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Governance of large-scale environmental problems: the case of climate change
Abstract
This paper focuses on the management of Climate Change Mitigation (CCM), seeking a working institution capable of addressing its cross-scale and multi-level challenges. Currently, two most studied forms of institution are co-management and transnational networks, of which a common point is that they both attempt to build up cooperative networks. While cooperative networks have a general form of viability, this paper develops an Interactions Check Table (ICT) to illustrate those interactions between stakeholders in those two forms of cooperative networks. On the basis of the ICT analysis, this paper makes suggestions for improving cooperative networks as a working institution.
... Cluster 1 presents articles referring to the "multi-level" nature of climate governance. A significant number of papers assume, implicitly or explicitly, that current forms of governance are multi-level (Dannevig & Aall, 2015;Driessen et al., 2012;Fraundorfer, 2017;Galaz et al., 2012;Laakso et al., 2017;Lee & Koski, 2015;Marquardt, 2017;Pattberg, 2010;Pattberg & Widerberg, 2015;Peel et al., 2012;Sattler et al., 2016;Sun et al., 2010;Termeer et al., 2016), even though their authors commit to different approaches to climate governance. In this context, multi-level governance encompasses different components (scale, actors, and interactions) of governance articulating within a broader scheme. ...
... In this context, multi-level governance encompasses different components (scale, actors, and interactions) of governance articulating within a broader scheme. This approach is common among international (Peel et al., 2012) Cluster 4: Polycentric Holley, 2010;Newig, Günther, & Pahl-Wostl, 2010;Pattberg, 2010;Sun et al., 2010;Cole, 2011;Sovacool, 2011;Peel et al., 2012;Galaz et al., 2012;Barton, 2013;Aykut, 2016;Gupta, 2016;Sattler et al., 2016;Dorsch & Flachsland, 2017;Lervik & Sutherland, 2017;Tosun & Schoenefeld, 2017;Fraundorfer, 2017 Cluster 5 (Fraundorfer, 2017) climate law scholars as well as in international relations and/or political science literature (Marquardt, 2017) or environmental management (Sattler et al., 2016). As Peel et al. (2012) recalls, this multi-level governance literature has its source in EUstudies scholarship and emphasizes the imperative of decentralization as "decision-making taking place at a range of territorial levels or scales" (p. ...
Dealing with climate change is one of this century's most difficult challenges demanding new strategies to steer societies towards common transformational goals. A growing literature involving “climate governance” is evolving and should advance the discussion on transformations and the involvement of different actors in climate action. However, it is unclear that the Global South's particularities are being integrated. This study has a three‐fold goal: (a) identify the different approaches to climate governance found in the mainstream literature, (b) explore the degree of integration of the Global South in those approaches, and (c) contribute to the ongoing discussion on this issue from a southern perspective. A systematic literature review on “climate governance” was conducted, distinguishing different approaches and their significance for the Global South. Results clustered in six groups use the characterizations: multi‐level, global, adaptive, transnational, polycentric, and experimental/transformative. These terms account for different levels of decision‐making, emerging values, and the importance of non‐State and sub‐national actors. Approaches vary, in relation to change and participation, from an incremental improvement focus to a more transformative perspective and from the promotion of community influence to processes based on traditional institutions. In the Global South, multi‐level, multi‐actor climate governance occurs in a context of deep inequality and asymmetric power relations, rising environmental conflicts, and a lack of adequate mechanisms for community participation. Addressing climate change here will require, acknowledging the State alone cannot solve the issue, that different views must be considered and that contextualized perspectives from the Global South must be integrated.
... Climate change influences and is influenced by economic, ecological, and political systems at global, national, and local levels. Although people may be gradually becoming more aware of the need to reduce their environmental impact and to respond to climate change, progress is far from sufficient: expanded and immediate institutional, societal, and community changes are necessary to address the effects of current global climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013; Sun et al., 2010). Climate change education for children and adults, both in and out of school, is a part of ramping up a response to climate change, but prior efforts have been scattered and uncoordinated (Abbasi, 2006;Choi et al., 2010; National Science Board of the US, 2009). ...
... Although individuals and their local and professional communities can take steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, policy level changes are needed for larger scale adaptation, at the level of cities and countries (e.g., Filho, 2010;Steffen, 2011;Sun et al., 2010). Governments harden cities against flooding, shift energy production to renewable sources, distribute water, and regulate emission standards (Jaeger, 2004). ...
