Energy Poverty and Climate Change

Author(s):  
Marcio Giannini Pereira ◽  
Neilton Fidelis da Silva ◽  
Marcos A.V. Freitas

Energy is essential to human survival. Supplying energy to all citizens is a requirement for social well-being and for a country’s economic development. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the differences in the availability of electricity around the world, mainly in Brazil, China, India, and South Africa, from a perspective of access as a human right. In this context, the concept of energy poverty and its nexus to climate changes will be discussed, considering the human dimension and equity. Moreover, this chapter presents metrics and new metrics (energy/climate changes), emphasizing the need to promote a program focused on access to electric power and to expand other basic services in developing countries.

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-254
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thi Hong Yen ◽  
Nguyen Phuong Dung

Abstract Climate change is becoming the largest crisis that humans have ever faced and a major challenge to the socio-economic and prosperous development of almost every country in the world, especially developing countries. According to the Report of the 2019 Long-Term Climate Risk Index of Germanwatch, Vietnam is rated as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change due to factors such as its geographic location, economic development model and population density. The negative impacts of climate change have become barriers for Vietnam in implementing socio-economic development policies, sustainable development goals and human rights, including the right to a healthy environment. This article will focus on clarifying the legal basis as well as the direct challenges of climate change in ensuring the right to a healthy environment in Vietnam and will recommend appropriate solutions to improve the law and capacity to enforce this right in Vietnam.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 69-71
Author(s):  
Kiara Mahadev

Climate change has quickly become one of the greatest challenges impacting regions all over the world. Despite it being a global challenge, developing countries have had a much more difficult time combating these effects (South Africa’s 2nd Annual Climate Change Report, 2017). This is largely due to the population density, lack of funds and necessary resources in most developing countries. This article will explore climate change and the impact of this phenomenon on the country of South Africa.


Author(s):  
Sabrina Bruno

Climate change is a financial factor that carries with it risks and opportunities for companies. To support boards of directors of companies belonging to all jurisdictions, the World Economic Forum issued in January 2019 eight Principlescontaining both theoretical and practical provisions on: climate accountability, competence, governance, management, disclosure and dialogue. The paper analyses each Principle to understand scope and managerial consequences for boards and to evaluate whether the legal distinctions, among the various jurisdictions, may undermine the application of the Principles or, by contrast, despite the differences the Principles may be a useful and effective guidance to drive boards' of directors' conduct around the world in handling climate change challenges. Five jurisdictions are taken into consideration for this comparative analysis: Europe (and UK), US, Australia, South Africa and Canada. The conclusion is that the WEF Principles, as soft law, is the best possible instrument to address boards of directors of worldwide companies, harmonise their conduct and effectively help facing such global emergency.


Author(s):  
Jacques de Jongh

Globalisation has had an unprecedented impact on the development and well-being of societies across the globe. Whilst the process has been lauded for bringing about greater trade specialisation and factor mobility many have also come to raise concerns on its impact in the distribution of resources. For South Africa in particular this has been somewhat of a contentious issue given the country's controversial past and idiosyncratic socio-economic structure. Since 1994 though, considerable progress towards its global integration has been made, however this has largely coincided with the establishment of, arguably, the highest levels of income inequality the world has ever seen. This all has raised several questions as to whether a more financially open and technologically integrated economy has induced greater within-country inequality (WCI). This study therefore has the objective to analyse the impact of the various dimensions of globalisation (economic, social and political) on inequality in South Africa. Secondary annual time series from 1990 to 2018 were used sourced from the World Bank Development indicators database, KOF Swiss Economic Institute and the World Inequality database. By using different measures of inequality (Palma ratios and distribution figures), the study employed two ARDL models to test the long-run relationships with the purpose to ensure the robustness of the results. Likewise, two error correction models (ECM) were used to analyse the short-run dynamics between the variables. As a means of identifying the casual effects between the variables, a Toda-Yamamoto granger causality analysis was utilised. Keywords: ARDL, Inequality, Economic Globalisation; Social Globalisation; South Africa


Author(s):  
Ifeoluwa Garba ◽  
Richard Bellingham

Access to energy is crucial in tackling many of the current global development challenges that impact on people’s economic, health and social well-being as well as the ability to meet the commitments of reducing carbon emissions through clean energy use. Despite increased attention from multiple governments and agencies, energy poverty remains a serious sustainable development issue in many developing countries. To date, most research have focused on general access to electricity and the generation of clean energy to replace fossil fuels, failing to address the lack of basic access to clean energy for cooking and heating. More people in the world lack access to clean cooking fuels than to electricity. This issue is one aspect of a broader research which investigates the impacts of optimized energy policy and energy business models on sustainable development in developing countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 231-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martín José Montero-Martínez ◽  
Julio Sergio Santana-Sepúlveda ◽  
Naydú Isabel Pérez-Ortiz ◽  
Óscar Pita-Díaz ◽  
Salvador Castillo-Liñan

Abstract. It is a matter of current study to determine potential climate changes in different parts of the world, especially in regions like a basin which has the potential to affect socioeconomic and environmental issues in a defined area. This study provides a comparison between several climate change indices trends of two very different basins in Mexico, one located in the northern arid region (the Conchos River basin) and the other in the southern humid area (the Usumacinta River basin). First, quality control, homogenization, and completion of the missing data were applied before calculating the climate change indices and their respective trends for the combined period 1961–1994. A clear warming signal was found for the two basins in addition to an increment in the DTR, in agreement with other studies in Mexico. Also, the Conchos River basin was found to be more humid and the Usumacinta River basin drier, in accordance to a supposed seesaw behavior indicated in previous analysis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Necla Türkoğlu ◽  
Serhat Şensoy ◽  
Olgu Aydın

