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Chinese Medicinal Yam (CMY) has been prescribed as medicinal food for thousand years in China by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners. Its medical benefits include nourishing the stomach and spleen to improve digestion, replenishing lung and kidney, etc., according to the TCM literature. As living standard rises and public health awareness improves in recent years, the potential medicinal benefits of CMY have attracted increasing attention in China. It has been found that the observed climate change in last several decades, together with the change in economic structure, has driven significant shift in the pattern of the traditional CMY planting areas. To identify suitable planting area for CMY in the near future is critical for ensuring the quality and supply quantity of CMY, guiding the layout of CMY industry, and safeguarding the sustainable development of CMY resources for public health. In this study, we first collect 30-year records of CMY varieties and their corresponding phenology and agro-meteorological observations. We then consolidate these data and use them to enrich and update the eco-physiological parameters of CMY in the agro-ecological zone (AEZ) model. The updated CMY varieties and AEZ model are validated using the historical planting area and production under observed climate conditions. After the successful validation, we use the updated AEZ model to simulate the potential yield of CMY and identify the suitable planting regions under future climate projections in China. This study shows that regions with high ecological similarity to the genuine and core producing areas of CMY mainly distribute in eastern Henan, southeastern Hebei, and western Shandong. The climate suitability of these areas will be improved due to global warming in the next 50 years, and therefore, they will continue to be the most suitable CMY planting regions.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to quantitatively measure the vulnerability level of the whole rural social-ecological system in Yunnan Province and to analyze the spatial differences of the vulnerability in different regions.Design/methodology/approachBased on the “exposure-sensitivity-adaptability” vulnerability assessment framework, this paper establishes the index system of rural social-ecological system vulnerability to climate change. Combined with the questionnaire survey and meteorological data, the entropy method was used to measure and analyze the vulnerability level and influencing factors of the overall rural social-ecological system in Yunnan Province. At the same time, the vulnerability level of social-ecological system in Yunnan Province is divided into five levels, and the spatial differences of vulnerability level of 16 states (cities) in Yunnan Province are analyzed.FindingsThe results show that: the social-ecological system has high exposure to climate change (0.809), strong sensitivity (0.729), moderate adaptability (0.297) and overall system vulnerability is at a medium level (0.373). Yunnan Province is divided into five levels of social-ecological system vulnerable areas. The areas of extreme, severe, moderate, mild and slight vulnerability account for 21.45%, 24.65%, 36.82%, 13.18% and 3.90% of the whole province, respectively. The geographical division and vulnerability division of Yunnan Province are basically consistent in space.Originality/valueComprehensive evaluation of the vulnerability of the social-ecological system of Yunnan Province to climate change is the scientific basis for the country to formulate countermeasures against climate change, and it is also the need to improve the adaptability of the social and economic system of the fragile area, reduce the vulnerability and realize the sustainable development of national social economy. The research results can provide a basis for decision-making of climate adaptation in Yunnan and other regions and provide methods and indicators for the assessment of social-ecological system vulnerability under the background of climate change.

PurposeThis paper aims to clarify the CO2 emissions of global construction industries under the consideration of different patterns of international trade and thus to draw a comprehensive picture for understanding the international paths of CO2 transfer to global construction industries.Design/methodology/approachThis research inventories the CO2 emissions induced by the final demand of 15 economies for construction products and explores the CO2 intensities of these economies based on a multi-regional input–output model. This paper further decomposes CO2 emissions into four components based on different patterns of international trade to estimate the roles of four patterns of international trade in shaping the environmental pressures from global construction industries.FindingsThe results indicate that the CO2 intensities of the construction industries in Russia, India and China were higher than those in other economies, and the CO2 intensities of global construction industries experienced a decline over the years 2000–2014. The decomposition analysis demonstrates that domestic and foreign CO2 emissions accounted for 42.67 and 54.23%, respectively, of the CO2 emissions of the construction industries in the 15 economies during the period 2000–2007. Although the major part of the CO2 emissions of the construction industries come from domestic production systems, the final demand for construction products in the 15 economies caused substantial emissions in other economies. Further decomposition by upstream industrial production source indicates that 58.65% of domestic emissions and 66.53% of foreign emissions can be traced back to the electricity industry.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the major patterns of CO2 emissions of the construction industry have been identified in this paper, the difficulty of understanding the relationship between upstream production industries or countries and the construction industry deserves more attention in the future research.Originality/valuePrevious research on inventorying CO2 emissions has generally been limited to evaluating the impact of industrial consumption activities on national or global emission accounting, tending to ignore the effects of different international trade patterns on the change in industrial CO2 emissions. This research is the first attempt to account for and decompose the CO2 emissions of global construction industries under consideration of the effects of different patterns of international trade on environmental pressures. The decomposition and upstream industrial distributions of different patterns of CO2 emission provide a comprehensive picture for better understanding of the emission pattern and source of the CO2 emissions of global construction industries. The research outcomes reveal how the final demand of a country for construction products induces CO2 emissions in both domestic and foreign systems, thus providing basic information and references for policy adjustment and strategy design in relation to mitigation of climate change and sustainable development.

