Address Climate Change Issues Research Articles

Fostering Partnerships With Media Organizations to Improve Climate Change Coverage in Africa

The media coverage of climate change issues is in decline in both the developed and developing countries. This situation calls for innovative ways by which the costs associated with climate change coverage can be shared and defrayed; it needs to attract true partners within the media sector and beyond in addressing climate change issues; and it must develop practical solutions to overcoming the systemic public apathy toward climate science and climate science journalism in developing countries.

Attitudes towards road pricing and environmental taxation among US and UK students

This study investigates the determinants of public acceptability of road pricing and environmental taxation policies. The strength and direction of causal paths between psychological determinants and the acceptability of these policies are measured with survey data from students in New Jersey, USA and London. The estimated models show that a number of well-established psychological determinants provide an explanation for the acceptability of both policies and in both locations despite various differences in the policy scenarios. Scenario fairness appears to be the most important direct determinant of acceptability in both countries. We further verify the effect of “specific trust in government” on scenario fairness and other direct determinants that indicate the important role of government performance for achieving acceptability for these measures. Our findings further suggest that awareness of wider environmental issues, such as climate change, can lead to the support of specific sustainable transport policies, such as road pricing, which do not address climate change issues directly.

Strait Ahead: Toward a Sustainable, Economic, and Secure Electricity Supply in Singapore

Given the increase in global energy consumption in tandem with economic growth and finite supplies of fossil fuels, the cost of producing electricity from conventional generating sources has increased steadily. At the same time, rising CO2 emissions have strengthened the impetus in the international community to address climate change issues through strategies such as energy efficiency and promoting renewable and alternative sources of energy. Such trends have an important bearing on Singapore given its scarce natural resources. They open up a window of opportunity for Singapore to pursue growth in research areas such as clean energy, microgrids, smart grids, and innovative ideas to enhance the efficiency of its electricity supply system and to better position itself to meet its energy needs.

Carbon Tax Research Based on the Perspective of the Low-Carbon Economy

Global warming is one of the problems paid close attention extensively in the world today. Meanwhile, the development of the world economy demands more and more oil, coal and other energy, which results in an unceasing increase of greenhouse gas emissions and intensifies the climate change. The development of the low-carbon economy has become an important means to address climate change issues to a country, and the carbon tax is an important approach to achieve the development of the low-carbon economy. This paper is based on the perspective of the low-carbon economy, starting from the role of the tax on the economy to study the role of the tax on the low-carbon economy, and ultimately to design the implementation of the tax .

Competences for climate change education in a virtual mobility setting

Students, citizens and professional practitioners have significant roles in addressing climate change issues. This requires additional competences over and above disciplinary scientific knowledge and related technical skills. This paper introduces two innovative, complementary competences in relation to climate change education, i.e., 'transboundary' and 'intervention' competences. The authors describe the open access Masters track of the 'Lived experience of climate change', in which these innovative competences can be acquired. For transboundary competence, the diversity of perspectives on the climate change issue is a crucial element in the learning process and outcome. By relating the diversity of their own perspectives on 'lived experience', students are encouraged to relate abstract scientific knowledge to knowledge gained through personal, local and social experience, across the boundaries of scientific disciplines and communicating with a diverse group of stakeholders. Intervention competence focuses on the 'problem-solving' aspect in countering climate change, as a next step following transboundary competence. This involves political-strategic thinking, combined with personal and individual goal-directedness (strategic decision making), appreciating the importance of networking or the professional labour market, and paying attention to policy assessments and policy scenarios in climate change issues. The authors regard these two additional competences, intervention competence and transboundary competence, as crucial and inseparable elements in a climate change curriculum.

Climate Change Policy Capacity at the Sub-National Government Level

The capacity of large bureaucratic organizations to address climate change issues is an area that many consider to be important yet there is very little empirical evidence available. This article employs a structural equation model (LISREL) from survey data of mid-level public servants in the Province of Alberta, Canada and considers such factors as the extent that they work with climate change information, the use of risk-based tools, risk perception, and broader organizational factors. The results suggest that policy-based staff is more engaged in climate change issues than researchers and are also more likely to employ risk-based tools and techniques. We conclude that structural equation modeling can provide valuable indicators of policy capacity to decision makers who are charged with developing climate change policies.

