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Various analyses show that right-wing populist parties (RWP) tend to be sceptical of climate science and policy. This points to a blank space in the dominant analyses of populism: their blindness towards society-nature relations. This paper aims to develop an approach grounded in Cultural Political Economy (CPE) that can be used to decipher the mediation of RWP within the context of economic, political, and cultural developments as well as society–nature relations. Against this background, the argument is developed that RWP is concerned not only with countering migration and processes of societal liberalisation, but also with defending an existing way of life that is firmly rooted in the destructive appropriation of nature. As a current of right-wing politics, RWP defends the imperial mode of living by expressing scepticism towards the existence of anthropogenic climate change. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the political economy of RWP by linking the dimensions of social domination with the appropriation of nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have noted the compatibility of right-wing populism—centering on belief in an antagonistic relationship between 'the people' and 'the elite' – with climate change skepticism. In this paper, we examine process skepticism, a type of criticism that we argue is especially well-aligned with populism. Process skepticism focuses not on denying evidence of climate change (evidence skepticism) nor on critiquing policy responses (response skepticism), but on directly attacking the scientific and political processes underlying climate science and policy decision-making. We examine the prevalence of populist ideas in climate skeptical frames disseminated in U.S. media between 2008 and 2020. As expected, we find robust evidence of populist skepticism, particularly in far-right outlets. More importantly, the majority of populist messages were process skeptical in nature. The emergence of process skeptical populist frames may critically impede climate policy efforts by promoting distrust that is especially resistant to increasing scientific evidence or policy advancements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This article aims to situate climate change by examining three scalar dissonances between "global" and "local" knowledge-making and policy action. The three dissonances – the knowledge production and policy meaning-making nexus, the politics of urgency, and the politics of building socio-climatic future pathways – engage deeply with the emergent literature that deals with climate change from the perspective of Human Geography Studies and the Social Studies of Science and Technology (STS). By posing guiding questions and through examples primarily from Latin American countries, this paper lays out a research agenda that advances geographical sensitivity, allowing us to better understand the "other" geographies of climate science production, circulation, and information use. Furthermore, it highlights the unresolved political and interdisciplinary tensions in accommodating global narratives in regions of the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Antarctica is a crucial regulator of the world's climate, and as environmental security permeates global security, using Antarctic science to better understand climate is becoming increasingly pressing. Although the Australian Government has recognised that climate change poses 'a current and existential national security' threat and has acknowledged Antarctica's importance regarding the earth's global climate system, the focus of Australia's intelligence community pertaining to Antarctica currently remains restricted to upholding the military-security and diplomatic goals of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). This current focus aims to hedge against the possibility of conflict on, or over, the frozen continent via 'working the ATS', however, this paper argues that Antarctic climate science holds a greater capacity to deliver security outcomes for Australia. Antarctic climate science offers opportunities regarding intelligence for Antarctica, that is, securing Australia's Antarctic interests, as well as regarding intelligence from Antarctica; by enhancing natural disaster preparedness, bolstering broader strategic planning, as well as furthering diplomacy and the legitimisation of Australia's leadership on, and over, the frozen continent. It is recommended that the Commonwealth Government establish a climate intelligence working group to ensure the utility of climate science to security and intelligence is realised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academics have long regarded air travel as vital to pursuing a successful career. Meanwhile, many academics are at the frontline of climate change science and advocate the urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The conflict between combating global warming and high aeromobility practices traps academics in a loop of hypocrisy. However, COVID-19 presents an opportunity for academics to advance their research and careers with reduced aeromobility. This research investigates how academics have adapted to virtual working experiences during COVID-19 and the implications for establishing changes in aeromobility practices. Informed by the theory of practice change, this paper reports the findings of a comprehensive survey and interview programme in New Zealand. It provides insights into the prospects for reduced aeromobility and the institutional policy frameworks required to embed a new normal, considering the unique circumstances faced by academics working at geographically remote institutions. The findings reveal that instead of being trapped in a loop of hypocrisy, New Zealand academics face a moral quandary in being concerned about climate change and wishing to reduce aeromobility practices, while wanting to avoid compromising career success. Recommendations for academics to face this moral quandary and their institutions to support practice change are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because contemporary climate change is driven by anthropogenic forcings, it is necessary to factor humanity's impact into climate models. Given that not all humans are responsible for current climate change, and that many people are already unequally impacted by climate change, it is necessary to develop a more nuanced understanding of the human in climate modeling. Without this nuance, future climate policy, as determined by climate modeling, will potentially replicate historic inequalities that are already present in attributions to and impacts from a rapidly changing climate. This paper begins by briefly outlining how climate models are built, and the ways they are used in climate politics. Then, borrowing methods from climate modelers, this paper turns towards Sylvia Wynter's work to model the human. The ultimate aim of this paper is to think more expansively and creatively about how genres of humanity can better be represented in climate science and policy with an eye towards more just futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on Deborah Britzman's conceptualisation of 'difficult knowledge' and Michael Rothberg's figure of 'the implicated subject' to advance