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Points out that sustainability as such does not provide a clearcut guide to policy. First one has to decide what is to be sustained. If this is agreed, it must be in an operational from. However, difficulties may still emerge since opinions may differ about how to achieve. This is illustrated by differences in the views of economists about how sustainable development is to be achieved. Orthodox economists stress the importance of the accumulation of man-made capital to achieve this end whereas neo-Malthusians stress the importance of conserving natural resource and environmental capital. Both take an anthropocentric point of view. For political reasons the neo-Malthusian has had little support but it may eventually turn out to be correct. Economics is concerned with reducing economic scarcity and economists have traditionally suggested four main ways of doing this of which economic growth is one. However, neo-Malthusian economists believe that this may not be a sustainable strategy – it may result in future poverty. It should be noted that economic systems are embedded in social and natural systems and depend on these. Economic sustainability depends on the sustainability of these other systems. So from this point of view, it is just one of several bottom lines. Values must be considered in relation to sustainability. Economics is completely anthropocentric in its approach. Therefore, economic approaches to conservation and sustainability can be at odds with the values of deep ecologists or those willing to accord rights to other sentient beings or ecosystems independent of human wishes, or those who want to make use of value judgments other than those based on the measuring rod of money. Consequently economics evaluation is sometimes ineffective in resolving social conflict, including conflict about what should be sustained. As a rule economics alone should not be the final arbiter of social decisions. It is a part (often an important part) of the social evaluation process but not the bottom line, or just one of many lines.

The goal of this study is to determine the difference in CO2 emissions between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, more specifically during lockdown periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the beginning of the pandemic, most countries were forced into lockdowns, and a countless number of people had to continue their daily work from home in isolation. Previously, people would go to an office or to school and leave their houses empty for eight hours, without having lights or any electronics on. Because of this, there should be a direct correlation between electricity usage before and during lockdowns, as a private residence should have higher electricity consumption during 2020-2021, when they are at home. Using machine learning, we will investigate to see if COVID-19 affected CO2 emissions as a result of more electricity usage in private residences. A model will be made to predict what the CO2 emissions would be for 2019-2020, based on electricity usage data from 2020-2021. Then, the real CO2 emissions from 2019-2020 will be compared with the model’s predicted values, and the difference will indicate if COVID-19 caused an inconsistency between actual and predicted CO2 emissions. Factors that were taken into account when making a model were independent variables relating to outdoor conditions, the number of people living in the house, and the temperature that the thermostat is set at, making the response variable CO2 emissions.

Detecting alcohol use among pregnant women is an important step toward preventing alcohol-related birth defects. A biomarker that could detect alcohol use during pregnancy would aid in earlier identification and intervention for affected infants. The existing potential biomarkers for identifying alcohol use during pregnancy can detect varying degrees of alcohol exposure, or use. However, further research is needed to evaluate these biomarkers.

The search for energy security is one of the key dynamics that is re-shaping politics and governance in the twenty-first century, particularly throughout Asia and the emerging economies of the global South. With extraordinary growth rates of energy consumption predicted for many regions there is a need to critically re-assess the concept of energy security and its central focus on the needs of nation-states. Although theoretical approaches to human and environmental security have lifted the referent object away from the state the importance of energy to the military and economic power of modern industrialised states has ensured that the concept of energy security has remained almost exclusively state-centric. As with other aspects of security, however, the state is often not the best means of pursuing energy security for marginalised individuals or communities, particularly in non-democratic states. This paper therefore reviews the existing security literature and argues that a more critical approach, as one component of a critical environmental security framework, is needed to challenge the injustices that confront marginalised communities throughout the global South. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The IPCC stresses the importance of achieving net-zero CO2 emissions worldwide by 2050 and natural climate solutions, particularly carbon farming, can play a significant role in this goal. However, current markets do not account for environmental externalities, which creates a mismatch between individual costs and societal benefits. Payment systems linked to carbon farming practices could help bridge this gap. Research is essential to develop effective agricultural carbon markets, and this study focuses on the opportunities and challenges faced by smallholder farmers in these markets. The research examines four areas: agricultural markets as a funding source for carbon farming, payments for carbon sequestration, opportunities for smallholder farmers, and cost-effective monitoring and verification of carbon stocks. Further research is needed to monitor carbon sequestration accurately, reduce GHG emissions, and develop institutional arrangements to promote sustainable production methods in Africa.

