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Mezinárodní režim ochrany klimatu ve světle závazků vybraných smluvních stran Rámcové úmluvy OSN o změně klimatu / International regime of climate protection in the light of commitments of selected Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate ChangeŠtěpánek, Přemysl January 2018 (has links)
1 Název práce: Mezinárodní režim ochrany klimatu ve světle závazků vybraných smluvních stran Rámcové úmluvy OSN o změně klimatu Autor práce: PhDr. Ing. Přemysl Štěpánek Školitel: Doc. PhDr. Jan Karlas, M.A., Ph.D. Pracoviště: Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut politologických studií, Katedra mezinárodních vztahů. Rok obhajoby: 2018 Abstract To complement the current research on countries' action in relation to global public goods, this dissertation examines the strength of UNFCCC Parties' emission commitments and the influence of selected factors derived from rationalism and constructivism on the strength of these commitments in two different contexts, under the Copenhagen Accord (2009) and the Paris Agreement (2015). Using a multiple linear regression analysis on the sample of 27 and 54 cases in the first and the second period, respectively, and as well as through case studies on three important UNFCCC Parties with a strong commitment and variance in values of the independent variables (the European Union, the Russian Federation, South Africa), the conclusions are as follows. The regression analysis in both contexts showed, in line with the assumptions, the positive influence of two factors on the strength of commitments, namely the share of alternative and nuclear energy and economic...
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Adoption of effective improved cookstoves in sub-Sahara Africa: case study in the Arua DistrictBubendorfer, Alwin January 2012 (has links)
In rural areas of least developed countries, the preparation of meals remains the predominant energy consuming activity. Cooking is mostly performed with firewood – using the ancient “technology” of the 3-stone fire. This practice results in numerous challenges that hinder the transformation envisioned by the Millennium Development Goals and it therefore contributes towards slowing the development of rural areas. Activities focussing on amending this status-quo can be termed insufficient in scope- and sustainability. The main deficiencies of most projects are that the prime focus of the mainstream of these endeavours has been on demand side management, mainly performed by disseminating cookstoves, and that there has been little innovation in respect to raising stove adoption rates. As the strict efficiency focus obviously only captures one side of the problem – merely focussing on treating symptoms rather than providing an effective solution, this thesis stresses the need for a paradigm shift towards more holistic interventions. This work very much focuses on the topic of stove adoption. This is a complex topic - very much linked to attaining behavioural change. Deliberations concluded that the identification of enabling factors for adoption, which can be termed a prerequisite for developing sustainable methods for stove projects, requires a mix of instruments. To suffice the required data demand the initial literature review was complemented by a thorough assessment of the kitchen environment and the cooking behaviour of stove owners. The fieldwork concentrated on 210 beneficiaries of an efficient cookstove project. The applied methods included interviews, observations and pictorial documentation. As a remedy to the challenges and current shortcomings identified during field work and literature review, the author herein develops a novel and more holistic implementation strategy for stove projects – the so- called 3-Step approach. This is based on the simultaneous implementation of availing cookstoves, building capacity in respect to kitchen management, as well as performing small-scale household level tree planting. The research, which further encompassed the piloting of the 3-Step approach, led to the overall conclusion that the proposed increase in project scope holds a multitude of opportunities for improving the livelihoods of the rural target groups. The main impact of this innovative strategy lies in a decrease of average transaction costs as well as in a considerable increase in project sustainability. As will be extensively elaborated, the former is achieved by a more effective utilisation of the extensive infrastructure of trained artisans. The latter refers to the expected income increase on household level, as well as to improvements in environmental- and human health. In combination these enable rural communities to better adapt to climate change.
