Human capital in the digital economy

The article analyzes the threats to human capital arising in connection with the development of the digital economy. The main problems, that digital can bring to public life and the fate of an individual worker are shown. According to the author, the labor market in the digital age makes new demands on the human capital of workers in almost all industries. The formation of a digital economic order, including automation, robotization and digitalization of almost all spheres of life, in the near future will leave on the labor market mostly “complex” professions of the “Knowledge” category with a creative component. Technological changes and the digitalization of the economy will lead to the fact that the knowledge and skills of workers will become so outdated that no retraining of them will be able to rectify the situation. One of the main problems is that with the further digital transformation of the economy, more and more jobs may be threatened with extinction, and the disappearance of old jobs this time will not be accompanied by the emergence of new ones. A situation may arise when the workers released due to digitalization will become not only unemployed, but generally not in demand by social production. A global question arises - what should they be kept for? Another problem is that with global digitalization, the danger of "digital" degradation of human intelligence is very high. Digital increasingly crowds out live communication, limiting the possibilities of developing a person's creative potential, as a result of which a qualitative transformation of human intelligence takes place. Another question arises - how to support the intellectual development of a person, and what to do with those who do not work?

Formation of platform economy of necessary needs based on energy economic equivalent

Recently, many non-state money systems have appeared based on digital cryptocurrencies. The disadvantages of digital cryptocurrencies are the separation from real production, the inequality of participants, the lack of control by state bodies, and the security problem. Digital money becomes full-fledged only when it is connected with the real economy and financially secured. The author proposes the introduction of a material digital energy economic equivalent. Based on the digital energy of the economic equivalent, it is proposed to form a digital high-tech platform economy of healthy needs, like the economy of the future. Platform economy is an economic activity based on platforms, which are understood as online systems that provide comprehensive standard solutions for interaction between users, including commercial transactions and innovative solutions. It is proposed to measure the efficiency of the future economy by economic energy intensity. Energy intensity is represented by a certain amount of energy of economic equivalent, in accordance with the law of energy conservation. Reliance on a materially supported digital energy economic equivalent, as a new currency, makes a digital high-tech platform economy of healthy needs synergistic, efficient, sustainable, safe, ecological, open, controlled by society, without speculative operations, health supportive, accurately measured through digital energy intensity. Material digital energy intensity will avoid the speculative shortcomings of existing digital money systems. To this end, governments establish a procedure for regulating the energy economy with an economic equivalent, as an impact on public relations in order to streamline and stabilize them, in order to realize the necessary needs of society in accordance with the available resources. The status of an energy economic equivalent means recognition by the economic community as universal equivalent.

Disaster management strategies and relation of good governance for the coastal Bangladesh

Although Bangladesh’s immense steps in preparing the disaster management policies following the values of good governance issue, the quantity to which these policies have productively been executing at the local level remnants mostly unknown. The objectives of this investigation were dual: firstly, to inspect the roles and efficiency of the local-level governance and disaster management organization, and lastly, to recognize the obstacles to the execution of national the policies and Disaster-Risk-Reduction guidelines at the local community level. The authors applied qualitative research and case Study approach, using techniques from the Participatory Rural Appraisal toolbox to collect data from local community members as well as government and NGO officials. From the finding of the study, it was revealed that interactive disaster governance, decentralization of disaster management, and compliance by local-level institutions with good governance principles and national policy guidelines can be extremely effective in reducing disaster-loss and damages. According to coastal community members, the local governments have generally failed to uphold good governance principles, and triangulated data confirm that the region at large suffers from rampant corruption, political favoritism, lack of transparency and accountability and minimal inclusion of local inhabitants in decision-making – all of which have severely impeded the successful implementation of national disaster-management policies. This study contributes to these research gaps, with identification of further research agenda in these areas. The paper deals with International Sendai Framework that called for enhancement of local level community resilience to disasters. Thus, it contributes to numerous policy and practice areas relating to good disaster governance. The study identified the specific manifestations of these failures in coastal communities in Bangladesh. These results underscore the vital need to address the wide gap between national DRR goals and the on-the-ground realities of policy implementation to successfully enhance the country’s resilience to climate change-induced disasters.

