Office for Environmental Programs - Theses
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ItemSmarter ways to change: learning from innovative practice in road space reallocation( 2013)With an increasing focus on creating more compact, sustainable and liveable cites, the use of one particular part of our cities is being rethought - the use of roads. The dominance of cars for much of the last century has fixed attitudes and practices around road space use and management. It is likely therefore that policies seeking to reallocate road space to new, more sustainable and liveable uses will face barriers. Innovation is therefore not only required in thinking about how we use roads, but also about the processes by which changes to road space use are implemented. The current research examines five case studies which temporarily change the use of roads, and analyses the ways in which the use of temporary projects provides an innovative process to implement reallocation of to road space to new uses. The research findings reveal a number of innovative features of the process of change associated with using temporary projects. By nature, temporary projects create a test environment for new road uses. This enables greater risk-taking, as the change is not 'locked in'. It is argued that these conditions alter attitudes to proposed change, making the community, planners and politicians less apprehensive and open to exploring possibilities. Interestingly, this experimental and less risky environment allows new players to contribute to changing the use of roads: the community, including businesses, and also people from non-transport disciplines, such as urban designers and architects. Allowing for involvement of new contributors fosters innovation; new ideas are born as new viewpoints are brought to bear on changing the use of roads. Inherent in taking a 'temporary' approach is seeing if a change to road use actually works and finding out what the community thinks about it. This supports improved community engagement as well as stronger participation in government decision-making and active involvement with urban change. Designs made of temporary materials enhance flexibility and responsiveness, as designs can be tweaked in response to feedback and monitoring. In addition, interviewees experimenting with this approach describe a number of unanticipated advantages for government related to the process. These findings should spark more debate, research and experimentation with 'temporary' processes
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ItemAssessing perceptions pertaining to the vulnerability of marginalized groups and the potential policy implications for flood management in Pakistan( 2013)The present study assesses the perceptions of decision makers pertaining to the vulnerability of a particular marginalised group to floods in Pakistan, with potential policy implications in terms of adapting policy to meet the needs of `women small farmers'. The key research question is: How do decision makers in district Badin, and within the Pakistani federal government, interpret the vulnerability of women small farmers? The respondents or the decision makers here refer to practitioners at district level such as the relevant district disaster management authority, district agricultural extension department, representatives from organisations working on women issues, representatives of farmer groups, women political leaders, and relevant non-governmental organisations. The research also includes the policy makers at federal level, including National Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Climate Change, Federal Flood Commission and Ministry of National Food Security. For the focus of this research, perceptions of decision makers were studied in relation to the particular marginalised group of women small farmers. I used a political ecology framework to develop an understanding of marginalisation amongst this group, as perceived by the decision makers. A case study methodology was used to explore the perceptions of the respondents regarding marginalised groups, especially women small farmers. An in-depth interview method was chosen for the research and interviews were conducted in two stages. During stage I, the decision makers from district of Badin were interviewed over the telephone. Stage II was a more focused stage, which included face-to-face interviews of policy makers at the federal scale. The research demonstrates that women in general, as well as women small farmers specifically, are vulnerable even in the normal situations due to socio-cultural and economic factors, which favour men; this appears due to a prevailing patriarchal system. Disasters like floods make these vulnerabilities more explicit and make women small farmers physically, socio-culturally, and institutionally vulnerable to floods. The research is an important contribution towards the decision-making literature because of the emphasis on how decision makers perceive women small farmers' vulnerability and how their perceptions inform responses before, during and after floods in Pakistan.
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ItemClimate change mitigation in Singapore: challenges and opportunities( 2013)As greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase world-wide, the possibility of the occurrence of catastrophic climatic changes increases, and the need for countries to implement mitigation measures becomes increasingly important. When it comes to implementing measures to tackle these rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions, each country is faced with their own set of challenges and constrains. As a densely populated city-state with a lack of natural resources, high economic activity and limited land area, Singapore is faced with a range of challenges with regards to climate change mitigation. Despite these limitations, there are also opportunities and capabilities that the country can tap on, such as the technological expertise and a skilled workforce, and these can potentially help Singapore to overcome the challenges. As the economy continues to expand and the population continues to grow, Singapore has to consider environmental policy options that will not just reduce the emission intensity but will also result in a progressive decrease in the annual carbon emissions. Therefore, this paper will propose possible environmental policy options that has the potential to reduce emissions and is suitable to be implemented in Singapore to help her achieve her national reduction targets. This research will take on a qualitative-based approach to assess five selected environmental policy options - Renewable Energy Target, Feed-in Tariffs, Carbon Tax, Electricity Vending System and Energy Labelling Schemes. It will firstly demonstrate how the liberalisation of the electricity market, despite being an economically-driven political decision, has indirectly led to positive environmental changes, such as the increased contribution of natural gas in the country's fuel mix, which has reduced the annual increase in domestic emissions. Most importantly, this restructuring has provided a platform, which is able to promote the interaction with environmental policies that may impact on electricity prices and potentially influence changes to bring about emission reduction in the country. As Australia has a similar wholesale market and since some of the policy options that will be studied, interacts with this functioning market, similar policies in Australia will be used as a guideline in the discussion of this paper. Each environmental policy option will be analysed and evaluated based on their potential effectiveness to encourage emission reduction in the country. It is observed that with advantages in being a financial and clean technology hub, as well as having a skilled workforce, the promotion of investments in renewable energy has the potential to bring about emission reduction in the country. Furthermore, developing feedback mechanisms have been discerned to be important factors that have the capabilities to influence environmentally-conscious behaviours and potentially contribute to the efforts to reduce emissions in Singapore. Therefore, these suggest that a combination of the Renewable Energy Target, Electricity Vending System and Energy Labelling schemes is most likely to potentially achieve large-scale emission reduction for Singapore.
