Challenges in Sustainability

Challenges in Sustainability, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Complete Act: Conservatism, Distributism and the Pattern Language for Sustainability

stephen quilley — 12-22-2023

Linking Norbert Elias’s concept of the triad of controls, to Andrew Willard Jones’ analysis of the ‘complete act’, the paper outlines the relation between culture and personality and the implications of this for any project of localization and the re-embedding of the economy. Re-iterating the reality that degrowth cannot be a liberal project, the paper goes on to explore the relation between Western individualism and Judeo-Christianity. Shorn of the overarching ontology and orienting architecture of Christianity, individualism has become corrosive, unstable and, in the end, self-destructive. The socially conservative preoccupation with a decline in virtue is linked to eroding social capital, anomie, and unhappiness arising from a surfeit of freedom. Hyper-social and -spatial mobility is linked to the suppression of the domain of Livelihood, with its bottom-up, communitarian and family-based forms of social regulation; and a corollary expansion of both top-down collectivist regulation by the State and the transactional logic of the Market. Livelihood is a function of embedded individuals enmeshed in relations not only with other individuals and groups, but with God. In contrast, the materialist metaphysics of Market and State both depend on disembedded, free-wheeling citizen-consumers, severed from any relation to transcendent values. But these same phenomena are also the principal drivers of consumption and ecological degradation. On this basis it is argued that any culture of ecological restraint predicated on the re-embedding of markets must also entail an ontological re-embedding of the sacred conception of the individual (the Imago Dei) into a relation with the divine. Such a project implies a very different understanding of freedom predicated on an external, legitimate authority; a freedom that is ‘fullest not when it serves itself but when it serves truths freely held” ([1], Loc. 419). Applying Christopher Alexander’s theory of pattern languages, the paper goes on to explore what such a sustainability project might look like.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Creating a Stakeholder Table, Identifying Hidden Stakeholders, and Exploring Relational Interventions for the Bayano Region of Panama

gabriel yahya haage — 09-30-2023

The Bayano region, in Panama, has been linked to many different stakeholders who were or are influenced by the Bayano dam, which was completed in 1976 and flooded a large area. Stakeholder tables are a good way of exploring the views of stakeholders and their relationships. They can also help in identifying hidden stakeholders. Hidden stakeholders refer to stakeholders who use or are impacted by regions or events, but are generally ignored. A primary goal of this research is to allow a better understanding of the region. In this study, several sources, including discussions with community members and workshop results, were used to develop a stakeholder table for the Bayano region. Stakeholders include displaced Guna and Embera Indigenous communities. In order to identify hidden stakeholders, I applied the table to relevant court cases and agreements, with hidden stakeholders being those who were not addressed in these documents. Hidden stakeholders include Indigenous individuals who raise cattle or are involved in tree felling, along with tourism industries. Using some follow-up workshops to gauge views on potential interventions, along with a relational values approach, which focuses on relationships with components such as nature, I highlight sustainable projects and methods that can target multiple hidden stakeholders at the same time. As such, another goal was to illustrate potential, sustainable projects that would include many hidden stakeholders. In the end, this research helps understand the stakeholders in the Bayano region and the results can also help other researchers involved in the region and beyond.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Criticality of Using Frameworks Designed by Consensus (FDC) to Identify and Select Criteria and Indicators to Assess Sustainability Performance of Cities and Communities

cesar a. poveda — 06-14-2023

Capturing the various facets of sustainable development is the main objective of sustainability assessment studies. Scientists and practitioners use sustainable development criteria and indicators as instruments to link the theoretical definitions with the evaluation of the effectiveness of management strategies; therefore, identifying and selecting indicators are the most critical processes in evaluating the implementation of sustainable development strategies and progress toward achieving sustainability goals and objectives. The manuscript argues the need for increasing credibility in the identification and selection of criteria and indicators through stakeholder engagement, participation and management. Sustainability aims to primarily address and balance the [social, economic, environmental] needs and expectations of stakeholders; therefore, reaching consensus amongst the various groups of stakeholders became the determining factor in the design, implementation, and assessment of sustainable development strategies. Because a precise definition of sustainability that is universally agreed upon is yet to be introduced, the process of identifying and selecting indicators to assess progress toward achieving sustainable development is embedded in subjectivity and vagueness and can be easily manipulated to meet particular interests. Furthermore, the absence of rigorous and standardized methodological frameworks contributes to continuously proposing set indicators that best capture the notion of sustainable development which creates distrust in the assessment process and directly affects the credibility of the sustainability concept. Departing from acknowledging the relevance of stakeholders groups in decision-making and management processes, the manuscript identifies and discusses three credible and reliable frameworks designed by consensus (FDC) to identify and select criteria and indicators to assess the sustainability performance of cities and communities: (1) ISO 37130:2018 which is complemented by ISO 37122:2019, (2) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) with focus on Goal 11, and (3) customized frameworks for sustainable cities (CFSS). To minimize subjectivity and strengthen credibility, the manuscript also makes the case for the need of embedding FDC into sustainability assessment processes to identify and select criteria and indicators. Because of the methodology adopted for their development, FDC provide scientists and practitioners with reliable and credible sources to identify and select criteria and indicators for the assessment of the sustainability performance of cities and communities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2023, Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Commercially Developed Appraisal Instruments (CDAIs) Using Composite Indices to Assess, Compare, and Rank the Liveability, Quality of Living and Sustainability Performance of Cities and Communities

cesar a. poveda — 03-20-2023

This manuscript presents an analysis of commercially developed appraisal instruments (CDAIs) using composite indices to assess, compare and rank the sustainability performance of cities and communities. A group of CDAIs using composite indices are commonly used to assess, compare, and rank the sustainability performance of cities and communities. As a sustainability assessment methodology, composite indices gather qualitative and quantitative information which is then used to calculate the overall performance of the principle (e.g., sustainability); the stand-alone number, commonly known as an index, is often used to compare and rank performance. Because of practicality and mistakenly perceived simplicity, the assessment methodology is often misunderstood and underestimated. Issues, skepticism, and criticism surrounding composite indices are rooted in the lack of structured and transparent methodological frameworks for the identification and selection of elements within each hierarchical level. Although scientifically-based methodologies and processes have been developed to assign relevance (i.e., weighting) and aggregate performance to calculate the stand-alone index, the effectiveness of the assessment methodology (i.e., composite indices) is still influenced by various degrees and types of subjectivity and uncertainty. To evaluate their effectiveness, the manuscript discusses three characteristics of CDAIs using composite indices: (1) the hierarchical structural organization (HSO) considers the aim of each hierarchical level in the assessment process, (2) the identification, selection and design of the elements (e.g., principle, sub-principles, criteria, indicators) included in each hierarchical level as a determinant factor in capturing the various facets of the sustainable development notion, and (3) the quantification methodology (i.e., weighting and aggregation system [W&AS]) implemented by the developer or proponent of the assessment tool. The analysis of CDAIs using composite indices effectiveness is partially assisted by three frameworks designed by consensus (FDC): (1) ISO 37130:2018 Sustainable development of communities—Indicators for city services and quality of life which is complemented with ISO 37122:2019 Sustainable cities and communities—Indicators for smart cities and ISO 37123:2019 Sustainable cities and communities—Indicators for resilient cities, (2) United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) with emphasis on Goal 11, and (3) customized frameworks for sustainable cities (CFSS) with a focus on sustainability plans designed and implemented by the cities of Vancouver and Montreal which are used as case studies. While the findings support the applicability and usefulness of CDAIs using composite indices

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages undefined: When the Sun Sets on Net Metering: How the Cancellation of Net Metering Impacted the Potential Adoption of Residential Rooftop Solar Photovoltaics in Regina, Saskatchewan

brett dolter — 08-16-2023

Rooftop solar photovoltaics will play a role in decarbonizing electricity generation and meeting global climate goals. Policymakers can benefit from understanding how their policy choices impact rooftop solar PV adoption. We conduct a case study of Regina, Saskatchewan to determine the extent to which solar policy changes in that Canadian province have impacted the relative desirability of rooftop solar PV. We assess financial returns that can be achieved in Regina under three policy scenarios: net metering, net billing, and net billing with a capital incentive. We use GIS analysis to identify suitable roofs in Regina and assess any shading that may occur. We calculate hourly capacity factors for these roofs using solar irradiation data, temperature data, and shading factors. We match the simulated solar output results with hourly load data to simulate over 4 million potential roof-load combinations and calculate NPV and net monthly return for each combination. We conduct a telephone survey of 451 Regina residents to assess willingness to install solar at different levels of financial return and compare these results to our solar simulations. Our results indicate that a move from net metering to net billing reduced financial returns from rooftop solar and lowered solar potential from 129 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year to 99 GWh/yr in Regina. The introduction of a capital incentive grant by the federal government has helped increase solar potential upwards to 120 GWh/yr. The capital incentive grant may also help overcome high discount rates by providing a larger upfront benefit to households that install solar.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 2, Pages undefined: An Approach to Justifying Normative Arguments in Sustainability Science, with Insights from the Philosophy of Science and Social Theory

david o’byrne — 08-30-2022

In this paper, I put forward an argument that sustainability science can make objectively grounded normative claims about what courses of action society should pursue in order to achieve sustainability. From a survey of the philosophy of science, social theory and sustainability science literature, I put forward an approach to justifying these normative arguments. This approach builds on the insight that social theories are value-laden and that dominant and pervasive social practices find their justification in some social theory. The approach: (i) focuses on the analysis of concrete cases; (ii) paying attention to the social practices that produce environmental problems and the theories that support those practices; (iii) examines alternative theories, and (iv) justifies a normative position by identifying the most comprehensive theoretical understanding of the particular case. Although the approach focuses on the analysis of particular cases it does not rely on value relativism. Furthermore, while the focus is on the role of science in producing normative arguments about society’s trajectory, it maintains space for the inclusion of the values of the public in environmental decision-making. However, while this approach aims to provide a rational basis to normative positions, it does not presume that this will lead to social consensus on these issues.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 2, Pages undefined: A Conceptual Research on the Contribution of Integrated Management Systems to the Circular Economy

louis maximilian ronalter — 06-22-2022

Companies worldwide strive to become more sustainable, and, in this context, the circular economy (CE) gains importance as alternative system as opposed to the linear economy. Since executive mangers around the world work with management systems (MSs) to guide and improve organizational operations, this work aims to explore how integrated MSs (IMS) as business tools can contribute to the adoption of CE principles at the corporate level. To achieve this objective, a systematic literature review is performed, which results in a synthesis sample of 18 academic papers. The findings reveal how MSs contribute to CE adoption and, therefore, demonstrate that managers can use IMS to foster CE implementation. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of institutional intervention in the transition from a linear towards a circular designed economy. The paper contributes to academia by linking the concepts of IMS and CE, synthesizing the current academic knowledge at hand, and proposing a comprehensive research agenda that sets the path for future academic investigations. In a practical perspective, the paper contributes also to managers since it emphasizes how IMS can be used to incorporate circular business thinking into operations management.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Future of Divestment: Proliferations of Counter-Hegemonic and Post-Extractive Divestment Movements

gareth gransaull — 09-12-2022

Fossil fuel divestment has quickly become the largest divestment campaign in history, drawing attention to the large discrepancy between national climate commitments and the continued support of the fossil fuel industry. Yet, fossil fuel production and emissions continue to escalate rapidly. Our question is: what’s next for the divestment movement? We propose a conceptual framework that identifies two waves of divestment leadership in which public pressure campaigns move towards targeting the extractive economic structures and predatory behaviors that permit fossil fuel extraction, and unsustainable resource extraction more generally, to continue without limit. Building on the three waves model of divestment, we postulate that a fourth wave of fossil fuel divestment organizing has already begun, one that focuses on banks, insurers, and other financiers of fossil fuel projects. Further into the future, we envision a fifth wave of divestment campaigns, whereby divestment is used in climate and environmental activists’ arsenal to target firms that engage in environmentally damaging and unjust behaviors such as destructive mining activities, overconsumption, predatory debt or arbitration processes, or Indigenous rights violations. While divestment is not a panacea and does not displace the work of existing post-extractive or climate justice campaigns, we argue that divestment is a powerful tool that can be used to complement and amplify the work of environmental justice activists in other contexts beyond fossil fuels. This paper offers actionable suggestions for current and future activists and frames divestment as a tactic that will proliferate within other environmental movements in the transition towards a post-growth economy.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Capital Sequestration: Degrowth through Investing in Community-Led Transformations of Provisioning Systems

shaun sellers — 06-13-2022

Investing in different futures is an existential challenge that much research within and adjacent to Ecological Economics engages with, yet organizations that recognize this social ecological imperative have few options for funding and implementing radical transformations to the needs and well-being provisioning systems that currently exist. Ecological macroeconomic ideas and EE principles of long-term well-being and justice on a livable planet will be explored in the context of the housing crisis in Canada, and a rural Ontario community organization attempting to find transformative solutions to the lived, local experience of this crisis. Provisioning systems for housing, when tied to real estate markets, debt money creation, land enclosures, and financialized supply chains, contribute to capital accumulation cycles; it is hardly possible to meet our housing needs, in aggregate, without also perpetuating the form of this provisioning system. The idea presented here, that of Capital Sequestration, proposes to remove capital from markets and ‘invests’ this capital in land trusts as an intentional transformation of financial capital into social and ecological values. Through land and housing trusts as well as non-market funding pathways, Capital Sequestration is a method of investing in the transformation of provisioning systems through the sustained and collective boundary management of financial markets and incommensurable values. This practice offers significant promise as it applies ecological macroeconomic theory work, is grounded in the normative goals of and emerges from empirical research of EE, and meets a pressing need within society for imagining alternative economies.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability Transformations: Emerging Pathways Toward Safe and Just Futures for People and the Planet

christopher j. orr — 04-04-2022

04-04-2022

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Systems Dynamics Model of SDGs: A Case Study of Iran

mojgan chapariha — 05-05-2022

This paper investigates on the implementation Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Iran. It generates a systems dynamics model for exploring possibilities for achieving four SDGs: SDG-1 (eradicating poverty), SDG-8 (economic growth and decent work), SDG-12 (sustainable production and consumption), and SDG-13 (climate action) in Iran. The model is used to generate four possible stories about the implementation of measures to achieve these SDGs in the future of the Iranian economy from 2020 to 2050: 1) the Scenario of Business as Usual continues current trends and projects them into the future, 2) the Scenario of Inclusive Growth is designed to simulate more income equality and faster economic growth, 3) the Scenario of a Steady State introduces measures to improve social, and environmental aspects while having zero economic growth, and 4) the Scenario of Well-being for People and Planet is designed to improve socio-economic and environmental aspects of the Iranian economy to achieve the four SDGs in Iran. The performance of the Iranian economy for progressing towards the SDGs is monitored through four SDG indexes which are measured based on the arithmetic mean of selected indicators for each SDG, and a Combined Index of SDGs which is measured based on the arithmetic mean of the four SDGs indexes. The results of the simulations of the SDGs model of Iran shows that the transformational scenarios (Steady State, and Well-being for People and Planet) provide better pathways in comparison to conventional scenarios (Business as Usual and Inclusive Growth) for achieving the SDGs. Moreover, this study find that transformational policy changes and extraordinary efforts are required for progress in achieving SDGs in Iran.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Towards Financial Sustainability: Beneficiaries’ Perception and Performance of Community Water Supply Services in Ghana

emmanuel kwame nti — 10-28-2021

Revenue mobilization is critical for community-managed water systems to overcome financial constraints and to achieve financial sustainability. Using data from beneficiaries of a community managed water supply system in Ghana, we employed descriptive statistics, chi-square, perception index and document review of the system’s financial reports to assess beneficiaries’ views and perception on revenue mobilization for operations and maintenance, system expansion as well as sustainability of the project. The results showed that revenue mobilization for sustainability of operations and maintenance is significantly influenced by water connection type and religion while marital status, age and income of beneficiaries determine sustainability of the project’s expansion. The findings further revealed a significant relationship between sustainability of replacement of the project’s accessories and water connection type as well as gender, marital status, age and income of beneficiaries. The average perception index of 3.2 showed that beneficiaries perceived revenue mobilization as very good for replacing the water system’s accessories. Revenue mobilization is able to support the water system’s expansion to help meet the increasing water demands. In addition, with an average perception index of 3.6, the beneficiaries’ perception was that revenue was enough to fund operations and maintenance. Furthermore, the document review of the system’s financial reports confirmed beneficiaries’ perception of sufficiency of revenue for operations and maintenance. Finally, we found weaknesses in revenue mobilization with over 40% of bills in arrears, mostly from private users. To build resilience to the financial challenge with enhanced innovations, the study recommends the institution of effective debt recovery strategies such as the provision of pre-paid metering for private users, similar to the public standpipe pay-as-you-fetch system as well as the introduction of smart tap technology for public standpipes in community-managed water supply systems.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Landscape Design to Meet the Societal Demand for Ecosystem Services: A Perspective

bjoke carron — 09-13-2021

In recent decades, the concept of Ecosystem Services (ES) has generated a paradigm shift in the perspective of human society on nature and has had an important awareness-raising role concerning the importance of ecosystems. However, the concept has not been capable to stop the loss of biodiversity and nature in order to meet the societal challenges of ES provision, especially in urbanized territories. From the reviewed literature, it is obvious that implementing the ES concept within spatial design and planning processes poses several difficulties. In this context we state that a more comprehensive approach is needed of which the ES concept is part. To move to genuine landscape change and a shift in land use and land stewardship, we argue that a landscape design approach can play a significant activating role. The goal of this paper is to underpin this assumption from a theoretical and methodological point of view. The paper first gives an overview of the difficulties that the field of ES science and practice is facing when implementing the ES concept in landscape design and planning processes. Then a landscape design approach is presented as an alternative approach and a possible way forward for genuine landscape change to meet the societal demand for ES (Fig. 1).