a Social Ecology of Responsibility Framework (SERF) in relation to the climate crisis.This framework demonstrates the impossibility of disarticulating individual, private actions that contribute to the ecological crisis from state-corporate climate-related harms. While not discounting differences of scale between individual actions and state-corporate crimes, the article highlights difficulties with binaristic approaches to climate responsibility which privilege either personal actions or macro-level norms, practices and ideologies. Foregrounding self-implication, the model serves as a basis for establishing transnational and transgenerational solidarity with human and other-than-human lifeforms who inhabit the Earth. The paper concludes with some examples of visual images and accompanying activities that can be used to prompt critical reflection on one's own positioning as an implicated subject and as a change agent who can contribute to the amelioration of global warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Through this point-of-departure paper we aim to prompt discussion and action around redesigning university learning to help students tackle climate-related challenges in a personally and societally meaningful way. We use the lens of assessment to draw attention to how discipline areas without an explicit environmental or climate science focus can play a fundamental part in prompting climate action. We draw on the very limited number of studies to date of assessment related to climate learning and on an illustrative example of teaching and assessing leadership practices for confronting climate change to make recommendations with relevance for all curricula. We reflect on assessment tools, approaches, strategies, and good practice that not only gauge the level of learning at individual and whole cohort level but also prompt meaningful learning to take place through the way they are designed, with potential impact outside the campus walls and beyond the end of formal university study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by a street art image of a Balinese dancer wearing a gas mask, this paper maps climate change systems and their impacts on the Tropics. Beginning with global expanses of melting ice sheets, it rides the currents of oceanic and atmospheric systems, explores rainforests and coral reefs, wanders the seas of the Indonesian archipelago, until it comes to rest on the island of Bali. Complementing climate science with climate imagination, the paper draws on the classic elements and ecological images of thought to demonstrate tropical imaginary, jungle imaginary and archipelago imaginary as ways for perceiving the complexities of climate change. As it draws to a close, the paper pictures Slinat's street art images, musing on how their Balinese cultural-environmental messages resonate globally and act as a poignant reminder of how humans are implicated within climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steady emergence of transnational municipal climate networks demonstrates that cities are globally joining forces to tackle climate change. However, we still know little about how these increasingly influential organisations function. By modifying and extending an existing network typology through the development of a set of new dimensions and indicators, this paper aims to better define, systemise, and distinguish the different networks. The paper demonstrates that there are very exclusive elite networks only open to a limited number of municipalities and very inclusive mass networks open to almost all municipalities. Moreover, many networks vary significantly in terms of organisational structure, governance, or the number of involved private, public, or other partners. Additionally, we raise critical questions to be addressed by future qualitative research. These should be focused on gaining a better understanding of the significance of the various network partners as well as the existing collaboration in several networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate-induced population displacement and resettlement is an ongoing problem around the world, and one that is being exacerbated by climate change. To date, most attempts to address this problem have taken a top-down approach in which international justice, legal and humanitarian frameworks are extended 'downwards' by policymakers and governments to local populations. However, there has been limited systematic work that emphasizes the abilities of affected peoples themselves to develop and formulate their own justice-based solutions. This paper presents an analytical framework for thinking about 'bottom-up' claims-making that emphasizes naming, blaming, claiming and framing. The framework enables claims-making to be distinguished from other forms of community-based agency, such as adaptation. The paper also suggests a normative framework to support policymakers and practitioners in helping communities facing displacement to make claims. The normative framework focuses on the barriers to, and opportunities for, claims-making 'from below'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In the context of international climate change obligations, Gulf Arab states have introduced policies to integrate climate policies into economic development and planning, seeking to maximize clean development opportunities yet at the same time to minimize the threats to their rentier economies caused by sudden shifts away from fossil fuels. This paper assesses the challenges and opportunities for climate policy integration in the Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, examining the interaction between their climate policy and their political–economic regimes. It adopts a novel analytical framework that integrates insights from climate policy integration and the political–economic theory of rentier states. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and relevant policy documents, it reveals modest progress in integrating climate policy into economic development plans in the UAE but major impediments to climate policy integration in Oman. Both countries face significant shortfalls in climate-related financial and human resource capacities. Climate policy integration efforts have focused on the energy sector with the purpose of protecting rents from oil exports rather than advancing a low-carbon transformation of their economies. This has created structural ambiguity in the climate policy integration advanced in the UAE and Oman. Key policy insights The availability, quality and accessibility of climate-related data are serious challenges for policy makers in the UAE and Oman. Both countries have evolving institutional architectures conducive to climate policy integration. However, these are more symbolic than substantive, lacking clear policy integration strategies across the governments. The UAE and Oman both face significant shortfalls in climate-related financial and human resource capacities. Support for climate policy integration by the ruling elites in the UAE and Oman is significantly shaped by rentier interests: most climate-related initiatives have addressed the energy sector, aiming to protect rents from oil exports by reducing the domestic dependence on fossil fuels. [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]

