Research Database

This article carries out a multisectoral qualitative analysis (MSQA) and policy integration analysis of six sectors important for climate mitigation in Southeast Asia in order to assess the status of the climate-energy nexus in the region. It concludes that Southeast Asia will be heavily affected by climate change but the mitigation efforts of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are incommensurate with the threat they face. Their nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement are modest, they have a low proportion of renewable energy in their energy mixes, a modest target for raising the share of renewable energy and they are not likely to reach this target. The ASEAN countries have also been slow to adopt electric vehicles and to accede to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), while continuing to burn their forests, channel subsidies to fossil fuels and invest in new coal power plants. If ASEAN accelerated decarbonization, it could seize business opportunities, secure its standing in the international political system and climate justice discussions, and increase its chances of reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This study aims to develop a decision model to optimise the oil palm biomass value chains by minimising the environmental impact whiles generating economy value from their bioproducts. The model considers two major components, namely, a fuzzy analytic hierarchy (FAHP) framework and a multi-objective optimisation model. Both components will be used by integrating the priorities of the environmental and economic impacts obtained from experts' judgement with the multi-objective optimisation model to generate an optimal solution based on expert's judgement. The framework used to study different case study for the oil palm industry in Peninsular Malaysia. Results show that a maximum profit of 267,116,398 USD per year can be achieved. However, to minimise the environmental impact, a 34% cut of the profit is needed to reduce 91% of CO2 emissions generated and 97% of water consumption. Moreover, the model generates optimal pathways by selecting the processing facilities that are needed in the value chain to achieve the objectives. The biomass or bio-product distribution networks around Peninsular Malaysia are also presented in this paper. Several scenarios are discussed to observe the effects on the optimal value chain solutions by manipulating the production level. On the basis of the results, the interactions of the environment–food–energy–water nexus are investigated. Therefore, this study can contribute to the improvement of oil palm industry policies while addressing sustainability issues through the proposed value chain model.

This study investigates the use of a non-linear autoregressive exogenous neural network(NARX) model to investigate the nexus between energy usability, economic indicators, and carbondioxide (CO2) emissions in four Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), namely Malaysia,Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Optimized NARX model architectures of 5-29-1, 5-19-1,5-17-1, 5-13-1 representing the input nodes, hidden neurons and the output units were obtained fromthe series of models configured. Based on the relationship between the input variables, CO2 emissionswere predicted with a high correlation coefficient (R) > 0.9. and low mean square errors (MSE)of 3.92 × 10−21, 4.15 × 10−23, 2.02 × 10−19, 1.32 × 10−20 for Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and thePhilippines, respectively. Coal consumption has the highest level of influence on CO2 emissions inthe four ASEAN countries based on the sensitivity analysis. These findings suggest that governmentpolicies in the four ASEAN countries should be more intensified on strategies to reduce CO2 emissionsin relationship with the energy and economic indicators.

To maintain economic and environmental sustainability, the study examines the influence of five major factors affecting renewable energy consumption. These five major factors include financial development, environmental pollution, innovation, economic freedom, and real GDP per capita in the ASEAN +3 economies during 1998–2018. By testing five hypotheses via the panel ARDL analysis and the Dumitrescu-Hurlin panel causality test, several interesting results were revealed. The results confirmed that financial expansion does not play a major role in the impacts on renewable energy consumption. Also, environmental pollution and economic freedom have a negative correlation with renewable energy consumption. However, the relationship between innovation and real GDP with renewable energy is positive. The results suggest that the ASEAN+3 group should reinforce strategies that support renewable energy projects to achieve economic and environmental sustainability. The study provides some recommendations for ASEAN +3 economies that can help them promote strategies that support renewable energy projects that maintain the economic and environmental sustainability.

