The telecoupled sustainability impacts of global agricultural value chains:Assessing the cross-scale sustainability impacts of the cocoa sector

Agriculture is a major contributor to the global environmental crisis. Natural ecosystems are being replaced by agricultural land, which leads to the extinction of species and the release of tons of carbon emissions. Global agricultural value chains (GVCs) have grown due to the intensification of international trade. While GVCs have undeniably created economic opportunities for the agriculture sector, they have also led to the escalation of local environmental issues. Several initiatives have been implemented to reduce the negative impacts of agriculture, including government regulations, sustainability certification labels, and voluntary sustainability commitments. However, the effectiveness of these initiatives has been questioned due to several reasons, including the mismatches between the scale of the problem and the solution, the lack of monitoring and verification of sustainability actions, and their weak enforcement. Sustainability initiatives are informed by studies assessing the impacts of agriculture that often only focus on local impacts, while disregarding larger-scale – telecoupled– dynamics that can trigger impacts across geographic and temporal scales. This thesis aims to help bridge these knowledge gaps by examining the impacts of agricultural GVCs across scales, studying the role of GVC’s configuration in modulating these impacts and investigating the role of GVC actors in mitigating sustainability risks across scales. The global cocoa value chain is used as a case study. Chapter 2 examines various impact assessment methods and their ability to capture the effects caused by telecoupled dynamics across different scales. The study concludes that no single method is sufficient to capture all telecoupled cross-scale dynamics and that the integration of different methods is necessary to bridge gaps between methods and complement their scope. Chapter 3 implements the recommendations outlined in Chapter 2 by analyzing the impacts caused by cocoa agroforestry and cocoa full-sun production in Ghana. Impacts on carbon, biodiversity stocks, and environmental pollution were analyzed within and beyond the farm-level. This chapter reveals that findings drawn from farm-level assessments can contradict those from landscape-level assessments. Decision-makers focused should be wary of extrapolating farm-level assessment results to larger scales. Chapter 4 expands the scope to the global scale by examining the role of the cocoa GVC configuration on the capacity of the sector to address sustainability challenges across scales. The chapter identifies different types of cocoa traders, their market dominance, and sustainability commitments. The chapter highlights that to address the telecoupled impacts of the cocoa GVC, coordinated action between traders is required, along with government interventions to balance power asymmetries. Chapter 5 measured the degree to which cocoa traders, as identified in Chapter 4, are exposed to deforestation and climate change. This chapter highlights that sustainability challenges in agricultural value chains cannot be resolved in isolation as farming systems are constantly interacting with other farming systems and land competing sectors. To avoid displacing negative impacts across scales, it is necessary to have a coordinated and collaborative effort from stakeholders and sectors involved in making decisions related to land use. This thesis shows that addressing the telecoupled impacts caused by agricultural value chains needs a good understanding of the cause-effect dynamics at play. This requires the quantification of impacts caused by agriculture across scales and the characterization of the GVC network of actors modulating these impacts. Interdisciplinary methods need to be leveraged and integrated to generate actionable insights. The findings of this thesis can assist decision-makers and private actors in devising customized sustainability strategies, prioritizing action, and addressing the most vulnerable hotspots while being mindful of global teleconnections and avoiding spillovers

Transforming urban green space governance in China under ecological civilisation: an institutional analysis

