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This paper examines the possibilities and prospects of cooperation for the Republic of Korea and the UN in climate science and technology on the basis of strategies and policies on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The human rights dimension and the future of the two Koreas forms the context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the influence of climate on the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in France. Ordinary, time-varying, and threshold regressions of the number of cases and deaths are run on weather and government variables. The main findings support the role of climate in Covid-19 spread. The results reveal that a rise in temperatures is negatively associated with reported deaths, while an increase in relative humidity or wind and a decrease in precipitations are negatively associated with confirmed cases. These weather variables appear statistically significant only during the winter season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US military has a long and robust history of scientific research programs, often conducted in conjunction with civilian scientists at non-military governmental agencies as well as universities. These programs flourished in the immediate post-Second World War and the early cold war years, as the field of military science expanded to address the sprawling Soviet threat. One area of growth was in atmospheric science, which had already taken off preceding Second World War in conjunction with the growth of air warfare. Advances in meteorology, cloud science and climatology enabled military interests to align with weather forecasters and also agricultural interests, as old ideas about cloud seeding and weather control were revived in the light of new research. The military, largely through the Air Force, advanced a series of projects investigating the potential of weather and climate control, manipulation, and ultimately weaponisation. These programs, which were sometimes linked to US Department of Agriculture programs aimed at improving agricultural production, persisted for decades. Some of the newly developed tools were deployed: local climate manipulation efforts during the Vietnam conflict were aimed at impeding traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with mixed results. Significant efforts came during the Weather Bureau leadership of Francis W. Reichelderfer, whose papers contain a wealth of information about efforts ranging from cloud seeding to proposals to drop atomic weapons on hurricanes. These papers, along with those of Weather Bureau scientist Harry Wexler, provide a fascinating window to a time when the US military and scientific establishment seemed poised to grasp the levers of power over nature itself. This paper describes these little-studied programs, and situates these efforts within the broader military science programs accompanying the emergence of air warfare, as well as post-war science programs aimed at countering the Soviet challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Change has been the leitmotif of Mongolia in recent years as the country rides on the back of a mining boom, but enormous upheavals tear apart Mongolian economic, political and social fabrics. Yet, Mongolian imagination continues to be imbued with the idea of nomadic herders, the quintessential pasture and rangeland dwellers of the steppes. The conflicting visions raise the question: “How is the livelihood of Mongolia’s nomadic herders responding to the diverse changes ushered in by the post-socialist economic reforms?” This paper investigates this question in the context of the growing artisanal and small-scale mining, which is described as informal mining, and argues that the Mongolian nomads are continually (re)adjusting their livelihoods through informal mining to cope with the variety of transitions triggered off by processes put in place by state policies. It argues that the nomadic herders are not only responding to climate change or poverty, but are also stepping up to seek a share of the mineral resource wealth that the state is promising to the international investors. The aim of the paper is to offer an alternative interpretation of the commodity rush by erstwhile rural-based nomadic herders of Mongolia, and to link their involvement in informal mining with global debates of political economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Faced with the prospects of a changing climate, a small but increasing number of countries are developing legal and regulatory frameworks that explicitly address climate change. Moreover at least some of these laws and policies carve out substantial roles for local governments. The present paper surveys three countries from different regions in the Global South that have developed or are developing such laws and policies: the Philippines (Asia-Pacific), Mexico and more specifically its State of Chiapas (Latin America), and South Africa (Africa). It examines those experiences through two different lenses. The paper first reviews the steps by which those laws or policies were developed. For this review, criteria for effective consultative processes are proposed. The study then examines the three climate change laws or policies per se. To this end, a framework including four modes of multi-level urban climate governance (governing by regulation, governing through enabling, governing by provision, governing with representation and consultation) is utilised. The paper ends with synthetic conclusions as to which experiences represent promising practices, and what other lessons are relevant for countries embarking on such processes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an overview of the relationship between tourism and global climate change. On the one hand, the tourism industry may be one of the greatest economic victims of climate change. Yet, on the other hand, the broader tourism sector is also a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. This study traces the evolution of academic interest in tourism and climate change. Growth in this area has tracked growth in interest in climate change in general, with tourism-related papers representing consistently about 0.5% of the published research on climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest-based manufacturing firms are currently under pressure to achieve higher margins and increased profits. Many firms have tried to maintain profits by cutting costs, however, the effects of this, in markets suffering from overcapacity and declining demand, are temporary. Instead, innovation is seen as being the key to firm growth and sustained profit. This article presents a study of nine large Nordic (Swedish and Norwegian) forest-based manufacturing firms, with operations ranging from pulp and paper chemicals, pulp production, packaging boards, packaging paper, and specialty paper to food processing and packaging solutions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the prerequisites for innovation at firm level in terms of firms’ organizational climate and capabilities for innovation, and how these firms could improve their innovation processes. The paper draws on data from a collaborative research project that includes these nine firms, derived from interviews and questionnaires. The results show that forest-based firms are creative and have the potential to be innovative. However, the capabilities for innovation, that is the capabilities to do things differently and to exploit ideas, differ among firms. The study highlights two capabilities that may be obvious but are critical for innovation – management willingness and awareness, and the implementation of a strategy for innovation – and that the potential exists for increased output through appropriate managerial action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on the contributions and roles of the author as being a former associate editor of "Australian Geographer." It begins with a report on the contribution regarding physical geography to the journal during his tenure. He mentions about the traditional areas of the topic such as geomorphology, climatology and land use, and the subject areas addressed in physical geography contributions. Furthermore, the author discusses the success of the publication, on the book reviewers and the relevance of the journal.

