Advancing urban ecosystem governance in Rotterdam: From experimenting and evidence gathering to new ways for integrated planning

To improve quality of life as well as the adaptive capacity in the city of Rotterdam over the past 15 years there has been a lot of focus on improving green infrastructure and finding new ways for integrated planning. As many cities face similar challenges they are looking for novel approaches in urban ecosystem governance. The Rotterdam case can be an interesting example but can also reveal new questions to be researched.Before local policies and projects where developed a regional and urban green blue vision of how to improve overall quality of life using green infrastructure were developed. This provided policy frameworks for politicians, policymakers and other actors. Later on the same was done with Urban Waterplan 2, using the Rotterdam Watercity 2030 vision document as a basis. This vision was the result of a stakeholder based planning process which was made for the International Architecture Biennale 2005. Within these frameworks many interesting projects have been built and tested in the city and city region; ranging from a) a roof park over a railway yard to connect neighbourhoods to the waterfront, to b) water squares and c) digging new waterways with connected walking and biking routes. To go from projects to an overall implementation at city level required tools and approaches for better decision making. For the ‘Dakpark’ project as well as for the Zomerhofkwartier, the first climate proof neighbourhood in the city, stakeholder sessions were held and plans were drawn together with urban planners and landscape architects. To feed these processes even better and to know what would be an optimal solution for certain challenges, city data were studied and linked to scalable GIS mapping in the ‘smart city planner’. This tool gives the decision maker the possibility to quickly have an overview of an area and can be used in a stakeholder process to provide relevant additional information and to define joint projects. The tool makes it possible to do this for all 90 neighbourhoods in the city.Overall the urban ecosystem governance in the city of Rotterdam has – with trial and error- lead to a series of innovative projects. The next steps are acceleration and scaling up to city and regional level. Valuing the crucial role of green blue infrastructure for several aspects of the quality of life in cities are paramount.     

Exploring socioeconomic impacts of forest based mitigation projects: Lessons from Brazil and Bolivia

This paper aims to contribute new insights globally and regionally on how carbon forest mitigation contributes to sustainable development in South America. Carbon finance has emerged as a potential policy option to tackling global climate change, degradation of forests, and social development in poor countries. This paper focuses on evaluating the socioeconomic impacts of a set of forest based mitigation pilot projects that emerged under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The paper reviews research conducted in 2001–2002, drawing from empirical data from four pilot projects, derived from qualitative stakeholder interviews, and complemented by policy documents and literature. Of the four projects studied three are located in frontier areas, where there are considerable pressures for conversion of standing forest to agriculture. In this sense, forest mitigation projects have a substantial role to play in the region. Findings suggest however, that all four projects have experienced cumbersome implementation processes specifically, due to weak social objectives, poor communication, as well as time constraints. In three out of four cases, stakeholders highlighted limited local acceptance at the implementation stages. In the light of these findings, we discuss opportunities for implementation of future forest based mitigation projects in the land use sector.     

A framework for adapting urban forests to climate change

Planting urban trees and expanding urban forest canopy cover are often considered key strategies for reducing climate change impacts in urban areas. However, urban trees and forests can also be vulnerable to climate change through shifts in tree habitat suitability, changes in pests and diseases, and changes in extreme weather events. We developed a three-step framework for urban forest vulnerability assessment and adaptation that scales from regional assessment to local on-the-ground action. We piloted this framework in the Chicago region in 10 locations representing an urban-exurban gradient across a range of socioeconomic capacities. The majority of trees across a seven-county region had low to moderate vulnerability, but many of the least vulnerable species were nonnative invasive species. Urban forests in the 10 pilot locations ranged in vulnerability largely due to differences in economic and organizational adaptive capacity. Adaptation actions selected in these locations tended to focus on increased biodiversity and restoration of natural disturbance regimes. However, adaptation actions in more developed sites also included incorporating new species or cultivars. Lessons learned from the pilot area can be used to inform future efforts in other urban areas.     