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]

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]

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]

Local governments have a key role to play in implementing climate innovations as they have jurisdiction over a significant portion of greenhouse gas emissions. Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3) is the first longitudinal study exploring climate innovation in Canadian municipalities. A tri-university research collaborative, it focuses on British Columbia (BC), whose voluntary efforts to set and meet climate change goals were far more ambitious than those offered by the federal government (and almost any other province in North America at the time). These efforts included introducing a carbon tax and the Climate Action Charter voluntary agreement in 2007. Since then, 187 of the 190 local governments in BC have signed the Charter to take action on climate change. Research in the first phase of MC3explored the dynamics of innovative local responses to the coordinated suite of government legislation, complimentary policy instruments, financial incentives and partnerships with quasi-institutional partners. In the second phase, the 11 original case studies were revisited to explore the nature of transformative change in development paths and indicators of change. Methods include sentiment analysis, decomposition analysis of regional/local emissions, and modelling relationships between climate action co-benefits and trade-offs. This paper provides a synthesis of research outcomes and their implications for environmental governance at multiple scales and the potential of policy innovations to accelerate transformation towards carbon neutral economies. Key policy insights Local governments are on the front line of identifying indicators of change in current development paths and policy innovations to effect the necessary changes for transformation to carbon neutral economies. Barriers to transformational change include lack of coordination or concerted action across multiple scales of governance, electoral cycles and large swings in leadership, and lack of policy coherence across governance levels. Drivers of climate innovation include leadership at multiple levels of governance. Understanding the co-benefits (and trade-offs) of climate actions is important for integrated strategies that achieve broader sustainability goals, as well as accelerating more innovations on climate change. [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]

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]

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]

