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Citizens' assemblies on climate change are increasingly popular to support democratic decision-making. Such Climate Assemblies (CAs) convene representative groups of citizens formulating policy proposals after hearing experts and deliberating intensely. CAs may help addressing climate policy issues more effectively partly because their members need not worry about re-election. CAs' effectiveness depends on their design such as the issues chosen (or not chosen) for deliberation. Agenda-setters exert substantial power by selecting certain issues and by choosing framings that benefit some solutions over others. In this paper I ask: What characterizes agendas that are suitable and legitimate for deliberation in CAs? The aim is to support practitioners in making informed agenda choices for CAs by providing a list of ten widely accepted guiding principles based on expert interviews, policy documents, and information gathered from the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA). The paper systematically discusses trade-offs of various agenda choices in the light of different CA rationales. Results show that those with system-supporting rationales tend to favour narrower agendas tailored to political demands aiming to increase immediate policy impact; those with system-disrupting rationales prefer more open agendas allowing citizens to challenge existing political practices and worldviews. Results support earlier arguments that distinctions of entire deliberative processes in either top-down or bottom-up are too simplistic and that a tool-box approach is more useful. Insights appear relevant for debates of deliberative minipublics more generally. Future research should investigate whom to involve in setting CA agendas and with how much power. Effective agenda design hinges on rationales on how to achieve assembly objectives which depend on authorities' ambition for climate action. Given high ambition, system-supportive rationales aiming for policy impact favour narrower agendas tailored to demands of the policy process but risk low transformativeness. Given low ambition, system-disruptive rationales aiming to challenge established practices and worldviews favour more open agendas but risk low impact if assemblies are not politically embedded or able to mobilize opposition groups. Assembly designs are seldom purely supportive or disruptive but often hybrid. Agenda-setting has many dimensions allowing for productive combinations of disruptive and supportive elements tailored to contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The face of climate action is increasingly young, well informed, and active. But despite the growing rumble of this youth-quake, the New Zealand political system has to date been slow to respond to climate change mitigation. This article will therefore critically explore the apparent paradox between the image of New Zealand as a leading progressive democratic society, and its current response to the climate emergency. In particular, the paper will interrogate this theme from the perspectives of the international critique of New Zealand's current legal and policy response, the dynamic lens of climate change litigation and its potential to influence public policy, and the increasing impact of tikanga Māori as a primary source of New Zealand law and its relational approach to the wellbeing of the environment and the underlying ethic of stewardship. The overall thesis of the paper will be that cumulatively these trends will have the energy to generate an effective response to climate change and mobilise the urgent joined-up action required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build adaptive capacity within the closing opportunity of the next two decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a conceptual and analytical framework of states' legitimacy-seeking to comprehensively investigate the motivation behind China's climate and environment policy. While previous research has largely overlooked political factors that underlie China's climate policy, this paper argues that these factors are crucial in understanding China's policy changes, which are evident at both domestic and international levels. By examining sources such as government documents, leaders' speeches and authoritative literature, this study contends that China's climate change initiatives are part of a broader effort to enhance domestic and international legitimacy. The issue of climate change has become highly politicised in China under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, and it serves as a crucial test of the ruling party and the state's capacity to govern effectively. As such, legitimacy-seeking is the key driver that links China's domestic measures and international commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a key socioeconomic and environmental concern in South Africa. The South African government introduced several climate change initiatives to address the impacts of climate change, resulting in the proliferation of climate adaptation policies across spheres of government. This paper studies different climate change adaptation policies and climate policy paradigms (CPP) to understand the adaptation landscape; it explains and compares the changes in CPP in South Africa over time. We mapped 40 policy documents from 2004 to 2022, which shows 12 national policies, 12 provincial (sub-national) policy documents and 14 metropolitan city policy documents. We then used 12 national policy documents to illustrate and understand the CPP. The research shows that different stakeholders have shaped climate change adaptation policy, both private and public firms advised on climate change policy and there are a number of different funding partners supporting the adaptation policy like GEF, C40 and GIZ. The changing policy environment has introduced new frameworks, objectives and processes. Therefore, more efforts will be needed going forward to guide adaptation policy across national, provincial and local governments. We find that several CPPs have emerged, that is different paradigms encompassing a range of policy goals, framings and instruments. The present National CC Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) mandates adaptation across all levels of government and allows all important stakeholders to address climate change consequences. This NCCAS increases the number and ambition of adaptation policy, encourages integrated approaches, policy coherence and clear direction on how to handle climate risks and impacts in varied South Africa and its global commitment. Changes in policy paradigm enable the use of new policy instruments, including funding and budget mechanisms. Finally, climate adaptation policy has become more ambitious and stringent, requiring all levels of government to plan for climate change. The climate change policy landscape in South Africa has grown over the past 18 years, with policy development across different spheres of government (national, sectoral, provincial and metros), New CPPs have emerged, supported by new policy frames, goals and instruments. The NCCAS provides a clear policy goal, which also provides new policy instruments to implement climate actions and acts to enhance integrated approaches, The lack of domestic budget allocation remains a challenge for national government, but external partnerships have begun to provide support for policy development. Notably, a shift from a flexible to stringent approach to climate policy is needed to deliver effective climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scott Morrison's government was consistently accused of taking inadequate climate change action, despite facing sustained domestic and international criticism. However, there has not yet been sustained scholarly attention paid to the relationship between Morrison's championship of the coal industry, the specific masculinity of Morrison's leadership style, and the ways in which climate change was narratively constructed by Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. This research argues that gendered and racialised logics underpinned the climate change policy and rhetoric of the Morrison Government. This is demonstrated through an analysis of three narratives that were consistently articulated by Morrison, demonstrating Morrison's unwavering defence of fossil fuel industries and the specific Australian exceptionalism of his climate inaction. This paper further recognises that specific expressions of political masculinity may continue to hinder meaningful climate change action in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for humanity to act on environmental changes are becoming increasingly critical. The growing polycrisis including