Effective Climate Action Research Articles

Forest above-ground volume assessments with terrestrial laser scanning: a ground-truth validation experiment in temperate, managed forests.

Quantifying the Earth's forest above-ground biomass (AGB) is indispensable for effective climate action and developing forest policy. Yet, current allometric scaling models (ASMs) to estimate AGB suffer several drawbacks related to model selection and uncertainties about calibration data traceability. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) offers a promising non-destructive alternative. Tree volume is reconstructed from TLS point clouds with quantitative structure models (QSMs) and converted to AGB with wood basic density. Earlier studies have found overall TLS-derived forest volume estimates to be accurate, but highlighted problems for reconstructing finer branches. Our objective was to evaluate TLS for estimating tree volumes by comparison with reference volumes and volumes from ASMs. We quantified the woody volume of 65 trees in Belgium (from 77 to 2800 L; Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Larix decidua, and Fraxinus excelsior) with QSMs and destructive reference measurements. We tested a volume expansion factor (VEF) approach by multiplying the solid and merchantable volume from QSMs by literature VEF values. Stem volume was reliably estimated with TLS. Total volume was overestimated by +21 % using original QSMs, by +9 % and -12 % using two sets of VEF-augmented QSMs, and by -7.3 % using best-available ASMs. The most accurate method differed per site, and the prediction errors for each method varied considerably between sites. VEF-augmented QSMs were only slightly better than original QSMs for estimating tree volume for common species in temperate forests. Despite satisfying estimates with ASMs, the model choice was a large source of uncertainty, and species-specific models did not always exist. Therefore, we advocate for further improving tree volume reconstructions with QSMs, especially for fine branches, instead of collecting more ground-truth data to calibrate VEF and allometric models. Promising developments such as improved co-registration and smarter filtering approaches are ongoing to further constrain volumetric errors in TLS-derived estimates.

Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity

ABSTRACT What kinds of national climate institutions can solve the governance challenges that the Paris Agreement devolves to them? This article identifies three stages of climate institutions in Brazil, a major emitter of greenhouse gases through deforestation that managed to reduce such emissions for nearly a decade. It shows that a narrow definition of climate institutions that seeks purpose-built state institutions fails to capture important dynamics there, and that such institutions have little direct impact on outcomes. In Brazil’s political landscape, national presidents exercise a decisive influence on their climate ambitions and capacities. However, positive and negative feedback loops also brought some effective climate action from the layering of climate purposes into existing institutions, as well as through non-traditional institutions like private governance arrangements for agriculture.

Toward a relational approach in global climate governance: Exploring the role of trust

AbstractWhat role does trust play in global climate governance? For decades, claims of mistrust and distrust have dominated climate change policy arenas: doubts about climate change science and disagreements over rights and responsibilities related to mitigation, adaptation, loss, and damages undermine trust, impeding progress toward effective global climate action. And although frequently invoked in explanations of weak or failed climate action, there is limited research exploring the role oftrustas a distinct concept in global climate governance. Here we seek to address this gap by developing a relational framework that focuses attention on how trust dynamics shape cooperation in four types of relationships: reliance, reciprocity, responsibility, and recognition. Applying this framework to the UNFCCC, we consider how efforts like expanded participation impact the relational landscape in global climate governance. We focus in particular on Indigenous Peoples and non‐state actors to demonstrate how the UNFCCC's efforts to address its legitimacy and credibility problems have neither adequately considered trust nor created opportunities to develop the transformative relationships needed for more effective climate governance. We suggest that greater attention to trust can help scholars and practitioners better understand how relational phenomena shape the landscape of governance possibilities.This article is categorized under:Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

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

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.

