I am an ecological economist with a research focus on conceptualizing and modeling the interaction between human and environmental systems and developing and modeling scenarios of future change. I have worked extensively with stakeholders in participatory research projects and led large interdisciplinary research teams. He has published about 200 peer-reviewed research articles on topics such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, participatory modelling, management of ecosystems services, land use change and governance. My research has been supported by national agencies in Austria, the Czech Republic, China, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the U.S. and international institutions such as the European Commission, the Interamerican Development Bank and the World Bank.
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) alleviate water pollution but also induce resource consumptio... more Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) alleviate water pollution but also induce resource consumption and environmental impacts especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Mitigating GHG emissions of WWTPs can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality in China. But there is still a lack of a high-resolution and time-series GHG emission inventories of WWTPs in China. In this study, we construct a firm-level emission inventory of WWTPs for CH4, N2O and CO2 emissions from different wastewater treatment processes, energy consumption and effluent discharge for the time-period from 2006 to 2019. We aim to develop a transparent, verifiable and comparable WWTP GHG emission inventory to support GHG mitigation of WWTPs in China.
Despite China’s emissions having plateaued in 2013, it is still the world’s leading energy consum... more Despite China’s emissions having plateaued in 2013, it is still the world’s leading energy consumer and CO2 emitter, accounting for approximately 30% of global emissions. Detailed CO2 emission inventories by energy and sector have great significance to China’s carbon policies as well as to achieving global climate change mitigation targets. This study constructs the most up-to-date CO2 emission inventories for China and its 30 provinces, as well as their energy inventories for the years 2016 and 2017. The newly compiled inventories provide key updates and supplements to our previous emission dataset for 1997–2015. Emissions are calculated based on IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) administrative territorial scope that covers all anthropogenic emissions generated within an administrative boundary due to energy consumption (i.e. energy-related emissions from 17 fossil fuel types) and industrial production (i.e. process-related emissions from cement production). The inve...
Abstract District Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan. Docu... more Abstract District Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan. Documentation and analysis of land use change in this region is challenging due to very disparate accounts of the state of forest resources and limited accessible data. Such analysis is, however, important due to concerns over the degradation of forest land leading to deterioration of the protection of water catchments and exposure of highly erodible soils. Furthermore, the area is identified as hotspot for biodiversity loss. The aim of this paper is ...
Overview This paper introduces an ongoing study of the car-free model housing project in Vienna, ... more Overview This paper introduces an ongoing study of the car-free model housing project in Vienna, Floridsdorf. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether people living in this settlement have more sustainable lifestyles than people living in comparable buildings in Vienna; to ...
The following selective overview investigates and discusses various approaches for evaluating sus... more The following selective overview investigates and discusses various approaches for evaluating sustainable consumption. This attempt to organise various research approaches is part of a larger study analysing research methods and driving forces for sustainable consumption. First investigations show that a wide variety of different approaches and methods do exist but the integration and cross-fertilisation between them has not been achieved to a satisfactory level. 1 WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL INITIATIVE? The assumption behind international declarations and policy efforts addressing sustainable consumption is that consumers have some degree of control over the environmental and social impacts of their choices.2 The hope is that consumers will express their preferences3 for a clean environment and fair trade through their purchase decisions if they have information about the relevant impacts of their choices. Currently, such information is not available thus contributing to market failure...
Since the economic reform started in 1978, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth an... more Since the economic reform started in 1978, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth and rates of urbanization and associated changes in lifestyles. As a result, China has become one of the world’s greatest consumers of natural resources. In a tele-connected world, China’s demand for goods and services is increasingly met by global supply chains involving countries that are situated in far geographical distances, and where processes at each stage in the production chain create environmental impacts. On the other hand, China is the world’s largest exporter producing goods for the consumption in developed countries. Based on the hypothesis of ecologically unequal exchange that low and middle income countries export natural resources and high impact commodities thus allowing richer countries to reduce ecologically harmful industries domestically, we assess the unequal exchange between China and the rest of world (186 countries) using value added, and four environmental indica...
