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Implementation of circular economy business models by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): Barriers and enablers
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly aware of the benefits of closing loops and improving resource efficiency, such as saving material costs, creating competitive advantages, and accessing new markets. At the same time, however, various barriers pose challenges to small businesses in their transition to a circular economy, namely a lack of financial resources […]
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Assessment of RES cooperation framework between the EU and North Africa: A multicriteria approach based on UTASTAR
Purpose The Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EC of the European Union provides another element to cross-border cooperation by allowing Member States to fulfill their 2020 renewable energy sources (RES) targets by implementing joint projects in third countries through the cooperation mechanisms. The purpose of this paper is to assess the country risk, to support bilateral cooperation […]
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Expanding RES cooperation with West Balkans: from importing electricity to exporting RES
This paper aims to investigate the current energy status in the West Balkan countries and the related perspectives for renewable energy sources (RES) cooperation mechanisms, within the framework of RES Directive 2009/28/European Commission (EC), through the elaboration of a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Particular emphasis is laid on the case of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia […]
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Managing climate policy information facilitating knowledge transfer to policy makers
In the challenging context of intense negotiations and radical developments in the field of climate policy, informing stakeholders about opportunities and pathways and about scientific insights and warnings is important to help create positive dynamics. Policy makers need digestible information to design good policies, and understand their options and the possible impacts of these options. […]
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How can the context affect policy decision-making: The case of climate change mitigation policies in the Greek building sector
The influence of context dynamics in the course of the climate change mitigation policy instruments’ (PIs) deployment cycle, usually causes a need for policy adaptation mechanisms to ensure that policies can meet the sector needs efficiently and effectively. In this paper, we argue that important contextual factors are the ones that are perceived to have […]
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An ex-post assessment of the regulation on the energy performance of buildings in Greece and the Netherlands—A cross-country comparison
Hastening the energy saving rate in the built environment is a common goal of both the Dutch and the Greek government within the context of EU2020 strategy. In view of the recast Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) (2010/31/EC), considered to be an important route towards exploiting the energy saving potential of the […]
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Driving forces for renewable development in GCC countries
Hydrocarbon-concentrated economies would have to determine prospects and opportunities for the development of a more sustainable future. The vast unexploited renewable energy sources (RES) potential of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states in conjunction with increased cash liquidity within new climate regimes is paving the way toward technologies based on renewables. In this respect, the objective […]
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Policy dialogue on the assessment and convergence of renewable energy policy in EU member states
With Directive 2009/28/EC, the European Parliament and Council have laid the grounds for the policy framework for renewable energy sources (RES) in Europe until 2020. The European Union (EU) aims at a share of at least 20% RES in the European gross final energy demand by 2020 and at least 27% until 2030. European Member […]
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A sectoral micro-economic approach to scenario selection and development: The case of the Greek power sector
Generating policy-relevant scenarios is instrumental for understanding and developing policy measures. These are especially relevant to the power sector. Practitioners have been working on policy-relevant scenarios for the ex-ante assessment of policy measures in a meaningful way for end-users related to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. This paper presents a method for generating such […]
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What do capacity deployment rates tell us about the efficiency of electricity generation from renewable energy sources support measures in Greece?
The efficiency of fiscal support for electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES-E) is a multifaceted notion that cannot be adequately described by a single metric. Efficiency is related to the ability of a policy measure to support deployment without creating negative feedback effects. These negative effects may stem from saturation of the grid’s ability […]
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Evaluating public policy instruments in the Greek building sector
This paper applies a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to evaluate public policy mechanisms that foster energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in the Greek building sector, based on stakeholders’ understanding and perceptions of the functionality of policy instruments. The objective is to shed light on the implementation of currently employed policy mechanisms that aim to achieve […]
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Mapping and measuring European local governments’ priorities for a sustainable and low-carbon energy future
The main objective of this article is to assess the priorities of local governments (LGs) in Europe regarding climate change mitigation technologies evaluation in the electricity sector and to provide important insights for energy policy design. The study applies a hybrid weighting methodology to elicit LGs’ preferences in a constructive and iterative way regarding the […]