AdaptNet for 20 January 2009
- The Dematerialization Potential of the Australian Economy
- Preparing California for a Changing Climate
- Justice and Climate Change
- Adaptation Cost in a Simple Conceptual Model of Climate Change
- Climate Change, Disaster Risk and Emergency Management
- China and Global Climate Change – Conference
The Dematerialization Potential of the Australian Economy
The paper tests the long term dematerialization potential for Australia in terms of materials, energy, and water use as well as CO2 emissions. It argues that Australia cannot rely on incremental efficiency gains but has to undergo a sustainability transition to keep in line with the international effort to avoid climate change and resource use conflicts.
The Dematerialization Potential of the Australian Economy, Heinz Schandl and Graham M Turner, CSIRO Working Paper Series 2008-13, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra, Australia, October 2008 [118 KB, PDF]
Preparing California for a Changing Climate
The report explores California’s readiness for the increasing storm surges, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, and other inevitable effects of climate change. It looks at various adaptation strategies – the technologies and management solutions available to address changing climate conditions – and outlines the steps that California needs to take to improve institutional readiness.
Preparing California for a Changing Climate, Louise Bedsworth and Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), San Francisco, California, USA, November 2008 [2.32 MB, PDF]
Justice and Climate Change
It is both tempting and plausible to suggest that for either emissions reductions or adaptation, wealthy nations owe special obligations to poor ones. The paper address this general question by focusing on a much narrower one: how should permits be allocated in a global cap-and-trade system?
Justice and Climate Change, Eric A. Posner and Cass R. Sunstein, Discussion Paper 08-04, The Harvard Project on International Climate Agreements, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA, September 2008 [475 KB, PDF]
Adaptation Cost in a Simple Conceptual Model of Climate Change
This paper attempts to contribute to the theoretical basis of adaptation policy. It proposes a simple theoretical model of the process of strategic adaptation to climate change. The paper finds that adaptation costs have a complex and counterintuitive dependence on adjustment costs, and can be more sensitive to the details of the climate change process than adaptation benefits are.
The Cost of Strategic Adaptation in a Simple Conceptual Model of Climate Change, Antony Millner et al., Santa Fe Insitute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, 2008 [268 KB, PDF]
Climate Change, Disaster Risk and Emergency Management
This set of proceedings summarize the UK-Southeast Asia Scientists and Practitioners Seminar held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 02 – 03 December, 2008. The papers stress the need for greater cohesion between techno-centric and participatory approaches for capacity building, local governance, meaningful and equitable community participation, and structuralist institutions to help enhance local resilience.
UK-South Asia Scientists and Practitioners Seminar on Climate Change, Disaster Risk Governance and Emergency Management: Papers and Proceedings, Zaina Gadema and Komal Raj Aryal (editors), Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, 02 – 03 December, 2008 [1.79 MB, PDF]
China and Global Climate Change – Conference
Running on 18-19 June 2009 at the Lingnan University in Hong Kong, this conference will address the problem of how to reconcile China’s growing greenhouse gas emissions with the Chinese government’s unwillingness to join binding international commitments to reduce those emissions. Abstracts may be submitted by 31 January 2009.
China and Global Climate Change – Conference, The Centre for Asian Pacific Studies (CAPS) and the Environmental Studies Programme (ESP), Lingnan University, Hong Kong, 18-19 June 2009