Climate change requires a massive global response: individuals, communities, regions, and nations all need to make substantial change to current habits and behaviours. Education is an important part of changing habit and behaviour, yet most contemporary climate change education focuses primarily on individual's knowledge about climate science, which research suggests has limited utility in supporting collective response to climate change. This article proposes a new focus on educational intervention that is sensitive to the shared need for rapid, collective impact. Drawing on socio-cultural learning theory and a review of research on climate change learning, we argue that interventions based on three core principles - participation, relevance, interconnectedness - are more likely to result in people taking steps to respond to climate change than interventions based on knowledge acquisition alone.
... Climate change influences and is influenced by economic, ecological, and political systems at global, national, and local levels. Although people may be gradually becoming more aware of the need to reduce their environmental impact and to respond to climate change, progress is far from sufficient: expanded and immediate institutional, societal, and community changes are necessary to address the effects of current global climate change (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013; Sun et al., 2010). Climate change education for children and adults, both in and out of school, is a part of ramping up a response to climate change, but prior efforts have been scattered and uncoordinated (Abbasi, 2006;Choi et al., 2010; National Science Board of the US, 2009). ...
... Although individuals and their local and professional communities can take steps to adapt to and mitigate climate change, policy level changes are needed for larger scale adaptation, at the level of cities and countries (e.g., Filho, 2010;Steffen, 2011;Sun et al., 2010). Governments harden cities against flooding, shift energy production to renewable sources, distribute water, and regulate emission standards (Jaeger, 2004). ...
Climate change requires a massive global response: individuals, communities, regions, and nations all need to make substantial change to current habits and behaviours. Education is an important part of changing habit and behaviour, yet most contemporary climate change education focuses primarily on individual's knowledge about climate science, which research suggests has limited utility in supporting collective response to climate change. This article proposes a new focus on educational intervention that is sensitive to the shared need for rapid, collective impact. Drawing on socio-cultural learning theory and a review of research on climate change learning, we argue that interventions based on three core principles – participation, relevance, interconnectedness – are more likely to result in people taking steps to respond to climate change than interventions based on knowledge acquisition alone.
... agriculture and industrial sectors), as well as their interaction and heterogeneity, and their impacts on the system. This creates a complex situation, in which agreement on rules on how to manage the environment and their enforcement are very difficult (Sun et al., 2010). In this context, large-scale environmental problems require governance from international cooperation to local engagement (Dietz et al., 2003). ...
This thesis describes the research I conducted during a three-year doctoral program (2013-2015) in Engineering Science, in the branch study of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Available online: https://iris.unife.it/handle/11392/2403465
During this period, I focused on the development of a systematic modeling approach for calibrating and validating the agro-hydrological SWAT model for realistically simulating all critical hydrological and water quantity processes in large River Basins in Europe (i.e. surface runoff, lateral flow, baseflow, erosion and sedimentation, plant growth, nutrients cycle/fate/transport, denitrification and karst phenomena). This research stems from the need to provide robust and suitable model assessment for making sound management, policy and regulatory decisions.
Several innovations were introduced in the modeling approach aimed both to improve model structure and calibration procedure. First of all, modifications of SWAT model were applied to produce new useful outputs for calibration and interpretation of specific processes. New algorithms for the calculation of hillslope length parameter and LS factor were also proposed and tested, as well as a new MUSLE equation. Furthermore, karst processes were represented using the KSWAT model, a combination of SWAT with a karst-flow model. Concerning the calibration/validation, a process-based approach was developed involving both hard (i.e. long time series in multiple gauging stations) and soft data (i.e. literature information of a specific process within a water, sediment, or nutrient balance that may not be directly measured within the study area, e.g. average annual estimate of denitrification) for a threefold objective: to match well the observations, to understand the processes within a basin and to provide accurate cost-benefit scenarios analysis for achieving the goals of the main European Directives.
The proposed systematic modeling approach consists on different aspects: the definition of a process-based calibration and validation (C/V) strategy for quantity (streamflow and its components) and quality aspects (sediment and nutrients); detailed study for representing hydrological processes at different climate regimes and in karst dominant morphologies; validation of water balance components using a Budyko framework approach; the inter-model-comparison of outputs (Benchmarking approach); the definition of a suitable model setup based on a sensitivity analysis of derived topographic attributes from different Digital Elevation Model (DEM) pixel size; the definition of cost-effective measures for the Best Management Practices (BMPs) implementation.
