Human production needs are met through the use of modern technology that is increasingly recognised as a threat to the planetary ecosystem and social sub-system. In light of this recognition, there is evidence that a planned transition towards more sustainable technological infrastructure is occurring across various production sectors. This change is often associated with re-orientating technology based on the concept of sustainable development and national-level strategies such as <i>ecological modernisation</i>, which prescribes phasing-out environmentally malignant conventional technology for cleaner post-industrial solutions. There is evidence, however, that a transition towards cleaner technological options is occurring at the local level. In southern Ontario, Canada ecological technology (<i>ecotechnology</i>) has been adopted in small-scale agricultural and educational facilities for the management of manure and domestic sewage. Ecotechnology is designed to meet human production requirements and to restore the environment through combining natural systems and engineered components to achieve cleaner production. Two types of ecotechnologies were investigated during this research: <i>constructed treatment wetlands</i> for the management of manure and <i>greenhouse-based biological technologies</i> for the management of domestic sewage. These options are novel and can be expected to encounter barriers resulting from a <i>selection environment</i> favouring pre-existing technological options that have previously become established. The overall objective of the research was <i>to identify key factors both driving and constraining the adoption and implementation of the ecotechnology</i> across four case studies. This objective was accomplished through employing a qualitative, collective case study approach. The case studies revealed the motivation behind the adoption of the ecotechnology arose from the environmental values of users and formed the basis for rejecting the conventional options because they were not viewed as capable of improving the environment. However, the ecotechnology also exceeded user's aesthetic and operational level expectations. Barriers to the implementation of ecotechnology were also identified. The investigation revealed the existence of a <i>perspective-gap</i> between the ecological engineering science and traditional engineering science, which constrained implementation of the ecotechnology. Skepticism was found to arise due to the unique performance parameters and <i>soft</i> operational characteristics of ecotechnology, which contrast the <i>hard</i> technological fixes that are familiar to traditional engineering science. This perspective-gap may account for the institutional inertia, which became clear after the 1996 provincial budget reductions decreased the level of support for research and environmental technology development programs in Ontario. These reductions also devolved authority for small-scale wastewater treatment to the municipal level where lack of technical expertise and reliance on standardised regulations has constrained the development of alternatives. Constructive technology assessment suggests that the development of technology must be guided in cooperative <i>social learning</i> processes capable of reflecting the needs and values of stakeholders in order to achieve beneficial social and technological change. Evidence from the case studies revealed that a significant amount of capacity was developed when stakeholders collaborated and legitimated the <i>social experiments</i> where the ecotechnology was applied. These experiments demonstrate the significance of creating settings where users, technology proponents and provincial and local approval agents can collaborate. Through collaboration, social learning can be facilitated during the development of alternative technological solutions that may be congruent with ecological modernisation and the re-orientation of technology towards options that are ecologically-oriented.

<p>This thesis analysis four different sides of policy-making on EU-level: the Cardiff process, the white paper “European transport policy for 2010: time to decide”, the sixth Environmental Action Programme and the Sustainable Development Strategy. In those documents measures proposed for the freight transport sector are identified and used for interviews with key persons at Schenker AG. The aim with the interviews was to examine how Schenker AG was affected and felt committed by the proposed political measures. Following the arguments above the thesis discusses the role of Schenker AG in a society characterized by ecological modernization.</p>

This thesis analysis four different sides of policy-making on EU-level: the Cardiff process, the white paper “European transport policy for 2010: time to decide”, the sixth Environmental Action Programme and the Sustainable Development Strategy. In those documents measures proposed for the freight transport sector are identified and used for interviews with key persons at Schenker AG. The aim with the interviews was to examine how Schenker AG was affected and felt committed by the proposed political measures. Following the arguments above the thesis discusses the role of Schenker AG in a society characterized by ecological modernization.

