The transformational potential of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions in Tanzania: assessing the concept’s cultural legitimacy among stakeholders in the solar energy sector

While energy-sector emissions remain the biggest source of climate change, many least-developed countries still invest in fossil-fuel development paths. These countries generally have high levels of fossil-fuel technology lock-in and low capacities to change, making the shift to sustainable energy difficult. Tanzania, a telling example, is projected to triple fossil-fuel power production in the next decade. This article assesses the potential to use internationally supported Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to develop solar energy in Tanzania and contribute to transformational change of the electricity supply system. By assessing the cultural legitimacy of NAMAs among key stakeholders in the solar energy sector, we analyse the conditions for successful uptake of the concept in (1) national political thought and institutional frameworks and (2) the solar energy niche. Interview data are analysed from a multi-level perspective on transition, focusing on its cultural dimension. Several framings undermining legitimacy are articulated, such as attaching low-actor credibility to responsible agencies and the concept’s poor fit with political priorities. Actors that discern opportunities for NAMAs could, however, draw on a framing of high commensurability between experienced social needs and opportunities to use NAMAs to address them through climate-compatible development. This legitimises NAMAs and could challenge opposing framings.     

Still some way to go: institutionalisation of sustainability in German local governments

There is a widespread consensus among sustainability experts about the need for ambitious transformative practices in order for a sustainable development to progress. Agenda 21 emphasised the need for multilevel and multi-actor governance and explicitly focused on the local level. The conceptual and analytical preference of governance beyond government has directed attention towards the interaction between state and non-state actors. The present article focuses on the role of (local) state institutions in sustainability governance. We argue that an effective implementation of sustainability in government institutions is a precondition for a successful multi-stakeholder governance of a sustainable development. The guiding question of this article is: How has sustainability been institutionalised in local governments in Germany in the last 20 years after Agenda 21 was adopted? Based on a conceptual framework, we are presenting the empirical results of a survey of 371 German cities and municipalities in this article, which primarily aims at providing empirical evidence on to what extent sustainability has been institutionalised in German local governments. The article ends with discussing the potential reasons for the institutionalisation deficit observed and gives an outlook on the potential for developing a sustainability state, that is, a state dedicated to institutionalising sustainability.     

Water Footprint of 65 Mid‐ to Large‐Sized U.S. Cities and Their Metropolitan Areas

Conventional indicators of water use for urban areas account primarily for direct water use. In contrast, our objective here is to employ the water footprint (WF) concept and methodology to include the virtual or indirect water use to assess the production‐side and consumption‐side WF of 65 United States (U.S.) cities. The 65 cities include the largest metropolitan areas and some of the major mid‐sized cities in the U.S. We use metropolitan areas to define our city boundaries as this is the native spatial resolution of the main datasets used. To estimate the urban WFs, we integrated large and disparate datasets, including commodity flow (agricultural, livestock, and industrial commodities), water use, and socioeconomic data. By analyzing the estimated WF values, we found indirect water use accounts on average for 66% of the WF of consumption. We found some cities are net virtual water exporters (11 of 65) because they rely heavily on direct water uses or are heavy producers of industrial commodities. Also, WF patterns vary widely across the U.S. but regional patterns seem to emerge. For example, the dense cities of the U.S. northeast megaregion have a significantly low per capita WF relative to the other cities, while cities in the Gulf Coast megaregion have a significantly higher industrial WF of production and consumption. Furthermore, there is inequality in the WF of consumption where a few cities account for a disproportionate share of the total U.S. urban water uses.     

Energy,exergy analysis,and sustainability assessment of different engine powers for helicopter engines

The rapid decrease of energy resources has accelerated studies on energy efficiency. Energy efficiency refers to the effective use of energy, in other words, completing a specific task to the required standard by using less energy. Exergy is an effective instrument to indicate the effective and sustainable use of energy in systems and processes. Transportation is an important part of human life. The studies on energy saving and the effective use of energy in different areas around the world have also increased for transportation systems and vehicles. With the more effective use of fuel, there will be potential benefits for the environment as well as a reduction in operating costs. This study includes energy and exergy analyses as well as a sustainability assessment by using C₈H₁₆ as a fuel at different engine powers (150–600 SHP (shaft horse power)), for the piston-prop helicopter engine. The maximum exergetic sustainability index was found at the power that provided the maximum energy and exergy efficiency. As a result of this index, the lowest waste exergy ratio, the lowest exergy destruction factor, and the lowest environmental impact factor were obtained. The highest exergy destruction and the highest exergy loss value were obtained at maximum power (600 SHP).     

Towards a more effective EIA in transport planning: a literature review to derive interventions and mechanisms to improve knowledge integration

A set of process-related barriers negatively determines the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in transport planning. Recent research highlights the unstructured stakeholder involvement and inefficient public participation in earlier phases of EIA as key bottlenecks. While the academic literature has produced promising theories for addressing these barriers, they have rarely been translated into solutions applicable and testable in practice. In order to bridge this theory–practice gap, we present a systematic literature review of interventions and mechanisms aimed at facilitating the integration of different sources and types of knowledge during the scoping phase of EIA. This review explores if and how interventions and mechanisms have been conducted in practice; if and why they worked or did not work and how relevant they are for EIA in transport planning. Based on this review, we distil a set of three specific interventions and trigger mechanisms applicable in the context of EIA in transport planning.     

