Climate Change Regime Research Articles

Climate Change Governance Practices of Non-governmental Organisations in Bangladesh

This article examines the climate change governance practices of non-governmental organisations in Bangladesh. Various stakeholders, including government and non-governmental organizations, are working at national, regional and local levels to address climate change issues. NGOs follow climate change governance practices in their works to make better results for the vulnerable people. In this study five criteria namely, accountability, transparency, participation, effectiveness, and resources were considered to assess the climate change governance practices of NGOs. This paper is based on published documents such as journal articles, reports, books etc. as well as key informant interviews of 34 respondents, to analyse climate change governance practices of the selected seven NGOs of Bangladesh. The surveyed NGOs are now operating to tackle challenges connected to climate change. Moreover, they follow governance protocols while working on climate change–related issues. NGOs, via their efforts in addressing climate change, are significantly improving the lives and quality of life of marginalised individuals. Despite various constraints, the successful contribution of NGOs in enhancing climate governance might strengthen the capacity of vulnerable people to combat climate change-induced disasters. The Dhaka University Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vol. 13(1), 2024, P 105-119

On the possibility of ‘Just Resilience’: A pragmatist approach to justice-based climate change governance

Scholars have afforded much attention to environmental justice issues amid the recent global surge in climate resilience efforts. And yet our analysis of these issues frequently falls back on reductionist modes of critique that presume to know resilience’s implications for justice before actual inquiry. Ontological claims abound about resilience being neoliberalism or neo-colonialism incarnate and as such always-already complicit in the production of myriad injustices. This paper takes up geography’s recent revival in interest with pragmatist and conjunctural methodologies to offer a more nuanced account of resilience and justice. In so doing, it introduces the notion of ‘just resilience’ to foreground and explore the influence of state-based conceptualizations of justice in structuring major interventions carried out to adapt to and mitigate climate change. I compartmentalize just resilience into three related heuristically informed concepts to analyze its emergence in our shared present, evaluate how it shapes government intervention and highlight some of its consequences. Topological composition addresses how particular understandings of justice have been constructed through dialogue between government actors and communities disproportionately affected by environmental harm. Through translational logistics, I elaborate on how these conceptualizations of justice orient the uneven movement of resilience projects across different communities. Finally, relational conceptualizations of scale considers the effects that prevail where multiple different resilience projects are undertaken in the same local site simultaneously. Contrasting with mainstream critiques, a pragmatist-conjunctural approach emphasizes the possibility that resilience can operate as a vessel for the pursuit of environmental justice. Nevertheless, it also raises substantial concerns about: the extent to which the meaning communities invest into justice translates into governmental practice, the asymmetries in political agency that just resilience affords different people and the tendency of resilience projects to produce effects that compromise the very forms of justice that putatively structure their enactment. The paper substantiates its argument through research into the Justice40 initiative that continues to structure some ongoing climate resilience programs in the United States.

From rivals to partners: The cooptation of emerging powers into the climate regime

ABSTRACT The global regime for climate change was formed under the leadership of powerful states in the West who faced the challenge of bringing emerging powers in the developing world on board. The established powers used a strategy of cooptation whereby they offered a series of institutional concessions in return for support. These included adopting principles favored by the established powers, such as sustainable development and common but differentiated responsibilities, and agreeing to channel resources from North to South to address climate change. The effect of these concessions was to secure the participation of emerging powers, not only taming their opposition but also coopting them as allies in the regime to help bring other developing countries on board. Cooptation facilitated the establishment of the regime and helps explain why global climate cooperation has been relatively stable, unlike some domains of global governance that have fallen prey to intense competition and securitization between established and rising powers.

When cities broke into the global stage: 20 years since the publication of ‘Cities and Climate Change’

This short symposium revisits the book Cities and Climate Change by Harriet Bulkeley and Michelle Betsill and its role in establishing cities as central actors in climate change governance. The contributors to this symposium reflect on the research themes and the book’s legacy from their disciplinary perspectives. The first response explores the tensions between the elevation of cities as sites for climate action and the persistent lack of state action, arguing for meaningful public participation and a labour of making visible how city-based practices respond to climate change. The second response examines how the book has enabled generations of scholars to appreciate the complex constitution of city actors and how they interact/enact global climate governance yet remain frustratingly marginal in the discipline of International Relations. The third response explores how the book positioned the urban as a problem space, a manageable scale of intervention, and a political space with the capacity to enact innovation, triggering new questions about the potential and limits of the expanding responsibilities of cities. The fourth response argues that as cities become active in adaptation, they need to engage in an anticolonial politics of love and hospitality that sheds ‘security’ and makes the self vulnerable to ‘others’ for an effective response to climate change. The symposium concludes with a recap by Betsill and Bulkeley which underscores the variety of interdisciplinary debates that the book has generated, and its influence on current thinking on debates on climate change governance.

