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1
Sanchirico, Emily. "A Strong Institutional Climate: Regional Trade Networks and Climate Action." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/13410.
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Climate change has been described as a malign, wicked, and super wicked problem. I focus on key characteristics that make international collective action challenging: asymmetry, fear of free riding, scientific uncertainty, and inherent interdependencies. I argue that an institution designed to tackle such a complex problem requires a key set of features: leadership, linkage, quality information, differentiated obligations, monitoring/enforcement, transparency, and flexibility. I assess the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol to determine what aspects are missing. I then ask why the European Union (EU), with incentives to the contrary, set broad unilateral goals. I argue that the framework of political and economic integration made deep cooperation possible. Lastly, I consider whether this experience is specific to the EU and ask whether regional trade networks have a role in the global arsenal of climate change solutions.
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Phear, Nicolette. "Creating Space| Engaging Deliberation about Climate Action." Thesis, Prescott College, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3642993.
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In the United States public discourse, climate change is often framed as a polarized and intractable issue. The purpose of this dissertation was to explore deliberation about climate action, and to evaluate whether effective responses to climate change can be facilitated through new structures and processes that enable and encourage dialogue on the subject of how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Working with sustainability leaders at the University of Montana and in the community of Missoula, Montana, the author convened three public deliberations, in which a variety of solutions to climate change were discussed. Three questions guided this study: 1) what motivated individuals to engage in deliberation about climate action; 2) how did individual engagement vary and affect the quality of the deliberation; and 3) how effective were the deliberations in building a sense of individual agency and generating collaborative action strategies to address climate change. Based on a rigorous statistical analysis of survey responses combined with qualitative data, this action research study offers a holistic exploration of the three deliberative events convened. The deliberative processes generated collaborative action strategies and increased participants' sense of agency to take action on climate change; the findings also revealed differences in the ways individuals engaged and affected the quality of the overall group deliberation. This dissertation contributes to the literature on collaborative responses and collective action on climate change, broadens understanding of deliberative processes, and provides new insight into opportunities for leading deliberation about climate action.
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Alexander, Serena E. "From Planning to Action: An Evaluation of State Level Climate Action Plans." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1470908879.
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Lyshall, Linda. "Collaboration and Climate Action at the Local Scale." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1303754240.
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Frick, Coleman Moore. "Climate Planning in Politically Conservative Cities: A Case Study of Seven Climate Action Plans." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2014. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1221.
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Current research indicates that the potential risks associated with human-induced climate change are likely to increase in frequency and intensity. Although there have been several attempts, no effective international treaty or policy has been enacted by the United States with the purpose of combating this global issue. In the past decade, local climate action plans (CAPs) have emerged as a planning solution designed to reduce greenhouse emissions (GHGs). Previous studies have examined CAP attributes, but no research has focused solely on climate planning in politically conservative jurisdictions. This research finds that of 245 CAPs completed to date nationally, approximately 90 percent are located in communities identified as politically Democratic based on county level 2012 Presidential Election data. In order to expand climate planning in politically conservative communities, it is important evaluate the characteristics of CAPs in these communities.
This thesis aims to fill the current research gap by analyzing CAPs and conducting stakeholder interviews in seven conservative communities. The central hypothesis is: Climate action plans adopted in conservative communities differ in motivations, type, and political backing, when compared to climate action plans in general. The findings of this case study indicate that CAPs created in conservative communities do not differ substantially from CAPs in general. However, the findings suggest political opposition is heightened in these communities. In addition, the evidence shows that in conservative communities: economic co-benefits are stressed, cost-saving measures are over emphasized, CAP terminology is altered, business community involvement is crucial, and state mandates motivate CAP creation. The results of this research are distilled into 12 lessons and best practices for planning practitioners, and establish a basis for future research focusing on the political nature of climate action planning.
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Oliver, Hannah, and Hannah Oliver. "Politics of Climate Action Plans: A Critical Discourse Analysis." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12424.
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Despite increased knowledge of the causes and consequences of climate change, federal politics has prevented a comprehensive, nationwide effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This inaction at the federal level has prompted local governments to take the lead on reducing greenhouse gas emissions through Climate Action Plans (CAP). This thesis explores the environmental discourses that are at work in the CAP adoption process of three cities that historically vote for democratic candidates and republican candidates, respectively, in federal elections. As a qualitative study, my inquiry evaluates the CAP adoption process through an analysis of public officials' statements, public comments and editorials, and CAP content. John Dryzek's eight environmental discourses are applied to highlight the discourses that are reflected in the data obtained from public officials, the public, and policy outcomes. This examination reveals opportunities of bipartisan agreement and provides insights for governments to move past the politics of climate change.
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Jones, Nicolette. "How Are American Cities Planning for Climate Change? An Evaluation of Climate Action Planning in Chicago, IL and Portland, OR." ScholarWorks@UNO, 2012. http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1592.
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Contending with a changing climate presents a necessary push for planning. Although climate change is considered a global environmental problem requiring a global commitment and trans-national action, more and more, policymakers are recognizing the vital need for action at the local level. In the US, especially in the absence of national climate legislation, many local governments have begun developing strategic plans, or climate action plans (CAPs), to address adapting to impacts of climate change and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. This thesis involves case studies of Portland, OR and Chicago, IL, cities with recently adopted CAPs and with considerable recognition in the field. The analysis involves an evaluation each city’s CAP and an evaluation of its implementation. The studies help elicit an understanding of the measures cites are employing to mitigate climate change and determine ways the planning profession can better assist communities in climate policy development and its prompt implementation.
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van, Duijn Diandra. "The Importance of Gender Equality in Climate Action : An investigation into how UN member states view the relation between gender equality and climate action." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-432709.
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Scientists warn that the current rate of climate change will raise average global temperature by 4°C compared to 1990, although warming of +2°C will already have dire effects throughout the world. Therefore, the UN acknowledges SDG 13 (Climate Action) as one of the most important goals for the coming decade in order to fight climate change. Another focus of the UN is SDG 5 (Gender Equality), which is also an overarching goal but still lagging behind. Working on one of the goals can have a positive effect on other goals. Therefore a synergy can be created when investigating how climate change affects gender equality and how gender equality affects climate action. The link between gender equality and climate action was already established by the UN at the Beijing Platform of Action in 1995. However, there has been little research into how government representatives understand how the goals are interconnected. These representatives are important in the drafting of new policy and keeping the UN accountable for incorporating gender into its policies. Hence, this thesis investigates how the relationship between gender equality and climate action is viewed by government representatives, as well as in national climate documents. A content analysis was performed on National Determined Contributions (NDCs) and climate change Gender Action Plans (ccGAPs). The results illustrate that the location and expertise of the interviewees impacted their opinions greatly. The interviewees based at permanent missions at the UN headquarter in New York were of the opinion that their government thought the link existed but acknowledged more should be done to convince other countries as the link was not taken for a fact. The interviewees working with the UNFCCC negotiations, however, said all member states agreed on the importance of including gender equality in climate action. Another finding is that only one-third of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) contained gender perspectives. Of these, one-third mentioned women as victims of climate change and two-thirds saw women as actors of change in climate action. Establishing a firm agreement on the link between gender equality and climate action within UN bodies is important to expanding the impact of climate policies on both gender quality and climate action.