Development and valuation of adaptation pathways for storm water management infrastructure

Policymakers today are faced with a difficult task of planning for large scale infrastructure that can cater to the climatic and socio-economic changes that the future will bring. To address the deeply uncertain nature resulting from long-term changes, it is becoming necessary to develop strategies that support flexibility and react more strategically than traditional planning approaches. This paper applies the concept of adaptation tipping points and adaptation pathways to a case study in Singapore for the planning of long-term urban drainage infrastructure. Using conventional grey and sustainable green solutions in isolation and in combination, adaptation pathway maps are developed and compared across outlined climatic and landuse scenarios. To understand and justify if the imparted flexibility is worth its cost, economic assessments are performed. This is a valuable extension of the existing framework, helps to identify the preferred configuration of land use and sub-select adaptation actions that should be implemented at the current time frame. The main finding of this study is that the adaptation pathways map for the sustainable grey landuse scenario economically outperforms those of the other outlined land uses. This provides a valuable insight for policy makers, as it implies that if carefully planned development is undertaken, the requirements of storm water management can be met in a sustainable manner, while simultaneously freeing up land for other purposes. This is especially important in the context of highly dense urban areas such as Singapore, where land is a scare resource.     

Climate change adaptation planning in agriculture: processes,experiences and lessons learned from early adapters

This paper explores the lessons learned by leaders in agricultural adaptation planning in order to assist other jurisdictions to develop adaptation strategies. It seeks to identify effective institutional, participatory and collaborative processes involved in designing agricultural adaptation strategies at the national and sub-national levels in Germany, Finland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. Its methodology is based on review of agricultural adaptation policy documents, research initiatives, stakeholder engagement processes, and cross-sectoral collaborations as well as interviews with key informants such as leaders and actors in adaptation planning. The gathered data show that early adapters have an improved regional and national understanding of climatic impacts, and of the risks to agriculture before the initiation of the planning process. The results indicate that the interplay between bottom-up and top-down initiatives has been crucial in the development of adaptation strategies. The former has provided rich and robust participation in designing, implementing and monitoring adaptations, while the latter was important for prioritizing and legitimizing the development of strategy. It also provided access to high-level decision makers and funding. The results of the study suggest that fostering cross-sectoral collaborations—especially by focusing on broader questions such as the role of agriculture in society—has become an important part of adaptation planning. Finally, our results also stress that adaptation planning in agriculture could be enhanced by skills development and mutual learning across stakeholder groups, research and policy-makers, and through the ongoing interactive development of institutional capabilities.     

Adaptation or conflict? Responses to climate change in water management in Bangladesh

The potential of climate change to impact local conflict and cooperation over natural resources has received relatively little attention. Bangladesh floodplains are highly vulnerable to environmental stresses that are worsening with climate change, and community organisations have to respond to water insecurity − seasonally too little or too much. Two case studies based on action research in contrasting water and climate stressed floodplain environments in Bangladesh investigate local conflicts over water management that worsened when water regimes changed. By overcoming conflicts and improving adaptation for all local actors the cases reveal the importance of local knowledge, innovations in institutions, external facilitation, and incentives provided by disadvantaged groups who contribute towards costs in return for a share in decision making power and better adapted water management. The cases show how community organisations diversified their responsibilities and took up the challenge of water management to address local priorities and overcome conflicts. Without a more flexible and enabling approach, public investments in adaptation are likely to focus on strengthening existing water management infrastructure without understanding local social interactions and complexity. This may strengthen elite dominance and local conflicts if there is no comparable investment in developing robust and fair local institutions.     

Rural vulnerability to environmental change in the irrigated lowlands of Central Asia and options for policy-makers: A review

Climate change, land degradation and drought affect millions of people living in drylands worldwide. With its food security depending almost entirely on irrigated agriculture, Central Asia is one of the arid regions highly vulnerable to water scarcity. Previous research of land and water use in the region has focused on improving water-use efficiency, soil management and identifying technical, institutional and agricultural innovations. However, vulnerability to climate change has rarely been considered, in spite of the imminent risks due to a higher-than-average warming perspective and the predicted melting of glaciers, which will greatly affect the availability of irrigation water. Using the Khorezm region in the irrigated lowlands of northwest Uzbekistan as an example, we identify the local patterns of vulnerability to climate variability and extremes. We look at on-going environmental degradation, water-use inefficiency, and barriers to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and based on an extensive review of research evidence from the region, we present concrete examples of initiatives for building resilience and improving climate risk management. These include improving water use efficiency and changing the cropping patterns that have a high potential to decrease the exposure and sensitivity of rural communities to climate risks. In addition, changes in land use such as the afforestation of degraded croplands, and introducing resource-smart cultivation practices such as conservation agriculture, may strengthen the capacity of farmers and institutions to respond to climate challenges. As these can be out-scaled to similar environments, i.e. the irrigated cotton and wheat growing lowland regions in Central Asia and the Caucasus, these findings may be relevant for regions beyond the immediate geographic area from which it draws its examples.     

