The contemporary imperative of sustainable development has established an unprecedented degree of urgency, in view of the intransigent challenges posed by the persistent and ever-increasing energy and climate crises. In 2019, the Swedish building industry accounted for 21% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, with the structural framework of a building contributing to 34% of its overall emissions. In response to climate change and the housing demand caused by a growing population, sustainable construction solutions are needed. By substituting steel beams with timber beams, the carbon emissions caused by the building industry can be reduced significantly. This study investigates whether timber based, or steel-reinforced timber beams can provide comparable load-bearing capacity to steel beams while reducing carbon. How this impacts the cross-sectional height of the beams is also taken into consideration. Different load-bearing properties were calculated according to Eurocode using Excel for all the surveyed beams. The carbon emissions were calculated based on the weight of each beam combined with climate data obtained from the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning. Findings suggest that timber-based beams made from glulam or laminated veneer lumber exhibit moment capacity and bending stiffness on par with those of steel beams while reducing the carbon emissions drastically, but at the cost of increased cross-section height. Steel beams were identified as the main source of carbon emissions. Consequently, also making steelreinforced timber beams only marginally successful in reducing carbon emissions if at all.

In this comparative study were four alternative windows researched to find the most suitable ones for replacement when renovating the Million Programme housing. The methodology in the study involves a combination of methods, using interviews with companies and tenants, email correspondence with people who contributed to the study, and observation of a multi-family building built during the Million Programme. The result shows that all alternatives are ideal, and the only difference is the insulation performance and the energy-efficiency, which can be said to be minimal. CO2-emissions and thus climate impact will be lowered regardless of the choice of windows for replacement based on the alternatives investigated. The interviews show that the customer/client decides the choice of window, which the construction companies pass on to the window-suppliers. The existing windows in the observed building showed low quality of energy efficiency, comfort and thus high climate impact. Finally, it is concluded that focus should be on low U-values and emissions rather than on costs which should not be the deciding factor. Buildings should be renovated within the renovation cycle developed by the Energimyndigheten and Boverket for impact on CO2-emissions and climate. Other measures for improvements are also proposed in this study.

Transportation in Sweden currently accounts for one-third of domestic GHG emissions. Thereof more than 90 % are allocated to road traffic with passenger cars being the largest contributor. Hence, the Swedish government adopted stringent climate policies to cut transport emissionsby 70 % (compared to 2010) latest until 2030. Electrification is seen as one of the key strategies to mitigate climate change and to accomplish set climate goals. Hence, estimation and quantification of electric vehicle life cycle carbon footprints is of major interest to understand their environmental performance. As part of this study lifetime burdens for gasoline, diesel and battery electric vehicles were contrasted. Nominal end of life was assumed to be reached after 200.000 km. The life cycle inventory was conducted based on market and literature data and by employing the open-source LCA tool carculator. Impacts on material resources were assessed by various materialization models for vehicle glider, combustion powertrain and electric powertrain. Additional impact categories such as formation of fine particles, freshwater use and terrestrial ecotoxicity were included. Results showed that lifetime carbon footprints of electric vehicles in Sweden are 45-51 % lower compared to conventional diesel and gasoline drives. Per driven kilometer, electric vehicles caused 137,46 g CO2-eq./km, diesel vehicles 249,28 g/km and gasoline vehicles 282,75 g/km. Savings of electric drives mainly originate from vehicle operation (zero tailpipe emissions) and low carbon electricity generation (predominantly hydropower, nuclear energy and wind energy). Lifetime battery charging according to the Swedish energy system was found to provoke 1,03 t of GHG emissions. This is ten times lower compared to average EU loads. Modeling results for electric vehicle manufacturing disclosed a total carbon footprint of 17,63 t CO2-eq. with a significant portion of 5,99 t originating from lithium-ion batteries. This is 57-63 % higher than estimated production footprints for fossil fuel vehicles with the same amount of 8,63 t CO2-eq. allocated to the glider. However, performed