A Tale of Three Cities : a comparative analysis of climate policy formulation in Swedish municipalities

The adage “think global, act local” can be a fitting description of how to address climate change. Municipalities are often responsible for implementing the measures required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and shift to a more climate-neutral development trajectory. However, there is a vast spectrum of municipal ambition regarding climate, and not all municipalities manage to have robust and ambitious climate policies. Sweden is a country that both has ambitious climate goals and affords a high amount of autonomy to local-level governing bodies. This thesis investigates how municipalities in Skåne, Sweden develop policies to address climate change, with a focus on how they approach the national “reduced climate impact” environmental quality objective. It seeks to unveil the conditions that enable ambitious climate policy at the municipal level by comparing Hässleholm, Vellinge, and Kristianstad, which exhibit many similar characteristics but have varying levels of climate policy success – which I define as having in place an ambitious and robust program to reduce climate impact. The theory of governmentality provides a lens through which to analyze my results. Via a coding process, I categorize the results for each case into the three components of governmentality: problematization, regimes, and endpoint. I look for similarities and differences across cases that could correspond with the municipalities’ levels of success, paying particular attention to characteristics that are present in Vellinge and Kristianstad but absent in Hässleholm. I then synthesize these findings and present them in their order of significance in determining climate policy success. This research suggests that the features most influential in enabling ambitious climate policy are driven individuals, a clear organizational structure, a strategic approach, and having clear political motivations such as a vision or reputational ambitions. A sense of municipal responsibility to address climate change and maintaining harmonized, up-to-date policy documents also have a notable influence. Public awareness of climate change impacts, membership of trans-municipal networks, and a desire for economic benefits associated with climate action seem to play a minor role in shaping municipal climate governance. Climate awareness amongst companies and being a signatory of a voluntary initiative to eliminate fossil fuels do not seem to impact climate policy success. This study contributes to sustainability science by offering insights on policymaking that could enhance coordination between multiple stakeholders and levels of governance as they seek practical solutions to the complex challenge of climate change

Adaptation to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Investigation of Capacity-Building and National Adaptation Programs of Action

The phenomenon of anthropogenic climate change requires immediate attention. Many of the most severe effects of climate change will occur in Sub-Saharan Africa. Least-developed countries (LDCs) in this region are particularly vulnerable to climate change, due to their geographical location and their poor ability to cope with the consequences. This study examines the various impacts, vulnerabilities, and adaptation strategies associated with climate change in sub-Saharan African LDCs, using Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Senegal as case studies. Each of these three countries has developed a National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA), a country-specific climate change adaptation plan designed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A number of theories on adaptation emphasize the importance of having the capacity to adapt. Interestingly, the NAPAs do not include capacity-building in their prioritized lists of adaptation strategies. I hypothesize that this omission can be attributed in part to the countries’ adaptation priorities and to the countries’ low levels of extant capacity. It may be the desire of the LDCs to create technology-based adaptation plans that can be implemented by even their most vulnerable groups, namely poor rural populations. Furthermore, colonial legacies and low levels of development have, in some cases, compromised the capacity of governments to carry out the most basic and immediate tasks. Building the capacity to respond to climate change is not always possible for the governments of LDCs

Large global variations in measured airborne metal concentrations driven by anthropogenic sources

Please read abstract in the article.All data are freely available as a public good at http://www.spartan-network.org.Bloomberg Philanthropies through the Health Effects Institute, by the ClimateWorks Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), the Environmental Health Fund (Israel), the Israel Science Foundation, Ministry of Research, Technology & Higher Education, under World Class University (WCU) managed by Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) through the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling, NASA Applied Science Program and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.www.nature.com/scientificreportsam2021Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog

Variation in global chemical composition of PM2.5: emerging results from SPARTAN

The Surface PARTiculate mAtter Network (SPARTAN) is a long-term project that includes characterization of chemical and physical attributes of aerosols from filter samples collected worldwide. This paper discusses the ongoing efforts of SPARTAN to define and quantify major ions and trace metals found in fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Our methods infer the spatial and temporal variability of PM2.5 in a cost-effective manner. Gravimetrically weighed filters represent multi-day averages of PM2.5, with a collocated nephelometer sampling air continuously. SPARTAN instruments are paired with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sun photometers to better understand the relationship between ground-level PM2.5 and columnar aerosol optical depth (AOD). We have examined the chemical composition of PM2.5 at 12 globally dispersed, densely populated urban locations and a site at Mammoth Cave (US) National Park used as a background comparison. So far, each SPARTAN location has been active between the years 2013 and 2016 over periods of 2-26 months, with an average period of 12 months per site. These sites have collectively gathered over 10 years of quality aerosol data. The major PM2.5 constituents across all sites (relative contribution±SD) are ammoniated sulfate (20%±11%), crustal material (13.4%±9.9%), equivalent black carbon (11.9%±8.4%), ammonium nitrate (4.7%±3.0%), sea salt (2.3%±1.6%), trace element oxides (1.0%±1.1%), water (7.2%±3.3%) at 35% RH, and residual matter (40%±24%). Analysis of filter samples reveals that several PM2.5 chemical components varied by more than an order of magnitude between sites. Ammoniated sulfate ranges from 1.1μg m-3 (Buenos Aires, Argentina) to 17μg m-3 (Kanpur, India in the dry season). Ammonium nitrate ranged from 0.2μg m-3 (Mammoth Cave, in summer) to 6.8 μg m-3 (Kanpur, dry season). Equivalent black carbon ranged from 0.7μg m-3 (Mammoth Cave) to over 8μg m-3 (Dhaka, Bangladesh and Kanpur, India). Comparison of SPARTAN vs. coincident measurements from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network at Mammoth Cave yielded a high degree of consistency for daily PM2.5 (r2 = 0.76, slope = 1.12), daily sulfate (r2 = 0.86, slope = 1.03), and mean fractions of all major PM2.5 components (within 6%). Major ions generally agree well with previous studies at the same urban locations (e.g. sulfate fractions agree within 4% for 8 out of 11 collocation comparisons). Enhanced anthropogenic dust fractions in large urban areas (e.g. Singapore, Kanpur, Hanoi, and Dhaka) are apparent from high Zn:Al ratios. The expected water contribution to aerosols is calculated via the hygroscopicity parameter κv for each filter. Mean aggregate values ranged from 0.15 (Ilorin) to 0.28 (Rehovot). The all-site parameter mean is 0.20±0.04. Chemical composition and water retention in each filter measurement allows inference of hourly PM2.5 at 35% relative humidity by merging with nephelometer measurements. These hourly PM2.5 estimates compare favourably with a beta attenuation monitor (MetOne) at the nearby US embassy in Beijing, with a coefficient of variation r2 = 0.67 (n = 3167), compared to r2 = 0.62 when κv was not considered. SPARTAN continues to provide an open-access database of PM2.5 compositional filter information and hourly mass collected from a global federation of instruments.Fil: Snider, Graydon. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Weagle, Crystal L.. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Murdymootoo, Kalaivani K.. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Ring, Amanda. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Ritchie, Yvonne. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Stone, Emily. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Walsh, Ainsley. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Akoshile, Clement. University Of Ilorin; NigeriaFil: Anh, Nguyen Xuan. Vietnamese Academy Of Science And Technology; VietnamFil: Balasubramanian, Rajasekhar. National University Of Singapore; SingapurFil: Brook, Jeff. University of Toronto; CanadáFil: Qonitan, Fatimah D.. Institut Teknologi Bandung; IndonesiaFil: Dong, Jinlu. Tsinghua University; ChinaFil: Griffith, Derek. The Council For Scientific And Industrial Research; SudáfricaFil: He, Kebin. Tsinghua University; ChinaFil: Holben, Brent N.. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Goddart Institute for Space Studies; Estados UnidosFil: Kahn, Ralph. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Goddart Institute for Space Studies; Estados UnidosFil: Lagrosas, Nofel. Manila University; FilipinasFil: Lestari, Puji. Institut Teknologi Bandung; IndonesiaFil: Ma, Zongwei. Nanjing University; ChinaFil: Misra, Amit. Indian Institute Of Technology; IndiaFil: Norford, Leslie K.. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Quel, Eduardo Jaime. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Salam, Abdus. University Of Dhaka; BangladeshFil: Schichtel, Bret. State University of Colorado - Fort Collins; Estados UnidosFil: Segev, Lior. Weizmann Institute Of Science Israel; IsraelFil: Tripathi, Sachchida. Indian Institute Of Technology; IndiaFil: Wang, Chien. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Yu, Chao. University Of Emory. Rollins School Of Public Health; Estados UnidosFil: Zhang, Qiang. Tsinghua University; ChinaFil: Zhang, Yuxuan. Tsinghua University; ChinaFil: Brauer, Michael. University of British Columbia; CanadáFil: Cohen, Aaron. Health Effects Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Gibson, Mark D.. Dalhousie University Halifax; CanadáFil: Liu, Yang. University Of Emory. Rollins School Of Public Health; Estados UnidosFil: Martins, J. Vanderlei. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Rudich, Yinon. Weizmann Institute Of Science Israel; IsraelFil: Martin, Randall V.. Dalhousie University Halifax; Canadá. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Estados Unido

Large global variations in measured airborne metal concentrations driven by anthropogenic sources

International audienceGlobally consistent measurements of airborne metal concentrations in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) are important for understanding potential health impacts, prioritizing air pollution mitigation strategies, and enabling global chemical transport model development. PM2.5 filter samples (N ~ 800 from 19 locations) collected from a globally distributed surface particulate matter sampling network (SPARTAN) between January 2013 and April 2019 were analyzed for particulate mass and trace metals content. Metal concentrations exhibited pronounced spatial variation, primarily driven by anthropogenic activities. PM2.5 levels of lead, arsenic, chromium, and zinc were significantly enriched at some locations by factors of 100-3000 compared to crustal concentrations. Levels of metals in PM2.5 and PM10 exceeded health guidelines at multiple sites. For example, Dhaka and Kanpur sites exceeded the US National Ambient Air 3-month Quality Standard for lead (150 ng m-3). Kanpur, Hanoi, Beijing and Dhaka sites had annual mean arsenic concentrations that approached or exceeded the World Health Organization's risk level for arsenic (6.6 ng m-3). The high concentrations of several potentially harmful metals in densely populated cites worldwide motivates expanded measurements and analyses