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Símonardóttir, Svandís Ósk. "The Climate in the CAPs : A Comparative Case Study of Iceland’s and Sweden’s Climate Action Plans." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för ekonomisk historia och internationella relationer, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-193772.
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This thesis examines the climate role conceptions and climate role positions of Iceland and Sweden respectively, as they are portrayed in their climate action plans. This study compliments the current trend to examine climate leadership within International Relations, with an additional focus on the Nordic countries. Not only is the Nordic identity enmeshed with ideas of environmentalism, but the Nordic countries also have a reputation of being environmental leaders. Despite this reputation, the Nordic countries vary considerably between themselves when it comes to climate performance, thus inspiring the study of the highest and lowest Nordic emitters of greenhouse gases. The study is carried out from a constructivist role theory perspective, which is complemented with a novel climate role analytical framework. A content analysis is conducted on Iceland‘s and Sweden‘s countries‘ climate action plans, and climate role indicators are coded and analyzed. The study reveals that both Iceland and Sweden depict themselves as climate leaders in their climate action plans. However, while both countries refer to themselves as climate leaders, the leadership indicators are manifested distinctively, resulting in the countries projecting different climate leadership role positions. By evaluating Iceland’s and Sweden’s portrayal of global climate leadership, it is assessed that Iceland assumes the climate role position of a pioneer, with aspirations for setting an example for other countries through its climate transition, and that Sweden assumes the climate role position of a constructive pusher, with aspirations to lead the domestic and global climate transition through ambitious actions. The analysis thus reveals how Sweden’s internationally ascribed roles as a climate leader and Iceland’s internationally ascribed role as an environmental leader is legitimated and reverberated throughout their respective climate action plans, in accordance with their role conceptions and identities.
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Toll, Joanna. "Climate action or climate scepticism? : A study on how Scandinavian populist radical right parties approaches the climate issue in their manifestos." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-100037.
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This thesis examines and explains how the three Scandinavian populist radical right parties, the Sweden Democrats, the Danish People’s Party and the Progress Party approaches the climate issue in their latest manifesto, and how it has changed over a period of ten years. By means of a content analysis and categorisations of climate scepticism, climate omission and climate measures, this thesis finds explicit evidence of climate scepticism in the Progress Party whereas there is no such evidence for the Sweden Democrats and the Danish People’s Party completely omits the issue. On the other hand, there is evidence of measures to fight climate change in the Progress Party, and the same goes for the Sweden Democrats. However, the only relevant difference when comparing the manifestos over a ten-year period is a decreased usage of statement connected to both climate scepticism and climate action in the Progress Party’s manifestos.
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Eulie, Evan. "The role of environmental identity in the Climate Action Report." View electronic thesis (PDF), 2009. http://dl.uncw.edu/etd/2009-1/rp/euliee/evaneulie.pdf.
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Padolsky, Miriam Elana. "Bringing climate change down to earth science and participation in Canadian and Australian climate change campaigns /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3214881.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 21, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-284).
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Best, Russell. "U.S. City Climate Action Plans: Planning to Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled?" University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1427982751.
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Arthur, Katie (Katie Louise). "Frontlines of crisis, forefront of change : climate justice as an intervention into (neo)colonial climate action narratives and practices." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111292.
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Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Comparative Media Studies/Writing, 2017."June 2017." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 104-115).
Indigenous peoples, Small Island States, the Global South, women, youth, and the global poor, all face disproportionate impacts from climate change, a fact captured in the adage "the least responsible are most vulnerable." Recognising the Global North as the instigators and benefactors of a carbon economy built on the continuing oppression and exploitation of black and brown communities, in this thesis I highlight the on-going colonial violence involved in both extractive industry and the mainstream climate action movements of the Global North. I look at the stories we tell about climate change and how they legitimize a colonial structuring of power: from mainstream media coverage of the London Climate March in 2015 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) newsroom editorials. I investigate how communities and grassroots organisations are using radical media strategies to articulate climate justice as a transformative decolonial intervention from the frontlines of Standing Rock to the financial district of London. I follow the argument of activist groups including The Wretched of the Earth, the UK Tar Sands Network, the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and the Indigenous Environmental Network; that climate action will be unfair and ineffective until it recognises the intersecting systems of power which created and maintain the inequalities of the colonial carbon economy. I argue that radical media strategies, on the streets and on the airwaves, are central to the articulation of climate justice and the contestation of hegemonic meanings of climate action that legitimise colonial violence.
by Katie Arthur.
S.M.
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Luhandjula, Yasmine. "Assessing the Prospects for Climate Action in the form of Climate Litigation as a tool to safeguard Human Rights." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/76560.
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Climate change poses major threats to human life in the form of food and water shortages, health issues, loss of property and more. Climate change amplifies existing environmental, social, economic and political challenges and has increased the risk of displacements, accelerates social injustices, inequalities, and threatens human rights, including the right to life itself. Consequently, States can no longer overlook their obligations to effectively address climate change to safeguard human rights. States have agreed to mobilize stronger and more ambitious climate actions. However, their pledges on carbon emission caps, adaptation practices and climate change funds under the Paris Agreement, are not as ambitious as they ought to be. The aim of this research to assess the value and effectiveness of climate litigation as a substantial form of climate action to safeguard human rights. This research reveals that there has been a significant increase in climate litigation procedures and outcomes which reflect multiple ways in which climate litigation has influenced States to enhance and adopt laws to increase climate action on mitigation and adaptation practices. This research also reveals that climate litigation is amplified through public and civil society mobilisation as well as collaboration efforts between lawyers, scientists and activists across the world, and it is recognised as a valuable tool for those who seek accountability and justice for climate-induced harms.Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
Centre for Human Rights
LLM
Unrestricted
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Woodsworth, Alexandra. "Growth in the UK climate direct action movement : experience, politics and practice." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2009. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/10623/.
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Recent years have witnessed the emergence of a new radical social movement focused on climate change. This thesis explores the experience and negotiation of growth within the climate direct action (CDA) movement, and provides an ethnography of its politics, values and strategies. The thesis is situated at the intersection of meso level studies of movement and organisational growth, and micro level studies of individual participation. It argues that the field of social movement studies has neglected the ways in which participation is actively shaped by the understandings and practices of movement activists; and that dominant structural approaches to participation and growth offer only a partial account of these dynamics. Accordingly, this thesis provides an experiential account of participation, retention and growth, which are considered together rather than separately, within the context of the heightened organisational and political ambiguities of a radical social movement.
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Mazurek, Jan. "The politics of counting carbon lessons from the California Climate Action Registry /." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1610480141&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Jerstad, Heid Maria. "Weathering relationships : the intra-action of people with climate in Himalayan India." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/23510.
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Weather – cold, wet, hot and windy – pervades life, material and social. So present and obvious as to provide a challenge for research, material though ephemeral too, weather breaks boundaries and refuses categorisation. While night becomes day, the cold season warms up over weeks and annual patterns are changing on a scale of years, practices in the face of weather transitions are themselves shifting. Based on ten months of fieldwork in the small village of Gau in the Pahari Indian Himalayas this thesis interrogates the saliencies and permeations of weather in people’s lives. It investigates how people intra-act (Barad 2007) with the weather, though practices, infrastructures and relationships with others. My approach argues for the validity of weather as a means by which to learn about socio-material lives. Pahari villagers live and act within the weather that moves around them. They are subject to, but also modify, their thermal environment. Through housing, clothing and tools such as the fire and the fan they affect the impact of the weather as it meets their bodies, but also daily patterns of movement are coloured by weather considerations. This work views weather in relation to health practices (such as refraining from working during the rain so as not to fall ill), for care of others (such as domestic bovines), for house-building and hospitable relationship-building among neighbours, for negotiation of landslide-fraught access roads to elsewhere and for understandings of pollution in the air. This focus on weather is intended to connect dots for people working on climate change, both within and beyond anthropology, and to contribute to discussions in areas including human-animal relations, health and illness and housing.
