Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on August 4, 2009). Interdisciplinary thesis in International Studies and Environment and Natural Resources. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-63).

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2009. / Supervisor: Professor Gordon L. Clark. Bibliography: leaves 239-260.

Input Output frameworks have been widely used to study the emissions of industrial sectors either in specific economies or globally but usually focus on aggregated measures under production or consumption accounting principles (PAP and CAP). This leads to a lack of transparency in terms of the structure of the emissions and provides limited information on what are the main drivers of the emissions allocated to each sector under PAP and CAP. This information gap limits the options of policy makers to interventions on whole sectors, rather than the components of their supply chains that hold the major shares of the total embodied emissions. In this thesis we argue in favour of a more disaggregated, a ‘hot-spot’, approach that provides a better understanding of the structure of emissions under both of these headline measures. We develop a methodology to identify CO2 ‘hot-spots’ in downstream and upstream supply chains, both domestic and global. The methodology is applied first to a Single Region Input Output framework for China in 2005 identifying ‘Electricity, Gas and Water Supply’ as the Chinese sector with the highest direct emissions. Examination of the sector’s domestic downstream supply chain reveals that the majority of emissions are generated to support the final demand of other domestic sectors. Of these ‘Construction’ is the main driver and it also is the Chinese sector that is found to have the largest domestic CO2 footprint, with several emissions ‘hot-spots’ in its domestic upstream supply chain. The ‘hot-spot’ methodology is then extended to a global Inter-Regional Input Output framework to consider ‘hot-spots’ in a global supply chain context. By focusing on 2009 (the year for which appropriate data are most recently available) and UK total final demand we find that Chinese ‘Electricity, Gas and Water Supply’ is the non-UK sector with the largest direct emissions driven by UK total final demand. Studying this sector’s downstream supply chain outside China reveals that a large share of the sector’s emissions is ultimately generated to support several UK-based sectors’ domestic final demand. Furthermore, the UK ‘Health and Social Work’ sector is identified as the UK sector with the second largest global footprint to support domestic final demand. We identified a number of ‘hot-spots’ in the international part of its upstream supply chain, with a key finding being its dependence on the activity and the embodied emissions in global chemicals production. Finally, the thesis goes on to demonstrate how conducting ‘hot-spot’ analysis on disaggregated regional/sub-national Input Output tables can provide more detailed local level analysis of ‘hot-spot’ findings from the Inter-Regional Input Output framework. The key finding in this respect is the importance of introducing region specific emissions data where possible, as non-region specific data can lead in incorrect estimation of the embodied emissions in any component of the supply chains of any sectors. In general, through this research project we developed a methodology that can enhance the policy makers understanding of the structure and the drivers of the emissions generated throughout the economy. This additional information on the emissions structure, when combined with familiar IO analysis on employment and value-added for example, has the potential to lead to more targeted/focused policies, which result in significant emissions reduction with the minimum employment, resources and value-added cost.

By implementing Albert O. Hirschman’s theory about reactions, the purpose of this thesis is to analyse the arguments against carbon offsetting presented in Swedish media. More specifically, I will structure and analyse the counter-arguments I find in the articles about carbon offsetting presented by the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter between October 2019 and January 2020. Hirschman’s theory of the reactionary rhetoric is based on the notion that every social action is followed by a reaction. To illustrate this, Hirschman introduces three types of theses –arguments -deployed by those who oppose a new idea or reform. The three principal arguments Hirschman identifies is the futility thesis, the perversity thesis and the jeopardy thesis. The futility thesis suggests that an action aiming to improve the society in any way won’t have any effect, the perversity thesis claims that the action will result in the opposite outcome of what was intended and the jeopardy thesis implies that the action will result in intolerable consequences in other areas. Hirschman suggests that a debate where any of these theses are present both is a danger for democracy and is likely to result in suffering in other ways as well. In that way, his theory provides a tool for identifying dangerous arguments in order to take a step towards a more democracy friendly discussion. By analysing 85 arguments against carbon offsetting I find that 51 of them easily can be categorized as either one of the theses, while 22 can’t be categorized at all. The remaining 12 arguments can either partly or in full be placed in the model. The majority of the 51 arguments fitting in Hirschman’s model are futility theses, which implies that the Swedish debate in this area largely consists of arguments claiming that carbon offsetting doesn’t make any difference. My conclusion based on Hirschman’s theory and the analysis of the arguments is that the Swedish debate about carbon offsetting unarguably contains signs of the polarized discussion Hirschman claims to be a democratic danger and that both the debate itself and the climate overall probably would benefit from a more nuanced and balanced debate.

