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Climate change will present new challenges for transboundary governance of international river basins, many of which will experience increasing levels of environmental variability in the coming decades. Failure to adequately respond to these challenges will increase vulnerability for people across the globe who rely on these river systems for their livelihoods. To be effective, governance systems will need to embrace uncertainty, increase international cooperation, and authentically engage local actors in decision-making. This paper considers the potential for transnational governance that accounts for local livelihoods by presenting findings from qualitative research in Namibia and Botswana, two of the three countries located in the Cubango-Okavango River Basin of Southern Africa. Findings show the importance of local livelihoods for communities in the basin, which have been historically overlooked by governance systems, and which now face increasing threats from development and climate change. The paper illustrates how these livelihoods are governed by a complex institutional arrangement that includes national governments inclined to protect their own interests and a transnational governance body whose mission is to coordinate decision-making across the basin to support sustainable development. The paper concludes with a call for increased attention to the impacts of governance decisions on the livelihoods of river basin communities, with insights for the Cubango-Okavango River Basin specifically, as well as for international river basins more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arctic is experiencing a rapid temperature increase, four times faster than lower-latitude regions, disproportionately affecting rural, coastal, and Indigenous communities. These areas confront multiple urgent climate challenges. Adaptation strategies encompass out-migration, community relocation, and enhancing resilience, yet research in this critical area is notably limited, particularly for the most vulnerable communities. This paper presents a comprehensive review of environmental stressors and contextual factors influencing migration decisions in the North American Arctic. While migration is primarily driven by job opportunities, education, healthcare, cultural, and infrastructural factors, factors such as family, culture, safety, subsistence life, and community ties strongly influence residents to stay. The study reveals a lack of clear evidence for climate-driven migration at the individual/household level, but it underscores well-documented community-level relocations. Two major challenges in studying Arctic climate migration are identified: the complexity of migration and the uniqueness of Arctic climate change. Recommendations include considering migration typology, disentangling climate drivers from contextual factors, and addressing data limitations through systematic collection, integration, and creative use of traditional and nontraditional data. The paper underscores the importance of establishing partnerships with local communities to achieve a holistic understanding of factors driving migration or immobility, ensuring research outcomes are connected to addressing community challenges. This review lays the groundwork for empirical research on Arctic migration and community adaptation, aiming to comprehend the challenges faced by these communities and explore potential solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, people have always had to deal with climate-related hazards, and in the majority of places, they have adapted gradually. However, these gradual adaptations may not be enough to withstand the expected intensity of climate-related hazards in the future. In this paper, our focus is on the effect of storms in the Faroe Islands. The islands are highly exposed to storms, which are projected to increase in intensity and potentially also in frequency in this region. The islands are characterized by being small, remote, and with a rough terrain, which makes it difficult for external actors to provide assistance. As a result, the civilian population—especially in the outer regions—often have to deal with storms and their consequences themselves. The geographical focus in this paper is the Northern Islands, and in particular the communities of Viðareiði and Hvannasund. The approach applied is qualitative, and the central question this paper tries to answer is how aspects of place attachment (social, physical, functional) affect the way in which the local population handle storms. The findings show communities that are impacted by storms, but also that their previous experiences with storms have led to an improved adaptation level, which today enables them to cope with more severe storms. The attachment they have to where they live will assist them in coping with future storms, although it can also be a hindrance to the implementation of the necessary adaptation and preparedness measures, since they presume that they are already safe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate Change research plays a pivotal role in Africa’s sustainable development by providing the required scientific evidence to inform the design of Africa’s development priorities. The need for enhanced climate research is heightened by the fact that Africa is one of the regions likely to be most affected by the impacts of global warming and climate change. This paper highlights some key lessons learnt from the provision of climate research support in Africa under the Climate Impact Research Capacity Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE) project implemented by the African Academy of Sciences and the Association of Commonwealth Universities in partnership with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, Vitae, and the University of Greenwich’s Natural Resources Institute. The paper discusses the early-career research support landscape in Africa, the place of institutional strengthening in climate research programming, and the need for a well-coordinated community and public engagement in the climate research projects. Lessons from the CIRCLE programme provide useful insights for future climate research programme design and early-career research support initiatives in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the need to situate the climate change narrative in lived everyday life for conceptualizing adaptation strategies. Climate change in its dominant narrative talks of global risks while it is the local risks experienced in everyday life which adaptation needs to address. This paper engages with this challenge using the specific case study of coffee growers in South India and focuses on two strategies available to them to address their rainfall risk: irrigation (sprinkler and rain-guns) and rainfall insurance. The paper unpacks growers’ decision-making process to invest or not to invest in insurance and irrigation and showcases that even though variation in rainfall is a significant concern for the growers still investing in neither of the two strategies (insurance and rain-gun irrigation) or only in sprinkler irrigation remains the most preferred decision scenarios. The paper argues that rain-gun irrigation and insurance reconfigure growers’ relation with rainfall. In this reconfigured relation, the agency is removed from growers and passed on to a scientifically calibrated assessment of rainfall. Growers’ reluctance to buy into these schemes, thus, is indicative of their reluctance to buy into the reconfigured system where the agency of knowledge has been removed from them and passed on to the scientific assessments. In a situated context, thus, climate change for coffee growers in South India is an issue of agency and trust. Therefore, thinking through adaptation strategies for addressing the situated narrative of climate change challenge would require opening the process of calibrating rainfall for insurance to gain growers’ trust. Additionally, making science more inclusive of lived experiences on the ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adapting to climate change is becoming a routine and necessary component of planning at all levels. In the case of small island developing states (SIDS), the successful development, implementation and evaluation of national-level adaptation policies are especially important because of their disproportionate vulnerability. The status of adaptation policies in these countries, however, is poorly understood and documented, particularly for the Atlantic, Indian Oceans, Mediterranean and South China Seas (AIMS) region. This is so largely because of minimal mainstream research interest in these small nations. This paper helps fill this gap. It develops an Adaptation Policy Assessment Framework that facilitates a rapid qualitative assessment of countries' national adaptation policies. It applies the framework to seven representative policies across six of the