COVID-19 and environmental concerns: A rapid review

Research landscape of energy transition and green finance: A bibliometric analysis

This study utilizes bibliometric analysis to examine historical and present research patterns in the area of energy transition and green finance and to forecast potential future domains. Using the bibliometric method, 328 scholarly articles from the Web of Science database were evaluated. This paper identifies influential publications, maps the research landscape, and forecasts emerging tendencies through co-citation and co-word analyses. Co-citation analysis found three main clusters, while co-word analysis revealed four main clusters. Despite the growing significance of research on energy transition and green finance research, further in-depth investigation is necessary to offer a thorough depiction of the research domain. This research represents a pioneering endeavour in the utilization of bibliometric analysis to investigate the interrelationship between two items. It offers valuable insights into the rapidly expanding field of energy transition and green finance, effectively highlighting its contours and indicating potential future developments.

From Over-Tourism to Under-Tourism via COVID-19: Lessons for Sustainable Tourism Management

With various strains of the novel coronavirus emerging during the last few years, there is a need to reinvent and manage the tourism industry by engaging various stakeholders. Industry and policymakers need to observe the shift and curate tourism-related products and offerings accordingly. In light of the increasing demand for innovations and future directions in the post-COVID-19 period, this article conducts a bibliometric analysis for sustainable tourism studies spanning the years 1990-2021. This paper presents an integrative review of tourism, environment and sustainable tourism to reveal geographical, contextual, and methodological directions for future research. The comprehensive analysis includes contributions on topics and methods, country collaborations, and thematic analysis. The findings are consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals of sustainable production and consumption (SDG-12), with a particular emphasis on sustainable tourism to promote local culture and create jobs (SDG-12.b) and on sustainable growth (SDG-13). The study's findings can be used to inform future policies and directions; for example, the findings indicate that the hospitality industry is facing challenges that necessitate new regulations to address its socioeconomic and environmental impacts.

Investigating the epidemiological and economic effects of a third-party certification policy for restaurants with COVID-19 prevention measures

This study investigates the effects of a third-party certification policy for restaurants (including bars) that comply with indoor infection-prevention measures on COVID-19 cases and economic activities. We focus on the case of Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan, which introduced a third-party certification policy that accredits facilities, predominantly restaurants, that comply with the designated guidelines. We employ a difference-in-differences design for each of our epidemiological and economic analyses. The estimation results show that, from July 2020 to April 2021, the certification policy reduced the total number of new infection cases by approximately 45.3% (848 cases), while increasing total sales and the number of customers per restaurant by approximately 12.8% (3.21 million Japanese yen or $30,000) and 30.3% (2909 customers), respectively, compared to the non-intervention scenarios. The results suggest that a third-party certification policy can be an effective policy to mitigate the trade-off between economic activities and infection prevention during a pandemic, especially when effective vaccines are not widely available.

Can social enterprises aid sustainable development? Evidence from multi-stage investigations

BACKGROUND

Social enterprises must balance between profitability and sustainability. The impetus on sustainability grew further after the adaption of the SDG agenda by the United Nations (UN).

OBJECTIVE

This paper examines the role of social enterprises in helping attain sustainable development goals in India.

RESEARCH DESIGN

This multi-stage paper comprises three studies directed at scale development, scale refinement, pre-testing, and construct validity. The scale development stage is conducted through a combination of extensive literature review and focused group discussions. Expert discussions and item-reduction techniques have been used in the second stage aimed at scale refinement and pre-testing. The third stage of testing construct validity is carried out through Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM).

RESULTS

The findings suggest that all the competencies of social enterprises identified in the study i.e. social mission, collaborative networks, innovation, financial viability and level of scalability significantly impact sustainable development.

CONCLUSION

Because the goals of social enterprises and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are mutually reinforcing and complementary, the study suggests that social enterprises have a lot of potential for achieving the SDGs. The study also suggests future research directions and policy implications that can be replicated in other countries.

