scholarly journals Whose climate intervention? Solar geoengineering, fractions of capital, and hegemonic strategy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Surprise ◽  
Jean Philippe Sapinski
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Research Finding ◽  
Capitalist Class ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Solar Geoengineering ◽  
Market Driven ◽  
Technological Capital ◽  
Business As Usual

Proposals for slowing climate change by reflecting sunlight back to space, known as solar geoengineering (SG), are gaining traction in climate policy. Given SG’s capacity to slow warming without reducing carbon emissions, prominent criticism suggests that it will enable fossil fueled business-as-usual. This assessment is not without merit, yet the primary funders of SG research do not emanate from fossil capital. We analyze sources of funding for SG research, finding close ties to financial and technological capital as well as a number of billionaire philanthropists. These corporate sectors and associated philanthropies comprise part of “climate capital” – the fraction of the capitalist class aligned with climate action. We argue that SG is being positioned as a tactic for enabling incremental, market-driven decarbonization, explore key institutions advocating this approach in US climate policy, and conclude that SG is poised to serve as a tool for class compromise between fossil and climate capital.

scholarly journals Are citizen juries and assemblies on climate change driving democratic climate policymaking? An exploration of two case studies in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Wells ◽  
Candice Howarth ◽  
Lina I. Brand-Correa
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In light of increasing pressure to deliver climate action targets, and the growing role of citizens in raising the importance of the issue, deliberative democratic processes (e.g. Citizen Juries and Citizen Assemblies) on climate change are increasingly being used to provide a voice to citizens in climate change decision-making. Through a comparative case study of two processes that ran in the UK in 2019 (the Leeds Climate Change Citizens’ Jury and the Oxford Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change), this paper investigates how far Citizen Assemblies and Juries on climate change are increasing citizen engagement on climate change and creating more citizen-centred climate policy-making. Interviews were conducted with policy-makers, councillors, professional facilitators and others involved in running these processes to assess motivations for conducting these, their structure and the impact and influence they had. The findings suggest the impact of these processes is not uniform: they have an indirect impact on policymaking by creating momentum around climate action and supporting the introduction of pre-planned or pre-existing policies rather than a direct impact by being truly being citizen-centred policymaking processes or conducive to new climate policy. We conclude with reflections on how these processes give elected representatives a public mandate on climate change, that they help to identify more nuanced and in-depth public opinions in a fair and informed way, yet it can be challenging to embed citizen juries and assemblies in wider democratic processes.

scholarly journals Perceived Cultural Impacts of Climate Change Motivates Climate Action and Support for Climate Policy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim-Pong Tam ◽  
Angela Leung ◽  
Brandon Koh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
Cultural Impacts ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

The impacts of climate change on human cultures receive increasing attention in recent years. However, the extent to which people are aware of these impacts, whether such awareness motivates climate action, and what kinds of people show stronger awareness are rarely understood. The present investigation provides the very first set of answers to these questions. In two studies (with a student sample with N = 198 from Singapore and a demographically representative sample with N = 571 from the United States), we observed a generally high level of awareness among our participants. Most important, perceived cultural impacts of climate change robustly predicted intentions to engage in climate change mitigation behavior and climate activism, as well as support for climate policy. We also found expected associations between perceived cultural impacts and psychological and demographic variables (e.g., cosmopolitan orientation, moral inclusion, political orientation). These findings not only add a cultural dimension to the research on public understanding of climate change but also reveal a viable application of cultural frames as an effective climate communication strategy.

Market-based Climate Policy in China? The Case of Emissions Trading Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 46-59
Author(s):  
Erik BAARK
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Emissions Trading ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Trading System ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Trading Systems ◽  
Emissions Trading System

China recognises the need to reduce carbon emissions in order to avoid negative consequences from climate change in the future. Therefore, the Chinese government initiated seven emissions trading system (ETS) pilots in 2013 and began to develop China’s national ETS in 2017. However, Chinese efforts to implement ETS have encountered legal, institutional and political issues that must be solved so that a national ETS could help to mitigate emissions in China.

scholarly journals The Politics of Climate Change Adaptation

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 317-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nives Dolšak ◽  
Aseem Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Disaster Management ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Local Policy ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Adaptation Policies

