The shrinking of permeable areas in favour of urban development is a phenomenon described in both scientific literature and policy documents. Changes in rainfall intensity and frequency following climate change are expected, but predicting the exact magnitude of these changes remains unclear. The uncertainty of what we will have to face in the future and when it will happen causes a blur of activities that may successively influence the mitigation of climate change. This study aims to explore and understand sustainable stormwater management within nature-based solutions (NBS) by reviewing both scientific and grey literature, as well as development plans in a specific area in southern Stockholm. Both risks and benefits of NBS implementation in urban stormwater management have been reviewed and described. Moreover, it is found in the literature that conceptual ambiguities and uncertainties of the NBS concept lead to weaker decision-making and planning processes. The goal of this study was to understand stormwater management recommendations for climate change mitigation, how these recommendations relate to detailed planning documents, what types of solutions are considered and proposed in the planning process, whether there is a link between the NBS and the proposed solutions, and finally, whether spatial analysis can help in the planning process in locating the strengths and weaknesses of the planned construction in flood-prone areas. The results of this study indicates whether the selected detailed development plans follow the recommendations of strategic documents. Detailed planning documents followed the recommendations to a limited extent. Moreover, in terms of spatial analysis, the analysed plans rarely referred to Skyfallsmodell, the model used to represent the flood-risk caused by 100-year rain event. In one of the cases of the early-stage detailed development plan, the new construction area were proposed inside an area with significant risk of flooding. The use of spatial analysis could help urban planners to identify both areas unsuitable for development and locate places suitable for NBS implementation. / Minskningen av genomsläppliga markområden till förmån för stadsutveckling är ett fenomen som beskrivs i både vetenskaplig litteratur och policydokument. Förändringar i nederbördsintensitet och storlek efter klimatförändringar förväntas, men det är fortfarande svårt att förutsäga den exakta storleken på dessa förändringar. Osäkerheten om vad vi kommer att behöva möta i framtiden och när det kommer att hända orsakar en oklarhet kring vilka aktiviteter som kommer att kunna påverka och mildra effekterna av klimatförändringarna. Denna studie syftar till att utforska och förstå hållbar dagvattenhantering genom naturbaserade lösningar (NBS) genom att granska både vetenskaplig och grå litteratur, samt utvecklingsplaner i ett specifikt område i södra Stockholm. Både risker och fördelar med NBS-implementering i urban dagvattenhantering har granskats och beskrivits. Dessutom framgår av litteraturen att begreppsmässiga oklarheter och osäkerheter i NBS-begreppet leder till svagheter i beslutsfattande och planeringsprocesser. Målet med denna studie var att förstå rekommendationer för dagvattenhantering för att mildra klimatförändringar, hur dessa rekommendationer relaterar till detaljerade planeringsdokument, vilka typer av lösningar som övervägs och föreslås i planeringsprocessen, om det finns en koppling mellan NBS och de föreslagna lösningarna, och slutligen - om rumslig analys kan hjälpa till i planeringsprocessen för att lokalisera styrkor och svagheter med den planerade konstruktionen i översvämningsutsatta områden. Resultaten av denna studie indikerar hur de valda detaljutvecklingsplanerna följer rekommendationerna i strategiska dokument. Detaljerade planeringshandlingar följde rekommendationerna i begränsad omfattning. Dessutom, när det gäller rumslig analys, hänvisade de analyserade planerna sällan till Skyfallsmodellen, som används för att representera översvämningsrisken orsakad av 100-årsregn. I ett av fallen med en tidig detaljplanen föreslogs nybyggnadsområdet inom ett område med stor risk för översvämning. Användningen av rumslig analys skulle kunna hjälpa stadsplanerare att identifiera både områden som är olämpliga för utveckling och att lokalisera platser som är lämpliga för implementering av NBS.

This dissertation investigates the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate change policies. Although most theoretical frameworks on policy adoption highlight the roles of extreme events as exogenous factors influencing policy change, most studies tend to focus on the effects of extreme events on policy change at the national level. Additionally, the existing theoretical frameworks explaining local policy adoption and public service provision do not pay attention to the roles of extreme events in local governments' policy choices. To fill those gaps, this dissertation explores the roles of natural disasters and political institutions on municipal governments' climate change policies. It does this by applying the theory of focusing events to local climate mitigation and adaptation actions. Based on the policy change framework, the political market model, and the institutional collective action frameworks, this dissertation develops and tests hypotheses to examine the effects of natural disasters and political institutions on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation policies. The dissertation uses 2010 National League of Cities (NLC) sustainability surveys and the 2010 International City/County Management Association (ICMA) sustainability survey to test the hypotheses. Analytical results show that floods and droughts influence local climate change policies and suggest that local governments can take advantage of extreme events when initiating a policy change. The results also suggest that political institutions can shape the effects of natural disasters on municipalities' climate mitigation and adaptation actions.

