Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development:
[Thesis]
Ari, İbrahim
Computer Simulations for Renewable Energy Investments
Koҫ, Muammer
Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar)
2019
231
Ph.D.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar)
2019
Renewable energy investments require a substantial amount of capital to provide affordable and accessible energy for everyone in the world, and finding the required capital is one of the greatest challenges faced by governments and private entities. In a macroeconomic perspective, national budget deficits and inadequate policy designs hinder public and private investments in renewable projects. These problems lead governments to borrow a considerable amount of money for sustainable development, although such excessive debt-based financing pushes them to unsustainable economic development. This substantial amount of borrowing makes a negative contribution to the high global debt concentration, putting countries' economic and social development at risk. In line with this, excessive debt-based financing causes an increase in wealth inequality, and when wealth inequality reaches a dramatic level, wars and many other social problems are triggered to correct the course of wealth inequality. In this regard, the motivation behind the study is to develop a set of policy guidelines for sustainable financing models as a solution for these intertwined problems, which are: 1) a financial gap in energy investments; 2) an excessive global debt concentration; and 3) a dramatic increase in wealth inequality. To this end, this study presents a proof of concept analysis of alternative financing models in a solar farm investment simulation to investigate the change in wealth inequality and social welfare by reducing debt-based financing and increasing public participation. There is a gap in the literature, and investigating the effects of various policy rules on the evolution of wealth inequality in a future time frame needs to be explored in order to discuss possible policy implications beforehand. In this respect, this study contributes to the literature by enabling to investigate the changes in wealth inequality and social welfare as a result of various policy implications throughout the simulation time.