Five SWAT model case studies were used to illustrate these topics covering approximately 55% of Europe Union. The Iberian (556,000 km2) and the Scandinavia (1,000,000 km2) Peninsulas were selected to test the C/V strategy in different climate regimes, while the Danube River Basin (800,000 km2), as well as the Upper Danube (132,000 km2), were considered as strategic large-socioeconomic-heterogeneous areas for investigating the main key topics of the procedure through water quantity and quality assessment. The Crete Island (8,400 km2) was instead selected as representative for karst phenomena assessment, as it is covered more than 40% by karst features.
The analysis of these SWAT model applications has shown that the process-based C/V strategy is able to obtain good performance statistics and to gain good knowledge of each hydrological process through the analysis of temporal and spatial variations of calibrated streamflow in different large regions, characterized by heterogeneous spatial topography, land uses, soils and different climate regimes. Furthermore, the analysis of the main components of the water balance (evapotranspiration and baseflow) via Budyko framework highlighted the difficulties of SWAT model to predict correctly the baseflow in regulated mountainous basins and the dependence of the procedure on the number and spatial distribution of gauging stations and on anthropogenic water storage impact, as well as the water diversions. It was also observed that the predicted streamflow at large-scale is not affected by DEM pixel size (both with 25 m and 100 m DEM pixel size) and SWAT topographic attributes (e.g. slope and hillslope length). Conversely, the streamflow components resulted markedly affected by the change of the hillslope length parameter calculation based on DEM pixel size, highlighting the need to improve the current SWAT algorithm for a better representation of the streamflow components, as well as sediment yields via Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE). This equation was modified to reduce the sensitivity of sediment yields to the Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs) and slope-length factor (LS) obtaining robust simulation of sediment concentrations, yields and suitable budgets in large River Basins. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that SWAT is able to reproduce the karst processes when opportunely adapted to reproduce the karst features and their intrinsic characteristics (such as fast infiltration in deep groundwater, movement of water in the karst conduits across subbasins not hydrologically connected, and the return of water as springs discharges in the rivers), thus increasing the reliability of water balance prediction in numerous river basins in Europe affected by karst water resources. As regards the water quality (sediment and nutrients), it was observed that only few watershed parameters were sensitive to calibration, increasing the difficult to represent the spatial variation of some processes in large-areas, such as the denitrification and sediment transport in the river. However, the monthly seasonal variation of total nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations were well reproduced at multi-gauging stations, given a substantial control of pollution as directly request by the European Directives (i.e. Drinking Water Directive, 98/83/EC). Furthermore, the inter-model comparisons of nutrient loads confirmed the ability of SWAT model to predict comparable nutrient loads in large–river basins, albeit the need to collect more environmental data emerged. Finally, the proposed multi-objective optimization tool for BMPs implementation in SWAT was recognized as a very useful tool in identifying efficient scenarios, related to reduction of mineral fertilization and Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs) upgrading, providing significantly nutrients concentration reduction with the best cost–effectiveness.
These findings can be also summarised as several useful recommendations for SWAT modellers.
In conclusion, the proposed systematic approach for C/V procedure with SWAT has shown to be pedagogic and a powerful tool both for scientists, policy makers and also stakeholders, and could be extended to other hydrological and water quality models with similar structure as SWAT.
Keywords: SWAT, calibration/validation, Budyko, streamflow, sediment, nutrients, model benchmarking, multi-objective optimization
... It is also found that policy implication of co-benefits has been limited to date, owing to: (1) the uncertainty in reductions that would be produced by CCM activities; (2) current institutional barriers both scientifically and politically; and (3) the measurement and valuation of co-benefits(Jack and Kinney, 2010;Nemet et al., 2010). Compared with other CCM activities, the uncertainties and barriers regarding CDM are largely reduced, partly due to the transparent and consistent baseline and monitoring methodologies and strict implementation of the methodologies(Sun et al., 2010a ...