No description available.

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the great threats of climate change. The chemical industry, including the pharmaceutical sector, is one of the significant contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), representing nearly 7% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. For this industry to reach net-zero emissions of CO2, measures beyond mitigation actions need to be taken. This thesis investigates the elimination of CO2 emissions in the Swedish pharmaceutical sector and evaluates the implementation of the rather new technology of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), using currently available amine-based post-combustion processes. This thesis presents a comprehensive assessment of different criteria based on the PESTLE (Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) framework and considers their relative importance from a company perspective. Two alternative scenarios based on the emissions goals set by the case company are developed and evaluated through this Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)-based PESTLE framework. BECCS deployment targeting net negative emissions would be preferable for the case company since it offers benefits in environmental, social and long-term economical aspects. From the economic aspect, the specific cost for capturing CO2 could be around 1281 SEK per tonne, higher than the present European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS) price and typical investment cost for afforestation projects. Most opportunities are identified within the environmental and social aspects, but some economic, technological and regulatory challenges should be addressed to realise the BECCS implementation in the Swedish Pharmaceutical Industry. / Den senaste rapporten från Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change belyser de stora hoten med klimatförändringar. Den kemiska industrin, inklusive läkemedelssektorn, är en av de betydande bidragarna till de globala växthusgasutsläppen , som står för nästan 7 % av deglobala koldioxidutsläppen (CO2). För att denna industri ska nå nettonollutsläpp av CO2 måste åtgärder vidtas utöver begränsningsåtgärder. Detta examensarbete undersöker eliminering av CO2-utsläpp i den svenska läkemedelssektorn och utvärderarimplementeringen av den relativt nya teknologin, koldioxidlagring från biomassa, med hjälpav tillgängliga aminbaserade efterförbränningsprocesser. Detta examensarbete presenterar en omfattande bedömning av olika kriterier baserade på PESTLE (politiska, ekonomiska, sociala, tekniska, juridiska och miljömässiga) ramar och tar hänsyn till deras relativa betydelse ur ett företagsperspektiv. Två alternativa scenarier baserade på utsläppsmålen som ställts upp av företaget utvecklas och utvärderas genom detta multikriterie-baserade PESTLE-ramverket. Koldioxidlagring med inriktning på negativa utsläpp skulle vara att föredra för företaget eftersom det erbjuder fördelar i miljömässiga, sociala och långsiktiga ekonomiska aspekter. Ur den ekonomiska aspekten kan den specifika kostnaden för att fånga upp CO2 vara cirka 1 281 SEK per ton, högre än det nuvarande priset för Europeiska unionens utsläppshandelssystem (EU ETS) och den typiska investeringskostnaden för skogsplanteringsprojekt. De flesta möjligheter identifieras inom den miljömässiga och sociala aspekten, men vissa ekonomiska, tekniska och regulatoriska utmaningar bör lösas för att förverkliga implementeringen av koldioxidlagring i svensk läkemedelsindustri.

This study emanates from the worldwide issue of climate change, as well as the need for all nations to make an effort to reduce their carbon emissions and move towards greener economies. It delves into South Africa's current command-and-control environmental enforcement regime and highlights the pitfalls that allow major air polluters to avoid sanction of any form in many instances. This poor environmental enforcement and compliance effectively means that South Africa is unlikely to be capable of meeting targets set under international agreements. The study confirms that environmental enforcement is inadequately addressed in South Africa. This is attributable to the inherent shortcomings of command-and-control approaches, including that they are inflexible and offer few incentives for firms to modify behaviour to reduce emissions. Poor enforcement of environmental legislation results in negative externalities caused by air pollution being borne by people who did not create such pollution. The study therefore advocates the use of market-based mechanisms as an alternative to traditional command-and-control approaches to environmental enforcement. In light of the South African government's recent publication of the Draft Carbon Tax Bill, carbon taxes as a subset of market-based environmental enforcement mechanisms have the potential to better enforce the polluter pays principle. Mexico, arguably the most forward-thinking developing nation in terms of climate change mitigation, has taken numerous steps towards meeting international commitments, including the implementation of a carbon tax. While South Africa's proposed carbon tax does differ from Mexico's in some respects, the basic premise remains the same and some comparisons can be made in this regard, with accompanying lessons to be learned. Such lessons include that it is imperative that the carbon tax must be set at a high enough rate to meet international commitments whilst at the same time avoiding adverse economic effects, maintaining social welfare and stabilising economic output levels. The proposed carbon tax, while unable to achieve this on its own, is a good place to start and should be utilised in conjunction with the Draft Climate Change Bill to effectively and efficaciously bring about the required change. The proposed carbon tax undoubtedly has the potential to better hold major air polluters responsible for their CO2 and other GHG emissions. / Private Law / LL. M.

