Människans utsläpp av växthusgaser håller på att orsaka en förändring av jordens klimat. Den ökande koncentrationen av växthusgaser i atmosfären, som till exempel koldioxid, medför att en större del av värmestrålningen hindras från att återstråla ut i rymden igen, vilket driver på den globala uppvärmningen. För att kunna nå uppsatta klimatmål och minska de klimatpåverkande utsläppen krävs att hela samhället ändrar sin livsstil i en mer miljövänlig riktning. En central del av Sveriges klimatarbete är att sprida kunskap om klimatförändringens orsaker, konsekvenser och åtgärder i syfte att öka människors deltagande och intresse för klimatfrågan. Syftet med denna studie är att mäta allmänhetens kunskaper om och attityder till klimatförändringen genom en enkätundersökning samt analysera om det finns ett samband mellan kunskap och attityd genom regressionsanalys. I enkäten deltog totalt 149 respondenter från Sveriges allmänhet. Resultatet indikerar att det finns ett stort engagemang för att lösa klimatproblemet och en övervägande positiv attityd hos allmänheten till att minska sin klimatpåverkan men att kunskapsnivån om klimatförändringen är måttlig. Regressionsanalysen visar att det saknas ett tydligt linjärt samband mellan kunskap och attityd. Av resultatet konstateras att det behövs en högre grad av utbildning om klimatförändringens orsaker och konsekvenser samt mer lättillgänglig information till allmänheten om hur de kan bidra till ett bättre klimat. / Human emissions of greenhouse gases are causing a change in the Earth's climate. The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, prevents a greater proportion of heat radiation from being re-emitted to space, which drives global warming. In order to achieve set climate goals and reduce climate-related emissions, the entire society needs to change its lifestyle into a more environmentally friendly way. A central part of Sweden's climate work is to disseminate knowledge about the causes and consequences of climate change as well as possible actions, in order to increase people's participation and interest in climate issues. The purpose of this study is to measure the public's knowledge and attitudes towards climate change through a survey and analyze whether there is a relationship between knowledge and attitude through regression analysis. The survey included a total of 149 respondents from the general public of Sweden. The result indicates that there is a great commitment to solve the climate problem and a predominantly positive attitude among the public to reduce its climate impact, but that the level of knowledge about climate change is moderate. The regression analysis shows that there is no clear linear link between knowledge and attitude. The result states that there is a need for a higher degree of education about the causes and consequences of climate change, as well as more accessible information to the public on how they can contribute to a better climate.

The Paris Agreement, the recent Special Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Sustainable Development Goals are examples of United Nation’s facilitated calls for urgent climate action and more generally for a rapid transition of society towards sustainability. Since urban personal mobility is a significant contributor to society’s current sustainability challenges, and considering current trends of population growth and urbanisation, there is a strong need to develop enhanced support for urban planning for rapid transitioning to sustainable personal mobility. This thesis is part of a wider effort to develop methodological support for such planning and action. The aim of the thesis is to provide a partial foundation for that wider effort by: (i) identifying and organising prominent research themes related to the above topic; and since previous research points to benefits of a transdisciplinary, multisectoral and multicultural approach, (ii) exploring and addressing the complexity of co-production processes in such contexts; and (iii) analysing the appropriateness of some prominent planning approaches for the desired planning support. The aim is pursued through a systematic literature review, including bibliometric analyses, and two empirical case studies, including workshops, interviews, field studies and feasibility studies. One of the case studies included participants from several countries in the Southern Baltic region and the other case study tested the usefulness of different planning approaches in the local context of Kisumu, Kenya and Gothenburg, Sweden, respectively. The thesis provides a map of some prominent research themes and discusses their relevance to the field of urban planning for rapid transitioning to sustainable personal mobility. The analysis of the identified themes and their development over the past ten years shows that there has been a shift in mobility planning from ’predict and provide’ towards participatory visionary approaches. This, in turn, has led to new challenges, related to, for example, epistemic communities, language and culture. Furthermore, it is seen that sustainability considerations have become increasingly pronounced in the urban mobility planning literature. However, different dimensions of sustainability are often considered individually (e.g. the ecological and social dimensions) and coordinated approaches to sustainable mobility planning are virtually lacking. At the methodological level, the thesis provides a preliminary conceptual framework for analysing complexity in co-production processes with regard to epistemic communities, language and culture, as well as a discussion of the usefulness of four specific planning approaches for the desired planning support, namely the backcasting, transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge, foresighting and SymbioCity approaches. The overall conclusion is that there is a need for research that would show how mobility actors can contribute to resolve pressing issues related to climate change fast enough without compromising other aspects of sustainability, including how temporary trade-offs can be addressed in a strategic way.

