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Item Demand-Driven Climate Mitigation in the United States: Challenges and Opportunities to Reduce Carbon Footprints from Households and State-Level Actors(2022) Song, Kaihui; Baiocchi, Giovanni; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Subnational and non-governmental actors have great potential to push for bolder climate actions to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. A consistent and accurate quantification of their GHG emissions is an important prerequisite for the success of such efforts. Although an increasing number of subnational actors have developed their climate mitigation plans with medium- or long- term goals, whether these progressive commitments can yield effectiveness as planned still remains unclear. This dissertation research focuses on two large groups of climate mitigation actors in the U.S. – households and state-level actors – to improve the understanding of potential mitigation challenges and shed light on climate policies. This dissertation consists of three principle essays. The first essay reveals a key challenge of emission spillover among state-level collective mitigation efforts in the U.S. It quantifies consumption-based GHG emissions at the state level and analyzes emissions embodied in interstate and international trade. By analyzing major emission transfers between states from critical sectors, this essay proposed potential policy strategies for effective climate mitigation collaboration. The second essay addresses unequal household consumption and associated carbon footprints in the U.S., with a closer look at different contributions across income groups to the national peak-and-decline trend in the U.S. This analysis further analyzes changes in consumption patterns of detailed consumed products by income groups. The third essay proposed a framework to link people’s needs and behaviors to their consumption and associated carbon footprints. This framework, built on existing models that connect carbon footprints with consumer behaviors, extends to people’s needs with simulation over time. Such an extension provides a better understanding of carbon footprints driven by various needs in the context of real-world decision-making. Based on this framework, this essay selects a basket of behavioral changes driven by changing fundamental human needs and analyzes associated carbon footprints. The dissertation identifies opportunities and challenges in demand-driven climate mitigation in the U.S. Its findings provide implications for effective climate actions from state-level actors and households.Item THE WATER-ENERGY-LAND NEXUS OF BIOENERGY PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL(2020) Munoz Castillo, Raul; Sun, Laixiang; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Biofuels play a critical role in the Paris Agreement to help achieve climate change mitigation targets. However, a significant increase in production of biofuels might potentially be realized at the expense of overusing natural resources, particularly land and water. Understanding the tradeoffs between the development of biofuels and its impacts on land and water is a critical issue for sustainable development. This energy-water-land nexus might be particularly important for Brazil, given its position as top exporter and second top producer of bioenergy. Furthermore, Brazil itself has set up its own Intended Nationally Determined Contribution agenda with a significant growth of biofuel production by 2030. The aim of this research is to quantitatively characterize the nexus of biofuels production with the overall appropriation of land and water resources at the subnational level in Brazil by answering the following questions: (i) How will the implementation of international climate mitigation commitments adopted by Brazil impact water and land use and therefore water and land stress in Brazil?; (ii) what will be the geographical distribution of such impacts at subnational level? ; (iii) will increase competition among economic sectors aggravate such impacts?; and (iv) how will other socio-economic and physical drivers of change affect those impacts combined with INDC related policies implementation?. To answer these questions, I developed a set of socio-economic, policy and climate scenarios through an environmentally extended input-output approach that represents socio-economic activities in the 27 Brazilian states, allowing comparison of the resulting water and land demands among main competitive users under different scenarios. I also introduced the use of water scarcity and land stress as environmental impact indicators. My study confirms that to properly understand the impacts of biofuel production in Brazil on land and water and its “nexus”, the consideration of resource scarcity and its spatial variability are key to ensure sustainable planning of biofuel production. Moreover, I found that the mitigation policies committed by Brazil and its role as top global provider of biofuel will take a significant toll in both water and land consumption in the country, leading to increasing competition among food production, energy generation and human consumption, especially in the most vulnerable and already environmentally stressed states.