No abstract

No abstract

It has become increasingly clear that cities will have to simultaneously undertake both adaptation and mitigation in response to accelerating climate change and the growing demands for meaningful climate action. Here we examine the connections between climate mitigation and climate adaptation, specifically, between low‐carbon energy systems and extreme events. The article specifically addresses the question, how do responses to extreme climate risks enhance or limit capacity to promote city‐level greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation? As a step toward answering this question, we present a framework for considering windows of opportunity that may arise as a result of extreme events and how these windows can be exploited to foster development and implementation of low‐carbon energy strategies. Four brief case studies are used to provide empirical background and determine the impact of potential windows of opportunity. Some general conclusions are defined. In particular, the existing energy system structure is an important determinant of impact and potential for energy transitions. Well‐developed and articulated governance strategies and ready access of effective and economically efficient alternative energy technology were key to transitions. However, prospects for inequity in development and implementation of low‐carbon solutions need to be considered. Finally, exploiting windows of opportunity afforded by extreme events for developing low‐carbon economy and infrastructure also can provide resilience against those very events. These types of responses will be needed as extreme events increase in frequency and magnitude in the future, with cities as primary sites of impact and action. This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Learning from Cases and Analogies

No abstract

In Understanding the Environment and Social Policy Tony Fitzpatrick has put together a collection of papers that examine how social policy objectives of welfare enhancement need to be reconciled with environmental imperatives of ecological protection at a more expansive geographic and temporal scale. A realistic point that Fitzpatrick argues is that though optimists highlight win^win strategies that meet social and environmental objectives there are still inherent conflicts between the two spheres. Such conflicts arise from trade-offs where social policies prioritize economic growth over environmental protection. Alternatively, environmental protection imposes high costs on economic development. In both cases authors recognize that the poor and marginalized groups are disproportionately affected by environmental degradation and social inequities. Each chapter in the book delineates different aspects of these policy challenges and offers alternative perspectives on how to transform the nature and priorities of social and environmental policies in order to help them converge. Such convergence helps readers to understand how to truly realize the win^win strategies that achieve sustainable development and environmental justice. Though not explicitly divided, the chapters in this book are organized into three implicit topics. In the Introduction and first five chapters the authors explain how traditional social policies contribute to environmental degradation, while both social and environmental policies need to address inequities among classes, nations, and future generation. In highlighting the conflicts between the two spheres, the authors focus on what issues need to converge. In order to resolve the socioenvironmental trade-off, the next section of the book covers environmental ethics and justice (chapters 5 and 6, respectively). These chapters are especially useful in constructing principle frameworks that integrate social justice philosophies into environmental issues. Thus readers are forced to consider the parameters of values, rights, and responsibilities that need to be determined in order to create policies that are morally consistent. In the next section of the book these ethical frameworks are applied onto more practical topics in the policy sphere. Chapters 7 to 13 look at how to address issues surrounding environmental policy instruments, as well as policies in health, planning, transport, green jobs, citizenship, and international development. I found two important themes that were emphasized throughout the chapters in the book. The first theme concerns how sustainable development can be achieved. This question is especially pertinent to developing countries, as they face the development imperative to`catch up' with developed countries. Such development paths include undertaking industrialization processes that are resource and pollution intensive. Theorists who utilize optimistic theories, such as the environmental Kuznet's curve, ecological modernization, and environmental leapfrogging, propose that...