Per Espen Stoknes

Sustainability 13(16) Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13169227

The recent rise in climate concern among citizens worldwide is coinciding with a rising interest in agricultural climate solutions. The future scaling-up of these solutions, however, requires more knowledge about the mitigation potential, costs and financing options, including crowdfunding (CF). Our objective is to explore the driving factors behind the public’s willingness to pay for crowdfunded climate mitigation projects at the farm level. In this study, four mitigation options from the perspective of farmers were identified: solar panels on the barn roof, biogas from animal manure, drag hoses for improved manure dispersal, and the addition of biochar to soils. The study investigates the optimal characteristics of crowdfunding campaigns to finance such mitigation measures. The most influential factors on the respondents’ WTP is neither climate concern nor proximity, but instead the knowledge regarding CF, combined with how comprehensible and salient the suggested measure is. The main implications are that future projects that aim to achieve broad participation in CF campaigns need to communicate well, to improve both public knowledge of the funding mechanism (CF) itself and the comprehensibility and salience of the agricultural measure.

MIT Press

Global Sustainability p. 1-17 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2021.26

Transformation of the world towards sustainability in line with the 2030 Agenda requires progress on multiple dimensions of human well-being. We track development of relevant indicators for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1–7 against gross domestic product (GDP) per person in seven world regions and the world as a whole. Across the regions, we find uniform development patterns where SDGs 1–7 – and therefore main human needs – are achieved at around US$15,000 measured in 2011 US$ purchasing power parity (PPP).

Dagbladet

Finansavisen

Gyldendal Norsk Forlag A/S

Real-world Economics Review 87 p. 231-246

Magma forskning og viten 22(5) p. 69-78

Sett at du og jeg og hele organisasjonen vi jobber med, tar klimaproblemet på alvor. Hvordan kan et selskap, en sektor eller et helt land dokumentere at vi arbeider i tråd med klimamålet i Paris-avtalen? Hvordan kan man rapportere på en måte som ikke bare grønnvasker enkeltinitiativer, men som viser at man både skaper mer verdier og samtidig yter sin rettferdige andel på hele klima- og miljøfeltet? Dette er spørsmålet som artikkelen besvarer gjennom å gi en kort innføring i sammenhengen mellom grønn vekst og vitenskapsbaserte mål (science-based targets). Vi finner at karbonproduktiviteten må vokse med mer enn fem prosent per år for at vi skal ha ekte grønn vekst.

Global Sustainability 2 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2019.22

The world agreed to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Nine planetary boundaries set an upper limit to Earth system impacts of human activity in the long run. Conventional efforts to achieve the 14 socio-economic goals will raise pressure on planetary boundaries, moving the world away from the three environmental SDGs. We have created a simple model, Earth3, to measure how much environmental damage follows from achievement of the 14 socio-economic goals, and we propose an index to track effects on people's wellbeing. Extraordinary efforts will be needed to achieve all SDGs within planetary boundaries.

Energy Research & Social Science 44(October) p. 41-49 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2018.04.030

Over the last decade, green growth policies have drawn increasing interest. OECD, UNEP, the World Bank and the EC have had several initiatives on the issue, and the Nordic countries have a special program on it. Definitions and indicator sets have been developed, though critics have pointed out that most initiatives amount to little more than a greenwashing of conventional economic growth. The paper proposes and discusses two definitions of green growth, one weak and one strong. Both build on resource- and carbon productivity measures, but whereas the weak definition requires absolute decoupling, the strong or “genuine green growth” requires sufficient decoupling to achieve science based targets for planetary boundaries. The approach is tested at country levels, starting with the climate boundary, by analyzing progress on carbon productivity (“CAPRO”) in Nordic countries since 2000. Results show that so far, among Nordic countries, Sweden, Finland and Denmark have achieved genuine green growth, while Norway has not. Implications for policy and communication of green growth are discussed.

Environmental Reality: Rethinking the Options. His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden's 12th Royal Colloquium p. 75-82

Climate Services 6 p. 23-33 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cliser.2017.06.009

To reduce future damages on buildings and infrastructure, and prepare society for the coming climate challenges, in recent years numerous user guides have been developed. The objective of this study is to provide the first overview and analysis of, the characteristics of the existing guidance material for the climate adaptation of the built environment in Norway. 84 user guides and web portals are mapped and analysed, focusing on target groups and topics. The results are viewed in relation to qualitative interviews with experts responsible for promoting climate adaptation. A large share of the guidance material communicates climate adaptation at a general level rather than in-depth practical measures. The interviews confirm that there is an overwhelming amount of guidance material, and it is suggested that this may cause confusion and uncertainty among users. The study and its findings are placed within a context of the climate services literature, and ‘‘user guides” are understood as a type of ‘‘climate services product”. A main conclusion is that the abundance of user guides does not automatically lead to better climate adaptation. Too few user guides for climate adaptation sufficiently secure easily accessible information on practical measures. The guides are not broadly utilised, the language and length of the texts are sometimes problematic, and the target groups are often wide or not specified. The results presented may be used in order to develop improved user guides for climate adaptation in societies with similar climate and societal challenges to those in Norway.

Fagbokforlaget

Science based activism. Festschrift to Jørgen Randers p. 109-124

Energy Research & Social Science 1 p. 161-170 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2014.03.007

Climate science has provided ever more reliable data and models over the last 20–30 years, thereby indicating increasingly severe impacts in the coming decades and centuries. Nonetheless, public concern for climate change and the issue's perceived importance has been declining over the past few decades, thus giving less public support for ambitious climate policies. Conventional climate communication strategies have failed to resolve this “climate paradox.” This article reviews research on the psychology of the climate paradox, and rethinks new emerging strategies for how to resolve it in the coming decades.

Ecological Economics 91(July) p. 10-18 Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.03.011

Agenda 21 required countries to develop and regularly update a national set of indicators for sustainable development. Several countries now have such sets also including separate indicators for climate change. Some of these indicators typically report global concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere or time series for global temperatures. While such indicators may give the public information about the state of the global climate, they do not provide a benchmark which makes it possible for the public to evaluate the climate policy of their government. With Kantian ethics as our point of departure, we propose a benchmark for national climate policy. The benchmark is that each nation state should act as if a global treaty on climate change were in place. This would require each nation state to carry out all green house gas mitigation projects below a certain cost. Furthermore, it would require each nation to keep their national green house gas emissions including acquisitions of emission permits from other countries within a certain limit. Both measures are relatively easy to track and can thus serve as indicators.