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Humanity is facing multiple possible apocalypses, with narratives that often miss an important point: The apocalypse probably won't be quick or final. It will be an environment, not an event or an end point for humanity. The apocalypse is more likely to bring misery than catharsis or salvation. Although worst-case scenarios theoretically make it easier to prevent dire outcomes, in the case of slow-moving apocalypses such as climate change, it's difficult for humans to envision the scale of the problem and to imagine how we will actually experience it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the potential power of social presence on individuals' cognitive and affective responses, the current study hypothesizes that individuals' social presence differentiates the level of perceived subjective norms and societal injunctive norms for climate change prevention behaviors. Based on prior literature, users' threat perception is suggested as a moderating variable that can maximize the effects of social presence. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a 2 (social presence: present vs. absent) × 2 (threat: high vs. low) between-subjects factorial online experiment (N = 280). The results confirmed significant, positive effects of social presence on both normative beliefs. The effects of social presence were found to be stronger for participants in high threat conditions. Increased subjective norms led to more positive behavioral intentions toward global warming prevention actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the author view on growing global warming in the United States including among Commonwealth countries, that urgent and ambitious action is needed to address climate change in order to, at the very least, achieve the legally binding goal set by the 196 countries that were signatories to the Paris Agreement set at COP21 in Paris in December 2015.

Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's (1993, The field of cultural production: Essays on art and literature. New York, NY: Columbia University Press., 1996, The rules of art: Genesis and structure of the literary field (S. Emanuel, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.) field theory, this study compares U.S. and U.K. news coverage of international negotiations in 2015 that culminated in the Paris agreement to curb climate change. Findings indicate commercial news outlets at times produced more diverse accounts of the negotiations than nonprofit or public-funded outlets. However, these more diverse accounts often stem from journalistic practices somewhat shielded from market pressures. A niche focus on particular aspects of the negotiations dampens content diversity at individual news outlets but increases content diversity as measured across outlets within a country, which this study finds to be higher in the U.K. These findings indicate that forms of funding resistant to market pressures and approaches to reporting diverging from legacy journalistic practices can support diverse news accounts of climate change. [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]

The IPCC 1.5°C Report lists identifying local capacity needs as key for enabling multi-level governance to effectively respond to climate change. Mauritius, as a Small Island State, is disproportionately affected by climate change, primarily due to its exposure to impacts, as well as various constraints in size and resources. Identifying and integrating local capacity needs into recommendations for policy measures is therefore urgently required to support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its National Adaptation Plan process. This study carries out a local governance assessment based on evaluative criteria to identify local capacity needs for implementing climate change adaptation in Mauritius. Results from the assessment indicate that local governance suffers from issues inherent to Small Island States, such as lack of technical know-how, financial and human resources, stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms, preventing effective climate change adaptation. Through participatory, bottom-up stakeholder engagement with local and national government representatives, eight recommendations for policy formulation were then co-developed to address the identified capacity needs, and to improve cooperation between local and national institutions for more effective implementation of climate change adaptation. Key policy insights Local climate change adaptation needs have to be integrated into policy formulation for an effective response to climate change impacts. Roles and responsibilities of government levels for climate change adaptation in Mauritius are currently in need of clarification. Capacity building measures at the local level for implementing climate change actions from national government are urgently required. Stringent legislation and effective monitoring mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure planning regulations are adhered to. Increased collaboration between local and national levels of government in Mauritius is necessary for synthesizing a common approach to climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change research is at an impasse. The transformation of economies and everyday practices is more urgent, and yet appears ever more daunting as attempts at behaviour change, regulations, and global agreements confront material and social-political infrastructures that support the status quo. Effective action requires new ways of conceptualizing society, climate and environment and yet current research struggles to break free of