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Insurance and compensation are cited as critical elements of resilience to natural and non-natural hazards alike. As a strategy of risk management, it emphasises peace of mind, financial recompense and the swift restoration of a ‘business as usual’ status for civil, social and commercial life. Yet despite the contribution of insurance to risk management, the synergies with progressive or adaptive articulations of resilience are not sufficiently explicated. This paper explores the fundamental contradictions of insurance as a form of resilience through a study of flood risk management. It demonstrates how insurance regimes serve to structurally embed risky behaviour and inhibit change after detrimental events. As such, transformative interpretations of resilience conflict with the long-standing principles and operational norms of insurance that privilege normality. The paper concludes that, despite its currency within resilience discourses, insurance is maladaptive and that insurance regimes reinforce exposure and vulnerability through underwriting a return to the ‘status-quo’ rather than enabling adaptive behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Institutional responses to climate change stresses through planning will require new and amended forms of governance. Institutional framing of change imperatives can significantly condition associated governance responses. This paper builds on scholarly conversations concerning the conceptual role of ‘storylines’ in shaping institutional responses to climate change through governance. I draw on conceptual perspectives of climate change as a ‘transformative stressor’, which can compel institutional transformation within planning. The concepts of storylines and transformative stressors are conceptually linked. The conceptual approach is applied to an empirical enquiry focused on the regional planning regime of South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. In this paper I report on and examine three institutional storylines of responding to climate change through planning governance in SEQ. I conclude that the manifestation of climate change as a transformative stressor in SEQ prompted institutional transformation, leading to a dominant storyline focused on climate adaptation as an important facet of regional planning governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over two decades, municipal climate progress has been inventoried and analysed using a common reporting framework. While useful for highlighting the extent of municipal engagement in greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, we know little about how comprehensive this reporting framework is. Are municipal governments engaging in mitigation activities outside this framework? And what about climate adaptation activity for which no long-standing milestone reporting framework has existed? Based on results from a national survey of municipal governments in Canada, the paper reveals that municipal governments are engaged in many climate activities and processes that common inventories and reporting systems do not capture. The paper argues that these ‘in between activities’ – the not-yet counted climate actions that take place between and outside of milestone initiation and completion – have practical importance for future climate action and theoretical importance by complementing growing evidence about the nature of municipal climate activities and climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will result in large challenges that require societies to adapt to and manage increased risks. Regional practices of climate adaptation often take shape within multilevel governance networks in which representatives of different levels of government, policy sectors, public and private parties may discuss and negotiate potential measures. This paper aims to explore the role of leadership in enhancing the adaptive capacity of multilevel governance networks and in supporting regional practices of climate adaptation. The paper reviews two initiatives toward climate adaptation, the WaalWeelde initiative in the Netherlands and the Manhood Peninsula Partnership in the UK, based on policy documentation and analysis of in total 17 semistructured interviews with public and private actors. The study illustrates both the large differences in organization of water management, spatial planning, and flood risk policies, as well as strong similarities in the way in which leadership may contribute to the development of initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies processes of adaptation to a changing climate in the water supply and wastewater sector in five Norwegian municipalities. Our case illustrates that the combination of characteristics of climate adaptation as a policy issue, institutional characteristics related to the vertical organization of the water sector in Norway, and characteristics of the professional network between local and national levels of governance seem to have been conducive to problem awareness and proactive approaches to problem solving. Our findings contradict the general picture drawn in the literature concluding that adaptation efforts are mainly reactive and internally related to the sector. We identify important mechanisms related to the production of policy solutions in governance networks mediating knowledge between different institutional levels. By these observations, the paper should contribute to the debate about the working of governance networks, and in particular to the knowledge about factors that are conducive to effective network governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change (CC) is a new and, up to 2013, voluntary planning area in Denmark, and it is perceived as an interdisciplinary field affecting several professions. CC is integrated into bureaucratised municipal organisations characterised by a fragmented organisational structure and strong institutional traditions and perceptions. With this paper I examine different approaches to CC governance and the institutional dynamics that occur in the integration process within eight Danish municipalities in the initial phase of integrating CC. The results show three different governance approaches related to CC planning: experimental, negotiation, and