The transport sector is attracting increasingly attention in the context of climate change and sustainable development, for its rapidly growing demand for energy and heavy reliance on oil products. Especially in China, where the demands for transportation are tremendous and ever-increasing, it is worthy to explore the provincial variations in energy efficiency in the transport sector, in order to enhance energy efficiency and to promote energy savings in this sector. By using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) approach, this paper calculates the provincial energy efficiency as well as energy saving potential in China’s provincial transport sector over 2007–2016. Results suggest that China’s national average energy input efficiency in the transport industry is 0.673 during the sample period, which implied that relatively large degree of non-efficiency exists in this sector. Besides, the increase of government support (GS), the improvement of road condition (RC) and public transport (PT) are influencing factors for the improvement of China’s provincial energy efficiency in the transport industry. Additionally, energy saving potential in the transport sector is also estimated in this paper. It is shown that, although energy efficiency in the eastern China is the highest (much higher than the country-wide level), the estimated absolute amount of the energy saving potential in the eastern area is significantly larger than those in the central area and western area due to the fact that the eastern area contributes to the largest share of the total energy consumption in this sector.

The coordinated development of the economy, resources, and environment is a key aspect of sustainable development. China’s rapid agricultural modernization has been accompanied by the continuous growth of rural economic aggregate and carbon emissions from the planting industry. However, the quantitative relationship between these two factors and its internal mechanism are not yet fully understood. In this paper, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) method is used to calculate the carbon emissions of the planting industry in China from 1998–2019. Based on this, the Tapio decoupling analysis model was constructed to study the decoupling relationship between economic development and carbon emissions of the planting industry in China from 1998–2019 and the associated spatial and temporal evolution patterns. The effect of the complete decomposition model (without residuals), in terms of carbon emissions from the planting industry, on the process of economic development and its transmission mechanism are introduced. The results show that: (1) The carbon emissions of the planting industry in China increased with the economic development occurring from 1998–2005, where agricultural economic development was highly dependent on resource factors and the environment. The growth trend of carbon emissions of the planting industry slowed from 2006 to 2019, while economic development has gradually realized the decoupling of carbon emissions from the planting industry. (2) From 1998–2019, in Heilongjiang, Sichuan, and Hunan, the economic development was given priority, showing strong and negative decoupling with carbon emissions from farming. The economic development in most regions were given priority, showing strong decoupling with carbon emissions from farming. Up to 2019, decoupling was observed with a significant trend of spatial agglomeration. (3) Economic scale effects had a positive influence on the carbon emissions of the planting industry, while the technology effect and population effect had an inhibiting influence on the carbon emissions of the planting industry. The key policy implication of this paper is that improvement of the quality of economic development serves as the premise for the transformation of the economic development mode. It is necessary to reasonably regulate the economic growth rate and expansion scale, reduce resource consumption and pollutant emission technology, and to make full use of resources, in order to provide a basis for the formulation of reasonable emission reduction policies. An effective way to realize the sustainable development of the agricultural economy would be to improve the technical efficiency, control the population scale appropriately, and optimize the agricultural industrial structure.