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Cities and climate change actions : Comparison between five european citiesDe La Torre Sebastián, Ane January 2009 (has links)
During the last few years cities are taking the lead against climate change. Theyare aware of the big contribution they can make to mitigate the climate change, so theyare working actively in this field. This thesis’ aim is to study what cities are doing andthe chance they have to be successful. The cities selected for this thesis were Madrid,Barcelona, London, Manchester an Dublin. The method followed to active the aim wasto read all the information available from the selected cities’ Councils about themeasures they are carrying out. Then, transform that information to a way that all thecities’ information can be compared. As a result, it can be seen that there are fewdifferences in their lines of action,excluding some punctual facts. All the cities areworking actively to reduce transport sector’s emissions, to improve the energy use athomes and to increase the importance of the renewable energies. Spanish cities’emissions reduction targets are still not ambitious enough, while London’s are the mostambitious among the studied cities. As a conclusion, it can be said that cities shouldwork together to face the challenge of climate change, because there’s still much to do,targets have to be more ambitious and measures stricter. / Estos últimos años las ciudades están tomando la iniciativa en contra del cambioclimático. Son conscientes de las grandes oportunidades que tienen para mitigarlo, asíque están trabajando activamente en este sentido. El propósito de esta tesis es estudiar loque están haciendo las ciudades para mitigar el cambio climático y las oportunidadesque tienen de tener éxito. Las ciudades seleccionadas para este estudio son Madrid,Barcelona, Londres, Manchester y Dublín. El método para conseguir el propósito fueleer toda la información disponible por parte de los ayuntamientos de las distintasciudades acerca de las medidas que están llevando a cabo. A continuación transformaresa información a unos parámetros comunes a todas las ciudades y compararla. Comoresultado se observa que hay muy pocas diferencias en sus líneas de acción, con algunaexcepción puntual. Todas las ciudades están trabajando activamente para reducir lasemisiones del sector transporte, mejorar el aprovechamiento energético doméstico ypara aumentar la proporción de energías renovables. Las ciudades Españolas todavía notienen objetivos de reducción de emissiones suficientemente ambiciosos, al contrarioque Londres. Como conclusión, las ciudades deberían trabajar unidas en contra delcambio climático, porque todavía queda mucho por conseguir, los objetivos deben sermás abiciosos y las medidas más estrictas. / <p>www.ima.kth.se</p>
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Effects of climate and land-use change on grass and tree populations and their consequences to the ecosystem multi-functionality, Limpopo, South AfricaMokoka, Malesela Vincent January 2022 (has links)
Thesis (Ph.D. (Plant Production)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Changes in climate and land-use, collectively called environmental changes, have been
a source of concern globally, particularly in dryland grasslands, where people still
heavily rely on services from these ecosystems. Extreme climatic conditions have been
projected to increase both in intensity and frequency globally. In semi-arid regions,
drought is anticipated to occur more frequently and to last longer as a consequence of
climate change. Moreover, as human populations continue to grow, there is an increase
in demand for natural resources that are already diminishing. Consequently, the
combination of these factors has a negative effect on the functions and services of the
dryland grassland ecosystems. Therefore, to counteract the degradation of these socioeconomically
significant ecosystems, it is vital to understand how these systems
respond to the long-term effects of drought and grazing.
Limpopo province is largely dominated by drylands; comprising arid, semi-arid and dry
sub-humid ecosystems. In Limpopo province, rangelands and agroforestry systems
deliver important ecosystem services. Arable lands, rangeland, agroforestry, and
orchards are three major land-use types contributing greatly to local livelihoods within
Limpopo’s multi-use landscapes. Motivated by the above mentioned factors this study
had the following objectives; (i) to review the impact of climate change on dryland
grasslands, (ii) to evaluate ecosystem functioning through the assessment of climate related
effects on taxonomic diversity and density demography from the grass layer, (iii)
to analyse the effects of drought and grazing on the grass layer and to understand the
factors affecting tree populations, particularly tree establishment patterns, (iv) to
measure ecosystem service provision from the savanna ecosystem and also, to bridge
the knowledge gap on the importance of biodiversity in an ecosystem.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, a comprehensive literature analysis was
conducted on the effects of climate change on dryland grasslands to assess the
magnitude of this impact and the existing understanding of vegetation dynamics in the
face of climate change. The study also took advantage of the large-scale field
experiment which evaluated, through precipitation manipulation, the impact of drought
on grazed and ungrazed vegetation in the dryland grasslands of Limpopo province,
South Africa, labeled drought Act experiment. In the Drought Act experiment, passive
rain-out shelters and grazing ex-closure fences were set up to simulate a severe
drought in combination with differing resting schemes of the rangeland. This was done
in order to assess the effect of previous drought events on herbaceous vegetation.
