| 1. |
- Brogaard, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Climate extremes – a study of vulnerability, adaptation, and loss & damage in relation to the 2018 drought, focusing on Southern Sweden
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The extreme weather in terms of drought and heat, which prevailed in Northern Europe during the growing season 2018, had serious consequences for agriculture and farmers in Sweden. Many questions regarding farm production came to a head as drought struck directly against farmers land, economy and wellbeing. This paper argues that it is essential to deeper investigate farmer’s and other land user’s experiences and actions during the drought period and the immediately following situation, also in a high-income country context. The overall aim is therefore to increase the knowledge on multiple factor vulnerability and adaptive capacities with insights across selected rural livelihoods, focusing on Southern Sweden. We emphasize questions such as who, when and how rural land users are affected. In the study, we interpret loss and damage as “limits to adaptation” and consider both economic and non-economic dimensions for crop growers, animal keepers and horse businesses. The study is mainly based on qualitative data collection methods, such as semi-structured interviews in combination with seasonal calendars, and complemented with questionnaires.Preliminary findings indicate that impacts on crop growers are highly related to possibilities for irrigation and access to water use permits, but also to soil quality. In comparison to animal keepers their experienced impact can be considered being ‘intermediate’ in temporal terms. For animal keepers the experienced impacts are simultaneously more immediate, due to acute fodder shortage, and more long term, because of changing stock compositions, animal health, and reproduction – possibly also giving rise to higher levels of concern and worry. In the paper we further discuss if, and when, rural livelihoods are potentially given up in the wake of extreme weather events. We believe that this study can help define factors of vulnerability, loss and damage in a Global North context.
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| 2. |
- Brogaard, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Does Gender matter in energy (justice) research? : A review on energy justice dimensions of the low carbon transition
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The expanding energy justice scholarship increasingly discusses the importance of equity concerns in the context of global decarbonization. How to equitably distribute the benefits and burdens of energy systems and ensure an inclusive and socially acceptable change, constitutes vital prerequisites for the transition to a low-carbon society. Energy, in a Northern context, is seen as gender-neutral; women and men are regarded as equal in their uses of and views about energy, and policies accurately reflect the needs and wishes of the population. In fact the research has shown that energy issues can be heavily gendered. There are also gender differences in environmental concerns and the ways in which men and women’s everyday lives are impacted by energy conservation.The aim of this research is to produce a gender - conscious database of research on renewable energy transitions in OECD countries. The geographical focus is responding to the limited analysis available on gender on renewable energy in the high income country context. Based on a selection of critical cases and a “narrative review procedure” the paper then aims to identify patterns in the existing research.
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| 3. |
- Brogaard, Sara, et al.
(författare)
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Think H2O! – An educational partnership to raise students’ awareness of the water challenges
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Think H2O! – An educational partnership to raise students’ awareness of the water challenges Introduction: To secure future access to safe water is one of the most important sustainability challenges, on local and global level. Water is a cause of conflict and cooperation in an increasingly complex world. This crucial challenge requires a transdisciplinary approach (Segalàs & Tejedor, 2013) and extensive educational efforts and continuous engagement of many different stakeholders and actors. Sydvatten AB and Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) cooperate in several educational projects Sydvatten is a non-profit, municipality-owned company that produces drinking water for 900,000 residents in the south of Sweden and has a long-term responsibility to ensure future supply of drinking water for this region. LUCSUS is a university platform for education, research and cooperation inside and outside academia on questions related to sustainable development. Objectives: This paper gives an example of how different stakeholders and actors can work together in educational projects to highlight the value of water and to increase young people’s awareness, knowledge and understanding of water issues. More specifically the project aims to demonstrate the wide range of topics within water challenges and to encourage students to further education or engagement to promote sustainable development within the water sector. Methods: In the long-term project Think H2 O! Sydvatten offers teachers