Search Results (60)

This study critically reflects on Myanmar’s readiness and potential to transition from internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs) amidst escalating climate pressures, energy insecurity, and regional technological shifts. It aims to advocate a systemic and inclusive EV strategy rooted in environmental, economic, and governance imperatives. Drawing on an extensive review of scholarly literature, policy documents, and regional best practices, this study synthesizes evidence to frame a normative argument for accelerating the adoption of EVs in Myanmar. It combines the environmental, infrastructural, and political–economic perspectives to support its position. Myanmar’s EV transition is not merely a technological leap, but a structural transformation intertwined with energy equity, public health, and geopolitical positioning. While significant barriers, such as grid unreliability, policy inconsistency, and socioeconomic disparities, persist, coordinated national efforts and regional cooperation can unlock transformative opportunities. Policy clarity, grid modernization, public engagement, and international partnerships are essential enablers. This study offers a timely and region-specific perspective on the EV debate, highlighting Myanmar’s unique vulnerabilities and latent advantages. It presents a value-based call for inclusive, future-oriented policymaking that aligns Myanmar’s mobility system with its sustainability and development goals. Full article

Aviation is widely recognised as one of the most carbon-intensive modes of transport and among the most challenging sectors to decarbonise. The use of green hydrogen (H₂) in airside operations can help reduce emissions from air transport. While the pace and scalability of technology development, including H₂-powered and ground support equipment, will be key factors, other financial, regulatory, legal, organisational, behavioural, and societal issues must also be considered. This paper investigates the key opportunities and challenges of using H₂ in the aviation industry through eleven semi-structured interviews and a virtual expert workshop (N = 37) with key aviation industry stakeholders and academia. The results indicate that, currently, decarbonisation of the aviation sector faces several challenges, including socio-technical, techno-economic, and socio-political challenges, with socio-technical challenges being the most prominent barrier. This study shows that decarbonisation will not occur until the UK government is ready to have all the required infrastructure and capacity in place. Governments can play a significant role in directing the necessary ‘push’ and ‘pull’ to develop and promote zero-carbon emission aircraft in the marketplace and ensure safe implementation. Full article

Despite growing international consensus on the urgency of climate action, global CO₂ emissions have continued to rise, exposing a critical implementation gap between environmental ambition and reality. This study explores the readiness and structural capacity of the world’s most CO₂-intensive countries to transition toward a green and hydrogen-based economy. We introduce and apply the Green Economy Index, a composite measure integrating 31 indicators across four core dimensions—political and regulatory efficiency, socio-economic status, infrastructure, and sustainable targets. Using data from 29 countries emitting over 200 Mt of CO₂ in 2022, the analysis combines principal component analysis, Random Forest modeling, and network-based correlation analysis to classify nations into frontrunners, transitional performers, and structural laggers. The results reveal significant disparities in green economy readiness, with high-income countries showing institutional maturity and infrastructural robustness, while middle-income nations remain constrained by fossil fuel dependencies and governance challenges. Importantly, we highlight the growing utility of machine learning and multivariate statistics in capturing complex sustainability interdependencies. The Green Economy Index framework offers a relevant tool to benchmark progress, diagnose barriers, and guide targeted interventions in global decarbonization efforts. Full article

Digital transformation is increasingly relevant in food certification systems, improving processes, coordination, and data accessibility. In state-led certification systems, public entities hold a political mandate to promote digital transformation, yet little is known about digital maturity in these systems or how to assess it. This study assesses the digital maturity of a state-led food certification system in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, focusing on private sector stakeholders involved in its administration. Additionally, it examines potential measures that the governing public entity can take and evaluates the suitability of the methods used. A total of 25 out of 43 organisations were surveyed using the Digital Maturity Assessment (DMA) framework validated for the European Union (EU). Six dimensions were analysed: Digital Business Strategy, Digital Readiness, Human-Centric Digitalisation, Data Management, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, and Green Digitalisation. Data Management and Human-Centric Digitalisation were the most developed, highlighting strong data governance and workforce engagement. Automation and Artificial Intelligence were ranked lowest, reflecting minimal adoption but also indicating that not all dimensions might be of the same relevance for the variety of organisations. The variability in scores and organisation-specific relevance underscores the European DMA framework’s value, particularly due to its subsequent tailored consultation process and its integration into EU policy. Full article