This thesis addressed the need for improved analysis and interpretation of primary meter half-hourly energy consumption data. The current work offers a novel benchmarking technique that was tested for 6 types of municipal buildings. This approach is different from conventional annual benchmarking mainly because it uses electricity and gas data in half-hourly periods, together with outside temperature data. A survey to European local authorities’ metering and monitoring practices was conducted in order to assess municipal energy managers' current procedures and needs in terms of data analysis to assess building energy performance and to identify potential energy saving opportunities. The benchmarking approach was developed considering the energy managers’ needs, but also the state-of the art in terms of building energy monitoring techniques, particularly building energy signatures, and the analysis techniques used on electricity grid demand forecasting. The benchmarking approach is based on the use of a metric composed of several indicators that are related to the load demand shape profile and the building energy signature. The comparison of indicators for buildings of the same type using standard scores identifies uncommon load demand profile characteristics and/or gas dependency on outside temperature in specific buildings. The metric is able to support the identification of potential energy wastage, which is linked to the detection of opportunities to save energy. The benchmarking technique was tested in 81 municipal building owned by Leicester City Council. This methodology can be applied to any non-domestic building equipped with primary meters for registering half-hourly electricity and gas consumption. In theory, this approach can also be applied to residential buildings, and to other short time series data types, for example quarter-hourly or 10 minutes interval data. The main contribution of this thesis is to improve the objectivity of building primary meter half-hourly electricity and gas consumption data analysis and interpretation by using quantitative parameters, instead of subjective visualisation techniques. The interpretation of building consumption data in short time series periods can now be streamlined, automated and perhaps incorporated in existing energy analysis software. This thesis raises questions that can lead to future research projects aiming to improve the metric and also to enlarge the scope of its application to national and European scale, to other building types and to other utilities.

Vorliegende Arbeit zeigt die jüngsten Möglichkeiten hochauflösender Fernerkundung am Beispiel von Stadtbäumen in Berlin, Deutschland. Es wurden neuste methodische Ansätze eingesetzt, wie beispielsweise maschinelles Lernens und individuelle Baumdetektion. Sie erwiesen sich von großem Vorteil für die detaillierte Analyse urbaner Ökosystemdienstleistungen in einer heterogenen Umwelt. Neueste Fernerkundung von hoher zeitlicher Auflösung hat Möglichkeiten gezeigt, Veränderungen des Stadtwaldes präziser zu untersuchen. Diesbezüglich konnten Baumspezies klassifiziert werden auf Grundlage saisonaler Veränderungen, die mittels Fernerkundungsdaten aufgenommen wurden. Dies ist für den urbanen Bereich einmalig und über große Flächen noch nicht durchgeführt worden. Darüber hinaus haben diese Baumarten einzelnen Bäumen zugeordnet werden können, deren Abmessung fernerkundlich erfasst worden ist. Diese neu erzeugten Umweltinformationen einzelner Bäume können damit verbundene urbane Ökosystemdienstleistungen präzise aktualisieren. Zum Beispiel haben so Unsicherheiten in der Schätzung zur Kohlenstoffspeicherung städtischer Wälder reduziert werden können. Es ist zudem von Vorteil gewesen, den gegenwärtigen Mangel an räumlich expliziten dreidimensionalen Informationen über Stadtwälder anzusprechen. Allerdings ist die Rolle städtischen Wälder, das Treibhausgas CO2 langfristig auszugleichen, immer noch wenig untersucht. Gerade der Mangel an präzisen, konsistenten und aktuellen Details führt zu großen Unsicherheiten im Rahmen von Lebenszyklus-Analysen. Auf Grund des aktuellen Fortschritts in hochauflösender Fernerkundung könnten diese Unsicherheiten reduziert werden. Dazu werden Möglichkeiten ausgiebig kritisch bewertet und anhand einer Lebenszyklus-Analyse am Beispiel Berlin andiskutiert, inwieweit sie präzisere langfristige Prognosen zum Stadtwald als Kohlenstoffspeicher liefern. / This work shows recent options for implementing high resolution remote sensing in assessing urban trees in Berlin, Germany. State-of-the-art methodological approaches like machine learning and individual tree detection proved to be highly advantageous for analyzing details of urban ecosystem services within a heterogeneous urban environment. Recent remote sensing of high temporal resolution offers new options for more precisely addressing urban forest dynamics. This successfully shows that tree species could be identified from seasonal changes of remotely sensed imagery, though this has not yet been applied across cities. Furthermore, these tree species results could be combined with remotely sensed individual tree dimensions. This newly generated data can be suggested to update spatially explicit information on related urban ecosystem services. For example, this could reduce the uncertainties of such estimates as urban forest carbon storage, and also address the present lack of spatially explicit three-dimensional information on urban forests. However, few studies have considered the local scale of urban forests to effectively evaluate their potential long-term carbon offset. The lack of precise, consistent and up-to-date forest details is challenging within the scope of life cycle assessments. This can cause high uncertainties in urban forest carbon offset. Although, recent progress in high resolution remote sensing is promising to reduce these uncertainties. For this purpose, remote sensing options are extensively reviewed and briefly discussed using an example of life cycle assessment for Berlin, which allow more precise long-term prognoses of urban forest carbon offset.