Facing expeditious urbanisation and climate change impacts, how has China governed urban green spaces? This thesis establishes urban green spaces as an essential part of urban social ecological systems critical for overall stability, including climate resilience, health and wellbeing. This thesis turns to the common-pool resource theory to understand urban green space governance. The theoretical framework convenes that non-excludable but highly subtractable goods can be governed more sustainably in small scales and through collectively designed rules by actors that contain well-defined property rights, monitoring, and sanctions appropriate to respective levels and scales. The thesis selects three empirical cases and uses the Institutional Analysis Development framework to structure a case study-based qualitative content analysis and a Multi-Criteria Assessment informed by in-depth interviews and urban green space policies and plans. This research finds that land property rights are critical factors for participation in urban green space governance, and urban green spaces in China are still governed primarily as land resources. Conceptualising urban green spaces as common-pool resources reveals that they should contain property rights different from urban land resources for more sustainable governance. Besides, China's urban green space governance has gradually formalised ecological functions, including the potential to cope with climate change, into institutional arrangements in the past two decades and is mostly in line with the common characteristics of successful common-pool resource governance regimes. China's urban green space governance can be improved by striking a better equivalence between benefits and costs for all actors and broaden the extent of collective-choice arrangements. Furthermore, Guangzhou's urban green space governance attunes with the national environmental governance framework Ecological Civilisation through conducting both the means and ends of institutional change. Finally, despite substantial progress under Ecological Civilisation, three main institutional barriers remained in Guangzhou's urban green space governance: the lack of legal foundations for regular ecological status assessments, low awareness of local state actors on climate change impacts and the ecological potential of urban green spaces, and the lack of long-term commitment for a more ecosystem-based approach to urban green space governance. The findings indicate that urban green spaces as essential part of the complex urban social ecological system should not be governed simply as land resources. To attach importance to Urban Green Space Governance in China - Institutional Analysis 4 the ecosystem services and ecological values, it is necessary to define an exclusive and clear set of property rights for urban green spaces. The common-pool resource theory also tells us that institutional arrangements for long-term sustainable resource governance should enable individual and collective actors to participate in the process thoroughly and achieve the end goals, such as good health, wellbeing, and climate resilience. This research helps policymakers in Chinese cities understand why some urban green space governance in the past failed even with great technical planning expertise. Besides, it provides policymakers with practical suggestions on institutional arrangements helpful to promote urban green space governance and to achieve Ecological Civilisation. Finally, the researcher presents several recommendations for policymakers for better practices in the future and future research directions.Enfrentado pela urbanização acelerada e pelos impactos das alterações climáticas, como a China governou os espaços verdes urbanos? Os espaços verdes urbanos são um ponto de entrada em que as ações e os resultados são importantes para a saúde e o bem-estar de todos os cidadãos urbanos e a resiliência climática independentemente dos contextos sociais, econômicos e políticos. A China tem uma enorme responsabilidade e potencial devido às escalas da sua economia, a população e a pegada de carbono total e tem visto uma forte determinação política para agir nos desafios climáticos e ambientais enquanto as constantes necessidades de urbanização e desenvolvimento econômico. Então, como é que as cidades chinesas abordaram o planeamento e a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos? Que facilitações ou desafios institucionais enfrentaram ao planear espaços verdes urbanos? Como é que os governos locais conseguiram melhorar os espaços verdes urbanos e implementar mais Nature-based solutions? Quais são as boas práticas a serem partilhadas? Além disso, por quê alguns desafios persistiram, apesar do sistema de governo centralizado e a forte determinação política? Esta tese propõe-se a estudar três casos sobre o planeamento e a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos em Guangzhou, uma cidade costeira altamente populosa, compacta e vulnerável no sudeste da China. Os objetivos eram compreender as dinâmicas institucionais, os facilitadores e as barreiras subjacentes que podem infetar o planeamento e a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos, examinar