Grazing and drought treatments were implemented across four treatment plots per
block, via a full factorial design. The study also took advantage of the steep gradient of
climatic aridity in Limpopo province and used a space-for-time substitution to evaluate
the effects of climate-induced risks and factors impacting the establishment of
encroaching woody species under conditions of climate change. Two climate zones and
soil types were selected; semi-arid vs. dry sub-humid zone, and Glenrosa soil vs.
Hutton soil. Data analysis was executed using the R statistical software package.
The examination of literature revealed that African dryland ecosystems are especially
vulnerable to the effects of climate change, resulting in biodiversity loss, structural and
functional changes to the ecosystem, and a diminished capacity to deliver ecosystem
services. Climate change’s most susceptible species and functions have a great
potential to be utilized as early warning signs. Furthermore, precipitation manipulation
experiments are a great tool for investigating the impact of climate change as they allow
for precipitation reduction below the natural range. There is still a general lack of
information regarding the effects that extreme climatic conditions have on ecosystems
and the mechanisms that determine how ecosystems respond and recover from stress
and disturbances.
The Drought Act experiment showed that prolonged drought had a substantial and
negative impact on the biomass output of the vast majority of taxonomic groups and
plant functional types (PFTs). This reduction in biomass production from the grass layer
results in limited grazing for livestock, which is a primary ecosystem service provided by
dryland grasslands. However, the study revealed that few species and PFTs were
resistant to the effects of prolonged drought and grazing. In general, the study showed
that long-term drought and grazing winners were primarily forbs and narrow-leaved
perennial grasses with low leaf area (LA) and high leaf dry matter content (LDMC).
Furthermore, the negative impact of drought on the taxonomic richness and species per
unit area and ultimately diversity, worsened as the drought period increased.
Additionally, grazing exclusion (resting) was shown to have a negative influence on
species richness, abundance, and diversity, especially over long periods of time.
Bottom-up mechanisms such as soil type had a greater impact on the establishment,
recruitment, and survival of invading woody species than top-down mechanisms such
as precipitation. In addition, the significant correlation that was established in the study
between the age of trees and the circumferences of their stems, measured at breast
height, provided evidence that non-destructive methods of estimating the age of trees
are feasible. Further development of non-invasive approaches in the field of
dendrochronology is also made possible by these findings.
The findings of this thesis indicate, on the whole, that; to gain a better understanding of
dryland vegetation dynamics in the face of drought, researchers need to investigate
further the impact of climatic extremes on ecosystem functions and services. Moreover,
winners and losers of long-term drought can be distinguished by their unique
characteristics; hence, taxonomic groups and functional characteristics could be utilized
as early markers of veld degradation, which would permit timely management
interventions. The negative impact of long-term drought and grazing on the grass layer
limits the ecosystem’s capacity to carry livestock and wildlife for extended periods, thus
impacting the livelihoods of the people who rely on these ecosystems. In addition, the
tendency of higher tree establishment in lower rainfall years suggests that drought could
be a driving factor for woody vegetation propagation.