I denna studie undersöktes regionala policydokument utifrån ett fokus på hållbar utveckling och förhållandet mellan hög tillväxt och förbättrad miljö. Det empiriska material utgjordes av Region Skånes tre regionala utvecklingsprogram, vilka behandlar hur myndigheten såg på regionens utveckling åren 1999–2004, 2004–2009 och 2009–2016. Studiens mål var att studera den diskursiva omdefinieringsprocessen av begreppet hållbar utveckling, genom att analysera hur detta relateras till och används i programmen. Metoden som användes var kritisk diskursanalys. Studien syftade till att synliggöra programmens diskursiva sammanhang och utveckla en förståelse för vilka synsätt och föreställningar som kan ses ligga till grund för dokumentens innehåll och utformning.Studien kom fram till att det fanns ingen tydlig förståelse kring hållbar utveckling i programmen utan det förekom yttringar av både starka och svaga hållbarhetsdiskurser. Resonemang kring ekologisk modernisering är dominerande, baserade på föreställningar om att miljöproblem kan lösas utan några stora samhällsförändringar. Denna diskurs presenterar attraktiva lösningar på eventuella motsättningar mellan hög tillväxt och förbättrad miljö, vilket möjliggör policydokument med visionära målbilder tillsammans med breda lösningar där målkonflikter och eventuella avvägningar inte belyses nämnvärt.Studiens teoretiska ramverk och metoden kritisk diskursanalys gav möjlighet att lyfta fram och belysa hur ekologisk moderniseringsdiskursen inkorporerar resonemang från tillväxtkritiska hållbarhetsdiskurser samtidigt som den marginaliserar och tar udden av dem. På så vis kan studien bidra till en vidare diskussion om olika sätt att förhålla sig till hållbar utveckling och konsekvenser av den ekologiska moderniseringens diskursiva dominans. / This study investigates regional policy documents with a focus on sustainable development and the relationship between high economic growth and an improved environment. The study’s empirical material is based on Region Skåne’s three regional development programs which put forward how the authority viewed development in the region for the years 1999–2004, 2004– 2009 and 2009–2016. The objective was to study the discursive process of redefining the concept of sustainable development by analysing how it is referred to and used in the programs. The method utilised was critical discourse analysis. The study aimed towards exposing the2programs’ discursive context and developing an understanding of the viewpoints underlying the documents’ contents.The study concluded that there was no clear understanding around sustainable development in the programs and there were statements of both strong and weak sustainable development discourse. Goal conflicts and eventually trade-offs were not particularly highlighted. Ecological modernisation was the dominating discourse as per the reasoning that environmental problems can be solved without any major societal changes. This discourse presents attractive solutions to potential conflicts which enables the policy document to provide visionary goals along with broad solutions. The study’s theoretical framework and the method critical discursive analysis allowed for the bringing forward and highlighting of how ecological modernisation incorporates reasonings from sustainable discourses critical of economic growth, at the same time marginalising and neutralising them. As a result, this study can contribute to the discussion of different ways of achieving sustainable development and the consequence of the domination of ecological modernisation discourse.

Vägtrafik skapar flera negativa konsekvenser för miljön men även för människors hälsa. Kommuner ansvarar för lokal infrastruktur och är därför en betydande del i arbetet med hållbar stadsutveckling. Studien undersökte hur politiker och tjänstemän i Sveriges medelstora kommuner arbetar för att bilen ska bli mindre attraktiv och för att öka hållbar mobilitet. Undersökningen utgick från Sveriges miljömål samt den strategi som innefattar nya etappmål för hållbar stadsutveckling. Frågeställningen besvarades genom att använda semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra politiker och fyra tjänstemän från medelstora kommuner i Sverige. Resultat som framkom var att kommunerna arbetar med hållbar mobilitet i olika utsträckning utifrån olika förutsättningar och behov, men att lönsamhet och invånarnas åsikter begränsar arbetet. De slutsatser som drogs var att effektiva strategier krävs för att uppnå hållbar mobilitet vilket inkluderar ökade möjligheter för hållbart resande samt motstånd för bilanvändning. Att ha ett fungerande samarbete mellan politiker och tjänstemän samt ha en sakkunnig person på plats ansågs även vara viktiga prioriteringar och åtgärder. Eftersom att kommunerna värderar ekonomisk lönsamhet och invånarnas åsikter högre än miljön krävs dessutom prioritering på att öka nationell styrning och att regeringen måste sätta hårdare krav på kommuner. / Road traffic creates several negative consequences for the environment but also for human health. Municipalities are responsible for local infrastructure and are therefore a significant part of the work with sustainable urban development. The study examined how politicians and civil servants in Sweden's medium-sized municipalities work to make the car less attractive and to increase sustainable mobility. The study was based on Sweden's environmental goals and the strategy that includes new milestones targets for sustainable urban development. The method consisted of semi-structured interviews with four politicians and four civil servants from medium-sized municipalities in Sweden. The results showed that municipalities work with sustainable mobility to different extents based on different conditions and needs, but that profit and residents opinion limit the work. The conclusions were that effective strategies are required to achieve sustainable mobility which includes increased opportunities for sustainable travel and resistance to car use. Having a functioning collaboration between politicians and civil servants and having an expert on site were also considered important priorities and measures. Since economic profit and residents' opinion is valued higher than the environment by the municipalities, it is necessary to prioritize the implementation of national governance and that the government must set demands on municipalities.

Today a grand majority (around 80%) of the European citizens live in cities or towns. Europe is more urbanised than ever. Contemporaneously, climate change and global warming is an increasing threat worldwide. In 2006, the European Commission of the European Union (EU) therefore launched the idea of implementing the yearly European Green Capital (EGC) award. The aim was (and still is) to create role models by promoting cities that constantly take strong actions for the environment and thereby inspire other cities to make green choices too. In February 2009 the first two EGC winners were announced: Stockholm (Sweden) 2010 and Hamburg (Germany) 2011. The question is whether an award of this kind is the right method for the EU to deal with environment issues. If not, the EU should invest its resources elsewhere. This thesis aims at evaluating the EGC by looking closer at Stockholm as the EGC winner of 2010 and by analysing the impacts the EGC title has on Sweden’s EU Presidency the second half of 2009. The ecological modernisation theory reconciles economic growth and environmental protection, and provides several relevant features and aspects to this thesis regarding sustainable development, voluntary approaches and environmental policy-making. By applying the theory on the EGC many things such as the underlying visions and methods of the award can be explained and analysed. The conclusion of the thesis is that the EGC in some respects is leading to a greener and more sustainable Europe or at least has the potential to do so.

