Climate-governance entrepreneurship,higher-order learning,and sustainable consumption: the case of the state of Oregon,United States

The ongoing devolution of climate policy-making to sub-national levels has prompted growing interest in policy entrepreneurship by individuals who are politically and technically creative and institutionally resourceful. This paper investigates the case of the materials-management programme in the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality which has emerged as a national and international leader by focusing on the role of household consumption in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Two noteworthy innovations involve the development of a consumption-based GHG emissions inventory and introduction of policies aimed at facilitating construction of small homes (so-called Accessory Dwelling Units, ADU). The case traces over several decades the higher order learning processes within the group and their entrepreneurship toward affecting broader changes in emission accounting and climate policies in Oregon. The paper identifies the enabling factors for these innovations, and considers: how to create the conditions for learning, experimentation, and policy entrepreneurship; how to reproduce these conditions in different locales; and how to recognize and foster innovations that arise outside the established mainstream ‘climate community’. It also stresses the benefits of breaking down the barriers between science-based analysis and policy. The two questions frequently raised in the climate policy debate – how to bring researchers and practitioners together to develop efficacious policies; and how to replicate successful programmes and policies across different communities, jurisdictions, and locations – should be re-examined. It may be more appropriate to ask instead: How to create conditions for learning, experimentation, and policy entrepreneurship; and how to reproduce these conditions in different locales.

Key policy insights

• Using a consumption-based greenhouse gas emission inventory instead of a sector-based inventory radically changes climate policy priorities, shifting the emphasis from technological fixes to curbing household consumption.

• Policy innovations thrive in teams that combine technical and scientific competencies with: a commitment to addressing societal problems; interest in inquiry, experimentation, and learning; entrepreneurship; and strategic and political savvy.

• These qualities require breaking down artificial barriers between science and policy.

• Transformative policy ideas can originate within institutional nodes that operate outside of an established community of expertise and authority; and these should be identified and fostered.

     

Taking stock of Climate Change Acts in Europe: living policy processes or symbolic gestures?

Since the UK introduced a Climate Change Act (CCA) in 2008, similar legislation has followed in a number of states, with each having a slightly different take. What unites these examples is that they all represent framework legislation that aims to facilitate climate change mitigation by creating continuous policy processes whereby mechanisms for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are developed and implemented. This article is concerned with the extent to which they are living policy processes or rather symbolic gestures. We analyse seven European CCAs with regard to GHG emission reduction targets, planning/implementation mechanisms, and feedback/evaluations prescribed by the laws. These three features correspond with three aspects of climate policy integration (CPI): interpretations of CPI as a norm; CPI as a process of governing; CPI as a policy outcome. We show that CCAs address all three aspects of CPI and constitute living policy processes, although to varying extents. However, CCAs are also policy processes in that they are part of a political system, affected by political forces external to the legislation, positively and negatively.

Key policy insights

• CCAs can provide a normative basis for policymaking on climate change at the national level, especially through quantitative emission reduction targets.

• Whilst CCAs can bring some stability and predictability to policymaking on climate change (mainly because legislation is more difficult to amend or remove than policy strategies), they are still vulnerable to political developments.

• Most CCAs lack either short/medium-term (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Sweden) or long-term (Austria) targets. Given EU Member States’ aim to decarbonise in the next three decades and the Paris Agreement's global goal of pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C, states need to find ways to guide this process. One approach could be the inclusion of short-term, medium-term and long-term targets in their CCAs.

• Since sanctioning mechanisms are lacking across all the CCAs analysed here, it is not clear what will happen if legally binding targets are not met. Just as it is difficult to imagine speed limits and speed cameras without accompanying penalties, it is hard to imagine how CCAs without sanctions can deliver decarbonization.

     

Government and urban management in the 20th century: policies,contradictions, and weaknesses of the New Right

Throughout the 20th century, government in the U.S. has gone through significant changes; initially responding to the disorder of early capitalism, and later, to the economic crisis of the 1970s. This article will explore the changes in the U.S. political landscape over the last century, as well as the recent rise of neo-liberalism. In addition, with the analysis of the model laissez-faire municipal government, the City of Houston, the article will illustrate how the basic weaknesses of neoliberalism at the national level are also evident at the local scale of government.