nine SIDS in the AIMS region—Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles and Singapore. It finds that countries are mostly successful in identifying climate and climate-related vulnerabilities and linking associated risks to other national development priorities such as poverty reduction. Countries, however, struggle with establishing and maintaining systems to review and improve adaptation interventions, which is not entirely unique to them or their circumstances. This paper's findings provide critical points of reflection for countries preparing and revising their National Adaptation Plans in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They also contribute to a broader understanding of the complexities of climate policy development in small jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change will create warmer temperatures and greater precipitation in mountainous regions, making agriculture increasingly possible in these areas. To determine the potential of agricultural expansion, this paper approximated how much new land could become suitable for cropping maize, rice, wheat, millet, buckwheat, and barley in Nepal by 2041–2060 and 2081–2100 periods under climate change projection. Additionally, this paper estimates the potential environmental trade-offs of agricultural expansion in Nepal by evaluating how carbon stores, protected areas, tree cover, and river systems would be traded for agriculture. Results show that under climate change projected by WorldClim under three different climate change scenarios, up to ~36,983km2 of land may become available for agriculture by 2100 in the high mountains of Nepal. If all this area is utilized for agriculture, up to 3.1 GtC (gigaton carbon) would be released from soil carbon and 0.12 GtC from above ground carbon stores, 11,129 km2 of tree cover would be impacted, 9934 km2 of protected areas would be impacted, and river systems will be impacted as 4446 km2 of climate-driven agricultural frontiers identified in this study lie within 200m of a river. These results highlight that agricultural frontiers will emerge in northwestern part of Nepal, which would have very important food security implication as this region of Nepal has been suffering from a very high level of food insecurity. However, before moving toward any potential development of agricultural activities, in-depth analysis about the potential food production benefit of developing frontiers against their potential ecosystem service trade-offs is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is vulnerable to a diverse range of climate change hazards that have significant impacts on food security, biodiversity loss, water crises and prevalence of infectious diseases. With much of the continent’s population reliant on ecosystems to sustain their livelihoods, degradation of ecosystems caused by both climatic and non-climatic stressors is increasing vulnerability, reducing adaptation potential and limiting progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) presents a critical opportunity to address complex climate change vulnerabilities and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions across Africa. This study examines both the proposed extent of EbA actions across Africa and assesses alignment with existing research on EbA actions. A quantitative assessment of 52 Nationally Determined Contributions together with a review of available academic literature is undertaken. Results show that out of the 713 individual adaptation actions, 36.2% can be classified as EbA. The four sectors of agriculture, environment, forestry/land use and land use change, and water contribute ~ 82.5% of the total number of EbA actions identified across the continent. The meta-analysis revealed that 58% of EbA-focused research papers explicitly address or reference mitigation co-benefits. However, research on EbA actions focuses on mitigation and adaptation independently with little focus on integration of these outcomes. Understanding the current status of EbA and its integration of mitigation and adaptation provides a solid foundation for scaling up efforts to adapt to the current and impending impacts of climate change across Africa. Limited resources necessitate a structured and programmatic approach towards scaling up the implementation of EbA mitigation synergies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, water governance struggles to reconcile increased demands on water resources with climate change–induced reductions in supply, making climate adaptation in water governance a pressing concern. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has emerged as a climate adaptation tool designed to help make adaptation decisions. However, there is limited understanding of social and political factors, which are critical in driving RAD decisions. This paper explores how communities are employing RAD to make climate adaptation decisions, using a case study of the Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy (the Strategy); a community-led strategy that uses a version of the RAD framework to build regional resilience in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District (GMID) in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The Strategy focuses on building socio-economic, rather than ecological, resilience, making this research a valuable contribution to RAD literature. To apply the RAD framework to socio-economic adaptation, we adapted the framework to include IPCC language around incremental, transformational, planned, and autonomous adaptation. With the GMID considered a leader of resilience thinking in Australia, the Strategy may help decision-makers address water overallocation and contested governance in the MDB, and provide lessons for water governance globally. Data analysed from 20 semi-structured interviews with people involved with the Strategy revealed two main findings: (1) Communities and governments prioritise different actions under the RAD framework. Governments, particularly at the state level, preference incremental planned adaptation to maintain the status quo (resist), over incremental autonomous adaptation to changing conditions (accept), and transformational planned adaptation at various scales (direct). (2) Community and government actors perceive that factors driving governments’ preference for incremental-resist adaptation include electoral short-termism, linear planning, and conservative government culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reality of global climate change demands novel approaches to science that are reflective of the scales at which changes are likely to occur, and of the new forms of knowledge required to positively influence policy to support vulnerable populations. We examine some of the opportunities and challenges presented by a collaborative, transdisciplinary research project on climate change adaptation in Africa and Asia that utilized a hotspot approach. A large-scale effort to develop appropriate baselines was a key challenge at the outset of the program, as was the need to develop innovative methodologies to enable researchers to work at appropriate spatial scales. Efforts to match research to the biophysical scales at which change occurs need to be aware of the mismatch that can develop between these regional scales and the governance scales at which decisions are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meteorological hazards can lead farmers to resort to strategies such as weather modifications. In this paper, we study how the use of such strategies, in this case silver iodide ground generators aimed at protecting vineyards from hail, caused a conflict between farmers (wine producers and cattle breeders) in Burgundy, France. The conflict emerged as the installation of these generators coincided with 3 years of severe droughts (2018, 2019 and 2020), which incurred additional expenses and organisational difficulties for local cattle breeders and led them to suspect a potential link between the generators and the droughts. We followed a transdisciplinary research approach, based on local stakeholder input and their need to mitigate the negative impacts of the conflict. Based on this approach, we studied the links between generator use and precipitation, and carried out in-depth interviews to study farmers’ experiences of climate, generators and conflicts in the region. Whilst the climatic analysis shows no local or regional effects of the generators on precipitation volumes, the sociological study highlights the vulnerability of farmers to successive droughts, found to be part of a wider pattern of climate change based on water balance variables (temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration potential, soil wetness index) over a long period (1959–2020). Our results suggest that the use of technical solutions to mitigate meteorological hazards, within a broader context of climate engineering, can lead to conflicts at the regional level, and