After the Paris Agreement that put stronger emphasis on the development of climate change adaptation policies and on the definition of financing mechanisms, there is a patent need to track whether actual planning efforts are proving sufficient. This entails the development of assessment methods and metrics as plans are drafted and actions implemented. To this end, this paper explores the concept of credibility as a critical issue in climate policy and develops an Adaptation Policy Credibility (APC) conceptual and operational assessment framework for helping to allocate public funding and private investments, and for implementing and catalysing climate policy. Through a pilot testing in four early-adopting cities (Copenhagen, Durban, Quito and Vancouver), a clear potential for large-n tracking and assessment exercises of local climate adaptation plans is envisaged. The APC approach might also be useful to guide individual cities that aim to improve their adaptation planning and policy-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the business constraints that are most binding for firm performance. Using panel methods on novel quarterly Ugandan business climate data, we exploit perceived changes in business climate constraints to account for changes in firm performance. Not all identified constraints are binding for firm performance. Macroeconomic instability, demand stability, access to finance, corruption/bribery, and weather variability are found to be binding constraints. Firms' expectations about future performance outcomes are associated with current perceptions about these constraints, alleviating endogeneity concerns to some extent. While taxation constraints are usually highly ranked, we do not find evidence linking them to firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Climate change continues to be a global concern with impacts varying from region to region. Studies and observations establishing the evidence of climate change have often focused on global, regional, and national levels to the neglect of agro-ecological differences at local scale. Using trajectory and time series analysis of temperature anomalies and rainfall distributions for the agro-ecological zones of Ghana, this paper establishes a strong evidence of local climate change across the country in diverse agro-ecological zones. The evidence is based on the spatiotemporal analysis of the varying temperature and rainfall data observed from 1981 to 2009. The analysis shows local increases in temperatures for the period ranging from 0.5 to 1.0 °C with varying inter-annual rainfall distributions. The results explained the spatial differences in the agro-ecological zones in Ghana as a result of climate variability. The study provides supporting evidence for climate change using locally observed in-country data to compliment studies at global, regional, and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change impacts can negatively affect tourism demand and, subsequently, local economies by disrupting access and altering physical conditions, including those from adaptation and recovery efforts. Research is needed that helps destinations become more climate ready, including studies of decision factors that influence trip-taking behaviors. This paper presents findings from a discrete choice experiment to determine how physical and economic changes could affect visitation behaviors to a vulnerable coastal destination, the Outer Banks region of North Carolina, USA. We embedded our experiment within an on-site visitor survey to reveal thresholds of negative changes to coastal attributes that tourists are willing to tolerate, and also examined tourists' willingness to substitute their future trips to the region. Transportation-related changes had the highest relative importance among the four selected attributes. The likelihood of three types of spatial substitution, spurred by not being able to access the destination, were consistently related to residency but less consistently related to place meanings, visitation history, and other demographic variables. Study results can inform climate change planning within coastal zones to minimize negative impacts to tourism demand, such as the need to develop creative revenue streams to maintain resilience in communities that rely on occupancy taxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite consensus on the need to adapt to climate change, who should adapt, and how, remain open questions. While local-level actions are essential to adaptation, state and federal governments can play a substantial role in adaptation. In this paper, we investigate local perspectives on state-level flood mitigation policies in Vermont as a means of analysing what leads top-down adaptations to be effective in mobilizing local action. Drawing on interviews with town officials, we delineate local-level perspectives on Vermont's top-down policies and use those perspectives to develop a conceptual framework that presents the 'fit' between top-down policies and the locallevel context as comprised of three components: Receptivity, Ease of Participation, and Design. We explain how these components and their interactions influence locallevel action. This analysis points to how careful consideration of the components of 'fit' may lead to greater local-level uptake of top-down adaptation policies. [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]

Anticipatory governance is emerging in the literature and practice as a form of decision-making which attempts to deal with climate change complexities and uncertainties. Underpinning the anticipatory governance approach to decision-making is a three-step process which includes future analysis, flexibility of strategies and monitoring and action. This paper adopts the anticipatory governance and its three-step approach as a framework to investigate two Australian local government adaptation initiatives. It discusses the challenges local governments face in taking the lead through anticipatory governance to address climate change adaptation in their planning efforts. The paper aims to contribute analytical insights into adaptation planning at the local scale through anticipatory governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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]

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]

As new forms of governance for climate change emerge in African cities, will they enable emancipatory and socially progressive transformations or will they exacerbate existing inequality, poverty and vulnerability patterns? This paper presents one of the case studies developed by UN-Habitat Cities and Climate Change Initiative in Maputo, Mozambique. The case analyses first, the production of urban vulnerabilities under climate change, and second, the existing governance arrangements for climate change in the city. Building on the lessons of the case study, the paper argues that to ensure that new forms of climate change governance lead to socially and environmentally just outcomes climate change interventions should, at least, meet two conditions: first, they should consider the close interactions between social and ecological elements and, specially, how patterns of urban inequality interact with environmental factors; second, they should recognise the opportunities in African cities through a broad notion of governance that looks beyond the government as the sole agent of urban change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper introduces a special issue ofLocal Environmentthat has arisen through collaboration between academic researchers and the Urban Planning and Design Branch of UN-Habitat, focused on how we can understand and respond to the challenges of urban vulnerability, adaptation and resilience in the context of climate change. The paper establishes the existing state of the art in the field, and considers critical challenges that are emerging in the research-based literature. In this context, it introduces UN-Habitat's Cities and Climate Change Initiative and reflects on the lessons learnt and challenges ahead, drawing on insights from across the papers in the special issue. In conclusion, it identifies the role of international/transnational co-operation, the relation between adaptation and mitigation, issues of multi-level governance and the ways in which change in urban socio-technical systems might be achieved as critical issues across the science/policy interface where increased dialogue and the co-production of knowledge needs to focus in order to advance this agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports conclude that for Australasia, without adaptation, further changes in climate, atmospheric CO2, sea-level rise and ocean acidity are projected to have substantial impacts on climate sensitive systems, sectors and populations. In the context of varying geographical, social, cultural and policy contexts, this paper reviews research contributions and activities concerning coastal adaptation to climate change in Aotearoa-New Zealand. It reflects on the insights derived from this emerging pool of scholarship and considers what lessons have been learned to help us address the future challenges of adaptation to climate change on our coasts and estuaries. In particular, future progress will require strong understanding of natural coastal systems, clearer national direction and guidance in balance with regional flexibility, and collaborative processes to help communities understand, implement and evaluate adaptation pathways for a sustainable and resilient future. [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]