Die vermiedene tropische Entwaldung und zusätzliche Aufforstungen sind von zentraler Bedeutung für die Klimawandelvermeidung, üben aber zusätzlichen Druck auf die globalen Landressourcen zur Produktion von Nahrungsgütern, Futtermittel, Fasern, Bioenergie und Rundholz dar. Die Ziele der Studie beziehen sich auf die Analyse der Verzichtskosten in der Land- und Forstwirtschaft sowie das Potential zur Klimawandelvermeidung in globalen Wäldern durch normative und marktbasierte Klimaschutzprogramme. Das globale ökonomische Landnutzungsmodell ''Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment'' (MAgPIE) wurde um eine konsistente Landnutzungsdatenbank und den Forstsektor erweitert. Es simuliert die räumlich-explizite Landnutzung und deren Änderungen während die Kosten land- und forstwirtschaftlicher Produktion unter gegebener Nachfrage nach Gütern geschätzt werden. Szenarien zu Klimaschutzmaßnahmen werden verglichen mit Referenzszenarien über Zeithorizonte bis zum Jahr 2100. Die Ergebnisse verweisen auf ein begrenztes Mitigationspotential normativen tropischen Waldschutzes zu geringen zusätzlichen Kosten in der Landwirtschaft. Lateinamerika profitiert von ausreichenden Landreserven und geringem Anstieg in der Güternachfrage und geringer Referenzentwaldung. Die Verlagerung von Emissionen durch regionalen Waldschutz hat Auswirkungen auf die sektoralen Produktionskosten und verringert das globale ökonomische Potential. Die Schlussfolgerungen betreffen 1) den Bedarf an substantieller Ertragssteigerung in Sub-Sahara Afrika als Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Umsetzung vermiedener Entwaldung, 2) die erhöhte Gefahr der Verlagerung von Emissionen aus Entwaldung durch die Umsetzung regionaler Klimaschutzprogramme und der Liberalisierung des Holzhandels, 3) das hohe ökonomische Potential integrierter Klimaschutzprogramme zu moderaten Verzichtskosten, sowie 4) die Notwendigkeit zusätzlicher Forschung bezüglich der Unsicherheiten in Parametern und Modellprozessen. / Avoiding tropical deforestation and additional afforestation are of primary importance for climate change mitigation but exert additional pressure on global land resources for the production of food, feed, fibre, bioenergy and timber. The study objectives relate to the analysis of the foregone economic benefits, the opportunity costs, in agriculture and forestry and the climate change mitigation potential of global forests in normative and market-based programmes. The global economic ‘Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment'' (MAgPIE) has been extended by a consistent land use database and the forestry sector. It simulates spatially-explicit land use and land use changes while estimating the costs of production in agriculture and forestry to satisfy a prescribed demand. Climate change mitigation scenarios are contrasted to baselines for time horizons up to the year 2100. The results show the limited mitigation potential of normative forest conservation in tropical regions at low additional costs in agriculture. Latin America benefits from sufficient land endowments and low increases in crop demand leading to relatively low baseline deforestation. The displacement of carbon emissions between regions impacts the regional agriculture and forestry production costs and reduces the global economic potential. The conclusions pertain to the 1) need for high rates of yield increase in Sub-Saharan Africa as a precondition for successfully avoided deforestation, 2) increased threat of regional carbon emission leakage from implementing mitigation programmes and liberalized trade of timber, 3) high economic potential of climate change mitigation from integrating afforestation and avoided deforestation at moderate costs, and 4) additional research needs to account for significant uncertainties from growth and cost parameters and model processes.