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pursues 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the ... more The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pursues 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the achievement of which may be influenced by a country’s role in global supply chains and position in international trade patterns. Global trade changes constantly with an increasing share of flows between developing countries. However, little is known about the impacts of change in trade on multi-dimensions of sustainable development at both global and country levels. Here we assess how structural change in trade during three time periods, between 2004 and 2014, impact 13 SDG indicators in 141 countries or regions. We find that socio-economic indicators (e.g., high- and medium-skilled labor, GDP) are less sensitive to change in trade, compared with resource and environmental indicators (e.g., water consumption, GHG emissions). Moreover, change in trade aggravated inequality among countries. The number of indicators that significantly worsened by change in trade decreased from eight indicat...
Urban activities have profound and lasting effects on the global carbon balance. Here we develop ... more Urban activities have profound and lasting effects on the global carbon balance. Here we develop a consistent metabolic approach that combines two complementary carbon accounts, the physical carbon balance and the fossil fuel-derived gaseous carbon footprint, to track carbon coming into, being added to urban stocks, and eventually leaving the city. We find that over 88% of the physical carbon in 16 global cities is imported from outside their urban boundaries, and this outsourcing of carbon is notably amplified by virtual emissions from upstream activities that contribute 33–68% to their total carbon inflows. While 13–33% of the carbon appropriated by cities is immediately combusted and released as CO2, between 8 and 24% is stored in durable household goods or becomes part of other urban stocks. Inventorying carbon consumed and stored for urban metabolism should be given more credit for the role it can play in stabilizing future global climate.
Improving air quality can come at the cost of increasing emissions and environmental deterioratio... more Improving air quality can come at the cost of increasing emissions and environmental deterioration elsewhere.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to keep warming below 2 °C while recognizing d... more The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to keep warming below 2 °C while recognizing developing countries' right to eradicate extreme poverty. Poverty eradication is also the first of the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper investigates potential consequences for climate targets of achieving poverty eradication. We find that eradicating extreme poverty, i.e., moving people to an income above $1.9 purchasing power parity (PPP) a day, does not jeopardize the climate target even in the absence of climate policies and with current technologies. On the other hand, bringing everybody to a still modest expenditure level of at least $2.97 PPP would have long-term consequences on achieving emission targets. Compared to the reference mitigation pathway, eradicating extreme poverty increases the effort by 2.8% whereas bringing everybody to at least $2.97 PPP would increase the required mitigation rate by 27%. Given that the top 10% global income earners are responsible for...
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) alleviate water pollution but also induce resource consumptio... more Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) alleviate water pollution but also induce resource consumption and environmental impacts especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Mitigating GHG emissions of WWTPs can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality in China. But there is still a lack of a high-resolution and time-series GHG emission inventories of WWTPs in China. In this study, we construct a firm-level emission inventory of WWTPs for CH4, N2O and CO2 emissions from different wastewater treatment processes, energy consumption and effluent discharge for the time-period from 2006 to 2019. We aim to develop a transparent, verifiable and comparable WWTP GHG emission inventory to support GHG mitigation of WWTPs in China.
Despite China’s emissions having plateaued in 2013, it is still the world’s leading energy consum... more Despite China’s emissions having plateaued in 2013, it is still the world’s leading energy consumer and CO2 emitter, accounting for approximately 30% of global emissions. Detailed CO2 emission inventories by energy and sector have great significance to China’s carbon policies as well as to achieving global climate change mitigation targets. This study constructs the most up-to-date CO2 emission inventories for China and its 30 provinces, as well as their energy inventories for the years 2016 and 2017. The newly compiled inventories provide key updates and supplements to our previous emission dataset for 1997–2015. Emissions are calculated based on IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) administrative territorial scope that covers all anthropogenic emissions generated within an administrative boundary due to energy consumption (i.e. energy-related emissions from 17 fossil fuel types) and industrial production (i.e. process-related emissions from cement production). The inve...
