Search

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including transition international energy market, analytical frameworks regarding the financialization of energy markets, and market segmentation at the global level.

While the technological development of vehicles and fuels is not adequate to meet current climate mitigation targets, infrastructure development also plays an important role in transforming the transport system. Previous studies have argued that conventional infrastructure planning is incapable of implementing climate mitigation. The aim of the paper is to provide insights into power means and mechanisms that counteract integration of climate mitigation targets in infrastructure planning. This is done by an in-depth case study of current Swedish national transport planning. This case provides a rich illustration of a situation with high political ambitions regarding climate mitigation on the one hand, and power mechanisms and resistance with regard to climate goals during the planning process on the other. The case is analysed using the perspective of power circuits and shows how forecasting works as an obligatory passage point, sorting in and out which analyses will be part of the decision-making material. Analyses which do not fit the forecasting model are dismissed from planning. The conclusion is that as long as the transport infrastructure planning practice is dependent on forecasting as the only central analysis there will be difficulties in changing the scope of infrastructure planning and making climate goals central for transport planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. federal government is unbalanced in its capacity to recognize, manage, and engage cultural heritage as part of its response to climate change. Legislation from the 1906 Antiquities Act to Executive Order (EO) 13990 signed in 2021 has set an overarching approach in which heritage is understood to be primarily tangible places and things that should be conserved, foremost through monument and park boundaries and significance designations. Such conservation, however, does not protect heritage from impacts of climate change and how to manage these components of heritage is nearly invisible in recent climate-focused publications of the two agencies assigned by legislation to serve as leads for cultural heritage in the U.S. government. Yet further, the long-standing tangible approach to heritage does not incorporate emerging understandings of its intangible components and the diverse connections of all forms of heritage to place, meaning, identity, and global change goals of sustainability and equity. In contrast, analysis of 27 federal agency climate adaptation plans prepared in response to 2021 EO 14008 shows that multiple agencies not assigned lead roles for heritage recognize a range of responsibilities that include heritage as part of climate adaptation, mitigation, equity, and coordination with Indigenous communities. This paper explores U.S. heritage legislative history, the definition it helped create for heritage, more recent understandings of heritage, and relationships of these to climate change and how these are represented in climate work and plans across U.S. federal agencies. On these bases, recommendations are provided for research and policy steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past four decades, people around the globe have experienced unprecedented escalations in the frequency, intensity, magnitude, and location of anomalous hydrometeorological (hydromet) hazards attributed in large measure to the direct and indirect effects of global climate-change-related variability and extremes. The WMO, impelled by an unabated warming of the global climate system and its related extremely anomalous hydromet impacts, chose in March 2022 "Early Warning, Early Action" (EWEA) as the theme for its World Meteorology Day. The theme was praised in a press release by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for the development of a new EWEA initiative to ensure that "every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems within five years". By mid-2022, several meetings and workshops had already been held by the WMO to forge the new initiative on its road to the UN Climate Conference of Parties (COP27) in November in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. COP27 provided a suitably prominent venue for launching the new USD 3.1 billion, 5-year EWEA initiative; there, Secretary-General Guterres formally tasked the WMO, in partnership with the UNDRR, to lead it. But COP27 proved to be interesting as well as illuminating in other, less publicized ways having to do with EWEA. There, what had been the working title of the new initiative was officially changed to EW4A, "Early Warning for All". Despite the seemingly perfunctory nature of this change, the reality is that it will almost certainly have outsized impacts on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and constraints (SWOC) met specifically in planning and implementing the new initiative's "early action" strategies and tactics. It is particularly important to bear in mind that, as things now stand, various unanticipated challenges having to do with the lack of organizational experience and capacity with regard to "early action" are likely to arise with the WMO-led implementation of the new initiative. Considering the new EW4A acronym as if it was a commercial brand can, like this, be instructive in thinking about how the seemingly perfunctory name change—from EWEA to EW4A—will impact the initiative's implementation of "early action". Doing so can be instructive because, just as the logos of companies like Apple, Nike, or Starbucks eventually became the face of their respective products, so too have branded acronyms like NASA, IOC, WHO, and INTERPOL become the face of their governmental institutions' or global initiatives' respective commissions and commitments. It follows then that if "consumer" interest is to be taken seriously and is (hopefully) long-lasting, then the branding of a new product or initiative must be undertaken with great consideration before a final identifier—be it a logo, a catchphrase, or an acronym—is selected. The question in the case of the new WMO-led initiative, then, is the following: Was this issue seriously taken into consideration before EWEA was so abruptly replaced by EW4A at COP27 in Egypt in November 2022? This pointed question is especially meant to highlight how the continued use of the original EWEA acronym by way of developing regional EWEA centers under the "Early Warning for All" umbrella has the possibility of turning regional potential energy into kinetic energy which will be essential if the theoretical gains of future "early warning" (EW) forecasting science are to be effectively translated into "early action" (EA) strategies and tactics that actually, finally, protect people and property across the entirety of the earth from the impending severe impacts of our changing climate future. Thus does this paper raise valid concerns about the balance between support and funding for EW and EA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents a short ethnographic encounter with the site of the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow in 2021. It communicates an experiential picturing of the site as it was assembled and disassembled, as this was recorded in notes, conversations, via phone footage and in a short talk afterwards with human geography colleagues at the University of Glasgow. The paper seeks to make sense of this short experiential encounter by drawing from scholarship on ethnography, security and events of emergency assemblage. The paper concludes by reflection on the ordinary purpose of walking sites of climate security and emergency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Exploring The Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis" is an interview by Maggie Turp with Sally Weintrobe, the author of the book of this title and a leading psychoanalytic climate change protagonist. The authors of the latter paper have since added a coda in which they sorrowfully acknowledge that their paper's title which includes "Life and Death", referring to the precarious state of psychoanalytical societies in the Ukraine, is no longer a metaphor but has become the reality of their daily lives. I am writing this editorial as people in the United Kingdom and others across the world mourn the death of an exceptional monarch. [Extracted from the article]

