Climate change has been recognised as one of the biggest challenges of our time. To prevent further climate change impacts, nations at COP21 further stressed the need to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions enough to prevent dangerous temperature rise and to adapt societies to become more resilient. Municipals have been found important actors in this transition due to their power to inflict change on a local level. However, there is a lack of methods to assess how transition is made due to the fact that transition is a fairly new approach to managing climate change combined with a lack of completed transitions in municipalities. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of indicators as a method to assess municipal transition processes. Focusing on two Swedish municipalities that have been deemed vulnerable but at the same time apt to combat climate change, this study uses a triangulation of methods that are divided into two phases. The first phase uses a literature review in order to create a scientifically based list of transition indicators. The second phase uses document analyses and interviews in order to test the indicators and analyse transition process on a local level. The study revealed that there are multiple barriers and triggers for transition such as conflicting interests, economic factors, political steering, knowledge building- and awareness and long term perspectives, but that there also exist important tools for municipal transition in the form of networks through multi-level collaborations and plans/objectives. The findings in this study also suggests that the use of indicators as a method to assess transition could be viable, but that it is limited due to its contextual nature and lack of successful transitions to compare with. / Klimatförändringar har ansetts vara en av de viktigaste utmaningarna i vår tid. För att förhindra att vidare skador av klimatförändringarna kom nationer som deltog i COP21 överens om att minska sina växthusgaser tillräckligt mycket för att förhindra farliga temperaturförhöjningar och att anpassa sina samhällen till resilienta enheter. Kommuner anses vara viktiga aktörer i denna omställning då de har makt att påverka förändringar på en lokal nivå. Dock saknas metoder för att bedöma hur omställning utförs då omställning är ett nytt angreppssätt kombinerat med en brist på genomförda omställningar. Syftet med denna uppsats är att utforska användningen av indikatorer som metod för att bedöma omställningsprocesser. Genom att använda en triangulering av metoder som delats upp i två faser fokuserar studien på två svenska kommuner som har fastställts som känsliga inför klimatförändringarna men även att ha förmågan att hantera dem. Den första fasen består av en litteraturstudie som skapade en vetenskaplig grund som berörde en global och nationell nivå. Den andra fasen bestod av en dokumentsanalys och intervjuer för att utforska omställningsprocesser på en lokal nivå. Studien visar på att det finns flera barriärer och drivkrafter för omställning som konkurrerande intressen, ekonomiska faktorer, politisk styrning, kunskaps byggande- och medvetenhet och långsiktighet men även att det fanns verktyg som var viktiga för kommunal omställning som nätverk genom samarbeten på olika nivåer och planer/mål. Slutligen visar även studien på att användningen av indikatorer som metod för att bedömma omställning skulle kunna vara möjligt men att begränsningar finns då metoden dels är kontextberoende men även att det är svårt att göra jämförelser då ingen fullförd omställning har skett.

The importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economy should not be overlooked. The main function of SMEs is to contribute to the economic activities in a country, through the provision of goods and services to the public or other firms. These goods and services could be traded internationally, thus increasing a country?s export performance. It is important for economic growth that SMEs grow within their respective economies. One way that SMEs can achieve growth is through internationalisation. Firms are internationalising faster than ever before (because of advances in telecommunications and transportation) and internationalisation theories that can provide practical guidance to firms are more important today than in the past. A firm?s ability to internationalise no longer only depends on the quality of the product, the delivery terms and competitive prices. Internationalisation increasingly depends on the ability and willingness of financial institutions to grant credit. Obtaining trade finance has become a major hindrance to SME internationalisation, especially in Africa. By overcoming the difficulties in obtaining trade finance, African SMEs will be able to expand into foreign markets. The purpose of this study is to determine how African SMEs can overcome trade finance barriers to internationalisation. SMEs can do so by mitigating the risks involved in every international transaction and by becoming ?trade finance ready?. A trade finance facility that is well suited for African SMEs (because it revolves around identifying and mitigating the risks involved with their international transactions) is structured trade and commodity finance. In trading with China, African SMEs can obtain structured trade and commodity finance from a specialist financial institution that focuses on the Chinese market (which is the focus of this study). China Construction Bank (Johannesburg branch), through their association with Rand-Asia Trade Finance, provides structured trade and commodity finance to African SMEs. The key to receiving structured trade and commodity finance is that these SMEs, together with China Construction Bank (Jhb) and Rand-Asia Trade Finance have to mitigate the risks involved with their international transactions so that the SMEs can become ?trade finance ready?. / Thesis (M.Com. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the economy should not be overlooked. The main function of SMEs is to contribute to the economic activities in a country, through the provision of goods and services to the public or other firms. These goods and services could be traded internationally, thus increasing a country?s export performance. It is important for economic growth that SMEs grow within their respective economies. One way that SMEs can achieve growth is through internationalisation. Firms are internationalising faster than ever before (because of advances in telecommunications and transportation) and internationalisation theories that can provide practical guidance to firms are more important today than in the past. A firm?s ability to internationalise no longer only depends on the quality of the product, the delivery terms and competitive prices. Internationalisation increasingly depends on the ability and willingness of financial institutions to grant credit. Obtaining trade finance has become a major hindrance to SME internationalisation, especially in Africa. By overcoming the difficulties in obtaining trade finance, African SMEs will be able to expand into foreign markets. The purpose of this study is to determine how African SMEs can overcome trade finance barriers to internationalisation. SMEs can do so by mitigating the risks involved in every international transaction and by becoming ?trade finance ready?. A trade finance facility that is well suited for African SMEs (because it revolves around identifying and mitigating the risks involved with their international transactions) is structured trade and commodity finance. In trading with China, African SMEs can obtain structured trade and commodity finance from a specialist financial institution that focuses on the Chinese market (which is the focus of this study). China Construction Bank (Johannesburg branch), through their association with Rand-Asia Trade Finance, provides structured trade and commodity finance to African SMEs. The key to receiving structured trade and commodity finance is that these SMEs, together with China Construction Bank (Jhb) and Rand-Asia Trade Finance have to mitigate the risks involved with their international transactions so that the SMEs can become ?trade finance ready?. / Thesis (M.Com. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.