Environmental change and the livelihood resilience of coffee farmers in Jamaica: A case study of the Cedar Valley farming region

Rapid socio-ecological changes are transforming coffee production systems causing hardship and uncertainty among farmers across the Caribbean. The uncertainty and magnitude of environmental change have been superimposed on longstanding issues of marginalization and multidimensional poverty among rural farmers. The combined and interactive effects of these conditions create complex trade-offs that hinder the uptake of effective climate action. In the last two decades or so, Jamaica's coffee sector has been severely affected by socioeconomic, environmental and institutional stressors resulting in rapid declines in the production and livelihood conditions of thousands of farmers across the island. To address these challenges, multilateral donors, government and non-government agencies have advanced several climate resilience programs in the last decade. Yet, there is a paucity of research on the livelihood resilience of farmers to socio-ecological change, and effective metrics to monitor and evaluate adaptation responses . In this paper, the experience and knowledge of coffee farmers (n = 219) in the Cedar Valley region of Jamaica are used to examine the factors shaping patterns of livelihood resilience within the context of socio-ecological changes. Quantitative survey data are combined with qualitative information from focus group discussions and key informant interviews to develop storylines around the domains of livelihood resilience. The results provide baseline information on the livelihood resilience of local coffee farmers and within the context of changing social, agronomic and environmental conditions. Understanding how these factors shape local livelihood resilience processes can strengthen local response options, identify possible entry points for improving climate action and establish monitoring and evaluation metrics to track progress and outcomes of climate resilience interventions. • Environmental change and Livelihood resilience coffee farmers in Jamaica are assessed. • Anticipatory, adaptive and absorptive capacities (3As) are used to measure resilience. • Land tenure and gender issues are important determinants of livelihood resilience. • Strengthening local institutional capacity can improve livelihood resilience outcomes.

Financial System Stability, the Timing of Climate Change Action and the Federal Reserve

Abstract Timely and effective climate action is a precondition for the stability of the global financial system and for long-term, inclusive prosperity. Because the Federal Reserve and other central banks share responsibility with legislative and regulatory authorities and other experts for maintaining financial system stability, the Fed also shares responsibility for effective climate action. For climate action to be effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming, it must be widespread, it must be substantive, and it must come sooner rather than later. The new low-interest rate monetary policy environment favors sustainable long-term, but also high-risk, investments. Market participants need timely guidance and support from regulatory and supervisory authorities, including the Federal Reserve, in order to expedite global fund allocations to low-carbon assets.

The Time Machine: challenging perceptions of time and place to enhance climate change engagement through museums

This article explores how museums can help empower people to engage constructively with climate change, through applying a range of time-related concepts to their exhibitions and events. Museums are mostly collections of the past. Climate change now and future presents particular challenges as it is perceived to be psychologically distant. The link between this distance and effective climate action is complex and presents an opportunity for museums, as sites where psychological distance can be explored in safe, consequence-free ways. This paper explores how we can use museums to help develop understanding within the rhetoric of climate change to assist visitors with their personal or collective response to the climate challenge. Time-related concepts including Foucault’s heterotopia, long-term thinking as advocated in the History Manifesto and the ‘Big Here and Long Now’, are explored in relation to museums as potential tools for constructive climate change engagement.

The Church Climate Action: Identifying the Barriers and the Bridges

For many decades, efforts are being channelled towards fostering effective robust church-based climate action across the globe. However, this desired action has unfortunately been in short supply. This has been attributed to some factors that serve as barriers to effective church-based climate action. In an extensive review, this article did not only identify these barriers but also the bridges or pathways out of these barriers/challenges. After a critical review of about 150 empirical studies with a few anecdotal literature, findings showed that beyond the theological barriers that are commonly referenced in many studies, the church also faces institutional barriers in their bid to address climate change. The biblical concept of stewardship, climate change awareness/knowledge creation, strategic communication and engagement, and strategic fundraising and mobilisation were found to be the bridges/pathways towards achieving a robust church-based climate action. Implications of findings for the church and research are discussed.

