Preface

Excerpt

Emerging economies have played an important role in driving global sustainability due to their high share of the world population, production, as well as consumption. Even so, emerging markets lag behind developed countries, and all countries face common challenges including energy security, environmental protection, and affordable energy for fulfilling the rapidly growing demand for energy (IEA 2013). Despite the age of science, technology, and innovations, the current development trends in developing regions may still pose threats to the environment, human health, and natural resources. According to the latest regional assessments in global environmental outlook (UNEP 2016a, b, c), major concerns include changes in demography and lifestyle, inequality, increased resource use with decreased efficiency and productivity, increased environmentally related health risks, increased vulnerability to natural hazards and extreme events, land degradation, resource scarcity, biodiversity and habitat losses, and widened gaps between policy and implementation. In order to leapfrog these problems in developing countries and avoid the environmentally harmful stages of development, it is necessary to have measures as well as tools for supporting both policy decision makers and producers for strategic planning. …