Implementation Of Climate Change Policies Research Articles

Board gender diversity and firms' social engagement in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries

PurposeThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries form a unique socioeconomic environment that makes the conclusions of the prior literature not likely to be applicable. GCC countries have huge oil reserves, yet they are aiming at reducing oil dependency through enhancing transparency, increasing foreign direct investments and reforming their governance structure. Their firms are mainly family owned and have low female representation in leadership positions. The study seeks to fill a literature gap by providing a business case supporting the call for gender diverse boards for better governance.Design/methodology/approachThe study examines a sample of GCC-listed firms for the years 2009–2018. Three measures are used to proxy for firm social engagement, namely, CSR strategy score, environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure score and social pillar score. To ensure whether the presence of women on board or the number of women on board is influential on social engagements, the authors use the existence of women on board and the percentage of women on board variables. Data are collected using Thomson Reuters, and generalized least squares (GLS) panel data regression is used to estimate relationships.FindingsThe authors find that female representation on GCC corporate boards is increasing, yet in a slow path. The reported results support the role of women on boards in prompting firms' social agenda and enhancing the level of sustainability reporting. The results also show that female board representation supports the implementation of climate change policy, business ethics policy and health and safety policy.Originality/valueThe paper evidence the add value of women participation on GCC corporate boards in enhancing boards' functionality and governance. The empirical findings encourage firms and policymakers in the GCC countries to increase the share of females on corporate boards to improve firms' citizenship and facilitate attracting foreign investors.

Reflections on climate change policy implementation

Climate village can be categorized as one of the Indonesia’s climate change policies to address climate change. The program itself has been implementing throughout the archipelago since 2012. In line with the global strategies, the program conducted adaptation and mitigation strategies to reduce climate change impacts. Based on Howlett, Ramesh & Perl’s perspective, this study aims to reflect the implementation of the climate change policy. The research used descriptive qualitative method. The data were collected through interviews, field observation, and documentation. The results found that there were three main issues needed to be fixed; (1) the sustainability of the program, (2) the lack of community capacity, and (3) the lack of partnership.

Communicating climate change policy to people in rural area

Climate change is a real problem threatening all human beings in the world. Therefore, everyone has a responsibility to reduce the climate change impacts. Based on research, opinion leaders can play various important roles in the societal life. One of them is to disseminate government policies in rural area. This study focused to examine opinion leaders’ strategy to communicate climate change policy in rural area. This research employed descriptive qualitative method. The data were taken through interviews, observation and documentation. The results showed that the opinion leaders employed various formal and informal strategies to communicate climate change policy to their community. They were evidently important actors to boost the successful of climate change policy implementation. This research confirmed that opinion leaders especially in rural area posits important roles in the societal life.

Participatory multi-criteria methods for adaptation to climate change

The quality and implementation of climate change policies generally benefit from the involvement of diverse stakeholders. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic commissioned an elaboration of the National Action Plan (NAP) for implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change (NAS). A structured process, including a panel of experts and the participation of stakeholders, was designed to establish and evaluate policy options for the NAP. The panel members involved high-ranking officials from the relevant ministries and public agencies involved in nature protection, forestry, water management, and public health, as well as academics, representatives of regional and local governments, businesses, and members of non-governmental organisations. Delphi and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were applied in order to evaluate the policy options. Interactive online tools were developed to perform the Delphi and AHP exercises. In the Delphi process, the participants drafted a comprehensive catalogue of challenges and potential policy activities in relation to adaptation to climate change in Slovakia. The AHP exercise evaluated and ranked 32 policy measures for eight specific policy objectives on the criteria of importance, urgency and feasibility.

