Climate change adaptation strategies in the Mekong and Orange-Senqu basins: What determines the state-of-play?

The challenge of governing transboundary water resources is expected to increase with climate change and the resulting need to adapt to its impacts such as temperature increase, more precipitation in the wet season and less in the dry season. In a number of transboundary basins, international regimes, and in particular river basin commissions, are emerging to account for this and other challenges. Some basins are, however, rather advanced in terms of developing climate change adaptation strategies, while others are in a more nascent stage. For the two case studies of the Orange-Senqu and Mekong river basins, this paper attempts to explain the different degrees of progress towards climate change adaptation by applying regime effectiveness analysis. First, we analyze, using the Activity Diagram (AD) of the Management and Transition Framework (MTF), at which stage in the climate change adaptation policy formation process each of the two basins is. Then we attempt to explain the different degrees of progress towards adaptation by means of regime effectiveness theory. Variables indicating regime effectiveness are taken from the literature and further developed to suit the context of climate change adaptation. We find that the different degrees of progress can partially be explained by some variables of regime effectiveness such as the characteristics of rules and procedures, organizational structure, the role of riparian countries as well as international context. At the same time, the analysis points to the need for an analysis of additional factors that potentially shape decision-making and policy processes for climate change adaptation in international river basins such as (a) the hydrological, political and socio-economic setting, (b) underlying principles of regional cooperation (or conflict), (c) interests and values of the various actors in the negotiation process and (d) the possible linkages and trade-offs with other policy fields.     

Public policy as a part of transforming energy systems: framing bioenergy in Finnish energy policy

Government interventions have been identified as important for energy systems change, because they can either facilitate or hinder transitions toward more sustainable energy systems. This article analyses how bioenergy options have been framed in Finnish policy strategies and how the framing has changed over time. The empirical material includes the content of 15 government programmes and nine national energy/climate strategies. On the basis of this assessment, both the link between bioenergy framings in strategies and the actual transformation of Finnish bioenergy systems are explored.On the basis of bioenergy framings, the development of energy policy can be divided into three phases: support for domestic energy sources in 1979-1991, support for wood- and industry-based bioenergy in 1992-1998, and diversified bioenergy in the context of climate change in 1999-2010. For two decades, primarily wood-based bioenergy was supported despite alternative technological developments occurring elsewhere. After the turn of the millennium, the importance of climate policy increased and alternative bioenergy sources were raised on the government policy agenda, also resulting in some new policy instruments. Rather than adopting a visionary outlook to guide system transformation, climate and energy policy has strengthened those technological options that have been selected elsewhere. If public policies are to enhance the shift toward low-carbon, sustainable energy systems, they would need to be more comprehensive, be more consistent over time, and emphasise energy use more.     

The role of science-policy interface in sustainable urban water transitions: Lessons from Rotterdam

This paper investigates the role of the science-policy interface in leveraging transitions to sustainable urban water management. The paper presents a case study of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which is increasingly regarded as a global leader in adaptive and resilient urban water management. The analysis reveals that Rotterdam’s transition has occurred incrementally over the past 15 years, driven by policy entrepreneurs: largely municipal policy makers and policy practitioners. Strategic use of the science-policy interface (SPI) has facilitated the development of innovative solutions to achieve policy goals and created the enabling conditions necessary for transformative change. The Rotterdam case suggests that an effective SPI requires: (1) compelling water narrative; (2) cross-sectoral collaboration; (3) co-production of knowledge; (4) experiential evidence-based learning; (5) strategic use of trusted scientists; (6) fostering networks; and (7) generating business from science-based innovation. Rotterdam’s strategic approach to knowledge and innovation coupled with a new narrative around water sets it apart from many other cities and adds a new dimension to debates regarding enabling factors for advancing sustainable practices. These findings will be of interest to those engaged in urban water management policy and practice, environmental governance, and debates over transitions more broadly.     

