Climate change poses fundamental and varied challenges to all communities across the globe. The adaptation and mitigation strategies proposed by governments and non-governmental organisations are likely to require radical and fundamental shifts in socio-political structures, technological and economic systems, organisational forms, and modes of regulation. The sheer volume of law and policy emanating from the international level makes it uncertain which type of regulatory or policy framework is likely to have a positive impact. The success or failure of proposed measures will depend on their acceptability within the local constituencies within which they are sought to be applied. Therefore there is an urgent need to better comprehend and theorise the role of cultural legitimacy in the choice and effectiveness of international legal and policy interventions aimed at tackling the impact of climate change. The book brings together experts to present perspectives from different disciplines on the issue of international climate change law and policy. Beginning from the premise that legitimacy critiques of international climate change regulation have the capacity to positively influence policy trends and legal choices, the book showcases innovative ideas from across the disciplines and investigate the link between the efficacy of international legal and policy mechanisms on climate change and cultural legitimacy. The book includes chapters on with a theoretical basis as well as specific case-studies from around the globe. The topics covered include: land use planning as a tool of enhancing cultural legitimacy, indigenous peoples in international environmental negotiations, transnational advocacy networks, community-based forestry management and culture and voluntary social movements.

This edited volume brings together critical research on climate change adaptation discourses, policies, and practices from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Drawing on examples from countries including Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Russia, Tanzania, Indonesia, and the Pacific Islands, the chapters describe how adaptation measures are interpreted, transformed, and implemented at grassroots level and how these measures are changing or interfering with power relations, legal pluralismm and local (ecological) knowledge. As a whole, the book challenges established perspectives of climate change adaptation by taking into account issues of cultural diversity, environmental justicem and human rights, as well as feminist or intersectional approaches. Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Is the pursuit of endless economic growth compatible with the deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions required to avoid the worst extremes of climate change? In When Green Growth Is Not Enough, Anders Hayden analyzes the political battle between three competing approaches to this question and how it has played out in Canada and Britain. Defenders of the "business-as-usual" approach reject climate action as too costly and in conflict with economic growth, while downplaying the severity of climate change. Supporters of ecological modernization, or "green growth," on the other hand, aim to use technology and efficiency to delink economic expansion from emissions and find business opportunities through environmental action. While mainstream debate has focused on these two pro-growth models, Hayden pays particular attention to the struggles and limited inroads of a third, more radical perspective: the idea of sufficiency, which challenges the continued growth of production and consumption in the already-affluent global North and asks, how much is enough? Drawing on interviews, participation in climate-related events, and analysis of key documents, Hayden shows the role these paradigms have played in Britain, one of the world’s leaders in climate reform, and in Canada, a nation at the bottom of international climate change rankings. Rich in detail, When Green Growth Is Not Enough is a lively account of the theory and real-world politics of climate action.

Presented in nontechnical terms, this book offers a unique and powerful conceptual framework for analysis of energy technologies (standard and alternative) in terms of their respective dollar costs, environmental costs, and national security costs. Energy technologies examined include coal, nuclear, oil, natural gas, solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, biomass and biogas, energy conservation and efficiency, ocean power, hydrogen, electric power and transmission, and transportation. This three-point framework allows examination of issues and problems associated with implementation of U.S. energy policies in the context of major social goals (such as growth and equity), with treatment of conflicts and trade-offs between energy development and other social values (such as health and safety, cultural, historical, and aesthetic values). These are the key political issues for policy makers formulating national energy policy and decisions makers implementing it.

"Costly Fix addresses core questions about the Alberta oil sands boom that started in the 1990s: Why did this flood of investment pour into the oil sands of northern Alberta? What role has government played with respect to the oil sands rush, and why? Who benefited and who or what has paid the costs of exploiting the oil sands? By analyzing the interest, ideas, and institutions involved in the oil sands boom, Ian Urquart charts its development from the beginning to the present. In this process, we learn about the state's role in making the oil sands profitable, the environmental dimensions of oil sands development, and First Nations' roles in both opposing and supporting the industry. The final chapter examines the extent to which Alberta's new NDP government, in its first eighteen months, altered the legacies they inherited from the Progressive Conservatives on royalties, tailings reservoirs, and climate change."--

The Canadian Prairies in a Changing Climate is a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of climate change in the prairie provinces, the impacts on natural resources, communities, human health and sectors of the economy, and the adaptation options that are available for alleviating adverse impacts and taking advantage of new opportunities provided by a warmer climate.