Education, environment, energies and economic, have several number high impacts of research in 5 years. Data from Dimensions.ai, the most comprehensive research grants database which links grants to millions of resulting publications, clinical trials and patents, have several results about education, environment, energies and economic research, in Studies in Human Society 146 papers, Economics 96 papers, Applied Economics 95 papers, Engineering 93 papers, Policy and Administration 63 papers. Using vosviewer.com analysis, files downloaded from the free version of Dimensions may contain data for at most 2500 documents. (Larger numbers of documents are supported when a subscription-based version of Dimensions is used), we can see that Education have high impact on energy, environment, sustainability and sustainable development. The study aims to investigate the environmental effects of mix energies on the three most polluted countries of ASEAN economies. The study uses the data of the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand over the period of 1995-2017 as gathered from the World Bank and Global Economy. The study uses Brush Pagon LM and Pearson CD to test the cross-section dependence among variables while Levin, Lin & Chu (2002) panel unit root test to check the stationary in the data. Westerlund (2007) cointegration and FMOLS tests are applied to analyze the long-run relationship. The result confirms the adverse environmental effects of fossil fuel electricity generation (FEG) and positive environmental effects of solar electricity generation (SEG), nuclear-power electricity generation (NEG), and geothermal electricity generation (GEG) on the ASEAN economies. Wind electricity generation (WEG) and hydroelectricity generation (HEG) do not significantly contribute to deteriorating the environment. The study suggests using GEG, WEG and SEG methods of producing electricity instead of FEG.

Hydrogen as an energy carrier faces challenges such as high costs of hydrogen supply, high cost of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and substantial infrastructure requirements. However, leading countries have announced long-term plan and targets in developing hydrogen energy. Should the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) follow up such developments? This study asks if hydrogen-based road transport, especially FCEVs in the fleets of passenger cars, buses, and trucks, could be economically justified in the ASEAN member states. If not, what strategies to take for ASEAN member states? The study applies a well-to-wheel model and a total cost of ownership model to compare the energy consumption, carbon emissions, as well as the costs of FCEVs with those of alternative powertrains. This practice shows the scale of the cost gaps. Subsequently, it estimates the implications of predicted future developments of both hydrogen and FCEVs, in terms of costs and carbon emissions reduced. The results indicate the areas in which FCEVs are most likely to become competitive in the near future, and thus could be targeted and prioritised. By comparing the country-specific results, implications are extended to what policies are most relevant in facilitating the development of hydrogen and fuel cell.

The ASEAN primary energy demand to grow by an average of 3.4% per year from 627 to reach 1,450 million tons of oil equivalent by 2040. In the alignment to accelerating the energy transition through the ASEAN, the region is aiming to reach 23% of RE in the total primary energy supply (TPES). With the five-year remaining, ASEAN has a lot opportunity to accelerate the effort. This research presents overview of the shaping of the renewables and low-carbon power utilisation which has been in the action plan to optimise effective and efficient power utilisation. It will be presented in the study report, the alignment of low-carbon society and renewable energy promotion in ASEAN has been in great progress considering its attempt to improve all power utilisation lineage.

The Southeast Asian region (SEA) is surrounded by ocean space, from which there is a vast potential to harness energy. Wave, tidal energy, and ocean thermal energy conversion could be tapped, to provide alternative sources of clean and dependable energy in the region. This article contributes to the growing academic literature on ocean renewable energy (ORE) in SEA by improving understanding of the opportunities and challenges of ORE development in the region, beyond its technical aspects. It conducts a critical analysis of the socio-political aspects of ORE development at a regional scale, which have been less studied in the existing literature. Aside from providing a sustainable energy source, the development of the ORE sector could provide socio-economic benefits to SEA countries through employment opportunities, inter-industry learning, inbound investments and improving economic resilience. However, these benefits can only be maximised if the costs of deployment, maintenance and repair are reduced, the impact to the marine environment is taken into consideration and issues of public acceptance are addressed. Beyond a cost–benefit analysis, this study critically assesses the unintended risks and consequences of ORE technologies and activities in the region and recommends different policy strategies to mitigate them. It concludes that for the region to reap the benefits of ORE, a coordinated approach among different stakeholders (technology developers, policymakers, and end-users) is needed to minimise the risks and unintended consequences.

The global commitment to climate change mitigation enforces the worldwide development of renewable energy sources. Therefore, various studies have investigated the growth of renewable energy in Malaysia, most commonly based on biogas and hydropower. In this article, the dynamics of Malaysia’s renewable energy development is critically examined by using the latest ofcial national reports and other reliable resources.