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The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, cultural change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18), led by Caroline Malone (Queens University Belfast) has explored issues of environmental fragility and Neolithic social resilience and sustainability during the Holocene period in the Maltese Islands. This, the first volume of three, presents the palaeo-environmental story of early Maltese landscapes. The project employed a programme of high-resolution chronological and stratigraphic investigations of the valley systems on Malta and Gozo. Buried deposits extracted through coring and geoarchaeological study yielded rich and chronologically controlled data that allow an important new understanding of environmental change in the islands. The study combined AMS radiocarbon and OSL chronologies with detailed palynological, molluscan and geoarchaeological analyses. These enable environmental reconstruction of prehistoric landscapes and the changing resources exploited by the islanders between the seventh and second millennia bc. The interdisciplinary studies combined with excavated economic and environmental materials from archaeological sites allows Temple landscapes to examine the dramatic and damaging impacts made by the first farming communities on the islands’ soil and resources. The project reveals the remarkable resilience of the soil-vegetational system of the island landscapes, as well as the adaptations made by Neolithic communities to harness their productivity, in the face of climatic change and inexorable soil erosion. Neolithic people evidently understood how to maintain soil fertility and cope with the inherently unstable changing landscapes of Malta. In contrast, second millennium bc Bronze Age societies failed to adapt effectively to the long-term aridifying trend so clearly highlighted in the soil and vegetation record. This failure led to severe and irreversible erosion and very different and short-lived socio-economic systems across the Maltese islands.

Currently, fossil fuels make up a significant proportion of global energy demand and cause many concerns, such as increasing greenhouse gas emission. Therefore, there is a considerable need for cost-effective, facile and efficient processing of environmental-friendly energy harvesting and storage systems. Solar energy is one of the most promising energy sources that meet the energy demand. The silicon-based solar cells exhibit competitive power conversion efficiency and dominate the solar cell market in recent years. In contrast, organic solar cells (OSCs) have emerged as promising third-generation photovoltaic devices owing to their outstanding properties such as the potential of low-cost mass manufacturing, lightweight, mechanical flexibility and easy processability. Therefore, OSCs have received growing attention from the research community. For solar cell technologies, a smectic liquid crystal C8-BTBT was selected in Chapter 3 due to its unique thermal dynamic and crystal properties. A range of ternary OSCs with and without C8-BTBT loading at gradient weight fractions were thermally treated and fabricated. In addition, the assessment of fabricated OSCs on the photovoltaic characteristics reveals the evolution of various cell parameters with annealing temperature and C8-BTBT weight fractions. The cell with 5 wt% C8-BTBT loading exhibited the best performance after thermal annealing treatment at 120 oC. Furthermore, flexible hydrogel substrates were fabricated for flexible OSCs in Chapter 4. The PHEMA hydrogel films were optimised via adjusting photopolymerisation duration under UV light. Based on the fabricated PHEMA substrates, flexible OSCs were subsequently made, whose extracted device parameters showed comparable characteristics with those in Chapter 3. Moreover, PHEMA-based OSCs can be dissolved in different types of polar solvents, which is promising for realising sustainable and recyclable solar cells. For the development of energy storage devices, asymmetric carbon nanohorns were proposed as an active material to fabricate flexible solid‐state carbon wire (CW)‐based electrochemical supercapacitors (ss‐CWECs) which exhibited high power density and ultra‐low cutoff frequency. Based on microscopy and electrochemical characterisation, the fundamental reaction mechanism in polyvinyl‐based electrolyte system was elucidated in Chapter 5, as being associated with deprotonation reaction under the acid, base, and elevated temperature conditions. In Chapter 6, by using activated carbon, multi‐walled carbon nanotubes, and single‐wall carbon nanohorns as hybrid electrode materials (5:1:1), remarkable specific length capacitance of 48.76 mF cm−1 and charge-discharge stability (over 2000 times cycles) of ss‐CWECs were demonstrated, which are the highest reported to date. Furthermore, a high‐pass filter for eliminating ultra‐low electronic noise was demonstrated, enabling an optical Morse Code communication system to be operated. vThe collective works in this thesis demonstrate novel energy conversion and storage applications with the liquid crystal in OSCs and carbon nanoparticles in supercapacitors. These results provide a step forwards in the development of energy conversion and storage devices for a more efficient energy system.