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Determinants of Sustainability in Recycling of Municipal Solid Waste: Application of Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)

esmat heydari — 05-25-2021

Waste management and promotion of source separation by the public requires identification of the determinants of waste separation behavior, raising awareness, and reinforcing such behaviors. The present study aimed to determine the status of source separation behavior and identify the barriers, benefits, and factors affecting this behavior in Iran. This is a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study conducted on 300 women selected through stratified sampling. The questionnaire applied included three sections. The validity and reliability of the self-made questionnaire were confirmed. In this study, descriptive statistics including the percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data, while chi-square and Fisher exact tests were applied to analyze the data. Logistic regression test was also used to determine the predictors of waste separation behavior. Only 17.7% of the respondents separated the wastes regularly. The age, level of education, benefits (OR = 6.746; 95% CI = 2.534–17.959), structural barriers (OR = 12.734; 95% CI = 3.516–46.119), motivation (OR = 9.613; 95% C I= 3.356–27.536), awareness (OR = 3.917; 95% CI = 3.351–11.356), and social norms (OR = 2.905; 95% CI = 1.030–8.191) were the determinants of source separation behavior. Considering the low participation rate in waste separation, efforts required to enhance such behavior need proper policy-making, training programs, and infrastructure to encourage the individuals to participate actively in waste separation. Educational interventions and campaigns are recommended to be designed to raise awareness and empower people.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2021, Volume 9, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Analyzing Effects of Climate Variability in the Nexus of Informal Microfinance Institutions: A Case Study of Tharaka South Subcounty, Kenya

caxton gitonga kaua — 02-23-2021

Climate variability is variation of climate elements from the longterm mean state on all spatiotemporal scales. Climate variability affects microfinance institutions directly and indirectly through physical and transition risks. However, no studies have analyzed the effects of climate variability in relation to informal microfinance institutions. The study, therefore, analyzed the effects of climate variability in relation to informal microfinance institutions. It used a descriptive study design and multi-stage sampling design. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis, descriptive analysis, and Kendall's tau-b correlation analysis. The study found a positive trend in climate variability $\left(\tau_b=0.174, \alpha>0.05\right)$. Local people are highly vulnerable to climate variability as confirmed by $98.7 \%$ of the respondents who observed that climate variability affects their livelihoods. This vulnerability stems from the effect of climate variability on access to capital assets and livelihood strategies. Vulnerability to climate variability has a significant negative effect on loan repayment performance, loan access and sustainability, and hence on informal microfinance performance ($\tau_b=-0.109, P<0.01$). Nevertheless, climate variability increases participation in informal microfinance institutions as shown by the positive relationship with the number of people who joined informal microfinance institutions $\left(\tau_b=0.239, P<0.01\right)$ and the number formed per year $\left(\tau_b=0.137, P<0.01\right)$ from 1981 to 2018. This is because informal microfinance institutions help vulnerable households in building resilience to climate variability as observed by $80.8 \%$ of the respondents. The characteristics of informal microfinance institutions have positive or negative relationships with vulnerability to climate variability. These relationships are and could be further leveraged upon to address effects of climate variability on informal microfinance institutions. Detailed contextual analysis of informal microfinance institutions in the nexus of climate variability is thus imperative to inform actions aimed at cushioning the groups and their members against the impacts.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Enabling Early Career Sustainability Researchers to Conduct Transdisciplinary Research: Insights from Austria

oliver gerald schrot — 10-18-2020

Human influences on Earth’s natural systems are accelerating, with anthropogenic climate and global change posing existential risks for mankind. To overcome the policy implementation gap in practice both collective and transformative actions for sustainability involving science, policy and society are urgently needed. In the realms of science, this relates to taking inter-and transdisciplinary research approaches to foster exchange and codesigning policy options between researcher, decision-makers and other societal stakeholders; however, such collaboration is often limited by time, funding and complexity constrains. This paper recognises that particularly early career climate change and sustainability researchers are exposed to both the claim for and practical challenges of inter- and transdisciplinarity. For a first qualitative investigation of Austrian early career researchers’ preparedness for conducting participatory research with societal stakeholders, this study examines perspectives of twelve early career researchers participating in a young scientists’ workshop. Using a prepost survey and analysing data by content, our findings indicate that workshop participants have to manage stakeholder processes directly after graduation and, due to a lack of methodological training, only use a small fraction of existing social science methods and participatory settings for stakeholder collaboration. To support other early career researchers and future students in Austria in developing strong interand transdisciplinary research skills, we highlight the added-value of integrating hands-on workshops with societal stakeholders, regular exchange of lessons learned and transdisciplinary lectures into university education. Offering more practice-oriented transdisciplinary learning activities during undergraduate education, like excursions and miniprojects in which students can develop and train participatory methods together with stakeholders under guidance, is believed to be a fruitful strategy in this context.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Are Small Farms Sustainable by Nature?—Review of an Ongoing Misunderstanding in Agroecology

roland ebel — 04-09-2020

Today, agroecology is more than a science; it is a movement that advocates for a sustainable redesign of the global food system. Some of its acknowledged protagonists plead for a redesign based on the support of and for small-scale farming because small farms are considered more sustainable than large farms. The present review explores the arguments that leading agroecologists use for justifying their preference for small (frequently peasant) farms. In this review, small farms are defined as possessing a mean agricultural area of maximum two hectares, being family-owned, emphasizing outdoor production, and annually producing at least two different crops or livestock. Peasant farms are defined as subsistent small farms in developing countries. The review includes an overview of the current state of small farms and their most severe challenges. Agroecological publications of the last thirty years were scanned for arguments that sustain the hypothesis that small farms are more sustainable. It was found that there are no studies that directly compare the sustainability of farms based on their size. Instead, most studies cited to confirm the sustainability of small farms compare farms that differ in terms of both, size and farm management. Hence, it is likely that the reason for the advanced sustainability of small farms is their management, not their size. The assertion that small farms are a priori more sustainable than large ones is not supportable. Misleading use of the term “small farms” may impede the efforts of agroecology to stimulate sustainable food production.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Residential Photovoltaic Systems in Norway: Household Knowledge, Preferences and Willingness to Pay

todd l. cherry — 04-07-2020

Solar power or photovoltaic (PV) systems have emerged as a leading low-carbon energy technology worldwide, but the deployment of residential PV systems in Norway has lagged behind other Scandinavian countries. Therefore, the Norwegian market provides an opportunity to gain insights on the demand factors that determine residential PV adoption. This paper presents results from a stated- preference survey designed to elicit household knowledge, preferences and willingness to pay for residential PV systems. Results suggest that meaningful growth in residential PV capacity depends greater knowledge among households, continued advances in technology, clarity with the grid tariff and stronger support systems. A review of recent experiences in the field corroborates the important role of effective regulatory structures and support programs.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages undefined: An Expert Elicitation of Public Acceptance of Renewable Energy in Kenya

bob van der zwaan — 09-02-2019

This article reports evidence for substantial public support for the large-scale deployment of three renewable energy options in Kenya: wind, solar PV, and geothermal energy. With these renewable technologies, the government of Kenya could make a large contribution to reaching its national commitment under the Paris Agreement. Prices, infrastructural needs, and land-use requirements importantly contribute to shaping public opinion about these renewable energy alternatives, in different ways and directions for wind, PV, and geothermal energy. While overall the evaluation of these technologies is positive, public authorities should be wary of the possible inconveniences and drawbacks associated with them. Anticipating and, where possible, mitigating these shortcomings in national climate and energy development plans could preclude some of them becoming possible hindrances for broad-scale adoption of wind, PV, and geothermal energy. Furthering quantitative public acceptance studies, like the one presented here based on (semi-)expert elicitation and information-choice questionnaires, can assist in Kenya fully reaching its national climate and energy ambitions. More generally, we argue that the establishment of affordable, clean, and secure energy systems, as well as the mitigation of global climate change, can benefit from stakeholder engagement and public survey analysis like the one performed in our study—in developing countries as much as in the developed part of the world.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Socio-Ecological Implications of Soy in the Brazilian Cerrado

lea rekow — 05-02-2019

This paper summarizes the critical importance of the Cerrado savannah biome in Brazil and examines key ways in which large-scale agriculture, in particular large-scale soy farming, threatens water security and increases socio-ecological stress. It connects agribusiness expansion to the globalized meat industry by defining how complex economic relationships result in deforestation on a massive scale. It describes how this radical change in land cover has led to changes in rainfall patterns that are associated with extended drought periods and analyzes how these critical water shortages jeopardize socio-economic health beyond the immediate region. Further, it explicates how intensified transgenic soy farming and other pesticide-heavy crop production contributes to rising public health crises associated with carcinogen-contaminated water and food sources. Lastly, it identifies emerging trends that suggest how agribusiness corporations and governments may be legally ascribed moral responsibilities for maintaining socio-ecological health of the biome. The paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the human dimensions of environmental issues and their impacts and reframe conservation social science discourse in regard to protection of land and water resources in the region.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Review of ‘Green Growth: Ideology, Political Economy and the Alternatives’

tavis potts — 04-01-2019

04-01-2019

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2019, Volume 7, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability Challenges in an Urban Century: Can We Change Urbanization Paths to Make Cities the Solutions for Rather than the Drivers of Global Problems?

jose a. puppim de oliveira — 03-14-2019

Is urbanization a danger or a solution to global sustainabil-ity? What institutions need to change to make urban areas more sustainable? In examining urbanization rates in coun-tries over time, we see that they are often more correlated to carbon dioxide emissions than per capital income [1]. This tells us that urbanization patterns of the last 100 years have contributed to the increase in carbon emissions. We there-fore need to develop a new kind of urbanization in order to tackle global challenges. However, reports about global changes often portray urbanization as “a problem”. Cities are polluted and increasingly crowded; urban inhabitants consume proportionately more resources and are responsi-ble for a large portion of carbon emissions ([2], p. 927). As a urban planner, when I read those reports it seems I am looking at the books of urban planning in the last century, particularly those on urbanization in the colonies, where urbanization was presented as an unwanted process that caused a lot of harms to the “civilization” [3], [4]. We must therefore change the discourse on how we describe urban-ization if we want to transform it, as it will not be stopped. We must stress the many benefits that urbanization has brought to society, which are the main reasons people want to come to the cities in the first place. A question to be con-sidered is therefore how to make urban life compatible with global challenges? i.e., how can we continue implement-ing/developing urbanization and the benefits that come with it without disproportionally increasing carbon emissions, the destruction of ecosystems and unsustainable consump-tion. There are many opportunities for win-win strategies between global sustainability challenges and development in urban areas, or synergies, such as climate co-benefits, i.e., tackling climate change and promoting development, particularly in some developing countries where cities are still being built and the path of urbanization can be changed [5], [6]. Nevertheless, despite all we have learned about ur-banization and the possible co-benefits opportunities since the last century, we lack understanding of the contextual and institutional conditions that make those solutions emerge.

Rather than focusing on the contribution to planetary problems that the development of cities’ can cause, it would be more productive to frame urbanization as an opportunity leading towards a sustainable future. One characteristic of cities that opens opportunities for solu-tions is scale and efficiency. Urban areas constituted less than 2% of the worlds land surface area in the beginning of this century according to some estimates; however, these confined spaces are key centers of production and con-sumption [7]. Activities are concentrated in a small space, making some solutions (such as public transportation and district heating systems) more viable as compared to dis-persed settlements. Cities are also centers of knowledge, vast financial resources and decision-making, which can catalyze changes, quickly leading to a greener economy [8]. For many years, urban experts have believed that the spatial distribution (city form, density and land-use) is the key for determining environmental impacts, including climate change. More recently, however, other additional factors have been deemed important, such as energy use in buildings, transportation and citizens’ consumption be-haviors. For cities that are growing, linking land-use plan-ning to other urban activities is key. Spatial aspects, such as improving green areas to reduce the urban heat island effect or avoiding urban sprawl so public transportation can be more viable, are fundamental in making cities more sustainable. Buildings are another important sector, which, in addition to emissions, are places where a lot of the urban population spends most of their time. Once a build-ing is built in an unsustainable manner, it can stay there for decades. Improving sustainable construction would therefore make significant advancements in cities in the medium and long term [9]. For established cities, improv-ing efficiency in the use of energy in buildings and vehicles and allowing mix land-use should be a priority, as city form is difficult to change when the city is already functioning. Finally, we have the effects of consumption. City dwellers consume large amounts of energy and resources from other regions. Cities are massive drivers of consumption that affect the city within and beyond its boundaries.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2018, Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Identifying Context-Specific Categories for Visualizing Livability of Cities—a Case Study of Malmö

kyoko takahashi — 11-04-2018

Livability is a concept being applied to cities, even though it is vague. Worldwide, there are several livable city ranking schemes in use, which compare the livability of cities by making use of standardized indicator sets. The research presented here recognizes, as a point of departure, that each city is unique, implying that comparisons of cities by standardized categories only does not adequately reflect the reality of each city. A qualitative approach to identify context-specific categories of livability is proposed and employed to the case of Malmö in Sweden. Through interviews, nine context-specific categories were identified and visualized. The findings of the study demonstrate that a qualitative approach enables a more in-depth description of livability categories because it can capture and illustrate relationships among the categories. An explicit awareness of such relationships may provide a more holistic perspective to city officials and planners as they aim to improve the livability of their cities. The study concludes that a qualitative approach in identifying context-specific categories can complement existing assessment schemes and allow a better grasp of livability challenges to cities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2018, Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Towards the Evaluation of the Ecological Effectiveness of the Principles, Criteria and Indicators (PCI) of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): Case study in the Arkhangelsk Region in the Russian Federation

jeanette s. blumroeder — 06-13-2018

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a voluntary sustainability standard with global reach that has been developed to encourage responsible and sustainable forest management. Despite its|broad appeal, there is little scientific assessment to substantiate the effectiveness of FSC in the boreal zone. In this study, an ecosystem-based and participatory approach was applied to a case study in the Arkhangelsk Region of the Russia Federation to assess the potential influence of the principles, criteria and indicators of the Russian FSC standard. An ECOSEFFECT theoretical plausibility analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential effectiveness of FSC in safeguarding the ecological integrity of the ecosystem. Besides spatial analysis and a field visitation, core elements of the methodological procedure were workshops with experts and stakeholders who directly contributed to knowledge mapping and analysis. The results of the study suggest FSC can potentially influence and improve forest management including monitoring and evaluation, foster the institutional capacity, and enhance knowledge on the impacts of forest management. Theoretically, FSC has a certain potential to reduce a range of anthropogenic threats to the ecosystem, such as large-scale deforestation and forest degradation, logging of High Conservation Value Forests, large size of clear-cuts, excessive annual allowable cuts, damage to trees during forest operations, and hydrological changes. However, human-induced fire is the only ecological stress that was assumed to be effectively tackled through a strong and positive influence of FSC. The results of the theoretical analysis with a semi-quantitative evaluation revealed the potential for FSC to generate much more effective outcomes for biodiversity by prudently targeting key ecological problems. The biggest problem is the large-scale clear-cutting practice, especially within IFL. These devastating practices are not promoted by, but are compliant with the current Russian FSC standard. This feeds doubts about the consistency of FSC practice and its credibility.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2018, Volume 6, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Multi-Criteria Approach for Assessing the Sustainability of Small-Scale Cooking and Sanitation Technologies

ariane krause — 06-10-2018

To reduce the consumption of firewood for cooking and to realise recycling-driven soil fertility management, three projects in Northwest Tanzania aim to provide the local smallholder community with cooking and sanitation alternatives. The present study proposes an integrated approach to assess the sustainability of the small-scale cooking and sanitation technologies. Based on the multi-criteria decision support approach (MC(D)A), we developed a decision-specific, locally adapted, and participatory assessment tool: the Multi-Criteria Technology Assessment (MCTA). Pre-testing of the tailored tool was set up with representatives of Tanzanian and German partners of case study projects. From a methodological perspective, we conclude that the MCTA uses a set of relevant criteria to realise a transparent and replicable computational Excel-tool. The combination of MC(D)A for structuring the assessment with analytical methods, such as Material Flow Analysis, for describing the performance of alternatives is a promising path for designing integrated approaches to sustainability assessments of technologies. Pre-testing of the tool served as a proof-of-concept for the general design of the method. Future applications and adjustments of the MCTA require the inclusion of end-users, a reasonable and participatory reduction of criteria, and an increase of feedback loops and group discussions between participants and the facilitator to support a common learning about the technologies and thorough understanding of the perspectives of participants.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Identifying Misalignments between Public Participation Process and Context in Urban Development