This article revisits key works on the management of common-pool resources under common property arrangements, in order to elicit a broader notion of collective ownership for analysing institutional arrangements that govern the use of large-scale environmental resources such as biodiversity and atmospheric sinks. The article proposes a model for analysing the institutional design of governance solutions which draws attention to 1) tiers and levels, 2) organisation of generic governance functions, and 3) formulation of specific institutional rules. The article exemplifies these analytical solutions by examining the emerging governance framework for global atmospheric sinks. The article indicates how crucial parts of the institutional framework for governing atmospheric sinks are still missing, a shortcoming which maintains the ‘‘tragedy of the commons’’ in their use. The article suggests that a workable governance solution for global atmospheric sinks has to 1) cap the use of atmospheric sinks; 2) provide for a more equitable benefit sharing; 3) provide for compensation of climate change impacts and assistance for adaptation to climate change impacts; and 4) create institutional solutions for enhancing participation in environmental decisions in order to guarantee progress in and legitimacy of the governance framework.
The empirical evidence in the papers in this special issue identifies pervasive and difficult cross-scale and cross-level interactions in managing the environment. The complexity of these interactions and the fact that both scholarship and management have only recently begun to address this complexity have provided the impetus for us to present one synthesis of scale and cross-scale dynamics. In doing so, we draw from multiple cases, multiple disciplines, and multiple perspectives. In this synthesis paper, and in the accompanying cases, we hypothesize that the dynamics of cross-scale and cross-level interactions are affected by the interplay between institutions at multiple levels and scales. We suggest that the advent of co-management structures and conscious boundary management that includes knowledge co-production, mediation, translation, and negotiation across scale-related boundaries may facilitate solutions to complex problems that decision makers have historically been unable to solve.
In this article we examine the emergence and implications of transnational climate-change governance. We argue that although the study of transnational relations has recently been renewed alongside a burgeoning interest in issues of global governance, the nature of transnational governance has to date received less attention. We contend that transnational governance occurs when networks operating in the transnational political sphere authoritatively steer constituents toward public goals. In order to stimulate a more systematic study of the diversity and significance of this phenomenon, the article develops a typology based on the actors involved and their authority-public, private, or hybrid-and the primary governance functions performed in order to steer network constituents-information-sharing, capacity building and implementation, or rule-setting. A comparative discussion of transnational governance networks for climate change illustrates each category and the value of the typology in assessing the multiple mechanisms through which transnational governance occurs. In conclusion, we suggest that our typology provides a useful starting point for future research and reflect on the implications for the study of global affairs. (c) 2009 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons model predicts the eventual overexploitation or degradation of all resources used in common. Given this unambiguous prediction, a surprising number of cases exist in which users have been able to restrict access to the resource and establish rules among themselves for its sustainable use. To assess the evidence, we first define common-property resources and present a taxonomy of property-rights regimes in which such resources may be held. Evidence accumulated over the last twenty-two years indicates that private, state, andcommunal property are all potentially viable resource management options. A more complete theory than Hardin's should incorporate institutional arrangements and cultural factors to provide for better analysis and prediction.
In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to
the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions
most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management
of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine
ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival.
The clean development mechanism (CDM) is part of the global carbon market developing rapidly in response to global warming. It has the twin objective to achieve sustainable development (SD) in host countries and assist Annex-1 countries in achieving their emission reduction targets in a cost-efficient manner. However, research has shown that trade-offs between the two objectives exist in favour of cost-efficient emission reductions and that left to the market forces, the CDM does not significantly contribute to sustainable development. The main argument of the paper is the need for an international standard for sustainability assessment—additional to national definitions—to counter weaknesses in the existing system of sustainability approval by designated national authorities in host countries. The article develops a new methodology, i.e. a taxonomy for sustainability assessment based on text analysis of the 744 project design documents (PDDs) submitted for validation by 3 May 2006. Through analysis of the SD benefits of all CDM projects at aggregated levels, the strengths and limitations of the taxonomy are explored. The main policy implication of the research is to propose the taxonomy as the basis of an international verification protocol for designated operational entities (DOEs) for reporting, monitoring and verifying that potential SD benefits described in the PDDs are actually realized.
