scholarly journals A Narrative Policy Framework Solution to Understanding Climate Change Framing Research

10.15788/npf9 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Allen Wolters ◽  
◽  
Michael D. Jones ◽  
Kathryn Duvall ◽  
◽  
...  

The climate change framing literature is vast. So much so that researchers—whether seasoned framing scholars or those foraying into climate change framing research for the first time—can easily be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of studies, the vast array of concepts deployed, the variation in how these same concepts are operationalized, the nuance of a barely numerable assortment of contexts, and the effects all of the aforementioned have on interpreting findings. Here we offer a synthetic review of said literature, focusing on adaptation and mitigation framing studies and findings. In so doing, we first briefly distill the overall developmental arc of climate change framing research. We then provide a conventionally styled thematic overview of the mitigation and adaptation climate change studies. Among other conclusions, we find that while there has been a proliferation of climate change framing research, the findings and the studies themselves are often quite disparate from one another. Moreover, as the literature speaks to itself intermittently and in an ad hoc fashion, it is not readily apparent how climate change framing studies holistically fit together. As a solution to this problem, we offer the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) as a narrative heuristic to help climate change researchers and communicators organize and understand the literature. We argue that an NPF integration of this inherently unwieldy literature increases the likelihood of research utilization and improves the ability of climate change communicators to inform people about the risks of climate change.

Significance For the first time in the eleven-year history of the survey, no economic risk makes the list of the top five most likely or biggest impact risks. In contrast, large-scale terrorist attacks make the top five most likely risks for the first time and weapons of mass destruction are cited as the highest impact risk. All five environment-related risks are ranked among the top ten highest impact risks for the first time -- four in the top five: extreme weather events; water crises; major natural disasters; and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The survey cites strengthening global cooperation systems as a top five challenge, and says these environmental risks will be exacerbated if cooperation diminishes. Impacts Nearly a third of respondents think that increasing polarisation will be an underlying trend over the next ten years. More must be done to include the people left behind by technological change -- more than 4 billion lack internet access. The United States may withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, and a number of free trade deals are at risk.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla Sarrouy ◽  
Carla Sarrouy

Climate change is having a growing impact on every human activity, especially on agriculture with altered rainfall patterns and an increased number and intensity of extreme weather events. This article argues that efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change must consider whole food systems – rather than the sole production of food – whilst embracing a conscious gendered approach. Women are the main victims of hunger, but they are also the main actors of global food systems, they greatly contribute to their household’s and community’s wellbeing and detain a rich and often untapped knowledge of food systems. Promoting the role of women in our global food systems enhances the inclusion of criteria mainly valued by women such as resilience, diversity and nutrition, which are paramount for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Photo credit: By OxFam East Africa [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanna Dumała ◽  
Michał Łuszczuk ◽  
Joanna Piwowarczyk ◽  
Tymon Zieliński

Many municipalities undertake actions individually and/or collectively, in cooperation with central administrations, regional authorities, the private sector, and other municipalities (both nationally and internationally). This paper aims to examine how they use transnational municipal networks (TMNs) as a tool for cooperation that supports marine governance in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The analysis is carried out at two dimensions: spatial range (global or regional) and spatial identity (coastal or inland). Three case studies of TMNs are examined in detail: the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40); Connecting Delta Cities (CDC) and the Union of Baltic Cities (UBC). As research has shown, due to their organizational and normative limitations and a lack of maturity in ocean literacy, TMNs are not able to fully engage in all the activities related to climate change adaptation and mitigation as suggested by the UNEP. The TMNs implement both mitigation and adaptation measures, although ‘soft’ mitigation actions seem to be the most common. While the scale and innovativeness of a networks’ operation are determined by their specificity resulting from their spatial identity, the effectiveness of jointly developed strategies and actions depend heavily on the allocation of human resources and the level of commitment of the involved cities toward becoming leaders.


Author(s):  
Shyam S. Salim ◽  
R. Narayanakumar ◽  
R. Remya ◽  
P. K. Safeena ◽  
M. Ramees Rahman ◽  
...  

Climate change, a global challenge facing mankind necessitates governments to develop mitigation and adaptation plans. The climate change has multidimensional impacts on environment, fishery, social, economic and development drivers.  Climate change hot spots –can be defined as the ‘live labs’ where the manifestation of the climate change impacts is observed “first”. The South west India has been recognised as one among the twenty four hot spot regions identified globally. The present paper assessed the climate change vulnerability of over 800 fisher households in two major fishing villages of Kerala from the south west hotspot regions of India. Exposure (E), Sensitivity (S) and Adaptive Capacity (AC) are the pertinent factors that determine the vulnerability of households which were captured using a structured household questionnaire. One ninety eight  indicators were identified in the construction of vulnerability indices of which 37 related to sensitivity, 36 related to exposure and the other 125 indicators dealt with adaptive capacity. The overall vulnerability of the regions was assessed and the analysis revealed that the Poonthura village of Kerala was more vulnerable when compared to Elamkunnapuzha. The coastal population on their vulnerability scores were categorised into low, moderate, high and very high based on score values and geo-spatial analysis was attempted.  The results revealed that majority of fisher households in both villages were highly vulnerable to climate change, which is a major cause of concern. The study advocates the need for a bottom up approach with the proactive participation of the fishers in developing location specific adaptation and mitigation plans to ensure the livelihood of the fishers and the sustainable development of the fisheries sector in the climate change regime.


10.15788/npf4 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna L. Lybecker ◽  
◽  
Mark K. McBeth ◽  
Jessica M. Sargen ◽  
◽  
...  

Narratives concerning the working class and their relationship to climate change are important. In particular, how the narrative constructs the relationship and, within this, who communicates a narrative (the narrator) is key. That said, this is a less studied element; the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has limited research on narrators. Subsequently, this work examines individuals’ support of narratives and narrators using an Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) survey of 435 participants. After pretesting for climate change views, the subjects chose which narrator they expected to agree with: Mechanic Pat or Organic Farmer Chris. Through randomization, subjects joined either a congruent treatment group (Mechanic Pat tells the anti-climate change narrative and Organic Farmer Chris tells the pro-climate change narrative) or an incongruent treatment group (Mechanic Pat tells the pro-climate change narrative and Organic Farmer Pat tells the anti-climate change narrative). Results indicate that before reading the narratives, climate change “devotees” (those who agree that climate change is occurring and is human-caused) thought they would agree with Organic Farmer Chris over Mechanic Pat. Whereas there was division in the climate change “skeptics” (those who disagree that climate change is real and human-caused) on the question of what narrator they thought they would agree with. Devotees significantly supported the pro-climate change working-class narrative when told by Organic Farmer Chris as compared to when Mechanic Pat told the same narrative. Further showing the power of a narrator, devotees supported the anti-working class climate change narrative more when told by Organic Farmer Chris rather than when Mechanic Pat told the same narrative. Our findings demonstrate that narrators matter and suggest that the NPF needs to consider narrators as a narrative element worthy of further study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9127
Author(s):  
María Velasco González ◽  
José M. Ruano

Tourism has always stood out in terms of economic opportunities and personal enjoyment. However, the problem of overtourism has emerged in recent years in urban contexts of cities with diversified economies. Overtourism has become—to a much greater extent than any other variable challenging the sustainability of the tourism model—an object of public debate and the media reflect this debate, which, in the case of Spain, is concentrated in the term “tourismphobia.” This paper aims to analyse the two main opposing narratives reflected in the Spanish media on the emergence of the problem of tourismphobia and that defined what was happening to influence both public opinion and public policymakers themselves. The methodological approach used is the narrative policy framework (NPF), which considers public policies as a social construct, shaped by particular ideologies, values, and worldviews that are structured in narratives. The conclusions point to the fact that even though the “success in danger” narrative was the winner, for the first time the sustainability of the country’s tourism model is being broadly questioned and by very diverse actors. It is also clear that in order to change the trajectory of consolidated tourism policies, it is necessary to build tangible public policy alternatives that can be articulated and implemented by public actors. Based on the findings of the paper, future lines of research could use the “Narrative Policy Framework” for the analysis of sustainable tourism policies or for the study of overtourism in different countries from a comparative perspective.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 9115
Author(s):  
Jason Miklian ◽  
Kristian Hoelscher