This paper argues that investing in artificial intelligence (AI) in developing economies involves significant trade-offs requiring ethical, financial, and geopolitical scrutiny. While AI is increasingly seen as a vehicle for technological leapfrogging, such ambitions often mask structural constraints, including weak infrastructure, limited institutional capacity, and external dependency. Using the economic theory of opportunity cost—extended through the political economy and digital governance perspectives—this study critically examines AI policy strategies in Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda. A qualitative design grounded in secondary data and a thematic analysis reveal how AI investment may reallocate scarce resources away from essential services, exacerbate inequality, and entrench strategic technological dependency. This paper proposes a public policy framework built on four principles—sequential readiness, strategic alignment, ethical governance, and capacity building—to guide equitable AI deployment. It argues for establishing a digital social compact between states, citizens, and technology actors to safeguard public interest in AI-driven development. Finally, this paper outlines a future research agenda emphasizing the mixed-method evaluation of AI’s long-term social impacts, including employment, inclusion, and public service delivery. Full article

There is a widespread belief today, primarily among the agnostics and atheists, and even among the not so active believers, that all forms of religious belief, including Christian Catholicism, should remain outside the political realm, limited to private spirituality. This paper thematises, in the context of “positive laicity”, the way the Catholic Church changed its understanding of politics after the Second Vatican Council, regarding the involvement of believers, as serving the common good in a plural society. Using conciliar and post-conciliar documents as sources for reflection and argumentation, this paper outlines eight theological and anthropological assumptions regarding Catholic involvement in politics within the context of the 21st century, adapting the (post-)conciliar thought to the conditions of today’s globalised world. For Christians to do well in this responsible assignment, the starting point is Jesus Christ, both in the historical and in the cosmic project of God’s world in the making, expressed in the Old Testament as the arrival of God’s Kingdom. This article is methodologically limited, as the title states, to recognise and briefly sketch the content of a few basic theological–anthropological assumptions of Christian participation in politics, without going into the history of the issue, as well as to the authors who dealt with it in various aspects. In conclusion, we notice that the manner of religious action in politics described in this way presupposes that the believer has already left the state of infancy within his ecclesial community and is ready to make decisions within the political community based on his faith, competences and conscience, without clerical tutelage and obstruction. Full article

The aim of this research was to investigate the social conditions of the implementation of energy cooperatives in Poland as a demand-side policy tool to reduce carbon emissions. Qualitative empirical research was conducted, including interviews with members and leaders of energy cooperatives as well as experts, to assess the effectiveness of new legal regulations concerning energy cooperatives. This study shows that the negative historic connotations with cooperatives do not impede the readiness of Poles to create energy cooperatives. They are open to innovation and are willing to cooperate for energy stability, which seems to be the most important factor determining involvement in energy cooperatives. The results also highlight significant barriers for the development of energy cooperatives, such as regulatory constraints and a lack of true incentives. Energy cooperatives have the potential to popularize renewable energy sources in Poland, but their growth requires better adaptation of legal regulations and greater political support. Full article

Current political and sociological efforts to respond to the need for more environmentally friendly technologies have inspired a revival of wood and wood-based material utilization in space systems. The popularity of these materials has faded since their widespread use in the early days of aerospace engineering. This work reviews the literature to provide an overview of use cases, the motivation for using wood and wood-based materials and the challenges involved. A small number of applications were identified in which wood and wood-based materials were preferred over non-renewable raw materials. They are mainly applied for less-stressed disposable components or as a thermal protection material. It can be shown that the applied wooden materials have advantages such as low production costs, easy availability, easy and environment-friendly decomposition and low weight. However, only a limited number of applications have achieved a high level of technological readiness so far. Properties such as anisotropy and a lack of uniformity, defects in wood, the quantity available material and a lack of standards for the certification of wooden materials represent challenges. These are addressed in the current research, which additionally focuses on sustainable growth, enhanced environmental friendliness and advanced lightweight design. Full article