Study on the Mechanism of Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Under Macro Emission Reduction Measures

Clarifying the impact of macro emission reduction measures on the mechanism of agricultural greenhouse gas emission reduction is of great significance in promoting climate change governance and the construction of a carbon emission reduction policy system. This paper explores the mechanism of important macro emission reduction measures based on a multi-level progressive factor decomposition perspective and designs a coupled model of computable general equilibrium and structural path decomposition to identify the key emission reduction paths of major macro emission reduction measures and to decompose the drivers that promote emission reduction in each path. This study found that: (1) The emission reduction effect of the combination of carbon tax, carbon sink and carbon capture, utilization, and storage macro emission reduction measures is dominated by the indirect emission reduction triggered by the industrial chain, accounting for 95.67% of the total agricultural GHG emission reduction, and the emission reduction effect is gradually weakened with the increase in the production level. (2) The emission intensity effect and the industrial structure effect are the main drivers of the macro emission reduction portfolio measures to promote emission reduction, but there are differences in the roles of the different drivers on the various production levels and different emission reduction pathways. (3) Vegetables, fertilizers, the light industry, and other key industries are the main agricultural greenhouse gas emission reduction contributing industries, of which the emission reduction contribution from citizen consumption is the largest, and the emission reduction is mainly achieved by influencing the demand path of the vegetable industry and the light industry to the upstream high-energy-consuming or high-emission industries. Therefore, there is a need to fully utilize the mechanisms that drive emission reduction at different production levels and pathways by each key factor and to take targeted measures to promote synergistic emission reduction among industries. In the short term, focus on enhancing the role of the emission intensity effect, while in the medium and long term, pay much attention to the positive role of the industrial structure effect on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Understanding how landscape value and climate risk discourses can improve adaptation planning: Insights from Q-method

Climate change poses significant risks to socio-ecological systems, especially at the local level. Local government climate change adaptation strategies must respond to the physical impacts of a changing climate as well as community perceptions about climate change risks and impacts. However, adaptation strategies often overlook diverse stakeholder perspectives and expectations, potentially leading to ineffective and inequitable outcomes. To build stakeholder support for actions that may be unpopular, honest conversations and debate about policy alternatives are necessary. Using Q-method, we identify different discourses about climate change risk and landscape values among residents of Huon Valley, Lutruwita/Tasmania, and consider how discourses, values, and risk perceptions can inform adaptation planning. Our research revealed four distinct landscape value discourses (“Pristine wilderness”; “Accessible places”; “Rural lifestyle”; and “Coastal connections”). Discourses were differentiated by wilderness preference, prioritization of accessibility, and the significance of industry in the region. We also identified five distinct climate change risk discourses (“Governments must mitigate”; “Individuals must act”; “Community will respond”; “It may be too late”; and “Local government must adapt”). These discourses reveal differing stakeholder perspectives about perceived government responsibility, the prioritization of adaptation over mitigation, and risk appetites versus innate resilience. Results highlight relationships between risk perception and landscape values. If attentive to coupled risk-value discourses, and welcoming of debate about alternative options, policymakers and practitioners could formulate adaptation strategies that better respond to community needs.

Contrasting forest management strategies: Impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services under changing climate and disturbance regimes

Natural disturbances may compromise the past and ongoing efforts to increase carbon sequestration and halt biodiversity loss in boreal forests. Measures to minimize the effects of forest disturbances i.e., adaptive management, offer solutions to secure future timber yields. However, the consequences of adaptive management on biodiversity, the climate change mitigation potential of forests, and other ecosystem services are not well understood. In addition, the impact of climate change and disturbances on future forest-based mitigation potential is not well known. We compared the effects of forest management options emphasizing climate change mitigation or adaptation on boreal forests in changing climate and disturbance regimes in southern Finland. We used the process-based forest landscape and disturbance model iLand to dynamically model interactions between climate change and disturbances together with forest management and protection options, and examined the consequent effects on forest carbon storage, berry yields, recreation, and structural attributes important for biodiversity. Mitigation managements resulted in up to one-fifth higher carbon stocks, even after accounting for disturbances by wind and bark beetles, but halved annual harvests over the 80-year simulation period. Adaptive managements reduced bark beetle disturbances, but in some cases the disturbed volumes were even higher than under business-as-usual management due to increased wind damage. The effects of proactive risk management depended on the time horizon considered, the adaptive management option chosen and the climate change scenario. In general, the mitigation managements had positive effects on the biodiversity indicators studied, while the effects of adaptive management were mixed. Our results highlight the complex interactions between disturbance risk prevention, biodiversity, carbon sequestration and storage, and other ecosystem services. The results guide forest managers and policymakers to plan mitigation and adaptation strategies optimizing multiple benefits, and strengthening forest resilience in a changing climate.

