Environmental sustainability efforts require a great deal of engagement and political will, ranging from local communities to state departments. Science diplomats-from experts and scientists to spokespersons and ambassadors-can help facilitate at all levels and yield valued resources from technology sharing, capacity building, and knowledge exchanges. This book explores the importance of sustained international scientific cooperation, building community resilience, and the role of political will in sustainability and diplomacy. It shows how even small diplomatic efforts can influence myriad issues, from overfishing to human rights negotiations to global carbon emission reduction. Features: * Examines various topics such as global climate change, arid environments, water security and governance, trans-boundary conflict and cooperation, urban and rural resilience, and public health. * Presents case studies from various geographic regions through the lens of diplomacy, including the US-Mexico border, the Gulf of California, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and China. * Discusses how building networks of people, organizations, and countries engaged in science diplomacy is crucial for mutual growth and for overcoming conflicting political stances. Sustainable Development for the Americas: Science, Health and Engineering Policy and Diplomacy provides a useful resource for diplomats, policymakers, students, and decision-makers. It provides numerous examples of how using science and technology for policy and diplomacy is essential to finding common ground among nations for a collective global benefit.

This book offers multidisciplinary perspectives on renewable economies in the Arctic and how these are being supported scientifically, economically, socially, and politically by Arctic states. The economic development of the Arctic region is witnessing new, innovative trends which hold promise for the sustainable development of the region. This book discusses the emerging forms of renewable economies to understand where intellectual and technological innovations are being made. It draws on the expertise of scholars from across the Arctic and provides the reader with a foundation of knowledge to identify the unique challenges of the region and explore opportunities to unlock the immense potential of renewable resources to boost the region's economy. This book offers a holistic Arctic perspective against the backdrop of prevailing social, economic, and climatic challenges. With critical insights on the economic state of play and the role of renewable resources in the development of the Arctic region, this book will be a vital point of reference for Arctic scholars, communities, and policy makers.

Is democracy, in its neoliberalized form, responsible in part for bringing us to the brink of self-destruction and the policy inertia that is doing away with our chances of survival? Surviving Democracy probes the way democracy became neoliberalized and the role neoliberalized democracy plays in our dealings with-causing, understanding, denying, and mitigating-climate change. Defining neoliberalism as the art of exclusion through inclusion, Chien-Yi Lu treats climate change as collateral damage of the neoliberal order established to ensure upward power and wealth redistribution. Highlighting the role money played in the "free" competition of ideas between Keynes and Hayek, she investigates the resulting global structure, wherein the wealthy and powerful sit above the market and democracy, and the way this structure fundamentally contradicts with honest climate mitigation. Central to the structure is neoliberal elites' leveraging of the fluid relationship between the market and the state. Merging citizen power with consumer and investor powers is therefore imperative to the success of climate action. While expediting the bursting of the carbon bubble is an obvious answer, it is the discussion of the meat bubble that brings the book full circle, linking our survival to neoliberalism, inclusion, and democracy. Surviving Democracy probes the role democracy plays in our dealings with-causing, understanding, denying, and hopefully, mitigating-climate change.

This book provides an analysis of the European policy approach to combined heat and power (CHP), a highly efficient technology used by all EU Member States for the needs of generating electricity and heat. European Law on Combined Heat and Power carries out an assessment of the European legal and policy measures on CHP, evaluating how it has changed over the years through progress and decline in specific member states. Over the course of the book, Sokolowski explores all aspects of CHP, examining the types of measures used to steer the growth of cogeneration in the EU and the policies and regulatory tools that have influenced its development. He also assesses the specific role of CHP in the liberalisation of the internal energy market and EU action on climate and sustainability. Finally, by delivering his notions of "cogenatives", "cogenmunities", or "Micro-Collective-Flexible-Smart-High-Efficiency cogeneration", Sokolowski considers how the new EU energy package - "Clean energy for all Europeans" - will shape future developments. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy law and regulation, combined heat and power and energy efficiency, as well as policy makers and energy experts working in the CHP sector.

