Browsing by master's degree program "Magisterprogrammet i miljöförändringar och global hållbarhet"

Due to population growth, urbanization, and increase in life expectancy, the urban population is growing, and by 2050 68% of the global population is expected to live in urban areas. Even though the air quality in urban settings has greatly improved in recent decades due to increased legislation, restriction, and monitoring, the negative health impacts associated with pollutants have not completely diminished. Air quality varies on a local scale due to urban form and function, that creates differences in experienced exposure among individuals. These exposure differences among socio-economic groups have been studied, but no clear consensus has been found, as the results have been very diverse and even contradictory. Therefore, conducting local level studies is important in order to identify local patterns of exposure and to recognize them in urban planning. However, previous literature on the topic in Finnish context is lacking. This thesis studies interpolated air pollutant exposure among one susceptible socio-economic group – the elderly – and aims to identify possible hotspots of both in Helsinki, Finland. The distribution of the elderly and air quality is assessed through Moran’s I calculations. Global Moran’s I is used to assess for spatial autocorrelation, and local Moran’s I is applied to identify local clusters. To further examine the relationship, correlation coefficients are calculated through Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. According to the results, there is a weak positive correlation between the elderly and air quality, indicating that generally air quality tends to be worse when the number of elderly people increase. However, the relationship is stronger among younger age groups, although the differences between age groups is very small. The exposure was also assessed through overlapping high value clusters, which indicate that elderly clusters in the city center are located in areas with low air quality, while elderly clusters in Lauttasaari and Vuosaari are located in areas with good air quality. Previous studies regarding the relationship between age and air pollution exposure have been contradicting in different cities, and therefore these results provide important knowledge about the problem specifically in the context of Helsinki. Additionally, the results are be observed in the light of the larger discourse around socio-economic status and air pollution, but further studies on the topic are still needed. Including multiple socio-economic variables and the dimension of negative health outcomes would aid in identifying 1) the most important socio-economic factors in the context of negative health outcomes associated with air pollution, and 2) those areas where multiple important socio-economic factors and low air quality are overlapping and therefore might have higher risk for negative health outcomes.

Biodiversity loss and ecosystem service degradation and the related economic costs are increasingly recognized as sources of financial risks. The risks are arising through physical and transition sources of risks caused by dependencies and impacts upon biodiversity and ecosystem services. Therefore, it has become increasingly important for both individual financial institutions as well as central banks and financial supervisors to better understand and manage these risks. However, biodiversity loss is associated with unique complexity and uncertainty, making it a challenging task. The purpose of this thesis was to study the linkages between biodiversity loss and financial stability in Finland. This was done by assessing the financial exposure of Finnish credit institutions to sectors dependent on ecosystem services for their production processes. A quantitative analysis was conducted in order to combine loan data obtained from the Bank of Finland and ecosystem service data obtained from the ENCORE database. The results showed that 23% of loans provided by Finnish credit institutions are exposed to high or very high biodiversity-related financial risks. The sectors associated with most value at risks were real estate and agriculture, forestry and fishing sectors. Disruptions of ecosystem services providing surface water and climate regulation were posing the highest financial risks. The findings represent a first step towards assessing the exposure of the Finnish financial system to biodiversity-related financial risks. The results and previous literature indicate that physical biodiversity-related financial risk exposures are significant for individual financial institutions and for the whole financial system, despite the prevailing methodological challenges and gaps in knowledge. In order to complete a comprehensive biodiversity-related financial risk assessment, further research is needed.