the impact of ongoing conflicts in contested geopolitical spaces and the struggles for ways to sustain a livelihood in areas of precarity and poverty, are just some of the intersecting challenges which have given rise to a Code Red alarm by the United Nations surrounding issues related to climate change. Rich narratives and stories of climate actions from Africa offer examples of potential paths. This paper explores how such narratives inform local development and climate action. A key message is that stories and narratives, created by various peoples, disciplines, and systems of knowledge, can all be powerful genres and sources for agentic change that can inspire and embolden development practice and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voluntary-based initiative Covenant of Mayors (CoM) focused on the active role of local authorities and increased its targets by 2016, through the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) in terms of GHG reduction from 20% to 40% by 2030. In actual fact, the SECAP, intended as an urban planning tool, has the potential to improve the resilience of the EU Municipalities to climate-change, developing adaptation/mitigation actions and increasing the 'environmental awareness' of the involved actors. From a planning point of view, we affirm that the CoM started a new season of urban planning in Europe that covers the planning demand in the domain of implementing sustainable territorial development objectives. It unlocks the current ineffective planning systems and represents a remarkable practice promoting feasible framework projects for public and private investments. This paper proposes a methodological proposal to exploit this spread of SECAPs in the EU, including the systemic strategic planning approach in the process of SECAP design and ensuring an integrated vision of city development over the list of actions per sector required by the Global CoM procedures. Besides the methodological proposal, a review of the major EU energy policies is provided and relevant Best Practices are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a key focus in society, and environmental assessments (EAs) are seen as key instruments to inform decision-makers about climate consequences of plans and projects. Previous research has, however, identified shortcomings of practice of assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their significance, and this paper aims to unfold current practices with a focus on Denmark. From an initial set of 762 Danish EA reports published between 2017 and 2021, researchers scrutinized 102 of them to assess their handling of GHG emissions. The findings show that climate change mitigation receives continuous sparse attention and is only to a limited extent included in the scope of the EA. Moreover, analysis of GHG emissions only involves few phases in a life-cycle perspective, GHG emissions are seldomly deemed significant, and justifications provided are varied and frequently inadequate. The results contrast with the increasing focus in society on climate change as a pivotal concern across numerous societal activities. The repercussions of this current practice are discussed. Finally, a research agenda to support better practice is outlined. Increased focus on climate change has not had a major impact on Danish EA practice. Increasing GHG emissions are almost never assessed as significant. Nine types of justifications for the significance of GHG emissions are identified. Assessing GHG emissions directly against national total emissions is misleading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change policies are prepared in a power-loaded environment, where different policy actors interact to meet their personal or collective interests. This paper argues that the 'power interplay' between actors plays a significant role in shaping and re-shaping climate change policies. We present examples from South Asia (Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) to show how actors' power interplay at the local, sub-national, national and transboundary levels influences climate change policy-making. We show that negative effects of power interplay are prominent in the climate policy domain of South Asia, including short-termism of local adaptation plans, exclusion of certain policy actors in the policy-making processes, lack of transboundary-level adaptation, and lack of coordination between actors. Nuances also exist, such as the state's authority in prioritizing technical solutions, exclusionary design and implementation of climate policies, and an agenda of securitization; these can further marginalize the actors involved in climate change policy processes. The negative effects of power interplay in South Asia can limit the success of on-the-ground implementation of adaptation and mitigation strategies, limit adaptive capacity among communities, and possibly counter the development of a strong climate change solutions space. Lastly, we argue that there are no silver bullet solutions to power asymmetries and appeal to policy actors – in South Asia and elsewhere – to design context-specific and power-sensitive policy-making approaches. Negative effects of power interplay have led to the exclusion of certain policy actors (especially communities at risk) in policy-making processes and a lack of transboundary-level adaptation in South Asia. Hard infrastructure-based adaptation measures tend to exacerbate the vulnerability of the communities at risk in South Asia. Policy actors must design context-specific and power-sensitive policy-making climate adaptation and mitigation approaches to reduce the negative impacts of power interplay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amsterdam Rainproof emerged in 2014 to manage the risks posed by a novel environmental hazard threatening European cities: pluvial flooding, locally called cloudbursts. Amsterdam Rainproof's primary policy goal is to enhance Amsterdam's resilience to pluvial flooding. This paper examines the emergence of climate resilience and its execution on the ground in Amsterdam. In so doing, I draw on tools from economic geography – including the role of urban space and inter-scalar state restructuring – to contribute to debates in International Political Economy and the Environment (IPEE) on the relationship between resilience and neoliberal urbanism in global capitalism. I argue that there are inherent tensions between the rhetoric of sustainable urbanization put forth by Amsterdam Rainproof and its reality on the ground, namely that it ineffectively adapts urban spaces to increasing and unpredictable flooding while attempting to manage forms of capital accumulation at the urban scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia is increasingly regarded as out of step in the global effort to combat climate change. Even the Australian Labor Party (ALP) Government, considered the climate-friendly alternative to the conservative Coalition, failed to deliver robust climate action from 2007 to 2013. This paper aims to validate the promising progressive rhetoric of the ALP Government from 2007 to 2013 to understand whether its commitment to climate action was genuine. It incorporates mixed methods to verify ALP attitudes to the environment and demonstrate the incidence of changing attitudes. This paper finds that the ALP deviated from ecocentrism in its framing of environment priorities towards a weak ecological modernisation approach to mitigation. This inconsistency suggests that climate change mitigation was an arbitrary priority for the ALP, rather than a cornerstone of its party platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The climate change – inequality nexus has become an increasingly important concept advanced by inequality and sustainability experts as well as international organisations like the United Nations. In this perspective paper, two arguments are made to further our understanding of the nexus and to promote action on SDG 10 ("Reducing inequalities within and among countries") and SDG 13 ("Climate action"). First, climate change's status as a "core" planetary boundary as well as its embeddedness in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, calls for a wider discussion on environmental and ecological degradation in the context of inequality. Second, the concept of inequalities of opportunity freedoms, under the guise of the influential human capabilities framework, is well suited to make sense of the complexity and multidimensionality of the climate change – inequality nexus. To this end, some (and by no means all) causal links between climate change, wider environmental and ecological degradations, and inequality are analysed. The paper concludes by arguing in favour of a framework that can aptly