standardisation. This paper contributes insights into the intrainstitutional dynamics at the local level when climate plans are to be implemented in practice, and it adds perspectives on the role of local established networks rather than international networks for less affluent municipalities to act on CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gales of climate change blow the future open and closed. In response, we are having to learn to live with a renewed notion of limits and a novel level of uncertainty. One emerging governance response is a turn to scenario planning, which generates narratives about multiple futures refracted out from the present. Like climate change itself, scenario planning, and the broader field of futures studies it is part of, is historically and socially positioned, belying its application as a mere method or tool. This paper discusses the growing turn to scenario planning within government climate change adaptation initiatives in light of parallel shifts in governance (eg, interest in efficiency and wicked problems) and adaptation efforts (eg, framed as risk management or resilience) and their shared roots in the ambiguities of sustainable development. It provides an extended introduction to a theme issue that provides, overall, a nested discussion of the role of scenario planning by government for climate change adaptation, noting how governance, climate change adaptation, and scenario planning all fold together the motifs of openness and closedness. This paper engages with the emerging field of future geographies and critical interest in future orientations to highlight the way society's growing engagement on climate change adaptation exposes, critiques, replicates, and amplifies our existing orientations to the future and time and their politically contested and embedded character. It points to the way the motif of open futures can be both progressive and conservative, as political and economic interests seek to open up some futures while closing down others in the name of the ambivalent goals of adaptation and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some of the limitations of individualistic approaches towards the study and promotion of environmentally sustainable practices within the context of efforts by states to tackle global climate change. Using the example of government attempts to promote sustainable mobility through behavioural shifts amongst citizens in the UK, the paper argues that an overreliance on individualistic approaches poses three major challenges through the ways in which: (1) mobility is intricately entwined with social practices and consumption settings; (2) practices of (un)sustainable mobility are related to the structure and organisation of physical environments; and (3) solutions for sustainable mobility are framed through narrow political lenses that fail to address the potential social transformations needed to tackle climate change. Accordingly, the paper argues that both researchers and policy makers need to revisit the assumptions made concerning the role of individuals and their relationship to underlying sociostructural and political challenges for reducing carbon emissions from transport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers engagement with sustainable development in the rich industrialized countries since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, focusing particularly on environmental limits. It argues that while the idea of 'limits' is in one sense ubiquitous, contemporary societies are only beginning to come to terms with its implications. The discussion considers different understandings of environmental limits, explores the example of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, reflects on fruitful ways to approach environmental limits, and references recent 'green growth' and 'green economy' initiatives associated with Rio+20. It suggests that normative judgments are essential to give social and political meaning to environmental limits, and notes the importance of defining the positive social goods that are to be secured through the recognition of such limits. The paper particularly emphasizes the importance of securing absolute reductions in critical environmental loadings, because this is the side of the issue which tends to be obscured when sustainable development is reduced to a 'quality-of-life' agenda and severed from concerns with global equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we draw conclusions from the contributions to this theme issue that all explored the links between environmental change, migration, and governance. We have three objectives. The first is to identify key themes emerging from each of the papers and to consider their significance. The second is to specify overarching implications of the work gathered in this theme issue. The third is to identify areas where future research would be beneficial in further enhancing understanding of the links between environmental change, migration, and governance in the context of adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon the recent carbon market turmoil to understand how the private realm is imagined in global climate governance. Instead of asking which entities (eg, public or private authorities) govern the carbon economy, we draw attention to the procedures (eg, caps on emissions, techniques of verification, or performance standards) by which carbon markets are made thinkable and governable as administrative domains. When focusing on these 'calculative practices', carbon market governance does not signify a retreat of the state. Rather, in this paper we argue that the involvement of nonstate actors in the governance of carbon markets represents a transformation of political rule that replaces formal and hierarchical techniques of government with more indirect regimes of calculation. From this vantage point carbon market governance emerges as an expression of a changing rationality of government where the private realm becomes elevated from being a passive terrain to be acted upon and instead turned into an entity that is both object and subject of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we present an analysis of sixty transnational governance initiatives and assess the implications for our understanding of the roles