Climate change and ozone depletion are topical challenges the world over and are both attributed mainly to human activities, particularly emissions of ozone depleting substances (ODSs). One such substance is chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22), a cheap, widely used refrigerant with a high global warming potential of 1780. Botswana is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol (MP), which guides international efforts to phase-out HCFC-22 and requires signatories to develop and implement a country-level Hydrochlorofluorocarbon Phase-out Management Plan (HPMP). This study, which used a mixed methods approach, was conducted to evaluate the phase-out of HCFC-22 management strategies and their environmental and socioeconomic implications in Botswana. A census of nine HCFC-22 importing companies was conducted and probability sampling proportional to size was used to select a sample of 159 respondents from the Department of Meteorological Services, HCFC-22 importers, customs officers from 20 purposively selected Botswana entry ports and HCFC-22 consumers from the importing companies. Category-specific respondent questionnaires and interview guides, site visits and assessment of records were used to gather data. Of particular interest were the annual HCFC-22 importation figures for each company, the Botswana Unified Revenue Services and the National Ozone Unit, as well as the level of compliance of the companies’ HCFC-22 phase-out management practices with relevant national regulations, the Botswana HPMP and the MP resolutions. Botswana’s HCFC-22 importers were found to be moderately to highly compliant to nonregulatory elements rather than regulatory elements. Overall, HCFC-22 consumption decreased from the baseline to 10.5% for the first stage (2013-2015), which was slightly more than the 10% reduction expected. A steady decrease in HCFC-22 consumption was noted towards the 35% target for 2020, largely due to awareness-raising initiatives directed at the surveyed stakeholders. Absolute HCFC-22 consumption dropped by approximately 510400 kgs from 2011-2017 or 28072 ozone depleting potential saved. On the downside, gaps were identified in the industry-wide quota-system, data reporting, prevention of illegal ODS trade, service technician training, user knowledge of alternatives and disposal of ODS equipment. The study recommends the use of a planning, policy formulation and implementation framework that integrates and balances three fundamentals, namely, stakeholder involvement, the process and the plan enablers.

This research examines the feasibility of a gasoline and diesel consumer subsidy phase-out in Venezuela from a transportation planning perspective. It surveys the literature and discusses case studies from Iran, Brazil, and Bolivia in order to identify the lessons that Venezuela can learn from these countries’ successes and mistakes. It examines how strengthening and investing in the public transportation system can be used as a means to gain public support for the reform. I discuss the current political, social, and economic conditions that make a fossil-fuel subsidy reform difficult, and offer suggestions from a transportation planner’s perspective on how the transition can be made as smoothly as possible. Finally, I explore the opportunities that present themselves to transportation planners in shaping the country’s future approach toward transportation.

The poor record of aid operations after the withdrawal of donor support has led to an increasing interest in the topic of sustainability of aid. Making a contribution to this growing topic, the thesis examines the sustainability of the development work carried out by the Vi Agroforestry Programme (VIAFP) around Lake Victoria. By combining an interview study and a policy analysis, the research uses the practice of phasing out support and the experience during the latter (extensive) phase of the Programme as indicators for sustainability. The results show that (1) the coherent and flexible methodology of phasing out support, (2) the emergence of community-based and non-governmental organisations that take over VIAFP’s work after the withdrawal of its staff, (3) the examples of organisational learning that improved the practice of the Programme, and (4) farmer groups overcoming the challenges during the extensive phase, are strong signs of sustainability. However, further attention and work from the Programme is required when it comes to its role after terminating support, the financial sustainability of emerging organisations, women’s rights and the lack of carrying out any research after phasing out support to communities. Finally, the thesis highlights the practices within the Programme that increase its sustainability, as well as recommendations for further improvement.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第22137号 / 地環博第193号 / 新制||地環||38(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)准教授 森 晶寿, 教授 諸富 徹, 教授 宇佐美 誠 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

By 2050, the Netherlands wants to reduce its use of natural gas for heating to zero. Currently, over 90%of houses are dependent on the fossil resource to warm their houses. As such, the phase-out of natural gas hasbecome an important policy project. The government delegated the formulation of the phase-out strategy andexecution to the 347 municipalities. This thesis examines how one municipality, Leiden, has formulated andimplemented this strategy. In doing so, the thesis addresses two matters in the literature on energy transitionswhich have received little attention: heating and deliberate decline. Traditionally, the focus within this field hasbeen on electricity and innovation. This thesis aims to find out to what extent the Transition Management (TM)framework by Derk Loorbach (2010) can be applied as a guide to a phase-out policy formulation process of theWarmtevisie of the Dutch municipality of Leiden. The thesis uses the process tracing methodology to combinedata generated from document analysis and two interviews with policy makers involved in the policy formulationprocess. By comparing the process followed in Leiden with the analytical framework of TM, the thesis shows thatthe TM framework could be used to guide to the phase-out policy formulation process to a large extent. However,the case study also shows that knowledge and expertise must increase substantially for a sound strategy to emerge.Additionally, it shows that even within phase-out strategies the focus remains on innovation practises.