sensitivity studies revealed significant potential to cut emissions from battery manufacturing with transition to European sites. Replacement and conversion of vehicles from the Swedish fleet was assessed according to both, a fixed lifetime perspective of 200.000 km and year-by-year scenario models. Three different paths projecting development of the vehicle stock until 2030 are presented. Results of this work showed that vehicle conversion offers potential to save about 1.191 kg of material resources (thereof 728 kg ferrous metals, 104 kg aluminum, 149 kg plastics and 210 kg other materials). Corresponding savings in production emissions comprise 8,63 t CO2-eq. through reuse of the vehicle glider. From a nationwide perspective, up to 34 % of annual GHG emissions and up to 60 % of the annual material demand could be saved. Results further suggest a target value of around 3,8 millionelectric vehicles by 2030 to achieve aspired emission limits. / Kurzzusammenfassung - Siehe angehängtes Dokument / <p>NOT KTH STUDENT (INTERNSHIP AT ITRL)</p> / International collaboration with University of Stuttgart

In the pursuit of low-carbon, renewable energy sources one option with great potential in the UK is tidal energy. Specifically the proposed construction of the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon (SBTL) in South Wales has become one such discussed option. With a potential net annual output of 400 GWh and a 120-year lifetime the scheme represents a long-term and large-scale electricity production option. An assessment of carbon emissions and embodied energy (EE) of the lagoon’s life cycle was carried out. Total lifetime carbon emissions for the SBTL are in the region of 470,000 tCO2e and EE was found to be around 7,800 TJ. The assessment shows that the SBTL has significantly lower emissions per year than the existing National Grid mix and with emissions of around 0.01 kgCO2e/KWh is significantly lower than the UK emissions target of 0.07 kgCO2e/KWh. Energy payback of the SBTL was found to be in the region of 5.5 years. The use of dredged ballast infill sourced from within the area of the lagoon plays an important role in keeping emissions and energy use low; and is a key consideration when planning future tidal lagoon structures.

Abu Dhabi has experienced an unprecedented development during the last half century, growing rapidly from a remote desert settlement to a thriving metropolitan. Today, the Emirate ranks among the countries with the highest GDP per capita in the world, and this impressive development is anticipated to continue in the decades to come.<p><p>However, there are several challenges to the sustainability of the current economic prosperity, and the environmental degradation that was caused by the rapid development is an important factor in this context. Today, the United Arab Emirates as a country has the highest ecological footprint per capita in the world and Abu Dhabi, hosting the major part of the heavy industries and oil extraction capacity in the country, has an even larger footprint. Key drivers of this poor environmental track-record are the high greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption levels.<p><p>This deterioration of environmental conditions has growing implications for the economic welfare and physical well-being of the population. So far, the government's environmental policy is mostly symbolic, and concrete policy measures are largely lacking today. On the contrary, there are crucial elements in the governmental policy that have strong negative impacts on environmental conditions and thus on the sustainability of Abu Dhabi's growth, such as generous implicit subsidies on energy commodities and water and an ambitious strategy for economic growth, depending on a strong expansion of heavy industry.<p><p>This poses the question how environmental conditions will develop, when the population boom and economic expansion are anticipated to continue. However, the academic literature on environmental sustainability issues in Abu Dhabi as well as in the wider Gulf region is limited. Moreover, applied policy studies on the topic are absent as well.<p><p>This dissertation intends to contribute to the academic literature as well as to insights from existing policy studies, by projecting the impact of sustained economic growth on environmental conditions in Abu Dhabi. It compares a baseline scenario of economic growth with the four most relevant policy options aimed at footprint reductions available to policy makers in the Emirate: i) The introduction of a nuclear power plant; ii) An abandonment of utility price controls; iii) Shifts in the subsidization policy of water and energy markets; iv) Energy efficiency improvements in selected parts of the economy.<p><p>A recursively dynamic, multi-sectoral computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to generate the results in this dissertation, focusing on the two most important aspects of the ecological footprint in Abu Dhabi mentioned above. The CGE model is calibrated to a SAM for Abu Dhabi for 2009, and its specification is chosen to facilitate a focus on energy consumption and sustainability issues. Besides, it is extended by an environmental module and a fossil fuel module, and it incorporates several other modifications that are tailored to the Abu Dhabi economy.