Maizan Baba

Oil-Induced environmental Kuznets curve in organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC)

ABSTRACT This study investigates the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in 10 of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). To realize the study’s aims a time series model is built based on the period 1977–2008, utilizing the ecological footprint as an environmental indicator and income, labour, capital, oil consumption and oil price as economic indicators. Employing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, by comparing the short and long-run income elasticities, the EKC hypothesis is present in six OPEC countries namely Algeria, Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria, Qatar and Kuwait. Moreover, the Toda–Yamamoto–Dolado–Lütkepohl (TYDL) causality tests outcome show that, after oil consumption, the most significant factors in increasing ecological footprint are labor and capital. This implies the relocation of pollution intensive industries to almost all of the OPEC countries. However, oil prices reduce environmental damage by its negative effect on the ecological footprint. From the outcome of this study it is important for the investigated countries to reduce their consumption of fossil fuel energy since it represents an important source of pollution. This can be achieved by allocating more labor and capital in projects and investments on renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy saving.

Critical factors that lead to green building operations and maintenance problems in Malaysia: A preliminary study

This paper discusses the factors that lead to green buildings operations and maintenance (O&M) problems in Malaysia. Several factors that lead to complexities in managing and maintaining green buildings have been highlighted by several scholars and practitioners in the construction industry. However, the criticality of these factors has yet to be empirically explored in the Malaysian context. A questionnaire survey was carried out involving green building maintenance management teams and Green Building Index (GBI) facilitators in Malaysia. Frequency and criticality index calculations were carried out to rank the factors according to level of criticality. The result indicated that the most critical factor that leads to green building O&M problem is the failure to consider the aspect of maintainability during the design stage. It is hoped that the findings of this study will shed light to green building designers and management teams on the critical aspects that demand scrutiny and consideration for successful O&M of green buildings in Malaysia.