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The aim of this paper is to discuss a selection of policy strategies, regional initiatives and market approaches to uncover the realities of twenty-first-century building energy performance. A position that market-based approaches, human influence and policy interventions are part of an ecosystem of building energy performance is presented.

An exploratory search of secondary sources spanning the last three decades was conducted. Both peer-reviewed and grey literature were included to capture a broader understanding of the discourse in literature. Research questions guided the literature search, and a data extraction tool was designed to categorise the literature. The primary limitation of this study is that only a few applications could be discussed in a condensed format.

Several challenges about the current status quo of building energy performance were identified and summarised as follows. (1) Inconsistencies in measurement and verification protocols, (2) Impacts of market approaches, (3) National policy priorities that are at variance with regional targets and (4) Ambiguous reporting on environmental impacts of energy efficiency (EE) technologies.

The practical implications of the findings in this paper for practice and research are that as part of the building energy performance ecosystem, national responses through government interventions must become adaptive to keep up with the fast-paced energy sector and social trends. Simultaneously, before market-based approaches overcome the messiness of socio-economic dynamics, institutional conditions and cultural nuances, they ought to transparently address environmental impacts and the infringement of several SDGs before they can become viable solutions to building energy performance.

This paper presents building energy performance as an ecosystem comprising human influence, market-based approaches and policy interventions which form interdependent parts of the whole. However, evidence in the literature shows that these aspects are usually investigated separately. By presenting them as an ecosystem, this paper contributes to the discourse by advocating the need to re-align building energy performance to socio-economic-political dynamics and contextually viable solutions.

This chapter from a brief review of the relevant literature on the energy markets points out the changes in the relationships between energy companies and customers through the Web. The objective is to highlight the changes of the energy markets thanks to the web demonstrating that it is able to ensure the raising of the switching rates and hence the competition, goal of the liberalization of public services. To this end, the authors will use secondary data from Accenture researches about the perceptions of customers and energy companies around the relations established via the web, and the CUAC for the switching mode performed in the State of Victoria in Australia.

This paper aims to analyse reasons for the absence of renewable electricity (RE) imports to the European Union, for which the authors develop a multi-level heuristic.

The heuristic covers three sequential acceptance levels: political attractiveness (macro-level), the “business case” (micro-level) and civil society perspectives (public discourse level).

Numerous factors on all three levels determine the success/demise of renewables trade. So far, trade has failed on the macro-level, because European policymakers perceive that targets can be achieved domestically with significant co-benefits and because exporter countries have rapidly increasing electricity demand, limiting the realisable exports. As policymakers deemed it unattractive, they have not implemented policy-supported business cases. Public opposition against trade has not been an issue as no concrete plans or projects have been proposed.

The authors show that the factors determining whether a RE programme is successful are plentiful and extend far beyond potential cost savings. This suggests that future research and the energy policy debate should better account for how cost savings are weighed against other policy aims and explicitly include the perspectives of investors and the public.

This paper adds the first holistic analysis of success/failure factors for RE trade to Europe. The three-level, sequential framework is new to energy policy analysis.

Policy coherence is a complex and tough task for many developing nations because their capacity to examine and deliver evidence-based inputs to policymaking is limited, and policy dialogue platforms need to be effectively used. Resolving these difficulties is a critical requirement for policy consistency. As a result, the study focuses on the level of policy coherence for climate change adaptation (CCA), disaster risk reduction (DRR) and sustainable development goals (SDG) in Sri Lanka and suggests routes for policy coherence for Resilience. This study aims to investigate the coherent approach of CCA, DRR and SDG; to identify concerns in policy documents addressing the coherence of CCA, DRR and SDG in local context; and to propose policy coherence suggestions for resilience in Sri Lanka.

Methodology comprises a review and content analysis of 17 policy and legal documents in Sri Lanka and a qualitative study. The qualitative approach consists of semistructured interviews that obtained deep and broad expertise knowledge with ten government representatives and stakeholders. Both content analysis and interview data were analyzed by using NVivo.