The Trend of Changes in the Differentiation in Climate Change Law: Towards Intensifying, Not Weakening

Abstract The differentiation between developing and developed countries has been one of the central issues in the climate change legal regime from the beginning. Although there is a consensus among countries regarding the CBDR-RC as the basis for differentiation, the developing countries have always emphasized the first part of the principle, the responsibility of the developed countries based on equity, and in contrast, the developed countries have focused on the second part, the capability of countries to deal with climate change. Due to this contrast between approaches, the differentiation in the evolutionary process of the climate change regime has always been very volatile, from the UNFCCC to the Paris Agreement. The question arises as to what direction the differentiation has gone and what path it will take. This research shows that the movement toward specialization, pragmatism, and flexibility indicate differentiation is going towards strengthening, and the attempt to weaken or gradually eliminate it will most likely lead to the meaningless participation of developing countries and ultimately the ineffectiveness of the regime. To achieve equitable differentiation along with global participation in the future, two-stage differentiation can be applied. In the first step, the differentiation should be applied between developed and developing countries based on an equitable approach to changing responsibility, and in the second step, sub-differentiation should be applied between the developing countries themselves based on national economic-environmental circumstances such as capability and vulnerability. In this case, differentiation will be considered an opportunity and catalyst instead of a threat and an obstacle.

Measuring Global FDI-Embodied Carbon Emissions

ABSTRACT Foreign direct investment (FDI) significantly impacts global carbon emission patterns through the production and supply chains of transnational corporations (TNCs), influencing climate change governance. This study measures FDI-embodied carbon emissions from 2000 to 2019, using multi-regional input-output and hypothetical extraction methods, and analyzes changes via complex network analysis. Findings reveal a 61% increase in global FDI-embodied carbon emissions, with an upward trend since 2016, mainly due to developing countries. The 2008 financial crisis and Copenhagen Accord shifted carbon flows from concentrated to decentralized patterns. Clustering of these flows continues to rise. Strengthened international cooperation and guidelines are needed to promote green investment, guide TNCs, and achieve the Paris Agreement goals.

Towards minilateral climate governance? Analysing climate club design options through the lens of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities

AbstractIn response to the limitations of the United Nations climate change regime, a range of dynamic climate governance arrangements have emerged, including minilateral ‘climate clubs’. Although proposed as a solution to move international climate policy forward, depending on their specific design, climate clubs could raise implications from the perspective of the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR‐RC). Accordingly, this article aims to analyse different climate club design options through the lens of CBDR‐RC. First, it explains the general rationale for climate clubs and presents a spectrum of key club design features. Second, this article describes how CBDR‐RC has been operationalised under the climate regime. Third, drawing on current club‐like arrangements—namely, the Climate Club, the Clean Energy Ministerial and the proposed Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium—it critically examines whether different design options are (likely to be) compatible with CBDR‐RC.

International Governance of Marine Geoengineering: Sketchy Seascape, Foggy Future—An Essay in Honor of Ted L. McDorman

With climate change standing as a pressing emergency demanding immediate attention and comprehensive redress, marine geoengineering has emerged as a prospective avenue for mitigating anthropogenic greenhouse emissions. This article reviews the sketchy international governance seascape which has emerged to control the environmental risks posed by marine geoengineering with limited specific controls adopted under the London Convention and London Protocol (LC/LP) and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The article concludes by describing the foggy future for marine geoengineering governance. Many questions remain unanswered, such as next steps under the LC/LP, the climate change regime, and possibly through the United Nations Environment Assembly.

The Evolution of Potable Water Security: A Temporal Analysis of Key Indices and Trends

Water security is a critical global issue that has gained increasing attention from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners over the past few decades. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of potable water security indices from the 1980s to the 2020s, focusing on the key research themes, trends, and influential factors in the field. We conducted a comprehensive search of the relevant literature and examined the development of water security indices to provide insights into the current state of research and identify future research directions. This paper will explore the historical context, key indicators, sector-specific challenges, climate change implications, governance and policy considerations, technological advancements, community engagement efforts, and future directions for research in this critical field. Researchers and policymakers will find this review valuable as it offers insights into the existing knowledge and the areas that require further exploration to address global water security challenges.

