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Scientific warnings about impending climate disaster and experts' advocacy for more and better climate science have been largely unsuccessful for advancing evidence-based policy in Australia. Continuing expectations to the contrary stem from a reliance on the supposed ability of science to prime political understandings of climate change. This paper shows how scientists undermine this 'deficit model' ideal by conflating types and uses of evidence and expertise in policymaking. These tactics are unconvincing for conservative opponents, for whom climate science is far from the last word on what climate change means. This paper examines experts' rhetorical tactics through the eyes of conservative policymakers and, thereby, proposes a strategy more likely to effect resilient climate adaptation and mitigation policies in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper distinguishes between bridging and bonding social capital to assess their roles for individual farmers’ adaptation strategies taken through technology adoption. Based on primary data collected in Langcang River (LCR) basin area in southwestern China, the paper finds: (1) adaptation measures have been widely taken by surveyed households, but non-infrastructure-based measures are more prevalent than infrastructure-based measures and (2) surveyed households have strong social capital while having weak bridging social capital. Their bonding social capital has significantly positive relationship with their adaptation decisions, but bridging social capital does not have such statistically significant relationship. It recommends that the governments contemplate carefully how to help the poor to get a good combination of bonding and bridging social capital when designing policies to help the rural poor to improve their long-term adaptive capacity and achieve sustainable rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although substantial attention has focused on efforts by the new Administration to block environmental policies, climate politics have been contentious in the US since well before the election of Donald Trump. In this paper, we extend previous work on empirical examinations of echo chambers in US climate politics using new data collected on the federal climate policy network in summer 2016. We test for the similarity and differences at two points in time in homophily and echo chambers using Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) to compare new findings from 2016 to previous work on data from 2010. We show that echo chambers continue to play a significant role in the network of information exchange among policy elites working on the issue of climate change. In contrast to previous findings where echo chambers centered on a binding international commitment to emission reductions, we find that the pre-existing echo chambers have almost completely disappeared and new structures have formed around one of the main components of the Obama Administration’s national climate policy: the Clean Power Plan. These results provide empirical evidence that science communication and policymaking at the elite level shift in relation to the policy instruments under consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last few years, California has passed some of the strongest climate policies in the USA. These new policies have been motivated in part by increasing concerns over the risk of climate-related impacts and facilitated by the state's existing framework of energy and air quality policies. This paper presents an overview of the evolution of this increased awareness of climate change issues by policy makers brought about by the strong link between climate science and policy in the state. The State Legislature initiated this link in 1988 with the mandate to prepare an assessment of the potential consequences of climate change to California. Further interactions between science and policy has more recently resulted, in summer of 2006, in the passage of Assembly Bill 32, a law that limits future greenhouse gas emissions in California. This paper discusses the important role played by a series of state and regional climate assessments beginning in 1988 and, in particular, the lessons learned from a recently completed study known as the Scenarios Project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thus far, climate impacts and adaptation initiatives have not realized the added value of climate adaptation. Adaptation often appears as an afterthought, with an emphasis on technological solutions. Lacking is a consideration of the process of adaptation : how adaptations will be implemented, by whom and why. The aim of the paper is to show how climate adaptation can be further developed in Norway through a discourse approach. Three specific discursive strategies – a scientific–economic, communicative–economic , and scientific–communicative discourse – are presented. The paper portrays how specific institutions operating at the local level in Norway can convey or ‘carry’ these discourses and thus how actors, placed within these institutions, can use discourses as resources when planning for climate adaptation. There is clearly a need for further studies that aim to demonstrate how insight from discourse analysis can be used as a tool for planning. The present paper is a step in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most deliberations on climate policy are based on a mitigation response that assumes a gradually increasing reduction over time. However, situations may occur where a more urgent response is needed. A key question for climate policy in general, but even more in the case a rapid response is needed, is: what are the characteristic response times of the response options, such as rapid mitigation or solar radiation management (SRM)? This paper explores this issue, which has not received a lot of attention yet, by looking into the role of both societal and physical response times. For mitigation, technological and economic inertia clearly limit reduction rates with considerable uncertainty corresponding to political inertia and societies’ ability to organize rapid mitigation action at what costs. The paper looks into a rapid emission reductions of 4–6 % annually. Reduction rates at the top end of this range (up to 6 %) could effectively reduce climate change, but only with a noticeable delay. Temperatures could be above those in the year of policy introduction for more than 70 years, with unknown consequences of overshoot. A strategy based on SRM is shown to have much shorter response times (up to decades), but introduces an important element of risk, such as ocean acidification and the risk of extreme temperature shifts in case action is halted. Above all, the paper highlights the role of response times in designing effective policy strategies implying that a better understanding of these crucial factors is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When dealing with the ecological, social and economic impacts of climate change, it is important for each country to formulate and implement mitigation and adaptation measures. In