The purpose of this research is to introduce a qualitative sustainability performance assessment framework for food supply networks, based on the perception of their key stakeholders’ upper management. Moreover, the paper provides industry insights by exemplifying the value of the proposed framework for the UK food industry. A critical review on the most acknowledged sustainability assessment methodologies and tools resulted in the synthesis of the proposed framework. An illustrative application follows, based on data from semi-structured interviews with C-level executives from key players of the UK poultry sector. The results demonstrate an easy-to-use approach, with a comprehensive and sharp outcome on supply chain sustainability performance assessment. Industry insights demonstrate an adequate sustainability performance with respect to the entire supply chain. A detailed view on different echelons reveals specific areas that could be improved, such as the environmental performance at both farming (production) and processing levels. This work extends the scope of current sustainability performance assessment tools by providing a tangible triple bottom-line overview, as well as echelon-specific and indicator-specific details, in a user-friendly, yet straightforward, way. UK food industry insights are valuable for practitioners and academics. The illustration is based exclusively on C-level executives’ viewpoint; thus, any generalization of the results should be considered to this effect. Supply chain stakeholders, policy-makers, and researchers could perform a quick and reliable supply network sustainability performance assessment.

Emerging energy storage systems based on abundant and cost-effective materials are key to overcome the global energy and climate crisis of the 21st century.

In the global context of reducing carbon emissions and shifting towards sustainable modes of urban infrastructure, strategies that provide decentralized access to renewable energy technologies for the urban poor are increasingly promoted. However, while innovative energy technologies are introduced in order to support global targets for sustainability and service-delivery while also directly benefiting low-income households (e.g. by reducing the monetary costs of energy), there is widespread evidence that low-income urban dwellers do not always readily accept these technologies. Typically, the urban poor are blamed for failing to adopt new technologies, with little consideration for underlying socio-cultural causes. Using examples drawn from qualitative research in low-income settlements in Mumbai and Cape Town, this paper demonstrates the role of socio-cultural attitudes and practices in affecting social acceptance of domestic solar energy interventions. Focusing specifically on perceptions of normality and practices of social capital, both of which are connected to collective social influence, the paper reveals how these concepts affect the socio-cultural acceptance of new energy technologies amongst low-income urban dwellers in the global South. Furthermore, we argue that adopting a socio-cultural perspective is a crucial, but often overlooked, aspect of scholarly and policy analyses of, and strategies for, energy transitions in the global South.

Africa has experienced unprecedented growth across a range of development indices for decades. However, this growth is often at the expense of Africa’s biodiversity and ecosystems, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of people depending on the goods and services provided by nature, with broader consequences for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Encouragingly, Africa can still take a more sustainable path. Here, we synthesize the key learnings from the African Ecological Futures project. We report results from a participatory scenario planning process around four collectively-owned scenarios and narratives for the evolution of Africa’s ecological resource base over the next 50 years. These scenarios provided a lens to review pressures on the natural environment, through the drivers, pressures, state, impacts, and responses (DPSIR) framework. Based on the outcomes from each of these steps, we discuss opportunities to reorient Africa’s development trajectories towards a sustainable path. These opportunities fall under the broad categories of “effective natural resource governance”, “strategic planning capabilities”, “investment safeguards and frameworks”, and “new partnership models”. Underpinning all these opportunities are “data, management information, and decision support frameworks”. This work can help inform collaborative action by a broad set of actors with an interest in ensuring a sustainable ecological future for Africa.

Located in East Africa, Uganda is one of the most economically deprived countries that is likely to be dramatically affected by climate change. Over 50% of Ugandan families live in single-roomed overcrowded properties and over 60% of the country’s urban population live in slums. Moreover, the gradual shift towards relatively modern and low thermal resistance building materials, in addition to imminent thermal discomfort due to global warming, may considerably affect the health and wellbeing of low-income people, the majority of whom live in low quality homes with very little or no access to basic amenities. This paper evaluates the effects of various construction methods as well as refurbishment strategies on thermal comfort in low-income houses in Uganda. It is aimed at helping low-income populations adapt to climate changes by developing simple, effective and affordable refurbishment strategies that could easily be applied to existing buildings. Dynamic thermal simulations are conducted in EnergyPlus. The adaptive model defined in BS EN 15251 and CIBSE TM52 is used to evaluate the risk and extent of thermal discomfort. Roofing methods/materials are found to be the key factor in reducing/increasing the risk of overheating. According to the results, roof insulation, painting the roof with low solar absorptance materials and inclusion of false ceilings are, respectively, the most effective and practical refurbishment strategies in terms of improving thermal comfort in low-income houses in Uganda. All refurbishment strategies helped to pass Criterion 3 of CIBSE TM52, as an indicator of “future climate scenarios”, making low-income houses/populations more climate resilient.