IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/qmsrps/202308.html

SDG7 and the systematic downplaying of affordability in discourses on energy prices

Author

Listed:
  • Bhatta, Bibek

Abstract

This study examines whether the current discourses and debates at international level are aligned with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 for i) affordable energy and ii) clean energy. Guided by the overarching vision of SDG7, this study assumes that both "affordably energy" and "clean energy" are of equal importance and examines their prevalence along two dimensions: parliamentary debates and news cycle. Results suggest that "clean energy" is used significantly more compared to "affordable energy" in both parliamentary debates and newspapers in the UK, US and Ireland. This is the first study that we are aware of that examines the possible incongruity between international discourses and SDG7. It also adds to the emerging debate on whether affordable energy and clean energy are of equal importance or whether one is superior to the other. It also points towards the need for a macroeconomic evaluation and cost consideration when it comes to creation of 'green jobs'. Finally, given that this incongruity is most severe in the US congress, this study also points to geopolitical implications for other countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bhatta, Bibek, 2023. "SDG7 and the systematic downplaying of affordability in discourses on energy prices," QBS Working Paper Series 2023/08, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:qmsrps:202308
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/280744/1/wps-2023-08.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2016. "Textual Analysis in Accounting and Finance: A Survey," Journal of Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 54(4), pages 1187-1230, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiao Ji & Oleksandr Talavera & Shuxing Yin, 2018. "The Hidden Information Content: Evidence from the Tone of Independent Director Reports," Working Papers 2018-28, Swansea University, School of Management.
    2. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    3. Drago, Carlo & Ginesti, Gianluca & Pongelli, Claudia & Sciascia, Salvatore, 2018. "Reporting strategies: What makes family firms beat around the bush? Family-related antecedents of annual report readability," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 142-150.
    4. Everett, Jeff & Shiraz Rahaman, Abu & Neu, Dean & Saxton, Gregory, 2024. "Letters to the editor, institutional experimentation, and the public accounting professional," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Rybinski, Krzysztof, 2020. "The forecasting power of the multi-language narrative of sell-side research: A machine learning evaluation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    6. Guoliang Frank Jiang & Roberto Ragozzino, 2025. "International Corporate Development Activities and Information Disclosures in Earnings Calls," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 175-206, April.
    7. Rolf Uwe Fülbier & Thorsten Sellhorn, 2023. "Understanding and improving the language of business: How accounting and corporate reporting research can better serve business and society," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(6), pages 1089-1124, August.
    8. Liu, Pu & Nguyen, Hazel T., 2020. "CEO characteristics and tone at the top inconsistency," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Kladakis, George & Chen, Lei & Bellos, Sotirios K., 2023. "Ethical bank disclosures and liquidity creation," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Chen, Cathy Yi-Hsuan & Fengler, Matthias R. & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Liu, Yanchu, 2022. "Media-expressed tone, option characteristics, and stock return predictability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. Leilane de Freitas Rocha Cambara & Roberto Meurer, 2023. "News sentiment and foreign portfolio investment in Brazil," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 3332-3348, July.
    12. Eghbal Rahimikia & Stefan Zohren & Ser-Huang Poon, 2021. "Realised Volatility Forecasting: Machine Learning via Financial Word Embedding," Papers 2108.00480, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    13. Gao, Lei & Calderon, Thomas G. & Tang, Fengchun, 2020. "Public companies' cybersecurity risk disclosures," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    14. James A. Danowski & Bei Yan & Ken Riopelle, 2021. "A semantic network approach to measuring sentiment," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 221-255, February.
    15. Md Miran Hossain & Babak Mammadov & Hamid Vakilzadeh, 2022. "Wisdom of the crowd and stock price crash risk: evidence from social media," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 709-742, February.
    16. Minxing Sun & Weike Xu, 2024. "Short selling and readability in financial disclosures: A controlled experiment," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 59(2), pages 265-292, May.
    17. Stephen P. Ferris & Jan Hanousek, Jr. & Jan Hanousek & Jolana Stejskalova, 2025. "The Power of the Crowd: Retail Investors and the Cost of Capital," MENDELU Working Papers in Business and Economics 2025-105, Mendel University in Brno, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    18. Muhammad Farhan Malik & Yuan George Shan & Jamie Yixing Tong, 2022. "Do auditors price litigious tone?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1715-1760, April.
    19. Yang, Yanjia & Tan, Hun-Tong, 2024. "What you are versus what you do: The effect of noun-verb framing in earnings conference calls," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    20. Jana P. Fidrmuc & Tereza Tykvova, 2023. "Are Acquirer Shareholders Happier when Their Industries Are Unhappy?," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 23-52, Swiss Finance Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • Q42 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Alternative Energy Sources
    • Q43 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Energy and the Macroeconomy
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:qmsrps:202308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dequbuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.