This is the fourth in a series of publications examining Australians’ responses to climate change…
Report “Global wildfires, carbon emissions and the changing climate”, Lauren Power, December 2013
As the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) enters its final week in Warsaw, nations are struggling to agree on mechanisms to encourage reductions in fossil fuel emissions and halt the progress of potentially catastrophic changes to the global climate…
The environmental challenges that confront society are unprecedented and staggering in their magnitude, scope, pace and complexity. They have potentially serious consequences for the wellbeing of people all over the world… It also changes demands for and on the social, including behavioural and economic sciences… A new kind of social science is needed, one that is bolder, better, bigger, different… This report aims to engage social scientists working in all disciplines in academia, research institutes, think tanks, NGOs, and government agencies all over the world…
Download the World Social Science Report 2013 – Changing Global Environments
Over the past two decades, researchers have shown that ocean acidification is increasing as humans have added more carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere…
Go to the website of Global Geosphere-Bioshpere Programme to read the report
This briefing paper explores how the failure to tackle climate change threatens all aspects of food security – availability, access, utilisation, and stability.
Title of the report: Impact of climate change on health and wellbeing in remote Australian communities: a review of literature and scoping of adaptation options
Jane Addison, Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation
(CRC-REP)
14 August, 2013
Executive summary: This report explores the relationship between climate change
and liveability in remote Australia. The term ‘liveability’ here describes the
state of wellbeing realised by the sum of interactions between the physical and
social environment, with health and infrastructure as the primary focus.
Publication Type: Literature review
Publisher Type: Academic research centre
Coverage: Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia
The critical decade 2013: climate change science, risks and responses
Climate Commission
17 June, 2013
Two years ago the Climate Commission warned that 2011-2020 is the ‘Critical
Decade’ for tackling climate change. In particular, this is the Critical Decade
for turning around rising emissions of greenhouse gases and putting us on the
pathway to stabilising the climate system.
One quarter of the way through the Critical Decade, many consequences of climate
change are already evident, and the risks of further climate change are better
understood.
Publication Type: Report
Publisher Type: Government or Government agency
Coverage: Australia, Worldwide
Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia 2013, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia Licence
Climate change policy, conflict and transformative governance
Melissa Nursey-Bray – Indo-Pacific Governance Research Centre (IPGRC)
11 February 2013
Climate change is the behemoth of our age. It defies description, is too large
to comprehend, and what we do understand about it is often terrifying. This is
for many, a good reason to stop thinking about it or, like Scarlett O’Hara,
decide to “think about it tomorrow”. Thinking about the role of conflict in
climate change policy is an even more challenging exercise, but one that this
paper tries to address. Briefly I propose that climate change governance could
productively utilise conflict as a transformative agent for decision making,
rather than try and avoid it, or ‘solve it’ by embedding conflict resolution
mechanisms within those governance frameworks.
There are many points at which governance and climate change intersect, there
are multiple entry and exit points, and policies need embedding from local to
international levels to work. At the heart of the problem however is conflict:
between states and territories, between cultures, between the ideas of rights
and responsibility and between the environment and economics. But as with
Scarlett O’Hara, our society is fundamentally incapable of dealing with
conflict. We seek answers based on win-win solutions, and ways of engaging with
each other that are diplomatic, and politically correct.
Conflict as such, is feared as the blunt stone that will bludgeon and ruin
negotiations and damage already fragile egos, societies and potential
environmental outcomes. When societies cannot or will not change, or when the
changes required necessitate unacceptable cultural compromise, disjuncture
between them can develop into forums of conflict. Conflicts arising are partly
explained by the fact that worldviews, perceptions of the problem, and ideas
about solutions differ.
I argue for the transformative potential of conflict to facilitate adaptive
governance and policy around climate change and climate change adaptation.
Key Points:
Climate change governance could productively utilise conflict as a
transformative agent for decision making, rather than try and avoid it, or
‘solve it’ by embedding conflict resolution mechanisms within governance
frameworks.
Climate governance frameworks should enable the conflict to become the
conflict resolution process itself. This means identifying likely conflicts up
front and then using them as the basis on which decisions about the most
appropriate policies and planning are made, ensuring that such decisions are
cognisant of and provide forums for effective ways around conflict in
implementation.
This process might take longer to negotiate, but will mean less likelihood
of climate related policies stalling in implementation due to intractable
conflict.
One way of operationalising this model is to employ a three-dimensional
local adaptive conflict governance framework comprising: (i) adaptive management
(which includes anticipatory adaptation/foresight), (ii) communications, and
(iii) reflexive practice.
Publication Type : Discussion paper
Publisher Type : Academic research centre
Coverage : Worldwide
Copyright : Indo-Pacific Governance Research Centre (IPGRC)
Permanent URL : http://apo.org.au/node/32795