(1) Aims and Objectives: Mobile health (mHealth) is increasingly becoming a favorite healthcare delivery solution in underserved areas around the globe. This study aims to identify the influence of technology–organization–environment (TOE) factors on mHealth adoption and to assess the influence of mHealth on the reduction in health disparities in the context of healthcare delivery in low-resource settings. (2) Methods: A cross-sectional survey of physicians and nurses was carried out at six hospitals in the public and private health sectors in Pakistan. The survey’s theoretical foundation is based on the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework. TOE constructs (relative advantage, compatibility, management support, organizational readiness, external support, and government regulations) were used to develop hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). (3) Results: Findings from this study show that management support and external support are the two main predictors of mHealth adoption among healthcare professionals. The study proposes an mHealth adoption model that can significantly contribute towards improving medical outcomes, reducing inefficiencies, expanding access, lowering costs, raising quality, making medicine more personalized for patients, and gaining advantages from mHealth solutions in order to reduce health disparities. (4) Conclusion: The study suggests that there is no single approach that could support mHealth adoption. Instead, a holistic approach is required that considers cultural, economic, technological, organizational, and environmental factors for successful mHealth adoption in low-resource settings. Our proposed mHealth model offers guidance to policymakers, health organizations, governments, and political leaders to make informed decisions regarding mHealth implementation plans. Full article

In the mid-twentieth century, growing North American textile and ready-to-wear industries vigorously appropriated Native American aesthetics to cultivate a commercial and design identity apart from Europe. Most studies of the circulation of Indigenous idioms in these industries focus on Southwestern or South Pacific regionalisms, and scholarship on studio and commercial fabric and fashion design from the Northwest Coast in the twentieth century is limited. This paper contributes by raising Indigenous and non-Indigenous use of Northwest Coast design forms during the politically turbulent 1940s–1960s and analyzing the impact of this aesthetic vocabulary within broader North American textiles and fashion. Throughout, I engage with the approaches of critical fashion theory and multiple modernisms, considering the frictions of property and power relations within settler-colonial states, then and now. Drawing from study of objects, periodicals, and archival materials as well as first-person perspectives, I contextualize these representations within entangled art, museum, and design worlds in the Northwest Coast, New York City, and the Southwest. My examination illustrates that Northwest Coast artists and art ideas asserted a peripheral but locatable role in mid-century textiles and fashion, facilitating the development of today’s robust Indigenous fashion network on the Northwest Coast and its cultural politics. Full article

Hydrodistillation is traditionally a green technology for the manufacturing of natural products that are volatile. As well as acknowledged process intensification methods such as microwave support for energy efficiency to move towards climate neutral operation, digital twins combined with process analytical technology for advanced process control enables reliable operation of an optimal operation point regarding lowest cost of goods, as well as lowest global warming potential equivalent. A novel process control enabled by digital twin technology has shown to reduce the ecological footprint of the extraction by up to 46.5%, while reducing the cost of extraction by 22.4%. Additionally, skilled operator time is reduced, and the sustainable plant material is utilized most efficiently. The approach is ready to apply, but broad industrialization seems to be held back by unclear business cases and lack of comprehension of decision makers. This is in drastic contrast to the political demand for climate neutrality goals and the cost pressure by worldwide completion. Full article

Transportation plays an important role in serving economic, social, political, and population mobility. Public transport is gaining importance for providing sustainability, such as by reducing traffic congestion, noise levels, providing better air quality, and contributing to public health. Public transportation facilities are undeveloped in Northern Cyprus, and only buses and minibuses are available. Many people are ready to shift to public transportation if safe, reliable, and affordable transportation options are available. The theory of planned behaviour was used, and an online survey including 33 questions was conducted with the contributions of 385 participants. All variables of the theory of planned behaviour have a greater than 0.70 Cronbach’s alpha value; therefore, multiple linear regression analysis with the SPSS V27 program was conducted to detect the impact of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on behavioural intention. Note that 32.2% of intention is indicated by attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The study concluded that subjective norms and perceived behavioural control have a positive influence on behavioural intention. Attitude is not a predictor of behavioural intention. Subjective norms are the strongest (β = 0.438, p < 0.001), and perceived behavioural control is the weakest (β = 0.438, p < 0.001) predictor of public transport usage intention. Full article

