Systematic Shifts (Asynchronous Session)
Governance for Climate Change as Planning Tool for Territorial Development: Case Study in a County of Buenos Aires Southwestern Region
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mariana González, Nicolás Murgic
The experience in an Argentinian municipality in the elaboration and development of a response plan to climate change with its components adaptation and mitigation, is presented. This plan will depend on the process governance in which the sectors priorities identification and the mapping of the actors in the territory are the beginning of the framework construction of commitment and participation. However, public actors, especially the municipality, should play a leading role as the closest administrative political unit. The complexity in the territory conformation, with its unique characteristics as a productive center and energy supply node and its environmental value enhanced by tourism, its proximity to medium-scale cities with a strategic positioning as a node for the transfer of products and raw materials to regional and global level, show the need to articulate mechanisms that promote the proactive participation of its different social actors. The actors map and the analysis of its components (role, expectations, relationships with other sectors, power of influence, etc.) becomes the starting point to design a governance proposal in which the instances are defined as modes and action´s participation. For Tornquist county, the sectors with the most direct links are: energy, tourism, agricultural, NGOs, and education. This work shows the articulation of an action plan from the diagnosis development of the threats, vulnerabilities; opportunities, capacities, and barriers that allow the elaboration of a actors map and a governance proposal for a climate change mitigation and adaptation planning.
Eastern Coastal Salt Culture from the Perspective of an Ethnographic Investigation Administered in Kutubdia Island, Bangladesh
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session S M Alamgir Hossain
Salt culture has evolved in the coastal regions of Bangladesh since early times through traditional approaches. Because of the high salinity in the water of the Bay of Bengal, millions of people have become associated with salt farming as a means of livelihood. Without any institutional knowledge, Peasants, however, their practical expertise have made a profound penetration into the field. The research is conducted in Kutubdia Island, which is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, from where the country's handful demand for salt is met. However, the potential sector is yet to expand as the middlemen are prevailing in the communities. Middlemen provide the land with a specific amount for a season and lend funds providing that they will keep control of crops. In fact, middlemen twist and exercise power over the body of the marginal population in developing countries like Bangladesh in the name of community development. Whereas, importing salt from abroad by the state is another form of negligence of farmers. In addition, the existing scientific research reveals the communities are severely vulnerable due to climate change-induced cyclones, floods, erosion, salinity, etc. As a result, salt farmers, and those who are associated with the sector are shifting inherited professions. The current research follows qualitative approaches including observation, interview, and focus group discussion to examines the salt production-oriented way of livelihood and socio-economic perspective salt farming community of Katubdia Island.
Climate Impacts and Resiliency Planning in the Fraser Valley Food System View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Colin Dring, Robert Newell
In collaboration with the Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) government in British Columbia, this research employs integrated planning and systems perspectives to reflect upon the challenges and vulnerabilities that the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about local and regional food systems, and explore ways of increasing local/regional resilience to future exogenous shocks. The research uses a community-based participatory approach to engage researchers, local and regional government, stakeholders, and community members in the Fraser Valley to examine food systems vulnerabilities and ways of building long-term resilience. We report on the outcomes of a year-long participatory action research project in the FVRD identifying food system vulnerabilities via an exploration of experienced pandemic impacts and perceived impacts arising from climate change shocks. Participants explored food system vulnerability to likely exogenous shocks including wildfires, flooding, diminished air/water quality, increased ambient CO2 levels, and climate-related migration and economic disturbances. We worked with FVRD citizens to elucidate linkages between long-term resiliency planning and relationships between food system vulnerabilities, local capacities and assets, and gaps. Findings suggest that supporting integrated resiliency planning efforts, and systems thinking, requires broader participation across the food system and specific processes to connect food system components with their broader social, economic, and environmental drivers. This study contributes to understanding of how food system resiliency planning can be conducted in contexts of local and global climate change impacts.
Specifying States’ Mitigation Obligations: The Limits of Political Discretion View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Violetta Ritz
The term ‘deep uncertainty’ is permeating public discourse in particular with respect to the occurrence of tipping points due to anthropogenic climate change. In pointing at the scientific uncertainty in Earth System Models, states around the world claim wide political discretion in devising their mitigation policy. This claim is further buttressed by the argument that choosing a specific level of greenhouse gas emissions reduction is an inherently normative decision and therefore ‘belongs to the political domain’ for reasons of democratic legitimization. The present study engages in a detailed analysis of this claim and its underlying premises from a political and legal theory perspective. The main argument put forward is that the law does not automatically grant wide political discretion for normative decisions, even in the context of ‘deep uncertainty’. Rather, in the case at hand, the scope for political leeway is tightly circumscribed, inter alia, by the equity principle and the obligation to protect inviolable fundamental rights. Indeed, a strong legal argument can be made that state conduct not aligned with keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5°C at an 83% likelihood not only classifies as an internationally wrongful act but, ultimately, is also deeply undemocratic.
The Effect of Climate Change on the Productivity of Yam Crop in Cote d’Ivoire View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kadio Valere Rodolphe Angaman
Efforts to improve the productivity of food crops as yam have increased through the implementation of adaptation methods in Cote d’Ivoire. These efforts are aimed at achieving food security as part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 2. In fact, food security, which has been the main objective of developing countries for many years, is undermined by climatic variations. However, these climatic variations caused several damages to the food crop, particularly on yam crop which is one of the important food in the country in terms of production. Therefore, in this study, we analyze the effects of climate variations on the productivity of yam crops produced in Cote d’Ivoire. To carry out this study, we were inspired by the Ricardian analysis developed by Mendelsohn. This analysis has been adapted to our concerns by linking a set of climate variables such as temperature and precipitation with the productivity of the yam crops. The data used in this study are time series that covers the period from 1980 to 2015. The results obtained from the error correction model indicate that the productivity of yam crops has as variables that influence its short-run productivity the precipitation, the growth rate of the rural population, crude rate of mortality, and agricultural employment while in long-run all variables include in the model influence it except access to electricity in rural. Also, the relationship between climate variables and the productivity of yam crops studied is non-linear. This relationship is concave for temperature and convex for precipitation.
