Does hydropower growth threaten fish security under the pathway of sustainable development? Evidence from European Union economies

2021 ◽  
pp. 0958305X2110463
Author(s):  
Mohd Alsaleh ◽  
Abdul Samad Abdul-Rahim

This research explores the impact of hydropower growth on fish supply in European Union Region nations from 1990 to 2019. Using the panel fully modified ordinary least squares, the outcome exhibits the reduced fish supply with the growth in hydropower production. Also, human population density and growth economics were found to be decreasing fish supply and their habitats. While institutional quality and expenditure were found to be increasing fish species and numbers, the finding implies that fish supply in the European Union Region could efficiently be minimized by boosting the quantity of hydropower production with operational procedures. This can ultimately add more burden on an already degraded natural resource and negative environmental impacts. The predicted outcomes are confirmed by dummy panel ordinary least squares and pooled ordinary least squares thus, thought to be valid. The research advised the European Union nations to develop the efficiency and productivity of hydropower in the energy mix to lessen the carbon dioxide releases. The authorities from these nations should further participate in the sustainability of hydropower industry growth by exploring the probability of the unified river managing structures to resolve conflicting economic, political, and ecological benefits. The government of the said nations can similarly stress the sustainability of the hydropower output to reach energy certainty and conservation of fish resources to achieve food security.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4599
Author(s):  
Mohd Alsaleh ◽  
Muhammad Mansur Abdulwakil ◽  
Abdul Samad Abdul-Rahim

Under the current European Union (EU) constitution approved in May 2018, EU countries ought to guarantee that estimated greenhouse-gas releases from land use, land-use change, or forestry are entirely compensated by an equivalent accounted removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air during the period between 2021 and 2030. This study investigates the effect of sustainable hydropower production on land-use change in the European Union (EU28) region countries during 1990–2018, using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS). The results revealed that land-use change incline with an increase in hydropower energy production. In addition, economic growth, carbon dioxide emissions, and population density are found to be increasing land-use changes, while institutional quality is found to be decreasing land-use change significantly. The finding implies that land-use change in EU28 region countries can be significantly increased by mounting the amount of hydropower energy production to achieve Energy Union aims by 2030. This will finally be spread to combat climate change and environmental pollution. The findings are considered robust as they were checked with DOLS and pooled OLS. The research suggests that the EU28 countries pay attention to the share of hydropower in their renewable energy combination to minimize carbon releases. Politicians and investors in the EU28 region ought to invest further in the efficiency and sustainability of hydropower generation to increase its production and accessibility without further degradation of forest and agricultural conditions. The authorities of the EU28 region should emphasize on efficiency and sustainability of hydropower energy with land-use management to achieve the international commitments for climate, biodiversity, and sustainable development, reduce dependence on fossil fuel, and energy insecurity.


Author(s):  
Thomas Appiah ◽  
Frank Bisiw

The economic development of any nation hinges on the health of its financial system. In recent years, the health of the Ghanaian Banking sector has been affected severely as a result of high levels of non-performing loans (NPLs), which has been identified as a major threat to the overall profitability and survival of banks. To minimize the impact of NPLs on the financial sector, key stakeholders such as the government, bank officials and regulators are working hard in that regard. However, any policy response aimed at dealing with the high rate of non-performing loans first requires the understanding of the underlying determinants of NPLs. Against this backdrop, this paper apply panel co-integration techniques to investigate the determinants of credit risk (NPLs) in the banking sector of Ghana.  We use NPL as a proxy to measure credit risk and assess how it is influenced by macroeconomic and bank-specific factors. A balanced panel data of 16 universal banks in Ghana from 2010 to 2016 has been analyzed using Panel co-integration techniques such as Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS). Our result shows that growth in the economy, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has significant influence on the NPLs of banks in the long-run. The results further revealed that capital adequacy, profitability and liquidity of banks are significant predictors of NPLs. However, our results suggest that bank size, inflation and interest rate have statistically insignificant influence on the NPLs of Ghanaian banks. The study recommend, among others, that whereas it is important for government and policymakers to work to improve macroeconomic outcomes, banks should also improve their capital adequacy, profitability, and efficiency position as these bank-specific interventions could significantly improve credit quality and minimize NPLs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 202-208
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Korczyc

Purpose of the study: This study aims to present the specifics of the global financial crisis, the threats it brings for Poland in the legal sphere, and possible actions to be taken in this area, particularly at the European Union and Poland level. Methodology: The article uses the historical method and the analysis of documents both at the Polish and European Union levels, including laws, regulations, and decisions. Main Findings: The scope of the financial crisis in question and its relatively easy transfer between markets entails the necessity to apply extraordinary remedial actions. Poland, through its participation in the European Union, seems to be relatively well protected against the effects of the financial crisis. However, it needs to undertake further structural reforms, in particular reforms of public finances. Applications of this study: The current study is highly significant for the government of the day in this modern world; the study could be quite effective and meaningful for Higher Education Institutions, government, banks, financial institutions. Novelty/Originality of this study: Description of the essence of the financial crisis, possibilities of its prevention - earlier possibilities of remedial actions at the institutional and legal level, possibilities of obtaining financial support, global analysis of the problem, including its causes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Tatiana P. Rizova

Conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria over the past fifteen years have produced the largest waves of displaced people and refugees since World War II. As European Union (EU) leaders braced for an influx of thousands of people fleeing from these conflicts, they faced pressures to revisit and modify legal rules that left countries in Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean unable to cope with a crisis of unprecedented proportions in the twenty-first century. While the logistical challenges of this humanitarian disaster threatened to undermine Southeastern and Mediterranean states’ capacity, multiple terrorist attacks across Europe magnified the security concerns of EU leaders. This paper compares how two of the European Union’s newest member states – Bulgaria and Hungary – have tackled the migrant crisis and assesses the impact of security concerns on their refugee policies. Some of the responses of these countries’ governments were similar – both governments mandated the erection or extension of physical barriers to impede migrants’ entry on their countries’ territory. While the Bulgarian government took cues from the rhetoric and actions of key EU leaders such as Angela Merkel, the Hungarian government continuously antagonized EU leaders and declined to cooperate with their proposed multi-lateral strategies of handling the migrant crisis. Decisions taken by the two governments were, to some extent, dictated by security concerns. The rhetoric of the Hungarian government, however, contained stronger nationalist overtones than that of the Bulgarian government. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his right-wing government led an anti-migrant and anti-refugee campaign that sought to exclude foreign nationals due to the patent incompatibility of their cultural values with those of Hungary’s nationals. On the other hand, the rhetoric of Bulgaria’s Prime Minister – Boiko Borisov – was more dualistic and contradictory. His policy statements to the foreign press or at EU summits reflected the general sentiment of the top EU brass, whereas statements made to the Bulgarian media focused more specifically on security concerns and were far more critical of the foreign nationals attempting to enter Bulgaria’s territory. Moreover, the security-focused rhetoric and actions of the government became more strident immediately before and after the Bulgarian presidential elections of November 2016, which led to the resignation of Borisov’s cabinet. Political parties in Bulgaria, including Borisov’s GERB party have increasingly become critical of refugees living in Bulgaria’s admission centers. Borisov’s government even extradited a group of Afghan asylum seekers due to their involvement in a riot at one of the refugee admission centers. This study is based on a content analysis of statements made by Bulgarian and Hungarian government officials and media coverage in several Bulgarian and Hungarian news publications between 2015 and 2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (31) ◽  
pp. 57-77
Author(s):  
Małgorzata Jabłońska ◽  
Joanna Stawska ◽  
Radosław Dziuba ◽  
Mahmut Tekce ◽  
Marta Krasoń

The aim of the article: The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic made it necessary to involve the state in the process of rescuing numerous business entities from bankruptcy. In the European Union, the aid measure for entrepreneurs takes a form of public aid, which, as it turns out, is the necessary and the only tool to protect SME sector enterprises against bankruptcy. Social isolation caused by the virus that spread on a large scale effectively inhibited the development of entrepreneurship, which is inherently related to the economic development of countries. The aim of the article is therefore to indicate that supporting entrepreneurs within the framework of public aid may help to reverse the unfavorable economic trends related to the disturbed development of entrepreneurship. Methodology: The article analyzes and assesses the government solutions introduced to the Polish economic reality, the purpose of which is to counteract the effects of Covid-19. The paper presents the current public aid tools available to entrepreneurs along with their financial dimension. Results of the research: State aid granted by the state to entrepreneurs during the crisis caused by Covid-19 is indispensable for their further functioning. The paper presents aid instruments related to COVID-19 that are available to entrepreneurs. The analysis shows that public aid addressed to entrepreneurs injured as a result of the lockdown comes from many sources and is almost tailored to the individual entrepreneur. The entities providing aid on the basis of state aid include: banks, local government units, executive bodies of local government units, Social Insurance Fund, State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled People, financial intermediaries, bodies constituting local government units, the European Investment Bank, Polish Development Fund, district and voivodeship labor offices and BGK (Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego). Having prepared a package of systemic solutions, the government introduced them systematically, depending on the situation of individual sectors of the economy. Special solutions in the form of financial shields were addressed directly to the tourism sector (e.g. loans for tour operators) or the catering sector, which in the face of the pandemic were most exposed to a decrease in revenues. The impact of introduced solutions on the country’s economy can be assessed only in the next few years, but the multitude and diversified nature of the anti-crisis solutions introduced in Poland will certainly contribute to slowing down the negative consequences of Covid-19 in the economy.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 5197
Author(s):  
Anna Misztal ◽  
Magdalena Kowalska ◽  
Anita Fajczak-Kowalska ◽  
Otakar Strunecky

