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From the British debate on the depletion of coal in 1865 to the First World Power Conference held in London in 1924, scientists, engineers, industrialists, and politicians produced new interpretations of the past, present, and future in terms of the mobilisation of energy resources. This thesis identifies an emerging ‘energy developmentalism’, which called for maximising energy use to maintain or improve a nation’s place in international competition. Energy developmentalism was not a marginal worldview confined to ‘energeticists’, but a coherent set of claims, measurements, and arguments that informed energy governance on an international scale. Rather than focusing on a single resource, energy developmentalism applied a unified schema to all energy sources, including those like solar and tidal energy that were still mostly theoretical. Drawing on sources from across Europe, while staying grounded in political changes in Britain and France, makes it possible to understand how a general formula for transforming raw materials with maximum efficiency was applied differently depending on specific political contexts. This period saw the articulation of problems like the depletion of resources, the difference between renewable and nonrenewable energy, the intermittency of renewables, the overreliance on a single source of energy, and the centrality of energy to modern economies – problems that are often associated with later periods. Scientific measurements of efficiency, horsepower, and kilowatts became operators in political debates centred on questions of national standing and progress. Even as oil became increasingly important in the world economy, the delegates at the First World Power Conference transformed a vision of a renewable energy future into one of a general expansion of energy consumption as the basis of progress. In so doing, they downplayed the continued importance of fossil fuels and equated ‘conservation’ with the fullest possible use of all energy sources, renewable or not.

ON 16 NOVEMBER 2000, the final report of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched in London, in the presence of South Africa’s former president Nelson Mandela. This represented a remarkable milestone in the history of dam policy and politics. During its two-year existence, WCD had conducted the most extensive review of research and evidence regarding the planning, impacts, and management of large dams. It had engaged with numerous stakeholders around the globe. It also made comprehensive recommendations about how to improve dam planning and management.

Responses to recent climatic changes in the sediment of subarctic Lake Saanajärvi in northwestern Finnish Lapland are studied by comparison of various biological and sedimentological proxies with the 200-year long climate record, specifically reconstructed for the site using a data-set of European-wide meteorological data. The multi-proxy evidence of simultaneously changing diatom, Cladocera, and chrysophyte assemblages along with the increased rates of organic matter accumulation and pigment concentrations suggest that the lake has undergone a distinct typological change starting from the turn of the 20th century. This change, indicating an increase in lake productivity, parallels a pronounced rise in the meteorologically reconstructed mean annual and summer temperatures in the region between ca. 1850 and 1930's. We postulate that, during the Little Ice Age, the lake was not, or was only weakly, thermally stratified during summer, whereas the subsequent increase in air and hence epilimnetic water temperatures resulted in the development of the present summer stratification. The increased thermal stability of the lake created more suitable conditions for the growth of phyto- and zooplankton and changed the overall primary production from benthos to plankton. Mineral magnetic and carbonaceous particle records suggest long-distance pollution, particularly since the 1920's, yet the observed changes in lake biota and productivity can hardly be explained by this very minor background pollution; the 20th century species configurations are typical of neutral waters and do not indicate any response to pollution.

Climate change has been widely recognised as one of the most urgent and growing threats to natural and cultural heritage in the twenty-first century, and the indelible impact of humanity has led to the definition of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately affected by natural and human-induced changes to the environment. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by centuries of cultural and territorial disenfranchisement within settler-colonial nations. This dissertation aims at understanding Indigenous perceptions of heritage in the face of climate change and its intersection with the impacts of settler- colonialism. It analyses how these on-the-ground perceptions can, in turn, inform heritage organisations and contribute to safeguarding the many facets of tangible and intangible Indigenous heritage for future generations in the Anthropocene. This is accomplished through a comparative, transnational case study of two communities each from the Dehcho First Nations in the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Aymara and Quechua peoples in northern Chile. I use a multi-method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews, oral histories and participant observation. The data is complemented by environmental and heritage legislation and grey literature at multiple organisational scales for both case studies. Three lines of enquiry are explored through an applied comparative thematic analysis: i) the perceptions of climate change and associated land loss/change among Indigenous groups and how this impacts each group’s notions of challenges to its cultural identity; ii) the intersection of the effects of post- colonialism, ongoing industrial activities and climate change on the intergenerational transmission of ancestral knowledge and notions of place attachment; and iii) how international, national and regional political and sociocultural rhetoric on environmental and heritage conservation affect local, grassroots considerations for safeguarding heritage. The similarities and contrasts of the Dehcho First Nations, Aymara and Quechua experiences of climate change across the North-South divide are related from the grassroots to arrive at redefining heritage practices in the Anthropocene. The results demonstrate that decolonising heritage is not only necessary, but that this decolonisation depends on building and actively engaging in intercultural empathy through the global threat of climate change. In order to understand how Indigenous practices, places, and items are valorised—attributed value—as heritage in the face of climate change, one must empathise with the cultural loss that exists in the temporal and cognitive spaces between Indigenous individuals’ moments of nostalgic reference and today.