a extensão e as abordagens para melhorar os espaços verdes urbanos, analisar os custos e benefícios levados em consideração e, compreender as barreiras institucionais relacionadas ao valores intrínsecos, o que é essencial para desenhar soluções mais genuinamente baseadas na Natureza e do ecossistema. Com base nos insights da revisão da literatura das teorias e práticas chinesas e ocidentais de planeamento urbano, e da governança urbana da perspectiva institucional, esta tese estabelece os espaços verdes urbanos como uma parte essencial dos sistemas socioecológicos urbanos (urban social-ecological systems, ou urban SES) essenciais para a estabilidade geral, incluindo a resiliência climática, a saúde e o bem-estar, e vira-se para a teoria de recursos comuns (common-pool resource), o qual foi desenvolvida pela cientista política norte-americana Elinor Ostrom, para compreender a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos. A estrutura teórica convoca que, os bens não excludentes, mas altamente subtraíveis, podem ser governados de forma mais sustentável em pequenas escalas e por meio de regras projetadas coletivamente Urban Green Space Governance in China - Institutional Analysis com os direitos de propriedade bem definidos, os mecanismos de monitorização e sanção apropriados aos respectivos níveis e escalas. Foi selecionado três casos empíricos de estudo e utilizado a ferramenta de Institutional Analysis Development (IAD) framework para estruturar uma análise de conteúdo qualitativo e uma Avaliação Multi-Critérios informadas pelas entrevistas em profundidade e políticas e planos de espaços verdes urbanos. Esta pesquisa mostra que os direitos de propriedade de solo são fatores críticos para a participação na governança dos espaços verdes urbanos na China, e os espaços verdes urbanos ainda são governados principalmente como recursos de solo urbano. A conceituação dos espaços verdes urbanos como recursos comuns (common-pool resources) revela que eles devem conter direitos de propriedade diferentes do que os recursos de solo urbano. Além disso, a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos da China formalizou gradualmente as funções ecológicas, incluindo o potencial para lidar com as alterações climáticas nas últimas duas décadas e está principalmente em linha com as características dos regimes de governança de bens comuns bem-sucedidos. A governança dos espaços verdes urbanos da China pode ser melhorada, alcançando uma melhor equivalência entre benefícios e custos para todos os atores e ampliando as práticas de escolha coletiva. Além disso, a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos de Guangzhou está em sintonia com a estrutura de governança ambiental nacional de Civilização Ecológica (Ecological Civilisation) por meio da condução ambos dos meios e dos fins da mudança institucional. Finalmente, apesar do progresso substancial sob a Civilização Ecológica, este estudo encontrou três barreiras institucionais principais remanescentes na governança dos espaços verdes urbanos em Guangzhou: a falta de fundamentos legais para avaliações regulares do estado ecológico, a baixa consciência dos atores locais do estado sobre os impactos das alterações climáticas e o potencial ecológico dos espaços verdes urbanos, e, a falta de compromisso de longo prazo na abordagem mais baseada no ecossistema. A falta de fundamentos legais para avaliações regulares do estado ecológico é uma barreira institucional que impede a coordenação institucional multinível. A baixa consciência dos atores locais do estado sobre os impactos das mudanças climáticas e o potencial ecológico dos espaços verdes urbanos é uma rigidez institucional que limita a interação horizontal dentro dos governos locais que requer soluções institucionais. A falta de compromisso de longo prazo para governar os espaços verdes urbanos com base no reconhecimento dos valores e potenciais ecológicos é uma outra rigidez institucional que implica objetivos conflitantes, tensões e compensações nas dimensões políticas. Os resultados indicam que os espaços verdes urbanos como uma parte essencial do sistema socioecológico urbano complexo, não devem ser governados simplesmente como recursos de solo urbano. Para atribuir mais importância aos serviços ecossistêmicos e aos valores ecológicos, é necessário definir um conjunto exclusivo e claro de direitos de propriedade para os espaços verdes urbanos. A teoria de recursos comuns também indica que os arranjos institucionais para a governança de recursos sustentáveis de longo prazo devem permitir que os atores individuais e coletivos participem do processo (means) e atinjam os objetivos finais (ends), como a saúde, o bem-estar, e a resiliência climática. Esta pesquisa tem potencial em ajudar os formuladores de políticas nas cidades chinesas a entender por que alguns casos de governança dos espaços verdes urbanos falharam no passado, mesmo com grande perícia técnica no planeamento. Além disso, tem fornecido aos formuladores de políticas sugestões práticas para melhorar a governança dos espaços verdes urbanos e para se aproximar mais aos ideais da Civilização Ecológica. Finalmente, foi apresentado várias direções para pesquisas futuras