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Schittecatte, Gabrielle. "The effects of framing on support for political action on climate change." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/54020.
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The scientific community has come to a consensus that immediate action is necessary to arrest the deleterious effects posed by anthropogenic climate change. However, widespread public support for climate mitigation policies has been seriously lacking. The literature has identified that the way climate change is being communicated and individual characteristics both pose barriers to increased support for political action on climate change.
This study investigates the potential role of sociological and psychological factors affecting an individual’s support for political action on climate change. This study also evaluates how various climate change frames are perceived by different individuals, and how that perception may alter political support for climate change action. To do so individuals’ values and worldviews are assessed and related to their perception of economic and moral frames are more effective at stimulating people to support the fossil fuel divestment campaign that is sweeping across North America. The sample for this study was students from four research-based Canadian universities. Data was collected via an online survey hosted by FluidSurveys.com. Univariate and OLS multiple regressions were used to analyze the data.
This study found that framing climate change as a moral issue was more effective at motivating support for political action than framing that climate change as an economic issue. It was also discovered that environmental and communitarian worldviews play a role in a person’s support for political action on climate change. These findings provide insight into how best to communicate the risks of climate change to enhance support for political action, and specifically the fossil free divestment campaign. Our findings also shed light on which worldviews should be targeted to by communication to foster support for climate action.Forestry, Faculty of
Graduate
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Race, Bruce. "Climate action plans : analysis of the effects on form of U.S. cities." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/61276/.
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This study investigates the effectiveness of community climate action plans (CAPs) and their potential impact on the form of U.S. cities. Greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and climate change adaptation strategies enacted by cities have the potential to redirect future public and private investment. Three studies have been prepared to better understand the external policy context that cities are working within, the process and tools they are using, and how climate actions are integrated into their comprehensive plans. Study 1 includes detailed case studies of eight U.S. cities that have completed CAPs. The cities are of various sizes and located in different climate regions. The case studies include a review of state and regional plans and policies; climate action plan technical and policy reports; evaluations of cities’ integration of climate action plans with their comprehensive plans; and interviews with planning project managers. Study 2 includes a national survey population of nearly 200 cities that have completed CAPs. The survey’s independent variables include city fundamentals such as size, location, comprehensive plan requirements, power sources, and political context. Dependent variables are organized into two groups: one for CAP approach and strategies, and the second for policy outcomes that modify the form of cities. Study 3 examines the effectiveness of common strategies utilizing a purpose-built greenhouse gas worksheet calculator. A model town is examined as a baseline community of 50,000 in population that is proposed to double by 2050 to a city of 100,000. A business-as-usual model and two alternatives test mitigation strategies and actions measuring potential effectiveness on GHG emissions. The thesis research findings have significant theoretical and practical implications regarding CAP influence on the future form of U.S. cities. In particular, studies demonstrate the importance of compressing growth into walkable cities with determined and fixed boundaries.
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Holz, Christian. "The public spheres of climate change advocacy networks : an ethnography of Climate Action Network International within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3696/.
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Climate change is the most important issue of our time due to its potential to very seriously disrupt the life sustaining systems of planet Earth as well as its intersec-tions with other important challenges facing humanity. The United Nations Frame-work Convention on Climate Change is the key platform upon which the political process of international climate change politics takes place. The aim of this work is to produce an analysis of the role of transnational climate change advocacy networks in this political process and their internal power dynamics and thus contributing to the understanding of a crucial aspect of this political process. To advance this aim, this thesis engages with two objectives. First, a detailed ethnography is developed which serves to illustrate the political work of the environmental advocacy NGOs involved within this process, especially those that are members of Climate Action Network International (CAN-I). This approach is suitable to uncover the internal dynamics and structures of that NGO network as well as its complex and multi-layered relationships within the larger political configuration of the UNFCCC treaty process. Secondly, the investigation is advanced by analysing this ethnography through the lens of a critical theory of the public sphere. In particular, this analysis features more contemporary conceptualisations of the public sphere which stress the multiplicity of the public sphere concept including notions such as internal and external public spheres, counterpublics, and nested public spheres. Owing to this research design, the thesis has a degree of hybridity: it is expressly both an empirical thesis, with strong empirical flavour imparted by the focus on the detailed ethnographic account, as well a theoretical thesis offering an original contribution that is advanced throughout the thesis. The main theoretical thesis and contribution is that the theory of the public sphere is appropriate to analyse the political practice of civil society engagement on a transnational level if it is further developed to allow for greater degree of multiplicity and a broader conceptualisation of the notions of the “centre of authority” and the translation of the public opinion.
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Brügger, Adrian. "Fear appeals and localising climate change : neither is a panacea to motivate action on climate change : a social psychological perspective." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/14445.
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This thesis was interested in exploring the questions of why individuals typically do not respond strongly to climate change, and how individual motivations to do so might be strengthened. More specifically, this thesis explored two widely cited barriers to climate change action and the solutions commonly suggested to overcome them. The first barrier is the lack of personal experience with climate change, which is believed to inhibit relevant emotional processes. The second, not unrelated, barrier is that people typically perceive climate change as a distant threat, one that is not relevant to them personally, where they live, and in the present time. To test these explanations, two public surveys of residents of both the UK (n = 616) and Switzerland (n = 316) explored the relationships among negative emotions, perceptions of geographically proximal and distant climate change risks, and variables that capture people’s willingness to address climate change. The findings supported the idea that stronger negative emotions were positively related to more readiness to act against climate change. The relationship between spatially close versus distant risk perceptions and measures of different forms of action was, however, more complex. Specifically, the findings revealed a strong association between global risk perceptions and policy support and a strong association between local risk perceptions and personal intentions. One explanation for these (unexpected) associations is that they are due to spontaneous matches with regard to psychological distance: Local risk perceptions are psychologically proximal on the spatial dimension and personal intentions can be regarded as proximal on the social dimension. Likewise, the spatially remote global risk perceptions can be matched to support for policies, which can be regarded as distant on the social dimension. Studies 3 and 4 tried to experimentally untangle the complex relationships between psychological distance and people’s perceptions and actions that were 2 observed in the survey research. Specifically, in both studies participants were manipulated to adopt either a spatially proximal or distant perspective on climate change. Study 3 (n = 80) measured participants emotional responses to climate change and looked at how these predicted different attitudinal and behavioural responses under a proximal or distant framework, whereas Study 4 (n = 330) more directly explored the possible effects of activating negative emotions (i.e., fear) in combination with different distance frames as part of attempts to promote action on climate change. The findings of Studies 3 and 4 suggest that decreasing the psychological distance of climate change and inducing fear can both be potentially useful strategies to promote action on climate change. However, the operation of both these strategies is more complex than is often assumed and these complexities have implications for the effectiveness of each strategy. For one thing, both attempts to reduce distance and increase fear can initiate multiple psychological processes that simultaneously increase and decrease the likelihood of acting on climate change. Because these processes work in opposition, reduced distance and increased fear can have positive effects, negative effects, or no effect at all. Together, the findings across studies highlight that psychological distance is neither an insurmountable obstacle to action against climate change – it depends on what kind of action is being considered (Studies 1 & 2) – and nor is decreasing psychological distance a panacea to motivate action – this can trigger the same kind of defensiveness that have been observed in response to other strategies, such as the use of emotion (Studies 3 & 4). In the general discussion, the theoretical implications of these insights for different theoretical models of distance, emotion, and action are considered, as are the implications for the practice of promoting public engagement with and action on climate change.