Transport and mobility systems need to be transformed to meet climate change goals and reduce negative environmental and social effects. Despite EU policies having targeted such problems for more than three decades, transitions have been slow and geographically uneven. For effective change to happen, transport and mobility research needs fresh perspectives and better integration of knowledge from the Social Sciences and Humanities. Based on a Horizon Scanning approach, which allowed for a great deal of openness and variety in scholarly viewpoints, this paper presents a novel research agenda consisting of 8 themes and 100 research questions that may contribute to achieving environmentally sustainable mobility transitions within Europe. This research agenda highlights the need to not only support technological solutions for low-carbon mobility, but the importance of transformative policies that include new processes of knowledge production, civic participation and epistemic justice. We contend that the agenda points to the need for further research on the dynamics of science-society interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the host country of the 26th United Nations Climate Conference, the United Kingdom (UK) fully carried out climate diplomacy at the conference, and intended to promote the green concept in the international community through diplomatic means, which shows its greater ambition in international climate governance. However, the UK, as the source of the Industrial Revolution, has not always followed the so-called green norms in history. In the interaction with the EU norms after joining the European Community, the UK gradually developed from an "opponent" of green norms to an "advocate" of green norms. After "Brexit", the British government did not stop at the previous green norms of the EU, and further gave the green norms a special brand of the UK on this basis. At present, during the term of Boris Johnson's government, the green norms shaped by the UK have been basically formed and disseminated within a certain mechanism. In this paper, based on the normative power theory and relevant historical facts, how the UK has shaped international norms and obtained normative power through a series of climate policy will be discussed, and some enlightenment to China's participation in the construction of international norms system today will be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which non-state actors gain privileged access to policymakers during global environmental negotiations? This paper offers a first systematic answer to this question. I argue that, overall, business non-state actors gain more access to policymakers compared to NGOs. Importantly however, the privileged position of business groups becomes less pronounced – sometimes even disappears – if countries are more developed, less reliant on fossil fuels, more democratic, or the impact of climate change is higher for a country. For the empirical analysis, I first analyzed all business groups and NGOs that participated in country delegations at UN climate conferences between 1997 and 2012 (n = 3,734). To evaluate privileged access, I compare actors which gained access to country delegations (n = 804) with the organizations that participated during the conferences as observers (n = 2,930). The results confirm that business has more privileged access in general but not in all countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the proliferation of environmental legislation, the destruction of the natural world persists and even worsens. We think that, an essential reason for this situation is that most normative frameworks treat nature as an object, and thus tend towards an approach that does not protect the environment but leads to the commercialization of nature's ecosystems. It is becoming increasingly clear that the current environmental regulations are the result of the dualistic, mechanistic and anthropocentric vision, according to which humanity is the master and owner of nature, so that environmental law remains seriously anchored in its philosophical preconceptions, maintaining over time the unwavering belief of private property as the sole guardian of the environment, of the idea that nature must be protected and valued only from the perspective of its usefulness. (Armstrong, 2012) (Gutwirth, 2001) (Darpo, 2021) That is why the recognition of the Rights of Nature together with the Human Rights aims to change this paradigm. One positive aspect, even if only at the discourse and political level, is that, in the last period it is observed that the anthropocentric approach that commodities ecosystems is increasingly questioned, while the holistic, dynamic and multidimensional approach, which allows the support and protection of nature, is gradually emerging. In this paper, we will present and analyse how the recognition of the Rights of Nature together with Human Rights can lead through changing the old paradigm. And the reason why the anthropocentric approach of nature and ecosystems as commodity is frequently questioned, in contrast to the holistic, dynamic and multidimensional approach, which allows the support and protection of nature. The Rights of Nature aim at a complete overhaul of the legal order regarding the old paradigms and the recognition of the dignity of the natural world. Despite serious criticism, nature is becoming, slowly but surely, the subject of full rights, rights considered as not affecting human rights, but only complement logic, as the protection of nature is ultimately limited to the people's protection, the present and the future of mankind. The Rights of Nature involve a new approach of environmental law, through which the nature no longer expresses the set of resources that can be used by humans, but a living subject that possesses its own interests and rights. We point out that the issue of claiming the Rights of Nature arose in the international arena in the context of the Rio+20 Ecological Summit, under the impetus of the Bolivia initiative at the end of2011, materialized in the proposal entitled " Rights of Nature", an approach in full compliance with other significantly international documents and texts (such as: the World Charter for Nature from 1982, the Rio de Janeiro Declaration from 1992, the Earth Charter adopted