Colleagues, Competitors, Creators: City Governance Among Peers and Its Implications for Addressing Climate Change.

Since the 1990s, cities have emerged as the vanguard in the cultivation of policy responses to climate change. Many cities throughout the world have offered supportive niches for the development and testing of efforts to address climate change mitigation and adaptation while international efforts failed to provide clear and comprehensive leadership. However, this focus on cities as niches for exceptional efforts in policy innovation risks limiting the discussion about urban climate change policy to cities with exemplary resources, connections, and profiles. With the tide of international negotiations turning towards real mitigation commitments after the 2015 Paris Agreement and the need for adaptation becoming more evident each year, the pursuit of policies to address climate change in all cities will almost inevitably move from the exception to the consensus in the years ahead. What forces will shape this transition and what will it mean for those interested in climate change policy? To help answer these questions, this dissertation sheds light on how local governments influence one another and what the implications of that influence are for the emergence of climate change policies in cities. Over the course of three papers, the dissertation makes the case that not only can the influence that local governments have on one another shape whether or not climate change interventions emerge in cities, but that these intercity relationships represent significant sources of latent capacity for the rapid scaling up of the development and expansion of these interventions. This dissertation argues that cities’ impetus to “keep up” with their peers leads to patterns of policy adoption of climate change interventions that are non-linear – slow to emerge, but potentially quick to proliferate across contexts once they are established. Understanding the influence of local governments on one another’s actions can offer a critical link between analyzing local processes driving local action and understanding the impact that such activities can ultimately have at larger geographic scales.PHDNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135913/1/scottkal_1.pd

Narrowing the gap between climate science and adaptation action: The role of boundary chains

AbstractBoundary organizations play a critical role at the interface between science and decision making. They create, protect and sustain an interactive space for co-production of science and decision-making while simultaneously bridging the two domains. In this special issue we advance the concept of boundary chains, whereby two or more boundary organizations link together synergistically to influence one another and to leverage each other’s resources and strengths to achieve shared goals. In this process both the level of complementary and embeddedness between these organizations is critical for achieving these goals. Through a series of case studies focusing primarily but not exclusively on climate information use in the United States, we aim to advance scholarship in the field by examining innovation among boundary organizations and testing the boundary chain concept. In doing so, we focus on boundary chains both as a theoretical construct to re-think the structure, function, and adaptability of boundary organizations and as a practical strategy to further increase the usability of climate knowledge for adaptation action across a wider range of users

Creating synergy with boundary chains: Can they improve usability of climate information?

AbstractBoundary organizations facilitate and negotiate the interface between science production and use to improve information usability particularly for climate adaptation. To support the increasing demand for usable climate information and enable adaptation, boundary organizations themselves must innovate to foster more efficient production of usable science and more effective networks of producers and users. A recent innovation centers on the idea of boundary chains, whereby boundary organizations work together to increase efficiencies such as leveraging human and social resources. While this idea holds promise, more work is needed to better understand how and why boundary organizations work together to improve information usability and other beneficial outcomes. In this perspective for the special issue, we propose a new conceptual framework for exploring why and how boundary chains form and for evaluating whether or not they are successful. We then apply the framework to case studies that are discussed in more detail in this special issue. Our framework hinges on the notion that boundary chains that are successful are those that create synergy. In turn, synergy depends on a combination of complementarity, putting two kinds of inputs together results in greater output than either each engaging partner could deliver on their own, and embeddedness, the choices and actions on one side are at least partially influenced by and dependent upon the choices and actions of the other side and vice versa

What do people living in deprived communities in the UK think about household energy efficiency interventions?

While physical interventions such as external wall cladding can improve the energy efficiency of domestic properties, how residents think about and respond to such interventions can influence both their uptake and impact on the household’s energy use. The present research investigated what residents living within deprived communities in Yorkshire and the Humber (United Kingdom) thought about a number of household energy efficiency interventions proposed as part of a project known as “The BIG Energy Upgrade”. The Theory of Planned Behaviour was used as a framework for investigating residents' beliefs. Residents generally felt positive about the proposed interventions and expected that they would lead to financial savings, improve the appearance and warmth of their homes, and sense of pride in the local community. However, while residents intended to adopt energy efficiency interventions if offered them, they were less willing to personally invest in them. Home ownership and the belief in humans' ability to tackle climate change were found to predict willingness to invest. These findings help to understand responses to initiatives that seek to improve the energy efficiency of hard-to-treat homes

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Socioeconomic Reinvention and Expanding Engagement with Climate Change Policy in American Rust Belt Cities

