Влияние показателей качества электроэнергии на рабочие и надежностные характеристики электрооборудования нетяговых железнодорожных потребителей

Материалы XVIII Междунар. науч.-техн. конф. студентов, аспирантов и молодых ученых, Гомель, 26–27 апр. 2018 г

Climate change adaptation and the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF): qualitative insights from policy implementation in the Asia-Pacific

Least developed countries often lack the requisite capacity to implement climate change adaptation projects. The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) is a scheme where industrialized countries have (as of early 2016) disbursed $934.5 million in voluntary contributions, raised more than four times that amount in co-financing, and supported 213 adaptation projects across 51 least developed countries. But what sorts of challenges have arisen during implementation? Based on extensive field research in five least developed countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, the Maldives, and Vanuatu—and original data collected from almost 150 research interviews, this article qualitatively explores both the benefits and challenges of LDCF projects in the Asia-Pacific. It finds that while LDCF projects do contribute to enhancing multiple types of infrastructural, institutional, and community-based adaptive capacity, they also suffer from uncertainty, a convoluted management structure, and an inability to fully respond to climate risks. Based on these findings, the study concludes that adaptation must be pursued as a multidimensional process; and that LDCF activities have tended to promote marginal rather than more radical or systematic transformations

Социально-деятельные установки студентов как фактор их осознанной профессиональной подготовки

Climate engineering (geoengineering) has been widely discussed as a potential instrument for curbing global warming if politics fails to deliver green house gas emission reductions. This debate has lost momentum over the last couple of years, but is now being renewed in the wake of the December 2015 Paris climate change agreement. Resurgent interest primarily stems from two elements of the Paris agreement. First, by defining the long term goal as “achiev[ing] a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases” instead of decarbonization, the agreement can be interpreted as providing leeway for climate engineering proposals. Second, the agreement formulated a temperature goal of “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. In response, several scientists argued that these goals may require climate engineering. As these discussions will affect the forthcoming review of pathways toward 1.5°C warming, this policy brief takes stock of climate engineering. It draws on the expertise of Linköping University’s Climate Engineering (LUCE) interdisciplinary research programme. The brief provides an overview of the status of academic debate on climate engineering regarding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS);  stratospheric aerosol injection; and mass media reporting and public engagement

VisAdapt: A visualization tool to support climate change adaptation

In this article we present the design and implementation of the web-based visualization tool VisAdapt, developed to support homeowners in the Nordic countries to assess anticipated climate change and climate related risks which are expected to negatively impact their living conditions. The tool guides the user through a three-step visual exploration process to facilitate the exploration of risks and adaptation measures, specifically adapted to the user. VisAdapt has been developed over the course of two years in close collaboration with domain experts and end users to ensure the validity of the included data and the efficiency of the visual interface. Although VisAdapt is designed for Nordic homeowners, the insights gained from the development process and the lessons learned from the project could be valuable to researchers in a wide area of application domains.acceptedVersionnivå

Internationella förhandlingsbarometern

The International Negotiations Survey is a research program with the aim to advance interdisciplinary knowledge using questionnaire data collected at international negotiations. The International Negotiations Survey team has conducted questionnaire studies since 2007. The database now contains around 9000 responses from delegates to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), partici­pants in side events, as well as side-event organ­izers. The survey, which is undertaken with the agreement of the UNFCCC Secretariat, has been on-going since the climate change negotiations in Bali 2007. The survey measures individual preferences on a variety of topics at the negotiations, such as the role of non-state actors, leadership, the effectiveness of various solutions to tackle climate change, principles for effort sharing of commitments, and Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) by developing countries. It includes a number of questions held constant over time as well as questions that vary from year to year. The dataset thereby offers unique empirical material for understanding attitudes and opinions held by the diverse participants at the international climate change negotiations. Purpose: The International Negotiations Survey (INS) seek to analyse what personal preferences the participants at the UN climate conference have regarding different topics addressed in the negotiations.Internationella förhandlingsbarometern (The International Negotiations Survey) är ett forskningsprogram med syfte att öka tvärvetenskaplig kunskap med hjälp av enkätdata som samlas in under internationella förhandlingar. Forskarlaget har genomfört studier på enkätdata sedan 2007. Databasen innehåller nu cirka 9000 svar från delegater under FN:s klimatkonferenser (UNFCCC). Bland de svarande ingår också deltagare vid konferensernas sidoevenemang och arrangörer till sidoevenemangen. Enkätundersökningen, som genomförs i samförstånd med UNFCCC-sekretariatet, har pågått sedan klimatförhandlingarna på Bali 2007. Undersökningen mäter individuella preferenser inom de olika ämnesområden som tas upp vid förhandlingarna, såsom icke-statliga aktörers roll, ledarskap, effektiviteten hos olika lösningar för att ta itu med klimatförändringarna, principer för hur åtaganden ska delas och åtgärder framtagna av Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMA) för utvecklingsländer. Enkäten innehåller både ett antal frågor som återkommer vid varje undersökningstillfälle, samt frågor som varierar från år till år. Datasetet erbjuder därmed ett unikt empiriskt material för att förstå attityder och åsikter som innehas av de olika deltagarna vid de internationella klimatförhandlingarna. Syfte: Internationella förhandlingsbarometerns (INS) syfte är att undersöka vad deltagare vid FN:s klimatkonferens anser om de ämnen som tas upp vid förhandlingarna