matthew cohen — 08-24-2017

Public participation is a common element in state-of-the-art urban development projects. Tailoring the public participation process to the local context is a popular strategy for ensuring sufficient turnout and meaningful engagement, but this strategy faces several challenges. Through a review of case studies of public participation in urban development projects, we identify ten typical misalignments between the public participation process and the local context, including the lack of policy maker support, adverse personal circumstances of participants, low collaborative capacity, and mistrust, among others. When a public participation process is not aligned to the local context, the process may generate outcomes that compromise public interests, inequitably distribute benefits among stakeholders, or favor powerful private interests. This study offers caution and guidance to planning practitioners and researchers on how to contextualize public participation in urban development projects through the categorization of common misalignments that ought to be avoided.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 2, Pages undefined: An Economic Simulation of the Path to Sustainable Energy: A Dynamic Analysis

charles f. mason — 03-07-2017

The existing economics literature neglects the important role of capacity in the production of renewable energy. To fill this gap, we construct a model in which renewable energy production is tied to renewable energy capacity, which then becomes a form of capital. This capacity capital can be increased through investment, which we interpret as arising from the allocation of energy, and which therefore comes at the cost of reduced general production. Requiring societal well-being to never decline—the notion of sustainability favored by economists—we describe how society could optimally elect to split energy in this fashion, the use of non-renewable energy resources, the use of renewable energy resources, and the implied time path of societal well-being. Our model delivers an empirically satisfactory explanation for simultaneous use of non-renewable and renewable energy. We also discuss the optimality of ceasing use of non-renewable energy before the non-renewable resource stock is fully exhausted.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Fostering the Next Generation of Sustainability Professionals— Assessing Field Courses in a Sustainability Science Graduate Program

ricardo san carlos — 03-26-2017

A growing number of educational programs in sustainability science has paralleled the rise of the field itself. The educational approach of these programs follows the problem-driven, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary nature of the field itself. However, its effectiveness has yet to be systematically evaluated. Similarly, while ad-hoc evaluation schemes have attempted to monitor the quality of the educational programs, there is no standard method that accounts for the particularities of sustainability science programs. This study thus addresses the need for an assessment of the problem-driven approach of educational programs in sustainability science. We have conducted student self-assessments of field courses in the Graduate Program in Sustainability Science (GPSS-GLI) at The University of Tokyo, which positions its field courses at the center of its curriculum. The self-assessments were based on five key competencies identified as particularly important for sustainability professionals. Workshops and questionnaires engaged students in a reflection of the six field courses and of their own personal development through the activities offered. Our questionnaire results indicate that the majority of participants were satisfied with how the courses furthered their personal development. While some participants expressed frustration at being unable to sufficiently address the respective field’s sustainability challenges due to time constraints, students generally recognized the five key competencies as important for addressing sustainability issues after participating in the courses. Moreover, participants attributed much of their learning to their active engagement in planned field research activities, rather than to passive learning. Variations in results across different course units provide material for further analysis and development of the curriculum. This study is an initial attempt at assessment, with room for ongoing improvement and further research to address additional requirements for fostering the next generation of sustainability professionals.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: You Can’t Eat Biodiversity: Agency and Irrational Norms in European Aquatic Environmental Law

tim o’higgins — 03-18-2017

Policies of the European Union cover a range of social, environmental and economic aspirations and the current environmental directives and laws have evolved from a suite of norms which have changed over time. These may be characterised loosely according to ‘Three Ps’: Practical, those taking an anthropocentric approach; Pure, those taking an ecocentric approach and Popular, those appealing to the general public. In this paper I use these three perspectives as a tool to analyse the complexity and identify contradictions in European aquatic environmental legislation. Some trade-offs between development and conservation are identified and used to characterise the potential qualities of more successful agency to achieve environmental goals in the governance of European aquatic environments.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Methodological Challenges in Sustainability Science: A Call for Method Plurality, Procedural Rigor and Longitudinal Research

henrik von wehrden — 03-18-2017

Sustainability science encompasses a unique field that is defined through its purpose, the problem it addresses, and its solution-oriented agenda. However, this orientation creates significant methodological challenges. In this discussion paper, we conceptualize sustainability problems as wicked problems to tease out the key challenges that sustainability science is facing if scientists intend to deliver on its solution-oriented agenda. Building on the available literature, we discuss three aspects that demand increased attention for advancing sustainability science: 1) methods with higher diversity and complementarity are needed to increase the chance of deriving solutions to the unique aspects of wicked problems; for instance, mixed methods approaches are potentially better suited to allow for an approximation of solutions, since they cover wider arrays of knowledge; 2) methodologies capable of dealing with wicked problems demand strict procedural and ethical guidelines, in order to ensure their integration potential; for example, learning from solution implementation in different contexts requires increased comparability between research approaches while carefully addressing issues of legitimacy and credibility; and 3) approaches are needed that allow for longitudinal research, since wicked problems are continuous and solutions can only be diagnosed in retrospect; for example, complex dynamics of wicked problems play out across temporal patterns that are not necessarily aligned with the common timeframe of participatory sustainability research. Taken together, we call for plurality in methodologies, emphasizing procedural rigor and the necessity of continuous research to effectively addressing wicked problems as well as methodological challenges in sustainability science.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability Science in the Light of Urban Planning

françois mancebo — 03-02-2017

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that, as part of its mission, sustainability science can change the way planners engage with urban problems on three points: First, that effective standard planning is an illusion, and the crucial task for urban planners should be considering—on a place-based rationale—the long-term consequences of decisions, policies and, technology change. Second,how it is necessary to develop collaborative planning and co-production of knowledge. Third, to build effective actions on the basis of collaborative planning, it is crucial to take first into account how the population and the institutions respond to and resist change. Conversely, this paper shows that urban planning is also a breeding ground for consolidating the theoretical framework of sustainability science, considering that cities can be seen as paragons of both socio-ecological systems and complex adaptive systems—a position that is discussed throughout the article. Bringing sustainability science and urban planning in closer dialogue with each other, to exploit their potential synergies, has not been done sufficiently: It is an important gap in the academic literature that this article aims at filling.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Making Research Matter More—Working with Action Research and Film in Sustainability Science

elina andersson — 02-28-2017

02-28-2017

Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Enabling Transformative Research: Lessons from the Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Programme (1999–2015)

cordula ott — 02-26-2017

World leaders at the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in New York have reconfirmed the relevance of sustainability as the guiding paradigm in countering the development and climate crisis of the Anthropocene. Recent decades however, have been characterized by confusion, contestations, and arbitrariness in defining the nature and pathways of sustainable development. Humanity must urgently find ways to unlock the potential of the sustainability paradigm and organize a sustainability transformation. An emerging sustainability science community has already established considerable consensus on essential features of transformative science and research. Sustainability scholars are providing growing evidence that an emancipatory and democratic construction of sustainable development and more equitable, deliberative, and democratized knowledge generation are pivotal in tackling sustainability challenges. These findings are further underpinned by experiences gained in the Eastern and Southern Africa Partnership Programme (1999–2015)—a rare case of a long-term, transnational, and transdisciplinary research endeavour already completed. The programme fulfilled the dual role which is compulsory in transformative research: It generated contextualized knowledge and innovation at the science–society interface while simultaneously securing meaningful participation and Southern agency in a co-evolutionary process. This paper offers insight into the programme’s adaptive structure and implementation processes, which fostered deliberation, capacity development, and joint programme navigation benchmarked against local needs and broader sustainability demands. The ESAPP experience confirms that, if taken as the overarching frame of reference for all actors involved, the sustainability paradigm unfolds its integrative and transformative power. It enables sustainability-oriented actors from all scientific and practical fields to seek consilience between differing development and innovation paradigms and synchronize their development agendas and research frameworks on behalf of societal co-production of knowledge and innovation. Accordingly, the sustainability paradigm has the power to guide development and innovation policy, and practice out of the current confusion and ineffectiveness.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Alternative Perspectives on Sustainability: Indigenous Knowledge and Methodologies

meg parsons — 02-21-2017

Indigenous knowledge (IK) is now recognized as being critical to the development of effective, equitable and meaningful strategies to address socio-ecological crises. However efforts to integrate IK and Western science frequently encounter difficulties due to different systems of knowledge production and underlying worldviews. New approaches are needed so that sustainability can progress on the terms that matter the most for the people involved. In this paper we discuss a case study from Aotearoa New Zealand where an indigenous community is in the process of renegotiating and enacting new indigenous-led approaches to address coupled socio-ecological crises. We reflect on novel methodological approaches that highlight the ways in which projects/knowledge are co-produced by a multiplicity of human and non-human actors. To this end we draw on conceptualizations of environmental ethics offered by indigenous scholars and propose alternative bodies of thought, methods, and practices that can support the wider sustainability agenda.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Pluralism in Search of Sustainability: Ethics, Knowledge and Methdology in Sustainability Science

ellinor isgren — 02-12-2017

Sustainability Science is an emerging, transdisciplinary academic field that aims to help build a sustainable global society by drawing on and integrating research from the humanities and the social, natural, medical and engineering sciences. Academic knowledge is combined with that from relevant actors from outside academia, such as policy-makers, businesses, social organizations and citizens. The field is focused on examining the interactions between human, environmental, and engineered systems to understand and contribute to solutions for complex challenges that threaten the future of humanity and the integrity of the life support systems of the planet, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and land and water degradation. Since its inception in around the year 2000, and as expressed by a range of proponents in the field, sustainability science has become an established international platform for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems [1]. This has been done by exploring ways to promote ‘greater integration and cooperation in fulfilling the sustainability science mandate’ [2]. Sustainability science has thereby become an extremely diverse academic field, yet one with an explicit normative mission. After nearly two decades of sustainability research, it is important to reflect on a major question: what critical knowledge can we gain from sustainability science research on persistent socio-ecological problems and new sustainability challenges? As a step in that direction, we solicited submissions to a special issue on Sustainability Science in the open access journal Challenges in Sustainability (CiS). Whilst the question above will not be sufficiently answered in this special issue, what is provided are some examples of what sustainability science can offer and how parallels can be drawn with other study areas dealing with issues of sustainability.

As direction for the issue and as inspiration for authors, we asked them to reflect on the field’s mission, achievements and conflicts. To complement more systematic assessments such as literature reviews, we hope that this type of exercise can be a recurrent one, as a way to continually spur active reflection among scholars in the field.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2017, Volume 5, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Taskforce on Conceptual Foundations of Earth System Governance: Sustainability Science

barry ness — 02-06-2017

02-06-2017

Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Reflexions on Urban Gardening in Germany

evelyn gustedt — 07-16-2017

This article reflects on traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany. The focus is on forms of gardening, that take place in spaces subject to land lease agreements and similar forms of tenancy or of illegal land take or squatting. The author examines various definitions taking into account the variety of practices, the development of urban gardening over time, and the respective backgrounds or values that users relate to such gardening activities. The examination of definitions led to the drawing up of a timeline of traditional and contemporary gardening movements in Germany and to the tentative approaching of this issue from a semantic perspective. The latter is due to the usage of many different terms mostly as yet undefined in a legal sense. Translation into English or, most likely, to any other language, further blurs the common understanding of the terms used. The author concludes with some considerations on these gardening movements in relation to urban sustainable developments. A presentation at the 5th Rencontres Internationals de Reims on Sustainability Studies, dedicated to Urban Agriculture – Fostering the Urban-Rural Continuum, which took place in October 2015 in Reims/France was the starting point of this article. The basis of this article is a literature review, nourished to a certain extent by observations randomly made over many years and complemented through talks with competent young colleagues. Special thanks go to Martin Sondermann, Leibniz University Hannover, who shared his research experience in various discussions with the author, as well as to Friederike Stelter, internship student at the author’s place of work, who gave highly appreciated support to the preparation of the presentation.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 2, Pages undefined: A Review of ‘Energy and Transport in Green Transition: Perspectives on Ecomodernity’

david harnesk — 12-11-2016

Energy and Transport in Green Transition:

Perspectives on Ecomodernity

Atle Midttun and Nina Witoszek (Eds.)

Routledge: Oxford, UK. 2016

336 pp.; ISBN: 978-1138793439

Based both on scientific knowledge and the public opinion to end fossil fuels, political regimes seek more actively to substitute carbon-intense energy sources with greener and cleaner alternatives. However, each attempt to transition or transform energy production and consumption patterns towards more sustainable ends is bound to be affected by deep historical roots. As a result, both explaining and predicting energy development trajectories have proven to be a difficult task since they are deeply political, covering different social forces involved in the use, production and distribution of natural resources. The authors of “Energy and Transport in Green Transition—Perspectives on Eco- modernity” face this challenge when attempting to address the societally and scientifically crucial topic of energy and climate change mitigation.

This book begins with grand ambitions as the authors attempt “to go beyond both the extremism of the anti-capitalist critique and the radical enthusiasm of techno-economic positivism” in their investigation to find ways “to boost a greener economy and culture” by resolving political, economic and technological entanglements (p.2). Their method of investi-gation comprises of a regional comparative study of mature Western economies, the rapidly developing China, anddeveloping economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Importantly, editors Atle Midttun and Nina Witoszek frame their work onthe“ongoing transformation” necessary to mitigate detrimental impacts on the climate as a “battle ofmodernities” (Ch. 1) In this battle, each of the modernities come with their own myth, which all serve to mobilize the social world towards specific (technological) development trajectories. The authors construct a vision of the mitigation champion in the modernity brawl, namely their particular brand of “ecomodernity”, which they argue is emerging and able to integrate the commercial, technological and, in particular, cultural visions within the ideas of green growth.

As this is it important for potential readers, let us first give room to how the authors construct their argument. The authors set off by decoding complex socio-economic green transitions occurring across the world. More specifically, the book covers two major themes: the history of energy sectors across four geographical regions, and more con- temporary developments in the automotive industry. In this endeavour, the authors draw on neoclassical economic concepts and innovation studies as they target: the ca- pability to drive innovation, the ability to mobilize public interest, and the challenges of staging complex pathways in a heterogeneous world with countries at different stages of development. The theoretical lineage that can be seen here makes reference to Schumpeter, and the book builds on “a multitude of international studies, reports, conferences and civil society initiatives” (p. 14), making reference to Daly, Max-Neef, Beck, Hajer, Dryzek, Jackson, and others.

Given the greater subject of sustainability and the grandness of the book’s aspirations, it serves to articulate the authors’ underpinning view on social change. Here, technological innovation and its diffusion play a central role—while also disregarding the actual possibility to drive green innovation at the level of Schumpeter’s gale of creative destruction necessary to mitigate climate change (i.e. via industrial mutation destroy and replace an economic structure from within). Against this backdrop,the role of people and policy is posited as relational to three cycles: a product cycle, a visionary cycle, and an institutional cycle. Or in acharac-terization: as new green products and new societal visions develop, they may be successful enough to mobilize public intervention for more formalized and supporting institutions. It is in the interface between these three cycles that the authors place the dynamics of social change in “the battle of modernities”. In particular, the interplay between the product- and the visionary cycle is given priority by the authors throughout the book. Subsequently, it is through this lens each chapter is to interpret empirical observations from across the world in order to theorize “in more detail the emergent vision of ‘ecomodernity’, which combines both technological, political, and cultural transformation” (p.14).

However, the challenge of drawing on so many, and vastly different, cases – historically, politically, institution- ally, geographically, biophysically, sociologically etc.—while moving across such a long time span becomes apparent. Going back to the book’s purpose, the analysis of empirical findings from each case is not sufficiently anchored in their theory. For example, the notion of mobilizing myths is only on rare occasions empirically rooted, and overall becomes reduced to ad-hoc arguments to fill gaps in the narrative. Thus, the authors do not provide the necessary depth to ex- plain the dynamics of change involved in a truly convincing manner, even within their own paradigm. In defence of the authors, it is indicated in the Foreword that this is done to assure maximum accessibility, indicating that it is intended for a broader audience. The authors do present a very interesting descriptive expose´ of various energy technologies and innovations of main concern for carbon emissions across time and space. However, the book’s analytical forte becomes questionable as troublesome arguments emerge as, for example, institutions and organizations from conflicting social forces are viewed as part of the same cultural framing, working towards the same “ecomodernity”.

