The Dutch government, in alignment with the Paris climate agreement, has expressed the ambition to reduce CO 2 emissions in the Netherlands by 49% in 2030 compared to 1990. As freight transport is recognized as a serious CO 2 emitter, this sector is confronted with a substantial part of the target. For cities, the reduction of the urban freight transport emissions is, next to the CO 2 reduction, also important to improve the air quality. Dutch municipalities take an active role in coordination, facilitation and acceleration of the emission reduction processes, not only via regulation but also by using their public procurement power. This paper describes the City of Rotterdam's experiences from the EU Horizon 2020 BuyZET project. This project was launched in November 2016 and includes the cities of Rotterdam, Oslo and Copenhagen. The project aims at understanding and optimising the impact of public procurement activities on transport patterns and emissions in cities as well as to find innovative and sustainable delivery solutions for goods and services-related transport in order to reduce emissions.
MULTIFILE
Climate change is undermining the importance and sustainability of cooperatives as important organizations in small holder agriculture in developing countries. To adapt, cooperatives could apply carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their business by increasing yields, economic returns and enhancing ecosystem services. This study aimed to identify carbon farming practices from literature and investigate the rate of application within cooperatives in Uganda. We reviewed scholarly literature and assed them based on their economic and ecological effects and trade-offs. Field research was done by through an online survey with smallholder farmers in 28 cooperatives across 19 districts in Uganda. We identified 11 and categorized them under three farming systems: organic farming, conservation farming and integrated farming. From the field survey we found that compost is the most applied CFP (54%), crop rotations (32%) and intercropping (50%) across the three categorizations. Dilemmas about right organic amendment quantities, consistent supplies and competing claims of residues for e.g. biochar production, types of inter crops need to be solved in order to further advance the application of CFPs amongst crop cooperatives in Uganda.
MULTIFILE
This paper introduces the Feral Map, an open online map that brings together different creative practices questioning the dominant extractive, technocentric rendering and legitimising of particular algorithmic futures. Building on its initial development drawn upon open urban tree data, it invites people to explore and engage with their surroundings in creative, unfamiliar ways and share their experiences in the form of stories, using different kinds of media, sensory impressions, and personal expressions. These stories can be offered to existing places and local “creatures” (such as animals, ambiences, and glitches) or become new creatures on their own, emphasising mattering and entanglements: that change is the only constant in life. Through this, the map obscures the currently available–mostly quantitative–data about a place, and can help to raise questions about power, values, and structural inequalities that shape the place and its future. The Feral Map has been evolving to include such stories and creatures–or messy data–from different creative, practice-based research projects. Our paper presents the theoretical framing of the Feral Map and its design, how it has been transforming along with the involved projects, as well as our learnings from the process and possible future directions.
Possibly, the aviation sector’s decarbonization challenge (see Dutch knowledge key in international climate study for tourism | CELTH) has profound implications for the ability of aviation-de-pendent outbound tour operators to attract capital and with that their ability to maintain or trans-form their current business portfolio (understood here as the current product offers and approximate carbon footprints, business models, and ownership structures present in this economic do-main). Knowledge about these (possible) investment risks and their business and policy implications is lacking. This project therefore addresses this knowledge gap by means of the following research questions.1. What is the current business portfolio of Dutch outbound tour operators?a. To what extend do Dutch outbound tour operators depend on aviation in terms of product offer and turnover?b. What is the relative carbon footprint share of aviation-based products compared to the total outbound product offer and turnover of Dutch outbound tour operators?2. What are investment risks of this business portfolio as indicated by investors?a. How do investors evaluate investment risks in relation to climate change mitigation and de-carbonisation?b. What are investment risks of the business portfolio of Dutch outbound tour operators?c. What are the reflections on and implications of these investment risks from the perspective of policymakers and tour operators?