Detecting Leaders Country from Road Transport Emission Time-Series

Nowadays, climate change and global warming have become the main concerns worldwide. One of the main causes are the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by human activities, especially by the transportation sector. The adherence to international agreements and the implementation of climate change policy are necessary conditions for reducing environmental problems. This paper investigates the lead–lag relationship between Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Annex I member countries on road transport emission performance focusing on the statistical analysis of the lead–lag relationships between the road transport emission time-series from 1970–2018 extracted by the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) database. The analysis was carried out using the cross-correlation function between each pair of the countries’ time-series considered. Empirical results confirm that some nations have been playing a role as leaders, while others as followers. Sweden can be considered the leader, followed by Germany and France. By analyzing their environmental policy history, we can figure out a common point that explains our results.

A complex systems view of climate and development issues in South African coal power expansion

The implementation of climate change policy in South Africa inevitably requires decision-makers to navigate issues of development. This paper explores some of the implications of this requirement by examining the case of a proposed new independent coal-fired power producing plant, Khanyisa, in the province of Mpumalanga from the perspective of complexity studies, an emerging transdisciplinary field. Complexity thinking re-casts the Khanyisa project in a whole-system view, encouraging an active consideration of scale, perspectives, different knowledges, and cumulative impacts. In so doing, tensions both between and within dimensions of climate mitigation and development are quickly revealed, a complexity which is theorised in complexity studies as the raw material for systemic transformation. This whole-system conceptualisation also undermines incremental and relative arguments that Khanyisa mitigates greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the complex systemic property of non-linearity suggests that the Khanyisa decision is more significant than its power generation capacity indicates. Attention to the conceptual simplification inherent in ‘development’ highlights what is lost through such simplification, as well as what is gained, and by whom. Finally, complexity thinking foregrounds the multiple scales at which the systemic climate mitigation and development implications of Khanyisa play out. Currently there is very little policy-making capacity nationally, regionally or in eMalahleni to look at alternatives, or ‘spaces of possibility’ through the complexity lens for both development and climate mitigation. This case argues that new policy processes are needed, which go far beyond policy and regulatory processes steeped in path dependencies and incrementalism.
 Highlights• The case reveals the complex entanglement of climate and development issues as raw material for systemic transformation. • A whole system and scalar conceptualisation, paying attention to non-linearities, and the exercise of power through simplifications suggest productive areas of focus for policymakers• New policy processes are needed, which go far beyond policy and regulatory processes steeped in path dependencies and incrementalism.

The impact of low-carbon city pilot policy on the total factor productivity of listed enterprises in China

In recent years, the low-carbon city pilot policy has been important work in China. It aims to control the city's greenhouse gas emissions, find a "win-win" path of low-carbon and economy and drive the innovation and development of cities through low-carbon goals. In this context, we consider the low-carbon city pilot policy as the starting point. Based on the data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2005 to 2015 in 285 prefecture-level cities, the OP and LP methods are used to calculate total factor productivity (TFP). In this paper, using PSM-DID and other methods, we empirically test whether and how the low-carbon city pilot policy affects enterprise TFP. The results indicate that the construction of low-carbon cities significantly promotes an increase in the TFP of local enterprises. In addition, improving technological innovation and optimizing the efficiency of resource allocation are two important transmission mechanisms. The above conclusions are robust to a series of tests. Therefore, the implementation of a low-carbon city pilot policy can help achieve the "win-win" goal of emission reduction and high-quality enterprise development. This study provides strong support for further expanding the scope of low-carbon city pilot policy projects and the scientific implementation of climate change policies, and it provides beneficial policy enlightenment for the scientific implementation of urban emission reduction control to win the battle against climate change.

Assessment for the implementation of a national greenhouse gas inventory: the case of Japan

PurposeBy applying a framework for implementation analysis, the authors aim to examine the evolution of Japan's national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory, assess the extent to which each condition for effective implementation has been met and identify factors that may contribute to transparency-related capacity building in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachThe case description was based on interviews and document reviews. The authors coded the collected data into the variables as identified under the framework for implementation analysis, and they evaluated the effectiveness according to the code of assessment.FindingsFirst, this study finds that the development of the endogenous research base can contribute to the continuous improvement in GHG inventories. Second, it highlights the boundary-spanning role played by a private-sector actor's facilitation of interactions among relevant actors. Third, the assessment revealed the criticality of the causal linkage, pointing to the importance of a commitment to emission reductions as a strong driver for the quality improvement of GHG inventories. Lastly, this study indicates a lack of data compatibility, which may potentially hinder effective policy implementation, suggesting the importance of integrated development of the national statistics.Originality/valueThe primary contribution of this paper lies in its use of a framework for implementation analysis, creating new possibilities for both practitioners and researchers. The present study pays attention to the fact that the national GHG inventory preparation, although a highly technical task, is crucial to each country's climate change policy implementation, an aspect that has not been focused on by prior studies.