Abstract District Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan. Docu... more Abstract District Swat is part of the high mountain Hindu-Kush Himalayan region of Pakistan. Documentation and analysis of land use change in this region is challenging due to very disparate accounts of the state of forest resources and limited accessible data. Such analysis is, however, important due to concerns over the degradation of forest land leading to deterioration of the protection of water catchments and exposure of highly erodible soils. Furthermore, the area is identified as hotspot for biodiversity loss. The aim of this paper is ...
Overview This paper introduces an ongoing study of the car-free model housing project in Vienna, ... more Overview This paper introduces an ongoing study of the car-free model housing project in Vienna, Floridsdorf. The purpose of the study is to evaluate whether people living in this settlement have more sustainable lifestyles than people living in comparable buildings in Vienna; to ...
The following selective overview investigates and discusses various approaches for evaluating sus... more The following selective overview investigates and discusses various approaches for evaluating sustainable consumption. This attempt to organise various research approaches is part of a larger study analysing research methods and driving forces for sustainable consumption. First investigations show that a wide variety of different approaches and methods do exist but the integration and cross-fertilisation between them has not been achieved to a satisfactory level. 1 WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL INITIATIVE? The assumption behind international declarations and policy efforts addressing sustainable consumption is that consumers have some degree of control over the environmental and social impacts of their choices.2 The hope is that consumers will express their preferences3 for a clean environment and fair trade through their purchase decisions if they have information about the relevant impacts of their choices. Currently, such information is not available thus contributing to market failure...
Since the economic reform started in 1978, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth an... more Since the economic reform started in 1978, China has experienced unprecedented economic growth and rates of urbanization and associated changes in lifestyles. As a result, China has become one of the world’s greatest consumers of natural resources. In a tele-connected world, China’s demand for goods and services is increasingly met by global supply chains involving countries that are situated in far geographical distances, and where processes at each stage in the production chain create environmental impacts. On the other hand, China is the world’s largest exporter producing goods for the consumption in developed countries. Based on the hypothesis of ecologically unequal exchange that low and middle income countries export natural resources and high impact commodities thus allowing richer countries to reduce ecologically harmful industries domestically, we assess the unequal exchange between China and the rest of world (186 countries) using value added, and four environmental indica...
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pursues 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the ... more The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pursues 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs), the achievement of which may be influenced by a country’s role in global supply chains and position in international trade patterns. Global trade changes constantly with an increasing share of flows between developing countries. However, little is known about the impacts of change in trade on multi-dimensions of sustainable development at both global and country levels. Here we assess how structural change in trade during three time periods, between 2004 and 2014, impact 13 SDG indicators in 141 countries or regions. We find that socio-economic indicators (e.g., high- and medium-skilled labor, GDP) are less sensitive to change in trade, compared with resource and environmental indicators (e.g., water consumption, GHG emissions). Moreover, change in trade aggravated inequality among countries. The number of indicators that significantly worsened by change in trade decreased from eight indicat...
Urban activities have profound and lasting effects on the global carbon balance. Here we develop ... more Urban activities have profound and lasting effects on the global carbon balance. Here we develop a consistent metabolic approach that combines two complementary carbon accounts, the physical carbon balance and the fossil fuel-derived gaseous carbon footprint, to track carbon coming into, being added to urban stocks, and eventually leaving the city. We find that over 88% of the physical carbon in 16 global cities is imported from outside their urban boundaries, and this outsourcing of carbon is notably amplified by virtual emissions from upstream activities that contribute 33–68% to their total carbon inflows. While 13–33% of the carbon appropriated by cities is immediately combusted and released as CO2, between 8 and 24% is stored in durable household goods or becomes part of other urban stocks. Inventorying carbon consumed and stored for urban metabolism should be given more credit for the role it can play in stabilizing future global climate.