in 2000, the People's Summit on Climate Change andMother Earth's Rights to Cochabamba in 2010. Of course, the issue of claiming the Rights of Nature was taken over by a lot of social movements, but also vehemently rejected and considered to be incompatible with an emancipatory project, then materialized at the level of normative acts and jurisprudence. In this paper, we will examine the status of the Rights of Nature, trying to identify a number of central themes, unifying principles, and relevant distinctions of how the discourse on these rights has been sustained in law, philosophy, and the social sciences field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of mounting global climatic pressures, negative emission technologies (NETs) for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) are increasingly proposed as necessary for meeting climate targets. While initial work has identified the potential of terrestrial NETs, a diverse set of marine/ocean-based NETs are gaining new and particular attention. Emerging studies on the feasibility of marine NETs are urgently needed, especially to explore the logics that public groups use to judge different approaches, and to ensure that design and governance of these technologies align with public values and priorities. This study explores factors of interest in understanding public views on four marine NETs, both perceptions of climate severity and urgency, and beliefs about marine environments. It uses a quantitative survey to explore how a representative sample of people in British Columbia, Canada and Washington state, United States evaluate four marine NETs: coastal restoration; ocean alkalinity enhancement; ocean fertilization; and offshore direct air carbon capture and storage. We find that perceived severity and urgency of climate change predicts greater comfort with all NETs studied, and views of marine environments as adaptable, fragile and manageable vary in predicting both greater and lesser comfort. Drawing upon these insights, the paper offers reflections on the conditional thinking linked with emerging views of marine NETs, concluding with methodological suggestions for future research on public perceptions as concerns the deployment of ocean-based CDR near and long term. Incorporating these insights into policy for ocean-based CDR will be important to ensuring responsible governance of these technologies. Key policy insights Incorporating research on public perceptions will be important to the design of marine NETs and accompanying policies. Public groups in both British Columbia and Washington expressed high levels of comfort with coastal restoration, some comfort with offshore direct air carbon capture and storage, and some discomfort with ocean alkalinity enhancement and ocean fertilization. Perceived severity and urgency of climate change predicted greater comfort with all approaches; this evidence aligns with a small but growing body of scholarship indicating openness to environmental intervention amongst public groups concerned with climate impacts. Beliefs about marine environments, namely whether they are 'adaptable', 'manageable' or 'fragile', also predicted comfort, suggesting that CDR in ocean contexts requires further examination regarding public perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development of negative emission technologies is key in meeting climate change targets. Offshore wind-powered CO 2 direct air capture (DAC) coupled with deep-water, submarine basalt reservoirs has the potential to offer a reliable way to permanently store CO 2 while avoiding grid-energy and land-use competition. This paper analyzes the incorporation of a DAC system into a reference floating wind turbine (FWT) concept, the IEA 15 MW RWT atop the UMaine VolturnUS-S semi-submersible. The resulting FWT-DAC platform's total mass and its distribution is adapted as needed to preserve floating stability, prevent any wave splashing on the DAC system, and ensure minimum power production disturbances. The system's fully coupled motion responses are analyzed for relevant design load conditions and compared to those from the reference design demonstrating good agreement with the benchmark. The research findings suggest that the hybrid FWT-DAC platform behaves in a similar way to the reference one and can serve as a viable modular deployment approach. • CO 2 direct air capture (DAC) integration onto a floating wind turbine (FWT). • Floating stability and air gap assessment of the hybrid FWT-DAC system. • Dynamic analysis using various design load conditions. • Results show similar system responses between the reference FWT and the FWT-DAC platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While cities have been widely considered to be key sites of ambitious and transformative climate action, it is time to question whether they have adequate tools and mandates to reach their goals in time. In this paper we provide a comprehensive assessment of planned measures in major cities, assessing the distribution of persuasive (soft) versus direct regulatory (hard) and material measures using an urban systems perspective. Examining 1079 climate measures of 19 cities in the global C40 network we find that the majority of measures can be considered as soft measures , focused on raising awareness, incentivising businesses, engaging citizens, and developing new plans. Our cases suggest that cities in the Global South are more focused on hard and material measures and less prone to voluntarism than cities in the Global North. Generally, showing that strategies for sustainability transformations in cities are heavily reliant on voluntarism and persuasion, the article expresses concern for the ability of cities to meet its ambitious targets. The research literature on urban climate governance should expand from its current focus on collaborative, network-based and experimental governance, to reconsider the roles of regulation and control in meeting climate targets. • Provides a comprehensive assessment of planned climate measures in 19 major cities • Analyses 1079 climate measures and categorises into soft, hard and material modes • We find that the majority of measures (more than half) can be considered as soft. • We critically discuss the viability of ambitious climate targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capacity expansion models provide the basis on which to decide where, when, how much and what technology type to deploy. In systems with large shares of variable renewable energy, the low temporal detail of these models has been shown to introduce biases, prompting much recent work to reduce them. This paper shows that this issue is fairly secondary compared to the impact of maximum investment rates. Through this parameter, typically not discussed in capacity expansion studies, many notions can collectively be expressed, such as the rate at which capacity is financed, institutions approve development, manufacturers roll-out equipment, civil engineers build infrastructure, network operators connect plants etc. This paper shows that considering even ambitious development rates significantly increases total system costs, and drastically changes the structure of an optimal generation mix. The presented sensitivity analysis is based on a multi-region representation of the European power system, modelled using the open-source tool OSeMOSYS, to which a novel power transmission module