Civic Participation in Climate Change Policy Implementation in Ho Chi Minh City

With questionnaires from 210 respondents, the author came to conclusion that civic participation in climate change policy implementation in Ho Chi Minh City was not effective. All eight forms of participation were rated below 30%; no form of participation was effective. The reason behind this fell in the lack of regulation framework for civic participation. Then an appropriate solution is to establish such regulation framework for mobilising civic participation. In addition, Ho Chi Minh City government should set up a civic participation framework to organise effectivecivc participation as well as monitor this activity.

Climate Policy and Industry Elite Perceptions of Risk and Uncertainty: A Cross-National Study

There has been a growing focus on uncertainty as a distinct concept in the risk literature. This paper is concerned with how those involved in the design and implementation of climate change policy conceptualize risk and uncertainty. Based on interviews with policy and industry elites in Australia, China and the UK, it finds that participants did not distinguish between “risk” and “uncertainty” in their conceptualization of climate threats. For the majority of them, politics was the most significant source of risk and uncertainty in climate policy, but delegation of otherwise political decisions to the market was seen as the best solution. The conclusion suggests that the conceptual distinction between risk and uncertainty is less important, for policy and industry elites, than the need to develop mechanisms that account for both persistent scientific uncertainties as well as interpretive and moral ambiguities in climate policy design and implementation.

The Implementation of Climate Change Policy in Post-Soviet Countries Achieving Long-Term Targets

Contribution to climate change mitigation is required for all world countries. Post-Soviet countries’ climate change policy strategies by 2030 (2035) were adopted relatively recently. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyze the achievements of climate change policy, encompassing carbon emissions, energy intensity, and renewable energy consumption, in separate Post-Soviet countries and to reveal the possibilities of reaching their long-term 2030–2035 targets. The results showed huge differences in carbon emissions, energy intensity, and the share of renewable energy consumption among Post-Soviet countries. Analyzing the trends of climate change policy implementation in almost all Post-Soviet countries (except Ukraine and Uzbekistan), carbon pollution increased during the analyzed period (2002–2014). The highest growth of emissions was observed in Georgia and Tajikistan. Furthermore, the economic development level was positively and significantly related to the level of carbon emissions. During the 2002–2014 period, energy intensity decreased in all Post-Soviet countries, particularly in those where the level was lower. The share of renewable energy consumption increased the most in countries that are members of the EU (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia) and Moldova, which declared its willingness to join the EU. However, the energy intensity and the share of renewable energy consumption were insignificantly related to the level of economic development. Analyzing the possibility of achieving the Post-Soviet countries’ climate change policy targets, the results showed that only some of them will succeed. Therefore, Post-Soviet countries should implement more efficient climate change policies and effective tools in order to achieve their targets.

Allometric relationships to predict aboveground biomass of 8–10-year-old Eucalyptus grandis × E. nitens in south-eastern Mpumalanga, South Africa

South Africa is new to the implementation of climate change policies, and the forestry sector in this country is taking ownership of estimating its greenhouse gas inventories. Improving the level of accuracy of carbon stock estimations calls for the population of a national biomass database on commercially planted species. The development of models to predict the biomass of Eucalyptus grandis × nitens aids in the goal of estimating aboveground carbon at Tier 2 and 3 levels as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. The recommended model set presented in this paper uses diameter at breast height (DBH) and total height as variables to model biomass and, ultimately, carbon. Model fitting followed a maximum likelihood approach, and model selection was based on overall fit, parsimony, ease of use and additivity. Pulpwood stands around clear-felling age (8–10 years) were used, which presented an average basic wood densities value of 498 kg m–3. The estimated average aboveground biomass per hectare of this hybrid was 137 ± 34 T·ha–1 with a biomass expansion factor (scaling from stem wood volume to total above ground biomass) value of 0.6108.

