scholarly journals Coping with Energy Poverty: Measurements, Drivers, Impacts, and Solutions

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2807
Author(s):  
George E. Halkos ◽  
Eleni-Christina Gkampoura

Energy is required for socioeconomic development, and the world’s energy needs have significantly increased in the last decades. The lack of energy can have severe impacts on a person’s well-being; therefore, energy access should be ensured for everyone in the world. Energy poverty usually refers to a situation where a household cannot be kept adequately warm, but it is a complex issue with many more aspects. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of the energy poverty problem, particularly presenting various definitions given in the literature that capture the multi-dimensional nature of the problem and analyzing the different ways of measuring energy poverty (expenditure approach and consensual approach). In addition, the impacts of the problem are identified, including health, socioeconomic, and environmental impacts, as well as the drivers that can worsen energy poverty conditions, such as several household characteristics and various socioeconomic and environmental factors. The situation occurring currently in the world is also presented, including studies that focus on different world regions, and the different solutions that can help address the problem are discussed, including changes to the living environments and the use of new technologies.

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-96
Author(s):  
Olena Taranukha

The digital economy allows to compose the new business models, digital platforms and services, which create new types of economic activity, as well as the transformation of traditional industries. Due to the industries transformation to the digital economy there is the transformation of the world economy, or rather the economy itself is being digitized The purpose of the paper is to reveal the essence and features of the digital economy formation and to consider what significant transformations will take place in the world by the analysis of major trends in the near future. Accumulating all the concepts, we can say that the digital economy is the rather complex term, but we can assume that its development is based on the key components According to forecast estimates, the most advanced retail companies will begin implementing the service of virtual and voice search of goods by 2022. This will require from the company the better understanding of the consumers wishes, their interests and intentions. Consider the main technological development trends for 2020-2025 based on the data of the major consulting agencies and the consulting company "Cartner" Figure 2 shows the forecast curve of the new technologies development. Innovative development triggers that will actively influence the technology development include the following: the Authenticated Provenance, Low-Cost Single Board Computers at the Edge, Self-Supervised Learning, BMI (Brain Machine Interface), active development of "Packaged Business Capabilities" services, Digital Twin of the Person and Composible Enterprises. The peak of disappointments will be Social Distancing Technologies and Secure Access Service. The source of expectations will be the development of Carbon-Based transistors technology and Human digital Ontologies. The formation of a productivity platform will be based on trends in Self-Development and Self-Education. Digital IT trends grow, evolve and acquire new properties of social technologies that can influence the structure of the community, form dependencies and demand. Therefore, companies, large corporations and government need to move to more flexible composite business architectures. The modular business model is based on four basic principles: modularity, efficiency, continuous improvement and adaptive innovation. This business model allows to move from rigid traditional planning to a flexible response to rapidly changing business needs. In general, it creates opportunities for innovative approaches, reduces costs and improves partnerships. It is important to pay attention to the other technologies in the new business model such as bundled business services, data factories, private 5G networks and embedded artificial intelligence. Thus, as a result of the research it is proved that the digital world is a completely new order of life, which requires to change our thinking. The person should be always focused on the new technologies and methods in order the enterprises remain competitive and constantly developed, it will promote the economy development and the growth of well-being of the society. So, taking into account the global trends in technology development, Ukraine has to adapt to the new standards quickly and implement innovative solutions for the economic development. The digitalization of the economy, on the one hand, is the key to economic success, on the other hand, it is the driving force in the conditions of the conceptual understanding of the digital economy essence. The growth of the quality and innovation level of domestic goods and services should provide not only sustainable economic growth, but also competitive advantages with further integration into the EU. At the same time, there is the relevant need of the scientific and technological research, the formation of a certain business ("digital") culture, the implementation of smart city ideas in Ukraine based on the development of local communities and the emergence of new initiatives and proposals for innovative solutions.


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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
A.Yu. Popova ◽  
◽  
S.V. Kuzmin ◽  
N.V. Zaitseva ◽  
I.V. May ◽  
...  

Scientific support provided for activities accomplished by the Federal Service for Surveillance over Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being is considered to be a most significant tool for raising productivity and efficiency of the system functioning. A concept on scientific support provided for Rospotrebnadzor’s organs and authorities in 2021–2025 focuses on creating an integral, coordinated, efficient, stable, and adaptive system of scientific support provided for activities aimed at securing sanitary-epidemiologic welfare of the population. A peculiar feature of this concept for 2021–2025 is an emphasis on science-intensive analysis technologies and predictions based on digital informational and analytical support provided for strategic and operative decisions on minimizing risks and damage to population health. Another emphasis is on significance of fundamental hygienic research. The concept sets the tasks to develop scientific grounds for cellular and sub-cellular technologies applied to diagnose health disorders under exposure to occupational and environmental factors as well as lifestyle-related ones. It is necessary to create a personified medical and preventive platform for preserving life and health; the platform should be based on risk assessing, monitoring and prediction, mathematical modeling of processes occurring in a body, and the latest data on physiology and toxicology. The Concept also covers issues related to developing innovative technologies for preventing and rehabilitating diseases associated with environmental and occupational factors basing on science-intensive cross-disciplinary studies and the most up-to-date hardware and software complexes. More enhanced hygienic and epidemiologic research is an extremely important and promising vector in scientific development. The Concept outlines the necessity to promptly make new technologies available to experts who are responsible for control, surveillance, inspections, licensing, and other activities within Rospotrebnadzor system. The Concept on scientific support is being implemented via «Scientific substantiation for the national system for providing sanitary-epidemiologic welfare, health risk management, and raising life quality of the RF population», a specialized scientific-research program for 2021–2025. More than 80% resources allocated within the specialized program will be assigned for solving the most vital tasks and preventing future threats. Finding solutions to major strategic tasks set by the Concept and the specialized scientific program will allow achieving greater contributions made by organs and authorities of the sanitary-epidemiologic service into scientific, technological, and socioeconomic development of the country including a contribution into developing and implementing competitive scientific-technical products.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Peno