Against the discussion on the rationale and scope for water demand and supply management in India, this paper provides a brief overview of the status and effectiveness, as well as the technical, institutional and financial requirements of six demand management options (i.e. water pricing, water markets, water rights, energy regulations, water saving technologies, and user and community organizations) and one supply management option (involving the implementation of the National River Linking Project, NRLP). The paper then develops a framework that captures the analytics of water demand management in terms of both the impact pathways of and operational linkages among the options and their underlying institutions. Using this framework, the paper outlines a strategy for water demand management that can exploit well the inherent synergies among the options, and also align them well with the underlying institutional structure and its environment. Similarly, based on an analysis of the NRLP, the paper also indicates the strategy for implementing the NRLP and thereby promoting water supply management within the financial, institutional and political constraints. The paper concludes with the policy implications for water demand and supply management in India. Citation Saleth, R. M. (2011) Water scarcity and climatic change in India: the need for water demand and supply management. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(4), 671-686. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on the premise that the science of climate change is fast becoming a powerful orthodoxy amongst many intellectuals, governments, corporations and non-government organisations, particularly in the global North. In recognising this dominant category in scholarly and political discourses, our key intention in this paper is not to deny or validate the premises and conclusions of climate change scientists in any essentialist manner, but to build on and develop the insights offered by number of recent studies by political geographers exploring the how and why of the discursive production of geographical knowledge (in plural) of climate change by various actors/agencies, in support of certain domestic as well as foreign policy agendas. We argue that it is the geopolitics of fear that appears to be dictating and driving the dominant climate change discourse both in and about Bangladesh. The paper first develops a theoretical perspective through which to analyse the imaginative geographies of climate change-induced displacements and their implications for Bangladesh, and its Indian Oceanic neighbourhood. Next, we focus on various facets of the geopolitics of fear and on some of the key sites where climate change knowledge production about Bangladesh is taking place. One of the ways in which climate change is folded into a discourse of fear (that, in turn, requires a geopolitical response) is by referencing the 'problem' of refugees. Penultimately, then, we then move on to deconstruct the official discourses and political speeches both within Bangladesh and its immediate neighbourhood in India, in order to reveal the underlying geopolitics of fear and boundary-reinforcing cartographic anxieties about climate change-induced displacements and migrations. We conclude the article by examining the prospects for counter-imaginative geographies of hope and the role they could possibly play in approaching the issue of climate change-induced migrations from the angle of human security and human rights of the socially disadvantaged, dispossessed and displaced in the global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper provides a scientific assessment of the inter-decadal variability of the Asian summer monsoon and its significant effect on precipitation patterns in China. The paper consists of four parts. The first part shows the observed inter-decadal weakening of the Asian summer monsoon since the end of 1970s. The second part describes the impact of the weakening Asian summer monsoon on precipitation in China, which caused the major monsoon rainbelt to shift southward from North China to South China over about 30 years, with a 60-80 oscillation dominating. The third part projects the future change of the Asian summer monsoon in the warmer climate by using IPCC AR4 climate models. It has been found that major monsoon rainfall belts in East Asia will move northward in the 2040s, with summer precipitation in North China increasing considerably and stably. Finally, in the fourth part, the implication of the adaptation to the above climate change and related water management will be discussed including the water transport engineering project from the Yangtze River to the Yellow River and North China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal and marine environments are among the most popular areas for outdoor recreation and tourism. Coastal areas have also been identified as the most vulnerable to climate change, for example as a result of extreme events and sea-level rise. It will be increasingly important for coastal tourism destination managers to understand their vulnerability to climatic changes and to devise appropriate adaptation. This paper presents a five-step vulnerability assessment methodology for tourism in coastal areas. The five steps include (1) system analysis, (2) identification of activity and hazard sub-systems, (3) vulnerability assessments for the different sub-systems at risk, (4) integration for the destination as a whole and scenario analysis and (5) communication. The framework is illustrated by an example of how it might be applied to Fiji. The paper concludes that a consistent methodology, like the one proposed, will facilitate vulnerability assessments in a range of coastal destinations, allow comparison to be made of vulnerabilities across different situations, provide a basis for more research into specific adaptation measures and assist destinations to develop a more sustainable tourism industry. [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]