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ItemSocial carbon budgeting: voluntary targets for achieving a low-emissions lifestyle( 2013)It is now widely accepted that anthropogenic climate change is likely to reach dangerous levels in the absence of national and international policies that would see the dramatic reduction in human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. The likely outcome of this lack of policy is of a world that is not only significantly warmer that it is today but also significantly different in the make-up of the terrestrial biosphere. Current scientific analysis suggests that any changes to the global climate exceeding 2-degrees of warming poses potentially irrevocable changes to the global environment. Although it has been suggested that 2-degrees of warming may not actually constitute 'safe' levels of global warming, the international consensus appears to have settled on the goal of no more than a 2-degree world. Of all the developed countries in the world, the adverse impacts of anthropogenic climate change will affect Australia the greatest. Two issues that currently exist within Australian climate policy that is focused on addressing these issues are a) the insufficient abatement of emissions through the current national policy framework (Clean Energy Legislation) and b) disengagement with the general population on both the realities of anthropogenic climate change and the positive role the public can play in the mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. The policy tool that is suggested for addressing these problems is Social Carbon Budgeting, a voluntary-participation model utilizing the existing ideas of Personal Carbon Budgeting and Personal Carbon Trading. Social Carbon Budgeting (or SCB) encourages individuals to monitor and assess their daily greenhouse gas (CO2e) emissions from their consumption of goods and services and reduce these emissions in-line with daily targets that reflect a 'safe' emissions level. The daily target is based on an Equal per Capita approach for the entire globe, updated yearly in accordance with changes in global population. The conclusion is that Social Carbon Budgeting provides an opportunity to address the deficiencies that currently exist in the national climate policy framework and for engaging with individuals on the need to respond to anthropogenic climate change, and for the significant role individuals can play in reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.
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ItemA cautious approach to GMO regulation( 2013)The constant human population and events such as climate change hinder the achievement of global food security and threaten the effectiveness of current agricultural practices. To address this issues the need for technological intervention is necessary. That is the case of GM technology, which is being highly implemented around the globe to increase crops' yields, enhance nutrimental value in foods and feed, increase crops resistance to extreme conditions and pesticides among other activities. Nevertheless, the implementation of GMOs involves risks such as toxicity, the creation of super-weeds and genetic contamination. GMOs can bring multiple benefits and represent one of the most promising strategies to achieve global food security. In order to take advantage of such benefits and avoid the risks that GMOs involve they should be managed with precaution. It is through proper regulation that this cautious approach can be achieved. Examples of current regulations are evidence of the lack of precaution and the consequences of it. Such regulations include the Law on the Production, Certification and Commerce of Seeds, the Law on Plant Health and the General Law of Ecological Equilibrium. This Mexican frameworks stand out for its almost non existent precaution regarding the management of GMOs. Consequences of such thoughtless regulations can be summarised in the Mexican maize tragedy. An event triggered by the signature of the NAFTA treaty in 1994 that lead to economic crisis headed by the genetic contamination of GM maize imported from the United States, the country had poor and deceiving precautionary regulations. On the other hand, examples of highly strict regulations are evidence of how inflexibility can hinder the elution of technology. Such regulations includes the Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment, the Regulation (EC) 258/97 on novel foods and food ingredients, the Regulation (EC) 1829/2003 on novel food and feed and the Regulation (EC) 1830/2003 on traceability and labelling of GMOs an GM products (Directive 2001/18/EC on the deliberate release of GMOs [2001]). These regulations lead the EU approach to a state of 'suspended animation' regarding the advances in GM technology. The description of a 'proper GMO regulation' provided in the present document was obtained by analysing and comparing both approaches. Proper legislation can be defined as uncertainty-wise regulatory frameworks that implements the precautionary principle and risk assessment measures in a coherent-safe directed way, implements a cautious but flexible rigour and is highly specific. In the same way, a proper regulatory framework should also be shaped by safety-relevant stake holders, those advocating for the prevalence of biological diversity, environmental health, sustainability and hunger alleviation rather that those advocating for personal interests and the enrichment of a few. GMOs and such technology should serve not lucrative purposes but those of sustainability and famine alleviation. Under a proper regulatory framework as the one described above is how a cautious approach to GMO legislation can allow the exploitation of the GM benefits in order to increase the effectiveness of agricultural practices and achieve global food security in the light of major challenges such as climate change, the continuous grow of the human population as well as the exhaustion of natural resources whilst avoiding the risks that GM technology involves