Corporate perceptions of climate change in Malaysia

The paper discusses how corporate managers in Malaysia view climate change which would provide an insight of the level of awareness and perception regarding climate change in this sector. It also attempts to make a comparison between outcomes of the survey to that of past studies in other countries. The survey reflects that corporate managers in Malaysia are concerned about climate change, demonstrating a wide general awareness of the issue. In the context of climate change and company’s profit, a majority of the corporate managers perceived that climate change will affect the company’s operation and profits while a lesser percentage expressed ‘no affect’ on these and also viewed climate change as a serious problem that should be addressed at the global level. In addressing climate change issues of the country, most of the corporate managers perceived that the government should take responsibility while half of them were of the opinion that the business and corporate sector should also take responsibility. The important distinction is the strategic scope regarding climate change, as corporate managers in Malaysia have been shown to exhibit differences concerning the extent to which they feel responsibility for tackling climate change issues. The paper also suggested corporate sectors in Malaysia to pay attention in making inventories and setting targets with respect to GHG emissions that will lead the Malaysian government’s commitment of a voluntary reduction of up to 40 percent in terms of emissions intensity of GDP by the year 2020 compared to 2005 levels, in cooperation with the public and private agencies, industry, community as well as other stakeholders. Key words: Corporate sector, climate change, awareness, perceptions, policy, Malaysia.

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

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

Emissions Trading Under the Kyoto: Protocol - A Detailed Study of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the Lessons Learnt

Greenhouse gases (GHGs) can contribute to global warming regardless of their country of origin. To reduce the impacts, it doesn't matter which region of the world cuts back on emissions, as long as the overall amount across the globe falls. That is the idea behind greenhouse gas emissions trading, which places a cap on total emissions, allocates credits to individual emitters and then allows them to buy or sell credits in a market to meet their targets. These systems are set up within a cap-and-trade program enacted by legislation of the state, country or region. The Kyoto Protocol allows certain participating countries to buy and sell some of their allowances to meet their emissions targets. It also permits different domestic or regional trading schemes to link to one another. One such example is the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) which attempts to address the problem of GHGs. The UK ETS is one of the first examples of a market for carbon dioxide emissions trading. As a pilot scheme, it was largely inspired by the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) to achieve their targets set in the Kyoto Protocol but differs on some key design aspects. The Author wishes to study this particular ETS since it has been relatively successful and it aims to understand its results and lessons learnt to date so that it can be a model or paradigm for other economies of the world to follow suit in the path towards addressing climate change issues such as Global Warming.

