Development Dynamics
Effect of Battery Electric Vehicles on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 29 European Union Countries
Abstract:
Effect of Battery Electric Vehicles on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 29 European Union Countries explored the effect of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in a panel of twenty-nine countries from the European Union (EU) from 2010 to 2020. The method of moments quantile regression (MM-QR) was used, and the ordinary least squares with fixed effects (OLSfe) was used to verify the robustness of the results. The MM-QR support that in all three quantiles, economic growth causes a positive impact on GHGs. In the 50th and 75th quantiles, energy consumption causes a positive effect on GHGs. BEVs in the 25th, 50th, and 75th quantiles have a negative impact on GHGs. The OLSfe reveals that economic growth has a negative effect on GHGs, which contradicts the results from MM-QR. Energy consumption positively impacts GHGs. BEVs negatively impacts GHGs. Although the EU has supported a more sustainable transport system, accelerating the adoption of BEVs still requires effective political planning to achieve net-zero emissions. Thus, BEVs are an important technology to reduce GHGs to achieve the EU targets of decarbonising the energy sector. This research topic can open policy discussion between industry, government, and researchers, towards ensuring that BEVs provide a climate change mitigation pathway in the EU region.
Citação:
Fuinhas, J.A., Koengkan, M., Leitão, N.C., Nwani, C., Uzuner, G., Dehdar, F., Relva, S., Peyerl, D. (2021). Effect of Battery Electric Vehicles on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 29 European Union Countries. Sustainability, 13 (24), 13611. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132413611
The Effects of Corruption, Renewable Energy, Trade and CO2 Emissions
Abstract:
Corruption reflects a set of illegal activities that jeopardize the smooth functioning of economies, society, and climate and environmental issues. The Effects of Corruption, Renewable Energy, Trade and CO2 Emissions tests the relationships between economic growth, corruption, renewable energies, international trade, and carbon dioxide emissions using panel data for European countries, namely Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and Greece, from 1995–2015. As an econometric strategy, this research uses the panel fully modified least squares (FMOLS), panel dynamic least squares (DOLS), and panel two-stage least squares estimator (TSLS). Considering the variables utilized in the research and the panel unit root test, we observed that the variables are integrated I (1) in the first difference. The variables of corruption, economic growth, renewable energies, international trade, and carbon dioxide emissions are cointegrated in the long run, using the Pedroni and Kao residual cointegration test arguments. The methodology of Dumitrescu–Hurlin to test the causality between carbon dioxide emissions, corruption, economic growth, and renewable energy shows that there is unidirectional causality between carbon dioxide emissions and corruption and economic growth and corruption. The results suggest that the corruption index and economic growth have a statistically significant positive impact on carbon dioxide emissions. However, renewable energies and international trade reduce climate change and improve the environmental quality.
Quotation:
Leitão, N.C. (2021b). The Effects of Corruption, Renewable Energy, Trade and CO2 Emissions (MDPI) 2021, 9 (2), 62. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9020062
Navigating ontological (in)security in EU–Africa relations
Abstract:
When the first six members of the European Economic Community (EEC) took that initial step towards deeper integration that has culminated in what is now the European Union (EU), they also agreed “to associate with … the non-European countries and territories which have special relations with Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom”. Six decades on and several attempts to re-set EU-Africa relations, it is appropriate to take stock of the relationship especially in light of changes in both continents since 2000. This article draws on the idea of ontological security to understand the nature of changes and continuities in the EU’s engagement with Africa. It argues that EU-Africa relations that have relied on a coloniality of power have also been crucial to the EU’s ontological security. However, increasing African agency and new external actors like China in Africa are challenging this security. While challenges to the EU’s ontological security have been viewed as primarily internally constituted, external challenges within a specific context provides the opportunity to rethink what ontological security demands. Importantly, Navigating ontological (in)security in EU–Africa relations highlights why a partnership of equals is an urgent imperative for the future of EU-Africa relations, although it remains elusive.