More than information: what coastal managers need to plan for climate change

Climate change and sea-level rise (SLR) increasingly threaten the world's coastlines, managers at local, regional, state, and federal levels will need to plan and implement adaptation measures to cope with these impacts in order to continue to protect the economic, social, and environmental security of the state and of local communities.In this paper, we explore the information needs of California coastal managers as they begin confronting the growing risks from climate change. Through this case study we examine the challenges managers face presently, what information they use to perform their responsibilities, what additional information and other knowledge resources they may need to begin planning for climate change. We place our study into the broader context of the study of how science can best support policy-makers and resource managers as they begin to plan and prepare for adaptation to climate change.Based on extensive interview and survey research in the state, we find that managers prefer certain types of information and information sources and would benefit from various learning opportunities (in addition to that information) to make better use of available global change information. Coastal managers are concerned about climate change and willing to address it in their work, but require financial and technical assistance from other agencies at the state and federal level to do so. The study illustrates the strong need for boundary organizations to serve various intermediary functions between science and practice, especially in the context of adaptation to global climate change impacts.     

Alternative function fulfilment: incorporating environmental considerations into increased design space

The focal point of this paper is the relatively unknown concept of alternative function fulfilment (AFF), which is a design strategy that can be used to generate new ways of fulfilling a certain function and is referred to in the context of ecodesign. It can be considered an attractive environmental innovation strategy, provided that the increased design space is used to create more sustainable products and services.This paper explores the AFF concept and discusses the implications of adopting this concept. It thus focuses on how design and business processes may need to change to allow the radical shift towards AFF, in order to facilitate the envisaged significant environmental improvements.     

Stakeholder involvement in strategic adaptation planning: Transdisciplinarity and co-production at stake?

To address increasing climatic variability and extremes, cities are gradually forced to develop climate change adaptation strategies that can ensure a continuous and transformative adaptation process. There is widespread consensus that the sustainable establishment of such strategies requires transdisciplinary approaches, that is, the involvement of internal and external stakeholders (state, civil society and market actors) to become part of the change and find innovative ways to unite their efforts and capacities. However, there is little research and hardly any empirical evidence on the process of stakeholder involvement and co-production in the development of municipal adaptation strategies. Against this background, this paper examines the factors that influence how and why different stakeholders are involved (or excluded) during the processes of developing adaptation strategies, and how this gets reflected in process outcomes. Based on applied participatory analysis of two pioneering municipalities in Germany and Sweden, the paper identifies and contrasts existing patterns to feed back into both theory and practice. Synergies, mismatches, barriers and driving forces for adaptation co-production are identified and contrasted with current adaptation discourses. The results highlight how the level of internal and external stakeholder involvement is conditional on (changes in) the broader governance context, and the associated power constellations in which stakeholders act (e.g., standing of departments, proximity to the decision-making body, changes in [or constellations of] political parties, contractual arrangements for staff, individual champions, progress in mainstreaming). On this basis, conclusions are drawn regarding how to foster sustainable and transformative adaptation through increased stakeholder involvement. The results and conclusions are crucial to advance theory on adaptation co-production, providing a basis for further analyses, research and action. They inform how existing theory, policies and/or guidelines for strategic adaptation planning need to be revisited to support change across current risk governance.     

Policy coherence in climate governance in Caribbean Small Island Developing States

Climate governance in Small Island developing States (SIDS) is a pressing priority to preserve livelihoods, biodiversity and ecosystems for the next generations. Understanding the dynamics of climate change policy integration is becoming more crucial as we try to measure the success of environmental governance efforts and chart new goals for sustainable development. At the international level, climate change policy has evolved from single issue to integrated approaches towards achieving sustainable development. New actors, new mechanisms and institutions of governance with greater fragmentation in governance across sectors and levels (Biermann and Pattberg, 2008) make integration of policy in the area of climate change governance even more of a challenge today. What is the Caribbean reality regarding policy coherence in climate change governance? Are the same climate change policy coherence frameworks useful or indeed applicable for environmental governance in developing states more generally and for SIDS in particular? What are the best triggers to achieve successful climate change policy integration in environmental governance—especially as the complex interconnectivity of new actors, institutions and mechanisms make the process of integration even more challenging? What facilitates and what hampers climate policy integration in the regional Caribbean context? This article reviews the debates around policy coherence for climate change governance, creates a framework to test or measure policy coherence and examines how relevant this has been to regional climate change governance processes in Commonwealth Caribbean States. The study found that though at the regional level, there is substantial recognition of the importance of and mechanics involved in climate policy coherence, this has not translated to policy coherence at the regional and national levels. There is a large degree of fragmentation in the application of climate policy in each Caribbean Island with no mechanism to breach the gap. Silos in public environmental governance architectures, unwillingness to share data, insufficient political will; unsustainable project-based funding and lack of accountability among actors are the main challenges to climate policy coherence. The findings fill a gap in the literature on the elements of climate policy coherence from a SIDS perspective.     