Vietnam’s Policies on Climate Change: Practical Implementation and Some Challenges

This study analyzes climate change policies and highlights encouraging practices as well as continuing challenges of effective multilevel climate governance in practice. The research is based on a quantitative analysis method using the outcomes from multi-stakeholders, policy-makers, researchers and representatives from non-governmental organizations. Study results touched on the following areas: (1) Vietnam’s policies on climate change, (2) multilevel activites implemented to copewith climate change, and (3) some barriers impedingthe implementation of climate change policies in practice.The study is written for both policy-makers and development practitioners working in Vietnam to facilitate development of multi-stakeholder, multilevel partnerships that are grounded in community engagement from the outset, with the aim of overcoming barriers to translate policies more effectively into on-the-ground action.

Human Resource for Climate Change Policy Implementation in Ho Chi Minh City: Situation and Solutions

As severely affected by climate change, Ho Chi Minh City needs to focus on developing human resource for its climate change response policy. This is because human resource is a key factor fora successful response. The paper uses secondary data from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City to analyze the current situation of human resources for climate change of the city, which is devided into 02 main groups as core and complementary groups. The data show that, although the core group is high qualified, it lacks staffs with deep expertise in policy and climate change. For the complementary group, the city has not focused on training in both short and long term. In order to improve the effectiveness of climate change response in the coming years, Ho Chi Minh City needs to implement at least 03 solutions: (01) recruiting additional staffs with expertise in policies and climate change; (02) promote training for the core personnels; and (03) statistics, build and implement in short and long-term training plans for complementary staffs.

Achievements of the European Union Countries in Seeking a Sustainable Electricity Sector

The electricity production sector has a significant share of final energy consumption and has a huge potential to use more renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, the European Union (EU) reform of electricity markets has had positive results, and market liberalization acts as a stimulus for energy efficiency, lower prices, and technological progress. Today’s EU policy for the development of electricity and the entire energy sector seeks to provide system modernization, stability, reinforcement of the single market, and implementation of climate change policy with an emphasis on the decarbonization of energy sources and the increase of energy efficiency. After all of the EU efforts to form an electricity sector in member states, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the policy implemented and to identify the results achieved in shaping a sustainable electricity sector. The purpose of this article is to carry out a sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in the EU countries. A set of eight indicators designed to assess the sustainability of the electricity sector of different EU countries in 2017 has been drawn up. The assessment is made using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) Technique for Order Preference (TOPSIS). The assessment shows that the electricity market of Slovenia is the most sustainable, with Luxembourg in the second position in the EU.

The Contribution of Energy Taxes to Climate Change Policy in the European Union (EU)

Energy taxes are one of the main market-based tools directed toward mitigating climate change in the European Union (EU). Therefore, the aim of this article was to analyze whether energy taxes really contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the successful implementation of climate change policy. Applying the Granger causality test on time series and using panel data analysis, the direct and indirect (via the reduction of fossil energy consumption (FEC) and energy intensity (EI), as well as the increase of renewable energy consumption (REN)) impacts of energy taxes on GHG emissions in EU countries were analyzed in the present study. The results showed that energy taxes did not Granger-cause fossil energy consumption, energy intensity, renewable energy consumption, and GHG emissions in almost all EU countries. Regarding the panel data analysis, the results showed that energy taxes did not, directly and indirectly, influence GHG emissions. Therefore, this paper shows that generally, energy tax policy in EU countries is ineffective. Thus, tax policy should be reformed and matched with an emissions trading system in seeking climate change mitigation.