of public and private actors, the legitimacy of governance 'beyond' the state, and the North-South dimensions of governing climate change. In the first part of the paper we examine the notion of transnational governance and its applicability in the climate change arena, reflecting on the history and emergence of transnational governance initiatives in this issue area and key areas of debate. In the second part of the paper we present the findings from the database and its analysis. Focusing on three core issues, the roles of public and private actors in governing transnationally, the functions that such initiatives perform, and the ways in which accountability for governing global environmental issues might be achieved, we suggest that significant distinctions are emerging in the universe of transnational climate governance which may have considerable implications for the governing of global environmental issues. In conclusion, we reflect on these findings and the subsequent consequences for the governance of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the results from two surveys which were sent to all Norwegian municipalities in 2007 and gives an overview of adaptation measures undertaken by local governments. Our analyses show that municipalities have more often invested in measures related to extreme precipitation and flooding than in measures for securing buildings and infrastructure against climate change. One key factor explaining their efforts is whether they have experienced extreme events. Hence adaptation efforts are mainly reactive. With a changing climate comes a greater demand for proactive adaptation processes, as well as knowledge of how adaptation policies and measures could be implemented successfully. This paper emphasises the importance of enhancing institutional capacity in order to address the challenges of climate change adaptation at the municipal level; and asserts that a multilevel governance framework is a way of advancing proactive adaptation and overcoming the identified barriers to adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much flood risk management (FRM) research has examined the predicted increased burden of risk from future climate change. In contrast, this paper examines the changing funding regime for FRM and arrangements for flood insurance in the UK today. These changes, after the 1998–2013 period of severe and repeated flooding, may considerably increase the burden for at-risk households, but affect different groups differently, raising the question as to how to manage the risk and who should pay for this risk management. We explore this through scenarios incorporating modelled changes both to government investment to reduce risk and to flood insurance. The key findings are that moving towards a more risk-based approach could move the burden hugely, particularly onto financially deprived at-risk households, such that both investment and insurance could be unaffordable or unavailable. As insurance becomes more risk based, deprived households are less likely to purchase cover, but higher costs might incentivise those at risk to adapt to the risk they face. In the end, society has to decide whether to promote more substantial incentives discouraging occupation of the floodplain, with the likely adverse consequences for those there who are financially deprived, or retain the current discouragement of self-help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent rise in the use of third-party standards and rating systems to evaluate the sustainability or greenness of urban programs and policies includes their explicit incorporation into municipal policy in the case of certified green buildings. In this paper the theoretical framework of performativity is used to explain how multiple forms of city activity interlock through policy to name, repeat, and recount the city as a leader--which, in this particular discursive formation, means being green. By performing greenness to their peers, city staff and elected officials work on the city's identity as an innovator and leader. Furthermore, the internal performance of greenness to residents and businesspeople indicates the appropriate role of local government in relation to private sector activity and protecting citizens, including taking on the risks of new technologies and practices to ease the way for private capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we explore the potential of a framework of ethical governance for low-carbon energy. Developing mainly in the field of information and communications technology, ethical governance is concerned with the marginalisation of ethical and moral issues during development and deployment of new technologies. Focusing on early carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) projects, we argue that a focus on technical arguments in the governance of low-carbon energy similarly risks sidelining deeper issues such as fairness, justice, and values. We believe an ethical governance approach does have potential for low-carbon energy technologies like CCS, but also that climate change mitigation technologies pose particular challenges for the implementation of ethical governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we ponder this question: what types of institutional principles would help to establish a macroregional climate change adaptation strategy in the Baltic Sea Region? Inspired by a new institutionalism approach, we trace some of the important elements of regulatory and normative institutional functions. We then discuss how topdown and bottom-up government and governance can contribute to a macroregional climate change adaptation strategy, and profile the local, national, and transnational development efforts that are already underway to facilitate coordination and learning about climate change adaptation in the Baltic Sea Region. Finally, we look at the specific role that a macroregional climate change adaptation strategy has in helping to manage institutional complexity inherent in a multilevel governance context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights planning interventions in countries that have implemented successful greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies while continuing to increase per capita GDR Screening and reviewing all countries in