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Shankland, Michael. "Climate change, collective action, and state compliance : obstacles on the road to Copenhagen." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/1598.
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Climate change is a type of prisoner’s dilemma. Reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are a public good and are costly to provide. Consequently, nation-states generally have done little to curb their emissions. Countries could be encouraged to reduce their emissions if the international community of states were to sanction, or the world were to shame, states that did not act. However, financial and technological aid is more likely to induce states to impose tougher restrictions on GHG emissions.
In order for Copenhagen to precipitate major action on climate change the treaty must either compel countries to fulfill their obligations or assist states in transitioning their economies away from fossil fuels toward alternative energy sources. If the treaty fails to do both of these things then we can only hope that the largest producers of greenhouse gases either take steps to reduce their emissions voluntarily or are forced to take action in response to domestic pressure from their citizens and/or sub-national governments. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to adapt to an increasingly warmer planet and the consequences thereof.
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Meyerricks, Svenja. "Community projects as liminal spaces for climate action and sustainability practices in Scotland." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6701.
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The potential of communities for sustainability learning and governance has generated substantial interest in sustainability discourses, but their specific roles and remits are not always critically examined. This thesis' original contribution to these discourses lies in the analysis of community projects as liminal spaces for pro-sustainable change that are limited in scope within wider political landscapes that do not sufficiently address wider challenges of an unravelling biosphere. The particular manifestation of community projects which emerges in Scotland as a result of Climate Challenge Fund funding made available by the Scottish Government is one example of sustainability governance at a local level. The present study draws upon data from field notes of eleven months of fieldwork, and semi-structured interviews with fifty-two informants, constructing two case studies with references to a third one. A transdisciplinary analysis of findings examines leadership and organisational structures and their implication for governance, and similarities and differences in practices and values identified within the case studies. Community projects are described as liminal spaces which facilitate the learning, practice-based and theoretical knowledge of sustainable practices (such as food growing or energy efficiency), and stimulate thinking on behalf of the group of participants or wider community. Community projects may also build temporary spaces demonstrating sustainable solutions visible to passers-by (such as raised vegetable beds in community gardens, or second-hand clothing in a swap shop). However, the longevity of these solutions is uncertain once the grant funding has come to an end. It is argued that in wider Scottish society, high-carbon lifestyles, inequalities and economic growth are the norm, and sustainable practices, community sustainability governance of tangible assets, and Education for Sustainable Development need to become less marginal and more widely embedded across all social and economic institutions.
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Koch, Sofi. "STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT IN CLIMATE ACTION PLANS – A CASE STUDY OF COPENHAGEN AND STOCKHOLM." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-447999.
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This study explored how social aspects for stakeholder engagement are being addressed and incorporated in climate action plans (CAPs). This focus was chosen to address the knowledge gap in research on social conditions for climate action which has been found to provide barriers to achieving deep decarbonisation. The thesis conducted a case study of two cities, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Stockholm (Sweden). Each city’s CAP was analysed through a thematic document analysis that explored through what measures each city aim to achieve stakeholder engagement for local climate action. Five overarching themes were identified through a literature review and used as an analysis framework: citizen engagement, private sector engagement, stakeholder collaboration, awareness development and advocacy. For both CAPs, the results showed an extensive variation for measures that contributed to each theme. The main findings were that measures should focus on developing collaborations, partnerships, networks, knowledge, awareness, skills, green procurement policies and stricter environmental regulations to support the level of stakeholder engagement needed for deep decarbonisation. Also, to focus on advocation measures, as well as measures aimed at developing knowledge and support to accelerate systematic change. In addition, it was found that cities need to focus on ensuring higher levels of equity and formalize extended citizen involvement for more inclusive and fair transitions. Findings also highlighted similarities and differences between the two CAPs, what lessons could be learned from these and connected these findings to how climate action could be further developed.
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Christion, Tim. "Motivating Collective Action in Response to an Existential Threat: Critical Phenomenology in a Climate-Changing World." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/24554.
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In this dissertation, I analyze climate change as a collective action problem. Decades of consistent policy and indeed institutional failure suggest that climate change cannot be managed top-down by experts and politicians alone. Climate communicators must therefore take up the challenge of ethically and politically motivating public action on this issue. Unfortunately, the ethical and political logic of climate response presents profound challenges to public motivation that appears to confound thinkers in the climate literature across disciplines. I thus endeavors to rethink the climate situation today from the perspective of collective motivation. Doing justice to the complexities of this multifaceted problematic demands interdisciplinary analysis, but the equally pressing need for general comprehension requires philosophical synthesis. For the climate issue is at once global and intergenerational in scale, and is systemic to modern social and cultural institutions that have long-evolved to structure the way people relate to each other, to nature, and ultimately to the world of everyday experience. My thesis, then, is that this collective action problem is ultimately an existential problem that calls for an existential response. Specifically, I argue that the ethical and political implications of climate response are largely received as an “existential threat” to the extent that they unsettle the integrity of everyday existence lived in common. That is, the deeper implications of this issue roundly contradict the background structures of “lifeworld identity” informing collective experience at some of the most general (socio-cultural) levels of being in the world. The consequences of this existential problem present us with two “quandaries” that must be addressed coherently. The “quandary of denial” signifies the largely ethical challenges of motivating a collective response to the historical and material realities of the climate ‘problem.’ The “quandary of transition,” by contrast, speaks to the relatively political challenges of relating the climate problem as such to climate ‘solutions’ that are collectively meaningful enough to positively inspire viable ways forward. Finally, I conclude by drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty to advance a critical phenomenology of public motivation responsive to these two moments of the existential problem.
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Söderin, Sofie. "Spirited Feelings & Affected Actions in the Age of Climate Crisis : A study of how affect theory read through a pneumatological lens can inspire action to combat climate change." Thesis, Enskilda Högskolan Stockholm, Avdelningen för religionsvetenskap och teologi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ths:diva-1307.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to explore how affect theory can contribute to pneumatology in a way that illuminates how it might inspire action regarding the current climate crisis. To do this, this thesis analyses and discusses how feelings could relate to (human) action to combat climate change. This is done through a discussion of how different pneumatologies that describe the Holy Spirit as acting, and as inspiring action in the world, can be further developed through affect theory. The main material used are Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds (2017) by philosopher of science Maria Puig de la Bellacasa and Grave Attending: A Political Theology for the Unredeemed (2020) by theologian Karen Bray. Several different pneumatological voices, representing the variety of pneumatologies present within the Christian tradition, are used to analyse the main material pneumatologically. The conclusions drawn suggest that the combining of affect theory and pneumatology not only points out the similarity of the traits with which they are commonly associated, but they also suggest that it might be possible – and even necessary – to talk of the Spirit as present also in “negative” feelings such as anger or depression. The Spirit can be understood as present in all affects (even if they appear within capitalist contexts), and also as a rewiring of our relationship to become more attuned to how others (human and non-human alike) actually feel. Care, this thesis suggests, is as a very concrete example of how the Spirit can be seen as materialising through affected actions. The Spirit understood as present through affect could also provide a way of speaking of the Spirit as present in the world, in creation, without making it what gives nature its worth and meaning.
