I denna avhandling studeras en ny teknik för att hantera växthuseffekten. Den nya tekniken heter koldioxidavskiljning och lagring (CCS) och granskades av FN:s klimatpanel 2005 och tillskrevs då möjligheterna att stå för 15-55% av alla CO2-reducering fram till 2100 och detta till en 30% lägre kostnad än vad som annars vore möjligt. EU är en framträdande pådrivare av CCS och för fram att växthuseffekten inte kan hanteras utan att CCS implementeras skyndsamt. CCS beskrivs i dessa sammanhang som en hållbar teknik. CCS är emellertid förbunden med långtidslagring, en betydande teknisk komplexitet och tillämpas främst på kolkraftverk. Storskaliga satsningar på CCS kan medföra att kolanvändningen ökar. Syftet med avhandlingen är att analysera de vetenskapliga och politiska ansträngningarna att visa att CCS är en eftersträvansvärd teknik för att hantera växthuseffekten. Utifrån perspektivet ekologisk modernisering och genom granskning av studier av vetenskapliga rapporter, artiklar i massmedia, politiska dokument och intervjuer genomförs studien. Scenerier och prognoser har en central funktion för att kunna påvisa att CCS är en eftersträvansvärd teknik. I flera av dessa scenarier framställs en närmast linjär teknikutveckling och flera betydelsefulla problem och hinder bortses från. CCS framstår som en teknik med stor teknisk och ekonomisk potential och i massmedia beskrivs CCS ofta som oumbärlig. En mer nyanserad bild framträder vid intervjuer med CCS-experter då fler osäkerheter och hinder lyfts fram. Förståelsen för varför denna teknik för stöd av många starka aktörer blir även tydligare. Den dominerande beskrivningen av CCS egenskaper och inverkan på energisystemen ligger i linje med det som är utmärkande för den ekologiska modernisering och således även för det dominerande sättet att bedriva energi- och klimatpolitik idag. / In this dissertation an emerging technology to manage climate change is studied. The technology is carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) and was reviewed by the IPCC in 2005. IPCC claims that CCS could contribute 15–55% to the cumulative mitigation effort worldwide until 2100 and reduce the costs of stabilizing CO2 concentrations by 30%. The EU promotes CCS and believes that climate change cannot be managed unless CCS is promptly implemented. In this context CCS is labelled as a sustainable technology. However CCS deals with long-term waste disposal, a significant technological complexity and is meant to be installed mainly in coal-fired power plants. Large scale implementation of CCS might lead to a rise in coal usage and concerns are raised this will impede the development of renewable energy. The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the scientific and political efforts to show that CCS is a rational and viable solution to the climate change problems. The study is conducted from the perspective of ecological modernization and is undertaken through a review of scientific reports, mass media articles, political documents and interviews. Scenarios and prognoses have a central position in making a future of large-scale CCS implementation plausible: through the scenarios, a linear development trend is visualized in which technological and scientific problems are assumed to be solved as CCS is implemented. CCS is described as a technology with substantial potential and is in the mass media often pictured as indispensable. A more nuanced picture appears when analyzing interviews with CCS-experts. The understanding of why this technology is supported by several influential actors is deepened. The dominating description of CCS and impact on the energy systems is compatible to the characteristics of ecological modernization and thus also to the predominating way of practising energy and climate politics today.

Level:                           Master thesis in Business administration with concentration towards Ecological economics   Title:             Combating climate change – a case study of Statoil’s climate strategy   Problem:       The world is facing an environmental situation where we no longer can ignore problems like climate change, losses of species and an overall environmental degradation. Many actors have to take their responsibility and do as much as they can for a sustainable development. One crucial actor is the business world. Often, they both have the knowledge and financial power to make a difference. Higher environmental regulations and pressure from stakeholders, such as the Swedish government or the EU, forces companies to consider the environment while doing business. This requires a strategy.   Purpose:       The purpose with the essay is to identify and study Statoil’s climate strategy.  We also want to identify the most important internal and external factors that are affecting the strategy.   Method:       The thesis is based on a qualitative method made up by two parts, interviews and literature studies. We made one informant interview and two respondent interviews with two environmental executives from Statoil AB.   Results:        Statoil has a mainly pro-active strategy and are very ambiguous in the climate question, although their strategy is highly affected by the surrounding. Developing new technologies, cooperation and profiling are the main parts of their strategy. They are affected by the dominating discourse ecological modernization, as well as by the organizational field. They are in turn affecting the field by their offensive strategy. The customers and the legal framework are the most important external factors of impact. Whereas the corporate group StatoilHydro and financial resources are the most important internal factors.   Keywords:    Climate strategy, environmental strategy, responsible company, greening, ecological modernization