Environment and COVID-19 incidence: A critical review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented worldwide health crisis. Many previous research studies have found and investigated its links with one or some natural or human environmental factors. However, a review on the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and both the natural and human environment is still lacking. This review summarizes the inter-correlation between COVID-19 incidence and environmental factors. Based on keyword searching, we reviewed 100 relevant peer-reviewed articles and other research literature published since January 2020. This review is focused on three main findings. One, we found that individual environmental factors have impacts on COVID-19 incidence, but with spatial heterogeneity and uncertainty. Two, environmental factors exert interactive effects on COVID-19 incidence. In particular, the interactions of natural factors can affect COVID-19 transmission in micro- and macro- ways by impacting SARS-CoV-2 survival, as well as human mobility and behaviors. Three, the impact of COVID-19 incidence on the environment lies in the fact that COVID-19-induced lockdowns caused air quality improvement, wildlife shifts and socio-economic depression. The additional value of this review is that we recommend future research perspectives and adaptation strategies regarding the interactions of the environment and COVID-19. Future research should be extended to cover both the effects of the environment on the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19-induced impacts on the environment. Future adaptation strategies should focus on sustainable environmental and public policy responses.

Corporate ESG performance as good insurance in times of crisis: lessons from US stock market during COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The COVID-19 outbreak and its confinement resulted in an unexpected stock market crash, hence the interest in environmental, social and governance (hereafter, ESG) policies. This paper aims to examine the association between ESG performance and stock market volatility before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examined 500 US companies listed in the S&P 500. The window period volatility refers to March 18, 2020, when the US President signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. Here, the Thomson Reuters database was used to collect ESG data and daily market information.

Findings

The findings suggest that companies with high ESG performance have lower stock price volatility than companies with poor ESG performance. In other words, strong ESG performance reduces stock price volatility resulting from the COVID-19 shock and promotes resilience and stock price stability.

Practical implications

This research contributes to current debates on emerging pandemics and unexpected risks and highlights the need to invest more in improving corporate sustainability.

Originality/value

The results have substantial implications for managers and investors, as it highlights the relevance of customer and investor loyalty to the durability of ESG stocks.

COVID-19 and Water Variables: Review and Scientometric Analysis

COVID-19 has changed the world since 2020, and the field of water specifically, boosting scientific productivity (in terms of published articles). This paper focuses on the influence of COVID-19 on scientific productivity with respect to four water variables: (i) wastewater, (ii) renewable water resources, (iii) freshwater withdrawal, and (iv) access to improved and safe drinking water. The field's literature was firstly reviewed, and then the maps were built, emphasizing the strong connections between COVID-19 and water-related variables. A total of 94 countries with publications that assess COVID-19 vs. water were considered and evaluated for how they clustered. The final step of the research shows that, on average, scientific productivity on the water topic was mostly conducted in countries with lower COVID-19 infection rates but higher development levels as represented by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and the human development index (HDI). According to the statistical analysis, the water-related variables are highly significant, with positive coefficients. This validates that countries with higher water-related values conducted more research on the relationship with COVID-19. Wastewater and freshwater withdrawal had the highest impact on the scientific productivity with respect to COVID-19. Access to safe drinking water becomes insignificant in the presence of the development parameters.

COVID-19 and sustainable development goals: A bibliometric analysis and SWOT analysis in Malaysian context

The COVID-19 crisis has been a core threat to the lives of billions of individuals over the world. The COVID-19 crisis has influenced governments' aims to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); leading to exceptional conditions of fragility, poverty, job loss, and hunger all over the world. This study aims to investigate the current studies that concentrate on the COVID-19 crisis and its implications on SDGs using a bibliometric analysis approach. The study also deployed the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) approach to perform a systematic analysis of the SDGs, with an emphasis on the COVID-19 crisis impact on Malaysia. The results of the study indicated the unprecedented obstacles faced by countries to meet the UN's SDGs in terms of implementation, coordination, trade-off decisions, and regional issues. The study also stressed the impact of COVID-19 on the implementation of the SDGs focusing on the income, education, and health aspects. The outcomes highlighted the emerging opportunities of the crisis that include an improvement in the health sector, the adoption of online modes in education, the swift digital transformation, and the global focus on environmental issues. Our study demonstrated that, in the post-crisis time, the ratio of citizens in poverty could grow up more than the current national stated values. We stressed the need to design an international agreement to reconsider the implementation of SDGs, among which, are strategic schemes to identify vital and appropriate policies.