Achieving a sustainable development and fighting climate change will require a faster and vaster allocation of financial resources than what has yet been witnessed. Green FinTech innovations have been identified as one potential solution to this challenge. Stimulating and supporting the development of such innovations is thus important, but requires knowledge about what the innovation processes look like, which individual, internal organizational and external societal factors that influence them, and how these factors influence them. The aim of this study is thus to contribute to the conceptual and empirical understanding of the innovation process of green FinTech innovations by conducting a multiple-case study with the three green FinTech innovations bettervest, SDG-Investments and Der Finanzoptimist in the area of Frankfurt, Germany. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings show that the green FinTech innovation process begins with an initiation period which consists of a gestation period during which core innovation ideas and related outcome criteria occur, innovation team members gain new knowledge, new social relationships are made, and most aspects in the external context stay stable. The acquired knowledge and the stable aspects in the external context influence the occurrence of ideas and related outcome criteria. The gestation period ends with a shock and the end of the initiation period is defined by the making of plans and budgets. The development period is defined by several paths of activities. The initial outcome criteria develop and outcomes are continuously assessed. Positive outcomes occur and are influenced by innovation members’ capabilities, their new roles and new legal relationships. Negative outcomes defined as setbacks also occur and are influenced by established legal transactions. Innovation team members work part-time during the development period. Social and legal relationships with actors outside the innovation team expand, influenced by previously made social relationships and the innovation team members’ new roles. The expansion of social relationships is also influenced by positive outcomes. Activities aimed at implementing the innovation occur throughout the development period. Eventually, the innovation process finishes. The findings represent the first contribution to research on the topic of green FinTech innovation processes. Future research should examine additional digital business functions such as digital money or digital payments, the differences and similarities between general and green FinTech innovation processes, and use other research and data collection methods.

Agricultural practices face a difficult dilemma of producing enough food for a growing population and evolving to greatly diminish its large impact on the environment. Soilless cultures such as hydroponics has been put forth as an alternative solution due to the possibility of larger yields and, in some departments, less impact on the environment. This study sought to investigate if there are any statistically proven differences in biomass gain for Ocimum basilicum when growing hydroponically or in course sand with full nutrient treatment, as well as growing with a calcium deficiency. Key findings show that full nutrient treatment gathered few to none differences, whilst calcium scarcity resulted in greater biomass and greater leaf biomass when planted in sand, whilst the water culture displayed less chlorophyll degradation. Due to challenges in methodology the study would benefit from being undertaken again with greater scientific precision, but variants can also be explored such as different growing mediums and nutrient scarcities. Soil-based growing is considerably more forgiving to mistakes and errors rather than soilless cultures, and so, for the positive qualities of hydroponics (space efficiency, no runoff, more effective use of resources, no pesticides/herbicides, less transport, etc.) to be effectual, knowledge, experience and further investigation is required.

Cirka 35 tusen ton plast beräknas flyta omkring i haven. Där plastkoncentrationerna ärsom störst antas det bero på havsströmmar, nedskräpning från folktäta kuster menäven fiskeredskap som lämnats kvar eller gått sönder till havs. På grund av UVstrålning,saltvatten och kemiska reaktioner vittrar plastpartiklarna sönder och bildardet som kallas för mikroplast. Avsiktligt tillverkade mikroplaster kan även tillsättastill produkter med olika önskvärda egenskaper, exempelvis som en polerande effekt itandkräm och andra hygienartiklar. De plastpolymerer som återfinns mest i haven ärpolyetylen (PE), polypropylen (PP), polystyren (PS) och polyetylen tereftalat (PET).Man har hittat mikroplaster i olika marina livsmedel såsom som räkor, musslor samtolika matfiskar bland annat torsk men även i livsmedel som havssalt. Det är docksvårt att säga hur dessa mikroplaster kan påverka vår hälsa men konsumerar man fiskoch skaldjur finns det en risk att man också konsumerar mikroplaster. Trots attmikroplaster upp till 5 millimeter med största sannolikhet passerar vårtmatsmältningssystem vid konsumtion, finns det ändå risker då tillsatser iplastpolymererna kan vara hormonstörande och cancerogena.

