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På grund av antropogena utsläpp av växthusgaser sker stora förändringar i klimatet. Dessa kan leda till förödande konsekvenser för både människor, djur och natur. För att olika företag och verksamheter ska kunna mäta, hantera och eventuellt reducera sina växthusgasutsläpp används Greenhouse Gas Protocol som standard för växthusgasrapportering. Röda Korset Sverige har påbörjat ett klimatbokslut enligt Greenhouse Gas Protocol men inte inkluderat sina cirka 600 lokalföreningar runt om i landet. Syftet med detta arbete är därför att identifiera och kategorisera vilka aktiviteter Röda Korsets lokalföreningar bedriver som är av relevans i en växthusgasrapportering. Detta sker enligt Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 3, som är uppdelat i 15 olika kategorier och innefattar de indirekta växthusgasutsläppen genererade av den rapporterande verksamheten. Arbetet ämnar även leda till en enkät med generella frågor som ska kunna ställas till olika lokalföreningar för att mäta deras utsläpp av växthusgaser.  För att besvara syftet studerades inledningsvis Greenhouse Gas Protocol. Vidare genomfördes ett studiebesök inkluderat en intervju med ansvarig vid Röda Korsets lokalförening i Örebro samt en intervju med ansvarig vid Röda Korsets lokalförening i Piteå. Informationen om lokalföreningarnas aktiviteter som anskaffades kategoriserades sedan enligt kategorierna som Scope 3 innefattar, vilket sammanställdes i en tabell. En enkät utformades baserat på de kategoriserade aktiviteterna.  Resultatet visar att lokalföreningen i Örebro bedriver aktiviteter som platsar i Scope 3 kategorierna 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 och 11, medan lokalföreningen i Piteå bedriver aktiviteter som platsar i kategorierna 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 och 9. Frågeenkäten som skapades innehåller frågor baserade på de aktiviteter som platsade i någon av kategorierna som ingår i Scope 3, det innebär alltså att aktiviteter som inte tagits i beaktande i samband med kategoriseringen inte heller behandlats i frågeenkäten. Slutsatsen är att det saknas mycket information för att göra en fullständig Scope 3 rapportering. Förbättringar som behövs göras är bland annat att kartlägga verksamheterna mer noggrant. Det borde också undersökas huruvida lokalföreningarna bör ingå i Scope 1 och 2 som innefattar de direkta växthusgasutsläppen, i stället för Scope 3. / Due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, major changes are taking place in the climate. These can lead to devastating consequences for both humans, animals, and nature. For various companies and businesses to be able to measure, manage and possibly reduce their greenhouse gasemissions, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol is used as a standard for greenhouse gas reporting. The Red Cross Sweden has started a greenhouse gas accounting according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol but has not included its approximately 600 local associations around the country. The purpose of this report is to identify and categorize which activities the Red Cross local associations carry out that are relevant in a greenhouse gas accounting. This was done according to the Greenhouse Gas protocol, Scope 3 which is divided into 15 different categories that includes indirect greenhouse gasemissions generated by the reporting companies. The report also intends to lead to a questionnaire with general questions that can be asked to local associations to measure their greenhouse gasemissions.  To answer the purpose of the report, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol was initially studied. Furthermore, a study visit including an interview at the Red Cross Örebro was done and an interview with the Red Cross Piteå. Information about the local associations' activities that were acquired was then categorized according to the categories included in Scope 3, which were summarized in a table. The questionnaire was then designed based on the categorized activities.  The results show that the activities of the Red Cross Örebro fit in categories 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 11, while the activities of Red Cross Piteå fit in categories 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. The questionnaire that was created contains questions based on the activities that were placed in at least one of the categories included in Scope 3, which means that activities not taken in account during the categorization were not included in the questionnaire. However, it can be stated that there is a lack of information in order to make a complete greenhouse gas accounting. Further improvements that need to be made are to map the activities more accurately. It should also be examined whether the local associations should be included in Scope 1 and 2, instead of Scope 3.