Urban Governance and Decision-making under Climate Change: a Critical Review of Frameworks, Methods and Tools from the Perspectives of Ecological Economics and Sustainability Science

Over the past 10-15 years, cities have emerged as clear leaders in global climate action. The wealth of frameworks, methods and tools aimed to support urban climate governance and decision-making have created a picture of progress on the topic, however, practical examples of success are limited to a limited group of forerunners. This research aims to address the gap between needs, theory and practice, by providing a critical review of the current developments from the lenses of sustainability science and ecological economics. Based on their integration, we developed ten minimum criteria for development and selection of actionable means: (1) legitimacy, salience and credibility; (2) consideration of social-ecological-economic dynamics; (3) critical pluralism; (4) inclusivity; (5) equality; (6) nexus; (7) transparency; (8) usability; (9) VUCA-fit; 10) transformative potential. The minimum criteria were used to assess 10 selected frameworks, 13 methods and 9 tools, providing decision-makers initial guidelines for making better choices. The analysis revealed that while comprehensive urban climate governance frameworks already exist, sophistication and usability of decision-support methods and tools require further work, while common reliance on simple means limits available opportunities. Thus, it is important to make multi-criteria, multi-objective, adaptive and robust approaches better accessible to urban decision-makers beyond the expert circles to support more effective climate action, while the suggested minimum criteria can be used to provide initial guidelines for such developments.

Climate Change: Risky Business?

The recently released IPCC report states that climate change is unequivocal, unprecedented and anthropogenic in origin. Climate change is a three-pronged global externality with environmental, socio-economic and political consequences.. It may unleash ‘catastrophic’ losses in welfare if tipping points are crossed. Actions to avert catastrophic outcomes should arguably resemble insurance decisions rather than investment decisions. Early recommendations from the economics community on a climate policy ramp have been partially upended by stronger calls for action based, inter alia, on severe tail events. Efforts by the international community to respond to more urgent calls for action have so far failed to materialise. Future research on severe tail events, environmentally sound technologies and the establishment of more acceptable burden sharing agreements may improve the current grim prospects for effective and efficient climate action.

On the definition and prioritization of strategies and actions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in cities: An actor-oriented approach

Cities as hotspots of human economic activity and infrastructures provide some of the best opportunities for decarbonizing sectors essential for limiting the global warming to 1.5, such as buildings and transport. For this reason, regulators and researchers have widely recognized the necessity to put cities, as an important object of assessment, and city authorities, as an important actor group, at the core of climate mitigation efforts. In their pursuit of a low-emission future, however, cities are confronted with a number of theoretical and practical questions regarding allocation and accounting of city-related greenhouse gas (GHG), target setting and subsequent planning for mitigation. A wide literature is currently focused on the first two. However, to achieve ambitious climate targets, research should urgently focus more on how to reap all available urban mitigation actions and encourage rapid and radical changes. Identifying and prioritising mitigation strategies and actions to achieve the targets, as well as putting them together into a coherent plan with a clear vision of the future, are critical steps in actionable and effective climate action planning. As a first contribution in this direction, this paper provides recommendations for research and practice to support a more integrated and conscious definition and prioritization of actions by municipal stakeholders, based on: (1) the specific context of each city type as a determinant of what actions may work, (2) the executive power of city authority to act as the main actor and (3) the multiple benefits and/or trade-offs accruing from each local climate action.

A “Big Tent” Issue

This, our team's penultimate issue of the Journal of Global Security Studies, demonstrates the big tent we hoped for from the journal's start. It is big in both its demonstration of our growing backlog (we are trying to pack in as much as we can to give our successors a little more editing space) and in its showcasing of our substantive, methodological, and theoretical diversity. We believe the backlog and the different article orientations together reflect the enthusiasm with which security scholars of different stripes are engaging on JoGSS pages. Our first article, by Ronald Mitchell and Charli Carpenter, argues that a norms-based discourse may spearhead faster, more effective climate action. Pulling from recent successes in other arenas, they outline five strategies through which a norms focus could take hold in climate change discussions and how these could propel the responses this security threat requires. Next, Anette Stimmer documents the various ways pop cultural references can affect weapons procurement debates and how the meaning of references can shift over time. Specifically, she traces how the “Star Wars” label was first used by opponents of the Strategic Defense Initiative and seen as a disabling frame, but, as its use spread among the public, became a more neutral descriptive shorthand.

Sparking a Movement for a Healthy Climate Through Leadership Development.