The U.S. proposed carbon tariffs, WTO scrutiny and China’s responses

With governments from around the world trying to hammer out a post-2012 climate change agreement, no one would disagree that a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions is essential to such a global pact. However, despite U.S. president Obama’s announcement to push for a commitment to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020, in reality it is questionable whether U.S. Congress will agree to specific emissions cuts, although they are not ambitious at all from the perspectives of both the EU and developing countries, without the imposition of carbon tariffs on Chinese products to the U.S. market, even given China’s own announcement to voluntarily seek to reduce its carbon intensity by 40–45% over the same period. This dilemma is partly attributed to flaws in current international climate negotiations, which have been focused on commitments on the two targeted dates of 2020 and 2050. However, if the international climate change negotiations continue on their current course without extending the commitment period to 2030, which would really open the possibility for the U.S. and China to make the commitments that each wants from the other, the inclusion of border carbon adjustment measures seems essential to secure passage of any U.S. legislation capping its own greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the joint WTO-UNEP report indicates that border carbon adjustment measures might be allowed under the existing WTO rules, depending on their specific design features and the specific conditions for implementing them. Against this background, this paper argues that, on the U.S. side, there is a need to minimize the potential conflicts with WTO provisions in designing such border carbon adjustment measures. The U.S. also needs to explore, with its trading partners, ccooperative sectoral approaches to advancing low-carbon technologies and/or concerted mitigation efforts in a given sector at the international level. Moreover, to increase the prospects for a successful WTO defence of the Waxman-Markey type of border adjustment provision, there should be: 1) a period of good faith efforts to reach agreements among the countries concerned before imposing such trade measures; 2) consideration of alternatives to trade provisions that could reasonably be expected to fulfill the same function but are not inconsistent or less inconsistent with the relevant WTO provisions; and 3) trade provisions that should allow importers to submit equivalent emission reduction units that are recognized by international treaties to cover the carbon contents of imported products. Meanwhile, being targeted by such border carbon adjustment measures, China needs to, at the right time, indicate a serious commitment to address climate change issues to challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. imposing carbon tariffs by signaling well ahead that it will take on binding absolute emission caps around the year 2030, and needs the three transitional periods of increasing climate obligations before taking on absolute emissions caps. This paper argues that there is a clear need within a climate regime to define comparable efforts towards climate mitigation and adaptation to discipline the use of unilateral trade measures at the international level. As exemplified by export tariffs that China applied on its own during 2006–08, the paper shows that defining the comparability of climate efforts can be to China’s advantage. Furthermore, given the fact that, in volume terms, energy-intensive manufacturing in China values 7 to 8 times that of India, and thus carbon tariffs have a greater impact on China than on India, the paper questions whether China should hold the same stance on this issue as India as it does now, although the two largest developing countries should continue to take a common position on other key issues in international climate change negotiations.

Stabilisation of Global Greenhouse Gas Concentrations by Planning Carbon and Energy Budgets at City Level: Case Study of the Iskandar Development Region, Malaysia

For most of the developing countries, socio-economic development is very often the first priority in national development agenda, thus there are very limited actions on climate change mitigation. Malaysia is one of the fast growing developing countries in Asia. Although the Government recognises the importance of energy saving and emission control, there are still very limited policies to address climate change issues and so far no emission reduction target has been set. The main objectives of this study are thus to look into the long-term carbon budget and to examine the necessary energy budgets, based on the case study of the Iskandar Development Region (IDR). Attempts have been made to set the national emission budgets for Malaysia, and from there, city level carbon budgets for IDR were set. Subsequently, simulations using the System Dynamics based computer simulation model were carried out to estimate the necessary energy budgets to achieve carbon budgets for IDR.

Evaluating the Ecological Sustainability of a Ponderosa Pine Ecosystem on the Kaibab Plateau in Northern Arizona

This paper describes a process to evaluate the ecological sustainability of fire-adapted ecosystems, using a case study based on ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. We evaluated ecological sustainability by: 1) using reference conditions and models to describe the historical range of natural variability; 2) using recent remote sensing-based mid-scale mapping of existing vegetation to describe current conditions; and 3) retooling the reference condition models to incorporate current natural and anthropogenic processes to project future conditions of ecosystems. Finally, we discuss a process for incorporating consequences of climate change. Using the Vegetation Dynamics Development Tool (VDDT), we constructed state-and-transition models (STM) for cold ponderosa pine bunchgrass systems of northern Arizona. We included historic and contemporary fire frequencies in the respective models, and integrated forest insect and disease events. For the contemporary model, we added anthropogenic transitions based on the types and frequencies of current management activities. We calculated the historic proportion of each vegetation state by averaging model outputs from multiple 1000 yr simulations. We summarized current conditions from remote-sensing based existing vegetation map data, and then used the contemporary model to generate out-year projections as expressions of current management practices. Finally, we generated ecological departure ratings based on disparities between current and historic conditions, and between projected and historic conditions. Our analysis indicated that fire suppression coupled with infrequent management activities contributed to already significant trends in departure from reference conditions. We concluded by recommending additional steps for evaluating the effects of climate change, as well as the effects of alternative management scenarios for addressing climate change issues.

Encouraging participatory forest management by policy improvement to address climate change issues

Encouraging participatory forest management by policy improvement to address climate change issues

Encouraging participatory forest management by policy improvement to address climate change issues

This article was submitted without an abstract, please refer to the full-text PDF file.

