Yijuan Jiao

Small power systems subject to hazards in the island cities of Southeast Asia increase the vulnerability of energy security, and require good climate-risk management, data integration and adaptive energy planning. This study proposes and validates a model that connects climate-risk salience to island energy security through renewable-energy planning capability, and investigates the institutional coordination as a moderating variable. We examined four constructs with 22 seven-point items with a cross-sectional survey online with 428 respondents from a range of utility, regulatory, municipal, developer, finance, research and community stakeholders across seven island contexts in the region. Ordinary least squares estimation with 5000 bootstrap resamples, mediation, moderation and ten-fold predictive assessment were used to estimate a component-based structural model. Energy security is negatively predicted by climate-risk salience (β = −0.142) while planning capability is positively predicted (β = 0.487). Island energy security is strongly associated with planning capability (β = 0.557) which mediates the relationship between climate-risk salience and energy security (β = 0.271). Greater institutional coordination strengthens the association between planning capability and energy security (β = 0.172). The model accounts for 54.5% of security variance, indicating that risk awareness is effective when applied in coordinated adaptive planning.

Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) play an important role in promoting climate governance as Southeast Asia is highly vulnerable to climate change and has limited governance capacity. Despite the existing research, however, the factors that affect ENGO participation have been identified, but not the hierarchies between these factors, any structural dependency, or strategic implications, which could help to understand the conditions that enable effective participation. To fill this gap, this study proposes a framework of 16 important factors with a structured literature review and expert consultation and builds a matrix of factor relations on the basis of assessments made by 11 experts of various regional experiences. These different factors are used to reveal the hierarchical structure of these factors and their driving–dependence relationships by means of Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) and the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) methods. The results show that the foundation of the structural conditions, such as institutional stability, resource predictability, organizational governance, and capacity allocation, is the most important factor in ENGO participation, and the strategic actions of social trust, network embedding, advocacy and accountability only work when these foundation conditions are met. Based on these results, four successive strategic pathways are suggested to enhance ENGO involvement in climate governance: institutional embedding, capability assetization, network embedding, and accountability and initiative upgrading. Theoretically, the study contributes to the field of climate governance research as a demonstration of a hierarchical process of structural preconditions for ENGO participation, not just strategic actions. In the practical sense, the evidence generated contributes to the formulation of policy and design of governance and participation strategies at ASEAN and at the national level by NGOs and other environmental groups. The results are based on expert knowledge used to build the ISM–MICMAC matrix and represent only a structural reflection of the relationships between the factors and not a causal relationship.

To examine how climate change risk perception (CCRP), perceived environmental governance effectiveness (EGE), and AI‑driven innovation capability (AIIC) jointly influence sustainable geosite tourism behavior (SGTB), including responsible consumption, compliance with site rules, and support for conservation financing. This study uses a mixed‑methods design. Quantitatively, an online/offline survey instrument was designed for geopark visitors and stakeholder groups and analyzed using PLS‑SEM with reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, mediation, and moderation testing. Qualitatively, semi‑structured interviews with geopark managers and tourism‑technology actors were used to triangulate mechanisms for climate‑smart governance and AI innovation deployment. The structural model indicates that CCRP increases perceived EGE, which in turn drives SGTB. EGE partially mediates the CCRP→SGTB relationship. AIIC strengthens the direct effect of CCRP on SGTB, suggesting that AI‑enabled information, monitoring, and personalization tools translate climate concern into actionable low‑impact behavior more effectively when innovation capability is high. This research contributes an integrated, climate‑governance‑AI framework tailored to geosite tourism and provides a replicable measurement instrument and analytics workflow. Practically, results inform ASEAN and geopark managers on designing AI‑enabled environmental governance (e.g., transparent rules, adaptive capacity, ethical data practices) to advance sustainable visitation and community benefits, while managing ethical risks such as surveillance creep and algorithmic bias.

This paper presents an econometric analysis to evaluate the economic, environmental, and social impacts of adopting renewable energy in the Smart cities of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both countries have already invested heavily in clean energy and innovative urban projects, but they take different directions due to specific political, economic, and environmental factors. This study utilizes data spanning the period from 2000 to 2025 to estimate the effects of government policies, infrastructure investments, and technological advancements in renewable energy on economic growth, employment, energy use, and carbon emissions in these cities. The analysis employs panel data regression models and difference-in-differences (DiD) methods. This study finds that renewable energy investments in Singapore lead to a 0.32% increase in gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a 0.25% increase in employment in green sectors. In the UAE, investments in solar energy have led to a 0.29% increase in GDP growth; however, energy efficiency remains a significant challenge. The incorporation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) is shown to significantly enhance socio-economic outcomes, with a 12% increase in economic development and renewable sector jobs post-policy intervention. This study’s findings suggest that both Singapore and the UAE can benefit from strengthening public-private partnerships and focusing on innovative technological integration. For the UAE, expanding efforts in energy efficiency alongside scaling up solar infrastructure is essential. At the same time, Singapore can further optimize its existing renewable energy capacities through offshore wind energy and regional cooperation. This paper presents practical policy proposals to enhance the effectiveness of renewable energy policies in smart cities, specifically by maximizing the partnership between the state and the business sector, increasing investment in renewable energy infrastructure, and developing new technologies in energy storage and grid control. Future research could investigate the long-term socio-economic impacts of renewable energy policies on urban inequality, public health, and the global applicability of these findings to cities with diverse political and economic contexts.