this context, the present paper examines the application of the contingent valuation method (CVM) for the monetary estimation of the Greek national mitigation and adaptation climate change costs. To this purpose, the CVM in this case study has been applied to the Greek climate change experts only as, theoretically, they represent the most informed part of Greek society in technical and economic aspects of the climate change. Therefore, the findings of this paper express strictly the opinions of the national experts and are not representative of the general population. The monetary estimates include the experts’ WTP for mitigation and adaptation measures as well as their preferences on that percentage of the national GDP that should be funding such measures at the present as well as the future time-scale. In addition, questions concerning the political and institutional climate change settings are included in the survey, providing a more comprehensive socioeconomic analysis in this particular study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies market incentives and international and domestic policies that could technologically alter energy systems to achieve greenhouse gas stabilization targets while also meeting other societal goals. I consider the conceptual basis and empirical evidence on the effectiveness and efficiency of climate technology policies. The paper reviews the literature on trends and prospects for innovation in climate change mitigation and examines the evidence on induced innovation and the implications for the choice of technology policy. I then consider the impact of technological advances on the environment, the role of direct government support for R&D, and the complementarities between policies internalizing environmental externalities and those aimed at environmental innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vulnerability is an emerging concept for climate science and policy. Over the past decade, efforts to assess vulnerability to climate change triggered a process of theory development and assessment practice, which is reflected in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This paper reviews the historical development of the conceptual ideas underpinning assessments of vulnerability to climate change. We distinguish climate impact assessment, first- and second-generation vulnerability assessment, and adaptation policy assessment. The different generations of assessments are described by means of a conceptual framework that defines key concepts of the assessment and their analytical relationships. The purpose of this conceptual framework is two-fold: first, to present a consistent visual glossary of the main concepts underlying the IPCC approach to vulnerability and its assessment; second, to show the evolution of vulnerability assessments. This evolution is characterized by the progressive inclusion of non-climatic determinants of vulnerability to climate change, including adaptive capacity, and the shift from estimating expected damages to attempting to reduce them. We hope that this paper improves the understanding of the main approaches to climate change vulnerability assessment and their evolution, not only within the climate change community but also among researchers from other scientific communities, who are sometimes puzzled by the unfamiliar use of technical terms in the context of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite different evolutionary paths, development education and environmental education are increasingly finding a common focus in addressing climate change issues. Realising the synergies this offers requires both sets of practitioners to grasp the essential underpinnings of climate science, policy and ethics. This paper presents the principal authoritative sources that development educators should be guided by. Achieving a successful partnership will involve reconsideration of concepts of development as well as of relationships between the developed and developing worlds. The urgency of achieving radical changes in approach is stressed as the time scale for effective global and national actions to tackle climate change diminishes and crucial decisions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change become imminent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the way policy entrepreneurs construct horizontal coherence through problem definition and the promotion of policy frames that bond different objectives and instruments together. Building on the case of the 2009 climate and energy package, the paper analyses how the European Commission and successive European Union Presidencies exploited a growing climate change momentum to devise, assemble and facilitate the adoption in an exceptionally short period of an ambitious legislative package cutting across traditional sectoral boundaries. The recourse to a narrative presenting Europe at the vanguard of a green revolution and the framing of European internal policies as a tool for international climate leadership were instrumental in constructing the package as a coherent response to the joint energy and climate change challenges, and in rallying wide support. However, the paper shows that the institutionalization of this framing has been undermined by the economic crisis and stalled international negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the lively discussion on legal fragmentation and climate change, this article seeks to highlight the windows for the potential interaction of jurisdictional and environmental norms. This is relevant for climate-protective trade measures, which, it is argued, are not exhaustively regulated by WTO law. Exploring the contours of 'climate change jurisdiction' in customary international law, the article considers how the traditional jurisdictional principles may be operationalized in the untested territory of cumulative and uncertain environmental harm. With their origins in criminal and economic law, the jurisdictional principles were not originally designed for these challenges. This paper argues that the environmental norm of precaution, which originated out of a need to respond to complex threats, should have a role to play. Precaution governs issues of state regulatory competence in the face of scientific uncertainty. Particularly in relation to questions of foreseeability and causation, this norm may be helpful in navigating the application of the abstract jurisdictional principles, providing opportunities for synergy in the crystallization of the climate change jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pride in Australia's extreme climate has long been a part of Australia's national identity. Today, climate continues to be enrolled in a range of nationalistic projects, including the (re)development of climate science and other responses to climate change. In this paper, we outline some of the contours of the 'Australian national climate', claims to know it, and four idealised responses to it: bounce back, dismissal, endurance, and migration. We argue that the deeply cultural framing of climate in Australia-in particular, Australians' emphasis on the climate's inherent variability and unknowability, and their own historical adaptability-is being exploited by the federal government and hampering climate change mitigation nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present some basic conceptual aspects and empiric examples of urban mitigation and adaptation to climate change, of greening urban development, as there is strong need for further research and education on these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Starting with a review of the 4th IPCC report and the Stern Review, a strategy is developed on how to make cities main actors in fighting climate change. First examples of successful urban greening are presented. Findings – Cities are main drivers of climate change, and they are driven by climate change. Therefore, there is a strong need for "greening" urban development, i.e. for both mitigation and adaptation activities. Practical implications – Mitigation requires the reduction (more or less drastically) of urban energy and material flows. Adaptation requires restructure (more or less radically) of the established urban stocks. Originality/value – Until recently, cities and urban areas have not been in the focus of climate change research and climate policy. The paper shows the need for change of both theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ethics of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in its architecture, processes and outcomes and its potential to allocate resources to the poor as 'ethical development'. Two specific examples of CDM projects help us to explore some of the quandaries that seem to be quickly defining operating procedure for the CDM in its efforts to bring entitlementsto the poor. The paper concludes with reflections on the normative and social complications of the CDM and closes with three key areas of further investigation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to climate change raises important governance issues. Notwithstanding the increasing attention on climate adaptation at the global and European level, the variety of local conditions and climate impacts points towards a prime role for regional actors in climate change adaptation. They face the challenge of developing and implementing adaptation options and increasing the adaptive capacity of regions so that expected or unexpected impacts of future climate change can be addressed. This paper presents a conceptual framework to analyse the regional governance of climate adaptation. It addresses the following key questions: (1) What are the distinct challenges for the regional governance of climate adaptation? (2) Which concepts can guide the design of new governance arrangements and strategies? (3) What challenges to legal principles are posed by the climate? (4) What research methods are suitable for developing and testing governance arrangements and strategies? We present a framework designed to address each of these questions; it has analytical, design, normative, and methodological components. In the paper, examples from the Dutch regional governance of climate adaptation serve as illustrations of the conceptual argumentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the critical need for economic information to inform the selection of coastal management options for the beaches of the Sydney region and to outline the project currently under way to address this information gap. Design/methodology/approach - The critical need for the current case study is framed through presenting a summary of the threats posed by current climate change projections, the legislative requirements for economic valuation of natural resources, and the role which economics can play in selection of appropriate coastal management options in response to climate change impacts. Findings - The paper presents the valuation methods that were selected for use in the Sydney Beaches Valuation Project and outlines the rationale behind their selection. Originality/value - No current, empirical estimates of the economic value of Sydney beaches are available, which means that managers must use estimates from studies which may not reflect the unique characteristics of either the Sydney beaches or the social context. The results of the study, in terms of both unit measures of economic value and lessons learned during the survey design process, will therefore be of great value to coastal managers in the Sydney region. An external link provides details of the mixed mode survey instrument, which can be used to inform the design of other similar studies. Given the critical role of economic appraisal methods in selection of coastal management alternatives, the survey structure is potentially of great use to coastal managers in similarly threatened coastal locations elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated Assessment Models (IAMS) have helped us over the past decade to understand the interactions between the environment and the economy in the context of climate change. Although it has also long been recognized that adaptation is a powerful and necessary tool to combat the adverse effects of climate change, most IAMS have not explicitly included the option of adaptation in combating climate change. This paper adds to the IAM and climate change literature by explicitly including adaptation in an IAM, thereby making the trade-offs between adaptation and mitigation visible. Specifically, a theoretical framework is created and used to implement adaptation as a decision variable into the DICE model. We use our new AD-DICE model to derive the adaptation cost functions implicit in the DICE model. In our set-up, adaptation and mitigation decisions are separable and AD-DICE can mimic DICE when adaptation is optimal. We find that our specification of the adaptation costs is robust with respect to the mitigation policy scenarios and parameter values. Our numerical results show that adaptation is a powerful option to combat climate change, as it reduces most of the potential costs of climate change in earlier periods, while mitigation does so in later periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change policies are informed by contributions from public, private and civil society organisations at a range of scales from the local to the global. Such policy formation has come to be termed multilevel governance. Transnational networks of local authorities are an emerging feature of multilevel governance and they have been heralded as a means to improve the implementation of climate change policy on the ground. However empirical evaluation of these transnational climate change networks is geographically limited and no research examining their impact in Ireland has been conducted. In response this paper considers the significance of European climate change networks within Ireland's climate change strategy. It concludes that these formal transnational networks have had limited impact to date due to ongoing negotiations about the politics of scale and responsibility with respect to climate change policies in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norway is often recognised as a pioneer country in environmental