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The Province of Ontario in Canada illustrates contemporary water security issues, where despite perception of water abundance, water challenges arise locally. Water risks stem from biophysical dimensions of groundwater depletion, low surface water flows, and degraded quality, and, contextual dimensions of regulatory uncertainty, public concerns and perception. While academic, policy, and practitioner interest is growing, literature reveals major gaps in comprehensive assessment of multidimensional water risks at the subwatershed scale. Addressing these gaps, the study developed a locally attuned and interdisciplinary water risk assessment framework. Using secondary mixed data analysis, the study integrated quantitative and qualitative data for water quantity and quality risks, regulatory trends, water user conflicts for 38 subwatersheds in Ontario. The framework identifies subwatersheds and sectors at high, moderate, and low risk along with media and public concern themes. The study finds high and moderate risk potential in at least 50% of studied subwatersheds for all water risk indicators and challenges the myth of water abundance in Great Lakes watershed of Ontario. The study advances knowledge in water risk assessment by applying social‐ecological perspectives, interdisciplinary approaches of Risk Theory, and mixed methods to provide a comprehensive evaluation of water security and demonstrates integration of social science perspectives in the field of sociohydrology. Our framework assesses interdisciplinary water risks to inform multisector sustainable water management decisions. While spatially scoped to populous subwatersheds of Ontario, this framework can be methodologically generalized to other geographical regions by using local data. Key Points: Developed a locally attuned interdisciplinary water risk assessment framework for 38 subwatersheds in Ontario, CanadaApplied Risk Theory and assessed multidimensional risks of biophysical quantity, quality, regulatory uncertainty, and public perceptionFound high and moderate risk potential in all categories for at least 50% of studied areas hence challenging the myth of water abundance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), representing approximately USD 13.5 trillion of the global GDP, is one of the largest free-trade agreements in the world. This trade agreement considers many important issues yet fails to address climate change or carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 emissions in trade are critical as all CPTPP parties have made significant carbon emissions reduction commitments of between 8-36% through the COP21- Paris Agreement. Herein lies a paradox. This study assesses the amount of embedded CO2 emissions in the CPTPP through an input-output analysis of consumption-based emissions in ten carbon-intensive sectors, under three scenarios. The results reveal that as trade between partners increases, so will CO2 emissions across those sectors. These findings are essential for policymakers who are striving to grow Partnerships (Sustainable Development Goal 17) while seeking to address Climate Action (Sustainable Development Goal 13), which appear to be conflicting goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract: Climate change represents a significant financial risk to the insurance industry, but research has yet to assess whether the industry is managing this risk. Through the application of scale as a vertically nested hierarchy of relationships, this paper seeks to evaluate whether insurers are ‘rescaling’ risk management practices to accommodate the temporal and spatial uncertainty associated with climate change. This framework is applied to a content analysis of 178 (183) firm responses to the 2012 (2015) U.S. National Association of Insurance Commissioners Climate Risk Disclosure Survey to detect evidence of rescaling through climate change risk management (CCRM). The results reveal that the majority of companies do not integrate climate change into their risk management practices, but reinsurers are rescaling in a greater proportion than primary insurers. This finding confirms that a nested spatial and temporal scale in the insurance industry creates resistance to CCRM. The use of scale contributes to emerging scholarship on organizations and climate change by offering a framework for measuring organizational responses and justifying a research agenda on rescaling strategies as a means of risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global manufacturing firms are engaging distant suppliers of critical raw materials to participate in responsible sourcing. Downstream firms are concerned about risks in mineral supply chains of violent conflict, human rights violations, and poor governance, but they are limited in seeing their suppliers. Descriptive data on 323 smelters and refiners of tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold (the "conflict minerals") were complemented by interviews with downstream firms in the electronics industry. Results provided a narrative of supplier engagement, describing tactics used to identify "deep suppliers" at chokepoints in metals supply and to persuade producers into joining due diligence programs. Top-tier firms collaborate through a standards program to overcame barriers of geography and cultural distance in supply chain management beyond the visible horizon. Curiously, manufacturers do not need line-of-sight transparency to lower-tier suppliers. Rather, top-tier firms are "jumping the chain" to engage directly with "deep suppliers" who may—or may not—be their own actual physical suppliers. The research contributes empirical evidence to understanding multi-tier supply chains, examines how power is exercised by top-tier firms managing suppliers, and provides insights on supply chain transparency. Responsible sourcing, based on due diligence guidance and standards, is becoming expected of companies that are involved in supply chains of raw materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]