Abstract This study describes the central views of MTK on Finnish environmental policy during the period 1980-2000. The empirical material is collected from the magazine Maataloustuottaja. The data is analyzed using ethnographic content analysis and examining the central arguments and discoursive structures of the texts. The study begins with a description of the development of Finnish agriculture and of MTK. The first chapter also presents and evaluates empirical studies on the environmental views of Finnish farmers. The following chapter discusses some theoretical and methodological issues in environmental sociology. The theoretical foundation of this study is grounded in the idea of ecological modernization and social justice in environmental issues. The essential methodological tension that underpins environmental sociology is between critical realism and social constructivism. The starting point of this research lies between critical realism and moderate constructivism; in other words, naïve realism and strong constructivism or scientism and relativism have been abandoned. This starting point is also closely connected to environmental pragmatism. The empirical part of the study begins with a thematical discussion on changes in the views that MTK has adopted toward environmental policy issues. Although these views have not changed significantly over the years, MTK has shown an increased interest in organic production and in cooperation with consumer and worker organizations to promote "environmentally pure", local food production and the social sustainability of Finnish food production and countryside. The second part of the empirical study reveals some stable discoursive practices in the environmental rhetoric of MTK that has traditionally accentuated the connection between nature and agriculture and the notion of farmers as stewards of nature. At the same time, MTK has emphasized the alienation of urbanites and environmental policy-makers from nature and countryside. MTK has also expressed a concern about private property rights, economic expenses and a variety of practical problems caused by nature conservation and preservation. MTK's attitude towards family farming is contradictory: they are regarded as the models of agriculture, while the scale of production is growing. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa kuvataan MTK:n ympäristökäsityksiä vuosina 1980-2000. Tutkimusaineistona on käytetty sen julkaiseman "Maataloustuottaja" -lehden ympäristökysymyksiä käsitteleviä kirjoituksia. Aineiston käsittely perustuu etnografiseen sisällönanalyysiin tavoitteena tarkastella MTK:n ympäristöpoliittista argumentaatiota ja etsiä tekstin diskursiivisia rakenteita. Tutkimuksen alussa tarkastellaan MTK:n ja Suomen maatalouden kehitystä sekä viljelijäväestön ympäristökäsityksiä historiallisen ja yhteiskuntatieteellisen tutkimuksen sekä tilastojen valossa. Seuraavassa luvussa tarkastellaan ympäristösosiologian teoreettis-metodologista kysymyksiä ja niihin liittyviä ajankohtaisia kiistoja. Tutkimus rakentuu lähinnä ekologisen modernisaation teorian käsitteistölle täydennettynä ajankohtaisella, ympäristökysymyksiin liittyvän yhteiskunnallisen oikeudenmukaisuuden pohdinnalla. Ympäristösosiologian viimeaikainen metodologinen keskustelu on liittynyt kriittisen realismin ja konstruktionismin välisiin kiistoihin. Tutkimuksessa päädytään naiivin realismin ja radikaalin konstruktivismin hylkäämiseen ja ympäristösosiologisen pragmatismin mahdollisuuksien hahmottamiseen. Empiirisessä osassa tutkitaan aluksi MTK:n ympäristöpoliittisia käsityksiä ja niissä tapahtuneita muutoksia. Vaikka muutokset eivät ole kovin merkittäviä, on joitain merkkejä siitä havaittavissa: kiinnostus luonnonmukaiseen tuotantoon on kasvussa, tuottajien ja kuluttajien kesken on löytymässä yhteistoimintaa "puhtaiden" kotimaisten elintarvikkeiden ja lähituotannon puolesta ja järjestö on sitoutunut kestävän kehityksen periaatteiden toteuttamiseen. Toisessa empiirisen tutkimuksen osiossa etsitään diskursiivisia piirteitä MTK:n retoriikassa. Perinteisesti MTK on nähnyt viljelijät "todellisina luonnonsuojelijoina". Samalla se on katsonut kaupunkilaisten kuten myös ympäristöaktivistien ja -poliitikkojen vieraantuneen luonnosta. Järjestö on huolestunut omaisuudensuojasta, taloudellisista kustannuksista ja erilaisista käytännön ongelmista luonnonsuojelualueiden perustamisen yhteydessä. MTK:n suhtautuu perheviljelmiin ristiriitaisesti: niitä pidetään maatalouden mallina samalla, kun maataloustuotannon yksikkökoko on kasvamassa.

