Innovation investments

An international agreement to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions need not be fixated on targets for regulating greenhouse gas emissions – an end of pipe approach – but could shift focus to an agreement that incentivizes a shift to low-carbon development pathways. Investment targets for innovation and diffusion of low-carbon energy technologies can form the basis for such a new approach for a future UN climate change agreement. It is a viable alternative to the cap-and-trade approach, which shows few signs of being able trigger a fundamental transformation of the global energy system. The current pace of innovation is insufficient to secure globally shared energy and environmental goals. An international agreement could provide a push for research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDDandD) by setting an investment target. To garner developing country support such an agreement could distribute responsibilities, for example, based on countries’ ability to invest, capacity for innovation and need for energy modernization

Climate policy integration:common sense or political project?

Includes bibliographical references and index

Rethinking Economics in a Circular Way in the Light of Encyclical “Laudato Sì”

none1noThe concept of Anthropocene is now commonly used by scholars to denote a new geological and biophysical era and environmental humanities have rapidly developed in a field of investigation on the new human condition. The study of human preferences, what motivates us as human beings, what influences our actions, the way we can control our actions and the ethics of responsibility, are the main drivers of global change in the twenty-first century. This article is built on the assumption that research on circular economy, in contrast with a linear “take-make-dispose” economic model, can benefit enormously from the study of human motivations and actions that each of us can implement for global change. In particular, the message of humanity contained in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, helps us to understand the ethical foundations of circular economy: why and how human beings and their social formations, such as enterprises and institutions, not facing imminent dangers, can strongly choose to change direction and to act for the common good.nonePaletta, A.Paletta, A

Primal Scene to Anthropocene: Narrative and Myth in International Environmental Law

In recent years much jurisprudential affection has coalesced around the concept of the Anthropocene. International lawyers have enlisted among the ranks of humanities and social science authors embracing this proposed scientific time category, and putting it to work. This essay draws on sources from a range of fields including legal anthropology and critical legal theory in re-examining the reception of the Anthropocene in international law, focusing on its mythical qualities. We demonstrate how the Anthropocene both reinforces and meshes perfectly with the three narrative pillars of contemporary international environmental law: evolutionary progress; universal evaluations of nature and constructions of legal subjectivity; and legal monism. The Anthropocene, like few ideas in modern scholarship, is quite expressly a tale of origins explaining and legitimating its narrators’ place in the universe. Joining signposts such as The Tragedy of the Commons, the Myth of the Anthropocene embeds collective memories eclipsing the need to reconsider complex and contested histories in understanding the contemporary roles of law in mediating people’s relations with nature. In response, we call for a more inclusive account of environmental law that draws on diversity rather than universality, with particular sensitivity to those perspectives that are inadvertently excluded from the Anthropocene discourse.NWOExploring the Frontiers of International La

Introduction: How the Sociology of Science and Technology Addresses Science and Society Relations

The sociology of science and technology has been gradually broadening its scope of study. Early works paid particular attention to the functioning of the scientific system, such as the values and norms that regulate it, the rewards and the reputation of individual scientists, the competition and collaboration within the scientific community, the accumulation of scientific capital, and the strategies of reproduction or subversion (see, for instance, Hagstrom 1965, Merton 1973, Bourdieu 1975). It then moved toward an examination of scientific practices, how science is produced in the laboratories and in the field, how scientific claims are built and contested, and how scientific knowledge is set apart and raises boundaries with other forms of knowledge (see, for instance, Bloor 1976, Gieryn 1983, Latour and Woolgar 1986, Knorr-Cetina 2009).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio