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442. Forests, Food and Fuel: REDD+ and Indonesia's Land-use Conundrum
- Author:
- J. Jackson Ewing
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS)
- Abstract:
- Indonesia faces pronounced land-use challenges. The sprawling archipelagic state must deal with the legacies of short-sighted land conversions, the need to pursue foreign investment, capital growth and employment generation through profitable land intensive industries, and the rising food demands of a growing and increasingly urban population. Moreover, Indonesia must pursue these already daunting objectives without overly compromising its endowment of forest resources; which provide a range of valuable services both domestically and internationally. This paper explores the intersection of these issues and comments upon some of the most pressing challenges inherent to maintaining food security, protecting the essential services that forest ecosystems provide, and remaining open to capital-producing industries that are land intensive. The paper takes as its point of entry the movement of the Reduced Emissions through Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) programme into Indonesia's land-use calculus.
- Topic:
- Environment, Natural Resources, Food, Foreign Direct Investment, and Developing World
- Political Geography:
- Indonesia and Southeast Asia
443. World Bank (ABCs of the IFIs Brief)
- Author:
- Jenny Ottenhoff
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The World Bank is a multilateral financial institution that provides financial and technical assistance for development in low- and middle-income countries. Finance is allocated through low-interest loans and grants for a range of development sectors such as health and education, infrastructure, public administration, financial and private-sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management.
- Topic:
- Development, Education, Environment, Health, Foreign Aid, Infrastructure, and World Bank
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Indonesia, and India
444. A Race to the Top: Oil Gas Exploration in the Canadian Arctic
- Author:
- Michael Kuzik
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Military and Strategic Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies
- Abstract:
- Economic forces will ultimately determine the destiny of the Canadian Arctic, not displays of military force. Economic opportunity will prove far more cost effective and longer lasting than increasing the visibility, or even effectiveness, of Canada's military in the Arctic. Some observers expect the mounting evidence of a treasure trove of hydrocarbons on land and under the sea in Canada's Arctic to act as the economic catalyst. However crude oil and natural gas exploitation in Canada's North is fraught with a myriad of challenges. This paper will shed light on the harsh climactic, economic and political realities of oil and gas exploration and development in the Canadian Arctic. Climatic conditions, even in the wake of evidence of climate change, will still be extreme as will the distances and the topography. First and foremost the economics have to make sense; a profit has to be available to entice the capital needed for developing the north's vast hydrocarbon potential. Additionally, the political realities include pollution mitigation and outstanding native land claims.
- Topic:
- Economics and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Canada
445. US Climate Change Policy Efforts
- Author:
- Dallas Burtraw
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Until recently, most of the attention in US climate policy was focused on legislative efforts to introduce a price on carbon through cap and trade. Since that policy has stalled, at least at the national level, the Clean Air Act has assumed the central role in the development of regulations that will reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the US. The modern Clean Air Act (CAA) was passed in 1970 and conveys broad authority to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop regulations to mitigate harm from air pollution. In 2007 the Supreme Court confirmed that this authority applied to the regulation of GHGs ( Massachusetts v. EPA). Subsequently, the agency made a formal, science-based determination that GHGs were dangerous to human health and the environment, which compels the agency to mitigate the harm and forms the basis for the agency's regulation of GHG emissions.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- United States
446. How should support for climate-friendly technologies be designed?
- Author:
- C. Fischer, A. Torvanger, T. Sterner, P. Stigson, and Manish Kumar Shrivastava
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies
- Abstract:
- Stabilising global greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations at levels to avoid significant climate risks will require massive 'decarbonisation' over the next few decades. Achieving the necessary scale of emissions reductions will require well-thought out strategies and a multifaceted policy effort to support a broad array of technological and behavioural changes. This paper outlines some core principles for guiding the design of clean technology policies, with a focus on energy.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and Science and Technology
447. The Issue of Effectiveness in International Environmental Regimes
- Author:
- Yasemin Kaya and Sezgin Kaya
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Abstract:
- The effectiveness of international environmental regimes is a subject that is becoming more and more important within the International Relations discipline. While one of the reasons of that is the increasing interest of the international community in environmental issues, the other reason is that the environmental issues have turned into a problem that has a direct impact on the relations among the states. However, there is no consensus on approaches about the assessment of the effectiveness of the environmental regimes. This study aims to consider the different approaches and views that are important in terms of the assessment of the effectiveness of environmental regimes. In this framework, the approaches related to regime effectiveness are assessed, and the outlines of theoretical and methodological framework that can be used in the analysis of regime effectiveness are tried to be defined.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
448. Proposed Liability Framework for Geological Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide
- Author:
- Wendy B. Jacobs
- Publication Date:
- 10-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Harvard Law School's Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic* supports immediate large-scale carbon capture and sequestration ("CCS") demonstration projects as part of a larger national and global effort to address climate change. Large-scale CCS projects (those that sequester at least 1.5 million tons of captured carbon dioxide ("CO2") annually) must be demonstrated soon to confirm CCS as a viable strategy to combat climate change and to show the commitment of the United States to achieving meaningful reductions in domestic CO2 emissions.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- United States
449. W[h]ither the Kyoto Protocol? Durban and Beyond
- Author:
- Daniel Bodansky
- Publication Date:
- 08-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- On December 31, 2012, the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period will expire. Unless states agree to a second commitment period, requiring a further round of emissions cuts, the Protocol will no longer impose any quantitative limits on states' greenhouse gas emissions. Although, as a legal matter, the Protocol will continue in force, it will be a largely empty shell, doing little if anything to curb global warming.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and United Nations
450. Deforestation's Challenge to Green Growth in Brazil
- Author:
- Benjamin S. Allen, Charles Travers, and Louise Travers
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- Understanding Brazil's green growth and emissions story requires a second look. Brazil's energy matrix is approximately 46% renewable, so when one compares the share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy in Brazil to that of most OECD countries, Brazil is doing relatively well (IPEA 2010, 133). However, looking at energy alone misses the core GHG story in Brazil: The principal drivers of GHG emissions in the country are not energy production or heavy industry, but rather deforestation and agriculture. Deforestation is responsible for about 55% of Brazil's GHG emissions, and agriculture for another 25% (McKinsey Company 2009, 7). In fact, the two areas of emissions are intimately linked: deforestation is principally a problem of agriculture. Cattle ranching and soybean and sugar cane farming are the major industries contributing to Brazil's emergence today as an agricultural and agroenergy superpower – and are directly and indirectly responsible for deforestation in Brazil's largest forests, the Amazon and Atlantic (Banco Mundial 2010, Barros 2009, Margulis 2004, McAllister 2008b, Nassar 2009, Nepstad et al. 2008, Sennes and Narciso 2009). By extension, because Brazil's large and growing renewable energy sector is principally based on agriculture, it has ties to deforestation and may not be as green as it first appears.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Emerging Markets, Energy Policy, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America