Despite an appreciation for the role of cities in addressing global climate change, more studies are needed that explore how climate change policies relate to cities’ everyday governing concerns. Such insights are critical for understanding how climate change policy will expand, play out, and evolve as it moves from experimental efforts in particularly innovative cities to the majority of cities. This study addresses these needs using 32 interviews and over 200 survey responses from smaller cities (populations under 100,000) in the American rust belt. In the interviews comparing cities’ financial concerns, economic development considerations, and how other cities influence them, a distinctive mindset amongst cities highly engaged with climate change emerged. Highly engaged cities were those pursuing socioeconomic reinvention, informed by efforts to identify and apply policy ideas from a wide range of other cities across the United States and internationally. Results of the regression analyses supported the notion that financial concerns, economic development considerations, and the influence of other cities shape decisions about climate change policy in these cities. However, they also highlighted the complexity of these issues and that the role these factors had in shaping climate change policy will likely continue to evolve as these policies continue to diffuse to more places

Identifying the Potential for Climate Compatible Development Efforts and the Missing Links

Those examining climate compatible development and triple-win policy efforts that simultaneously negotiate sustainable development, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation considerations are on the cutting edge of exploring why and how policymakers address complex social problems that require balancing considerations about multiple, interrelated policy issues. Enhancing understanding of factors underlying the emergence of these efforts can help strengthen incentives for action, address implementation challenges, and anticipate inequities. This paper uses survey responses from 287 cities and logistic regression analyses to explore conditions and policy actions associated with potential climate compatible development efforts when economic development, sustainability, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation considerations overlap. It finds evidence that potential climate compatible development efforts were present in 10% of the cities studied. Adaptation was the issue most likely to act as the missing link when each of these other issues influenced city policy actions, and mitigation was the least likely. Contextual factors associated with these efforts included budget stress, leadership from a policy entrepreneur, higher college degree attainment rates, having an environmental department or commission, and the area of the city composed of water versus land. Examining factors associated with these issues acting as missing links revealed contradictions that highlight the necessity of further exploration of processes affecting the pursuit of climate compatible development

The Paradox of Public Trust Shaping Local Climate Change Adaptation

Growing attention is being directed towards understanding the ways in which climate change policy is shaped by the actions and interests of local governments. This study explores connections between local government’s efforts to uphold and maintain the public trust and their considerations about climate change adaptation associated with water management. Document analysis and 24 interviews with local public officials are used to shed light on these considerations in three small municipalities in central Pennsylvania: Chambersburg, Carlisle, and Gettysburg. The analysis provides indications that a paradox of public trust leads to public officials pursuing actions and considerations that are consistent with climate change adaptation, but not recognizing that they are doing so. The implications of this governing mindset for climate change outreach and policy are explored. Suggestions for countering the logic of inaction expressed by public officials that justified a lack of adaptation are identified, and the potential for state and federal interventions to stimulate climate adaptation in contexts like these local governments is explored

Making climate science accessible in Toledo: The linked boundary chain approach

For many cities throughout the world, climate change not only presents challenges in the form of new risks and expenses, but also opportunities to connect work around climate change to other development and environmental initiatives. This study presents the City of Toledo in the heart of America’s Rust Belt as a case study of the policy process that gives rise to proactive action on climate change. Using thick description, we trace Toledo’s adaptation policy process through the lens of Kingdon’s “multiple streams” model to identify factors that have shaped the emergence of climate adaptation work around water management in Toledo. Through doing so, we give particular attention to the knowledge resources that those in the City have relied on, especially its boundary chain connection with two supporting boundary organizations: GLAA-C and GLISA. Policy entrepreneurs pushing for climate adaptation around water policy in Toledo emerged around two separate pieces of the policy process. The first entrepreneur was involved with raising general awareness about sustainability and climate change in the City’s problem stream, and the other was specifically involved with integrating climate change information into a particular aspect of the City’s policy stream, water management. While these relationships were important for mainstreaming climate change adaptation into efforts to address existing challenges, they were also representative of the City’s ability to cultivate broader partnerships around climate adaptation. Toledo’s polycentric climate change network ultimately helped the City sustain its adaptation work as it weathered its own period of internal transition

Overcoming barriers during the co-production of climate information for decision-making

The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (GLISA) has led the co-development of usable climate information for decision-making in several case study projects. Although each case study is with a unique partnering organization made up of different stakeholders with varying information needs and capabilities, several patterns have emerged that GLISA has identified and overcome to advance the practice of applied climate information. There are three main barriers that GLISA encounters at the onset of many of the case studies: (1) mismatched terminology used by scientists and stakeholders to describe the types of information that are available and needed for problem solving (translation); (2) unrealistic expectations regarding the development of climate information products for problem solving; and (3) disordered integration of when stakeholders want to bring climate information into decision-making processes. Although some or all of these barriers are likely to exist at the onset of any new climate information partnership, GLISA has developed methods for overcoming them more quickly so that the process of co-developing usable climate information is more efficient and effective. In this paper we describe in detail GLISA’s experiences that have led to the realization of these barriers and the steps GLISA has taken to overcome them. We also relate these barriers to literature on the “usability gap” between climate science and information use in decision-making as well as uncertainty cascades in climate change adaptation. These experiences demonstrate that climate scientists performing outreach experience similar struggles as the stakeholders they interact with. However, they also reveal the potential for climate-centered boundary organizations to cultivate their own capacities to overcome these challenges in their partnerships