Decarbonization is an activity aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit climate change and global warming. Ensuring macroeconomic stabilization is the basis for ecological action. The question is whether macroeconomic stabilization helps companies, institutions and countries act for decarbonization. This article presents research on the impact of components of macroeconomic stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency in the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the European Union from 1990 to 2020. We focus on the following countries, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. The contribution to knowledge is using the pentagon of macroeconomic stabilization to assess macroeconomic stabilization’s impact on decarbonization and energy efficiency. According to the correlation coefficients, the Ordinary Least Squares and the Seemingly Unrelated Regression method, there is a statistically significant impact of components of macroeconomics stabilization on decarbonization and energy efficiency. Moreover, our models show a different strength and direction of relationships between the explained and explanatory variables. Research results confirm the necessity to coordinate the macroeconomic with environmental policy. We think that it is essential to use effective tools of economic support (European Union Emissions Trading System, environmental taxes) and greater pressure from European Union institutions on countries that emit harmful substances.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0958305X2110394
Author(s):  
Mohd Alsaleh ◽  
AS Abdul-Rahim

This research investigates the effect of hydropower yields on water quality in European Union participating nations from 1990 to 2019. Integrating the panel fully modified ordinary least squares, the outcomes show that water quality degradation increase with a rise in hydropower production growth. Similarly, fossil fuel, economic growth and population density are found to be increasing water resource pollution. While institutional quality is found to decrease water quality degradation and water resource pollution. The finding implies that water quality degradation in the EU27 region can be effectively increased by increasing the amount of hydropower production in sustainability procedures. This will increasingly influence the status of climate change. The evaluated outcomes are observed to be valid as they were authenticated with the panel dynamic ordinary least square and pooled ordinary least square. Therefore, it attests to the paper's uniqueness, input to the body of knowledge and novelty. The research suggests that for EU27 nations have to enhance the role of the hydropower industry in their energy mix to achieve Energy Union objectives taking into consideration the water resources pollution factor. Authorities in these nations must also focus more on investing in the growth of the hydropower industry to add more to its production and availability of renewable energy and decrease water quality degradation. The government of these nations can similarly stress the competence and sustainability of hydropower production and water resource conservation to reach energy security and reduce water quality degradation.


Laws ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Miroslav Baros

The purpose of this article is to assess the impact of the UK government’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak from a human rights perspective, particularly its apparent tension with Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in relation to non-Covid-19 patients whose lives were put at risk by not being able to attend appointments and treatments for pre-existing conditions and illnesses. The UK has also rejected the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union with the European Union Withdrawal Act 2018, which will leave the population even more exposed to potential human rights violations. This seems to be a direct consequence of the narrative and slogan employed by the government: “Stay Home; Protect the NHS; Save Lives”. Other potentially threatened categories, the NHS staff and prisoners are also mentioned in the same context. The latter have already launched a judicial review application along the same lines: Article 2 of the ECHR and the due regard duty stemming from the Equality Act 2010. The NHS staff were directly at risk, and evidence was emerging almost on a daily basis that implied authorities’ responsibility for the shortage of personal protective equipment and testing kits. While there have been a number of discussions on other issues in relation to the lockdown and the strategy directly or indirectly impacting human rights, it appears that no discussion on the impact of the strategy for non-Covid-19 patients and other categories from a human rights perspective has taken place. This gap in analyses and literature merits the present analysis.


SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 215824402110316
Author(s):  
Yilin Zhou ◽  
Hongbo Li ◽  
Fakhar Shahzad

The Higher Education Expansion (HEE) policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1999 provides an exceptional opportunity to study the impact of university and college education (graduates) on entrepreneurship in China using an econometric approach. The study applied secondary data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) to examine the role of entrepreneurship education on Chinese entrepreneurship intentions from 2005 to 2019. The study used fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and ordinary least squares (OLS) to estimate the long-run association between the variables. The study further accounts for endogeneity using two-stage least squares (2SLS). The findings show that graduates (undergraduates, master’s, and postgraduates) positively influence entrepreneurship education. This means that people who have passed through the higher education system are likely to have taken a program or programs in entrepreneurship that motivate them to create new business. The acquisition of knowledge and skills about entrepreneurship seems to rise with graduates. Moreover, entrepreneurship education increases entrepreneurship intentions in China. However, human capital decreases entrepreneurship intentions. The government should leverage further the policy benefits and promote the passion of entrepreneurship education within colleges and universities.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Leonori ◽  
Manuel Muñoz ◽  
Carmelo Vázquez ◽  
José J. Vázquez ◽  
Mary Fe Bravo ◽  
...  

This report concerns the activities developed by the Mental Health and Social Exclusion (MHSE) Network, an initiative supported by the Mental Health Europe (World Federation of Mental Health). We report some data from the preliminary survey done in five capital cities of the European Union (Madrid, Copenhagen, Brussels, Lisbon, and Rome). The main aim of this survey was to investigate, from a mostly qualitative point of view, the causal and supportive factors implicated in the situation of the homeless mentally ill in Europe. The results point out the familial and childhood roots of homelessness, the perceived causes of the situation, the relationships with the support services, and the expectations of future of the homeless mentally ill. The analysis of results has helped to identify the different variables implicated in the social rupture process that influences homelessness in major European cities. The results were used as the basis for the design of a more ambitious current research project about the impact of the medical and psychosocial interventions in the homeless. This project is being developed in 10 capital cities of the European Union with a focus on the program and outcome evaluation of the health and psychosocial services for the disadvantaged.


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