Die Dissertationsschrift führt im Gegensatz zu bisherigen Ansätzen im Zusammenhang mit der Energiewende einen Perspektivwechsel hin zur gesellschaftlichen Berücksichtigung herbei. Bisherige Szenariostudien richteten ihren Fokus auf die technische Machbarkeit sowie einzelne Kosten- und Umweltaspekte, wie in der Voranalyse gezeigt wird. Die Gesellschaft spielt in diesem Fall eine sekundäre Rolle. Statt einer Berücksichtigung im vorab geschalteten Entscheidungsprozess werden so häufig erst im Anschluss Zeit und Aufwand in die nachgelagerte Überzeugung der Bevölkerung investiert. Der in der Arbeit verfolgte Ansatz setzt konsequent darauf, gesellschaftliche Präferenzen und Barrieren vorab in die Entscheidungsfindung einzubeziehen, damit Entscheidungen selbst nachhaltig Bestand haben. Dazu werden repräsentative Telefonbefragungen genutzt, mit denen einerseits die Präferenzen der Bevölkerung, andererseits die Grenzen der Akzeptanz in Form der Zahlungsbereitschaft ermittelt werden. Erst im Anschluss daran werden Szenariorechnungen durchgeführt, um energiepolitische Handlungsoptionen auch quantitativ bewerten zu können. Bei der anschließenden Gegenüberstellung von gesellschaftlichen Barrieren und Modellergebnissen werden jedoch auch die Grenzen dieses Ansatzes vor Augen geführt: So kann eine aus Bevölkerungsperspektive erwünschte Handlungsoption (hier der Braunkohleausstieg) auch an politischen und rechtlichen Schranken scheitern.

En parallèle de chercher à survivre dans un contexte économique difficile, les entreprises doivent désormais compter avec des contraintes environnementales de plus en plus pesantes. En effet, en tant que patrimoine commun, la protection de l’environnement est désormais d’intérêt général. La complexité du sort de la créance environnementale dans les procédures collectives est essentiellement due à la difficulté de concilier et de hiérarchiser les ordres publics économique et écologique. Là où le premier recherche la sauvegarde des entreprises et des emplois qui y sont attachés, le second ne regarde que la préservation, sur le long terme, du patrimoine commun. Cette étude se propose donc d’étudier la façon dont ces deux disciplines interagissent et si une conciliation de ces deux ordres public est envisageable ou si, au contraire, il convient de mettre en place des solutions qui transcendent ces matières. / At the same time, in the face of trying to survive in a difficult economic context, companies must now count on increasingly heavy environmental constraints. Indeed, as a common heritage, the protection of the environment is now of general interest. The complexity of the fate of environmental claims in collective proceedings is mainly due to the difficulty of reconciling and prioritizing public economic and ecological orders. Where the former seeks to safeguard the enterprises and the jobs attached to them, the second concerns only the long-term preservation of the common heritage. This study therefore proposes to study the way in which these two disciplines interact and whether a conciliation of these two public orders can be envisaged or whether, on the contrary, solutions should be put in place that transcend these two disciplines.

This thesis is aimed at cashless payments which have recently gained worldwide significance. Cash is being gradually phased-out by card transactions and mobile payments via non-bank provider of payment services. A question arises of what would happen if cash would disappear in its entirety and we would find ourselves in a "cashless society". This topic which at first glance appears to be utopian is the subject of this thesis. The first part compares the market of cashless payments in the Czech Republic and in northern Europe (which is amongst the most developed), in particular with regard to the use of cards and mobile payments. The second part is concerned with the phenomenon of shadow economy and the influence of cashless payments on its volume. Concrete recommendations for the Czech economy are also the part of this chapter. The final part hits the essence of the issue and deals with concrete pros and cons of going cashless. The chapter is systematically divided into three parts - security, cost-benefit analysis and legal aspects.