established categories. In response, this contribution revisits important insights from the social sciences and humanities on the co-production of political economies, cultures, societies and biophysical relations and shows the possibilities for ontological pluralism to open up for new imaginations. Its intention is to help generate a different framing of socionatural change that goes beyond the current science-policy-behavioural change pathway. It puts forward several moments of inadvertent concealment in contemporary debates that stem directly from the way issues are framed and imagined in contemporary discourses. By placing values, normative commitments, and experiential and plural ways of knowing from around the world at the centre of climate knowledge, we confront climate change with contested politics and the everyday foundations of action rather than just data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waste production is associated with human inhabitation and its rate is increasing over time. Globally, the major proportion of waste is disposed of through landfilling and open dumping, which is environmentally unsafe due to emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Thus, in order to avoid emission of GHGs from wastes it is important to use techniques that can convert wastes to energy/nutrients on eco-friendly economical way. Furthermore, quantification of the impacts of these waste management techniques on ecosystem is also needed through the application of tools like modeling, remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and life cycle assessments (LCA). Thus, this review was conducted by considering focus on potential of nutrient and energy recovery techniques from various types of wastes and approaches to enhance the efficiency of the process. The outcomes depicted that the aerobic and anaerobic digestion is suitable to deal with biodegradable and organic fraction of the waste, but anaerobic digestion seem to be more sustainable waste management techniques. Additionally, the review covers the techniques to drive energy and recover nutrient from non-biodegradable proportion. Different modern analytical tools; such as remote sensing, GIS and simple/dynamic models could be useful tool to help in the decision-making processes for waste managements. These tools can help us to design integrated solid waste management processes. Finally, we suggest that LCA should be considered to determine the environmental load of material/product from its production to final disposal (from cradle to grave). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global efforts to combat climate change has led to the establishment of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program (REDD+). This study concerns the implementation of REDD+ among local landscapes and communities in Vietnam. How do affected forest-dependent households perceive their roles in sustainable forest management and REDD+ and how do these perceptions and attitudes influence the (potential) socio-ecological performance of REDD+? Two communes consisting of forest-dependent and indigenous communities in Central Vietnam were selected for this study–the former involved in the UN-REDD program and the latter involved in a REDD+ program of Fauna and Flora International (FFI). Here, we differentiated between a 'do no harm' and pro-carbon (UN-REDD), and pro-poor (FFI-REDD+) approach to REDD+. Employing an applied socio-ecological systems framework, we conducted household surveys (n = 102) and we adopted qualitative research methods. This study identified the importance of traditional ecological knowledge systems in sustainable forest management. While pro-poor REDD+ was more inclusive, both REDD+ programs in our study were implemented in a top down manner. Lastly, households' attitudes and perceptions towards rulemaking, sanctioning, monitoring, cultural capital (beliefs and worldviews) and forest protection technology were identified as (potential) local drivers for successful REDD+ implementation in both communes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU's work on climate change is key to the regional and international fight against the problem, and disruptions to it have global implications. When analyzing the effects of the UK's decision to leave the EU (Brexit) on EU climate action, this paper looks at two types of impact. The first is related to UK absence from EU climate policy, finance and diplomacy following the actual UK departure from the EU. The second is related to the costs attached to the withdrawal process, including the additional costs and uncertainty created by the delayed UK departure. These latter implications of Brexit have been less explored by the literature, although the last years provide plenty of evidence for them. The paper finds that the impact of Brexit on EU climate action is mainly negative, without denying some potential positive impact and while acknowledging the limitations of a study that entails forecasting in an uncertain political context. Key policy insights Following Brexit, the EU will lose a member that supported its climate action internally and internationally through commitment to high emissions reduction targets at the EU level, policy solutions, and financial and diplomatic support. The withdrawal process itself has had a negative impact on EU climate action: Brexit has hijacked the EU agenda, captured EU human and administrative resources and increased the uncertainty in which investors and businesses operate. Planning for separate European Councils to deal with Brexit could prevent agenda hijacking. Both the EU and UK also need to provide businesses with a clear regulatory