Trump’s Paris withdrawal and the reconfiguration of global climate change governance

<正>President Donald Trump's 1 June 2017 decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord understandably generated significant concern about the future of the planet.To be sure,the US withdrawal is an unfortunate setback in the global effort to address climate change;it is a missed opportunity to exercise leadership and advance the interna-     

Water resource governance in China’s regional cooperation

ABSTRACT

A series of water disputes and conflicts have gradually emerged between China and some neighboring countries after 2000, influencing China’s neighborhood relations. China increasingly realizes the importance and urgency of the water resource governance in the regional cooperation, but under complicated geopolitical context, China’s water resource governance must serve several important main functions in its regional cooperation. Overall, water resource governance is the demands of crisis management and conflict prevention, and also is a kind of positive factor that promotes sub-regional cooperation. From the perspective of the current situation, China should take more proactive attitude toward the water resource governance, expand the areas and stakeholders of the water resource governance, and thus promote the formulation of water resource governance strategy.     

Assessing the adaptive capacity of multi-level water governance: ecosystem services under climate change in Mälardalen region,Sweden

Regional Environmental Change - Adaptive and multi-level governance is often called for in order to improve the management of complex issues such as the provision of natural resources and ecosystem...     

How can winter tourism adapt to climate change in Saxony’s mountains?

This study deals with regional climate change in five low mountain areas in Eastern Germany and assesses the awareness of tourism professionals towards climate change, its impact on winter tourism and adaptation options. Favourable conditions for winter tourism decreased over the last decades in the Saxon low mountain ranges. A change from predominantly snow-based to a wider variety of winter tourism options appears indispensible as climate models project continuing warming. Diversifying touristic options provides opportunities to develop new business fields and to attract new target groups. This paper reveals obstacles and opportunities to adapt and develop winter tourism in the central European low mountain ranges and to increase the competitiveness of regional tourism. A survey explored the current awareness of representatives of most of the Saxon downhill skiing areas and of selected winter tourism municipalities towards climate change and its implications on their business. Awareness is essential to successfully implement adaptation measures. About half of the interviewees were not aware of the regional changes in natural snow conditions projected for the next 15–20 years. Nevertheless, the majority recognized climate change as a serious issue. Yet, stakeholders repeatedly emphasized their uncertainty about related scientific facts. They attributed their perception to mass media reports that suggest a lack of scientific consensus on climate change issues. Adaptation options for slope-based and general winter tourism are developed and presented, involving ideas of the interviewees. To successfully move towards adaptation, supply and marketing of alternative offers need to be strengthened. A survey of tourist expectations is planned to ensure a successful implementation of new (winter) touristic offers in the Saxon mountains.     

‘Complex crisis’ and the rise of collaborative natural resource governance: institutional trajectory of a wildlife governance experience in Ghana

Natural resource governance is underpinned by institutions which evolve ‘circumstantially’ over time. An attempt at understanding the contemporary institutions and governance structure of a resource requires an in-depth ethnographic enquiry. Adapting a four-phase institutional analysis framework, this study discusses the evolution and adaptation of wildlife governance structures and institutions using the unique experience of Boabeng–Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in Ghana. The study adopted a transdisciplinary research approach which was participatory and consultative. The key observations are that: wildlife institutions have gone through three main evolutionary phases, a pre-collaborative phase, which was exclusively underpinned by informal institutions; a critical juncture stage, where contextual challenges led to an adaptive response; the third and contemporary phase is a collaborative governance regime, where the erstwhile informal institutions have been complemented by formal state structures and institutions to synergistically enhance viability of the wildlife species. In spite of the problems posed to community members by the monkeys (wildlife), the study still observes a cordial human–wildlife relationship. Based on the study outcomes, we derive four key conclusions which have implications for institutionalism and natural resource governance.     

Environmental efficiency and its determinants in the development of China’s western regions in 2000–2014

In this study, we measure the environmental efficiency of western China in 2000–2014 by the super-efficiency slacks-based measure model which considers the undesirable outputs. The results show that the environmental efficiency of western China is low and rank behind in the national level. The environmental efficiency is lower than the traditional efficiency which reflects that the economic growth in 2000–2014 has paid high environmental costs. The difference between the traditional efficiency and environmental efficiency experienced “inverted U”-type trend change. The environmental efficiency of the western provinces presented differentiated developing trend and the differences between the western provinces were enlarging. The environmental efficiency of the western regions was not only lower than that in the eastern regions with a big gap but also lower than that in the central regions. Through the convergence test, we found that the environmental efficiency gap between the western and the eastern regions was gradually expanding; meanwhile, the environmental efficiency gap between the central and the western regions was narrowing. This paper also analyzes the determinants of environmental efficiency by the tobit model and then addresses.     