capture the full complexity and multidimensionality of the climate change – inequality nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material has published a range of resources that promote environmentally aware collection care and management practices including climate-specific Environmental Guidelines, the Sustainable Collections wiki and the Climate Adaptation resource. The Climate Adaptation resource provides access to 180 maps illustrating potential future climate scenarios for Australia in 2030 and 2090, using the two Representative Concentration Pathways RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. These maps were produced as part of research undertaken in 2019–2020 by Pagliarino and Meredith and supplement those published in volume 41 (issue 1) of the AICCM Bulletin. The release of updated climate change projections in the Sixth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis – precipitated a review of the Climate Adaptation resource to confirm the continued veracity of the maps. This paper provides the results of that assessment, which confirmed the resource's ongoing accuracy and currency. In addition, the paper includes discussion of the new IPCC future climate scenarios of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, which supersede RCP, and a summary of the state of the climate in Australia with warming, humidity, fire, weather and sea level rise investigated in more detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humankind faces a Triple Challenge: averting dangerous climate change, reversing biodiversity loss, and supporting the wellbeing of a growing population. Action to address each of these issues is inherently dependent on action to address the others. Local, national, and international policy goals on climate change, biological diversity, and human wellbeing have been set. Current implementation measures are insufficient to meet these goals, but the Triple Challenge can still be met if governments, corporations, and other stakeholders take a holistic perspective on management of land and waters. To inform this effort, we identify a set of priority policy responses drawn from recent international assessments that, whilst not being the only potential solutions, can form the core of such a holistic approach. We do this through an iterative process using three methodological approaches: (i) structured literature review; (ii) deliberative expert analysis; and (iii) wider consultation, before synthesizing into this paper. Context-appropriate implementation of responses will be needed to capitalize on potential policy synergies and to ensure that unavoidable trade-offs between management of land and waters for climate mitigation, biodiversity restoration, and human wellbeing outcomes are made explicit. We also set out four approaches to managing trade-offs that can promote fair and just transitions: (1) social and economic policy pivoting towards 'inclusive wealth'; (2) more integrated policymaking across the three areas; (3) 'Triple Challenge dialogues' among state and non-state actors; and (4) a new research portfolio to underpin (1), (2), and (3). Multiple recent global assessments provide a strong scientific basis for action on each of the three aspects of the Triple Challenge – climate, biodiversity, and human wellbeing (with a focus on food and nutrition) – but they do not provide an integrated perspective on how to address them simultaneously. Synthesis of these assessments identifies a portfolio of five core policy responses that deliver across the Triple Challenge: (i) rapidly cutting fossil fuel use; (ii) promoting sustainable, healthy diets; (iii) increasing food productivity and cutting food loss and waste; (iv) implementing nature-based solutions at scale; and (v) strengthening governance and management of land and waters. Even with widespread implementation of that portfolio, trade-offs between climate, biodiversity, and wellbeing outcomes might be unavoidable. Policymakers, researchers, and other actors should explicitly identify such trade-offs, and take steps to ensure management priorities are set through equitable dialogue processes informed by integrated research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an ongoing debate among climate activists and scholars on the merits of 'climate emergency' frames, which mirrors debates in critical security studies on the benefits and risks of 'securitization'. Climate emergency advocates demonstrate that rapid transformative action beyond 'normal' politics is needed to meet the Paris agreement targets. Critics, on the other hand, highlight the risks of deploying emergency frames to galvanize climate action, which may simply result in failed securitizations or even in emergency suspensions of democratic norms that advance climate action at the expense of climate justice. This paper will engage this debate by exploring the question: could climate emergency mobilizations be compatible with climate justice? I will argue, following Andreas Kalyvas, that the climate emergency can be framed as an opportunity for an 'extraordinary politics' of democratic constituent power, though this would involve risks and trade-offs that must be negotiated in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advancing equity and justice in climate action planning (CAP) presents a considerable challenge for urban governance actors. This paper provides necessary and practical guidance for developing participatory approaches that help planners avoid perpetuating dominant knowledge systems and corresponding planning interventions that have brought us to the current state of climate change and social inequity. Advancing equity and justice in CAP requires reflexive, participatory practice that centers vulnerable residents and supports communication across differences in social position and systems of meaning. These actions require a fuller accounting of the underlying social processes that drive vulnerability to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial introduces the Special Issue on the role and use of discrete choice modelling in informing environmental and energy decision making and summarises the main insights provided. The papers collected in this Special Issue address a range of applications of discrete choice modelling, from energy decisions to climate change and transport choices, from tourism preferences for climate change mitigation to wildlife conservation strategies and ecosystem management. However, all the papers share the same fundamental aim of using novel methodological approaches in choice models to tackle conceptually and spatially specific policy questions and support decisions with robust empirical evidence. This is particularly relevant to enhance the real-world policy uptake of choice modelling results and develop a network of practice and capacity building to improve the quality of information that is provided to stakeholders and decision makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the economic growth imperative not only drives climate change and created the conditions for the development and spread of the COVID-19 pandemic but is also the context for climate change inaction and ineffective responses to the pandemic. Focusing on the United States, the paper identifies pretenses for collective inaction on COVID-19 that are similar in content to familiar justifications for delay in climate action: (1) denialism, (2) individualism, and (3) techno-optimism. These justifications must be identified as strategies to maintain the status-quo and benefit the wealthy few while allowing avoidable human suffering and loss. Adequately addressing climate change and future pandemics requires overcoming these false narratives and transitioning to social conditions that are resilient, healthy, and sustainable – specifically conditions where social and ecological well-being are prioritized over economic growth for the sake of profit maximization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses climate change through collaborative work with social movement organisations in the Philippines. We contend that the tendency of work on climate change, social resilience and climate justice to ignore epistemological questions and proceed through technocentric dominant frames can lead to partial responses that support the status quo, contribute to slow (or fast) violence, and enhance ongoing processes of marginalisation. Instead, we argue, there is a need to co-develop analyses with those most affected. The experiences shared in this paper speak to complex knowings of climate and the intimate hurts of disaster, and provide rich scope for resistance and change. We find knowledges to be affective, emotional and relational, and deeply imbued with power relations. These