Landslides present a geomorphological hazard in alpine regions, threatening life, infrastructure and property. Presented in this thesis is the development of a new Regional Landslide Inventory (RI) for the European Alps. The new inventory is used to investigate links between landslide size and frequency in the European Alps and weather and climatic controls. Temperatures in the European Alps have risen by 2 C since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA); a trend which is set to continue. Previous research has shown that past landslide clusters are centred around periods of signi ficant climate change, thus understanding how this translates to the current warming trend is important both for communities living in the European Alps and for the insurance industry. The RI compiled here, provides a substantial temporal and spatial picture of landsliding in the Alps; with particular focus on the Swiss and French Alps. The temporal distribution and estimates of completeness were tested through the use of segmented models, scaling relationships and area-frequency distributions; the post-1970 portion of the database is considered most complete, although underestimating the frequency of medium-sized landslides. Analysis of the RI in the context of synoptic weather types demonstrates that high precipitation over the European Alps is consistent with higher landslide frequencies. Whilst analysis with climate data show that annual landslide frequencies are correlated with changes in precipitation and temperature across the European Alps; accounting for up to 35% of the seasonal variation in landslide frequency.

The Marshall Islands may be rendered uninhabitable by sea level rise and other consequences of global climate change within 50 years, a threat with which locals are increasingly familiar via educational events, firsthand environmental observation, and Biblical exegesis. This thesis explores Marshallese attitudes towards this spectre, in particular explaining why ‘ordinary’ Marshall Islanders (if not their government) have strongly favoured a response strategy based on self-blame and local mitigation, rather than other-blame and protest of industrial nations. I argue that this strategy does not stem from ignorance or disempowered pragmatism, but from a moral reading of climate change consonant with Marshallese values. Bringing together literature on traditionalism, entropy, and the cultural cognition of risk, I demonstrate that Marshallese reactions to climate change are intelligible in light of a vigorous pre-existing narrative of self-inflicted cultural decline. Climate change becomes framed as both a cause and a consequence of weakening custom, the over-reliance on foreign things, transforming global warming into a locally resonant, and indeed ideologically appealing, risk. Based upon this case study, I sketch a ‘trajectorial theory of risk perception’ and accompanying research agenda.

This study examined the perception of barriers to pro-environmental behaviour for different population segments in British Columbia. Cultural cognition scales were used to assign cultural values to participants (i.e., hierarchy-egalitarianism scale and individualism-communitarianism scale). Psychological and socio-cultural barriers were assessed using the list of dragons of inaction. Data on cultural values, perception of climate change risk, perception of barriers, frequency of pro-environmental behaviour, climate change knowledge and socio-demographic variables were collected using online surveys. Egalitarian values were correlated with greater climate change risk perception and with weaker perception of barriers to pro-environmental behaviour. Greater climate change risk perception was also associated with more pro-environmental behaviour. The effect of cultural values on barrier perception was partly mediated by climate change risk perception. These findings suggest that future research should focus on lessening the discrepancy between scientific climate change risk perception and public climate change risk perception, which can, in turn, increase the frequency of pro-environmental behaviour. / Graduate / 0768 / 0451 / lacroixk@uvic.ca

Climate change is a global problem that will have local impacts on regions and municipalities. Many parts of Canada are already experiencing severe weather events such as extreme levels of rainfall, severe flooding, and increased frequency of storms. Local planning officials have the capacity to respond to climate change through mitigation and adaptation strategies, but before asking the question of whether any action is being taken on the local level, there needs to be an understanding of how local planning officials view climate change and whether the issue reaches policy attention. For the general public, literature tells us that most people perceive climate change to be a temporally and geographically distant issue. This absence of personal relevance renders that people fail to take responsive action. Some authors have also noted that there is an absence of municipal action on climate change because it is also not viewed as a local concern. At the same time, climate change is but one of the many issues that municipal councils must consider and address on a daily basis, often leaving the matter to be pushed aside, in place of other more pressing issues. The main objectives of this thesis were to understand how local planning officials view climate change, assess whether climate change is recognized as an issue requiring policy attention, and perform a policy review to assess the current state of local action in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. In total, 21 professionals working in the Region took part in the study, and came from a diverse range of backgrounds including planning, environment, emergency management, public health and economic development, among others. With respect to the main research question, ???what is the relationship between climate change risk perceptions and implementation of climate-related policies???, this study found there to be four guiding frameworks. These were 1) the need for collaboration: perceptions indicated a need, while policy demonstrated feasibility; 2) the need for leadership: perceptions suggested that leadership is critical, but somewhat limited in practice, while policy suggested it already exists; 3) the need for integration of climate change in the planning context and other planning issues: perceptions suggested disconnect, while policy also suggested disconnect; and 4) the need for presenting climate change as a local issue: perceptions demonstrated a need, while policy can provide the supporting document.