A role-playing game as a tool to facilitate social learning and collective action towards Climate Smart Agriculture: Lessons learned from Apuí, Brazil

Addressing the global challenges of climate change (CC), food security and poverty alleviation requires enhancing the adaptive capacity and mitigation potential of land use systems. To this end, Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) aims to identify land use practices that sustainably increase productivity, enhance climate change (CC) adaptation and contribute to CC mitigation. A transition towards CSA requires technical, but also socio-institutional changes, for improved smallholder agricultural systems. Such changes may be triggered by stakeholder participation processes that stimulate social learning and collective action. This article evaluates whether a role-playing game (RPG) is an effective participatory tool to encourage social learning and collective action among local stakeholders towards adoption of CSA strategies. We designed and implemented an RPG with three groups of farmers in Apuí (Southern Amazonas), evaluating the game’s impact on social learning by interviewing each farmer before and after the RPG. Our findings show that the RPG induced not only technical learning, but also socio-institutional learning and engagement for collective action, though outcomes varied between different RPG sessions and among farmer participants.     

Opportunities for adaptation-mitigation synergies in geothermal energy utilization- Initial conceptual frameworks

In this article, the role of geothermal energy in mitigation and potential role in adaptation are discussed, and synergies between them developed. The article creates the Geothermal Adaptation-Mitigation (Geo-AdaM) conceptual frameworks that can be used in combining mitigation and adaptation in geothermal projects, e.g. by introducing adaptation additionality in Clean Development Mechanism or mitigation projects, using geothermal energy in climate vulnerable sectors, combining geothermal development with carbon forestry to improve recharge of geothermal systems in water stress areas, displacing fossil fuels in heating and cooling, and use of geothermal heat in raising tree seedlings in cold regions, and in greenhouses to create carbon sinks and green areas. The conceptual frameworks created in this research can cut across most regions, and types of utilization schemes with mitigation/adaptation co-benefits. The resulting co-benefits come with net positive environmental, economic and social impact. However, the co-benefits cannot be homogenous across all projects and regions. Tradeoffs may occur when using geothermal energy in adaptation projects, whose upstream activities are carbon intensive, or in adaptation and mitigation projects that have the potential of increasing vulnerability. The foreseen limitations of creating the synergies include; inadequate research on geothermal energy and adaptation, nature and scale of adaptation, involvement of different institutions and actors, access to finance and other resources especially in developing countries and lack of clear legal framework. Without proper legislation, fiscal incentives, to attract investment in adaptation aspects of geothermal energy, and to guard against tradeoffs, the interelationships between the two will remain a pipe dream.     

Collaborative use of geodesign tools to support decision-making on adaptation to climate change

Spatial planners around the world need to make climate change adaptation plans. Climate adaptation planning requires combining spatial information with stakeholder values. This study demonstrates the potential of geodesign tools as a mean to integrate spatial analysis with stakeholder participation in adaptation planning. The tools are interactive and provide dynamic feedback on stakeholder objectives in response to the application of spatial measures. Different rationalities formed by underlying internalized values influence the reasoning of decision-making. Four tools were developed, each tailored to different rationalities varying between a collective or individual viewpoint and analytical or political arguments. The tools were evaluated in an experiment with four groups of participants that were set around an interactive mapping device: the touch table. To study how local decision-making on adaptation can be supported, this study focuses on a specific case study in the Netherlands. In this case study, multiple different stakeholders need to make spatial decisions on land use and water management planning in response to climate change. The collaborative use of four geodesign tools was evaluated in an interactive experiment. The results show that the geodesign tools were able to integrate the engagement of stakeholders and assessment of measures. The experiment showed that decision-making on adaptation to climate change can benefit from the use of geodesign tools as long as the tool is carefully matched to the rationality that applies to the adaptation issue. Although the tools were tested to support the design of adaptation plans in a Dutch setting, the tools could be used for regional adaptation planning in other countries such as the development of regional adaptation strategies (RAS) as required by the European Union or on a national scale to support developing national adaptation plans of action (NAPAs) as initiated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for least developed countries.     