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Foto, Tongai. "A measure of the investment climate in South Africa." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2009. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_8987_1297754095.
Full textAbstract:
Investor confidence is a concept many investors are constantly trying to gauge. In practice however these concepts are usually not easy to measure. This study attempts to capture the total sum of investor perception in South Africa by examining market behaviour. Data from the JSE/FTSE (1995-2009) will be used to determine an Equity Risk Premium. Bond Yield Spreads will also be calculated from data provided by I-NET BRIDGE. An amalgamation of these components will produce the proposed Investment Confidence Index. Similar indices currently on the South African Market are based on subjective surveys and might therefore be biased. The proposed index which is a first in SA will prove invaluable to practitioners in the financial sector.
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Mingliang, Lu. "Coastal Community Climate Change Adaptation Framework Development and Implementation." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/30425.
Full textAbstract:
As the impacts of climate change become more severe, coastal communities are required to prepare plans for adaptation to the invasive environmental changes. A well-prepared adaptation plan can effectively reduce the overall risks of coastal communities. However, a plan is not the final solution for the climate change on coastal communities. How to take the plan into action and implement it in the local communities and find the opportunities for the enhanced preparedness and development of coastal communities is the primary consideration of this thesis research. Many organizations are engaged in developing adaptation tools and guidebooks. For completing their adaptation plans, communities need to develop clear, operational, action plans, and discover the opportunities to enhance the sustainability of coastal communities. To make coastal communities more sustainable in the face of the changing climate, the public’s attention and community participation is critical. The purpose of this study is to develop an adaptation framework and action plan process system for coastal communities and at the same time, provide the general public with an enhanced opportunity to contribute their understanding about what is being done for their costal community around them and how to react when an event happens. The research is applied to the coastal communities of Richmond County, Cape Breton, Canada as a case study. The result of the work develops an adaptation “Action Plan” website for Richmond County. The website features the development, application, and simulation of a mobile communication “Action plan” application designed and implemented with the action website along to provide coastal community with communication options that exploit the local community network and enhance the community’s capacity for climate change adaptation. The emergency response community mobile app and the accompanying website are models for other communities especially those that from the coastal communities in Canada and the Caribbean as part of the C-Change ICURA project to which this research is affiliated.
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Germeraad, Michael. "Quantifying the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Hazards: Incorporating Disaster Mitigation Strategies in Climate Action Plans." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2014. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1173.
Full textAbstract:
Reconstruction after natural disasters can represent large peaks in a community’s greenhouse gas emission inventory. Components of the built environment destroyed by natural hazards have their useful life shortened, requiring replacement before functionally necessary. Though the hazard itself does not release greenhouse gasses, the demolition and rebuilding process does, and these are the emissions we can quantify to better understand the climate impacts of disasters.
The proposed methodology draws data from existing emission and hazard resource literature and combines the information in a community scale life cycle assessment. Case studies of past disasters are used to refine the methodology and quantify the emissions of single events. The methodology is then annualized projecting the emissions of future hazards. The annualization of greenhouse gasses caused by hazard events provides a baseline from which reduction strategies can be measured against. Hazard mitigation strategies can then be quantified as greenhouse gas reduction strategies for use in Climate Action Plans.
The methodology combines the fields of climate action, hazard mitigation, and climate adaptation. Each field attempts to create sustainable and resilient communities, but most plans silo each discipline, missing opportunities that are mutually beneficial. Quantifying the greenhouse gasses associated with recovery following a disaster blends these fields to allow development of comprehensive resilience and sustainability strategies that lower greenhouse gases and decrease risk from existing or projected hazards.
An online supplement to this thesis is available online at disasterghg.wordpress.com
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Buttigieg, Claire Ruth. "Deliberation in Lyttelton: Deliberative Democratic Theory in Action: A community Group responds to Energy and Climate issues." Thesis, University of Canterbury. School of Social and Political Science, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/5322.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this thesis is to explore the under-studied area of deliberative democratic
politics at the local level, while adding to the literature on deliberative theory itself.
Empirical research was conducted through the qualitative tools of participant observation
in Project Lyttelton’s Energy Matters Workshop and in-depth interviews with Project
Lyttelton members, workshop participants and local government representatives. A
comparative analysis was also undertaken between two locally focussed initiatives
looking at citizen engagement and democracy in relation to climate change.
The findings of this research suggest that Project Lyttelton’s Energy Matters Workshop
answers the call for a deliberative approach through its use of the key institutional
features of deliberative democratic processes. The research findings also show that local
deliberative initiatives may not be about reaching consensus or agreement in relation to a
particular issue such as climate change. Rather, they may be focused on building up a
network of citizens that discuss new ideas, build awareness, invigorate public
engagement, highlight shared interests and motivate new initiatives.
However, the research data also draws attention to compelling, and as yet unanswered
questions, about just what conditions are needed for local deliberation to affect public
policy and climate change decision-making, how deliberative practices could be
integrated within government structures themselves, how the current political framework
(and context) could act as a spur to those at the local level, and how local participation
and deliberation could have a voice in the largely international climate change arena.
This research adds to the scholarship on deliberative theory by examining what
deliberation looks like at the local level, while providing further empirical research for
deliberative theory itself.
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Burch, Sarah L. "Local responses to climate change : an exploration of the relationship between capacity and action." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12258.
Full textAbstract:
Although the development and implementation of a global greenhouse gas reduction regime has dominated policy debates since before the advent of the Kyoto Protocol (and remains a critical element of effective mitigation), communities have both direct control of critical sources of emissions (Bulkeley and Betsill, 2005, Betsill, 2001) and are the scale at which the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change will play out (Wilbanks et al., 2007, Wilbanks et al., 2003). As this dissertation will show, communities face a unique set of challenges as they navigate through the uncertain future presented by climate change. Even so, communities bring to the task of climate change adaptation and mitigation a unique set of tools and proficiencies that are often absent at the national and international scales. It is the ultimate aim of the research presented here to enhance this toolkit so that communities might effectively employ the various forms of capacity they possess to rise to the challenge presented by climate change. Using three municipalities in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, this dissertation explores: the various forms of capacity that are utilized in response to climate change, the roots of capacity in the underlying development path, the factors that might inhibit the effective translation of capacity into action at the local level, and strategies that might be used to transform barriers into enablers of action. The evidence presented in this dissertation indicates that barriers are deeply interwoven phenomena, which may reinforce one another and create substantial inertia behind unsustainable patterns of municipal operations. Addressing a lack of technical, financial, or human resources appears to be less a matter of creating more capacity than of facilitating the effective use of existing resources. This facilitation depends most fundamentally on re-working the path dependent institutional structures, organizational culture and policy-making procedures that have characterized the unsuccessful patterns of climate change policy development in the past. It is hoped that this work will help to elucidate the means by which the challenge of carbon neutrality and resiliency can be met by communities, and to stimulate the transformation of barriers into enablers of action.