The exploitation of land in Northern Sweden has caused a significant depletion of grazing grounds for semi-domesticated reindeer. This is a threat to the indigenous Sami reindeer herders of Sweden, who rely on the grazing ground in order to sustainably feed their herds. In the last decade, a significant amount of grazing land has been lost due to the construction of wind power parks (WPP) in important grazing regions. This thesis examines the discourse surrounding a WPP built in Härjedalen for IKEA. The WPP was built on Glötesvålen, a unique highland used for grazing by Mittådalen, a local herding community. Through a dissection of electronic sources and semi-structured interviews, the author conducts a discourse analysis to identify the most prevalent narratives surrounding the construction of IKEA’s WPP on Glötesvålen. An inductive approach is used to identify underlying ideologies present in the discourse through a relevant theoretical framework. The results show a pervasive enthusiasm for the WPP as a pivot towards renewable energy which mirrors the ideology of ecological modernization. The results also find a critical narrative which lifts the uneven power dynamic experienced by reindeer herders. This narrative is understood through the lens of Spivak’s (2010) “Can the Subaltern Speak?”. An additional discourse found is the symbolic issue between industrial ecological transitioning and the right to reindeer husbandry as a cultural heritage. / Exploateringen av mark i norra Sverige har orsakat en betydande förlust av betesmarker för renskötare. Detta hotar den svensk-samiska rennäringen, som förlitar sig på betesmarken för att hållbart mata sina hjordar. Under det senaste decenniet har en betydande mängd betesmark gått förlorad på grund av den ökande mängden vindkraftsparker (WPP) på, eller intillrenbetesmarker. Denna avhandling undersöker diskursen kring en WPP byggd i Härjedalen för IKEA. WPP byggdes på Glötesvålen, ett låg-fjäll som tidigare haft strategiskt viktiga betesmarker för samebyn Mittådalen. Genom en dissektion av elektroniska källor och halvstrukturerade intervjuer genomför författaren en diskursanalys för att identifiera de vanligaste narrativen om IKEAs vindkraftpark på Glötesvålen. En induktiv metod används för att identifiera underliggande ideologier som finns i diskursen genom ett relevant teoretisk ramverk. Resultaten visar en genomgripande entusiasm för vindkraft som ett steg mot förnybar energi. Detta narrativ speglar ideologin för ekologisk modernisering. Resultaten hittar också ett kritisk narrativ som lyfter den ojämna maktdynamiken som renskötarna upplever. Detta förstås genom Spivaks (2010) "Kan den underordnade tala?". Ytterligare en diskurs som upptäcks är symbolfrågan mellan industriell ekologisk omställning och bevarandet av renskötseln som kulturarv.

This thesis identified dominant discourses in climate change mitigation policy in three Swedish municipalities using argumentative discourse analysis. It was explored how these discourses influence the potential for success in mitigating climate change. Other studies have identified several factors that are important when working with climate change mitigation in municipalities, for example, political leadership and organizational structure. However, studies have shown that discourse is also an influential factor since it sets the frame for what can be thought of, consequently influencing policies and actions, but this has not been studied as much at the municipal level in Sweden. Previous studies of environmental policy have shown the dominance of an ecological modernization discourse, where economic growth and environmental issues are combined to create a win-win. The results in this thesis show the dominance of a strong ecological modernization where the decoupling between economic growth and environmental problems, renewable energy and technology, a global justice perspective, and a focus on collaboration between stakeholders is central. A main conclusion is that the ecological modernization discourse risks obscuring potential solutions that are not related to the market or technological innovation. However, the inclusion of a diversity of actors and a focus on justice could potentially minimize this risk. Finally, emerging discourses around transformation and circular economy could be ways to problematize the taken-for-granted ecological modernization discourse. However, their potential depends on how these concepts are framed and what is included in them. / <p>Presentation was done online due to COVID-19</p>

This paper analyses the environmental policy documents of Vänsterpartiet (Left Party) and Socialdemokraterna (Social Democratic Party) based on the theories of ecological modernization (EMT) and critical environmental sociology (CES), constructed as ideal types. The aim is to explain ideational differences and similarities based on the ideal types of each theory and how well the parties can be linked to the ideal types of EMT and CES, their similarities and differences. The results show that there is a clear ideational distinction between the Left Party and the Social Democratic Party and that their views on solutions to climate change and subsequent environmental issues, based on ecological modernization theory and critical environmental sociology, differ despite other ideational similarities. The Left Party adheres more to the ideal type of CES and the Social Democratic Party adheres more to the ideal type of EMT.

