Special issue - From Covid-19 to Conflict: Challenges for Natural Resources Policy Making
This special issue investigates and examines the conflict as well as the challenges for natural resources policy making during the Covid-19 pandemics crisis and their connections to the broader concept of successful and unsuccessful policy design.
Guest editors:
Muhammad Shahbaz,
School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China;
Department of Land Economy, The University of Cambridge, UK. Email: muhdshahbaz77@gmail.com
Anna Min Du,
Research Lead of Accounting and Finance Subject Group,
PhD Coordinator of Accounting and Finance Subject Group.
The Business School, Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, UK.
Email: a.du@napier.ac.uk
Simona Bigerna,
Department of Economics, University of Perugia, Italy. Email: simona.bigerna@unipg.it
Schedule:
Submission Start Date: 15 November 2022
Submission Deadline: 31 May 2023
Acceptance Deadline: 31 October 2023
Keywords:
Covid-19, Conflict, Resource Policy Making
Date posted
5 August 2022
Special issue - From Covid-19 to Conflict: Challenges for Natural Resources Policy Making
This special issue investigates and examines the conflict as well as the challenges for natural resources policy making during the Covid-19 pandemics crisis and their connections to the broader concept of successful and unsuccessful policy design.
Guest editors:
Muhammad Shahbaz, School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology, China;
Department of Land Economy, The University of Cambridge, UK. Email: muhdshahbaz77@gmail.com
Anna Min Du, Research Lead of Accounting and Finance Subject Group, PhD Coordinator of Accounting and Finance Subject Group. The Business School, Craiglockhart Campus, Edinburgh Napier University, UK.
Email: a.du@napier.ac.uk
Simona Bigerna, Department of Economics, University of Perugia, Italy. Email: simona.bigerna@unipg.it
Special issue information:
Overview:
Natural resources play an important part in the economic growth and development of a country. The abundance of natural resources declines environmental deterioration in the long run, but the over-usage of natural resources has led to their depletion. Natural resource depletion is currently occurring more quickly than resource replenishment. Several types of natural resource depletion exist, such as slash-and-burn farming techniques, fossil fuel mining, and minerals, aquifer depletion, soil erosion, pollution, deforestation or resource contamination, excessive consumption, or the inefficient use of resources measuring a natural phenomenon.
In developed countries, natural resource depletion is accelerating environmental degradation; hence for improved environmental conditions, developed countries should limit natural resource depletion. Additionally, industrialised countries are responsible for the depletion of developing countries’ natural resources. Reducing fossil fuel consumption is necessary to improve environmental conditions in developing nations. However, there may be other factors at play in developed nations that worsen environmental conditions, as there is an inverse relationship between environmental degradation and energy consumption from fossil fuels. Therefore, in developed countries, the use of non-renewable energy has a detrimental effect on environmental degradation. Industrialised countries should increase energy production using renewable resources because they are more affordable and environmentally benign. Environmental deterioration and renewable energy consumption are positively correlated in emerging countries. This indicates that environmental degradation rises because of inefficient renewable energy production in developing nations. This suggests that to slow down environmental deterioration, developing nations need adopt effective strategies for consuming renewable energy, just like industrialised nations.
Along with the depletion of natural resources in due course of time, the outbreak of the infectious Covid-19 pandemic, especially the lockdown, has resulted in a slowdown in world trade and changes in the uses of natural resources. It is reported the Covid-19 lockdown and the profound changes in working style after the pandemic led to significant socio-economic changes, which consequently affected the natural resources use. On one hand, Covid-19 positively impacts air pollutants, the land surface temperature, noise reduction and the slowdown of discharging industrial effluents due to the increased work from home. On other hand, the significant increase in plastic and medical waste and deforestation in the tropics are the reported negative impacts of covid-19.
