United Nations Climate Research Articles

Legal Aspects of Adaptation Finance under the UNFCCC Regime with Special Reference to the Adaptation Fund

Abstract This article addresses the legal aspects of the financing of adaptation to climate change, with special consideration given to one of the climate funds – the Adaptation Fund (AF). In the complex structure of climate finance, the AF attracts attention as it differs from other funds in several aspects. As an exception from other United Nations (UNs) climate funds, AF has not been recognised as an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention. AF is also an unprecedented example under the Convention of a fund serving in parallel two decision-making bodies (CMP and CMA) under two agreements (Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement) ratified by non-overlapping sets of parties; with a Fund Board elected by both bodies collectively. AFs funding source is specific, it was designed to be financed from shares of the proceeds of sales of certified emission reduction units (CERs) generated by Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects but since 2012 there is a limited possibility of offsetting the emissions with CERs under the EU emissions trading system (ETS). For several years Parties were unable to agree the operating principles and procedures of a new mechanism established in article 6(4) of the Paris Agreement, which will resemble CDM, and would constitute a source of funding for the AF. Once this source of funding is available, the AF would cease to serve the Kyoto Protocol. Despite the above problems, AF was seen as a good example of how future climate funding can be designed. We examine the evolution of the above legal problems, including the most recent decisions and conclusions adopted during Conference of Parties (COP)25 in Madrid.

Sometimes, green is the outcome: climate action in records management and archives in Canada

PurposeThe paper aims to respond to three questions: Are Canadian organizations committed to sustainability? Are there any links between sustainability and records management and archives programs? And, to what extent are records managers, archivists and technologists engaged in climate action? The paper also provides background on climate change in the Canadian and global contexts, defines relevant terminology, and presents a literature review that positions sustainability, adaptation and mitigation in relation to records management and archives.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on qualitative participatory research involving expert interviews in 24 government agencies, universities and businesses located in 10 Canadian cities.FindingsThe organizations in the study are committed to sustainability and have developed significant programs and activities in support of this aim. Although the records managers, archivists and technologists interviewed are involved in related activities, there is a gap between what they are doing as a matter of course and the wider sustainability efforts of their parent organizations. As resources are tight, sustainability measurement entails more work and there are no real incentives to add sustainability components to programs, the participants are focused on delivering the programs they are hired to do. As a result, there is a sense of serendipity around outcomes that do occur – “sometimes, green is the outcome”.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents the results of research conducted at 24 organizations in 10 Canadian cities, a small but meaningful sample that provides a springboard for considering climate action in records and archives. Based on the discussion, there is a need for a records and archives agenda that directly responds the United Nation's climate action targets: strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters; integrating climate change measures into policies, strategies and planning; and improving education, awareness-raising and human institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning. In support of this aim, the paper charts possible material topics from the literature and compares these with research findings.Practical implicationsFrom a top-down perspective, organizations need to expand sustainability programs to address all business areas, including records and archives. From a bottom-up perspective, records managers and archivists should include adaptation in disaster planning and consider the program benefits of developing economic, environmental and social sustainability initiatives to mitigate climate change.Originality/valueThe paper defines resilience, sustainability, adaption and mitigation and positions these terms in records management and archives. The paper examines how records managers, archivists and technologists think about sustainability; where sustainability intersects with records and archives work; and how records managers and archivists can engage in climate action.

Geopolitical Conflict around the Climate Emergency: The Case of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

The 2019 United Nations (UN) Climate Action Summit was challenged by controversies around increasing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Perspectives from the global community, the Brazilian government and indigenous and forest communities were heard, presenting a complex landscape of multi-scale approaches towards the rain forest. This paper takes the controversies made visible at the summit as a starting point to unravel the complex field of deforestation as an integrated part of the climate-change debate. Firstly, it will give some insights into the current situation in the Brazilian Amazon and the conflicting perspectives. Then it will explore theories that have emerged around climate justice and equity, leading to a call for “burden sharing” aimed at assistance in climate matters for the Global South. It will continue by showing such efforts and will comment on their insufficiencies. It will use relevant literature to showcase how the example of the Brazilian Amazon is representative of a complex set of systems created by the Global North, set on their agenda. These multifaceted theories show a complex field—with a multitude of stakeholders—that is hard to negotiate. In this light, the text concludes that the current discourse, vilifying Bolsonaro, falls short of adequately addressing the complexity of the issue.