that the climate change challenge in the context of agriculture requires a focus on wider social issues including vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate warming, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are creating intensifying and more frequent hazards for human populations inhabiting the coast. In Alaska’s remote coastal communities, flooding and erosion are rapidly increasing due to the combined effect of sea level rise, more frequent storm surges, and increasingly powerful wave action from lack of sea ice. This paper presents survey results documenting socio-economic and psychological livelihood impacts and relocation preferences as reported by residents of a remote coastal Indigenous community. We quantified direct costs of lost or damaged private property, affected community infrastructure, and interruption of public services and found that the resulting financial hardship adds to existing economic challenges and climate stressors. Findings underline a community-level preoccupation with coastal climate threats that manifests primarily in intrusive and distressing thoughts of consequences from storms and other destructive climatic events. We highlight the need to monitor more broadly livelihood impacts to inform the design of innovative risk management tools to moderate financial hardship and strengthen community-driven action. We conclude that new policy responding to the needs of remote Indigenous communities affected by repetitive environmental disasters needs to account for a complex array of community and culture-specific socio-economic, health, and biophysical factors that require frequent co-produced assessments to capture rapidly changing conditions at the local scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals and communities socially construct risk, and societies with greater risk perception may be more apt to mobilize or adapt to emergent threats like climate change. Increasing climate change awareness is often considered necessary in the first stages of the adaptation process to manage its impacts and reduce overall vulnerability. Since agriculture is affected by climate change in several ways, farmers can provide first-hand observations of climate change impacts and adaptation options. This paper aims to identify the current research trends and set the future research agenda on climate change awareness, perceived impacts, and adaptive capacity from farmers' experiences and behavior. We analyzed a portfolio of 435 articles collected from WoS and Scopus databases between 2010 and 2020 using bibliometrics. From the original portfolio, we select 108 articles for a more comprehensive and systematic review. Publication trends and content analysis have been employed to identify influential work, delineate the mental structure of farmers' beliefs and concerns, and identify main research gaps. The comprehensive analysis reported (1) farmers' socio-demographic characteristics influencing farmers' perceptions; (2) awareness and changing climate evidence due to human activity; (3) the main perceived effects (rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and extreme events); (4) the most relevant adaptation measures (crop changing and soil/water conservation techniques); and (5) factors and barriers limiting adaptation (lack of information, credit, and expertness). The review outlines the main gaps and their drivers to help future researchers, managers, and decision-makers to prioritize their actions according to farmers' concerns and their adaptive capacity to reduce farming vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding popular attitudes to climate change can be important in developing effective climate adaptation responses. However, in the Pacific region, which is at the forefront of impacts of a changing climate, little attention has been given to popular perceptions of climate change. This paper presents the findings of a climate change module in the first Pacific Attitudes Survey (PAS), conducted in Samoa from December 2020 to January 2021. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of Samoans of voting age (n = 1319), the PAS gauges the views of ordinary Samoans towards climate change, including perceptions of the urgency of climate change action, perceptions of the effects of climate change in Samoa, and of individual or institutional capacity to act on climate change. Findings reveal that while most respondents believe that climate change was an urgent problem that needs to be addressed, a significant minority thought it will "never be necessary" to address climate change. This study also found level of education to be a significant factor in climate beliefs. Respondents who had higher education levels were more likely to rate climate change as an urgent problem. Those identifying climate change as an urgent problem that needs to be addressed were significantly more likely to agree that climate change was affecting Samoa in general and their own personal lives. We also found a significant association between perceptions that climate change was an "urgent problem that needs to be addressed", and willingness to permanently migrate for work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns about the security implications of climate change are increasing. The growing academic literature on the topic suggests that linkages between climate change and armed conflict are shaped by structural risk factors, but micro-level variation and mechanisms remain poorly understood and flood responses are hardly studied. In this paper, we strive to contribute to a better understanding of such micro-level patterns and investigate how flood exposure affects the support for violence in the Karamoja region of Uganda, which is characterized by many structural vulnerabilities to climate change and armed conflict. We use unique household-level survey panel data and investigate changes in survey responses following a destructive flood. Our study finds that flood exposure was associated with greater support for the use of violence. However, while we identify some adverse impacts of flood exposure on the perceived and actual socio-economic conditions of households and a decrease in perceptions of government support, these do not seem to mediate the estimated flood impact on support for violence against expectations. Our findings point to the limited explanatory power of natural hazards’ economic impacts alone for conflict risk. Further investigation of causal mechanisms between climate hazards and conflict remains an important priority for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small island developing states (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable in the world to the impacts of climate change. SIDS have prioritised adaptation to climate change as it is widely accepted that some climate change is inevitable. Given the high cost of adaptation and the financial constraints faced by SIDS, many have pursued international adaptation financing to meet adaptation costs and ease domestic constraints. This paper analyses international adaptation financing commitments to SIDS across multiple regions between 2010 and 2014. It has three aims. First, it identifies trends in this financing from Members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to SIDS. Second, using a multivariate regression model, it identifies the determinants of this financing to SIDS, compared to other developing countries. Third, it elicits the perspectives of policy-makers in SIDS on their experience with international adaptation financing to date. This study finds that (1) the allocation of funding and donor commitments to SIDS is highly skewed, (2) whether a country is classified as a SIDS is a determinant of the amount of adaptation financing it can expect to receive-other determinants include population, per capita income, governance quality and vulnerability, depending on how it is conceptualised and measured, and (3) SIDS are dissatisfied with the current levels of international adaptation financing and their experience with accessing it. This paper concludes that, while international adaptation flows have not been sufficient, SIDS have not been disadvantaged in their access to such financing over the period, compared to other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing evidence of global warming calls on all states to enhance their adaptive capacity to deal with climate change. This paper compares the adaptive capacity of two Canadian provinces, the province of Mendoza, Argentina and the administrative region of Coquimbo, Chile in relation to the vulnerability of farmers to droughts and floods by applying the adaptive capacity wheel (ACW). It concludes that Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada are particularly weak in terms of double- and triple-loop learning and in developing adaptive capacity in an equitable manner, probably attributable to strong climate scepticism in society and the weak economy. In the developing countries of Chile and Argentina, resources to assist with adaptation are often lacking; in Coquimbo, future learning is precarious because of information deficits in relation to data, memory, trust, and responsiveness; in Mendoza, institutions lack variety (redundancy of programs), resources, and governance processes are inadequately responsive. The paper makes contributions at the regional level by recommending that specific institutional weaknesses and lack of responsiveness be remedied by adopting appropriate missing instruments (perhaps, for example, water transfer provisions in Mendoza). New findings are made in relation to the dimensions of fair governance and learning capacity in the ACW. While learning capacity was closely linked to the dimension of leadership, the deficit of equity was closely linked to other indicators of fair governance (legitimacy, responsiveness, and accountability). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraints and limits to adaptation are critical to understanding the extent to which human and natural systems can successfully adapt to climate change. We conduct a systematic review of 1,682 academic studies on human adaptation responses to identify patterns in constraints and limits to adaptation for different regions, sectors, hazards, adaptation response types, and actors. Using definitions of constraints and limits provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we find that most literature identifies constraints to adaptation but that there is limited literature focused on limits to adaptation. Central and South America and Small Islands generally report greater constraints and both hard and soft limits to adaptation. Technological, infrastructural, and ecosystem-based adaptation suggest more evidence of constraints and hard limits than other types of responses. Individuals and households face economic and socio-cultural constraints which also inhibit behavioral adaptation responses and may lead to limits. Finance, governance, institutional, and policy constraints are most prevalent globally. These findings provide early signposts for boundaries of human adaptation and are of high relevance for guiding proactive adaptation financing and governance from local to global scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming of 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels and a commensurate increase in global greenhouse gas emissions pose an unprecedented danger to human settlements, livelihoods and the sustainable development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), yet these challenges present tremendous opportunities to rethink development pathways. The paper has two objectives. One is to critically review present vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies employed by the state, private sector, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations and households. The other is to discuss vulnerabilities and identify adaptation and resiliency strategies which are considered most applicable beyond the 1.5 °C limit. The Caribbean Region is the focus of the paper. A key finding of the paper is that temperature change above the 1.5 °C limit set by the Paris Conference of the Parties will make the natural and human systems of SIDS even more highly vulnerable than they are already. Another finding is that Caribbean states have implemented various innovative climate change adaptation strategies, but their relevance should the 1.5 °C target be exceeded, requires further exploration. The paper is useful to policymakers, decision-makers and finance agencies in search of practical solutions to avert the implications for Caribbean settlements, economies and ecosystems should the temperature warming exceed 1.5 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most climate change literature tends to downplay the gendered nature of vulnerability. At best, gender is discussed in terms of the male-female binary, seen as opposing forces rather than in varying relations of interdependency. Such construction can result in the adoption of maladaptive culturally unfit gender-blind policy and interventions. In Egypt, which is highly vulnerable to climate change, gender analysis of vulnerability is almost non-existent. This paper addresses this important research gap by asking and drawing on a rural Egyptian context 'How do the gendered relational aspects of men's and women's livelihoods in the household and community influence vulnerability to climate change?'. To answer this question, I draw on gender analysis of social relations, framed within an understanding of sustainable livelihoods. During 16 months of fieldwork, I used multiple ethnographic methods to collect data from two culturally and ethnically diverse low-income villages in Egypt. My main argument is that experiences of climate change are closely intertwined with gender and wider social relations in the household and community. These are shaped by local gendered ideologies and cultures that are embedded in conjugal relations, kinship and relationship to the environment, as compared across the two villages. In this paper, I strongly argue that vulnerability to climate change is highly gendered and therefore gender analysis should be at the heart of climate change discourses, policy and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is the leading sector that is responsible for global climate change through its significant contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Intriguingly, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is experiencing higher temperatures and lesser rainfall due to climate change enhanced by anthropogenic GHG emissions. Agriculture and energy use in the SSA predominantly influence the anthropogenic GHG leading to global warming. Therefore, reducing agricultural GHG emissions (such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane) plays a significant role in climate change adaptation. This paper reviews the potential implication of agriculture and energy use on climate change and its implications on environmental sustainability in SSA. Herewith, we explored various GHGs emitted through agriculture-energy use, their effects on climate change, as well as several climate change adaptation mechanisms, and gaps in existing knowledge that necessitate more research, were also explored. We found that agriculture had negative implications on climate change impacts in the SSA countries and that a more focused strategy that is both economically and technically feasible in terms of preferences for land use, effective energy use, and food supply would aid in GHG emission reduction and environmental sustainability. Adapting to the projected changes in the short term while investing in long-term mitigation strategies might be the only way toward a sustainable environment in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in farming systems are dominated by changes in global climate and local environment, apart from the non-climatic drivers. Given the challenges in partitioning the contribution of climatic and non-climatic factors to the changes in farming systems, this paper aims to assess the types and changes of coastal farming systems, the farmer perceptions of the causes of the changes in farming systems, and the relationship between the influencing factors and perceptions. A structured interview schedule was used to collect data from 381 randomly selected coastal households during September–October 2018. The random forest classification model was applied to estimate the relative importance of the farmers’ characteristics on their perception of causes of changes in farming systems. This study reveals that the coastal farmers had mostly semi-subsistence type of mixed farming systems, which were going through dynamic changes in terms of their sizes and number of farmers. In general, the participation in rice, vegetables, and livestock farming was decreasing but increasing in fisheries, forestry, and fruit farming. Most (95.5%) of the farmers had to change at least one of the farming enterprises over the past decade (2009–2018) compared with the previous decade (1999–2008). About two-thirds of the farmers perceived that climate change had caused changes in their farming systems. Compared with the eastern coasts, the farmers in the western coasts tended to blame climate change to a higher extent for the effect on their agricultural activities. The random forest model outputs imply that the farmers who are younger in age and with less formal education, larger family, and smaller farmland should be supported with scientific knowledge on causes of changes in farming systems. This could help them more aware of climate change issues related to agriculture and increase their enthusiasm to take part in adaptive changes in farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small island developing states (SIDS) are recognized as a special case for sustainable development due to the unique