This paper is a study upon a global vision of a sustainable future, to local implementation of environmentally effective solutions, in contemporary urban planning projects. The purpose was to illuminate a gap between the global rationality of sustainability and local rationality of sustainability and to identify the effect it has on sustainable outcomes. To do so, I did qualitative research on the Lynetteholm development project and analyzed the data using document – and critical discourse analysis. My research was guided by the theory of ecological modernization, their perspectives upon sustainable solutions within the capitalist-liberal democratic society, and urban regime theory, which provided an insight into the concept of scale in environmental politics. Through an in-depth analysis of the presented motivation and prime drivers behind the Lynetteholm project proposal and the impact it has on sustainable outcomes, I have found that the local vision of sustainability is constructed by hegemonic narratives of prosperous urbanity, that is equalized with growth, progress, and profit. I have identified economic growth as the prime driver of developing Lynetteholm and concluded that it has a significant impact on sustainable outcomes, as economic growth is not compatible with sustainable development, without political interference. In addition, the gap between global and local rationality of sustainability in urban planning lies in the process of redelegating the responsibility to implement sustainable practices and secure an environmentally beneficial outcome. The issue is that despite much expertise and knowledge of the field, planners and politicians continue to address socio-ecologic impacts isolated and reject the cumulative effects, which inevitably retains the sustainable transformation from taking place.

This dissertation studies the development of the environmental issue from a discursive perspective. Through an analysis of views on nature and the environment in several NGOs and main political organs, the dissertation tries to explain how a certain view became hegemonic. The analysis pertains to the period between the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 and the introduction of the concept sustainable development by the UN in 1987. From a realistic starting point and with critical discourse analysis (CDA) as its method, the dissertation aims to identify causal powers and mechanisms that have generated and institutionalized the environmental discourse. An analytical model is developed and applied on three levels; a sociolinguistic, institutional, and macrosocial level; which also reflect the methodological progression of the study from description to explanation. The result shows that the discursive practice was hegemonized by a Western view promoting economic growth. This discourse gradually gained ground at the expense of an anti-systemic discourse which posited structural societal changes as the answer to environmental problems. Mechanisms such as the exclusion of some views and actors from common discursive practices were crucial for the process of homogenizing the discourse and developing consensus. Through incorporating that part of the environmental movement which did not fight the dominant economic and political system, the UN turned it into support for its own project, which is part of the process of hegemony. At the same time the environmental objectives of the hegemonic discourse were established in the institutional spheres. The institutionalization of the environmental issue changed the focus from social critique to a question of development and technology, something which helped displace the original critical and partially anti-systemic character of environmental discourse. Through turning the critical and negative account of the situation into a more harmonious and hopeful vision, for instance in terms of sustainable development, a foundation was laid for the later development of ecological modernization. When the hegemonic discourse invested the concept of sustainable development with emphases on progress and economic growth, it encapsulated the environmental issue within the framework of the prevailing social system. / <p>With summary in English and Spanish/Con resumen en inglés y en español</p>