framework. A repeatedly postponed Brexit has caused additional damage, by prolonging uncertainty. Continuing to work with the UK on climate during the Brexit negotiations and after the UK departure should be a priority for the EU, as well as ensuring the willingness to cooperate is not spoiled by mutual resentment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate justice involves two crucial matters, namely, ensuring that rich nations take responsibility for their past emissions and supporting developing nations' efforts to protect vulnerable people from climate disasters. Although there is a growing interest in climate justice from a global standpoint, this concept has yet to receive due critical attention from a local perspective. This study focuses on the local perspective and examines how climate justice was represented in three Indian newspapers during COP21 (Paris, 2015) and COP22 (Marrakech, 2016). It utilizes the selected Indian news media content and reveals that the newspapers have emphasized on the harm avoidance justice during the international climate conferences when an emphasis on the burden sharing dimension was instead expected. The publications strongly criticize rich countries for the emissions but less vigorously criticize the local authorities who are responsible for containing pollution and emissions. This finding along with the emphasis on the harm avoidance signifies the growing importance of local environmental issues in global deliberations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flood-risk is affected by both climatic and anthropogenic factors. In this study, we assess changes in flood risk induced by a combination of climate change and flood prevention sets in the Baiyangdian (BYD) Lake area of China. Extreme storm events are analysed by the bias-corrected climate data from global climate models. A hydrological model is implemented and integrated with a hydrodynamic model to assess flood risk under three scenarios. The streamflow into the BYD was validated against historical flash-flood events. The results indicate that the changing climate increased extreme precipitation, upstream total inflow and the flood risk at the core region of Xiong'an New Area (XNA), the newly announced special economic zone in the BYD area. However, flood prevention measures can effectively mitigate the climatic effect. The research highlights the severe flash-flood risk at BYD and demonstrates the urgent need for a climate-resilient plan for XNA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is perhaps the most important phenomenon to have dominated the discourse of sustainable development at this time. They add that in order to adapt to climate change, people need adaptive capacities to mobilse the social and physical resources they need to cope with climate change (Heeks & Ospina, [2]). In adaptation to climate change, the role of ICTs is in offering systemic resilience to climate change. Heeks and Ospina ([2]) suggest that ICTs offer adaptive capacity to climate change by helping strengthen physical preparedness through technologies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). [Extracted from the article]

Policymakers at different government levels develop integrated adaptation strategy processes (ASPs), which are supposed to prepare a particular region, country or municipality for the impacts of climate change. The adaptation literature suggests that coordination of these efforts promises comprehensive climate change adaptation, because it allows making use of synergies and avoiding maladaptation. Nonetheless, we lack evidence about the coordination of multiple levels and its potential to actually facilitate climate change adaptation. Based on an examination of 14 integrated ASPs, the author asks how they interact with each other, if they reconcile the priorities of other levels, and if they are an adequate tool for coordinating climate change adaptation. The study reveals a considerable gap between theory and practice. It demonstrates that the call for coordination is not reflected in current adaptation policy and questions whether (more) coordination is what we need to be better prepared for the impacts of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the UK introduced a Climate Change Act (CCA) in 2008, similar legislation has followed in a number of states, with each having a slightly different take. What unites these examples is that they all represent framework legislation that aims to facilitate climate change mitigation by creating continuous policy processes whereby mechanisms for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are developed and implemented. This article is concerned with the extent to which they are living policy processes or rather symbolic gestures. We analyse seven European CCAs with regard to GHG emission reduction targets, planning/implementation mechanisms, and feedback/evaluations prescribed by the laws. These three features correspond with three aspects of climate policy integration (CPI): interpretations of CPI as a norm; CPI as a process of governing; CPI as a policy outcome. We show that CCAs address all three aspects of CPI and constitute living policy processes, although to varying extents. However, CCAs are also policy processes in that they are part of a political system, affected by political forces external to the legislation, positively and negatively. Key policy insights CCAs can provide a normative basis for policymaking on climate change at the national level, especially through quantitative emission reduction targets. Whilst CCAs can bring some stability and predictability to policymaking on climate change (mainly because