Transition to international energy economic equivalent

Energy resources are key to the economy. Firstly, any processes in the production sector are associated with energy consumption. Energy costs permeate all areas of material production, are the most important and integral part of both core and working capital. Secondly, energy resources are currently scarce and define the limits of economic development. At present, the issues of improving energy efficiency from the sectors of the economy are given great attention. For the implementation of programs to increase economic efficiency, the development of theoretical provisions and methodological foundations of energy economic assessment of production is of great importance, There is a variation in the energy equivalents per waste of production resources offered by standards for different types of energy. Considering energy issues in economic systems, economic energy is not found in the relevant classifications, but experts consider the allocation of such a category in the theory of economic development to be timely, and this category fully meets all economic indicators. To do this, it is necessary to determine the energy equivalent for each energy source. The article assumes the calculation of energy equivalents expressed by rational numbers. The use of energy equivalents allows you to move to a single measure of energy for all types. A single measure of energy allows you to move to a single international currency for financial and economic international cooperation.

Why is pollution embodied in Guangdong exports declining? The roles of trading scale, technology and structural changes

From 2007 to 2017, Guangdong exports grew at an average rate of 9.6%, while the energy consumption and carbon emission embodied in these trades demonstrated a declining trend. Is total real pollution embodied in exports showing the same trend? If so, what accounts for these changes? Prior studies have provided three explanations, producing greater amount of goods (“the scale effect”), adopting cleaner technologies in production processes (“the technology effect”), and producing proportionally more goods that are environmental-friendly (“the structural effect”). Question then arises as which factor is the driving force of such cleanup in the export business? To answer these questions, an EIO-LMDI (Environmental Input-Output and Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) model is built to conduct a structural decomposition analysis of pollution embodied in Guangdong exports. We calculate that the pollution embodied in Guangdong export fell by 63 to 85 percent, depending on the pollutants. We further conclude that these pollution reductions are primarily driven by the technology advancement, with some industries, including the clothing industry, communications, computers and other electronic equipment, being more sensitive to the changes in technologies than others. The structural effect is more ambiguous. It only contributes to pollution reduction when the industry itself is pollution intensive.

Local public services and sustainable development goals: From a national perspective to a European joint action

Local public services are a benchmark in the development of a sustainable society and attainment of the goals set by Agenda 2030. Therefore, it is necessary to gather information and hear directly from the citizens, who constantly deal with this realm, how their country performs in the provision of qualitative and sustainable services. In Italy, for instance, there is a low level of consideration and contentment in terms of the quality, management, and efficiency of public services. In particular, the local public transport sector stands out as the lowest rated by citizens. This manuscript has two main functions. First, it provides the results of a civic consultation conducted during 2020 in Italy by the Italian consumer organization Cittadinanzattiva APS, which informs about the perceptions and outlooks of citizens towards the reality of local public services that are a constant in their daily life. Second, it introduces a new political initiative promoted at European level in the field of sustainability and consumer protection: The Inter-Institutional Group “Sustainable Development Goals for well-being and consumers’ protection”, officially launched last February 16th, 2021. An initiative that represents the desire of the civil society to contribute to the SDGs, the “New Consumer Agenda” , and the “Green New Deal” and that aims at discussing and raising awareness on how each one of us as EU citizen can give their contribution, convinced that citizen and consumer’s empowerment should be the pillar of the transition towards a more inclusive and sustainable Europe.