Climate and Energy Politics in Poland: Debating Carbon Dioxide and Shale Gas presents a new, object-oriented perspective on the challenge faced by Poland, the largest post-socialist EU member state from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), to produce knowledge about its energy system in the context of climate change. Drawing on data from five different research projects and two hundred interviews, Lis reflects on how EU accession forced Poland to mobilize their resources and produce expertise on carbon dioxide and shale gas, in order to actively participate in the debates around EU climate change ambitions and goals. A significant lack of capacity and expert institutions made it difficult for Poland to quickly assess the impacts of EU legislation or to propose new solutions for itself, and it is precisely this struggle for knowledge production that will be examined during the course of the book. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy and resource politics, climate change, EU environmental policy and CEE studies more broadly.

This book introduces the idea of anthroponomy - the organization of humankind to support autonomous life - as a response to the problems of today's purported "Anthropocene" age. It argues for a specific form of accountability for the redressing of planetary-scaled environmental problems. The concept of anthroponomy helps confront geopolitical history shaped by the social processes of capitalism, colonialism, and industrialism, which have resulted in our planetary situation. Involving Anthroponomy in the Anthropocene: On Decoloniality explores how mobilizing our engagement with the politics of our planetary situation can come from moral relations. This book focuses on the anti-imperial work of addressing unfinished decolonization, and hence involves the "decolonial" work of cracking open the common sense of the world that supports ongoing colonization. "Coloniality" is the name for this common sense, and the discourse of the "Anthropocene" supports it. A consistent anti-imperial and anti-capitalist politics, one committed to equality and autonomy, will problematize the Anthropocene through decoloniality. Sometimes the way forward is the way backward. Written in a novel style that demonstrates - not simply theorizes - moral relatedness, this book makes a valuable contribution to the fields of Anthropocene studies, environmental studies, decolonial studies, and social philosophy.

The purpose of this book is twofold. First, it aims to explain the general framework for cooperation in the energy sector in Europe, with a conceptual basis that allows for a better understanding of the dynamics that led to its existence. Second, the volume deals with Romania both as a representative case for the region, given the commonalities raised by the transition process in the last three decades, and also as a country with a specific energy agenda, with implications for internal and foreign policy that can only be perceived and understood in the Romanian context.

This book analyses the key political challenges to regional energy cooperation in South Asia. It argues that investment in the planning of regional energy projects can increase their viability and also drive integration and peacebuilding. Regional cooperation has been substantiated by academics and multilateral development banks as one of the most viable solutions to South Asia's crippling energy crisis. However, three decades of national and regional efforts have failed to develop a single multilateral energy project or foster high levels of bilateral cooperation. Using data collected through extensive interviews with policymakers in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, this book identifies the specific roadblocks to energy cooperation - including domestic politics and the failure of leadership on multiple levels - and evaluates how these political challenges determine regional interactions on energy securitisation, environmental cooperation and human rights. Huda then undertakes case studies on four transnational energy projects to highlight specific policy recommendations to overcome these challenges, suggesting planning mechanisms through which the significant issue of energy cooperation in South Asia can be addressed. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy security and geopolitics, natural resource governance and South Asian politics.

This book deepens our understanding of ethical drivers in energy policy and contributes to future decision-making on transitions towards a sustainable energy system. During the latest fifty years Western energy politics have been faced with a series of ethical challenges including rapid growth, oil crises, security of supply, nuclear power and climate change. Combining philosophical, historical and planning approaches into one narrative, these dilemmas are explored using Denmark as the key case study. Drawing on contributions from several experts in the field, the ethics of energy is investigated from multiple perspectives at the individual, corporate, local and national levels, focusing on concrete decisions where different ethical considerations are weighted against each other. This comprehensive approach helps to gain a deeper understanding of the energy sector's history and gives important input to its future layout. Drawing comparisons with European and global examples, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy politics and policy, environmental ethics, climate change and sustainability transitions.

