• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• AU close
• Virginia Tech close

The unfolding crises of mass extinction and climate change call for urgent action in response. To limit biodiversity losses and avert the worst effects of climate disruption, we must greatly expand nature protection while simultaneously downsizing and transforming human systems. The conservation initiative Nature Needs Half (or Half Earth), calling for the conservation of half the Earth's land and seas, is commensurate with the enormous challenges we face. Critics have objected to this initiative as harboring hardship for people near protected areas and for failing to confront the growth economy as the main engine of global ecological destruction. In response to the first criticism, we affirm that conservation policies must be designed and implemented in collaboration with Indigenous and local communities. In response to the second criticism, we argue that protecting half the Earth needs to be complemented by downscaling and reforming economic life, humanely and gradually reducing the global population, and changing food production and consumption. By protecting nature generously, and simultaneously contracting and transforming the human enterprise, we can create the conditions for achieving justice and well-being for both people and other species. If we fail to do so, we instead accept a chaotic and impoverished world that will be dangerous for us all.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is highly infectious and contagious. The long-term consequences for individuals are as yet unknown, while the long-term effects on the international community will be dramatic. COVID-19 has changed the world forever in every imaginable respect and has impacted heavily on the international travel, tourism demand, and hospitality industry, which is one of the world’s largest employers and is highly sensitive to significant shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic. It is essential to investigate how the industry will recover after COVID-19 and how the industry can be made sustainable in a dramatically changed world. This paper presents a charter for tourism, travel, and hospitality after COVID-19 as a contribution to the industry.

Abstract Based on 18 national allocation plans (NAPs) submitted to the European Commission for phase II (2008–2012) of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), we find that, on average, the ET budgets in phase II are only about 2.6% below historical emissions in 2005, about 3.1% lower than the budgets in phase I (2005–2007), and 3% below projected emissions in 2010. While the EU-15 Member States (MS) intend to reduce emissions by about 8–11%, the implied excess allocation in the new Member States lies between 17% and 31%. Compared with a cost-efficient split of the required emission reductions, the ET budgets in the EU-15 MS are generally too large. Thus, in total, the burden for the non-trading sectors (households, tertiary and transport) is too high. Furthermore, the high shares of governments' intended and companies' possible use of Kyoto mechanisms challenge the supplementarity principle. Our detailed analyses of the allocation methods of these NAPs (across countries and phases) suggest that MS shoul...

Electric hybridization technologies appear to be one of the most promising approaches to improving the energy efficiency of buses; however, this improvement has not been systematically quantified. A fuel consumption model is essential for capturing fuel consumption behavior accurately and quantifying the fuel benefits of hybrid buses. Consequently, the objective of this study was to develop a fuel consumption model for hybrid buses on the basis of the framework of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s comprehensive power-based fuel consumption model and then to quantify the benefits associated with hybridization technologies relative to conventional diesel bus operations. The model estimates were demonstrated to be consistent with in-field measurements, and the optimum fuel economy cruise speed was demonstrated to be approximately 50 km/h. The results demonstrate that hybrid buses consumed less fuel overall, while heavier buses and higher passenger loads may have reduced the fuel savings. The results also reveal that more fuel savings could be achieved for cruise and stop-and-go activity compared with idling behavior and that stop-and-go operation generated the highest level of fuel efficiency benefits. The conclusions of this paper can support bus planning applications to achieve fleet fuel savings.

The role of powered two-wheeler (PTW) transport from the perspective of a more sustainable mobility system is undermined by the associated high injury risk due to crashes. Motorcycle-based active safety systems promise to avoid or mitigate many of these crashes suffered by PTW riders. Despite this, most systems are still only in the prototype phase and understanding which systems have the greatest chance of reducing crashes is an important step in prioritizing their development. Earlier studies have examined the applicability of these systems to individual crash configurations, e.g., rear-end vs. intersection crashes. However, there may be large regional differences in the distribution of PTW crash configurations, motorcycle types, and road systems, and hence in the priority for the development of systems. The study objective is to compare the applicability of five active safety systems for PTWs in Australia, Italy, and the US using real-world crash data from each region. The analysis found stark differences in the expected applicability of the systems across the three regions. ABS generally resulted in the most applicable system, with estimated applicability in 45–60% of all crashes. In contrast, in 20–30% of the crashes in each country, none of the safety systems analyzed were found to be applicable. This has important implications for manufacturers and researchers, but also for regulators, which may demand country-specific minimum performance requirements for PTW active safety countermeasures.

Approaches to natural resource management are often based on a presumed ability to predict probabilistic responses to management and external drivers such as climate. They also tend to assume that the manager is outside the system being managed. However, where the objectives include long-term sustainability, linked social-ecological systems (SESs) behave as complex adaptive systems, with the managers as integral components of the system. Moreover, uncertainties are large and it may be difficult to reduce them as fast as the system changes. Sustainability involves maintaining the functionality of a system when it is perturbed, or maintaining the elements needed to renew or reorganize if a large perturbation radically alters structure and function. The ability to do this is termed "resilience." This paper presents an evolving approach to analyzing resilience in SESs, as a basis for managing resilience. We propose a framework with four steps, involving close involvement of SES stakeholders. It begins with a stakeholder-led development of a conceptual model of the system, including its historical profile (how it got to be what it is) and preliminary assessments of the drivers of the supply of key ecosystem goods and services. Step 2 deals with identifying the range of unpredictable and uncontrollable drivers, stakeholder visions for the future, and contrasting possible future policies, weaving these three factors into a limited set of future scenarios. Step 3 uses the outputs from steps 1 and 2 to explore the SES for resilience in an iterative way. It generally includes the development of simple models of the system's dynamics for exploring attributes that affect resilience. Step 4 is a stakeholder evaluation of the process and outcomes in terms of policy and management implications. This approach to resilience analysis is illustrated using two stylized examples.

Cities around the world are facilitating ambitious and inclusive action on climate change by adopting participatory and collaborative planning approaches. However, given the major political, spatial, and scalar interdependencies involved, the extent to which these planning tools equip cities to realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios is unclear. This article draws upon emerging knowledge in the fields of urban planning and urban climate governance to explore complementary insights into how cities can pursue ambitious and inclusive climate action to realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios. We observe that urban planning scholarship is often under-appreciated in urban climate governance research, while conversely, promising urban planning tools and approaches can be limited by the contested realities of urban climate governance. By thematically reviewing diverse examples of urban climate action across the globe, we identify three key categories of planning dilemmas: institutional heterogeneity, scalar mismatch, and equity and justice concerns. We argue that lessons from urban planning and urban climate governance scholarship should be integrated to better understand how cities can realise 1.5 °C climate change scenarios in practice.