Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:50:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:02:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 10457.pdf: 13419642 bytes, checksum: 823b4f1fc4fdfe5858d116b42196a9c2 (MD5) / Tese (Doutoramento) / IPEN/T / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Achieving a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions has become a key challenge facing global society and its economies. Despite this, tourism policy and strategic planning rarely acknowledge carbon mitigation as a strategic objective and tourism as a sector is rarely recognised in low-carbon plans. This situation represents a substantial challenge, as tourism and travel have a high-carbon impact and carbon mitigation is hindered by lack of carbon data, and a continued drive for economic growth. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the effectiveness of carbon footprinting and scenario modelling to help examine the opportunities and challenges for implementing low-carbon tourism pathways in destinations, and to consider how the opportunities could be enabled. The 'REAP Tourism' footprint tool was used to investigate the carbon impact of visitors to destinations across South West England. The purpose was to estimate emissions, suggest a baseline footprint and offer alternative growth and mitigation scenarios of how tourism could more effectively reduce emissions. Through participatory workshops, evaluation questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, stakeholders identified the limitations and benefits of carbon modelling and the challenges and opportunities for a transition towards low-carbon tourism in destinations. The results demonstrated that the carbon footprint was a useful and informative indicator. The baseline data and scenarios provided a basis for constructive low-carbon dialogue with tourism stakeholders, which helped to challenge current thinking and facilitate the co-creation of ideas and potential interventions. A range of low-carbon opportunities and challenges were identified relating to the cultural, political and structural components of tourism governance. A conceptual low-carbon transition framework is proposed, to illustrate the opportunities. Stakeholder dialogue and debate, informed by quantitative and qualitative data, is central to the framework. Cultural, political and structural opportunities for change are also identified. Further investigation is needed to test the framework and examine the levels of influence and capabilities of different types of tourism stakeholders. The use of integrated environmental-economic indicators to inform national and local tourism policy and strategy, also require application. This thesis contributes to an emerging body of knowledge on the governance of low-carbon destinations, from a practical, methodological and conceptual basis.

There is an urgent need to adopt innovative sustainable technologies (ISTs) to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions whilst improving process efficiency of existing retail buildings, due to rising energy prices and the impacts of retail buildings on the environment. Despite their reported advantages, exhibited performance and numerous policies and legislations that encourage their adoption, there is a slow uptake of ISTs in the retail sector. This is due to the fact that the majority of stakeholders consider the task of selecting ISTs as a complex multi-attribute, multi-valued problem involving a large number of stakeholders with numerous, often conflicting objectives. To overcome this problem, the thesis develops a Decision Support Framework to assist stakeholders in the selection of ISTs for delivering low carbon retail buildings. Firstly focusing on the wider retail construction industry, followed by an in-depth case study of a leading UK retail contractor, the drivers and barriers faced by stakeholders in the retail construction industry during the selection of ISTs were identified. The underlying cause to the slow uptake of ISTs (complex decision-making problem) and the need to optimise the use of ISTs were investigated. The results identified the lack of a Decision Support Framework for the selection of ISTs for stakeholders in the retail construction industry. To address the problem, the research developed a Decision Support Framework to assist stakeholders in the complex decision-making task of selecting ISTs. The developed Decision Support Framework was first validated with a leading UK retail contractor and proved favourable; facilitating the decision-makers in the selection process and resulting in the successful selection of eight ISTs. A more general validation was conducted to ensure the Decision Support Framework was applicable to the wider construction industry. The results indicated that the framework was an effective mechanism to optimise the selection of ISTs by improving the decision-making process; it could be used by other stakeholders and also transferable to other building types for selecting ISTs. The thesis contributes to the knowledge related to decision-making and construction management research by developing a Decision Support Framework to assist stakeholders in the selection of ISTs to deliver low carbon retail buildings. In addition, it identifies the drivers for and barriers to selecting ISTs for existing retail buildings; key stakeholders in the selection of ISTs, a set of selection criteria used by clients/developers and designers/constructors and a database of ISTs that can be implemented by stakeholders to achieve low carbon retail buildings.

If new build nuclear reactors are built in the UK they will provide a large low carbon thermal resource that can be recovered for heating services through heat networks (district heating). There are however questions about the geographic location of nuclear sites relative to heating demand and public/user interpretations of a potentially controversial technology to consider. This thesis includes three research themes that explore these issues. The first is an assessment of potential non-technical barriers to nuclear heat network development. The second is a focus group approach to studying local resident responses to nuclear heat network technology both as potential users, and as public groups. The third theme considers the technical potential for a heat network connecting the Hartlepool nuclear site to local heating demand centres. The research finds that there is potential for nuclear heat networks to take 70,000 existing users off the natural gas in the Hartlepool area. Following series of expert interviews it finds no non-technical barriers that would be unique to nuclear heat networks as opposed to other heat network types. It also suggests that the technology could be acceptable to local residents if it is framed as a local resource that benefits the local area. These findings indicate that there could be similar potential at Heysham and Oldbury nuclear sites.