This book examines from different perspectives the moral significance of non-human members of the biotic community and their omission from climate ethics literature. The complexity of life in an age of rapid climate change demands the development of moral frameworks that recognize and respect the dignity and agency of both human and non-human organisms. Despite decades of careful work in non-anthropocentric approaches to environmental ethics, recent anthologies on climate ethics have largely omitted non-anthropocentric approaches. This multidisciplinary volume of international scholars tackles this lacuna by presenting novel work on non-anthropocentric approaches to climate ethics. Written in an accessible style, the text incorporates sentiocentric, biocentric, and ecocentric perspectives on climate change. With diverse perspectives from both leading and emerging scholars of environmental ethics, geography, religious studies, conservation ecology, and environmental studies, this book will offer a valuable reading for students and scholars of these fields.

The last two decades have witnessed an ever growing partisan divide in US politics over climate change and global warming. Significant elements in the Republican Party became openly hostile to the scientific evidence and, following the election of George W. Bush, legislative action at the federal level effectively ground to a halt. This opened up space at the state and local level to develop climate change policies with cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and New York implementing a number of initiatives that brought real and substantive developments. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 seemed to open new possibilities for federal and global leadership once more and whilst the Obama administration has been criticised for a somewhat contradictory approach to the issue at times, there were nonetheless a number of substantive policy developments. Through a substantive and detailed analysis of the politics of climate change, this book places the evolution of US climate policy within broader debates on the nature of politics in the US and argues that there exists a latent potential, often obscured by the complexities of its political system, for America to act as a world leader on the issue. This work will appeal particularly to students and scholars in American Politics, but will also prove useful to those in the fields of general Politics, climate change, sustainability, and environmental studies.

This book explores the nature of climate change in southern Africa, its impacts on tourism and the resilience, adaptation and governance needs in various tourism operations and environments. Previous studies on climate change and tourism have mainly focused on the Global North and specific forms of tourism such as snow-based winter activities. Drawing on case studies from a wide range of countries including South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, this book fills this lacuna by describing and analysing the climate change and tourism nexus in the southern African context. The book begins by providing an overview of the current and estimated impacts of climate change to the tourism industry in the region, highlighting the deepening socio-economic inequities, and environmental and social injustices. It focuses on the importance of sustainable tourism in tackling these issues and highlights that resilience and robust governance and policy systems are essential for a tourism destination to successfully adapt to change. By synthesising the key lessons learned through this analysis, Climate Change and Tourism in Southern Africa also draws attention to specific adaptation and policy strategies which have value for other regions in the Global South. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of climate change, tourism and environmental policy and justice.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of illustrations

List of contributors

Preface and acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 Climate and climate change of southern Africa

3 Perspectives for approaching climate resource and change in tourism

4 Methods for tourism and climate change research in southern Africa

5 Climate change risks to southern African tourism

6 Destination resilience, vulnerabilities, and climate change threats

7 Adaptation to climate change by the southern African tourism sector

8 The role of tourism in contributing to climate change

9 Governance and policy needs in tourism and climate change relations

10 Conclusions and a way forward

References

Index/

This book describes thoroughly the North American Climate of the past 65 million years, with special emphasis on the last 21,000 years, as revealed by paleoclimatic observations and climate models. It analyzes weather observations over the past century and satellite measurements of the last few decades to develop a picture of more recent climatic trends. It explains how global climate models are used to simulate and project climate, and presents the application of these models to reproduce recent climate variations and predict future North American climate. It answers the critical question of whether observed climate change is due to natural variations or human activity.

A special volume in the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series, this English-language volume is an edited collection of articles selected from the Chinese-language Annual Report on Actions to Address Climate Change (2013): Focus on Low-carbon Urbanization. This volume provides information on how China views the challenge of climate change and seeks to rectify the extraordinary confusion found in the West on China's green energy future and its larger perspectives on this extraordinarily crucial topic. Contributors in this volume provide a bigger picture of international negotiations on climate change; discuss China's national actions on green energy and sustainability and how national policies are implemented at the local level; and examine challenges and potential of developing green energy resources in China.

