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Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / The world as we know it is in a warming cycle. The rate of warming is being exacerbated by human activity; more specifically, the burning of fossil fuels to power expanding economies. Awareness that something must be done before a catastrophic point of no return is reached, has become more urgent. Before any strategies can be developed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the levels must be accurately measured to provide a benchmark and to determine reduction targets. The determination of an organisation’s carbon footprint is thus the starting point of the whole process. When the carbon footprint is known, various strategies can be implemented to reduce the carbon footprint. South Africa is classified as a developing country and is not required to comply with greenhouse gas reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol. This may change at any time in the future and it is therefore necessary to be ready when targets become compulsory. The general public is not knowledgeable about global warming. All of these factors need to change to provide impetus to reduction strategies. The South African Police Service (SAPS) is one of the largest government departments and is situated in nearly every town in South Africa. The SAPS is thus in a position to provide leadership in government and in communities on issues like global warming. The carbon footprint of the SAPS has been calculated as prescribed by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (2011). As a service organisation, the SAPS does not have industrial processes that may be the source of large quantities of greenhouse gases. In this research study, Scope 1 and scope 2 emissions were calculated and possible mitigation options are proposed. A survey conducted among a specific target group has indicated a general understanding of the concept of climate change. The respondents have difficulty in establishing a connection between climate change and increased crime levels. Behavioural change and education are necessary to promote a culture of energy efficiency and a reduction of greenhouse gases. Leadership is seen as an inhibiting factor, as top management does not consider global warming to be an influencing factor on crime levels. Government must provide strong leadership and formulate climate change strategies. Funding can be generated with carbon tax and emissions trading. On departmental level the energy efficiency of buildings can be improved and alternative fuels for vehicles be used.

Wastewater treatment facilities around the world use significant amount of energy which contributes to large quantities of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to the U.S.EPA, nearly 3% of the USA's energy is used to treat wastewater. This consumption is increasing at faster rates with increase in population and regulations. Wastewater facilities use large number of pumps in their transfer stations, treatment plants, and effluent pump stations. All these pumps consume considerable amounts of energy. This study presents a preliminary energy inspection of two facilities from Louisiana. This audit provides an inventory of the energy consumed for various activities like pumping, treatment, and discharge. This analysis helps the operators to identify the potential power consuming areas and optimize by adopting several energy conservation measures (ECMs). This study also involves the quantification of GHG emissions based on the energy consumption. The benefits of the study include minimizing energy and GHG emission.

A better way to improve understanding and quantification of nitrous oxide (N₂O) emitted from intensive maize cropping systems is to develop an advanced emissions measurement method This study developed an open path (OP) method to measure N₂O emissions from four adjacent maize plots managed by tillage practices of no-till (NT) and chisel plow (ChP), and different nitrogen (N) treatments from 2014 to 2016. Anhydrous ammonia (220 kg NH₃-N ha^-1) was applied in once or equally split (full vs. split rate) and applied in different timing (Fall vs. Spring). The spring N application occurred either before planting (pre-plant) or in season (side-dress). Emissions measurements were conducted by using the OP method (the scanning OP Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (OP-FTIR) + the gas point-sampling system + a backward Lagrangian stochastic (bLS) dispersion model) and static closed chamber methods. The performance and feasibility of the OP measurements were assessed by a sensitivity analysis, starting with errors associated with the OP-FTIR for calculating N₂O concentrations, and then errors associated with the bLS model for estimating N₂O emissions. The quantification of N₂O concentrations