Climatic and Environmental Factors Influencing COVID-19 Transmission-An African Perspective

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 was decreed by the World Health Organization as a public health emergency of worldwide concern, the epidemic has drawn attention from all around the world. The disease has since spread globally in developed and developing countries. The African continent has not been spared from the pandemic; however, the low number of cases in Africa compared to developed countries has brought about more questions than answers. Africa is known to have a poor healthcare system that cannot sustain the emerging infectious disease pandemic. This study explored climatic and environmental elements influencing COVID-19 transmission in Africa. This study involved manuscripts and data that evaluated and investigated the climatic and environmental elements of COVID-19 in African countries. Only articles written in English were considered in the systematic review. Seventeen articles and one database were selected for manuscript write-ups after the review process. The findings indicated that there is evidence that suggests the influence of climatic and environmental elements on the spread of COVID-19 in the continent of Africa; however, the evidence needs more investigation in all six regions of Africa and at the country level to understand the role of weather patterns and environmental aspects in the transmission of COVID-19.

Property development during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges and outlook in Malaysia

Through administrative research and media records, this paper aims to examine and highlight the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Malaysian workers, property development, construction sites, and the national economy. The development of real estate and the construction industry can significantly impact socio-economic growth and infrastructure development. Adequate building and infrastructure construction can ensure national economic stability, job creation, community cohesion, and higher living standards. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019, many countries, including Malaysia, have reported an increased number of virus cases. According to the Ministry of Health, 9316 cases and 314 COVID-19 clusters were discovered in Malaysia, with a 38.55-48.06% prevalence for factories, a 12.55-15.29% prevalence for community spreading, an 8.6-11.56% prevalence for construction sites, a 5.53-7.96% prevalence for educational sites, and a 7.01% prevalence for shopping areas. Several governments-imposed lockdowns, movement, and proximity restrictions during the pandemic due to the high infection rates at property development sites. However, due to inactivity in various sectors such as the construction industry, these measures have significantly impacted the national economy. As a result, the pandemic has had an impact on workers, production costs, and project completion timelines, resulting in operational issues and policy concerns. Overall, the records reviewed revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted real estate development, the housing market, and the construction industry. As a result, sustained and targeted policies are required to support Malaysia's construction industry's socio-economic growth and infrastructure development.

Green stocks, crypto asset, crude oil and COVID19 pandemic: Application of rolling window multiple correlation

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted almost all spares of global social, psychological, and economic life. The emergence of various variants and corresponding variations in daily infection asymmetrically influenced economic indicators. This study extends the existing literature by exploring the hedging potential of crude oil, carbon efficiency index of green firms, and bitcoin during this pandemic. This objective is realized by employing the recently advanced rolling window multiple correlation of Polanco-Martínez (2020). This approach is based on the new p-value corrected method, which has advantages over other correlation methods. The sample observations are based on daily data from 1/22/2020 to 12/20/2021. In the bivariate case, we find a significant positive correlation between COVID-19 and CEI, while a negative impact is observed between COVID-19 and WTI. Similarly, we observe a significant and nonlinear association between COVID-19 and BTC. However, our findings show positive and significant correlations among variables in the multivariate case. The overall findings show that CEI and BTC can be safe havens for investors during this worse pandemic. The study's robust findings can be used to derive important policy implications worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A review about COVID-19 in the MENA region: environmental concerns and machine learning applications

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has delayed global economic growth, which has affected the economic life globally. On the one hand, numerous elements in the environment impact the transmission of this new coronavirus. Every country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) area has a different population density, air quality and contaminants, and water- and land-related conditions, all of which influence coronavirus transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) has advocated fast evaluations to guide policymakers with timely evidence to respond to the situation. This review makes four unique contributions. One, many data about the transmission of the new coronavirus in various sorts of settings to provide clear answers to the current dispute over the virus's transmission were reviewed. Two, highlight the most significant application of machine learning to forecast and diagnose severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Three, our insights provide timely and accurate information along with compelling suggestions and methodical directions for investigators. Four, the present study provides decision-makers and community leaders with information on the effectiveness of environmental controls for COVID-19 dissemination.