has been added. Results stress the extent to which hopes of meeting climate targets hinge on society's collective ability to deploy new low-carbon infrastructure fast enough. Energy policy can enhance this ability by providing long-term visibility and stability, reducing investment risk. • Sensitivity analysis compares effects of temporal detail and maximum investment rate. • Power system planning is strongly impacted by infrastructure maximum investment rate. • Meeting climate targets hinges on our ability to roll-out infrastructure fast enough. • Careful choice of representative periods is more important than number of time-steps. • Novel power transmission module added to open-source modelling tool OSeMOSYS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the recent years, many industries have been affected by serious accidents that have resulted in loss of human lives and caused major impacts on the environment, but also significant damage to corporates' budget and reputation. To prevent such undesirable consequences, the international community has regulated safety risk management standards which can be included in the Environmental, Social, and Governance contributions for sustainable growth. The aim of this paper is to describe a risk‐based system developed in a software environment, in accordance with the European Green Deal requirements and the international commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which can facilitate the management of proactive actions for climate change mitigation and can lead to the as‐low‐as‐reasonably‐practicable level of sustainability risks exposure in the plastics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building renovation was declared a key point for sustainable development, however, the renovation rate of residential buildings in the European Union is insufficient to meet the climate and energy targets set. This paper analyses the main circular economy models used in the construction sector, as well as the situation of the building renovation market, to set a framework for circular economy models in building renovation. Of all the existing strategies in this sector, design, material recovery, building renovation and end-of-life actions would be the best, respectively. It also includes a market analysis consisting of a literature review covering PEST perspectives (political, economic, social and technical) and a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), concluding with a market gap analysis. The results of these analyses allow the development of a series of suggestions and strategies to be followed in order to solve the main barriers that hinder the implementation of the circular economy in the building´s renovation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the Climate Convention and its recent Paris Agreement, capacity building has been considered as a fundamental prerequisite for achieving the goals of the climate regime. Various institutional architectures have been explored, while the 2015 Paris Climate Conference (COP21) established the Paris Committee on Capacity-Building aiming to address needs and gaps, along with promoting current, emerging, and further capacity-building efforts. Efforts to build capacity have been underway for decades but have largely failed in their objectives as they were not designed from, and rooted in, the local context. Drawing from the author's more than 40 years of personal experience in capacity building in Africa, this paper sheds light on the systemic challenges involved in building capacities. Arrangements that do not entail working on, or being led by, an agenda set by those in capacity needs are not, by definition, capacity mobilization or capacity building efforts. It is argued that capacity is tied to self-reliance and self-determination and thus ability to set and pursue the recipient's own agenda must be at the core of development narratives. Key policy insights Self-reliance and self-determination are at the core of capacity development. Therefore, countries need to set and pursue their own agenda by creating and following a bottom-up and inclusive development narrative. Intellectual, financial, and other important resources need to fall under the control of local leadership. Partnerships and networks of research centres think tanks and similar institutions in the South should be created and maintained to build capacities. Climate change, while a global issue, must be addressed based on a deep understanding of the local and national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socio-political processes that influence the acceptance of climate policies play a crucial role in shaping mitigation strategies. In this paper, we explore the interplay between social and political dynamics and their impact on climate policy support. Using a simplified model of the social and political system, we aim to uncover ways to enhance public support for climate change mitigation measures. Several factors come into play when considering policy support, including social norms, self-efficacy, social learning, and income. By examining climate mitigation policies and accounting for shifting and inherent preferences, we shed light on how individuals contribute to processes of social change. Through simulations, we find that even minimal peer pressure has a positive and significant impact on individuals' inclination towards green behaviours, regardless of whether regressive or progressive policies are implemented. Additionally, assuming uniform self-efficacy across society leads to an overestimation of society's acceptance of green policies. Our results highlight the importance of nurturing existing skills or developing new ones. Finally, our findings reveal that regional heterogeneity matters for climate policy acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The just-ended Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change Conference in November 2022 brought to light the need to mitigate climate change adaptation related to risk and challenges through Climate financing, has made it very paramount the need to protect fish farmers' investments from climate change-related risk through the development of climate-smart insurance products and covers to help mitigate climate change effects on aquaculturists. As a result, this paper examines aquaculture farmers' preference for climate-smart aquaculture insurance products, challenges of climate-smart aquaculture insurance, and their preferred insurance cover. Survey data was collected from 140 fish farmers and analysed via Multinomial logistic regression, Bivariate Probit regression and Kendall's coefficient of concordance. Climate-Induced Aquaculture Stock Mortality Insurance (CIASMI) was the most-preferred climate-smart insurance product. Insurance Cover for Diseases (ICD) was the least preferred. The results further indicated that membership in a farmer organisation, farm income, credit access, climate-related peril and anthropogenic-related peril had a positive influence, whereas years of education had a negative influence on climate-smart aquaculture insurance participation. Moreover, production system had a negative relationship with mode of participation while number of employees, farm income and climate-related peril influenced mode of participation positively. The results also revealed that age, sex, stock size, awareness, income, climate and environmental-related