Climate change amplifies social, political, economic, infrastructural and environmental challenges in many Global South cities, and perhaps no city is more vulnerable than Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka. Climate-induced rural–urban migration is a profound concern, and Dhaka’s political leaders have embraced technology-based innovation as one solution pathway. This article explores the societal impact of Dhaka’s innovation environment strategies for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Employing a case study qualitative methodology, our three findings expand knowledge about innovation for urban climate adaptation and mitigation as understood by Dhaka-based entrepreneurs. First, the most effective innovations were not the most technologically advanced, but those with the highest degree of participant ownership. Second, gaps between recipient, corporate and governmental understandings of effective mitigation and adaptation harmed projects were driven by different definitions of risk and competing understandings of vulnerability. Third, even the most technical climate adaptation measures were inherently political in their application. We discuss how to better position urban climate innovation infrastructures in Bangladesh and beyond, including developing a better recognition of innovation lifecycles for urban climate adaptation and widening our definitions of “innovation” to better incorporate more effective and inclusive climate adaptation solutions.


Author(s):  
Hope Baxter Nqcube Chamdimba ◽  
Reuben Gad Mugagga ◽  
Elias Onyango Ako

Improper waste management and disposal in major cities of Malawi transpires to be one of the major environmental setbacks as waste remains uncollected and usually disposed in open dump sites. Such waste emits greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere that contribute to global warming and climate change in addition to pollution of water sources. The effects of climate change to Malawi have been far reaching to the extent of experiencing floods and droughts. This in retrospect has also had lasting impacts on Shire River where more than 95% of the country’s electricity is generated. Consequently, the rate of power generation is greatly hindered which has thus left only 11% of the population with access to electricity partly due to droughts. This paper therefore focusses on the capturing of methane from municipal solid waste as a solution to climate change and energy challenges through the utilization of methane, a combustible gas which is beneficial in regard to cooking, heating and electricity generation. This is amplified with particular review of the challenges, opportunities, policy framework in place and the pertinent role of anaerobic digestion as the game changer in climate change mitigation and adaptation in Malawi.


Author(s):  
Johnson Ankrah

Aims: The study assessed the perception of the coastal inhabitants of Winneba on climate change and its impacts. Study Design: This study is descriptive in nature and employed both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Place and Duration of Study: This research was conducted in Winneba, Ghana in February 2020. Methodology: The survey method of research was employed in this study. An annual mean temperature timeseries data of Winneba from 1980- 2017 to supplement respondents' subjective views. In addition, community interactions were conducted to get personal information from the inhabitants about the impacts of climate change. 152 inhabitants were sampled through the convenience and the purposive sampling techniques. The convenience technique was used to select 148 respondents and 3 fishermen, and 1 fish seller selected purposively.  This was done through questionnaire administration and interviews. Community's interactions centred on inhabitants' perception of climate change and its impacts. Results: The study found that temperature in the Winneba community has increased. The study again found diverse views on the most serious impact of climate change in the community. While some attributed it to rising temperatures, others attributed it to sea level rise and coastal erosion. The study also revealed that although many of the inhabitants lamented about rising temperatures as it disrupts their daily activities and cause diseases, sea level rise and erosion has also played a devastating role on the environment which needs to be addressed. Conclusion: Local community perception and knowledge on climate change is important. Increased knowledge and awareness influence a community’s choice of mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts. A comprehensive policy framework on climate change awareness creation and education should, therefore, be implemented and made available to local coastal community members.


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