the world, with this research I have identified nine countries that have steadily decoupled per capita carbon emissions from GDP. GHG emission profiles and pertinent policies from national case studies demonstrate the built environment sectors most responsive (waste, residential, land-use change, and forestry) and least responsive (transportation) to GHG reduction policies without import substitution. A comparison amongst case-study countries and theoretical models indicates the best opportunities for targeting GHG reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to climate change is a new responsibility for state and local government. Yet there is little clarity about what is involved, beyond an expectation of acting in a rational, informed manner. This paper presents a study from Victoria, Australia into public servants' perceptions and experiences of using scenario techniques for adaptation. It suggests that while scenario development is often positive for those involved, utilising scenarios to directly 'inform' adaptation decision making is more difficult. It seems that scenarios are a valuable but awkward form of evidence in the contemporary environment of evidence-based adaptation, introducing new substantive knowledge in an unfamiliar form, easily dismissed on credibility, legitimacy, and salience grounds. While scenario thinking is a good fit with climate change adaptation, it clashes with the predictive paradigm underlying the evidence-based decision-making model. This suggests that, for adaptation to better fit the institutional environment, alterations to the latter are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I set the emergence of 'coinquiry' approaches to public engagement in the context of the apparent inability of conventional arrangements to contribute effectively to the transition to environmental sustainability. I explicate characteristics of coinquiry, which is distinguished from 'upstream engagement', in so doing developing criteria with which to evaluate its application. Examining documentary sources, I identify and critically review projects funded by the UK Beacons for Public Engagement on the topic of environment and sustainability. The conclusion highlights the factors limiting the capacity of the Beacon initiative--and possibly that of similar national initiatives to be undertaken in the future--to attain stated objectives relating to public engagement with environment and sustainability matters and the practice of coinquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a powerful reminder of the interdependencies of the human- nature relationship and the fallacy of the modernist assumption about our ability to tame nature for our exploitation with little or no consequences. However, it is argued that such reflexivity is being subverted by the dominant discourses of climate change which portray: nature as risk, our relation to it in terms of security, and the quest for urban resilience as emergency planning. By construing nature as a threat to rather than an asset for cities, they signify a departure from sustainability discourses. They represent a hark back to a premodern conception of human-nature relations that was centred on what nature does to us rather than what we do to nature. Seeing nature as risk ushers in deep concerns with security. The 'risk society' becomes entwined with the security society. This paper examines the political implications of this discursive shift and argues that, as securitisation becomes the hegemonic discourse of our time, the postpolitics of hope, which underpinned sustainability, is giving way to the postpolitics of fear which underlies climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a highly contested policy issue in Australia, generating fierce debate at every level of governance. In this paper we explore a crucial tension in both the policy and the public debate: a seeming lack of attention to social inclusion and broader equity implications. We pay special attention to the municipal scale, where concerns about social difference and democratic participation are often foregrounded in political discourse, using South East Queensland--a recognised climate change 'hotspot'--as a case study. Mobilising critical discourse analysis techniques, we interrogate three local government climate change response strategies, and place these in the context of transscalar discourse networks which appear to sustain a technocratic, 'ecological modernisation' approach to the issue. Finally, we suggest a broad strategy for reimagining this approach to embed a notion of climate justice in our policy thinking about climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a 'wicked' problem. No central authority manages climate change, and those creating the problem are also trying to solve it. Climate change brings uncertainty in ways that cities have not tackled previously. There is a need to explore new governance forms able to deal with change and to enable transformations. In this paper we explore seven local climate innovations to better understand the enabling conditions underpinning success and the governance barriers that are encountered. We connect the more formal and emergent climate governance 'innovations' through adaptation and mitigation experiments in Mumbai, India. Case studies indicate an emerging development model. Effective climate governance has to be an inevitable part of new development in the South. While climate externality exists in all development planning and implementation, smaller community-level efforts indicate how opportunities are offered within existing systems to integrate with larger institutional climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and metropolitan regions are increasingly becoming key locations within which adaptation to climate change is taking place. New modes of governance arrangements are also emerging in cities, and these enable new actors to engage in decision making. In this paper I discuss governance of adaptation in Helsinki. On the basis of empirical data from the private and the third sector, I show how the governance of adaptation is organised within the metropolitan region and, more specifically, what policy instruments are used and what objectives these measures have. The findings suggest that whilst challenges of