Ilmastotoimet ja sosiaalipolitiikka

Kansalaisten ja yhteisöjen ilmastotoimet

Green electricity products in the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland

In liberalized electricity markets, suppliers are offering several kinds of voluntary green electricity products marketed as environmentally friendly. This paper focuses on the development of these voluntary markets at household level in the UK, Germany and Finland. Since there are already existing renewable energy policies regulating and encouraging the use of renewable energy, it is important to consider whether voluntary products offer real additional benefits above these policies. Problems such as double counting or re-marketing hydropower produced in existing plants are identified. According to our study, the demand varies between countries: in Germany the number of green electricity c…

Social vulnerability to climate policies: Building a matrix to assess policy impacts on well-being

In this article, we address the social vulnerability of people to climate mitigation policies and contribute to assessing the social impacts of climate policies by introducing a matrix tool for conducting vulnerability assessments and participatory climate policy planning. The matrix serves as a methodological tool for identifying social groups in their social spaces. First, we lay the foundation for the matrix by linking social vulnerability to equality and justice, demonstrating the importance of addressing social vulnerability in climate policy design and research. Next, we introduce the ways in which social vulnerability has been addressed in the integration of social and climate policy…

Osallistaminen ilmastopolitiikassa

Climate Change Adaptation and Food Supply Chain Management : An overview

This article has no abstract. nonPeerReviewed

Impacts of Green Electricity Markets in the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland

In liberalized electricity markets, a wide variety of competing green electricity products are available to customers in addition to competition on tariff price. These voluntary products are marketed as environmentally friendly and claimed to support renewable energy production, new capacity building and offer other environmental benefits. We review products in the UK, Germany and Finland and find that they encompass different mechanisms such as renewable sourcing, green funds or carbon offsetting. The interface between voluntary markets and renewable energy policies is especially studied. We assess if voluntary products offer additional benefits and identify possible problems like double c…

Ovia yhteiskuntatieteisiin

Ilmastotoimien sosiaalinen hyväksyttävyys

Green energy products in the United Kingdom, Germany and Finland

In liberalized electricity markets, suppliers are offering several kinds of voluntary green electricity products marketed as environmentally friendly. This paper focuses on the development of these voluntary markets at household level in the UK, Germany and Finland. Since there are already existing renewable energy policies regulating and encouraging the use of renewable energy, it is important to consider whether voluntary products offer real additional benefits above these policies. Problems such as double counting or re-marketing hydropower produced in existing plants are identified. According to our study, the demand varies between countries: in Germany the number of green electricity c…

Climate Change and Energy Issues in the North

Highly industrialized societies are mostly responsible for the emerging anthropogenic climate change. There are different ways to measure this responsibility (e.g., whether based on causal contribution or strict responsibility, see Muller et al. 2007). However, regardless of the specific method applied to measure the impact, presently, the USA and the EU are the global leaders in green house gas emissions with countries such as China, India and Brazil following closely behind. Globally, GHG emissions are still increasing among the highly industrialized countries, particularly in the USA – a country that never ratified the Kyoto Protocol. However, the EU has managed to curb its emissions, co…

Experiments in sustainable rural livelihood in Finland

This paper addresses rural development and farm level action in Finland by posing the following main questions: What is the pioneering potential of small-scale entrepreneurship in enhancing rural sustainability? What are the specialisations feasible for such entrepreneurship in the present societal circumstances? What kind of local networking does it take to sustain on-farm activity for rural sustainability? We present empirical evidence from Central Finland about the ways in which both local food entrepreneurship and farm-based renewable energy production add to the rural livelihood and particularly to its social dimension. It is concluded that there is a potential overall impact on sustai…

Purity and Dirt as Social Constructions: Environmental Health in an Urban Shantytown of Lagos

The focus of this article, on everyday life management, emerges from a theoretical discussion about culturally specific attitudes to environmental health. Local perceptions of purity and dirt in an urban shantytown of Lagos, Nigeria, are examined through a case study of the Amukoko urban district. The qualitative data is from two fieldwork phases carried out in 1998 and 2001 in Lagos, consisting of eleven in-depth interviews, eight focus group discussions and participatory observations among Yoruba women and men. In different communities, perceptions of purity and dirt are not self-evident in terms of their meaning, but reflect the commonly shared values and moral codes of the community. Ou…

Kehitysmaatutkimuksesta kansainvälisen kehitystyön tutkimukseen

Social Acceptance of Climate Change Adaptation in Farms and Food Enterprises : a Case Study in Finland

This article identifies perceived climate change risks and adaptation aspects among farms and food processing enterprises using a case study in Finland. In addition, the article pinpoints key factors that contribute to the social acceptance of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies in the food system. The purpose is to study the willingness of farms and food enterprises to accept and adapt to different climate policy implementation. The research data consists of 27 thematic interviews conducted in 2012 and 2013. The main research questions were: 1. What risks does climate change pose to farms and food enterprises? 2. What adaptation features can be identified in farms and food en…

Introduction: Energy, Policy and the Environment: Modeling Sustainable Development for the North

Climate change is unequivocal (IPCC 2007) and it has brought questions of energy and the environment to the forefront. It is unclear to what extent the traditional environmental concern and environmental policy suffice in addressing issues such as climate change while global greenhouse gases continue to increase at a steady rate, as does the depletion of fossil fuels. Ensuring the availability of energy is the key to maintaining current levels of well-being in societies and growth in the global economy. Given that production and utilization of energy and the environment are inherently interlinked, energy policies and changes in economic structures, which focus on alternative modes of energy…

Multilevel Governance for Climate Change Adaptation in Food Supply Chains

The vulnerability of food supply chains to climate change is higher compared to other industries due to its dependency on climatic conditions, temperature and water supply. As a robust response to the vulnerability of food supply chains, it is essential to find ways of linking the concepts of sustainable development, climate change adaptation and risk governance into one paradigm. The risk governance of food supply chains is conducted by and across both private and public spheres. Hence, in this chapter, we introduce a dual system of governance to match the objectives of climate change adaptation, and discuss the multiplicity and potential integration of both corporate-led private governanc…