Stalled regime transition in the upper Tisza River Basin: the dynamics of linked action situations

In river basins transformation from traditions of reactive flood defense to more adaptive management regimes is difficult. How regime components reinforce each other to set its development path may induce inertia and path dependency. Transformation may require profound shifts in the institutions, technologies, and personnel as well as the ecological, economic and social processes they influence in setting the basin's trajectory. Regime change has become an issue in Hungary following repeated failures of conventional management policies to handle a series of floods on the Tisza river starting in 1997. Increasing public participation pushed water policy debate toward more experimentation with alternatives, but implementation appears stalled. In this paper we review hypotheses about what factors are bridges or barriers to transformation and then use the Management Transition Framework to examine how the interactions linking action situations, operational outcomes, knowledge and institutions influenced the river management policy debate in Hungary from 1997 to 2009. Specifically we examined which factors characteristic of conventional Control vs. progressive Adaptive management regimes influenced these interactions in ways that contributed to or hindered transformation. We found that governance and social learning issues predominated, with lesser roles played by factors related to integration of sectors and different levels in the science and policy of river management.     

Navigating the authority paradox: Practising objectivity in environmental expertise

We empirically reveal how environmental experts interpret the objectivity norm while navigating the authority paradox. The paradox here is that while there is a need for objective scientific advice, such advice is only to be acquired from experts and expert agencies whose objectivity and, hence, authority are contested. Viewed through the lens of practice, we identify what practitioners at the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency understand by objectivity. Using this paradigmatic case, we show how practitioners renegotiate the meaning of objectivity while seeking to engage with new policy actors and extended peers in an independent, rigorous and legitimate manner. Successfully navigating the authority paradox is related to skilfully representing and adapting to various meanings of objectivity. Experts and experts agencies accordingly need reflexive skills to recognise which meanings of objectivity they ascribe to and which ones are invoked in public debates. Environmental experts who are able to loosely connect diverse objectivity conceptions are more likely considered as trustworthy and authoritative partners in environmental science-policy interfaces.     

Developing capabilities and competence for sustainable business management as innovation: a research agenda

This paper frames the response by business to the challenge of sustainable development in terms of innovation. It addresses how the shift in business focus from competitiveness to sustainability impacts the capabilities and competence for innovation. A review of the literature suggests that innovation for sustainability requires the active involvement of a broader and more diverse network of actors, including those with more local knowledge of the implications of innovations than is the case with more conventional forms of innovation. The paper also identifies a systematic failure to address the need for inventiveness as a cornerstone of innovation. The paper puts forward elements of an applied research agenda to support the development of a better understanding of the capabilities that foster the competence by business to innovate in ways that are more sustainable.     

Institutional dynamics and climate change adaptation in South Africa

Climate change is a multi-dimensional issue and in terms of adaptation numerous state and non-state actors are involved from global to national and local scales. The aim of this paper is first to analyse specific institutional networks involved in climate change predominantly at the national level in South Africa and second to determine how different stakeholders perceive their role vis-a-vis climate change adaptation. Within the South African context there is a gap in understanding and evaluating how institutional networks operate and thus the findings of this work may help inform and strengthen such relationships in the future. Results showed that few institutions fully understand the implications of adaptation and their roles and responsibilities have not yet been properly defined. Constraints relating to capacity, lack of awareness and poor information flow need to be addressed. Climate change is perceived as an important issue although problems such as poverty reduction and job creation remain national priorities. Most importantly this research has demonstrated how adaptation challenges the hierarchical manner in which government works and a more collaborative approach to climate change adaptation is needed. Adaptation needs to be mainstreamed and institutional networks need to be strengthened in order for adaptation mechanisms to be effectively implemented.