The trait-based approach is very instructive when it comes to researching the dynamics
of vegetation in dryland grasslands. This is especially true when considering the effects
of changing climate and land-use. This study has contributed to a better knowledge of
the ecosystem function under changing climate and land-use, which is the basis of
enhancing the resilience of different land-use systems and reducing risks to ecosystem
functions and services while optimizing production. / NRF, DAAD, UL, SALL net, Universitat Potsdam
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Nyckelfaktorer för Grön Innovation inom Bygg- och Anläggningssektorn / Key Factors for Green Innovation in Infrastructure DevelopmentKourinnoi, Bogdan January 2020 (has links)
Bygg- och anläggningssektorn är ansvarig för en betydande del av Sveriges totala koldioxidutsläpp och står inför stora utmaningar när den nu skall försöka minska dess klimatpåverkan. Bygg- och anläggningssektorn behöver under det kommande decenniet hitta lösningar och arbetssätt som halverar sektorns totala koldioxidutsläpp. Entreprenörer kommer att behöva hitta sätt att effektivt genomföra både befintliga lösningar och sådana som inte ännu inte finns tillgängliga. Det här examensarbetet har undersökt vilka nyckelfaktorer som finns för ett lyckat genomförande av nya lösningar med låg klimatpåverkan vid väg- och anläggningsprojekt. Som en fallstudie undersöktes implementeringen av Multicem vid två av Skanskas projekt. Multicem är ett klimatmässigt fördelaktigt alternativ till produkten kalkcement och används vid genomförande av inblandningspelare i jordförstärkningssyfte. Fallstudien tillsammans med litteratur och intervjuer bidrog till slutsatser om vad som måste till för att projekt skall kunna genomföra klimateffektiviseringsåtgärder. Det som har observerats är att projekts möjlighet att klimateffektivisera beror på projekt-, organisations- och sektorspecifika faktorer och tydligt försvåras av bygg- och anläggningssektorns projektstruktur. Studien visar att nyckelfaktorer på projektnivå är att lösningar introduceras tidigt, är ekonomiskt fördelaktiga och kan implementeras enkelt med hjälp av standardiserade arbetssätt. Dessutom måste tidigare erfarenheter spridas effektivt inom organisationen, så att erfarenheter från projekt blir tillgängliga för nya projekt. Organisatoriska nyckelfaktorer för lyckad klimateffektivisering är engagerad ledning på alla nivåer och samverkan mellan olika aktörer och olika projekt. Examensarbetet visar även att bygg- och anläggningssektorn är beroende av att ett övergripande arbete för klimateffektivisering sker inom sektorn. Entreprenörer är beroende av att grönt innovationsarbete pågår i hela leverantörskedjan för att möjliggöra nya fördelaktiga arbetssätt. Dessutom är Trafikverkets roll vid upphandlingsskeden och kravställning ytterst viktig eftersom myndigheten styr arbetet som entreprenörer och andra aktörer kan utföra. / The construction industry accounts for a major part of Sweden’s overall carbon dioxide emissions, and is because of that, today facing significant challenges in its aim to mitigate the industry’s total climate impact. During the coming decade, the Swedish infrastructure construction industry must find solutions that can mitigate its carbon dioxide emissions by 50 per cent. This means that contractors will have to find ways to efficiently implement both existing and innovative solutions. This master’s thesis has researched which key factors apply for successful implementation of green solutions at infrastructure development. As a case study, the implementation of the product Multicem at two of Skanska’s developments was researched. Multicem is a product that can be used in dry deep mixing in order to limit carbon emissions. The case study, together with literature and interviews, provided conclusions on which factors are relevant for successful implementation of solutions that result in less carbon dioxide emissions. The research shows that a project’s capacity to mitigate its emissions is decided by projectspecific, organisational and sectorial factors, and is limited by the construction industry’s project-based characteristics. The study shows that key aspects on a project-level are that the solutions ought to be introduced during an early phase, be economically beneficial and also be implemented easily through standardised working routines. Additionally, earlier experiences must be spread efficiently within the organization so that internal knowledge can be accessible for new developments. Organisational key factors for successful green innovation are: engaged managerial personnel and cooperation between different companies and developments. The results from this master’s thesis show that the construction industry is dependent on that climate change mitigation efforts are taken within the whole industry. In order to develop beneficial solutions and methods, contractors are reliant on that the entire supply chain work towards green innovation. Additionally, the Swedish Transport Administration’s role when designing contracts and legislation is of the outmost importance, since it as an authority regulates the work contractors and consultants perform.
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Climate Change Impact Assessment of a Biochar System in Rural KenyaSujessy, Libbis January 2018 (has links)
Biochar systems have been beneficial to Kenyan residents living in the rural areas, particularly in Kwale, following recent research interventions. Biochar system starts from the biomass feedstock sourcing, its production method, and finally its application to soil. The aim of this study is to assess the climate change impacts of the application of biochar in smallholder farms and households in rural Kenya, against the traditional agriculture and cooking practices under realistic conditions and from a life cycle perspective. The scope of this study includes the biomass sourcing identification, biomass availability measurement, cooking practice observation and biochar application during planting season (April to May) at one of the rural areas, the Waa Ward in Kwale County under The Biochar Project. Field observation was carried out to identify and measure on-farm biomass availability and cooking performance. The identification and measurement of biomass weight were conducted through survey and manual scale, respectively. While the cooking performance was observed with uncontrolled Kitchen Performance Test (KPT) method. A life cycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the climate change impact of biochar system in Kwale. The biochar production method, also called the improved system in this study, is compared against the traditional system. This study focuses at the cookstove used for the two systems, Gastov and three-stone open fire. Gastov is a type of Top-Lit UpDraft (TLUD) natural draft gasifier cookstove investigated. The biomass measurement established the biomass and energy availability on-farms in Kwale. Meanwhile, the KPT found that Gastov required lesser fuel for cooking due to higher thermal efficiency in comparison to three-stone open fire. The LCA results showed that the improved system performs better than the traditional system in terms of climate change impacts and that the improved system potentially offset GHG emissions caused by traditional system as well as generates a net carbon credit. Lastly, the ‘hotspot’ of the improved system was identified in the cooking process, although it was also significantly better than the traditional cooking process. The sensitivity analysis showed that both fraction of stable carbon and fraction of non- renewable biomass (fNRB) were major factors in the biochar system in Kwale, Kenya. The conclusion is that the biochar system presents more advantages as applied in Kwale compared to the traditional system through biomass management, improved cooking method, and biochar application to soil.
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Impacts of Pollution Control, Ecosystem Conservation, and Infrastructure on the Agriculture-Land-Environment NexusZhan Wang (16627161) 21 July 2023 (has links)
<p>A major challenge of achieving sustainable development is to balance two critical targets with finite resources: to secure food security for a growing population with rising consumption demands, and to prevent further pollution into the environment and losses in ecosystem services. More importantly, the targets of food production and environment protection are not only related to socio-economic and technological development, but also tangled together both ecologically and economically, in particular regarding competition for land – the necessary natural resource for achieving both targets. In view of this, a comprehensive understanding about how to achieve sustainable development requires integrated analyses of the nexus of agricultural production, land use and environmental protection (the “agriculture-land-environment nexus”), interactions between these components, and their responses to socio-economic development and policies. </p>
<p><br></p>