Policies that could consider hedging natural resources over the short and long terms need to be changed. Additionally, the price cap and price freezing policies might support preserving the beneficial impact of natural resource rents on economic performance. Furthermore, since the Covid-19 epidemic mitigates the detrimental impact of natural resource rents on economic performance, immediate preventative actions should be taken to address the problem. Additionally, increasing research and development spending would help shift the reliance on natural resources toward effective energy sources. This would promote sustainable development in the environment and the economy. Policies should focus on eco-friendly natural resources including wind, solar, and hydropower. This effort permits resource replenishment, protects biodiversity, and reduces ecological footprints by carefully saving depleting natural resources. Historically, effective expert knowledge about challenges and the expected effects of various policy options has been a prerequisite for good policy design. However, due to conflicting values or the turbulence of rapid change, the knowledge base for wicked topics is incomplete and contested. Policies are likely to be a work in progress that must be periodically reviewed. The fundamental problems are frequently enduring and deeply ingrained. Therefore, a beneficial practical result may resemble a small advancement rather than a flawless answer. Potentially effective alternatives to the appeal of ideological panaceas include prevention tactics to lessen potential effects and coping mechanisms to deal with hardship.
Consequently, this special issue focuses on the fundamental practical issues encountered by policymakers in selecting policies to meet the interdependent objectives of sustainable utilisation of natural resources, management of the health crisis, economic recovery, and environmental sustainability. This will encourage government entities to remain watchful, share lessons learned, re-evaluate strategies, and advocate for community preparedness in the event of other environmental disasters outside the COVID-19 pandemic to draw future perspectives on the sustainable management of natural resources.
Objectives and Scope of Special Issue
Optimal robust systems maintain their operational dependability and validity during times of crisis while exhibiting low vulnerability to these occurrences. As a multidimensional catastrophe, the COVID-19 pandemic offered numerous problems to global governing systems. Consequently, this special issue investigates and examines the conflict as well as the challenges for natural resources policy making during the Covid-19 pandemics crisis and their connections to the broader concept of successful and unsuccessful policy design.
We invite academics from diverse fields and nations to join us in expanding our global understanding of the challenges faced during natural resources policy-making, specifically related to the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. The following section presents several themes (not limited to) for potentially interesting future research opportunities in the field. This special issue on the theme ‘From Covid-19 to conflict: Challenges for Natural Resources Policy Making’ shall focus on research for the road to policy-making during and post the Covid-19 crisis.
This call for special issue invites submissions in the following areas but not limited to:
Competitiveness and sustainability in natural resources exploitation post Covid-19
COVID-19, local communities and natural resource governance
Natural resources, carbon neutrality and resources policy-making
Economic performance and natural resources commodity prices volatility
Environmental and natural resources degradation under the Covid-19 crisis
Green development and natural resources policy-making
Natural resources volatility and policy-making
Financial development and resource-curse hypothesis
SDGs, Natural resources and policy-making
Natural resources policy, energy related inflation and economic growth post Covid-19
Green trade, green growth and natural resources policy-making
Natural resource policy and sustainability
Policy robustness under the COVID-19 crisis
Natural resources volatility and policy robustness
Carbon neutrality, policy robustness and sustainability
Post‐COVID‐19 and globalization of oil and natural gas trade, and policy-making
Sustainable management, exploitation of natural resources, and policy-making
Financial inclusion and natural resource policy-making
Natural resource policy-making and inclusive economic growth
Trade diversity and natural resources exploitation
Oil prices, price volatility and resource policy-making
Russia-Ukraine war and Natural resource policy
Manuscript submission information:
The selected high-quality research paper submitted and accepted for presentation at the 9th ENSCON conference (https://www.enscon.org/en/home.html) held at Hilton, Istanbul in 12-13 November 2022 will be considered for publication in “Resources Policy”. After the initial screening by guest editors, the submissions will go through a rigorous double-blind review process. On compilations of referee reports the editors will make the final decision. The submissions which are found to be internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour will be considered for publication.
Schedule:
Submission Start Date: 15 November 2022
Submission Deadline: 31 May 2023
Acceptance Deadline: 31 October 2023
Keywords:
Covid-19, Conflict, Resource Policy Making
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