using the OP-FTIR spectrum was influenced by ambient humidity, temperature, and the path length between a spectrometer and a retro-reflector. The optimal quantitative method mitigated these ambient interference effects on N₂O quantification. The averaged bias of the calculated N₂O concentrations from the spectra acquired from wide ranges of humidity (0.5 – 2.0 % water vapor content), temperature (10 – 35 °C), and path length (100 – 135 meters) was 1.4 %. The precision of the OP-FTIR N₂O concentrations was 5.4 part per billion(3σ) in a stationary flow condition for a 30-minute averaging period. The emissions measurement from multiple sources showed that the field of interest was likely interfered by adjacent fields. Fields with low emission rates were more sensitive to the adjacent fields with high emissions, resulting in substantial biases and uncertainties. The minimum detection limit of the N₂O emission rates was 1.2 µg m^-2 s^-1 (MDL; 3σ). The OP measurements showed that the NT practice potentially reduced N₂O emission compared with ChP. Under the long-term NT treatments, the split-N rate application (110 kg NH₃-N ha^-1 in the fall and spring) resulted in lower N₂O emissions than the full application (220 kg NH₃-N ha^-1 in the fall). The management of NT coupled with split-N rate application minimized N₂O emissions among treatments in this study, resulting in N₂O-N losses of 3.8, 13.2, and 6.6 N kg ha^-1 over 9-, 35-, and 20-days after the spring NH₃ application in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively. The spring pre-plant N application in 2015 also resulted in higher N₂O emissions than the spring side-dress application in 2016, and the increased N₂O-N loss was corresponding to lower N recovery efficiency in 2015 measurements. A comparison of chamber and OP measurements showed that soil N₂O emissions were likely underestimated by 10x without considering the wind-induced effect on gas transport at the ground-atmospheric interface. This study showed that the OP method provides a great opportunity to study agricultural N₂O emissions as well as management optimization for the sustainability of the agroecosystems.

The content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasing resulting in climate change and efforts to stop the negative trend need to be intensified. The energy use in the Swedish residential and service sector constitutes 40 % of the total energy use of 378 TWh in the country. Nationally there is a target to reduce the energy use per heated area with 20 % to 2020 and 50 % to 2050. Energy renovation of buildings from the Million Programme is foreseen to be able to contribute to achieving the targets owing to the large building stock and energy efficiency potential. In the master thesis cost optimal energy renovation strategies are investigated for two multi-family buildings in Linkoping built during the Million Programme, one with an unheated attic and one with a heated attic. The thesis is carried out by using life-cycle cost optimisation (LCC-optimisation) by utilising the software OPERA-MILP, developed at Linkoping University. The aim of the thesis is to obtain the energy renovation strategy that is optimal from an LCC-perspective and to investigate the energy reduction and LCC. Optimal energy renovation strategies are also investigated for energy renovation to levels of the Energy Classes of the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning in Sweden and the stricter limits for nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEB) that will likely come into force in 2021. Greenhouse gas emissions and primary energy use are also investigated for the different cases with the purpose of putting energy renovation in relation to climate impact. Local environmental factors are used for district heating while electricity is assigned values based on the Nordic electricity mix and Nordic marginal electricity respectively. The current LCC and annual energy use is 2 945 kSEK and 133 MWh for the building with an unheated attic and 3 511 kSEK and 162 MWh for the building with a heated attic. The result shows that LCC can be reduced by approximately 70 kSEK and 90 kSEK respectively. The optimal solution constitutes of a window change from windows with U=3,0 W/m2°C to windows with U=1,5 W/m2°C and results in a reduction of the energy use by 13 % and 15 % respectively. LCC increases with 240 kSEK for the building with unheated attic and decreases with 18 kSEK for the other building when Energy Class D is reached. Energy Class C is attained through an increase in LCC by 300 – 590 kSEK and Energy Class B through an increase by 1610 – 1800 kSEK. It is not possible to reach Energy Class A or the future requirements for NZEB (55 kWh/m2Aheated) with the energy renovation measures that are implemented in OPERA-MILP. The largest energy reduction that can be attained