This paper outlines the use of geographical information systems for predicting the possible implications of future climate change (as suggested by General Circulation Models) on the archaeological resource of selected parts of two major British river systems, the Trent and Yorkshire Ouse. The effects of future climatic change on the historic environment are likely to come from both natural 'system' responses, such as increased bank erosion and valley floor sedimentation, as well as the human adaptive responses selected to manage the impacts of climate change. The models described in this paper allow predictions to be made and quantified about how selected natural and anthropogenic responses may impact upon the archaeological resource. Such approaches, which are relatively rapid to implement and low cost, provide an important management tool for guiding policy makers and heritage managers in the face of changing climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes some of the changes that affected the coastlines of South Uist and Benbecula following the 'Great Storm' of 11 January 2005. The paper considers historical changes in patterns of winter storminess and addresses the issue of whether or not there has been a recent increase in regional storminess, manifested partly by this particular storm. The paper concludes on the basis of available Greenland ice core chemistry data and historical climate data, together with recent meteorological data, that no such increase has taken place. This surprising conclusion is further discussed in relation to current thinking on the nature of recent climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a major issue for all levels of government, global, national and local. Local authorities' responses to climate change have tended to concentrate on their role in reducing greenhouse gases. However, the scientific consensus is that we also need to adapt to unavoidable climate change. Spatial planning at a local level has a critical anticipatory role to play in promoting robust adaptation. This paper reviews the shift in local authorities' planning policies for climate change adaptation in the UK since 2000, and provides evidence of underlying attitudes amongst planning professionals to climate change. It shows that, while the issue of climate change is becoming recognized with respect to flood risk, the wider implications (for instance, for biodiversity and water resources) are not yet integrated into plans. The reasons for this lie in lack of political support and lack of engagement of the planning profession with climate change networks. But the paper also argues there are difficulties in acknowledging the need for adaptation at the local level, with the short-term horizons of local plans at odds with perceptions of the long-term implications of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the approach and reasoning behind two central conceptual diagrams relating tourism and climate change. The first diagram describes a typical polarisation in tourism and climate change knowledge management. It is argued that this polarisation restricts the collective body of knowledge and obscures important causal links between tourism and climate change phenomena. Developments are proposed in a second conceptual model which counters the tendency of scientists, policymakers, the tourism industry and NGOs to polarise along two research interests by discussing climate's influence on tourism vs. tourism's influence on climate; either of which could be interpreted as a primary limitation to the sustainability of tourism. The paper places into context key perspectives in the tourism-climate change discussions, addresses the difficulty of including system feedbacks between human activity and climate interactions, and draws attention to the underlying drivers of unsustainable trends. New strategic conceptual models are advocated to support long-term non-territorial collaboration, to incorporate adaptation and mitigation in ways which are not mutually exclusive, and to address the following paradox: that the cross-section of the global population driving the demand for tourism resources threatened by climate change are also disproportionately responsible for increased radiative forcing. [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]

The objective of this paper is to assess recent developments and prospects for future changes in United States (US) climate strategy. In doing so, the paper explores some of the key factors that have shaped strategies and policies to date, distinguishing between factors related to institutional and governance structures, linkages between science and policy, energy technology and the role of interest groups. Against this background, the paper attempts to explore future development paths for US climate policy. More specifically, the paper assesses opportunities for policy changes compared to the preferences of the current administration, and the prospects for future linkages between US and international climate change strategies. In brief, the paper argues that substantial changes are unlikely to take place in the near to medium term, leaving open, however, the possibility of wide-ranging changes in domestic politics or major incidents that could facilitate a shift in the perceived need for near-term action. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]