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A consequence of the interconnectedness of global supply chains is that disturbances in one location can propagate between continents. This means that for companies to manage climate risks, it is important not just to assess risks in operation locations, but also throughout supply chains. In this paper, we analyse how 14 Swedish large export-oriented businesses view and address risks from physical climate impacts on their international supply chains. We find that climate change is not considered a priority risk and there is little evidence of risk management strategies implemented at the operational level. Businesses fail to see a clear causality between climate change as a global phenomenon and operational risks in the supply chain. Furthermore, the complicated structures of many supply chains make comprehensive risk assessment and management very resource-demanding. We conclude that there is a need for novel strategies to improve businesses' capabilities to assess emerging risks from climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite consensus on the need to adapt to climate change, who should adapt, and how, remain open questions. While local-level actions are essential to adaptation, state and federal governments can play a substantial role in adaptation. In this paper, we investigate local perspectives on state-level flood mitigation policies in Vermont as a means of analysing what leads top-down adaptations to be effective in mobilizing local action. Drawing on interviews with town officials, we delineate local-level perspectives on Vermont's top-down policies and use those perspectives to develop a conceptual framework that presents the 'fit' between top-down policies and the locallevel context as comprised of three components: Receptivity, Ease of Participation, and Design. We explain how these components and their interactions influence locallevel action. This analysis points to how careful consideration of the components of 'fit' may lead to greater local-level uptake of top-down adaptation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the pros and cons of co-management (i.e. concerted actions towards climate change and air quality management) through local sustainability initiatives using three case studies, each encompassing the planning and management issues at local government levels. Case study I is policy-based and reports the outcome of a consultation exercise while case studies II and III have greater scientific bearing. These case studies pave the way for development of a more integrated Climate Change Strategy Action Plan at local scales, specifically regarding policies on emissions sources from transportation and decentralised energy. They highlight the merits and the trade-offs of implementing local scale co-management practices, using a more integrated planning framework than what is currently under offer. We recognise that delivery of such ambitious, cross-cutting agenda may be impeded, primarily owing to limited expertise in assessing the synergies and the expected outcomes from cross-fertility between these two arenas. This calls for a step-change through more cohesive, cross-disciplinary policy frameworks, going beyond the local administrative spheres to maximise the co-management potentials while mitigating the wider environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, regionalisation in England held out the promise that regions could forge their own unique policies to address climate change. This paper considers the Yorkshire & Humber region's climate change action plan. The study uses critical discourse to analyse the plan and a series of interviews with those who helped develop the initiative. It shows that in the case of Yorkshire & Humber, the Regional Development Agency was a key player in shaping the policies. This resulted in a focus on un-proven large-scale technological projects to mitigate climate change and create significant economic development for the region. Little came of this. The need to maintain economic growth seriously undermined the drive to reduce carbon emissions. The findings suggest that the proposed new sub-national governance arrangements will face similar problems in which short-term economic drivers outweigh efforts to reduce carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores the relations of (1) regionalized climate change impulses; (2) their impacts on regional industry sectors; and (3) a regional econometric impact analysis. It develops a methodology by which the impulses of a regional climate change scenario can be transformed into ‘primary’ impacts on the capital stock and value added of climate-sensitive regional industries. These industries are vulnerable to ‘creeping’, i.e. continuous, climate change impulses, and they tend to react through ‘defensive’ investment. In addition, a singular flooding event is simulated for a specific local area and its different capital stocks. The stock damages and value-added losses of both the continuous industrial impacts and the singular flooding are inserted into a regional econometric model. This is sectorally disaggregated in stock, value-added and investment functions. It is also calibrated in the very-long run (through to the year 2040), according to different scenarios. The regional economic ‘secondary’ effects on the regional GNP are calculated. In addition to the calculation of regional economic primary and secondary impacts, the methodological issue of generating more transparency of the causal chains by use of damage functions, reaction functions, and comparative defensive strategies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the international community debates long-term strategies to address global warming, the issue is one of increasing concern for small island developing states. Collectively, these countries account for less than 1% of greenhouse gas emissions, yet their vulnerabilities are particularly high. This paper reviews international efforts including a regional effort on the part of 12 Caribbean countries to address this issue. For many countries and especially countries of the Caribbean and other small island developing states, vulnerabilities already exist and will only be exacerbated by accelerated global warming. Dealing with global environmental change will require good, reliable information to monitor change and assess the physical and economic impact of that change. It also will require an institutional and managerial framework that incorporates dynamic change into individual and collective decision-making processes. Small island developing states must be active players affecting long-term solutions to climate change. In the interim, targeted investments to address high priority vulnerabilities are likely to lead to no-regrets outcomes with high environmental and economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]