Surveillance of omicron variants through wastewater epidemiology: Latest developments in environmental monitoring of pandemic

WBE has been a monitoring system that can give purposeful and inclusive real-time assessments of civic society as well as environmental health. This concept review introduces WBE as a surveillance scheme and initial warning outbreaks of contagious diseases caused by harmful SARS-CoV-2 with pandemic potential. Examining biomarkers of contagious diseases as evidence in polluted water taken from wastewater treatment plants suggests that these systems can be examined to get epidemiological data for checking the transmission of infectious B.1.1.529 to different areas. Thereafter, various benefits of surveillance are provided to analyse health information and pinpoint different problems that may be occurring in the workstation. Surveillance is followed by intervention steps that improved the work environment and prevent further progression of the disease. This information will help to improve early detection strategies, designing a prevention strategy to reduce their spread, infection control and therapies, thus, strengthening our global preparedness to fight future epidemics. In the end, a comprehensive discussion on the remaining challenges and opportunities for epidemiology has been given for future research perspectives.

An overview and thematic analysis of research on cities and the COVID-19 pandemic: Toward just, resilient, and sustainable urban planning and design

Since early 2020, researchers have made efforts to study various issues related to cities and the pandemic. Despite the wealth of research on this topic, there are only a few review articles that explore multiple issues related to it. This is partly because of the rapid pace of publications that makes systematic literature review challenging. To address this issue, in the present study, we rely on bibliometric analysis techniques to gain an overview of the knowledge structure and map key themes and trends of research on cities and the pandemic. Results of the analysis of 2,799 articles show that research mainly focuses on six broad themes: air quality, meteorological factors, built environment factors, transportation, socio-economic disparities, and smart cities, with the first three being dominant. Based on the findings, we discuss major lessons that can be learned from the pandemic and highlight key areas that need further research.

The effects of COVID-19 transmission on environmental sustainability and human health: Paving the way to ensure its sustainable management

The transmission dynamics and health risks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are inextricably linked to ineract with environment, climate, air pollution, and meteorological conditions. The spread of COVID-19 infection can thus perturb the 'planetary health' and livelihood by exerting impacts on the temporal and spatial variabilities of environmental pollution. Prioritization of COVID-19 by the health-care sector has been posing a serious threat to economic progress while undermining the efforts to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for environmental sustainability. Here, we review the multifaceted effects of COVID-19 with respect to environmental quality, climatic variables, SDGs, energy resilience, and sustainability programs. It is well perceived that COVID-19 may have long-lasting and profound effects on socio-economic systems, food security, livelihoods, and the 'nexus' indicators. To seek for the solution of these problems, consensus can be drawn to establish and ensure a sound health-care system, a sustainable environment, and a circular bioeconomy. A holistic analysis of COVID-19's effects on multiple sectors should help develop nature-based solutions, cleaner technologies, and green economic recovery plans to help maintain environmental sustainability, ecosystem resilience, and planetary health.

Attainment of water and sanitation goals: a review and agenda for research

One-fourth of the global population is without basic drinking water and half of the global population lacks sanitation facilities. The attainment of water and sanitation targets is difficult due to administrative, operational, political, transborder, technical, and policy challenges. Conducted after 5 years from the adoption of sustainable development goals by the United Nations reviews the initiatives for improving access, quality, and affordability of water and sanitation. The bibliometric and thematic analyses are conducted to consolidate the outcomes of scientific papers on sustainable development goal 6 (SDG 6). Africa is struggling in relation with water and sanitation goals, having 17 countries with less than 40% basic drinking water facilities and 16 countries with less than 40% basic sanitation facilities. Globally, the attainment of water and sanitation goals will be depended on economic development, the development of revolutionary measures for wastewater treatment, and creating awareness related to water usage, water recycling, water harvesting, hygiene, and sanitation. Behavioral changes are also required for a new water culture and the attainment of water and sanitation goals by 2030.