The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the opinions of tour operators and travel agencies regarding carbon offsetting in air travel. Since it is known already that the number oif participants among travelers in voluntary carbon offsetting is low, the study also aims to examine the travel companies' perceptions of who is responsible for increasing the number of carbon offsetts in air travel. The study was conducted on the basis of qualitative methods. Four semi-structured interviews were held with four different travel companies, of which two of these were travel agencies and two were tour operators. Thematic anaysis was used to analyze the collected data. The results are discussed in relation to previous research which lies behind the research questions. The study shows that there are two different types of values that support why companies offer voluntary carbon offsetting to their customers during air travel; environmental value and market value. Further, the findings highlights the importance of managing carbon offsetting in relation to other environmental sustainable development. To get more travelers involved in participating in carbon offsetting means engaging in overall environmental management at different levels of society. The travel companies mean that they can themselves provide the option for customers to carbon offset, and inform and communicate about this. In addition, school must strenghten knowledge about environmental issues among the people of society and politicians must direct these people towards more climate friendly actions. This will lead to a process of change in overall environmental behaviour, which is needed for more people to want to participate in activities such as carbon offsetting.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:30:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Taciana Stanislau Afonso Bradley Alves.pdf: 1012404 bytes, checksum: 056cbb252abecc5fc9639dbfabd1f020 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-16 / The purpose of this work is to analyze the tax offsetting institute as a mechanism of extinguishment of the tax obligation of the taxpayer and his debit before the tax authorities. The offsetting rule prescribes the calculation relationship, extinguishing the tax obligation of the taxpayer and his debit relation with the tax authorities. In the end, the purpose is to demonstrate in the Federal tax legislation that regulates the offsetting institute, the restrictions imposed by the ordinary law maker to the administrative proceeding of offsetting in the hypothesis of no-declared offsetting. Those restrictions should not prevail because they are against the due process of law, guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. The method adopted is the constructivism logic-semantic, approaching the law as a communicational process that constitutes, modifies and extinguishes itself through a unique legal language which is the language of the proofs admitted in law / O objetivo do trabalho consiste na análise do instituto da compensação tributária, enquanto mecanismo de extinção do crédito tributário e do débito do Fisco. A norma de compensação realiza o cálculo relacional, extinguindo a obrigação tributária e a relação de débito do Fisco. O intuito é ao final demonstrar, no âmbito da legislação tributária federal que rege a matéria, as restrições impostas pelo legislador ordinário ao processo administrativo da compensação nas hipóteses de compensação não-declarada. Tais restrições não podem prevalecer porque ferem o princípio do devido processo legal, assegurado constitucionalmente. O método adotado é o do construtivismo lógico-semântico, abordando o direito como um processo comunicacional que se constitui, se modifica e se extingue por meio da linguagem jurídica própria, qual seja, a linguagem das provas admitidas em direito

Preventing emissions from deforestation is propagated as an effective strategy to combat climate change. At the same time forest landscapes are habitat to the last remaining traditional societies of this planet. For a long time forest conservation programs neglected the role of these indigenous communities for forest landscapes. Historical ecology pushes a change of environmental narratives towards an understanding that biocultural diversity has had and will have a significant impact on resource use and on the transformation of landscapes. A growing number of debates on global environmental justice and poverty alleviation goals call for such an integrated approach in protecting biodiversity and cultural diversity when conserving forest landscapes. Although this topic is discussed, there is a gap in scientific literature on how such an approach can actually be implemented in practise. This paper examines how the dual-objective of forest conservation and protection of cultural diversity can be achieved in practise by applying a case study of a conservation project, Carbon Tanzania. Carbon Tanzania is operating in an area in northern Tanzania inhabited by one of the few remaining hunting and gathering societies on the planet, the Hadzabe. Carbon Tanzania conservation project issues carbon credits which can be bought by companies, organisations and individuals to offset their emissions. Interviews with the different actors have been conducted in the course of the research project in order to examine how Carbon Tanzania’s ‘community-led project’ contextualizes the dual objective of protecting forests and the Hadzabe culture. The results show that the implementation of the project is facilitated through an integrated network of different actors and organisations. Critical for the operations in the area is secured land ownership and a binding land use plan in order to protect the area from external pressure and to manage the utilization of the landscape by the different communities within the area. Payments for ecosystem services generate benefits for the local forest community and support community development. This form of ‘productive’ land utilization offers a path in changing development narratives for African countries.