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Patsalides, James P. "Building a climate for creativity| A theory of action to improve U.S. elementary schools." Thesis, Prescott College, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3705902.
Full textAbstract:
In the context of a rapidly changing world, higher order thinking skills are necessary for sustainability of U.S. society. Beginning with the premise that U.S. public schools are charged with the constitutional duty of growing children into informed and educated citizens, prepared to thrive in the world of work and to participate in democratic processes; and, that higher order thinking is a core part of that mission, this study examined children’s perspectives on school climate and the environment for the teaching and learning of higher order thinking in twenty five public elementary schools in an urban Connecticut school district. This integrated program of research used an exploratory sequential/concurrent mixed methods design to construct a pair of new psychometric instruments to measure student attitudes toward school climate and the environment for teaching and learning higher order thinking in a public elementary school. The intended uses and interpretations of the scores reported by the Climate4Creativity Elementary (C4C/SPE) and Middle School (C4C/SPM) Student Perspectives measurement instruments, were validated to professional standards. The study concluded that these instruments have utility for public elementary schools, particularly in identifying areas of focus and in the management of strategic and tactical school improvement work as part of a wider program of transformation in a school. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability scores in excess of 0.90 were reported for all measures. This study supported the core idea that safer schools with stronger, more caring communities provide individual students with better learning environments, and that general learning and the learning of creativity are intrinsically linked in the minds of students in public elementary schools, even though these students may not always name these components as such. The environment for learning higher order thinking measure tends to deteriorate from the early grades to middle school grades, implying both raised expectations, and an increase in variability in the data due to more and more variety in classroom settings and teacher practices. Examination of reported bullying experience shows bullying victimization to be a powerful, pervasive determinant of school climate and feelings of safety and community in all grades, but, bullying victimization tends not to penetrate into perceptions of the classroom learning environment to the same degree. By exploring school safety, community, and the structure of the learning environment required for the teaching and learning of higher order thinking in a public elementary school, this work begins the creation of a framework to enable school leaders to make significant, transformational, strategic change in their schools.
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Blakstad, Gabriella. "Cities and regions as actors in a polycentric governance system towards climate change action." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-368867.
Full textAbstract:
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and for long nation-states and international agreements have been in focus in the search of solutions. Yet, this approach to climate change action is becoming increasingly contested and the focus has in part been turned to other types of actors, such as actors from other levels of governance. A polycentric governance system is one of the new approaches posed for climate change governance. Through this governance system such actors are emphasized and the collaboration and cooperation between them, horizontally and vertically, is in focus. In this thesis the aim is to analyze two different alliances, one of city governments and one of regional governments. These two alliances are then positioned in relation to the polycentric system of governance. A frame analysis is used to investigate the alliances’ respective framings in order to identify how they position themselves within such a system. Reports and official documents by the alliances are used as material for the analysis. The results show that these two actors’ frames are similar in many ways. Their focus lays on the importance of the level of governance that they represent, as well as collaboration and cooperation with various types of actors. Proving their compatibility with the polycentric governance system theory.
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Glaser, Sofia. "The Corona pandemic - a focusing event for insufficient governmental action on climate change mitigation?" Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-413203.
Full textAbstract:
This study seeks to examine whether the Corona pandemic has potential to serve as a focusing event for the problem of insufficient governmental action on climate change mitigation. The study is built on the Multiple Streams Framework by John W. Kingdon, with a main focus on the focusing event theory. According to this, focusing events can come in three forms: as crises and disasters, personal experiences of policymakers, and as symbols. Kingdon’s theoretical discussions, alongside my own developments of his work, provides the basis for a set of analytical questions through which the answer to the research question is provided. The analysis reveals that while the pandemic indeed can be considered a crisis or disaster and personal experiences of policymakers, establishing whether these could focus attention to the specific problem of insufficient governmental action on climate change mitigation requires further research, as the perceived cause of the crisis or disaster and personal experience must be established. However, the paper finds that the pandemic indeed has potential to serve as a symbol for the specific insufficient governmental action, for instance by stressing that deforestation increases the risk of zoonotic outbreaks, such as the Corona pandemic.
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Hards, Sarah. "Careers of action on climate change : the evolution of practices throughout the life-course." Thesis, University of York, 2011. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1951/.
Full textAbstract:
Climate change has become a major concern for research and policy in recent decades, and individual behaviour change has constituted a significant strand within UK Government responses to the problem. However, our understanding of how and why individuals become engaged in sustainable practices, and how their participation develops over time, remains patchy. Conventional psychological models have failed to resolve issues such as the “value-action gap”; however, new sociological approaches offer a more holistic understanding of sustainable practices. This study draws mainly on these “social practice” approaches to answer four questions: 1) How is “action on climate change” understood by the people performing it? 2) How does performance of these practices develop throughout the individual life-course? 3) What are the key processes that influence this development? 4) What lessons can we learn for the promotion of sustainable practices? It adopts an in-depth, experience-based approach and employs a narrative-life-course methodology that combines loosely-structured biographical interviews with visual techniques. Findings suggest that action on climate change has multiple meanings for the people engaged in it, and encompasses diverse practices, often linked to broader life projects. While overall levels of action on climate change tend to increase throughout participants’ lives, some specific practices, such as car use, follow more variable patterns. Change happens for several reasons; first, every performance of a practice shapes future practices. Secondly, practices must be co-ordinated and shared with others, and these demands change over time. Thirdly, practices are shaped by context, including biographical time, historical time and space. These processes entail elements of path dependency, but individuals also appear to have a degree of agency within their careers of practice. The thesis concludes that these findings have significant implications for theory and policy on sustainable practices, and makes recommendations for the design of effective interventions.
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Bögelein, Sandra. "The social dilemma structure of climate change mitigation : individual responses and effects on action." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2015. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/61370/.
Full textAbstract:
Climate change mitigation constitutes a social dilemma, a conflict between personal and collective outcomes. Behaviours that result in personal benefits (e.g. travelling quickly, conveniently and cheaply by plane) also result in a collective cost in the form of climate change. Behavioural theories and evidence suggest this social dilemma structure significantly influences behaviour. This thesis aims to understand how the social dilemma structure of climate change mitigation affects people’s personal actions to address climate change. The first empirical study explores whether people perceive decisions with emission consequences as social dilemmas. Findings show that making salient the effected collective or the pro-social nature of the decision increases awareness of the social dilemma structure. A second set of empirical studies, using quantitative and qualitative methods, further demonstrate that there are two sets of considerations to the climate change mitigation dilemma: 1) non-cooperative considerations (e.g. a focus on immediate personal benefits or a temptation to free-ride) which are linked to a decrease in actions on climate change, and 2) cooperative considerations (e.g. a focus on outcomes for others or fairness considerations) which are linked to an increase in actions on climate change. Results also show that people apply cognitive strategies to counteract the discouraging effect of non-cooperative considerations. A third set of empirical studies tested whether communication massages based on cooperative considerations can increase personal actions to address climate change. Findings suggest that especially framing a message based on the collective outcome can increase actions, but careful consideration of the audience and the situation is required. Overall, this thesis makes the important contribution of demonstrating that the social dilemma structure of climate change mitigation does not necessarily discourage actions to address climate change, but also offers an encouraging perspective through a focus on the collective outcome.