<p>This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on the impacts of environmental protection polices and infrastructure on the agriculture-land-environment nexus. The first essay analyzes how pollution reduction influences ecosystem services, with both a theoretical model and also empirical analysis with city-level data from China. Existing literature from the environmental and ecological fields reports that pollution reduction contributes to ecosystem services, but the ecosystem effects via economic channels remain under-addressed. We find when integrated together with an economic system, the reduction of pollution causes losses in the area of natural land that supports ecosystem services, which is further supported by empirical evidence. This finding emphasizes the importance of taking ecosystem effects into account on the design, implementation and evaluation of pollution control policies.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>The second essay researches the impact of a large-scale forestry and grassland conservation policy in China, the grain-to-green project (GTGP), on cropland supply and crop production. In this essay, we first develop a theoretical model of the relationships between cropland supply, land value (with market access as proxy) and GTGP, and then empirically test these relationships using gridded data from China. We find GTGP not only directly reduces cropland area, but also restricts the elasticity of cropland supply in response to market access. Furthermore, we apply the GTGP’s impacts on cropland supply elasticity on a grid-solving computable model, in order to both validate the model and elasticity estimates via hindcasting and evaluate the GTGP’s impact on agricultural production via simulation. In the computable model where all grids are connected with crop markets, we find two effects of GTGP on agriculture: the direct effect that restricts cropland use and crop production in regions where it is implemented, and the indirect effect that increases crop production on regions not restricted or less restricted by GTGP. Essay 2 contributes to the literature by not only estimating the pattern of gridded cropland supply in China, but also reveals the indirect effect of GTGP on agriculture, which has seldom been researched. </p>
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<p>The third essay researches the impact of transportation infrastructure on Brazilian agriculture, land use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Combining a geographic information system (GIS) based analysis and computable model simulation, we find the expansion of infrastructure mainly contributes to the transportation cost reduction in inland Brazil and causes local cropland expansion and increased GHG emissions from land conversion. However, the shifting of crop production towards inland Brazil reduces the demand for cropland in southeastern and southern Brazil, which offsets the impact on cropland expansion and GHG emissions at the national level. Findings in Essay 3 indicate the importance of capturing both spatial heterogeneity and spatial spillover effects of infrastructure expansion when evaluating agricultural and environmental impacts. </p>
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Technology‑based comparative life cycle assessment for palm oil industry: the case of NigeriaAnyaoha, Kelechi E., Zhang, Lulu 02 February 2024 (has links)
Oil palm dominates global oil production, trade, and consumption. Nigeria is one of the leading palm oil producers and consumers. A significant challenge of the palm oil industry is to reduce the environmental impacts (e.g. pollution and carbon footprint) and integrate a circular economy in operation. This study aims to comparatively quantify the environmental impacts of technologies used by different mills. We applied a life cycle assessment in the case of Nigeria. The study covers the reception and processing of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) to end-product palm oil. The inputs include generated empty fruit bunch (EFB), mesocarp fibre, palm kernel shell, palm oil mill effluent, diesel, water and all outputs to the environment for a functional unit of 1-tonne FFB. The results showed that large-scale mills perform worse (468 kg CO₂-eq per t FFB) than the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills in effects on climate change but better in the other impact categories, including human toxicity, ecotoxicity, and fine particulate matter formation. In large-scale mills, the climate change impacts decrease by 75% when the raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) is used in composting EFB. Similarly, climate change impacts reduce by 44% when biogas from POME substitutes diesel in the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills. We conclude that regulatory measures are needed to ensure improved management practices in the production processes. Particular attention should be paid to the generation and reuse of biomass and POME. This study provides a handy reference to assist the sustainable energy transition in Nigeria’s and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa’s oil palm industry to mitigate climate change and form a cleaner bioeconomy.