The study responds to the increasing effect that climate change has on earth and society. In a global context of rapid urbanization and population growth the project aims to establish the role that architecture can play in the mitigation of climate change. It addresses the embodied energy and carbon footprint of architecture in an urban context. The architectural building type that will be investigated is a transport interchange, specifically the BRT terminal at Pretoria Main Station and associated prototypical BRT stations. An architectural response that promotes public transport use will be investigated. The proposed transport interchange will act as a seam to linking Salvokop with the city, while linking the whole of Tshwane. The architectural intervention will use strategies to respond to predicted climate changes for Tshwane, and adopt strategies to mitigate it. Architectural technologies will be investigated to ensure that the structure has a low carbon footprint and low embodied energy. Through energy conscious design strategies the energy use of the structure will be kept to a minimum. The design will also address the social and historical context of the Pretoria Main Station, to ensure a coherent transport interchange that integrates all modes of transport. The design will contribute to the historical character of the site with an ecosystemic layered approach, adding new functions and layers to the existing, to ensure its adaptability and sustainability. This study forms the part of a departmental research study through the department of Architecture at Pretoria University - “Environmental potential” and the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP] and Global Environment Facility [GEF]. It aims to comply with the prerequisites for an M[Prof]Arch degree while achieving the goals and objectives set by the research study. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

Market based instruments have become a common feature in country policies aimed at transitioning to low carbon economies. BRICS countries are responsible for approximately two-thirds of the global average of carbon emissions. These countries are under continuing international pressure to demonstrate leadership in their carbon emission reduction efforts.This research explored the implementation of market based instruments in Brazil, China, India and South Africa as they transition to low carbon economies and determined the elements and driving forces informing the selection of market based instruments. The research sought to achieve three objectives, the first objective was to establish whether market based instruments were regarded as a policy option for low carbon transition initiatives by these four countries. The second objective was to determine the drivers and sectors informing a selection of market based instruments. The third objective was to extract lessons from these countries for South African to consider in its low carbon transition.The research outcomes included a model of the interrelationship between driving forces for decisions to adopt market based instruments, targeted sectors that would be subjected to such mechanisms and the eventual combination of instruments that gets implemented. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

In order to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, tackle climate change and move toward sustainable development, the central government in China has proposed low-carbon city development as the national strategy and relevant initiatives have been taken by local governments. This thesis analyses current low-carbon city programmes and planning approaches in China, identifies limitations and proposes a metabolic approach that could be used to account for physical resources, monitor GHG emissions and involve stakeholders in the planning process. There are currently two parallel programmes for low-carbon initiatives in China: the “Low-Carbon City” programme and the “Low-Carbon Eco-City” programme. Around thirty cities in the Coastal, Central and Western regions of China have been selected as the national pilot areas for these programmes. This widespread distribution marks a change the previous priority set on development in the Coastal region, meaning that more cities have opportunities to explore low-carbon pathways and obtain support from the state. The large number of cities involved shows China’s determination to transition to low-carbon development in different city contexts. The selected cities have set up local administrative groups to manage low-carbon development and have established integrated approaches to reduce GHG emissions from urban sectors such as energy, transportation, buildings and waste. Some plans have been developed by the cities themselves, while others have involved international cooperation. However, because of limited knowledge on low-carbon city development, an absence of established standards and procedures and the Chinese top-down planning system, low-carbon planning faces specific challenges, such as lack of information about GHG flows, GHG monitoring and stakeholder involvement. To overcome these challenges and improve low-carbon city approaches in China, this thesis proposes a holistic approach to low-carbon city development, by integrating Industrial Ecology into urban planning. Such work would benefit greatly from adopting a metabolic approach, within which a metabolic approach-based standard is used to understand low-carbon city from GHG flows; a DPSIR framework is used to address root causes of GHG emissions; and an Eco-Cycle Model is used to describe urban metabolism and account for physical resources, monitor GHG emissions and involve stakeholders in the planning process. The thesis also recommends better collaboration between relevant government departments and stakeholders. Moreover, instead of simply transferring approaches developed elsewhere, international cooperation needs to combine the local context and knowledge in China with international knowledge and experience. In return, experiences from China can help improve low-carbon city approaches in other parts of the world. / <p>QC 20150929</p>

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This Master Thesis deals with the issue of transition to low-carbon energy in the European Union, with an example of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The topic is divided into three parts. Firstly, the energy sector in the EU is described in the context of environmental targets, institutional framework, international Paris agreement and electricity price factors. Secondly, the British concept of transition to low-carbon energy is described, following a similar line from the first chapter. Last but not least, the third section uses the data and information provided in the first two sections to create a complex picture. Compatibility of the British concept with the EU policies is discussed, furthermore the meaning of Paris agreement for the British model is described, then the consequences of the British concept on the electricity prices are shown, finally the challenges for the British energy sector are considered. The main contribution of this thesis is statistical comparison of energy in the EU and UK and finding the connection between international events (Paris agreement), regional priorities (EU), national political representation and national interest groups in terms of creating energy policy in the UK.