Adaptation and mitigation strategies in agriculture: an analysis of potential synergies

As climate changes due to rising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, agriculture will be one of the key human activities affected. Projections show that while overall global food production in the coming decades may keep pace with the food requirements of a growing world population, climate change might worsen existing regional disparities because it will reduce crop yields mostly in lands located at lower latitudes where many developing countries are situated. Strategies to enhance local adaptation capacity are therefore needed to minimize climatic impacts and to maintain regional stability of food production. At the same time, agriculture as a sector offers several opportunities to mitigate the portion of global greenhouse gas emissions that are directly dependent upon land use, land-use change, and land-management techniques. This paper reviews issues of agriculture and climate change, with special attention to adaptation and mitigation. Specifically, as adaptation and mitigation strategies in agriculture are implemented to alleviate the potential negative effects of climate change, key synergies need to be identified, as mitigation practices may compete with modifications to local agricultural practices aimed at maintaining production and income. Under future climate and socio-economic pressures, land managers and farmers will be faced with challenges in regard to selecting those mitigation and adaptation strategies that together meet food, fiber and climate policy requirements.     

Mitigation and adaptation synergy in forest sector

Mitigation and adaptation are the two main strategies to address climate change. Mitigation and adaptation have been considered separately in the global negotiations as well as literature. There is a realization on the need to explore and promote synergy between mitigation and adaptation while addressing climate change. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore the synergy between mitigation and adaptation by considering forest sector, which on the one hand is projected to be adversely impacted under the projected climate change scenarios and on the other provide opportunities to mitigate climate change. Thus, the potential and need for incorporating adaptation strategies and practices in mitigation projects is presented with a few examples. Firstly, there is a need to ensure that mitigation programs or projects do not increase the vulnerability of forest ecosystems and plantations. Secondly, several adaptation practices could be incorporated into mitigation projects to reduce vulnerability. Further, many of the mitigation projects indeed reduce vulnerability and promote adaptation, for example; forest and biodiversity conservation, protected area management and sustainable forestry. Also, many adaptation options such as urban forestry, soil and water conservation and drought resistant varieties also contribute to mitigation of climate change. Thus, there is need for research and field demonstration of synergy between mitigation and adaptation, so that the cost of addressing climate change impacts can be reduced and co-benefits increased.     

Bridging the gap between ecosystem service assessments and land-use planning through Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)

Land-use planning is an important determinant for green space policy in cities. It defines land covers and hence the structure and function of urban ecosystems and the benefits these provide to humans, such as air purification, urban cooling, runoff mitigation, and recreation. The ecosystem service approach has helped to attract policy attention to these benefits but the concept remains poorly implemented in urban policy and governance. To address this gap, we advance a framework to bridge ecosystem services into policy processes through Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) as decision support tool. The paper is organized in three main parts. First, we conduct a systematic literature review to assess state-of-the-art knowledge on ecosystem service assessments through MCDA. Next, we build on insights from the literature review to develop the ‘ecosystem services policy-cycle’, a conceptual framework that merges the ‘ecosystem service cascade’ and ‘policy cycle’ models to reinforce the link between ecosystem service assessments and practical applications in urban policy and governance. Next, we illustrate the applicability of the proposed framework along an example about conflicting interests on land use and green space planning following the closure of the Airport Tempelhof in Berlin, Germany. Our results highlight the scope of MCDA as a decision support tool for integrating ecosystem service assessments in green space governance. We discuss advantages and disadvantages of different methodological choices in the use of MCDA in ecosystem service assessments and note that a key strength of this tool in informing green space policies lies in its capacity to accommodate conflicting stakeholder perspectives and to address trade-offs between ecological, social and economic values.     