Just “performance nonsense”?: How recipients process news photos of activists’ symbolic actions about climate change politics

Abstract In this article, I investigate how recipients make sense of images that show symbolic actions by environmental activists during two recent United Nations Climate Change Conferences. Environmental advocacy groups are successful in creating visibility for their symbolic actions via news visuals, but little empirical evidence exists about how ordinary media recipients engage with this type of imagery. Can they understand the intended meaning of complex visual rhetoric used by environmental activists? I use think-aloud protocols to uncover the cognitive strategies which are used in processing these stylised visual claims. Results show that news photos rarely manage to communicate the intended meaning of symbolic actions. By systematically analysing various stages of visual frame processing, this study offers insights into specific configurations of the image-viewer relationship that cause high levels of ambiguity and prevent staged visual claims from being understood as intended. Yet I also find empirical evidence for a visual framing approach that works well and describe this recipe for effective communication via symbolic action photography.

Earth Day Sets Stage for New US Climate Goals

As people across the globe celebrated Earth Day this year, climate change and global efforts for reducing carbon emissions took center stage as President Biden held a two‐day Global Leaders' Summit on Climate. Virtually hosting more than 40 world leaders and top executives from various industry sectors, the event aimed to reset the global stage for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow and to demonstrate strong US commitment to decarbonization after four years of significant rollbacks on environmental regulations and inaction on climate change under the previous Administration.

Domestic Pressure and International Climate Cooperation

In the wake of 25 United Nations Climate Change Conferences of the Parties (and counting), international cooperation on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions to avoid substantial and potentially irreversible climate change remains an important challenge. The limited impact of the Kyoto Protocol on curbing emissions, and the gap between the ambitions of its successor and the Paris Agreement's lack of sanctioning mechanisms for addressing noncompliance, demonstrates both the difficulties in negotiating ambitious environmental agreements and the reluctance of countries to comply with their agreed emission targets once they have joined the treaty. Therefore, a better understanding of the obstacles and opportunities that the interactions between domestic and international policy pose for the design of successful international climate cooperation is of utmost importance. To shed light on the roots of the stalemate (and suggest possible ways out), this article reviews and draws lessons from a growing theoretical, experimental, and empirical literature that accounts for the hierarchical interplay between domestic political pressure and international climate policy.

Does GATS’ Influence on Private University Sector’s Growth Ensure ESD or Develop City ‘Sustainability Crisis’—Policy Framework to Respond COP21

The conventions and ratifications made by the United Nations (UN) have a long history. They were well respected for their ability to unite the world’s countries on some issues. The paradigm transformation of UN ratifications to combine both business models and social justice has received both positive and negative responses. While adherents argue that such a transformation is fundamental to boost economic development, opponents assert that the ‘so-called paradigm transformation’ has benefited the West by victimising the East, which has essentially complicated the global ‘sustainability crisis’. This also hinders executing the ESD (education for sustainable development) concept, especially in developing countries. The concept of ‘sustainable development’ is now the main agenda item of UN conventions. COP21 (United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015, otherwise known as the 21st Conference of the Parties), is an example of the UN’s seriousness in addressing the ‘global sustainability crisis’. GATT and GATS are the international policies that are, respectively, the ‘causer’ and ‘developer’ of the private university sector in emerging market economies. Critics claim that this expanding sector generates an urban sustainability crisis. This study examined the effect of private universities’ expansion on urban sustainability, using a qualitative method for assessing primary and secondary data. The indices for night light intensity, heat and greenery served as the essential parameters to calculate the sustainability crisis. Results indicate that while the greenery index has fallen significantly, night light and heat indices have unexpectedly increased, which correlate with the development and expansion of the private university sector. To respond to COP21, a ‘carbon neutrality’ policy framework for the sector is suggested in an effort to control the sustainability crisis.