and their students in upper secondary school, a scholarship for a two-day watercourse at lake Bolmen, which is one of the most important resources for drinking water in Sweden. The course activities are a mix of workshops, lectures, role-play, experiments, canoeing, camping and outdoor cooking. The teachers and facilitators are from LUCSUS, Sydvatten, Vildmarksgymnasiet (the local Wilderness school) and the local business Tiraholms Fisk. The many partners involved give the students access to different competencies, skills and experiences. Master students at Lund University have developed some of the teaching material. Results: This collaboration emphasizes the transdisciplinary aspects of water, which increase the pedagogical value. The results are based on three pilot groups during 2014, with totally 150 students. The students’ evaluations demonstrate increased awareness of the value of water and a deeper understanding of the complexity of water challenges. Conclusion: The promising results show the great potential of the project and during 2015 another 500 students will be invited to participate. Despite the difficulties to evaluate the lasting effects, it is the intention of Sydvatten, the funder, to expand the project to a long-term investment. Due to demanding future sustainability challenges, it is Sydvatten’s and LUCSUS’ responsibility, as community stakeholders, to promote greater public awareness of the value of water. The project Think H2 O! is an example of social responsibility of actors in the public sector. Keywords: education, partnership, water challenges, value of water
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| 4. |
- Engström, Kerstin, et al.
(författare)
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Assessing uncertainties in global cropland futures using a conditional probabilistic modelling framework
- 2016
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Ingår i: Earth System Dynamics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 2190-4979 .- 2190-4987. ; 7:4, s. 893-915
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a modelling framework to simulate probabilistic futures of global cropland areas that are conditional on the SSP (shared socio-economic pathway) scenarios. Simulations are based on the Parsimonious Land Use Model (PLUM) linked with the global dynamic vegetation model LPJ-GUESS (Lund-Potsdam-Jena General Ecosystem Simulator) using socio-economic data from the SSPs and climate data from the RCPs (representative concentration pathways). The simulated range of global cropland is 893-2380 Mha in 2100 (± 1 standard deviation), with the main uncertainties arising from differences in the socio-economic conditions prescribed by the SSP scenarios and the assumptions that underpin the translation of qualitative SSP storylines into quantitative model input parameters. Uncertainties in the assumptions for population growth, technological change and cropland degradation were found to be the most important for global cropland, while uncertainty in food consumption had less influence on the results. The uncertainties arising from climate variability and the differences between climate change scenarios do not strongly affect the range of global cropland futures. Some overlap occurred across all of the conditional probabilistic futures, except for those based on SSP3. We conclude that completely different socio-economic and climate change futures, although sharing low to medium population development, can result in very similar cropland areas on the aggregated global scale.
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| 5. |
- Goodwin, Sean, et al.
(författare)
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Values held by Swedish primary school students towards forest ecosystems and the relevance for a nature’s contribution to people approach
- 2019
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Ingår i: Ecosystems and People. - 2639-5916. ; 15:1, s. 331-346
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How the concept of value is defined within ecosystem services operates as a filter through which important ecosystem features are identified by the specific benefits they provide to society and individuals. This value narrative reflects intrinsic and instrumental concepts which have been challenged by the Nature’s Contribution to People approach in additionally highlighting the importance of relational values, stemming from socio-cultural and ethical dimensions of human relationships with nature and ecosystems. Perceived as important for the interface between ecosystems and society, relational values are yet to be operationalised in ecosystem assessment processes. This study addresses the question of how this can be done by using a mixed method approach encompassing quantitative and qualitative data and methodologies. Our study focuses on how school children aged 10-12 years in Sweden (n=400) value forest ecosystem services, and further hints at the contextual factors that mediate their value perception. Children are an important demographic for reasons of intergenerational equity, and because of the temporal inertia of intensively managed forest ecosystems in Sweden. Our results show that students display complex notions of value encompassing intrinsic, instrumental and relational values alike, highlighting the importance of a broader discussion on the valuation of ecosystems through mixed methods approaches.
