Book Reviews

2010 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 786-788 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
World Development

Robert Mendelsohn of Yale University reviews “World Development Report 2010: Development and Climate Change” by. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores what climate change means for development policy and considers how public policy can change to better help people cope with new climate-related threats and risks. Discusses understanding the links between climate change and development; reducing human vulnerability--helping people help themselves; managing land and water to feed nine billion people and protect natural systems; energizing development without compromising the climate; integrating development into the global climate regime; generating the funding needed for mitigation and adaptation; accelerating innovation and technology diffusion; and overcoming behavioral and institutional inertia. Glossary; bibliographic note; index.”

Towards Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
Umer Khayyam ◽  
Rida Bano ◽  
Shahzad Alvi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Level Of Motivation ◽  
The University

Abstract Global climate change is one of the main threats facing humanity and the impacts on natural systems as well as humans are expected to be severe. People can take action against these threats through two approaches: mitigation and adaptation. However, mitigations and adaptations are contingent on the level of motivation and awareness, as well as socio-economic and environmental conditions. This study examined personal perception and motivation to mitigate and adapt to climate change among the university students in the capital city of Pakistan. We divided the respondents into social sciences, applied sciences and natural sciences, using logistic regression analysis. The results indicated that students who perceive severity, benefits from preparation, and have more information about climate change were 1.57, 4.98 and 1.63 times more likely to take mitigation and 1.47, 1.14 and 1.17 times more likely to take adaptation measures, respectively. Students who perceived self-efficacy, obstacles to protect from the negative consequences of climate change and who belonged to affluent families were more likely to take mitigation measures and less likely to take adaptation strategies. However, mitigation and adaptation were unaffected by age, gender and study discipline.

Filling in for Governments? The Role of the Private Actors in the International Climate Regime

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
State Actor ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Private Actors

The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change abandons the Kyoto Protocol’s paradigm of binding emissions targets and relies instead on countries’ voluntary contributions. However, the Paris Agreement encourages not only governments but also sub-national governments, corporations and civil society to contribute to reaching ambitious climate goals. In a transition from the regulated architecture of the Kyoto Protocol to the open system of the Paris Agreement, the Agreement seeks to integrate non-state actors into the treaty-based climate regime. In 2014 the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Peru and France created the Non-State Actor Zone for Climate Action (and launched the Global Climate Action portal). In December 2019, this portal recorded more than twenty thousand climate-commitments of private and public non-state entities, making the non-state venues of international climate meetings decisively more exciting than the formal negotiation space. This level engagement and governments’ response to it raises a flurry of questions in relation to the evolving nature of the climate regime and climate change governance, including the role of private actors as standard setters and the lack of accountability mechanisms for non-state actions. This paper takes these developments as occasion to discuss the changing role of private actors in the climate regime.

Building the Forest-Climate Bandwagon: REDD+ and the Logic of Problem Amelioration

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance L. McDermott ◽  
Kelly Levin ◽  
Benjamin Cashore
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Forest Decline ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Forest Degradation ◽  
Social Goals ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Forest Stewardship ◽  
Institutional Solution ◽  
Policy Mechanisms

For those championing an international institutional solution to climate change, the forest-climate linkage through reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and forest enhancement (REDD+) may be one of the most promising strategic linkages to date. Following a series of forest-focused interventions that did not live up to their promise, global forest politics have now, through REDD+ deliberations, been institutionally subsumed into the climate regime. We argue that to realize its potential, REDD+ policy mechanisms must be careful to move away from the commodification of forest stewardship that reinforces short-term strategic positions of powerful producing and consuming interests whose current activities are the culprits of global forest decline. To achieve such an outcome, we argue that institutions must develop on the basis of a “logic of problem amelioration” in which the rationale for achieving clearly defined environmental and social goals is rendered transparent. This could be achieved through the formalization of a “dual effectiveness test” in which interventions are evaluated for their potential to simultaneously ameliorate both global climate change and forest degradation.

scholarly journals Worldview Struggles under a New Climate Regime

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Johannessen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Burden Sharing ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Climate Regime ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Common But Differentiated Responsibility

