Issue #4 (Volume 8 2017)

This paper aimed to illustrate how short-term carbon futures speculators might use short-term carbon emission futures data to predict and forecast carbon prices. The paper became apposite given ubiquitous research focussing on long-term carbon futures data, which has left out short-term carbon emission futures speculators with information. Therefore, this paper demonstrated that short-term speculators in carbon futures could indeed use short-term time series data on carbon futures to make a reliable prediction and forecasting of carbon emissions futures price volatility within a short term and thus decide on investment opportunity. The sample data results showed that short-term data could produce a dependable in-sample futures prediction since the in-sample prediction fell within the 95% confidence interval. The demonstration also showed that short-term carbon futures data could assist speculators to conduct a reliable short-term out of sample forecast of carbon futures prices within the closer period. The paper offers practical assistance to carbon futures speculators and is equally important for academic studies for business and economic students on discussions and research bordering on carbon emissions, carbon trading, environmental economics and sustainable development. More carbon short-term forecasting is encouraged – such research should compare short-term forecasting of carbon futures amongst different carbon markets.

In South Africa, the right to a clean environment is constitutionally guaranteed. However, this right is being violated on a daily basis by the mining companies who degrade and harm the environment in the communities they operate. Even though laws have been put in place to regulate, protect and deter degradation, the reality is that the mining companies have been found wanting several times in discharging their constitutional obligations not to degrade and harm the environment. This paper examines impacts and effects of the mining activities. It also looks at the legislative interventions that have been put in place to serve as checks against the mining companies and provides insights on how they are being used to regulate harmful mining practices.

The aim of the welfare state, in accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine is to ensure conditions for the growth of welfare of citizens. One of the major components in the well-being of civilized societies is to ensure that citizens and businesses the necessary energy. Energy development is the basis for enhancing the social and economic living standards of the population and competitiveness. The key to this goal should be a reliable, economically viable and environmentally sound needs of the population and the economy of energy products. It is important to identify the critical factors is a threat to the energy security of the national economy. The state of the energy sector of Ukraine is negatively affected by continued dependence on imports of Russian natural gas, petroleum products and fuel for power plants. Today such dependence on primary energy, including coal, has become a leverage to Ukraine on the part of the neighboring state. The loss of the fuel and energy complex, and areas for future development of hydrocarbon resources as a result of the annexation of the Crimea and the military operations in the east of the country, as well as the destruction of the oil and gas infrastructure in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, yielded additional new factors which significantly weakened the energy security of the country. Given the instability of strategic task for Ukraine, it is vital to achieve the highest possible level to ensure the economy’s own oil and gas resources, which, to a certain extent, will contribute to energy independence and savings of foreign exchange reserves of the country, as well as infrastructure development in the industry, tax revenues, creation of additional jobs.

BRICS countries have experienced rapid economic growth and played a vital role in the world economy because of their capacity to produce large number of manufacturing products, supplies of raw materials, natural resources and the advantage of geographical locations and demographic attributes. Extremely speedy process of industrialization process has been acting as one of the key driving forces for rapid economic growth. According to the IAEA, coal use in India and China will more than double by 2050. To achieve high economic growth, these countries are facing severe environmental problem. India and China were the top two nations with largest total ecological footprints in 2003. Research question of the study is whether relationship between Environmental Performance Index and GDP growth rate in BRICS countries prevails? The study used secondary sources. The study used a sample of five emerging developing countries (BRICS) namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This study examined Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and GDP trends. Based on the collected data covering the period of 2002 to 2016, the analysis indicates that there is a negative relationship between GDP growth rate and Environmental Performance index. However, the study observed that strong correlation between EPI and GDP growth rate except Russia did not prevail. National accounting procedure should include environmental impact which needs to be addressed by the policy makers as suggested by authors.

The Department of Statistics and Operations Research (SOR) at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in South Africa offers courses in Statistics (Stats). Several departments in SMU campus require Stats training in their study program. In the interest of quality offering in Stats training and for statistical services needed for research, SOR oofers to collect, centralize and facilitate all the Stats modules on campus. This paper then reflects on the impressions of academics and researchers on SMU campus regarding their view on centralized Stats courses in SMU. This will help explore the opportunities, envisaged research benefits and challenges for centralizing all the SMU Stats training in SOR.

