The Role of Crypto Trading in the Economy, Renewable Energy Consumption and Ecological Degradation

The rapid growth of information technology and industrial revolutions provoked digital transformation of all sectors, from the government to households. Moreover, digital transformations led to the development of cryptocurrency. However, crypto trading provokes a dilemma loop. On the one hand, crypto trading led to economic development, which allowed attracting additional resources to extending smart and green technologies for de-carbonising the economic growth. On the other hand, crypto trading led to intensifying energy sources, which provoked an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental degradation. The paper aims to analyse the connections between crypto trading, economic development of the country, renewable energy consumption, and environmental degradation. The data for analysis were obtained from: Our World in Data, World Data Bank, Eurostat, Ukrstat, Crystal Blockchain, and KOF Globalisation Index. To check the hypothesis, the paper applied the Pedroni and Kao panel cointegration tests, FMOLS and DOLS panel cointegration models, and Vector Error Correction Models. The findings concluded that the increasing crypto trading led to enhanced GDP, real gross fixed capital formation, and globalisation. However, in the long run, the relationship between crypto trading and the share of renewable energies in total energy consumption was not confirmed by the empirical results. For further directions, it is necessary to analyse the impact of crypto trading on land and water pollution.

Forecasting the Effect of Migrants’ Remittances on Household Expenditure: COVID-19 Impact

The unexpected pandemic has provoked changes in all economic sectors worldwide. COVID-19 has had a direct and indirect effect on countries’ development. Thus, the pandemic limits the movements of labour forces among countries, restricting migrants’ remittances. In addition, it provokes the reorientation of consumer behaviour and changes in household expenditure. For developing countries, migrant remittances are one of the core drivers for improving household wellbeing. Therefore, the paper aims to analyse how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected household expenditure in Ukraine, as being representative of a developing country. For this purpose, the data series were compiled for 2010 to the second quarter of 2021. The data sources were as follows: Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, The World Bank, and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. The core variables were as follows: migrants’ remittances and expenditure of households by the types. The following methods were applied to achieve the paper’s aims: the Dickey–Fuller Test Unit Root and the ARIMA model. The findings confirmed that COVID-19 has changed the structure of household expenditure in Ukraine. Considering the forecast of household expenditure until 2026, it was shown that due to changes in migrants’ remittances, household expenditure in all categories tends to increase. The forecasted findings concluded that household expenditure on transport had the most significant growth due to changing migrants’ remittances.

Innovations in Energy Efficiency Management: Role of Public Governance

The article summarizes the arguments and counter-arguments within the scientific debate on the influence of state administration on innovations in energy efficiency management of the national economy. The main goal of the conducted research is to form and prove a hypothesis regarding the effectiveness of the methodological toolkit for assessing the impact of the level of government efficiency on the divergent energy efficiency subindex of the national economy. The systematization of literary sources and approaches to solving the problem of the role of state administration in the context of the formation of innovations in energy efficiency management proved that active discussions are currently underway on this topic. The urgency of solving this scientific problem is to develop an effective mechanism for finding additional determinants of influence on the level of energy efficiency for the further possibility of harmonizing domestic and European energy policies. The study of the role of state management of the innovative component of energy efficiency development in the article is carried out in the following logical sequence: at the first stage, the initial data array was formed, which was checked for multicollinearity (Pearson’s correlation coefficient) and normality of distribution (graphic quantile method of comparing two probability distributions) using statistical analysis tools at the second and third stages; at the fourth stage, a quantile regression OLS model was built, which allows taking into account the heterogeneity of the studied factors. Methods of bibliometric and comparative analysis, correlational and quantile methods became the methodological tools of the conducted research, the years from 2000 to 2020 were chosen as the research period. Ukraine and the EU countries (27) were chosen as the object of the study, because they allow us to compare the level of energy efficiency of countries and their positions in the world ranking of the quality of public administration. The article presents the results of an empirical analysis and found that for Ukraine, the diffusion of green innovations leads to a slight increase in the level of energy efficiency of the national economy by 0.7%, while for the countries of the European Union – by an average of 3%. The experience of the countries of the European Union shows that the multiplier effect in increasing the energy efficiency of the national economy is provided by the growth of green innovations and the activation of the green investment market. Increasing the efficiency of public administration to the level of reference countries will allow to increase the divergent energy efficiency sub-index for Ukraine by 16.1% for the rule of law, 18.9% for the government’s ability to openly implement policies and regulatory measures, and 10.7% for corruption control. The results of the conducted research may be useful for further research in the field of energy efficiency of the national economy.

