Urban transport in Ghana relies heavily on imported fuel and contributes significantly to emissions. Electric vehicles have been proposed as an alternative, but we still know little about what shapes drivers’ willingness to adopt them in major city corridors. We used Social Cognitive Theory to assess how two factors - tax incentives and environmental awareness - relate to three self-reported outcomes: intention to adopt EVs, sustainable energy consumption, and beliefs about greenhouse gas emissions. We did not measure actual emissions. The survey covered 800 commercial drivers and private car owners recruited from transport union hubs in Accra, Tema, Kumasi, and Takoradi, and we analyzed the data with PLS-SEM, including tests for moderation. Drivers who reported higher tax incentives and greater environmental awareness also reported stronger EV adoption intentions and more sustainable energy use, and lower perceived emissions. Environmental awareness moderated these links: it amplified the link between tax incentives and adoption intentions but dampened the links between tax incentives and both energy consumption and perceived emissions. Among unionized operators in these four urban corridors, tax incentives and environmental awareness are linked to intentions and perceptions, not to verified behavior or emission cuts. Because the sample is urban and union-based, the results cannot be extended to all of Ghana, and the model does not show whether intending to adopt an EV actually lowers emissions.
Anantha Raj A. Arokiasamy, Thariishini Shree A/P Ezhilan, Khine Zar Zar Thet, Arnab Chakraborty, Jem Cloyd M. Tanucan
Indonesia has become an attractive destination for renewable energy investment due to its abundant renewable resources, rising electricity demand, and commitment to energy transition. Despite this potential, foreign renewable energy investors continue to face substantial institutional, regulatory, and market-related challenges. This study examines the market entry strategies adopted by foreign renewable energy companies in Indonesia, focusing on market-entry motivations, governance structures, and institutional barriers. Drawing on Institutional Theory, Dunning's Eclectic Paradigm (OLI), and the Uppsala Internationalization Model, the study explores how foreign firms navigate Indonesia's state-dominated electricity sector. A qualitative research design was employed using semi-structured interviews with eight industry practitioners representing foreign renewable energy developers and related stakeholders. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key themes related to investment motivations, entry-mode selection, and institutional challenges. The findings indicate that investment decisions are influenced not only by Indonesia's market potential and renewable resource availability but also by firm-specific capabilities, including financial strength, technical expertise, and institutional adaptability. Greenfield investment emerged as the preferred entry mode, often supported by joint ventures and strategic partnerships that enhance local market access and institutional legitimacy. Major barriers include regulatory uncertainty, procurement inefficiencies, permitting complexity, land acquisition difficulties, and fragmented governance structures, which increase transaction costs, reduce project bankability, and heighten investment risk. The study extends Institutional Theory, the OLI Paradigm, and the Uppsala Internationalization Model by demonstrating that institutional embeddedness functions as an important ownership-related capability in institutionally complex environments. It also shows that hybrid governance arrangements and partnership-based learning can accelerate institutional adaptation. The findings highlight the importance of greater regulatory predictability and stronger inter-agency coordination to improve investor confidence and facilitate foreign renewable energy investment in Indonesia.
This study develops an institutional-complementarity framework to test whether governance quality shapes the developmental effectiveness of financial intermediation and the renewable energy transition in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using an unbalanced panel of 35 countries (2005–2023), we apply second-generation unit-root and cointegration tests, two-step system GMM, Hansen panel threshold regression, panel FMOLS, and method-of-moments quantile regression. Financial intermediation significantly promotes sustainable development, whereas renewable energy consumption shows a negative reduced-form effect attributable to the continued dominance of traditional biomass over modern renewables in the region's energy mix. Governance quality both directly raises sustainable development and operates as a nonlinear threshold: below the estimated breakpoint (GQ = −0.421), financial intermediation yields no significant development dividend; above it, the effect becomes strongly positive and roughly four times larger. These findings establish institutional quality as a precondition for financial and renewable-energy policies to deliver development gains and inform a governance-sequenced policy agenda for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Vitaliy Soloviy, Gudrun Haindlmaier, Klaus Kubeczko, Surya Knöbel, Michael J. Bernstein, Michael Dinges
Energy transitions operate at the intersection of multiple policy priorities, such as green, digital, and just transitions. While the policy discourse treats those priorities as synergetic, the real-world transition processes may feature tensions among different ideas, demands, or outcomes. Understandings of tensions and ways to address them differ across research fields. Yet, such differences are seldom considered in science-policy interfaces that tend to prioritize a relatively narrow set of methods and vocabularies. This study argues that different assumptions, theories, and methods provide important alternative standpoints for identifying, analyzing and navigating tensions. Building on an analysis of 28 real-world examples from peer-reviewed studies and complementary literature, we present five perspectives on energy transition tensions: constructing realities, governing transitions, negotiating meanings, reasoning by numbers, and reimagining transitions. The paper compares and contrasts insights across those perspectives and outlines their prospects and limitations for informing the design and governance of energy transition pathways. Researchers can benefit from the study by identifying opportunities to expand their theoretical and methodological apparatus for addressing energy transition challenges. Policymakers and practitioners can benefit from the study by considering how to engage productively with various types of knowledge to identify and compare strategic policy options.