Quotation:
Toni Haastrup, Niall Duggan & Luis Mah (2021) Navigating ontological (in)security in EU–Africa relations, Global Affairs, 7:4, 541-557, DOI: 10.1080/23340460.2021.1981144
Ready or not? The ultimate push of Timor-Leste to join ASEAN
Abstract:
A persistent concern raised by member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is that Timor-Leste’s readiness for membership is not enough, as Dili, the smallest economy in Southeast Asia, may not be able to sign and implement key commitments, nor to participate in all ASEAN institutions and work programmes. Since its formal request for membership in 2011, Timor-Leste has recently stepped up its efforts for ASEAN membership, with the initial technical support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and, particularly, the enhanced support of the Asian Development Bank. In 2019, there has been a step change in momentum towards accession, with clear ASEAN statements signalling progress in this regard. The first ever ASEAN fact-finding mission to Timor-Leste to assess the country’s potential for membership concluded successfully in September 2019. Two more fact-finding missions are planned for 2020. We assess in this paper Timor-Leste’s readiness for membership in the three pillars of the ASEAN community: economic, socio-cultural, and political security. In Ready or not? The ultimate push of Timor-Leste to join ASEAN, we assess how recent developments address the concerns historically raised by some ASEAN member states about Timor-Leste’s membership. We conclude that the Cambodian and, particularly, the Indonesian presidencies of the ASEAN in 2022 and 2023 could be an important landmark for Timor-Leste’s accession to the Association.
Quotation:
Martínez-Galán, E. (2021). ‘Ready or not? The ultimate push of Timor-Leste to join ASEAN’. Chapter 4B, pp. 405-435 in Leandro, F.J.B.S., dos Santos, P.P. and Li, Y. (eds) China and Portuguese-speaking Small Island States: From sporadic bilateral exchanges to a comprehensive multilateral platform. City University of Macau. Macao. China. ISBN 978-99981-956-3-9
Sources and consequences of teachers’ stress during the Covid-19 pandemic
Abstract:
The covid-19 pandemic has had serious and unprecedented consequences on multiple facets of education. Teachers, students, schools and families have been affected, and the impacts of the pandemic will spill over into the future as well. The aim of Fontes e consequências do stress dos professores durante a pandemia da Covid-19 is to identify and explain the sources and consequences of teachers’ work-related stress and burnout during the pandemic, as well as their job and life satisfaction. Three sources of stress are considered: changes in organisation, content and amount of work; student behaviour and performance; and technostress. The empirical research is based on an original online survey applied to public school teachers (ISCED 2 and 3) in Portugal. Information is collected for four periods: before the pandemic; in the first school closure period in 2020 (16 March-16 September); in the second school closure period in 2021 (15 January-5 April); in the survey period (June-July 2021). The data collected include characteristics and changes about: teachers and their families; job satisfaction, stress and burnout; life satisfaction; working time and teaching duties; work-life balance; teaching goals, methods and outcomes; job stress; conditions for doing remote teaching; expectations for the 2021-22 school year. The results show that teachers’ work stress increased during the pandemic, with student behaviour and performance being a relevant explanatory factor. Difficulties in reconciling work and personal time are also predictors of teachers’ work stress. There are also signs of increasing burnout.
Quotation:
Pato, S., & Fontainha, E. (2021). Fontes e consequências do stress dos professores durante a pandemia da Covid-19. Revista Portuguesa De Investigação Educacional, (22), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.34632/investigacaoeducacional.2021.10467
Innovation in development cooperation: emerging trajectories and implications for inclusive sustainable development in the 21st century
Abstract:
In the past twenty years, innovation has slowly, but steadily, become an important presence in development cooperation discourse and practice. The ambitious UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda has accelerated this trend, providing a strong framework for the main argument in favour of an innovation agenda for international development: without new ideas and innovative solutions, solving the current global development challenges will not be possible. Although this innovation-push is in line with a wider predominant view of innovation as an inherently positive force of progress, that alone does not explain when, how, and why innovation becomes a key topic in the field. This article seeks to fill this gap in the literature, providing an initial overview of innovation in development cooperation in the post-2000s. It argues, firstly, that innovation has always been part of international development policy and practice. Secondly, it links the recent strengthening of the innovation discourse to three trends in the systemic transformation of the field: the triumph of metrics-based agendas, the ICTs and digitalization revolutions, and the role of private sector actors. It concludes by critically assessing the implications of this narrative in changing the politics of innovation towards more inclusive sustainable development policies and practices.
