The new geometry of climate governance

ABSTRACT

Scholars and practitioners have focused in recent years on the potential for achieving cooperation in small “clubs” of countries. While solutions to global climate change will eventually require widespread cooperation, club strategies could help to catalyze that outcome. Unlike the Paris Agreement, which has achieved widespread but relatively shallow cooperation, it could be easier to tailor agreements that allow deep cooperation within smaller groups. This essay extends that logic to clubs whose geometry varies two-dimensionally across countries but also along a third dimension: within countries. Most of the key elements of international relations and international law theory that explain how clubs achieve cooperation are directly applicable to three-dimensional clubs. Most of the relevant experience for these clubs has occurred in the west; overdue is a close assessment of how key units – such as provinces and firms – within China and other emerging economies.     

The Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: seeking linkages for global environmental governance

ABSTRACT

Global environmental cooperation serves as an important part in the Chinese ideal of building a Community with a Shared Future for all Human Beings. The report of 19th CPC National Congress indicates that China is committed to proactive mitigation under the Paris Agreement and further participating in global environmental governance under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and both of which are largely integrated to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRI are also closely linked with South–South environmental and climate cooperation proposed by China from previous UN summits. Based on shared ideas, intersected agendas, and compatible governance approaches, BRI and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development grow increasingly relevant and they might form synergies based on increasingly interactive relations. In sum, seeking and intensifying the linkages between BRI and 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) could address global environmental governance deficits and enhance cooperation among nations.     

Managing the impact of climate change on the hydrology of the Gallocanta Basin,NE-Spain

The Gallocanta Basin represents an environment highly sensitive to climate change. Over the past 60 years, the Laguna de Gallocanta, an ephemeral lake situated in the closed Gallocanta basin, experienced a sequence of wet and dry phases. The lake and its surrounding wetlands are one of only a few bird sanctuaries left in NE-Spain for grey cranes on their annual migration from Scandinavia to northern Africa. Understanding the impact of climate change on basin hydrology is therefore of utmost importance for the appropriate management of the bird sanctuary. Changes in lake level are only weakly linked to annual rainfall, with reaction times between hours and months after rainfall. Both the total amount of rainfall over the reaction period, as well as individual extreme events, affect lake level. In this study the characteristics and frequencies of daily, event, monthly and bi-monthly rainfall over the past 60 years were analysed. The results revealed a clear link between increased frequencies of high magnitude rainfall and phases of water filling in the Laguna de Gallocanta. In the middle of the 20th century, the absolute amount of rainfall appears to have been more important for lake level, while more recently the frequency of high magnitude rainfall has emerged as the dominant variable.     

都江堰市2001～2010年城市环境空气质量变化分析

本文以2001～2010年都江堰市大气环境监测数据为依据,采用综合污染指数法分析了都江堰市近10年环境空气质量的现状、变化趋势及影响因素,并分析比较2008年地震前后空气污染物的变化。结果表明：都江堰市的空气综合污染指数较低（1     

制度变迁对旅游发展的效应及其研究框架——从一个新制度经济学的视角

一个完善的制度是保证旅游业持续发展的关键.在新制度经济理论的指导下和界定制度变迁相关概念的基础上,分析了制度变迁对旅游发展的效应.从制度变迁对旅游发展是否存在效应、正效应还是负效应、具体效应与不同区域的效应有无差异等方面构建了研究框架和主要内容.     

国内外旅游国际化研究综述

在经济全球化的大背景下,旅游业也在加速走向国际化,旅游国际化也成为了学术界研究的一个热点。对国内外旅游国际化的研究现状进行了回顾,着重评述了当前研究的几大方面:现状与对策、影响因素、国际化与本土化关系、对目的地的影响,在此基础上总结了现阶段国内研究的薄弱环节,并对今后的研究发展方向提出了建议。     

清洁发展机制与中国对策

清洁发展机制是应对气候变化国际法律制度之下的补充性履约措施。通过阐述清洁发展机制的渊源、清洁发展机制的实质内涵和基本特征,总结中国清洁发展机制项目实践,揭示中国应用清洁发展机制的偏差,预测清洁发展机制发展方向,指出中国将被迫退出清洁发展机制,提出中国面向清洁发展机制的具体对策。     

“十一五”期间辽河铁岭段及支流水质变化趋势

用Daniel的Spearman秩相关系数法对辽河铁岭段及支流在"十一五"期间水质进行趋势检验,确定各监测断面超标污染物及综合污染指数上升或下降趋势的显著性,结合铁岭市"十一五"期间的污染治理措施,分析各项污染物产生变化的原因,提出了今后的工作方向,为进一步加强环境管理提供了依据。     

Human Impacts to River Temperature and Their Effects on Biological Processes: A Quantitative Synthesis1

Hester, Erich T. and Martin W. Doyle, 2011. Human Impacts to River Temperature and Their Effects on Biological Processes: A Quantitative Synthesis. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):571‐587. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00525.x Abstract: Land‐use change and water resources management increasingly impact stream and river temperatures and therefore aquatic organisms. Efforts at thermal mitigation are expected to grow in future decades. Yet the biological consequences of both human thermal impacts and proposed mitigation options are poorly quantified. This study provides such context for river thermal management in two ways. First, we summarize the full spectrum of human thermal impacts to help thermal managers consider the relative magnitudes of all impacts and mitigation options. Second, we synthesize biological sensitivity to river temperature shifts using thermal performance curves, which relate organism‐level biological processes to temperature. This approach supplements the popular use of thermal thresholds by directly estimating the impact of temperature shifts on the rates of key biological processes (e.g., growth). Our results quantify a diverse array of human thermal impacts, revealing that human actions tend to increase more than decrease river temperatures. Our results also provide a practical framework in which to quantify the sensitivity of river organisms to such impacts and related mitigation options. Finally, among the data and studies we synthesized, river organisms appear to be more sensitive to temperature above than below their thermal maxima, and fish are more sensitive to temperature change than invertebrates.     

A Perspective on Nonstationarity and Water Management1

Hirsch, Robert M., 2011. A Perspective on Nonstationarity and Water Management. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(3):436‐446. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2011.00539.x Abstract: This essay offers some perspectives on climate‐related nonstationarity and water resources. Hydrologists must not lose sight of the many sources of nonstationarity, recognizing that many of them may be of much greater magnitude than those that may arise from climate change. It is paradoxical that statistical and deterministic approaches give us better insights about changes in mean conditions than about the tails of probability distributions, and yet the tails are very important to water management. Another paradox is that it is difficult to distinguish between long‐term hydrologic persistence and trend. Using very long hydrologic records is helpful in mitigating this problem, but does not guarantee success. Empirical approaches, using long‐term hydrologic records, should be an important part of the portfolio of research being applied to understand the hydrologic response to climate change. An example presented here shows very mixed results for trends in the size of the annual floods, with some strong clusters of positive trends and a strong cluster of negative trends. The potential for nonstationarity highlights the importance of the continuity of hydrologic records, the need for repeated analysis of the data as the time series grow, and the need for a well‐trained cadre of scientists and engineers, ready to interpret the data and use those analyses to help adjust the management of our water resources.