The Function of OPEC in International Climate Change Law: the Route Taken to COP 28 and the Route Ahead

Abstract Since the consumption of fossil fuels is the main source of GHGs emissions and consequently climate change, the approach of OPEC to climate change is very important. The recent position of OPEC regarding the proposal to phasing out fossil fuels at COP 28 in 2023 showed how significant its approach can be in the evolution process of this regime. The question is what function OPEC has had and should have in the evolution of the climate change law. The results of this research show that in the first encounter of OPEC with the issue, due to the inherent conflict of the economic interests of member states with the goals of the climate change regime, it adopted an obstructive approach. But gradually, due to the global acceptance of the regime and comprehensive consensus regarding the scientific certainty of the threats of climate change, OPEC, reluctantly and inevitably, adjusted its former opposite position to some extent through its active participation in climate negotiations. However, in light of the increasing trend of GHGs emissions by the member states, which indicates the inability of OPEC to align the practice of its members with the goals of climate change, and the recent strong position of OPEC regarding the elimination of fossil fuels in COP 28, concerns have been raised about the future function of OPEC in the climate change legal regime. To play a constructive role in the future and use the available opportunities to reduce the climate change damage to the interests of the member countries over the long term, it should adopt initiatives such as functional changes and integration of climate issues into its strategies and projects in member states to be a supportive partner in the fight against climate change.

Drought Timing Differentiates the Drought Responses of Vegetation Growth on the Tibetan Plateau

AbstractThe Tibetan Plateau, with its great hydrothermal gradients and diverse ecosystems, is considered vulnerable to climate change. Extreme drought can have detrimental effects on carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems by disrupting plant eco‐hydrological processes. Such effects are presumed to vary and depend on the vegetation types, environmental factors and drought properties. The drought timing has been widely highlighted in drought studies at both regional and site scales. However, the systematic insight into the impact of drought timing on the ecosystem functioning over the Tibetan Plateau remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the responses of vegetation greenness to meteorological drought and attributed them to the drought properties, climatic and edaphic factors. We found that the timing of drought plays a predominant role in regulating vegetation drought responses on the Tibetan Plateau. Notably, we observed significant differences in vegetation responses between late growing season drought and non‐late growing season drought. In addition to drought timing, soil moisture and long‐term hydrothermal conditions also played a significant role. Furthermore, our study revealed that alpine grassland was more sensitive to the drought timing, soil moisture and sand content than woody plants. We discovered a significant interplay between rainfall at hottest quarter and drought timing, with the role of drought timing weakening as the rainfall at hottest quarter increases. These findings underscore the crucial role of drought timing in shaping ecosystem functioning in response to the changing climate regime over the Tibetan Plateau and provide crucial insights into the improvement of land surface models.

Governing climate change in a changing world

Governing climate change in a changing world

Securitization of local adaptation: Signs of riskification in a Dutch region

AbstractClimate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events and sea level rise, causing scholars to argue that it has become a security issue and that extraordinary measures are being legitimized by its perceived threat, referred to as securitization. Securitization of climate change has so far been studied predominantly in an international and occasionally national context. Little is known on how security dynamics play out on the local, subnational level. To address this knowledge gap, we investigated if and how adaptation to climate change (CCA) has been securitized for the water domain in a region in the Netherlands that is a CCA frontrunner: Dordrecht. Our case study comprised a detailed document analysis complemented with eight policymaker/expert interviews. In the discourses, actors and tools employed in the governance of CCA in Dordrecht we found signs of securitization in the form of riskification: risk terminology being used in CCA governance; greater involvement of risk and safety actors; and the development of new risk tools like risk and vulnerability analyses. However, securitization remains largely absent: CCA continues to be dealt with as a shared responsibility and as a cross‐sectoral policy issue to be integrated and mainstreamed to become the “new normal.”

ROLE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND SOFT LAW IN CLIMATE CHANGE GOVERNANCE AFTER PARIS AGREEMENT: EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL AS A CATALYST, EMERGENCE OF HYBRID MODELS AND THE CASE OF TÜRKİYE

Climate change has been urging states not only to act but also to cooperate with relevant stakeholders at any level. Paris Agreement, which is considered as the latest and most radical guide in climate change adaptation processes, has accelerated this effort and has been paving the way for changes in the organizational and legislative set-ups of the signatory states. The aim of this study is to understand how organizational and legislative structures have changed in the countries which ratified Paris Agreement and to understand the characteristics of the climate change governance model brought about. It tracks these changes in the case of Türkiye which has been undergoing significant changes in terms its organizational and legislative set-ups and climate policy governance since the ratification of Paris Agreement in 2021. The research also stresses the catalyzing role of the European Green Deal in the climate change adaptation processes, which further perpetuates the goals of Paris Agreement and requires taking concrete steps in this regard.