The author reflects on the impact of climate change on tourism. He stresses that anthropogenetic climate change has been increasingly recognized as the major threat to large sections of the society and the environment. He points out that there has been little research undertaken on the impacts of climate change on tourism, thus, resulted in the publication of only a small volume of peer-reviewed research. He argues that studies which are undertaken by climate scientists have shown that it is not only the magnitude of changes which are increasingly unprecedented but also the rate of those changes.

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]

The paper contributes to the research on understanding local global warming politics. Strategic documents from The Cities for Climate Protection Campaign (CCPC) are analysed to show how CCPC has constructed climate change protection as a local issue. The paper's premise is that the climate change issue must be translated or framed to enable actors to work with this problem in a local context, and that successful framing requires establishing a coherent method of describing social reality. CCPC emphasises that the different elements of local and global sustainable development agendas can be mutually reinforcing, and that climate change protection can be reconciled with local priorities and initiatives that reduce greenhouse gases (GHG). It is argued that this framing of climate change makes it difficult to see why and how climate change should be an important concern for local communities. The modest reductions of GHG in CCPC cities thus far highlights that finding meaningful new ways of linking the global and the local should be a core concern of CCPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overcoming climate change skepticism and disengagement is a pressing challenge. Evidence suggests that reactions to climate science and proposed solutions are strongly driven by emotion. This paper explores whether negative emotional responses to learning about climate impacts support recognition of the reality and risks of climate change, and whether narrative-based climate communication is an effective means of eliciting such emotions. In an experiment among U.S. residents, participants read narratives about climate change-related warming at the North Pole designed to elicit an emotional response. They reported on their emotional reactions; climate change attitudes, intentions, and behaviors; and demographics. We found that experiencing negative emotion increased acceptance of, concern about, and willingness to take action on climate change. Strong negative emotional response was particularly influential in changing climate attitudes for conservatives. A similar pattern of results was, surprisingly, observed for positive emotional response. Climate narratives were successful in eliciting negative and positive emotional responses, across both factual and emotion-laden narratives. These findings suggest that enhancing emotion through climate communication may be a promising tool for counteracting biased assimilation of controversial scientific information, and for engaging audiences who might otherwise dismiss or avoid the issue of climate change for group-identity or ideological reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents a study of atmospheric climate impacts on community-level sports clubs' (CLSC) in Australia and Canada, their vulnerability and resilience, and organisational responses. Design/Methods: A qualitative methodology was used with a multiple case research design. Data (interviews, documents) was collected from a sample of 23 CLSC organisations managing grass turf sport fields exposed to climatic extremes in temperate regions of both countries. Findings: CLSCs in both nations experienced vulnerability to climate impacts. Direct damage to playing fields resulted from extreme climate events. Indirect impacts include higher injury risks, interrupted and/or cancelled competitions, insurance risks, plus higher operating and capital costs. Adapted management was evident for water resources, playing turf, and organisational policies. Practical Implications: Provides insights into the changing practice of sport management at the community-level. Research Contribution: The results challenge the assumption that climate is a static and benign resource for sport. This study demonstrates impacts of climate extremes on sport in the northern and southern hemispheres, the potential for adapting sport management practices, and developing resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the response by the Australian political–military establishment to climate change through the lens of securitization theory. The research used mixed content analysis techniques to systematically examine more than 1500 speech-acts, policies and doctrinal articles between 2003 and 2013. It argues that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) was not a climate securitizing actor and that its response to climate change was mediated by the political partisanship surrounding broader national policy debates on climate change. The politicization of climate change made it increasingly difficult for the ADF to publicly adopt meaningful climate policies. It subsequently crafted a strategy that minimized any investment (resource or reputational) lest a change of government rendered them invalid or it drew unwanted criticism. At the very heart of this finding exists the challenge of an avowedlyapoliticalinstitution responding to what emerged in the Australian context as a politically partisan security issue. The more serious indictment concerned how national security policy (in the context of climate change as a security issue) became hostage to the politics of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key contributor to climate change, but it remains unclear how the tourism industry has been planning for climate change in practice. This paper conducts the most comprehensive critical review of Australia's tourism policy and planning documents to date. The paper explores the complex challenges posed by climate change to tourism and how tourism policy has been adapting over a 15-year period. Drawing on a longitudinal data-set of 477 Australian tourism policy and planning documents at the national, state, regional and local level, this research analyses the strategic discourse on climate change using content analysis and bibliometrics. The findings reveal opportunities, challenges and strategies for the tourism industry to contribute to the sustainable management of climate change. Opportunities include developing more “green” products, while strategies include