Financial Disruption and Psychological Underpinning During COVID-19: A Review and Research Agenda

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disastrous impacts on sustainability initiatives and worsened poverty, hunger, and health issues. The financial distress by this pandemic has resulted in psychological challenges among the people. The list of vulnerable sections of the psychological impacts of the financial problems during COVID-19 is led by students, pregnant women, children, old age people, parents, and many more. The recommendations of this article are to focus on coping strategies for managing psychological issues related to financial problems during the pandemic, facilitating social support, promoting public health facilities and health insurance, financial support for pregnant women, and child care. Special care for old-age people and support for troubling parents and students. This article also recommends interventions and policies for reviving the disrupted businesses and strengthening entrepreneurs. Measures for income generation, removal of hunger, and reducing addictions and gambling should also be on the priority list. Limited collaboration among countries was observed, but robust collaboration among the research institutions and authors.

Analyzing the Nexus Between Geopolitical Risk, Policy Uncertainty, and Tourist Arrivals: Evidence From the United States

This study attempts to explore the causal linkage of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, and tourism arrivals in the United States taking data from January to November 2020. In order to analyze the above relationship, this study uses a novel time-varying granger causality test developed by Shi et al. (2018), which incorporates its three causality algorithms such as forward recursive causality, rolling causality, and recursive evolving causality. The findings from forward recursive causality could not confirm any significant causal relationship between COVID-19 and tourism, geopolitical risk (GPR) and tourism, economic policy uncertainty and tourism, and geopolitical risk and COVID-19 but found causality between economic policy uncertainty and COVID-19. The rolling window causality reported bidirectional causality between COVID-19 and tourism and unidirectional causality running from tourism to geopolitical risk. However, the recursive evolving causality identified a significant bidirectional causal relationship between all the variables. Based on the findings, policy implications for the tourism sector are provided.

The Effects of Health Crisis on Economic Growth, Health and Movement of Population

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which was triggered in 2019 with oscillating evolution in 2020 and 2021, was a factor that has had dramatic effects on the economic growth of countries worldwide. In the context of the pandemic crisis, population health has deteriorated; education and economic activity in all the countries around the world have been affected. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the special situations that humanity is experiencing as a result of the unprecedented effects that the COVID-19 crisis is having on the socioeconomic evolution. Specific statistical econometric methods (such as analysis of linear correlations, multiple linear regression, analysis based on dynamics indicators, and spectral analysis, comparability based on indices) were applied to highlight the evolution and future prospects of the COVID-19 virus worldwide. The COVID-19 crisis has generated another major issue for mankind, along with global warming and the energy transition, namely, population health. For this reason, in this study, we focused on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on population health in a broader context; the sustained growth of populations in developing countries and aging populations in developed economies.

Waste to Energy in Developing Countries—A Rapid Review: Opportunities, Challenges, and Policies in Selected Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia towards Sustainability

Daily per capita waste generation will increase by 40% and 19%, for developing and developed countries by 2050, respectively. The World Bank estimates that total waste generation is going to triple in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and double in South Asia (SA) by 2050. This article conducts a rapid review and aims to demonstrate the current waste management scenario and the potential of waste to energy generation in the developing world, focusing on SSA and SA. Although many review articles related to waste to energy (WtE) in developing countries are available in the literature, a rapid review particularly focusing on countries in SSA and SA is rarely seen. An analysis of different WtE generation technologies, and current waste management practices in developing countries in SSA and SA are also presented. The analysis shows that about three-fourths of waste is openly dumped in developing countries of SSA and SA. In terms of waste composition, on average, about 48.70% and 51.16% of waste generated in developing economies of SSA and SA are organic. Opportunities to convert this waste into energy for developing countries are highlighted, with a case study of Bangladesh, a country in SA. Major challenges regarding the waste to energy (WtE) projects in the developing world are found to be the composition of waste, absence of waste separation scheme at source, ineffective waste collection method, lack of suitable WtE generation technology in place, lack of financial support and policies related to a WtE project, and absence of coordination between different governmental institutions.