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the role of the private sector in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, and inclusive world. In the lead up to and since the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, more than 6,000 companies from 120 countries representing more than $36.5 trillion in revenue have made climate commitments. Examining this trend, The New Corporate Climate Leadership provides a clear synthesis of the relationship between the real economy and climate change and offers a state-of-the-art assessment of corporate initiatives that focus on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the management of climate risk through enhanced resilience. It debates the relative merits of incremental and sequenced ambition versus radical systems change - including a critique of the prevailing capitalist approach to climate change - and provides an actionable guide to skills development for change-makers in the shift toward a low-carbon world. Drawing on perspectives from leading thinkers inside the private sector, across government, and within civil society to truly interrogate the scale, scope, and speed of progress, this book provides a clear vision for what the next generation of corporate climate leadership should look like. Optimistic in tone, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of climate change and sustainable business.

This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the role of the private sector in accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient, and inclusive world. In the lead up to and since the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, more than 6,000 companies from 120 countries representing more than $36.5 trillion in revenue have made climate commitments. Examining this trend, The New Corporate Climate Leadership provides a clear synthesis of the relationship between the real economy and climate change and offers a state-of-the-art assessment of corporate initiatives that focus on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and the management of climate risk through enhanced resilience. It debates the relative merits of incremental and sequenced ambition versus radical systems change - including a critique of the prevailing capitalist approach to climate change - and provides an actionable guide to skills development for change-makers in the shift toward a low-carbon world. Drawing on perspectives from leading thinkers inside the private sector, across government, and within civil society to truly interrogate the scale, scope, and speed of progress, this book provides a clear vision for what the next generation of corporate climate leadership should look like. Optimistic in tone, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of climate change and sustainable business.

Media and Climate Change: * Explores how climate change is represented in Indian media * Draws on personal interviews, case studies and a close reading of over 500 newspaper reports * Will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of environment, especially climate change, media studies, public policy and South Asian studies

Epistemic Justice, Mindfulness, and the Environmental Humanities explores how contemplative pedagogies and mindfulness can be used in the classroom to address epistemic and environmental injustice. In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in contemplative pedagogies in higher education, with increasing attention from the environmental sciences, environmental humanities, and sustainability studies. Teachers and writers have demonstrated how mindfulness practices can be a key to anti-oppression and anti-racist efforts, both in and out of the classroom. Not all forms of contemplative pedagogy are suited for this anti-colonial and anti-oppressive resistance, however. Simply adopting mindfulness practices in the classroom is not enough to dislodge and dismantle white supremacy in higher education. Epistemic Justice, Mindfulness, and the Environmental Humanities advocates for mindfulness practices that affirm multiple epistemologies and cultural traditions. Written for educators in the environmental humanities and other related disciplines, the chapters interrogate the western uptake of mindfulness practices and suggest anti-colonial and anti-oppressive methods for bringing mindfulness into the classroom. The chapters also discuss what mindfulness practices have to offer to the pursuit of a culturally relevant pedagogy. This highly applied and practical text will be an insightful read for educators in the environmental humanities and across the liberal arts disciplines.

1) This book presents a comprehensive overview of environment and sustainable development. 2) It has case studies from India, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, U.S.A., Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Kenya. 3) It will be of interest to departments of environmental studies, development studies, sustainable development, political studies, sociology, and political economy. It will also interest policymakers, development practitioners, NGOs and think tanks working on environment and sustainable development, climate issues and SDGs.

Epistemic Justice, Mindfulness, and the Environmental Humanities explores how contemplative pedagogies and mindfulness can be used in the classroom to address epistemic and environmental injustice. In recent years, there has been a groundswell of interest in contemplative pedagogies in higher education, with increasing attention from the environmental sciences, environmental humanities, and sustainability studies. Teachers and writers have demonstrated how mindfulness practices can be a key to anti-oppression and anti-racist efforts, both in and out of the classroom. Not all forms of contemplative pedagogy are suited for this anti-colonial and anti-oppressive resistance, however. Simply adopting mindfulness practices in the classroom is not enough to dislodge and dismantle white supremacy in higher education. Epistemic Justice, Mindfulness, and the Environmental Humanities advocates for mindfulness practices that affirm multiple epistemologies and cultural traditions. Written for educators in the environmental humanities and other related disciplines, the chapters interrogate the western uptake of mindfulness practices and suggest anti-colonial and anti-oppressive methods for bringing mindfulness into the classroom. The chapters also discuss what mindfulness practices have to offer to the pursuit of a culturally relevant pedagogy. This highly applied and practical text will be an insightful read for educators in the environmental humanities and across the liberal arts disciplines.