insights lead us to theorise a topological angle on the knowings and beings of climate: to turn to emotional topologies. In seeking to elaborate on emotional topologies of climate, we draw on the concept of knowledge spaces to better understand meanings and practices of climate as emergent motleys of linked people, sites, affective process, activities and technologies. In the emergent nature of these spaces, there is scope for disruption, re-ordering and resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a conceptual framework for climate policy engagement that is focused on building the social conditions conducive to support for climate policy. Despite the ongoing scientific and social cases being made for climate action, social divisions remain in some contexts such as Australia and the United States. The success of climate policies depend in part on the general social support base for that solution, with public polarisation acting as a barrier. Dominant communication models have tended to rely on one-way strategically focused communication to exert influence with the aim of shifting one's attitudes. However, there is a need to extend such approaches to go beyond strategic messaging and instead establish the social conditions necessary for policy support. Drawing on diverse literature and framing theory, a new engagement model for climate policy is proposed which centres around a goal of relationship-building between actors to facilitate productive discussion on climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since climate change became a political issue in the late 1980s, a number of industry coalitions have formed to oppose mandatory carbon emissions reductions. One key coalition was the Global Climate Coalition (GCC). This paper conducts a historical and empirical review of the activities of this coalition. This review shows that the GCC engaged in four distinct activities to obstruct climate action: 1) monitoring and contesting climate science, 2) commissioning and utilizing economic studies to amplify and legitimate their arguments, 3) shifting the cultural understanding of climate change through public relations campaigns and 4) conducting aggressive lobbying of political elites. Through these activities, the GCC played an important role in obstructing climate action, both in the U.S. and internationally. Further analysis of similar coalitions can aid in our understanding of the organized opposition to climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green buildings have gained increasing relevance and market share in recent decades. Also, higher education institutions are progressively incorporating the conceptualisation of sustainable development by greening campuses. Thus, given the construction sector relevance in climate change mitigation and the role universities have to play as models for society, the purpose of the present paper is twofold. First, the authors develop a baseline study to determine the extent to which green buildings' features and certifications are being incorporated in public Chilean higher education institutions, as a first of its kind effort in the higher education sector in Chile. Second, the authors explore the opportunities that can support the advancement of campus greening through green buildings deployment on university campuses in Chile. This study follows a qualitative strategy approach in the form of a survey design based on the UI GreenMetric World University Ranking that was administered through an online questionnaire to representatives who hold the position of Sustainability or Infrastructure Heads in public universities, which are united in the Chilean State Universities Consortium. The main findings suggest a general maturation process of green building features´ incorporation on campuses at Chilean public higher education institutions in early or transitional stages. The leading indicators relate to open space, pedestrian paths, and efficient appliances, whereas the reported performance is lower with respect to sustainability budget, zero emission vehicles, and greenhouse gas emission reduction programmes. The opportunities identified for promoting the implementation of green buildings relate to three entrenched dimensions: research, promotion, and public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) is being widely used by governments across the world as a policy tool to mitigate the catastrophic effects of global warming and climate change. However, the demand for EVs has been slow in many large automotive markets, including India. To increase the uptake of EVs in India, the central government has introduced a new consumer incentive program and a special tax rate for EVs. In this paper, we estimate the cost-effectiveness of these EV promotion programs in achieving CO2 emission reduction for each State in India. We use emission data of the chosen vehicle and CO2 emission intensity data of each State's power grid for computation. The results are then compared to other benchmark investments in climate change mitigation. The findings indicate that subsidizing EVs may not be the most cost-efficient method to achieve CO2 reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper briefly reviews recent and current approaches to the formulation and implementation of urban housing policies in towns and cities in the global South, with emphasis on local government-community participation and partnerships. It looks ahead into the implications of the lasting impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and tenets of climate change that will constitute the 'New Normal'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses game theory to examine the efforts of public sector actors in the UK to integrate climate change interventions within development processes. Drawing on desk-based analysis and interviews, we identify instances where private-sector developers act strategically to exploit public-sector imperatives to deliver economic growth and housing. We find these imperatives constrained the agency of planners to effectively reconcile climate mitigation/adaptation objectives within wider priorities of economic growth. Yet, we identify instances whereby strategic planning frameworks, informal networks and bespoke development frameworks were effective means to build trust between actors and foster co-operation, better enabling development which meets climate change mitigation/adaptation objectives. In doing so, we illustrate the practical and theoretical value of game theory, whilst highlighting how careful use of strategic planning can support achieving climate change mitigation/adaptation objectives at a local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a horticultural community's approaches to developing new farming practices to mitigate climate change induced food insecurity. Drawing on the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) from cultural-historical activity theory, the paper illustrates how the strong cultural and historical attachment to existing practices plays as significant a role as the intractability and unpredictability of the changing rainfalls in mediating community members' investment in new practices. The study suggests that what is perceived as 'safe,' materially and socially, is playing a central role in setting the boundary of their ZPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change communication on social media plays a prominent role in efforts undertaken by state agencies, NGOs, and international organizations, to make citizens aware of this phenomenon. The images used to communicate climate change are of great importance, since they can help to effectively raise citizen awareness. Building upon news values theory and the concept of availability heuristics, this research paper aims to identify principles that can be used for effective visual communication of climate change on social media on a cross-national scale, based upon analyses of characteristics of images that foster interaction on Twitter. We conducted a content analysis of a random selection of images (photographs, illustrations, and graphics, n = 380), posted on Twitter that were included in the so-called 'top tweets' about climate change. The results indicate that the types of images that are used on social media are relatively similar to those employed by conventional media, although images of identifiable people are less frequently shown on social media. We also deduced that four practical principles are especially relevant to foster user interaction on Twitter through images: (i) show 'real people' (i.e. non-staged images of people that transmit real emotions), (ii) tell a story, (iii) include a local connection, and (iv) show impacts or actions by people who are directly affected. These