set of challenges and vulnerabilities they face. While SIDS are a diverse group of nations, most share characteristics of small size, limited land availability, insularity, susceptibility to natural disasters and deep integration into global markets that make them particularly vulnerable to global environmental and economic change processes. Although there has been considerable research into the impacts of global change processes on small island vulnerability, much less attention has been paid to their resilience, particularly at the intersection of environmental and economic change and the consequences for food security. This paper presents an overview of the social-ecological vulnerabilities that drive food and nutrition insecurity in different SIDS contexts and considers how policies and governance arrangements might better support more resilient and sustainable small island food systems drawing from the collection of papers in this Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to a changing climate is unavoidable. Mainstreaming climate adaptation objectives into existing policies, as opposed to developing dedicated adaptation policy, is widely advocated for public action. However, knowledge on what makes mainstreaming effective is scarce and fragmented. Against this background, this paper takes stock of peer-reviewed empirical analyses of climate adaptation mainstreaming, in order to assess current achievements and identify the critical factors that render mainstreaming effective. The results show that although in most cases adaptation policy outputs are identified, only in a minority of cases this translates into policy outcomes. This “implementation gap” is most strongly seen in developing countries. However, when it comes to the effectiveness of outcomes, we found no difference across countries. We conclude that more explicit definitions and unified frameworks for adaptation mainstreaming research are required to allow for future research syntheses and well-informed policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how economic, conflict, and environmental drivers of migration influence immigration acceptance in a receiving country. We carried out an online survey experiment in autumn 2015 with 686 student participants from the University of Innsbruck in Austria. In the survey experiment, respondents state their acceptance for a fictitious migrant from Chad where we vary the following causes of the migration decision: (1) violent conflicts, (2) environmental degradation due to global climate change, (3) environmental degradation due to local overuse, and (4) better economic prospects. We find that respondents support migrants who move because of climate change as much as conflict migrants. Acceptance is lowest for migrants who decide to leave for economic reasons, while it is slightly higher in the case of environmental degradation due to local overuse. Strikingly, a sizable share of respondents (25%) would even reject conflict migrants. Respondents who perceive a negative correlation between welfare, crime rates and job opportunities, and the presence of immigrants display lower immigration acceptance for all motives underlying the migration decision. In addition, we find heterogeneous effects depending on the respondents’ gender and political affiliation. Respondents with right-wing party preferences disclose lower acceptance levels for all causes except conflict. Female respondents are more accepting of climate migrants and less of economic migrants than men. This paper informs the debate around the ongoing political and societal polarization in Europe and elsewhere on the acceptance of different types of migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensification of the hydrological cycle resulting from climate change in West Africa poses significant risks for the region’s rapidly urbanising cities, but limited research on flood risk has been undertaken at the urban domain scale. Furthermore, conventional climate models are unable to realistically represent the type of intense storms which dominate the West African monsoon. This paper presents a decision-first framing of climate research in co-production of a climate-hydrology-flooding modelling chain, linking scientists working on state-of-the-art regional climate science with decision-makers involved in city planning for future urban flood management in the city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The realistic convection-permitting model over Africa (CP4A) is applied at the urban scale for the first time and data suggest significant intensification of high-impact weather events and demonstrate the importance of considering the spatio-temporal scales in CP4A. Hydrological modelling and hydraulic modelling indicate increases in peak flows and flood extents in Ouagadougou in response to climate change which will be further exacerbated by future urbanisation. Advances in decision-makers’ capability for using climate information within Ouagadougou were observed, and key recommendations applicable to other regional urban areas are made. This study provides proof of concept that a decision-first modelling-chain provides a methodology for co-producing climate information that can, to some extent, bridge the usability gap between what scientists think is useful and what decision-makers need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, unauthorized migration from Honduras to the USA has become a topic of pressing international concern and a major factor in the political and humanitarian crisis at the southern border of the USA that has been unfolding since 2014. Untangling the causes of recent Honduran migration requires attending to economic change, political instability, the impact of violence and crime, rapidly changing gender roles, among many other forces that shape migration patterns. Recently, scholars and policy-makers have analyzed the impact of drought in the so-called Dry Corridor of Central America as a major source of migration, particularly among coffee producers who have been hard hit by unprecedented heat and lack of rain in parts of Honduras. Drawing on ethnographic studies of Honduran coffee farmers, this paper will discuss how and if climatic factors can be isolated from other factors to explain recent Honduran migration behavior, in order to move towards a holistic explanation of climate-driven migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing sound evidence to inform decision-making that considers the needs of the most vulnerable to climate change will help both adaptation and development efforts. Such evidence is particularly important in climate change 'hot spots', where strong climate signal and high concentrations of vulnerable people are present. These hot spots include semiarid regions and deltas of Africa and Asia, and glacier- and snowpack-dependent river basins of South Asia. In advance of a major research effort focusing on these three hot spots, studies were commissioned to identify and characterize the current status of knowledge in each on biophysical impacts, social vulnerability, and adaptation policy and practice. The resulting seven papers are brought together in this special edition, with this editorial introduction providing background on these hot spots, the program through which the studies were commissioned, and an overview of the papers that follow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertical integration, which creates strategic linkages between national and sub-national levels, is being promoted as important for climate change adaptation. Decentralisation, which transfers authority and responsibility to lower levels of organisation, serves a similar purpose and has been in place for a number of decades. Based on four case studies in semi-arid regions in Africa and India, this paper argues that vertical integration for climate change adaptation should reflect on lessons from decentralisation related to governing natural resources, particularly in the water sector. The paper focuses on participation and flexibility, two central components of climate change adaptation, and considers how decentralisation has enhanced or undermined these. The findings suggest that vertical integration for adaptation will be strengthened if a number of lessons are considered, namely (i) actively seek equitable representation from marginal and diverse local groups drawing on both formal and informal participation structures, (ii) assess and address capacity deficits that undermine flexibility and adaptive responses, especially within lower levels of government, and (iii) use hybrid modes of governance that include government, intermediaries and diverse local actors through both formal and informal institutions to improve bottom-up engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global atmospheric change poses a major challenge to the agricultural sector, with potentially important consequences in the Mediterranean basin. Addressing these risks