vertical governance of adaptation remain, there are also challenges in terms of horizontal governance of adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper I investigate the role of civil society groups in speeding the urban adoption of green technologies (in particular, renewable energy systems) by creating economic niches, and catalyzing market transformations. I focus on a qualitative case study of Solarize Portland, a community-managed solar energy program that has transformed the local and regional market for solar energy in Portland, OR. This case study is analyzed through the lens of recent theories of public participation that emphasize the multiplicity and complexity of participatory processes in practice. I conclude that--thanks to their flexibility, risk tolerance, and locally embedded understanding of technological change--civil society groups have the capacity to design and implement significant urban sustainability projects. They achieve this by creating niches within the urban landscape that allow local small and medium-sized enterprises to develop and refine their businesses practices; by coordinating novel partnerships between state, community, and private-level actors; and by grounding technological change in the broader social networks that give them meaning and momentum. These findings speak directly to the way that cities approach the complex sociotechnical transitions involved in reshaping urban infrastructure to respond to the challenge of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a number of cities around the world the adoption of climate policies has been driven by partnerships between multiple actors from the private sector, NGOs, and academia. With this paper we investigate the formulation and implementation processes of climate policy in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. We argue that the trend of multiactor and multilevel participation in climate policy making, detected in developed countries, can be observed in a major city from an emerging economy. We further argue that the ample engagement of actors driving the adoption of climate policies might not be reflected in policy implementation. Although São Paulo's Municipal Climate Law was adopted after a participatory process, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the transport sector have been largely absent from its implementation. We propose four reasons for further involvement of SMEs and suggest that participation of relevant actors and sectors is necessary in both the formulation and the implementation of climate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we analyze Minneapolis's urban food policy regime and attempt to make a case for applying urban regime theory (URT) to study climate change governance at the municipal level. In 2008 Minneapolis launched Homegrown Minneapolis, a multiple stakeholder initiative bringing together local government actors, businesses, and NGOs to build a sustainable and local food system. As the link between food systems and climate change is increasingly acknowledged in the literature, the analysis of food policy regimes provides valuable lessons for understanding the dynamics of urban climate governance. Theoretically, we attempt to contribute to the fields of urban climate governance and urban political theory by applying URT as developed by urban political theorist Clarence N Stone and others. To this end, a 'building blocks' approach is introduced, facilitating and enhancing the analysis of the different elements of a regime, including initiation, coalition building, agenda setting, resources, cooperation, and consensus building. We show that there are several key elements comprising successful regimes: individual political leadership, knowledge exchange, and community-wide collaborative engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While some jurisdictions are demonstrating leadership on climate change, it is clear that sufficient mitigation of climate change is not occurring. This highlights the importance of innovative approaches that bolster politically fraught international treaties and voluntary networks with strategies that exploit the strengths of a variety of traditional and nontraditional actors. With this paper we examine just such an innovation in the form of a multisector and multilevel network linking together the regional authority Metro Vancouver in the Canadian province of British Columbia, several municipal governments, a social enterprise, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises to act on climate change. This case demonstrates that while complementarity of actions across levels and sectors is not always achieved, it is nonetheless likely to contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emission reductions in the urban context. Interview and survey data also highlight that each sector and level of governance can provide what it is good at or capable of in order to enable others to contribute their share. Whether this is done on an ad hoc basis or in the form of partnerships, networks or agreements may vary from case to case, and further research is needed to understand what forms of multilevel and multisector partnerships, networks, and agreements are most conducive to achieving desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the single largest contributor to climate change. Thus it is important that, where possible, low-carbon infrastructure is integrated into cities to try to reduce C02 emissions. Planning (plans, policy, and process) can encourage this. In this paper international best practice is drawn upon to explore a range of planning approaches-- collaborative, systemic, and market shaping--that have been used to introduce low-carbon infrastructure into cities. A new typology is developed and the strengths and weaknesses of planning approaches are evaluated. The importance of context in the success of each approach is highlighted and suggestions are made for the circumstances in which each may be most effectively employed, while exploring how planning can be used to provide a 'protected space' in which low-carbon systems can develop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relevance of various leadership concepts for climate change adaptation. After defining four main leadership challenges which are