Climate action has two pillars: mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation faces collective action issues because its costs are focused on specific locations/actors but benefits are global and nonexcludable. Adaptation, in contrast, creates local benefits, and therefore should face fewer collective action issues. However, governance units vary in the types of adaptation policies they adopt. To explain this variation, we suggest conceptualizing adaptation-as-politics because adaptation speaks to the issues of power, conflicting policy preferences, resource allocation, and administrative tensions. In examining who develops and implements adaptation, we explore whether adaptation is the old wine of disaster management in the new bottle of climate policy, and the tensions between national and local policy making. In exploring what adaptation policies are adopted, we discuss maladaptation and the distinction between hard and soft infrastructure. Finally, we examine why politicians favor visible, hard adaptation over soft adaptation, and how international influences shape local policy.

scholarly journals Japan’s Climate Change Discourse: Toward Climate Securitisation?

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 53-64
Author(s):  
Florentine Koppenborg ◽  
Ulv Hanssen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Security Issue ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Status ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
First Time

This article situates Japan in the international climate security debate by analysing competing climate change discourses. In 2020, for the first time, the Japanese Ministry of the Environment included the term “climate crisis” (<em>kikō kiki</em>) in its annual white paper, and the Japanese parliament adopted a “climate emergency declaration” (<em>kikō hijō jitai sengen</em>). Does this mean that Japan’s climate discourse is turning toward the securitisation of climate change? Drawing on securitisation theory, this article investigates whether we are seeing the emergence of a climate change securitisation discourse that treats climate change as a security issue rather than a conventional political issue. The analysis focuses on different stakeholders in Japan’s climate policy: the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the parliament, the Cabinet, and sub- and non-state actors. Through a discourse analysis of ministry white papers and publications by other stakeholders, the article identifies a burgeoning securitisation discourse that challenges, albeit moderately, the status quo of incrementalism and inaction in Japan’s climate policy. This article further highlights Japan’s position in the rapidly evolving global debate on the urgency of climate action and provides explanations for apparent changes and continuities in Japan’s climate change discourse.

A National Overview of Climate Change Education Policy: Policy Coherence between Subnational Climate and Education Policies in Canada (K-12)

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Bieler ◽  
Randolph Haluza-Delay ◽  
Ann Dale ◽  
Marcia Mckenzie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Climate Change Education ◽  
International Trends ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
K 12

This article analyses the depth of engagement with climate change education policy across all 13 provinces and territories in Canada. A comparative content analysis of 13 climate action plans (CAP) and 90 K-12 education policy documents shows a major gap existing between Canada’s climate and education policies. While subnational climate policy calls for education to contribute substantially to addressing climate change, education policy is not aligned towards this call. Three themes emerged within the overview of the provinces and territories: shallow engagement with climate change within education policies; the predominance of energy efficiency upgrades for schools as a foremost education sector objective; and policy gaps that show a lack of attention to many areas of climate education. Further detailing the climate change education objectives in four provinces identified as playing a leadership role in climate policy, this research suggests that even among these climate leaders, K-12 education policy minimally attends to climate change. Alignment between Canadian and international trends in climate change education is also assessed.

scholarly journals India and Climate Change: Evolving Ideas and Increasing Policy Engagement

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 395-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navroz K. Dubash ◽  
Radhika Khosla ◽  
Ulka Kelkar ◽  
Sharachchandra Lele
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Global Context ◽  
International Policies ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Interactive Relationship ◽  
And Shifts ◽  
Over Time

India is a significant player in climate policy and politics. It has been vocal in international climate negotiations, but its role in these negotiations has changed over time. In an interactive relationship between domestic policy and international positions, India has increasingly become a testing ground for policies that internalize climate considerations into development. This article critically reviews the arc of climate policy and politics in India over time. It begins by examining changes in knowledge and ideas around climate change in India, particularly in the areas of ethics, climate impacts, India's energy transition, linkages with sustainability, and sequestration. The next section examines changes in politics, policy, and governance at both international and national scales. The article argues that shifts in ideas and knowledge of impacts, costs, and benefits of climate action and shifts in the global context are reflected and refracted through discourses in India's domestic and international policies.

scholarly journals Intersectionality and climate policy-making: The inclusion of social difference by three Swedish government agencies