peril, and anthropogenic-related peril significantly influenced the choice for climate-smart aquaculture insurance products, specifically climate risk related to stock mortality insurance and climate-related to consequential loss insurance. Finally, delay in claim settlement was the most pressing constraint. In contrast, lack of experts in disease diagnosis was the least ranked constraint of climate-smart aquaculture insurance. Therefore, this study provides insights for the Fisheries Commission, Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP), World Cover and other agricultural insurance companies globally to draft climate-smart insurance products for aquaculturists. • Majority of aquaculturists preferred individual aquaculture insurance participation. • Climate -induced aquaculture Stock Mortality Insurance (CIASMI) was the most-preferred climate-smart insurance product, while Insurance Cover for Diseases (ICD) was the least preferred. • Climate related factors had an influence on climate-smart aquaculture insurance participation. • We developed a framework to implement climate smart aquaculture insurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest world conferences on the environment and climate change have played a fundamental role in the diffusion and insertion of renewable energy in the world electrical grid. In this context, renewable sources of distributed generation stand out for presenting advantages in both economic and socio-environmental spheres. This study analyzes the national and international context of distributed generation of solar photovoltaic energy, by comparing them and proposing strategies for greater penetration and diffusion of this modality. A temporal analysis of the carbon emission in the electric grid is also carried out based mainly on thermoelectric generation, and the projection of emissions is verified based on the evolution of distributed generation according to PDE 2026. In order to materialize the emission reduction, it was considered the area in hectares of Atlantic Forest required to sequester a given volume of carbon dioxide equivalent. Based on the analysis of the results, this article concludes that fiscal, economic and financial incentives at regional scales are the main ways to leverage the growth of this modality, as observed in the reference countries. In the environmental aspect, a significant mitigation of the emission of greenhouse gases from this new type of electricity generation was found. Results indicated that, based on the increase in installed capacity of 3.6 GW of photovoltaic GD over the ten-year horizon, it is estimated to avoid the emission of 337 thousand tons of CO2eq, corresponding to a reforestation area of approximately 2500 hectares or 56 times the size of the Vatican territory. This paper tried to expand the studies for a greater participation of the solar photovoltaic generation distributed in the electric grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the main challenges faced by climate policy makers today is to design and implement policies capable of transferring climate policy goals into sectoral actions towards transformational pathways. Hence, climate policies need to be of cross-cutting character, lead to coherence with sectoral goals and reconcile diverging sectoral interests. Against this background, Mexico has undertaken significant efforts to reform its energy sector, including goals for clean energy and energy efficiency, and the adoption of implementation mechanisms via the Law for Energy Transition of 2015. Furthermore, Mexico has introduced a complex climate governance system, including ambitious mitigation goals. In this paper, we applied concepts of climate policy integration to analyse whether integration between the policy subsystems of energy and climate change occurred in Mexico in terms of political discourse and negotiation, policy goals and instruments, and implementation; as well as the factors at work that lead to climate policy integration. We find that on the level of political discourse and negotiation, an integration process between the energy and climate subsystems occurred, influenced by the availability and market maturity of clean energy, mitigation scenarios and external events, such as the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference. However, a combination of decisions on integrated climate-energy policy outputs, and preparing the public administration system for the implementation of integrated policies, is needed to enable appropriate institutional mandates, budgets and instruments and avoid institutional fragmentation. Omitting to take these decisions was identified as a major shortcoming in the political-administrative system, preventing higher levels of climate policy integration. Key policy insights The Mexican Energy Transition Law shows that policy windows can be used by policy makers to attain integrated energy-climate policy outputs and to advance national mitigation and energy sector goals. In order to make full use of integrated policy decisions, the administrative system has to follow suit by also introducing mandates, budgets and policy instruments of an integrative character. Climate policy integration in practice implies identifying and using the full potential of policy windows in order to ensure the raising of ambition under the Paris Agreement as well as achievement of sectoral policy objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The size of national delegations at the most critical intergovernmental climate change conferences—the annual gatherings of the Conference of the Parties (COPs) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—vary greatly. The literature has emphasized the importance of national delegation size (NDS) for states' formal and informal participation in climate change negotiations. To our knowledge, however, this is the first paper to comprehensively examine the determinants of NDS from 1995–2015. The findings highlight a country's resources and its interest in the mitigation of fossil fuel emissions as important determinants of its NDS. In contrast, the evidence for a connection between vulnerability to climate change and NDS is limited. Interest group politics appear more important than civil society or bureaucratic influence in determining NDS. In terms of policy implications, the distance between the country and the COP location is a robust deterrent of larger delegations, and there is a nonlinear relationship between NDS and financial capacity. Further, there are differences across Annex I and non-Annex I countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Figures from the editors selected issue highlights that will be displayed each month in the journal image carousel on the BJCP homepage http://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1365-2125/ Serge Cremers Children are the future. Diep and colleagues from Ionis Pharmaceuticals describe a PK/PD model for their company's antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) drug in development for transthyretin amyloidosis. Let us hope we get some results before it is too late. https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bcp.15509 https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bcp.15511 https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bcp.15539 Finally, we had almost forget about our usual clinical pharmacology papers which span from drug safety epidemiology and prescription papers to pharmacogenetics, PK/PD modelling, experimental medicine and translational phase 1 papers. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract 1 [1] The papers that appear in the special issue were all contributed papers to the “Environment and Sustainability Forum” that took place at the University of Exeter in April 2011. All papers have been subjected to the standard Journal of Environmental Economics and Management refereeing process. We thank the participants of the conference and the Editor of JEEM, Dan Phaneuf, for his encouragement and advice. We also thank the University of Exeter Business School for its generous support and, certainly not least, the referees who provided invaluable help in the evaluation process of these papers. : Given the current trend in global emissions, the latest round of climate change negotiations at the Durban meeting of December 2011 (for the adoption of a comprehensive global treaty on climate change mitigation as soon as possible—and no later than 2015—and to come into force in 2020) has hardly shown the results one would have hoped for. Even for the most optimistic, it remains unclear whether one can expect a successful negotiating outcome by 2015. There are inherent difficulties associated with climate change negotiations, ranging from which countries should bear most responsibility for a given emission reduction target to the assessment of a globally efficient time path for pricing harmful greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). These difficulties become even more complex and challenging under the pervasive uncertainty of climate science and the uncertainty about the feedback loop between climate change damages and economic growth. During the past decades, the environmental economics literature has provided important insights regarding the design of environmental fiscal policies and treaties but there is a host of issues that remain relatively unexplored. For instance, we know little about the cooperative solution for carbon and trade policies when climate change affects the productive possibilities of countries. In this context, it is also not obvious whether observed policies could be improved upon in such a way that all countries gain in welfare. It remains also unclear what the carbon extraction path should be in the absence of a comprehensive treaty (such as, for example, if environmental policy is unilaterally chosen subject to an agreed ‘ceiling’ in global temperature). Though carbon pricing instruments like carbon taxes, cap-and-trade and hybrids have been well studied, not much is known about their properties in the presence of ‘offset’ schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism. More work is also required to understand the strategic implications of the uncertainty surrounding climate change and how this affects, for example, the choice of climate change strategy (‘precautionary’ or ‘wait and see’), how uncertainty impacts the propensity of countries to sign a climate treaty, and the extent to which the possibility of a climate catastrophe fosters or hinders cooperation. Understanding political economy issues is also vital in tackling climate change because efficient climate policies stand little chance of being successfully negotiated and implemented if they do not receive the support of the electorate. The papers in the special issue of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management are precisely devoted to this broad research agenda. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Information about a paper discussed at the 2009 Copenhagen Academic Blockade meeting is presented. The paper focused on a need of better social and political changes to control climatic changes, poverty and resource depletion. The paper also reflected on three strategies that cause denial in preventing climatic change.

This paper assesses the role of the BASIC countries — Brazil, South Africa, India, and China — in UN climate change negotiations. The paper explores the formation and evolution of the group, and focuses on how the four major developing countries of China, India, Brazil, and South Africa have coordinated their positions and acted jointly to achieve an agreed outcome with other players in the recent UN Climate Change Conferences in Copenhagen and Cancun, based on an analysis of their country profiles and negotiation positions on a wide range of climate issues. The paper argues that the emergence of the BASIC Group is a reflection of the ongoing power shift from EU–US agreement to BASIC–US compromise in UN climate negotiations since the early 1990s. The rise of BASIC also has its roots in recent global market dynamics and further reflects the power transformation in the economic dimension of the international system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2007 Bali Climate Conference launched a ‘meta-negotiation’ of unprecedented scale and complexity. Culminating in 2009, climate change delegates must now define the next round of targets for the Kyoto Protocol developed country parties, and comparable provisions for the USA. Most dauntingly, negotiators must also devise a new architecture for further ‘action’ by developing countries under the Convention. This paper reflects on the key challenges involved in crafting a consensus at the climate conference in 2009 in Copenhagen. In particular, it explores options for reaching agreement with the USA and developing countries, suggesting a transition phase up to 2020. For developing countries, the paper outlines a possible ‘choose and no-lose’ approach, along with options for increased financing. The paper concludes by looking beyond 2009, emphasizing that, given the complexity of the negotiations, a work programme post-Copenhagen will be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests how the regulation of Solar Radiation Management (SRM) field research in Europe could be designed to maximise the possibility of securing legitimacy. It argues that legitimacy is maximised when regulatory frameworks are legal, and also responsive, flexible, deliberative and inclusive. By adopting an 'incorporated' approach to assessing the risk of Solar Radiation Management (SRM) field research, the EU can import elements of 'directly deliberative polyarchy' into its otherwise orthodox constitutional regulatory approach thereby maximising legitimacy. The argument is new in so far as it juxtaposes two conceptions of procedural legitimacy - one institutional and the other functional - in the context of significant scientific uncertainty in the technocratic regulatory paradigm of the EU. The significance of the work is that it draws on these conceptions of legitimacy to advance a pragmatic model of institutional design which comprises procedures that maximise legitimacy with minimal disruption to the EU's institutional balance of powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reflection on the papers contributed to the roundtable on climate destabilization and the study of religion sponsored by the American Academy of Religion (AAR). Several issues are discussed including the historical divide between religion and science, the impact of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere, and the relationship of climate change with El Niño Southern Oscillation. The role of religion in addressing overpopulation and environmental problems is mentioned.

