Suchergebnisse

There is building consensus that nonstate actors have the potential to drive more ambitious action toward climate targets than governments, thus driving the necessary transition to ensure that humanity remains within a safe operating space. These bottom-up mitigation activities, however, require individual targets on both direct and indirect (upstream) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to reconcile trade-offs between global and local sustainability goals. Here we use a scenario-driven approach based on a global multiregional input-output (GMRIO) model to develop scope 3 emission reduction targets for individual economic sectors, comparable across countries and geographies. Under an ambitious carbon mitigation scenario for 2035 (that follows a trajectory of 1.75 °C total warming by 2100), global upstream scope 3 emission intensities need to be reduced by an additional 54% compared to a baseline scenario with reference technology. On a sectoral basis, this is equivalent to a 58-67% reduction in energy, transport, and materials, a 50-52% reduction in manufacturing, services, and buildings, and a 39% reduction in agriculture, forestry, and other land use. By aligning indirect supply chain targets with ambitious carbon mitigation scenarios, our approach can be used by nonstate actors to set actionable scope 3 targets and to build climate-compatible business models.

Progressive cities worldwide have demonstrated political leadership by initiating meaningful strategies and actions to tackle climate change. However, the lack of knowledge concerning embodied greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of cities has hampered effective mitigation. We analyse trans-boundary GHG emission transfers between five Australian cities and their trading partners, with embodied emission flows broken down into major economic sectors. We examine intercity carbon footprint (CF) networks and disclose a hierarchy of responsibility for emissions between cities and regions. Allocations of emissions to households, businesses and government and the carbon efficiency of expenditure have been analysed to inform mitigation policies. Our findings indicate that final demand in the five largest cities in Australia accounts for more than half of the nation's CF. City households are responsible for about two thirds of the cities' CFs; the rest can be attributed to government and business consumption and investment. The city network flows highlight that over half of emissions embodied in imports (EEI) to the five cities occur overseas. However, a hierarchy of GHG emissions reveals that overseas regions also outsource emissions to Australian cities such as Perth. We finally discuss the implications of our findings on carbon neutrality, low-carbon city concepts and strategies and allocation of subnational GHG responsibility.

Water issues have been gaining importance on the global political agenda in recentyears. Nevertheless, water scarcity issues are inherently local. The impact of tourismactivities on local water resources remains an understudied issue. Tourism is highlyheterogeneous and offers a plethora of different products which cater for differenttastes and budgets at different times of the year. Tourism products differ in terms oftheir economic impact but also in terms of their demand for water and other resources.Direct use of water by the tourism industry, which includes water used in hotels, golf courses, water parks and other tourism establishments, is relatively well understood. In addition to this volume of water, substantially more is required indirectly to produce food and other products which cater for tourism demand. Quantifying both the direct and indirect components is essential to understanding total water demand and productivity in the tourism sector.The common perception in Cyprus and other tourism economies is that high-spending tourists represent the most desirable market segment. However, this assertion is rarely based on economic yield assessments and ignores environmental impacts. The present research uses Environmental Input-Output (EIO) analysis along with detailed tourism expenditure data in order to quantify economic and water use synergies and trade-offs, for different tourism markets in Cyprus. The results suggest that different market segments vary significantly in terms of their economic return in relation to total water use. Consequently, there are important sustainability implications for policymakers and destination managers in water scarce destinations.