Highlights • COVID-19 presents unprecedented challenge to all facets of human endeavour. • A critical review of the negative and positive impacts of the pandemic is presented. • The danger of relying on pandemic-driven benefits to achieving SDGs is highlighted. • The pandemic and its interplay with circular economy (CE) approaches is examined. • Sector-specific CE recommendations in a resilient post-COVID-19 world are outlined., The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on the 11th of March 2020, but the world is still reeling from its aftermath. Originating from China, cases quickly spread across the globe, prompting the implementation of stringent measures by world governments in efforts to isolate cases and limit the transmission rate of the virus. These measures have however shattered the core sustaining pillars of the modern world economies as global trade and cooperation succumbed to nationalist focus and competition for scarce supplies. Against this backdrop, this paper presents a critical review of the catalogue of negative and positive impacts of the pandemic and proffers perspectives on how it can be leveraged to steer towards a better, more resilient low-carbon economy. The paper diagnosed the danger of relying on pandemic-driven benefits to achieving sustainable development goals and emphasizes a need for a decisive, fundamental structural change to the dynamics of how we live. It argues for a rethink of the present global economic growth model, shaped by a linear economy system and sustained by profiteering and energy-gulping manufacturing processes, in favour of a more sustainable model recalibrated on circular economy (CE) framework. Building on evidence in support of CE as a vehicle for balancing the complex equation of accomplishing profit with minimal environmental harms, the paper outlines concrete sector-specific recommendations on CE-related solutions as a catalyst for the global economic growth and development in a resilient post-COVID-19 world.

Climate change risk has become an important challenge for global sustainable development. The insurance industry can play an important role in coping with the increasingly severe climate change risk. This paper first describes the increasing climate change risk and the difficulties of the insurance mechanism in dealing with it. Then this paper summarizes the international practice of using the insurance mechanism to deal with climate change risk from ten different aspects. Based on the summary of the role of the insurance mechanism in dealing with this risk in developing countries, this paper puts forward the main application areas for climate change risk insurance and discusses the policy implications of developing climate change risk insurance in China.

Climate change and global warming have become severe environmental issues of global concern, and many countries have promulgated renewable energy development planning to achieve the targets of carbon emission reduction and sustainable development. Accelerating the development of renewable energy technology innovation is one of the major measures to stimulate the utilization of renewable resources. This paper analyzes the impact of renewable energy technology innovation on carbon intensity in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2015. Using the recent panel estimation methods that take cross-section dependence and slope heterogeneity into account, the results show that for every 1% increase in the innovation level of renewable energy technology, carbon intensity was significantly reduced by 0.051%. Specifically, renewable energy technology innovation does not affect carbon intensity in the short term. But in the long term, the influences are negative and significant. Moreover, the environmental benefits are most evident in eastern China, while there is no significant influence on the western regions. Finally, this paper provides some policy implications to further discuss the impetus of renewable energy technology innovation.

This paper examines the organizational arrangements for technology supply in solar photovoltaic projects in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). It shows that while lower middle-income countries typically import solar PV equipment into CDM projects, China, India and Thailand have begun to use new organizational arrangements for technology transfer which reflect the overall industry maturity in the solar PV sectors in these countries. This has great potential for long-term climate change mitigation efforts. However, the initiation of these new organizational arrangements often preceded the supply of technology into CDM projects. This raises important questions about the role of CDM in spearheading the development of technological capabilities required for sustainable development. The paper uses these findings to add to the literature about technology in CDM and to the wider policy debates over the future of the global climate regime. Technology transfer does not become less important as developing countries' capabilities mature, but the nature of technology transfer changes over time. This suggests a need to differentiate between countries at different levels of development. Lower middle-income countries may have greater needs for building technological capabilities whereas cooperative activities may be suitable for upper middle-income countries that already have capabilities to address climate change. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper investigates the process of coalition formation for issue-specific coalitions. I use the Alliance of Small Island States and the Coalition for Rainforest Nations as case studies to inductively create a framework on coalition formation. This framework is tested against two coalitions, both advocating for mountain issues in the UN climate negotiations. These two coalitions differ in the type of coalition sought, the strategies deployed thus far, and the type of support they have received, including the role of non-state actors. The framework helps identify significant gaps in the efforts of the two coalitions, including capturing the most salient link between climate change and mountains, translating technical input into negotiating positions, and identifying the most appropriate form of the coalition and forum to pursue these interests. In doing so, this paper provides insights into the limits of linking issues to the climate change agenda (“climate bandwagoning”), issue proliferation and its implications for coalition management for actors like the Group of 77 and China, and the nature of multi-scalar interactions in regime complexes.