Completely revised and updated with a new chapter on future possibilities Comprehensive coverage of available renewable technologies starting from basic scientific and engineering principles Compares and contrasts renewable technologies against each other and existing non-renewables like fossil fuels & nuclear power Addresses new developments in topics such as climate change mitigation, solar photovoltaic lighting, electricity grids, small-scale batteries, electric vehicles and bio-fuels

This book presents a new System Dynamics model (the ERRE model), a novel stock and flow consistent global impact assessment model designed by the authors to address the financial risks emerging from the interaction between economic growth and environmental limits under the presence of shocks. Building on the World3-03 Limits to Growth model, the ERRE links the financial system with the energy, agriculture and climate systems through the real economy, by means of feedback loops, time lags and non-linear rationally bounded decision making. Prices and their interaction with growth, inflation and interest rates are assumed to be the main driver of economic failure while reaching planetary limits. The model allows for the stress-testing of fat tail extreme risk scenarios, such as climate shocks, energy transition, monetary policies and carbon taxes. Risks are addressed via scenario analyses, compared to real available data, and assessed in terms of the economic theory that lies behind. The book outlines the case for a government led system change within this decade, where the market alone cannot lead to sustainable prosperity. This book will be of great interest to scholars of climate change, behavioural, ecological and evolutionary economics, green finance, and sustainable development.

The Myth of Development boldly states that the benefits of development, so long promised over the past sixty years, have not come about for most people. Nor are they going to. State-driven and market-led development models have both failed. Many countries, and their cities in particular, are collapsing into ungovernable chaotic entities. De Rivero shows that the root of this chaos is not simply economic, but stems from a much more profound crisis of our way of life and of our unsustainable global urban civilization. Arguing that the 'wealth of nations' agenda must be replaced by a 'survival of nations' agenda in order to prevent increasing human misery and political disorder, De Riviero explains why many countries must abandon dreams of development and adopt instead a policy of national survival based on providing basic water, food, renewable energy, and stabilizing their populations. Featuring a new introduction by the author, this edition engages with the latest findings on climate change and assesses the prospects for our species in the decades ahead.

With a long history and deep connection to the Earth s resources, indigenous peoples have an intimate understanding and ability to observe the impacts linked to climate change. Traditional ecological knowledge and tribal experience play a key role in developing future scientific solutions for adaptation to the impacts. The book explores climate-related issues for indigenous communities in the United States, including loss of traditional knowledge, forests and ecosystems, food security and traditional foods, as well as water, Arctic sea ice loss, permafrost thaw and relocation. The book also highlights how tribal communities and programs are responding to the changing environments. Fifty authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies and NGOs contributed to the book.

Previously published in "Climatic Change, " Volume 120, Issue 3, 2013."

Based on state-of-the-art science and technologies, this book disseminates the latest advancements concerning the relationship between renewable energy and climate change and presents the best practices to further utilize renewable energy for mitigation. It examines issues of climate change from different renewable energy fronts by the respective experts from around the world. While high-level and in-depth technological advancements are judiciously presented, it also discusses different types of renewable energy and the associated technologies in consideration of the various perspectives of economy, availability, and societal implications in different regions. Features: Discusses the concept of leapfrogging renewable energy technologies in developing countries for the purpose of minimizing human-induced climate change impacts as rapidly as possible Includes various options from high technology to sustainable agriculture Presents and compares the latest novel and emerging potential technologies Outlines how to advance renewable energy by improving energy storage and optimizing financial incentives and management Renewable Energy for Mitigating Climate Change enlightens readers from a renewable energy perspective on how to best tackle the challenges of climate change. This is a must-read for senior undergraduate and graduate students in environmental studies, decision- and policymakers, educators, and every environmental steward. The interests of all stakeholders, especially future generations, form the thread connecting all the chapters together into a powerful tool to mitigate global climate change.