scholarly journals Divisible Governance: Making Gas-fired Futures during Climate Collapse in Northern Australia

2022 ◽  
pp. 016224392110725
Author(s):  
Kirsty Howey ◽  
Timothy Neale

Despite widespread acceptance that their emissions accelerate climate change and its disastrous ecological effects, new fossil fuel extraction projects continue apace, further entrenching fossil fuel dependence, and thereby enacting particular climate futures. In this article, we examine how this is occurring in the case of a proposed onshore shale gas “fracking” industry in the remote Northern Territory of Australia, drawing on policy and legal documents and interviews with an enunciatory community of scientists, lawyers, activists, and policy makers to illustrate what we call “divisible governance.” Divisible governance—enacted through technical maneuvers of temporal and jurisdictional risk fragmentation—not only facilitates the piecemeal entrenchment of unsustainable extraction but also sustains ignorance on the part of this enunciatory community and the wider public about the impacts of such extraction and the manner in which it is both facilitated and regulated. Such governance regimes, we suggest, create felicitous conditions for governments to defer, forestall, or eliminate their accountability while regulating their way further and further into catastrophic climate change. Countering divisible governance begins, we suggest, by mapping the connections that it fragments.

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 188
Author(s):  
Kehinde Damilola Ilesanmi ◽  
Devi Datt Tewari

Energy efficiency improvement is believed to be an effective means of reducing energy consumption thereby reducing green-house gas emission and as well promoting sustainable economic development. Therefore, ascertaining the energy efficiency level will guide policy makers on the right kind policy intervention that will guarantee energy security, climate change mitigation and sustainable growth and development. The study employed a multivariate regression technique to estimation of the impact of a change in the energy structure on aggregate energy efficiency and economic growth. It was revealed in the study that, though an increase usage of fossil fuel is an important factor input for economic growth, however, it is inimical to the efforts aimed at combating climate change. The study also revealed that the marginal efficiency of the energy inputs is important for ensuring increased output as well as sustainable energy supply. Energy efficiency was seen as a mechanism for improving optimal energy utilization. Therefore, improving the level of energy efficiency will significantly assist in providing clean energy coupled with achieving sustainable development goals. This will benefit the nation in terms of ensuring energy security together with climate change mitigation. Policy makers should also focus more on investing in energy efficiency promoting technologies in order to reduce the per capita energy consumption without compromising the economic output level.   Received: 16 June 2021 / Accepted: 7 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3170
Author(s):  
Avri Eitan

Evidence shows that global climate change is increasing over time, and requires the adoption of a variety of coping methods. As an alternative for conventional electricity systems, renewable energies are considered to be an important policy tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore, they play an important role in climate change mitigation strategies. Renewable energies, however, may also play a crucial role in climate change adaptation strategies because they can reduce the vulnerability of energy systems to extreme events. The paper examines whether policy-makers in Israel tend to focus on mitigation strategies or on adaptation strategies in renewable energy policy discourse. The results indicate that despite Israel’s minor impact on global greenhouse gas emissions, policy-makers focus more on promoting renewable energies as a climate change mitigation strategy rather than an adaptation strategy. These findings shed light on the important role of international influence—which tends to emphasize mitigation over adaptation—in motivating the domestic policy discourse on renewable energy as a coping method with climate change.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki S. Lehtonen ◽  
Jyrki Aakkula ◽  
Stefan Fronzek ◽  
Janne Helin ◽  
Mikael Hildén ◽  
...  