Global climate marches sharply raise attention to climate change: Analysis of climate search behavior in 46 countries

We examine attention to climate change in 46 countries across six continents from 2015 through 2019 by analyzing internet search activity in ten languages. We find that information seeking about climate change, measured by internet searches, notably increased in 2019 relative to prior years. Next, we analyze the impact of global climate marches on internet search activity and find that climate activist events are powerful drivers of attention compared to political events (United Nations Climate Change Conferences) and temperature abnormalities. To explore the role of media coverage, we estimate the effects of climate marches while controlling for weekly news coverage of climate change and find evidence supporting the notion of media attention mediating the effects of climate protests. Lastly, we quantify the duration of the increases in information seeking produced by these events. We find the durations are short-lived, with attention only staying above pre-event levels for several days. As the literature to date has paid scarce attention to public demonstrations as sources of influence on the public's attention to climate change, we suggest these results implore the field to focus more research on the impacts of climate activist events.

Public Opinion about Climate Change in United States, Partisan View and Media Coverage of the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) in Madrid

The research examines the news on climate change in different media, through the analysis of agenda setting and framing, in the context of a construction of media discourse. The role of the media has been relevant in the symbolic struggle of climate change images. The polarized public opinion on climate change in the USA, which has led the Trump government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, as well as the revocation of environmental policies, is analyzed by the coverage that media with Republican and Democratic political tendencies gave to the climate crisis during the 12 days of the 2019 Climate Summit. The 189 news articles broadcast by Fox News, Breitbart, CNN, and the New York Times were identified, analyzed, and contrasted. The results reveal that media with a Republican political tendency were the only ones that broadcast denial news of climate change. Breitbart reported the largest number of news items throughout the sample, mostly denialists, at 71%, using tactics related to the spectacularization of the climate phenomenon, ad hominem attacks on ecologists and politicians, the connection between environmental initiatives and “eco-fascism” or the “radical left”, as well as use of the half-truth fallacy and questionable sources associated with the fossil fuel industry. Fox News practically did not address the issue during the summit. The Democratic political tendency media did not report any kind of denial news; their information and opinions communicated environmental initiatives and climate change consequences.

Projecting a Future Present: Greta Thunberg’s use of Presence at the United Nations Climate Action Summit 2019

Rhetoricians have long realized that crises are, in part, the product of audience perception and therefore rhetorical choice. In this article I will demonstrate that the speech that Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gave at the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit employs presence to not only transcend her own person, but time itself, and presents climate catastrophe as a future present that should be avoided at all cost.

Public–Private Partnerships for Climate Technology Transfer and Innovation: Lessons from the Climate Technology Centre and Network

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, and a number of important agreements call on the United Nations (UN) to strengthen a relationship with the private sector to develop and transfer climate technology in global action on climate change. The Technology Mechanism (TM) is anchored in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as a key enabler for the attainment of the Goals of the Paris Agreement. The growing interest for collaboration with the private sector sets new ambitions for the UN Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). The active engagement of the private sector is critical for successful technology transfer and successful innovation. This paper reviews and analyses the role of the private sector in facilitating technology transfer in CTCN’s Technical Assistance. Furthermore, the shared interest for partnership between the CTCN and the private sector was evaluated by analysing in-depths interviews with major CTCN stakeholders. Based upon this analysis, several recommendations are made on how to enhance public–private partnerships in order to strengthen private sector participation in climate technology transfer activities with a special focus on technology–push and market–pull innovation.

Roadmap for climate alliance economies to vision 2030: retrospect and lessons.

