The sustainability of natural resources is vital in the light of a rapid population growth and the associated ever increasing demand for services and products. Critical to this growth is the question of energy, water and food (EWF) security. The systems representing the three resources are intrinsically interdependent in what is known as the EWF Nexus. As such, there is a need to develop assessment tools that adequately quantify the inter-dependencies between EWF systems and the surrounding environment in order to identify and evaluate the trade-offs and synergies between them. Existing assessment methodologies do not explicitly identify and quantify the inter-linkages between EWF resources throughout product systems. As a result, decision making regarding the allocation of resources towards the development of a product or service, and the subsequent impact on resource sustainability and environmental degradation, is obscured. Furthermore, earlier approaches translate product system inputs into outputs through the use of generic databases. As such, analysis of product systems operating within varying spatial and temporal scales is hindered. The EWF Nexus tool is a culmination of well-established theories related to system engineering such as Industrial Ecology and LCA. With emphasis on the inter-linkages between EWF resources, the EWF Nexus tool quantifies material flow and energy consumption at component unit process level. The tool is distinguished from previous assessment tools in that it aggregates product systems in terms of the constituting processes identified as sub-systems. Representing complex systems in this manner offers advantages to conventional gate to gate representation. For instance, consideration of process variability and dependencies alleviates flexibility limitations associated with generic databases. Furthermore, with the inter-linkages between EWF resources adequately represented in sub-system design, the respective consumption of resources can be accurately accounted for in product systems. Considering the flexibility and modularity embedded within the EWF Nexus tool, the identification of environmental pressures can be computed for product systems operating within varying spatial settings utilising different technology options and in multiple configurations. The objective of this thesis is to present the details and function of the EWF Nexus environmental assessment tool, and illustrate its implementation through a specific food security scenario in Qatar. The EWF Nexus tool aggregates a proposed food system into its agriculture, water and energy components represented by sub-systems and is used to evaluate the different pathways for which a hypothetical 40 % food self-sufficiency target in Qatar can be achieved. As part of the LCA, sub-system LCI models representing the EWF systems have been developed. The food nexus element includes sub-system LCI models for the production of fertilizers and agricultural activities such as the application of fertilizers and the raising of livestock. The water nexus element includes sub-system LCI models for two desalination processes; Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) for the production of fresh water. The energy nexus element includes sub-system LCI models for power generation from two sources; a combined cycle gas turbine plant (CCGT) and renewable energy from solar Photovoltaics (PV). Furthermore, a sub-system for a biomass integrated gasification combined cycle (BIGCC) is integrated to recycle solid waste into useful forms of energy to be re-used within the EWF Nexus. Finally, a sub-system representing carbon capture (CC) technology is integrated to capture and recycle CO2 from both the CCGT and the BIGCC. The integration of CC with the BIGCC transforms the carbon neutral BIGCC process to a negative GHG emission technology with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). For the different scenarios and sub-system configurations considered, the results indicate that the largest global warming potential (GWP) originates from the non-energy related emissions within the food sub-systems. Within this category, emissions from the enteric fermentation processes present in livestock species represent the overwhelming majority of the GWP. Emissions from the power generation are reduced as power from PV technology is integrated as a substitute for the CCGT. The GWP is further reduced by 45 % as the BIGCC is integrated to supplement PV's. The complete roll out of PV and the BECCS (BIGCC +CC) to power the water and food sub-systems can almost completely balance the GWP from the non-energy related emissions by reducing the total GWP by 98 %, attributed to a theoretical achievable maximum negative emission of 1.15x109 kg CO2/year. In the same scenario, the PV land footprint required calculated is a maximum of 660 ha accompanied by a 127 % decrease in natural gas consumption (27 % credit).