The main objective of this paper is to develop a readiness index model that can serve as an analytical tool for exploring the achievements of the electrification of transportation systems. We have applied this readiness index model to evaluate the readiness positioning of China, Norway, and Sweden towards transportation electrification. We have chosen these three countries as they represent diversity among countries adopting electric transportation system solutions. Our developed readiness index model has four key dimensions: technological readiness, political readiness, societal readiness, and economic readiness. The embeddedness of all four dimensions in one model provides a multi-perspective way of analyzing and evaluating the readiness levels of countries moving towards transforming their transportation system. Therefore, we named the model a “multidimensional readiness index”. Our main conclusions are that political processes and decisiveness are the most important factors, followed by societal needs and economic ability, with the current technology as the fourth. Without the participation of dedicated and determined political decision makers, the other three factors are challenging to obtain. Political decision makers need to facilitate economic means to support the transformation in society and affected industries to balance the economic disadvantages of the electrically powered vehicle systems until they pass the cost disadvantage turning point. The development of relevant technology is no longer the significant barrier it was at the beginning of this transformation about 20 years ago. The technology for electrically powered transportation systems and devices is widely available now, although it is continuously evolving and being improved. Associated industries cannot be expected to initiate, finance, take risks, and take the lead in this global societal transformation without clear and strong political support. Full article

The smart cities paradigm has gained significant attention as a tool to address the multifaceted challenges posed by contemporary urban mobility systems. While cities are eager to integrate cutting-edge technologies to evolve into digital and intelligent hubs, they often deal with infrastructure and governance bottlenecks that prevent the rapid adoption of industry-driven innovations. This study introduces a three-step methodological approach to forecast a city’s innovation readiness in urban mobility, thus facilitating city-led innovation and identifying key areas within urban mobility systems that require attention. Initially, a comprehensive literature review was undertaken to ascertain the most impactful innovation indicators influencing a city’s ability to embrace new technologies. Subsequently, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to identify these indicators, highlighting the primary markers of innovation for each city. The final step involved the application of both random and fixed-effects regression models to quantify the influence of distinct unobserved variables—such as economic, cultural, and political factors—on the innovation readiness of various cities. The methodology’s effectiveness was tested using data from cities across diverse regions. The findings underscore that merely 7 out of 21 innovation indicators are critical for assessing a city’s innovation readiness. Moreover, the random-effects model was identified as the most suitable for capturing the nuances of unobserved variables in the studied cities. The innovation readiness scores at the city level revealed a diverse range, with cities like Madrid, Gothenburg, and Mechelen demonstrating high readiness, while others like Kalisz and Datong showed lower scores. This research contributes to the strategic planning for smart cities, offering a robust framework for policymakers to enhance innovation readiness and foster sustainable urban development, with a newfound emphasis on city-specific analysis. Full article

Abandonment of crop production on agricultural lands for several or more years is a widespread practice not only in Europe but also around the world. Economic and political considerations lead to the abandonment of crop production on the poorest lands, although sometimes agriculturally valuable lands are also excluded from farming. Fallow land can be afforested, designated as a dedicated protection area, exposed to natural succession, or used to grow biomass for energy purposes. However, the most important role of agricultural land should be to ensure food safety. The set-aside land with high production potential should be treated in a special way. While lying fallow, the soil can have its fertility sustained or even improved considerably. To this aim, uncultivated land should be properly protected by growing a permanent cover of plant species which will have a positive influence on the soil’s physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. Depending on the geographical location, different plant species will have a beneficial effect on set-aside soil. Given economic and environmental considerations, the best solution is to sow a mixture of grasses and legumes, which can improve substantially the biodiversity on fallow fields, raise the soil’s fertility, ensure high CO₂ sequestration ratios, and influence beneficially the soil’s nutritional status and nutrient management. Soil protection can be provided for many years with little effort. The most recent reports implicate that it is possible to achieve several economic and environmental aims simultaneously in the course of the management of land excluded from agricultural production. These aims include the improvement of biodiversity, control of greenhouse gas emissions, generation of energy, and readiness to resume production of commodity plants. Proper management of fallows corresponds well with the challenges defined in the Green Deal for Europe or the US Green New Deal. Full article