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Reconciling Potential and Practice / Towards the Implementation of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change MitigationSchulte, Ingrid 13 December 2023 (has links)
In den letzten Jahren hat die Rolle naturbasierter Lösungen (Nature-based Solutions, NbS) –Aktivitäten, die in und mit der Natur arbeiten, um globale gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen zu bewältigen – bei der Abschwächung und Anpassung an den Klimawandel, dem Schutz der Artenvielfalt und der Verbesserung des menschlichen Wohlbefindens an Bedeutung gewonnen. Die Einführung von NbS verläuft jedoch weiterhin schleppend, und es besteht nach wie vor eine deutliche Kluft zwischen den langsamen Maßnahmen in großem Maßstab und den vielversprechenden Forschungsergebnissen und politischen Aussagen. Dies zeigt, dass es dringend notwendig ist, die Umsetzungsbedingungen für NbS besser zu verstehen. Derzeit ist die Evidenzbasis zu NbS noch unvollständig, insbesondere wenn es um die systematische Bewertung der Wirksamkeit und der Umsetzungsanforderungen geht. Insbesondere fehlen bei groß angelegten Bewertungen wichtige kontextbezogene Informationen über Kultur, Verhalten und andere soziale und institutionelle Faktoren. Auch die vielfältigen Vorteile von NbS werden nach wie vor unterschätzt oder in einigen Fällen überhaupt nicht gewürdigt. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es daher, politikrelevante Forschung zu betreiben, die dazu beitragen kann, die Lücke zwischen dem großen Potenzial naturbasierter Lösungen zur Bewältigung globaler Herausforderungen, insbesondere der Eindämmung des Klimawandels, und der langsamen Umsetzung in der Praxis zu schließen. Ausgehend von der vorhandenen Literatur zu NbS argumentiere ich, dass drei Bausteine für die erfolgreiche Umsetzung jeder NbS-Aktivität, insbesondere in großem Maßstab, wesentlich sind: (1) Wissenssynthese; (2) Planung und Entscheidungsfindung; (3) Politik und Finanzierungsmechanismen. In dieser Arbeit untersuche ich diese Bereiche, indem ich Nachweise und Überlegungen zu theoretischen und methodischen Lücken in ihrer Bewertung sowie neue Perspektiven beisteuere. / Recent years have seen increased attention to the role that nature-based solutions (NbS) – activities that work in and with nature to address global societal challenges – can play in mitigating and adapting to climate change, protecting biodiversity, and improving human well-being. Natural climate solutions (NCS) – a subset of NbS – can contribute up to a third of the cost-effective carbon dioxide mitigation needed to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. To have the biggest effect on reducing global temperatures, however, NbS must be scaled up now and designed for the long-term. Yet, uptake of NbS continues to be slow and there remains a clear gap between the lagging action at scale and the promising research and policy narratives. This demonstrates an urgent need to better understand the implementation conditions for NbS. Currently, the evidence base on NbS remains incomplete, especially when it comes to systematically assessing effectiveness and implementation requirements. In particular, important contextual information on culture, behavior, and other social and institutional factors are lacking in large-scale assessments. The multiple benefits of NbS also remain undervalued, or in some cases are not valued at all. As such, the objective of this thesis is to conduct policy-relevant research that can contribute to closing the gap between the high potential for nature-based solutions to address global challenges, particularly climate change mitigation, and the realities of slow implementation in practice. Drawing on the existing literature on NbS, I argue that three building blocks are essential to driving successful implementation of any NbS activity, in particular at scale: (1) knowledge synthesis; (2) planning & decision-making; (3) policy & financing mechanisms. I explore these in this thesis, contributing evidence and reflection on theoretical and methodological gaps in their assessment, as well as new perspectives.
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Psychological barriers that limit climate-friendly food choices in a South African contextTheron, Elzarie 01 1900 (has links)
By following a climate-friendly diet, consumers have the potential to reduce climate change. However, despite the growing awareness of the climate-friendly food options that are available, consumers still choose foods with a high carbon footprint. Following a survey design, this study aimed to determine the extent to which four psychological processes (denial, conflicting goals and aspirations, tokenism, and interpersonal influence) limit consumers’ climate-friendly food choices in South Africa. Data were collected from 151 participants using the Climate-friendly Food Choices Scale and the Psychological Barriers Scale. Regression analysis indicated that conflicting goals and aspirations and denial were the two main psychological barriers to climate-friendly food choices. Overall the barriers were negatively associated with climate-friendly food choices. Gender did not produce a significant effect in the study. Different age groups varied with regards to the extent to which they experienced the psychological barriers, but they did not differ significantly with regards to how often they made climate-friendly food choices. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)
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