The concepts of degrowth and green growth are central in the scientific discussion on resources, climate change and sustainability. This thesis investigates to what degree the concepts are present in the Swedish government’s climate policy. The two climate policy action plans that have hitherto been presented by the government was analysed through a quantitative text analysis method and the findings where then compared with each other. The analysis suggests, unsurprisingly, that green growth is the dominant perspective in both action plans although there exist clear differences in emphasis of the perspectives.  The current right-wing government stresses that economic growth should be considered a prerequisite for the transition to sustainable development whilst the former left-wing government tries to merge the concepts of degrowth and green growth although with an emphasis on the later.  The findings show that different perspectives on economic growth are present in Swedish climate policy and that the concepts of degrowth and green growth are useful tools to analyse and comprehend these perspectives. The findings raise questions whether opinions on economic growth, as expressed in the government’s action plans, are a result not only from party ideology but also from power struggles within respective government coalition.

This thesis analyzes how the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) evolved in response to the European Green Deal, with a particular focus on climate justice. In previous trading periods, the ETS faced extensive criticism from researchers and international environmental organizations, who argued that the system exacerbated social and economic inequalities. However, as part of the Green Deal, the ETS underwent reforms with stricter regulations, clearer targets, and the inclusion of more sectors. The aim of this thesis is to analyze these changes and assess whether the system could now be considered just. The analysis is conducted using a critical approach and an ideal-type analysis, evaluating the ETS according to two justice-based criteria: effectiveness and the equitable distribution of climate change responsibilities. The results indicates that the current form of the emission trading system fails to meet the standards of fairness on both criteria.

This master's thesis deals with climate policy integration in two European union's trade agreements, EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Ambitions of EU's climate policy have grown in recent years. Therefore the EU needs to cooperate with other world countries to tackle the climate change now even more than ever before. One of the solutions for such a binding cooperation to fight climate change could be implemented through the EU trade policy. This master's thesis is therefore interested in climate policy integration concerning the policy coherence during the process of making trade agreements and also in climate policy aspects of the final form of the agreements. In the theoretical part, this thesis describes the academic debates of policy coherence, climate policy actors in the institutional framework of the EU and also the history of EU's climate policy. Research operationalises the academic concept of climate policy integration (CPI) and carries it out through analysisand comparison of official EU's institutional documents. In the final part, this master's thesis draws its conclusions mainly from comparison of EPA and CETA.

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The Swedish government is legally obliged to conduct climate policy work that will protect nature and humanity from the harmful effects of climate change. Obligations related to the environment arise under Swedish domestic law, European law and international law. This thesis investigates the possibilities for the Swedish public to initiate climate change litigation against the Swedish government due to insufficient climate actions. I examine three climate change litigation approaches from selected jurisdictions, including Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. By transposing the three litigation approaches into the Swedish legal order I seek to discuss the possibilities for the public to challenge the Swedish state's responsibility in climate matters. This thesis claims that the possibilities for the concerned public to address climate change are restricted. International obligations derived from the European Convention on Human Rights and the Aarhus Convention have given individuals substantive rights and procedural rights in matters related to the environment. However, the implementation of the international obligations are not always enshrined in the national law.

La tesi analizza una politica climatica dal punto di vista economica, concentrandosi sul ruolo delle tecnologie, dell'innovazione e delle foreste, con una particolare attenzione alla modellizzazione dell'incertezza. / This thesis provides a comprehensive economic evaluation of long term global warming mitigation policies, by focusing on the role of technologies and innovation, forestry ecosystem, and of uncertainty.