Over the last few years offshore wind industry has become a key contributor to the transformation of the world energy sources. This transformation is driven not only by the increased demand of energy coming from emerging countries but also by the increased awareness about climate change. To keep on developing this industry, offshore wind farms are now moving further from shore and into deeper water. In addition, to fight back against other energy sources, an outstanding effort is requested to the whole supply chain, including vessels serving this industry, to reduce costs. This paper will explain how the development of new technologies certainly helps to solve the complex equation that the offshore wind industry is facing today. In addition, this paper will describe how classification societies support these developments by providing a constructive regulatory scope to ensure that this innovative vessels can meet this challenge without compromising on safety and while reducing their environmental impact.


Author(s):  
Annabel J. Cohen ◽  
Karen M. Ludke

There is a sizeable and growing body of research on singing. Contributing to the potential for ever-expanding knowledge in this field is the ability to collect singing data in digital formats as compared to formats derived from the analogue devices of the past. New technologies have also led to the possibility of collecting recordings from the different locations where researchers work or travel and sharing data across the world, free from geographic restrictions. Analysis of raw singing data could thereafter be conducted by other researchers, who could then disseminate their findings to others. This chapter outlines some of the information technology resources that have been developed to collect and share singing and musical data, focusing on the development of a digital library as part of the Advancing Interdisciplinary Research on Singing (AIRS) project which aims to advance knowledge about singing with a focus on human development, education, and well-being.


Photoniques ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 24-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Grancini

With the world population swelling and rapid technological innovations imposing global network and connections, the growing energy demand has reached unprecedented levels: “The energy industry is facing decades of transformation,” reported the World Energy Council at the end of 2018 [1]. Increasing use of renewable energy sources and photovoltaics is thus utmost for Europe to meet the goals imposed by the Paris Agreement. From a research point of view, this pushes an enormous effort into discovery of new materials, new physical phenomena and development of new technologies to sustain such paradigm shift to a low-carbon society.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Lwazi Ngubevana

Global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions and the growing energy needs of the world, has forced the world into thinking differently about energy sources and sustainable development, giving rise to the field of biofuels. Research and introduction of new technologies do, by their very nature, look to bring about positive change in society. Often though, changes result in unintended, unexpected, unforeseen, unforeseeable and unaddressed consequences. It often becomes the role of ethics protocols to militate against these negative consequences. In trying to establish the levels of awareness among South African researchers and producers of biofuels, to the sustainable development dilemmas brought about by their work; the “Five Capitals Framework” and a research ethics protocol, research was carried out at three South African businesses, generating data from interviews and collaborating with data from company publications. The study concluded that industry was indeed aware of the dilemmas that face their industry albeit that it was not in the context of a defined necessary framework.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
pp. 7089
Author(s):  
Andrzej Soboń ◽  
Daniel Słyś ◽  
Mariusz Ruszel ◽  
Alicja Wiącek

The energy security landscape that we envisage in 2050 will be different from that of today. Meeting the future energy needs of the armed forces will be a key challenge, not least for military security. The World Energy Council’s World Energy Scenarios forecast that the world’s population will rise to 10 billion by 2050, which will also necessitate an increase in the size of the armed forces. In this context, energy extraction, distribution, and storage become essential to stabilizing the imbalance between production and demand. Among the available solutions, Power to Hydrogen (P2H) is one of the most appealing options. However, despite the potential, many obstacles currently hinder the development of the P2H market. This article aims to identify and analyse existing barriers to the introduction of P2H technologies that use hydrogen. The holistic approach used, which was based on a literature survey, identified obstacles and possible strategies for overcoming them. The research conducted presents an original research contribution at the level of hydrogen strategies considered in leading countries around the world. The research findings identified unresolved regulatory issues and sources of uncertainty in the armed forces. There is a lack of knowledge in the armed forces of some countries about the process of producing hydrogen energy and its benefits, which raises concerns about the consistency of its exploitation. Negative attitudes towards hydrogen fuel energy can be a significant barrier to its deployment in the armed forces. Possible approaches and solutions have also been proposed to eliminate obstacles and to support decision makers in defining and implementing a strategy for hydrogen as a clean energy carrier. There are decisive and unresolved obstacles to its deployment, not only in the armed forces.


2021 ◽  
Vol 244 ◽  
pp. 10039
Author(s):  
Mavluda Askarova ◽  
Toir Saddulaev ◽  
Bunyod Radjabov

The purpose of the study of this topic is inclusive growth and inclusive economic growth in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Using the theoretical method of analysis, the results of the developed countries of the world, as well as the state of the economy of Central Asia, in particular the Republic of Uzbekistan, are analyzed. The observation method reveals the impact of inclusive economic growth on the standard of living and well-being of the world’s population. The article compares data on the impact of the global economic and financial crisis on the economies of the world and the Republic of Uzbekistan, which began in 2019, and its consequences are reflected on inclusive economic growth. Projections of social development up to 2030 are made, this development factor plays an important role in inclusive economic growth. The result of this study is the conclusion about the importance of the inclusive growth index, which can replace the GDP indicator. Index of inclusive analysis of information on various aspects of society. This index can also be used to predict the socioeconomic development of the state.


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.


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