Between the local and the global: climate, local governments, networks The notion of an ongoing global warming is shared by a large number of researchers and decision-makers around the world. Through the act of signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change a majority of the world's naitons have accepted the idea of human induced climate change, and to develop national climate change mitigation programmes. The Kyoto protocol later quantified the commitments made by the nations. The issue of climate change has become a political issue of its own. In the European Union as well as in Sweden and other nations, climate mitigation goals, programmes and strategies are developed. This is also the situation on the local level, for example in Swedish municipalities, which is the context of this study. Local goverment is an important actor in climate mitigation, both as a political organization in its own right and as an arena involving actors from different sectors in society. Climate change mitigation measures conducted by local governments re partly shaped by national grant programmes. The study shows, however, that the local context - the palce - with its natural prerequisites, economic structures and composition of actors, is just as decisive for how the local climate policies are developed and implemented. It also shows that although responsibility for the environment is an important driving force in local climate mitigation there are at least two other dirving forces; local and regional development and the symbolic valute of being in the forefront of climate change mitigation. Another arena where actors in climate change mitigation meet is the network. Together wiht actors from different sectors and levels many municipalities participate in various networks, with local to global extension. The fact that the netsorks like climate change in inself transcends political and administrative borders, is alsö addressed theoretically in the study, focusing upon the concepts of re-scaling, multilevel governance and network governance, which constitute the theoretichal fram of the thesis.

The use of renewable energy as part of the solution for stabilising global warming has been promoted in industrialised countries for the past three decades. In the last ten years, China, a non-democratic and less-developed state, has implemented non-hydro alternative energy sources through top-down, technology-oriented measures and expanded its renewable energy capacity with unprecedented speed and breadth. This phenomenon seems to contradict to the principle of orthodox environmental governance, in which stakeholder participation is deemed as necessary condition for effective policy outcomes. Given that little research has been conducted on environmental politics in an authoritarian context, I first set out to explore the role of the Chinese state in enabling transformation of the renewable energy sector and to understand the ways in which policy elites seek to introduce developmental state and ecological modernisation strategy in the policy area. Second, by adopting principal-agent theory, I explicate how the governance mechanisms have been deployed and how challenges of the expansion of the sector in the governance system with a large territory have being mitigated. Based upon news reports, policy documents, and interviews with 32 provincial officials, business leaders, academic researchers, and NGO practitioners in two subnational governments, I argue that the renewable energy development in China is governed through a hybrid mode of environmental policy model that uses, upon the existing developmental state regime, ecological modernisation as a policy paradigm, which is partially incorporated in the process. Ultimately, I examine in this thesis the possibility of an alternative form of environmental governance in which renewable energy can be diffused in a less-participatory manner, with more direct controls and target-oriented state intervention measures. This thesis challenges the orthodox assumption that the inclusive mode of governance are the only capable form of environmental governance that reaches desired policy outcomes of renewable energy deployment.

To curb greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change is one of the biggest challenges human society face today. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has accumulated rapidly in the atmosphere as a consequence of burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The aim of this study is to explore two methods to store carbon dioxide in geological formations and biological sinks. The aim is also to discuss the two mitigation options from a sustainable perspective and whether it can lead to a better environment and benefits for local and global societies. The research questions are: Which method to store carbon dioxide, geological or biological, is the most effective? Which method to store carbon dioxide, geological or biological, has the greatest potential to promote sustainable development for local communities? The method used is a comparative case study and presents four case studies that explore the potential for CO2 storage offshore in Norway and Brazil; and in tropical forests in Mexico and Brazil. The mitigation options are discussed from two different theoretical perspectives. The principle of the theory of ecological modernisation is that innovation and environmentally friendly technology can solve the environmental problems human societies face today, whereas the theory of common pool resources promotes local communities to govern limited resources in order to manage them sustainably. The findings suggest that ecological modernisation legitimize environmental destruction as carbon dioxide storage in geological formations (CCS) use the technology as a mean to extract more oil and gas; which results in a rebound-effect. Therefore, carbon dioxide capture in geological formations is not a realistic method unless it can prevent further emissions. Protected forest resources can be seen as biological insurance, which safeguard ecosystem services, biodiversity, and the forest potential to hold carbon. Carbon sequestration in tropical forest has the potential to store carbon dioxide given that the forests are protected and local communities have tenure rights, knowledge, and the means to protect the forest and manage them sustainably.