derived from the key characteristics of climate adaptation issues, a review of modern leadership theories addressing these challenges is presented. On the basis of this review we develop an integrative framework for analyzing leadership for climate change adaptation. It distinguishes between various leadership functions which together contribute to climate change adaptation: the political-administrative, adaptive, enabling, connective, and dissemination functions. Each function requires the execution of specific leadership tasks which can be performed by different types of leaders, such as positional leaders, ideational leaders, sponsors, boundary workers, policy entrepreneurs, or champions. The framework can be used to analyze or monitor the emergence and realization of specific leadership functions and to specify the need for strengthening particular functions in practices of climate adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision makers are facing unprecedented challenges in addressing the likely impacts of climate change on land use. Changes to climate can affect the long-term viability of certain industries in a particular geographical location. Government policies in relation to provision of infrastructure, management of water, and incentives for revegetation need to be planned. Those responsible for key decisions are unlikely to be expert in all aspects of climate change or its implications, and thus require scientific data communicated to them in an easily understood manner with the scope to explore the implications. It is often felt that a range of visualisation techniques, both abstract and realistic, can assist in this communication. However, their effectiveness is seldom evaluated. In this paper we review the literature on processes for the evaluation of visualisation tools and representations. From this review an evaluation framework is developed and applied through an experiment in visualisation of climate change, land suitability, and related data using a variety of tools and representational options to advance our knowledge of which visualisation technique works, when, and why. Our region of interest was the south-western part of Victoria, Australia. Both regional and local data and their implications were presented to end users through a series of visualisation products. The survey group included policy makers, decision makers, extension staff, and researchers. They explored the products and answered both specific and exploratory questions. At the end of the evaluation session their knowledge and attitudes were compared with those at the commencement and they were also asked to assess the visualisation options subjectively. The findings relate to both the visualisation options themselves and the process of evaluation. The survey group was particularly keen to have access to multiple interactive tools and the ability to see scenarios side-by-side within a deeper informational context. A number of procedural recommendations for further evaluation were developed, including the need for consistency in approach among researchers in order to develop more generalisable findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that mainstreaming of climate change into existing EU sectoral policies is a key aim, empirical knowledge of how it works in practice remains scarce. With this paper we explore the degree to which climate considerations are taken into account in the implementation of one of the most influential pieces of European water legislation, the Water Framework Directive and, more importantly, we assess possible explanations for the geographical variability in levels of mainstreaming observed. Our empirical research is based on an analysis of both EU and local policy documents, as well as more than forty in-depth interviews, and shows that, for various reasons, the degree of mainstreaming that has taken place differs widely. We conclude that timely incentives and clear guidance will be necessary to ensure progress is made by all, but that a residual fear that the adaptation agenda is open to abuse by those seeking to rationalise failures to fully implement the Water Framework Directive has put a brake on the mainstreaming agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper I focus on international legal norms and organizational roles and relations applicable to migration induced by environmental change. I examine movements stemming directly and indirectly from environmental factors related to climate change--including, for example, movements resulting from intensified drought and desertification affecting livelihoods, rising sea levels, intensified acute natural disasters, and competition for resources that result in intensified conflict. The analysis focuses on the extent to which legal and institutional responses affect patterns of mobility, especially in slow-onset situations, and the extent to which governance, more generally, affects the likelihood that people will migrate as a result of environmental factors, especially in humanitarian emergencies. I conclude that immigration policies, governance, and the level of development in affected countries play a crucial role in determining the responses to natural hazards and conflict. They also help determine if migration poses technical or managerial challenges or presents political challenges. Given the current gaps in appropriate migration policies, more attention needs to be placed on identifying and testing new frameworks for managing potential movements. Attention needs to be given to both sides of the environment and migration nexus: (1) identifying adaptation strategies that allow people to remain where they currently live and work; and (2) identifying migration and relocation strategies that protect people's lives and livelihoods when they are unable to remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we analyse and assess the role of the European Union (EU) in the governance of migration linked to environmental change. We trace the emergence of migration linked to environmental change as an issue on the EU agenda and examine both issue definition and the institutional location of EU responses. The EU is identified as a particularly significant potential actor in the broader debate about environmental change and migration, as it is the world's most