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| 6. |
- Harnesk, David, et al.
(författare)
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Regulating a global value chain with the European Union's sustainability criteria – experiences from the Swedish liquid transport biofuel sector
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 153, s. 580-591
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite promises that they can contribute toward more environmentally beneficial transportation there are many sustainability concerns about liquid transport biofuels. In response to pressure from civil society, the European Union (EU) has introduced sustainability criteria for biofuels. A hybrid regulatory system involving state and non-state actors stipulates that retailers and producers must comply to be eligible for fiscal support such as tax exemptions. Flexibility in the system allows choice between different means of compliance, including a range of voluntary schemes. We present an analysis of views within the Swedish liquid transport biofuel sector in 2012 – a year after the introduction of EU sustainability criteria. Using document analysis, official statistics, and a survey, we use four key structures of global value chains — input–output structure, territorial configuration, institutional framework, and firm-level chain governance structure — to structure an analysis of biofuel value chain coordination. This yields three main findings regarding how the Swedish liquid transport biofuel system operates within, and views, the new regulatory framework. Firstly that it uses a broad portfolio of feedstock mainly from within Europe, seemingly avoiding countries where any supply conditions may be in doubt; second, larger retailers and producers achieve compliance without the need to provide additional social sustainability information; third, that actors exhibit predominantly Eurocentric perspectives on sustainability, express confidence that their supply chains have strong ‘sustainability performance’ and desire long-term policy stability. We conclude that despite a deep critique of the sustainability of biofuels amongst civil society and academia, EU regulation allows for production systems that reflect a European- and climate change mitigation-centred view on biofuel ‘sustainability’.
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| 7. |
- Harnesk, David, et al.
(författare)
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Social Dynamics of Renewable Energy—How the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive Triggers Land Pressure in Tanzania
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Environment and Development. - : SAGE Publications. - 1070-4965. ; 26:2, s. 156-185
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The European Union plays a globally influential role in environmental legislation, with policies and regulation rooted in particular norms. Through a narrative on regulatory capitalism, ecological modernization, and diffusion, we trace how the promotion of renewable energy in transport through subsidies, mandatory targets, and prescriptive criteria for liquid biofuels mobilize social forces for its market development. The study identifies prevailing norms, mechanisms of decision making, and the network of actors involved in this regulatory regime and also identifies where and through whom its expansion influenced decisions in Tanzania. The findings show how this regime emphasizes systematic eco-innovation of energy technologies, has a substitutable approach to natural capital, and subordinates social concerns to economic efficiency. The analysis shows how this regime mobilized a broader network of actors with similar interests, who mediated the political space of liquid biofuels in Tanzania in ways which conflicted with a domestic critique concerning land use.
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| 8. |
- Islar, Mine, et al.
(författare)
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Feasibility of energy justice: Exploring national and local efforts for energy development in Nepal
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energy Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-6777 .- 0301-4215. ; 105, s. 668-676
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The energy justice framework serves as an important decision-making tool in order to understand how different principles of justice can inform energy systems and policies. The realization of the urgency of providing modern energy technology and services particularly to rural areas has prompted both the Nepalese government and development institutions to focus on community-run renewable energy facilities. It is argued that off-grid and micro-scale energy development offers an alternative path to fossil-fuel use and top-down resource management as they democratize the grid and increase marginalized communities' access to renewable energy, education and health care. However, Nepal's energy development is also heavily influenced by demands from the fast-growing economies of neighboring countries such as China and India. As a result, this article evaluates the Nepalese national energy policies by applying the key aspects of the energy justice framework and showing the feasibility constraints due to geopolitical and biophysical factors to the implementation of energy just policies in this developing country context. The empirical evidence is derived from interviews during a one-month fieldwork in the Lalitpur and Katmandu districts of Nepal, site-visits, discourse analysis of expert statements, government policies and newspaper articles as well literature review on peer-review articles.
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