demands transformative adaptation in agricultural practices, a responsibility not exclusive to farmers alone. According to the agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS) approach, changing agricultural practices is a multi-stakeholder process. Triple helix innovation models consider three basic stakeholders: scientists, policymakers and farmers. This paper reviews the agricultural policies on climate change adaptation employed by the Spanish government in the primary cereal-producing regions of Spain, comparing them with the recommendations proposed by the scientific literature and the actual practices adopted by farmers. The objective is to identify divergences and common elements in order to analyze bottlenecks and opportunities for a faster and smoother adaptation process. Conclusions highlight that there are common perceptions, but also important divergences between the three stakeholders, and that public policies have an important role in order to foster adaptation measures to deal with global atmospheric change in Mediterranean agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies how the governance of the transition to sustainable agriculture in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta is constrained by a lack of leadership, coordination, and funding. The Vietnamese Mekong Delta region is an important agricultural region yet highly vulnerable to climate change. In 2017, the Government of Vietnam issued Resolution 120, which calls for a transition towards sustainable development and climate change resilient agriculture in the delta. We evaluated the governance of implementing this resolution using an established transition governance framework, based on policy document analysis, ethnographic observations and interviews with national government agencies and ten departments in the delta provinces An Giang and Ben Tre. The analysis indicates that delays are caused by fragmented central government leadership and that friction exists between top-down plans and bottom-up action taken by the provinces in the delta. The transition is further constrained by the absence of inter-provincial coordination and funding mechanisms. Overall, this study shows that the required governance structure exists on paper but highlights how an insufficient governance process constrains climate change adaptation in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based adaptation (CBA) is becoming an increasingly popular approach to climate change adaptation in the Pacific islands region. Building adaptive capacity should be an important component of projects supporting CBA. The literature establishes that adaptive capacity is highly context and culture specific. However, to date, there has been little research into the factors and processes that enable adaptive capacity in Pacific island communities. This paper discusses the Pacific Adaptive Capacity Analysis Framework, a theoretical framework developed to guide assessment of adaptive capacity for the purposes of supporting CBA projects. The framework identifies seven broad factors and several sub-factors of Pacific-specific adaptive capacity: (1) human capital; (2) social capital; (3) belief systems, worldviews, and values; (4) resources and their distribution; (5) options for adaptation, livelihood, and food supply; (6) information and awareness; and (7) history of dealing with climate stress. The paper presents a case study of adaptive capacity from a community in the Solomon Islands and concludes that unlike many adaptive capacity determinants identified in the broader international literature, function-based (factors shaping ability to access and use resources) and cognitive (for example, values and belief systems) determinants are of particular relevance in the Pacific community social and cultural context. The key to building upon cognitive and function-based aspects of adaptive capacity is increasing the ability of people to liaise with external support organisations to plan and acquire resources for adaptation on their own terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional organisations play a central role in coordinating regional climate change adaptation responses across small island developing states, 58 countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change and its impacts. The effectiveness of these organisations in coordinating adaptation efforts is underexplored in the academic literature, and this paper helps to fill the gap. By developing the Framework for Assessing Regional Organisations Coordinating Climate Change Adaptation, it qualitatively assesses the adaptation-related inputs, projects/programmes and outputs of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme. This assessment is enriched by data gathered through interviews with national and regional climate change and development officials in the Caribbean and Pacific. It finds that regional organisations are more effective with respect to their adaptation-related inputs and outputs, but are less effective in coordinating adaptation projects/programmes. It recommends that, in addition to differentiating organisational mandates, regional organisations should focus on resolving the major climate-related information deficit issues, helping countries to develop ready to finance investment projects, building national-level capacities to adapt and supporting the creation of an enabling environment for climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstreaming climate change adaptation (CCA) into plans and programs is still a new approach in adaptation and thus there is limited information on how to operationalize it on-ground. This paper addresses this gap by investigating the challenges in mainstreaming CCA into the local land use plans in the province of Albay, Philippines. Specifically, this paper developed 20 quantitative 'mainstreaming indicators' to assess the state-of-play and the challenges for local mainstreaming. These indicators were classified under three groupings, namely, the information, institutional, and resource capacities of systems. Qualitative analysis of the indicator scores suggested that developing the institutional capacities of local governments is crucial in the local mainstreaming process. Likewise, the results highlighted the 'institutional issues' indicator as the primary barrier in operationalizing the approach. These institutional issues are: fragmented laws and regulations; overlapping policy requirements; and the lack of guidelines for mainstreaming CCA into the local land use plans. Meanwhile, the 'leadership' indicator, as signified by a climate change champion in Albay, was evaluated as an opportunity for local mainstreaming. The champion effectively led the CCA efforts because the existing institutional mechanisms supported the champion's capacity to influence the behavior of people and produce collective action towards CCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid increase in marine shipping activity in Inuit Nunangat (i.e. in settled land claim regions of Arctic Canada), propelled by climate change and international interest in Arctic maritime trade, has heightened concerns among Inuit communities about the risks that more ships could pose for sustainable and subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering (berries, plants, eggs, etc.) (referred to as harvesting in this article) activities considered vital for cultural well-being and local livelihoods. As part of the Arctic Corridors and Northern Voices project, () a series of workshops, focus groups, and interviews were conducted in and with 14 communities across Inuit Nunangat that involved 133 marine experts and 59 youth community researchers. In this paper, we present the concerns identified by Inuit and local marine users about the risks of increased shipping activity specifically with respect to harvesting activities and then identify governance needs that could support sustainability. Results of the study are organised by three major risk themes: (1) Marine ecosystem contamination and degradation; (2) Disruption to harvesters’ travel and safety; and (3) Interference and disturbance of wildlife. All of these risks negatively impact harvesting activities in Inuit Nunangat. Considering the region is expected to be ice-free in summer by the end of the twenty-first century and that subsistence harvesting is crucial to the well-being of Inuit and northern communities, it is vital that research on this topic be conducted and then considered within ongoing Arctic governance and co-governance efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a crucial dilemma behind the failure of climate politics: the "dehumanization" of the concept of climate, i.e., the emergence of a predominance of global perspectives, conceptions, and knowledge of climate, which do not translate into local knowledge, experience, and political action. On the one hand, twentieth-century climate science improved understanding of global