The U.S. Proposed Carbon Tariffs, WTO Scrutiny and China’s Responses

With countries from around the world set to meet in Copenhagen to try to hammer out a post-2012 climate change agreement, no one would disagree that a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions is essential to such a global pact. However, despite U.S. president Obama’s recent announcement to push for a commitment to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17% by 2020, in reality it is questionable whether U.S. Congress will agree to specific emissions cuts, although they are not ambitious at all from the perspectives of both the EU and developing countries, without the imposition of carbon tariffs on Chinese products to the U.S. market, even given China’s own recent announcement to voluntarily seek to reduce its carbon intensity by 40-45% over the same period. This dilemma is partly attributed to flaws in current international climate negotiations, which have been focused on commitments on the two targeted dates of 2020 and 2050. However, if the international climate change negotiations continue on their current course without extending the commitment period to 2030, which would really open the possibility for the U.S. and China to make the commitments that each wants from the other, the inclusion of border carbon adjustment measures seems essential to secure passage of any U.S. legislation capping its own greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the joint WTO-UNEP report indicates that border carbon adjustment measures might be allowed under the existing WTO rules, depending on their specific design features and the specific conditions for implementing them. Against this background, this paper argues that, on the U.S. side, there is a need to minimize the potential conflicts with WTO provisions in designing such border carbon adjustment measures. The U.S. also needs to explore, with its trading partners, cooperative sectoral approaches to advancing low-carbon technologies and/or concerted mitigation efforts in a given sector at the international level. Moreover, to increase the prospects for a successful WTO defence of the Waxman-Markey type of border adjustment provision, there should be: 1) a period of good faith efforts to reach agreements among the countries concerned before imposing such trade measures; 2) consideration of alternatives to trade provisions that could reasonably be expected to fulfill the same function but are not inconsistent or less inconsistent with the relevant WTO provisions; and 3) trade provisions that should allow importers to submit equivalent emission reduction units that are recognized by international treaties to cover the carbon contents of imported products. Meanwhile, being targeted by such border carbon adjustment measures, China needs to, at the right time, indicate a serious commitment to address climate change issues to challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. imposing carbon tariffs by signaling well ahead that it will take on binding absolute emission caps around the year 2030, and needs the three transitional periods of increasing climate obligations before taking on absolute emissions caps. This paper argues that there is a clear need within a climate regime to define comparable efforts towards climate mitigation and adaptation to discipline the use of unilateral trade measures at the international level. As exemplified by export tariffs that China applied on its own during 2006-08, the paper shows that defining the comparability of climate efforts can be to China’s advantage. Furthermore, given the fact that, in volume terms, energy-intensive manufacturing in China values 7 to 8 times that of India, and thus carbon tariffs have a greater impact on China than on India, the paper questions whether China should hold the same stance on this issue as India as it does now, although the two largest developing countries should continue to take a common position on other key issues in international climate change negotiations.

Climate Change Litigation and Policy—A Rapidly Shifting Landscape

This paper provides an overview of climate change law and policy in the United States over the past year. The Environmental Protection Agency announced in March 2008 that they are soliciting public input on the best available science, including specific and quantifiable effects of greenhouse gases, relevant to making an endangerment finding. However, it is unlikely that any endangerment determination will be issued before the end of the current Bush administration. California has been particularly active in climate change litigation, suing several automobile manufacturers based on the alleged contributions of their vehicles to climate change impacts, and suing San Bernardino County for failing to address climate change in its General Plan update. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007, which would have mandated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from several sources including transportation, was stalled due to a Republican filibuster on the Senate floor. State governments have also been active in enacting climate change policy, including adopting their own greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, preparing climate change action plans and creating innovative mitigation measures. Local governments are also working to protect the environment through greater awareness and new policies to reduce greenhouse gases. These legislative and policy efforts all highlight the need to address climate change issues on a variety of levels and fronts.