It was discovered that there are several issues with the coherence of policies in Sri Lanka, including the fragmented approach, lack of integration, inadequate coordination, limited resources and lack of monitoring and evaluation. The policies are inspired by international frameworks, and local implementations are not focused, leading to inadequate implementation of policies. The lack of development cooperation for the use of innovative approaches, such as climate-resilient infrastructure and environmentally friendly solutions for CCA and DRR, further aggravates the situation. Another concern is the lack of land use management and responsibility for the development of physical infrastructure for DRR integration with CCA. It is found that there is a limited community involvement which is vital for the implementation of policies. Local implementations are encouraged to fill the gaps in existing policies/acts. The analytical framework of the study is based on a preliminary examination of policy documents, a review of the literature and discussions with practitioners. The framework reflects the current situation of policy integration which addresses strategic, conceptual, institutional, operational and financial coherence. The research suggests pathways for achieving policy coherence in CCA, DRR and SDG in Sri Lanka, such as enhancing the strategic coherence by improving goals to increase the coherence within CCA, DRR and SDG; improving the credibility of the unified approach for developing DRR and CCA risk assessments; intensifying institutional cooperation and stakeholder management; improving the common monitoring and evaluation; establishing implementation strategies; and increasing the community involvement.

The study on policy coherence in Sri Lanka recommends increasing community and professional involvement, conducting more research, developing a national strategy, increasing capacity building, strengthening international collaboration and fostering multisectoral collaboration. These recommendations can help improve policy coherence between CCA, DRR and SDGs, align policies with national goals and priorities and improve implementation effectiveness. By implementing these recommendations, Sri Lanka can address the challenges of climate change and natural disasters and achieve SDGs.

The study on policy coherence for resilience in Sri Lanka has practical implications, including improved coordination and resource allocation, increased capacity building, improved reputation and sustainability. By integrating CCA, DRR and SDGs, this study can help Sri Lanka become more resilient to climate change and natural disasters, achieve SDGs and become a responsible actor in the international community. These implications can contribute to a more sustainable future and ensure that development goals are achieved in a way that is resilient to climate change and natural disasters.

Increased community participation: the study emphasizes the importance of community involvement in the policy development process. This can help build trust between communities and government agencies, improve transparency and ensure that policies are developed in a way that is responsive to local needs and priorities.

Based on the identified existing loopholes in the policies and pathways to policy coherence, the issues in policymaking could be overcome. It could be used to establish strong linkages between policies based on CCA, DRR and SDGs to achieve long-term resilience.

The purpose of this paper is to present how multi-criteria methods can be used in the process of National Energy Programme development and analysis of the electricity generation planning in relatively small energy systems.

Due to dependence on many input and output parameters which can be very complex and uncertain, energy systems have become extremely difficult to analyse and use of multi-criteria decision-making methods is essential. This paper presents and compares results of the analysis of electricity generation scenarios with three widely used multi-criteria methods, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) and multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT).

AHP, due to its transparency and simplicity in comparison with PROMETHEE and MAUT, is the most suitable method for the analysis of the electricity generation decision alternatives in a small energy system, such as Slovenian. The case study proposed in this research confirms that transition from environment unfriendly fossil-fuelled economy to sustainable and climate friendly development requires a realistic approach, which must be based on excellent knowledge of alternative possibilities of development and especially awareness of new opportunities in exploitation of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

The case study presented in this research represents a repeatable and practical application of three widely used multi-criteria methods in the process of national energy policy development. It provides a methodological approach for finding realistic solutions to the problem of the future development challenges in small energy systems.

Sustained access to efficient electricity plays an essential role in improving living conditions of people and contributes to the economic development of the nation as a whole. Volta River Authority (VRA) mainly manages the generation plants (hydropower sources and thermal plants) alongside independent power producers (IPPs). Power generation in the country has been influenced by myriads of factors. Thus, the purpose of this study is to assess the key risk factors affecting renewable energy of IPPs set-up project in Ghana.