legislation is more difficult to amend or remove than policy strategies), they are still vulnerable to political developments. Most CCAs lack either short/medium-term (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden) or long-term (Austria) targets. Given EU Member States' aim to decarbonise in the next three decades and the Paris Agreement's global goal of pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, states need to find ways to guide this process. One approach could be the inclusion of short-term, medium-term and long-term targets in their CCAs. Since sanctioning mechanisms are lacking across all the CCAs analysed here, it is not clear what will happen if legally binding targets are not met. Just as it is difficult to imagine speed limits and speed cameras without accompanying penalties, it is hard to imagine how CCAs without sanctions can deliver decarbonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current country-level commitments under the Paris Agreement fall short of putting the world on a required trajectory to stay below a 2°C temperature increase compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. Therefore, the timing of increased ambition is hugely important and as such this paper analyses the impact of both the short and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement on global emissions and economic growth. Using the hybrid TIAM-UCL-MSA model we consider the achievement of a 2°C target against a baseline of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) while also considering the timing of increased ambition of the NDCs by 2030 and the impacts of cost reductions of key low-carbon technologies. We find that the rate of emissions reduction ambition required between 2030 and 2050 is almost double when the NDCs are achieved but not ratcheted up until 2030, and leads to lower levels of economic growth throughout the rest of the century. However, if action is taken immediately and is accompanied by increasingly rapid low-carbon technology cost reductions, then there is almost no difference in GDP compared to the path suggested by the current NDC commitments. Key policy insights Delaying the additional action needed to achieve the 2°C target until 2030 is shown to require twice the rate of emissions reductions between 2030 and 2050. Total cumulative GDP over the century is lower when additional action is delayed to 2030 and therefore has an overall negative impact on the economy, even without including climate change damages. Increased ratcheting of the NDC commitments should therefore be undertaken sooner rather than later, starting in conjunction with the 2023 Global Stocktake. Early action combined with cost reductions in key renewable energy technologies can reduce GDP losses to minimal levels (<1%). A 2°C future with technological advancements is clearly possible for a similar cost as a 3.3°C world without these advances, but with lower damages and losses from climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kallis' discussion of degrowth in a transition to socialism is misleading and substantially detached from the current context, especially with recurring cataclysms due to climate change and the requirements to implement a programme to prevent even worse outcomes while there is a narrowing window of opportunity to do so. The fallacies of Kallis' arguments originate in his misinformed account of economic and physical growth relative to thermodynamics and ecological processes, his feeble grasp of capitalist relations, and his gross misrepresentation of socialist, and specifically ecosocialist, thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how polar bears were established as icons of climate change in the popular science magazine National Geographic. In a multistep process, anthropomorphized depictions first established polar bears as subjects of identification. Then, polar bears were visually connected to the endangered Arctic. Finally, they emerged as ambassadors of a threatened ecosystem and icons of climate change. I highlight the wider political contexts of this process of iconization and the semiotic and cultural resources on which it draws, showing what kind of climate change communication the polar bear icon enables or inhibits. The icon lends itself to being deployed in visual communication strategies creating personal concern and public awareness for climate change. At the same time, the icon fosters an individualized, emotionalized, and localized account of climate change but does not make its wider causes visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is projected to increase the frequency, intensity and unpredictability of extreme weather events across the globe and these events are likely to have significant mental health implications. The mental health literature broadly characterises negative emotional reactions to extreme weather experiences as undesirable impacts on wellbeing. Yet, other research in psychology suggests that negative emotional responses to extreme weather are an important motivation for personal action on climate change. This article addresses the intersection of mental health and functional perspectives on negative emotions, with a specific focus on the potential that reduced negative emotional responses to extreme weather may also translate to diminished motivation to undertake climate change mitigation actions – which we term the 'resilience paradox'. Using survey data gathered in the aftermath of severe flooding across the UK in winter 2013/2014, we present new evidence indicating that self-appraised coping ability moderates the link between flooding experience and negative emotions and thereby attenuates