<p><p>Simulation results under a baseline scenario of economic growth show that carbon emissions will grow by 282% by 2030 compared to the base year 2009, and water consumption is anticipated to increase by 312%.<p><p>The introduction of nuclear plants, at the scale that is previewed today, will yield a reduction in emissions of 2.6% compared to the baseline scenario. The economic impact will be positive, with a 0.5% increase in GDP and small gains in employment levels.<p><p>Price liberalizations in the utility markets are a politically sensitive theme. When implemented, they can yield a 7.6% reduction in emissions and a 2.3% in water consumption by 2030 (vs. baseline). However, the economic cost involved amounts to 0.3% of GDP.<p><p>An abandonment of subsidies in the energy and water markets can lead to a 11.1% drop in carbon emissions, and a 28.8% decline in water consumption vs. baseline. The domestic economic impacts of this change are negative, but the GDP shows a modest 0.6% growth, due to improvements in the foreign trade balance.<p><p>Finally, efficiency improvements can lead to reductions in carbon emissions (13.8%) and water consumption (17.5%) compared to the baseline, and bring economic gains of 1.0% of GDP.<p><p>All four simulated policy scenarios in this dissertation bring about reductions in the ecological footprint, compared to the baseline as described above. Nonetheless, the consumption levels of energy and water as well as the related carbon emissions will be substantially higher in 2030 than they are today, under each of these scenarios. As a policy implication, the dissertation therefore finds that the previewed deterioration in environmental conditions requires active policy, if current welfare and prosperity are to be sustained. When assessed in the appropriate policy context, environmental conservation and improvements in the ecological footprint should be treated with a higher priority in the broad portfolio of development goals in Abu Dhabi.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Bakgrund: Den globala uppvärmningen är en av vår tids stora utmaningar. Företagen står för en stor del av utsläppen och därav är det av vikt hur företagen styrs framåt, då styrningen påverkar företagens miljöarbete. Olika mekanismer av bolagsstyrning kan påverka företagens miljöarbete och dessa mekanismer kan även tänkas variera i påverkan mellan olika institutionella kontexter. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att göra en jämförande studie mellan Sverige, Tyskland och Frankrike angående om bolagsstyrningsmekanismer har en påverkan på finansiella och miljömässiga prestationer samt om miljömässiga prestationer har en påverkan på finansiella prestationer. Metod: Metoden som använts är longitudinell och komparativ med en deduktiv ansats. Agentteorin, aktieägarperspektivet, intressentteorin, legitimitetsteorin, CSR som praktisk tillämpning samt tidigare forskning har legat till grund för studiens hypoteser. Slutsatser: Resultaten ger indikationer på att det finns både likheter och skillnader i vilken relation bolagsstyrningsmekanismerna har med miljömässiga och finansiella prestationer mellan länderna. Relationer mellan miljömässiga och finansiellaprestationer finns endast i Tyskland och Frankrike, vilket tyder på att det finns skillnader mellan länderna i vilken påverkan miljöarbetet i ett företag kan ha på lönsamheten. / Background: Global warming is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Companies is responsible for a large part of the emissions and how companies are governed moving forward is of importance since governance impacts companies’ environmental work. Different mechanisms in corporate governance may impact their environmental work and the mechanisms may vary in impact between different institutional contexts. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to do a comparative study between Sweden, Germany, and France regarding whether certain mechanisms in corporate governance may have an impact on financial and environmental performance and also if environmental performance has an impact on financial performance. Method: The method used is a combination of longitudinal and comparative method with a deductive approach. Agency theory, shareholder perspective, stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, CSR as a practical application as well as former research is used to formulate the hypotheses of the study. Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that both similarities and differences in the relationship between corporate governance and financial and environmental performance exists between the countries. Relationships between environmental and financial performance is only existing in Germany and France, which indicates that there are differences between the countries regarding the impact environmental work in a company may have on profitability.