"We investigate linkages between stakeholders in resource management that occur at different spatial and institutional levels and identify the winners and losers in such interactions. So-called crossscale interactions emerge because of the benefits to individual stakeholder groups in undertaking them or the high costs of not undertaking them. Hence there are uneven gains from cross-scale interactions that are themselves an integral part of social-ecological system governance. The political economy framework outlined here suggests that the determinants of the emergence of cross-scale interactions are the exercise of relative power between stakeholders and their costs of accessing and creating linkages. Cross-scale interactions by powerful stakeholders have the potential to undermine trust in resource management arrangements. If government regulators, for example, mobilize information and resources from cross-level interactions to reinforce their authority, this often disempowers other stakeholders such as resource users. Offsetting such impacts, some cross-scale interactions can be empowering for local level user groups in creating social and political capital. These issues are illustrated with observations on resource management in a marine protected area in Tobago in the Caribbean. The case study demonstrates that the structure of the cross-scale interplay, in terms of relative winners and losers, determines its contribution to the resilience of social-ecological systems."
"Most research in the area of common and common-pool resources in the past two or three decades sought the simplicity of community-based resource management cases to develop theory. This was done mainly because of the relative ease of observing processes of self- governance in simple cases, but it raises questions related to scale. To what extent can the findings of small-scale, community-based commons be scaled up to generalize about regional and global commons? Even though some of the principles from community-based studies are likely to be relevant across scale, new and different principles may also come into play at different levels. The study of cross-level institutions such as institutions of co-management, provides ways to approach scale-related questions and deal with linkages in complex adaptive systems. Looking beyond self-governance, community-based resource management needs to deal with multiple levels of governance and external drivers of change, as illustrated in this paper with examples of marine commons."
This special issue of the International Journal of the Commons considers a variety of conceptual perspectives and lessons from cases to deal with the problems of a globalized, multi-level world. It aims to contribute to extending and elaborating commons theory; understanding the issue of scale and institutional linkages; and understanding multi-level governance of a commons with state, private and civil society actors. The issue is based largely on papers presented at the 2006 Biennial Conference of IASC in Bali, Indonesia. Papers investigate partnerships, networks, and cross-scale institutional linkages in commons management, using a grassroots perspective, while taking into account multi-level governance. The issue includes both conceptual and case study papers (and those combining the two), providing examples from a range of geographical areas and resource
types, and using interdisciplinary perspectives, in keeping with IASC ideals.
http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/article/view/76/7
The survival of the commons is closely associated with the potential to find ways to strengthen contemporary management systems, making them more responsive to a number of complexities, like the dynamics of ecosystems and related, but often fragmented, institutions. A discussion on the desirability of finding ways to establish so-called cross-scale linkages has recently been vitalised in the literature. In the same vein, concepts like adaptive management, co-management and adaptive co-management have been discussed. In essence, these ways of organizing management incorporate an implicit assumption about the establishment of social networks and is more closely related to network governance and social network theory, than to political administrative hierarchy. However, so far, attempts to incorporate social network analysis (SNA) in this literature have been rather few, and not particularly elaborate. In this paper, a framework for such an approach will be presented. The framework provides an analytical skeleton for the understanding of joint management and the establishment of cross-scale linkages. The relationships between structural network properties - like density, centrality and heterogeneity - and innovation in adaptive co-management systems are highlighted as important to consider when crafting institutions for natural resource management. The paper makes a theoretical and methodological contribution to the understanding of co-management, and thereby to the survival of the commons.
In a seminal paper, Garrett Hardin argued in 1968 that users of a commons are caught in an inevitable process that leads to the destruction of the resources on which they depend. This article discusses new insights about such problems and the conditions most likely to favor sustainable uses of common-pool resources. Some of the most difficult challenges concern the management of large-scale resources that depend on international cooperation, such as fresh water in international basins or large marine ecosystems. Institutional diversity may be as important as biological diversity for our long-term survival.
The authors take up the hypothesis originally proposed by Garrett Hardin that resources held in common, such as oceans, rivers, air, and parklands, are bound to be subject to massive degradation. Specifically, they "examine the accumulated evidence pertaining to common-property resource management and provide a critique of the conventional theory expounded by Hardin." They conclude that recent evidence suggests that users of such resources are able to restrict access to them and establish rules among themselves for their sustainable use.
