Abstract
Several countries have recently realized that the present development paradigm is not sustainable from an environmental and energy point of view. The growing awareness of the population regarding environmental issues is pushing governments worldwide more and more to promote policies aiming at limiting harmful effects of human development. In particular, the rapid increase of the global temperature, especially in the polar regions, and the management of human wastes, mainly plastic in seas, are some of the main points to be addressed by these novel policies. Several actions must be implemented in order to limit such issues. Unfortunately, the recent COP 24 Conference was not successful, but hopefully an agreement will be established in 2020 at the COP 26 Conference. The effort performed by policymakers must be mandatorily supported by the scientific community. In this framework, this paper aims at showing that countries worldwide are trying to negotiate an agreement to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, in this paper all the researchers reported can provide quantitative measures of the actions to be implemented in order to address a sustainable and efficient use of energy. Here, innovations in terms of novel efficient and environmentally friendly technologies mainly based on renewable energy sources have been also investigated. The study also highlights different sectors that have been involved for this aim, such as energy conversion systems, urban areas, mobility, sustainability, water management, social aspects, etc. In this framework, specific conferences are periodically organized in order to provide a forum for discussion regarding these topics. In this area the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) conference is the most ordinary conference. The 13th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was held in Palermo, Italy in 2018. The current Special Issue of Energies, precisely dedicated to the 13th SDEWES Conference, is based on three main topics: energy policy and energy efficiency in urban areas, energy efficiency in industry and biomass and other miscellaneous energy systems.
Highlights
On 18 June 2018 negotiators from EU Parliament, Commission and Council reached a new agreement, focused on the development of a climate-friendly, affordable and secure energy system for Energies 2019, 12, 3150; doi:10.3390/en12163150 www.mdpi.com/journal/energiesEnergies 2019, 12, 3150 the EU countries
This paper aims at showing that countries worldwide are trying to negotiate an agreement to increase energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG)
With respect the previous proposals, which negotiated on the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive and on the revised Renewable Energy Directive, the new agreement is based on considerably strong goals from the energy efficiency and emissions point of view: an increase of
Summary
On 18 June 2018 negotiators from EU Parliament, Commission and Council reached a new agreement, focused on the development of a climate-friendly, affordable and secure energy system for Energies 2019, 12, 3150; doi:10.3390/en12163150 www.mdpi.com/journal/energies. (see STATEMENT/18/4155), the defined targets will allow EU countries to obtain the goals set by the Paris Agreement and a clean energy transition These targets could lead to several advantages for EU citizens, such as an enhanced security of the energy production systems, a more efficient energy market, a more healthy and comfortable environment, a considerable reduction of energy bills [1]. To reach such ambitious aims, industry and academia must focus on the analysis and design of novel energy conversion systems and on the coupling of conventional and renewable energy systems [2]. The papers within the present SI can be classified into three main research fields: energy policy and energy efficiency in urban areas (seven papers), energy efficiency in industry (10 papers) and biomass and other miscellaneous energy systems (seven papers)
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