Cutting carbon emissions is a global priority, wherever they occur, and those associated with crime are no exception. This research project explores the carbon cost of crime and crime prevention to ensure that carbon emissions can be considered wherever possible. Although this study focuses on crime in England and Wales as a case study, this can be applied elsewhere around the world. A lifecycle perspective was adopted throughout, to ensure that all aspects of the carbon footprint were accounted for. The carbon footprint of crime was estimated using Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EE-IOA) multipliers, and crime prevention measures were analysed by systematically reviewing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) environmental declarations. The study estimated that crime in England and Wales gave rise to over 4 million tCO2e in the year 2011, representing the ‘carbon cost of crime’. The falling number of criminal offences has resulted in a reduced carbon footprint from around 7 million tCO2e in 1995 to below 3 million tCO2e in 2015 (a cumulative reduction of over 54 million tCO2e). To explore burglary prevention measures, the carbon footprint was combined with an indicator of how secure against burglary the products were. Window and door locks were shown to be the highest performing individual measures with low carbon footprints and the highest chance of preventing crime. The highest performing combinations included window locks, internal lighting, door locks and external lighting. Burglar alarms were the worst performing measure, from both environmental and security perspectives. Overall, it is clear that crime and crime prevention have a carbon cost, and that carbon emissions need to be assessed and reduced wherever possible. The study has contributed towards informing practitioners and policy-makers of this connection between crime and the environment. If a low crime and low-carbon future is to be achieved, the encouraging trend of a decreasing carbon footprint attributable to crime needs to be maintained, and strategies must take into account environmental considerations alongside social and economic benefits.

This thesis reports on the development and testing of a form of participatory budgeting in which citizens are asked to choose from a set of local authority interventions whilst having to comply with two constraints – one financial and the other relating to greenhouse gas emissions. The project has its roots in the weak performance to date of the local government sector in responding to climate change, despite its considerable influence. It is also informed by the troubled relationship between local authorities and citizens. Participatory budgeting is selected as the starting point because it has been found to draw a larger and more diverse audience than more orthodox forms of citizen participation and because it can present participants with a requirement to trade off priorities. The core of the thesis describes the design and development of “participatory emissions budgeting”, a central aspect being the estimation of emissions attributable to local authority interventions. This culminates in formal trials of the method with citizens, followed by quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The method is then presented to a range of local authority stakeholders to gauge their views concerning its potential application. Participatory emissions budgeting is found to be technically feasible: participants consistently arrive, through deliberation, at choice sets that comply with the constraints set. Whilst they report finding the experience interesting and enjoyable, they are critical of the imposition of an emission constraint, in the context of general scepticism concerning the value or legitimacy of tackling climate change through such a decision-making process. Local authority stakeholders see some value in the method but would not wish to apply it as designed – to decide on the allocation of resources. They would rather use it to support decision making within their organisations, as a market-research or educational tool.

Slurry stores are an important source of both methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3) emissions. Strategies to reduce these emissions include modifying the slurry environment through use of natural and biological additives. In this thesis, two such strategies were explored. The first three experimental chapters explored the potential to mitigate emissions by using inorganic acid (50% concentrated sulphuric acid H2SO4), fermentable carbohydrates at 10% w/v to reduce slurry pH, and biological additives (effective microorganisms - EM) at 5% v/v, to suppress methanogenesis. The addition of a carbohydrate source resulted in ‘self-acidification’ of cattle slurry from average pH 6.8 to pH’s as low as pH 3.5 in laboratory and pot-scale experiments, under both warm and cool conditions. The reduced slurry pH inhibited both CH4 and NH3 emissions significantly (by between 72% and 84% for CH4, and 57% and 92% for NH3). The use of agriculture food-chain by-products as sources of available carbohydrates, such as brewery spent grains, successfully promoted self-acidification by producing large amounts of lactic acid and reducing the slurry pH to 4.0. As a result, the greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq.; CH4+CO2+N2O) emission was inhibited by 86%. However, NH3 emissions were not significantly inhibited. Meanwhile, methane oxidation by methanotrophs within slurry crusts was also explored, but bio-augmentation with EM showed no clear effect on this potential CH4 sink. The application of self-acidified slurry to ryegrass in a pot experiment demonstrated significant NH3 and CH4 inhibition compared to the untreated slurry during the first 48 hours after application. However, plant health was severely affected by the acidic slurry treatment, resulting in plant death in most cases. The mechanism for the self-acidification of slurry was elucidated by a conducting a metagenomic analysis of the slurries immediately after carbohydrate addition, and at the end of the 30 day storage period. This linked the dominance of Lactobacillales in the self-acidified slurry to the high lactic acid production and reduced pH in the treatments that received the carbohydrate source. The metagenomic analysis also identified groups of hydrogenotrophic methanogens of the Order Methanobacteriales, Methanomicrobiales and Methanosarcinales, as the dominant methanogens in both treated and untreated slurries. The low CH4 emission from the self-acidified slurry was associated with low abundance of methanogens. Whilst this study demonstrated the potential for self-acidification of slurry to reduce CH4 production and emission, as well as reduction in NH3 emissions from slurry stores and following land spreading, further research is necessary to test the strategy at a larger scale, and develop methods that minimize the negative effect of the acidified slurry on soil and plant health, e.g. via slurry injection or incorporation.