Sustainability through system transformation: lessons from Finnish efforts

This special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production addresses system transformation by examining progress, stumbling blocks and opportunities for sustainable consumption and production in a specific country, Finland, set within a global context. The articles present and analyse top-down policy efforts, bottom-up efforts by municipalities, activities by companies and actions by consumers. They provide material for discussions on the shift from sustainability planning to enhancing system transformation, on the implications of globalisation for system boundaries, on the transformation of complex systems, on learning processes and on methods of assessing transitions. Without providing a singular solution, the articles show that issues of sustainability should be explored in different ways within different contexts, and experimented with. There is a continuous need for transformations and reflexive learning, since conditions are likely to become very different, not least due to climate change. The notion of change and transformation will be high on the agenda of the Rio+20 conference, as will similar efforts to promote large-scale transformations of consumption and production.     

Urban sustainability experiments in Asia: patterns and pathways

Despite well-documented examples of urban sustainability practices in Asia, the internal mechanisms of the practices, their transferability, and their impact on urban sustainability transitions are yet to be thoroughly investigated. This paper examines 30 innovative urban practices in Asia from a system innovation and urban environmental evolution perspective, in an attempt to identify common patterns and pathways that can aid up-scaling and thereby broader application of effective sustainability practices. We developed a five-tier framework (e.g. triggers-actors-linkages-barriers-pathways) to explore whether successful broad-scale application was related to patterns within each of the tiers, or whether certain combinations of tiers lead to certain application pathways. Our results indicate the importance of policy changes and cumulative effects; the importance of local government, community and international agencies as main actors; and the prominent role of political and institutional barriers, while technology doesn’t seem to be a major barrier in urban sustainability experiment in Asia. Our results indicate that: those cases that are up-scaled through broader application often have strong vertical linkages with state or national governments; many international development agency initiatives tend to remain as experiments or duplicated elsewhere but are seldom up-scaled to change the system of practice. Nearly half of the innovative practices examined were either mainstreamed or duplicated elsewhere, suggesting that these innovative practices might play important role in sustainability transitions in Asia.     

中国资源枯竭城市的转型效果评价

论文通过对资源枯竭城市转型发展中各方面变化的分析总结,提出以基础、经济、社会、生态4个要素为框架建立资源枯竭城市转型发展指标体系的思路,并根据2005-2009年《中国城市统计年鉴》数据,测量各个资源枯竭城市在自身转型和区域发展地位提升两方面的发展状态。之后对城市的转型效果进行分类分析,发现资源枯竭城市转型总体态势较好,但城市转型效果在空间上以及不同类别城市间存在明显差异,部分城市没有实现经济、社会、环境协调转型发展。     

Coping with change: responses of the Uzbek water management regime to socio-economic transition and global change

Water management in Uzbekistan (Central Asia) is facing tremendous challenges. They are rooted in past and present environmental degradation, the socio-economic transition after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the impacts of climate change. The Uzbek government has initiated reforms in the agricultural and water sectors to steer the socio-economic transition and address the threats of increasing water scarcity and decreasing agricultural productivity. However, despite the urgency of the problems and massive international assistance changes to the water management regime have only been minimal so far. In this paper we identify major structural barriers for adaptation of the water management regime through an analysis of two recent policy processes. Both processes address pressing water management issues such as “coping with extreme events” and “providing water for ecosystems”. They were analyzed using the Management and Transition Framework as well as a group model building exercises with stakeholders on the national, regional and local levels. The analyses reveal a lack of vertical integration across administrative levels of the formal system and a still prevailing strong centralization of water management. Moreover the water management regime is strongly influenced by informal institutions that shape the outcomes of policy processes. The interactions guided by informal institutions provide an informal link between different administrative levels of the regime. However, those informal networks and the social capital embedded in them rather prevent needed changes. The resulting combination of top down institutional change initiated by socio-economic transition and bottom-up consolidation of the existing status quo via informal processes and networks prevents social learning. It also slows down an adaptation process that potentially could lead to a transition towards a more adaptive regime.     

旅游发展背景下乡村适应性演化理论框架与实证

乡村转型及适应演化路径是乡村可持续发展领域重要研究内容,对实施乡村振兴战略及其多元目标的实现具有重要理论和现实意义。通过国家制度（战略）变迁关键时间节点,梳理典型案例乡村发展阶段,明确案例乡村转型适应的体制演化特征。在乡村适应性演化理论分析框架构建基础上,以体制转换明显的乡村为实证案例,结合农户调查与深度访谈数据,评估乡村适应演化下系统适应能力（结果）及农户生计响应效果,并基于归纳法和灰色关联分析,揭示乡村体制转换与微观农户生计关联的适应演化路径及机制。研究结果表明:（1）传统农业体制乡村向旅游体制转换后出现乡村经济发展和环境破坏、社会矛盾风险并存局面,农户生计适应选择对乡村转型响应呈现多样化。（2）不同适应路径农户生计恢复力存在显著差异,升级型、扩张型生计恢复力相对较高,维持型和更替型较低。（3）乡村体制转换（R₁到R_n）与农户生计适应（P₁到P₅）呈现协同且分化的演化路径,基础设施、政策扶持以及生态环境因子是乡村转型与农户生计关联适应演化的关键影响变量。     