In this thesis I focus on a novel disaster response and preparedness mechanism called forecast-based financing. The mechanism is linked to the changing paradigm of humanitarian response that calls for more localized and more resilience building solutions to addressing and preventing humanitarian crisis. It is also in the core of the anticipation agenda which argues that waiting for disasters to happen is not a sustainable option and that forecast data and pre-agreed triggers and actions should be used in order to prevent both loss of lives and mitigate the cost and impact of disasters. Main hypothesis is that climate related hazards to livelihoods and food security seems to be the sector where forecast-based financing could have most potential for increasing resilience and sustainability. Slow onset crises with long lead-time allow for better targeting and more variety of actions. As the lifetime of the action is longer, there is less chance of action which is in vain. Furthermore, the actions which are more localized, for example direct support to farmers, can decrease their vulnerabilities. I aim at taking a critical approach to assessing this potentiality associated with the forecast-based financing mechanism through case study. The three cases (Mongolia, Kenya, Zimbabwe) were selected from pilots implemented by the main actors: the Red Cross, World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Start Network. This thesis uses a combination of evaluative and heuristic approach to qualitative case study analysis. To answer the first research question, 1) is the forecast-based financing mechanism successful in prioritization of actions in a way that best address the needs and resources of vulnerable populations, I aim at finding out if mechanism is effective (or potentially effective) in delivering impact. For the second research question, 2) are the actions sustainable and do they bring socio-economic benefits that go beyond meeting acute humanitarian needs, I will see if new pathways are found for confirming the defined hypothesis. I am using heuristic approach in terms of finding new links e.g. between actions and needs of either donors, actors or beneficiaries. I asses and analyse available reports and evaluations (secondary data) of the selected operations. I conducted eleven (11) semi-structured key informant interviews (primary data) using practitioner’s perspective for retrieving qualitative data, for further understanding and for triangulation. All key informants were affiliated to the cases. My analysis show that the potentiality for development impacts and long-term transformation of the forecast-based financing is there but it is not utilized in the cases reviewed nor is it perceived in a same way across practitioners of different backgrounds. Currently the mechanism is used more for effective response, not for addressing the root causes of vulnerability. In general, the entitlement or empowering of a person who is affected by disaster currently does not go beyond securing bridge over lean season, avoiding negative coping mechanisms or e.g. better yield or survival of livestock. Sustainability potential of the forecast-based financing seems to be currently underutilized and international funding envelopes do not offer an alternative to the humanitarian funding launched case-by-case. Most of the practitioners interviewed were clearly in favour of linking and using forecast-based financing in some way to long-term programming, thinking outside of the framework of humanitarian response, extending lead time significantly and adding positive reinforcement inputs. I argue that with a lead time that goes long in advance, towards development actions, the mechanism needs to be reframed for the donors and the sources of funding might need to be reconsidered. To implement meaningful resilience actions in slow onset cases, triggers need to be early enough and actions in two phases: 1) anticipatory and benefiting from forecast and 2) early response. At beneficiary level the actions should be geared up to better address underlying socio-economic vulnerabilities and take advantage of the long lead time.

The topic of forest fires has gathered a lot of media attention in recent years as it relates closely to climate change and other sustainability issues. The media has an important role in communicating these issues as it affects, how the public percieves them, how different sustainability problems are defined and what kind of solutions are seen plausible. I became interested in how the media represents the issue of forest fires. My aim in this thesis is to find out, how the Colombian news media has framed the Amazon rainforest fires. As my material I used the news articles from the Colombian news media El Tiempo. I definined my timeframe from July 2019 to september 2019 because at that time the news subject was of high interest. After the initial search I went through the articles and left out any irrelevant ones. I was left with 24 news articles. As an analytic tool I utilized qualitative frame analysis guided by Robert Entman´s definition of frames and used ATLAS.ti to make an initial thematic coding. After that I mapped out all the actors that were cited in the news articles and divided them into groups. Using these actor groups, I searched for the frames. There were eight actor groups, politicians and political organizations being the most prominent one. Looking at how these actors talked about the forest fires, two main frames came out: populist and scientific. The populist frame concentrated mainly on Jair Bolsonaro. In this frame there was a lot of nationalist and economic arguments and responsability was directed away from him. There seemed to be a lot of enemies also. The second frame concentrated in deforestation, climate change and the forest fires being a global issue. In this frame international actors used economic and political pressure in order to affect Bolsonaro´s policy solutions. The research showed, how difficult it can be to solve shared global problem and made visible a historical political division between authoritarianism and democracy. An other important notion is the lack of marginalized groups in the news media.