Accounting for in-woods carbon storage in carbon accounting systems may be insufficient when substantial amounts of sequestered carbon are harvested and converted to long-lived wood products and landfills. The potential for offsetting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by storing carbon in managed loblolly pine forests in the southern United States was projected over the next half-century, both in terms of in-woods aboveground carbon pools and harvested products, including wood used for energy production. A region-wide data set from the Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) program of USDA Forest Service was used to set initial conditions and estimate model parameters for projecting management activities including plantation area, age distributions of thinning, and clearcut harvest on an annual timestep. The stand-level growth and yield model FASTLOB was linked to the FIA data to project growth rates and annual harvest volumes of sawtimber and pulpwood for the projection period, accounting for annual timber harvests and the life cycles of wood products. In addition to baseline management practices, projections were made for scenarios that assumed increasing management intensities including the use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides and genetically-improved growing stock. Present-day carbon storage in well-managed southern pine plantations averaged 30.54 Mgâ ha⁻¹ (± 2.54%) for aboveground carbon. Over a 50-year projection, annual wood production was 62.1 and 45.9 million green metric tons from pulpwood and sawtimber yield, with roughly one-fourth of the green weight being carbon. Baseline projections showed aboveground carbon pools of up to 341 million metric tons being maintained over the next 50 years, with 93% in aboveground live trees and 7% in coarse woody debris (CWD). The carbon storage in wood products increased steadily over the half-century projection and showed no sign of leveling off, while the storage in plantations was found to remain constant or increase slightly over time. An additional 11 million metric tons of harvested carbon was used for energy per year on average, equivalent to 25% of annual forest-products-industry renewable energy use in U.S.A. Intensified forest management practices showed the potential to increase as much as 30% total carbon stored in in-woods and harvested-wood-products pools, with potential increases up to 40% in energy offsets above the baseline scenario. Reducing management intensity greatly increased in-woods carbon storage potential, but eliminated the wood-products carbon sink. / Ph. D.

Agricultural conservation practices can have a vast number of environmental benefits but adoption of these practices may not be widespread. If farm operators are able to reap financial returns for environmental services, adoption of these conservation practices could increase. One source of potential financial returns is in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions or increased GHG sequestration. An example of a conservation management strategy for beef and dairy operations which has the potential to decrease GHG emissions or increase GHG sequestration is an intensively managed rotational grazing system. The objective of this study is to estimate potential financial returns from conversion to rotational grazing and the sale of GHG credits by Virginia beef and dairy farms. The three GHGs examined in the study are carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. Primary and secondary data are used to simulate financial performance and GHG emissions for three case study farms under different levels of production and pasture utilization. Each case study farm is simulated under three reference conditions to calculate financial performance and three baseline scenarios and a regional performance standard to calculate GHG emissions on both a per farm and a per metric ton of product sold metric. The change in emissions between the scenarios is found and potential returns from the sale of GHG emissions credits are calculated. Results of the analysis demonstrate that conversion to rotational grazing has the potential to increase overall revenues for the farm operation from $4,197.72 to $50,007.46. GHG emission changes for the farm operation do not show a clear trend towards reduction. The amount of financial return from the sale of GHG reduction credits varies from $37.15 to $76.26 for the three case study farms for the initial calculations, and varies from $24.10 to $755.36 once the study performs sensitivity analysis for methane emissions. Therefore, results indicate that rotational grazing can increase net revenues for farm operations but additional net revenue from the sale of GHG reduction credits is small and dependent on the chosen baseline scenario and metric. Follow up research should address the following areas: changes in the cost of on-farm labor, risk of conversion to rotational grazing, increased accuracy of the measurement of GHG emissions and soil carbon, the effects of rotational grazing on forage TDN, and the water quality impacts of rotational grazing. / Master of Science

Decision-makers in cities have realized their pivotal role in addressing climate change, and they are responding accordingly. This thesis presents three papers that explore the process of responding to climate change in cities, highlighting the situation in selected global cities with varying economies and development priorities. The methodology for conducting an urban greenhouse gas inventory in three Chinese cities is detailed in the first paper, illustrating issues of economic development and climate change mitigation in a transitional economy. Next, the greenhouse gas emissions savings of various strategic mitigation plans are quantified for Toronto, demonstrating the aggressive actions needed in developed cities to approach carbon neutrality. The third paper explores issues associated with climate change in three developing cities, emphasizing the need for synergic development incorporating strategies for both mitigation and adaptation. The thesis concludes with an overview of the importance of innovation and further research to future responses to climate change.

