Climate Change Communication in South Africa

In South Africa, one of the world’s most carbon-intense economies and a society marked by gross social inequality, climate change is not a popular topic. As of 2018, more than half of the population had never heard of climate change and only one in five South Africans believed that human activities lead to global warming. The communication of climate change in South Africa is influenced by the notorious inequality that the country still suffers decades after the apartheid regime has ended. Few South Africans are able to live a life in prosperity and security on par with life in industrialized nations, more than half of the population are considered poor, almost a third of the population are chronically unemployed, and many work for carbon-intense industries. The country’s prevalent inequality and its economic dependency on coal influence the way climate change is communicated and interpreted. Environmental NGOs, journalists, and scientists frequently set communication cues on climate change. However, their messages are largely circulated in newspapers catering to an urban and educated readership and resonate less with people living in rural areas or those who rely on employment in the coal and mining sector. In South Africa, most people hear about climate change in mass media, but journalists frequently lack the resources and training necessary to investigate climate change stories or to interact with local scientists. Environmental NGOs, in contrast, provide easily comprehendible communication cues for unspecialized journalists and often share similar worldviews and demographic backgrounds with dedicated environmental reporters. However, because Black South Africans are underrepresented among environmental journalists and because many affordable local newspapers cannot afford to hire specialized reporters, climate change is covered mostly in high-quality English-language outlets to which most people have no access. Moreover, environmental NGOs are frequently accused of prioritizing abstract ecological concerns, like climate change, over the interests of the South Africans workers, a sentiment that is informed by the country’s history of racial injustice. Counterintuitively, living in a coal area is associated with higher climate change awareness and belief, likely because coal companies and trade unions conduct awareness-raising programs among their workers and because many residents experience the adverse impact of coal mining and combustion firsthand.

China will seek to lead in global environmental norms

Significance It was enshrined in China’s Constitution in 2018. The concept has helped reshape discussion of environmental protection in China; Beijing is now deploying it in international fora too. Impacts Foreign governments and environmental NGOs will not welcome ‘ecological civilisation’ uncritically. Beijing’s espoused commitment to environmental principles will be used to encourage it to commit to ‘greening’ the Belt and Road. China’s construction of coal-fired power stations overseas will come in for particular attention.

INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL NGOS AND THEIR IMPACT ON CHINESE ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE

This article determines the main political and cultural factors affecting the establishment and development of international environmental NGOs operating in China according to the existing scholarly literature. The aim of this study is to gain knowledge of the context, means and ways in which international environmental NGOs operate in China and engage with the government to influence its policies and decisions. The paper studies the operation of several environmental NGOs in China. Based on the study of the activities conducted by the international environmental NGOs in China, several key factors relevant to an NGO seeking to establish a successful presence in China are mentioned in this article. Finally, it offers suggestions that international environmental NGOs may employ while operating in China.

The results of applied research for solutions to environmental problems, expected!

With this issue, the Indonesia Journal of Applied Environmental Studies (InJAST) enters its second year, having been first published in April 2020 just as the Covid-19 pandemic was spreading globally. In the first two issues, InJAST published 13 articles, which were the results of research and ideas from academia, researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and members of conservation NGOs. Within its first year, the InJAST website has been visited by around 1,500 visitors from 50+ countries. Although the majority were from Indonesia, 30% were from across Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa, and included the USA, UK, Australia, and India.One of InJAST's missions is to provide a vehicle for academia (students and lecturers), members of environmental NGOs, and young researchers, particularly from Indonesia, who are just starting to publish their ideas, literature reviews and research findings or articles in scientific journals. InJAST was also developed to accommodate scientific papers related to broader environmental topics, but as yet, most articles have focused on plant/wildlife ecology, nature conservation, and forest restoration (61%). Others were the result of the studies on environmental education (8%) and on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other environmental issues (31%).As we start the third decade of the 21st century, the environmental challenges we face are ever more complex and demanding. The UN’s global action plan for the next 10 years set out in the "UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development", puts forward special measures to achieve a world that is fairer, more prosperous, and more respectful of the environment. The main global environmental challenges that, according to the UN, must be resolved in this decade, are climate change mitigation and adaptation, pollution problems and their effects on health, protecting oceans, the energy transitions and renewables, a sustainable food model, protecting biodiversity, sustainable urban development and mobility, hydric stress and water scarcity, extreme meteorological phenomena, and overpopulation and waste management. As academics, environmental researchers, and members of environmental NGOs, we can and should support the UN agenda by seeking the solutions to these major global environmental problems that affect all of us. We do this by carrying out relevant research and, just as importantly, publishing them in scientific journals so that we can disseminate our findings as widely as possible and suggested interventions can be trialed and then implemented on the ground.This new issue of InJAST contains several papers focusing on plant ecology, endangered species conservation, and forest restoration, all of which are closely related to one of the main global problems identified by the UN, namely protecting biodiversity. Another paper analyses determinants and typology of hydrometeorological disasters that may relate to the problem of extreme meteorological phenomena. Strong pro-environmental legislation and government regulations are very important in implementing existing environmental policies, and environmental awareness and responsibility are also important to assess whether people are willing to participate in addressing global environmental problems at the local level. This is explored in two other papers in this issue of InJAST.We reflect further that we are in a hugely different place from where we were at the start of 2020. The Covid pandemic, obviously a global tragedy, has changed many people’s behavioral patterns and our subsequent impact of nature and the environment. It seems to have in many ways heightened people's awareness of nature and environmental issues, and the relationships between unsustainable production and consumption and the nature and climate change crises. A plethora of new research is emerging on these interdisciplinary questions and we look forward to submissions tackling these questions in future editions of InJAST.Finally, as Editors-in-Chief, we have been working hard to improve and expand our peer review community, as well as the processes of online submission, reviewing and publishing. We are delighted to be presenting Volume 2 No 1 of InJAST and we encourage our colleagues from all sectors to submit their papers for the next issue.

The effect of pressure of environmental business and NGO interests on the policy of restricting the EU palm oil import from Indonesia and Malaysia

This research will explain how the pressure originating from the interests of business and environmental NGOs in the European Union on the policy of limiting the import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. As we know, Indonesia and Malaysia are the largest palm oil producing countries in the world and export a lot of their palm oil to the European Union. Recently, the European Union has issued a policy of limiting the import of palm oil for biodiesel products, which policy has been in effect in June 2019. In this policy Limitation of the use of palm oil throughout 2021-2023 will be at the same level in 2019, then its use will be reduced gradually until it runs out in 2030. Business interests and environmental NGOs here have a strong enough influence in the issuance of the policy. This study uses the concept of a Bureaucratic Political Model to answer how pressures from business interests and environmental NGOs influence the policy of import restrictions on palm oil for biodiesel products in the European Union.