Carbon dioxide (CO\u2082) emissions from transportation contribute to anthropogenic climate change and are expected to increase significantly in the future. CO\u2082 emission inventories exist for various transportation modes at the global scale, but are rare at the subnational scale and even rarer for interurban (versus urban) transportation. In this dissertation, I present a detailed analysis of CO\u2082 emissions and emission factors for interurban transportation for the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada, and an analysis of a wide variety of emission scenarios for BC\u2019s interurban transportation system, comparing modelled emissions to the 2020 and 2050 greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the province\u2019s 2007 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act. Nine modes of transportation were included: passenger (private vehicles, ferries, aviation, intercity buses, trains) and freight (trucking, marine, rail, aviation). Annual CO\u2082 emissions from BC interurban transportation were approximately 11.2 Mt CO\u2082 in 2013, of which freight trucking was the greatest contributor with 48.5% of total CO\u2082 emissions. The second largest contributor was private vehicles (17.1% of total CO\u2082 emissions), while the third largest contributor was marine freight (16.8% of total CO\u2082 emissions). Of 106 scenarios modelling future changes to the interurban transportation system, only 15 were able to meet BC\u2019s 2050 emission reduction target, and only two were able to meet both the 2020 and 2050 targets (assuming interurban transportation had to meet the same emission reductions as prescribed for the economy as a whole). Only scenarios with the highest reduction rates were able to meet the reduction targets, and with every passing year, meeting them becomes more challenging.
First Nations communities, especially in remote areas, face economic, social, and environmental challenges that threaten their future sustainability. One avenue to enhance sustainability is to achieve energy self-sufficiency. The T'Sou-ke Nation on Vancouver Island, British Columbia is on the road to achieving this. In 2009, they successfully completed a Solar Community Project, which brought numerous benefits to the community and attracted the attention of other First Nations, including the remote First Nation of Skidegate in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Thereafter, Skidegate developed a unique partnership with T'Sou-ke Nation in 2010 in which T'Sou-ke became a solar mentor to Skidegate. My research evaluated whether this partnership was successful. I assessed the technical (applicability of the T'Sou-ke Solar Community Project to meet Skidegate's energy needs) and social (strength of the relationship) elements of success. Overall, the partnership was deemed highly successful by all parties. I also identified determinants of success that may be useful in creating other First Nations-to-First Nations partnerships for renewable energy development. --P. ii.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from civil aviation contribute to anthropogenic climate change and are expected to increase significantly in the future. GHG emission inventories exist for civil aviation at the global scale but not subnational scale. In this thesis, I present what seems to be the first detailed analysis of the carbon footprint (CF) of civil aviation at a subnational level together with an assessment of what key stakeholders are doing to mitigate their CF. I calculated the CF of civil aviation in British Columbia (BC), Canada, determined what efforts airlines and airports in BC are engaging in to mitigate it, and make recommendations on how to further decrease future GHG emissions. The annual CF of civil aviation in BC that is subject to the BC Carbon Tax is approximately 524,000 tonnes of CO2. Passenger flights account for 197,000 tonnes (38%), airport operations for 148,000 tonnes (28%), and passenger travel to and from airports for 179,000 tonnes (34%). Large airlines and airports, as well as small airlines in southern BC, are generally proactive in reducing their CF, while small airlines in northern BC and small airports are generally not. To further reduce the CF of civil aviation in BC, I recommend a major effort to reduce emissions from passenger travel to/from airports, improved stakeholder cooperation including better technology dissemination, enhanced passenger and employee education and awareness programs, high quality and more transparent offset programs, and incentives by the provincial government for airlines and airports to reduce their CF while remaining economically competitive. --P. ii.
The idea for a Law of the Atmosphere was introduced to the world in 1988 as an institutional approach to atmospheric problems as a whole, and for a brief period there was a high level of interest in the idea. But a Law of the Atmosphere was never established. In this thesis, I seek to answer the question: Why did a Law of the Atmosphere fail to become a regime during its 1988 to 1992 window of opportunity? I created a method designed to answer this question based on a comprehensive table of factors influencing establishment of international environmental institutions that were derived from the literatures on regime formation, commons governance, and international environmental cooperation. Using document analysis and interviews, I determined which factors from this table inhibited the Law of the Atmosphere from becoming a regime. High influence factors were available solutions, leadership and issue characteristics. Moderate influence factors were policy area, resource-user characteristics, knowledge, and context. --P. ii.
The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill was relatively small, yet generated significant society reverberations the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill was unambiguously large, but resulted in only a few societal rumblings. Both were often labelled crises, disasters, and/or catastrophes (CDCs). Utilizing frame theory, this thesis analyzed whether a relationship existed between the use of strong rhetoric (i.e., CDCs) and action taken to respond to the spills, by establishing what various actors meant when they framed them as CDCs, and by ascertaining how their action-oriented CDC frames correlated with the actual outcomes. This thesis found that the actors meant a great number and variety of things by framing the spills as CDCs, and that only the term disaster had a significant number of correlations with the spills' outcomes. The results help explain why global environmental problems (e.g., climate change), despite being labelled crises, disasters, and catastrophes, are not receiving greater action. --Leaf iii.
Oil provides huge economic benefits to oil companies and oil-producing countries however, oil production can have multiple adverse effects on the environment which in turn can affect people's lives. This problem appears to be most severe in oil-producing developing countries. In Nigeria, oil production has resulted in serious environmental damage and violent conflicts (which I refer to as environmental insecurity ). Why? In this research, I investigated the causal link between oil production and environmental insecurity in the Niger Delta using Thomas Homer-Dixon's well-known environmental security model. Data for use with the model derives from textual material and interviews. My findings and synthesis of results from the literature show that adverse environmental impacts, together with regulatory failure by the Nigerian government and exploitative practices by oil companies, led to a decrease in the supply of natural resources in the region (land, crops, forests, freshwater, fishing waters and fish), which in turn led to constrained economic productivity that, in some instances, precipitated violent conflict in the Niger Delta. Corruption and lack of enforcement were predominant factors explaining the failure of intervention measures designed to prevent violent conflict. --Leaf ii.