establishing and/or participating in collaborative climate change schemes and strengthening dialogue surrounding climate change to aid the implementation of sustainable practices. Future research should consider the broader policy-making environment, such as the stakeholders, power and interest dynamics when analysing tourism strategies in relation to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an approach to estimate drought severity for drought response planning and urban water management considering the impacts of climate change and variability. Low flow frequency analysis was used to estimate drought severity (eg. 1-in-100-year average recurrence interval) of different drought durations from several months to years. Traditionally this was done using available historical streamflow record. However, recent research including the South Eastern Australian Climate Initiative has indicated that the prolonged drought experienced in southeastern Australia including Melbourne in the recent decade since 1997 has been unprecedented in historical context, and is potentially part of a long-term trend associated with global warming. This raises the issue of the practicality of the assumption of hydrologic stationarity. To account for the potential for more severe and frequent drought events, an adaptive approach is needed to adapt to the drier future in a changing and variable climate by considering experience from the recent 1997-2009 drought and the latest climate change projections. In this paper, drought severity for the Melbourne system is estimated based on historical streamflow data with monthly flow prior to 1997 adjusted using a flow duration curve decile method to reflect the recent dry conditions of 1997-2009. The approach is consistent with recommendations in the Victorian Guidelines for the Development of a Water Supply-Demand Strategy (DSE, 2011). The results indicate that drought severity and frequency increased by an order of magnitude under a changed climate based on a "return to dry" scenario. This shift in severity and frequency highlights the need for adaptive planning methods to address changes in hydrologic conditions under a variable and changing climate. However, it also raises many challenges for drought planning including uncertainties in climate change projections, attribution of recent drought to climate change and variability, and the appropriate hydro-climate baseline for applying climate change projections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at investigating the performance of some passive techniques integrated to a house in six climates ranging from Cold climate to Desert one. First of all, a case study of a house, located in Marrakech (Hot Semi-Arid climate), is monitored and a TRNSYS-based numerical model is constructed and calibrated using the resulting experimental measurements. Afterwards, thermal behavior as well as the heating and the cooling energy demand of the house were assessed by means of dynamic simulations in the studied climates. The impact of the house's envelope thermal insulation is assessed by a comparison with a reference case of the house where this insulation is lacking. The results showed that the thermal load of the house decreased by more than 70% in all climates except for the Cold one; where this reduction did not exceeded 57%. The application of the Passive House concept to the studied house enables to assess the technical requirements for its envelope thermal insulation to achieve this standard in each of the six considered climates. Furthermore, the corresponding extra cost was found to be in between 13,000 MAD and 280,000 MAD (around 1,300 to 28,900 USD) while the payback time ranges from 5 to 8 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a growing focus on uncertainty as a distinct concept in the risk literature. This paper is concerned with how those involved in the design and implementation of climate change policy conceptualize risk and uncertainty. Based on interviews with policy and industry elites in Australia, China and the UK, it finds that participants did not distinguish between "risk" and "uncertainty" in their conceptualization of climate threats. For the majority of them, politics was the most significant source of risk and uncertainty in climate policy, but delegation of otherwise political decisions to the market was seen as the best solution. The conclusion suggests that the conceptual distinction between risk and uncertainty is less important, for policy and industry elites, than the need to develop mechanisms that account for both persistent scientific uncertainties as well as interpretive and moral ambiguities in climate policy design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In coastal regions of the U.S. maritime transportation system, compelling reasons exist for implementing measures for climate change adaptation. As the effects of climate change amplify the impacts of natural hazards, a critical aspect of the nation's overall resiliency includes the ability of the maritime and coastal sectors to recover effectively from external shocks and to adapt to changing environmental conditions in order to continue to provide the services the nation relies upon for economic viability and homeland security. This requires adaptation for physical infrastructure as well as organizational, operational, and community elements throughout the maritime transportation system. This paper provides a literature review of port climate adaptation approaches, which highlights the established need and opportunities for collaboration among coastal stakeholders to implement climate adaptation in port communities. The current lack of federal support in the United States for climate adaptation in the maritime sector emphasizes the need for novel methods and approaches to facilitate adaptation at individual port and regional levels. A case study from the port community of Hampton Roads, Virginia provides an example of the time and effort dedicated to stakeholder collaboration to encourage local understanding of climate risks in order to facilitate successful adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to probe into the social media use by Chinese climate journalists through the examination of their professional practices on social media. Taking COP21 as a case, the study conducted a survey from Chinese COP21 journalists and analyzed WeChat and Weibo posts from Chinese journalists and tweets from their UK and US colleagues. The results show the prevalent use of WeChat among Chinese journalists and the personalization of the social media content accordingly. Compared to their Western counterparts, the use of social media