Ahmed Ali Khalifa

The individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental reduction programs is one way of gauging society’s environmental consciousness. We explore the determinants of an individual’s WTP for a product produced from carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology in Qatar. A representative questionnaire sample was administered to 1012 respondents in Qatar on habits, perceptions, economic and religious attitudes related to environmental consciousness, and WTP. The findings reveal that environmental concern is significantly enhanced by environmental consciousness, awareness, and education, while environmental awareness also positively influences perceived social norms regarding others’ environmental awareness. Further, environmental consciousness, religiosity, and education are significantly positively associated with the WTP for an eco-friendly product. Also, those who earn high incomes have a greater WTP for eco-friendly products with premium prices of 10–75% higher. Respondents motivated by religious obligation have a significantly greater WTP for eco-friendly products with a 10–30% price premium. These findings imply the need for context-specific strategies that leverage cultural values, address income disparities, and effectively communicate the benefits of green choices to drive the adoption of green products.

Carbon pricing is crucial to advancing a circular economy by internalizing the environmental costs of emissions. Governments often use auctions to distribute carbon permits. This article applies the Vickrey pricing auction to carbon permit allocation for the first time in the literature. We show that it encourages truthful bidding and efficiently allocates permits based on true valuations. This contrasts with the first‐price auction, used in the European Union Emissions Trading System and the California Cap‐and‐Trade Market, where bidders are incentivized to misreport their bids. Our analysis demonstrates that the Vickrey pricing auction enhances market transparency, eliminates manipulation, and improves the efficiency of carbon permit allocation. We discuss the implications for policymakers and stakeholders in designing carbon‐pricing policies to combat climate change.

Implementing a carbon pricing policy in any country remains a complex challenge, requiring the careful navigation of economic, social, and political factors to ensure policy coherence and stakeholder buy-in. Given the critical role of carbon pricing in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, this study provides empirical evidence on the impact of carbon price implementation on carbon emission reductions globally. The study is motivated by the a priori assumption that carbon pricing policies incentivize polluters to adopt carbon-neutral technologies, leading to emission reductions. Using data from 30 jurisdictions between 1990 and 2020, comprising both developed economies and eight emerging markets where either a carbon tax, an emission trading system, or both have been implemented, we assess the effectiveness of carbon pricing mechanisms while controlling for economic growth, population, energy intensity, and environmental policy stringency. The findings confirm that carbon pricing leads to a significant reduction in emissions, with the Emission Trading System proving to be more effective in accelerating emission reductions than the carbon tax. Specifically, the Emission Trading System is associated with a 12.06% reduction in carbon emissions, compared to an 8.91% reduction under the carbon tax. These results underscore the importance of market-based mechanisms in driving decarbonization efforts. The findings also have critical policy implications, highlighting the need for tailored carbon pricing strategies that align with national economic structures and political contexts. Robustness checks and policy recommendations are provided to guide policymakers in designing effective carbon pricing frameworks to enhance climate mitigation efforts.

Diabetes is a chronic disease with a rising number of patients that requires regular monitoring of blood glucose levels and analysis of lifestyle habits that may affect those levels. However, not all patients are able to track and analyze this data effectively. The proliferation of smartphones and the Internet of Things (IoT) has resulted in numerous health and fitness Apps that can help individuals manage their health. In this vein, a proposed smart IoT-based diabetes system incorporates IoT technology to assist diabetic patients in maintaining their blood sugar levels within a target range. The system includes an intelligent algorithm and three types of devices that measure blood sugar levels, physical activity, food intake, medication, sleep, and other factors. Patients can easily track their blood sugar levels and lifestyle habits without logging effort, while doctors can remotely monitor patient health via sensors embedded in smartphones and wearables. This system also incorporates a novel method of measuring blood glucose levels using the concentration of acetone in breath, without any non-invasive techniques. Overall, this smart IoT-based diabetes system could greatly improve blood sugar management and quality of life for diabetic patients.

Working from home will be key to mitigating harms from future pandemics and has also been proposed as a way to curtail emissions from commuting. This paper exploits a work-from-home order in Qatar to investigate the impacts of working from home on both electricity and water usage. We deploy quantile methods to analyze the distribution of consumption before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and find evidence that use was shifted from work to home for both electricity and water. For residential use, increases are largest in percentage terms for the lowest deciles of both the electricity and water distributions. For commercial use, reductions are largest in percentage terms for the lowest deciles of both distributions. Our results have implications for which types of customers policymakers might want to target for governmental aid in future pandemics.

This paper aims to develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of the customer value proposition of formic acid as an actual outcome of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) to support clean production and environmental sustainability worldwide. This study included different phases. The first phase was an extensive reading of the literature, followed by a content analysis of the selected literature. The aim of the content analysis was to identify key concepts and the general categories of these concepts. The final phase was a content analysis of the selected literature with the purpose of identifying the relationship between concepts. The outcome of this paper is to provide a comprehensive framework of the customer value proposition of the CCU–formic acid product and consequently support global research efforts in sustainability. This framework contains two general dimensions: market knowledge and customer value. The first dimension includes five variables: the customers’ acceptance of CCU technology, the customers’ intention to purchase formic acid produced by CCU technology, the degree of customers’ knowledge about CCU technology, the customers’ readiness for environmental issues, and the market segments of formic acid product. The second dimension includes seven variables: ecological benefits, the ecological risk of CCU, varieties of formic acid use, the pricing policy of formic acid, the variety of formic acid packages, the order size, and the order frequency of formic acid. The relationship between variables was identified according to the literature and hypotheses were developed. This study has attempted to build a more comprehensive framework containing all proposed value dimensions and market knowledge as well as identifying the relationships between variables.

Achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 will require tackling both energy-related and non-energy-related GHG emissions, which can be achieved through the transition to a circular economy (CE). The focus of climate change crisis reversal has been on the energy-related continuum over the years through promoting renewable energy uptake and efficiency in energy use. Clean energy transition and efficiency gains in energy use alone will not be sufficient to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050 without paying attention to non-energy-related CO₂ emissions. This study systematically reviews the CE literature across different themes, sectors, approaches, and tools to identify accelerators in transitioning to a CE. The study aims to understand and explore how technology, finance, ecosystem, and behavioral studies in the CE paradigm can be integrated as a decision-making tool for CE transition. The material analysis was carried out by identifying the main characteristics of the literature on CE implementation in the agriculture, industry, energy, water, and tourism sectors. Results of the literature survey are synthesized to engender clarity in the literature and identify research gaps to inform future research. Findings show that many studies focused on technology as an accelerator for CE transition, and more studies are needed regarding the CE ecosystem, financing, and behavioral aspects. Also, results show that CE principles are applied at the micro-, meso-, and macro- (national, regional, and global) levels across sectors with the dominance of the industrial sector. The agriculture, water, and energy sectors are at the initial stages of implementation. Additionally, the use of carbon capture and utilization or storage, conceptualized as a circular carbon economy, needs attention in tackling CE implementation in the energy sector, especially in hydrocarbon-endowed economies. The major implication of these findings is that for CE to contribute to accelerated net-zero emission by 2050, coordinated policies should be promoted to influence the amount of financing available to innovative circular businesses and technologies within an ecosystem that engenders behavioral change towards circularity.