practical principles are based on the more general principles of meaningfulness and personification, two foundations that can help to overcome some of the main barriers to citizens' perception of climate change as a relevant issue with serious consequences in their lives. Campaigns on social media that use imagery based on these practical and general principles can be effective in communicating the shared responsibility to address climate change. This can have a relevant impact on social perception, since it can encourage citizens to care about climate, which is regarded as necessary to increase participation in climate action. Social media can play a prominent role in campaigns to make citizens aware of climate change. Images can help to effectively raise citizen awareness of climate change. Four practical principles can be effective in increasing user interaction on social media with images about climate: show 'real' people, tell a story, include a local connection, and show people who are directly affected. Visual campaigns based on the more general principles of meaningfulness and personification can be effective in representing climate change as a relevant issue in citizens' lives. These practical and more general principles can have a relevant impact on the social perception of climate change and increase citizen participation in climate debate and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change (CC), warming at 'double the global average rate'. The southern African region is already a CC hotspot with climate variability exposing stark societal and biophysical ecosystem vulnerabilities. South African and southern African youth are beginning to claim their place at various CC negotiation tables adding to the voices of government and various civil society groups. In this paper, written by a group of youth activists, civil society organisation leaders, educators and climate scientists, we track the journey that a group of young change-makers and local government officials (in the age range 15–24) have taken in securing a seat at the policy table. The challenges, caveats and course corrections that have been taken in the Johannesburg Youth Climate Action Plan (YCAP) process and the wider country, are interrogated. This YCAP Johannesburg experiment provides a useful learning exercise for subsequent CC policy and practice engagements in the country and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce this special issue on Thinking about Climate Change by reflecting on the role of psychology in responding adaptively to catastrophic global threats. By way of illustration we compare the threat posed by climate change with the extinction-level threat considered in the recent film Don't Look Up [McKay, A. (Director). (2021). Don't Look Up [Film]. Hyperobject Industries]. Human psychology is a critical element in both scenarios. The papers in this special issue discuss the importance of clear communication of scientific information, the dangers of misinformation and the possible role played by motivated reasoning, all themes that are taken up in the film. Ultimately, though, it is not enough to consider psychological factors in isolation: we must also acknowledge that cognitive flaws and psychological motivations are exploited by vested interests that profit from delaying climate action. A global response to a global crisis requires us to 'look up' to recognise the threat and to 'look around' to go beyond specialist disciplines and national boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we argue against an all-too-easy 'climate bad guy' thesis, which holds that in right-wing populism climate change denialism or at least skepticism is one-dimensional, i.e. right-wing populist parties generally reject climate change mitigation. To this end, we present a revision of the 'populism as thin-centered ideology' approach and situate populist politics in the context of a process we refer to as devolution of democracy. We develop a heuristic list of distinct populist climate policy claims for empirical investigation and then apply a contextualist approach by examining differing right-wing populist party positions on climate change mitigation within a two-level framework that covers their positioning towards both the global climate agenda and domestic low-carbon policies. We substantiate our thesis that populist climate politics is retrograde as well as context-relative by drawing on empirical cases from Germany, Austria, and Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacity building for climate change is widely acknowledged to be a central means of implementation, and yet within the UNFCCC regime it is a messy and ambiguous concept which eludes attempts to clearly define its underlying goals, processes, actors and outcomes. In this paper, we use documents from the UNFCCC to examine the implicit logic(s) underlying the ambiguity of capacity building in the regime through a knowledge politics lens. Our study finds that there are two distinct narratives guiding capacity building in the regime: The first narrative focuses on building techno-managerial capacities utilizing standardized data to address climate change through short-term and project-based processes. The second narrative attempts to open up capacity building to plural forms of knowledge, meaningfully engaging a diverse range of actors including Indigenous Peoples, gender-specific constituencies and communities, and using transdisciplinary and holistic approaches. Our research suggests that while the former narrative is largely centralized, institutionalized and well-supported by the UNFCCC, the latter is disparate and frequently lacks necessary financial, technical, and institutional resources. Despite this, some recent developments point toward the possibilities of widening the scope of capacity building. We argue that to realize the potential of capacity building as a concept that can enable transformative and emancipatory action in the era of climate change, we must look for pathways to promote the second narrative that gives meaningful space for marginalized actors to participate in, direct, and benefit from the capacity building agenda. Key policy insights Capacity building, a widely acknowledged core means of implementation within the UNFCCC, remains ambiguous and messy on the surface but is underlined by two distinct narratives The first narrative is guided by techno-managerial and standardized data-driven goals and is well-supported and systematized within the UNFCCC The second narrative focuses on inclusive and diverse capacity building supported by transdisciplinary and holistic approaches, but remains disparate and under-funded in the UNFCCC More support and access to resources for the second narrative are required if we are to widen and deepen capacity building for climate action [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populism and its rhetoric are on the rise. Political actors across different ideological camps and parties are employing dispositional blame attribution, emphasizing the non-responsiveness of 'corrupt elites' to the needs of 'good and honest' people. In this paper, we focus on one specific and common area of blame attribution; climate change. In particular, in the United States, a central player in global climate governance, climate change is a very contested issue. The successes of populist candidates in both major US parties suggest that populism could affect citizen support for climate mitigation policies. The often abstract, elite-driven, and technical nature of climate change makes this issue an ideal target for populist critique. Our paper offers an empirical assessment of this claim. First, we test whether populism truly has an independent effect on people's climate attitudes. Second, we assess to what extent frames about elite responsiveness are important heuristics for individuals in their formation of preferences concerning climate policies. To accomplish this goal, we fielded representative US surveys (N = 3000) and collected both observational and experimental data. Results suggest that populist attitudes enhance the effects of partisanship, rather than creating an independent, orthogonal dimension. Populist Democrats support climate policies more than non-populist Democrats do, whereas populist Republicans oppose such policies more than non-populist Republicans do. Additionally, while our experimental results indicate that populist treatments blaming elites for being non-responsive to citizens' preferences do not affect policy support, we also find that reassuring individuals that political elites care about citizens' needs and preferences in relation to climate policy increases support for the latter. Key policy insights Citizens' support is central for implementing