is approximately 60 %. The most cost optimal insulation measure is additional insulation of the attic floor/pitched roof followed by additional insulation of the ground concrete slab. It was shown to be more cost efficient to change to windows with U=1,5 W/m2°C in combination with additional insulation compared to changing to windows with better energy performance. For greater energy savings additional insulation on the inside of the external wall is applied, while insulation on the outside of the external wall is never cost optimal. To reach Energy Class B installation of HRV is required which gives a large increase in cost. Less extensive energy renovation is needed to reach the energy classes for the building with heated attic compared to the building with unheated attic. The annual use of primary energy in the reference case is 22 MWh for the building with an unheated attic and 26 MWh for the building with a heated attic. The emissions of greenhouse gases are 18 tonnes CO2e and 22 tonnes CO2e per year respectively when the emission factor of the Nordic electricity mix is applied and 20 tonnes CO2e and 25 tonnes CO2e respectively when the Nordic marginal electricity is applied. The yearly primary energy use can be reduced with up to 7 MWh through energy renovation. When the energy renovation leads to an increase in electricity use the primary energy can however increase with up to 12 MWh. The yearly greenhouse gas emissions can be decreased with up to 14 tonnes CO2e. When Nordic marginal electricity is applied to estimate the emissions of greenhouse gases for an energy renovation strategy that leads to an increase in electricity use the result is less beneficial from a climate perspective compared to when Nordic electricity mix is applied.

La mise en place d’une agriculture plus durable nécessite une compréhension de l’impact des pratiques de gestion sur le fonctionnement des agroécosystèmes et sur la fourniture de services écosystémiques. En représentant près de 68% des terres agricoles mondiales et contribuant à la subsistance de plus de 800 millions de personnes, les prairies sont l’un des agroécosystèmes où l’optimisation des pratiques agricoles apparaît comme cruciale. Ce travail de thèse porte sur le chaulage, une pratique agricole connue pour lutter contre les effets de l’acidification des sols – qu’elle soit naturelle ou induite par la gestion – mais dont l’efficacité est variable en prairie permanente. De fait, la littérature documentant l’impact du chaulage en prairie permanente est limitée et ne prend en compte que rarement la multifonctionnalité de ces agroécosystèmes. Par une approche intégrant différents types d’expérimentations, mon travail de thèse a cherché à répondre à ce besoin et à renforcer les connaissances du chaulage sur le fonctionnement de l’écosystème prairial. Le développement d’expérimentations au champ (in situ), en conditions semi-contrôlées (mésocosmes) et d’incubations de sol au laboratoire (microcosmes) a permis d’explorer les effets du chaulage sur les différents compartiments de l’écosystème prairial (végétation, microorganismes, sol) ainsi que l’influence de facteurs modulant ces effets. Dans l’ensemble des expérimentations, le chaulage a effectivement augmenté le pH des sols. Toutefois, cette amélioration du statut acido-basique du sol ne s’est pas toujours traduite par une augmentation de la productivité du fourrage ou des biomasses microbiennes et racinaires. Mes travaux ont montré que le chaulage contribue aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre par différentes voies (réémission du carbone apporté sous forme de chaulage et stimulation de la minéralisation) et peut potentiellement réduire les émissions de CO2 à l’échelle de la respiration de l’écosystème. Collectivement mes résultats soulignent l’importance du contexte pédoclimatique sur l’impact du chaulage en prairie permanente, et la difficulté d’extrapoler les effets du chaulage, en particulier sur la production de fourrage et les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, d’une échelle d’étude fine à l’échelle de la parcelle en prairie permanente. L’efficacité du chaulage semble dépendre du type d’amendement et de son dosage et peut également interagir avec d’autres pratiques de gestion telles que la fertilisation azotée et le niveau d’intensité de gestion. / The development of sustainable agriculture requires greater understanding of the impact of management practices on agroecosystem functioning, and on the ecosystem services provided by these agroecosystems. Representing nearly 68% of world's agricultural surfaces and contributing to the livelihoods of more than 800 million people, grasslands are one of the major agroecosystems where optimized agricultural practices are of concern. This PhD focuses on liming, a well-known practice for counteracting soil acidification (due to ongoing natural processes or accelerated by management practices), but which has variable efficiency in permanent grasslands. Indeed, liming effects on grassland are poorly documented and existing studies rarely take into account grassland multifunctionality. My thesis uses an integrated approach to improve the knowledge of liming impacts on grassland functioning. Different types of experiments – in the field (in situ), in semi-controlled conditions (mesocosms) and laboratory soil incubations (microcosms) – were used to study liming effects on different grassland compartments (vegetation, microorganisms, soil) along with possible interacting factors. Liming effectively increased soil pH in all the experiments. However, improving pH status did not always lead to greater forage production or increases in microbial and root biomass. My results showed that liming can enhance greenhouse gas emissions through several pathways (reemission of lime-derived carbon or stimulation of carbon mineralization), but may also reduce CO2 emissions from ecosystem respiration. Collectively, my findings emphasize the importance of pedoclimatic conditions for liming impacts on permanent grasslands and highlight the difficulty of upscaling liming effects, particularly on forage production and greenhouse gas emissions. The efficiency of liming appears to depend on the type and dose of soil improvers and can also interact with other management practices such as nitrogen fertilization and management intensification.

L'impact environnemental d'un procédé est déterminé par des méthodes d'évaluation comme l'analyse de cycle de vie (ACV). Une méthode complémentaire a été développée afin de caractériser l'impact environnemental d'un procédé lors de la phase de dimensionnement, en lui appliquant un bilan thermodynamique restreint à ses frontières avec une fonction ad hoc. La fonction choisie, l'exergie, est basée sur l'état physico-chimique de l'environnement et quantifie l'irréversibilité d'une transformation. L'existence d'irréversibilités dans un procédé signifie qu'une partie de l'énergie fournie est dégradée augmentant simultanément les émissions polluantes. L'intérêt de l'exergie réside également dans l'allocation des coproduits. L'étude se focalise sur l'impact changement climatique dû aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre (GES). Cette méthode couplant ACV et analyse exergétique a été appliquée à un procédé représentatif du raffinage du pétrole: le reformage catalytique du naphta. Les émissions de GES y sont d'origine directe (régénération du catalyseur) et indirecte (utilités). Le procédé et les réacteurs ont été modélisés respectivement avec le simulateur de procédés ProII et avec un sous-programme codé en langage Fortran interfacé avec le simulateur pour tenir compte des transformations chimiques. La méthodologie, qui ne peut s'affranchir de données ACV, a permis de lier, pour le procédé, les émissions de GES respectivement à un indicateur thermodynamique Ip et à la variation d'exergie chimique. La méthode a été étendue pour comparer deux procédés ayant une même fonction en quantifiant, notamment, la qualité des produits formés et l'appauvrissement des ressources / The environmental impact of a process is assessed by evaluation methods such as life cycle assessment (LCA). A complementary method has been developed in order to characterize the environmental impact at the preliminary design stage by application of a thermodynamic balance on the process boundaries. The chosen thermodynamic function is exergy which takes into account irreversibilities and is linked to the mean environment temperature, pressure and composition. Existence of irreversibility in a process means that a part of the provided energy is wasted increasing simultaneously pollutant emissions. Exergy is also a tool for co-products allocation. The study focuses on climate change that implies greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To illustrate the potential of coupling LCA and exergy analysis in the petroleum industry, a naphtha catalytic reforming process has been selected and evaluated in terms of climate change. In this process, GHG emissions have two origins: direct (due to catalyst regeneration) and indirect (due to utilities) emissions. The process and the reactors have been respectively modelled with the process simulator ProII and with a Fortran subroutine to take into account chemical transformations. The method, which cannot avoid LCA data, has underlined, for the process, a positive relationship between GHG emissions and respectively a thermodynamic parameter Ip and the variation of chemical exergy. The method has been extended to compare two processes having the same function and to take into account co-products quality and resource depletion

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.