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

The South Sandwich Islands are a relatively pristine volcanic archipelago in the Southern Ocean that experience high levels of natural disturbance. The archipelago spans the biological transition between the sub-Antarctic and maritime Antarctic. They host the southern boundary for some sub-Antarctic communities and the northern boundary for some maritime Antarctic communities. Vertebrate communities are dominated by Chinstrap and Macaroni penguins in the north and Adélie penguins in the south. Terrestrial plant and animal communities are less well differentiated; their distribution more influenced by the distribution of geothermally-warmed ground. We review current biodiversity knowledge, the influence of contemporary change on the archipelago, and their regional importance to Southern Ocean species. We pose questions on how to manage the islands in the contexts of climate change, fishing and human visitation. Climate change and fisheries will likely impact on the islands’ biota, but we conclude that introduced species pose the largest threat to biodiversity. Given the ephemeral nature of populations across all trophic levels, we suggest that the islands be managed as one unit rather than individually and we recommend practical changes to permitting and to increase the no-take zone in the existing Marine Protected Area to protect penguin foraging areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change, rising sea levels, and increases in storm intensity and frequency are developing issues for many coastal communities and will impact significant archaeological resources across the Pacific. The 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake and resulting tsunami that occurred off of Honshu, Japan in 2011 were natural disasters that provided the National Park Service with the opportunity to observe the effects of higher than normal waters on coastal resources at Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. The 2011 tsunami inundated areas of the park up to 1.06 meters and caused damage to multiple site types and features. Although tsunami are not events caused by climate change, this natural disaster and its effects allowed insights into the future of park archaeological resources when sea-level rise and island subsidence are considered. When park resources were examined in relation to future sea-level rise (SLR) scenarios, models demonstrate that the park faces significant losses to archaeological resources with as little as a 0.5-meter rise in sea level. When the results of these models are considered with the estimated rates of island subsidence, SLR in this area could reach one meter or more by the end of the century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Pearl Harbor basin on the tropical oceanic island of O'ahu, Hawaii, exhibits extreme climatic gradients, rapid land-use change and groundwater use near sustainable yield. The basin's water usage and groundwater recharge, and hence water yield, are strongly influenced by the spatial distribution of land use. Current recharge is expected to drop by about one-eighth with the demise of the remaining sugar-cane and pineapple. Evidence suggests that lower rainfall and increased evaporation may well accompany warmer periods in Hawaii, and water-balance simulations indicate many scenarios having a significant decrease in available water. Land-use planners can use such results in tandem with multiobjective optimization models to generate alternative land-use plans and show trade-offs among objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]