Tourism climate research is of great significance to the tourism industry because tourism is closely linked to climate. Based on an analysis of related core papers, this paper reviews the research progress on tourism climate in China in terms of research method, research process, and research topic. Research on tourism climate in China started later than similar research in some Western countries and the topics mainly focused on tourism climate resources, climate comfort for tourism, the impact of climate on tourists’ behavior and emotion, climate and tourism seasonality, climate change and tourism development, etc. To provide scientific support for the sustainable development of China’s tourism industry, we propose the following for future research, based on our review of the literature: (1) strengthening the theoretical study of tourism climatology, (2) constructing and improving the research content system, and (3) enriching relevant research in climate-sensitive areas.

Due to the large-scale utilization of high-carbon fossil energy, considerable amounts of critical air pollutants (CAPs) and greenhouse gas (GHG) have been emitted, which has led to increasingly serious global climate change and local air pollution problems. Given that climate change and air pollution have the same source, energy systems, the rational development and use of energy for collaborative governance should be emphasized to solve these problems in parallel. This paper presents a multi-dimensional, multi-perspective and achievable analysis framework to quantitatively evaluate the emission reduction effects of energy countermeasures aimed at tackling climate change and governing air pollution in support of sustainable development. As a typical developing country pursuing sustainable development, China is taken as an example to demonstrate an application of the proposed framework to assess the emission reduction effects of energy countermeasures issued for tackling climate change and governing air pollution on CAPs and GHG. The results indicate that the key energy actions proposed in this paper would result in emission reductions of approximately 6 million tons (Mt) of CAPs and 575 Mt of GHG in 2016. By 2020 and 2030, emission reductions of 12 Mt of CAPs and 1094 Mt of GHG and of 21 Mt of CAPs and 1975 Mt of GHG, respectively, will be achieved. The proposed framework can effectively help China identify the emissions reduction effect of a given energy countermeasure and support the development of policy describing the next steps for tackling climate change and haze pollution. The proposed framework in this paper is also beneficial for countries similar to China in their efforts to simultaneously address climate change and improve air quality.

In this research paper, researcher has attempted to examine national and international legal instruments and policies relating to climate change and sustainable development through the lense of livelihood challenges for farmers. Researcher has also attempted to explore the farmers concern in different national and international legal instruments, declarations and policies. This paper also finds out an impact of climate change on farmers and agricultural sector, which is the backbone of economy for many South Asian countries. Despite of the efforts of different international organizations, still problems like, climate change induced livelihood challenges for farmers, food security problems etc. in South Asian countries including Bangladesh, China and India, are persisting. Besides, in this paper researcher has vigorously argued that concern of farmers is only the missing link between climate change induced problems and sustainable development. Sustainable development will be a reality when livelihood challenges of farmers and especially agricultural sector will be addressed in the climate change related legal and policy documents. This paper takes a broader view and explores the multiple effects that climate change can have on farmers, food production and food security. It also tries to explore an adaptation and mitigation measures, especially in the agricultural sector with reference to farmers of South Asian countries.

At present, a sustainable agricultural development is extremely important for economic backwardness in the northeast of China to stabilize local economy and prevent economic disaster. The paper is constructing an economic climate model of northeast region, the inspection result of this model represents: climate warming, drought, and extreme climate bring significant negative effect towards cereal output in northeast region; and this paper also represents the analysis results that the price, labor force, capital and technology inputs have a positive effect on cereal output. Recognizing these impacts correctly and taking active measures will be favorable to ensure a sustainable development and regional economic stability of the northeast region.