Phosphorus loading through agricultural runoff and erosion induce eutrophication in waterbodies. Weather conditions outside the growing season are major drivers for phosphorus loss from agricultural fields. Overwinter cover crops are utilized to prevent phosphorus and nitrogen nutrient loading and to gain other benefits, such as increased soil organic carbon content and microbial diversity and improved soil structure. However, vegetation can release easily soluble phosphorus after exposure to freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) and, therefore, increase the amount of phosphorus entering waterways. Different species respond to FTC with varying intensity, making some species more preferable for overwinter vegetation cover. The objective of this study was to determine FTC effect on twelve different cover crop species’ shoot-induced phosphorus runoff risk and cover crops’ effect on soil phosphorus runoff risk after FTC with and without P-fertilization. Cover crop species, field mustard (Brassica rapa), oil radish (Raphanus sativus), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum), rye (Secale cereale), tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea), timothy (Phleum pratense), hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), honey clover (Melilotus albus), red clover (Trifolium pratense), white clover (Trifolium repens), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) and lacy phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), were grown in a greenhouse after which half of the replicate pots were exposed to FTC consisting of 6 cycles (-2°C for 24 h, 4°C for 24 h). One extreme freeze-thaw event was added by freezing the shoot and soil samples (-20°C) after sampling. Compared to bare soil, presence of cover crops and different cover crop species did not affect freezing-induced phosphorus runoff risk in soil indicated by soil easily soluble phosphorus concentration. FTC increased shoot-induced phosphorus runoff risk, indicated by shoot water-extractable phosphorus concentration, in all cover crops, except for P-fertilized lacy phacelia. Based on estimated field scale shoot water-extractable phosphorus pools, buckwheat had greatest risk for shoot-induced phosphorus runoff after FTC. The cover crop species with lowest shoot-induced phosphorus runoff risk following FTC were tall fescue and honey clover. P-fertilization had only minor effect on CC shoot- and soil-induced overwinter phosphorus runoff risk. The results of this study can be used for planning cover crop cultivation for overwinter vegetation cover in agricultural fields located near waterways where loss of dissolved phosphorus is significant concern.

Earth’s overshoot day marks the date when humanity’s ecological footprint exceeds Earth’s biocapacity for the year. As the day fell on earlier every year it shows that our current consumption pattern is unsustainable. One of the main human sources of greenhouse gas emissions is related to household consumption and thus companies play an important role in developing consumption practices more sustainable for consumers as they are the main providers of products and services. This research examines the ways three Finnish companies guide consumers towards environmentally sustainable choices as well as drivers and barriers related to consumer guidance. The objective is to enlighten companies’ consumer guiding methods as part of corporate responsibility and understand which factors encourage and hinder companies to guide consumers. The research was conducted as a qualitative multiple-case study. The case companies were Valio, S Group’s grocery stores and Fazer. The research data was collected via companies’ sustainability reports and focused semi-structured interviews by interviewing the case companies’ employees working with corporate responsibility, environmental management and communication. The data was analyzed by data-driven content analysis. The findings show that the case companies use guiding methods to steer consumers to environmentally sustainable choices: information provision, choice editing, nudging and financial incentives. The current trends related to sustainability and responsibility as well as a potential competitive advantage, the protection of brand image, the benefits of a forerunner, and a corporate strategy in which sustainability is an integral part encourage companies to guide consumers. Whereas, the principle of consumers’ freedom of choice, the responsibility of a big operator as well as risks related to the development of innovations and being a forerunner cause tensions in consumer guidance. The results confirm that various tensions are related to guiding consumers towards sustainability. Especially, the concept of consumers’ freedom of choice is firmly embedded in the mindset of business. Therefore, future research could examine the ways to bring these tensions and underlying contradictions more strongly into the public discussion to find solutions to promote sustainable consumption for consumers among companies.