ambitious climate policies. Populist attitudes amplify partisanship effects on public opinion about climate policy. Populist discourse per se is not an obstacle to adopting ambitious climate policy in the US. Political entrepreneurs can foster support for climate policies by emphasizing elite responsiveness to citizens' needs and preferences. Populist attacks on established elites are unlikely to derail support for climate policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban infrastructure investment needs in the developing world are immense, particularly when the additional costs associated with lower carbon, more climate-resilient options are considered. These cannot possibly be financed from fiscal sources and ODA flows alone; private financing will need to be accessed. Focusing on the ability of city governments and subnational urban utilities to mobilize private finance, this paper makes two core arguments. First, private investment in municipal infrastructure requires robust institutional, fiscal and regulatory systems that are often absent in developing countries. Establishing such systems often requires policy and institutional reform, much of which lies beyond the competence and control of city governments themselves. Second, while the marginal investment needs related to climate mitigation and adaptation complicate and aggravate the picture, they do not alter the fundamental requirements of private investors. Put simply, municipalities and utilities will need to satisfy the requirements of regular private finance before they can attract green private finance. This paper looks across the main avenues for city governments to mobilize private finance – municipal borrowing, public–private partnerships, and land value capture instruments – and identifies four broad factors that determine the potential size and scope of city leveraging activity. It then offers a new framework to understand where the most pressing constraints to private investment readiness lie and proposes priority measures that local and national governments, together with development partners and other stakeholders, can take to address them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numerous consequences of climate change worldwide have precipi- tated research efforts to realise sustainable development goal 13 (SDG 13). SDG 13 has recommended mitigation and adaptation strategies to combat climate change, and many of these can be achieved using emerging technologies. Research has shown the efficacies of information communication technologies (ICTs) in mitigat- ing and adapting to climate change. However, the selection and ranking of ICT tools for mitigating and adapting to climate change is a multicriteria problem. This paper presents a multicriteria framework that identifies and ranks the various ICT tools that can ensure climate change mitigation and adaptation. A fuzzy-technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution method is used as the basis of this model and tested using information obtained from an expert. The results show that the most ideal ICT alternative is social media with a closeness coefficient of 0.62, while the least preferred alternative is the intelligent system with a closeness coefficient of 0.17. The proposed model can be used in the planning of climate change adaptation strategies in developing countries where finances are usually a major constraint in implementing climate change action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations has declared climate change a code-red for humanity and the 2020s the decisive decade to avoid dangerous climate disruption. The 26th Conference of the Parties in Glasgow, Scotland represents a milestone event and potentially the last chance to keep the Paris Climate Agreement 1.5 °C policy goal within reach. The tourism sector has responded to this critical moment by releasing the Glasgow Declaration: A Commitment to a Decade of Tourism Climate Action. As the third such declaration over 20 years, this paper asks whether it brings the sector closer to an action agenda commensurate with the climate emergency the sector has declared. While the Glasgow Declaration includes some positive advances, we find few themes and recommended actions that were not introduced in previous declarations over a decade ago and inaction on several past recommendations. There is no evidence that the declarations have altered the growth trajectory of sector emissions or influenced the integration of climate change into tourism policy and planning. The climate crisis demands a sectoral response no less than that to the Covid-19 pandemic, and we find the Glasgow Declaration ill-equipped to stimulate the systemic change required by the net-zero transition and accelerating changes in climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of climate change are multiple and fundamental. Decisions made today may result in irreversible damage to the planet's biodiversity and ecosystems, the detrimental impacts of which will be borne by today's children, young people and those yet unborn (future generations). The use of citizens' assemblies (CAs) to tackle the issue of climate change is growing. Their remit is future focused. Yet is the future in the room? Focusing on a single case study, the recent Irish CA and Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action (JOCCA) deliberations on climate action, this paper explores the extent to which children, young people and future generations were included. Its systemic analysis of the membership of both institutions, the public submissions to them and the invited expertise presented, finds that the Irish CA was 'too tightly coupled' on this issue. This may have been beneficial in terms of impact, but it came at the expense of input legitimacy and potentially intergenerational justice. Referring to international developments, it suggests how these groups may be included through enclave deliberation, institutional innovations, design experiments and future-oriented practice.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper set out to show the impacts of COVID-19 and climate change on smallholders through the lens of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ways to keep smallholders on the 2030 agenda. Descriptive statistical analysis of quantitative secondary data is applied to investigate the issues in question across world regions. Increasing energy and food demand have triggered greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with effects on the environment, socio-economic and related sectors. If unchecked, climate change will jeopardize progress towards SDGs' agenda of ending hunger and poverty by 2030. COVID-19 exacerbates the underlying climate change impacts compromising food and water security. The widespread famines of Biblical proportions caused by COVID-19 effects are likely to cause more deaths than the virus. Improvement of water availability and food production is crucial to ending hunger and poverty. There is a need to strengthen smallholders' adaptation and mitigation capacity through cooperatives' platforms thereby reach out to smallholders who are the furthest first. International cooperation is urgent to support smallholders' adaptation of climate-smart agriculture to reduce GHG emissions thereby subdue climate impacts resulting in higher productivity, food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Cooperatives need support to facilitate adaptation and mitigation by applying site-specific technology to local needs and possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the underlying forces of China's climate governance, and assessing the effectiveness of China's climate institutions, are critical to the global climate governance architecture. This paper reviews the evolution of China's climate governance system over the past three decades, and examines how factors such as socioeconomic transitions, cognitive shifts associated with climate change, as well as international climate politics have influenced China's climate institutions. We argue that the evolution of climate governance is influenced by the varying dynamics between climate change and Chinese state's quest for performance legitimacy. The positive co-benefits between climate change, energy conservation and environment quality triggered the creation of a dedicated climate agency, which then become an anchor to China's Five-Year Plan and a centerpiece of climate policy communities. The announcement of a climate neutrality target marked a new moment for China as climate change become a new source of performance legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the emotional experiences of some undergraduate sustainability students in a semester long course on climate change. Specifically, it