Global sea-level has fluctuated through geological time but the sea-level oscillations during the Quaternary and especially the last Ice Age were particularly important in shaping our modern coastline. At the last glacial maximum of 20,000 years ago, the sea level was around 120 m lower than today. It then rose rapidly to reach its current position around 6–7,000 years ago. During this period, there were times when the sea level was rising at rates in excess of 20 mm year, although the pattern, timing and rates of this major sea-level rise event vary around the world, as does the time when sea level stabilised near its present position (Harvey 2006). After a few millennia of relative stability, geological and tide-gauge data provide evidence of sea-level rise during the 19th and 20th centuries, reaching an average rate of 1.7 mm year during the 20th century (Church and White 2006). This modern sea-level rise raised concerns about the vulnerability of the significant population living near the coast, for which there are various global and sub-global estimates (Mimura 2001; Small and Nicholls 2003; Ericson et al. 2006; Woodroffe et al. 2006; McGranahan et al. 2007; Nicholls et al. 2007). Recent satellite data, combined with tide-gauge data, provide evidence of an increased sea-level rise of over 3 mm year (see Church et al.; this volume). The need to better understand the causes of sea-level rise, provide accurate predictions of the future rate of sealevel rise and to assess coastal vulnerability has been the subject of numerous scientific articles in the global change literature, which have recently been reviewed and synthesised in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (Parry et al. 2007; Solomon et al. 2007). The feature articles in this issue of Sustainability Science provide a useful contribution to this continuing debate. The idea for this issue arose from discussions following a special session on sea-level rise, held at the Open Science Conference of the ESSP (Earth Systems Science Partnership) in November 2006, Beijing, China. The ESSP comprises a partnership of the world’s four leading global change scientific research organisations: (1) DIVERSITAS (International Program for Biodiversity Science); (2) IGBP (International GeosphereBiosphere Programme); (3) IHDP (International Human Dimensions Project); and (4) WCRP (World Climate Research Program). The co-chairs of the special conference session on sealevel rise (Wilson and Harvey) brought scientists together from different global change research programs (largely the WCRP and IGBP) to present different perspectives on sea-level rise. This followed recent research efforts from the WCRP, which held a workshop in 2006 on sea-level rise and vulnerability (see Church et al.; this volume) and the IGBP and its coastal program LOICZ (Land–Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone), which recently published a 10-year research synthesis (Crossland et al. 2005). Four of the speakers from the ESSP conference (Church, Harvey, Nicholls and von Storch) have contributed articles to this issue of Sustainability Science with the additional help of a number of their fellow researchers. A further two papers (Syvitski and Torresan et al.) have been included to broaden the scope of the debate. The first three papers focus on physical aspects of sea-level rise, whereas the last N. Harvey (&) Geographical and Environmental Studies, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5400, Australia e-mail: nick.harvey@adelaide.edu.au

Household energy consumption has been one of the most critical factors to climate change. We conducted bibliometric research on household energy consumption by using CiteSpace and HistCite. The Web of Science was used to identify and visualize the evolution of paper citation diagram, the collaboration network, the cocitation network and emerging trends by mapping the knowledge domain of 2984 academic publications between 2011 and 2018 related to household energy consumption. The results showed that the number of academic articles published in the field of household energy consumption and carbon emissions was on the rise, but the number of highly cited articles decreased. The most productive authors and institutions in this subject are in Australia, the USA, China, Britain and Germany. Much of the research has focused on electricity consumption and heat supply, while there have been few studies on other subdomains in the area of energy consumption. The impact of greenhouse gases produced by energy consumption on the environment was the focus of this study. Here, we present an in-depth analysis of household energy consumption and carbon emission research to better understand global trends and hot topics in this field which have emerged over the last few years.

Economics is an important perspective of growing interest to analyze the climate change issues, especially, when we concentrate on the development of market-based instruments at the regional level. Starting from the fundamental characteristics of economic goods, the research put forwards a definition of climate change goods and, furthermore, builds a model of climate change policies in three transitional phases: from global public goods to regional private goods. Based on this model, the paper analyzes the development of climate change strategies in China and the EU, specifically considering the climate policies in Central and Eastern European economies in transition. While international climate negotiations remain important, the development of market-based instruments at the regional development is an important issue of transformation and social learning. From our comparative study, the transitional phase will last long period for all regions. Furthermore, the phase of a mature, perfectly functioning market, will never be reached because some public good elements of climate change will remain. There are many common issues faced by the EU and China, from a transitional perspective such as national harmonisation versus regional differentiation, and integration of top-down versus bottom-up strategies, and so on. Mutual learning on capacity development in China and the EU will be beneficial even if linking of climate change goods’ markets in China and the EU will only be possible after 2020 due to divergent backgrounds. Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Perspektiven werden zunehmend bedeutsamer für die Klimapolitik, besonders wenn es um die Entwicklung von dezentralen marktbasierten Instrumenten geht. Ausgehend von der grundlegenden Typologie ökonomischer Güter wird ein konzeptioneller Rahmen für die Entwicklung von „Klimagütern“ in drei Phasen skizziert. Auf dieser Grundlage werden die historischen und aktuellen Klimastrategien in China und der EU analysiert. Besondere Berücksichtigung finden dabei die Transformationsprozesse in der Klimapoltik der neuen Beitrittsländer in Mittel- und Osteuropa. Auch wenn eine weltweite Klimapolitik (Top down) unverzichtbar ist, müssen – parallel – regionale Transformations- und Lernprozesse stattfinden, deren Entwicklung lange Zeit braucht und am Ende immer Elemente staatlicher Regulierung und öffentlicher Gutsbereitstellung beinhalten. Eine „reine“ Marktlösung ist nicht möglich. Aus dieser Transformationsperspektive entstehen zahlreiche gemeinsame Themen für die wissenschaftliche Zusammenarbeit zwischen China und der EU, z.B. die Frage der (inter)nationalen Harmonisierung versus regionalen Differenzierung und die Verbindung von Top-down und Bottom-Up Strategien. Die Perspektive der Verknüpfung von „Klimagütermärkten“ zwischen der EU und China ist wegen der Ungleichzeitigkeit der Entwicklung und anhaltender Systemunterschiede allerdings nicht vor 2020 möglich.

