Inclusive approaches to urban climate adaptation planning and implementation in the Global South

As cities increasingly engage in climate adaptation planning, many are seeking to promote public participation and facilitate the engagement of different civil society actors. Still, the variations that exist among participatory approaches and the merits and tradeoffs associated with each are not well understood. This article examines the experiences of Quito (Ecuador) and Surat (India) to assess how civil society actors contribute to adaptation planning and implementation. The results showcase two distinct approaches to public engagement. The first emphasizes participation of experts, affected communities, and a wide array of citizens to sustain broadly inclusive programmes that incorporate local needs and concerns into adaptation processes and outcomes. The second approach focuses on building targeted partnerships between key government, private, and civil society actors to institutionalize robust decision-making structures, enhance abilities to raise funds, and increase means to directly engage with local community and international actors. A critical analysis of these approaches suggests more inclusive planning processes correspond to higher climate equity and justice outcomes in the short term, but the results also indicate that an emphasis on building dedicated multi-sector governance institutions may enhance long-term programme stability, while ensuring that diverse civil society actors have an ongoing voice in climate adaptation planning and implementation.

Policy relevance

Many local governments in the Global South experience severe capacity and resource constraints. Cities are often required to devolve large-scale planning and decision-making responsibilities, such as those critical to climate adaptation, to different civil society actors. As a result, there needs to be more rigorous assessments of how civil society participation contributes to the adaptation policy and planning process and what local social, political, and economic factors dictate the way cities select different approaches to public engagement. Also, since social equity and justice are key indicators for determining the effectiveness and sustainability of adaptation interventions, urban adaptation plans and policies must also be designed according to local institutional strengths and civic capacities in order to account for the needs of the poor and most vulnerable. Inclusivity, therefore, is critical for ensuring equitable planning processes and just adaptation outcomes.     

Revisiting cartography: towards identifying and developing a modern and comprehensive framework

Developments in production, sharing and use of spatial data and information involve revisiting the role and scope of cartography. Cartography is a core discipline for spatially modelling, investigating and mapping natural and cultural environments, developing location-aware applications, establishing spatial data infrastructures and forming spatially enabled societies. In this context, spatial data handling provides key tools for creating spatial databases, integrating spatial data, producing geographic information and maps and so on. Although cartography plays a key role in many phases of such activities, it tends to be introduced only as visualization phase of spatial data handling. On the other hand, it is sometimes regarded to encompass entire phases of spatial data handling. So this article investigates the relationships between cartography and spatial data handling, management and use, and on this basis, proposes a modern and comprehensive framework for cartography to contribute to restoring the full conceptual breadth of the discipline.     

河南省社会发展综合实验区建设的实践与成效

通过实施调查研究，深入地总结了河南省竹林，孟庄，林州等社会发展综合实验区建设以来的主要成就，经验与存在问题，并进行了具体的科学分析。     

Skills constraints and the low carbon transition

Achieving a successful transition to a low carbon economy, in the UK and other countries, will require sufficient people with appropriate qualifications and skills to manufacture, install, and operate the low carbon technologies and approaches. The actual numbers and types of skills required are uncertain and will depend on the speed and direction of the transition pathways, but there are reasons to doubt that market mechanisms will deliver the necessary skilled workers in a timely manner. The range of market, government, and governance failures relating to the provision of low carbon skills are examined, particularly for their potential to cause a slower, costlier, and less employment-intensive transition. The potential policy responses to these failures are considered, including standardization of funding for training; formalization of transferable qualifications; legally binding targets for carbon emissions reductions and low carbon technology deployment; framework contracts and agreements between actors in key sectors; licensing and accreditation schemes for key technology sectors; government support for skills academies and training centres; support for first movers in niches; increasing mobility of workers; and providing a clear long-term cross-sectoral framework for a low carbon transition, including skills training.

Policy relevance

The article argues for the importance of skills issues for a successful transition to a low carbon economy. It outlines the potential causes of skills shortages, both generic and those specific to low carbon, as well as the probable impact of these types of shortages. By changing existing sectoral and occupational patterns, the transition will disrupt the existing market and government mechanisms to identify and remedy skills shortages in specific sectors. The nature and required pace of the low carbon transition also means that there are pressures that could induce greater skills shortages. These shortages, in turn, could critically delay elements of the transition and increase its cost and duration. The article outlines approaches taken to address these causes of skills shortages, drawing on examples from UK low carbon policy. The article ends with an argument that skills issues need to be more central to transitions debates.     