Quotation:
Ana Luísa Silva (2021) Innovation in development cooperation: emerging trajectories and implications for inclusive sustainable development in the 21st century, Innovation and Development, 11:1, 151-171, DOI: 10.1080/2157930X.2020.1807100
COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau
Abstract:
COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau aims to study the situation of Human Rights during the Covid-19 pandemic in Guinea-Bissau, between January 2020 and January 2022. The research organized an inquiry to families, another to companies and another to market/street sellers about the effects of the pandemic and the measures enacted by the Government and Presidency to contain it. A public hearing was also organized, with various entities from the High Commissioner to trade unions, journalists, students, women associations, and the Public Order Police, for information on how each institution saw its situation and action in this period. The conclusions of the analysis of all these qualitative and quantitative data allow us to affirm a) the social actors agreed with the main measures the authorities took to contain the disease; b) the must referred complaint was the lack of any support from the authorities to households, companies and sellers: c) the fragility of Guinea-Bissau has such a social weight that a disease that killed fewer people than malaria, diarrhea, or tuberculosis, did not overcome the problems of human rights stemming from poverty, institutional fragility, and low incomes in general.
Quotation:
Sangreman, C., Faria, R. T., & Turé, B. (2022). COVID-19 and Human Rights in a Fragile State: Guinea-Bissau. In P. Andrade, & M. Martins (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Urban Tourism, Viral Society, and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 341-360). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-3369-0.ch018
Innovation Perspectives in International Development Cooperation: The case of organised civil society
Abstract:
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are still in the side-lines of the emerging literature on innovation in international development cooperation, although the topic has been gaining prominence since the 2000s, accompanying the wider transformation of the development cooperation field. Innovation perspectives in international development cooperation: the case of organised civil society presents the results of a mixed methods research that involved a broad geographic sample of 20 NGO national co-ordinating bodies through an online survey and semi-structured interviews. The goal was to map and analyse innovation perspectives, motivations, and practices in these organisations, understand their relationship with mainstream views of innovation in the field and uncover their potential to promote inclusive innovation. Results suggest that these actors have potential to promote inclusive innovation practices in the field, since they approach innovation with social change as an end goal, as opposed to having an overly solutionist and problem-solving view of social innovation. The paper also highlights the key role of information and communications technologies, as well as digital tools, as both a reason to innovate and enablers of innovation in these organisations. Finally, the conclusion leaves questions open for further research on innovation in development NGOs.
Quotation:
Silva, A. L. (2022). Innovation perspectives in international development cooperation: the case of organised civil society. Cambio. Rivista Sulle Trasformazioni Sociali. https://doi.org/10.36253/cambio-12283
NGOs and Innovation
Abstract:
Over the past twenty years, and against the backdrop of a profound transformation in the international development cooperation sector, innovation has resurged as a ‘hot’ topic in the field. In the same period, development non-governmental organisations (NGOs) face growing challenges of legitimacy, accountability, and dependence on government funding. Their role as precursors of alternative development models, natural social innovators, and catalysts of international solidarity movements is increasingly being questioned. These challenges have been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing research on development NGO innovation focuses, like most classic innovation research in other fields, on studying specific, usually successful, innovations; leaving many questions unanswered on topics like innovation failure, processes, culture, funding, motivations, as well as the role of NGOs in innovation for development. This chapter, NGOs and Innovation, by Ana Luísa Silva, gives an overview of the state of the art on development NGOs and innovation, identifying areas that are open for further research. This article is inserted in A Research Agenda for Civil Society, a book by Kees Biekart and Alan Fowler.
Quotation:
Silva, A. L. (2022). NGOs and Innovation. In K. Biekart & A. Fowler (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Civil Society (pp. 127-142). Elgar Research Agendas. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 978 1 80037 814 8
The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations
Abstract:
This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in the relationship between the African continent and the EU, provided by leading experts in the field. Structured into five parts, the book provides an incisive look at the past, present and potential futures of EU-Africa relations. The cutting-edge chapters cover themes like multilateralism, development assistance, institutions, gender equality and science and technology, among others. Thoroughly researched, this book provides original reflections from a diversity of conceptual and theoretical perspectives, from experts in Africa, Europe and beyond. The handbook thus offers rich and comprehensive analyses of contemporary global politics as manifested in Africa and Europe. This handbook will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested and working in a range of fields within the (sub)disciplines of African and EU studies, European politics and international studies. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations, by Luís Mah (researcher for the Centre for African and Development Studies), Nial Duggan and Toni Haastrup is part of the mini-series Europe in the World Handbooks examining EU-regional relations and established by Professor Wei Shen.
Quotation:
Mah, Luís, Duggan, Nial & Haastrup, Toni (2021). The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations. Routledge. ISBN 9781315170916.