Cette thèse, divisée en trois chapitres, contribue à la vaste et récente littérature sur l'évaluation des actifs et la finance climatique. Le premier chapitre contribue à la littérature sur la finance climatique tandis que les deux derniers contribuent à la littérature sur l'évalutaion des actifs. Le premier chapitre analyse comment les politiques environnementales visant à réduire les émissions de carbone affectent les prix des actifs et la consommation des ménages. En utilisant de nouvelles données, je propose une mesure des émissions de carbone du point de vue du consommateur et une mesure du risque de croissance de la consommation de carbone. Les mesures sont basées sur des informations sur la consommation totale et l'empreinte carbone de chaque bien et service. Pour analyser les effets des politiques environnementales, un modèle de risques de long terme est développé dans lequel la croissance de la consommation comprend deux composantes: le taux de croissance de la consommation de carbone et le taux de croissance de la part de la consommation de carbone dans la consommation totale. Ce chapitre soutient que le risque de long terme de la croissance de la consommation provient principalement de la croissance de la consommation de carbone découlant des politiques et des actions visant à réduire les émissions, telles que l'Accord de Paris et la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le changement climatique (COP26). Mon modèle aide à détecter le risque de long terme dans la consommation des politiques climatiques tout en résolvant simultanément les énigmes de la prime de risque et de la volatilité, et en expliquant la coupe transversale des actifs. La décomposition de la consommation pourrait conduire à identifier les postes de consommation les plus polluants et à construire une stratégie d'investissement minimisant ou maximisant un critère environnemental de long terme. Le deuxième chapitre (co-écrit avec René Garcia et Caio Almeida) étudie le rôle des facteurs non linéaires indépendants dans la valorisation des actifs. Alors que la majorité des facteurs d'actualisation stochastique (SDF) les plus utilisés qui expliquent la coupe transversale des rendements boursiers sont obtenus à partir des composantes principales linéaires, nous montrons dans ce deuxième chapitre que le fait de permettre la substitution de certaines composantes principales linéaires par des facteurs non linéaires indépendants améliore systématiquement la capacité des facteurs d'actualisation stochastique de valoriser la coupe transversale des actifs. Nous utilisons les 25 portefeuilles de Fama-French, cinquante portefeuilles d'anomalies et cinquante anomalies plus les termes d'interaction basés sur les caractéristiques pour tester l'efficacité des facteurs dynamiques non linéaires. Le SDF estimé à l'aide d'un mélange de facteurs non linéaires et linéaires surpasse ceux qui utilisent uniquement des facteurs linéaires ou des rendements caractéristiques bruts en termes de performance mesurée par le R-carré hors échantillon. De plus, le modèle hybride - utilisant à la fois des composantes principales non linéaires et linéaires - nécessite moins de facteurs de risque pour atteindre les performances hors échantillon les plus élevées par rapport à un modèle utilisant uniquement des facteurs linéaires. Le dernier chapitre étudie la prévisibilité du rendement des anomalies à travers les déciles à l'aide d'un ensemble de quarante-huit variables d'anomalie construites à partir des caractéristiques de titres individuels. Après avoir construit les portefeuilles déciles, cet article étudie leur prévisibilité en utilisant leurs propres informations passées et d'autres prédicteurs bien connus. Les analyses révèlent que les rendements des portefeuilles déciles sont persistants et prévisibles par le ratio de la valeur comptable sur la valeur de marché de l'entreprise, la variance des actions, le rendement des dividendes, le ratio des prix sur les dividendes, le taux de rendement à long terme, le rendement des obligations d'entreprise, le TED Spread et l'indice VIX. De plus, une stratégie consistant à prendre une position longue sur le décile avec le rendement attendu le plus élevé et à prendre une position courte sur le décile avec le rendement attendu le plus bas chaque mois donne des rendements moyens et un rendement par risque bien meilleurs que la stratégie traditionnelle fondée sur les déciles extrêmes pour quarante-cinq des quarante-huit anomalies. / This thesis, divided into three chapters, contributes to the vast and recent literature on asset pricing, and climate finance. The first chapter contributes to the climate finance literature while the last two contribute to the asset pricing literature. The first chapter analyzes how environmental policies that aim to reduce carbon emissions affect asset prices and household consumption. Using novel data, I propose a measure of carbon emissions from a consumer point of view and a carbon consumption growth risk measure. The measures are based on information on aggregate consumption and the carbon footprint for each good and service. To analyze the effects of environmental policies, a long-run risks model is developed where consumption growth is decomposed into two components: the growth rate of carbon consumption and the growth rate of the share of carbon consumption out of total consumption. This paper argues that the long-run risk in consumption growth comes mainly from the carbon consumption growth arising from policies and actions to curb emissions, such as the Paris