South Africa has many developmental challenges but three have been identified as affecting each other. The three challenges are unemployment, poverty and inequality. The Second Quarter Report by Statistics South Africa (STATSSA) confirms that poverty, unemployment and inequality are highest in rural areas and most especially among people with no or little education. Meanwhile, many people in rural South Africa have access to land which can be used to produce food for the ever increasing population in both the rural and urban areas, as well as for export and other value adding agribusinesses. The task of addressing the challenges of poor communities calls for a multi-stakeholder approach which can include the private sector, NGOs, communities, traditional leaders and the state coming together to pursue economic transformation in rural South Africa by tapping into the natural resources nature has provided for the communities. This article reports on how some stakeholders have come together to transform a rural community in South Africa. The paper uses qualitative data from personal and focus group interviews and observations as the main data collection instruments. The findings indicate that the stakeholders have been able to empower a community by tapping into and effectively using the natural resources in an area to transform it through collaborations and partnerships. The model is recommended to the government and development practitioners for adoption on how the natural resources that exist within communities can be exploited and effectively managed to transform rural economies to ensure inclusive growth and development.

The main goal of the article is the efficiency justification of energy-efficient house (EEH) from the different points of view: economic, ecological and social. In this case, the EEH under the green economy context was considered by the authors. In addition, according to the Ukrainian ongoing condition, the key preconditions of EEH implementation among the Ukrainian households were allocated. Besides, the main approaches to define EEH are analyzed and systematized by the authors. On this basis, the main bullet points and features of EEH were indicated. The authors determined the EEH opportunities for spreading among the Ukrainian households. It should be noted, that the lack of awareness among the civil society provokes the slow temp of the EEH enlarging in Ukraine. At the same time, the European experience showed that the huge part of their households can be characterized as energy-effective. With the purpose of understand the efficiency of EEH, the authors had estimated the economic benefits of installed solar collector in the household as one of the parts of EEH. According to the results, the authors allocate the restraining factors of the EEH spreading in Ukraine. Thus, the great payback period is one of them. In addition, the high level of the currency rate has negative impact on the payback period. From the other side the continuously increasing of the utility bills have been indicated as a negative stimulate factor. In order to increase the awareness of the EEH benefits under the Ukrainian civil society, the main economic, ecological and social benefits of EEH were systematized by the authors.

There is a growing need to understand how the scarce water resources could be conserved and efficiently provided to the local societies. This paper examines the non-revenue water management practices in the local municipality and its impact on water service provision. The results of the study indicated that the municipality does not have sufficient capability to monitor and manage water provision and usage. Almost half of the respondents thought that the municipality does not take non-revenue water management seriously. The results suggest that the local water service provider operations and approaches to non-revenue water management is a real threat to the local government and society. The municipality needs to be proactively involved in the efforts to adapt to practices and mitigation strategies to reduce non-revenue water.

The main originality of this paper is to empirically investigate the long-run relationship between carbone dioxide (CO2) emissions, energy use and real GDP per capita in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) during the last three decades. Using panel cointegration tests (Westerlund, (2007) and DOLS estimation method, we validate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis in the long run for the MENA region countries. Therefore, we conclude that oil producer countries have adopted several policy decisions in favor of CO2 emissions reduction. The estimated turning point of the EKC confirms our intuitions that only oil producer countries achieve CO2 emissions reduction goal.

The paper aims to review the dominating literature and recent findings on organizational changes and sustainability strategy. The studies in the spheres of strategic management and organizational theories have common conceptual base but different approaches to the key definitions identification. Sustainability age had transformed the perception of the best practices in markets, the winners in 80-ties were focused on costs leadership, today it is urgent to offer differentiated product that is sustainability-oriented. The studies in sphere of strategic management, organizational theories and social development theories were analyzed to accumulate the knowledge about the sources and content of organizational changes towards sustainability. Two types of barriers to transformation towards sustainability were analyzed through data comparison and previous findings accumulation and generalization. General recommendations for sustainable innovations creation are offered.