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Half of humanity about 3 billion people are still relying on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Of that, about 2.5 billion people depend on traditional biomass fuels (wood, charcoal, agricultural waste, and animal dung), while about 400 million people use coal as their primary cooking and heating fuel (UNDP and WHO 2009). The majority of the population relying on solid fuels lives in Sub-Saharan Africa and in South Asia. In some countries in Central America and in East Asia and the Pacific, the use of solid fuels is also significant. The inefficient and unsustainable production and use of these fuels result in a significant public health hazard, as well as negative environmental impacts that keep people in poverty. Strategies to improve energy access to the poor have focused mainly on electricity access. They have often neglected non electricity household energy access. It is, however, estimated that about 2.8 billion people will still depend on fuel wood for cooking and heating in 2030 in a business-as-usual modus operandi (IEA 2010). The need for urgent interventions at the household level to provide alternative energy services to help improve livelihoods is becoming more and more accepted. This report's main objective is to conduct a review of the World Bank's financed operations and selected interventions by other institutions on household energy access in an attempt to examine success and failure factors to inform the new generation of upcoming interventions. First, the report provides a brief literature review to lay out the multidimensional challenge of an overwhelming reliance on solid fuels for cooking and heating. Second, it highlights how the Bank and selected governments and organizations have been dealing with this challenge. Third, it presents lessons learned to inform upcoming interventions. And finally, it indicates an outlook on the way forward.

Based on the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017–18 data, the study intends to present the relative status of a particular fuel (type) in terms of its level of use in different regions of Pakistan. At the same time, the study investigates the determinants of the household type of fuel used for cooking in Pakistan. Socioeconomic characteristics of the households and household heads are taken as determinants of the main type of fuel (clean or dirty) used for cooking by the households. Binary logistic regression is applied as an estimation technique. Over the country, wood stands first as the most widely used type of fuel followed by natural gas followed by LPG. Animal dung and charcoal are respectively ranked as the fourth and fifth most commonly used types of fuel for cooking by households in Pakistan. In comparison amongst the four provinces of Pakistan, the use of wood as well as charcoal as the fuel type for cooking (in relative terms) is the most common in Balochistan province. Likewise, Punjab province is the most frequent user of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), crop residues, and animal dung, while Sindh province is the most frequent user of natural gas. Households possessing agricultural land and livestock and with large household sizes had more probability to use dirty sources of fuel for cooking. Households with better wealth status and residing in urban areas were more likely to use clean sources of fuel for cooking. Household head’s higher educational status and male-gender had more likelihood to use clean sources of fuel for cooking.

Clean energy, with its focus on environmental sustainability and efficiency, has gained significance as concerns over the impact of traditional energy growth. However, there is limited evidence on the value of clean energy investments. This paper explores the role of clean energy in a balanced investment portfolio by examining two traditional energy assets (crude oil and natural gas) and two clean energy assets (SPDR S&P Kensho Clean Power ETF and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF). Using a time-varying parameter vector autoregression (TVP-VAR) model on daily data from October 2021 to January 2024, we analyze the evolving connectedness between these assets. Our results highlight dynamic interactions, with green finance indices like CNRG acting as net shock transmitters, while traditional energy indices, such as WTI and gas, primarily receive shocks. The analysis suggests that green assets, particularly ICLN, enhance portfolio stability and hedging efficiency, especially in minimum correlation and risk parity portfolios. Fossil fuels, especially gas, exhibit higher volatility, requiring careful portfolio management. Ultimately, integrating ESG criteria and adapting investment strategies to market conditions may enhance responsible investing and long-term value creation.

We explore the connection between firms’ technological innovation capabilities and their internal and external factors. To empirically test this relationship, we use panel data for new energy vehicle (NEV) firms and traditional fuel vehicle firms in China from 2010 to 2020. Our findings show that public subsidies do have a positive impact on firms’ technology innovation capability, and there are consistent findings for both NEV and traditional fuel vehicle firms. Firms have a supportive effect on their innovative ability when they satisfy conditions of high profitability, low leverage, high equity concentration, and highly educated employees. The inability to maximize the effectiveness of public subsidies is due to an imbalance in the internal and external factors of firms. Therefore, we innovatively analyze the internal and external factors of NEV firms as an integrated system, taking into account the high correlation between them, rather than discussing them separately. The paper is not only of academic significance to the development of NEV firms to improve their technological innovation capability and the transformation of traditional fuel vehicle firms, but also of practical significance to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the achievement of the “double carbon” goal.