Ultimately, the study object of the book becomes yet another story of energy technologies, and together with a hazy understanding, and analysis, of change, the au- thors reproduce the very technoeconomic positivism they wanted to avoid. Despite this critique, the book presents worth-while descriptive historical reviews for those inter- ested in the broader picture of energy production and the automobile sector in the regions addressed (i.e., the European Union, the United States of America, China, and sub-Saharan Africa). The overarching point of how the “ecomodernity” presented by the authors would consist of an interplay between the three cycles is made in a compelling manner, especially given rich level of detail presented in each chapter. Furthermore, the authors do not abstain from acknowledging the role the global economy may have played in technological development, especially in the case of photo-voltaics. Finally, I would recommend this book to readers interested in the data and the details, but not to those interested in deep academic discussions about economy and sustainability, and if/how a new champion may emerge from the battle of modernities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Identifying the “Usual Suspects”—Assessing Patterns of Representation in Local Environmental Initiatives

paul fenton — 06-20-2016

An increasing body of literature explores the role of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) in governing sustainable development. As associations, one key task of TMNs is to represent their members through production and dissemination of information and knowledge concerning municipal action for sustainable development. Case studies, often emphasising best practice, are used by many TMNs to fulfil this task. Nevertheless, despite strong scrutiny concerning the use of case studies in “policy mobilities” research, there have been limited attempts to quantify the ways in which TMNs present and disseminate case studies and, by doing so, generate trends of presence and absence in literature on sustainable development. Assessing patterns of representation for continents, countries, municipalities and themes across nine international case study collections published by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability since 1991, this study responds to this research gap and identifies the presence of “usual suspects” in the ICLEI case study collections, along with notable absentees. By doing so, the study contributes to policy mobilities research and literature on TMNs, by encouraging reflection and further research concerning the representation patterns influencing which municipalities and what topics are presented in discourses on sustainable development.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Agricultural Land and the New Urban Paradigm: Coexistence, Integration, or Conflict?

ilenia pierantoni — 01-26-2017

The relation between “urban” and “rural” has changed and developed over the last few decades. The present contribution focuses on how the relationship between these two entities has developed, highlighting how it corresponds to a growing complexity and interdependence among the two. Awareness has increased that to the extent that proper management of these interdependences can contribute to solve problems, increase economic performance and also make a contribution to a higher quality of life in and around urban areas. In this framework, green infrastructures and agriculture practices in urban areas are discussed. The contribution concludes by suggesting strategies and actions for the proper implementation of green infrastructures and urban agriculture practices at regional and local scales.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Siting Urban Agriculture as a Green Infrastructure Strategy for Land Use Planning in Austin, TX

charles m. rogers — 08-21-2016

Green infrastructure refers to a type of land use design that mimics the natural water cycle by using the infiltration capacities of vegetation, soils, and other natural processes to mitigate stormwater runoff. As a multifunctional landscape, urban agriculture should be seen as a highly beneficial tool for urban planning not only because of its ability to function as a green stormwater management strategy, but also due to the multiple social and environmental benefits it provides. In 2012, the city of Austin adopted a major planning approach titled the “Imagine Austin Comprehensive Plan” (IACP) outlining the city’s vision for future growth and land use up to 2039. The plan explicitly addresses the adoption of green infrastructure as a target for future land use with urban agriculture as a central component. Addressing this area of land use planning will require tools that can locate suitable areas within the city ideal for the development of green infrastructure. In this study, a process was developed to create a spatially explicit method of siting urban agriculture as a green infrastructure tool in hydrologically sensitive areas, or areas prone to runoff, in east Austin. The method uses geospatial software to spatially analyze open access datasets that include land use, a digital elevation model, and prime farmland soils. Through this method a spatial relationship can be made between areas of high surface runoff and where the priority placement of urban farms should be sited as a useful component of green infrastructure. Planners or geospatial analysts could use such information, along with other significant factors and community input, to aid decision makers in the placement of urban agriculture. This spatially explicit approach for siting potential urban farms, will support the integration of urban agriculture as part of the land use planning of Austin.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Cultivating the Glocal Garden

matthijs hisschemöller — 07-17-2016

This paper addresses the question under which conditions small-scale urban agriculture (UA) initiatives can accelerate a sustainability transition of the global food system. It develops the notion of a glocal garden, a large number of likeminded local initiatives with a global impact and forms of worldwide collaboration. Taking a transition perspective, the glocal garden, producing vegetables and fruits, is a niche that has to overcome barriers to compete with the dominant food regime. Since a sustainability transition restructures (policy) sectors, institutional domains including knowledge systems, the paper explores which innovations are needed for the glocal garden to succeed. It discusses the glocal garden as an environmental, a social, an economic and a global project. As an environmental project, the glocal garden will link sustainable production of food with renewable energy production. As a social project, it will be organized into a consumers’ cooperative. As an economic project, it will strive for profit, increasing the yield in a sustainable manner. As a global project, it will enhance collaboration between local cooperatives in the North and the South, as well as with rural agriculture. Under these conditions, the glocal garden can develop into a power, able to resist a possible future food regime that splits societies, in terms of quality standards and food products, into haves and have-nots.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Action Research: An Essential Approach for Constructing the Development of Sustainable Urban Agricultural Systems

antonia d. bousbaine — 05-23-2016

: How can research contribute more directly to promoting and leading to sustainable solutions and projects? This article suggests that one of the most important research approaches capable of achieving this is the Action Research approach. This involves the researcher taking on a number of roles when working with other actors (e.g. citizens, farmers, local elected officials, citizen associations, government representatives. . . with the specific set of actors depending upon the nature of the subject being investigated and for which solutions are sought). The roles that the researcher can play involve providing appropriate information to the other actors, providing counseling to them, organizing and animating meetings with the actors, and accompanying the whole process involving all the actors. These roles are essentially played out by the researcher when the other actors request the researcher to assume whichever roles they consider to be significant. The fundamental notion is that through this process the actors appropriate the sustainable solutions as their own, and the researcher helps them achieve this. This article is based on: a) a synthesis of pertinent research using the Action Research approach (specifically in relation to sustainable agricultural systems in periurban territories), and b) specific research undertaken by the two co-authors of the article, all in the context of periurban agricultural systems during the last 8 years, as well as on some of their publications. The necessary characteristics of Action Research and the researchers involved are identified, namely: a) patience; b) an emphasis on process; and c) an emphasis on participation on the part of multiple actors.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Urban Agriculture, Commons and Urban Policies: Scaling up Local Innovation

françois mancebo — 05-16-2016

May urban agriculture be the cornerstone that helps reconfigure more sustainable cities and if so, under which conditions? And if so, what type of urban agriculture? Such are the two issues underlying this article. Why not counteracting urban sprawl by fostering what could be called “rural sprawl”, by introducing nature and rural characteristics such as farming within the city, in its interstitial areas and wastelands? In this perspective, urban agriculture becomes a common good, bringing people together and reshaping the whole urban fabric that would eventually propose a radical remaking of the urban. Urban agriculture lends particularly well to long-lasting urban policies, especially those turning environmental “bads”—such as brownfields and wastelands—into environmental “goods” and urban amenities. Urban agriculture in interstitial abandoned urban areas may be one of cities’ main seedbeds of creative innovation. It is all about the right to decide and the power to create, renewing and deepening what Henri Lefebvre called The Right to the City.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Building Urban Agricultural Commons: A Utopia or a Reality?

pierre donadieu — 04-24-2016

There are several categories of urban agriculture which need to be distinguished if we want to efficiently feed urban inhabitants with local agricultural produce while benefiting from other functions filled by urban agricultural landscapes: namely, eco-systemic functions or ecological and social functions. The second function will focus on methods to regulate unbuilt land in urban areas which have virtually no regulations and others which have strict controls preventing construction. The last will consist of possibilities to build, what I would refer to as, urban agricultural commons: in other words, tangible and intangible resources produced with farmers and gardeners for the inhabitants; for their local consumption and for the quality of the living environment, based on a political principle for common action. The concept of common is derived from the works of socioeconomist E. Ostrom (1990; [1]) and French philosophers P. Dardot et C. Laval (2014; [2]): “What is built in common”. It was applied to urban agriculture and landscape (Donadieu, 2012, 2014; [3], [4]). The concept of urban agriculture has been used worldwide in the last twenty years by researchers, especially in France by A. Fleury (2005; [5]) and P. Donadieu(1998; [6]), in Mediterranean regions (Nasr and Padilla, 2004; [7]), in Asia, Africa and North and South America—all through the publications of the Resource Centres Urban Agriculture & Food Security (RUAF; [8]).

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2016, Volume 4, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Urban Agriculture: Fostering the Urban-Rural Continuum

françois mancebo — 04-19-2016

Urban agricultural projects have been mushrooming since the end of the twentieth century, reshaping urban landscapes and even the whole urban fabric, experimenting with alternatives to the traditional urban life, sometimes creating new commons, and bringing people together. Within a city, farmers, gardeners, and their neighbors share more than just fence lines. Cities already have a huge potential for farming. Three examples can be observed in very different cities around the World: Singapore, is fully selfreliant in meat, Bamako is self-sufficient in vegetables, and in Berlin there are 80,000 community gardens on communal land and 16,000 more people are on a waiting-list [1]. And this is just the beginning; in many cities new unbuilt areas emerge in the wake of deindustrialization (derelict lands, wastelands, brownfields, etc.), or as a consequence of urban shrinking due to aging populations (as in Japan or Germany), or of emigration (as in some African mid-sized cities). These new areas are a wonderful opportunity for urban agriculture. In Detroit, thousands hectares of urban land have been given over to unemployed workers for food growing. In Britain, urban agriculture has been promoted on wastelands of 20 cities by their various councils [2]. Urban agriculture is gradually becoming a planning policy option. In Delft, the planners of the city already combine urban agriculture with several other land uses in their planning documents; in Paris, an inclusive local land development plan protects agricultural landscapes [3,4]. Urban agriculture is neither—or no more—the short-lived remnant of a rural culture nor the hipsters’ latest futile craze.

Yet, on the face of it, tying together these two words— urban and agriculture—is not self-evident, even if city and agriculture have gone hand in hand for a long time: in fact, since Neolithic times and the first human settlements, as pointed by Paul Bairoch [5]. Jane Jacobs even promotes the idea that agriculture is of urban origin, and it was only later that agriculture migrates to the countryside—this was a very slow process [6]. It was only in the middle of the Twentieth Century, in the aftermath of the WW2, that cities and agriculture—which had always been inseparable—divorced. Increased mobility and progressive globalization made apparently pointless proximity between farmers and urban consumers. Farming was banned from the city by planning regulation. Urban agriculture suffered then from many political restraints: restrictive urban policy, laws giving an illegal status to urban agriculture, lack of supportive services, etc. Hopefully things are changing, and urban agriculture is being welcomed again in the city after an unfortunate interlude of some fifty years. Still in the Ninetieth Century the close interaction between city and farming could be read in the landscape and in the planning instruments and procedures. In 1826, Von Thunen’s theory explained agricultural patterns near urban areas—in the form of concentric circles, with crop type being determined by transport cost-distance modeling. It was maybe a rough and restrictive draft of what we coin today as the importance of addressing the rural-urban continuum to deal with urban sustainability. Indeed, talking about urban sustainability is meaningless if we stop at the city limits. Everyone agrees today to consider that sustainable urban policies should take into account an urban-rural continuum that goes far beyond the dense mineral town within its administrative limits.

Urban agriculture may help designing truly sustainable policies for such complex settings. We need to question and discuss ways to include, in a perennial manner, agri-culture in urban policies. Urban agriculture can be seen as a process of hybridization between city and agriculture, which offers many advantages over other expressions of nature in the city. In addition to allowing the development of agricultural production, being consistent with the aspirations of urban populations wishing to reconnect with nature, and providing many ecosystem services, urban agriculture also provides new opportunities for developers to rethink the organization of the urban fabric. To facilitate this, there is a need for knowledge building (sharing examples, procedures, comparing different places), which should take the form of a co-production of knowledge by all the actors involved in urban agriculture actions through the world. Confronting and integrating values and knowledge from different stakeholders is crucial to help decision-making. This task was initiated by the international conference 5emes Rencontres ` Internationales de Reims on Sustainability Science whose theme was precisely “Urban Agriculture: Fostering The Urban-Rural Continuum”. Most of the articles in this special issue of Challenges in Sustainability were presented on the occasion of this conference.

To capsulize into a few words what was the guiding thread throughout the conference, and therefore the unifying idea of this special issue beyond the diversity of the papers, the following can be said: When trying to determine if urban agriculture may contribute to a sustainable future, the primary question to ask is: Will this agriculture be at the service of the inhabitants? Its success depends on its objectives, its form, and its local ownership by the people concerned. It has a lot to do with building resilient communities. By doing so, urban agriculture can be the cornerstone that helps reconfigure more sustainable cities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Review of “The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Perspectives”

josé goldemberg — 12-03-2015

The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Per- spectives

Birnbacher D, Thorseth M (Eds.)

Routledge: London, UK. 2015

234 p.; ISBN: 978-1138854291

Concerns about sustainable development are not a recent phenomenon. Societal problem-solving efforts within this realm have focused on concrete problems such as the preservation of fisheries, forests and national reserves. ‘The Politics of Sustainability’ has been discussed extensively in literature, particularly after the publication of the Brundtland Commission’s ‘Our Common Future’ report in 1987 [1] emphasizing inter-generational responsibilities involving economic, environmental and social as- pects. Among other areas, the authors of the report highlighted the challenge of global climate change resulting from, amongst other things, unsustainable patterns of con- sumption. ‘The Politics of Sustainability: Philosophical Perspectives’, edited by Dieter Birnhacher and May Thorseth, brings a new angle into the discussion of the politics of sustainable development: ethical considerations.

In Part 1, contributors to the book discuss—in a somewhat pessimistic tone—the determinants of non- sustainable behavior, which are lack of motivation; institu- tions stressing and the difficulties the democratic govern- ments face when implementing the actions needed to pro- tect future generations. The authors also underscore the challenges in pressuring politicians to make real progress through sustainable policies. This is particularly difficult given the existence of more immediate short-range chal- lenges such as economic crises, high unemployment, and maintaining an upstanding national position in the interna- tional political rat-race.

In Part 2 of the book, the contributors present and discuss the strong moral and philosophical dimensions of policy implementation, setting them up, in Part 3, for the proposition of establishing a new fourth institution of government beyond the legislative, executive and judicial. This branch would be responsible to ensure “that the interest of future generations be taken into account within today’s decision-making-process”. The proposal is indeed original. Its adoption in democratic countries will face the same difficulties as pointed out in Part 1: to implement practical actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to protect future generations.

It is my view, that, governance is more complicated than is portrayes in the book and is not completely compatible with different democratic systems around the globe. To state that “the incentives for politicians in a democratic sys- tem are in maintaining power and securing re-election” (p. 55) is an over simplification. History has demonstrated that there have been many occasions in which even problem- atic politicians or legislative bodies of governments have risen to the task of confronting great societal challenges. An example is the decision in the United States Congress to support President Roosevelt in joining World War II, de- spite strong societal sentiments for isolationism at the time. The existence of great leaders is essential for democra- cies to move and history has demonstrated that they fre- quently appear at critical junctions. This is why there is optimism with societies in making continuous strides in sustainable development, including the more difficult ques- tions such as the elimination of poverty and averting catas- trophic changes in the climate.

Technology is one powerful instrument. As technical solutions improve, they become less expensive. This creates opportunities for developing countries and means they do not have to retrace the steps followed by industrialized countries; they can “leapfrog” over many of the develop- mental steps and avoid many of the problems caused by industrialization. An example is that of Brazil’s response to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from the use of gasoline in automobiles. As an alternative, ethanol produced from sugarcane (a renewable crop) was used to replace a large fraction of the gasoline, thus reducing the GHG emissions in the country by approximately 10% [2].

Ethical considerations, of course, are of great importance when democracies move in more sustainable direc- tions. We must not forget, however, that the existence of technical solutions can also help governments to imple- ment sustainable solutions at an expeditious pace. This book will, undoubtedly, be of great interest to people less interested in economics and environment, and/but funda- mental to the philosophical perspectives of sustainable development.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Time for Decarbonization of Conservation and Development Projects? The Political Ecology of Carbon Projects

pierre l. ibisch — 12-02-2015

Carbon Conflicts and Forest Landscapes in Africa

Leach M, Scoones I (Eds.)

Routledge: London, UK. 2015

230 p.; ISBN: 978-1138824836

The globe’s first carbon projects were designed and implemented approximately 20 years ago following scientific insights that emissions of greenhouse gases needed to be mitigated. Visible in some of these early projects were the important aspects of social governance and local benefit sharing. The projects promised to be a panacea to environmental, social and economic problems in remote rural areas of developing countries. However, it took another decade before a wave of hundreds of carbon projects were launched. Many of the projects were offered under the mechanism of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, plus the role of conservation, sustainable forest management and carbon enhancement), as well as under a variety of voluntary schemes and national programs, public-private partnerships, and forestry-based investment initiatives. As decision-makers prepare the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change in Paris (COP21), Earthscan has released a book entitled ‘Carbon conflicts and forest landscapes in Africa’, edited by Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones. According to the editors, the focus of the book is on what happens on the ground when carbon forestry projects arrive, what types of projects work, and, equally important, what doesn’t work.

Leach and Scoones launch the collection of ten chapters with a discussion of “political ecologies of carbon in Africa”. This is followed by a review of different carbon projects and policies. Finally, a variety of case studies are presented, concentrating on Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, clearly achieving a broad representation of different African socio- ecological and political contexts. Adding to the geograph- ical diversity, the contributing authors also represent a variety of academic perspectives, including anthropolo- gists, geographers, economists, natural resource man- agers, agronomists, and social scientists. This broad spec- trum makes clear that the reader should not expect strict assessments of carbon project impacts on forest ecosys- tems or biodiversity in general. Lacking in the book, how- ever, are contributions and perspectives from ‘climate pro- tectionists’, conservationists, carbon brokers, or donors of carbon projects, which would have made the book more comprehensive and balanced.

