SEI York Publications

Journal articles

Assessment of the impact of road transport policies on air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya. Tackling road transport emissions through a variety of policies will help Kenya meet climate change goals, as well as improving air quality and health.

Promoting the transfer of pro-environmental behaviours between home and workplaces. Researchers argued that consistency in messaging is key to creating habitual and universal pro-environmental behaviours.

Citizen science: pathways to impact and why participant diversity matters. This article advocated for greater understanding of barriers to participation in citizen science projects and suggested methods for improving impact.

The important role of African emissions reductions in projected local rainfall changes. Researchers found that African aerosol emissions reductions could positively impact rainfall changes in the region.

Asthma symptoms, spirometry and air pollution exposure in schoolchildren in an informal settlement and an affluent area of Nairobi, Kenya. Through a citizen science methodology, this study used a combination of questionnaires and breathing tests to assess the impact of air pollution on Nairobian schoolchildren.

Prescribed fire in UK heather-dominated blanket bog peatlands: a critical review of “Carbon storage and sequestration by habitat: a review of the evidence (second edition)” by Gregg et al., 2021. This paper offered constructive criticism of a publication from UK government advisory agency Natural England, which aimed to synthesise evidence on prescribed fire for peatlands management.

From reflection diaries to practical guidance for research: learnings from a Kenyan air pollution project. This study uses a conceptual transdisciplinary research framework involving reflection diaries to evaluate the approaches used in a research project and presents recommendations for future transdisciplinary work.

Legal culture and climate change adaptation: an agenda for research. The paper examines how climate change and legal culture intersect in existing research, highlighting ways that a focus on legal culture offers significant promise for further study of climate change adaptation.

Guest editorial: Ecological knowledge co-production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia. This editorial introduces a special section focusing on knowledge co-production processes in a recent issue of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography.

Understanding psychophysiological responses to walking in urban settings in Asia and Africa. Researchers analysed the mental and physical responses of people walking in urban settings in cities in Kenya and Thailand, with unexpected results.

Exploring the benefits and dis-benefits of climate migration as an adaptive strategy along the rural-peri-urban continuum in Namibia. Researchers investigated migration in Namibia, with findings indicating that climate hazards could be driving people from rural to to peri-urban areas.

Assessing the value of biodiversity-specific footprinting metrics linked to South American soy trade. A biodiversity footprint study of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina found little evidence that metrics accurately reflect deforestation and species loss.

Reports and briefs

Future visioning for pro-poor disaster risk reduction in tomorrow's cities: activities toolbox. The authors lay out guidelines for elaborating, monitoring, and evaluating visioning approaches.

Final 10-year report to the project advisory group of Peatland-ES-UK. This long-term research project has examined peat bogs in northern England in order to investigate the merits of different management approaches. The research found that, used correctly, these different approaches can all support healthy, active peatlands. A summary of the report and highlights are also available.

Features, perspectives, open letters and podcasts

Journal articles

Peatland core domain sets: building consensus on what should be measured in research and monitoring. This article documented the first attempt to develop core domain sets for an environmental field. By applying a core domain sets framework to peatlands research, the researchers found that this methodology could be applied more widely in environmental research. Read the paper

Identifying cross-sectoral policy synergies for decarbonization: Towards short-lived climate pollutant mitigation action in Costa Rica. The authors identify a comprehensive environmental tax reform, the overhauling of urban regulatory plans, the strengthening of institutional capabilities, and low-carbon investment with favorable financing as crucial cross-sectoral policy synergies that will advance the implementation of SLCP mitigation. Read the paper.

Exploring the benefits and dis-benefits of climate migration as an adaptive strategy along the rural-peri-urban continuum in Namibia. This analysis investigates human migration flows, the influence of climate hazards on these flows and the benefits and dis-benefits of migration in supporting climate change adaptation. - Read the paper.

Assessing finance for nature-based solutions to climate change. This new assessment explores how much development finance is directed toward nature-based solutions and how effectively it is used. - Read the paper.

Integration of Short-Lived Climate Pollutant and air pollutant mitigation in nationally determined contributions. This paper evaluates the inclusion of SLCP and air pollutant mitigation within Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that were submitted between 2015 and 2022. - Read the paper.

Food System Resilience: Concepts, Issues, and Challenges. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. This paper presents four questions to frame food system resilience (Resilience of what? Resilience to what? Resilience from whose perspective? Resilience for how long?) and three approaches to enhancing resilience (robustness, recovery, and reorientation—the three “Rs”). - Read the paper. 

Sovereign anxiety in Myanmar: An emotional geopolitics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. This article contributes an emotional geopolitics perspective to studies of the initiative and demonstrates the geopolitical significance of attending to the role of emotion in cross-border infrastructure projects. - Read the paper.

Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation. A clear understanding of the different ways in which agriculture drives deforestation is essential for designing effective policy responses. To address this need this article reviews the literature on pantropical agriculture-driven deforestation and synthesizes the best available evidence to quantify dominant agricultural land-use changes relating to deforestation. - Read the paper in Science (closed access) or Read a summary.

