Russia will lag on climate action despite policy shift

Subject Climate change policy views in Russia. Significance After years of delay, the Russian government has acceded to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. This is a positive step, although the decision is more symbolism than substance. Moscow's obligations under the agreement are very limited and powerful domestic interests are obstructing implementation of a more active climate policy. Impacts Due to warming in the Arctic, Russia plans to increase cargo traffic along its Arctic maritime route to 80 million tonnes per year by 2024. As Russia promotes itself as an international climate leader, state-owned Rusnano is promoting high-tech solutions to emissions reductions. Objections to radical policy change will not be couched in the language of climate change denial.

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 362-367
Author(s):  
Rebecca Schmidt

Olympic Games do not happen in a vacuum or a sports bubble. They are embedded in both local and global realities of a social, economic, and environmental nature. Environmental factors, in particular, have impacted the Olympic Movement for several decades. In this context, climate change is a more recent, yet increasingly important, issue on the agenda. This essay examines the Olympic Movement's multi-level climate change policy. Based on the goals established in the Paris Agreement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) launched the Sports for Climate Action Initiative in 2018. In the context of the Olympics, this Initiative is implemented through the interplay between the IOC and actors at the local, host city level. Consequently, the system is highly dependent on local organizers’ capabilities to meet the Initiative's ambitious targets, as well as on the IOC's willingness and ability to take an active role in steering and supporting host cities in this process.


2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 741-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Spies-Butcher ◽  
Adam Stebbing

Despite growing evidence of significant impacts from human-induced climate change, policy responses have been slow. Understanding this policy inertia has led to competing explanations, which either point to the need to build a consensual politics separated from economic partisanship, or which encourage solidarities between environmental and social movements and issues. This article analyses a recent successful mobilisation, leading to the passage of the Clean Energy Act in Australia, to explore the relationship between attitudes to environmental and social protection, particularly among the core constituency in favour of stronger climate action. Using social survey data from the Australian Election Study, the article finds evidence of independent associations between prioritising environmental concerns and support for welfare state expansion, and a realignment of materialist and post-materialist values. This we argue is consistent with Polanyian analysis that posits a link between social and environmental causes based on resistance to commodification.


Author(s):  
Alex L. Wang

This chapter outlines China’s developing climate change response. The nation is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the largest consumer of energy. China’s engagement in the international climate change negotiations can be divided into three phases: a ‘learning’ phase from 1989 to 1995; a shift toward more active participation between 1995 and 2007; and more comprehensive engagement on climate change domestically and internationally around the time of the UN Climate Conference in Bali in 2007. Shortly before the conference, Chinese authorities announced for the first time a comprehensive National Climate Change Program. It presented a range of existing policies created earlier to address other energy and environmental issues.


2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Ruhanen ◽  
Char-lee Moyle ◽  
Brent Moyle

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to expand our understanding of sustainable tourism research given that both researchers and policymakers consistently question the effectiveness of sustainable tourism and its practices, applications and practical adoption.Design/methodology/approachThe aim of the research was to provide an update on previous studies by examining how sustainable tourism research has progressed in the five intervening years since Ruhanenet al.completed their 25-year bibliometric analysis.FindingsThis paper provides insights into how sustainable tourism research has developed over the 30 years since the publication of the Brundtland report. It shows that over the past five years, the field has matured to place greater emphasis on climate change, modeling, values, behavior and theoretical progression.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research in the field should aim to better understand the methods and analysis techniques being used in sustainable tourism, as well as how sustainable tourism and climate change policy and actions translate into policy and practice.Originality/valueBibliometrics and text mining shows that 30 years after the Brundtland report, sustainable tourism research continues to grow exponentially, with evidence that the field is starting to mature by broadening its horizons and focusing on more relevant, big-picture and hard-hitting topics, such as climate change.


Author(s):  
Elaine Tweneboah Lawson

Purpose Stakeholder consultation and participation are central to the climate change policymaking process. The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of stakeholder participation in the Ghana National Climate Change Policy. It examines the actors in the policy space and the negotiations and tradeoffs made during the policymaking process. Finally, it outlines the steps undertaken to make the process participatory and consultative. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative method has been used for this paper. The research design involves a review of relevant literature on Ghana’s climate change regime, meeting reports and key informant interviews. Findings The findings indicate that the processes the policy underwent had extensive stakeholder participation. An uptake of evidence was from existing impact and vulnerability assessments, the first and second communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), scientific and research documents and expert knowledge. Key actors were identified and involved right from the beginning of the policymaking process. Although stakeholder participation was time-consuming, expensive and elongated, the policy process was vital for buy-in and ownership. The results also identified the need to include more stakeholders at the sub-regional levels in policymaking. Originality/value The study is the first of its kind detailing stakeholder participation in the climate change policy process in Ghana. It forms a good basis for comparative studies with similar policies in other countries. Thus, this paper fills an identified gap of the need to document climate change policymaking processes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Skovgaard

In the course of the last four years, finance ministries have increasingly become involved in the international climate change negotiations. Their involvement has to a large degree been an outcome of the framing of climate change as a market failure. This framing calls for an active climate change policy and is at odds with the framing of climate change policy that was previously predominant in finance ministries: that it constitutes expenditure to be avoided. The persistence of both framings has led to clashes within and between finance ministries with respect to climate change. The article calls for further research focusing on the role of the two frames and of finance ministries as actors in climate change politics.


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