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Burch, Michael Eddie. "Climate Change, Situational Theory of Problem Solving, and Issue Framing Effects." Scholar Commons, 2014. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5449.
Full textAbstract:
This is an exploratory study of the Situational Theory of Problem Solving applied to the context of climate change communication. Selective exposure to politically slanted media is explored as a referent criterion and framing effects are also tested. Relationships between consumption of media characterized as conservative or liberal with referent criterion, Situational Motivation in Problem Solving, problem recognition, involvement recognition, and constraint recognition are tested.
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Doelle, Meinhard. "From hot air to action? climate change, compliance and the future of international environmental law /." Halifax, Nova Scotia : Dalhousie University, 2005. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1014321911&sid=2&Fmt=2&clientId=78006&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Ravin, Amelia L. 1977. "Local action for the global environment : municipal government participation in a voluntary climate protection program." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17710.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83).
The Cities for Climate ProtectionTM (CCP) campaign is a voluntary environmental program for municipalities, which is increasingly being applied around the world by local governments taking action on climate change. This thesis investigates the reasons for adoption, barriers and drivers of implementation, and potential outcomes of municipal CCP implementation, through case studies of six communities in New England and Eastern Canada, at different implementation levels of the CCP program. Three actors from each case were interviewed and their responses analyzed to identify patterns, common themes and any differences based on implementation level. Major findings include the importance of an internal champion for adoption and implementation, and the significance of education and issue framing for increased implementation. Interviewees mainly observed social outcomes, including increased awareness and climate change institutionalization within municipal government operations. Based on the study, recommendations for policy and program development are provided to more effectively engage municipalities in local climate action within the New England and Eastern Canadian region. Keywords: climate change, municipalities, local government, cities for climate protection, voluntary environmental program, New England, Eastern Canada.
by Amelia L. Ravin.
M.C.P.
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Knapp, Sandra V. "Does GRID Alternatives Impact Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets in Central Coast Climate Action Plans?" DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2016. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1613.
Full textAbstract:
As of March 2016, GRID Alternatives’ 179 solar electric system installations on low-income housing contributed 103 metric tons of carbon (MT CO2e) emissions reduction for the climate action plans’ Energy or Renewable Energy climate action measures that pertain to solar electric installations in the cities of: Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Paso Robles, and San Luis Obispo and San Luis Obispo County.
In 2007, the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) created a team of government agencies to design climate action plans (CAP) that met the emission reduction goals set out by AB 32 and the 2008 Climate Change Scoping Plan (Rincon Consultants, 2014, p. 1-2).
Each CAP outlines its greenhouse gas (GHG) baseline emissions and GHG emissions reduction targets in metric tons of carbon (MT CO2e) and identifies climate action measures to reach GHG emissions reduction targets. The climate action measure that pertains to Energy or Renewable Energy, specifically solar electric system installations, is examined in this study.
GRID Alternatives, a non-profit solar installer that implements its Solar Affordable Housing Program, was selected by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in 2008, to serve as the statewide program manager for the California Solar Initiative’s $108 million incentive program called the Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program, which is the country's first dedicated solar rebate program for low-income families (GRID, 2016a, p. 2). In 2010, GRID Alternatives opened its Central Coast office in Atascadero to serve five central coast counties and tracks CO2 emission reductions for each installation.
My objective is to determine the impact that GRID Alternatives’ solar electric installations in the cities of Arroyo Grande, Atascadero, Paso Robles, and San Luis Obispo and in San Luis Obispo County have on their respective CAPs’ GHG emissions reduction targets for the Energy or Renewable Energy climate action measure that pertains to solar electric installations.
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Mulvaney, Kathleen Mara. "Translating international commitments to domestic action : Mercury co-benefits, sustainable development, and climate policy in China." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111243.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, Technology and Policy Program, 2017.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-89).
National commitments on the Paris Agreement on climate change interact with other global environment and sustainability objectives, such as the Minamata Convention on Mercury and the global Sustainable Development Goals. Understanding the interactions between climate change, air pollution, and sustainable development can help decision-makers identify more effective policies that can address environmental and economic goals simultaneously. To address environmental goals, I assess how mercury co-benefits (positive side effects that are peripheral to a policy's main goal) of a national climate policy in China could contribute to the country's commitments under the Minamata Convention. I examine climate policy scenarios in 2030 corresponding to various levels of carbon intensity reductions in addition to a business-as-usual scenario and an end-of-pipe control scenario that meets China's commitments under the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Economic analysis from a computable general equilibrium model of China's economy provides information on changes in economic activity resulting from the climate policy scenarios. Using the economic data from this model, I scale 2007 mercury emissions in a variety of sectors to 2030.
I then use a global atmospheric transport model to project changes in mercury deposition at the regional scale in China for each policy scenario. I find that climate policy in China can provide mercury emissions and deposition co-benefits similar to end-of-pipe control policies that meet the country's Minamata Convention commitments. To address sustainable development goals, I investigate the use of the Inclusive Wealth Index for evaluating the sustainability of climate policy in China on the basis of produced capital, natural capital, and human capital at the provincial level. I find that most provinces in China exhibit an increase in Inclusive Wealth under several climate policy scenarios, providing an alternative metric for monetizing policy impacts.
by Kathleen Mara Mulvaney.
S.M. in Technology and Policy
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Yano, Jun-Ichi, Jean-François Geleyn, Martin Köller, Dmitrii Mironov, Johannes Quaas, Pedro M. M. Soares, Vaughan T. J. Phillips, et al. "Basic concepts for convection parameterization in weather forecast and climate models: COST Action ES0905 final report." MDPI AG, 2014. https://ul.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A12408.
Full textAbstract:
The research network “Basic Concepts for Convection Parameterization in Weather Forecast and Climate Models” was organized with European funding (COST Action ES0905) for the period of 2010–2014. Its extensive brainstorming suggests how the
subgrid-scale parameterization problem in atmospheric modeling, especially for convection, can be examined and developed from the point of view of a robust theoretical basis. Our main cautions are current emphasis on massive observational data analyses and process studies. The closure and the entrainment–detrainment problems are identified as the two highest priorities for convection parameterization under the mass–flux formulation. The need for
a drastic change of the current European research culture as concerns policies and funding in order not to further deplete the visions of the European researchers focusing on those basic issues is emphasized.
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Doherty, Kathryn Laing. "From Alarm to Action: Closing the Gap Between Belief and Behavior in Response to Climate Change." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1406552403.
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Trendell, Nation Molly. "How Teachers’ Beliefs About Climate Change Influence Their Instruction, Student Understanding, and Willingness to Take Action." Scholar Commons, 2017. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6968.
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Climate change science is complex and controversial in nature, yet seen by educators and policy makers as an important topic to be taught within secondary science education. This is becoming increasingly evident with the inclusion of climate change into the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Earth and Space Sciences as well as Life Science courses (NGSS, 2013). An overwhelming amount of information is available to students; however, it is often misrepresented, politically inflated and falsified, and littered with misconceptions (Dawson & Carson, 2014; Gayford, 2002). It is critical to engage students in discourse that challenges them ethically in order for students to become more informed citizens, be able to develop skills necessary to take part in democratic discourse, and cultivate resolution (Gore, 1999; Lockwood & Harris, 1985; Reitano, Kivunja, & Porter, 2008)
Teacher’s personal beliefs about the instruction of climate change within science education are unclear (Gayford, 2002). The presence of controversy can influence teachers’ instructional decisions and cause confusion about the science of climate change and many teachers may fear objection from community members (Maibach, Roser-Renouf, & Leiserowitz, 2008). Therefore, we must consider the role of teachers’ beliefs when examining their classroom instruction (Kagan, 1992; Nespor, 1987).
