Search Results (115)

This study assesses decarbonization progress in the European Union manufacturing sector between 2015 and 2023, using harmonized Eurostat indicators. The dataset covers emission intensity, energy intensity, renewable energy use, and structural markers of value added. After standardization, variables are reduced through principal component analysis (PCA). The resulting scores are then clustered with k-means, with the number of clusters chosen using elbow and silhouette diagnostics and validated through hierarchical clustering, representing a methodological innovation over existing typological studies. The results highlight persistent heterogeneities across member states. A group of frontrunners combines low intensities with a high share of RES; efficiency-centric groups advance mainly through energy intensity reductions but lag in fuel-switching, while structurally constrained groups remain hindered by energy mix limitations and outdated capital stocks. Dynamically, moderate convergence is observed along the main transition dimension, but persistent divergence remains in structural composition. These patterns justify differentiated policy approaches: accelerating fuel substitution where efficiency gains have already been achieved and integrated packages of modernization and infrastructure in structurally constrained economies. The novelty of this study lies in providing a harmonized, EU-wide, and reproducible typology of industrial decarbonization trajectories, enabling systematic cross-country comparison. Policy relevance is reinforced by linking the typology to current EU instruments such as the Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), the Innovation Fund, and the Net-Zero Industry Act. The integration of PCA with clustering provides an evidence-based that is valuable for prioritizing European industrial policies in line with the Green Deal. Full article

Long-term renovation strategies (LTRSs) play a central role in achieving the European Union’s objective of a climate-neutral building stock by 2050. In Poland, the challenge is particularly acute: a majority of the building stock was constructed before 1990 and does not even meet basic thermal performance standards. In view of the state of the buildings in Poland and the assumptions made about obtaining the necessary energy parameters in the coming years, it is necessary to undertake thermal modernization measures. The purpose of the paper is to assess the economic efficiency of the variants of modernization of building stock in Poland, taking into account the constraints related to improving energy efficiency. Additionally, the article also points out the problem of discrepancies resulting from climate zones that may significantly affect the final primary energy results (on average, 5–15%). In order to achieve the objectives, the paper focuses on the analysis of energy sources. According to the overall score in the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, the best solutions, with a global priority of 0.46, are renewable energy sources (RESs). The evaluation of selected fuel types in the 2055 perspective, using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method, indicate favorable environmental performance by sources based on electricity, i.e., air-source heat pumps, ground-source heat pumps, and electric heating, which achieved the highest relative closeness to the ideal solution. Heat pump systems can reduce energy consumption by 26–41% depending on the building and heat pump type. The final analysis in the paper concerns different options for thermal modernization of a model single-family house, taking into account different energy sources and stages of thermal modernization work. The scenario involves the simultaneous implementation of all renovation measures at an early stage, resulting in the lowest investment burden over time and the most favorable economic performance. Full article

As Chinese cities move toward stock-based development, the redevelopment of inefficient industrial land has become essential for urban spatial restructuring and sustainable transformation. Building on Lefebvre’s triadic theory of spatial production, this study establishes a comprehensive analytical framework consisting of spatial practice, representations of space, and representational spaces, aiming to elucidate the mechanisms underlying spatial reconfiguration. Through a multi-case inductive approach, twelve representative cases from Zhejiang Province are systematically analyzed to reveal the fundamental logic driving spatial reconstruction within the context of inefficient land redevelopment. The results reveal the following: (1) In the process of inefficient land redevelopment, spatial practice involves land reuse and functional integration, representations of space reflect institutional planning, and representational spaces shape meaning through cultural identity and user experience. These dimensions interact dynamically to drive the transformation of both the form and meaning of inefficient land. (2) The redevelopment of inefficient land in Zhejiang can be classified into two primary models: increment-driven and qualitative transformation, which are further divided into seven subtypes. The increment-driven model includes enterprise-initiated renewal, integrated upgrading, platform empowerment, and comprehensive remediation; the qualitative transformation model comprises mine remediation, cultural empowerment, and use conversion. (3) Significant differences exist between these models: the increment-driven model emphasizes land expansion and floor area ratio improvement, while the qualitative transformation model enhances land value through mine restoration, cultural embedding, and functional transformation. This study extends the application of spatial production theory within the Chinese context and offers theoretical support and policy insights for the planning and governance of inefficient industrial land redevelopment. Full article