This piece of work is a critical revision of carbon projects as economic interventions that provide new value to ecosystems suffering from unsustainable use. Due to their economic relevance they have even become an interesting object for brokers, traders, and consultants and often developed a certain potential to create social distor- tions on the ground. The editors present and discuss “a new round of ‘missionary’ development activity” advocated by donors and NGOs. Indeed, carbon projects are just another form of socioeconomic and legal mechanisms— paid for significantly by foreign donations—that can alter or restrict access to local natural resources and potentially change local livelihoods. They represent interven- tions in extremely complex socio-ecological and political landscapes of forestry/ecosystem management, where unsatisfied needs of local people combine with governance and enforcement deficits. The projects are stacked on top of many layers of conventional development projects and cannot escape their socio-cultural and historical contexts, or the standard problems related to the mobilization and engagement of local actors. In this context, also due to their design that differs from conventional projects, “carbon projects face a greater challenge in explaining themselves” (Mickels-Kokwe and Kokwe, p. 140).

The two introductory chapters alone are a valuable compilation of facts about carbon projects, their technicalities, and their political ecology. The chapters’ rele- vance goes far beyond the African context. Furthermore, they are meaningful in a broader context of a neoliberal and commodified model of ecosystem management, which is currently expanding and diversifying. The case studies compile a compelling amount of evidence of failures and conflicts. They also give voice to local stakeholders reflecting their perceptions of carbon projects, regarding both design and implementation. As the editors point out, the authors do not go as far as simply rejecting carbon projects. The reader who examines this book closely can come to conclusions that are grim and depressing: Carbon projects often stand for big promises and poor delivery, for high expectations that fail to match rigorous requirements, for gaining carbon finance, for ‘fortress conservation’ that forcefully excludes local people, sidelining farmers’ knowl- edge, for the displacement of food production as well as for benefits limited to old or new elites, just to summa- rize a few findings presented in the book. Indeed, it is disheartening to find so much evidence of missed opportunities and failure after so many years of implementing carbon projects. These seem to have significantly contributed to the credibility crisis of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management; the concept of ‘big carbon money’ may have both corrupted and oversimplified the narrative of an ethically needed conservation.

Science seems to show that “smallholders are not a significant cause but rather a significant victim of climate change. Therefore, social justice calls for compensation, rather than making them bear the costs of mitigation programmes” (Atela, p. 92). At the end of the day, carbon projects contribute to the commodification of the irreplaceable fundaments of our life, fueling an ongoing privatization of ecosystem management and governance. They further upscale “authority and agenda setting in policy [that] has occurred due to donors and transnational bodies” such as certification organizations, UN, World Bank etc. (Nel, p. 96).

The need for the conservation of functional and intact forests is undeniable and non-negotiable. But if carbon projects failed to enable and empower local actors and adequately compensate them for unavoidable opportunity costs, all this that once started as an apparently good idea has not just led to disappointment, but has become part of the problem. It is recommendable to carefully study this trend towards a flow-based governance of commodi- fied carbon and biomass. Much more is to come under the rising paradigm of bioeconomy and a complexifying ‘green grabbing scenario’. In this context, this book is a very valu- able source. It gives important recommendations for the in- cremental improvement of carbon projects including pleas for taking social justice and equity seriously. Equally im- portant, it provides tangible arguments for pressing the ‘re- set button’ in forest carbon governance. Game over? Is it time for decarbonization of conservation and development projects? This book should also inspire further critical in- quiry that helps us to competently question ‘greened’ ne- oliberal approaches to ecosystem management and avoid further sidetracks and traps that distract us from real sus- tainable development.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2015, Volume 3, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability of Fiscal Policy in Democracies and Autocracies

stefan wurster — 09-29-2015

This paper tries to identify the fiscal sustainability record of democratically and autocratically governed countries by applying various performance indicators (payment defaults, national debt, foreign assets) and also to clarify what effect the characteristics of a regime have on consolidation and inter- temporal budgeting efforts in a country. Important economic, social and environmental challenges of the future cannot be addressed if long term financial viability is not preserved in a country. The study identifies two key findings: while in the past, democracies have clearly found it easier to preserve their solvency and to avoid government bankruptcy, a similar advantage can no longer be detected for democracies in terms of reducing national debt and foreign debts. Why democracies, in spite of their arrangements with a sensitivity for the public good and for due process, are finding it so difficult to avoid shifting their debts to future generations (to undertake cutback measures and to provide sufficient financial foresight) can in principle be interpreted as the other side of the coin, namely highly presence-oriented interests boosted even further through the short democracy-specific time horizon.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2014, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Reversing the Trend of Large Scale and Centralization in Manufacturing: The Case of Distributed Manufacturing of Customizable 3-D-Printable Self-Adjustable Glasses

jephias gwamuri — 12-11-2014

Although the trend in manufacturing has been towards centralization to leverage economies of scale, the recent rapid technical development of open-source 3-D printers enables low-cost distributed bespoke production. This paper explores the potential advantages of a distributed manufacturing model of high-value products by investigating the application of 3-D printing to self-refraction eyeglasses. A series of parametric 3-D printable designs is developed, fabricated and tested to overcome limitations identified with mass-manufactured self-correcting eyeglasses designed for the developing world's poor. By utilizing 3-D printable selfadjustable glasses, communities not only gain access to far more diversity in product design, as the glasses can be customized for the individual, but 3-D printing also offers the potential for significant cost reductions. The results show that distributed manufacturing with open-source 3-D printing can empower developing world communities through the ability to print less expensive and customized self-adjusting eyeglasses. This offers the potential to displace both centrally manufactured conventional and selfadjusting glasses while completely eliminating the costs of the conventional optics correction experience, including those of highly-trained optometrists and ophthalmologists and their associated equipment. Although, this study only analyzed a single product, it is clear that other products would benefit from the same approach in isolated regions of the developing world.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2014, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Challenges in Sustainability: Another Brick in the Wall

barry ness — 10-09-2014

Dear reader,

We are proud of Challenges in Sustainability's (CiS) fruitful start. A variety of quality research articles, edi- torials and notes have been published on a range of themes and topics, including sustainability governance [1], improved cookstoves [2], [3], the potentials of 3-D printing in the global South [4], and the need for con- siliences between the natural and social sciences and the humanities [5], to name just a few. Furthermore, despite the journal's short history, we are pleased with its high visibility, where numerous articles have been viewed or downloaded over 1200 times since publication. The high exposure rate and the quality of publications affirm our aspirations for stable growth and development in the future.

Much of CiS's early success can be acredited to the competent and devoted administrative, managerial and editorial staff. We must first begin by thanking former Editor-in-Chief, Jürgen Kropp, for his work in estab- lishing and placing the journal on a solid footing for the future. Much of the success can also be attributed to the diverse, but impressive, editorial group with competencies in a multitude of sustainability-relevant areas, nor must we forget the devoted managerial and administrative staff at the journal. Thank you all!

Pathway Forward

Notwithstanding our progress, we will continue to work diligently to place CiS at the forefront of sus- tainability knowledge dissemination, not as a highbrow and inaccessible outlet for academic research and discourses on sustainability; our intentions, rather, are to promote the journal as an innovative forum for cutting-edge research, opinions and notes on sustainability (science).

The first step in this process is an updated focus and scope [6] which, we feel, better encapsulates the changing nature and the state of the art of today's sustainability research and the myriad debates and discourses that surround it. In addition to the journal 's timely review process for knowledge prompt dissemination to wider audiences, we will also work actively to promote special issues on specialized cutting-edge themes in the field. Discussions are already underway on topic areas. Furthermore, we will work to promote CiS as a novel instrument for the promotion of alternative forms of knowledge dissemination, e.g., short films [3], forms that are likely to catch the attention of the new generation of savvy multimedia consumers and decision-makers, both in- and outside of academia.

Finally, we will strive to be an innovative forum to link knowledge on sustainability to action. Because CiS is open access, it has the potential to reach broader audiences. Librello, our publisher, leads the change in academic publishing where large scientific journals and publishing houses historically played an important role in science by creating a network for the cir- culation of information. However, in the digital era, the traditional network can actually work against the exchange of information by means of high subscription rates and pay-per-view barriers. As one reaction, a boycott against Elsevier was started in 2012; it now counts roughly 15000 scholars [7].

Open access publishers have increased in number rapidly, contributing to the free-availability of knowledge. Nevertheless, the open access system has an intrinsic problem: the revenue of a company is propor- tional to the number of its publications.Several publishers of dubious reputation have been surfing on this wave and taking advantage of an academic market, which pressures the scholar toward productivity indices based on the number of his/her publications [8], [9].

Librello is an environment sponsored and supported by scholars and their institutions. Our membership program allows us to keep the decision of publication from any economic pressure, and we rely on our editorial team of experts to take decisions impartially. Our system also benefits the authors, since the annual membership fee covers multiple submissions. We aim at working closely together with scientists and experts outside academia, creating and establishing this community-based channel of science dissemination and advocacy, postulating solutions towards a more sustainable society.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2014, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Mobile Open-Source Solar-Powered 3-D Printers for Distributed Manufacturing in Off-Grid Communities

debbie l. king — 09-29-2014

Manufacturing in areas of the developing world that lack electricity severely restricts the technical sophistication of what is produced. More than a billion people with no access to electricity still have access to some imported higher-technologies; however, these often lack customization and often appropriateness for their community. Open source appropriate technology (OSAT) can overcome this challenge, but one of the key impediments to the more rapid development and distribution of OSAT is the lack of means of production beyond a specific technical complexity. This study designs and demonstrates the technical viability of two open-source mobile digital manufacturing facilities powered with solar photovoltaics, and capable of printing customizable OSAT in any community with access to sunlight. The first, designed for community use, such as in schools or makerspaces, is semimobile and capable of nearly continuous 3-D printing using RepRap technology, while also powering multiple computers. The second design, which can be completely packed into a standard suitcase, allows for specialist travel from community to community to provide the ability to custom manufacture OSAT as needed, anywhere. These designs not only bring the possibility of complex manufacturing and replacement part fabrication to isolated rural communities lacking access to the electric grid, but they also offer the opportunity to leap-frog the entire conventional manufacturing supply chain, while radically reducing both the cost and the environmental impact of products for developing communities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2014, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Seeking Consilience for Sustainability Science: Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, and the New Economics

joshua farley — 05-04-2014

The human system, driven largely by economic decisions, has profoundly affected planetary ecosystems as well as the energy supplies and natural resources essential to economic production. The challenge of sustainability is to understand and manage the complex interactions between human systems and the rest of nature. This conceptual article makes the case that meeting this challenge requires consilience between the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, which is to say that their basic assumptions must be mutually reinforcing and consistent. This article reviews the extent to which economics is pursuing consilience with the sciences of human behavior, physics and ecology, and the impact full consilience would have on the field. The science of human behavior would force economists to redefine what is desirable, while physics and ecology redefine what is possible. The challenges posed by ecological degradation can be modeled as prisoner's dilemmas, best solved through cooperation, not competition. Fortunately, science reveals that humans may be among the most cooperative of all species. While much of the mainstream economic theory that still dominates academic and the policy discourse continues to ignore important findings from other sciences, several sub-fields of economics have made impressive strides towards consilience in recent decades, and these are likely to change mainstream theory eventually. The question is whether these changes can proceed rapidly enough to solve the most serious problems we currently face.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Carbon Intensities of Economies from the Perspective of Learning Curves

henrique pacini — 03-25-2014

While some countries have achieved considerable development, many others still lack access to the goods and services considered standard in the modern society. As $\mathrm{CO}_2$ emissions and development are often correlated, this paper employs the theoretical background of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and the learning curves toolkit to analyze how carbon intensities have changed as countries move towards higher development (and cumulative wealth) levels. The EKC concept is then tested with the methodology of learning curves for the period between 1971 and 2010 , so as to capture a dynamic picture of emissions trends and development. Results of both analyses reveal that empirical data fails to provide direct evidence of an EKC for emissions and development. The data does show, however, an interesting pattern in the dispersion of emissions levels for countries within the same HDI categories. While data does not show that countries grow more polluting during intermediary development stages, it does provide evidence that countries become more heterogeneous in their emission intensities as they develop, later re-converging to lower emission intensities at higher HDI levels. Learning rates also indicate heterogeneity among developing countries and relative convergence among developed countries. Given the heterogeneity of development paths among countries, the experiences of those which are managing to develop at low carbon intensities can prove valuable examples for ongoing efforts in climate change mitigation, especially in the developing world.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Knowledge Governance for Sustainable Development: A Review

lorrae van kerkhoff — 03-11-2014

Sustainable development is a knowledge intensive process, but plagued by persistent concerns over our apparent inability to connect what we know with more sustainable practices and outcomes. While considerable attention has been given to ways we may better understand and enhance the knowledge-based processes that support the governance of social-ecological systems, relatively few have examined the governance of knowledge itself. The institutions-rules and norms-that govern knowledge may shed light on the persistence of 'gaps' between knowledge and action. In this review I seek to answer the question: can interdisciplinary knowledge governance literature contribute to understanding and analysing the institutional knowledge-based dimensions of sustainable development? I present and analyse the concept of knowledge governance as it is emerging in a range of disciplines and practice areas, including private sector management literature and public regulation theory and practice. I then integrate the findings from this review into a model of sustainable development proposed by Nilsson et al. [1]. I show that knowledge governance (as a scale above knowledge management) can inform Nilsson et al.'s three "nested" dimensions of sustainability: human wellbeing (through access to knowledge and freedom to exercise informed choice); resourcebase management (though enhancing regulation and innovation and transitions from exclusive to inclusive knowledge systems); and global public goods (by balancing public and private interests and fostering global innovation systems). This review concludes by presenting a framework that places sustainable development in the context of broader socio-political struggles towards more open, inclusive knowledge systems.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Publishing Sustainability Research Visually: A Film about the Opportunities and Challenges of a Rural Entrepreneurship Initiative in Kenya

barry ness — 02-26-2014

02-26-2014

Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Building Disaster Resilience: Steps Toward Sustainability

susan l. cutter — 01-28-2014

Disaster losses continue to escalate globally and in many regions human losses (death, injury, permanent displacement) often exceed the economic toll. Current disaster policies are reactive with a short-term focus―respond and rebuild as quickly as possible and in the same way after the event. Such policies ignore the longer-term approach of building disaster-resilient communities, in which investments made now show financial and social returns later by reducing the impact of disasters. This article provides a vision for resilient nations in 2030 based on three recent policy reports. It highlights the necessary steps towards achieving sustainability using the lens of disaster resilience as the pathway towards strengthening communities' ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, respond to, and recover from present and future disasters.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Assessing the Climate Impacts of Cookstove Projects: Issues in Emissions Accounting

carrie m. lee — 09-16-2013

An estimated 2.6 billion people rely on traditional biomass for home cooking and heating, so improving the efficiency of household cookstoves could provide significant environmental, social and economic benefits. Some researchers have estimated that potential greenhouse gas emission reductions could exceed 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent $\left(\mathrm{CO}_2 \mathrm{e}\right)$ per year. Carbon finance offers a policy mechanism for realizing some of this potential and could also bring improved monitoring to cookstove projects. However, there are formidable methodological challenges in estimating emission reductions. This paper evaluates the quantification approaches to three key variables in calculating emission impacts: biomass fuel consumption, fraction of non-renewable biomass, and emission factors for fuel consumption. It draws on a literature review as well as on interviews with technical experts and market actors, and identifies lessons learned and knowledge gaps. Key research needs identified include incorporating accounting for uncertainty; development of additional default factors for biomass consumption for baseline stoves; refinement of monitoring approaches for cookstove use; broadened scope of emission factors used for cookstoves; accounting for non- $\mathrm{CO}_2$ gases and black carbon; and refinement of estimates and approaches to considering emissions from bioenergy use across methodologies.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainable Development within Planetary Boundaries: A Functional Revision of the Definition Based on the Thermodynamics of Complex Social-Ecological Systems

bart muys — 07-11-2013

The dominant paradigm of sustainable development (SD) where the environment is just the third pillar of SD has proven inadequate to keep humanity within the safe operational space determined by biophysical planetary boundaries. This implies the need for a revised definition compatible with a nested model of sustainable development, where humanity forms part of the overall social-ecological system, and that would allow more effective sustainable development goals and indicators. In this paper an alternative definition is proposed based on the thermodynamics of open systems applied to ecosystems and human systems. Both sub-systems of the global social-ecological system show in common an increased capability of buffering against disturbances as a consequence of an internal increase of order. Sustainable development is considered an optimization exercise at different scales in time and space based on monitoring the change in the exergy content and exergy dissipation of these two sub-systems of the social-ecological system. In common language it is the increase of human prosperity and well-being without loss of the structure and functioning of the ecosystem. This definition is functional as it allows the straightforward selection of quantitative indicators, discerning sustainable development from unsustainable development, unsustainable stagnation and sustainable retreat. The paper shows that the new definition is compatible with state of the art thinking on ecosystem services, the existence of regime shifts and societal transitions, and resilience. One of the largest challenges in applying the definition is our insufficient understanding of the change in ecosystem structure and function as an endpoint indicator of human action, and its effect on human prosperity and well-being. This implies the continued need to use midpoint indicators of human impact and related thresholds defining the safe operating space of the present generation with respect to future generations. The proposed definition can be considered a valuable complement to the recently emerged nested system discourse of sustainable development, by offering a more quantitative tool to monitor and guide the transition of human society towards a harmonious relationship with the rest of the biosphere.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Pitfalls of Sustainability Policies: Insights into Plural Sustainabilities

françois mancebo — 06-17-2013

A lot can be learned from the numerous pitfalls of sustainable development implementation: they outline how collective representation, short term interests and balance of power can undermine sustainability. For instance, the usefulness of global institutions in dealing with sustainable development is questionable as most are skewed toward the interests and perceptions of developed countries. The notion of sustainable development itself induces a profound cleavage between academic authors and the actors of its implementation, some of whom confuse it with sustainable growth (which favors spatial equity), whilst the others with environment management (which favors intergenerational equity). This polarization is a real problem, since originally, "Our Common Future" report promotes an inclusive approach, able to cope with both equities simultaneously. Finally, if there are obligations toward future generations, there are also obligations toward the current generation. The key issue for effective sustainability policies should be making them acceptable to everyone by including the expectations of local societies and communities. As a matter of consequence, universal solutions do not exist. They would not meet the specificities of local circumstances. The traditional prescriptive sustainable development model should give way to flexible plural sustainabilities. Singular, top-down, global-to-local approaches to sustainable development should be substituted for multiple sustainabilities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability Science: Progress Made and Directions Forward

barry ness — 05-20-2013

I am honored to contribute an editorial for the inaugural issue of Challenges in Sustainability (CiS). It has provided the opportunity for me to take a step back and reflect on both the developmental progress in the field of sustainability science since its formal launch, now over twelve years ago [1], [2], and where the field might head in coming years. While it may always feel that the field is changing too slowly to keep up with the challenges it addresses, the developments have been noteworthy, especially in academia. I will discuss three areas: education, research and institutional development.