This research study examines the complex nature of science teacher beliefs about climate change, their instructional practice in the marine science classroom, and the impacts on student outcomes. The study takes place within four marine science classrooms over the course of one semester. The teachers taking part in the study and their respective students are representative participants of the greater school district.
The purpose of this study was to better understand teachers’ understandings and beliefs about climate change, and how individuals feel their beliefs impact instructional practices. Teacher and student data were collected from classroom observations, surveys, interviews, and a comprehensive midterm exam of the content. The qualitative and quantitative data collected were analyzed and compared through a fully mixed methods approach by which the findings of both types of data were compared and contrasted to triangulate findings.
Findings from the study suggest teachers have strong beliefs about the causes and implications of climate change, they have high levels of concern for the impacts it will have on future generations, and value the topic as a necessary component of science education. However, this study revealed the controversial nature of the topic, current political climate, and potential resistance from stakeholders inhibited teachers from espousing these beliefs within their instruction of the curriculum. Results from the study found teachers’ personal beliefs had essentially no impacts on their classroom instruction or resulting student outcomes
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Westcott, G. M. "The role of subjective factors in local authorities' action on climate change in South West England." Thesis, University of the West of England, Bristol, 2016. http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/28966/.
Full textAbstract:
This study examines the question of whether subjective attitudes to climate change play a significant part in the determination of local authorities’ policy and actions on climate change mitigation; whether the personal views of council members and officers about climate change, their beliefs, fears and attitudes affect the outcomes in terms of policy and action, or whether organizational culture, norms and collectively policed limits to discourse have this effect; or whether, on the contrary, the influence of central government policy is so overwhelming that action and policy is determined almost wholly by external and objective influences. The research fills a gap in the literature in studying both subjective attitudes and socio-cultural factors together with external and material factors in order to assess the importance of the former. Interviews with officers and members of local authorities in the South West of England and other data identify that considerable reductions in councils’ own greenhouse emissions have been achieved, not wholly due to cutbacks and other contextual factors, but policy for more widespread carbon reduction in their geographical areas was more limited. Central government finance and policy were key determinants of action in all the local authorities studied, but significant differences between authorities are linked to differences in the prevalence of climate change dismissal. Psycho-social methods are used to achieve a more subtle and coherent view of individual attitudes to climate change, to identify relevant aspects of corporate culture, and to tease out how objective influences such as financial incentives and political pressures interact with these attitudes. The study finds that climate dismissal and denial present obstacles to carbon reduction initiatives and reduce the number which emerge; it also identifies the way organizational culture, including the growing dominance of financial and economic discourse, can constrain possibilities and proposals. Based on the interview data, I argue that financial incentives not only encourage but enable discussion of carbon reduction measures, and that severe budgetary constraints undermine a sense of agency as well as curtailing long term ambition in carbon reduction. Perceived lack of agency, at times deployed as a ‘tool of innocence’, also emerges as a key contributor to climate change dismissal, as well as more specific political and personal attitudes. Implications for policy at local and national level are derived from the research findings.
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Moses, Godfrey. "The establishment of the long-term rainfall trends in the annual rainfall patterns in the Jonkershoek Valley, Western Cape, South Africa." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2008. http://etd.uwc.ac.za/index.php?module=etd&action=viewtitle&id=gen8Srv25Nme4_6556_1263520811.
Full textAbstract:
The overall aim of this project was to establish whether there is a long-term decline of rainfall collected in rainfall gauges within the Jonkershoek Valley that have the longest and best quality records.
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Bishop, Desmond M. III. "How to Build a Climate of Quality in a Small to Medium Enterprise: An Action Research Project." Scholar Commons, 2018. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/7476.
Full textAbstract:
Quality Management (QM) in one of its many forms has become an integral part of contemporary business. Most research in this field was conducted within the context of large business. This study is one of the first to examine QM for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). This article used the action research methodology to explore how a SME located in the southeastern United States implemented a climate of quality. QM implementation in this company was executed in two separate interventions. In the first intervention, the factors of top management commitment, collaboration, data-centered decision making and process focus were implemented using tactics that resulted in an 80% decrease in defects and substantial cost savings. In the second intervention a training system was developed that resulted in a 60% reduction in defects over the measured time period. The study provides an illustrative example of how small businesses can implement a QM climate, and the potential benefits of such climate for the organization.
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Ast, Eric. "The state of long-term climate action planning in megacities : Planning and demographic trends among 17 of the world’s leading cities aiming to reduce emissions by 80% by the year 2050." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-163154.
Full textAbstract:
This report reviews the current state of long-term climate action planning in 17 cities which have publicly communicated carbon reducttargets in line with the IPCC recommended 80% reduction by 2050 (80x50) for stabilizing the impacts of climate change at 2°C. The aim of this report is to provide a foundation of support for cities in achieving their deep carbon reduction goals through a comprehensive understanding of leading climate action plans and the context under which they were created, including current city emissions and demographic data, climate plan reduction strategies and targets, and feedback on plan creation and needs from city planning staff. By achieving this aim, cities are in a better position to understand where their plans fit in the global context and connect with other cities around common issues, research institutions have a new benchmark analysis of leading action plans to build further research upon, and city-level climate action organizations have a clearer idea of how to focus efforts in helping cities achieve carbon reduction goals. This aim is achieved through the application of a framework for comparing city plans and targets, an analysis of current city emissions and demographic data, and synthesis of key findings from city planning staff discussions. Key findings show no clear demographic and environmental biases exist within these 17 cities, indicating long-term climate action planning can be undertaken by cities across the full spectrum of size, climate, and current per capita emissions output, though regional geographic and development bias exists. Plans for carbon reduction are highly concentrated among a small number of actions, indicating the movement has coalesced around a standard set of strategies for achieving deep carbon reductions. Finally, the relative newness of plans, with the majority less than 5 years old, and the lack of commonality among cities in emissions methodology and communication of reduction strategies, shifts a short-term focus towards standardization methodologies which enable deeper comparison between cities and plans.
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Rinne, Nina. "Women’s Participation in National Adaptation Programs of Action : - A Discourse Analysis." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-161226.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis analyzes the National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPA) that aredeveloped for the least developed countries within the United Nations FrameworkConvention of Climate Change. The NAPAs are developed to help the least developedcountries to deal with the challenges that are likely to occur due to climate changeissues. Within the United Nations there is strong consensus that gender mainstreamingmust be a part of all of the strategies implemented within the UN.By analyzing the NAPAs concerning food security and energy using gender theory anddiscourse analysis it is clear that gender is often overlooked when creating solutionsfor future issues that are likely to be caused by climate change. The energy sector inparticular overlook the needs of women in rural areas and have a clear male bias. In theNAPAs concerning food security women’s participation is slightly more present, butthere is a clear lack of gender mainstreaming in the documents.