Adopting necessary climate change adaptation strategies is an important measure to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In recent years, social capital has provided a new perspective for analyzing the differences of individual behaviors in the process of climate change adaptation. However, the actual role of social capital in adapting to climate change has not been thoroughly explored. In this paper, we took the high-frigid ecological vulnerable areas on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau as an example. Based on household survey data, we explored the impacts of social networks, social trust and social norms on the choice of climate change adaptation strategies for farmers. Results show that more than 80% of farmers adopt the necessary climate change adaptation strategies. Early transferring/adjusting farming season, artificial grass planting and reducing livestock are their major adaptation strategies. There are significant differences in adopting climate change adaptation strategies between farmers with different social networks, social trust and social norms. The improvements of formal social networks, interpersonal trust, institutional trust, and social norms have significant impacts on the choice of climate change adaptation strategies for farmers. However, the enhancement of informal social networks has a negative impact on it. Finally, we provided suggestions to formulate and implement effective climate change adaptation strategies for areas that sensitive to climate changes.

This collection of papers is based on an international workshop held in the summer of 2009 at the University of Duisburg-Essen. It brings together different perceptions regarding China, India and Bangladesh as they face the risks and crises of climate change and economic shocks like the recent global financial crisis. The papers reflect assumptions concerning the concept of Risk Society and discuss the extent to which Sustainable Development and the rather new concepts of Green Governance, Green Economy and the New Great Deal offer avenues for transforming risk societies into risk-avoiding and riskresistant societies and states. On the basis of these concepts, the current situation in China, India and Bangladesh is described, including the coping strategies which have been implemented so far. Contents: Tobias Debiel / Thomas Heberer: Preface - - - Anja Senz / Dieter Reinhardt: Introduction: Crisis Perception and Green Governance in Comparative Perspective: Questions, Concerns and Format of the Publication - - - Karen Shire: Risks as a Research Topic - Concepts and Methods - - - Chen Yugang: Measure for Meeting Challenges of Climate Change - a Chinese Perspective - - - Yang Long: Potential Instability Caused by the Financial Crisis - Measures Taken by the Chinese State - - - Anja Senz: Green Governance and Sustainable Development in China: Two Problems - One Solution? - - - Dinoo Anna Mathew: Climate Change in India with Special Reference to Women - - - Ash Narain Roy: Coping with Climate Change and Financial Crisis - the Indian Narrative - - - Dalem Barman: Climate Change and Security: A South Asian Perspective - - - Dil Rowshan: Anthropogenic Intervention in Natural Eco-Systems and Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh - - - Özlem Ipiv / Dieter Reinhardt: Sustainable Green Investments and Policies in Bangladesh: Two problems - One Solution? - - - Dieter Reinhardt / Anja Senz: Conclusions: Risks, the Green New Deal, and Green Governance - Lessons from South and East Asia

This collection of papers is based on an international workshop held in the summer of 2009 at the University of Duisburg-Essen. It brings together different perceptions regarding China, India and Bangladesh as they face the risks and crises of climate change and economic shocks like the recent global financial crisis. The papers reflect assumptions concerning the concept of Risk Society and discuss the extent to which Sustainable Development and the rather new concepts of Green Governance, Green Economy and the New Great Deal offer avenues for transforming risk societies into risk-avoiding and riskresistant societies and states. On the basis of these concepts, the current situation in China, India and Bangladesh is described, including the coping strategies which have been implemented so far.