Cross-collaborations and interdisciplinarity have become buzzwords in academia as it has been identified and argued, that going beyond traditional academic boundaries is essential for providing solutions to complex, societal problems. Currently, most of the scholarly literature on collaboration focusses on sub-issues, such as arguments for and against the crossing of fields and disciplines, while there is a lack of practical case studies exemplifying its effect. The objective of this research was therefore to explore the arguments underlying initiatives to start an introductory collaborative program for young academics, identify these programs’ roles in the researchers' collaboration capacity, and thus, to gain understanding of how collaborative programs can contribute in the process of equipping young researchers with valuable tools to tackle today's and tomorrow's complex challenges linked to United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. The research for this thesis was done in two steps: (1) to search for a conceptual framework on the topic of research collaboration, and (2) presenting a single-case study of one example of a collaborative research enhancing program by conducting qualitative interviews with key respondents. This thesis explicitly includes an assessment of current theories on the development of collaborative and interdisciplinary research teams and the relevance of these for enhancing scientific capacity of innovation, effectiveness and progress. It concludes that collaborative research is an ambiguous and fluid concept. Although concepts and theories around this phenomenon have been proposed, there is no coherent consensus on the concept in the scholarly literature. Furthermore, the case study presented in this thesis offers a unique insight into young researchers’ experiences of participating a collaborative research program. It is recognized that there is a consensus among the persons interviewed that participating in a collaborative research program has greatly contributed to the individual researcher’s professional development. It is further recognized that the lack of standardized indicators for collaborative outputs implicates on the possibility to argue for the proposed benefits of collaborative research in relation to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Over the past decades the traditional development agenda of a donor-beneficiary model has been replaced by one builton partnerships with mutual benefits. In recent years the paradigms of ‘aid effectiveness’ and ‘developmenteffectiveness’, characterized by a set of new and emerging actors that play an important role in development and arenewed focus on economic growth, have emerged. One of the actors that is becoming more important is the privatesector, as they increasingly have the opportunity to take on a new profound role as development driver. While there hasbeen a trend of decreasing government spending for development aid, the private sector has considerable financial assetsat their disposal. However, the financial contribution of the private sector in sectors related to the SustainableDevelopment Goals remains low. Public-private partnerships are seen as a way that can attract the private sector indoing investments in sustainable development. Especially for global agri-food chains, partnerships have the ambitionto bring about sustainable change. In order to attract the private sector in such collaborations, an understanding of theirinformation needs regarding public-private partnerships and sustainability is necessary. The focus of this research wasto explain those information needs. As part of a case study research, interviews with the private sector were conducted.To gain additional insights, web testing tasks were conducted with the same interviewees. It is found that p the two mainreasons to join in a partnership for the private partners of this case study are because it is a platform for collaborationand knowledge exchange. Understanding these motivations helps to articulate a message that is seen as valuable. Next,with regard to sustainability interests, these mainly fall under the three pillars of sustainability – economic,environmental, social – but it was also found that the companies can use information on traceability and connectingtheir work to the Sustainable Development Goals as ways to communicate about their sustainability efforts. Relatingthis to the findings on information needs and how to communicate about such topics, the main findings suggest that theinformation should be concrete, result-oriented and proof of impact. In general, the information needs of the privatesector all to less or more extent have to do with continuation of the business, while also interest is shown for makingsustainability a viable business case and being a thought leader on sustainability topics. These findings are parallel tothe dominant paradigms of development effectiveness and aid effectiveness that continue to shape the agenda ondevelopment collaboration. / <p>I cannot select the correct organization/department for my supervisor and evaluator as both ar connected to SLU, not UU.</p><p>For Cecilia: Department of Forest Products at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences</p><p>For Per: Department of Economics; Rural Entrepreneurship at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences</p><p></p>

Sustainability has become highly prominent, it is an important aspect of the 21st century that is gradually becoming part of everyday life. Urbanisation has also rapidly increased since the 1950s when New York was the only urban area in the world to be considered a megacity due to its extensive population; presently megacities can be found globally with predicted to arise in the future. The growth rate of some of the largest urban areas in the world has been too rapid for some cities to keep up with; resulting in environmental, social, and economic issues growing alongside the urbanisation trend. The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) wants to work towards reducing and eventually removing such issues at a global scale; reducing the inequalities of the world that are more than often to visible in large urban areas. This thesis aims to examine the SDGs, specifically that of SDG 11 which focuses on cities and human settlements in line with one of the largest urban areas on the planet, Tokyo. An examination of planning and policy documents composed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) in the form of a comparative analysis alongside key criteria taken from SDG 11 will be conducted to gain an insight and understanding of the plans and policies that are working to create a functioning society in Tokyo.