A low-carbon society: global visions,pathways, and challenges

The feasibility of two low-carbon society (LCS) scenarios, one with and one without nuclear power and carbon capture and storage (CCS), is evaluated using the AIM/Enduse[Global] model. Both scenarios suggest that achieving a 50% emissions reduction target (relative to 1990 levels) by 2050 is technically feasible if locally suited technologies are introduced and the relevant policies, including necessary financial transfers, are appropriately implemented. In the scenario that includes nuclear and CCS options, it will be vital to consider the risks and acceptance of these technologies. In the scenario without these technologies, the challenge will be how to reduce energy service demand. In both scenarios, the estimated investment costs will be higher in non-Annex I countries than in Annex I countries. Finally, the enhancement of capacity building to support the deployment of locally suited technologies will be central to achieving an LCS.

Policy relevance

Policies to reduce GHG emissions up to 2050 are critical if the long-term target of stabilizing the climate is to be achieved. From a policy perspective, the cost and social acceptability of the policy used to reduce emissions are two of the key factors in determining the optimal pathways to achieve this. However, the nuclear accident at Fukushima highlighted the risk of depending on large-scale technologies for the provision of energy and has led to a backlash against the use of nuclear technology. It is found that if nuclear and CCS are used it will be technically feasible to halve GHG emissions by 2050, although very costly. However, although the cost of halving emissions will be about the same if neither nuclear nor CCS is used, a 50% reduction in emissions reduction will not be achievable unless the demand for energy service is substantially reduced.     

Risky responsibilities for rural drinking water institutions: The case of unregulated self-supply in Bangladesh

The drinking water sector is off track to reach Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.1 with over a quarter of the world’s population lacking safe and reliable services. Policy approaches are shifting away from provision of access towards managing the multiple risks of water supply and quality. By considering how infrastructure, information, and institutional systems evolved in Bangladesh, this article identifies the unintentional consequences of reallocating management responsibility for rural water services away from government agencies towards individuals and households.Between 2012 and 2017, we estimate up to forty-five unregulated tubewells were installed privately for every publicly funded rural waterpoint. This growth rate more than doubled total national waterpoint infrastructure since 2006. The scale of growth is reflected in the declining ratio of households per tubewell from over fifty-seven in 1982 to less than two in 2017, potentially approaching market saturation. This scale of growth aligns to an observed decrease in the real price of private market shallow tubewells by seventy percent between 1982 and 2017. In 2018, we estimate households invested up to USD253 million in tubewells, nearly sixty-five percent of the total national water and sanitation sector’s household-level finance. In effect, household investments became critical to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of improved infrastructure access, but now pose challenges for meeting targets of safely managed services. The scale of continued private investment provides an opportunity for policymakers to explore blended public finance models to meet emerging consumer preferences, while at the same time introducing regulatory and monitoring systems.     

中国西北缺水区节水型社会建设的若干思考

水环境研究已从微观尺度向宏观尺度逐渐拓展,研究所包括的层次更多,范围更广,内容更丰富.本文分析了中国西北水资源的现状,提出了推进节水型社会建设的必要性及存在的问题,同时提出了西北缺水区进行节水型社会建设的可行性建议.     

在建设和谐社会过程中提高党的执政能力

促进社会和谐既是我国发展的重要目标和必要条件,又是我党执政能力的具体体现。当前我国社会诸多不和谐因素的存在,对于执政的中国共产党来说既是挑战也是机遇。和谐社会的创建,客观上要求提高中国共产党的执政能力,而提高党的执政能力又是实现我国社会和谐的重要条件和根本政治保障。执政能力的高低要靠执政实践来检验。所以,能否建成和谐社会,直接关系到中国共产党执政的成败。和谐社会的建设不是一蹴而就的,这将是一个长期的过程,中国共产党执政能力和执政水平的提高也将是一个渐进的过程。     

浅析《远大前程》中女性形象赫维香小姐

世界著名的作家查尔斯·狄更斯,是19世纪英国最伟大的批判现实主义作家之一.《远大前程》是狄更斯后期的一部教育小说,小说揭露和鞭打资产阶级的贪婪虚伪和社会的种种罪恶弊端,展示了狄更斯对19世纪英国上层社会的尖锐批判,具有很高的文学价值.而《远大前程》中的悲剧人物郝维香小姐是所有狄更斯作品中形象刻画最复杂,心灵表现最丰富的人物之一,书中对她的刻画,更深刻反映了资本主义社会人与人之间赤裸裸的金钱关系.郝维香小姐因未婚夫的抛弃而活在痛苦中,她是那种一心一意要复仇,但最终导致了巨大痛苦的典型形象.狄更斯塑造了一个被恋人抛弃而痛苦一生的悲剧形象.主要从社会、家庭及郝维香小姐自身的角度.对其悲剧命运产生的原因进行剖析,旨在揭示男权统治下19世纪维多利亚时代女性的地位与悲剧命运.     

全面建设小康社会进程中人的精神生活建设

人的精神生活是人之为人的一种特定方式,提升人的精神生活是全面建设小康社会的重要内容.在全面建设小康社会的过程中,我们要依靠加强思想道德建设、大力发展教育科学文化事业和在全社会深入开展和普及法制教育等手段来建设人的精神生活.