Abstract The UN summit on climate change in Durban constituted an important moment in the continuous discourse on how to understand climate change and the framing of the problems and solutions. A new emergent frame of understanding could be detected in the press, which the author calls the ‘out-dated worldview’ frame. This frame contains a critique of the clear-cut division between developing vs. developed countries from the 1992 Rio Convention, and may influence how we understand burden-sharing roles in a new global climate deal. In an eager attempt to include all major polluters within a new climate regime, there is a danger that the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibility’ will be ignored, which may be an attempt to excuse the rich industrialized countries from their responsibility after 150 years of benefitting from fossil-fuel-driven development.

scholarly journals The Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI): Part 3 – Coding protocol

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lesnikowski ◽  
Lea Berrang-Ford ◽  
A.R. Siders ◽  
Neal Haddaway ◽  
Robbert Biesbroek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Expert Elicitation ◽  
Risk Exposure ◽  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Review Protocol ◽  
Reduce Risk

Abstract Context: It is now widely accepted that the climate is changing, and that societal response will need to be rapid and comprehensive to prevent the most severe impacts. A key milestone in global climate governance is to assess progress on adaptation. To-date, however, there has been negligible robust, systematic synthesis of progress on adaptation or adaptation-relevant responses globally. Aim: The purpose of this review protocol is to outline the methods used by the Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI) to systematically review human adaptation responses to climate-related changes that have been documented globally since 2013 in the scientific literature. The broad question underpinning this review is: Are we adapting to climate change? More specifically, we ask ‘what is the evidence relating to human adaptation-related responses that can (or are) directly reducing risk, exposure, and/or vulnerability to climate change?’ Methods: We review scientific literature 2013-2019 to identify documents empirically reporting on observed adaptation-related responses to climate change in human systems that can directly reduce risk. We exclude non-empirical (theoretical & conceptual) literature and adaptation in natural systems that occurs without human intervention. Included documents were coded across a set of questions focused on: Who is responding? What responses are documented? What is the extent of the adaptation-related response? What is the evidence that adaptation-related responses reduce risk, exposure and/or vulnerability? Once articles are coded, we conduct a quality appraisal of the coding and develop ‘evidence packages’ for regions and sectors. We supplement this systematic mapping with an expert elicitation exercise, undertaken to assess bias and validity of insights from included/coded literature vis a vis perceptions of real-world adaptation for global regions and sectors, with associated confidence assessments. Related protocols: This protocol represents Part 3 of a 5-part series outlining the phases of this initiative. Part 3 outlines the methods used to extract data on adaptation from documents (coding), as well as procedures for data quality assurance. See Figure 1.

scholarly journals Elevated CO2 reduces a common soybean leaf endophyte

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Christian ◽  
Baldemar Espino Basurto ◽  
Amber Toussaint ◽  
Xinyan Xu ◽  
Elizabeth A. Ainsworth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Physiology ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Fungal Endophytes ◽  
Operational Taxonomic Unit ◽  
Colony Growth ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Soybean Leaf ◽  
Predictive Understanding

Free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiments have elucidated how climate change affects plant physiology and production. However, we lack a predictive understanding of how climate change alters interactions between plants and endophytes, critical microbial mediators of plant physiology and ecology. We leveraged the SoyFACE facility to examine how elevated [CO2] affected soybean (Glycine max) leaf endophyte communities in the field. Endophyte community composition changed under elevated [CO2], including a decrease in the abundance of a common endophyte, Methylobacterium sp. Moreover, Methylobacterium abundance was negatively correlated with co-occurring fungal endophytes. We then assessed how Methylobacterium affected the growth of co-occurring endophytic fungi in vitro. Methylobacterium antagonized most co-occurring fungal endophytes in vitro, particularly when it was more established in culture before fungal introduction. Variation in fungal response to Methylobacterium within a single fungal operational taxonomic unit (OTU) was comparable to inter-OTU variation. Finally, fungi isolated from elevated vs. ambient [CO2] plots differed in colony growth and response to Methylobacterium, suggesting that increasing [CO2] may affect fungal traits and interactions within the microbiome. By combining in situ and in vitro studies, we show that elevated [CO2] decreases the abundance of a common bacterial endophyte that interacts strongly with co-occurring fungal endophytes. We suggest that endophyte responses to global climate change will have important but largely unexplored implications for both agricultural and natural systems.

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