Brazil’s Amazonian forest carbon: the key to Southern Amazonia’s significance for global climate

Southern Amazonia is the first region of Brazil’s Amazon area to be exposed to intensive conversion to agriculture and ranching. This conversion emits greenhouse gases from the carbon stock in the biomass and soils of the previous vegetation. Quantifying these carbon stocks is the first step in quantifying the impact on global warming from this conversion. This review is limited to information on Brazilian Amazonia’s carbon stocks. It indicates large amounts of carbon at risk of emission in both biomass and soils, as well as considerable uncertainty in estimates. Reducing uncertainty is a priority for research but the existence of uncertainty must not be used as an excuse for delaying measures to contain deforestation. The magnitude of carbon stocks is proportional to greenhouse gas emissions per hectare of deforestation and consequently to impact on global climate.

     

Can we infer avalanche–climate relations using tree-ring data? Case studies in the French Alps

Dendrogeomorphology is a powerful tool to determine past avalanche activity, but whether or not the obtained annually resolved chronologies are sufficiently detailed to infer avalanche–climate relationships (in terms of temporal resolution) remains an open question. In this work, avalanche activity is reconstructed in five paths of the French Alps and crossed with a set of snow and weather variables covering the period 1959–2009 on a monthly and annual (winter) basis. The variables which best explain avalanche activity are highlighted with an original variable selection procedure implemented within a logistic regression framework. The same approach is used for historical chronologies available for the same paths, as well as for the composite tree-ring/historical chronologies. Results suggest that dendrogeomorphic time series allow capturing the relations between snow or climate and avalanche occurrences to a certain extent. Weak links exist with annually resolved snow and weather variables and the different avalanche chronologies. On the contrary, clear statistical relations exist between these and monthly resolved snow and weather variables. In detail, tree rings seem to preferentially record avalanches triggered during cold winter storms with heavy precipitation. Conversely, historical avalanche data seem to contain a majority of events that were released later in the season and during episodes of strong positive temperature anomalies.     

‘Subjective resilience’: using perceptions to quantify household resilience to climate extremes and disasters

How should we measure a household’s resilience to climate extremes, climate change or other evolving threats? As resilience gathers momentum on the international stage, interest in this question continues to grow. So far, efforts to measure resilience have largely focused on the use of ‘objective’ frameworks and methods of indicator selection. These typically depend on a range of observable socio-economic variables, such as levels of income, the extent of a household’s social capital or its access to social safety nets. Yet while objective methods have their uses, they suffer from well-documented weaknesses. This paper advocates for the use of an alternative but complementary method: the measurement of ‘subjective’ resilience at the household level. The concept of subjective resilience stems from the premise that people have an understanding of the factors that contribute to their ability to anticipate, buffer and adapt to disturbance and change. Subjective household resilience therefore relates to an individual’s cognitive and affective self-evaluation of their household’s capabilities and capacities in responding to risk. We discuss the advantages and limitations of measuring subjective household resilience and highlight its relationships with other concepts such as perceived adaptive capacity, subjective well-being and psychological resilience. We then put forward different options for the design and delivery of survey questions on subjective household resilience. While the approach we describe is focused at the household level, we show how it has the potential to be aggregated to inform sub-national or national resilience metrics and indicators. Lastly, we highlight how subjective methods of resilience assessment could be used to improve policy and decision-making. Above all, we argue that, alongside traditional objective measures and indicators, efforts to measure resilience should take into account subjective aspects of household resilience in order to ensure a more holistic understanding of resilience to climate extremes and disasters.     

Assessing climate change adaptation strategies—the case of drought and heat wave in the French nuclear sector

Regional Environmental Change - Nuclear energy is a very important component of overall power supply in France. If the effects of future extreme weather events or climate shifts are not addressed,...     