Slides presented at the 102 Annual American Meteorological Society Meeting, as part of the session "Major Weather Events and Impacts of 2021" (paper 6.3 - It's Getting Hot in Here: Real-Time Climate Fingerprints Applied to the 2021 Extreme Heat Season) For more information, please reach out to Daniel Gilford at dgilford@climatecentral.org. Presentation Abstract: Extreme heat was observed and experienced across large portions of the United States in 2021, including during notable record-breaking events in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and along the East coast. The contiguous US experienced its hottest June on record, and excess heat related deaths stretched into the thousands. While more frequent and intense periods of extreme heat are expected consequences of anthropogenic climate change, rapidly and continuously assessing the degree to which human emissions of greenhouse gases increase the likelihood of a specific event remains a challenging technical process. In this study we introduce the Realtime Climate attribution framework and illustrate its application through an analysis of observed 2021 extreme heat events. The framework implements one model-based and two observation-based approaches to produce three distinct attribution assessments, including best estimates and uncertainties. The framework is designed to be flexible across a range of variables and scales, computationally lightweight, and adaptable for impact studies. Using a suite of global climate models, observed global mean temperatures, and local observed daily temperatures, we quantify the extent to which human-driven climate change made 2021 maximum and minimum daily temperature extremes more likely across the United States. Results confirm the continued and growing influence of human-driven climate change in local weather extremes. For instance, we find that the record-breaking high temperatures in June near Phoenix, AZ, were at least 3.25 times more likely because of human activity. Through this framework, we are building the capacity to produce attribution estimates while an event is unfolding. Furthermore, the ability to estimate attribution levels continuously will enhance studies of extreme heat impacts on human health, along with other socioeconomic or influences.

Since a superconductor has no resistance below a certain temperature and can therefore save a large amount of energy dissipated, it is a 'green' material by saving energy loss and hence reducing carbon emissions. Recently the massive manufacture of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials has enabled superconductivity to become a preferred candidate to help generation and transportation of cleaner energy. One of the most promising applications of superconductors is Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, which are becoming the enabling engine for improving the capacity, efficiency, and reliability of the electric system. SMES systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil. SMES systems have many advantages compared to other energy storage systems: high cyclic efficiency, fast response time, deep discharge and recharge ability, and a good balance between power density and energy density. Based on these advantages, SMES systems will play an indispensable role in improving power qualities, integrating renewable energy sources and energizing transportation systems. This thesis describes an intensive study of superconducting pancake coils wound using second-generation(2G) HTS materials and their application in SMES systems. The specific contribution of this thesis includes an innovative design of the SMES system, an easily calculated, but theoretically advanced numerical model to analyse the system, extensive experiments to validate the design and model, and a complete demonstration experiment of the prototype SMES system. This thesis begins with literature review which includes the introduction of the background theory of superconductivity and development of SMES systems. Following the literature review is the theoretical work. A prototype SMES system design, which provides the maximum stored energy for a particular length of conductors, has been investigated. Furthermore, a new numerical model, which can predict all necessary operation parameters, including the critical current and AC losses of the system, is presented. This model has been extended to analyse superconducting coils in different situations as well. To validate the theoretical design and model, several superconducting coils, which are essential parts of the prototype SMES system, together with an experimental measurement set-up have been built. The coils have been energized to test their energy storage capability. The operation parameters including the critical current and AC losses have been measured. The results are consistent with the theoretical predictions. Finally the control system is developed and studied. A power electronics control circuit of the prototype SMES system has been designed and simulated. This control circuit can energize or discharge the SMES system dynamically and robustly. During a voltage sag compensation experiment, this SMES prototype monitored the power system and successfully compensated the voltage sag when required. By investigating the process of building a complete system from the initial design to the final experiment, the concept of a prototype SMES system using newly available 2G HTS tapes was validated. This prototype SMES system is the first step towards the implementation of future indsutrial SMES systems with bigger capacities, and the knowledge obtained through this research provides a comprehensive overview of the design of complete SMES systems. The full text of this thesis is not available due to ongoing discussions regarding publication

Achievement of sustainable development in light of ongoing climate change and biodiversity pressures benefits from the deployment of innovations that foster engagement and uptake across all levels, mobilises finance flows commencement to the scale of the challenge, and enables the dissemination of transition solutions that support the low carbon economy. This research investigates the relationship between the legal architecture of market mechanisms under international law and the role of private actors, and how this contributes to sustainable development. Through an exploration of how market mechanisms under the climate change and biodiversity regimes have achieved environmentally sound outcomes, been advanced in sectoral approaches, and facilitated via bilateral and multilateral trade and investment relationships, important insights are identified regarding the composition of effective law and governance architectural approaches. Leveraging experiences derived from treaty practice viewed through an interactional account of international law, this assessment elucidates the important role played by alignment of legal regimes, robust transparency measures, and complementary schemes such as stakeholder-endorsed certifications in buttressing the established measures to ensure sustainable development outcomes and contributes to understanding the role of private actors in the operationalisation of environmental agreements. Research findings suggest it is the interaction of norms across the international legal architecture, informed by relationships within and across relevant treaty systems and the general corpus of international law, and actualised through engagement with private actors as a component of market mechanisms that provides the opportunity for congruence of practice, forging of shared understandings, and normative internalisation and ownership among communities of practice that stimulates both innovative solutions and ambitious action.