Meeting climate and air quality targets, while preserving the focus on the reliability and cost-effectiveness of energy, became a central issue for offshore wind turbine engineers. Floating offshore wind turbines, which allow harnessing the large untapped wind resources in deep waters, are highly complex and coupled systems. Subsystem-level optimisations result in suboptimal designs, implying that an integrated design approach is important. Literature saw a few attempts on multidisciplinary design analysis and optimisation of floating wind turbines, with varying results, proving the need for an efficient, and sufficiently accurate, integrated approach. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art approaches to multidisciplinary design analysis and optimisation of floating support structures. The choice of the optimisation framework architecture, support platform design variables, constraints and objective functions are investigated. The techno-economic analysis models are closely examined, focusing on the approaches to achieving the optimum accuracy–efficiency balance. It is shown that the representation of the fully coupled system within the optimisation framework requires the introduction of a more complex multidisciplinary analysis workflow. Methods to increase the efficiency of such frameworks are indicated. Non-conventional support structure configurations can be conceived through the application of more advanced parametrisation schemes, which is feasible together with design space size reduction techniques. The set of design criteria should be extended by operation and maintenance cost, and power production metrics. The main technical limitations of the frameworks adopted so far include the inability to accurately analyse a diverse range of support structure topologies in multiple design load cases within a common framework. The cost approximation models should be extended by the chosen aspects of pre-operational phases, to better explore the benefits of the floating platforms. • Multidisciplinary Design Optimisation leads to better support structure designs. • Frameworks are limited in the range of support structures and design load cases. • Multi-level and multi-fidelity methods for optimisation of coupled systems are useful. • Along the capital cost, O&M costs should be considered in optimisation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intergovernmental organisations have developed into important sites of normative contestation where increasingly non-state actors participate. A common puzzle is however whether engaged non-state actors represent already strong and established interests or if they also bring forth marginalised voices. This concern raises the pertinent question of what views non-state actors actually represent and if this adds to the perspectives voiced by state actors. This paper examines the views held and voiced by state and a range of non-state participants at the United Nation's climate change conferences. Specifically, questions on what types of climate change solutions are favoured and to what extent these solutions are discussed are addressed. Through statistical analyses of questionnaire data and a content analysis of abstracts of side-events to the conferences, we find that while non-state actors help in broadening the discursive space, some perspectives remain marginalised. We conclude that while non-state actors represent a pluralising force, greater non-state actor participation in intergovernmental organisations is on its own unlikely to lead to democratic global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the American Lobster in a Changing Ecosystem: A U.S.–Canada Science Symposium held on November 27-30, 2012 on the response of U.S. lobsters in terms of changing ecosystem is presented. Topics include the impact of climate change and biological effects on the U.S. lobster fisheries, lobsters and food web diversity, and density dependence and lobster population dynamics.