The growing offering of sustainability (science) educational programs at all levels has been an important part of the field’s evolution. Individual areas of concentration can include business and management, leadership, engineering, or policy management, to name a few. Flagship programs are now found throughout the world, including Arizona State University, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, and the University of Tokyo. In addition, programs at smaller academic institutions such as Furman and Kean Universities in the U.S. have arisen to meet the increasing demand for sustainability education. In Sweden, where I am based, there are international master’s programs in sustainability at Uppsala, Stockholm, Malmö, and Lund Universities, as well as Blekinge Institute of Technology. These programs and their different foci, seek not only to increase student knowledge to understand the complexities of sustainability challenges, but also aim to strengthen key competency development [3] in areas such as facilitation and strategic leadership.

In addition to sustainability education, the nature of research projects and programs in the field has also changed. The changes have been driven by both top-down funding priorities to finance research that is more relevant to society, and bottom-up desire from scholars to carry out more integrated work. This has led to the slow evolution from a focus on descriptive analytical research, with emphases on understanding the effects of environmental change, to transitional (or transformational) research agendas that embrace working in closer collaboration with societal stake-holders. Such research may concentrate on, for example, envisioning and scenario exercises, or problem-solving strategies beyond change strict policy change [4], [5]. Transitional sustainability science research is being carried out by individuals in innovative Ph.D. projects focused on single case studies using particular theories and approaches, and by networks of researchers in longer-term programs, such as the Earth System Governance project (www.earthsystem governance.org), united by common sustainable development themes.

To operationalize the education and research agendas in sustainability science, new organizational constellations have developed. Changes have ranged from the creation of new faculty structures at a number of universities, to the establishment of interdisciplinary research schools and programs. The Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability (www.lucid.lu.se) is just one example of a longer-term program that unites senior and junior staff and Ph.D. candidates from disciplinary backgroundsincluding Economics and Economic History, Philosophy, Physical Geography, Human Geography, Political Science, and Human Ecology. The frequent interactions via discussions, debates, and joint publications have the goal of, amongst others, fostering new professionals who are capable of and accept working with the theoretical and empirical multiplicities [6] often inherent in sustainability education and research.

Despite the advancements over the past decade, there is still much to be done. Continued creativity in restructuring academic disciplines, departments, and funding and tenure incentives are necessary to pro- mote the interaction needed to achieve the interdisciplinary goals of sustainability science. Sustainability issues must also be strengthened in other areas such as the arts and humanities utilizing alternative forms of knowledge dissemination. In the area of education, additional sustainability programs are still needed,but more importantly, there must also be increased efforts in mainstreaming sustainability into all educational programs at different levels. Finally, the field must also continue to place strong emphases on reaching outside of academia in addressing pressing societal challenges.

The launch of Challenges in Sustainability represents an important step in further strengthening the field. The journal’s broad aims that focus on systemic analyses of sustainability challenges, solutions and transition processes, and associated trade-offs within socio-ecological systems, will create an important publishing outlet for scholars involved in integrative research. Furthermore, because Challenges in Sustainability is open access, it will mean that the knowledge produced in it can reach a wider range of stake-holders, adding one more attribute in a sustainability science we want to create.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustaining Welfare for Future Generations: A Review Note on the Capital Approach to the Measurement of Sustainable Development

thorvald moe — 05-11-2013

Measuring sustainable development based on analytical models of growth and development and modern methods of growth accounting is an economic approach—often called the capital approach – to establishing sustainable development indicators (SDIs). Ecological approaches may be combined with the capital approach, but there are also other approaches to establishing sustainable development indicators—for example the so-called integrated approach. A recent survey of the various approaches is provided in UNECE, OECD and Eurostat [1]. This review note is not intended to be another survey of the various approaches. Rather the objective of this paper is twofold: to present an update on an economic approach to measuring sustainable development—the capital approach—and how this approach may be combined with the ecological approach; to show how this approach is actually used as a basis for longer-term policies to enhance sustainable development in Norway—a country that relies heavily on non-renewable natural resources. We give a brief review of recent literature and set out a model of development based on produced, human, natural and social capital, and the level of technology. Natural capital is divided into two parts—natural capital produced and sold in markets (oil and gas)—and non-market natural capital such as clean air and biodiversity. Weak sustainable development is defined as non-declining welfare per capita if the total stock of a nation's capital is maintained. Strong sustainable development is if none of the capital stocks, notably non-market natural capital, is reduced below critical or irreversible levels. Within such a framework, and based on Norwegian experience and statistical work, monetary indexes of national wealth and its individual components including real capital, human capital and market natural capital are presented. Limits to this framework and to these calculations are then discussed, and we argue that such monetary indexes should be sustainable development indicators (SDIs) of non-market natural capital, and physical SDIs, health capital and social capital. Thus we agree with the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Commission [2] that monetary indexes of capital should be combined with physical SDIs of capital that have no market prices. We then illustrate the policy relevance of this framework, and how it is actually being used in long term policy making in Norway—a country that relies heavily on non-renewable resources like oil and gas. A key sustainability rule for Norwegian policies is to maintain the total future capital stocks per capita in real terms as the country draws down its stocks of non-renewable natural capital —applying a fiscal guideline akin to the Hartwick rule.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Why 'Sustainable Development' Is Often Neither: A Constructive Critique

alexander lautensach — 05-09-2013

Challenges in Sustainability, 2013, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainability: A Path-breaking Idea, but Still Associated with Huge Challenges

juergen peter kropp — 05-09-2013

Sustainability science is a young discipline that started emerging in the late 20th century, although Hans Carl von Carlowitz had already introduced ideas about sustainable management of forests in the early 18 th century. In recent times, the Club of Rome report in 1972 and the Brundtland report in 1987 developed these concepts further, and subsequently the sustainability idea became prominent in political debates as well. In both reports it was recognized that growth would have certain limits and a different style of resource utilization was therefore necessary. However, despite numerous approaches dealing with sustainability, it is still an important issue.

Nowadays humanity increasingly interferes with natural systems on a planetary scale. This holds for many subsystems of the Earth including the climate, soil and water bodies, and marine systems. During the 20th century, rapid technological development and demographic pressure advanced to a degree that we caused radical and unintended changes in the Earth's integrity. This is observable in certain subsystems, for example in the atmosphere (global warming), in marine systems (overexploitation of fish stocks), or in soils (degradation). One crucial element of sustainability is the capacity of natural resources to sustain human demands. It is foreseeable that parts of the system are overburdened beyond their capacity. This holds likewise for waste disposal, as for the atmosphere (greenhouse gases) and the utilization of resources like ores and renewables like trees and fish. To sum up, one can state that the overexploitation of natural resources and economic growth causes environmental impacts which may lead several systems to the brink of collapse. In other words, humanity causes a multitude of problems and most of them are not grounded in one sector, region, either can they be described by one scientific discipline.

Thus, sustainability science is a discipline that can be placed as the one at the meeting point of different scientific disciplines. However, during the last four decades, science made remarkable progress in regard to an assessment on how climate and global change will affect livelihood conditions, and how humanity is accelerating the above mentioned changes. The question is how we can avoid certain human activities that destroy the functionality of certain subsystems of the Earth and how we can develop potential solutions. It is a major challenge to understand the dynamics of man-made environment systems as a basis for the development of sustainable transition pathways in the sense of planetary engineering and management. In other words, sustainability science addresses the man-made environment interface.

Although all these points have bleen well-known for decades, we need to ask why it is so difficult to achieve pathbreaking scientific results, which may help us to develop clear visions of real sustainable development. It is well-known that resource consumption is an accompanying factor of economic prosperity and global resource consumption is still steeply growing. In some countries we observe-mainly the advanced ones-that resource consumption stabilizes or even decreases, while their high material intensity is still managed by exporting it to developing countries. Thus, the challenge to decouple resource consumption from economic development remains, and it is not only a question of a green economy, technological progress, or how natural resources are being utilized. It is indeed also a societal challenge. Human lifestyle changes might be a further catalyst for making headway towards sustainability. Nevertheless, current progress into this direction is slow, moreover, in large parts in the developing countries, we can see a tendency just to copy westernized lifestyles. A real innovation for the world would be a strategic approach for a sustainable economy that results in social equity and fairness, risk resilient livelihood conditions, sustainable resource use, and the avoidance of ecological scarcities-all these under consideration of planetary boundaries.

Nevertheless, sustainability is still an elusive concept. It is hard to define what sustainability really implies in terms of environmental constraints or societal development, in particular on a regional scale. Consequently, at the beginning of the 21st century, scientific bodies called for a more systematic sustainability science, e.g. International Council for Science defined sustainability as a major goal in its research strategies. Despite these efforts, concepts still lack real meaning. Thus, the aim should be to underpin activities dealing with the general aspects of sustainability with stronger and sounder scientific concepts. Questions, like: what exactly is sustainability? How can we achieve sustainability targets? And, what does 'being sustainable' mean? need to be in the foreground. Thus, sustainability science is environmental systems science.

Although all these points have been intensely discussed in recent decades, a thrilling and demanding journey still lies ahead for sustainability science. In regard to methodological terms, we need to encompass the different magnitudes of scales in terms of time, space and functions. Thus, sustainability science still invokes a lot of questions, i.e. we have to tackle, in particular, the following three challenges: 1) The provision of a methodological arsenal that allows the description and analysis of questions of sustainability in a comparable and transferable manner, i.e. we permanently have to ask ourselves what we can learn from singular cases in terms of the overarching sustainability challenge; 2) Options for solutions at different levels, e.g. regional and global, need to be assessed systematically in order to develop pathways which allow us to achieve predefined environmental targets, like the 2℃ target agreed in the Copenhagen Accord 2009; 3) As a lot of strategies are included under the term 'sustainability', there is a need to develop a concept which allows assessment and measurement of success of implemented sustainability measures.

However, sustainability itself is a challenge, because it needs ethical decisions from humankind itself whether we want to live in a safe environment or not. But how we achieve these safe limits is an issue of sustainability science, i.e. in terms of how to achieve these limits and what potential trade-offs there might be. The new journal Challenges in Sustainability provides a perfect platform for these goals.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Energy Transition, Energy Intensity, Economic Growth, and Financial Development: Their Interrelationship and Impact Toward Vietnam’s Carbon Neutrality Target

ngo ngan ha — 04-09-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Graph Theory Approach to Automated Environmental Content Analysis: A Systematic Review on the Topic of Marine Debris

ritzkal — 03-31-2026

Marine debris is one of the major environmental concerns in the 21st century, owing to its impact on the ocean ecosystems, the biodiversity of marine inhabitants, and human well-being. Through the utilization of automated content analysis (ACA) and graph theory in the context of a systematic literature review (SLR), the purpose of this investigation is to comprehensively map and assess the global research landscape concerning marine trash. Leximancer was used in this study to extract semantic links among important ideas, which were then displayed as directed acyclic graphs (DAG). The research used 357 Scopus-indexed papers that were published between 2017 and 2024. Core conceptual clusters relating to microplastics, plastics, and soil were identified through the ACA method. These clusters each reflected a different aspect of marine pollution that was interrelated with the others. The utilization of graph theory enabled the identification of structural links and core nodes that were shared by several themes. These connection points might be quantified by adjacency matrices and normalized grouping was accomplished by k-means analysis. According to the findings, phrases such as “waste”, “plastics”, and “marine” were the most prominent notions, and they served as the foundation for study on marine debris on a worldwide scale. These findings not only contribute to the advancement of automated environmental informatics but also highlight how graph-based content analysis may be used to identify hidden patterns in scientific knowledge. Taking into account both theoretical and methodological considerations, this study have implications for academics who use computational bibliometric analysis in the field of environmental science.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Multi-Faceted and Network-Based Hybrid Resilience Assessment on Rural Shrinkage in Germany and Türkiye

bilge aydın — 03-19-2026

Despite advances, spatial resilience planning remains constrained in its integration of complex system principles to address slow-variable disturbances. This study provided a methodological test of a novel multi-faceted and network-based hybrid resilience assessment that examined rural shrinkage in paired regions of Germany (Lüneburg) and Türkiye (Trakya). The method integrated Specified Resilience Assessment (SRA) and General Resilience Assessment (GRA) under Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) and Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) lenses and operated through five steps. SRA employed (i) a multi-faceted survey to identify prioritized factors, solutions, and institutional roles/success and (ii) Relational Network Analysis (RNA) to assess complex factors and leverage points; GRA computed (iii) Spatial Network Analysis (SNA) to identify physical connectivity as hubs and sub-clusters; (iv) correlation analysis to determine significant variables among socio-demographic, land-use, facility, and network variables, and (v) k-means clustering to map shrinkage urgency levels. The synthesized outputs generated two operational strategies: strengthening sub-centers and connecting shrinking settlements to these hubs. While the strategies of Germany focused on the needs of the elderly and innovative digital solutions (wd ≈ 28), examples of Türkiye emphasized ecological concerns and the support of cooperatives as a leverage (wd = 54). GRA highlighted weighted degree (up to r = 0.79) and urban-industrial land cover (r ≈ 0.6) as critical drivers of stability; meanwhile, distance to the center (r ≈ -0.55) significantly correlated with shrinkage. Despite limitations of sample size and manual network construction, the study operationalized SES/CAS concepts for slow variables and integrated both qualitative and quantitative insights. It advances resilience research in sustainable spatial development by demonstrating a proof-of-concept and transferable decision-support workflow, while scaling and automation point to the directions for future research.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Collaborative and Social Ecological Governance for Attaining Shared Capacity and Coastal Community Resilience in West Sumatra, Indonesia

rinawati — 03-14-2026

Climate change poses significant challenges for developing countries, where coastal communities are the most vulnerable. However, adaptation policies targeting coastal populations often remain ineffective because top-down governance structures fail to integrate social-ecological systems adequately. This study empirically examined an integrated Collaborative Governance-Social Ecological Systems (CG-SES) model encompassing principled engagement, shared capacity, joint action, multi-level fit, and community resilience. The analysis was based on the survey data collected through a structured questionnaire from 411 coastal residents in Padang City, Pesisir Selatan Regency, and the Mentawai Islands Regency, West Sumatra. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess relationships among various governance dimensions and resilience outcomes. The results indicated that principled engagement had a positive and significant effect on shared capacity (β = 0.936, p < 0.001) and community resilience (β = 0.651, p < 0.001). Shared capacity also positively influenced joint action (β = 0.472, p < 0.001) and community resilience (β = 0.342, p < 0.001). These relationships enhanced the predictive power of the model (R² = 0.926 for multi-level fit; R² = 0.941 for community resilience), indicating that governance variables explained a substantial proportion of variation in resilience outcomes. The findings further suggested that shared capacity functioned as a key mediating mechanism linking principled engagement to community resilience. At the same time, multi-level fit and joint action did not demonstrate direct or moderating effects. Overall, the results highlight the importance of co-produced knowledge, institutional trust, and collective capacity in shaping climate adaptation outcomes in the coastal regions of the Global South.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Effects of Governance and Public Health Spending: An Empirical Evidence from a Panel-Corrected Standard Errors Approach to Improving the Quality of Life in Arab Economies