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No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseAGB.pdf: 5007611 bytes, checksum: cb9e7d53969b95cf4168705111a3db2b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-10-14 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the recent urban development agenda of São Paulo contributes to overcoming the challenges related to addressing climate change at the local and regional/metropolitan area. Methodology. First we identify the main challenges related to addressing climate change within the MRSP, taking into account the historical development of both the city of São Paulo and the municipalities of Greater São Paulo. We focus our attention on the challenges of urban mobility, taking into account this is the main source of GHG emissions; Housing, given that the main risk areas in the city and region were generated by a lack of adequate housing policies along the urban development of São Paulo; and Environmental Protection because it is related to containment of urban sprawl. Given this identification, we analyze the policy responses to these questions given by the Climate Change Policy and the instruments of the Master Plan of the São Paulo’s city. The results They reveal that the strategies referring to the climate change policy in the city of São Paulo do not address the main determinants involved in generating GHG emissions and vulnerabilities to climate change, nor do they apply to regional / metropolitan challenges. On the other hand, the urban planning instruments act in the municipality promoting the construction and population densification in areas of consolidated urban infrastructure and with mixed use of the soils, promote mechanisms for a social housing construction prioritizing a low income population, incentive to Generation of Jobs in a decentralized way in the city in order to reduce the commuting displacements of great distances and to create mechanisms to contain the irregular and excluding urban sprawl over a rural area of the municipality. In this sense, the regulatory instruments foreseen in the municipality's master plan act on the main causes that generated social and environmental risks and GHG emission levels in the city of São Paulo, and are reflected in the metropolitan context. / O objetivo dessa tese é investigar de que maneira a recente agenda de desenvolvimento urbano do município de São Paulo, dada pelo Plano Diretor Estratégico de 2014, contribui para a superação dos desafios relacionados ao enfrentamento às mudanças climáticas no âmbito local e regional/metropolitano. Metodologia identificamos os principais desafios relacionados ao enfrentamento das mudanças climáticas no âmbito da RMSP, tendo em vista o desenvolvimento histórico tanto da cidade quanto dos municípios da Grande São Paulo. Focamos nossa atenção nos desafios de Mobilidade Urbana, tendo em vista ser a principal fonte de emissões de GEE; Habitação, tendo em vista que as principais áreas de risco na cidade e região foram geradas por uma falta de políticas habitacionais adequadas ao longo do desenvolvimento urbano de São Paulo; Preservação Ambiental, relacionada a contenção do espraiamento urbano; e, Desenvolvimento Econômico promotor de descentralização da oferta de emprego. Feita essa identificação, analisamos as respostas políticas a essas questões dadas pela Política de Mudanças Climáticas e pelos instrumentos do Plano Diretor de São Paulo. Os resultados revelam que as estratégias previstas na política de mudanças climáticas do município de São Paulo não abordam os principais determinantes envolvidos na geração de emissões de GEE e das vulnerabilidades às mudanças climáticas, bem como não se aplicam aos desafios regionais/metropolitanos. Por outro lado, os instrumentos de planejamento urbano atuam no município promovendo o adensamento construtivo e populacional em áreas de infraestrutura urbana consolidada e com uso misto dos solos, promove mecanismos para a construção de habitação de interesse social priorizando a população de baixa renda, incentiva a geração de empregos de maneira descentralizada na cidade a fim de reduzir os deslocamentos pendulares de grandes distâncias e cria mecanismos para conter o espraiamento urbano irregular e excludente sobre a zona rural do município. Nesse sentido, os instrumentos regulatórios previstos no plano diretor do município atuam nas principais causas que geraram os riscos socioambientais e os níveis de emissões de GEE no município de São Paulo, tendo reflexos no contexto metropolitano.

Cette thèse est une évaluation du potentiel d'atténuation technique et économique global dans l'agriculture Chinoise et des conditions nécessaires à la formation d’un prix du carbone dans ce secteur. Le champ de recherche inclut les émissions venant de terres cultivées et en particulier celles liées à l'utilisation d'engrais azotés synthétiques. Il s'articule autour de la construction d'une courbe de coûts marginaux de réduction (MACC), qui offre un cadre rationnel pour combiner les données biophysiques et économiques afin de refléter les coûts d'atténuation. Cet outil permet d'agréger le potentiel d'atténuation découlant de l'application d'un sous-ensemble de mesures coût-efficacité en dessus d'un niveau de référence désignée. Une analyse des politiques climatiques chinoises révèle que l'agriculture est presque absente de la stratégie nationale d'atténuation. Nous avons donc l'intention d’examiner la faisabilité du point de vue technique, économique et politique, d’intégrer l'agriculture dans les politiques domestiques d’atténuation. En premier lieu, la tendance et les méthodes de calcul des émissions sont évaluées afin de déterminer une approche rigoureuse permettant de construire des scénarios de référence à partir de prévisions des activités ‘business-as-usual’ pour 2020. Deuxièmement, nous identifions neuf mesures d'atténuation des sols cultivés, nous évaluons leur taux d'abattement et leur applicabilité future au-delà du scénario de base pour obtenir un potentiel total d'atténuation techniquement faisable. Leur traduction en potentiel économique est alors faite en comparant les coûts de mise en œuvre des différentes options d'atténuation relatives aux pratiques agricoles conventionnelles. Les résultats des MACC montrent que l’agriculture offre un potentiel d'atténuation important, qui pourrait compenser environ un tiers des émissions de référence et dont un tiers pourrait être réalisé au coût négatif pour les agriculteurs. Nous examinons enfin l’utilisation des instruments économiques pour réduire les émissions au moindre coût dans le secteur agricole. Compte tenu des obstacles institutionnels, comportementaux et sociaux, nous suggérons fortement d’engager une réforme dans le système des subventions d'engrais afin d'envoyer un signal politique clair aux agriculteurs. L’utilisation de l’intensité du carbone comme référence normalisée est recommandé pour améliorer et élargir l'accès aux projets de compensation, et peut aussi préparer le terrain pour un possible programme expérimental d'échange de quotas d’émissions dans l'agriculture. En cohérence avec la priorité de protéger la sécurité alimentaire en Chine, des études de cas sur la production régionale de céréales sont introduites dans toutes ces étapes, y compris l'analyse de l'intensité des gaz à effet de serre de la production dans chaque province, le potentiel régional de réduction des émissions liées à l'utilisation d’engrais azotés ainsi que la disparité de coûts de mise en œuvre dans certaines régions. / This thesis is an evaluation of the overall technical and economic mitigation potential in China agriculture and the conditions of putting a carbon price in this sector. The research scope is cropland emissions and particularly those related to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use. The thesis is articulated around the construction of a bottom-up marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) which offers a rational framework for combining biophysical and economic data to reflect mitigation costs. This tool allows the aggregation of the mitigation potential arising from the application of a subset of cost-effective measures above a notional baseline level. An analysis of Chinese climate policies reveals that agriculture is nearly absent in the current national mitigation strategy. We therefore intend to assess the technical, economic and political feasibility of integrating agriculture into domestic mitigation policies. In the first place, the emissions trends and calculation methods are assessed to determine a rigorous approach to build baseline scenarios from projected business-as-usual activities to 2020. Secondly, we identify nine cropland mitigation measures, evaluate their abatement rates and future applicability beyond the baseline scenario to conclude a total feasible technical mitigation potential. The translation to the economic potential is then made by comparing the implementation costs of different mitigation options relative to conventional farming practices. The MACC results show that agriculture provides significant mitigation potential to be able to offset about one-third of baseline emissions and realisation of one-third of the potential is cost-negative for farmers. We finally examine the conditions of using economic instruments to reduce emissions at the lowest cost for the agricultural sector. Given the institutional, behaviour and socials obstacles, we strongly suggest a reform in agriculture fertilizer subsidies to send a clear political signal from central planning. Scaling-up offset projects using carbon intensity as the standardized baseline is recommended and can prepare the grounds for a possible experimental emission trading programme in agriculture. In light with the top priority of safeguarding food security in China, cases studies on regional cereal production are carried out in all these steps, including the analysis of provincial greenhouse gas intensity of production, regional abatement potential related to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use as well as implementation cost disparities in certain regions.