Status and trends in EFlows in southern Africa

Environmental Flows (EFlows) are defined as the quantity, timing and quality of the flow of water, sediment and biota necessary to sustain freshwater and estuarine ecosystems, and the human livelihoods and well-being that depend on these ecosystems. As such they are a vital component of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM). A recent survey found that, in general, Africa lags behind schedule with respect to the global SDG Target 6.5 to implement IWRM at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate. This web-based review explores progress made in EFlows Assessments and implementing their outcomes in southern Africa. It outlines the apparent impetus to the uptake of EFlows provided by legislation, common funding mechanisms for EFlows assessment and evolving trends in EFlows assessment. It also highlights instances of implementation of EFlows in both in-country and transboundary settings.     

Simulation of Combined Best Management Practices and Low Impact Development for Sustainable Stormwater Management1

Damodaram, Chandana, Marcio H. Giacomoni, C. Prakash Khedun, Hillary Holmes, Andrea Ryan, William Saour, and Emily M. Zechman, 2010. Simulation of Combined Best Management Practices and Low Impact Development for Sustainable Stormwater Management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1-12. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752-1688.2010.00462.x Abstract: Urbanization causes increased stormwater runoff volumes, leading to erosion, flooding, and the degradation of instream ecosystem health. Although Best Management Practices (BMPs) are used widely as a means for controlling flood runoff events, Low Impact Development (LID) options have been proposed as an alternative approach to better mimic the natural flow regime by using decentralized designs to control stormwater runoff at the source, rather than at a centralized location in the watershed. For highly urbanized areas, LID practices such as rainwater harvesting, green roofs, and permeable pavements can be used to retrofit existing infrastructure and reduce runoff volumes and peak flows. This paper describes a modeling approach to incorporate these LID practices in an existing hydrologic model to estimate the effects of LID choices on streamflow. The modeling approach has been applied to a watershed located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, to predict the stormwater reductions resulting from retrofitting existing infrastructure with LID technologies. Results demonstrate that use of these LID practices yield significant stormwater control for small events and less control for flood events. A combined BMP-LID approach is tested for runoff control for both flood and frequent rainfall events.     

Phosphate rock formation and marine phosphorus geochemistry: the deep time perspective

The role that phosphorite formation, the ultimate source rock for fertilizer phosphate reserves, plays in the marine phosphorus (P) cycle has long been debated. A shift has occurred from early models that evoked strikingly different oceanic P cycling during times of widespread phosphorite deposition to current thinking that phosphorite deposits may be lucky survivors of a series of inter-related tectonic, geochemical, sedimentological, and oceanic conditions. This paradigm shift has been facilitated by an awareness of the widespread nature of phosphogenesis—the formation of authigenic P-bearing minerals in marine sediments that contributes to phosphorite formation. This process occurs not just in continental margin sediments, but in deep sea oozes as well, and helps to clarify the driving forces behind phosphorite formation and links to marine P geochemistry.Two processes come into play to make phosphorite deposits: chemical dynamism and physical dynamism. Chemical dynamism involves the diagenetic release and subsequent concentration of P-bearing minerals particularly in horizons, controlled by a number of sedimentological and biogeochemical factors. Physical dynamism involves the reworking and sedimentary capping of P-rich sediments, which can either concentrate the relatively heavy and insoluble disseminated P-bearing minerals or provide an episodic change in sedimentology to concentrate chemically mobilized P. Both processes can result from along-margin current dynamics and/or sea level variations. Interestingly, net P accumulation rates are highest (i.e., the P removal pump is most efficient) when phosphorites are not forming. Both physical and chemical pathways involve processes not dominant in deep sea environments and in fact not often coincide in space and time even on continental margins, contributing to the rarity of high-quality phosphorite deposits and the limitation of phosphate rock reserves. This limitation is becoming critical, as the human demand for P far outstrips the geologic replacement for P and few prospects exist for new discoveries of phosphate rock.     

Governance experiments in climate action: empirical findings from the 28 European Union countries

Climate targets call for novel policy measures to facilitate widespread adoption of low-carbon solutions and innovations. The literature on socio-technical systems argues that experimentation has a prominent role in enabling sustainability transition. Experiments represent ways of testing new ideas and methods across a wide range of policy fields. Governance experiments in particular can support accelerated diffusion of new solutions, because they integrate policy with innovations. Here, types of success factors in the implementation of governance experiments to mitigate climate change are examined. Statistical analysis of sustainability innovations in the 28 European Union countries indicates that the types of success factors in governance experiments differ from those of product and social experiments. Governance experimentation is more positioned within socio-technical regimes than in strategic niches. These results suggest that governance experiments may indeed provide new transition opportunities towards low-carbon societies.     

Paris agreement on climate change and Botswana’s Vision 2036: an examination of linkages

Sustainable use of natural resources and sustainable development are concepts that are gaining momentum globally in the advent of global warming and climate change. The threshold for the entry in force of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was achieved exactly 5 days after the unveiling of Botswana’s Vision 2036 document. This development framework envisages sustainable economic development and climate change adaptation. This article uses exploratory research methodology of systematic document analysis to analyze these principles in the context of Botswana. It investigates government's intentions in achieving the third pillar of the national vision. Botswana has declared its intensions to reduce carbon emissions by 15% by 2030 through the intended nationally determined contributions. While the country’s ambitions are largely forward-looking and aligned with those of the Paris Agreement, the economic diversification plans of Botswana threaten to potentially contribute significantly to the emission of greenhouse gases. The article applies sustainability and/or sustainable development theory in examining the relationship between the Paris Agreement and Botswana’s vision. It concludes that there is link between the two documents, both of which are anchored of the development which is environmentally sustainable. It further concludes that developing nations should make international commitments which are aligned to their developmental plans.