Sammanfattning för beslutsfattare av Syntesrapporten av IPCC:s fjärde bedömningsrapport

　 Så mycket syntes i betydelsen "ett åtagande att sätta samman delar för att forma en ny helhet" är inte rapporten. Det är mer ett väl avvägt urval och sammanställning av slutsatser från de tre föregående delrapporterna. Vissa synteser har dock gjorts. Exempelvis innehåller rapporten en sammanställning av en figur som sammanför scenarier för växthusgasutsläpp från 2000 till 2100 i avsaknad av klimatpolitik med projektioner för marktemperaturer utifrån SRES samt en om projicerade relativa förändringar i avrinning till mitten av detta århundrade. Den senare finns inte med i sammanfattningen för beslutsfattare, men återfinns i bakgrundsrapporten. Rapporten nämner inte specifikt problematiken med ojämlikheter i sårbarheten för klimatförändringar, t.ex. genusskillnader. Den nämner skillnader i kapacitet och rättvisa i mer allmänna ordalag. Det vetenskapliga underlaget visar dock att detta är viktiga aspekter. Sverige försökte, utan framgång, få in genusaspekter i sammanfattningen för beslutsfattare. Däremot bidrog man till skrivningar om bl.a. livsstilsfrågor, försurningen, biodiversitet, teknologispridning, kopplingen till FN:s milleniemål och syntetisering för beslutsfattarna av klimatmodelleringens resultat, t.ex. vad gäller utsatta områden för avrinning. IPCC har kritiserats för att inte lyfta fram dagsaktuella forskningsrapporter samt att man beslutar med konsensus. Till IPCC:s förtjänst kan man dock anföra att det är viktigt att ha ett forum där representanter för över 130 länder diskuterar forskningsresultat och vilka konsekvenser av forskningens slutsatser. Det har sannolikt betydelse för att höja beredskapen och skapa större samsyn. Med tanke på att länder med radikalt olika utgångspunkter i klimatpolitiken har kunnat enas om en minsta gemensamma nämnare, ger rapporten möjlighet att kunna bli ett kraftfullt redskap i de stundande förhandlingarna inom FN:s klimatkonvention och i nationellt beslutsfattande. Syntesrapportens sammanfattning för beslutsfattare har förutsättningar att vara ett effektivt sätt att nå ut med resultaten från flera år av välgranskad internationell forskning till beslutsfattare runt om i världen

Must implementation lead to fragmentation? : Giving substance to sustainable development by combining action-oriented, totalizing and reflexive research