Climate change is increasingly impacting health, and health care is contributing to climate change through carbon emissions. Nurses can help mitigate climate change and its effects through leadership development initiatives to expand the impact of the efforts of a single person by activating others. This article describes one such nurse-led leadership development project. The intervention adapted a workshop series curriculum for faith community audiences to a health professional audience. The program gave participants the ability to assess their assets, understand the psychology of communication of climate change, and design appropriately-scaled actions to help mitigate climate change. The program consisted of three in-person workshop sessions plus bi-weekly individual consultations with participants. The seven participants included physicians, nurses, physician and nurse educators, a public health professional, and a veterinary medicine student. The workshops included content on communicating about climate change, crafting a public narrative/storytelling, and tools and methods for organizing in the climate movement. Participants completed action plans including a broad range of leadership efforts as part of the intervention; all participants completed at least the first step of their action plan during the program period. Qualitative interviews highlighted facets of participants' experiences. Nurses and other health professionals are leading the way in mitigating climate change; leadership development programs such as this are one way of taking effective climate action.

CO2-Preis jetzt – sozialverträglich und verursachergerecht

Abstract The urgency of effective climate action measures and the practical experience in the context of the existing European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) are striking arguments for the introduction of uniform prices on CO₂ emissions: as a minimum price in the ETS and as a reform of existing tax rates on fossil fuels (CO₂ tax) for heating and transport (Non-ETS). In order for CO₂ pricing not to become a mere instrument of rising government revenues, the options currently under consideration are the counter-financing of existing taxes and levies that reduces electricity prices or a per capita refund (climate bonus) for households. Both result initially in very similar distributional effects: the lower the household income, the higher the initial financial relief. Compared to the counter-financing of the EEG levy, climate bonuses are expected to have stronger rebound effects and the reduction of bureaucracy and promotion of the efficient use of renewable energy in heating and transport (sector coupling) would be waived. Thus a counter-financing, in particular the EEG levy in order to lower electricity costs, is a priority. In order to adequately address social hardships, only few socio-political accompanying measures would be needed that are largely independent of the pricing mechanism.

Norms for the Earth: Changing the Climate on “Climate Change”

AbstractClimate change poses a grave security threat to national borders, habitats, and vulnerable people. Plagued by asymmetries in both states' vulnerability to climate impacts and their capacity to mitigate them, climate change presents states with a “wicked” problem that poses significant obstacles to interest-based solutions. Yet, most global climate change policy involves rationales and mechanisms grounded in an interest-based logic of consequences: information-sharing, reciprocity, and exchange. We argue that strategies that promote ethics-based discourse and policies offer considerable promise for hastening stronger global climate governance. We argue that successes in human security norm-building, including bans on land mines, cluster munitions, and nuclear weapons, provide climate scholars and practitioners with alternative governance models that rely on activating a logic of appropriateness and spearhead faster, more effective climate action. We identify five strategies that previous scholars have shown fostered efforts to promote a logic of appropriateness in human rights, humanitarian law, and disarmament. We examine the empirical experience of those strategies and particularly highlight the recent success of efforts to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Given the success of these strategies in other issue areas, we argue scholars of climate change could fruitfully focus greater attention on political efforts that promote strong global ethical norms for climate action.

Citizen Social Science for More Integrative and Effective Climate Action: A Science-Policy Perspective

Governments are struggling to limit global temperatures below the 2°C Paris target with existing climate change policy approaches. This is because conventional climate policies have been predominantly (inter)nationally top-down, which limits citizen agency in driving policy change and influencing citizen behavior. Here we propose elevating Citizen Social Science (CSS) to a new level across governments as an advanced collaborative approach of accelerating climate action and policies that moves beyond conventional citizen science and participatory approaches. Moving beyond the traditional science-policy model of the democratization of science in enabling more inclusive climate policy change, we present examples of how CSS can potentially transform citizen behavior and enable citizens to become key agents in driving climate policy change. We also discuss the barriers that could impede the implementation of CSS and offer solutions to these. In doing this, we articulate the implications of increased citizen action through CSS in moving forward the broader normative and political program of transdisciplinary and co-productive climate change research and policy.

