Interacting locally, acting globally: trust and proximity in social networks for the development of energy communities

Oil palm cultivation has improved living standards and alleviated the poverty of many smallholder farmers. However, challenges such as climate change, aging palms and negative sentiments in the major markets, threaten the wellbeing of and raise the question on smallholder farmers’ resilience, which remains poorly understood. Using primary data from Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer in the world, we measure and evaluate the resilience of oil palm smallholder farmers using the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach. Our results revealed five classes of smallholders with different levels of resilience: vulnerable, economically and socially constrained, low-skilled, semi-secure and adaptive smallholders. The farmers in the least resilient group are majorly older local farmers, who established oil palm plantations independently. Meanwhile, the most resilient group is dominated by smallholders who participated in the migration program, and in the past, received support from the government to start oil palm plantations. Our study highlights the heterogeneity of smallholders’ livelihood resilience and the need for inclusive and tailored interventions for the various classes of smallholder farmers to establish sustainable communities.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strengthening oil palm smallholder farmers’ resilience to future industrial challenges

Hendrawan,

Chrisendo,

Musshoff

2024

“…Municipalities should therefore promote and facilitate cross-sectoral cooperation and coordination, drawing inspiration from successful models such as energy communities. The establishment of platforms, networks and partnerships may facilitate the exchange of information, resources and best practices, enabling citizens to actively contribute to sustainability goals 69 . Furthermore, the quality and effectiveness of waste collection services may be improved through innovation and the digitization of waste management systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Viable eco-efficiency targets for waste collection communities

Daraio,

Di Leo,

Simar

2024

Waste management is crucial for advancing the circular economy, and Italy has begun to address this issue by organizing municipalities into collaborative communities of municipalities, named ATOs. In this paper, we propose a quantitative approach based on conditional efficiency analysis to estimate viable eco-efficiency targets for these waste collection communities. The proposed targets are both eco-efficient, because they reflect optimal resource allocation within the eco-efficiency framework, and viable, because they consider the unique specificities of each waste community. The methodology determines a pathway or direction for municipalities to reach the eco-efficiency frontier based on specific external factors, ensuring that each municipality is benchmarked against others with similar contexts within the same community. Our analysis focuses on 89 Italian municipalities within the ATO “Città metropolitana di Roma Capitale” in 2021, revealing that size and economic development significantly contributed to viable eco-efficiency within the community during this period. The proposed approach is general and flexible and can be applied to other municipalities in Italy or across Europe. It can also be extended to meso (regional) or macro (country) levels of analysis.

“…This survey-based methodological approach is used extensively to study sustainable communities and public opinion regarding climate change 5 , 6 , 38 . In the next subsection we discuss in more detail the key survey questions that we use in our analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Biancardi et al 5 present a comprehensive overview of sustainable energy communities and state that such communities strive for net-zero action with a broader contribution to the advancement of a green economy. There are specific social and structural arrangements needed to stabilize such communities influenced by family and social networks 6 , 7 . However, the authors caution that these factors are sensitive to local contexts and cultures, and there is a need to study the underlying drivers of sustainable behaviors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying American climate change free riders and motivating sustainable behavior

Magistro,

Abramson,

Ebanks

et al. 2024

Free riders, who benefit from collective efforts to mitigate climate change but do not actively contribute, play a key role in shaping behavioral climate action. Using a sample of 2096 registered American voters, we explore the discrepancy between two groups of free riders: cynics, who recognize the significance of environmental issues but do not adopt sustainable behaviors, and doubters, who neither recognize the significance nor engage in such actions. Through statistical analyses, we show these two groups are different. Doubters are predominantly male, younger, with lower income and education, exhibit stronger conspiracy beliefs, lower altruism, and limited environmental knowledge, are more likely to have voted for Trump and lean towards conservative ideology. Cynics are younger, religious, higher in socioeconomic status, environmentally informed, liberal-leaning, and less likely to support Trump. Our research provides insights on who could be most effectively persuaded to make climate-sensitive lifestyle changes and provides recommendations to prompt involvement in individual sustainability behaviors. Our findings suggest that for doubters, incentivizing sustainability through positive incentives, such as financial rewards, may be particularly effective. Conversely, for cynics, we argue that engaging them in more community-driven and social influence initiatives could effectively translate their passive beliefs into active participation.