Identifying opportunities for long-lasting habitat conservation and restoration in Hawaii’s shifting climate

Conservation efforts in isolated archipelagos such as Hawaii often focus on habitat-based conservation and restoration efforts that benefit multiple species. Unfortunately, identifying locations where such efforts are safer from climatic shifts is still challenging. We aimed to provide a method to approximate these potential habitat shifts for similar data- and research-limited contexts. We modeled the relationship between climate and the potential distribution of native biomes across the Hawaiian archipelago to provide a first approximation of potential native biome shifts under end-of-century projected climate. Our correlative model circumvents the lack of data necessary for the parameterization of mechanistic vegetation models in isolated and data-poor islands. We identified locations consistently expected to remain the same in terms of the native biome compatibility by the end of the century with a robust evaluation of sources of uncertainty in our projections. Our results show that, despite large differences in climate projections considered, 35% of the areas considered are consistently projected to maintain their current compatibility to native biomes. By integrating our native biome compatibility projections with maps of current actual cover, we identified areas ideal for long-term habitat conservation and restoration. Our modeling approach can be used with relatively simple data; offers multiple forms of projection confidence estimates, model calibration, and variable selection routines; and is compatible with ensemble projections. This method is not only applicable to potential native cover, as done in this study, but to any set of vegetation classes that are related to environmental predictors available for modeling.     

Creating sustainable communities: skills and learning in Ontario’s small urban municipalities

This article presents the pilot study results of a province-wide survey of skills and learning in sustainable community development in Ontario, Canada. The pilot project focuses on the testing of an online survey to examine skills building for creating sustainable communities in Ontario’s small urban municipalities. The survey examined the generic, technical and specialist skills, whether they are skills already acquired and/or required by professionals and practitioners for creating sustainable communities. The survey targeted 74 small urban municipalities and 300 respondents by profession. Building sustainable communities require ‘upskilling’ of the workforce as it poses a challenge to those hoping to make a real progress and development at the local level.     

Climate Change in the Media: Poland’s Exceptionalism

Poland is the largest hard coal producer in the European Union (EU), and remains very dependent on coal for its energy. Despite the significant long-term implications of EU mitigation policies for the Polish economy, coverage of climate change and policy in the Polish media remains very low. This study of the coverage both in print media and on television of the 2013/2014 Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows that the volume of coverage in Poland was much lower than in other European countries. The article explores possible reasons for the “exceptionalism” found in the Polish media.     

Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to climate change in the Nigerian savanna

The savanna region of Africa is a potential breadbasket of the continent but is severely affected by climate change. Understanding farmers’ perceptions of climate change and the types of adjustments they have made in their farming practices in response to these changes will offer some insights into necessary interventions to ensure a successful adaptation in the region. This paper explores how smallholder farmers in the Nigerian savanna perceive and adapt to climate change. It is based on a field survey carried out among 200 smallholder farm households selected from two agro-ecological zones. The results show that most of the farmers have noticed changes in climate and have consequently adjusted their farming practices to adapt. There are no large differences in the adaptation practices across the region, but farmers in Sudan savanna agro-ecological zone are more likely to adapt to changes in temperature than those in northern Guinea savanna. The main adaptation methods include varying planting dates, use of drought tolerant and early maturing varieties and tree planting. Some of the farmers are facing limitations in adapting because of lack of information on climate change and the suitable adaptation measures and lack of credit. The study then concludes that to ensure successful adaptation to climate change in the region, concerted efforts are needed to design and promote planned adaptation measures that fit into the local context and also to educate farmers on climate change and appropriate adaptation measures.     

An analysis of China’s investment in the hydropower sector in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

The Mekong River’s natural resources offer large benefits to its populations, but it also attracts the interest of foreign investors. Recently, Chinese firms, banks and government bodies have increasingly invested in large hydropower projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. Due to China’s rapid economic growth, its rapid industrialisation and its limited domestic natural resources, the Chinese government has issued the ‘Going Out Strategy’ which promotes investments in overseas natural resources like water and energy resources. In search for climate-friendly low-carbon energy, cheap electricity and access to a growing market, Chinese institutions turn to Southeast Asia where Chinese institutions are currently involved in more than 50 on-going large hydropower projects as contractors, investors, regulators and financiers. These Chinese institutions have influence on environmental and social practices as well as on diplomatic and trade relations in the host countries. Currently, there are major gaps in understanding who is engaged, why, how and with what impacts. This paper therefore aims to assess the motives, actors, beneficiaries and the direct and indirect impacts of China’s investment in large hydropower projects in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region. The authors use the ‘Rising Powers Framework’ to assess these issues, which is an adapted version of the Asian Drivers Framework.