AbstractShared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs), developed at global scale, comprise narrative descriptions and quantifications of future world developments that are intended for climate change scenario analysis. However, their extension to national and regional scales can be challenging. Here, we present SSP narratives co-developed with stakeholders for the agriculture and food sector in Finland. These are derived from intensive discussions at a workshop attended by approximately 39 participants offering a range of sectoral perspectives. Using general background descriptions of the SSPs for Europe, facilitated discussions were held in parallel for each of four SSPs reflecting very different contexts for the development of the sector up to 2050 and beyond. Discussions focused on five themes from the perspectives of consumers, producers and policy-makers, included a joint final session and allowed for post-workshop feedback. Results reflect careful sector-based, national-level interpretations of the global SSPs from which we have constructed consensus narratives. Our results also show important critical remarks and minority viewpoints. Interesting features of the Finnish narratives compared to the global SSP narratives include greater emphasis on environmental quality; significant land abandonment in SSPs with reduced livestock production and increased plant-based diets; continued need for some farm subsidies across all SSPs and opportunities for diversifying domestic production under scenarios of restricted trade. Our results can contribute to the development of more detailed national long-term scenarios for food and agriculture that are both relevant for local stakeholders and researchers as well as being consistent with global scenarios being applied internationally.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 158-167
Author(s):  
Agata Bator ◽  
Agnieszka Borek

Abstract On the ground that climate change poses a great threat to societies and economies, it became evident for policy makers that attention should be given to the problem of adaptation, i.e. adaptation measures should be undertaken to minimize the adverse impacts of climate change. As the debate on the adverse impacts of climate change advanced at international level, states are taking actions at national, regional and local levels. Along with the increase awareness regarding importance of adaptation, regulations designed to prepare states to strengthen their resilience to climate change, has been developed in climate change treaties. Paris Agreement seems to be the first global agreement which addresses adaptation as one of its key goals and links it with mitigation efforts. The purpose of this article is to discuss the most important regulations and programmes within the regime established by the Framework Convention and the Paris Agreement concerning adaptation to climate change.


Author(s):  
Y Widodo ◽  
S Wahyuningsih ◽  
JS Utomo ◽  
A Subagio

Green revolution started at mid of twentieth century was the answer of anxiousness reminded by Malthusian that food scarcity problems in relation with population growth. In concurrence with exploitation of fossil fuel for agriculture mechanization as well as agrochemicals in the form of inorganic fertilizer and pesticide, green revolution by introducing high yielding varieties of cereals and grains was able to nourish the world population by increasing productivity. Indeed, from beginning of mechanization with fossil fuel based as advised by Rudolf Diesel then Arrhenius would be affected to the release of CO2 to the atmosphere and consequently exaggerating climate change as suffered by current and future generations. Under green revolution based on cereals and grains affected forest conversion into open agricultural land, because both commodities are sun-loving crops, which are hate to the shade. On the other hand, to slow the severity of climate change natural forest must be conserved tightly. Entering third millennium demand of food production with ecologically friendly is stronger. Hence, green revolution needs to be amended into greener perspectives. Thus, implementation of agro-forestry into wide range of agro-ecological zone is urgently innovated. Fortunately, shade tolerant of root crops has significant advantage to be developed under agro-forestry. Under shade of forest canopy at basal forest strata, root crops are able to sequester CO2 to be converted into carbohydrate and other compounds to provide food for the dweller. Back to nature is not only a slogan, with root crops under agro-forestry is a reality; fresh root up to 30 t ha-1 can be harvested yearly as the source of food and renewable fuel as well. This potential is very worthy to improve and greening the existing green revolution to be more sustainable.Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. & Tech. 8 (1): 26-37, June, 2018


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Bergman

The fossil fuel divestment movement campaigns for removing investments from fossil fuel companies as a strategy to combat climate change. It is a bottom-up movement, largely based in university student groups, although it has rapidly spread to other institutions. Divestment has been criticised for its naiveté and hard-line stance and dismissed as having little impact on fossil fuel finance. I analyse the impact of divestment through reviewing academic and grey literature, complemented by interviews with activists and financial actors, using a theoretical framework that draws on social movement theory. While the direct impacts of divestment are small, the indirect impacts, in terms of public discourse shift, are significant. Divestment has put questions of finance and climate change on the agenda and played a part in changing discourse around the legitimacy, reputation and viability of the fossil fuel industry. This cultural impact contributed to changes in the finance industry through new demands by shareholders and investors and to changes in political discourse, such as rethinking the notion of ‘fiduciary duty.’ Finally, divestment had significant impact on its participants in terms of empowerment and played a part in the revitalisation of the environmental movement in the UK and elsewhere.


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