The Baltic Sea consists of islands, islets, and underwater nature. The sea’s species and habitats form a complex, interdependent network. The Baltic Sea is a challenging environment due to its low salinity, slow water turnover, and the densely populated catchment area. Species in the Baltic Sea have adapted to these circumstances, but climate change, eutrophication and different human induced pressures threaten the sea’s biodiversity. Biodiversity loss can be mitigated through protection areas. However, protection is not always successful. For example, insects and fungi often lack sufficient protection, whereas animals such as birds are more eagerly protected. Humans tend to protect charismatic or beautiful species and ignore others, even when other species’ need for protection is more dire. Establishing effective marine protected areas (MPAs) is difficult as information on underwater life is lacking. Finland’s underwater nature is better known, as it has been explored in the VELMU programme since 2004. In this thesis I study the governing documents of privately owned MPAs established during the last ten years in the Baltic Sea. Privately owned MPAs are the most common MPA type in Finnish marine areas. My research questions are: 1) Which nature values are represented in the privately owned MPAs? 2) How well is the underwater nature represented? The number of governing documents is 63. My method is qualitative content analysis and quantification of data. The material was coded using Atlas.ti. The nature values in the governing documents formed three categories: vegetation, birds, and underwater nature. Protecting vegetation was mentioned in 52 documents, birds in 39 documents, and underwater nature in 28 documents. The protection of underwater nature was most often based on protecting underwater habitats outlined in the EU’s habitat directive, instead of protecting underwater species. Birds and vegetation in the archipelago are somewhat comprehensively protected in privately owned MPAs. Although all 63 MPAs included a water area, underwater nature is mentioned in less than half of the governing documents. Underwater nature values are not always mentioned even when the MPA consists mostly of water, or when the governing document mentions the beauty or value of the water area. Descriptions of underwater nature are also often lacking in detail compared to the descriptions of vegetation and birds. To ensure biodiversity both underwater and above, underwater nature values should be protected more efficiently. Especially from the perspective of bird protection, it is noteworthy that protection usually does not cover their underwater food sources.

Socio-ecological transition refers to a fundamental change in the structure, culture, and practices of a socio-ecological system. Socio-ecological transitions have been studied especially from an ecological perspective. In recent years, cities have been studied more as socio-ecological systems. The role of individual actors in socio-ecological transitions has not been on a focus of previous research of socio-ecological systems. The study intends to fulfill this gap. This master's thesis examines two cases in Helsinki, namely the evacuation of the residents of Myllypuro Alakiventie in 1999 and the Kyläsaari waste incineration plant in 1983 as socio-ecological transitions. The purpose of the study is to describe the progress of the socio-ecological transition in both cases by placing the course of cases in adaptive circles. The second aim of the study is to find out whether the Helsinki City Administration was able to promote or slow down the progress of the socio-ecological transition, which is being studied in relation to other actors in the socio-ecological transition. As research material consist article from Helsingin Sanomat newspaper and documents from the City of Helsinki Archives. The Master’s thesis describes the progress of the socio-ecological transition in both cases, as well as the role of the actors in the transition. The results show that the City of Helsinki administration had a limited opportunity to promote and slow down the progress of the socio-ecological transition. Other actors in the socio-ecological transformation, such as the townspeople, were also able to influence the progression of the socio-ecological transformation, which made it difficult for city governments to slow down or promote the transformation. In particular, the conflict between the city government and the Helsinki citizens slowed or prevented the city government from reaching its goals. However, the study finds that the city administration was not able to prevent the complete socio-ecological transition in the study cases. Better communication with the citizens and the avoidance of conflicts would help the City of Helsinki's administration to influence the progress of the socio-ecological transition more effectively in the future.