climate change tremendously. On the other hand, it focused on reductionist quantification and modeling and emphasis on large spatial and temporal scales. This research direction produced large- and global-scale knowledge and can aptly be described as knowledge from above. Climatology in its original Humboldtian conception, in contrast, focused on detailed local information. The human dimension—the support of human affairs—was at the core of it. This understanding of climatology involved priority of local-scale knowledge and can be regarded a version of knowledge from below, which still predominated in the first half of the twentieth century. In my paper, I will explore the question how the understanding of climate was "dehumanized" by globalizing research approaches and scientific conceptions through the twentieth century. Scientific and political interests pushed a globalizing agenda and produced a conceptual and discursive detachment of climate knowledge from human scales. The paper argues that it is important to understand the historical and ideological foundation of knowledge from above and its epistemic and social authority, if we aim at re-establishing recognition of knowledge from below and the lost links between both types of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing recognition of the contribution of the cryosphere to human societies. This is especially important in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), where poverty and vulnerability are high and climate change impacts on the cryosphere are strong. However, there is a lack of synthesized knowledge about the contributions of the cryosphere to high mountain communities. This paper uses a cryosphere service framework—a derivative of the ecosystem service concept—to classify different goods and services provided by the cryosphere. Case studies were selected using an adapted systematic review methodology. These studies were then synthesized and examined through the lens of critical political ecology. The review shows that while the cryosphere provides a whole range of goods and services for mountain communities, not all of these are well documented. Material services like the supply of water for irrigation and agriculture, and disservices such as disasters, are better documented than non-material services like the spirituality of landscapes. The majority of the case studies do not use an interdisciplinary lens. While some studies on irrigation discuss the physical basis and human organization of irrigation, the literature on disasters mostly focuses on the physical processes and at most generalized loss and damage assessments. Further, most case studies do not use the critical epistemologies needed to examine how politics, power, and intersectionality influence societal responses to changes in the cryosphere. The paper suggests that future studies adopt interdisciplinary collaboration to understand human impacts and adaptive responses through critical political ecology frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mountain cryosphere, which includes glaciers, permafrost, and snow, is one of the Earth's systems most strongly affected by climate change. In recent decades, changes in the cryosphere have been well documented in many high-mountain regions. While there are some benefits from snow and ice loss, the negative impacts, including from glacier lake outburst floods and variations in glacier runoff, are generally considered to far outweigh the positive impacts, particularly if cultural impacts are considered. In international climate policy, there has been growing momentum to address the negative impacts of climate change, or 'Loss and Damage' (L&D) from climate change. It is not clear exactly what can and should be done to tackle L&D, but researchers and practitioners are beginning to engage with policy discussions and develop potential frameworks and supporting information. Despite the strong impact of climate change on the mountain cryosphere, there has been limited interaction between cryosphere researchers and L&D. Therefore, little work has been done to consider how L&D in the mountain cryosphere might be conceptualized, categorized, and assessed. Here, we make a first attempt to analyze L&D in the mountain cryosphere by conducting a systematic literature review to extract L&D impacts and examples from existing literature. We find that L&D is a global phenomenon in the mountain cryosphere and has been more frequently documented in the developing world, both in relation with slow and sudden onset processes. We develop a categorization of L&D, making distinctions between physical and societal impacts, primary and secondary impacts, and identifying seven types of L&D (including L&D to culture, livelihoods, revenue, natural resources, life, and security). We hope this conceptual approach will support future work to understand and address L&D in the mountain cryosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent calls to limit future increases in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C, little is known about how different climatic thresholds will impact human society. Future warming trends have significant global food security implications, particularly for small island developing states (SIDS) that are recognized as being among the most vulnerable to global climate change. In the case of the Caribbean, any significant change in the region’s climate is likely to have significant adverse effects on the agriculture sector. This paper explores the potential biophysical impacts of a + 1.5 °C warming scenario on several economically important crops grown in the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Also, it explores differences to a > 2.0 °C warming scenario, which is more likely, if the current policy agreements cannot be complied with by the international community. We use the ECOCROP niche model to estimate how predicted changes in future climate could affect the growing conditions of several commonly cultivated crops from both future scenarios. We then discuss some key policy considerations for Jamaica’s agriculture sector, specifically related to the challenges posed to future adaptation pathways amidst growing climate uncertainty and complexity. Our model results show that even an increase less than + 1.5 °C is expected to have an overall negative impact on crop suitability and a general reduction in the range of crops available to Jamaican farmers. This observation is instructive as increases above the + 1.5 °C threshold would likely lead to even more irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes to the sustainability of Jamaica’s agriculture sector. The paper concludes by outlining some key considerations for future action, paying keen attention to the policy relevance of a + 1.5 °C temperature limit. Given little room for optimism with respect to the imminent changes that SIDS will need to confront in the near future, broad-based policy engagement by stakeholders in these geographies is paramount, irrespective of the climate warming scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary goal of studying climate change adaptation is to identify the adaptation options that are used to improve crop productivity or reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Many of the adjustments in farm management that farmers adopt do not necessarily represent true adaptations to climate change, an issue often ignored in existing literature and resulting in a risk that policy makers are misled to think that adaptation is easier than it actually is, and thereby underestimate the challenge that climate change presents. The overall goal of this study is to identify whether farmers’ adoptions are enhancing food production and adapting to climate change. The identification uses a plot-level panel from a survey of 619 rural households in three provinces in China and county-level weather data. With the use of plot and county-by-year fixed effects as well as instrumental variable approaches, our estimates show that the autonomous adoptions are not effective in improving crop yields. This implies that farmers’ adoptions cannot be always considered adaptations to climate change. The paper provides a possible explanation for the results and concludes with policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the relationship between environmental change and human mobility has largely focused on the movement of people as it is driven by environmental change with little regard for those who stay when faced with many of the same adverse conditions. An emerging body of work recognizes and seeks to understand the lack of migration, or immobility, in the contexts of environmental and climatic change, primarily through the notion of “trapped populations.” Theoretically, however, our understandings of immobility in relation to environmental change are underdeveloped and oversimplified, and do not do justice to the diversity, dynamism, or unevenness of (im)mobilities. In