The study examines the role of heat pumps (HPs) in achieving the targets set by the Italian National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) for 2030, using official data and European-recognized calculation methodologies to quantify the renewable energy produced. Starting from the current stock analysis—21 million HPs installed in 2022, providing 39 GW_th of thermal capacity—the research outlines potential growth scenarios based on installation trends from the past three years: Scenario A assumes 2.5 million HPs/year, (b) 2.2 million/year, and (c) 1.6 million/year. Only Scenario A, the most ambitious, achieves full compliance with 2030 targets by ensuring over 4723 ktoe of renewable energy produced. An additional Scenario D is analyzed, based on the lowest annual installed capacity observed in the past three years but with a modified technology mix emphasizing air-to-water (A/W) and ground-source water-to-water (W/W) HPs. This scenario still achieves the 2030 goals, reaching 66.04 GW_th and 4859 ktoe of renewable energy. The results confirm that technology choices will be strategic to meet the targets. The study also highlights the importance of stable incentive policies, proper development of the industrial supply chain, and a plan for the technological upgrading of the existing systems stock. Full article

As a major contributor to global energy consumption and carbon emissions, the building sector plays a pivotal role in achieving carbon peaking and neutrality targets. This study systematically reviews the evolution of research on building stock energy conservation and emission reduction (BSECER) from 1992 to 2025, which is based on a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of 2643 publications. The analysis highlights the research contributions of countries, institutions, and scholars in the BSECER field, reveals patterns in collaborative networks, and identifies the development and shifting focus of research topics over time. The findings indicate that current BSECER research centers around four main areas: behavioral efficiency optimization, full life cycle carbon management, urban system transformation, and the integration of intelligent technologies, which collectively form a multiscale emission reduction framework from individual behavior to large-scale systems. Building on these insights, this study outlines five key future research directions: advancing comprehensive carbon neutrality technologies, accelerating the engineering application of intelligent technologies, developing innovative multi-scenario policy simulation tools, overcoming integration challenges in renewable energy systems, and establishing an interdisciplinary platform that links health, behavior, and energy conservation. Full article

The integration of blockchain (BC), artificial intelligence (AI), and green finance (GF) to promote sustainable investments and tackle environmental issues is examined in this study. By employing sophisticated analytical methods, the study seeks to pinpoint the main forces behind GF growth, especially in the field of renewable energy. To guarantee reliable statistical analysis, financial data from Taiwanese companies listed on the stock exchange between 2000 and 2020 are examined using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). Furthermore, to make use of AI’s potential to pinpoint the key elements affecting GF development and investment, attention-based convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are used. The links between GF, BC, and AI are analyzed and visualized using a novel method called the Financial Filtered Graph (FFG). The results of the study demonstrate that by increasing the precision of investment forecasts and identifying critical factors that affect GF growth, AI-driven solutions can greatly improve the sustainability of green finance strategies. The suggested methodology effectively supports sustainable investment decisions, as evidenced by its remarkable 98.8% classification accuracy. According to the findings, integrating AI and BC has a lot of potential to enhance green finance’s accountability, transparency, and decision-making processes, all of which will support long-term economic and environmental sustainability. Full article

The sustainable renewal of old communities is a key approach to improving residents’ quality of life and optimizing urban stock space. However, the research on the effectiveness of renewal initiatives, particularly regarding resident satisfaction, remains insufficient. This study aimed to develop a structured approach by constructing a sustainable development framework with 28 indicators across five aspects—traffic space, leisure space, green space, sense of belonging, and comfort—to evaluate residents’ satisfaction with both physical and spiritual dimensions. Utilizing the IPA–Kano method, a revised IPA quadrant diagram was generated to guide optimization efforts. This study conducted an extensive survey across 16 communities in Chengdu, China, to identify key patterns and challenges. Based on these insights, four representative projects were selected as case studies. The study revealed that the 28 evaluation indicators were categorized into 12 necessary needs and 16 expectation needs. Furthermore, the community renewal projects in Chengdu place a notably greater emphasis on the spiritual dimension. Specifically, satisfaction scores for 14 indicators—11 related to the material dimension and 3 related to the spiritual dimension—were found to be below the average score of 3.28. Targeted renewal strategies are proposed for these indicators. This method offers valuable insights and references for future old community renewal designs and contributes to the sustainable transformation of urban stock spaces in China. Full article