Climate policy research uptake dynamics for sustainable agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa

The main purpose of the paper is to espouse the policy promptings of climate change and food security-based researches that would lend appropriate solutions to avert the risks of food insecurity, due to climate variability and change in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Design and methodological approach used a systematic review of preponderantly existing research findings. The paper discussed within the context of systematic discourse analysis, policy research uptake dynamics for food production and climate variability and change in SSA. The results indicated that the threats of adverse impacts of climate change are expected to be higher on Sub-Saharan Africa’s food systems, notwithstanding, little effort is given to the implementation of policy recommendation by sub-Saharan African countries’ agriculture sectors. This paper further argues broadly that there is still growing levels of policy implementation ambivalence towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 13, which enjoins nations to take immediate action to combat climate change through the institutionalization of sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies, among many Sub-Saharan African countries. Government departments of food and agriculture, as well as meteorological agencies, require proactive inter-sectorial responses and collaboration to address the scourge of climate variability and change in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa. The paper recommends prompt and dispassionate implementation of climate change policies, as an imperative need for sustainable food production systems, in response to changing climatic patterns in sub-Saharan Africa.

The influence of energy consumption and democratic institutions on output and CO2 emissions in Bangladesh: a time–frequency approach

This paper reports the results of a study that investigates the causal interactions among the entities energy consumption, democracy, income, and CO2 emissions in Bangladesh. Bootstrapping causality and time–frequency domain causality methods were adopted to examine the causal co-movements between the variables, using data series for a period of more than four decades. Results show that time-scale behavior plays an important role. Democracy is an important factor for emissions and national income. The nexus of democracy and CO2 emission is bidirectional. The impact of democracy on CO2 is stronger than vice versa. This study provides new insights for policymakers: democratic practices play an important role in implementing climate change policies, at least in the case of Bangladesh.

Technically political: The post-politics(?) of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme

Globally, the creation and implementation of climate change policies continues to be contested amongst politicians, international institutions, and civil society. Carbon markets, designed to incentivize greenhouse gas emission reductions, are one of the main climate mitigation approaches worldwide. Existing scholarship highlights how carbon markets provide fertile ground for research into the changing nature of environmental governance and political contestation. Swyngedouw locates carbon markets as part of broader “post-political” changes, which reduce alternative pathways through “depoliticisation”. MacKenzie, in contrast, argues that carbon markets are a form of “techno-politics” that provide new avenues for politically designed markets. This paper engages with and contributes to these scholarly debates by exploring the creation and operations of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme between 2003 and 2016. We demonstrate how New Zealand policy-makers employed various discursive constructs that emphasized uncertainties (in climate science, in international climate policies, in markets) as a means to justify “urgent” and “exceptional” state interventions into the emissions trading scheme. These interventions emphasized the role of experts and the experimental nature of New Zealand's carbon market, and employed parliamentary processes that limited public participation. Such moments of state intervention in a nation with a strong history of neoliberal governance both reinforces and complicates existing scholarship about the “depoliticisation” of climate change and the role of the state in post-political neoliberal governance. It highlights the ways in which rendering climate change a technical challenge can translate into democratically-worrying moments of state-initiated but expert-led approaches to environmental governance.

Climate Change Policy Implementation and Citizens’ Willingness to Pay within a Federal System

Climate Change Policy Implementation and Citizens’ Willingness to Pay within a Federal System Tabitha S. M. Morton Abstract Policy implementation is a critical process in any form of government. The many players involved dictate the effectiveness and efficiency of public policies. Consequently, citizens have preferences for the organization responsible for implementation. This paper examines how these preferences effect citizens’ willingness to pay for public policy, and more specifically two forms of climate change policy, within a federal system. I focus on the four bodies found within the federal form of government: national government, state government, local government, and private agencies/industries. I find that citizens who prefer that the national government implement climate change policies are willing to pay for mitigation-style policies. Those who prefer that the state and local levels of government are willing to pay for adaptation policies. Citizens who hold the opinion that private industries should implement climate change policies are unwilling to pay for any policy. These findings have implications for policymakers, scholar, and citizens alike not only for climate change policies, but also other policies such as education, healthcare, and welfare. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ppar.v6n2a1