The United Nations Climate Conference 25, held in December 2019, reached a significant agreement against implementing the Paris agreement come 2020. Bound by the contract, 189 countries who are party to the deal agreed to constrain worldwide temperature to ascend to 1.5° Celsius. To this end, the present study attempts to investigate the readiness of selected countries in the European Union to implement the agreement, which will better the quality of the global environment. In line with this, this study appraises the connection between economic growth, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption, on emissions in 11 countries in the European Union from 1990 to 2016. The study utilises the Pooled Mean Group-Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (PMG-ARDL) model estimator and Dumitrescu and Hurlin Panel Causality analysis to analyse the long-run and short-run impact and direction of causality among these factors, respectively. The long-run study's empirical results show a U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and a negative connection between renewable energy use and emissions in the EU-11 countries. In the short-run, non-renewable energy use worsens CO2 emissions while renewable energy use leads to a fall in emissions. Similarly, causality tests show a feedback mechanism between emissions and renewable energy use and between non-renewable energy and renewable use. Also, there is unidirectional causality from income to CO2 emissions, non-renewable energy use to CO2 emissions. The investigation recommends an expanded proportion of renewable energy sources in the EU countries' energy mix to cut down on emissions.

Sustainable Use of Energy Resources, Regulatory Quality, and Foreign Direct Investment in Controlling GHGs Emissions among Selected Asian Economies

“United in Science” is the recent slogan of the United Nations climate summit in 2020. A collective effort of institutional governance, energy resources utilization, foreign inclusion, and regional collaboration is required for the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) of achieving a clean environment. In reaching this objective, this study investigates the sustainably of Regulatory Quality (RQ), Energy Consumption per capita (ECpc), Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and their interaction in reducing the Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) Emissions. This study considered 27 Asian economies, covering the more extensively undertaken regional investigation, in the time period from 2001 to 2018. The results of the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) show that RQ has a strong positive significant impact on GHGs emissions reduction. It further indicates that FDI inflows support the institutions to enhance their institutional capacities. Simultaneously, ECpc has negative impacts on GHGs emissions. Furthermore, RQ interaction with ECpc and FDI also have a strong significant positive impact on GHGs emissions reduction in Asia. The study concludes that the Asia region has been implementing aggressive and prudent policies towards environmental up-gradation to achieve sustainability. However, FDI inflows should be more allocated to environmental quality and energy efficacy to clean the climate and promote regional collaboration.

Facility level measurement of offshore oil and gas installations from a medium-sized airborne platform: method development for quantification and source identification of methane emissions

Abstract. Emissions of methane (CH4) from offshore oil and gas installations are poorly ground-truthed, and quantification relies heavily on the use of emission factors and activity data. As part of the United Nations Climate & Clean Air Coalition (UN CCAC) objective to study and reduce short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), a Twin Otter aircraft was used to survey CH4 emissions from UK and Dutch offshore oil and gas installations. The aims of the surveys were to (i) identify installations that are significant CH4 emitters, (ii) separate installation emissions from other emissions using carbon-isotopic fingerprinting and other chemical proxies, (iii) estimate CH4 emission rates, and (iv) improve flux estimation (and sampling) methodologies for rapid quantification of major gas leaks. In this paper, we detail the instrument and aircraft set-up for two campaigns flown in the springs of 2018 and 2019 over the southern North Sea and describe the developments made in both the planning and sampling methodology to maximise the quality and value of the data collected. We present example data collected from both campaigns to demonstrate the challenges encountered during offshore surveys, focussing on the complex meteorology of the marine boundary layer and sampling discrete plumes from an airborne platform. The uncertainties of CH4 flux calculations from measurements under varying boundary layer conditions are considered, as well as recommendations for attribution of sources through either spot sampling for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) ∕ δ13CCH4 or using in situ instrumental data to determine C2H6–CH4 ratios. A series of recommendations for both planning and measurement techniques for future offshore work within marine boundary layers is provided.