This thesis investigates the governance of climate change policy in English and German cities. Based on fieldwork research in the comparable 'twin towns' of Newcastle and Gelsenkirchen, it focuses on how local authorities in these cities have worked with other actors to increase their capacity to achieve policy objectives. The study analyses these governance arrangements in the context of climate change strategies, planning policy and how the municipalities use resources in their everyday corporate activities. Drawing on theories and typologies of multi-level governance (Hooghe and Marks 2003), policy styles (Richardson 1982), urban governance (Stone 1989) and dependencies in inter-governmental relations (Rhodes 1981), it introduces a new model for mapping power relationships between governing actors. By applying this model to the empirical cases, the thesis identifies how central-local relations in England are looser than those in Germany, and how this results in weaker municipal institutions. This means that Newcastle has had to rely more on local stakeholders to achieve its objectives when compared to Gelsenkirchen. The English council is also less able to exert hierarchical authority over other bodies. Although the study found that the two cities’ approaches are converging in some areas, they are diverging in others. Indeed, they have developed their own distinct coping strategies to achieve policy objectives in the face of similar endogenous and exogenous pressures. These coping strategies are shaped by the institutional framework and power dependent relationships that apply to each city, which challenges the idea that policy problems determine the way in which the political system operates (see Lowi 1964). Such findings have implications for other municipalities in both England and Germany, as well as cities elsewhere in Europe that are seeking to address climate change or other ‘wicked’ public policy issues.

Climate change mitigation constitutes a social dilemma, a conflict between personal and collective outcomes. Behaviours that result in personal benefits (e.g. travelling quickly, conveniently and cheaply by plane) also result in a collective cost in the form of climate change. Behavioural theories and evidence suggest this social dilemma structure significantly influences behaviour. This thesis aims to understand how the social dilemma structure of climate change mitigation affects people’s personal actions to address climate change. The first empirical study explores whether people perceive decisions with emission consequences as social dilemmas. Findings show that making salient the effected collective or the pro-social nature of the decision increases awareness of the social dilemma structure. A second set of empirical studies, using quantitative and qualitative methods, further demonstrate that there are two sets of considerations to the climate change mitigation dilemma: 1) non-cooperative considerations (e.g. a focus on immediate personal benefits or a temptation to free-ride) which are linked to a decrease in actions on climate change, and 2) cooperative considerations (e.g. a focus on outcomes for others or fairness considerations) which are linked to an increase in actions on climate change. Results also show that people apply cognitive strategies to counteract the discouraging effect of non-cooperative considerations. A third set of empirical studies tested whether communication massages based on cooperative considerations can increase personal actions to address climate change. Findings suggest that especially framing a message based on the collective outcome can increase actions, but careful consideration of the audience and the situation is required. Overall, this thesis makes the important contribution of demonstrating that the social dilemma structure of climate change mitigation does not necessarily discourage actions to address climate change, but also offers an encouraging perspective through a focus on the collective outcome.

