Establishing a Governmental Duty of Care for Climate Change Mitigation: WillUrgendaTurn the Tide?

Public perception of the underlying causes of anthropogenic climate change is a complex and subjective issue that is critical to effective risk communication. This issue is important to scientists and policymakers because of the role of individual perceptions in influencing their protective behaviour towards risk (e.g., the adoption of climate risk reduction and mitigation strategies). This cross-sectional study elucidated people's perceptions of the underlying causes of human-induced climate change in coastal communities in Cambodia and Tanzania. The multinomial logistic regression model was based on a geographically and demographically stratified national sample of 3,706 individuals conducted between March and September 2013. The distribution of the fundamental causes of anthropogenic climate change in the pooled sample was deforestation (29%), overpopulation – births and immigration (18%), greenhouse gas emissions (12%), illegal resource extraction (14%), and God's will and transgressing cultural norms (26%). Few people in both countries believed that, the usual suspect, greenhouse gas emission was the fundamental cause of anthropogenic climate change. The number of poor rural residents who indicated that deforestation was the major underlying cause of climate change was approximately three times more than members of the same sub-group who noted that greenhouse gas emissions were the underlying cause of climate change. People who had tertiary education were less likely to consider God's will and transgressing cultural norms as the underlying cause of anthropogenic climate change rather than attributing it to greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, it is imperative to mainstream climate change into educational curricula in both countries.

Reviewed by: Building on the Kyoto Protocol: Options for Protecting the Climate Talat Ulussever Building on the Kyoto Protocol: Options for Protecting the Climate, by Kevin A. Baumert, Odile Blanchard, Silvia Llosa, and James F. Perkaus, World Resources Institute, 2002 "Greenhouse gases" is a term used for gases like carbon dioxide, which are mainly generated as a result of burning fossil fuels like coal, petrol and diesel. While the increasing usage of these fuels helps industrialization much, it also causes a steady increase in levels of carbon rich gases and other pollutants and traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists predict that higher levels of greenhouse gases will cause a significant warming of the earth by about one to five degrees Celsius. This could cause potentially tragic changes in the environment like violent storms, expanding deserts and melting ice caps. To be able to avoid those negative changes in the environment, about 180 countries took step and signed the Kyoto Protocol at Kyoto, Japan in December 1997. The protocol commits 38 industrialized countries to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012 to levels that are 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels. Edited by Baumert, Blanchard, Llosa, and Perkaus "Building on the Kyoto Protocol: Options for Protecting the Climate" with seventeen contributors from nine different countries analyzes political and stimulating spectrum of possibilities for strengthening and shaping an international climate change and climate protection treaties such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The book claims that the debate over global climate change has focused narrowly on the Kyoto Protocol since 1997, and a wide range of options in addition to the Kyoto Protocol needs to be considered to promote long-term climate protection and bridge the growing divide among nations over how to take action. Moreover, since the authors believe that this debate will shift to include new ideas for future commitments to protect the global climate system as the Kyoto Protocol comes to life, they try to explore a set of options for designing an international framework for climate protection "beyond Kyoto Protocol" by paying special attention to achieving international cooperation across the so-called North-South divide. In line with North-South division, each approach examined in this book embraces both industrialized and developing countries, which is an eventual necessity for addressing the problem of climate change. The aim of conducting this study is clearly expressed; to promote a better understanding of a wide range of future climate protection options and provide building blocks for further consideration of these ideas and other alternatives not yet considered. The authors claim that an improved understanding of future options will lead to more environmentally effective and fair outcomes under the international climate change negotiations. To be able to find the right option and collective and effective long-term solution for climate protection the authors think and analyze broadly, creatively, and critically about different approaches to protecting the global climate system. They believe that wide range of intellectual and creative resources from across the globe to produce and test ideas will help to find right option; Just as shooting more arrows at a target provides a better sense of how to hit the bull's-eye, the more ideas we consider [End Page 216] now, the more likely we are to find the right ones. But, several authors express their concerns, the biggest obstacle for finding right option: governments' own interests.They believe that even in trying to address a global problem such as climate change, governments act in their own interest. It is obvious that none of the approaches can satisfy interests and concerns of all countries due to the fact that countries greatly differ in economic, demographic and other social conditions. Thus, the approaches examined in this book try to satisfy global interest rather than individual interest. It seems that allocation approaches based on a relative responsibility for global warning examined in chapter 7 and per capita principles examined in chapter 8 tend to distribute benefits and burdens in a way that some countries might find unacceptable, at least in the short term due to the differences in national circumstances and interests. The differences in national circumstances...