for professional purposes by Chinese COP21 journalists was relatively limited. Nevertheless, several patterns of using social media were identified. Specifically, Chinese journalists tended to more frequently express personal opinions, discuss work experience and favor conventional news sources of authority than UK and US journalists. The results also suggest that climate change in Chinese media discourse will remain more a policy-related issue instead of an environmental or scientific issue, with Chinese government playing a central role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While extensive scholarship has explored principles for pro-poor climate support, there is a need for knowledge of specific strategies that can achieve these objectives on the ground. This paper examines India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and its effects on climate risk reduction. Although the MGNREGA was not designed specifically as a climate programme, it incorporates three key elements with the potential to advance pro-poor climate assistance objectives: (a) social protection through the provision of minimum wage labour; (b) the development of small-scale, natural resource-focused infrastructure; and (c) a decentralized, 'community-based' planning architecture. Analysis of a primary dataset comprising 1400 households and 798 projects in India's state Himachal Pradesh, interpreted through intensive qualitative fieldwork, shows that both projects and labour have helped vulnerable households confront climate and other risks, while the Act's decentralized architecture has expanded the channels for citizens to claim support for local challenges. The paper argues for the importance of building a broader 'ecosystem' of support to target diverse local needs, and of the need to strengthen the political architectures through which vulnerable groups access these benefits on the ground – especially in the context of decentralized approaches for climate assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Equity issues have long been debated within international climate politics, focused on fairly distributing reductions in territorial emissions and fossil fuel consumption. There is a growing recognition among scholars and policymakers that curbing fossil fuel supply (as well as demand) can be a valuable part of the climate policy toolbox; this raises the question of where and how the tool should be applied. This paper explores how to equitably manage the social dimensions of a rapid transition away from fossil fuel extraction. Fossil fuel extraction leads to benefits for some people (such as extraction workers) and harms for others (such as pollution-affected communities). A transition must respect and uphold the rights of both groups, while also staying within climate limits, as climate impacts will fall most heavily on the world's poor. This paper begins by reviewing how extraction affects economies and communities and the different transitional challenges they face. Based on that review, it then examines three common equity approaches -- economic efficiency, meeting development needs, and effort-sharing. Drawing lessons from the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches, the paper proposes five principles as a basis for equitably curbing fossil fuel extraction within climate limits: (1) Phase out global extraction at pace consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C; (2) Enable a just transition for workers and communities; (3) Curb extraction consistent with environmental justice; (4) Reduce extraction fastest where doing so will have the least social costs; (5) Share transition costs fairly, according to ability to bear those costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate science denial results from ignorance and perpetuates ignorance about scientific facts and methods of inquiry. In this paper, I explore climate science denial as a type of active ignorance called willful hermeneutical ignorance, where ignorance is actively maintained by a gap in a person's conceptual resources. This kind of ignorance is active in the sense that it resists correction. For instance, climate science denial may be motivated by ideological reasoning and other biases, it is often not responsive to the introduction of more evidence, and it can be maintained as consequence of conceptual gaps, or hermeneutical lacunas, that make possible a certain degree of blindness to evidence. I then identify three hermeneutical lacunas in the epistemology of science that prevent the uptake of evidence for anthropogenic climate change – one from Lawrence Torcello and two from the work of Dale Jamieson. Finally, while climate science denial's resistance to correction poses significant challenges for effective education about climate science, this framework also suggests a way forward: education that emphasizes building basic concepts required for understanding and interpreting scientific research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is an important economic sector in the Global South. It is however vulnerable to the risks and variations associated with global climate change. The paper qualitatively investigates how issues surrounding uncertainty in the climate change discourse have influenced policy makers' response to climate change in Botswana's tourism sector. The analysis of the empirical data derived from in-depth interviews demonstrates that some policy makers remain skeptical about climate change and its impacts on tourism despite growing evidence from regional scientific research and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Constraints that hamper progress in policy response measures include inadequate knowledge of, and the extent to which, climate science can be trusted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change-related perceptions and communication are important factors influencing people's support for climate change policies and individual behavior. Since research on both climate change-related perceptions and communication is biased towards Western countries and standardized research methodologies, this paper investigates perceptions across South African communities using a deductive-inductive qualitative approach. 