Humanity’s greatest challenge is to improve the living standards of billions of people across the world without surpassing the planetary boundaries, and especially within the carbon space compatible with a 2°C future. Mitigation actions are thus required to create synergies and address climate and development goals simultaneously. It has been recognised that technology-led mitigation measures can accomplish this task, as long as they are also complemented with demand-side measures. Several bodies of literature have emphasised, for example, the urgent need to reduce consumption levels, particularly in industrialised economies. However, in the context of an ever more globalised world, the climate benefits delivered by demand-side mitigation policies can be offset by the existence of potential negative consequences in developing nations via international trade. This thesis assesses the compatibility between climate change mitigation actions taken in industrialised nations and improving development prospects in the developing world from a demand-side approach. The study contributes to the existing knowledge base by providing answers to four separate but related research questions that were proposed to examine relevant aspects associated with this issue. The results reveal that CO2 emissions have increased monotonically with income without showing signs of having decoupled over time. The findings also show that while curbing final demand for imports in developed countries can contribute to reduce their consumption-based emissions and free carbon space, they can also curtail the development opportunities available to the global South. Moreover, specific policy instruments, like border carbon adjustments, can potentially distort trade flows and jeopardise development in developing nations. Finally, the analysis unveils that the available carbon space compatible with a 2°C target is insufficient to deliver significant improvements in living standards in less developed countries given the continuity of the status quo. The sharing of the development and carbon spaces should be done in an equitable manner. The longer it takes developed countries to significantly cut their emissions, the smaller is the carbon space available particularly to the poorest nations who need it the most. The conclusions from this work evidence the necessity to formulate alternative development pathways capable of facilitating a transition towards an equitable, low-carbon, high-developed, and sustainable global economy.

One of the biggest challenges faced by Sierra Leonean farmers is pest control. Birds, insects, rodents, crustaceans and other organisms can drastically reduce yields. In order to prevent these organisms from destroying their crops, farmers use pesticides. However there are reports that these chemicals are being misused and are having negative impact on the environment and the health of the farmers. This research aimed to investigate pesticide use in rice fields and its potential effects on the environment and the health of rice farmers. The research also studied the fate of chlorpyrifos (the most widely used pesticide) in Sierra Leone soils when applied using local methods used by farmers in Sierra Leone. Five hundred farmers and one hundred health workers across the country were interviewed. Fifty focused group discussion were done. Field observations were also done. Two experimental plots (one on a boliland and one on a riverine ecosystem) on which rice cultivated were setup. Three concentrations of each of chlorpyrifos diethyl, chlorpyrifos dimethyl and a 1:1 mixture of chlorpyrifos diethyl and chlorpyrifos dimethyl were applied. Soils and rice samples from the plots were analysed for residual chlorpyrifos. Soils, rice and biota samples were from rice fields were also analysed for residual chlorpyrifos. It was found that the prevalence of pesticide use on rice farms is high and the chemicals are misused. Farmers are exposed to pesticides. Cases of pesticide related symptoms investigated in this research were found to be more prevalent among farmers that use pesticides than those not using pesticides. Chlorpyrifos is not persistent in Sierra Leone soils when recommended doses are applied. Levels of chlorpyrifos in rice samples are far below the UK and WHO recommended maximum limits when recommended doses are applied during cultivation. Soils from farms are highly contaminated. Rice and biota samples from the farms are contaminated and their consumption can expose humans to levels that could cause chronic effects.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a potent threat to food security. In recent years, increasing evidence suggests that ozone can have large effects on the growth and functioning of grassland species, although the responses of grassland to ozone are complex and difficult to predict. Given the global ecological and economic importance of grasslands, there is a continuing need to research the effects of ozone on grassland and pasture. In this PhD project, the impacts of ozone on temperate managed pasture were investigated, primarily through a series of ozone-exposure experiments. Elevated ozone (seasonal mean concentration 30-67ppb) was found to have large impacts on pasture vegetation, including injury and premature senescence, reduced biomass production, declining production and yield, and impacts on forage quality. Ozone impacts on nodulation and nitrogen (N)-fixation in legumes have not extensively been investigated, but could have important consequences for pasture sustainability, with predicted reductions in the root nodule biomass of clovers (Trifolium spp.) of 12% or more in UK pasture. Ozone impacts on below ground biomass displayed a strong interaction with cutting, and intensive grazing could disproportionately increase the sensitivity of N-fixation in pasture to the effects of ozone. Flux-based ozone doseresponse relationships are constructed for biomass, total injury rates, N-fixation and forage quality in high-sugar ryegrass (HSG) pasture mesocosms, which could assist in the development of new critical levels for the protection of pasture vegetation.