It is known that the increase in air temperature from 1980 to present has dramatically changed the phenological periods of the plants in a large part of the world. In this study, the relationships between phenological periods of wheat plant, apple and cherry trees planted large areas in Turkey and climate change were investigated. In this study, the climate and phenological data for 1971-2012 period belonging to the General Directorate of Meteorology were used. The correlation coefficients between temperature and phenological data were calculated, and their trends were examined using Mann-Kendall trend analysis. In Turkey, positive temperature anomalies have been observed since 1994 until present days. Negative relationships were found between phenological periods of apple, cherry and wheat and the average temperatures of February-May period when the plants grow faster. This situation shows that the plants shift their phenological periods to the earlier times in response to the increasing temperatures. The trend calculated for harvest times of apple, cherry, and wheat are -25, -22, -40 days/100 years respectively. It was calculated that an increase of 1.0ºC in the temperatures of the February-May period will shift the harvest times of apple, cheery and wheat by 5, 4 and 8 days earlier respectively. Özet1980’lerden günümüze hava sıcaklıklarındaki artış, Dünya’nın büyük bir bölümünde bitkilerin fenolojik dönemlerini önemli ölçüde değiştirmiştir. Bu çalışmada Türkiye’de geniş alanlar kaplayan buğday, elma ve kiraz bitkilerinin fenolojik dönemleri ile iklim değişikliği arasındaki ilişkiler araştırılmıştır. Çalışmada Meteoroloji Genel Müdürlüğü’ne ait 1971-2012 döneminin iklim ve fenolojik verileri kullanılmıştır. Sıcaklık ile fenolojik veriler arasındaki korelasyon katsayıları hesaplanmış ve Mann- Kendall trend analizi ile eğilimlerine bakılmıştır. Türkiye’de 1994 yılından bu yana pozitif sıcaklık anomalileri bulunmuştur. Elma, kiraz ve buğdayın fenolojik dönemleri ile bitki gelişiminin fazla olduğu şubat-mayıs ortalama sıcaklıkları arasında negatif ilişki saptanmıştır. Bu durum bitkilerin artan sıcaklıklara tepki olarak fenolojik dönemlerini erkene kaydırdıklarını göstermektedir. Elma, kiraz ve buğdayın hasat tarihleri için hesaplanan trend sırasıyla-25, -22, -40 gün/100 yıl şeklindedir. Şubat-mayıs arası sıcaklıklarda 1.0°C’lik artışın anılan bitkilerin hasat tarihlerini sırasıyla 5, 4 ve 8 gün erkene kaydıracağı hesaplanmıştır.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Blustein ◽  
Maureen E. Kenny ◽  
Annamaria Di Fabio ◽  
Jean Guichard

Building on new developments in the psychology of working framework (PWF) and psychology of working theory (PWT), this article proposes a rationale and research agenda for applied psychologists and career development professionals to contribute to the many challenges related to human rights and decent work. Recent and ongoing changes in the world are contributing to a significant loss of decent work, including a rise of unemployment, underemployment, and precarious work across the globe. By failing to satisfy human needs for economic survival, social connection, and self-determination, the loss of decent work undermines individual and societal well-being, particularly for marginalized groups and those without highly marketable skills. Informed by innovations in the PWF/PWT, we offer exemplary research agendas that focus on examining the psychological meaning and impact of economic and social protections, balancing caregiving work and market work, making work more just, and enhancing individual capacities for coping and adapting to changes in the world of work. These examples are intended to stimulate new ideas and initiatives for psychological research that will inform and enhance efforts pertaining to work as a human right.


Author(s):  
Tim Mulgan

Consequentialist morality is about making the world a better place—by promoting value and producing valuable outcomes. Consequentialist ethics competes with non-consequentialist alternatives where values are to be honored or instantiated rather than promoted and/or where morality is based on rules, virtues, or rights rather than values. Consequentialism’s main rivals in intergenerational ethics are contract-based theories. This chapter first argues that consequentialism has significant comparative advantages over its contract-based rivals, especially in relation to non-identity, the absence of reciprocity, and the need for flexibility and radical critique. These advantages outweigh the challenges facing any consequentialist intergenerational ethics—including cluelessness, counterintuitive demands, and puzzles of aggregation. The chapter then explores many varieties of contemporary consequentialism, arguing that the best consequentialist approach to intergenerational justice is agnostic, moderate, collective consequentialism. Different possible futures—including futures broken by climate change or transformed by new technologies—present new ethical challenges that consequentialism has the flexibility to address. Collective consequentialism can also resolve long-standing debates about the aggregation of well-being. The chapter ends by asking how consequentialist intergenerational ethics might evaluate threats of human extinction, incorporate the value of nonhuman nature, and motivate its potentially extreme demands.


Author(s):  
Priti Jain ◽  
Akakandelwa Akakandelwa

Increasingly, the importance of e-government is growing owing to higher quality delivery of government services, improved citizen empowerment through access to e-information, and better interactions between governments and their stakeholders. Despite all this recognition and appreciation of e-government, there is slow uptake and high failure of e-government in developing countries. A huge imbalance still remains between developed and developing countries, specifically in Africa because of numerous impediments. Africa lags far behind all other regions in the world. Some African countries have initiated e-government, such as Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, yet others have not taken any initiative or are very slow in realizing its full take off, for instance, Tanzania, Botswana, and Zambia. In light of the above background, the main purpose of this chapter is to determine the challenges and based on the findings make recommendations for adoption of E-Government in Arica. The chapter reviews the theoretical underpinning of E-Government as a tool for modernizing public administration; examines the present state of e-government in Africa; highlights the challenges and barriers African countries encounter in their quest to develop E-Government; reviews the role of public libraries in E-Government, and finally, makes recommendations for E-Government adoption in Africa and other developing countries.


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