developed form of regionalised supranational governance with responsibilities in the areas of both environmental and migration policy, albeit with little connection made, as yet, between the two. We show that the relationship between migration and environmental change emerged as an issue for the EU's foreign policy community before becoming part of the EU's 'Global Approach to Migration and Mobility'. We argue that there is a compelling argument for consideration of migration and environmental change in the context of adaptation and development policies, as well as broader debate and contestation of the meaning of these policies. This involves a rethink of some of the precepts and practices informing EU migration and asylum policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a framework for the theme issue by exploring links between environmental change and human migration. We review evidence that demonstrates that millions of people have moved or are likely to move towards and not away from environmental risk and hazard by moving from rural areas to rapidly growing urban areas. Moreover, some people may choose not to move or be unable to move. Environmental change may further erode household resources in such a way that migration becomes less and not more likely, even in the context of quite significant environmental change posing serious threats to the sustainability of livelihoods. This creates the possibility that populations will be trapped in areas that expose them to serious risk. We argue that the links between environmental change, migration, and governance are of significant importance, and directly influence the modes and efficacy of migration governance at different levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) receive much attention as a means to adapt urban environments to a changing climate. Yet little knowledge exists on how to adapt existing urban drainage systems by use of SUDS at the scale of entire sewer-sheds. This paper aims to assist landscape architects, engineers, and planners in the design of large-scale SUDS retrofi ts. It analyzes the fi rst loop in an exemplary design process for SUDS retrofi ts in a 15 km2 case-study area in Copenhagen, Denmark. A series of 'insights' and 'set backs' are revealed in the process and discussed in their importance for a successful design. The two most important aspects are identifi ed as the need to develop context specifi c solutions and the utilization of underlying hydrological conditions as generator of urban form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is widely acknowledged as a key business risk. Companies around the globe are taking action to mitigate their carbon emissions, develop climate-friendly products and services, and prepare for the negative impacts of climate change for their operations. Financial investors, on their part, are becoming more concerned about business responses to climate change and begin to demand concrete risk management strategies. In this context an increasing number of private initiatives are seeking to change business behaviour in a more sustainable direction. Key instruments used are governance by disclosure. This paper explores the agency of nonstate actors in manufacturing climate change into a key business risk, a development that enabled the use of disclosure-based governance mechanisms in global climate politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper I consider the role of diffuse nonstate and subnational actors working together in networks in Indian climate politics. The Indian government has maintained several core principles in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations since the emergence of climate change as a major international issue, and until recently the engagement of nonstate and subnational actors has been limited. However, new networked political actors are emerging that are widely linked into transnational networks, often supported by external funding and bringing new, diverse organisations into the debate. I argue that to understand their role and significance we must be more attentive to the spatiality of the policy process and must reconceptua-lise the relationship between nonstate actors and the state. The international arena is not the only area of climate politics, or necessarily the most significant, and attention to the role of local politics could develop a more rooted understanding of Indian climate politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessments of changing risks in the future often focus on climate change alone, and ignore other relevant drivers such as socioeconomic changes. If other relevant drivers are considered at all, expert judgment is often used to create scenarios and the underlying logic is not always apparent. In this paper we describe an algorithm-based method for developing quantitative future scenarios of the built environment in East Anglia, England with a focus on a coastal management unit, designated sub-cell 3b. The four UK Foresight socioeconomic storylines were inputs to the study: World Markets, Local Stewardship, Global Sustainability, and National Enterprise. On the basis of estimated regional demand, the distributions of new residential and nonresidential properties were calculated under all scenarios using a GIS-based multicriteria analysis. The buildings are distributed across a large swath of East Anglia using four attraction factors with different weightings to reflect the storylines. The factors are the existing settlements, transport networks, coastline, and floodplain. The results show increases in the number of residential and nonresidential properties within the coastal flood plain of sub-cell 3b under all socioeconomic scenarios, especially under World Markets and National Enterprise. These increases may lead to a significant increase in flood risk and to a lesser extent in the erosion risk in the study site. More importantly, the multicriteria method presented here demonstrates an algorithm-based approach that provides feasible and flexible tools for the development of socioeconomic scenarios in the context of impact and risk assessment. Hence, the scenario assumptions are explicit, reproducible and easily adjustable, as required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia came very close to legislating an