Achieving the global 1,5 degrees Celsius climate target requires the contributions of several societal actors to reduce emissions. Several actors have started to work to untangle the emissions of their operations and abate them. The Turku and Kaarina parish union, which operates in Southwest Finland, has also set a personal goal to reduce its emissions, aiming to be a carbon-neutral organization by 2029. The purpose of this thesis is to find out the carbon footprint and the forests’ carbon sinks of Turku and Kaarina parish union and make the carbon neutrality roadmap with some examples of how to achieve the parish union’s carbon neutrality goal of 2029. In addition, the thesis examines through the selected case study the organization’s methodology of the carbon footprint and the realization of the carbon neutrality goals. Both the parish union’s carbon footprint and the forests’ carbon sinks are calculated for the year 2022. The materials of carbon footprint consist of the activity data of the parish union and the emission factors. The calculation of the carbon footprint is carried out based on the international standards, Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and ISO 14046. The forests’ carbon sinks are calculated based on the parish union’s information on its forestry management of 2022 and the research of Natural Resources Institute Finland about the carbon sinks and stocks of local parishes of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland of 2021. The estimate of gross emissions of Turku and Kaarina parish union for 2022 is approximately 4985 tCO2e. The biggest emission groups are procurements, real estate, and travel. The size of the forests’ carbon sinks is approximately 1176 tCO2e, offsetting about 24–29 % of the gross emissions depending on the parish union’s carbon neutrality targets. Based on the union’s carbon neutrality goal, the net emissions should still be reduced by about 2261 tCO2e and offset by about 551 tCO2e. The realization of Turku and Kaarina parish union’s carbon neutrality goal would require significant emission reductions, especially from the biggest emission groups. Because the union has already executed a major portion of the easiest emission reductions of the union’s operations, the realization of new and large emission reductions is challenging to implement only in six or seven years. In addition, the realization of the carbon neutrality goal is hampered for instance the different limitations and uncertainties related to the carbon footprint calculation, stability of forests’ carbon sinks, and the practical implementation of the roadmap. However, the carbon neutrality goal of the Turku and Kaarina parish union will be progressing particularly with the successfully implemented sustainability transformation and transition and the Church’s environment diploma, supporting the Church’s environmental education, and promoting wide-scale societal transformation towards the climate-neutral life.

Social media influencers are called the opinion leaders of our time, as they have a lot of power over what peo- ple think and consume. Various sustainability actors expect that influencers take a strong role in the transfor- mation towards sustainability. In my thesis I examine, how do the reactions of the influencers’ followers and the perceived sense of responsibility and power of the influencer affect the way influencers share content on sustainability. In my research I also consider how different influencers receive differing responses to content related to sustainability. My analysis consists of interviews with six Finnish social media influencers. I conducted 5 semi-structured in- terviews, and received one written answer to the interview questions. I used thematic analysis as the analysis method in my research. The themes that arose from the interview data and from previous research are relation- ality between the influencer and their followers, connection between followers’ reactions and influencers’ sus- tainability content and the perceived sense of power and responsibility of the influencer. Three influencer profiles were created based on the interview data. The profiles describe different types of in- fluencers with different, specific audiences. The profiles demonstrate how different audiences respond to con- tent related to sustainability in different ways, how different influencers share sustainability content in different ways, and how influencers perceive their responsibility in different ways. My research shows that both the reac- tions of the followers and the perceived sense of responsibility of the influencer affect how an influencer shares content on sustainability. According to my research, the influencer's perceived power does not affect content shared on sustainability. This study contributes to the understanding of the issues that affect influencers’ behavior in sharing sustainabil- ity-related content. With this knowledge, it is possible to move closer to understanding whether influencers can be part of the change towards a more sustainable future. shared on sustainability. This study contributes to the understanding of the issues that affect influencers’ behavior in sharing sustainabil- ity-related content. With this knowledge, it is possible to move closer to understanding whether influencers can be part of the change towards a more sustainable future.