Do environmental pollutants carrier to COVID-19 pandemic? A cross-sectional analysis

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a highly transmitted disease that spreads all over the globe in a short period. Environmental pollutants are considered one of the carriers to spread the COVID-19 pandemic through health damages. Carbon emissions, PM2.5 emissions, nitrous oxide emissions, GHG, and other GHG emissions are mainly judged separately in the earlier studies in different economic settings. The study hypothesizes that environmental pollutants adversely affect healthcare outcomes, likely to infected people by contagious diseases, including coronavirus cases. The subject matter is vital to analyze the preventive healthcare theory by using different environmental pollutants on the COVID-19 factors: total infected cases, total death cases, and case fatality ratio, in a large cross-section of 119 countries. The study employed the generalized least square (GLS) method for robust inferences. The results show that GHG and CO2 emissions are critical factors likely to increase total coronavirus cases and death rates. On the other hand, nitrous oxide, carbon, and transport emissions increase the case fatality ratio through healthcare damages. The study concludes that stringent environmental policies and improving healthcare infrastructure can control coronavirus cases across countries.

Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution: An ecological study of its effect on COVID-19 cases and fatality in Germany

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 is a lung disease, and there is medical evidence that air pollution is one of the external causes of lung diseases. Fine particulate matter is one of the air pollutants that damages pulmonary tissue. The combination of the coronavirus and fine particulate matter air pollution may exacerbate the coronavirus' effect on human health.

RESEARCH QUESTION

This paper considers whether the long-term concentration of fine particulate matter of different sizes changes the number of detected coronavirus infections and the number of COVID-19 fatalities in Germany.

STUDY DESIGN

Data from 400 German counties for fine particulate air pollution from 2002 to 2020 are used to measure the long-term impact of air pollution. Kriging interpolation is applied to complement data gaps. With an ecological study, the correlation between average particulate matter air pollution and COVID-19 cases, as well as fatalities, are estimated with OLS regressions. Thereby, socioeconomic and demographic covariates are included.

MAIN FINDINGS

An increase in the average long-term air pollution of 1 μg/m³ particulate matter PM_2.5 is correlated with 199.46 (SD = 29.66) more COVID-19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Germany. For PM₁₀ the respective increase is 52.38 (SD = 12.99) more cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The number of COVID-19 deaths were also positively correlated with PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ (6.18, SD = 1.44, respectively 2.11, SD = 0.71, additional COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants).

CONCLUSION

Long-term fine particulate air pollution is suspected as causing higher numbers of COVID-19 cases. Higher long-term air pollution may even increase COVID-19 death rates. We find that the results of the correlation analysis without controls are retained in a regression analysis with controls for relevant confounding factors. Nevertheless, additional epidemiological investigations are required to test the causality of particulate matter air pollution for COVID-19 cases and the severity.

Accessibility, affordability, and efficiency of clean energy: a review and research agenda

Clean, affordable, and efficient energy sources are inevitable for a sustainable world. Energy crisis, especially the poor access and affordability, demand-supply mismatches, energy inequality, and high dependence on non-renewable energy sources, are the challenges before the attainment of clean energy goals for sustainable development. The 5-year review from the adoption of sustainable development goals (SDGs) by using bibliometric and thematic analysis was conducted in this review. This review is a synthesis of 175 scientific papers on SDG 7. Policy reforms and better funding; technology innovation and inclusion; and economic growth, rapid promotion of renewable, and alternative fuels are the recommendations for the achievement of the energy goals. Future research on energy-related goals should focus on energy justice, policy reforms, energy poverty, poor affordability, off-grid transmissions, renewable energy sources, alternative fuels, reforms in the energy supply chain, and international cooperation for better implementation of projects and for attracting foreign capital and private funds. This paper invites the attention of practitioners, academicians, funding agencies, and international agencies to collaborate in the initiatives for a clean, green, and energized world.