Integrated climate change and air pollution mitigation assessment for Togo. Despite making a comparatively small contribution to climate change, Togo is vulnerable to its ongoing affects and is currently experiencing air pollution levels damaging to human health. - Read the paper. 

Autonomous change processes in traditional institutions: lessons from innovations in village governance in Vanuatu. In many parts of the world, traditional institutions are the backbone of village governance and service delivery and have been widely studied. However, autonomous changes – that is, those that originate from within communities – are not well understood. - Read the paper.

Reports and briefs

Taking responsibility for supply chain impacts: who, why and how? A GCRF TRADE Hub discussion paper on the responsibility of supply chain actors in addressing production level impacts. Read the paper.

Assessing tropical deforestation and biodiversity risk in Belgium’s agricultural commodity supply chains. A joint Trase and SEI York assessment commissioned by Belgium’s Federal Public Service for Heath, Food Chain Safety and Environment (FPS Public Health). - Read the report.

Using creative participatory approaches for inclusive climate resilient transport in Africa: Guidelines for practitioners. This guidance document summarizes key concepts around transport inclusion, participation, and climate change and provides novel tools for increasing engagement. - Read the guidance document.

Integrated assessment of air pollution and climate change for sustainable development in Africa. African leaders can act quickly across 5 key areas to fight climate change, prevent air pollution, and protect human health. - Read the summary for decision-makers from the CCAC report. 

A Practical Guide For Business: Air Pollutant Emission Assessment. The aim of this Guide is to provide businesses with practical guidance that will enable them to quantify air pollutant emissions down their value chains. - Read the guide. 

A just transition in the meat sector: why, who, and how? This groundbreaking report charts routes toward a just transition away from large-scale meat production and consumption in high-consuming countries. - Read the report.

Addressing scale in nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions must be designed to deliver measurable benefits for nature and society. The different dimensions of scale could be better incorporated. - Read the brief.

Air pollution and the world of work: policies, initiatives and the current situation – a scoping and evidence review for Southeast and East Asia. This scoping report assesses the interlinkages between air pollution and the world of work in East and Southeast Asia, to identify knowledge gaps to be filled. - Read the report. 

Overcoming barriers to integrated planning – tools and training for countries to combine climate and development aims. This SEI brief discusses ongoing efforts by SEI to devise tools and offer training to help countries integrate climate change mitigation and sustainable development in national-level planning. - Read the brief.

Resilience of the UK food system regarding demand for soy - a new policy and practice brief co-authored with Global Food Security-Food System Research (GFS-FSR) examines the risks associated with soy dependency in the UK livestock sector and aims to help the industry better understand and address the risks associated with their reliance on soy. - Read the brief.

The PRINCE project – Policy Relevant Indicators for Consumption and Environment – has explored ways to improve and expand consumption-based indicators so that they can be usefully deployed in policymaking in Sweden. This report sets out the results from this major multi-partner project. - Read the report.

Strengthening the EU regulation on deforestation-free products. This Trase policy brief discusses strategies on implementing the European Commission's proposed prohibition on products produced on land deforested after 2020. - Read the brief. 

Principles for just and equitable nature-based solutions. This SEI discussion brief outlines principles for designing and implementing nature-based solutions that are just and equitable. - Read the brief.

Towards multifunctionality: adaptation beyond the nature–society dichotomy. Viewing landscapes as having multiple uses for both humans and nature can lead to better goals and adaptation for nature-based solutions among other issues. - Read the background paper. 

Mainstreaming animal welfare in sustainable development: a policy agenda. Governments can recognize that animal welfare is important in its own right, as well as for the future of sustainable development. - Read the background paper.

Stockholm+50: unlocking a better future. This SEI report was written to provide a scientific basis for the UN international meeting “Stockholm+50 in June 2022. It is intended to stimulate an informed debate on why change towards a sustainable future is not happening at pace with the challenges humans and the planet face and guide leaders to actions they can take now, informed by relevant science. - Read the full report or read the summary.

Beyond deforestation: water use in global agricultural commodity supply chains. This SEI discussion brief explores how tropical deforestation and water use information are complementary in assessing the EU’s environmental footprint of imported agricultural commodities. - Read the brief.

A tool in the toolkit: can true cost accounting remove siloed thinking about food loss and waste? Efforts to decrease food loss and waste must engage with all stakeholders and all of their impacts. This report explores using a method called True Cost Accounting to help overcome siloed thinking and support collaborative efforts to reduce food loss and waste throughout the whole food system. - Read the report.

A comprehensive approach to nitrogen in the UK - This report was commissioned by WWF-UK to identify nitrogen losses to the environment and their impacts, and describe key interventions and approaches to tackle the problem. It forms part of the supporting evidence for WWF’s Land of Plenty Initiative. - Read the summary report. Read the full report.

Lessons from COVID-19 for managing transboundary climate risks and building resilience. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how hard it is to manage a global crisis. What can we learn from the pandemic to help fight climate change and build resilience? - Read the report. 

The role of learning in farmer-led innovation. This paper offers a systematic exploration of the different form of learning and their contribution to farmer-led innovation. - Read the report. 