Rural areas are ideal for renewable energy facilities, supporting sustainable development and energy transition. Egypt aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector by 37% and energy consumption by 17% by 2030. Rural Egypt, hosting two-thirds of the population and building stock, consumes one-third of the total electricity. Thus, this paper provides an exploratory study to diagnose and benchmark the energy-use intensity of rural buildings and quantify the correlation between residential electricity consumption, built environment elements, and socio-economic factors, in addition to promoting techno-economic assessments of renewable energy from photovoltaic panels in rural Egypt, supporting national policies amid rapid rural development. The study utilized different analytical and field methods and statistical analyses. A typical agriculture-based rural village in the Delta region, northern Egypt, was selected; the built environment, building types, and socio-economic factors were examined. The results revealed a significant correlation between lifestyle, built-up area, household size, and floor numbers with residential buildings’ electricity consumption. The average annual electricity use intensity was benchmarked at 2.5–92.3 kWh/m² for six non-residential building typologies and at 22 kWh/m² and 6.67 kWh/dwelling for residential buildings. Under current regulations, rooftop solar panels can generate electricity significantly, but are not profitable. Eventually, insights for policymakers to inform energy transition policies and national initiatives for rural regeneration were provided. The research focused on a local context, but the methodology can be applied to rural settlements in similar contexts. Full article

As China’s urban development enters the era of stock optimization, the practice of transforming and utilizing spaces under urban overpasses is rapidly gaining momentum. Converting these underpass spaces into sports areas has emerged as a new form of creating public space. Understanding the perceptions of users from different age groups towards these underpass spaces holds significant guiding value for optimizing the design of such areas and improving the quality of service. Taking the Yanshan Interchange Lowline Park in Jinan as an example, this research applied methods of observation, interviews, questionnaires, and importance–satisfaction analysis (ISA) to investigate the activity preferences and the similarities and differences in the perceptions of spatial environment elements in underpass spaces among four age groups: children, youth, middle-aged adults, and the elderly. The findings indicate that different age groups exhibit varying degrees of sensitivity to spatial information, demand levels, and perceptual perspectives in underline parks, which result in distinct spatiotemporal distributions and spatial perception disparities when using the park. All the groups agree that the underpass sports space requires significant improvements in terms of comfort and safety. Based on this, this study proposes age-friendly urban space renewal strategies for spaces under elevated highways, focusing on addressing areas with lower satisfaction across all age groups. These strategies include optimizing the allocation of time, area, and activity types within activity spaces, enhancing the safety and comfort of activity areas, and enriching the cultural connotation and inclusivity of the space. This research provides a theoretical basis for optimizing and creating age-friendly or age-specific urban sports public spaces under elevated highways. Full article

With the development of China’s social economy and urbanization, there is a significant stock of urban industrial architectural heritage. Considering the increasing demand for urban land and the renewal of idle sites, the reuse of industrial architectural heritage has become an important measure for urban development, while preserving the city’s industrial memory and the authenticity of architectural heritage. This paper conducts a reuse study on the industrial architectural heritage in Hefei based on human thermal comfort. The motor factory welding workshop and the diesel engine factory cylinder casting workshop in Hefei are selected as research objects. By measuring the physical parameters of the indoor thermal environment and the thermal comfort of human bodies before and after the renovation of these two workshops and by conducting data statistics and regression analyses on the measured data and questionnaire data, an actual mean thermal sensation MTS model of human thermal comfort in the indoor space of the industrial architectural heritage before and after reuse is established. This paper compares the neutral temperature, comfortable temperature range, and duration of thermal comfort at different times for the research objects; analyzes the reasons for the differences in the results; and draws conclusions from the comparative analysis, providing a theoretical basis for the practice of comfortable environment transformation of industrial architectural heritage. Full article

This study is based on the stock returns of 11 subindustry markets in the international clean energy market from 2010 to 2024 and constructs a skewed t distribution dynamic factor copula model. The time-varying load factor is used to characterize the correlation between a single subindustry market and the entire system, and the joint probability of distress is calculated as a measure of the overall level of systemic risk. Two indicators, Systemic Vulnerability Degree and Systemic Importance Degree, are introduced to evaluate the vulnerability of a single subindustry market in systemic risk and its contribution to systemic risk. A conditional risk-spillover index is constructed to measure the risk-spillover level between subindustry markets. This method fully considers the individual differences and inherent correlations of the international clean energy market subsectors, as well as the fat tail and asymmetry of returns, thus capturing more information and more timely information. This study found that the correlation between subindustry markets changes over time, and during the crisis, the market correlation shows a significant upward trend. In the measurement of the overall level of systemic risk, the joint probability of distress can identify the changes in systemic risk in the international clean energy market. The systemic risk of the international clean energy market presents the characteristics of rapid and multiple outbreaks, and the joint default risk probability of the whole system can exceed 0.6. The outbreak of systemic risk is closely related to a series of major international events, showing a strong correlation. In addition, the systemic vulnerability analysis found that the biofuel market has the lowest systemic vulnerability, and the advanced materials market has the highest vulnerability. The energy efficiency market is considered to be the most important market in the system. The advanced materials market and renewable energy market play a dominant role in the risk contribution to other markets, while the geothermal market, solar market, and wind energy market are net risk overflow parties in the tail risk impact, and the developer market and fuel cell market are net risk receivers. This study provides a theoretical basis for systemic risk management and ensuring the stability of the international clean energy market. Full article