20 individuals in three communities of a South African town were interviewed about their climate change-related perceptions and communication. Results show that for individual concepts of climate change, interviewees' perceptions differed across the communities: higher educated communities had more differentiated and diverse conceptions of causes and consequences of climate change and potential countermeasures. Most interviewees, across the communities, stressed that they considered climate change as an important problem, although other social problems seemed more pressing. Interestingly, all three communities most frequently encounter the issue of climate change through new and traditional mass media, but their self-assessed knowledge about it varies widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the welfare effect of inter- and intra-seasonal weather shocks using a nationally representative dataset. Results show that both rainfall and maximum temperature variability appear to exert a negative impact on the considered outcomes. Higher between-years average of rainfall implies an increase in income. This impact is nonlinear when the shock is computed over shorter reference periods and is higher in the upper tail of the income distribution. Moreover, small levels of rainfall variability have a positive effect on income, but only up to a certain threshold, after which the effect becomes negative. There is a nonlinear relationship between welfare outcomes and the first two moments of the maximum temperature distribution. Agricultural extension services, access to rural credit and use of sustainable land management practices (SLM) are crucial to mitigating the negative welfare effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospect theory (PT) is a widely accepted theory for decisions under uncertainty. However, so far a systematic application to climate policy (CP) does not exist. One important postulation of PT is that outcomes are perceived as gains or losses, relative to the reference point. When it comes to CP, different decision-makers may have different reference points. For example, one decision-maker perceives the current climate as the reference point whereas another decision-maker may have another one, say climate in 100 years. For the former, climate damages are losses and the benefits of CP are reductions of losses. For the latter, benefits of CP are gains. PT suggests that the former places a higher value in CP than the latter. After a critical review whether and how PT may be applied to CP, the paper systematically presents this and other cases where PT offers new insights into climate-related analyses, notwithstanding the importance of well-known aspects such as discounting, altruism, political and economic costs. It is shown that accounting for PT may contribute to a better understanding of some well-known puzzles in the climate debate, including different preferences for CP amongst individuals and nations, the role of technical vs. financial adaptation, and the apparent preference for hard protection measures in coastal adaptation. Finally, concrete possibilities for empirical research on these effects are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we address the determinants of clean energy inventions by 946 large firms. We use a new set of large firms’ patent portfolios and we broaden and deepen existing literature on this issue in two main ways: first, we conduct our study directly at the firm level and not at the industry or national levels and second, we do not focus on a single industry but encompass all industrial sectors. Drawing on firm (internal and external) knowledge and knowledge accumulation, we show there is a robust positive association between the (past) knowledge accumulated capital related to clean technologies and the number of inventions produced in that field, even after controlling for industry and nation fixed effects and other factors. The same relation works for (past) knowledge-accumulated capital in other (non-clean) technologies. However, the relation’s impact on the number of clean inventions produced is much lower. The magnitudes of our coefficient are in line with that obtained previously on firms in the auto-industry or at the sectoral level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an analysis of three common hydrological regionalization methods (multiple linear regression, spatial proximity and physical similarity) in a virtual-world setting, using a 15 km resolution regional climate model to eliminate uncertainty due to measurement errors and missing data. It was found that in many cases the best donor is neither the most similar nor the closest watershed to the ungauged site, indicating a need for better hydrologically relevant catchment descriptors. Results show that using the closest donors yields satisfactory results only if they share similar characteristics with the ungauged basin, confirming that the proximity method is a good proxy only if there is reason to believe that the basins are physically similar. It was also shown that the ability to predict whether a method will succeed or fail is limited by the quality of catchment descriptors and the inherent probabilistic nature of the problem. A method to determine whether a regionalization method will fail or succeed based on the ungauged catchment’s characteristics failed to recognize a successful candidate 20% of the time, whereas it incorrectly classified a poor candidate in 30% of cases. The results indicate that there are unknown properties or processes that contribute to the hydrological behaviour of ungauged basins.EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR F. Pappenberger [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on an experimental investigation on the effects of air gap, wind and walking motion on the thermal properties of traditional Arabian thawbs and Chinese cheongsams. Total thermal resistance (It) and vapour resistance (Re) were measured using the sweating fabric manikin – ‘Walter’, and the air gap volumes of the garments were determined by a 3D body scanner. The results showed the relative changes of Itand Reof thawbs due to wind and walking motion are greater than those of cheongsams, which provided an explanation of why thawbs are preferred in extremely hot climate. It is further shown that thermal insulation and vapour resistance of thawbs increase with the air gap volume up to about 71,000 cm3and then decrease gradually. Thawbs with higher air permeability have significantly lower evaporative resistance particularly under windy conditions demonstrating the advantage of air permeable fabrics in body cooling in hot environments. Practitioner Summary:This paper aims to better understand the thermal insulation and vapour resistance of traditional Arabian thawbs and Chinese cheongsams, and the relationship between the thermal properties and their fit and design. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for designing ethnic clothing used in hot environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sorsogon City is a rapidly urbanising coastal area in the Philippines. Its location, combined with a rapidly changing and growing urban fabric, leaves it vulnerable to both incremental climate change and associated extreme weather events. In this paper, UN-HABITAT data are used to draw out the climate change vulnerabilities and policy responses in Sorsogon City. Vulnerability “hotspots” highlight the spatial intersection of socio-economic justice concerns, particularly in terms of vulnerability to increased cyclone activity. We discuss vulnerabilities of Sorsogon City and its citizens to climate change and measures undertaken through various social, environmental and technical systems and interventions to increase resilience. The paper also attempts to unpick the relationship between the neat, concise reported city and the complexities of urban life using the Sorsogon experiment to consider the limitations of such approaches to governing climate change. We group these under four headings: social simplification in the absence of data; over-governance (and under-representation); quick wins versus strategic investment; and stretching the ecological and vulnerability footprints of the city. The experience of Sorsogon City is then extended to reflect on issues of governance and planning in other Asian coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change processes pose significant challenges to development in cities across West Africa. These processes shape and mediate urban vulnerability across urban areas and hinder wider development efforts across these cities. This paper reviews these emerging perspectives within the context of UN-Habitat's work in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso and Saint-Louis, Senegal. It argues that policy-makers and researchers need to engage with issues of climate change and development at an urban scale and across “ordinary cities” through exploring the range of vulnerabilities inherent in each city. Specifically, the paper illustrates the diversities and similarities of climate change processes that exist across these two medium sized, or ordinary West African cities, the intersections with existing economic profiles and potential impacts and the emerging urban governance responses to these issues. It demonstrates the need to move beyond constructions of an archetypal “West African” city, and illustrates the emerging work by UN-Habitat and local partners in developing localised knowledges about urban vulnerabilities and the multiple and divergent ways in which these issues are beginning to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Addressing the causes and consequences of environmental degradation presents significant challenges for humankind. This paper considers what ergonomics/human factors (E/HF) professionals can contribute to understanding and tackling some of the issues that arise through the movement towards a more environmentally sustainable economy. These issues are considered in relation to work in green industries (specifically, sustainable energy production, recycling and organic food production), and there is a need to ensure that these jobs are safe and healthy; the design of products and systems that are ‘environmentally friendly’ to facilitate their acceptability and use and how E/HF professionals can contribute to understanding and promoting behavioural change relating to environmental choices. The activities of some international organisations in this area are identified and the potential for E/HF involvement is considered. The implications for the E/HF profession are discussed. Practitioner summary:This paper considers how ergonomics/human factors professionals can contribute to the movement towards more sustainable and ‘environmentally friendly’ design and work. Potential challenges and opportunities are discussed in relation to jobs in green industries, products and systems and behaviour change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The term “geospatial technologies” encompasses a large area of fields involving cartography, spatial analysis, geographic information system, remote sensing, global positioning systems and many others. These technologies should be expected to be available (as “natural tools”) for a country with a large surface and a variety of climates, such as Argentina. The present paper offers a brief description of the geographical features of Argentina, its facilities and resources related to geospatial technologies, and consequently examines the extent to which these techniques are being taught at higher education in this country. Hence, the aim of this paper is to stimulate the teaching of geospatial technologies in the universities, in order to improve the welfare of the Argentinan society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of solid scientific evidence that anthropogenic climate change will affect the conditions for life on earth, little climate action is taking place. This paper discusses this apparent paradox. The main message is that lack of climate action has to do with the ways in which climate change interlinks with society. Climate change is representative of what in the paper is defined as 'modern environmental problems'. Unlike 'traditional' environmental problems, 'modern' environmental problems are 'internal' to society and are 'societal' problems as much as they are environmental problems. The paper discusses how climate change must be understood in an overlapping interface between nature and society, and based on this theoretical analysis the paper discusses a number of contradictions and paradoxes illuminating the problems of linking knowledge and climate action. The concluding section calls for new methodological approaches to linking knowledge and climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with an application of dynamic games for the design of efficient climate policies involving both adaptation and mitigation elements. More precisely, this paper extends the integrated assessment model Ada-BaHaMa to a game theoretic framework where several world regions define non-cooperatively their energy and climate policies all the while being affected by climate change damages induced by their total greenhouse gas emissions. The paper provides also a numerical illustration for a setting with two players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews several papers and articles on the relationship between gender and climate change, including "Gender, Water and Development," edited by Anne Coles and Tina Wallace, "The Gender and Water Development Report 2003: Gender Perspectives on Policies in the Water Sector" from GWA, and "Gender Mainstreaming: An Essential Component of Sustainable Water Management" by Kristen Lewis.