No description available.

Climate change mitigation requires changes in greenhouse gas emitting behaviours. This dissertation aims to provide insights into the influences of behaviour change for two high-impact pro-environmental behaviours: climate policy support and consumption of animal products. It does so by using quasi- and randomized experiments and by monitoring changes in behaviour over time. Study 1 examined changes in climate policy support and climate change risk perception over the course of a naturally occurring event: seasonal forest fires. It employed growth curve modeling techniques in a structural equation modeling framework to analyze longitudinal relations between these two constructs over time, and to examine growth in climate change risk perception while controlling for the effect of exposure to forest fires and other extreme weather. Indirect exposure to forest fires (e.g., media) had a modest effect on climate change risk perception. Climate change risk perception for individuals with above-mean perceptions of scientific agreement tended to increase faster than for those with below-mean perceptions. Individuals whose climate change risk perception grew at a faster-than-average rate tended to also grow at a faster-than-average rate for climate policy support. Study 2 provided insight into the psychological influences on consumption of animal products and on willingness to reduce. Following a comprehensive literature review, known influences were examined using Latent Profile Analysis to identify groups of individuals with similar perceptions of facilitators of meat consumption and obstacles to reducing it. Three groups were identified: strong-hindrance meat eaters, moderate-hindrance meat eaters, and reducers. Validation variables confirmed the practicality of the three profiles: groups differed in their current consumption of animal products and in their willingness to reduce. Using these findings, three group-matched interventions were designed in Study 3. Intervention design was informed by four behaviour-change frameworks. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: control condition, implementation-intention condition, information-and-healthy-recipe condition, and information-and-substitution condition. Then, they completed up to 28 days of food diaries. Multilevel model analyses were employed to examine changes in the consumption of animal products over time. Participants reduced their consumption by 20 grams of CO2 per day on average. Individuals that were randomly assigned to an intervention condition that matched their meat-eater profile reduced their consumption of animal products by 40 grams CO2 per day on average. Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of considering individual differences (i.e., tailoring) when designing pro-environmental behaviour interventions. / Graduate

The impact of climate change on the financial performance of companies is of concern to bank credit processes. The main objective of this research was to develop a South African contextualised credit process that incorporates environmental risk. The research methodology comprised of a mixed-method being content analysis – the qualitative portion and the Probability of Default prediction using a Merton Model and the Hoffmann and Busch (2008) carbon risk analysis model - the quantitative portion. A content analysis of the banks’ Annual Reports, Integrated Reports and Sustainability Reports showed that, while South African banks follow a qualitative approach to embedding environmental risk into their credit process, none of the four banks that formed part of the study divulged their quantitative approach to embedding environmental risk. The study used a proximity matrix method to examine the level of embedding. The second part of the study, which used prior studies as the benchmark, adopted the following: (1) a simulated carbon tax regime as a proxy for an environmental risk, and (2) the Hoffmann and Busch (2008) carbon risk analysis tool and the Merton Model (1974) as the bank credit process proxies. The second part of the study used a sample of 33 JSE-listed Carbon Disclosure Project reporting companies out of a population of 107. The carbon risk analysis showed that the companies in the materials and energy sector have a high carbon risk. However, the results from the Merton Model showed that the companies have enough profit to cushion the additional carbon tax liability, given the insignificant shift in probability of default between the three scenarios, where financial data had (1) no carbon tax, (2) was adjusted for a carbon tax with incentives, and (3) adjusted for carbon tax without incentives. Triangulation of the results from the content analysis, carbon risk analysis and the probability of default analysis confirms that South African banks do not fully integrate environmental risk across the credit value chain or process in the 2010 to 2017 period. However, the carbon risk analysis shows a heavy dependency on carbon sources for critical inputs into the South African companies’ production processes, which if not checked, will affect the credit portfolios of banks. / Finance, Risk Management and Banking / D. Phil (Management Studies)