This thesis examines the informational efficiency of the European carbon market based on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The issue is approached from three different perspectives. I explore whether the volatility embedded in carbon options is a rational forecast of subsequently realized volatility. Then, I investigate if, and to what extent, new information about the structural and institutional set-up of the market impacts the carbon price dynamics. Lastly, I examine whether the European carbon market is relevant for the firm valuations of covered companies. First, perhaps because the market is new and derivatives’ trading on emission allowances has only started recently, carbon options have not yet been extensively studied. By using data on options traded on the European Climate Exchange, this thesis examines an aspect of market efficiency which has been previously overlooked. Market efficiency suggests that, conditional upon the accuracy of the option pricing model, implied volatility should be an unbiased and efficient forecast of future realized volatility (Campbell et al., 1997). Black (1976) implied volatility and implied volatility estimates directly surveyed from market participants are used in this thesis to study the information content of carbon options. Implied volatility is found to be highly informative and directionally accurate in forecasting future volatility. There is no evidence, however, that volatility embedded in carbon options is an unbiased and efficient forecast of future realized volatility. Instead, historical volatility-based forecasts are shown to contain incremental information to implied volatility, particularly for short-term forecasts. In addition, this thesis finds no evidence that directly surveyed implied volatility estimates perform better as a forecast of future volatility relative to Black’s (1976) estimates. Second, the market sensitivity to announcements about the organizational and institutional set-up of the EU ETS is re-examined. Despite their importance for the carbon price formation, demand-side announcements and announcements about the post-2012 framework have not yet been researched. By examining a very comprehensive and updated dataset of announcements, this thesis adds to the earlier works of Miclaus et al. (2008), Mansanet-Bataller and Pardo (2009) and Lepone et al. (2011). Market participants are found to rationally incorporate new information about the institutional and regulatory framework of the emissions trading scheme into the carbon price dynamics. However, they seem to be unable to accurately assess the implications of inter-temporal banking and borrowing on pricing futures contracts with different maturities. The impact of macroeconomic conditions on the market responsiveness is investigated by splitting the dataset into subsamples according to two alternative methods: 1) a simple split into pre-crisis and full-crisis time periods, and 2) according to a Bai-Perron structural break test. Evidence is found that in the context of economic slowdown and known allowances oversupply, the relationship between the carbon price and its fundamentals (institutional announcements, energy prices and extreme weather) breaks down. These findings are consistent with the arguments in Hintermann (2010), Keppler and Mansanet-Bataller (2010) and Koop and Tole (2011) that carbon price drivers change in response to the differing context of the individual trading periods. Third, the role of carbon performance in firm valuation is understudied. Since companies were not obliged to disclose their carbon emissions prior to the launch of the EU ETS, there exists little empirical evidence of the effect of carbon performance on market value. Earlier studies of the European carbon market have only focused on the impact of ETS compliance on the profitability and competitiveness of covered companies (e.g. Anger and Oberndorfer, 2008). There is also little research on how the newly available emissions data has altered the carbon performance of companies. This thesis addresses these gaps in the literature by examining the stock price reactions of British and German firms on the day of verified emissions release under the EU ETS over the period 2006 – 2011. An event study is conducted using a Seemingly Unrelated Regressions model to deal with the event clustering present in the dataset. Limited evidence is found that investors use information about the carbon performance of companies in their valuations. The information contained in the carbon emissions reports is shown to be somewhat more important for companies with high carbon-intensive operations. This thesis finds no conclusive evidence that the cap-and-trade programme has been able to provide regulated companies with enough incentives to de-carbonize their operations. The market does not punish companies which continue to emit carbon at increasing rates or reward companies which improve their carbon performance. In brief, the results of the thesis suggest that the market is not fully efficient yet. Inefficiently priced carbon options may allow for arbitrage trades in the market. The inability of investors to incorporate rules on inter-temporal banking and borrowing of allowances across the different trading periods leads to significant price reactions when there should be none. A recessionary economic environment and a known oversupply of emission allowances have led to a disconnect between the carbon price and its fundamental drivers. And, lastly, the signal embedded in the carbon price is not strong enough to invoke investor action and turn carbon performance into a standard component of investment analysis.