Diffuse agricultural pollution presents a major challenge to global water quality management, requiring the adoption of new land management practices such as constructed agricultural wetlands. These wetlands, promoted in agri-environment schemes, may effectively intercept rainfall-mobilised phosphorus (P), nitrogen (N) and carbon (C). However, wetlands may potentially facilitate ‘pollutant swapping’: the transfer of one form or pathway of pollution for another, as a result of mitigation efforts. Retained pollutants may be remobilised through solubilisation or as the greenhouse gases (GHGs): methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Therefore this research examines the potential for agricultural wetlands to ‘swap’ local improvements in water quality, for (1) increased pollution to groundwaters and (2) to the atmosphere. GHG exchanges from an agricultural wetland (area 0.032 ha) in Cumbria, UK were monitored over an 18 month period, using floating gas chambers, ebullition traps and diffusive gas exchange models. While the wetland was a net sink of particulate C and N, mean net releases of CO2 (2249 – 5724 mg m-2 d -1 ), N2O (0.93 – 2.04 mg m-2 d -1 ) and CH4 (169 - 456 mg m -2 d -1 ) were significantly greater than those from adjacent riparian land. Wetland releases of CH4 were most significant in terms of potential atmospheric impact compared to other wetland GHG releases. Shallow groundwater samples extracted from a piezometer network surrounding the study site, illustrated that retained sediments acted as a source of NH4-N and DOC to surface and local groundwaters but mitigated leaching and outward transport of NO3-N to surface and groundwaters. Field and laboratory microcosm experiments demonstrated that pollutant swapping of GHGs and nutrients may be increased during periods of reduced water oxygen content associated with eutrophic conditions. In wetland designs with water depths >0.5 m, anoxic conditions may perpetuate in lower water column zones and facilitate increased CH4 and NH4-N production and storage. Additionally, microcosm studies identified that disturbance of bottom sediments by stormflow may elicit heightened GHG and nutrient releases. Therefore the net impact of wetland construction in catchments may need reconsiderations, with respect to the potentially detrimental effects on water and the atmosphere. However upscaling of observations suggests that wetland implementation in the UK is unlikely to significantly increase GHG budgets. Use of shallower wetlands with vegetation or inlet baffles may reduce CH4 emissions by encouraging oxidation and protecting sediments from storm flows.

Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, with a radiative warming of 0.97 [0.74-1.20] W m-2 (Stocker et al., 2013a) and a global warming potential of 21 times that of CO2 over a 100 year timescale (Reay et al., 2010). Its significance to climate change is significant whereas our current understanding and quantification of its sources and sinks lack completeness. This thesis explains the development of novel technique to estimate methane emissions at high spatial resolution. There is a growing need for comparisons between emission estimates produced using bottom-up and top-down techniques. In response to this, an inversion approach, InTEM, was adapted to estimate methane emissions for the East of England at high spatial resolution. InTEM incorporates in situ atmospheric methane measurements and computer dispersion modelling into a statistical technique. Methane emission estimates are inferred using cost function analysis within a simulated annealing method. This thesis presents results covering a two year period (July 2012 - June 2014) in which atmospheric methane concentrations were recorded at 1 - 2 minute time steps at four locations within East Anglia. Precise measurements are obtained using gas chromatographs with flame ionisation detectors (GC-FID) for all sites except one, which uses a Picarro cavity ring down spectroscopy (CRDS) instrument. The UK Met Office's NAME dispersion model is used within InTEM to represent the physical atmospheric processes which occur throughout this period. Methane concentrations are shown to vary over different time frames and are dependent on various meteorological variables, particularly boundary layer height and wind speed. A case study into methane concentration at the Haddenham site shows influence from local landfill sources. Isotopic analysis from whole air samples give a δ13C isotopic signal of -58.3 ±2 ⁄ at the Haddenham site and -59.2 ±2 ⁄ at the nearby landfill. Emission estimates for the East of England are calculated at varying spatial resolutions, on annual and seasonal time frames. County scale methane emission estimates are produced and directly compared with the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). Estimates between the InTEM inventory and the NAEI are shown to be similar in counties close to the observation sites. The Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge countries are estimated to produce 80.4 ±3.3 kt yr-1 of methane between June 2013 - May 2014 (NAEI equivalent of 89.6 kt yr-1). Multiple site sensitivity analysis shows that all four sites are necessary for the county methane estimates but coarser estimates can be observed using a sub-selection of sites. Individual site biases were shown to have an impact on 1 -2 site inversions but the four site results minimised these biases.