This diploma thesis deals with global environmental agreements and their effectiveness. Its aim is to disclose the causes of success of some agreements and, on the contrary, the motives of failure of other agreements. In the theoretical part, the specialities of the environmental problems are illustrated, followed by the introduction to the international environmental law and agreements. In the practical part, two well-known international agreements concerned with atmosphere are compared. They deal with similar problem, but they achieved very different results. The objective of step-by-step comparison of diverse aspects of both agreements is to discover what factors caused the great success of the Montreal Protocol in protecting the ozone layer and why the similarly conceived Kyoto Protocol failed in the combat against climate change. Last chapter concludes this comparison and defines key characteristics which are essential for the effectiveness of the global environmental agreements.

This thesis evaluates why the implementation of a tree plantation project in Chiapas, Mexico, called Scolel Te failed in its attempt to participate in the CDMs scheme. The Scolel Te project brings together farmers and local organisations into a network of exchange of resources that aims at producing an outcome that is only possible through the co-ordination and co-operation of all participants: the emission of carbon certificates. This thesis studies the co-ordination problems that local actors face at the moment of establishing the carbon projects by identifying how formal and informal mechanisms such as contracts, economic incentives, trust, and reputation, create or solve co-ordination problems in the Scolel Te network. The thesis also describes how changes in the distribution of power among actors affect the functioning of the network and how individual's interests and strategic alliances have the potential of derailing the aims of the environmental project. For such purposes, this thesis analyses the exchange relationships among actors at the micro level and identifies how exchange relationships evolve over time. Then an overall picture of the exchange relationships is presented (macro level) with focus in understanding how and why power in the network is exerted. Findings suggest that relying on economic incentives as the main mechanism to generate commitment among communities has failed to create stable exchange relationships in the long term. Trust and reputation are stronger mechanisms to achieve commitment. Moreover, we find that the ability to generate commitment depends highly on the generation of interdependencies between tree plantation projects and the main economic activities of local actors. However, type of land tenure, main economic activity, and pre-existing power relationships embedded at local level are also the principal factors that determine the dynamism of the social exchange relationships and commitment in the long-run. This thesis considers that co-ordination failure occurs because a lack of knowledge about the real dependencies between local actors and their natural resources in the design of CDMs. At macro level, this thesis found that the lack of accountability of the unregulated local carbon market at local level has created unintended incentives for actors to adopt less environmentally responsible strategies and disincentive participation in the CDMs.

This master thesis seeks to explain the approach and position of developing countries in international politics on climate change, focused on specific groups of developing countries within the Group 77. First chapter explain the roots and development of climate change politics, together with the need to combat the climate change. Second chapter lays down the theoretical principles of attributing commitments to developing countries and analysis the position of different groups of developing countries. The last chapter is devoted to the case study of China's stance to international climate change regime and factors that influence its position.

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In 1997, both the United States (U.S.) and the European Union (EU) signed the Kyoto Protocol, the first legally binding international treaty with targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions. However, in 2001, the United States withdrew from the Protocol. This thesis seeks to understand some of the reasons why the European Union embraced the Kyoto Protocol while the United States did not. Using an overall framework of comparative politics, research is undertaken through three lenses. First, an overview of public opinion toward global warming and climate change in the U.S. and the EU analyzes potential differences or similarities from surveys carried out in each area. Second, I examine the prevailing political ideology in each polity, with emphasis on the period when climate change arose as a major global challenge. Finally, two case studies examine the theory of environmental federalism and how it might affect climate change policy action. I obtained the following results. Public opinion research has revealed that, on average, the American public is nearly as concerned with climate change as the European public. However, the overarching political ideology in the U.S. was one of conservatism, while that in Europe was one of social democracy, with left and center-left governments, contributing to a greater or lesser degree, and through indirect mechanisms, to the political stances adopted. Finally, the case of Germany shows that member state actions, such as the implementation of ambitious reductions targets, can still play a crucial role in leadership even in the presence of action at the central government level (EU). The California case study shows that state-level efforts can rise to fill a vacuum created by the absence of central government action. In the end, behavior of each polity regarding international climate agreements, particularly the Kyoto Protocol, cannot be explained in simple terms.; The complexity of the issues revolving climate change require further interdisciplinary research and collaboration among multiple actors including scientists, policymakers, nongovernmental organizations, and other stakeholders.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第24506号 / 医博第4948号 / 新制||医||1064(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 万代 昌紀, 教授 松田 秀一, 教授 中本 裕士 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

