers to in- and post-game questionnaires indicated that information on taxation did not reduce player anxiety about future uncertainties. These results suggest the importance of considering the effects of policies on the perceptions and future behaviors of market players. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Energy Policies)
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13 pages, 586 KiB  
Article
Estimating the Demand Function for Residential City Gas in South Korea: Findings from a Price Sensitivity Measurement Experiment
by Ju-Hee Kim, Byoung-Soh Hwang and Seung-Hoon Yoo
Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7229; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127229 - 13 Jun 2022
Viewed by 1163
Abstract
The main cooking and heating fuel in the urban area of South Korea is city gas (CG), whose main ingredient is natural gas. A total of 34 operators in the country supply residential CG (RCG) in the form of a regional monopoly. Both [...] Read more.
The main cooking and heating fuel in the urban area of South Korea is city gas (CG), whose main ingredient is natural gas. A total of 34 operators in the country supply residential CG (RCG) in the form of a regional monopoly. Both the government and the operators need information on the demand function for RCG to establish policies and business plans. In response to this need, this article empirically estimates the demand function for RCG. There are two difficulties in securing data necessary for this estimation. First, since all RCG operators are private and most past performance data are trade secrets, the data required for the estimation are not usually available. Second, the prices of RCG are strongly controlled by local governments and price management authorities rather than determined in the marketplace. To overcome these two difficulties, this study applied the price sensitivity measurement experiment and a survey on RCG demand was conducted with 886 households nationwide. More specifically, each household was asked about current RCG usage and rates and then how they would adjust demand for the four alternative rising RCG prices. Therefore, a total of five observations were obtained for each household. The total number of observations used in this study was 4430. The estimated demand function for RCG held statistical significance. In addition, the price and income elasticities of demand were obtained as −0.570 and 0.038, respectively, securing statistical significance. The demand for RCG was inelastic to both price change and income change. This information can be useful in various fields of policymaking related to RCG. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Energy Policies)
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17 pages, 913 KiB  
Article
Identifying Critical Risk Factors in Green Product Certification Using Hybrid Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making
by Changlu Zhang, Jian Zhang and Qiong Yang
Sustainability 2022, 14(8), 4513; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084513 - 10 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1698
Abstract
Green product certification (GPC) is an important means of eliminating the asymmetry of information between consumers and manufacturers in the context of sustainable development. This study examined the critical risk factors in GPC and provided relevant suggestions for managers to reduce risk and [...] Read more.
Green product certification (GPC) is an important means of eliminating the asymmetry of information between consumers and manufacturers in the context of sustainable development. This study examined the critical risk factors in GPC and provided relevant suggestions for managers to reduce risk and ensure the correctness of the process. First, 18 risk factors were summarized along four dimensions: the certification institution, the entrusting enterprise, the certification business, and the implementation of the certification. Second, the Delphi method was used to determine the formal research framework, and the decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was applied to analyze the causal relationships among the risk factors to identify the ones driving risk and those representing the outcomes of GPC. This was used to construct a causality diagram of the risks related to green certification. Finally, the analytic network process (ANP) method was used to calculate the weight of each risk factor, and the weighted prominence of each is calculated to identify the critical factors. The results showed that the working life and experience of the certification institution were the critical driving risk factors in GPC. Corresponding countermeasures were also proposed to mitigate these risk factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Environmental and Socioeconomic Impacts of Energy Policies)
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