the indirect link between flooding experience and climate change mitigation intentions. We conclude that support for flood victims should extend beyond addressing emotional, physical and financial stresses to include acknowledgement of the involvement of climate change and communication of the need for action to combat future climate risks. Key policy insights Psychological resilience to flooding and other extreme weather events can translate to diminished motivation to mitigate climate change Negative emotional reactions need to occur at an optimal level to enable people to respond appropriately to climate risks. Flood victims' subjective appraisal of their ability to cope does not necessarily encompass consideration of the role played by climate change. Therefore, support for victims of extreme weather should include explicit acknowledgement of the involvement of climate change and the need for action to mitigate future climate risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a survey of the general public and science teachers in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to identify major barriers and opportunities for climate change education and action. Respondents were aware of some local risks, some basic climate science, and the need to conserve resources, but they were prone to common misconceptions and skepticism about climate change. Teachers largely supported teaching climate change but reported a lack of training, time, resources, and the absence of climate change in the state curriculum as barriers. Drawing on survey results and international literature, recommended actions to improve formal and informal education on the climate emergency include emphasizing positive messages, focusing on local impacts, and using participatory and active learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sources and governance of climate finance have been widely debated since the 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen, when rich countries promised to provide US$ 30 billion in additional climate finance by 2012 and to mobilize US$ 100 billion a year by 2020 to address the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries. Have developed countries respected their financial commitments? Which countries have been the main beneficiaries of international climate money? As simple as these questions may seem, answers to them have proved to be highly controversial and have contributed to a continuous erosion of trust between Parties in international climate negotiations. This article explores the controversies around international climate finance figures. It examines how the lack of internationally agreed modalities to account for climate finance has given rise to a plethora of accounting and reporting practices that leads to widely contrasting statements on climate finance. We show that, despite some gaps, the Paris Agreement's "enhanced transparency framework" could lead to marked improvements in the way climate finance is accounted and reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a substantial body of literature on public understandings of large-scale ‘environmental’ phenomena such as climate change and resource degradation. At the same time, political science and economics analyse the governance arrangements to deal with such issues. These realms of research rarely meet: there has been little research into people’s understandings of the governance of environmental change. This study adds a psychological perspective to governance research by investigating social representations of governance that promotes societal change towards sustainability, and related practices. It examines data from qualitative interviews with sustainability-interested people in seven European countries (n = 105). The analysis identified building blocks of representations suitable as an analytical framework for future research on governance representations. The diversity of their content reflected a range of pathways to societal change. Representations often seemed to have a creative function as a guiding vision for individuals’ own practices, but their wider transformative potential was constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overlaps between economic development, sustainability and climate change objectives have both political and practical implications for the development of policies addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, little empirical research has systematically investigated factors underlying these overlaps. Here, survey responses from 287 cities in the US are used to explore associations between the presence of such overlaps and these cities’ policy actions and contextual conditions. Patterns in the presence of these overlaps are described, which help shed light on the political economy underlying policymakers’ considerations about overlapping climate change mitigation and adaptation considerations with economic development or sustainability. Policymakers’ considerations about the possible political co-benefits and political trade-offs of these objective overlaps will play a critical role in shaping interconnected policy responses to complex challenges like climate change in the years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of climate change resulting from the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and halocarbons, focusing on the widespread pre-salt and fracking projects in Brazil. It mentions island countries, coastal cities, and subsistence farmers as the most vulnerable to climate change, with topics including the need to limit fossil fuel use, oil auctions and pre-salt emissions in Brazil, and the fight against climate change.

