This thesis examines the climate role conceptions and climate role positions of Iceland and Sweden respectively, as they are portrayed in their climate action plans. This study compliments the current trend to examine climate leadership within International Relations, with an additional focus on the Nordic countries. Not only is the Nordic identity enmeshed with ideas of environmentalism, but the Nordic countries also have a reputation of being environmental leaders. Despite this reputation, the Nordic countries vary considerably between themselves when it comes to climate performance, thus inspiring the study of the highest and lowest Nordic emitters of greenhouse gases. The study is carried out from a constructivist role theory perspective, which is complemented with a novel climate role analytical framework. A content analysis is conducted on Iceland‘s and Sweden‘s countries‘ climate action plans, and climate role indicators are coded and analyzed. The study reveals that both Iceland and Sweden depict themselves as climate leaders in their climate action plans. However, while both countries refer to themselves as climate leaders, the leadership indicators are manifested distinctively, resulting in the countries projecting different climate leadership role positions. By evaluating Iceland’s and Sweden’s portrayal of global climate leadership, it is assessed that Iceland assumes the climate role position of a pioneer, with aspirations for setting an example for other countries through its climate transition, and that Sweden assumes the climate role position of a constructive pusher, with aspirations to lead the domestic and global climate transition through ambitious actions. The analysis thus reveals how Sweden’s internationally ascribed roles as a climate leader and Iceland’s internationally ascribed role as an environmental leader is legitimated and reverberated throughout their respective climate action plans, in accordance with their role conceptions and identities.

Awareness of critical public health issues stemming from historical and contemporary environmental injustice has been growing, yet institutions are still working to identify how to respond. How do we transform University Health System infrastructure, in the built environment and affiliated community assets and human capital, to center equity and the lived experience of climate injustice in urban communities? Through the application of urban bioethical principles and examination of a public state-related university and its health system in a major U.S. city, I argue that the higher education institutional climate action planning process for medical schools and their attendant university health systems, in concert with public sector actors, can be a vehicle and accelerator for achieving health equity in urban communities and suggest what exactly that could or should look like. This thesis will look at the role of university health systems in addressing climate change and mitigating its impacts. More specifically, it looks to provide context for the influence of “meds and eds” in urban communities: how their status as anchor institutions and sites of economic development implicates their responsibility to anticipate the differentiated material experience of climate change. As sites of care delivery, medical education and training, and major employers these institutions have a duty to ameliorate the associated inequitable health outcomes of climate change. I provide a model for action by all urban university health system stakeholders with recommendations to sustain equitable resilience in the face of environmental crisis. / Urban Bioethics

The apparel and footwear industry’s contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is one of the fifth largest per industry, equal to that of livestock, after electricity and heat, oil and gas, agriculture, and transportation (Ellen MacArthur Foundation, 2017). For industry-wide emissions reduction, investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency programs across highest impacting life cycle phases offer the most effective solution. However, identifying the highest impacting life cycles phases shows varied results depending on the particular type of business model under examination. This paper responds to the lack of existing data and empirical research on how to accurately measure, report and reduce carbon emissions across the highly complex and globally interconnected apparel value chain. This is done through a single case study investigation of an Icelandic fashion brand. A hybrid approach of a standard Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Sustainable Global Value Chain (SGVC) functions to produce a Hotspot Identification Tool (HIT) to establish a holistic portrayal of business operations in relation to emission impacts and level of controllability across Scopes. The conceptual analysis and qualitative results identify the most relevant emission hotspots to lie within the company’s privately owned manufacturing facilities, as well as the procurement phase, due to its direct connection with and influence on material production, user phase, and end-of-life. The main obstacle in this pursuit is identified as restriction of resources in terms of time, capital and expertise. It is suggested that this be overcome by joining a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative where resources and expertise is pooled in a pre-competitive manner to reach common objectives. The investigation further suggests a need for global fashion brands to leverage their influential position on down- and upstream activities across the value chain, i.e. with their supply chain partners and consumers. I argue that fashion brands play an integral role in supporting local efforts to build a decarbonisation pathway towards climate neutral economies on a global scale.