The objective of this paper is to generate insights into the role of states in the international climate change negotiations and implementation of climatic agreements by considering their internal factors based on recent climate change conferences. In this paper, the notion of swing states and recognition are used to determine influential drivers in Poland as it played out a different role over climate change agreements recently. The case study of Poland demonstrates how international obligations, domestic factors, and formation of policy can change the function of a state at international negotiations such as Katowice Conference of Parties—COP24—in December 2018. This research through reference to qualitative indices elaborates how the position of Poland in the recent international climate change negotiations—Cop24—has been shaped? In the conference of parties 24, Poland approached other developed countries that shared its tendency for cutting emission, delivered signals of political attention and solidarity in finding a common landing ground. In sum, the framework of analysis and our results revealed the importance of economic interest, domestic political interests, and passive public awareness to set up to the task in the international agreements such as Katowice negotiation by Poland. To be clearer, the most influential factor of Poland in affecting its role in international climatic negotiations is internal political and economic interests.

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).

Major US electric utility climate pledges have the potential to collectively reduce power sector emissions by one-third

Climate change is not the new phenomenon. The palaeo-climatic studies reveal that during the Pleistocene and Holocene periods several warm and cold periods occurred, resulted change of sea level and change in climatic processes like rise and fall of global average temperature and rainfall. The last medieval warm period was observed from 950 to 1350 AD, followed by the little Ice Age from 1400 to 1900 AD. Occurrence of these climatic changes and their impacts are considered due to natural processes that are geological and astronomical. In 1970s environmentalists and some climate scientists pointed that earth’s average temperature is rising linked with the anthropogenic causes of global warming and emission of carbon dioxide through fossil fuels. In late 1980s the problem was discussed in politics and media. To examine and monitor the global rise of temperature and its impacts due to the emission of carbon dioxide an organization of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created in 1988 by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The IPCC released several reports based upon anthropogenic causes of climate change and their impacts. According to IPCC, 2007 report on climate change during the last 100 years the earth’s average temperature has increased up to 0.6 degree Celsius and if emission of greenhouse gases particularly carbon dioxide continues to rise, global temperature will rise up to 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of 2100 AD. Similarly as a result of this threat of global warming, glaciers will disappear even from Antarctica and Arctic sea will open for navigation throughout the year. Many islands and coastal cities will submerge as a result of sea level rise. In 2004 Canadian Broadcasting T.V presented a documentary with the name “ The doomsday called off” in which leading climate scientists, astrophysicist and geophysicist presented evidences that science of global warming presented by IPCC scientists is incomplete and incorrect based upon computer models and stimulations which are deliberately exaggerated. Many climate scientists have shown disassociation with the IPCC views and speculations on the basis of its doubtful manipulated and exaggerated figures of global warming and some consider it a climate scam. Since then debate between UN pro man-made global warming scientists and anti-man-made global warming climate scientists continue.

Despite its potential to become a leader in international negotiations on climate change, Japan has not played an assertive role in this field since the third conference of the parties (COP 3) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Kyoto in 1997. Focusing on Japanese climate change mitigation policy, this study uses the process-tracing method to examine the reasons why Japan relinquished its leadership and initiative internationally. Since overcoming severe pollution problems in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Japan has maintained a technological lead in pollution-abatement and energy-efficient technologies. This chapter demonstrates how unfavourable marginal abatement costs in comparison with those of EU member states and the United States have dictated a regression in Japan’s climate change policy discourse. A lack of strong and stable political leadership on climate change through this period has also allowed well-organized economic interests and the economy ministry to solidify an industry-oriented policy coalition. With the advent of the new Democratic Party of Japan-led administration in September 2009, however, Japan has begun to move back into its natural position as a vital force in international climate change negotiations.

In the recent Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper the Rudd government emphasised that a major part of its efforts to control global gas emissions would be its participation in international negotiations leading to a global agreement on this issue. Australia is party to the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, and has a number of bilateral and other international climate change partnerships. There are many forthcoming international meetings that will have a bearing on the creation of a post-2012 international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, not all of them are important for the negotiation of the eventual agreement itself. The purpose of the following paper is to outline the main international forums where this agreement is to be negotiated and to present a timetable of major Australian and international events and meetings leading up to these final negotiations. It also provides an outline of leading organisations which are likely to influence international climate change negotiations. This paper will be a ‘living’ document, updated to include any new developments regarding domestic or international climate change negotiations.