Agreement and the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26). My model helps to detect long-run risk in consumption from climate policies while simultaneously solving the equity premium and volatility puzzles, and explaining the cross-section of assets. The decomposition of consumption could lead to identifying the most polluting consumption items and to constructing an investment strategy that minimizes or maximizes a long-term environmental criterion. The second chapter (co-authored with René Garcia, and Caio Almeida) studies the role of truly independent nonlinear factors in asset pricing. While the most successful stochastic discount factor (SDF) models that price well the cross-section of stock returns are obtained from regularized linear principal components of characteristic-based returns we show that allowing for substitution of some linear principal components by independent nonlinear factors consistently improves the SDF's ability to price this cross-section. We use the Fama-French 25 ME/BM-sorted portfolios, fifty anomaly portfolios, and fifty anomalies plus characteristic-based interaction terms to test the effectiveness of the nonlinear dynamic factors. The SDF estimated using a mixture of nonlinear and linear factors outperforms the ones using solely linear factors or raw characteristic returns in terms of out-of-sample R-squared pricing performance. Moreover, the hybrid model --using both nonlinear and linear principal components-- requires fewer risk factors to achieve the highest out-of-sample performance compared to a model using only linear factors. The last chapter studies anomaly return predictability across deciles using a set of forty-eight anomaly variables built using individual stock characteristics. After constructing the decile portfolios, this paper studies their predictability using their own past information, and other well-known predictors. The analyses reveal that decile portfolio returns are persistent and predictable by book-to-market, stock variance, dividend yield, dividend price ratio, long-term rate of return, corporate bond return, TED Spread, and VIX index. Moreover, a strategy consisting of going long on the decile with the highest expected return and going short on the decile with the lowest expected return each month gives better mean returns and Sharpe ratios than the traditional strategy based on extreme deciles for forty-five out of forty-eight anomalies.

No description available.

There is a growing demand for climate reporting of digital solutions and Internet services. However, the impacts of data transmission have historically been the least studied part of the ICT sector and in the few studies that exist, the magnitude of Internet energy intensity varies by a scale as large as 20,000. This indicates that the assessment of network traffic is a complex task, and there is currently no consensus of how to correctly assess it.  In an attempt to guide process development within the area, this report sought to identify and address potential challenges with assessing the environmental impact of network traffic during its life cycle. This was completed through a combination of a literature review and semi-structured interviews with experts in the field. Several areas in the form of knowledge gaps, unsolved methodological issues, and areas in need of further development were identified and addressed.  Eight key challenges were identified and relate to the areas of system boundaries, data collection methods, energy intensity metrics, transparency and data availability, age of data, allocation procedures, assumptions on inventory level, and impact categories. In an attempt to address said challenges, several suggestions on how to proceed were presented, as well as areas in need of further investigation. It was furthermore found that the sector should strive to agree upon a number of parameters of significance to enable future harmonized studies of the environmental impact of network traffic during its life cycle. / Efterfrågan på klimatrapportering av digitala lösningar och Internettjänster ökar allt mer. Samtidigt är effekterna av datatrafik historiskt sett den minst studerade delen av IKT-sektorn, och i de få studier som finns varierar storleken på Internets energiintensitet med en skala på 20 000. Detta indikerar att bedömningen av nätverkstrafik är en komplex uppgift, och i nuläget saknas en konsensus kring hur det bäst kan mätas.  I ett försök att vägleda processutveckling inom området försökte rapporten identifiera och analysera potentiella utmaningar som kan uppstå när man bedömer miljöpåverkan av nätverkstrafik under dess livscykel. Med en kombination av en litteraturstudie och halvstrukturerade kvalitativa forskningsintervjuer med experter inom forskningsområdet identifierades och behandlades ett flertal områden i form av kunskapsluckor, olösta metodologiska frågor och områden i behov av vidareutveckling.  Resultatet visade att åtta utmaningar av hög relevans existerar inom områdena systemgränser, datainsamlingsmetoder, energiintensitetsmätvärden, transparens och datatillgänglighet, snabb teknikutveckling, allokering, antaganden och miljöpåverkningskategorier. I ett försök att ta itu med de nämnda utmaningarna presenterades ett flertal förslag till lösningar samt områden som behöver undersökas ytterligare i framtiden. Det konstaterades dessutom att sektorn behöver sträva efter att enas om ett antal parametrar av betydelse för att möjliggöra framtida harmoniserade studier av nätverkstrafikens miljöpåverkan under dess livscykel.