Quantitative approach was adopted for the study. Empirical investigation was carried out using the survey approach. The likelihood of occurrence of the risk and the degree of impact of same motivated the use of risk significance index to analyze the data and make deductions from the results.

From the study, three key risk factors have high level of severity, which include long and complex procedures for authorization of project activities, stability of the policy environment and ease of obtaining rights to land. These risks could be found in the business/strategic risks and policy/regulatory risks categories, respectively. A total of 25 key risk factors had moderate level of severity and 12 key risk factors have low level of severity on renewable energy IPP set up projects.

Top-ranked risk factors require maximum attention. The identified risks should be alleviated with strategies to reduce levels of severity by targeting either the likelihood of occurrence or the level of impact. This will serve as a catalyze to promoting renewable energy IPP set-up projects in Ghana.

Key contribution of the paper to the body of knowledge is demonstrated by the empirical evidence of the risks IPPs are likely to encounter in setting up renewable energy plants in Ghana. The distinctive attribute of this study is further demonstrated by the fact that it focused on the set-up stage, which is a critical stage in the renewable energy provision value chain.

This study aims to investigate the interplay between renewable energy development, unemployment and GDP growth within Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The research underscores the significant role of renewable energy plays in stimulating economic growth and mitigating unemployment, offering crucial policy insights for sustainable growth in South Asia.

Utilizing the autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) framework and Toda Yamamoto causality through the vector autoregressive (VAR) approach, the study analyzes the long-term and short-term impacts of these variables from 1990 to 2019.

This study reveals a significant co-integration among renewable energy consumption, unemployment and GDP growth in selected South Asian countries. The long-term estimation shows renewable energy consumption influences negatively economic progression in Bangladesh, with no notable correlation with unemployment. In contrast, Sri Lanka demonstrates an optimal relationship among all the variables. Short-run assessments reveal a significant positive relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in India, while an inverse relationship is evident in Pakistan. Moreover, the relationship between unemployment and economic progression, the result shows a negative and significant relationship in India and Sri Lanka.

The study emphasizes the need for policy development concerning renewable energy development, unemployment reduction and sustainable economic growth in South Asia. While limitations exist, future research can expand upon this work by incorporating varied data, additional countries or alternative modeling techniques.

This research offers a unique exploration into the multidimensional impacts of renewable energy consumption, unemployment and economic growth in the South Asian context, an area previously unexplored in such depth.

This paper aims to examine whether in old industrial regions, the trajectory of clusters follows that of their corresponding industry or deviates from it and which are the factors that account for cluster evolution. This paper deals with the issue of how established clusters either renew or transform themselves in such regions and how they adapt to changes in their corresponding international industries.

This research paper draws from in-depth case studies on six industrial clusters, takes a longitudinal perspective and uses a multi-level and qualitative analysis. Based on existing literature, the paper suggests and exploratory analytical framework with four alternative scenarios for cluster evolution and three broad factors: cluster knowledge base, social capital at cluster and region-level and public policies.

Clusters do not always follow the life cycle of its dominant industry. The paper clearly shows a diversity of cluster evolution across clusters and even within clusters (at subcluster level). This study suggests that cluster knowledge diversity and heterogeneity allow to broaden the scope of evolutionary trajectories available; the same goes for social capital at cluster and region levels.

The main limitation of this paper lies in its qualitative approach that makes its conclusions more suggestive than conclusive. In any case, further research on other Basque clusters may corroborate or question its findings.

The paper offers an empirical and longitudinal study on cluster evolution, very much needed to the ongoing theoretical discussion on this issue. So far, there are very few empirical studies on cluster evolution with this perspective. At the same time, it presents a theoretical framework to analyse diversity of cluster evolution in old industrial regions that builds on Menzel and Fornah’s (2010) model.