Climate change awareness has taken a dramatic turn in Australia, intensifying debate over the meaning of prolonged drought for rural futures, with critical implications for rural mental health. This paper is drawn from research on perceptions of Australian climate during a period of marked shift in public awareness of climate change (2004–2007). It utilises oral histories gathered in dryland farm communities of the semiarid Victorian Mallee at the edge of the nation's commercial cropping zone—in particular, the stories of women's health workers—to highlight the interdependency of environmental, economic, political and mental health concerns in rural and remote communities. Focusing on lived experience, the paper explores the narratives through which people have apprehended drought and climate change—in discourse of endurance, uncertainty and putative adaptation—revealing advocacy and local resolve in the provision of rural mental health services, and, fundamentally, a paradigm of embodiment in rural social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Coastal communities are among the most vulnerable to climate risks. Despite the negligence of climate policy at the federal level in the United States, subnational governments have taken action to adapt to climate change impacts. Using national-level data on subnational government climate activities, this research examines three aspects of coastal community adaptation actions. First, it examines whether there are differences in climate adaptation activity between coastal and non-coastal communities. It then tests the relative importance of political partisanship, population, perception of climate risk, and awareness of state-level climate planning effort. Lastly, it examines the impact of participation within climate policy networks on the likelihood of a subnational government taking a climate adaptation action. Three types of network partners are examined: those focused on sea-level rise and coastal communities, climate change mitigation, and general environmental organizations. Concern about severe storms, awareness of state plans, and having a network partner focused either on climate mitigation or the environment were found to be statistically significant indicators of climate adaptation action. The paper discusses the importance of understanding the localized context of adaptation within nested governance structures, and how informal policy networks can facilitate learning and innovation across coastal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers key drivers to climate policy development with an emphasis on the role of a jurisdiction's underlying energy resource. The states of Hawaii in the United States and Victoria in Australia provide an insightful comparative case study given their differing energy resources: Hawaii has no native fossil fuel resources but abundant renewable energy options while Victoria has an economy traditionally reliant on cheap, plentiful coal. The Advocacy Coalition Framework is applied to analyze why the two states, despite the different incentives provided by their energy resources, developed similar climate policies in the earlier period of policy response to global warming. Analysis finds the stable parameter of energy resources is counterbalanced by other policy drivers including public opinion, leadership and, in particular, features of policy-making particular to the subnational level that provide a different context for climate policy development to that offered at the national level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to a sustainable society requires the development of visions paving the way for socio-technical changes. In recent years, the literature on sustainable transitions and urban planning has highlighted the intermediation role of municipalities to implement international and national goals and visions at a local level. Yet, empirical research studying municipalities from the lens of the intermediation theory are sparse. This paper aims at contributing to a better understanding of what strategies municipalities use when intermediating between and within different scales of governance (i.e. local, national and international), and what factors influence the choice of strategies. Through semi-structured interviews and document studies, three Swedish municipalities are studied. Results show that these municipalities translate the visions through local experiments, task delegation and coalitions. Additionally, the analysis indicates that the local circumstances, rather than the relations between the local level and the higher levels of governance or the guidance of national policies, influence the choice of intermediation strategy. Particularly, whether the management approach is centralized or decentralized, result- or process-oriented, participative or exclusive, is determinant. Results also indicate that municipalities perform both top-down and bottom-up intermediation, i.e. closing the loop from the local to the national and/or international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overheating in buildings arising from climatic extreme heat events has been identified as a health concern to vulnerable occupants. However, there have been very limited studies to generate suitable weather data to evaluate by simulation the overheating risk and its effect on the comfort and health of occupants. This paper develops a methodology to identify reference summer weather years (RSWY) for overheating risk analysis. The methodology includes generation of historical climate data, and development of a heat stress metric for the definition and characterization of heat events. The Standard Effective Temperature was selected among a short list of popular metrics, modified and named t-SET to account for transient heat events, activity levels of occupants, and thermoregulatory controls of sleeping subjects. The t-SET model predictions compared well with measured body temperatures of subjects undergoing multi-stage activities under hot conditions. The t-SET index was used to generate RSWY for selected Canadian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate advocacy organizations are increasingly focused on citizen mobilization via social media as a strategy, proposing that by mobilizing the existing climate issue public into expressive action they will better be able to pressure policy makers. This paper explores the origins of and rates of participation in bursts of collective attention to the climate issue on Twitter over a five-year period. We find low levels of repeated user participation over time in spikes of public attention to climate on Twitter, while also identifying a small group of organizations and individuals who are "serial" participants in climate actions on Twitter. The high rate of participant turnover suggests continued questions about how to sustain public attention to the climate issue over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is one of the most complex and polarizing topics to recently emerge in museum education. It is also a topic that has emerged at the precise time that museums are undergoing great transition, moving away from an authoritarian framework toward a democratic