Prior research finds corporate environmental behaviour to be a function of stakeholder pressure, which significantly impacts on organisational strategies and internal management practices relating to environmental issues. Applying Freeman’s propositions on stakeholder management and corporate strategies, this study explains the relationship among stakeholder pressure, companies’ climate change risk management strategies and management accounting practices. Evidence provided through interviews with 39 managers responsible for carbon emissions management within 18 large listed Australian companies is used to investigate these relationships. This study finds that the sample companies used different strategies in accordance with relative cooperative potential and the relative competitive threat posed by stakeholders in managing carbon emissions issues. It is also seen that companies use management accounting techniques as a risk management tool in supporting their climate change strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ever since a global mitigation mechanism that aims to reduce emissions by avoiding deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) was introduced in climate change negotiations, governance challenges in implementing this concept in tropical forest countries have received considerable attention. In particular, multilevel governance has been identified as a key challenge, as REDD+ aims to tackle local deforestation activities through a global results-based financial scheme. This paper will present an analysis from seven REDD+ countries (Brazil, Cameroon, Indonesia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and Vietnam) where 293 qualitative interviews were conducted with national-level REDD+ actors. We examined what kind of multilevel coordination problems emerge, particularly in relation to horizontal, cross-sectoral coordination, and analysed these problems through the concepts of functional alignment, institutional complexity and accountability. We argue that there are problems with coordination that have emerged due to failures in recognizing the key multilevel issues. REDD+ is not adequately integrated into existing policies, and there is a gap between REDD+ and sectoral and national development policies. This leads to overlapping regulations and unequal resource allocation among sectors. Our analysis suggests that effective coordination mechanisms for REDD+ should be built on existing mechanisms and experience, include all the stakeholders, ensure the flow of information across the levels and harness the potential of REDD+ itself to overcome multi-sectoral problems. At the national level, there is great awareness of the issues that hinder coordination and effective REDD+ implementation, but this awareness does not seem to be matched by the actions taken to date. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If we fail to coordinate a systemic decarbonisation of the global economy sufficient to prevent runaway climate change, no amount of effort put towards adaptation will be sufficient. Our attention to the task of mitigation, which by itself must negotiate enormous geopolitical obstacles, requires priority if we are truly concerned with alleviating the human costs of climate change. This choice of framing of the human challenges we face from climate change, however, is at odds with the standard conception of climate justice, which seeks to provide reforms to the international legal and political order to address increasing systemic inequities. What these two perspectives have in common is the recognition that climate change necessitates systemic reforms to the international order. To the extent that international law can facilitate these reforms, the question seems to be how can we better enforce equitable international obligations. This commentary asserts that the distribution of costs and benefits inherent to international regulatory standards will determine the effectiveness of any subsequent enforcement. The utility of a Climate Court, therefore, will be reflected in the ability of the operative climate treaty to produce sufficiently systemic voluntary commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Individual local governments are key players in Sweden's strategy for climate adaptation but their authority does not match the scale of climate change and its impacts. Competences are divided among local, regional and national authorities. Climate adaptation thus requires cooperation, particularly in metropolitan regions. This raises issues of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of adaptation measures recommended in local Master Plans. The focus here is on how the 13 municipalities in the Gothenburg Metropolitan Area—expected to be the part of Sweden most affected by impacts of climate change—address and act upon issues of climate change adaptation within the framework of Sweden's Planning and Building Act, which places responsibility for the “common interest” of climate adaptation with local governments. Analysing municipal Master Plans, as well as the comments on these plans from the regional County Administrative Board and from Göteborg Region Association of Local Authorities, the inter-municipal association charged with infrastructural planning, I identify patterns in terms of coordination, legitimacy and effectiveness of planning for climate change adaptation. Results are discussed in relation to propositions from recent research on planning for climate adaptation in multi-level contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Climate change has become a major political issue and has become the subject of discussion and debate at all levels and throughout the world. Central Africa, which harbours the second largest forest in the world, is equally at