Ethiopia is an agrarian country dominated by subsistence farming which is highly vulnerable to climate change. This study was therefore carried out to assess smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change and adaptation strategies followed to prevent vulnerability to climate change in the Medium and Upper highlands of the Amhara region of Ethiopia. Data was collected from 300 sample smallholder farmers using questionnaire, key informant interviews, and Focus Group discussions with farmers and experts. The survey result showed that households differ in terms of asset endowments, vulnerability, and coping and adaptation capability to climate change. About 87.3% noticed climatic change and their perception of climatic variable attributes indicated about 75% felt a decline in the amount of rainfall, 52.6% stated early onset, about 66.6 % showed late on set, 84% expressed poor distribution of rainfall, high temperature (83.7%) and desiccating wind (52.7%). The major adaptation strategies employed by the majority of small holder farmers included enhancing traditional irrigation, use of drought tolerant and early maturing varieties, converting farm land to tree growing and relay cropping immediately after harvesting. The coping strategies to climate variability are largely related to migrating to urban areas, engaging in daily work, selling of fuel wood and asset while mitigation measures have focused on ecosystem rehabilitation. “Multi Nominal Logit” (MNL) model analysis indicated gender, education, off farm activity, farm size, ownership of oxen, farmer to farmer extension, access to credit and information on climate change as determinants of adaptation to climate change and variability. Institutional support to farmers’ efforts to adapt to climate change is generally weak. The overall analysis leads to conclude that despite the presence of awareness on climate change and its likely impacts on livelihoods of the smallholder farmer, development intervention at local level are not systematically designed to address the problems of the resource poor farmers and environmental challenges. In the immediate future there is an urgent need to capitalize on existing awareness, document, package and disseminate successful adaptation interventions to farmers. As a long term solution it is recommended that institutions in charge of climate change need to develop a national drought and climate change management strategic plan with full accountability to facilitate ecosystem development, resilience against climate change and ultimately improvements in the livelihood of farmers. Such interventions could potentially be achieved by taking practical measures on policy support and Institutional building for climate change, knowledge management on adaptation to climate change, filling technological gaps related to agriculture including livestock husbandry in the context of climate change, applying innovative local level participatory land use planning and promoting livelihood diversification initiatives that could enable small holder farmers create assets to enhance their livelihoods. / Environmental Sciences / D. Phil. (Environment Management)

Climate change has come to be understood as a deleterious phenomenon, which threatens business, society and ecological systems, thus making it imperative to understand its impact on human, social and economic activities as well as the impact of these activities on climate change. Against this background, this research sought to determine climate change intervention strategies in the mining supply chain in general, specifically focussing on opencast mining contracting and plant hire companies’ practices. This focus on the mining industry was driven by its importance in South Africa and globally, despite its significant direct and indirect contribution to climatic changes. The mixed-methods multiple case study focused on the climate change management of the Mutual Construction Company Group of Companies (MCCGC), an open cast toll mining firm and equipment supplier. Limited to two sites, Pilanesberg Platinum Mines (PPM) and Tharisa Minerals (Tharisa) Mines, the researcher gathered data through interviews, questionnaires, observations and document review. Data was analysed through deductive content analysis. The research made three major findings: (i) the MCCGC, like its principals PPM and Tharisa, does not have an explicit climate change management strategy. Instead, climate change is managed indirectly through implicit strategies seeking to manage environment, health and safety concerns of the mines, (ii) as a contractor, the MCCGC has had to adopt PPM and Tharisa’s implicit approach to climate change management strategies to meet contractual obligations, instead of an explicit approach and, (iii) the MCCGC and its principals’ commitment to environment, health and safety management, and implicitly climate change management, is not mere rhetoric but is being put into practice. The research concluded that MCCGC’s lack of expressed climate change management intentions and practices exposed the firm to climate change risks, most notably financial risks and reputation risks. Financial risks arise from possible ex post climate change liability. In addition, MCCGC is risking its contract tenures, particularly if the two mines change ownership and the new owners insist on an explicit rather than implied climate change strategy with all its suppliers. Reputational risks arise from the possible failure to attract new clientele and investors who may perceive MCCGC as a risky partner, due to an inept climate change intervention strategy / College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)