Climate change is a collective action problem that has been seen as something that needs a global solution. This has resulted in multilateral agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, which can largely be said to have been unsuccessful so far. This has led to an increased awareness of the potential of cities as being part of the solution. Cities are often seen as key sources of climate change, but also as key sites for climate action. The Paris Agreement needs to be implemented on all political levels to be effective. This makes cities an important site for climate policy implementation. Some scholars of urban climate governance have looked at ways to evaluate climate policies in cities as a way to improve these processes. This study means to contribute to that field. The aim of the study is to evaluate climate policies in the city plans of Stockholm and Dublin. This has been done by testing an analytical framework which made it possible to shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the climate policies and the governance structures in the plans. By doing this it was also possible to identify challenges in using the framework and give suggestions on how the framework can be improved. The study takes the form of a comparative case study of the two cities. Document analysis was used as a method to select and analyse the data and the empirical material consisted of the city plans of Stockholm and Dublin. These are policy documents containing general development plans of the cities. It was concluded that both plans contain both strengths and weaknesses. Examples of strengths are that both plans are well-integrated with activities on the regional and national level, that responsibility for implementation is centralised on the local level, that the plans promote innovation and that the plans are connected to long-term goals and visions. Examples of weaknesses are that neither plan makes use of more hard methods such as regulation, that the Dublin City Plan is not integrated with policy on the global level and that the Stockholm City Plan lacks monitoring systems. Regarding the analytical framework it was concluded that it can be used to analyse city plans rather than metropolitan plans. By testing the framework it was also possible to identify challenges in using the framework and give suggestions on how to improve it, such as by making some of the key attributes of the plan more widely applicable.

The thesis aims to analyse the relations of non-governmental organisations towards the European integration process, which creates an additional platform for their interest representation. This case study focuses on how Czech non-profit organisations, which are dealing in long term with the topic of climate change, try to use the instruments and channels available at the EU level to promote their idea of the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework targets and how the EU climate action policy translates to their understanding of the topic. The thesis is based on the Europeanization theory that assumes that non-state actors are adjusting their behaviour to the existence of another platform of decision making and interest representation. I, therefore, assume, that the selected sample of Czech ecological NGOs tries to actively use the opportunity to participate in the EU decision making - especially because a climate policy is decided mostly at the EU level and therefore the outcomes, such as the 2030 Framework, present another tool to achieve change in the climate policy of the Czech Republic. I conclude that from the perspective of selected NGOs the European climate policy is perceived as an important driver behind the development in this field in both Czech Republic and global negotiations - even though...