politics. Norwegian climate policy has changed considerably during the 1990s. It has evolved from a situation in 1989 where there was a broad consensus round the notion that a national target for stabilisation of CO2 emissions was the principal instrument for climate change abatement, to a situation at the turn of the century where Norway emerged as one of the most committed supporters of flexible mechanisms, the so-called ‘Kyoto mechanisms’. We identify two main discourses in the Norwegian politics of climate change, and label them ‘national action’ and ‘thinking globally’. This paper gives insight into the core elements of these two discourses and how they act as basic knowledge systems when actors put forward standpoints on the climate change issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the climate change adaptation measures in the construction industry in Great Britain. Development of government policy to encourage the required adaptation in the building industry; Dimensions of climate change impact; Governance of adaptation; Justification of government intervention; Choice of instruments for the adaptation; Uncertainty about climate change.

Adaptation is now recognized as an inevitable component of the overall climate change response strategy. For a developing region like sub-Saharan Africa with low greenhouse gas emissions and high vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, the importance of adaptation in climate change policy is even more fundamental. This paper examined a look at the adaptational preparedness of the sub-Saharan African region to climate change. Clearly evident in the environmental strategy and development focus of these countries is lack of recognition of the need to adapt, poor incentive to adapt and low capacity to adapt to climate change. This further exacerbates their vulnerability and has implications for the global climate change response strategy. Unfortunately, few attempts have been made to understand the structural reasons underlying the pervasive pattern of adaptational unpreparedness in the region, neither has there been a comprehensive and systematic analysis of how to remedy this problem. This paper is a contribution in this regard. It also highlights the factors to which international community need to pay attention, if it truly wishes to make its efforts at adaptation more global in scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change’s causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China, which produces the largest percentage of global emissions, is an important player in global climate change governance and has the potential to change the global climate outlook. In the past decade, China has made significant progress in getting climate change on the national agenda and becoming a leader in setting greenhouse gas emissions targets. However, there are many challenges impeding the implementation of China's climate policies, including a lack of urgency and political will and low public awareness of climate change. Air pollution, on the other hand, due in part to public concern about adverse health effects and quality of life, has become an increasingly greater priority for the Chinese government. This paper aims to examine air pollution as a driver of climate governance and the potential synergy between China's climate policies and air pollution governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines how the claim of a two degrees dangerous limit to climate change is represented in the public sphere. The cultural circuits model is used to frame a discourse analysis and content analysis of UK news media, popular science books and advocacy literature. This analysis is supported with perspectives gleaned from semi-structured interviews with a range of expert actors. The results show that news reports largely ignore the two degree limit and where it is mentioned it is validated through invocation of anonymous expert knowledge. Discourses which do recognise uncertainties surrounding definitions of dangerous change still support the two degree limit. Primary sources show a rejection of the two degree limit as a division between safe and dangerous climate change. Arguments made by advocates that the concept at least allows the public to debate complex climate science is not supported by the manner in which the limit is constructed in public discourses. The results demonstrate that public representations of the two degree limit idea have not evolved, despite developments in climate science casting doubt on the veracity of the two degree limit. The paper concludes that framing climate policy within the two degree metric is not delivering the hoped for emission reductions and it may therefore be appropriate for public discourses to recognise the role of non-scientific factors in defining how much climate change is dangerous. Such a change might prove an important step in the development of a more participatory debate about climate policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The study of global climate change seeks to understand: (1) the components of the Earth's varying environmental system, with a particular focus on climate; (2) how these components interact to determine present conditions; (3) the factors driving these components; (4) the history of global change and the projection of future change; and (5) how knowledge about global environmental variability and change can be applied to present-day and future decision-making. This paper addresses the use of high-performance computing and high-throughput computing for a global change study on the Digital Earth (DE) platform. Two aspects of the use of high-performance computing (HPC)/high-throughput computing (HTC) on the DE platform are the processing of data from all sources, especially Earth observation data, and the simulation of global change models. The HPC/HTC is an essential and efficient tool for the processing of vast amounts of global data, especially Earth observation data. The current trend involves running complex global climate models using potentially millions of personal computers to achieve better climate change predictions than would ever be possible using the supercomputers currently available to scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: The present paper describes a frame-based approach to situated-decision-making on climate change. Building on the multidisciplinary literature on the relationship between frames and decision-making, it argues that decision-makers may gain from making frames more explicit and using them for generating different visions about the central issues. Frames act as organizing principles that shape in a “hidden” and taken-for-granted way how people conceptualize an issue. Science-related issues, such as climate change, are often linked to only a few frames, which consistently appear across different policy areas. Indeed, it appears that there are some very contrasting ways in which climate change may be framed. These frames can be characterized in terms of a simple framework that highlights specific interpretations of climate issues. A second framework clarifies the built-in frames of decision tools. Using Thompson''s two basic dimensions of decision, it identifies the main uncertainties that should be considered in developing a decision strategy. The paper characterizes four types of decision strategy, focusing on (1) computation, (2) compromise, (3) judgment, or (4) inspiration, and links each strategy to the appropriate methods and tools, as well as the appropriate social structures. Our experiences show that the frame-based guide can work as an eye-opener for decision-makers, particularly where it demonstrates how to add more perspectives to the decision. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: For the last two decades, European climate policy has focused almost exclusively on mitigation of climate change. It was only well after the turn of the century, with impacts of climate change increasingly being observed, that adaptation was added to the policy agenda and EU Member States started to develop National Adaptation Strategies (NASs). This paper reviews seven National Adaptation Strategies that were either formally adopted or under development by Member States at the end of 2008. The strategies are analysed under the following six themes. Firstly, the factors motivating and facilitating the development of a national adaptation strategy. Secondly, the scientific and technical support needed for the development and implementation of such a strategy. Thirdly, the role of the strategy in information, communication and awareness-raising of the adaptation issue. Fourthly, new or existing forms of multi-level governance to implement the proposed actions. Fifthly, how the strategy addresses integration and coordination with other policy domains. Finally, how the strategy suggests the implementation and how the strategy is evaluated. The paper notes that the role of National Adaptation Strategies in the wider governance of adaptation differs between countries but clearly benchmarks a new political commitment to adaptation at national policy levels. However, we also find that in most cases approaches for implementing and evaluating the strategies are yet to be defined. The paper concludes that even though the strategies show great resemblance in terms of topics, methods and approaches, there are many institutional challenges, including multi-level governance and policy integration issues, which can act as considerable barriers in future policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about intra- and inter-generational equity, connecting environmental justice discourse with necessary responses to climate change. It offers a review of the role of globalization in this pervasive context, contrasting the disaggregated nature of localized impacts, and seeks to address the potential for adjusting law-policy frameworks as a key part of the search for solutions. It argues that environmental justice approaches can incorporate values into law-policy processes based upon vital aspects of the integrity and functioning of communities, distributional fairness, and capacities for wider engagement and participation in the search for necessary behavioural change. The conclusion is that the ultimate success of the urgent process of addressing climate-related threats, through a meaningful degree of mitigation and adaptation, and multiple levels of decision-making and response, must be informed by the precepts of environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with a short introduction to the concept of global environmental justice, then entertains the notion that the current debate over the proper approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation opens doors to increased fairness in the global distribution of power and life opportunities. It also presents the challenge of an increasingly bifurcated world order which coupled with concerns over infectious disease, overpopulation, invasive species and continued conflict over resources, could well-resemble a hellish vision of structural bioapartheid instead of the potential cosmopolitan global society that awaits us. Key fissure-points, endemic to all international environmental problems but especially acute in the global warming debate, will together largely determine the path taken. The persistence of discrepancies in wealth will present the main obstacle, since this is largely what determines the relative position of individuals on the scale of global environmental justice; but other age-old fissures related to overconsumption and overpopulation, military power and humanitarian intervention will loom large in the ensuing debates. This paper then discusses the possibilities for achieving a new ethic, one that embraces fairness and trust as sustaining principles without abandoning entirely the obvious need for the pursuit of self-interest by states and individuals alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manifold linkages exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention in the climate exchange literature, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. And there has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. This paper examines climate change through a sustainable development lens. To illustrate how this might change the approach to climate change issues, it reports on the findings of a panel of business, local government, and academic representatives in British Columbia, Canada, who were appointed to advise the provincial government on climate change policy. The panel found that sustainable development may offer a significantly more fruitful way to pursue climate policy goals than climate policy itself. The paper discusses subsequent climate change developments in the province and makes suggestions as how best to pursue such a sustainability approach in British Columbia and other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kyoto Protocol, in its present form, is quantitatively and structurally totally inadequate to combat dangerous climate change. That is--to the authors of this paper--the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from three careful scientific studies on behalf of the Ministry of Environment of the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, two published in Beyond Kyoto--A New Global Climate Certificate System. Continuing Kyoto Commitments or a New Global Climate "Cap-and-Trade Scheme" for a Sustainable Climate Policy? (Wicke 2005) and one in Cost Impacts of a "Beyond Kyoto"-Global Cap and Trade Scheme (Wicke 2006) However, as the cited publications demonstrate, by a "structural evolution" of the climate regime, there can and should be an efficient and internationally acceptable beyond-Kyoto system. It is only necessary to combine some brilliant ideas that have already been proposed: the flexible Kyoto cap-and-trade mechanisms (emission trading between states, joint implementation, and the clean development mechanism) "invented" by US scientists and implemented in the Kyoto Protocol should be enlarged to a global cap-and-trade system, while the idea of equal per capita emission rights from India and Pakistan--which has been unfairly written off as not a serious proposal--can be the basic key to fair distribution of emission rights. Additionally, there must be economic corrections and mechanisms within such a free-market-oriented cap-and-trade scheme to make it economically acceptable for all countries to combat successfully dangerous climate change. This system would give incentives for climate-efficient behavior and structures worldwide and provide adequate means and incentives for sustainable, climate-friendly development and for the elimination of poverty--especially in developing countries. This paper attempts to prove both the inadequacy of the current Kyoto system and the feasibility and necessity of such a global cap-and-trade scheme--being nearly completely in line with a recent urgent call for a global cap-and-trade scheme by the World Economic Forum (World Economic Forum 2005). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss the effects of different climate change policies on industrial activity and on welfare. We compare the effects of carbon taxes and grandfathered permits and the effects of exemptions for energy-intensive industries. We survey first the insights from economic theory and from model experiments for the US. Next we use a general equilibrium model to assess the effect of different climate change policies on industrial activity per sector and per member country in the EU. We pay particular attention to the effects of policies where one EU member state exempts its energy-intensive sectors from abatement efforts. The main findings are that, in the EU, the effects on industrial activity and the welfare costs of tradable permits or carbon taxes are small when no industrial sectors are exempted. When one member country exempts its energy intensive sector, this will reduce somewhat the impact on its activity level but will generate an extra welfare cost for the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptual framework of the impact of climate change on agriculture. It assumes that climate change will result in a fertilization effect and a shift of agro-ecological conditions away from the Equator towards the Poles. The agro-ecological shift is likely to reduce yield because of reduced acreage and the fertilization effect will increase yield. The aggregate effect depends on whichever of the two dominates. The overall effect of climate change may be less significant than its distributional effects and the results are consistent with previous empirical studies. The impact of climate change depends on its pace. Faster changes in climate will result in higher cost. The assessment of the cost has to consider that climate change is a dynamic phenomenon that may require continuous adjustment. Environmental regulation that emphasizes conservation may increase cost of adjustment and environmental policies should emphasize adaptation and flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the progress that local authorities in England and Wales are making in adapting to the threat of climate change and taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The responses from surveys of local authorities in England and Wales carried out in 2000 (IDeA , Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions: survey of activities and initiatives by local authorities. (Questionnaire and results) Improvement and Development Agency, 2000 ) and 2002 (Allman et al., Climate Change: a survey of local authorities, Local Government Association, 2002) were compared. Progress in implementing the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) five-step methodology (ICLEI , Local Government Implementation of Climate Protection--report to the United Nations, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, 1997 ) was used to identify the 'successful' local authorities. The barriers faced by these authorities were then compared with those faced by the remaining local authorities . Most local authorities are not making substantial progress. However, a small number have successfully prepared greenhouse gas emissions inventories, developed strategies and implemented adaptation and greenhouse gas reduction measures. These successful authorities have made progress despite the fact that addressing climate change is not a legal requirement. Their success is due to three key factors. Firstly, they have recognised the secondary benefits of tackling climate change, e.g. potential employment, improved quality of life and reduction in fuel poverty. Secondly, they have the strong political, professional and technical support necessary to champion climate change activities. Finally, they have worked in partnership with utilities, private, public and voluntary groups to raise the finance needed to implement measures both to adapt to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobilizing collective action to cope with climate change is difficult at any level, but the larger the `community' the more difficult the task. How to achieve cooperation in the common interest without imposing excessive governmental coercion is a fundamental political conundrum. Using the cultural typology suggested by Cultural Theory (CT), this paper explores diverse worldviews that inform individual and collective attitudes relevant to climate change. Responses from a sample of 441 individuals to statements drawn from the public discourse on environmental issues are used to classify respondents according to the cultural types posited by CT. Analysis indicates that most respondents mix elements of CT's egalitarianism, hierarchy, and individualism, though many individuals clearly lean toward one or another of the cultural types. There seems to be a melding of individualistic and hierarchic elements in opposition to egalitarian elements. Definitions of what is natural, fair and right – of equity – are fundamental issues between cultures, and non-coercive resolution of issues may be promoted by exploring cultural interstices, where cosmological boundaries are weakest. The cultural typology used in Cultural Theory, less spatially or temporally bound than some other typologies, promises to be a useful analytic tool in exploring cultural differences and overlaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal adaptation can reduce climate change impacts and investing now, though costly, will bring greater benefits over the longer term, particularly in urban areas. Yet public actors currently cover a small fraction of needed coastal adaptation investments, a finance gap set to widen as coastal adaptation costs continue to increase. Mobilizing private finance for coastal adaptation is thus a salient challenge, as emphasized in the Paris Agreement. Key under‐researched dimensions of this challenge are what promotes private investment in coastal adaptation and how can public actors’ interest in adaptation be aligned with private investor interests. To address this, we review the literatures on coastal adaptation finance and on financial arrangements involving both public actors and private investors. We describe key actors and interests, and identify coastal financial arrangements that align public actor and private investor interests, finding that private provisioning, public–private Partnerships (PPP), and public debt arrangements are promising. We then survey empirical examples, finding that private provisioning attracts investment when returns are high, for example, in urban real estate, and that PPPs attract dredging and construction companies’ investment, particularly for adaptation measures with a large share of operational costs, for example, beach nourishment. We find little evidence of institutional investment through public debt instruments. A number of policy instruments, for example, concessional loans, tax incentives, and standards, may address this gap and enhance private coastal adaptation investment. Our results are also relevant for other sectors that involve long‐term infrastructure adaptation measures. This article is categorized under: Climate Economics > Iterative Risk‐Management Policy Portfolios Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Learning from Cases and Analogies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation now occupies central stage on the agenda of most environmental initiatives in Africa. Our current understanding on the state of adaptation is limited, however, both globally and in Africa in particular. This study examines the status of adaptation in the Sahel by reviewing the primary peer review literature that reports concrete climate change adaptation actions. Based on an analysis of 70 peer review papers that document 414 discrete adaptations, we create a snap shot of adaptations developed between 1975 and 2015, and also calculate the percentages of adaptation. The results show that from a country to country perspective, Kenya has the highest number of reported adaptation actions (75 or 18.1%). The percentages indicate that the adaptive capacity of the entire study area is generally low for all the countries being that the highest country-level percentage is recorded in Kenya and it is 18%. Regionally, West Africa has more adaptation actions (261 or 63%) when compared to other regions of the Sahel. Regional level percentages suggest a higher level of adaptation at the regional level being that the percentage falls within the high scale range. The most commonly used adaptation actions reported are income diversification and water harnessing respectively. When categorized, technically related adaptation actions dominate the adaptation charts. The decade 2008–2016 recorded the highest number of adaptations (65.2%). Adaptation actions are also reported to be triggered by climatic and non-climatic drivers which both record high frequencies but the climatic drivers (98%) of adaptation are slightly dominant relative to the non-climatic drivers (95%). These results should be viewed as proxies of climate change adaptation as much information may be found in grey literature and non-peer review national communications which are left out here because of their relative low standardization and acceptability due to the absence of peer review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change research and action counteracting it affect everyone and would involve cross-societal transformations reshaping the anthroposphere in its entirety. Scrutinizing climate-related science and policies, we recognize attempts to steer the evolution of climate according to expected (or modelled) futures. Such attempts would turn the anthroposphere into a large “anticipatory system”, in which human society seeks to anticipate and, possibly, to govern climate dynamics. The chief aim of this discussion paper is to open a critical debate on the climate change paradigm (CCP) drawing on a strategic and systemic framework grounded in the concept of anticipatory system sensu Rosen (1991). The proposed scheme is ambitiously intended to turn an intricate issue into a complex but structured problem that is to say, to make such complexity clear and manageable. This framework emerges from concepts borrowed from different scientific fields (including future studies and system dynamics) and its background lies in a simple quantitative literature overview, relying upon a broad level of analysis. The proposed framework will assist researchers and policy makers in thinking of CCP in terms of an anticipatory system, and in disentangling its interrelated (and sometimes intricate) aspects. In point of fact, several strategic questions related to CCP were not subjected to an adequate transdisciplinary discussion: what are the interplays between physical processes and social-political interventions, who is the observer (what he/she is looking for), and which paradigm is being used (or who defines the desirable future). The proposed scheme allows to structure such various topics in an arrangement which is easier to communicate, highlighting the linkages in between, and making them intelligible and open to verification and discussion. Furthermore, ideally developments will help scientists and policy makers address the strategic gaps between the evidence-based climatological assessments and the plurality of possible answers as applied to the geopolitical contingencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) offers notable potential, as part of larger carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) processes, to be a significant climate change mitigation technology. This paper challenges the argument often put forward that, due to the greater distances from centres of population, it will be ‘easier’ to garner public and stakeholder support for offshore CO2 storage than onshore. Based on the results of research interviews carried out with stakeholders and informed publics in Scotland, challenges for public and stakeholder acceptance of sub-seabed CO2 storage that may require further policy attention are identified. Whilst existing policy for sub-seabed CO2 storage is cognisant of the need for societal engagement, it may be the case that these regulations may need further reinforcement to ensure future developments are able to address social acceptability issues as fully as possible. The value of taking into account social as well as physical characteristics at the site selection phase, the need for mechanisms to take seriously stakeholder conceptions of uncertainty, and the importance of extending social engagement beyond risk communication are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Achieving win-win outcomes in environment–development programs is a laudable goal, but frequently difficult to realize. In this paper we review the possibilities for win-win climate and development outcomes in programs that distribute improved cookstoves with the use of carbon finance. We show that improved cookstove technologies form an important, if asymmetrical, environment–development interface, and illustrate the mutually supported local (development) and global (climate change) benefits of continued improved stoves use—where success in one program area is directly tied to benefits in the other. We also describe how program results are highly contextual and that, in practice, there are a number of challenges to achieving effective ‘win-win’ outcomes—including cultural, financial, governance and technological barriers. While carbon finance provides an opportunity to fund scaleable and enforceable stove programs, it may also introduce mutually supported impediments—where progress towards one set of program objectives, directly compromises progress towards other objectives. Drawing on development debates for improved cookstove use, scientific reports on stove-based greenhouse gas reductions, and preexisting case studies of carbon and non-carbon financed cookstoves in Peru, Uganda and Cambodia, we conclude that the challenge for future carbon financed improved cookstove projects will be to leverage inherent symbioses between climate and development arenas in order to overcome mutually supported impediments. Achieving substantive win-win conditions will require further scholarly and practical engagement to tackle the many outstanding challenges and uncertainties reviewed in this essay. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Public deliberative platforms have been argued as potentially beneficial in fostering adaptive capacity to respond to climate change. However, little is known about the veracity of such claims, and indeed how deliberation and adaptive capacity can and do intersect. In response, this paper reports on findings from a project into public responses to climate change in the Australian Capital Region. It utilises quantitative analysis—in the form of Q methodology—and qualitative analysis, to compare discourses that emerged from individual scenario-based interviews with those that emerged at the end of a 4-day public deliberative process. It shows that while the scenario interviews had an impact on participants, this impact is not sustained. By contrast, the deliberative process gave rise to new discourses, one of which (labelled ‘Collective Action Imperative’) is argued as indicative of a potentially constructive personal and collective adaptive capacity. However, advocating deliberative processes still requires caution, as less adaptive discourses prevailed, suggesting strong governance signals and leadership are still essential for fostering a positive public response to the challenges of climate change. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Climate change mitigation poses significant challenges for South Africa and its energy development, historically highly energy intensive. At the same time, the country faces a host of daunting development challenges, exacerbated by the legacy of apartheid. Examining both challenges, this paper considers how alternative conceptions of a development path can be achieved. In the short term, energy efficiency provides large potential for mitigation - and energy savings at the same time. Changing South Africa's fuel mix, dependent to three-quarters on coal, is at least a medium-term challenge. The minerals-energy complex is so central to the economy that it is likely to take decades to change dramatically. The most transformative change is to an alteration in economic structure, likely to take long to achieve. The article examines specific policy instruments that might be implemented to achieve such a transformation. A transition to a low-carbon economy will require a paradigm shift in industrial policy. It will require considered provision for sectors sensitive to changes in energy prices. Building up new, climate-friendly industries will be needed to sustain employment and investment. To enable a just transition, provision will have to be made for emissions-intensive sectors, if they are to be phased out over time. South African government has adopted a vision, strategic direction and framework for climate policy. Policymakers have begun to understand that the future will be carbon constrained and that South Africa's emission will have to stop growing, stabilize and decline before mid-century. The challenge of climate change is a long-term challenge, requiring immediate action. This article examines actions at near-, medium- and long-term timescales. Its focus is on the most transformative change, that of seeking to shift development paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a global problem that needs a comprehensive international response. If countries adopt different measures this may lead to carbon leakage that then leads to further emissions and to competitiveness concerns from those countries that have adopted more stringent measures. One approach to deal with carbon leakage and competitiveness concerns is through the adoption of border adjustment measures. This paper focuses on possible climate border adjustment measures that may arise from the development of the current EU climate policy, the final goal being to determine their compatibility vis-á- vis the WTO regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Is there a role for investments in climate change mitigation despite low expected return? We use a model of intertemporal expected utility maximisation to analyse this question. Similar to the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) the rate of return depends on the correlation of risk between the return on investments in climate change mitigation and the market portfolio, but in contrast to the classical CAPM we admit the fact that economic and environmental systems are jointly determined, implying that environmental risk is endogenous. Therefore, investments in climate change mitigation may reduce risk via self-protection and self-insurance. If risk reduction is accounted for in cost–benefit evaluations, climate investments may be justified despite low expected return. These aspects of climate investments are not, however, communicated via standard cost–benefit analyses of climate policy. Optimal climate policy may therefore be more ambitious than previously considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract??One of the ways to induce compliance is for an international enforcement mechanism to authorize the use of punitive consequences against a non-compliant country. However, such consequences should not cause significant damage toother(compliant) countries. The compliance mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol fails to meet this requirement. The Enforcement Branch of the Compliance Committee is instructed to impose punitive consequences on a non-compliant country that will have considerable adverse welfare effects forcompliantcountries as well. Using a numerical model, we show that in the case of Norway, the welfare effects can actually be worse ifanothercountry is punished than if Norway itself is punished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presents a report which focuses on Climate Change Levy (CCL), a part of Great Britain's wider programme of policies to deal with its various obligations to control climate change. However, the CCL cannot be viewed in isolation, it is part of a fairly elaborate package of measures, and its interaction with the other instruments in that package need to be understood. The British CCL is an integral part of Great Britain's policy to tackle climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. In the late 1980s, no political party in Great Britain was wedded to the use of market-based instruments, such as taxes, for environmental policy.