Die Dissertation beleuchtet die dringende Notwendigkeit, Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um den Druck auf die Ressourcen der Erde zu mindern und nachhaltige Bedingungen für gegenwärtige und künftige Generationen zu schaffen. Zwei zentrale Strategien werden diskutiert: Die Dekarbonisierung von Energiesystemen und die Reduktion der Emissionen von Haushalten. Diese Strategien sind eng mit Fragen von Gerechtigkeit verbunden, sowohl im Zusammenhang mit einer gerechten Energiewende als auch in der Emissionsminderung von Haushalten. Die Dissertation besteht aus vier Artikeln, die diese Themen vertiefen. Die erste untersucht den Kohleausstieg in europäischen Regionen und die Wahrnehmung der Energiewende durch die davon betroffenen Menschen. Die nächsten beiden untersuchen die Emissionsreduktion auf Haushaltsebene, wobei die sozialen Realitäten der Emittenten analysiert werden, um Reduktionspotenziale zu identifizieren. Die vierte Publikation bietet einen historischen Überblick über Energiekonsummuster und zeigt vergangene und bestehenden Ungleichheiten auf. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Klimakrise nur unter Berücksichtigung von Ungleichheiten und Ungerechtigkeiten verstanden und angegangen werden kann. Lösungen müssen darauf abzielen, weitere Ungerechtigkeiten zu vermeiden. Die Ergebnisse der Dissertation bieten unter anderem wertvolle Erkenntnisse für Entscheidungsträger auf verschiedenen Ebenen, um eine gerechte Transformation zu klimaneutralen Gesellschaften voranzutreiben. Es wird jedoch betont, dass weitere Forschung in diesen Bereichen, einschließlich anderer fossiler Energieträger und betroffener Regionen, sowie unterschiedlicher Lebensstile, entscheidend ist, um effektive Instrumente zur Unterstützung nachhaltiger Praktiken zu entwickeln. / The dissertation underscores the urgent need to address the strain human activities place on the Earth system, emphasizing the necessity for sustainable solutions to ensure the well-being of current and future generations. Mitigating the impacts of the climate crisis requires significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, prompting a closer examination of their sources and contributors. Two primary strategies are proposed: decarbonizing energy systems and reducing household emissions. However, discussions surrounding these strategies often intersect with considerations of justice, highlighting the complex social dimensions of addressing climate change. The dissertation comprises four papers that delve into these issues. The first explores the transition away from coal in European regions, assessing perceptions of justice among affected actors. The subsequent publications focus on emissions reduction at the household level, analyzing social realities and identifying potential avenues for mitigation. The final publication provides a historical perspective on energy consumption patterns, emphasizing past and contemporary societal inequalities. Findings indicate disparities in emissions across households and individuals, necessitating urgent action to reduce per capita emissions. Moreover, sociological frameworks are employed to better understand the ecological dimensions of emissions, revealing complex relationships between social classes and environmental impact. While efforts to combat the climate crisis must prioritize justice and equity, the dissertation also underscores the need for further research. This includes examining alternative energy sources, regions disproportionately affected by climate change, as well as diverse lifestyles. Such research will be essential for developing effective strategies to support sustainable practices and address the complex social dynamics of climate action.