China's progress in synergetic governance of climate change and multiple environmental issues.

Advancing the synergetic control of climate change and environmental crisis is crucial for achieving global sustainable development goals. This study evaluates synergetic governance levels over climate change and four environmental issues at the provincial level in China from 2009 to 2020. Our findings reveal significant progress in China's coordinated efforts to mitigate carbon emissions, reduce air pollutants, and conserve water resources. However, there remains room for improvement in managing solid waste and protecting ecological systems and overall progress in synergetic governance has slowed since 2015. Employing a random forest model, we identify socio-economic factors with great influence on synergetic climate change and environmental governance, such as energy intensity, service sector development, electronic equipment manufacturing, and transportation. Additionally, we reveal nonlinear relationships between some factors and performance of environmental subsystems, including both plateau effects (e.g. output in the smelting of ferrous metals) and U-shaped patterns (e.g. output in the manufacturing of metal products), possibly attributed to constraints in end-of-pipe treatment capacities and complexities in supply chain networks. Furthermore, through hierarchical clustering analysis, we classify provinces into four groups and provide tailored recommendations for policymakers to enhance synergetic governance levels in their respective regions. The framework established in this study also serves as a valuable reference for countries seeking to develop practical and context-specific solutions to mitigate climate and environmental risks.

Examining the glacier-glacial lake interactions of potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs) under changing climate in Shyok catchment of the Upper Indus Basin

With the ongoing glacier recession, the Himalayan region is witnessing the development of glacial lakes fed by the glacial meltwater. Besides threatening the hydrological regime in the area, the rapid expansion of these lakes at the expense of their feeding glaciers poses a serious risk to the downstream communities in the form of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, as many of these high-altitude water bodies are vulnerable to this cryospheric disaster under the changing climatic regime. Studying these potentially dangerous glacial lakes (PDGLs) and their feeding glaciers in the context of the changing climate has become crucial in understanding this phenomenon and managing the risk associated with these lakes. The present study focuses on understanding the glacier-lake interactions between the PDGLs and their feeding glaciers under the changing climatic regime. We analyzed the spatio-temporal dynamics of 16 PDGLs, identified in our previous study, and their feeding glaciers for the past three decades (1992–2022), and tried to unravel the relationships between glacier area, glacial lake area, and climatic variables such as temperature and precipitation. The results reveal a rapid expansion of 49.6% in the glacial lake area accompanied by a corresponding glacier recession of 3.27 % and an average terminus retreat of 171 m. The average glacier mass balance was found to be ⁓ −0.22 m w.e. y−1 during this period. The minimum temperature (Tmin) revealed statistically significant increasing trend, whereas the annual precipitation (Pcp) in the area revealed a slightly declining trend in this region. The glacial lake area was found to be in a significant positive correlation with the Tmin and a slight negative correlation with the annual precipitation (Pcp). The glacier area revealed a strong negative correlation with the glacial lake area, Tmax, and the Tmin and a positive correlation with the annual precipitation. The results indicate that the glacial lakes in the region are expanding at the expense of their feeding glaciers under warming climate.

Cattle and nurse trees shape subtropical forest–grassland ecotones

Abstract South American subtropical landscapes are dominated by open grasslands and mosaics of forest–grassland formations. Forests are often restricted to riverine margins with sharp forest–grassland ecotones. Understanding the mechanisms maintaining forest–grassland ecotones is important to anticipate the effects of changing climate and disturbance regimes on the extent of these biomes and the ecosystem services they provide. We used a combination of field surveys and long‐term field experiments to explore the mechanisms that explain tree cover expansion at the ecotone of riverine forests and grasslands in central Uruguay, within the South American Campos. We assessed the role of tree seed dispersal and seedling establishment limitations, and experimentally tested for the effects of cattle, nurse tree cover and grasses on the recruitment of forest and grassland tree species at the forest–grassland ecotone. We found that forest expansion depends on the interplay between cattle and nurse trees. Vachellia caven trees colonize the grassland successfully and facilitate the formation of forest patches by enhancing seed accumulation and seedling establishment of forest tree species. Surprisingly, grass cover had mostly positive effects on early seedling survival of forest tree seedlings. However, cattle limits tree seedling growth and survival, especially of forest tree species. This results in a nucleated vegetation pattern of tree patches that ultimately limits forest expansion. Synthesis and applications. Tree cover can potentially expand on the subtropical South American grasslands. Reductions in cattle densities and increases in rainfall levels associated with climate change could facilitate forest expansion in this region.