The First Training Workshop on Permafrost Research Methods: IMPETUS 2007: OSL‐APECS‐PYRN Training Workshop; St. Petersburg, Russia, 29 November to 2 December 2007

Fifty young researchers from 14 countries met in St. Petersburg, Russia, to learn about the latest methods used in permafrost research and engineering and to discuss future plans to address climate change issues in permafrost areas. This workshop was an official International Polar Year (IPY) event organized jointly by the Otto Schmidt Laboratory for Polar and Marine Sciences (OSL) in St. Petersburg, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN), and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS).The workshop provided insights into the latest techniques and methods used in permafrost research in fields as diverse as permafrost modeling, investigations of mountain ice segregation, bubbling from thermokarst lakes, and submarine permafrost detection. It brought together experts to provide young investigators with a multidisciplinary and cross‐border perspective on permafrost research, a much needed approach in a discipline marked by strong research history yet strongly entangled within national borders. Presentations and speaker biographies are now available on the conference Web site (http://pyrn.ways.org/activities/pyrn‐meetings/2007‐saint‐petersburg).

Energy poverty and cooking energy requirements: The forgotten issue in South African energy policy?

Cooking energy is a necessary input for satisfying the basic human need of survival. Much has been written about poverty, energy, development, envi-ronment and gender, but unfortunately, recent poli-cies adopted by the South African government have completely failed to adequately address the issue. The focus of energy and most notably renewable energy policy has shifted form the previous approach of increasing access to energy sources for low-income households to addressing climate change issues. Pro-poor policies have suffered and important fuel such as wood fuel is not addressed. It is argued that without adequately addressing ther-mal requirements of low-income households, ener-gy poverty cannot be addressed. The aim of the paper is firstly, to contextualise cooking and cooking energy within a framework of household energy, poverty, multiple fuel use and gender issues and secondly, to provide an overview of the cost and externalities associated with household cooking. Lastly, the paper proposes interventions to address cooking energy in a sustainable manner in South Africa.

Global Climate Change: Background and Sociological Contributions

The source of the global, systemic problem of global climate change (GCC) is principally human activities (anthropogenic forces). While an understanding of climate change is the purview of climate and related scientists, an understanding of the human factors contributing to climate change is the purview of the social sciences. The social sciences can also contribute to the assessment of appropriate strategies and policies for addressing climate change issues. Such an assessment is undertaken by three social scientists?Loren Lutzenhiser, Thomas Rudel, and Timmons Roberts?in the articles that follow. This article presents an introduction to those contributions by providing an historical overview of the globalization of environmental concerns and a context for understanding the sociological significance of climate change. It also highlights the contribution of the three articles to our understanding of climate policy.

Using Emissions Trading to Regulate Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The inclusion of emissions trading in the Kyoto Protocol reflects an important decision to address climate change issues through flexible market mechanisms. This Article addresses a number of policy issues that must be considered in designing and implementing an international greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions trading scheme. These include emissions trading models, the initial allocation of emissions permits and its competitiveness concerns, banking and borrowing, the liability rules for non-compliance, and bubbles. The following conclusions emerge from the discussion. First, although emissions trading could take place either on an inter-governmental basis or on an inter-source basis, sub-national legal entities are the best entities to trade emissions permits. Allocating permits to individual emissions sources will facilitate private participation in emissions trading. Moreover, it has been argued that individual governments should be left free to devise their own ways of allocating assigned amounts. Second, it has been pointed out that although national emissions trading systems could be modelled as either upstream or downstream or hybrid systems, the distinguishing features of broad coverage and administrative simplicity would make an upstream system the more attractive approach. Moreover, national emissions trading systems should incorporate the maximum degree of flexibility in banking. Third, the liability rules are essential to the success of an international GHG emissions trading scheme. In general, a seller beware liability works well in a strong enforcement environment. In the Kyoto Protocol, however, it may not always work. By contrast, a buyer beware liability could be an effective deterrent to non-compliance, but the costs of imposing it are expected to be very high. To strike a middle ground, it has been suggested a combination of preventive measures with strong but feasible end-of-period punishments to ensure compliance with the Kyoto emissions commitments. Such measures aim to maximize efficiency gains from emissions trading and at the same time, to minimize over-selling risks.