Small-scale farmlands are dynamic systems crucial to the food-security and livelihoods of more than two billion people and there is political pressure in many developing nations to consolidate and expand small farms into larger units of management. This could have consequences for agro-ecosystem processes and the ecosystem services and disservices that regulate crop production. This thesis aims to highlight and address these issues in smallholder farming landscapes, which are poorly studied and represent significant knowledge gaps. Research on pollination and biological control is biased towards large-scale systems, and biological control research shows a strong geographic bias to temperate developed nations, whilst pollination research is geographically more balanced. To have more impact on global issues of poverty and food-security, agricultural ecosystem service research needs to have a greater focus on small-scale farmed landscapes. In a low-input, small-scale farmed area of Kenya, the response to land-use intensification of insect groups important to ecosystem services and disservices for crop production was examined. Small ecotone pollinators responded negatively to intensification, but larger bees did not. Natural enemies did not show a strong negative response to land-use intensification, which suggested that low pesticide application rates allowed cultural species to persist in croplands. The functional richness of Hymenoptera and Coleoptera was highest in the most intensified land-use context, which provides support for the intermediate landscape complexity hypothesis. Functional evenness and trait-environment associations showed that phytophagous traits increased with land-use intensification and could be linked to increased ecosystem disservice if crops are consumed. Smallholder interviews showed that ecosystem disservices due to crop-raiding animals were a major problem and that attitudes to wildlife, elephants and protected areas became more negative with increasing proximity to large areas of wilderness. However, increasing the proportion of natural habitat in the vicinity of smallholdings moderated the negative effect of proximity to wilderness on attitudes towards protected areas. Thus, perceived ecosystem disservices may vary with land-sparing at different spatial scales (i.e., conserved habitat). Whilst this thesis demonstrates that land-use intensification of early stage small-scale farming landscapes affects human perceptions and attitudes towards nature and the taxonomic and functional composition of cropland insect communities, direct quantification of the crop yield and economic consequences of this is sorely needed. Assessment of actual vs. perceived ecosystem disservices would also aid the conservation measures needed to make land-sparing work.

This thesis assessed the costs and benefits distribution of improving drinking water quality through a land set-aside payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme in a watershed of Honduras. The benefits of improving drinking water quality were determined using a contingent valuation survey for a stated willingness-to-pay (WTP) for improved drinking water quality through a PES scheme; and a revealed WTP was determined as the sum of averting expenditure and illness damage costs. Likewise, the costs of water conservation were determined through two approaches, the flow and rent opportunity costs of upstream landholders. Both WTP measures evidenced that beneficiaries could afford and were willing to pay for improved drinking water quality. The two WTP measures were not correlated, but this could be due to biased estimates or context-dependent preferences for each approach. Conversely, the cost of water conservation came to an overall flow net return of US$1,410 ha-1, with coffee exhibiting the highest returns. However, the median positive returns without coffee, US$ 140, are used and they are correlated to the rent opportunity costs. Identifying a reliable, accurate and cost-effective method to determine opportunity costs is challenging, but the two methods employed provided valid estimates. This study identifies and discusses several distributional issues for PES schemes; these are the upstream-downstream externality framework, peoples’ perceptions, unequal water governance, and fair targeting of payments to service providers. The WTP for improved drinking water quality is not sufficient to compensate the opportunity costs of landholders. The WTP would only cover 6% to 10% of the estimated cost of the water conservation. Thus, a user-based PES scheme at the study site is not feasible. Water conservation is more likely to be possible if substantial external support is obtained or through a sustainable land management-based scheme.

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Much public and private effort is being directed towards the development of more sustainable chemical feedstocks, yet the associated complexities of technological transitions and the technical, institutional and policy-related challenges they raise are often not wholly recognised. This thesis aims to develop an understanding of the key dynamics of technological change in the chemical industry, with respect to changes in feedstocks and the influence of the changing energy (and climate policy) landscape. It builds on, and contributes to, the ‘innovations’ literature that seeks to translate empirical research on past technological transitions into practical guidance for policy-makers. In particular, this thesis explores the relevance of the close relationship – or ‘co-evolution’ – between chemicals and liquid fuels production, which has not been analysed elsewhere. Transitions between technological systems involve evolutionary processes. The past both shapes the current system and influences future options and pathways. This thesis investigates the historical transition from coal-based to petrochemical feedstocks in the UK (1921-1967), applying a system dynamics approach to extract and elucidate the key interrelationships between technologies, policy and society. The findings are then used to inform a series of interviews with key organisations to gain insights into expectations for renewable raw materials (RRM) in the UK. The results provide a strong indication of the decision-making procedures of actors, and tensions between different industrial activities. They thus provide an empirical basis for developing foresight scenarios that might help inform the current debate about technological transitions, especially those to RRM. This thesis shows that the technological trajectory of the organic chemical industry has for many decades been influenced heavily by governmental attempts to steer technological change towards a changing set of policy priorities. This process has been accompanied by attempts of industrialists to steer policy priorities towards preferred technological trajectories. Parallels can be drawn with the current attempts of policymakers to achieve greater societal sustainability. Results indicate that the innovation system around RRM is already experiencing the socio-technical dynamics of regime disruption and competing designs.