In order to show the fuel-saving effect of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) [1]more intuitively, three conversion methods of fuel and electricity were introduced considering different aspects, namely conversion method of simple calorific value, comprehensive calorific value and carbon dioxide emission. Firstly, the energy consumption of two mainstream PHEVs according to the current domestic (China) energy consumption test regulation were tested [2], then the tested values were converted by the three conversion methods to get the equivalent fuel consumption. What’s more, by the introduction of pure electricity Utilization Factor (UF) [3], the fuel consumption of PHEV at two stages (pure electric driving and pure fuel driving) were weighted to obtain the comprehensive fuel consumption. The effects of different conversion methods on fuel consumption were analyzed, and the results were compared horizontally with that of traditional fuel vehicles. The result shows that the comprehensive fuel consumption of PHEV converted by the method of carbon dioxide emission is the highest. Secondly, from the perspective of comprehensive calorific value, PHEV has obvious fuel-saving effect and a better development prospect comparing with traditional fuel vehicle. Last but not the least, PHEV has a significant fuel-saving advantage over traditional fuel vehicle in areas where the proportion of thermal power generation is relatively low, and with the continuous decrease of the overall proportion of thermal power generation, the fuel-saving effect of PHEV will become more and more obvious.

With the acceleration of economic globalisation and the rapid development of network communication technology, remote monitoring and the management of ship fuel consumption have received extensive attention. Traditional fuel consumption monitoring methods are difficult to meet the growing management needs of the shipping industry due to problems such as large statistical errors and delayed information feedback. In order to better conduct energy management, equipment condition monitoring, and navigation analysis, the cyber‐physical system (CPS) is deployed on ships to collect shipping data and communicate with remote monitoring centres. However, complex actual sailing conditions, sailing weather and other external factors tend to reduce the accuracy of fuel consumption data. In view of this challenge, a data‐aware monitoring method for fuel consumption in ship‐based CPS, named DMM, is proposed in this study. Technically, the fuel consumption index of ships is introduced firstly. Then, a fuel consumption model based on CPS is proposed, which improves the current fuel consumption model of the ship. Furthermore, the artificial neural network is employed to analyse a large amount of navigation data to get more accurate monitoring results of fuel consumption. Finally, experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the authors’ proposed method.

Nearly 41% of the global populace depends on unclean fuels for cooking. As a result, about 4 million premature deaths connected to household air pollution are registered annually. Worryingly, over 2.1 billion people are estimated to continue using unclean fuels by 2030 if no strong policy actions are taken to alter the status quo. Climate parameters including; temperature, solar radiation, wind, and moisture have been widely touted as having an impact on multidimensional energy poverty, their effect on household energy consumption and subsequent transition to cleaner fuels is seldom investigated in Uganda. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of climate shocks, and adaptation mechanisms on household energy transition in Uganda. The study adopted a panel data methodology employing an ordered logit model with random effects to estimate the effect of climate shocks and adaptation mechanisms on household fuel transition from high to low-pollutant cooking fuels in Uganda. The findings revealed that climate shocks, adaptation mechanisms significantly affect household energy transition in Uganda. The study recommended that policies aimed at enhancing detection and report of early warning signs should be emphasized. Furthermore, investing in an insurance scheme especially for people living in climate shock prone areas can help households to cope up with shocks are eventually transition to clean cooking fuels.

Road transport is one of the main consumers of petroleum products and sources of air pollution. In the conditions of Russia’s fast-growing vehicle fleet, it is necessary to develop and implement effective measures to reduce the consumption of scarce oil fuels and stimulate the use of alternative eco-friendly fuels. The aim of this work is to assess the prospects for the use of alternative fuels and energy by cars in Russia. This paper outlines the main ways of reducing the gasoline and diesel fuel consumption by road transport, including the use of the motor fuel alternative types. As the most promising direction of alternative energy development in the road transport sector regarding Russia’s conditions, a transition to gas-cylinder fuel is proposed. This study presents the main problems of road transport gasification and the ways to solve them. The effective actions in the selected fields will reduce the consumption of scarce fuel and energy resources and enable improvement of the environmental situation in megalopolises.

The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) is a global technical assistance program that promotes the role of energy in poverty reduction and economic growth with redistribution. ESMAP undertakes analytical work and provides policy advice on sustainable energy development to governments and other institutions in developing countries and economies in transition. ESMAP was established in 1983 under the joint sponsorship of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme as a partnership in response to global energycrises. Since its creation, ESMAP has operated in some 100 different countries through more than 500 activities covering a broad range of energy issues.

Before the current economic crisis hit the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region in 2008, energy security was a major source of concern in Central and Eastern Europe and in many of the economies in the former Soviet Union. Energy importers were experiencing shortages leading to periodic brownouts and blackouts. An energy crisis seemed imminent. This report analyzes the outlook for energy demand and supply in the region. It estimates the investment requirements and highlights the potential environmental concerns associated with meeting future energy needs, including those related to climate change. The report also proposes the actions necessary to create an attractive environment for investment in cleaner energy. Greater regional cooperation for smart energy and climate action is an important part of the World Bank's engagement in Europe and Central Asia.