T hirty-five years ago, Science published a remarkable essay by Garret Hardin entitled “Tragedy of the Commons.” I knew Hardin at the time and admired his paper, but had no idea whatsoever of the influence it and its author would have on how we think about population and the environment. That
Co-management, or the joint management of the commons, is often formulated in terms of some arrangement of power sharing between the State and a community of resource users. In reality, there often are multiple local interests and multiple government agencies at play, and co-management can hardly be understood as the interaction of a unitary State and a homogeneous community. An approach focusing on the legal aspects of co-management, and emphasizing the formal structure of arrangements (how governance is configured) runs the risk of neglecting the functional side of co-management. An alternative approach is to start from the assumption that co-management is a continuous problem-solving process, rather than a fixed state, involving extensive deliberation, negotiation and joint learning within problem-solving networks. This presumption implies that co-management research should preferably focus on how different management tasks are organized and distributed concentrating on the function, rather than the structure, of the system. Such an approach has the effect of highlighting that power sharing is the result, and not the starting point, of the process. This kind of research approach might employ the steps of (1) defining the social-ecological system under focus; (2) mapping the essential management tasks and problems to be solved; (3) clarifying the participants in the problem-solving processes; (4) analyzing linkages in the system, in particular across levels of organization and across geographical space; (5) evaluating capacity-building needs for enhancing the skills and capabilities of people and institutions at various levels; and (6) prescribing ways to improve policy making and problem-solving.
Maintaining the Earth’s climate within habitable boundaries is probably the greatest “public goods game” played by humans. However, with >6 billion “players” taking part, the game seems to rule out individual altruistic behavior. Thus, climate protection is a problem of sustaining a public resource that everybody is free to overuse, a “tragedy of the commons” problem that emerges in many social dilemmas. We perform a previously undescribed type of public goods experiment with human subjects contributing to a public pool. In contrast to the standard protocol, here the common pool is not divided among the participants; instead, it is promised that the pool will be invested to encourage people to reduce their fossil fuel use. Our extensive experiments demonstrate that players can behave altruistically to maintain the Earth’s climate given the right set of circumstances. We find a nonzero basic level of altruistic behavior, which is enhanced if the players are provided with expert information describing the state of knowledge in climate research. Furthermore, personal investments in climate protection increase substantially if players can invest publicly, thus gaining social reputation. This increase occurs because subjects reward other subjects’ contributions to sustaining the climate, thus reinforcing their altruism. Therefore, altruism may convert to net personal benefit and to relaxing the dilemma if the gain in reputation is large enough. Our finding that people reward contributions to sustaining the climate of others is a surprising result. There are obvious ways these unexpected findings can be applied on a large scale.
• climate change
• public goods game
• reputation
• tragedy of the commons
We explore how the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program, a network that is simultaneously global and local, state and nonstate, could be conceptualized as part of global environmental governance. We suggest that traditional approaches to international relations—regime theory and transnational networks—offer limited conceptual space for analyzing such networks. These approaches obscure how the governance of global climate change takes place through processes and institutions operating at and between a variety of scales and involving a range of actors with different levels and forms of authority. We contend that it is only by taking a multilevel perspective that we can fully capture the social, political, and economic processes that shape global environmental governance.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10287
The past decade has witnessed a growing interest among scholars of international relations, and global environmental governance in particular, in the role of transnational networks within the international arena. While the existence and potential significance of such networks has been documented, many questions concerning the nature of governance conducted by such networks and their impact remain. We contribute to these debates by examining how such networks are created and maintained and the extent to which they can foster policy learning and change. We focus on the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) program, a network of some 550 local governments concerned with promoting local initiatives for the mitigation of climate change. It is frequently asserted that the importance of such networks lies in their ability to exchange knowledge and information, and to forge norms about the nature and terms of particular issues. However, we find that those local governments most effectively engaged with the network are mobilized more by the financial and political resources it offers, and the legitimacy conferred to particular norms about climate protection, than by access to information. Moreover, processes of policy learning within the CCP program take place in discursive struggles as different actors seek legitimacy for their interpretations of what local climate protection policies should mean. In conclusion, we reflect upon the implications of these findings for understanding the role of transnational networks in global environmental governance.
The clean development mechanism (CDM) is part of the global carbon market developing rapidly in response to global warming. It has the twin objective to achieve sustainable development (SD) in host countries and assist Annex-1 countries in achieving their emission reduction targets in a cost-efficient manner. However, research has shown that trade-offs between the two objectives exist in favour of cost-efficient emission reductions and that left to the market forces, the CDM does not significantly contribute to sustainable development. The main argument of the paper is the need for an international standard for sustainability assessment—additional to national definitions—to counter weaknesses in the existing system of sustainability approval by designated national authorities in host countries. The article develops a new methodology, i.e. a taxonomy for sustainability assessment based on text analysis of the 744 project design documents (PDDs) submitted for validation by 3 May 2006. Through analysis of the SD benefits of all CDM projects at aggregated levels, the strengths and limitations of the taxonomy are explored. The main policy implication of the research is to propose the taxonomy as the basis of an international verification protocol for designated operational entities (DOEs) for reporting, monitoring and verifying that potential SD benefits described in the PDDs are actually realized.