Explorations on the University's role in society for sustainable development through a systems transition approach. Case-study of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)

Focusing on the sustainability challenge, a growing number of Universities are redefining their core strategies in order to adapt to the real social needs and expectations of their stakeholders. Beyond integrating sustainability into the University's internal activities (curriculum, research, operations, etc.), the challenge seems to be integrating the University with the sustainable development paths of society. For the last 10 years the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC) has tackled this challenge through an overarching strategic plan. The latest strategy, UPC Sustainable Plan 2015 has adopted a different focus, which was designed through a participatory approach, involving many internal and external stakeholders.This work aims to use a conceptual framework based on systems transitions to assess the systems change potential of a University strategy, in this case, the sustainability strategy of UPC. The main objectives of this paper are: to present the sustainability strategy participatory design process and its outcomes at UPC; to analyse the strategy change potential through a new transition/systems renewal method that is proposed; and to compare it with the UPCs previous environmental strategy; The work concludes that the systems transition potential is currently higher with the new strategy and discusses the elements that explain this finding.     

探索新时期中国特色的可持续发展道路

节能减排、应对气候变化和发展绿色、低碳经济已经成为国际上可持续发展新的战略取向,并且正通过生产方式、消费方式、国际合作与贸易方式的转型,以及管理、政策、技术的组合与创新形成新的发展和竞争格局。中国由于长期高速增长和巨大的社会经济规模,不仅使其面临的资源环境问题异常复杂,而且其问题与全球性问题的结构具有一致性。经过过去20年的努力,中国在处理环境与发展关系上取得了很大成绩,同时也面临各种新的挑战。未来5-10年,中国的可持续发展道路应以节能减排和应对气候变化为主线,通过阶段目标和长期目标、效率和总量、计划与市场、制度与技术、国内与国际相结合,寻找系统的解决方案。     

Lessons from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on inclusiveness across geographies and stakeholders

There have been many calls in policy and academia for more inclusiveness in science-policy interfaces, but there is as yet insufficient clarity as to what such inclusiveness means and how to achieve it in the context of international organisations. This paper analyses how inclusive the IPCC is across geographies and stakeholders. Building on the distinction between access and active participation, it examines the involvement of developing countries and NGOs in the Panel’s assessment process.The analysis shows that more inclusive institutional set-ups in international science-policy organisations do not automatically lead to greater credibility, salience and legitimacy of knowledge production processes (Mitchell et al., 2006). For instance, inclusive access does not per se guarantee active participation as the latter depends on a variety of factors including resources and the capacity of actors to engage. Furthermore, in institutional contexts the idea of inclusiveness is necessarily subject to operational interpretations. How these interpretations relate to the representativeness of those who participate in the process affects the relevance of knowledge to its users’ needs. Finally, there are political elements to inclusiveness as more powerful actors may be unwilling to renegotiate the balance of power to expand access to stakeholders.The paper concludes that these nuances should be taken into account in the IPCC and other international science-policy institutions. It also urges the Panel to address the developing country participation gap and explore institutional avenues for expanding access to non-state stakeholders in order to increase the credibility, salience and legitimacy of its processes and shift to solutions-oriented assessments.     

How to kick off system innovation: a Rotterdam case study of the transition to a fuel cell transport system

Fuel cells in combination with hydrogen are expected to play an important role in a future sustainable transport system. Recent studies have provided insight into how technological transitions may come about and may be managed. However, there is a lack of methodologies aimed at starting off transitions or system innovations, in practice. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a methodology characterized by a bottom–up approach to generate a roadmap for short-term projects within a long-term perspective. The methodology is applied in a Rotterdam case study of the transition to a fuel cell transport system. The outcome of this case study leads to recommendations for setting up a framework to facilitate and stimulate kicking off system innovation.