Citizen engagement in climate adaptation surveyed: The role of values, worldviews, gender and place

Local governments' limited mandate and capacity to adequately deal with increasing climate risk and impacts means that citizen engagement is becoming increasingly important for adapting to hazards such as floods and storms. Stronger collaborative approaches are urgently needed. At the same time, there is little research and hardly any empirical evidence on what inspires adaptation engagement in different citizen groups. Against this background, this paper examines the external/material (e.g., resources, hazards, public support) and internal aspects (e.g., values and worldviews) that shape people's engagement in and for adaptation. Based on a survey of Swedish citizens at risk from severe climate events, we show that engagement is a gendered process, which is mediated by personal values, worldviews and place—aspects rarely considered in public adaptation. While a high level of diverse citizen action is often related to past experiences of hazards, motivation to adapt goes beyond the idea of acting out of rational self-interest. Economic considerations (e.g., low cost) are not the only motivation to adapt; the potential of an adaptation action to contribute to green, thriving surroundings and mitigate global climate change was found nearly as (and among female respondents, more) motivating. Women were also found to be more motivated to engage in adaptation if this supports other community members at risk. At the same time, past adaptation action could not be linked to motivation to adapt, and was found to be negatively correlated with communitarian and ecological values or worldviews. This confirms that motivation to adapt does not automatically translate into action, and indicates a ‘mitigation–adaptation gap’ in people's climate awareness, which can lead to ineffective climate responses. Given these findings, we discuss alternative approaches to support increased citizen engagement and more effective and transformative climate action. We end with a call for public adaptation and risk communication that takes greater account of inner/subjective dimensions.

An evaluation of local policies and actions that address climate change in Turkish metropolitan cities

ABSTRACTAs sites of climatic impacts, cities have become key players in climate policy-making in order to reduce GHG emissions and vulnerabilities of settlements. They started taking actions in various fields such as built environment, water and waste management, transportation and urban greenery. However, the involvement of cities in climate policy-making varies over countries and regions; the extent of involvement differentiates even among the cities of the same country. This paper focuses on the Turkish case and elaborates the current status of climate policy-making in Turkish metropolitan cities. It aims at identifying achievements at the local level and pointing to challenges for an effective local climate action, which can be helpful for other contexts, too. Having conducted both desk-based and questionnaire surveys, it examines and categorizes climate-related actions in metropolitan municipalities, and highlights varying levels of achievements in terms of sectors and innovativeness. The study concludes with analysing the motives behind varying achievements of municipalities as well as the main challenges for local action and discussing policy implications to overcome them.

‘Dynamic Differentiation’: The Principles of CBDR-RC, Progression and Highest Possible Ambition in the Paris Agreement

AbstractThe Paris Agreement has struck a careful balance between the need for ambitious and effective climate action and for fair effort sharing among parties based on differentiation. This article provides an overview of the negotiation history of differentiation and analyzes the ‘dynamic differentiation’ as built into the architecture of the Agreement. While being set against the normative background of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement adopts a more diversified way of differential treatment among parties, approaching it in three complementary ways: firstly, on a principled basis, reflecting common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), in the light of different national circumstances; secondly, in the content of its articles, in particular on mitigation, finance and transparency; and thirdly, on the basis of the principles of progression and highest possible ambition, which represent new and dynamic aspects of differentiation. The authors argue that ‘highest possible ambition’ is reflective of a duty of care that states now need to exercise. It implies a due diligence standard, which requires each government to act in proportion to the risk at stake and to take all appropriate and adequate climate measures according to its responsibility and its best capabilities. By expecting parties to apply this standard at each successive preparation of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), and to progress beyond previous ones, the Paris Agreement has set up reiterative processes, an ‘international normative pull’ and a collective learning environment. This, in turn, creates a reflexive approach to parties’ determination of effort, promoting the evolution of voluntary cooperative behaviour.

Climate Change and the Trading System: Implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

ABSTRACTWe consider the climate action policy implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The shift of trade rule-making from the World Trade Organization to mega-regional trade negotiations, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is not positive for effective climate action, which will have to be multilateral in scope, collective in nature, and policy-activist in design. The mega-regionals are plurilateral and exclusionary in scope, competitive in nature, and policy-restrictive in design. Their investment and competition regimes, given teeth by investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms, will militate against the evolution of a coherent and transparent body of climate-policy-friendly case law.