The whole United Nations process of linking environment and development calls for one common agenda, an action plan that can join the global North and South in concerted action. Achieving sustainable development involves the integration of diverse issues, such as formation and implementation of international environmental treaties; trade relations; social issues; debt relief; alleviation of poverty; and change of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption etc. This complex and paramount task can tempt the research community to be too narrowly focused on action-oriented research. Even though science for sustainable development is thought to avoid fragmentation, in order to implement all the different issues currently included under the heading of sustainable development, they run the risk of being de-linked from the conceptual integration of the three pillars - environment, social and economic - and addressed semi-independently. Many researchers as well as funding agencies predominantly attach themselves to various forms of "sustainability." A large flora of prefix/suffix sustainability characterizes sustainable development research. New offspring concepts to sustainable development have evolved, such as sustainable ecology, social sustainability, economic sustainability, sustainable growth, urban sustainability, sustainable forestry, sustainable urbanisation etc. This might be an indication of a fragmentation of sustainable development implementation, and could lead to similar consequences as the discredited sectorisation, even though it is contradictory to the integrated rationale behind sustainable development. Since the three pillars interact on a global scale, it might be contra-productive, conceptually and in praxis, to associate specific projects to prefix or suffix sustainability. If environmental protection and social and economic development are globally interlinked, theories of sustainable development ought to have a totalizing ambition, even if it at the same time has to acknowledge the need for differentiated views on global sustainable development goals and actions. The need for totalizing theoretical analytical framework has to be combined with a reflexive and differentiated view on global sustainable developments. Today, reflexivity is a key concept in knowledge production. Yet, it is often not reflected in the framing of research for sustainable development, perhaps due to that the devotion to implementation and action oriented research has overshadowed the need for reflexivity. The inherent conflicts in sustainable development politics gain little attention. In policy documents of research funding agencies in the global North it appears as a consensus concept, whereas in international policy making it is filled with conflicting interests and interpretations. In spite of the ambiguities of the concept, many seem to identify the concept in line with the so-called ecological modernisation with a strong emphasis achieving sustainable development by regulating the use of scare resources and environmental degradation through market mechanisms, recycling, and technological innovations. If sustainable development problems are regarded as a temporary or adjustable dysfunctions in the present social or economic order, the questions asked and the solutions sought are different compared to if you see them as fundamental predicaments caused by structural errors in society. A small share of science for sustainable development projects appears to be designed to study the cultural, conceptual and ideological foundations of the sustainable development approach to which so much money is invested, at least in Sweden. Since the framing of a problem is intimately linked to the information sought and the approaches to solve it, it is evident that a broader research agenda would allow various ways to pose the questions. As applied research oriented towards implementing the dominating political agenda, science for sustainable development run the risk of lacking research that posits alternative framings, identifies new problems and reflects on wider implications of sustainable development policy. There is indeed not one agenda, one vision of the society of sustainable development. The visions of the good life, the utopian thinking, in sustainable development policy remains contested. Since sustainable development entails questions of value, political priorities, and balancing the three pillars, we are faced with a multitude of sustainable development visions and political alternatives. For instance, organizations in the South, such as South Centre, is calling for the South to elaborate a platform of its own on sustainable development while others seek to invoke the idea of an New International Economic Order. The presumption that we now know what the problem is, that it is solely action that is needed, can be precarious. Whose sustainable development visions is science going to facilitate? Since sustainable development policies always will be contested, action still have to be sought and applied research needed, but its assumptions and implications constantly reflected upon. Since sustainable development is a politically defined project, it is crucial that reflexive research that explores alternatives, new questions, different interpretations of the environmental situations and its solutions shall be able to get funding. In the clash between opposing perspectives, in the negations of the discursive research, new hindsight might be made. At the least it will provide us with preparedness for alternative policies, if current implementation efforts continue to come up short

Must implementation lead to fragmentation? : Giving substance to sustainable development by combining action-oriented, totalizing and reflexive research