oussama zaghdoud — 03-12-2026

Quality of life (QoL) in the Arab world hinges on credible institutions and effective social spending; yet evidence linking governance, health budgets, and environmental pressures remains fragmented and seldom extends beyond 2020. This study clarified these links by assembling a balanced panel of 14 Arab countries from 2000–2020 to examine how institutional quality and public health expenditure shaped QoL, while accounting for carbon emissions, economic expansion, and education expenditures. QoL is proxied by life expectancy, while institutional quality is captured through a composite index constructed by applying Principal Component Analysis to the Worldwide Governance Indicators. The analysis employed country- and year-fixed effects, along with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), to address heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence. Results indicated that institutional quality was the dominant driver as the composite index was strongly associated with higher QoL (β = 1.843, p < .01). Health expenditure was also crucial though the effect was economically small (β ≈ 0.0063, p < .05). Education expenditure was weakly negative (p < .10), thus reflecting quality and governance constraints in the education sector. Carbon emissions displayed a small positive coefficient (β ≈ 0.0949, p < .05), which likely implied policy and structural weaknesses rather than genuine welfare gains. Moreover, GDP per capita exhibited a statistically significant yet negligible and slightly negative elasticity (≈−0.000124), indicating rent-dependent growth that failed to translate into improved well-being. Collectively, the findings imply that governance reforms yield the greatest QoL, whereas spending without institutional credibility produces limited returns. Future work should test interaction effects, explore thresholds, and incorporate subjective QoL metrics to guide the sequencing of reforms across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC settings.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Integrating Environmental Sustainability and Operational Safety in Small-Scale Purse Seine Fisheries: A CCRF-Aligned Risk Assessment Framework from East Java, Indonesia

sunardi — 03-08-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Mainstreaming Vulnerability in Adaptation Finance: Towards a Theory-Informed Analysis of Official Development Assistance in the World Economy

cansel oskay — 03-01-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Impact of Austerity Policies on the Correlation Between Public Sector Wages and Sustainable Productivity in Public Service

efthymia tsiatsiou — 02-27-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Spatial Analysis of the Relationship Between Climate-Environmental Risks and the Vulnerable Population in Thailand for Policy Interventions

punyawaj traijutakarn — 02-05-2026

This study examined climate-related risks to public health, settlements and human security in Thailand, with a particular focus on vulnerable groups such as children and the elderly. Distinguishing itself from traditional assessments, this research innovatively integrated future climate projections from 2016–2035 under a high-emission scenario of RCP8.5 with data about current structural vulnerability, based on the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in 2024. This approach proactively identified “at-risk” areas where future environmental hazards might exacerbate existing social inequalities. The analysis on 76 provinces except Bangkok, utilized Bivariate Polygon Render to visualize risk-poverty intersections and Local Spatial Autocorrelation (Local Moran’s I) to rigorously detect statistically significant spatial clusters. Results indicated that the Northeastern and Western regions consistently faced elevated risks. Quantitative analysis confirmed critical “High-High” hotspots in the Northeast, specifically in Khon Kaen (LMI = 1.103, p = 0.004) and Buriram (LMI = 1.724, p = 0.008), where high climate exposure significantly overlapped with child multidimensional poverty. Conversely, Mae Hong Son emerged as a significantly “Low-High” spatial outlier (LMI = -0.634, p = 0.008), highlighting a region with concentrated elderly vulnerability despite lower relative climate risks. These findings underscored the utility of MPI over simple population counts for policy targeting. Ultimately, the study supports climate justice principles by providing spatially explicit evidence to guide interventions that address both local needs and structural inequalities.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Beyond Waste Valorization: Glycerol-Based Metalworking Fluids as Hephaestus for the Circular Economy and Sustainability Transitions

luka latinović — 02-03-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Socio-Technical Transformation of Indonesia’s National Food System: An Integrated Approach Based on Circular Supply Chain Management, Human Factors, and Agent-Based Modeling

hari purnomo — 02-02-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainable Competitiveness under Conflict: Innovation Patterns and Environmental Pressures in Ukraine

alla grechan — 01-23-2026

Ukrainian enterprises face significant challenges in leveraging innovation for competitiveness and sustainable development amidst post-war reconstruction and global market integration, with limited empirical evidence guiding effective strategies. This study examined the impact of innovative activity on companies’ competitiveness and its contribution to sustainable development within Ukraine’s national economy from 2018 to 2024. Utilizing a quantitative data analysis of 612 enterprises across key sectors such as information technology (IT), manufacturing, and agriculture, the research employed fixed-effects regression models on longitudinal data from Ukraine’s State Statistics Service. Key metrics included Research and Development (R&D) Intensity, Patent Activity, Process Innovation Adoption, alongside competitiveness indicators (Export/Revenue Growth and Market Share), as well as sustainability indicators (Job Creation, Energy Efficiency, and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions). Results demonstrated that a 1% increase in R&D Intensity drove 2.71% higher Export Growth (p < 0.001), while Process Innovation boosted Revenue by 4.38% per implementation level (p < 0.01) and reduced GHG Emissions by 12.7% (p < 0.001). A critical R&D Intensity threshold of 3.5% triggered exponential returns in competitiveness. Sectoral analysis revealed superior innovation resilience of IT (78% wartime retention vs. 42% in manufacturing) and reliance on Non-R&D Innovation for Job Creation in agriculture. The findings necessitate tiered R&D tax incentives for enterprises that exceed the 3.5% intensity benchmark, as well as the establishment of sector-specific innovation hubs. Policymakers should prioritize sustainability-linked financing and wartime adaptation funds targeting regions with more than 15% infrastructural damage. This study provided the first quantitative evidence linking types of innovation to dual competitiveness and sustainability outcomes in conflict-affected Ukraine, hence offering actionable pathways for economic recovery.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Bibliometric Review of Transforming Coastal Management Towards the Blue Economy: Emerging Trends and Future Directions

kismartini kismartini — 01-22-2026

Coastal management is crucial for achieving the blue economy, which prioritizes the sustainable utilization of marine resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and the welfare of the ocean ecosystem. However, the current body of knowledge on the interface of coastal management and the blue economy is fragmented. The identified fragmentation leads to the demand for a thorough understanding of research trends, major issues, and prospects. Therefore, this research aims to provide a systematic overview of the global research landscape on coastal management in the context of the blue economy. Bibliometric analysis was applied to examine 85 articles indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, with a focus on the period covering 2013 to 2024. The analysis was conducted with different tools such as biblioshiny R package, VOSViewer and NVivo 12 Plus to map the co-occurrence of keywords and thematic evolution. The results demonstrated several emerging research trends, including sustainable development, marine spatial planning, conservation management, marine environment and policy, as well as environmental impact assessment. Despite these developments, gaps were identified in areas such as policy integration, technological innovation for coastal monitoring, and equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms in the blue economy framework.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Circularity and Regenerative Tourism as Key Instruments for Sustainability in the Rural Areas of Manabí, Ecuador

maría amelia bravo giler — 01-12-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Impact of Globalization on the Strategic Management Sustainability of the Venture Capital Industry

mustafa jaber — 01-11-2026

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainable Investment Strategies in the Timber Construction Sector: ESG Timber Score for Assessing CO₂ Storage Capacity

tania kornsteiner — 01-08-2026

2 emissions, a key focus for gathering efforts to combat climate change. Timber, a sustainable and carbon-storing building material, unravels significant potential to decarbonize the sector by replacing carbon-intensive materials such as steel and concrete. However, the full potential of timber remains underutilized, owing to a lack of knowledge, transparency, and investment opportunities in the forestry and timber industries. This paper addressed this gap by developing a comprehensive framework for investors to evaluate listed companies in the timber construction sector, based on their sustainability and financial performance. Specifically, the study sought to answer: How can investors effectively channel capital into the carbon storage capacity of timber, and what approaches are both sustainable and economically viable for timber investments? To achieve this, this paper examined how investors could invest in the CO₂ storage capacity of timber, with a particular focus on the creation of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Timber Score to evaluate the sustainability of listed companies in the sector. By integrating sustainability and financial performance metrics, this study provided a robust framework that enabled investors to assess both the economic and environmental aspects of their investments. The findings revealed investment opportunities in both traditional markets (North America and Europe) and emerging markets (Asia and Africa). The current study emphasizes that investment decisions, if probable, should be tailored to individual preferences to achieve different levels of sustainability and financial goals. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: From Trade Openness and Income Inequality to Carbon Reductions: Insights into Environmental Outcomes

hung manh pham — 01-05-2026

2 emissions; however, their interaction is proved to be positive, suggesting that while trade openness could contribute to lower carbon emissions in relatively equal societies, its benefits diminished and even reversed under high inequality. In addition, heterogeneity analyses revealed stronger elasticities in non-high-income and high-openness subsamples, a statistically significant inequality threshold and effects that intensify at upper CO₂ quantiles. Therefore, policy packages that pair trade facilitation with inequality compression and clean-technology diffusion are likely to be most effective, particularly where inequality and openness are already high. Future research should extend the analysis to consumption-based emissions, sectoral pathways, and institutional moderators to refine the trade-inequality-carbon nexus and its implications for environmental sustainability. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Optimizing Resource Utilization in Industrial Symbiosis: A DEMATEL and FAHP Approach for Sustainable Manufacturing

juan carlos muyulema-allaica — 12-22-2025

Industrial symbiosis (IS) represents a strategic framework for collaboration among companies through innovative partnerships, which aimed at optimizing resource utilization, reducing environmental impact, and promoting sustainable development in line with the principles of circular economy. This study conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) and a quantitative analysis of the effectiveness of IS tools in resource management. Publications from January 2020 to December 2024 were retrieved from the established databases such as SpringerLink, ScienceDirect, EBSCO, and DOAJ, with a focus on industrial engineering, environmental management, circular economy, sustainable development, resource conservation, and recycling. Advanced methodologies including the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) were applied to evaluate four key dimensions, i.e., Decision-Making (DMD), Geographical Location (GLD), Strategic Planning (SD), and Lean Manufacturing (LMD), along with 21 subcriteria. The results indicated that DMD and GLD functioned as causal dimensions influencing SD and LMD, while alternatives such as Intelligent Waste Recycling Systems (IWRS) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) were considered to be highly efficient in resource utilization. The identification of dominant relationships via the threshold value of α = 0.58 highlighted strategic leverage points for implementing sustainable manufacturing practices. These findings emphasize that effective DMD, combined with strategic planning based on geographical considerations and application of technological tools, is critical for optimizing resources, enhancing environmental protection, and fostering economic and social development, thus providing clear guidance for the implementation of IS strategies in industrial settings.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Macroeconomic Policy Uncertainty and Environmental Sustainability Nexus: A Systematic Review

haider mahmood — 12-22-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2026, Volume 14, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Application of Social Media Data to Enhance the Performance of Humanitarian Logistics: A Case Study of Vietnam in the Aftermath of Typhoon Yagi

huong thi tran — 12-22-2025

In recent years, humanitarian logistics have received much attention from practitioners and researchers due to the significant damage from natural disasters on a global scale. This case study investigated the potential of leveraging social media data to enhance the effectiveness of humanitarian logistics in Vietnam after the disaster caused by Typhoon Yagi. The research examined public sentiment about the disaster response efforts, pinpointed the needs of critical relief, and assessed the performance of various machine learning models in classifying disaster-related content on social media. Data was sourced from multiple platforms, preprocessed and then categorized according to the damage types, required relief supplies, and sentiment labels. After that, different machine learning models were utilized to analyze the negative impact of the disaster. The analysis revealed that housing and transportation were the primary sources of negative public sentiment, indicating significant unmet needs in these areas. In contrast, generally more positive responses were received in relation to cash assistance, food, and medical support. A comparative evaluation of 12 machine learning models suggested that conventional algorithms, such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machine, and Logistic Regression, outperformed deep learning models in sentiment classification tasks. These findings shed light on the value of social media as a real-time indicator of public perception and logistical effectiveness. Therefore, incorporating sentiment analysis into the planning of disaster response can support more adaptive, timely, and community-informed decision-making for governments and humanitarian organizations.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Sustainable Accounting Transformation Through Cloud Technologies: Evidence from Romania

laura nicola-gavrilă — 12-09-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: A Systematic Review and Comparative Policy Analysis of Sharing Cities and Their Urban Governance

halime gözlükaya — 12-08-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Toward Sustainable Energy Consumption: Identifying Barriers to Household Adoption of Photovoltaic Solar Technology

tuan duong vu — 11-30-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Plants for a Resilient City: The “Climate-Friendly Parks” Experiment in Reggio Emilia

federico zanardi — 11-20-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Grey Clustering Based Air Quality Index to Detect Urban Air Quality in Lima

alexi delgado — 11-12-2025

2.5 and PM₁₀ concentrations continue to pose serious threats to public health and sustainable urban development. Traditional Air Quality Index (AQIs), such as the U.S. EPA standard, often struggle to account for data uncertainty, pollutant interactions, and spatial heterogeneity. To address these gaps, this study introduces a novel AQI based on grey systems theory, applying a grey clustering framework enhanced with center-point triangular whitenization weight functions (CTWF). The model was specifically designed to handle ambiguous data and overlapping pollution categories. It was applied to daily PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ data from nine monitoring stations across metropolitan Lima, with validation conducted against both Peru’s national air quality standards and the U.S. EPA AQI. Results showed that the proposed index outperformed conventional methods under uncertain conditions, revealing critical spatial disparities often missed by traditional models. Beyond diagnostic accuracy, the index offers a scalable and transferable tool for urban planners and decision-makers to support targeted interventions, inform policy development, and advance Sustainable Development Goals—specifically SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Evaluating Carbon Credit Offsets: Carbon Neutral Tourism for Passengers Traveling from Thailand to China

duangrat tandamrong — 11-08-2025

2e (≈ 445 THB) to per-passenger emissions. These proposed offset contributions were not obtained from evidence of direct survey on the offset cost per passenger. On the other hand, the benchmark selected was based on the estimate in the international literature, anticipated price trends, and the goal of encouraging broader participation. The findings prioritized the importance of consistent terminology, explicit standards, and collaborative policies between public and private stakeholders to strengthen travelers’ engagement in carbon offset programs. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Advancing Urban Building Energy Modeling: The Role of Hybrid Energy Modeling in Enhancing Energy Consumption Predictions

ahad montazeri — 11-07-2025

2 of 0.883 and a MAPE below 15% in most months. Residual learning reduced daily prediction error in 80% of cases, with up to 75% improvement in extreme cases. After model calibration, 65% of buildings achieved a daily MAPE below 30%, and 55% fell below 20%, demonstrating consistent error reduction across varied building types and consumption levels. This confirms the effectiveness of the hybrid approach in enhancing accuracy and reliability at the urban scale. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Modelling Adaptation to Climate Change among Small-Scale Fishermen in Bengkulu Province in Indonesia

gita mulyasari — 10-15-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Threshold of Lending Interest Rate and Macroeconomic Indicators: Impact on Investment by Ownership in Vietnam

phuong nu minh le — 10-12-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Analysis of Decentralized Energy Systems in Rural Communities: A Focus on Accessibility and Sustainability

gricelda herrera-franco — 10-10-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: A Comprehensive Assessment to Harness Artificial Intelligence Technology in the Organic Waste Management of Urban India

punam bundele — 09-11-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: A Data-Driven Benchmarking Framework for Enhancing Sustainability Performance in UI GreenMetric Rankings: Insights from Saudi Arabian Higher Education Institutions

hafiz abdul wajid — 08-25-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: SIMURG_CITIES Conceptual Model: Multi-Dimensional and Multi-Layer Performance-Based Assessment of Urban Sustainability at the City Level

burcu ulker senkulak — 08-20-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Urban Expansion and Its Dual Impact on Biodiversity Loss and Thermal Dynamics: A Remote Sensing-Based Assessment of Abomey-Calavi, Benin

cossi jeannot melchior kadja — 08-14-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Renewable Energy Communities in Italy: A National Framework for Sustainable Cities

guglielmina mutani — 08-13-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Sustainable Energy Solutions in Urban Management: Carbon Emissions and Economic Assessment of Photovoltaic Systems at Electric Vehicle Stations in Hybrid Buildings

mochamad subchan mauludin — 08-13-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: An Empirical Assessment of Oil, Natural Gas, Mineral, and Forest Rents on CO₂ Emissions in Saudi Arabia

haider mahmood — 08-04-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: The Influence of Climate Literacy and Awareness on the Utilisation of Climate-Related Information among Unskilled Construction Workers in Malaysia

isyaku hassan — 07-22-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Integrated Wastewater Management for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Ecotourism in an Andean Paramo Community

bethy merchán-sanmartín — 07-10-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Investigating Good Practices for Implementing the 17 SDGs in Greek Secondary Schools by 2026