emissions trading scheme as part of a climate policy package in 2009. This climate policy was driven by a new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, who had made addressing climate change his signature policy commitment both before and after the 2007 election that brought the Australian Labor Party to power. His climate policy was underpinned by two main inter- related narratives: ecological modernisation and climate justice. In this paper I consider the story of the Rudd government's climate policy experience through an ecological modernisation lens. In the end, it was the seeming disjuncture between political rhetoric and policy outcomes that brought the Rudd prime ministership down. The telling of the Rudd climate story through these narratives reveals some of the limitations of (mainstream) ecological modernisation as a major environmental management approach, as well as highlighting the vagaries of political leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

WaterSim, a simulation model, was built and implemented to investigate how alternative climate conditions, rates of population growth, and policy choices interact to affect future water supply and demand conditions in Phoenix, AZ. WaterSim is a hierarchical model that represents supply from surface and groundwater sources and demand from residential, commercial, and agricultural user sectors, incorporating the rules that govern reservoirs, aquifer use, and land-use change. In this paper we: (1) report on the imperative for exploratory modeling in water-resource management, given the deep uncertainties of climate change, (2) describe the geographic context for the Phoenix case study, (3) outline the objectives and structure of WaterSim, (4) report on testing the model with sensitivity analyses and history matching, (5) demonstrate the application of the model through a series of simulation experiments, and (6) discuss the model's use for scenario planning and climate adaptation. Simulation results show there are significant challenges to Phoenix's water sustainability from climate change and rapid growth. Policies to address these challenges require difficult tradeoffs among lifestyles, groundwater sustainability, the pace of growth, and what is considered to be an appropriate level of risk of climate-induced shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse the role played by cross-border organisations in the Guadiana river basin in Iberia, and the extent to which new emerging institutional arrangements carry on adaptive management practice as a response to mounting climate change risks in the river basin. Particular attention is paid to the new transboundary agencies, as promoted by the EU INTERREG programmes, and their potential for mainstreaming climate change considerations into Guadiana river basin development strategies. Results indicate that the penetration of climate change concerns into regional development policies requires a better integration of different policies and improved connectivity and coordination between multiple actors operating across sectors, and at different spatial scales. We argue that the emergence of new transboundary agencies capable of performing these bridging functions is a vital ingredient for building climate adaptive capacity in these cross-border regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the global population becomes increasingly urbanised, so interest has grown in the potential climate change impacts on city infrastructure, services, and environmental quality. However, urban areas are only beginning to be represented explicitly in the land-surface schemes of dynamical climate models through modified energy and moisture budgets. This paper summarises recent evidence of urban impacts on climate and vice versa. The technique of statistical downscaling is then introduced through exemplar studies of London's future urban heat island and peak ozone concentrations. Projections of both indices are derived from atmospheric variables supplied by four general circulation models, driven by a medium-high (A2) emissions scenario for the 2050s. The results show further intensification of the nocturnal heat island and higher ozone concentrations that are most pronounced in summer. These changes reflect sensitivity to variations in regional climate alone, so omit other factors such as changes in land use, emissions, climate feedbacks, or synergies between air quality and heat islands. Nonetheless, the downscaled scenarios are consistent with an emerging picture of increasing risks to human health in urban areas unless appropriate adaptation measures are taken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that environmental policy research could benefit from developing an understanding of how the concepts of ‘scale’, ‘scalar strategies’, and ‘struggles over scale’ play out empirically in processes of environmental policymaking and planning. I emphasise how scale, as an issue in environmental governance, is not merely an independent variable causing specific outcomes; rather, it is negotiable, allowing actors to adopt different strategies in order to pursue their varying agendas. I show bow a local struggle can be represented as a global struggle: a case study concerning the domestic use of natural gas in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, and how this metamorphosed into a struggle about what was the appropriate geographical scale at which the environmental and climatic consequences of a natural gas project should be assessed, is described. By framing climate change as a global issue, local actors were able to portray the natural gas project as environmentally friendly. I argue that the realisation of this natural gas project should be seen in light of how strategies over scale—which were developed in the debate—fitted with climate discourses institutionalised in national policy and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author offers information on a paper "Discourse coalitions and the Australian climate change policy network" by Harriet Bulkeley of the University of Durham, as the most downloaded paper from the periodical's website. He mentions that the paper was published in the journal in 2000 and deals with the governance of climate change. It adds the link for list of thirty most downloaded papers.