Features, perspectives, open letters and podcasts

Reinvigorating the Malé Declaration offers South Asia the opportunity to improve air quality. Eight countries in South Asia are recommitting to work together to tackle air pollution, bringing new hope to a region suffering from severe health and economic impacts from poor air quality. - Read the perspective. 

Africa assessment of air pollution and climate change. The Climate & Clean Air Coalition and SEI are developing an assessment of air pollution and climate change in Africa to reduce emissions and maximize benefits. - Read the feature. 

Pakistan aspires to LEAP into a new future with SEI training. SEI researchers trained energy sector practitioners on how to use LEAP in Islamabad, Pakistan, as part of the nation's effort to tackle its energy crisis. - Read the feature. 

International Day of Clean Air for blue skies 2022. Find out what SEI is doing to protect #TheAirWeShare. - Read the feature. 

Supporting Swedish sustainability goals with new methods and indicators for consumption. Expanding the PRINCE model to include impacts associated with fisheries production, the use of chemicals, impacts to biodiversity and tropical deforestation. - Read the feature.

Is the new IPCC report a game changer for adaptation? SEI researchers from across the globe interpret the headlines on adaptation from the Sixth Assessment Report released this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. - Read the perspective.

Health and wellbeing in cities - Cultural contributions from urban form in the Global South context. This paper explores the links between urban public realm spaces, both natural and built, and residents' wellbeing in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). Read the paper.

Co-productive agility and four collaborative pathways to sustainability transformations. This paper explores how co-production processes can enable sustainability transformations. Read the paper.

Europe's cross-border trade, human security and financial connections: A climate risk perspective. This paper explores the potential climate impact transmission pathways between the EU and other world regions. Read the paper.

Trading deforestation - why the legality of forest-risk commodities is insufficient. Some countries and blocs are developing laws to tackle deforestation linked to commodity imports. This paper focuses on Brazil and how legality alone is not sufficient enough to address global deforestation and may be undermined by dilution of local laws. Read the paper.

Using a co-created transdisciplinary approach to explore the complexity of air pollution in informal settlements. This paper uses arts and humanities methods to explore air pollution in an informal settlement (Mukuru) in Nairobi, Kenya. Read the report.

Better data is necessary, but not sufficient, to enable sustainable trade. Whether trade is 'good' or 'bad' for our societies and the environment has been a topic of ongoing debate. This brief is a simple overview of some of the costs. Read the brief.

For a full list of SEI York publications from 2021, click here.

Research for city practice. This article covers topics such as urban density, active travel and climate change adaptation. Read the report.

Using supply chain data to monitor zero deforestation commitments; an assessment of progress in the Brazilian soy sector. This paper evaluates the impact of Zero Deforestation Commitments (ZDCs) on suplly chains using Brazilian soy sector as an example. Read the report.

Creating the new economy: business models that put people and planet first. This report unveils pivotal governance, management and profit reinvestment models that are already working across the world. It challenges leaders gathering at Davos, in January 2020, to foster business models that put people and planet first. Read the full report.

Comparing the impact of future cropland expansion on global biodiversity and carbon storage across models and scenarios. from COVID-19 for managing transboundary climate risks and building resilience. Land-use change is a direct driver of biodiversity and carbon storage loss. Projections of future land-use often include notable expansion of cropland areas in response to changes in climate and food demand. This study examines these uncertainties by comparing three different socio-economic scenarios across three models. Read the report.

Mitigating the impacts of air pollutants in Nepal and climate co-benefits: a scenario-based approach. This study derives a national-level emission inventory for Nepal including short-lived climate pollutants, CO2, and other air pollutants, and projects their impacts under different scenarios. Read the study.

For a full list of SEI York publications from 2020, click here.

Citizen science and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This roadmap outlines how citizen science can be integrated into the formal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting mechanisms. Read the paper.

The Mental Health Benefits of Purposeful Activities in Public Green Spaces in Urban and Semi-Urban Neighbourhoods: A Mixed-Methods Pilot and Proof of Concept Study. This pilot study shows that undertaking purposeful activity in public green space has the potential to promote health and prevent mental ill health. Read the study.

Assessing soil compaction and micro-topography impacts of alternative heather cutting as compared to burning as part of grouse moor management on blanket bog. This study compared grouse moor management impacts on peatlands in North of England. Read the study.

Bog-breathing-and-carbon-stock-assessments. Wetlands Ecology and Management. Bog breathing: the extent of peat shrinkage and expansion on blanket bogs in relation to water table, heather management and dominant vegetation and its implications for carbon stock assessments. Read the paper.

Measurement-based assessment of the regional contribution and drivers of reduction in annual and daily fine particulate matter impact metrics in Paris, France (2009-2018). This paper investigates changes in the conditions producing annual average and how short term metrics could be reduced further. Read the paper.

Click here for a full list of publications from 2018 and 2019.

• 2017 Publications (external link)
• 2016 Publications (external link)
• 2015 Publications (external link)
• Publication highlights 2006-2014