In the last two decades, studies that analyse the political economy of sustainable energy transitions have increasingly become available. Yet very few attempts have been made to synthesize the factors discussed in the growing literature. This paper reviews the extant empirical literature on the political economy of sustainable energy transitions. Using a well-defined search strategy, a total of 36 empirical contributions covering the period 2008 to 2022 are reviewed full text. Overall, the findings highlight the role of vested interest, advocacy coalitions and green constituencies, path dependency, external shocks, policy and institutional environment, political institutions and fossil fuel resource endowments as major political economy factors influencing sustainable energy transitions across both high income countries, and low and middle income countries. In addition, the paper highlights and discusses some critical knowledge gaps in the existing literature and provides suggestions for a future research agenda. IZNE Working Paper Series; Nr. 23/3

Metadata only record CARE Peru's and WWF Peru's Equitable Payment for Watershed Services (PWS) project is part of an international initiative supported by DANIDA and DGIS (Holland) in 5 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, to promote equitable compensation of hydrological services as a way of promoting sustainable development practices as well as the livelihoods of rural poor communities. The project will work on developing a business case for environmental services in two river basins in Northern Peru (the Jequetepeque River and the Piura River Basins, in the Departments of Cajamarca, La Libertad, and Piura). The project will focus on watershed protection services from natural forest and agroforestry systems and will explore and support other services' opportunities related to PWS, with an emphasis on community involvement and gender. In the long term, such services are expected to potentially benefit 80% of the population of Jequetepeque River Basin, and nearly 1 million inhabitants from the Piura River Basin. PES-1 (Payments for Environmental Services Associate Award)

The amount of fresh water available in the world is a finite resource. Large quantities of the fresh water are located in remote locations, while more accessible sources of fresh water are disproportionately distributed around the world. Some populations lack reliable access to clean water for daily life, making the routine use of potable water in toilets of upper-income countries a questionable practice in terms of resource responsibility, energy use, and sustainable infrastructure. The innovative nature of composting toilets offers potential solutions to the downfalls of conventional, waterborne toilets. However, the path to adoption of composting toilets has encountered barriers of different types, impeding further development of a more acceptable system. This study identifies current barriers to the adoption of composting toilets into use in urban and suburban locations in the United States. A purposeful sample of knowledgeable stakeholders in the industry of composting toilets was contacted for open-ended, semi-structured interviews to collect data. The interviews explored four major discussion topics; the perceptions of stakeholders of barriers to the adoption of composting toilets, the barriers in urban and suburban locations, the differences and similarities between the location types, and what project experiences of the stakeholders had taught them about the adoption process. Twelve barriers to adoption were determined, with seven of these barriers discussed in depth due to their perception by stakeholders as the most problematic, yet effective in encouraging adoption if overcome.

The report addresses the question: “How can a town that has experienced decades of decline stop that momentum through internal actions and activities”? The question is addressed with literature review of causes of rural decline. A discussion is also included on reasons to save declining places. Research on the extent of declining towns in Texas is presented as well as literature review on the extent of rural depopulation within the United States. Best practices and resources available to rural Texas towns are presented. The philosophy of permaculture is submitted as a discipline a town should adopt for town systems, including eight types of capital that may be present within a town. Systems thinking is presented as an organizational development tool for town revival with the idea that personal self-improvement and an internal transformation of community members is how to address the decline. Sierra Blanca, Texas is woven through the narrative to provide examples and context. Recommended practices the town could adopt and a perspective labeled as Leap Town are offered as a lens a town can use to structure their own vision for revival. It is based upon the idea that a town would leapfrog to the 22nd-century in their thinking and actions. Sierra Blanca is also discussed as an example where a recovery center is helping to effect change by bringing manpower, potential future residents, and a presence of hope to the community.