Improving air quality can come at the cost of increasing emissions and environmental deterioratio... more Improving air quality can come at the cost of increasing emissions and environmental deterioration elsewhere.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to keep warming below 2 °C while recognizing d... more The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change aims to keep warming below 2 °C while recognizing developing countries' right to eradicate extreme poverty. Poverty eradication is also the first of the Sustainable Development Goals. This paper investigates potential consequences for climate targets of achieving poverty eradication. We find that eradicating extreme poverty, i.e., moving people to an income above $1.9 purchasing power parity (PPP) a day, does not jeopardize the climate target even in the absence of climate policies and with current technologies. On the other hand, bringing everybody to a still modest expenditure level of at least $2.97 PPP would have long-term consequences on achieving emission targets. Compared to the reference mitigation pathway, eradicating extreme poverty increases the effort by 2.8% whereas bringing everybody to at least $2.97 PPP would increase the required mitigation rate by 27%. Given that the top 10% global income earners are responsible for...
"Abstract:
Climate change has been estimated to displace millions of people in the coming decade... more "Abstract:
Climate change has been estimated to displace millions of people in the coming decades and to affect their livelihoods. However, there is an on-going debate on whether migration can lead to positive or negative outcomes and little empirical evidence to support either argument. In this paper we will examine how climate-induced migration has impacted on the livelihoods, vulnerability and adaptation of a coastal fishing community in Bangladesh by comparing outcomes in a resettled community and a residual of the original community. We gathered both quantitative and qualitative data using household surveys, semi-structured interviews, oral history interviews, participatory rural appraisal and focus groups, and used both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse our material. Our results contradict the conventional narratives, which consider that the climate change-induced displacements and migration result in negative outcomes or maladaptation. Our results suggest that migration has resulted in several positive impacts in the resettled community. Households in resettled community have better incomes and health, and better access to livelihood assets
such as technology and other physical capital. These positive impacts considerably reduce their vulnerability and increase their capacity to cope with and adapt to climate variability and change. While migrants face challenges such as security of their land ownership in face of developmental pressures, which may in the end entail further resettlement, they can invest their higher incomes to climate resilient livelihood strategies or to build human capital, which also facilitates diversion away from climate-sensitive livelihoods. This is not the case with those households that remain in the original settlement: their livelihoods remain more diverse and incomes substantially low in a situation where they are both exposed and vulnerable to both climate variability and change. Migration has thus in the case we have studied been a potentially viable strategy to tackle climate change. However, in order to realise opportunities and minimise risks, the destination of migration should be assessed carefully. This should include consideration of whether the destination of migration can reduce climatic exposures, provide sustainable livelihoods for the
migrants and facilitate their adaptation."
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Papers by klaus hubacek
Climate change has been estimated to displace millions of people in the coming decades and to affect their livelihoods. However, there is an on-going debate on whether migration can lead to positive or negative outcomes and little empirical evidence to support either argument. In this paper we will examine how climate-induced migration has impacted on the livelihoods, vulnerability and adaptation of a coastal fishing community in Bangladesh by comparing outcomes in a resettled community and a residual of the original community. We gathered both quantitative and qualitative data using household surveys, semi-structured interviews, oral history interviews, participatory rural appraisal and focus groups, and used both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse our material. Our results contradict the conventional narratives, which consider that the climate change-induced displacements and migration result in negative outcomes or maladaptation. Our results suggest that migration has resulted in several positive impacts in the resettled community. Households in resettled community have better incomes and health, and better access to livelihood assets
such as technology and other physical capital. These positive impacts considerably reduce their vulnerability and increase their capacity to cope with and adapt to climate variability and change. While migrants face challenges such as security of their land ownership in face of developmental pressures, which may in the end entail further resettlement, they can invest their higher incomes to climate resilient livelihood strategies or to build human capital, which also facilitates diversion away from climate-sensitive livelihoods. This is not the case with those households that remain in the original settlement: their livelihoods remain more diverse and incomes substantially low in a situation where they are both exposed and vulnerable to both climate variability and change. Migration has thus in the case we have studied been a potentially viable strategy to tackle climate change. However, in order to realise opportunities and minimise risks, the destination of migration should be assessed carefully. This should include consideration of whether the destination of migration can reduce climatic exposures, provide sustainable livelihoods for the
migrants and facilitate their adaptation."