建立中国自由贸易区的政治地理学理论基础及模式选择

依据分级主权管理和政策空间分异理论分析中国分级主权管理和政策空间分异的现状,阐述中国建立自由贸易区的理论基础,提出中国建立自由贸易区的结构和区位模式,并分析论证天津自由贸易区和自由港城的规划与建设模式和路径。从理论层面,中国本来实施的就是分级主权管理政策,而事实上也存在分级主权管理的各类型特区,因此,无论是从理论上还是在实践上,建立"境内关外"型自由贸易区只不过是中国分级主权管理政策在经济领域内的新发展和新探索。中国贸易型自由经济区应包括保税区、边境贸易区、自由贸易区、自由港、自由市或自由城。应以"珠三角"、"长三角"和"环渤海地区"为重点,逐渐向边境口岸和内部节点地区扩展,分阶段有选择的建立自由贸易区,以促进区域经济中心和世界城市的形成与发展。环渤海区域选择天津保税港区为基础建立自由贸易区具有综合竞争优势。     

FWG1幂指数递减开发模型

本文提出了ＦＷＧ１幂指数递减开发模型,提出了开发速度,采出程度等开发指标的数学关系式。分析了参数对ＦＷＧ１幂指数递减开发模型的影响。当ｃ＾１／２ｔ＝１时,ＶＤ＝ｅ＾－１为不动点。提出了开发初期ＦＷＧ１幂指数递减开发模型的确定方法,便于开发初期决策。     

古河道型砂岩铀矿的主要地质特征及有关找矿工作的方针探讨

文章通过对俄罗斯、蒙古一些已知古道型铀矿床的调研,归纳了该类铀矿床空间定位的构造控制、铀源的近源性、潜水氧化成因、含矿层的单层位性等与勘查工作有关的地质特征,并在分析上述特征的基础上提出我国今后对古河道型砂岩铀矿勘查工作方面的对策和方针。     

Policy narratives, landholder engagement, and oil palm expansion on the Malaysian and Indonesian frontiers

Over recent decades a structural transformation has affected agriculture in the frontier areas of Malaysian Borneo and Outer Island Indonesia with the rapid conversion of agricultural lands, fallows, and formerly forested areas into oil palm. These frontiers have similar positions in the international political economy of oil palm and have complementary resource endowments. In both cases, state planners face the common challenges of finding a disciplined labour force, delivering land for estate development, maintaining local legitimacy, and dealing with local contestation. Yet there are significant differences in systems of governance and policy frameworks regarding land, shifting capacity of state actors to facilitate the transformation of these agrarian frontiers, and changing degrees of local, national and international contestation. Considering the generic and the specific elements at play in each case, this paper argues that analogous policy narratives have shaped the ways in which landholders have been engaged in the process of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. In both cases, with the shift from state-led to neoliberal governance approaches to agricultural development, the 'frontier' has been created and transformed through policy narratives that facilitate the conversion of whole landscapes into oil palm. This has been achieved by obscuring indigenous forms of agriculture and land tenure, while creating reserves of available 'state' or 'idle' customary land, and counterpoising smallholder 'marginality' and 'backwardness' to the modernity of contemporary estate agriculture.     

The high wire act: a comparison of British transatlantic foreign policies in the Second World War and the war in Iraq, 2001–2003

Drawing upon ideas from critical geopolitics, this paper compares the role that the British government plays within the contemporary transatlantic alliance with that played by Churchill's government during the Second World War. It argues that the Blair government's approach to foreign policy has parallels with Churchill's – that it should act as a bridge between the US and European governments. From this basis the paper reflects upon geopolitical change since 1945, re-evaluating the reasons for foreign policy failures during the Iraq War. Belying the assumption that these were caused by Blair's failures at diplomacy, it argues that failure was the result of an outdated geopolitical strategy.