Dry covers can be used to limit the generation of acid mine drainage from sulphidic mine waste exposed to air and water. For the covers to act efficiently a high degree of saturation should be maintained in the cover, as the diffusion of oxygen is substantially reduced in water compared to that in air. Historically, dry covers made solely from till have been applied with varying degrees of success. To improve the performance of dry covers, a multi-layer approach can be applied incorporating a sealing layer aimed at effectively preventing oxygen ingress and an overlying protective layer. Blends of till and green liquor dregs (GLD) are thought to have advantageous properties regarding the water retention capacity and hydraulic conductivity. Subsequently, the blends should have a good ability to remain highly saturated during dry periods and be able to maintain their function as oxygen diffusion barriers over time. In this study the effective oxygen diffusion coefficient (De) in blends of till and GLD was evaluated by laboratory measurements. The oxygen diffusion coefficient of till-GLD blends was evaluated through 81 diffusion tests performed at different degrees of water saturation. The blends differed in added amounts of GLD and different types of GLD. These variables were studied as they affect the blends grain size, porosity, tortuosity, and degree of saturation, which in turn affect the De. The tests were performed in two-chamber diffusion cells and interpreted using the software Vadose/W (Geoslope, 2016) to determine the De. The results provide an initial evaluation of the variation of De that can be expected for till-GLD blends. The De was found to vary greatly for the blends (10-6 &gt; De &gt; 10-11 m2 s-1) depending on the degree of saturation. Even though the GLD contain substantial amounts of water, a high water content of the till was still required to reach a low De. A predictive model for estimating the De based on basic geotechnical soil properties was compared to the De from the interpreted diffusion tests. The model could generally predict the De to within an acceptable range (± one order of magnitude). Additionally, diffusion tests performed on materials dried in successive steps showed how the De changed over time when exposed to drying. A sharp increase in the De was found for the blends, pure GLD and pure till when exposed to drying. Thus, no clear improvement was found for the GLD-till blends compared to the pure till. These results indicate that the till-GLD layers should not be exposed to drying as loss of cover efficiency may occur. This can have implications for the use of till-GLD blends as sealing layers in terms of the design of the protective cover and the placement of covers. To validate these results, tests on larger material quantities should be performed, preferably in field conditions, and comparison to field measurements would be of high interest.

Acid sulfate soils cover a relatively large area of Sweden, especially the coast along Gulf of Botnia. As these soils in contact with oxygen they start to oxidize and the sulphide is converted to sulphate, leading to a strong acidification. Today, these acid sulfate soils often end up on landfills, which is not a sustainable solution as it is both costly and there is a risk of leakage. A company based in Umea has developed a method for neutralizing acid sulphate soil with hope that it can be reused as plant soil, by adding sand and calcium as well as organic matter. At present, the process is only half-finished as the organic matter is not yet added. This study determined how the treatment worked so far, how much sulphide and neutralizing potential remains in the soil, as well as a number of metals and nutrients commonly and preferably found in plant soil. The treated sulfide soil was compared with a plant soil nearby, along with comparison of data from four different studies elsewhere on sulphide soil and results from samples taken before the sulphide soil was treated. Results show that pH value was higher than before the treatment and total sulfur content had decreased, but is still twice as high compared to the plant soil. Sulphide is still found in the soil, but also a fair amount of calcium carbonate, which shows that the reaction is not completed but that the soil has the potential to be further neutralized. Metal content in the treated sulfide soil is similar to the plant soil. The humus content is at 1.3 % and lower than recommended. Depending on area of use the humus content has to increase, more or less. Based on the results of the analyzes, the treated soil cannot be used as plant soil at the present time. This because of the organic matter that has not yet been added, and that there is still sulphide left in the soil.