The 27,000 km of railway track in France represents approximately 100 million tonnes of ballast. This ballast requires maintenance approximately every 7 years, screening and partial renewal every 20 years, and complete replacement every 40 years. Despite its shortcomings, ballast is still widely used on railways worldwide, as there is no better or more efficient solution currently available. In an effort to conserve resources, companies such as SNCF (French national railway company) are implementing initiatives to move towards zero waste. In order to achieve the goal of promoting the recycling and recovery of end-of-life material flows, it is necessary to develop specific studies and models for production, such as direct and reverse logistics systems. This article proposes a generic material flow analysis model applied to a track and ballast renewal site, aiming to fill a gap in the literature. It is based on data from eleven track and ballast renewal sites. A flow diagram generated by STAN software presents a detailed diagnosis of ballast inputs, outputs, and stocks, including data uncertainty. The distribution of the material flows through the model is characterized by transfer coefficients in various transformation processes. Furthermore, by varying the quantities in this model, it is possible to study different scenarios based on the current situation. This will facilitate the projection and analysis of future management strategies aimed at achieving zero waste and reducing the discharge of toxic substances based on specific performance indicators. Full article

Reducing energy and associated greenhouse gas emissions in buildings is one of the key aspects of climate change on a global level. To put the building sector on a low carbon development path, policies and adequate financing play a crucial role in each region. In the global South, policies and regulations related to the decarbonization of the building stock are increasingly being implemented. For policy and decision makers, adequate data on the status quo of the building stock, as well as the quantification of energy reduction measures, are essential to make informed decisions on the building regulatory and funding framework. The objective of this study is to provide data-driven insights into the potential for energy and CO₂ reduction in buildings across various hot climate zones in the Global South. A simulation-based approach was employed to model five different building types, ranging from residential homes to office buildings, under a variety of architectural and building services scenarios. The simulations were conducted using the dynamic building energy simulation tool EnergyPlus, which assessed the impact of various energy-saving measures under both current and projected future climate conditions. This study concludes that optimizing passive design features, such as improved windows, solar shading, and reflective surfaces, in conjunction with active systems like decentralized cooling units and renewable energy integration, can result in a notable reduction in energy demand and emissions. Our findings provide a robust basis for policymakers to develop targeted energy efficiency strategies for buildings in hot climate zones, which will play a crucial role in achieving climate goals in the Global South. Full article

Effectively and rationally allocating land resources, while coordinating urban expansion with internal renewal strategies, is crucial for achieving high-quality regional development in coastal urban agglomerations. Land-use suitability assessment (LSA) is a key method for coastal land-use planning, but it is primarily used to delineate ecological redlines or areas for urban expansion, often overlooking the spatial analysis needed for urban renewal. This is particularly critical in coastal urban agglomerations facing land scarcity and ecological fragility. Here, we combined land use and the Analytical Hierarchical Process (to consider stakeholder priorities) in a Minimum cumulative resistance model (MCRM) to determine suitable coastal urban growth and renewal based on a suite of 12 indicators relevant to development intensity and stock space. Application to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) indicates a dominance of the Ecological Buffer Zone (70.5%), and the available stock space in the GBA comprises only 9.2% of the total area. Our modeling framework tailored different development strategies for different cities: Huizhou and Zhaoqing had space for urban expansion to varying degrees, while other cities were found to be suitable for urban renewal due to low stock space and high development intensity. Our modeling approach, incorporating stakeholder input and objective evaluation of geographic land-use information, can assist planners in improving ecological security while promoting high-quality developments in coastal areas. Full article

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) has set a target to achieve carbon-neutral building stock and generate 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050. While Model Predictive Control (MPC) can contribute significantly to energy flexibility in buildings, its remote implementation remains relatively unexplored, especially in the residential sector. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate the reliability, robustness, and computational efficiency of a cloud-based application of an MPC called Smart Energy Management (SEM) on a multi-family residential building. The SEM was tested on a virtual building model in TRNSYS using an open-source distributed event streaming platform for data exchange and synchronization. Simplified models for thermal behavior prediction, including an R3C3 model of the building, were developed in C++. The SEM was evaluated in eight scenarios with varying weather conditions, optimization criteria, and runtime periods. The results demonstrate that the SEM maintains stability and robustness over a 2-week period with a 15-minute planning resolution while ensuring thermal comfort. The C++ implementation of the optimization algorithm enables SEM deployment on low-spec servers, supporting cost-effective applications in real buildings with minimal intervention. Full article