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110057
Author(s):  
Benedict E Singleton ◽  
Nanna Rask ◽  
Gunnhildur Lily Magnusdottir ◽  
Annica Kronsell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Social Difference ◽  
Energy Agency ◽  
Location Class ◽  
Climate Action

Climate change effects, views and approaches vary based on geographical location, class, gender, age and other climate related social factors. It is thus relevant to explore how various government bodies/authorities involved in dealing with climate change represent and act on social difference across diverse societies. This article performs a discourse analysis of climate policy documents from three Swedish government agencies: the Transport Administration, the Energy Agency, and the Environmental Protection Agency. This in order to explore how the different agencies represent social difference: what is made visible; what is obscured; what are the implications? We collected a purposive, collated sample of literature through online searches and personal communications with agency staff. We apply an intersectional approach to the sampled literature. The article finds that while each agency articulates an awareness of social difference, this tends to manifest in broad terms. It argues that this has the effect of obscuring differential climate impacts and effects of climate action, with potential environmental justice implications. Finally, the article concludes by proposing that incorporating intersectional approaches will support more effective, inclusive and equitable climate action, in Sweden and elsewhere.

scholarly journals Carbon Tax Sebagai Alternatif Kebijakan Untuk Mengatasi Eksternalitas Negatif Emisi Karbon di Indonesia

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-67
Author(s):  
Dian Ratnawati
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Carbon Tax ◽  
Behavioral Effect ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Negative Externalities ◽  
Global Problems ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
The Ideal

The negative externalities of carbon emissions have become global problems requiring public-private collaboration for successful intervention. Based on the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, to reduce carbon emissions by 26% from BAU (business as usual), one of policies that might be implemented is the carbon tax. By pragmatically analyzing the experiences of countries that have successfully implemented a carbon tax, it is expected that an ideal formulation and mechanism of carbon tax for Indonesia can be developed. The limitation of such studies are the behavioral effect of the readiness of Indonesian society to implement carbon tax and a comprehensive calculation on the proposed carbon tax rates. The results of study showed that the carbon tax could be implemented in Indonesia. The ideal formulation of carbon tax being used as a reference in determining policies to address the negative externalities of carbon emissions and global warming. Abstrak Eksternalitas negatif emisi karbon merupakan permasalahan global yang penanganannya memerlukan kehadiran intervensi pemerintah. Sesuai dengan komitmen pemerintah dalam Konferensi Perubahan Iklim Kopenhagen untuk menurunkan emisi karbon sebesar 26% dari BAU (business as usual), maka salah satu kebijakan yang dapat digunakan adalah carbon tax. Menggunakan metode practical approach pada negara-negara yang telah berhasil menerapkan carbon tax diharapkan terdapat rumusan carbon tax yang ideal serta mekanisme dapat diterapkannya carbon tax di Indonesia. Keterbatasan area penelitian yang perlu diteliti lebih mendalam adalah mengenai behavioral effect kesiapan masyarakat Indonesia atas penerapan carbon tax, serta perhitungan yang komprehensif atas usulan tarif pajak. Hasil dari penelitian menunjukkan bahwa carbon tax dapat diterapkan di Indonesia. Rumusan ideal carbon tax dapat digunakan sebagai referensi dalam penentuan kebijakan untuk mengatasi eksternalitas negatif emisi karbon serta global warming.

scholarly journals Den kommunale klimaindsats 1990-2018: en komparativ analyse af fem danske kommuners klimaindsats i et historisk perspektiv

Politik ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mette Stidsen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Demographic Factors ◽  
Global Organizations ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
The Media ◽  
Climate Adaption ◽  
The Eu

Global organizations like the UN and the EU have been working towards mitigating climate change since the end of the 1980s. The media, the politicians and the scholars in Denmark often overlook the potential of local governments. This raises questions regarding the development in climate adaption and mitigation in Danish municipalities. What kind of initiatives does the municipalities implement? Are there conformity in the measures and if so, why? Are there variations in the local climate policy and if so, why? The analysis shows that the national and supranational legislation and agreements provide the framework for the climate action in the municipalities. The reasons for the variation of the implementation times are many: geographic and demographic factors, general trends, paradiplomacy and the desire for a green image. 

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