Evaluation of energy consumption and CO₂ emission in a standard traditional building located in tropical region, a case of Madagascar Island

Energy demand varies depending on the location chosen for construction. The main objective of this research is to analyze the bioclimatic potential of different climatic zones in different regions of Madagascar. For this, this research assesses and compares the indoor air temperature, the energy requirement, the carbon emission and the relative humidity in a traditional building commonly found in cities in sub-Saharan Africa, which was designed to be placed in four cities unevenly distributed in four climatic zones of Madagascar. In order to achieve this goal, hourly meteorological data for the past thirty years has been analyzed for two seasons (dry season and rainy season). At the same time, the adaptive comfort model defined by ASHRAE 55 served as a reference for evaluating the different potentials of passive design. The results showed that by 2030 the need for energy is expected to increase globally in these different cities studied. Like other countries around the world, it is recommended that countries in Sub-Saharan Africa conduct more of this kind of energy. Study in order to establish a construction standard specific to this region of the world.

SDGs and the engagement of EU citizens: The role of behavioral science in the energy transition

The EU’s ambitious targets to increase energy efficiency and cope with the challenge of climate change have pushed several stakeholders, including public authorities and Distributed System Operators (DSOs), to actively invest in the energy transition and improve energy efficiency. Although a significant part of this investment concerns digital infrastructure (i.e., smart meters) allowing citizens to monitor and better manage their consumption of energy, it is pivotal to recognize the necessity for changes in the overall energy-related behavior of consumers. Against this background, the NUDGE project seeks to first analyze the behavior of European citizens with concern the energy consumption and to consequently design and test nudging interventions on different segments of the population, in the hope to derive recommendations tailored to each country and to design more general policies at European level. Hence, pilot projects will be carried out in households, energy communities, and schools in five different EU countries, while a general profiling survey will be disseminated online across the EU. Indeed, in order to profile users and assess the impact of an intervention, NUDGE takes a mixed approach which combines field experiments and randomized control trials with surveys, on-site observations, and reports. The latter provide additional insights to the psychological and contextual variables that result in the behaviors evidenced in the trials. Fundamental to this research is the collaboration of the consortium’s partner Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network with a number of civic and consumer organizations of different European countries that have shown their interest in the initiative and will collaborate in the dissemination of the online questionnaire in their country. Overall, this project is carried out with the ambition to of raising awareness of the projects’ major outcomes among the European institutions, starting from the Inter-Institutional Group “SDG’s for well-being and consumers’ protection,” which was launched at European level in February 2021 with the support of various Members of the European Parliament and the endorsement of 48 European and National Associations.

Rural to urban migration of disaster induced displaced people in coastal area of Bangladesh: An analysis of risk and opportunity

Displacement is the earlier concept of civilization but climate induced displacement is the contemporary issue as climate victim of modern and industrialized world. The prime aim of the study was to investigate the rural to urban migration of disaster induced displacement in coastal area of Bangladesh addressing to risks and opportunities. The study mainly based on primary data and secondary data was used for validation. Primary data have been obtained through the quantitative along with qualitative sources. Qualitative data were attained through Participant Observation, Key Informant Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods. Quantitative data have been acquired through the field study consisting of a questionnaire survey. Data were interpreted by the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS-20). The study reveals that after displacement nearly 89% displaced people migrated from rural (Kutubdia Island) to Cox’s Bazar urban area. Consequently, meantime their monthly income, occupational status, housing and sanitation condition, source of drinking water and health care facilities were changed positively but in most cases they are dissatisfied. Because they lost their traditional and indigenous occupations system (after migration nearly 30% dissatisfied about their occupation but before migration it was 16%) and their housing pattern and conditions become worsen. Availability of water and sanitation facility and healthcare seeking behavior changed positively in the urban area. However, in urban area they faced multi-dimensional problems such as harassment by mussel man (14%) and local elite group influence (32%), loss of identity and dignity, freedom of speech, social stratification, loss of socio-cultural harmony and fear of eviction as well as involvement of different types of illegal activities, such as drug addiction and smuggling and so on. Finally, the study revealed that there is risk and opportunity for climate displaced people in urban migration. However, planned migration of disaster induced displaced people can reduce the risk factors in the urban setting.