Beyond Bestand

Humans face wide-ranging and global challenges in the Anthropocene, the most prominent of which is anthropogenic climate change. Our initial pivot as a civilization towards sustainability has been to rely heavily on technological innovation powered most obviously by engineers. Using the climate activist Greta Thunberg’s speech at the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference as my inspiration, I try to show how some of the technology-based solutions only entrench what I call our “Bestance” mentality, that is, the fundamental stance or orientation humans have toward the natural world in the Anthropocene wherein all entities show up as mere resources. Having shown the various ways in which traditional ethical approaches and environmental philosophical approaches have proved unhelpful, I try to how a Heideggerian ecophenomenological approach can help us not only understand how the world shows up to us in the Anthropocene, but also what a more graceful way of being might look like. Using specific examples of current technologies, including hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, desalination, and artificial nitrogen-based fertilization, I use Heidegger’s philosophical concepts to show how the land, sea, and air have become Bestand in the Anthropocene, that is, mere materials on hand to be manipulated in order to serve human interests. I then utilize Heidegger’s notion of dwelling as a useful concept to guide a more graceful way of living in which we respect the way in which things unfold on their own terms using examples similarly embedded in the land, sea and air.

Comment on “Energy‐Related Environmental Policy and Its Impacts on Energy Use in Asia”

Comment on “<scp>Energy‐Related</scp> Environmental Policy and Its Impacts on Energy Use in Asia”

Framing of climate change narrative with special referance to coverage of un climate change conference 2019 in Bangladesh newspapers

This study aims to investigate the news coverage on climate change especially the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP25 in Bangladeshi newspapers, like Prothom Alo, The Daily Ittefaq, The Daily Star, Jugantor, and Bangladesh Pratidin. The main research question concerns the extent to which news coverage of the climate summit is influenced by domestic political elite discussion surrounding the issue. Based on intensive content analysis of news coverage of the 2019 climate summit, the study explores the coverage pattern of climate change of the global summit. The framing theory of mass communication has been used as a theoretical framework for this study. The study shows that almost all the news of climate change conference in Bangladeshi print media during the conference is based on the speeches of prominent political leaders of Bangladesh, primarily the Prime Minister. Bangladeshi press has failed to give importance to climate change issues to benefit and compensate Bangladesh as a vulnerable country due to the effects of climate change as more importance has been given to political prominence.

Results of 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) Held in Glasgow

Results of 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) Held in Glasgow

Transitivity Processes in Thunberg’s Viral Speech: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Study

This study analyses the relationship between clause structures and social construction of the meaning found in verbal speeches. Drawing on Halliday's transitivity system particularly the processes element rooted in Systemic Functional Linguistics, the present study attempts to investigate the distribution of transitivity processes found in viral speech of Greta Thunberg at 2019 United Nation Climate Summit held in New York City. Moreover, through descriptive qualitative analysis, the study aims to reveal the function expressed by the processes found in the speech. To this end, it is found that only five out of six process types namely material, mental, relational, verbal, and behavioral processes found in the speech. Moreover, Thunberg used relational processes, mental processes, and material processes more than verbal processes and behavioral processes. The five processes further serve different functions in the speech. Yet, all of the processes occurred in the speech are generally used to deliver Thunberg’s critics over the world leader’s slow response in handling the climate issue. Besides, the processes also used to convince the audience and people in general to start doing something for the climate. The implication of this research is expected to give the information on how language structure is used by the environmental activist in her agenda to persuade people.

A colonized COP: Indigenous exclusion and youth climate justice activism at the United Nations climate change negotiations

Youth activists around the world are demanding urgent climate action from elected leaders. The annual United Nations climate change negotiations, known as COPs, are key sites of global organizing and hope for a comprehensive approach to climate policy. Drawing on participant observation and in-depth interviews at COP25 in 2019, this research examines youth climate activists’ priorities, frustrations and hopes for creating just climate policy. Youth are disillusioned with the COP process and highlight a variety of ways through which the COP perpetuates colonial power structures that marginalize Indigenous peoples and others fighting for justice. This is intersectional exclusion – the character of exclusion experienced by people with multiple intersecting marginalized identities. We demonstrate that the space, policies and even the social movement organizing at COP25 are exclusive, necessitating new ways of negotiating, building relationships, and imagining climate solutions that centre Indigenous communities, and protect and return to them the lands on which they depend. As the youth climate justice movement grows, attending to Indigenous priorities will help it transform, rather than reinforce, the systems at the root of climate crisis and to challenge existing policymaking structures.