Renewable energy, particularly biogas, is essential for achieving sustainable development and addressing issues such as energy poverty, environmental damage and health problems in Ethiopia. By 2023, the National Biogas Programme of Ethiopia (NBPE) had installed 46,160 household biogas systems, which are operating at varying levels. This study assesses the functionality of small-scale biogas plants in Ethiopia, focusing on technical flaws and challenges, as well as factors that enable improving of rural energy use. Depending on the size of the digester and cooking habits, biogas reduced firewood use by 40–65
Background The ongoing threat of climate change necessitates a comprehensive restructuring of national energy systems, shifting them from a fossil-fuel basis toward low-carbon pathways to achieve substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, this work examines the effects of national and global events on climate change mitigation policy, taking the German energy transition, also known as "Energiewende" as a case study. By tracing shifts in political discourse, this study examines changing prioritizations among energy policy targets and explores the circumstances that shaped discourse developments during periods of crisis and transformation, as well as the role of key triggers or pre-existing "windows of opportunity" presented by political and social events. The analysis places particular emphasis on specific systemic factors, including the Fridays For Future demonstrations, the 2021 government change, the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.Results Using a mixed qualitative/semi-quantitative discourse analysis of Bundestag plenary sessions from 2017 to 2022, the study evaluates the ongoing relevance of the energy triangle approach's qualitative targets. The energy triangle retained its focus on the three primary energy policy objectives despite the occurrence of various significant systemic events. However, the relative prominence of these targets changed over time and temporally coincided with major systemic developments. Within the energy triangle approach, security of supply in particular assumed a distinctive role within the evolving discourse framework.Conclusions Examining Germany's political discourse provides insight into the dynamics of energy policy debates during periods of crisis and transformation. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how analyzing parliamentary debates can inform comparative assessments of energy policy developments in various European countries and beyond.
Forests in the Baltic Sea region store carbon, harbour biodiversity, sustain rural livelihoods and supply wood for materials and heating. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Russian and Belarusian wood and energy have disrupted these supply chains. This raises concern that the pursuit of energy security may increase pressure on forests, weaken carbon sinks and shift environmental impacts abroad. EU Member States set out how they will meet the 2030 energy and climate targets in National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), updated in 2024. This is the first study to examine these updates for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden through the lenses of climate security and “nexus thinking”, an approach that treats energy, land, ecosystems and society as interconnected. It combines content analysis of the five plans with 22 interviews with regional stakeholders. All five countries are turning to domestic bioenergy to replace Russian fuels, mainly forest residues and low-grade wood for district heating and combined heat and power. The Baltic states link forests mainly to energy sovereignty, grid integration with continental Europe and rural jobs. Sweden and Finland embed them in longer-term strategies for the bioeconomy, carbon sinks, hydrogen and carbon capture. Most plans favor using high-quality timber for products and residues for energy. Yet the plans only partly reflect the new situation: many adjustments happen in practice, outside the formal NECP framework. Climate, energy and human security are treated as parallel rather than potentially conflicting goals. Coordination is weak between EU and national levels, across sectors and among neighbouring countries. Finland’s forests, now a net emission source rather than a carbon sink, illustrate the trade-offs at stake. Forests are becoming strategic security resources, but energy-security policies could unintentionally intensify logging, weaken carbon sinks and harm biodiversity. Forest, energy, biodiversity, climate and trade policy should therefore be governed together. Useful steps include harmonised EU reporting of fuelwood use, stronger rules prioritising material use of wood, biomass limits tied to carbon-sink and biodiversity indicators, building renovation to cut heat demand, and closer Baltic–Nordic cooperation on supply risks.
Improving residential energy efficiency is essential for environmental and social sustainability because the residential building sector accounts for a substantial share of energy consumption, and inefficient housing can exacerbate energy poverty and socioeconomic inequalities. Therefore, building energy performance policies may contribute to reducing residential energy demand, improving thermal comfort, and supporting a more equitable energy transition. This study examines whether Türkiye’s nationwide Regulation on Energy Performance in Buildings (REPB), implemented in 2011, is associated with improvements in household energy poverty. Using nationally representative Income and Living Conditions Survey data for 2006–2023, we applied a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences (DID) framework, complemented by propensity score matching and entropy balancing, to estimate differential post-policy changes among households potentially exposed to the regulation’s insulation-related mechanism. This study evaluates subjective, expenditure-based, and multidimensional measures of energy poverty and examines distributional heterogeneity across income groups. Potential exposure to the REPB is associated with statistically significant post-policy reductions in several dimensions of energy poverty. Relative to the comparison group, utility bill arrears decreased by 1.8
As the world grapples with the long-term consequences of the changing climate and dreadful ecological conditions, the G20 nations, as the largest and most influential economies, face a particularly daunting challenge: striking the optimal balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth. Green growth is a transformative strategy, aiming to drive innovation and marking a paradigm shift in global environmental stewardship and economic development approaches. Important factors impacting green growth include the availability of resources, developments in green technologies, economic complexity and calculated clean energy investments. All of these factors have to be in line with environmental priorities. The study employed second-generation panel tests, including the Driscoll-Kraay method, to effectively address econometric challenges in panel data. The insights provide a roadmap for future sustainable development. The study identified green innovations, investment in renewable energy infrastructure, and economic complexity as key drivers of green growth, emphasizing the importance of adopting environmentally sustainable technologies. While economic complexity fosters environmental sustainability, challenges such as population growth, rising energy demand, and resource exploitation pose significant constraints. The results show a favorable and statistically significant association between long-term green growth and the development of green technologies. Specifically, with a 1