The whole United Nations process of linking environment and development calls for one common agenda, an action plan that can join the global North and South in concerted action. Achieving sustainable development involves the integration of diverse issues, such as formation and implementation of international environmental treaties; trade relations; social issues; debt relief; alleviation of poverty; and change of unsustainable patterns of production and consumption etc. This complex and paramount task can tempt the research community to be too narrowly focused on action-oriented research. Even though science for sustainable development is thought to avoid fragmentation, in order to implement all the different issues currently included under the heading of sustainable development, they run the risk of being de-linked from the conceptual integration of the three pillars - environment, social and economic - and addressed semi-independently. Many researchers as well as funding agencies predominantly attach themselves to various forms of "sustainability." A large flora of prefix/suffix sustainability characterizes sustainable development research. New offspring concepts to sustainable development have evolved, such as sustainable ecology, social sustainability, economic sustainability, sustainable growth, urban sustainability, sustainable forestry, sustainable urbanisation etc. This might be an indication of a fragmentation of sustainable development implementation, and could lead to similar consequences as the discredited sectorisation, even though it is contradictory to the integrated rationale behind sustainable development. Since the three pillars interact on a global scale, it might be contra-productive, conceptually and in praxis, to associate specific projects to prefix or suffix sustainability. If environmental protection and social and economic development are globally interlinked, theories of sustainable development ought to have a totalizing ambition, even if it at the same time has to acknowledge the need for differentiated views on global sustainable development goals and actions. The need for totalizing theoretical analytical framework has to be combined with a reflexive and differentiated view on global sustainable developments. Today, reflexivity is a key concept in knowledge production. Yet, it is often not reflected in the framing of research for sustainable development, perhaps due to that the devotion to implementation and action oriented research has overshadowed the need for reflexivity. The inherent conflicts in sustainable development politics gain little attention. In policy documents of research funding agencies in the global North it appears as a consensus concept, whereas in international policy making it is filled with conflicting interests and interpretations. In spite of the ambiguities of the concept, many seem to identify the concept in line with the so-called ecological modernisation with a strong emphasis achieving sustainable development by regulating the use of scare resources and environmental degradation through market mechanisms, recycling, and technological innovations. If sustainable development problems are regarded as a temporary or adjustable dysfunctions in the present social or economic order, the questions asked and the solutions sought are different compared to if you see them as fundamental predicaments caused by structural errors in society. A small share of science for sustainable development projects appears to be designed to study the cultural, conceptual and ideological foundations of the sustainable development approach to which so much money is invested, at least in Sweden. Since the framing of a problem is intimately linked to the information sought and the approaches to solve it, it is evident that a broader research agenda would allow various ways to pose the questions. As applied research oriented towards implementing the dominating political agenda, science for sustainable development run the risk of lacking research that posits alternative framings, identifies new problems and reflects on wider implications of sustainable development policy. There is indeed not one agenda, one vision of the society of sustainable development. The visions of the good life, the utopian thinking, in sustainable development policy remains contested. Since sustainable development entails questions of value, political priorities, and balancing the three pillars, we are faced with a multitude of sustainable development visions and political alternatives. For instance, organizations in the South, such as South Centre, is calling for the South to elaborate a platform of its own on sustainable development while others seek to invoke the idea of an New International Economic Order. The presumption that we now know what the problem is, that it is solely action that is needed, can be precarious. Whose sustainable development visions is science going to facilitate? Since sustainable development policies always will be contested, action still have to be sought and applied research needed, but its assumptions and implications constantly reflected upon. Since sustainable development is a politically defined project, it is crucial that reflexive research that explores alternatives, new questions, different interpretations of the environmental situations and its solutions shall be able to get funding. In the clash between opposing perspectives, in the negations of the discursive research, new hindsight might be made. At the least it will provide us with preparedness for alternative policies, if current implementation efforts continue to come up short

Pros and Cons of International Biofuel Production : An overview of research and policy reports 2008

This briefing from the Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research presents a summary of research and policy reports on positive and negative aspects of liquid biofuels. It covers three areas:  economic  and  energy  security,  rural  development  and  agricultural  production  and environmental challenges. It will also shortly depict the cases of Brazilian ethanol as a model of processing agricultural crops to liquid fuels for transport, and finally cover the future bioenergy production potential in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The purpose of this briefing is to provide an overview of present discussions and to present arguments from a variety of organisations  and  scholars.  As  a  service  to  a  reader,  the  briefing  contains  an  extensive reference list for further studies. The reports and research covered in this briefing are quite disparate. Nevertheless, ten significant conclusions can be observed: •  Biofuels cannot solely substitute oil in meeting the expected future energy demand in transportation. •  Development of next-generation biofuels can ease the food vs. fuel competition since they can be processed from other sources of biomass than the major food crops. •  Countries in tropical regions are more suited for biomass production. However,  we lack sufficient research on future stresses compounded due to climate change  and economic globalisation. •  International trade rules, particularly governing agricultural commodities, as well  as development of standards and certifications will play a significant role in  shaping global, as well as local conditions of future biofuel production. Thus, the outcomes of trade  agreement  and  policies  will  impinge  on  development  goals  and  livelihood security in developing countries. •  An  important  factor  for  developing  countries  will  be  whether  biofuels  will  be considered as an agricultural or non-agricultural good by WTO. If they are classified as agricultural commodities they can be eligible for special measures such as subsidies for environmental reasons. But this may also be used to uphold agricultural subsidies in industrialised countries. •  Liquid  biofuel  production  can  be  beneficial  for  developing  countries  in  tropical regions. Present research indicates that rural communities in SSA may benefit if they hold control over the local or regional production conditions. •  Taking into account present conditions, food security of several SSA countries could be under strain caused by increased biofuel production. •  Depending on production conditions, SSA countries can stand to gain in the future. However,  we  lack  comprehensive  research  on  the  conditions  for  a  sustainable development of biofuel production which will benefit development aspirations. •  Although economies of scale is one factor to consider, sustainable development  in SSA can benefit from small-scale production since this type of agriculture can put less stress on environment, in contrast to large-scale production projects. •  The production of liquid biofuels in SSA should be directed to meet other important needs in addition to transports (in contrast to the Brazilian example)  like  heating, cooking and electricity generation