attends to experiences of anxiety, frustration, overwhelm, guilt, grief and hope. I suggest these experiences are characteristic of a process I term learning to live-with climate change. Learning to live-with climate change involves attuning to the relational composition of the world and thus the self; mourning desirable relationships that are lost as the planet warms; and responding to these conditions in ways that may foster more liveable worlds. Collectively, these processes enrol people in practices of bearing worlds: enduring the pain of the end of the world they have known, and labouring to generate promising alternatives. As such, these processes reconfigure the self and its relations, and attunement to how climate change composes, recomposes and decomposes particular subjectivities is important. The paper argues that affective adaptation is therefore a crucial element of climate change education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has emerged as a promising climate change mitigation mechanism in developing countries. In order to identify the enabling conditions for achieving progress in the implementation of an effective, efficient and equitable REDD+, this paper examines national policy settings in a comparative analysis across 13 countries with a focus on both institutional context and the actual setting of the policy arena. The evaluation of REDD+ revealed that countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America are showing some progress, but some face backlashes in realizing the necessary transformational change to tackle deforestation and forest degradation. A Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) undertaken as part of the research project showed two enabling institutional configurations facilitating progress: (1) the presence of already initiated policy change; and (2) scarcity of forest resources combined with an absence of any effective forestry framework and policies. When these were analysed alongside policy arena conditions, the paper finds that the presence of powerful transformational coalitions combined with strong ownership and leadership, and performance-based funding, can both work as a strong incentive for achieving REDD+ goals. Key policy insights The positive push of already existing policy change, or the negative stress of resource scarcity together with lack of effective policies, represents institutional conditions that can support REDD+ progress. Progress also requires the presence of powerful transformational coalitions and strong ownership and leadership. In the absence of these internal drivers, performance-based funding can work as a strong incentive. When comparing three assessments (2012, 2014, 2016) of REDD+ enabling conditions, some progress in establishing processes of change can be observed over time; however, the overall fluctuation in progress of most countries reveals the difficulty in changing the deforestation trajectory away from business as usual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the Tokyo Metropolitan Emissions Trading Scheme (Tokyo ETS), Japan’s first emissions trading scheme with mandatory cap initiated by the government of Tokyo. Unlike trading schemes in other countries, the Tokyo ETS covers indirect emissions from the commercial sector. It is well known that a variety of market barriers impede full realization of energy efficiency opportunities, especially in the commercial sector. Experiences with the Tokyo ETS should therefore provide important lessons for the design of climate change mitigation policies, especially when targeting the commercial sector. The emissions from covered entities have been drastically reduced from those at the scheme’s outset, with an average 14% reduction as of the end of the first commitment period of five years (2010-2014) compared with 2009 levels. This paper shows that the Tokyo ETS alone did not cause these reductions; there were other drivers. Among them, the energy savings triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 were crucial. The contribution of credit trading, in contrast, was limited since most of the covered entities reduced emissions by themselves. Through an investigation of official reports, an assessment of the emissions data from the covered entities compared to those of uncovered entities and in-depth interviews with firms covered by the scheme, this paper confirms that the main drivers of emissions reductions by covered entities were separate from the ETS. In fact, the advisory aspect of the scheme seems to be much more important in encouraging energy-saving actions. Key policy insights Most of the observed emission reductions were not caused by the Tokyo ETS alone. An advisory instrument was crucial to the effectiveness of the Tokyo ETS. The experience of the Tokyo ETS suggests that making full use of the advantages of emissions trading is difficult in the case of the commercial sector. Price signals have not provided a stimulus to climate change mitigation actions, which implies that establishing a cap to yield effective carbon prices poses a challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Food security is a key issue in the region, and is related to vulnerability in the natural and human system. This short research paper, which reports on a systematic search of the academic literature and is part of a larger research project on climate change adaptation in Caribbean coastal communities, investigates two central questions: (1) what challenges to food security are Caribbean SIDS facing due to climate change? and (2) what strategies, if any, are being used to adapt to these challenges? We review peer-reviewed articles published after the release of Working Group II's contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2014, which included a chapter on vulnerability and impacts in small islands (Chapter 29). We find that post AR5 articles confirm that climate change will have a significant effect on agriculture and fisheries in the Caribbean, mainly through changing patterns of weather, air and sea surface temperatures, and water availability. These studies highlight the importance of considering the social dimensions of food security in the region when identifying and implementing adaptation strategies, particularly in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. These social dimensions include the Caribbean's historical and social context as well as its demographics, which feature varying population densities and poverty rates. They serve to increase vulnerability but are imperative considerations for understanding and minimizing the threat climate change poses to food security in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts cascade across scales and sectors, and present specific threats to education institutions and systems, including reduced educational access, participation and attainment by students. In this paper, we set out the pursuit of climate change mitigation and adaptation responses, grounded in commitments to equity and justice, as a renewed fundamental purpose for higher education. To this end, we suggest the understanding of public and private benefits of education that is typically applied to individuals may be usefully applied at institution and system scale. However, in the context of an accelerating climate crisis, adopting a renewed fundamental purpose will require institutions and systems to display critical awareness beyond the public-private benefits divide, towards an understanding of themselves as embedded in – rather than separate to – their broader communities and societies, and an acknowledgement of the particular interests that are foregrounded and privileged in the construction of their purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is considered by many to be one of the greatest challenges to humanity, with Africa seen as one of the most affected continents. There is a growing recognition that purely scientific and modern approaches alone are not enough to mitigate the "multiple stresses" of climate change in Africa. Nonetheless, the dominant thinking in climate change science appears to treat indigenous approaches to climate change impact mitigation as primitive or backward. Even though the debate around indigenous knowledge systems is a contentious one, some scholars have acknowledged that, if well harnessed, indigenous knowledge systems can help in empowering local communities to mitigate climate change impacts. This paper is based on findings from a study of climate change awareness and adaptation strategies in rural and peri-urban communities in East London and Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Based on empirical research with 140 respondents, the study found that indigenous knowledge plays an important role