O que são o desenvolvimento sustentável, seus desdobramentos teóricos e suas implicações, pode não suscitar muitas dúvidas ao investigador da academia, mas sua aplicação real vem provocando intensos debates nas muitas ciências, em razão dos temas que o cercam: quase tudo pertinente ao sistema social, para não dizer tudo. A extensão de qualquer enfrentamento a tal tema não permite grandes concessões e exceções das diversas áreas do conhecimento, sob pena de incompletude de observação, esta por si naturalmente limitada ao seu ponto cego. Assim, alguns pontos latentes para o desenvolvimento sustentável foram alinhados nos respectivos capítulos, de maneira que, no último, o somatório de revisões redunda num representativo avanço. A iniciar, e por meio do resgate histórico crítico, buscou-se a melhor definição para o desenvolvimento sustentável na contemporaneidade. Esta é observada em veias reflexivas na sequência, para contextualização do leitor nesta modernidade avançada. O processo produtivo de consumo, com ênfase para este último, detém toda a atenção a seguir, permitindo o conhecimento das engrenagens econômicas motivacionais. Dando continuação, aborda-se o desenvolvimento sustentável sob o prisma do sistema jurídico brasileiro, no qual a matriz do direito entra em discussão. Por fim, faz-se uma revisão minuciosa dos principais movimentos e correntes ambientais e socioambientais, prestando-se para a revisão do desenvolvimento sustentável, agora sinérgico. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-05-30T16:09:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Luiz Fernando del Rio Horn.pdf: 871974 bytes, checksum: 3db221d36f479c613c269122b5246c1f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-30T16:09:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Luiz Fernando del Rio Horn.pdf: 871974 bytes, checksum: 3db221d36f479c613c269122b5246c1f (MD5) / What is the maintainable development, their theoretical unfolding and their implications, it cannot raise a lot of doubts to the investigator of the academy, but its real application is provoking intense debates in a lot of sciences, in reason of the themes that surround it: almost everything pertinent to the social system, for not saying everything. The extension of any confronting of such a theme does not allow great concessions and exceptions of several areas of knowledge, under penalty of observation uncompleted, this for itself limited naturally to its blind point. Like this, some latent points for the maintainable development were aligned in the respective chapters, so that, in the last, the sum of revisions is redundant in a representative progress. In the first chapter, through the critical historical rescue, the best definition was looked for the maintainable development in the contemporaneousness. This is observed in reflexive veins in the second chapter, for contextualization of the reader in this advanced modernity. The productive process of consumption, with emphasis for this last one, stops all the attention in the chapter third, allowing the knowledge of the gears economical motivations. In the four there is an approach of the maintainable development under the prim of the brazilian legal system, in which the head office of the right enters in discussion. In the fifth and last, it is made a meticulous revision of the main movements and environmental currents and social environments, being rendered for revision of the maintainable development, now synergic.

O que são o desenvolvimento sustentável, seus desdobramentos teóricos e suas implicações, pode não suscitar muitas dúvidas ao investigador da academia, mas sua aplicação real vem provocando intensos debates nas muitas ciências, em razão dos temas que o cercam: quase tudo pertinente ao sistema social, para não dizer tudo. A extensão de qualquer enfrentamento a tal tema não permite grandes concessões e exceções das diversas áreas do conhecimento, sob pena de incompletude de observação, esta por si naturalmente limitada ao seu ponto cego. Assim, alguns pontos latentes para o desenvolvimento sustentável foram alinhados nos respectivos capítulos, de maneira que, no último, o somatório de revisões redunda num representativo avanço. A iniciar, e por meio do resgate histórico crítico, buscou-se a melhor definição para o desenvolvimento sustentável na contemporaneidade. Esta é observada em veias reflexivas na sequência, para contextualização do leitor nesta modernidade avançada. O processo produtivo de consumo, com ênfase para este último, detém toda a atenção a seguir, permitindo o conhecimento das engrenagens econômicas motivacionais. Dando continuação, aborda-se o desenvolvimento sustentável sob o prisma do sistema jurídico brasileiro, no qual a matriz do direito entra em discussão. Por fim, faz-se uma revisão minuciosa dos principais movimentos e correntes ambientais e socioambientais, prestando-se para a revisão do desenvolvimento sustentável, agora sinérgico. / What is the maintainable development, their theoretical unfolding and their implications, it cannot raise a lot of doubts to the investigator of the academy, but its real application is provoking intense debates in a lot of sciences, in reason of the themes that surround it: almost everything pertinent to the social system, for not saying everything. The extension of any confronting of such a theme does not allow great concessions and exceptions of several areas of knowledge, under penalty of observation uncompleted, this for itself limited naturally to its blind point. Like this, some latent points for the maintainable development were aligned in the respective chapters, so that, in the last, the sum of revisions is redundant in a representative progress. In the first chapter, through the critical historical rescue, the best definition was looked for the maintainable development in the contemporaneousness. This is observed in reflexive veins in the second chapter, for contextualization of the reader in this advanced modernity. The productive process of consumption, with emphasis for this last one, stops all the attention in the chapter third, allowing the knowledge of the gears economical motivations. In the four there is an approach of the maintainable development under the prim of the brazilian legal system, in which the head office of the right enters in discussion. In the fifth and last, it is made a meticulous revision of the main movements and environmental currents and social environments, being rendered for revision of the maintainable development, now synergic.