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Towards Sustainability: Advances in Renewable Energy Policy and Environmental Economics

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Resources and Sustainable Utilization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 October 2025 | Viewed by 4291

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Interdisciplinary Research, Shandong University, Weihai, China
Interests: climate change mitigation; bioenergy development; energy policy analysis; waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Finance, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407802, Taiwan
Interests: mathematical programming; renewable energy development; machine learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability is a critical concern in almost all fields, but the analysis of sustainable development should be investigated on an interdisciplinary basis. For example, a forecast of bioenergy production (i.e., a form of renewable energy) should not be simply estimated by the multiplication of biomass output and its energy content; instead, it is necessary to understand how agricultural activities react if such a production possibility exists. In addition, climate change can also induce substantial changes in temperature and precipitation that alter the foundation of agriculture and subsequently change the cropping decisions made by farmers. Thus, the analysis of bioenergy production becomes an interdisciplinary study that aggregates the concepts of the environment (i.e., climate change), farming activities (i.e., supply chain), and technology progress (i.e., innovations of production strategies and possibilities). Similar situations exist for pollution control studies, climate change mitigation, green development, resource allocation, and welfare analysis.

Based on this concern, this Special Issue aims to invite aggregate studies that provide comprehensive guidance to decision makers who formulate public policies that improve social welfare and practitioners who design new techniques to achieve sustainable environmental management. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • The effects of climate change on public-related issues. Theoretical and empirical studies are both welcomed.
  • The consequences of a policy aimed to improve sustainable development. The papers can focus on either economic evaluation or environmental assessment.
  • Lifecycle assessment and techno-economic analysis examine the supply chain or production possibilities of a specific sustainable technology, such as renewable energy, green finance market, ocean management, pollution control, etc.
  • Engineering- or experiment-based studies focus on designing, producing, and utilizing green equipment or facilities.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Chih-Chun Kung
Dr. Tsung-Ju Lee
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

  • climate change
  • environmental assessment
  • lifecycle assessment
  • renewable energy
  • green finance market
  • ocean management
  • pollution control

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 702 KiB  
Article
Air Quality Benefits of Renewable Energy: Evidence from China’s Renewable Energy Heating Policy
by Aidi Tang, Yunxuan Zhu, Wenjia Gu and Ce Wang
Sustainability 2024, 16(21), 9268; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16219268 - 25 Oct 2024
Viewed by 2158
Abstract
This paper examines the impact of renewable energy heating on air quality in China, using the Qinling Mountains–Huaihe River line as a quasi-natural experiment to distinguish between regions with central heating and those without. Employing a difference-in-differences approach and analyzing panel data from [...] Read more.
This paper examines the impact of renewable energy heating on air quality in China, using the Qinling Mountains–Huaihe River line as a quasi-natural experiment to distinguish between regions with central heating and those without. Employing a difference-in-differences approach and analyzing panel data from 298 cities between 2014 and 2022, our findings indicate that the renewable energy heating policy has significantly improved air quality. Specifically, the policy led to substantial improvements in air quality, reducing concentrations of key pollutants: SO2 by 28.31%, CO by 7.57%, NO2 by 5.72%, and PM2.5 by 7.15%. The policy’s effects are most pronounced in regions with lower temperatures and in the eastern parts of the country. Further analysis emphasizes the critical role of energy transition, environmental regulations, and government investment in technology as key drivers of these air quality improvements. Full article
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18 pages, 4615 KiB  
Article
Testing the Effectiveness of Government Investments in Environmental Governance: Evidence from China
by Yiguo Chen, Peng Luo and Tsangyao Chang
Sustainability 2024, 16(14), 5828; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16145828 - 9 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1416
Abstract
The Chinese government has taken many measures to improve the environment, such as directly investing in pollution control infrastructure, but the effectiveness remains to be tested. This paper employs the Toda–Yamamoto test and the Fourier Toda–Yamamoto test to examine the link between environmental [...] Read more.
The Chinese government has taken many measures to improve the environment, such as directly investing in pollution control infrastructure, but the effectiveness remains to be tested. This paper employs the Toda–Yamamoto test and the Fourier Toda–Yamamoto test to examine the link between environmental governance investment and environmental quality in China from 2003 to 2020. PM2.5, which measures air quality, is used here as an indicator of the environment. The results reveal that environmental governance investment has notably lessened the average concentration of PM2.5 in certain regions, indicating a positive effect on environmental quality, albeit with regional variations. Taking structural breaks into consideration, the relationship between environmental governance investment and environmental amelioration is significant in a smaller number of regions. Additionally, the cross-sectional correlation is further scrutinized to assess the essential robustness of the causality between the two variables. The findings lend support to the aforementioned conclusion. These conclusions provide valuable guidance for China’s policymakers in optimizing environmental governance investments to curb pollution and achieve sustainable development. Full article
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