The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatization of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. After critiquing the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved. Dr Ostrom uses institutional analysis to explore different ways - both successful and unsuccessful - of governing the commons. In contrast to the proposition of the 'tragedy of the commons' argument, common pool problems sometimes are solved by voluntary organizations rather than by a coercive state. Among the cases considered are communal tenure in meadows and forests, irrigation communities and other water rights, and fisheries.
This study examines opportunitie s for and obstacles to the mitigation of climate change in US cities using the example of the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign sponsored by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives. The CCP experience suggests a number of ways in which municipal governments can control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also highlights several obstacles that make it dif � cult for local of � cials to do so. First, climate change is generally framed as a global issue. The CCP experience suggests that climate change is most likely to be reframed as a local issue when the preferred policy response (controlling GHG emissions) can be linked to issues (e.g. air quality) already on the local agenda. Secondly, even when local governments recognise that they should do something to control GHG emissions, institutiona l barriers make it dif � cult for municipalitie s to move from political rhetoric to policy action. Finally, it is questionable whether local initiatives can make meaningful contribution s to climate change mitigation in the absence of policy changes at the state and national levels.
A rich literature theorizes about the development of transnational networks among social movements that may signal the emergence of a new global civil society. This article presents empirical results from an international survey of environmental groups. We find evidence of a relatively dense network of international action by green groups, and a substantial resource transfer from green groups in the OECD nations to those in the developing world. At the same time, the patterns of exchange within this network raise questions about the more optimistic claims of the global civil society literature because participation in this transnational network is largely an extension of the factors that encourage domestic political action. In addition, power inequalities and value differences that exist within this international environmental network may limit transnational cooperation among environmental groups.
This article presents an analytical framework for analyzing Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in terms of their contribution
to employment generation, equal distribution of CDM returns, and improvement of local air quality. It assesses 16 officially
registered CDM projects with regard to whether they fulfill the two objectives required by the Kyoto Protocol: greenhouse
gas emission reductions and contribution to sustainable development in the host country. While a large part (72%) of the total
portfolio’s expected Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) are likely to represent real and measurable emission reductions,
less than 1% are likely to contribute significantly to sustainable development in the host country. According to our analysis,
there are currently no UNFCCC registered CDM projects that are likely to fulfill the Kyoto Protocol’s twofold objective of
simultaneously delivering greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction and contributing to sustainable development.
This paper seeks to develop an alternative account of the geographies of environmental governance to those current conceptions which tend to take space and scale for granted as pre-given, contained, natural entities. Through an engagement with the debates on the politics of scale, the argument is made that a new spatial grammar of environmental governance must be sensitive to both the politics of scale and the politics of networks. Rather than considering scalar and non-scalar interpretations of spatiality as necessarily opposite, the paper argues that through a more careful deployment of concepts of hierarchy and territory common ground between scalar and network geographies can be forged, and can inform our understanding of environmental governance. In making this argument, the paper provides an overview of contemporary configurations of global environmental governance, and seeks to illustrate by reference to one transnational municipal network, the Cities for Climate Protection programme, how governing the environment involves both political processes of scaling and rescaling the objects and agents of governance, as well as attempts to create new, networked, arenas of governance. The paper concludes that recognition of new spatial grammars is necessary for understanding emerging hybrid forms of environmental governance and their political and ecological implications.
"Environmental and resource regimes, operating at different levels of social organization, vary in terms of factors such as the sources of actor behavior, the knowledge available to actors, the operation of compliance mechanisms, the use of policy instruments, and the nature of the broader social setting. Cross-level interactions among scale-dependent regimes can result in patterns of dominance, separation, merger, negotiated agreement, or system change. The mechanisms that determine which of these patterns will occur include authority/power differentials, limits of decentralization, dueling discourses,cognitive transitions, and blocking coalitions. Recurrent linkages or syndromes occur in this realm, e.g., limitations of authority and power regularly produce negotiated agreements in such forms as comanagement arrangements. The consequences of these interactions are often far-reaching as measured in terms of ecological sustainability, social welfare/efficiency, cultural values, and robustness."