Evaluating Green Technology Strategies for the Sustainable Development of Solar Power Projects: Evidence from Pakistan

Energy is the main element for a modern lifestyle that must be considered in economically reliable and sustainable development dialogues. The financial performance of solar power projects has become the main issue, especially in developing countries such as Pakistan, where it has gained the special attention of government and regulatory authorities. The present study evaluates green technology strategies for the sustainable development of solar power projects in Pakistan. We examine the moderating role of cost and riskiness of the methods between the nexus of capital budgeting techniques and the financial performance of solar power projects. The analysis is performed on data collected from 44 respondents (chief financial officers and chief executive officers) by accompanying an inclusive questionnaire survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to assess the formulated suppositions. The results reveal that green technology strategies positively impact the sustainable development of solar power projects. The profitability index is a good source of higher financial performance of the solar power projects. The results further demonstrate that the cost and riskiness of the methods significantly moderate the nexus of capital budgeting techniques and the financial performance of solar power projects. These findings provide a valuable manual for policymakers, government institutions, and regulators to select the appropriate green technology strategy to increase cleaner production and sustainable development of solar power projects.

A Scoping Review of Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

The article aims to identify the latest trends in research on renewable energy, sustainability and the environment. A total of 92,873 publications from 123 Scopus sources for 2020–2021 are compared using the scoping review method. The results show that the most cited works in this sample are those by authors from the Asian region. The research of these authors focuses on the security, efficiency and reliability of separate elements in energy systems. Besides, the paper considers the problems regarding COVID disease along with the renewable energy sources, perovskite and organic solar panels, nanostructured materials and high energy density. Finally, the paper analyses applications of computer science methods in research on renewable energy, sustainability and the environment. The findings evidently show that recent advancements in computer science methods were not extensively used in the discussed research domain and give a great room for novel strategies of prognosing, simulation and processes optimisation.

Bioenergetic potential assessment of the agricultural sector of the Ukrainian economy

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the justification of objective assessment of the agricultural sector energetic potential, and the increasing of the accuracy of assessments results of energy resources of plant by-products.

Design/methodology/approach

The study of the problems of bioenergetic potential assessment in the study is carried out in the following order: first, the potential is assessed based upon the 2005-2017 year’s observation data; second, the energetic potential is assessed based upon linear and nonlinear optimization model; and finally, the assessment of the bioenergetic potential predicted values is carried out under the condition of the current pace of development of agricultural business by 2035.

Findings

The findings show that the solving of optimization tasks enabled us to make a comparison of the real structure of agricultural production and to justify the optimal structure of the cultivated areas under the conditions of agricultural business profit maximization with due allowance for both main and additional energy products. Using the linear trend model the predicted value of the agricultural sector energetic potential by the year 2035 is obtained. However, it is far more likely that the domestic bioenergetics will take a slower pace of development and to satisfy its own energy demands.

Practical implications

Based on the data of the reference interval of 2005-2018, the predicted values of biomass for 2035 were obtained in the amount of 28 million tons of oil equivalent, which taking into account the indices of generation efficiency, is sufficient to produce 104 billion kW-h.

Social implications

The use of biomass for energy generation can impact the local environment, for example, by affecting air quality, biodiversity, habitats and ecosystems and water quantity and quality and by changing the local use of land. Social impacts also may arise, notably by affecting local community livelihoods (for example, access to and use of land and resources), food security and economic parameters such as employment and poverty.

Originality/value

The paper presents for the first time the results of the empiric analysis of the Ukrainian sector bioenergetic potential formation that showed that even with respect to the losses during the energy generation, the agricultural production energetic potential will be enough to substitute nuclear national power engineering.