Decision-makers in cities have realized their pivotal role in addressing climate change, and they are responding accordingly. This thesis presents three papers that explore the process of responding to climate change in cities, highlighting the situation in selected global cities with varying economies and development priorities. The methodology for conducting an urban greenhouse gas inventory in three Chinese cities is detailed in the first paper, illustrating issues of economic development and climate change mitigation in a transitional economy. Next, the greenhouse gas emissions savings of various strategic mitigation plans are quantified for Toronto, demonstrating the aggressive actions needed in developed cities to approach carbon neutrality. The third paper explores issues associated with climate change in three developing cities, emphasizing the need for synergic development incorporating strategies for both mitigation and adaptation. The thesis concludes with an overview of the importance of innovation and further research to future responses to climate change.

Abstract not available

The Quebec City - Windsor corridor is the busiest and most important trade and transportation corridor in Canada. The transportation sector is the second largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emission category in the country. Governments around the world, including Canada, are considering increased mode share by rail as a way to reduce transportation emissions. To understand whether freight mode shift is a realistic means to reduce transportation emissions, an analytical model is needed that can predict the effect of government policy on mode split. / This thesis provides background on the freight transportation-GHG nexus in Canada and describes the development, implementation, reasoning behind, and results of, a Stated Preference shipper carrier choice survey for the Quebec City - Windsor corridor conducted during the fall of 2005. It then describes how the resulting carrier choice models are used to estimate the potential to displace truck traffic to rail (premium-intermodal) under current conditions, as well as to test the effectiveness of different possible future policy or service offering scenarios. / The results show that premium-intermodal has the potential to capture a substantial share of traffic between the main destinations in the Quebec City - Windsor Corridor. However, its ability to contribute significantly to reducing CO2 emissions is limited. According to the analyses conducted, potential reductions are considered to be in the range of nil to 0.413 Mt---a fraction of what the federal government was hoping to be able to achieve through "further public-private collaboration to promote the use of intermodal freight opportunities and to increase the use of low-emission vehicles and modes" (Government of Canada 2002). / At the same time, these potential reductions are based on a small proportion of total truck-related emissions and a few city-pairs. Extension of the current analysis to more city-pairs separated by longer distances might arrive at different conclusions.

Transportation in the United States is responsible for a disproportionate amount of global greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change. To address the issue, strategies that seek to mitigate transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions and adapt transportation systems to the threats of a more inhospitable climate should be developed through the transportation planning process. The transportation plans and related documentation of 60 metropolitan planning organizations, 13 domestic cities, and 27 large international cities were reviewed to ascertain if climate change considerations are being incorporated into transportation planning. The review of transportation plans revealed that climate change considerations are often not incorporated into the planning process, especially in regard to adapting transportation systems to the effects of climate change due to the inherent uncertainties in climate data and risk analysis. On the other hand, greenhouse gas mitigation is more frequently included in the planning process, when compared to climate change adaptation, because the required data collection techniques and analysis tools are better developed and already in place within many planning organizations. This research has shown that there is much room for improvement in terms of including climate change into transportation planning through a variety of recommendations presented in the body of this thesis. Many of the identified mitigation and adaptation recommendations could be worked into existing transportation planning requirements, processes, and strategies at the metropolitan and local level. However, due to the influence by federal and state governments on the planning process, completely addressing climate change through transportation systems will require these high levels of government to redefine transportation regulations and planning requirements in addition to partnering with metropolitan planning organizations and local governments to develop more reliable climate data and increase its availability.