Obra de economía en la que se incluyen los sistemas biofísicos y sociales en sus análisis, de manera que se introducen los conceptos de la calidad del aire y el agua, la diversidad de los especies, la equidad social, entre otros, a los conceptos tanto macroeconómicos como microeconómicos. Incluye un sistema de aprendizaje basado en problemas reales y aspectos teóricos.
The empirical evidence in the papers in this special issue identifies pervasive and difficult cross-scale and cross-level interactions in managing the environment. The complexity of these interactions and the fact that both scholarship and management have only recently begun to address this complexity have provided the impetus for us to present one synthesis of scale and cross-scale dynamics. In doing so, we draw from multiple cases, multiple disciplines, and multiple perspectives. In this synthesis paper, and in the accompanying cases, we hypothesize that the dynamics of cross-scale and cross-level interactions are affected by the interplay between institutions at multiple levels and scales. We suggest that the advent of co-management structures and conscious boundary management that includes knowledge co-production, mediation, translation, and negotiation across scale-related boundaries may facilitate solutions to complex problems that decision makers have historically been unable to solve.
We investigate linkages between stakeholders in resource management that occur at different spatial and institutional levels and identify the winners and losers in such interactions. So-called cross-scale interactions emerge because of the benefits to individual stakeholder groups in undertaking them or the high costs of not undertaking them. Hence there are uneven gains from cross-scale interactions that are themselves an integral part of social-ecological system governance. The political economy framework outlined here suggests that the determinants of the emergence of cross-scale interactions are the exercise of relative power between stakeholders and their costs of accessing and creating linkages. Cross-scale interactions by powerful stakeholders have the potential to undermine trust in resource management arrangements. If government regulators, for example, mobilize information and resources from cross-level interactions to reinforce their authority, this often disempowers other stakeholders such as resource users. Offsetting such impacts, some cross-scale interactions can be empowering for local level user groups in creating social and political capital. These issues are illustrated with observations on resource management in a marine protected area in Tobago in the Caribbean. The case study demonstrates that the structure of the cross-scale interplay, in terms of relative winners and losers, determines its contribution to the resilience of social-ecological systems.
Over the past decade the governance of global climate change has evolved into a complex, multi-level process involving actors and initiatives at multiple levels of social organization from the global to the local in both the public and private spheres. This article analyzes the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) as one component of this multilevel governance system. Specifically, it evaluates the CEC as a site of regional climate governance based on three potential advantages of governance through regional organizations: a small number of actors, opportunities for issue linkage, and linkage between national and global governance systems. On each count I find that the benefits of a CEC-based climate governance system are limited and argue for greater consideration of how such a system would interact with other forms of climate governance in North America. (c) 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The population problem has no technical solution; it requires a fundamental extension in morality.
Human institutions—ways of organizing activities—affect the resilience of the environment. Locally evolved institutional arrangements
governed by stable communities and buffered from outside forces have sustained resources successfully for centuries, although
they often fail when rapid change occurs. Ideal conditions for governance are increasingly rare. Critical problems, such as
transboundary pollution, tropical deforestation, and climate change, are at larger scales and involve nonlocal influences.
Promising strategies for addressing these problems include dialogue among interested parties, officials, and scientists; complex,
redundant, and layered institutions; a mix of institutional types; and designs that facilitate experimentation, learning,
and change.
Suppose that land is communally owned. Every person has the right to hunt, till, or mine the land. This form of ownership
fails to concentrate the cost associated with any person's exercise of his communal right on that person. If a person seeks
to maximize the value of his communal rights, he will tend to overhunt and overwork the land because some of the costs of
his doing so are borne by others. The stock of game and the richness of the soil will be diminished too quickly. It is conceivable
that those who own these rights, i.e. every member of the community, can agree to curtail the rate at which they work the
lands if negotiating and policing costs are zero… [However,] negotiating costs will be large because it is difficult for many
persons to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement, especially when each hold-out has the right to work the land as fast as
he pleases. [Furthermore,] even if an agreement among all can be reached, we must yet take account of the costs of policing
the agreement, and these may be large, also.
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