Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development is an important policy target supported by the United Nations. In fact, access to clean energy sources and prompt climate action are integral parts of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The need to protect environmental integrity has prompted nations and global bodies to search for solutions on how to mitigate the emissions of noxious gases and their effects on human health and biodiversity. In this respect, there have been collaborations among nations in terms of ICT diffusion, technological transfer, infrastructural development, and collaborative policies. Among these collaborative policies, there is the Conference of Parties (COP21), which was adopted by 196 parties at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France, on December 12, 2015. The long-term temperature goal of COP21 was to keep the rise in global surface temperature well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels. The treaty also states that, preferably, the limit of the increase should only be 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). Infrastructural development, technological innovation, digitization, urban management, sustainable resource consumption, and economic development can help alleviate some of the environmental challenges across the globe, including the emission of fossil carbon emissions, which dominate total greenhouse gas emissions.

We welcome a diversity of articles, such as conceptual and empirical articles, reviews, and meta-analyses, for submission to this special issue. We will accept manuscripts from different disciplines, addressing topics related to the scope.

Infrastructural development , Environmental quality, Digitization, Artificial intelligence methods (machine learning, robotics, algorithms, neural network, etc.), Load capacity factor, Development policies, Ecological footprint, Carbon sequestration, Governance quality