one that seeks to integrate diverse audiences and multiple perspectives. Climate change has manifest at a moment when the legitimacy and authority of science is being publicly questioned and debated. In the post-truth era of "fake news" and disposable facts, with the public increasingly suspicious and distrustful of media and government to provide reliable and accurate information, museums are positioned to assume an essential role in public education on climate change. Drawing upon research conducted at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science on visitors' understanding and expectations on climate change messaging, this paper explores the critical role research and evaluation assume in the emerging discourse on climate change in science museums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines biased incentives for the production and use of climate change research. On this basis, it proposes ways to restructure the science-policy interface to better deal with these biases. Drawing on insights from information economics, we argue that policy-makers and the media have a tendency to pay more attention to extreme results, e.g. because they confirm their ideological position or make a good story. This "adverse selection" of scientific results located at both ends of the distribution of scientific knowledge hence conveys the impression of more uncertainty than there actually is. In addition, this effect may also create "moral hazard" for scientists to engage in research that receives substantial public attention, e.g. by presenting point estimates instead of thoroughly discussing uncertainties and sensitivities of their results. To avoid that the market for public attention turns into a "market for lemons", we recommend that scientists should adopt the logic of assessment-making instead and rely more on meta-studies. We also highlight the importance of providing best-practice guidelines for the treatment of scientific uncertainty, incorporating the communication of uncertainty in university curricula and establishing face-to-face dialogue forums between researchers and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As local climate adaptation activity increases, so does the number of questions about costs, benefits, financing and the role that economic considerations play in adaptation-related decision-making and policy. Through five cases, covering a range of climate risks and types of adaptation measures, this paper critically examines Swedish project coordinators' perceptions of costs and benefits in already-implemented climate adaptation measures. Our study finds that project coordinators make use of different system boundaries – on temporal, geographical and administrative scales – in their cost/benefit evaluations, making the practice of determining adaptation costs arbitrary and hard to compare. We further demonstrate that the project coordinators interpret costs and benefits in a manner that downplays the intangible environmental and social costs and benefits arising from the adaptation measures, despite their own experience of how such measures negatively impact upon social value. The exclusion of social and environmental costs and benefits has severe implications for justice, as it can bias decisions against people and ecosystems that are affected negatively. Based on the findings, we propose three tentative social justice dilemmas in local climate adaptation planning and implementation: 1. Cost and benefit distribution across scales; 2. The identification and valuation of non-market effects; and 3. The equitable allocation of costs and benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In debates of climate action, low carbon development has been widely advocated as an opportunity arising from climate change. This paper problematizes low carbon development, arguing that there are undesirable, unintended or perverse effects that give rise to distinct and serious security concerns. The literature on climate security has addressed the effects of climate threats on conflict but there is a notable paucity of research analysing the security implications of responses to climate change in the form of low carbon development. The paper presents critical analysis of the ways low carbon development yields new security concerns as well as entrenching existing ones. Five dimensions of security are examined: spatially uneven effects of low carbon development; violent imaginaries of the global south and the production of 'ungoverned spaces'; non-violent yet harmful instances of conflict; marginalization and dispossession; depoliticized, techno-managerial effects of resilience. The paper shows that climate (in)security manifests in variegated ways between different populations and spatial scales. Consequently, how, when for whom low carbon development becomes a threat or opportunity is socially constructed and deeply political. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about the identification of the changing world climate drivers and speculation concerning the future impact such drivers will have on countries in the southern hemisphere, especially Australia and New Zealand. A focus for the above is a case study of climate change which has induced severe hardships in the Bendigo region of Victoria, Australia. The authors are of the opinion this experience, in this extremely climate sensitive agricultural area, is a forerunner to what could occur to many regions in the southern hemisphere. The case study shows the vulnerability of communities to instruments of governance established during periods of stability and urges the urgent need for modified governance instruments during periods of rapid climatic change. The paper commences the discussion about the meaning, relevance and reality of sustainability for communities during times of climatic uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation presents particular challenges in urban areas, where historic and current investment in fixed stock and infrastructure might constrain adaptation. This paper explores how two elements of adaptive capacity - building that capacity and delivering adaptation actions - are likely to be constrained by wider social and economic factors affecting urban societies. Public open space in urban areas, although having a vital role to play under conditions of climate change, is already a contested policy area. Using the field of outdoor thermal comfort as an example of current adaptive behaviour, the paper reports on a study that examined the perceptions of thermal comfort of different users of public spaces in Manchester. It considers the implications of climate change scenarios for the ability to maintain thermal comfort in open spaces and examines the scope for physical intervention, such as through urban and built form design, to build adaptive capacity. However, it also explores possible scenarios of urban life under conditions of climate change and concludes that socio-economic determinants of access to and management of open space are likely to be of critical significance in delivering adaptation options, which are accessible to all and meet objectives of social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]