Taking Stock of Strategies on Climate Change and the Way Forward: A Strategic Climate Change Framework for Australia

The international climate change regime is comprised of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Under the regime, China and India, two of the largest developing countries, have been exempted from any binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets that apply to developed countries. However, with their GHG emissions increasing, China and India have faced growing international pressure to undertake binding mitigation obligations in international climate change negotiations. To enhance their bargaining power in the negotiations, China and India have been cooperating with each other, which has not only led to a new approach to addressing climate change but also defended the ethical benchmark of the regime. In addition, their cooperation has weakened the EU's traditional leadership status and the leadership ambitions of the US such that China and India will now play a more important role in shaping the future of the regime.

We introduce a framework to analyzes the conversation between two competing groups of Twitter users, one who believe in the anthropogenic causes of climate change (Believers) and a second who are skeptical (Disbelievers). As a case study, we use Climate Change related tweets during the United Nation’s (UN) Climate Change Conference – COP24 (2018), Katowice, Poland. We find that both Disbelievers and Believers talk within their group more than with the other group; this is more so the case for Disbelievers than for Believers. The Disbeliever messages focused more on attacking those personalities that believe in the anthropogenic causes of climate change. On the other hand, Believer messages focused on calls to combat climate change. We find that in both Disbelievers and Believers bot-like accounts were equally active and that unlike Believers, Disbelievers get their news from a concentrated number of news sources.

In international law, a regime includes the entirety of rules and practices within one or several interrelated international treaties (Verheyan 2002). The climate change regime, for the purpose of this chapter, has been connoted as the collection of principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures in international climate change negotiations (Paavola and Adger 2006, see also Krasner 1982; Young 1994). This regime basically has emerged in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) of 1992 which provides a framework in international law for mitigation as well as adaption as climate response strategy. The term ‘adaptation’, though widely used in climate change agenda, is generally considered as an underdeveloped part of the legal regime of climate change (Linnerooth-Bayer and Meckler 2006). This is because, till date, international climate discourse is mainly focused on mitigation policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for addressing climate change impacts. In that respect, the developed countries agreed, under Article 3.1 of the Kyoto Protocol, for emission reductions by at least 5 % from 1990 between 2008 and 2012. However, scientific research already proved that even the most stringent mitigation efforts cannot avoid severe impacts of climate change in the next few decades (Srinivasan 2006). Most alarmingly, several impacts of climate change have already been evident in many ecosystems and economic sectors as reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Third Assessment Report (TAR). To cope with these consequences and moderate the impacts of climate change, adaptation as a policy has become prominent in recent climate discourses. These concerns drag the focus on legal aspects of adaptation in the international climate change regime.KeywordsClean Development MechanismKyoto ProtocolClean Development Mechanism ProjectGlobal Environment FacilityAsian Development BankThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Climate change is a complex and contentious public issue, but the risk-management options available to us are straightforward and have well-characterized strengths and weaknesses.

Current knowledge about public climate change perception mainly covers belief, concern, and attitudes. However, how this discourse is interpreted using individuals' own frame of reference remains largely unknown, particularly in many large emitters from non-Annex I countries such as China. This study, for the first time, performs a nationwide open-ended survey covering 4,037 respondents and collected 12,100 textual answers. Using a semiautomated coding method, we find seven mental images that exclusively represent the Chinese interpretation of the climate change issue, including global warming, distant icons, natural disasters, environmental degradation, cause, solution, and weather. Analysis of influencing factors shows that females, those with lower education levels, lower income, and older individuals tend to connect climate change with natural weather phenomena. Younger and well-educated residents in developed cities are more aware of various consequences and anthropogenic causes of climate change. People with stronger climate change beliefs, policy support, and personal experience of extreme weather are more likely to mention disastrous impacts, carbon emission as causes, and potential solutions. Employing the multilevel regression and post-stratification technique, we map the prevalence of mental images in China at the prefecture-city level. The results reveal significant geographical heterogeneity, with estimated national means ranging from a high of 55% (weather) to a low of 11% (solution). Our findings reveal diverse perspectives and a widespread misconception of climate change in China, suggesting the need for tailored clarification strategies to gain public consent.

Teaching Climate Change Science with the Humanities and Global Perspectives