in the ways local residents adapt to, and in some ways curb, the adverse impacts of climate change. The paper highlights the relevance of indigenous African knowledge in climate change impact mitigation and the need to combine modern global approaches with indigenous knowledge to better handle climate change-related challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding under what conditions individuals are willing to support policies aimed at mitigating climate change has important consequences for the legitimacy, costs, effectiveness, and longevity of any policy alternative. Given the politicized nature of climate change, one factor that has been found to be important in explaining public support is partisan political communication. It has, for example, been shown how political communication has important effects on public beliefs and attitudes regarding climate change. A lack of country comparative studies, together with methodological limitations in previous research, has, however, led to a limited understanding of how these processes work, especially in a comparative perspective. In this paper, the effects of political communication on public support for climate mitigation, and the cross-country variations of these effects, is studied. Specifically, this paper investigates: (1) to what degree individual policy attitudes varies across party lines, (2) to what degree variations in policy attitudes can be explained by the effect of party cues, and (3) to what extent the effect of partisanship and political communication varies across political contexts. Using original data from a country comparative online public opinion survey covering Australia, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden political communication is found to significantly influence public policy attitudes in all contexts studied, albeit to different degrees. POLICY RELEVANCE How individuals perceive and respond to the introduction of public policy is of considerable importance for the chance of any policy being effective. Understanding of how individual policy attitudes are formed is therefore of great importance to the design and implementation of public policy, climate mitigation policy included. Understanding of cross-country variations of factors influencing public policy attitudes is furthermore important for possibilities to effectively import or export policy solutions across political contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has focused on the impacts of environmental change to tourism. In particular, the perceived costs of climate change have been increasingly studied. However, the relationship between costs and benefits resulting from the changing environmental conditions for the industry has been less examined. This paper identifies the locally observed changes in the natural and socio-economic environments and aims to analyse the financial costs and benefits to tourism businesses in two tourism-dependent communities in northern Finland. The specific focus is on adaptation and adaptive management in a tourist destination scale. Adaption is understood as an investment creating not only implementation costs, but potentially also benefits for tourism operations. Research materials were collected among tourism and tourism-related businesses through 41 semi-structured thematic interviews. Results indicate that the evaluated benefits of environmental change seem to exceed those of costs. This conforms to the on-going discourse of climate change-tourism relations associated with the Arctic region where both awareness and vulnerability to change are considered relatively high but the level of responses, i.e. adaptation, low. These results can help to further identify the most vulnerable sectors in tourism and assist entrepreneurs preparing for environmental and climate change. However, the paper concludes that while global environmental change, with specific adaptive management strategies, may create local short-term direct benefits for the industry, a long-term sustainability of tourism in the Arctic calls for mitigation responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years a significant body of work has been established on climate change adaptation by ports. Like climate change mitigation, work towards adaptation has stalled on the same collective action problem, whereby public and private sector actors avoid commitment to necessary investments. Recently the concept of 'deep adaptation' has appeared, which suggests that, rather than climate change bringing simply incremental challenges that can be adapted to in a piecemeal fashion, in fact, we should expect 'disruptive and uncontrollable levels of climate change, bringing starvation, destruction, migration, disease and war'. However, current port and shipping forecasts continue to predict uninterrupted growth with only minor incremental policy changes already known to be insufficient for mitigation and adaptation. Thus, this paper argues that actors in the maritime transport sector need to consider greater threats than those currently identified and also prepare for a more advanced adaptation timetable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses a potential risk to coastal infrastructure, thus threatening the economics or even the safety of human beings. Thus, a better understanding of the attitude of port organizations toward climate adaptation and mitigation is essential. This paper addresses this research gap by investigating 18 port organizations in China. The questions include the impediments and the impact of context, systems, and other factors on the implementation of adaptation strategies. The results indicate that port organizations are generally aware of climate change impacts and agree that some further steps are needed. However, policy support serves as a key factor in implementing adaptation plans. Apart from offering important insight on the attitude of port organizations, the study also serves as a platform for further research on climate adaptation planning in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses complex challenges and addressing these requires increasing integration across policy domains. This research developed a framework to assess policy integration between the tourism and climate change domains by examining coverage, scope, materiality and alignment. A database of 101 policy documents was compiled, representing 61 countries over 17 years. Only 37 documents covered the tourism-climate nexus substantially, suggesting climate change has not yet become a priority for tourism policy makers. Considering that tourism makes considerable contributions to and is substantially impacted by climate change, the observed gaps in tourism policy need to be addressed. The paper concludes with some minimum expectations for policy integration, including examples of good practice, and suggests that more effort is required to achieve climate change policy integration in tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities around the world are creating formal planning documents proposing local actions to mitigate and prepare for the impacts of climate change. Despite a growing number of examples of such plans and "toolkits" that outline the process for undertaking these planning efforts, many cities are still struggling to know where to start. Furthermore, meta-analyses of existing climate action plans show that many suffer from similar limitations including lack of scientific input, failure to consider strategies across multiple sectors within local government, limited public involvement, narrow focus on mitigation, and lack of detail regarding implementation and monitoring. This paper describes our process for developing the Anchorage Climate Action Plan and our experience fusing a three-way partnership between the municipal government, a local university, and the broader Anchorage, Alaska community. We describe the nuts and bolts of our funding, leadership structure, and technical working sessions and reflect on the key structural, political, and social elements that catalysed plan development, adoption, and implementation. Our experience suggests that public support from municipal leaders, commitment from local experts, a dedicated steering committee, a diverse set of stakeholders, and a good working relationship with the local government officials (e.g. Assembly members or City Council) are critical to creating a successful framework for climate mitigation and adaptation planning in a community. Collaborative planning with a local university that prioritises community-engagement can support the development of a robust planning document that integrates local scientific expertise and is representative of the community it is meant to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]