Selected Papers from SDEWES 2017: The 12th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems

EU energy policy is more and more promoting a resilient, efficient and sustainable energy system. Several agreements have been signed in the last few months that set ambitious goals in terms of energy efficiency and emission reductions and to reduce the energy consumption in buildings. These actions are expected to fulfill the goals negotiated at the Paris Agreement in 2015. The successful development of this ambitious energy policy needs to be supported by scientific knowledge: a huge effort must be made in order to develop more efficient energy conversion technologies based both on renewables and fossil fuels. Similarly, researchers are also expected to work on the integration of conventional and novel systems, also taking into account the needs for the management of the novel energy systems in terms of energy storage and devices management. Therefore, a multi-disciplinary approach is required in order to achieve these goals. To ensure that the scientists belonging to the different disciplines are aware of the scientific progress in the other research areas, specific Conferences are periodically organized. One of the most popular conferences in this area is the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Series Conference. The 12th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was recently held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The present Special Issue of Energies, specifically dedicated to the 12th SDEWES Conference, is focused on five main fields: energy policy and energy efficiency in smart energy systems, polygeneration and district heating, advanced combustion techniques and fuels, biomass and building efficiency

Aligning economic development and conservation through marine biodiversity offsetting: An analysis of perspectives, policy and practice in Australia

Biodiversity offsetting is increasingly used in diverse policy contexts to reduce, halt or reverse losses of biodiversity arising from development or other uses of the natural environment. To date, relatively little attention has been devoted to its use in marine environments. This thesis explores the policy basis for the marine application of the approach and its implementation in practice. A systematic review of documents evidencing the application or inclusion of biodiversity offset principles in global policy frameworks is first presented. Analysis focusses on the uptake of the principles for biodiversity offsetting success and indicates that globally there is a limited policy basis for the holistic application of the approach in marine environments. Using Australia as a case study, I explore how these principles are being applied in practice. Through a further systematic review of marine and coastal development projects I find little evidence to suggest that marine biodiversity offsetting in Australia is meeting stated aims of no net loss (NNL). In-depth interviews of participants with professional experience of the development and application of marine biodiversity offsetting policy were explored. Using two separate frameworks based around boundary objects and risk, interview data and participant perceptions were analysed to understand the influences governing current practice. Results indicate that marine biodiversity offsetting is not being applied with a view to meeting stated aims of NNL and that this trend is primarily driven by the challenges posed by marine environments and limited societal scrutiny. Current use of marine NNL seeks to maintain the legitimacy and credibility of government and industry alike, premised on ongoing trends of accepted marine biodiversity loss. I conclude that a significant change in the narrative surrounding the use of marine NNL is required to acknowledge the trade-offs and biodiversity loss implicated by much of marine economic development

Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року

Second International Conference on Sustainable Futures: Environmental, Technological, Social and Economic Matters (ICSF 2021). Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, May 19-21, 2021.Друга міжнародна конференція зі сталого майбутнього: екологічні, технологічні, соціальні та економічні питання (ICSF 2021). Кривий Ріг, Україна, 19-21 травня 2021 року

Gas, Water and Solid Waste Treatment Technology

This book introduces a variety of treatment technologies, such as physical, chemical, and biological methods for the treatment of gas emissions, wastewater, and solid waste. It provides a useful source of information for engineers and specialists, as well as for undergraduate and postgraduate students, in the areas of environmental science and engineering

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities

Urbanization is a global phenomenon and the book emphasizes that this is not just a social-technological process. It is also a social-ecological process where cities are places for nature, and where cities also are dependent on, and have impacts on, the biosphere at different scales from local to global. The book is a global assessment and delivers four main conclusions: Urban areas are expanding faster than urban populations. Half the increase in urban land across the world over the next 20 years will occur in Asia, with the most extensive change expected to take place in India and China Urban areas modify their local and regional climate through the urban heat island effect and by altering precipitation patterns, which together will have significant impacts on net primary production, ecosystem health, and biodiversity Urban expansion will heavily draw on natural resources, including water, on a global scale, and will often consume prime agricultural land, with knock-on effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services elsewhere Future urban expansion will often occur in areas where the capacity for formal governance is restricted, which will constrain the protection of biodiversity and management of ecosystem service

Urbanization, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities: A Global Assessment

Urban Ecology; Urbanism; Sustainable Development; Complex Systems; Science, general; International Environmental La