order to advance knowledge, this paper connects knowledge from environmental migration studies to immobility in broader migration research. Although there is no silver theoretical bullet, it explores the strengths and weaknesses of three frameworks in explaining and understanding (im)mobility decision-making, patterns, and consequences: (1) the New Economics of Labour Migration; (2) the aspirations-(cap)abilities framework; and (3) the mobilities paradigm. In order to break away from both sedentary and mobility biases, it asserts that scholars should theorize and analyze the entire mobility spectrum in the face of environmental change, rather than considering immobility as a separate outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the local effects of global warming-derived impacts is important to island systems due to their fragile environmental conditions. This is especially true when it comes to Mediterranean insular regions as they are climate change (CC) hotspots where adaptation and mitigation policy design is an urgent matter. Looking at 2030 as a time horizon for climate action and focusing on the Balearic Islands, this paper reviews the physical changes projected for the coming decades as a result of CC and analyses their impacts on regional environmental, economic and social variables. Mitigation and adaptation measures are also proposed based on the identified priority impacts. The fact the Balearics are a top world holiday destination allows the analysis to serve as a guide to other Mediterranean islands with tourism-based economies facing similar CC scenarios. Results show the projected rise of temperature and sea level; the reduction of the average precipitation and increase in evapotranspiration, the droughts and the increase in ocean acidification and deoxygenation are the main threats faced by the Balearics, this putting their economy at risk due to the high tourism’s vulnerability to CC. Mitigation and adaptation action on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, water resources, energy, infrastructure and urban planning, human health, economy, law and education is recommended. Sustainable mobility and waste managing are also viewed as important fields for mitigation action. Conclusions show that diversifying the current socioeconomic model is needed to increase the community and territory resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity depends on the marine environment for a range of vital ecosystem services, at global (e.g. climate regulation), regional (e.g. commercial fisheries) and local scales (e.g. coastal defence and recreation). At the same time, marine ecosystems have been exploited for centuries, and many systems today are under stress from multiple sources. Recent studies have shown how both climate change and fishing have caused long-term changes in the marine environment. However, there is still poor understanding of how these changes influence change in coastal ecosystem services. In this paper, an integrated modelling approach is used to assess how the final delivery of marine ecosystem services to coastal communities is influenced by the direct and indirect effects of changes in ecosystem processes brought about by climate and human impacts, using fisheries of the North Sea region as a case study. Partial least squares path analysis is used to explore the relationships between drivers of change, marine ecosystem processes and services (landings). A simple conceptual model with four variables-climate, fishing effort, ecosystem process and ecosystem services-is applied to the English North Sea using historic ecological, climatic and fisheries time series spanning 1924-2010 to identify the multiple pathways that might exist. As expected, direct and indirect links between fishing effort, ecosystem processes and service provision were significant. However, links between climate and ecosystem processes were weak. This paper highlights how path analysis can be used for analysing long-term temporal links between ecosystem processes and services following a simplified pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have witnessed a rapid increase in scholarship on adaptation to climate change. Peer-reviewed literature, governmental communiqués and reports are increasingly reporting formulated and implemented climate change adaptation policies, strategies and plans of action. A large part of this literature describes general policy strategies, while there is limited published work on adaptation interventions at the local scale. The generality of adaptation is not only limited to strategies but also in terms of coverage of regions believed to be highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Among such climate change 'hotspots' where understanding on adaptation is limited are river deltas. Herein, this paper synthesizes selected literature on adaptation policy and practice in river deltas located in Africa and South Asia. A systematic review methodology was used to scan online knowledge portals for published papers and also unpublished government documents. The review characterizes the state of adaptation policy in African and South Asian deltas and identifies future research priorities targeting climate change adaptation in large delta regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The management of water resources requires the effective performance of a diverse variety of multi-scalar functions if it is to achieve its public objectives. It is influenced by the overarching governance arrangements within which these functions are undertaken. This paper considers the extent to which federal governance arrangements affect water management outcomes. Since the distribution of functions and enabling powers within, between and across levels of government varies widely amongst jurisdictions, it is difficult to compare different approaches. This paper uses cases from Southern Africa where specific functions are performed in terms of powers allocated under broadly federal arrangements to consider whether and how federal arrangements have hindered or helped countries and communities to manage their water to achieve public goals. It finds that federal arrangements have sometimes contributed to positive outcomes, primarily by introducing a degree of ‘polycentricity’ and network governance, which ensure that decision-making is informed by a wider range of perspectives. However, the outcomes depend on the content of the federal regulatory framework and the quality of its application rather than the overall structure of the federal regime. Governance structures alone cannot substitute for effective management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a systematic literature review of climate change vulnerability-related research conducted in Bangladesh between 1994 and 2017 in order to identify trends and knowledge gaps. Our results identify interesting evolutions in the temporal and spatial scales of study and the nature of spatial and thematic associations, suggesting important knowledge gaps in the existing literature that likely limit understandings of scale-sensitive climate change impacts. We also observed a temporal mismatch between the published studies and policy-making processes focused on adaptation and mitigation and a bias towards the economic aspects of climate change, with less focus on social and environmental issues. Thematically, the climate change-related scholarship in Bangladesh would benefit from more integrative, cross-theme, and transdisciplinary studies, potentially drawing on the different theoretical constructs of vulnerability and adaptation. Such studies will be needed to better support evidence-based public policy and also to more accurately reflect the diversity of knowledge gaps and challenges concerning climatic stresses in Bangladesh at different scales and in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the fact that we currently witness an increasing interest in the study of the role of agency in policy dynamics, it remains in many respects a puzzle how policy change can be explained, let alone directed. This paper focusses intently on the concept, incidence, and strategic behaviour of policy entrepreneurs. By elucidating their strategic modus operandi, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of the strategies that individual change agents employ in their efforts to effect policy change, as well as to examine their contextual effectiveness. In addition to new data on the incidence and profile of policy entrepreneurs and the (contextual) conditions relating to the selection of strategies, this paper presents a novel typology of entrepreneurial strategies, linking these to circumstances under which they can be effective. Our paper concludes with a discussion on how our findings relate to the main theories of policy change, and what they mean for the larger democratic questions about accountability and legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]