athanasios papavasileiou — 06-26-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Disentangling Greenwashing Discourse: A Topic and Sentiment Analysis of Public Engagement on Twitter

tereza balcarová — 06-25-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Dynastic Politics and Environmental Governance in Asia: A Bibliometric Synthesis of Research Trends and Policy Implications (2015–2025)

ade irfan abdurahman — 06-24-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Assessing the Potential of Urban Orchards, Berry Bushes, and Apiaries for Local Food Production and Carbon Mitigation in a Small European City

rok kamnik — 06-24-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Navigating Sustainability in Lithium Extraction: Local Perceptions of Environmental and Economic Impacts in the Cínovec Region, Czech Republic

martin mata — 06-19-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Economic Viability and Policy Imperatives of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage in Indonesia’s Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions

rudianto rimbono — 06-15-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Divergent Pathways to Sustainability: Club Convergence Analysis of EU Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals

aslı özen atabey — 06-15-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Integrating Economic Analysis and Reliability Assessment for Sustainable Management in the Italian Used Car Market

elisa verna — 06-04-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Assessing Economic Profiles of Coastal Regions in the Blue Economy: A Radar Chart Approach

oleksandra ovchynnykova — 05-22-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Analysis of Heavy Metal Contamination in Surface Water Bodies in the Ponce Enriquez Mining District, Ecuador

paola almeida-guerra — 05-11-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages undefined: The Relationship Between Municipal Management and Sustainable Tourism in Urban Protected Areas: A Quantitative Study

fiorella denisse maje-salazar — 04-20-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Integration of Renewable Energy Adoption in Sustainability Practices for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Jordanian SMEs

fawwaz tawfiq awamleh — 03-24-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Integrating Geospatial Technologies and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Sustainable and Resilient Urban Planning

ghizlane chaoui — 03-20-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Assessing the Role of the Blue Economy in Strengthening Food Security: Evidence from Lower-Middle-Income ASEAN Countries

suci febrina — 03-16-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Investigation of Biodiversity Awareness and Conservation Behaviors on Science Teachers Candidates

zeynep özyurt — 03-16-2025

This study investigates the levels of biodiversity awareness and conservation behaviours among science teacher candidates and examines the extent to which these levels vary across demographic and academic variables. A survey-based research design was employed, involving 216 teachers candidates enrolled in the Science Education program within the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the Faculty of Education. Data were collected using the Biodiversity Awareness Measurement Tool (BAMT) and the Biodiversity Behaviour Measurement Tool (BBMT). Analysis revealed that the mean biodiversity awareness score was 3.57 ± 0.328, whereas the mean conservation behaviour score was 3.53 ± 0.370. A statistically significant gender-based difference was observed in biodiversity awareness, with female participants exhibiting higher awareness levels; however, no significant difference was detected in conservation behaviours. Class level was found to exert a partial influence on both awareness and behaviour scores. Notably, 93.5% of participants reported never having engaged in biodiversity-related activities, indicating a substantial gap between awareness and active conservation efforts. This disconnect underscores a critical challenge in translating theoretical knowledge into practical engagement in biodiversity preservation. Biodiversity is fundamental to ecosystem stability, species sustainability, and human well-being, yet it remains under threat due to rapid urbanisation, industrial pollution, agricultural chemical use, and deforestation. Given the role of educators in fostering environmental consciousness, it is imperative that teacher candidates receive comprehensive training in biodiversity conservation and sustainable ecosystem management. While theoretical knowledge is essential, active participation in conservation initiatives is equally crucial. Greater emphasis should be placed on experiential learning approaches that immerse students in ecosystems, foster direct engagement with nature, and cultivate a sense of responsibility for biodiversity protection. It is recommended that environmental education curricula incorporate nature-based activities, ecological restoration projects, and biodiversity monitoring programs. Furthermore, teacher candidates should be encouraged to participate in sustainability initiatives, field-based environmental studies, and community-led conservation efforts. By fostering a deeper connection with nature and embedding biodiversity conservation into educational practice, future generations of educators can be equipped to promote environmental stewardship and instil sustainable values in their students, thereby contributing to the long-term preservation of global biodiversity.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Determinants of Green Travel Intention: The Interplay of Green Marketing Strategies and Subjective Norms

nguyen le — 03-16-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Sustainable Development Strategies for the West Coastal Mangrove Ecosystem in West Bangka Regency: A Socio-Ecological Systems Approach

a. faroby falatehan — 03-09-2025

Indonesia’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions is reflected in its sustainable development agenda, with mangrove ecosystems playing a critical role due to their significant carbon sequestration capacity. However, extensive degradation has been observed in the Rambat Menduyung Mangrove Area, primarily driven by unregulated mining activities in the Bangka Belitung Islands Province. A socio-ecological systems approach is essential for understanding the complex interactions between ecological processes and socio-economic drivers in this region. This study aims to assess the socio-ecological conditions of the mangrove ecosystem and formulate an effective strategy for its sustainable development. A descriptive analysis was conducted to evaluate the ecological and socio-economic characteristics of the mangrove area, while Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) using Exsimpro software was employed to identify key strategic components for sustainable management. The findings indicate a persistent decline in mangrove coverage, leading to reduced fishery yields and economic losses for local communities. The current economic value of mangrove-related fisheries in the region is estimated at IDR 490,508,599,620 per year, while the potential economic value of carbon sequestration is approximately IDR 23,927,229,700 per year. The proposed development strategy underscores the necessity of strengthening policy enforcement, enhancing institutional capacity, and promoting community engagement. Key stakeholders, including the West Bangka Marine and Fisheries Department (DKP West Bangka), the Forest Management Unit of Rambat Menduyung (KPHP Rambat Menduyung), and the Belo Laut Village Government, must play a central role in implementing stricter conservation policies, enforcing environmental regulations, and fostering sustainable resource utilization. Through an integrated governance framework, the long-term resilience of mangrove ecosystems in West Bangka Regency can be ensured, thereby contributing to both ecological stability and economic sustainability.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Exploring the Impact of Identity Politics on Climate Policy: A Bibliometric Analysis of Uncertainty and Responses to Climate Change

abdul basit — 03-09-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Policy Instruments and Green Indicators in the Diffusion of Green Innovation: A Comparative Analysis of Poland and Thailand

anuphat thirakulwanich — 03-09-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Designing Affordable Urban Ecosystems: A Quantitative Model to Enhance the Quality of Life for the Urban Poor in Malaysia Through Employment, Housing, and Digital Access

siti nurul munawwarah roslan — 03-03-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2025, Volume 13, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Optimising Energy Efficiency in India: A Sustainable Energy Transition Through the Adoption of District Cooling Systems in Pune

gargi patil — 01-20-2025

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities on Morocco’s Ecological Footprint: A Long-Run STIRPAT Analysis Using VAR/VECM Modeling

el asli hamdi — 12-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages undefined: The Impact of Rapid Urbanization on Poverty Levels in the Context of Climate Change: Empirical Evidence from Somalia

ali mohamud hussein — 12-29-2024

2 emissions as a measure of climate change, and unemployment rates, with poverty quantified by real GDP per capita. A Johansen cointegration approach is utilized to ascertain long-term equilibrium relationships, while a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) captures short-term dynamics. Results indicate that urbanization exerts a significant positive influence on poverty in the long term; specifically, a 1% increase in urbanization correlates with a 1.73% rise in poverty levels. Additionally, unemployment demonstrates a substantial and statistically significant positive effect, whereby a 1% increase in unemployment results in a 9.64% increase in poverty. In contrast, CO₂ emissions were found to be statistically insignificant. The long-run equilibrium adjustment rate is approximately 12.66% per period, suggesting a moderate pace of return to equilibrium. In the short run, the unemployment rate negatively influences poverty, with a coefficient of -2.369508. Furthermore, CO₂ emissions exhibit a delayed yet significant positive effect on poverty, indicated by a coefficient of 0.681835. Granger causality tests reveal strong causal relationships between past unemployment rates and future poverty levels, as well as between past urbanization trends and subsequent poverty levels. The findings underscore the necessity for integrated policies that address urbanization, enhance climate resilience, and promote employment, aiming to alleviate poverty in Somalia. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Long-Term Dynamics Between Human Development and Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Analysis of CO₂ Emissions in Azerbaijan

ramil i. hasanov — 12-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Advancing Sustainability: Development of an ESG Evaluation Framework for Taiwan's Science Parks

hao-wei chang — 12-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 4, Pages undefined: Mapping Power Dynamics in Local Climate Action: Policy Networks in the Climate Village Program of Pekanbaru City, Riau

trio saputra — 12-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Modeling Air Quality Determinants in Indonesia Using Generalized Linear Models for Sustainable Development

restu arisanti — 10-27-2024

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and Goal 13 (Climate Action), underscore the interconnectedness between air quality and climate change. Escalating levels of air pollution in both urban and rural regions of Indonesia necessitate a deeper understanding of the factors contributing to air quality degradation. This study employs a generalized linear modeling approach, specifically focusing on ordinal logistic regression, to explore the determinants influencing the Air Quality Index (AQI) across 34 provinces in Indonesia. Key predictors, including motor vehicle density, population density, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and forest cover, are analyzed to assess their impact on air quality levels. The findings indicate that the number of motor vehicles and the extent of forest cover are significant predictors of air quality. Elevated motor vehicle density is shown to deteriorate the AQI, while larger forest cover areas are associated with improvements in air quality. These results emphasize the importance of targeted environmental interventions, particularly those aimed at reducing vehicle emissions and preserving forest ecosystems. The study highlights the need for the development and enforcement of policies that promote sustainable urban mobility and forest conservation to mitigate air pollution. By providing a comprehensive statistical framework through ordinal logistic regression, this research offers actionable insights for policymakers. The findings can guide the formulation of effective environmental management strategies, supporting efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives. Moreover, this study demonstrates the relevance of adopting rigorous statistical models to address complex environmental challenges, contributing to the broader discourse on sustainability and climate action.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Enhancing Sustainable Development Through International Performance Indicators: The Role of Business Intelligence Techniques

fawwaz tawfiq awamleh — 10-27-2024

Sustainable development has garnered significant attention due to its multifaceted benefits across social, economic, and environmental dimensions. This study investigates the influence of international performance indicators, specifically organisational agility, data science applications, and strategic partnerships, on the advancement of sustainable development initiatives. Additionally, the role of business intelligence (BI) techniques in augmenting this relationship is examined. A mixed-methods approach was employed, integrating both quantitative and qualitative analyses to comprehensively address the research objectives. A systematic review of the relevant literature was conducted, supplemented by data sourced from the World Bank, which was subsequently analysed using Power BI software. This global study encompassed diverse samples from various regions, ensuring a broad representation of perspectives. The findings reveal that the integration of organisational agility, data science applications, and partnerships, when enhanced by BI techniques, significantly accelerates the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs). It is concluded that leveraging these international performance indicators, alongside advanced data-driven methodologies, is critical for fostering a more sustainable future.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Interlinkages Between Environmental Quality, Economic Growth, and Human Capital in Indonesia: Implications for Sustainable Development Policies

suhatman — 10-27-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Agriculture's Role in Environmental Sustainability: A Comprehensive Review of Challenges and Solutions

haider mahmood — 10-27-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 3, Pages undefined: Factors Influencing Household Adoption of Rooftop Solar Power in the Philippines: An Empirical Analysis Using the Contingent Valuation Method

rosalina palanca-tan — 10-27-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Bibliometric Analysis of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Research: Evolution, Impact, and Future Directions

muhamad subhi apriantoro — 07-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Challenges in Attaining Sustainable Development Goals Between Income Groups: A Systematic Comparative Analysis

zarith sofia jasmi — 07-29-2024

2) emissions, and other greenhouse gas emissions. Findings indicate that CO₂ emissions serve as the primary barrier to achieving SDG 13 (climate action) in high-income nations. Conversely, poverty and undernourishment emerge as significant challenges impeding progress in upper-middle-income, lower-middle-income, and low-income groups. The study provides a novel, integrated view of the multifaceted impacts and interactions between socio-economic and environmental factors in addressing SDG challenges. The results offer valuable insights for policymakers, highlighting the need for differentiated strategies tailored to income-specific contexts. It is recommended that governments in high-income countries extend financial support to lower-income groups to alleviate poverty and improve food security, while fostering collaboration in climate mitigation and adaptation to promote balanced and sustainable global development. ]]>

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Evolution of Emissions: The Role of Clean Energy in Sustainable Development

mohamed khaleel — 07-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Sustainability Evaluation of Regency Development in Peatland Areas of Riau Province, Indonesia

ardika perdana fahly — 07-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages undefined: Temporal Dynamics of PCDD/F and PCB Concentrations in Ambient Air Near a Medical Waste Incineration Facility in Johannesburg

nomathemba themba — 07-29-2024

An extensive assessment of ambient air quality near a medical waste incineration (MWI) facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, was conducted, focusing on the gas-particle phase partitioning and the concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs). It was found that highly chlorinated congeners, specifically hexa- to octa-chlorinated, predominate in the particulate phase, while tetra- and penta-chlorinated isomers were predominantly observed in the gas phase. The concentrations of ΣPCDD/Fs in ambient air ranged from 8.3 to 108.36 fg WHO2005-TEQ/m³, ΣPCBs from 4.43 to 6.06 fg WHO2005-TEQ/m³, and ΣPCDD/Fs in soil from 59.17 to 106.05 pg WHO-TEQ/g. Seasonal variations were marked, with peak concentrations typically occurring in winter and the lowest in summer. Globally, despite a decreasing trend, the concentrations of PCDD/Fs in South Africa remain higher than those reported in other regions. The study further revealed that the daily inhalation intakes of PCDD/F emissions by the local population exceeded the recommended tolerable daily intake levels, underscoring the need for a comprehensive risk assessment that considers all exposure pathways to fully evaluate potential health risks for residents living near the incineration facility.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Enhancing Global Sustainability: The Role of the Blue Economy in Preserving Natural Capital

oleksandra ovchynnykova — 04-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Interdependencies of Environmental Quality, Poverty, and Green Growth: A Simultaneous Equation Analysis Across Indonesian Provinces

sabri — 04-29-2024

This study explores the interrelations among environmental quality (EQ), poverty (POV), and green growth (GG) across 34 provinces in Indonesia from 2015 to 2023, employing a simultaneous equation model (SEM) to address the gap in prior research which often overlooked the concurrent analysis of these variables. It was found that POV exerts a significant negative impact on EQ, quantified at a reduction of 0.235 percent. Conversely, GG contributes positively to EQ, enhancing it by 0.197 percent. The findings underscore the necessity for policies that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations, advocating for inclusive and sustainable development strategies. These strategies are pivotal for fostering economic opportunities that enhance community welfare while ensuring environmental sustainability. The study concludes that a nuanced understanding of the relationships between these endogenous factors is crucial for effective policy formulation, highlighting the need for a balanced approach that harmonizes developmental objectives with environmental stewardship.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages undefined: Impact of Emotional Perceptions and Social Influences on Green Consumption Practices in Vietnam

nguyen le — 04-29-2024

This study examines the impact of emotional perceptions and social influence on green consumption practices, with a focus on Vietnam. Conducted using a non-probability sampling method, the research drew upon responses from 548 Vietnamese consumers. The SmartPLS Software was employed for hypothesis testing. It was determined that attitudes towards green products and the appraisal of environmental threats positively influence green purchase behaviors. Moreover, the effect of both attitudes and threat appraisal on green purchasing behavior was found to be positively moderated by social influence. By incorporating the role of social influence, this research extends the protection motivation theory (PMT) and bridges the gap between perception, attitude, and behavior. The findings suggest managerial implications for companies marketing green products in Vietnam, highlighting strategies to enhance consumer engagement and purchase. This study not only sheds light on the intrinsic motivations behind green product purchases but also underscores the amplifying role of social contexts in environmental consumerism.

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Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages undefined: The Effects of Economic Cycle Shocks on Polluting Emissions in Developing Countries: Insights from a Panel Vector Autoregression Analysis

issaoui fakhri — 04-29-2024

Challenges in Sustainability, 2024, Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages undefined: A Decision-Making Model for Prioritizing Low-Carbon Policies in Climate Change Mitigation

yanjun qiu — 04-29-2024

Climate change (CC) represents a paramount environmental challenge, necessitating the deployment of sustainable, low-carbon strategies particularly in developing regions such as Africa. This study introduces a novel decision-making framework aimed at enhancing the prioritization of policies to combat the adverse effects of CC. The proposed two-stage model employs the integration of Step-Wise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis (SWARA) and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment (WASPAS) under spherical fuzzy (SF) conditions to address the strategic sequencing of sustainable policies. Initially, SF-SWARA is utilized to ascertain the relative significance of diverse criteria. Subsequently, the SF-WASPAS method ranks these policies, facilitating informed decision-making. The primary obstacles identified include limited institutional capacity, insufficient financial resources, and technological constraints, for which strategic alternatives are proposed. Moreover, rigorous sensitivity and comparative analyses affirm the model's applicability. By systematically delineating and prioritizing necessary policies, this study contributes significantly to the scholarly discourse on climate mitigation (CM) in an African context.

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