Global governance and regionalism: opportunity or challenge?

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE REFERS TO A FORM of governance, rules and regulations at a particular level. When considering the global level, with the huge number of actors involved, and with civil society being capable of generating political influence on governments, fragmentation becomes a critical issue for global governance. Adding to this challenge is regionalism, the cooperation of a limited number of states within a specific geographic setting. However, one may argue that regional organisations and agreements reached at the regional level may offer support for global governance strategies, thereby transforming the regional image associated with fragmentation to one of support. Yet it is part of an ongoing debate as to what extent regionalism either contributes to or undermines global governance strategies. To illustrate this challenge, the topic of climate change will be applied. To begin with, a short evaluation of what global governance stands for is offered

Regime change and development in China and Japan from the early 1970s to the late 1990s: an integrated analysis

The underlying theme of this dissertation is to focus on analysing complex and incremental change by applying the concept of regime change. Only when we undertake an analysis, which focuses on changes within a specific political-economic setting, will we be able to assess the extent and dynamic of political-economic change that occurred over a specific period of time. Regime as applied in this dissertation refers to a middle level of cohesion in the political economy of a nation state. It therefore differs from its common usage in linking a regime to a specific government or the state; as such this thesis also contributes towards generating additional awareness in distinguishing between the state, the government and a regime. It is further argued that the concept of regime change is both specific and flexible enough to cover a diverse range of case studies. To test the application of the theoretical framework two distinctive case studies, China and Japan, were selected. The concept or regime change also informs our understanding of the complexity and particularity of specific cases and the processes of complex change they experienced, like in the cases of China and Japan

Assessing uncertainties in climate change adaptation and land management

The entire cascade of scenario generation, global and regional climate modeling, as well as concrete measures towards climate adaptation are subject to uncertainties. An exact prediction of how the climate will change in the coming years, and how it will affect land use, is not possible. There is thus a perceived need to identify ways via which uncertainties can be addressed. Based on the need to address the research gap in this area, this paper reports the findings of a study on uncertainty in a climate change adaptation context, and how it is perceived. It consists of a multi-stakeholder survey among climate change professionals, including academic staff at universities, representatives from international agencies, members of NGOs, policymakers, and representatives of industry from 50 countries, including a balanced representation of industrialized and developing nations. The results obtained suggest that uncertainties are often a hindrance to engagement in climate change adaptation efforts, and to land management. Furthermore, there is a range of tools to reduce climate change adaptation uncertainties, whose deployment may help to address them. The paper concludes by providing a list of lessons learned and suggestions as to how uncertainty can be better communicated, and by doing so, how a reduction in the levels of climate change vulnerability may be achieved, and how land management may be fostered

Local solutions as an element in China’s strategy for sustainability?

Chinese official statements reflect an increasing awareness of the need to adopt a sustainable development path, and in particular to reduce the country’s dependence on coal. Doing so, however, is a complex challenge involving political and social as well as technical issues, which is intensified by rapid urbanization and growth of incomes, and a consumer-oriented middle class. This article looks at the potential of sustainable energy sources in China, particularly wind and solar power, before considering the experience of two alternative pioneering sustainable development projects: Rizhao’s participative approach to switching to solar power, and Tianjin’s Eco-City, a low carbon development designed from scratch.China; Rizhao; solar power; sustainability; sustainable development; Tianjin; wind power

Testing and dating of structural changes in practice

An approach to the analysis of data that contains (multiple) structural changes in a linear regression setup is presented. Various strategies which have been suggested in the literature for testing against structural changes as well as a dynamic programming algorithm for the dating of the breakpoints are implemented in the R statistical software package. Using historical data on Nile river discharges, road casualties in Great Britain and oil prices in Germany, it is shown that statistically detected changes in the mean of a time series as well as in the coefficients of a linear regression coincide with identifiable historical, political or economic events which might have caused these breaks

Is the US no longer the economy of first resort? Changing economic relationships in the Asia-Pacific region

This paper tests the hypothesis that the economic relationships between China and her major trading partners have changed over the past 20 years with the industrialisation of China, and the emergence of Japan as a source of investment and network trade in sophisticated manufactures, and the US as a source of finance and investment assets, supplier of services and an apparently inexhaustible demand for consumer and intermediate goods. Has this changed the size and direction of spillovers in the region, and has it curtailed or eliminated American economic leadership? We use time-varying spectral methods to decompose the links between the two leading Asian economies and the US. We find: (a) the links with the US have been weakening, while those based on China have strengthened; (b) that this is not new � it has been happening since the 1980s, but has now been reversed by the surge in trade; (c) that the links with the US have been rather complex, with the US able to shape the cycles elsewhere through her control of monetary conditions, but the China zone able to control the size of their cycles; (d) that Japan remains linked to (and dependent on) the US; and (e) there is no evidence that pegged exchange rates encourage convergence

Has there been any structural convergence in the transmission of European monetary policies?

Time-frequency analysis, Transmission mechanism, Convergence, Monetary policy, C22, C29,

Assessing Uncertainties in Climate Change Adaptation and Land Management

The entire cascade of scenario generation, global and regional climate modeling, as well as concrete measures towards climate adaptation are subject to uncertainties. An exact prediction of how the climate will change in the coming years, and how it will affect land use, is not possible. There is thus a perceived need to identify ways via which uncertainties can be addressed. Based on the need to address the research gap in this area, this paper reports the findings of a study on uncertainty in a climate change adaptation context, and how it is perceived. It consists of a multi-stakeholder survey among climate change professionals, including academic staff at universities, representatives from international agencies, members of NGOs, policymakers, and representatives of industry from 50 countries, including a balanced representation of industrialized and developing nations. The results obtained suggest that uncertainties are often a hindrance to engagement in climate change adaptation efforts, and to land management. Furthermore, there is a range of tools to reduce climate change adaptation uncertainties, whose deployment may help to address them. The paper concludes by providing a list of lessons learned and suggestions as to how uncertainty can be better communicated, and by doing so, how a reduction in the levels of climate change vulnerability may be achieved, and how land management may be fostered

An empirical investigation of the sustainability of the public deficit in Portugal

Budget deficit, Cointegration, Long time series, Structural breaks, C13, C14, C22, E62,