Transportation is a basic social need, but most trips are done by private vehicles, which is not environmentally sustainable with growing urban populations. Micromobility (e.g., shared bikes) represents a significant opportunity to replace short private vehicles trips (0–3 miles) and reduce transportation sector emissions. This paper uses Seattle as a case study and estimates that up to 18% of short car trips could be replaced by micromobility. A static traffic assignment model is developed to simulate and compare the results of peak hour traffic under a base case scenario (2014 traffic conditions) to scenarios where a portion of short car trips are substituted by micromobility. Results indicate that micromobility could reduce congestion on heavily congested corridors and wide-scale bike lane deployment can maximize congestion benefits, but the impacts to energy use and emissions are disproportionately low and other measures (e.g., vehicle electrification) are needed to meet climate change emissions targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Articulations of climate justice were central to the diverse mobilisations that opposed the Copenhagen Climate Talks in December 2009. This paper contends that articulations of climate justice pointed to the emergence of three co-constitutive logics: antagonism, the common(s), and solidarity. Firstly, we argue that climate justice involves an antagonistic framing of climate politics that breaks with attempts to construct climate change as a 'post-political' issue. Secondly, we suggest that climate justice involves the formation of pre-figurative political activity, expressed through acts of commoning. Thirdly, we contend that climate justice politics generates solidarities between differently located struggles and these solidarities have the potential to shift the terms of debate on climate change. Bringing these logics into conversation can develop the significance of climate justice for political practice and strategy. We conclude by considering what is at stake in different articulations of climate justice and tensions in emerging forms of climate politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the 20th century, population-development studies have had serious difficulties staying clear of cultural and political influences on Western intellectual thought. Since the 1950s, a "neo-Malthusian" orientation has supported the argument that a technical fix called family planning could initiate and speed fertility decline under pre-industrial conditions. A Western-financed "population control" movement carried the message to poor countries around the world, ostensibly in support of poverty reduction while primarily motivated by the perceived threat to Western interests of rapid population increase in its ex-colonies. The "population card" surfaced in the run-up to the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Kicked off by two contrasting contributions on the relation of population dynamics to environmental deterioration published only a few months before the conference, a scientific debate developed that mirrored the earlier neo-Malthusian arguments, where many participants saw family planning among poor communities as a cost-effective method of reducing carbon emission. This paper traces the roots of the debate, discusses the fallacies of such arguments and concludes that we need a social science of demographic dynamics and development free from any links to the eugenic movement of the early 20th century and its neo-Malthusian successor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controversy has been a relevant element in the coverage of climate change. Several studies emphasize the influence of economic, political, and journalistic factors in the portrayal of controversies on this topic, along the last few decades. Very often this was related to the lobbying action of several political and economic interest groups and resulted in the portrayal of a distorted image of the scientific knowledge on this topic. This paper presents some results of a research project on information about climate change in the Spanish media (*). It analyzes the role of controversy in the current situation of strong scientific consensus on the existence and origin of climate change, through some content analysis of the coverage of the Copenhagen summit on climate change, in December 2009, in the two leading Spanish newspapers (El País and El Mundo). Results indicate that controversy still plays a relevant role in the coverage of this topic, and it is related to the editorial line of each newspaper. When controversy receives ample attention, it is portrayed mainly by means of opinion articles and it is linked to a restrictive presence of the scientific point of view. Balance is used as a legitimization tool, when it is useful to support the editorial line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science-based approaches in addressing future risks and challenges for forests require close collaboration among the communities operating different monitoring and research networks as well as experts in process and large-scale modelling. Results of the COST FP0903 conference which took place in October 2010 in Rome, reveal valuable results from different European forest monitoring and research networks. However, the need for closer integration of these activities is obvious. In this paper, representatives from major European networks recommend a new approach for forest monitoring and research in Europe, based on a reasonable number of highly instrumented "supersites" and a larger number of intensive monitoring plots linked to these. This system needs to be built on existing infrastructures but requires increased coordination, harmonisation and a joint long term platform for data exchange and modelling. INSET: List of abbreviations.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the conference "Workshop on the History of Climate Change, Natural Hazards and Natural Disasters" held at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany in May 2010. Papers by Martin Voss, Verena Twyrdy, Patrick Masius, and other scholars are mentioned.

Information about several papers discussed at the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Meeting at the Bella Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 7-9, 2009 is presented. Topics include reduction of gas emissions, pledges of immediate financing for emissions' actions, and climate changes laws and regulations. The convention featured UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Lavanya Rajaman, and Michael Zammit Cutajar.

The Copenhagen Summit did not conclude the 2 years negotiation process initiated in Bali in 2007. Ten official meetings among parties were not sufficient to reach a conclusion on the future of the international climate change regime after 2012. This paper summarizes the main issues addressed by the parties under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol tracks in the course of 2009, the longest year ever for climate change negotiations, and tries to explain the reasons behind the Summit's failures. Furthermore, an overview of the main points of the Copenhagen Accord is provided together with its implications and relation with the UNFCCC process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the United Nations climate change conference on December 7-19, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark is presented. Topics include political agreement or the Copenhagen Accord, long-term goal for the limit of climate change and the mitigation commitment. The conference features various countries including Asian countries, Bolivia and Sudan.

The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) under the United Framework Convention on Climate Change concluded in June that the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (CMP) in December should "determine the necessity of simplifying existing procedures" for inscribing commitments for Annex 1 Parties in Annex B to the Protocol and "take appropriate action." This conclusion recalls the ongoing problem that the procedures for joining Annex 1 of the Convention and Annex B of the Protocol are very time-consuming and in practice prevent Parties from joining the respective annexes, which this paper illustrates by means of presenting the cases of Kazakhstan, Turkey, Belarus, and other countries. In the negotiating history of the Protocol, as well as in provisions from other regimes, examples of more accessible procedures can be found. They might be used to simplify the current procedures under the Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at the 70th annual meeting sponsored by the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers (APCG) on the significant role played by geography in different regions is presented. Topics include recognizing one of the forgotten rivers in Los Angeles, California, assessing climate change, and tourism geographies. Speakers at the event include Jenny Price, Glen MacDonald and Kate Berry.