Chapter 1: This paper offers new causal evidence on how the timing of prenatal temperature shocks affects fetal health, sex ratio at birth, and early-age human capital. Analyzing data on nearly 2 million live births from sub-Saharan African countries and exploiting exogenous spatial and temporal variation in monthly temperature, we uncover three findings. First, we find that a cold temperature shock decreases the likelihood of a male birth. This effect is non-linear, being larger in the first and third trimesters of pregnancy. It is also highly heterogeneous, being larger for older women, higher parity births, and rural areas. Second, combining our empirical estimates with a climate model, we find that the number of fetal deaths caused by climate change will rise from 200 to 400 per 100,000 live births by 2050 throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Third, in contrast to their differential effect on fetal mortality, prenatal temperature shocks increase infant mortality more for females than for males, suggesting that only healthier male fetuses survive to adverse in utero conditions. Our analysis implies that the design of policies to avert the negative impacts of climate change on children should account for stages of fetal development. Chapter 2: Despite its enormous individual and social costs; the fundamental and long- run causes of cognitive aging remain understudied. We study the causal effect of in-utero temperature exposure on cognition during old age. Combining unique data on South African adults between 40 and 99 years of age with geospatial information on historical temperatures, our identification strategy exploits exogenous, within-municipality-of-birth, month-to-month variations in temperature, and controls for contemporaneous weather and location at the time of survey administration. We find that temperature in the first trimester of pregnancy negatively affects the cognitive function score later in life, but temperature in the second and third trimesters has a positive effect on adults cognitive function score. These differing effects result in an overall U-shaped relationship between prenatal exposure to temperature and cognition. This non-linear relationship is robust across measures of memory, reasoning, and information processing speed. Our findings are consistent with the fetal programming theory, which holds that the first trimester of pregnancy is the most crucial window of brain formation. In accordance with this theory, brain development occurring in the first trimester of pregnancy would therefore have the highest vulnerability to external shocks. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effect of prenatal temperature on cognition is larger for men, individuals over 75 years of age, and individuals with low social capital. Analyzing causal mechanisms, we find that prenatal temperature affects key determinants of individuals' cognitive reserve. We also find that exposure to drought during the first trimester of pregnancy and reduced sleep during adulthood are other potential channels through which the effects of prenatal exposure to temperature operate. Chapter 3: A large literature seeking to understand the labor market impacts associated with the clean energy transitions broadly finds opposite effects. On the one hand, a net positive impact on the workforce i.e. the new green jobs created in renewable energy sectors will compensate for the jobs lost in fossil-fuel sectors, while on the other hand, the so-called regulated dirty energy sector will reduce the fraction of workers hired. However, empirical and simulation models typically ignore transitional impacts associated with environmental regulations on labour. These relate to how workers adjust over time to environmental regulations, not just the steady state impact that is the focus of prior studies. We evaluate an environmental regulation (Ontario coal-fired electricity generating plants phase-out) regarding its transitional and long-term impacts on employee's outcomes including (i) wages; (ii) unemployment insurance; (iii) sector mobility; and (iv) geographic location. Using the Longitudinal Worker File (LWF) and Postal Codes Conversion File (PCCF) maintained by Statistics Canada, we estimate the labor market impacts of clean energy policy by comparing employees from affected coal plants to a comparable group of employees from non-affected plants. We find that, workers exposed to Ontario phase-out coal policy have earned on average 7000 $ CAD yearly less compared to those who weren't exposed. Our findings are consistent across a set of alternative specifications and robustness checks. Moreover, results from the event study approach suggest that the regulation leads to labor costs with the de- cline of wages just in transition. We provide supportive evidence on large labor costs due to environmental regulation policy and shed lights on the importance of reforms and training programs to support workers during the transition.

In 2022 the Russian invasion in Ukraine marked a turning point for global politics. To loosen dependency on Russian gas, the German government came to an agreement with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE. They decided to extend the lifespan of two lignite-powered plants while simultaneously accelerating the phasing out of coal from 2038 to 2030. However, this decision required the destruction of Lützerath, a village located in the planned lignite mining area. It is therefore referred to as the Lützerath decision. It drew massive criticism from climate movements, scientists and thousands of individuals, who claimed that this decision marks the end of the Paris Agreement, is a reinvestment in coal and a betrayal of future generations. The responsible politicians justified their decision and countered the protestors claims, arguing for a success for climate protection. The decision went ahead and Lützerath was evicted and destroyed in January 2023. This study has performed a Critical Discourse Analysis of speeches, interviews and press statements by key German political decision makers involved in order to investigate how the Lützerath decision was argued for, and in what ways the Lützerath discourse contributed to a hegemonic position of the fossil fuel sector in Germany. The results identified two main narratives: (1) the narrative of an unambiguous necessity of the coal underneath Lützerath as an instrument to withstand the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion; and (2) the narrative of the Lützerath decision as a big success for climate protection. Overall, I argue that the Lützerath decision has reinforced the hegemonic position of the fossil fuel industry and that the Lützerath decision has perpetuated carbon lock-ins in multiple ways. I concluded that the political discourse surrounding the Lützerath decision marks a instance for contemporary fossil fuel hegemony in Germany and stands in contrast to the urgent need for climate protection.