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Scientist and decision-makers on the international and national arena agree that the climate is changing and will continue to change over this century. In fact, even if greenhouse gas emissions are brought to a halt today, the earth is already, to an extent, locked in towards climate change over the next 30-40 years, as a result of the emissions that have been released during the development of the modern society. The next 20 to 30 years efforts to respond to climate change will decide the long-term effects of global warming (IPCC, 2007). Sweden and the Swedish business sector have now the opportunity to set an example for other countries, also concerned with sustainable development, by taking advantages of the possibilities to “climate-proof” business activities within commercial boarders. This qualitative study has examined the Swedish businesses’ understanding of the need to respond to climate change, with focus on mitigation and adaptation strategies. The study is based on eleven in-depth interviews with respondents that represent businesses within the sectors housing (including infrastructure), forestry industry (including paper and pulp production) and transport (including public transportation). The sectors were selected on the basis as they were particularly exposed to climatic impacts, but also with the aim to cover a large span of business activities. By applying a conceptual model of how a response process can take place in an organizational context (based on the parameters awareness and concern, idea of response strategy and response options), the understanding of the respondents was analyzed and assessed. The result indicates that the awareness of climate change is now high among the respondents, while the concern of its impacts varies in the sectors. In general, climate change is perceived as a wide-ranging external threat, that foremost changes conditions in the external context. Hence, in the perspective of the respondents, the largest reverse climate effects will not take place in “their backyard”, but will impact others directly and business indirectly. For that reason they do not consider themselves as exposed to direct impacts, but connect climate change to a need to reduce energy consumption and fossil fuel dependency. Hence, in many cases, the climate change issue has transcended from being treated as an environmental issue to an energy issue. Finally, the results indicate that there is a strong link between adaptation and mitigation in a business context. As climate change is perceived as one by many external factors that can impact activities, businesses will not handle it differently from any other external challenges. For this reason, the concept of examining a systems’ totally response capacity, as has been the focus in this study, could improve further studies on businesses’ perspectives on dealing with climate change.

Recent scientific findings have generated considerable concern about the adverse effect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on the world's climate in general and global warming in particular. In Canada and many other countries, this concern has led to the adoption of legal and political steps with the aim of curbing GHG emissions. The first part of this thesis describes the steps taken by Canada in this regard. / Such steps provide a strong incentive to Canadian power systems to incorporate reduction of GHG emissions in their planning process. Thus, in the second part of the thesis, a long-term supply mix planning model is developed. Since significant decrease in GHG emissions is unlikely to occur without removal of highly polluting power plants, this model allows for decommissioning these power plants. / Finally, the supply mix planning model is applied to evaluate the strategy of joint planning (as opposed to separate planning) of the power systems of Quebec and Ontario. Results obtained from the model leads to the conclusion that joint planning is preferable from the point of view of overall social and financial cost.

India’s strong agrarian economy, global location and climatic zoning make it highly vulnerable to the potential effects of climate change. Recent evidence of shortening cropping seasons has raised interest among academics and policy makers in tools for adaptation. Timely sowing and appropriate mechanization have been identified as attractive adaptation tools. Mechanization using locally produced biodiesel in place of conventional fossil fuel provides a relatively low-cost and sustainable opportunity to mitigate carbon emissions. An enterprise model in which farmers invest in machinery for custom hire coupled with community-produced biodiesel offers one approach to integrated adaptation and mitigation mechanisms for climate change. This research analyses agricultural practices and small farm mechanization in the state of Orissa, India, drawing on a village case study. Primary data is from twelve key informant interviews with farmers, academics and NGO representatives in India. Secondary data analysis includes Indian and Orissan government documents and reports from international organizations regarding agricultural mechanization, sustainability, resiliency and climate change. The results of this study indicate that joint mitigation and adaptation mechanisms implemented at the community level can address impacts of climate change while also offering opportunities for livelihood benefits, poverty alleviation and income generation. This research contributes to growing literature on adaptation and mitigation tools for climate change and adds an integral focus on small-scale opportunities within the broader scope of sustainable agriculture and biofuel development in India.

Šiuo metu yra sukurta nemažai priemonių aptikti įvairiausias DDoS atakas, tačiau siekiant sustabdyti arba bent sušvelninti DDoS atakų poveikį yra nuveikta labai nedaug. Yra labai sunku pasirinkti tinkamą DDoS atakos atrėmimo metodą. DDoS atakų atrėmimo metodų analizė galėtų padėti pasirinkti tinkamiausią metodą. „BGP DDoS Diversion“ atakų atrėmimo metodas yra vienas efektyviausių ir mažiausiai kaštų reikalaujantis metodas. Šis metodas įgyvendinamas panaudojant BGP protokolą. Ataka yra atremiama kuomet BGP protokolo pagalba yra paskelbiama tik dalis tinklo. DDoS atakos duomenų srautas tokiu atveju yra nukreipiamas į paskelbtą tinklo dalį, o kita tinklo dalis lieka nepažeista atakos. Interneto paslaugų teikėjai naudodami „BGP DDoS Diversion“ atrėmimo metodą gali apsaugoti savo tinklą nuo visiško nepasiekiamumo. Šiame tyrime buvo išnagrinėti DDoS atakų atrėmimo metodai. Išsamiai analizei buvo pasirinktas „BGP DDoS Diversion“ atrėmimo metodas. Metodo analizei buvo pasirinkta virtuali terpė. Sudaryti virtualią terpę buvo pasirinkta OPNET tinklų modeliavimo programa. Panaudojant OPNET modeliavimo įrangą, buvo sukurtas virtualus tinklas, veikiantis Interneto tinklo pagrindu. Sukurtame tinkle buvo įgyvendintas „BGP DDoS Diversion“ atakų atrėmimo metodas. Šiame darbe yra pateikta minėto atrėmimo metodo veikimo charakteristikų analizė. / Nowadays there are lot of ways how to detect various types of DDoS attacks, but in order to stop, or at least to mitigate the impact of such DDoS attacks not enough work is done. It is very difficult to choose the right DDoS mitigation method. The research of DDoS attacks mitigation can provide a good manual how to choose the most appropriate method. „BGP DDoS Diversion“ method is one of the most effective and least cost to deliver DDoS mitigation method. This method is implemented using BGP protocol. BGP diversion mechanism is used to announce a specific part of the provider‘s network to (a part of) the Internet. Announcing a specific part of this network will divert the DDoS traffic and thereby prevent other parts of the provider‘s network becoming unreachable. This gives the provider the ability to continue providing services of the rest of his custumers. This research was based on analyzing the DDoS mitigation methods. For the better analyzes the „BGP DDoS Diversion“ method was chosen. To analyze this method the virtual environment was the best way to accomplish this task. OPNET modeler software was chosen to create the virtual environment. Using OPNET the virtual network was created. Virtual network was based on Internet network standards. „BGP DDoS Diversion“ method was implemented and tested in the virtual network. This research provides the detail analyzes of „BGP DDoS Diversion“ method.