The introduction of invasive pests beyond their natural range is one of the main causes of the loss of biodiversity and leads to severe costs. Bioeconomic models that integrate biological invasion spread theory, economic impacts and invasion management would be of great help to increase the transparency of pest risk analysis (PRA) and provide for more effective and efficient management of invasive pests. In this thesis, bioeconomic models of management of invasive pests are developed. The models are applied to three cases of study. The main case looks at the invasion in Europe by the western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera ssp. virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae). A range of quantitative modelling approaches was employed: (i) dispersal kernels fitted to mark-release-recapture experimental data; (ii) optimal control models combined with info-gap theory; (iii) spatially explicit stochastic simulation models; and (iv) agent-based models. As a result of the application of the models new insights on the management of invasive pests and the links between spread and economic impacts were gained: (i) current official management measures to eradicate WCR were found to be ineffective; (ii) eradication and containment programmes that are economically optimal under no uncertainty were found out to be also the most robustly immune policy to unacceptable outcomes under severe uncertainty; (iii) PRA focusing on single invasive pests might lead to management alternatives that dot not correspond to the optimal economic allocation if the rest of the invasive pests sharing the same management budget are considered; (iv) the control of satellite colonies of an invasion occurring by stratified dispersal is ineffective when a strong propagule pressure is generated from the main body of the invasion and this effect is increased by the presence of human-assisted long-distance dispersal; and (v) agent-based models were shown to be an adequate tool to integrate biological invasion spread models with economic analysis models.

This research develops a bio-economic modelling framework for the assessment of agricultural and water policy change implications for irrigated agriculture. It aims to contribute towards the implementation of the Water Framework Directive within the European Union, particularly in regard to the principles of cost recovery of water services and water demand management for irrigation. The bio-economic framework combines local agro-ecological with socio-economic elements, allowing for the introduction of biophysical relationships of irrigated agricultural production into the appraisal of policy instruments. This framework is used to investigate the comparative performance of water management policy instruments for irrigation, including volumetric pricing, flat pricing, a two-part tariff and water allotments. Implications of these water policy instruments are assessed in combination with agricultural market and policy scenarios, which are used to define the economic background in which water policies will operate. This operational framework is designed within a microeconomic context at the farm level that takes into account crop yield-water relationships, the revealed economic behaviour of farmers, as well as structural productive patterns of representative agricultural systems in two case study areas in the south of Portugal. This integrated approach provides a comprehensive understanding of the implications of agricultural and water policies on irrigated agriculture within the European Union, unravels conflicts and identifies synergies between these policies. Simulation of water policy instruments produced substantial differences in performance across farming systems, enforcement levels, and agricultural policy and market settings. Results suggest that water pricing, on its own, is not necessarily the most effective means for achieving the WFD water demand management and cost recovery objectives, and proposes that a policy mix combining economic with regulatory elements may be best designed to pursue these objectives with fewer detrimental consequences. This study highlights that conflicts between CAP and the WFD may result in losses of efficiency, policy efficacy and losses of welfare, that could be minimised by integrating both policy measures and objectives, in a coherent and combined approach, exploring synergies and coordinating efforts to overcome sources of conflict.

This thesis is an empirical-based study of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and its implications in terms of corporate environmental and financial performance. The novelty of this study includes the extended scope of the data coverage, as most previous studies have examined only the power sector. The use of verified emissions data of ETS-regulated firms as the environmental compliance measure and as the potential differentiating criteria that concern the valuation of EU ETS-exposed firms in the stock market is also an original aspect of this study. The study begins in Chapter 2 by introducing the background information on the emission trading system (ETS), which focuses on (i) the adoption of ETS as an environmental management instrument and (ii) the adoption of ETS by the European Union as one of its central climate policies. Chapter 3 surveys four databases that provide carbon emissions data in order to determine the most suitable source of the data to be used in the later empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter, which is also Chapter 4 of this thesis, investigates the determinants of the emissions compliance performance of the EU ETS-exposed firms through constructing the best possible performance ratio from verified emissions data and self-configuring models for a panel regression analysis. Chapter 5 examines the impacts on the EU ETS-exposed firms in terms of their equity valuation with customised portfolios and multi-factor market models. The research design takes into account the emissions allowance (EUA) price as an additional factor, as it has the most direct association with the EU ETS to control for the exposure. The final empirical Chapter 6 takes the investigation one step further, by specifically testing the degree of ETS exposure facing different sectors with sector-based portfolios and an extended multi-factor market model. The findings from the emissions performance ratio analysis show that the business model of firms significantly influences emissions compliance, as the capital intensity has a positive association with the increasing emissions-to-emissions cap ratio. Furthermore, different sectors show different degrees of sensitivity towards the determining factors. The production factor influences the performance ratio of the Utilities sector, but not the Energy or Materials sectors. The results show that the capital intensity has a more profound influence on the utilities sector than on the materials sector. With regard to the financial performance impact, ETS-exposed firms as aggregate portfolios experienced a substantial underperformance during the 2001–2004 period, but not in the operating period of 2005–2011. The results of the sector-based portfolios show again the differentiating effect of the EU ETS on sectors, as one sector is priced indifferently against its benchmark, three sectors see a constant underperformance, and three sectors have altered outcomes.