the centre of debates on the role of forests in the fight against climate change. Consequently, workshops on climate change are very common in this region. This study was carried out by Center for International Forestry Research and aimed to understand how people with professional interest in adaptation and REDD+ in Central Africa comprehend key concepts of climate change. Questionnaires on basic knowledge of key climate change concepts were answered by 138 stakeholders from several Central African countries. These tests were intended to establish a baseline from which a programme of capacity-building could be developed. The results demonstrated that: (1) although workshops on REDD+ and adaptation to climate change are held with increasingly frequency in Central Africa, stakeholders in the region are still struggling to understand the key concepts of climate change, (2) the issues of climate change are evolving so quickly that those who are called upon to defend the interests and positions of the central Africa region are lagging behind the discourses, hence the need for continuous capacity-building, (3) decision-makers in the Congo Basin need frequently updated information and knowledge to be up to the task of supporting the regional position held by Central African Forestry Commission and to defend national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on South Goulburn Island aimed to improve understanding of Indigenous perspectives on climate change and options for adaptation within the scope of the local coastal, marine environment and resources utilized by the community. We also aimed to promote awareness among community members of western scientific concepts of climate change. Workshops and interviews with participants emphasized the use of participatory, visual techniques to encourage discussion and visioning of the future. Participants indicated very limited understanding of western concepts and English language terms associated with climate change and why change was occurring. However, in deeper conversations, many reported observing unusual patterns of environmental change they could not explain by other means. These observations, combined with changes in customary practices and loss of local knowledge in recent years, worried participants, particularly the elderly. The idea that climate change was resulting from human impacts on the environment was an easy concept for most participants to grasp. The demonstrated worldviews of participants was dominated by social and cultural links to the past and present, but had weaker links to western concepts of ‘the future’. Thus, discussions around planning adaptation did not generally fit easily into peoples' framings of their worlds. People's preferences for adaptation included building general community capacity, drawing from customary knowledge, being more involved in decision-making and learning more about scientific knowledge on climate change. Enabling collection of plant and animal foods and associated interaction with the landscape was also considered important for improving community independence, resilience and well-being for adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban regeneration policy and projects could facilitate the implementation of spatial policy responses to mitigate climate change and adapt to its consequences in cities. However, the potential role of urban regeneration in creating climate-friendly urban environments is not sufficiently evaluated and understood. Considering this gap, the paper aims to explore the potential linkage between urban regeneration and climate change. The case study analysis focuses on two urban regeneration projects, representing two major approaches of regeneration practices in Japanese cities, namely “project-based” and “plan-based” approaches. Research findings demonstrate that urban regeneration could help in reorganising existing urban areas in a climate-friendly manner. As a cross-cutting field of urban policy, urban regeneration could also help in creating synergies between mitigation and adaptation goals. Yet, achievement of such outcomes via regeneration projects necessitates the existence of an overriding urban development vision, political commitment, and willingness to implement binding and structural measures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In developing economies, such as Uzbekistan, the state does not have adequate finances for environment and health protection and the situation has not improved over the years. There is a need for mobilizing the population to make an effort to protect local ecosystems and people's health. The goal of the local women's groups is therefore to ensure reduction of diseases in families and the negative impact of climate change on the environment by increasing levels of awareness, by providing appropriate training to women and youth. For this they need to make effective use of available resources, rather than demanding major investments, by using pedagogical and psychological methods to influence ordinary inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions threaten the stability of climate systems and change climate dynamics in ways that inflict harm on present and future generations. Therefore, the ultimate moral crux of climate change involves harm avoidance and prevention. Moral cognitive neuroscience, and in particular the dual-process theory, indicates that up, close and personal harm triggers deontological moral reasoning, whereas harm originating from impersonal moral violations, like those produced by climate impacts, prompts consequentialist moral reasoning. Accordingly, climate ethics should be based on consequentialist approaches. Moral cognitive neuroscientific research indicates, in fact, that consequentialism is closer to the moral processes and judgements human beings normally use when faced with issues like climate change that involve impersonal notions of harm. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of carbon markets in governing global carbon flows triggers substantial debates among policymakers, social movements and social scientists. The present debate on carbon markets is different from the earlier debate on market-based instruments in environmental politics. Carbon markets represent both more radical and more risky forms of governing global carbon flows, as illustrated by an analysis of both regulatory and voluntary carbon markets operating on the global and personal level. To make use of their environmental potential and to prevent them from generating perverse consequences, carbon markets are to be regulated by state, market and civil society authorities. Embedding carbon markets in civil society means connecting carbon flows to the households and the lifestyles of citizen-consumers in a direct and meaningful manner, which can increase legitimacy and foreground climate change politics among citizen-consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the changing role of the emerging powers in global climate change negotiations, with special attention to Brazil, we ask why they have agreed to voluntary reductions at home without formalising those commitments in ways that might persuade other large emitters to make similar binding commitments. We argue that for very large emitters, the climate issue does not evince the ‘global commons’ logic often attributed to it. Instead, since their actions can directly affect climate outcomes alone or in small groupings, large emitters are more responsive to domestic cost-benefit calculations, making international commitments based on shifting interest group pressures at home. In Brazil, a coalition of ‘Baptists and bootleggers’ found principled and interest-driven reasons to support new climate commitments after 2007. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on climate change, ecosystem resilience, and environmental problems caused by the exploitation of natural resources. "The Planetary Life Crisis: Its Systemic Cause and Ground of Resolution," an essay by John McMurty, is mentioned for its reference to ecocidal action or exploitation resulting from the capitalist system. An argument against the Kyoto Protocol is that it would be ineffective in stopping global warming because it has a consumer-based approach instead of a producer-based approach, which would reduce carbon burning. Books such as "The Trouble With Capitalism," by Harry Shutt, and "Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism," by Saral Sarkar, are mentioned.

This article seeks to enrich material perspectives on environmental citizenship by considering current deployments of eco-homes as devices for public involvement in climate change. It discusses environmental awareness campaigns that centre on the home in the light of a warning voiced in political theory, that attempts to locate citizenship in 'the world of things' might mean that this category loses its distinctiveness. These campaigns, it proposes, define public involvement with climate change along socio-material lines, as they suggest that people participate in the public by virtue of their domestic habits. For this reason, the domestication of citizenship cannot be equated with its privatization in this case, as that would be to uphold a classic republican understanding of the public, which is precisely rendered problematic in the context of climate change and the making of low-carbon economies. However, the paper also questions materialist understandings of environmental citizenship, by pointing out that the publicity device of the eco-home equally enables the virtualization, that is, the 'de-materialization', of environmental issues. Thus, awareness instruments like carbon calculators format public involvement with climate change as an operation upon domestic energy data. Finally, the paper discusses how eco-homes can also be put to use as devices of 'de-citizenization', absolving domestic subjects from environmental responsibilities. Seeking to come to terms with these various conflicting deployments of eco-homes, the paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of eco-homes as experimental sites of issue articulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the tools for reducing the release of carbon dioxide (CO2), the largest component of greenhouse gas emissions, is carbon sequestration--the accumulation of carbon in terrestrial forms. This paper explores options to mitigate global climate change through forestry, constraints to forestry's applicability, secondary environmental and social benefits, and techniques established to monitor and verify results. Twenty-five current carbon sequestration projects are listed totaling an estimated 193 million tons of carbon at an average price of approximately $2.18 per ton. However, modeling exercises demonstrate that even the theoretical upper limit of carbon sequestration through forestry is not enough to stabilize carbon emissions in the atmosphere. Non-forestry CO2 reduction measures must be taken as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses climate change as a result of market failure. According to the author, the failure to account the price of carbon dioxide emissions on the cost of energy encourages the use of carbon-emitting technologies, which eventually results to global warming. The government is expected to increase the funding for development of environment-friendly technologies into the energy market. Discussion on deployment of energy technologies and recommendations to prevent climatic changes at the meeting of National Commission on Energy Policy in Chicago is also presented.