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Föreliggande studie tillämpar diskursanalys i syfte att förstå var det råder samstämmighet eller konflikt kring huruvida Sverige ska sälja, spara eller annullera överskottet på utsläppsrätter inom EU:s och FN:s utsläppshandel. Genom kritisk diskursanalys har vi kategoriserat och kodat tio riksdagsdebatter mellan åren 2010 och 2014, i vilka en ekologisk diskurs och en ekonomisk diskurs kämpar om tolkningsföreträde. Bortsett från samstämmigheten att handel med utsläppsrätter – vilken kan ses som ekologisk modernisering – är ett viktigt verktyg för att minska klimatförändringar; råder öppen kamp kring hur ett överskott på utsläppsrätter ska hanteras. Kampen har delats in i sju kategorier baserat på huruvida: 1) ett beslut om annullering kan tas direkt eller om det krävs en utredning först, 2) en annullering är en symbolisk handling eller styrs av marknadens logik, 3) en försäljning leder till ökade utsläpp, 4) på vilket sätt överskottet ska fungera som förhandlingsstrategi under klimatmöten, 5) Sverige förlorar sitt klimatanseende vid en försäljning av överskott på utsläppsrätter, 6) utsläppshandeln i högre grad borde styras av politiker eller marknadsmekanismer, och slutligen 7) huruvida överskott på utsläppsrätter bör ses som ett lyxproblem. Eftersom det ännu inte finns en fixerad diskursiv entydighet angående hur överskott på utsläppsrätter ska hanteras, menar vi att ingen av diskurserna kan ses som helt hegemonisk. Den ekonomiska diskursen har dock patent på rationaliteten eftersom den, till skillnad från den ekologiska diskursen, har accepterat ekomodernismen. Om den ekonomiska diskursen blir hegemonisk är det sannolikt att ytterligare överskott på utsläppsrätter säljs.Nyckelord: klimatförändringar, EU-ETS, Kyotoprotokollet, ekologisk modernisering, diskursiv kamp. / The following study uses insights derived from discourse analysis to examine whether there is consensus or conflict regarding if Sweden should sell, save or invalidate the surplus of allowances within the emissions trading systems of the EU and the UN. Through critical discourse analysis, we have categorized and coded ten parliamentary debates between the year of 2010 and 2014, in which an ecological discourse and an economic discourse can be derived. Aside from the consistency that the emissions trading systems – which can be seen as ecological modernization - is an important tool to mitigate climate change; an open struggle can be seen regarding how a surplus of allowances should be governed. The struggle has been divided into seven categories based on whether: 1) a decision of invalidation can be taken directly or if an investigation is necessary, 2) an invalidation is a symbolic act or controlled by the logic of the market, 3) a sale directly leads to an increased amount of emissions, 4) in what way the surplus of allowances should serve as a negotiating strategy during international climate meetings, 5) Sweden’s climate profile will be lost in case of a sale, 6) the emissions trading systems to a higher rate should be controlled by politicians or mechanisms of the market, and finally 7) whether the surplus of allowances should be seen as a luxury problem. Since there is not yet a fixed unity regarding how surplus of allowances should be governed, we argue that none of the discourses can be seen as completely hegemonic. However, the economic discourse have positions on rationality due to that it, unlike the ecological discourse, has accepted the ecological modernisation. If the economic discourse becomes hegemonic it is likely that additional surplus of allowances will be sold.Key words: climate change, EU-ETS, the Kyoto Protocol, ecological modernisation, discursive struggle.

In this philosophical work I explicate Nishida Kitaro's dialectics vis-à-vis Mahayana non-dualistic thought and Hegel's dialectical philosophy, and furthermore in terms of a "chiasmatic chorology." Nishida's work makes ample usage of western philosophical concepts, most notably the terminology of Hegelian dialectics. Nishida himself has admitted affinity to Hegel. And yet content-wise the core of Nishida's thinking seem close to Mahayana Buddhism in its line of thought traceable to the Prajñaparamita sutras. The point of my investigation is to clarify in what regard Nishida's dialectic owes allegiance to Hegel and to Mahayana and wherein it diverges from them. Moreover to what extent is Nishida's appropriation of Hegelian terminology adequate in expressing his thought? The work explicates the distinctive aspects of Nishida's thinking in terms of a "chiasmatic chorology" to emphasize the inter-dimensional and placial complexity of the dialectic. In summary two overarching concerns guide the work: 1) The relation of Nishida's dialectic to its forebears -- Mahayana non-dualism and Hegelian dialectics --; and 2) The distinctness of that dialectic as a "chiasmatic chorology." The work concludes that while Nishida, in his attempt to surmount the dualism of Neo-Kantianism, was led to Hegel's dialectic, the core ideas of his dialectic extend beyond the purview of Hegelianism. Contentwise his dialectic is closer in spirit to Mahayana. While Nishida admits to such commensurability with key Mahayana doctrines, his thought nevertheless ought not to be confined to the doctrinal category of "Buddhist thought" both because of its eclectic nature that brings in elements drawn from western and eastern sources, thereby constituting his work as a "world philosophy"; and because of its creative contributions, such as the formulation of basho and its explication in dialectical terms. What cannot be expressed adequately in terms of Hegelian dialectics is the concrete chiasma of what Nishida calls his "absolute dialectic." Moreover its founding upon the choratic nature of basho not only escapes the grasp of Hegel's self-knowing concept but extends beyond previous formulations within Buddhism. / Religion