The impact of climate change on global energy use

Robust decision making, a growing approach to infrastructure planning under climate change uncertainty, aims to evaluate infrastructure performance across a wide range of possible conditions and identify the most robust strategies and designs. Robust decision making seeks to find potential weaknesses in systems in order to gird these through a combination of policy, infrastructure, and, in some cases, resilient or recovery strategies. A system can be explored by simulating many combinations of uncertain climatic and economic parameters; statistical clustering can identify parameter thresholds that lead to unacceptable performance. Often, however, uncertain variables are correlated, complicating the robustness analysis and casting doubt upon the thresholds identified. Here, we evaluate the impact of ordinary, hidden correlations in uncertainty parameters that drive simulation in robust decision making. We induced correlations between temperature and key climatic and economic parameters. We tested correlations of 0%, 30%, 60%, and 90% between temperature and the absolute value of precipitation, coefficient of variation, and downward surface solar radiation, and negative correlations between temperature and net variable benefit and the discount rate. We used a calibrated simulation model of a dam system regulating Lake Tana, Ethiopia, to compute the agricultural supply and net present value of the reservoirs. As the correlation strength increased, the results converged in a smaller region. We found that strong correlations depressed robustness scores of lower-performing alternatives and conversely increased results of the higher-performing alternatives. As the correlations increased in favorable alternatives, the failure thresholds became more extreme, speciously suggesting that only intense changes would result in poor performance. This overall analysis highlights the degree to which correlations of an interconnected climatic and economic system can impact outcomes of robust decision making and suggests methods to avoid confounding results.

     

Guidelines for the strategic management of flood risks in industrial plant oil in the Brazilian coast: adaptive measures to the impacts by relative sea level rise

This study provides guidelines for strategic management in industrial oil plants linked to uncertainties of climate change through the development of integrated planning methodology with focus on coastal flooding events caused by relative sea level rise (RSLR). The research site is in Redonda Island, located in Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro City, Brazil, and since 1960, it constitutes an industrial oil plant facility. The region suffers interaction with storms and meteorological tides from extratropical cyclones over the South Atlantic Ocean, being vulnerable to risks of disasters, floods, and coastal erosion. A Program on Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessments to Relative Sea Level Rise (“Programa de Avaliação e Adaptação às Vulnerabilidades de Elevação do Nível Relativo do Mar—PAAVENRM”) was developed to avoid compromising the regional and local development in the industrial system of the island, which is an ad hoc instrument designed to anticipate and reduce risks, damages, and losses by occurrence of extreme climatic events in coastal areas prone to flooding caused by RSLR. Results from computer simulation modeling indicate 37 prospective qualitative scenarios that consolidate the conditions of future climate vulnerability of the plant, starting from United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) information for RSLR up to 2100. Three quantitative forecasting scenarios were simulated, under boundary conditions preset for different altimetric ranges subject to submersion, based upon ordinary and extraordinary tides measured in the area in relation to RSLR, which allowed the evaluation of the industrial infrastructure at risk. Furthermore, three thematic maps were elaborated for the planning of specific coastal protection interventions. Percentages of physical damage and property losses were estimated. The importance of applying guidelines for medium and long-term corporate strategy management, integrating the risk of flooding, the rigging of civil defense systems, meteorology, and of the plans, programs, and existing systems and others to be developed is highlighted. From this perspective, the proposed scenarios help to identify the most relevant alternatives for mitigation and adaptation under technical criteria for decision making in the study area.     

基于随机前沿分析的中国城镇建设用地利用效率研究

建设用地高效利用是促进城镇高质量增长的有效方式之一。借助2009—2016年30个省级单元面板数据,构建了用于城镇建设用地效率测度的“一步法”随机前沿模型,并对效率水平与建设用地投入、污染水平等展开关联比较。结果表明:（1）非期望产出会导致城镇建设用地利用效率损失,研究期内其分别造成东、中、西部效率损失3.77%、7.74%、8.77%。（2）效率分布具有明显的区域非均衡性,东部总体水平最高,而西部最低;且在考虑非期望产出后,不同地区效率值会因污染排放程度的差异而呈现更大分异。（3）高投入、高产出并不一定带来高土地利用效率,较高的污染排放也会造成效率损失。研究结果有助于揭示未来建设用地效率改进的重点与方向。     

Safer alternatives assessment: the Massachusetts process as a model for state governments

In 2006 the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute conducted a study to determine if states could identify safer alternatives to five chemicals of concern. The chemicals investigated included di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), formaldehyde, hexavalent chromium, lead and perchloroethylene. First, the Institute developed a methodology for assessing alternatives to these five chemicals that allowed it to quickly determine priority uses and alternatives to assess and to research the pertinent decision criteria, which included performance, technical, financial environmental and human health parameters. The methodology included important feedback from stakeholders in the state, which helped to focus and enhance the value of the work. Second, the Institute implemented the methodology over a ten month period. Based on the activities conducted by the Institute, safer alternatives were identified for each of the priority uses associated with the five chemicals studied. This report summarizes the methodology employed and provides examples of the results for one of the five chemicals, namely DEHP. The experience of the Institute and the information contained in this report indicates that alternatives assessment was a useful approach to organizing and evaluating information about chemicals and alternatives.     