Les gouvernements se sont récemment engagés à enrayer l’érosion de la biodiversité. Dans ce contexte, la compensation écologique est apparue comme une réponse politique en permettant, en principe, de répondre à l’exigence de conciliation de deux intérêts souvent antagonistes : le développement économique et la conservation de la biodiversité. L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’analyser si la compensation écologique peut accomplir cette promesse. J’envisage cette problématique avec trois angles d’analyse complémentaires et de façon interdisciplinaire en mobilisant les apports de l'économie et de l'écologie. Premièrement, dans une approche théorique, je pose la question de la compatibilité du principe de la compensation avec son objectif de conservation de la biodiversité. Je pose ensuite la question de la possibilité d’atteindre l’objectif d’absence de perte nette de biodiversité dans la mise en œuvre de la compensation. Pour cela, j’étudie empiriquement deux mécanismes de compensation au travers de deux cas d’étude français : une banque de compensation, et la contractualisation agro-environnementale. J’utilise principalement les outils de l’économie néo-institutionnelle pour analyser l’efficacité de ces mécanismes pour la réalisation des objectifs écologiques de la compensation. Au travers d'une approche épistémologique, ma troisième interrogation porte sur le rôle des dynamiques politiques dans la diffusion et dans la promotion de la compensation écologique dans la communauté scientifique. L’analyse théorique met en évidence des limites intrinsèques au principe de la compensation pour atteindre ses objectifs de conservation de la biodiversité, notamment au regard de l’impossibilité d’adopter une approche écologique complexe de la biodiversité dans le processus de la compensation. L’étude empirique montre que les modes d’organisation de la compensation comportent également des limites qui obligent à des compromis susceptibles de remettre en cause l’atteinte des objectifs écologiques de la compensation. Ces résultats mettent en évidence le rôle et l’importance des institutions dans la mise en œuvre des compensations, notamment pour limiter l’apparition de comportements opportunistes, responsables des principaux problèmes d’efficacité identifiés. Enfin, l’analyse épistémologique révèle que le développement et la promotion de la compensation écologique répond à un agenda politique principalement porté par les politiques anglo-saxonnes et certains acteurs de conservation. Ainsi, la compensation écologique n’est pas un objet neutre car elle sert à la diffusion d’une certaine idéologie sur la pratique de la conservation de la biodiversité dans le sillage du développement durable et de l’économie verte. Pour conclure, ce travail permet de souligner que la conciliation des intérêts économiques et écologiques constitue une problématique complexe dont la voie du consensus ne semble pas permettre de répondre aux enjeux d’érosion de la biodiversité. La compensation offre en somme une occasion de penser les conditions de possibilités et d’impossibilités de la protection de la nature aujourd’hui. / Governments have recently pledged to halt the loss of biodiversity. In this context, biodiversity offsetting (BO) appeared as a political response by allowing, in principle, to reconcile two often conflicting interests: economic development and biodiversity conservation. The objective of this work is to analyse whether BO can fulfil that promise. I am considering this issue from an interdisciplinary perspective by mobilizing the contributions of economy and ecology and using three complementary approaches. First, in a theoretical perspective, I ask the question of the compatibility of the offsetting principle with its biodiversity conservation goal. Second, in an empirical approach, I investigate the strengths and limits of using BO mechanisms in conservation policies, particularly two specific mechanisms analysed through two French case-studies: habitat bank and agri-environmental contracts. I mainly use the new institutional economics framework to analyse the effectiveness of these mechanisms for achieving the environmental objectives of BO. Finally, I adopt an epistemological approach to question the role of political dynamics in the diffusion and the promotion of BO in the scientific community. The results of the theoretical analysis highlights the inherent limits to the BO principle to achieve its conservation goals, especially with regard to the impossibility to adopt a complex ecological approach to biodiversity in the process of BO. My empirical study shows that the mechanisms of BO also have limitations that force compromises likely to jeopardize the achievement of environmental objectives of BO. These outcomes highlight the role and the importance of institutions in the implementation of BO, especially to provide clear and precise rules in order to limit the emergence of opportunistic behaviours, responsible for the major problems identified. Finally, my epistemological analysis shows that the development and the promotion of BO actually respond to a political agenda driven by the Anglo-Saxon policies and some conservation stakeholders. Overall my work emphasizes that BO is not a neutral object as it serves to spread a certain ideology on the practice of biodiversity conservation through the lens of sustainable development and green economy. Finally, this work allows stressing that reconciling economic and conservation interests is a complex problem that cannot be solved by using idealized consensus. Rather, the concept of BO offers an opportunity to think about the conditions of possibilities and impossibilities of the protection of nature today.

Rapid, human-forced climate change as a result of greenhouse gases is threatening the fabric of human civilisation itself. It is clear that we need to alter our development and poorer countries will need to develop while limiting their emissions, but it is not clear what sustainable development would entail. Climate change policy solutions have pivoted on carbon trading, under the auspices of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), but this too has failed to limit growth in carbon emissions. This report looks at the operations of the CDM in South Africa as a source of climate finance meant to facilitate sustainable development. Though South Africa has emphasised its commitment towards a low-carbon transition, in practice its national planners seek to preserve energy-intensive mineral and industrial sectors. This research draws on both primary and secondary documents as well as interviews with carbon professionals to conclude that CDM projects have played a limited role in South Africa, but has tended to reproduce the existing minerals and energy complex within the country.

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