Climate change governance

Climate change governance poses difficult challenges for contemporary political/administrative systems. These systems evolved to handle other sorts of problems and must now be adapted to handle emerging issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation. This paper examines long-term climate governance, particularly in relation to overcoming"institutional inertia"that hampers the development of an effective and timely response. It argues that when the influence of groups that fear adverse consequences of mitigation policies is combined with scientific uncertainty, the complexity of reaching global agreements, and long time frames, the natural tendency is for governments to delay action, to seek to avoid antagonizing influential groups, and to adopt less ambitious climate programs. Conflicts of power and interest are inevitable in relation to climate change policy. To address climate change means altering the way things are being done today - especially in terms of production and consumption practices in key sectors such as energy, agriculture, and transportation. But some of the most powerful groups in society have done well from existing arrangements, and they are cautious about disturbing the status quo. Climate change governance requires governments to take an active role in bringing about shifts in interest perceptions so that stable societal majorities in favor of deploying an active mitigation and adaptation policy regime can be maintained. Measures to help effect such change include: building coalitions for change, buying off opponents, establishing new centers of economic power, creating new institutional actors, adjusting legal rights and responsibilities, and changing ideas and accepted norms and expectations.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Environmental Economics&Policies,Science of Climate Change,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Introducing Adaptive Flood Risk Management in England, New Zealand, and the Netherlands: The Impact of Administrative Traditions

Climate change adaptation creates significant challenges for decision makers in the flood risk-management policy domain. Given the complex characteristics of climate change, adaptive approaches(which can be adjusted as circumstances evolve) are deemed necessary to deal with a range of uncertainties around flood hazard and its impacts and associated risks. The question whether implementing adaptive approaches is successful highly depends upon how the administrative tradition of a country enable or hinder applying a more adaptive approach. In this article, we discern how the administrative tradition in the Netherlands, England, and New Zealand impact upon the introduction of adaptive flood risk management approaches. Using the concept of administrative traditions, we aim to explain the similarities and/or differences in how adaptive strategies are shaped and implemented in the three different state flood management regimes and furthermore, which aspects related to administrative traditions are enablers or barriers to innovation in these processe

Research on organic agriculture in the Netherlands : organisation, methodology and results

Chapters: 1. Organic agriculture in the Netherlands; 2. Dutch research on organic agriculture: approaches and characteristics; 3. Dutch knowledge infrastructure for organic agricultur'; 4. Sustainable systems; 5. Good soil: a good start; 6. Robust varieties and vigorous propagation material; 7. Prevention and control of weeds, pests and diseases; 8. Health and welfare of organic livestock; 9. Animal production and feeding; 10. Special branches: organic greenhouse production, bulbs, ornamentals and aquaculture; 11. Healthfulness and quality of products; 12. Economy, market and chain; 13. People and society. A publication of Wageningen UR and Louis Bolk Institut

Building capacity for policy analysis

This paper attempts to examine the concept and scope of policy analysis and to distill the lessons of experience in building the capacity for policy analysis in a number of developing countries over the past three decades. It concludes that strategies for developing indigenous capabilities for policy analysis will vary from country to country. In countries where non-government clientele and sources of support are limited but government is interested, the initial focus should be on strengthening government capability. Countries where there is demand for policy analysis in both the government and private sector may be ripe for arm's length centers for policy analysis. If such centers are not appropriate, private sector associations could help set up policy analysis units. In countries where the private sector is weak, academic institutions with close links to government may help create some local capability.Poverty Assessment,ICT Policy and Strategies,Geographical Information Systems,Inequality,Achieving Shared Growth

Production of organic seeds: Status, Challenges and Prospects

General article on the requirements of organic agriculture for seed production. Beside this the organic agricultural system has other demands for organic seed since it does not use chemical control measures and uses natural fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers. Research can offer an important contribution in the production of seed without diseases

The transitions discourse in the ecological modernisation of the Netherlands

Discourse analysis, socio-technical transitions, ecological modernisation

Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands: Opportunities and threats to nascent entrepreneurship

Derde editie van ‘Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands’. In drie bijdragen wordt ingegaan op de fase voor de start van een nieuw bedrijf. De rol van prestarters in de Nederlandse economie wordt beschreven. Het stimuleringsbeleid ten aanzien van prestarters komt aan de orde, met bijzondere aandacht voor de stimulering van ondernemerschap in het onderwijs. Tot slot wordt een vergelijking gemaakt tussen de ontwikkeling van prestarters in de Verenigde Staten en die in Nederland. De verschillen tussen Nederland en de VS worden uitgelegd in de context van verschillen tussen de nationale, culturele, politieke en economische systemen in de twee landen.

Knowledge Transfer and the Services Sector in the Context of the New Economy

This paper examines the processes of knowledge transfer in the services sector in the economic reality, increasingly affected by the use of information and communication technologies. An important focus is to explore whether the knowledge transfer channels, traditionally used in manufacturing, can also be made use of in services. To this end, the authors examine the specificity of services with respect to the nature of their output, degree of customer participation in the production process, degree of simultaneity of production and consumption, and study its effect on knowledge transfer. It turns out that in services the following transfer channels are highly important: foreign direct investment, training and producer-consumer two-way knowledge transfer, whereas for manufacturing links with academy and patents are very significant. It is underlined that the characteristics of knowledge holders and knowledge recipients are very important for the process of knowledge transfer. The paper also contains recommendations for policy-making in relation to the knowledge transfer in the Dutch services sector in the context of new economy.economics of technology ;

CREATIVE ECONOMY AND CREATIVE CITIES

The paper sets out why creativity has become so important to urban and regional economics. It focuses on the role of creativity, creative industries, creative economy, creative class and creative cities for the modern urban economics. It points out the idea that the power of the future economy lays within the development of the creative city. The aim of a creative city is to make us to think of our city as a living work of art, where citizens can involve and engage themselves in the creation of a transformed place. Every city can be more creative that it currently is and the task for the city wanting to be creative is to identify, nurture, harness, promote, attract, and sustain talent and to mobilize ideas, resources and organizations.creative economy, creative cities, urban economics, creative class, sustainable development.