陕西省区域性自然灾害脆弱性评价研究

自然灾害脆弱性评价研究对于提高区域防灾减灾能力具有重要现实意义。以陕西省10市1区为例,选取6个子系统29项指标,运用均方差赋权法对陕西区域性自然灾害脆弱性进行评价研究。结果表明:自然条件、经济和基础设施3个子系统是影响陕西省区域性自然灾害脆弱性的主要因素;经济、社会和基础设施等因素是区域应灾能力的重要表现,直接影响着区域自然灾害脆弱性的高低;陕西省区域性自然灾害脆弱性具有显著的时空分布特征,关中平原及陕南秦巴山区各地级市、区自然灾害脆弱性高于陕北地区。     

Building regional priorities in forests for development and adaptation to climate change in the Congo Basin

Indentifying common priorities in shared natural resource systems constitutes an important platform for implementing adaptation and a major step in sharing a common responsibility in addressing climate change. Predominated by discourses on REDD + (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) with little emphasis on adaptation there is a risk of lack of policy measures in addressing climate change in the Congo Basin. Forest products and ecosystem services provide security portfolios for the predominantly rural communities, and play major roles in national development programmes in both revenue and employment opportunities. Thus, raising the profile of forests in the policy arena especially in the twin roles of addressing climate change in mitigation and adaptation and achieving resilient development is crucial. Within the framework of the Congo Basin Forests and Climate Change Adaptation project (COFCCA) project, science policy dialogue was conducted to identify and prioritize forest based sectors vulnerable to climate change but important to household livelihoods and national development. The goal of the prioritization process was for the development of intervention in forest as measures for climate change adaptation in Central Africa. Participants constituted a wide range of stakeholders (government, Non Governmental Organizations, research institutions, universities, community leaders, private sectors etc.) as representatives from three countries directly involved in the project: Cameroon, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo. Building on national priorities, four forest related sectors were identified as common priorities at the regional level for focus on climate change adaptation. These sectors included: (1) energy with emphasis on fuel wood and Charcoal; (2) Water principally quality, quantity, accessibility, etc.; (3) Food with emphasis on Non Timber Forest Products, and (4) Health linked to healthcare products (medicinal plants). Using these prioritized sectors, the project focused on addressing the impacts of climate change on local communities and the development of adaptation strategies in the three pilot countries of the Congo Basin region. The four sectors constitute the key for development in the region and equally considered as priority sectors in the poverty reduction papers. Focused research on these sectors can help to inject the role of forests in national and local development and their potentials contributions to climate change adaptation in national and public discourses. Mainstreaming forest for climate change adaptation into national development planning is the key to improve policy coherence and effectiveness in forest management in the region.     

Carbon emission efficiency of thermal power in different regions of China and spatial correlations

In China, the power industry contributes significantly to carbon emissions, reducing carbon emissions in this industry is conducive to China's adaptation and mitigation of climate change. Researches on green and low-carbon power have attracted increasing attention. In this paper, we analyze and compare the carbon emissions from thermal power sector in 30 Chinese provinces, divided into three main regions. Based on the panel data over the period 2002–2016, we use a slacks-based measurement (SBM) model to measure the carbon emission efficiency of China’s power sector. The results show that the carbon emission efficiency of the system is relatively low, with marked differences among regions. Based on the Moran’s I, we further found spatial heterogeneity in carbon emission efficiency of provincial power sector. Policies for adaptation and mitigation of climate change should have regional differences. Interregional collaboration also plays a key role in adapting to and mitigating climate change. For China, it is an important issue to develop clean coal-fired power generation and vigorously develop renewable energy. From a global perspective, energy transformation needs to be continuously promoted. Promoting low-carbon transformation of global energy system requires deep technical cooperation and synergy. Global mitigation strategy should focus on the orientation of structural reform and constantly optimize the energy structure.