<p>The soaring demands for always-on and fast-response online services have driven modern datacenter networks to undergo tremendous growth. These networks often rely on scale-out designs with large numbers of commodity switches to reach immense capacity while keeping capital expenses under check. Today, datacenter network operators spend tremendous time and efforts on two key challenges: 1) how to efficiently utilize the bandwidth connecting host pairs and 2) how to promptly handle network failures with minimal disruptions to the hosted services.</p><p>To resolve the first challenge, we propose solutions in both network layer and transport layer. In the network layer solution, We advocate to design practical datacenter architectures for easy operation, i.e., an architecture should be reliable, capable of improving bisection bandwidth, scalable and debugging-friendly. By strictly following these four guidelines, We propose DARD, a Distributed Adaptive Routing architecture for Datacenter networks. DARD allows each end host to reallocate traffic from overloaded paths to underloaded paths without central coordination. We use congestion game theory to show that DARD converges to a Nash equilibrium in finite steps and its gap to the optimal flow allocation is bounded in the order of 1/logL, with L being the number of links. We use a testbed implementation and simulations to show that DARD can achieve a close-to-optimal flow allocation with small control overhead in practice.</p><p>In the transport layer solution, We propose Explicit Multipath Congestion Control Protocol (MPXCP), which achieves four desirable properties: fast convergence, efficiency, being fair to flows with different RTTs and negligible queue size. Intensive ns-2 simulation shows that MPXCP can quickly converge to efficiency and fairness without building up queues despite different delay-bandwidth products.</p><p>To resolve the second challenge, recent research efforts have focused on automatic failure localization. Yet, resolving failures still requires significant human interventions, resulting in prolonged failure recovery time. Unlike previous work, we propose NetPilot, a system aims to quickly mitigate rather than resolve failures. NetPilot mitigates failures in much the same way operators do -- by deactivating or restarting suspected offending components. NetPilot circumvents the need for knowing the exact root cause of a failure by taking an intelligent trial-and-error approach. The core of NetPilot is comprised of an Impact Estimator that helps guard against overly disruptive mitigation actions and a failure-specific mitigation planner that minimizes the number of trials. We demonstrate that NetPilot can effectively mitigate several types of critical failures commonly encountered in production datacenter networks.</p> / Dissertation

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The rise of the Environmentalism in every sector of the Industry has lead the aircraft and engine manufacturing companies to develop new generations of more environmentally friendly engines. The companies, encouraged to this purpose, are in a constant research for new manufacturing and production techniques, in order to improve their products, from the environmental point of view, by gaining efficiency in the manufacturing techniques and reduce the fuel consumption and emissions in-flight. Having in mind this scenario, the sponsor of this Project is interested in understanding how changing the materials of the blades, titanium alloys currently, for other lighter materials, such as composites, is going to have an effect in the overall gas turbine efficiency. In the particular case of this Project, it will be studied the influence of the Stiffness and coating Thickness of those non-metallic materials suitable to be employed as coatings on gas turbine fan blades, from the icing point of view. The work procedure will be based on a study of Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics of bi-material junctions and will extrapolate the general problem to the ice-coatings case, by getting experimental data from tests carried out in an Icing Tunnel. It will be observed that the coating Stiffness has an influence on the Adhesion Level of ice to less stiff materials, if compared with the Adhesion Level of ice to metals. Besides, it will be described how a 0.5 millimetres thin polymeric coating placed over a metallic substrate is enough to reduce the Adhesion Level of ice, hiding any effect that the underneath materials might have on the Adhesion Level.