Environmental justice and conceptions of the green economy

Green economy has become one of the most fashionable terms in global environmental public policy discussions and forums. Despite this popularity, and its being selected as one of the organizing themes of the United Nations Rio+20 Conference in Brazil, June 2012, its prospects as an effective mobilization tool for global environmental sustainability scholarship and practice remains unclear. A major reason for this is that much like its precursor concepts such as environmental sustainability and sustainable development, green economy is a woolly concept which lends itself to many interpretations. Hence, rather than resolve long-standing controversies, green economy merely reinvigorates existing debates over the visions, actors and policies best suited to secure a more sustainable future for all. In this review article, we aim to fill an important gap in scholarship by suggesting various ways in which green economy may be organized and synthesized as a concept, and especially in terms of its relationship with the idea of social and environmental justice. Accordingly, we offer a systemization of possible interpretations of green economy mapped onto a synthesis of existing typologies of environmental justice. This classification provides the context for future analysis of which, and how, various notions of green economy link with various conceptions of justice

International environmental agreements between developing countries only: learning from the Brazil–Uruguay case over the suspicion of acid rain

Air Pollution, Environmental agreements, Bilateral agreement, Implementation, Transboundary pollution, Uruguay, Brazil, Mercosul, Mercosur, Latin America, Bilateral negotiation, Developing countries,

A Critical Reflection on Smart Governance in Italy: Definition and Challenges for a Sustainable Urban Regeneration

The aim of this work is to analyze the projects carried out by public institutions in the field of smartness, in order to reflect on the most effective mechanisms of governance. To this end, the paper is organized into two main sections. The first section provides a literature analysis of theoretical frameworks as they pertain to the role of political bodies, the policies, and their impacts on local communities in relation to the governance of smart cities. The second section explores the ongoing implementation of "smart city" projects in Italy, in order to understand how cities address their development perspectives from a conceptual framework to the construction of an actual urban space, faced with divergent politics, messy social systems, and different scales of urban governance. In this framework, disparities between urban governance scales and ideologies encompassing smart cities seem linked to the relational systems that local administrations can develop between neighboring cities. The final section summarizes the authors' conclusions, giving particular attention to how networked urban systems are programmed, because they have been found to be key to strategic and transformative planning

The Use of Indicators to Assess Urban Regeneration Performance for Climate-Friendly Urban Development: The Case of Yokohama Minato Mirai 21

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges in the twenty-first century. Immediate actions are required to slow down climate change and address its impacts on human life and settlements. Cities can play crucial roles in this respect, as they not just contribute to causes of climate change but also are under severe threat from its impacts. Urban regeneration projects can provide opportunities to make cities more climate-friendly and less vulnerable. However, the potential role of urban regeneration in tackling climate change is not sufficiently recognized. In many cities, integration between urban regeneration projects and climate policy is still weak. Besides, limited methods exist to evaluate the performance of urban regeneration projects for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Considering these challenges, this chapter is intended to elaborate on use of indicators to assess the progress achieved in urban regeneration projects toward climate-friendly urban development. The chapter presents the findings of a research on the case of Minato Mirai 21 Project in Yokohama, which is a prominent waterfront redevelopment over brownfield sites. The project has converted former shipyards and railroad yards into mixed-use and high-density urban quarter with a working and resident population of 70,000 people at present. A set of 34 indicators grouped under six performance categories is developed and applied to MM21 project. Research findings not only indicate the extent of achievements in MM21 project toward climate-friendly urban development but also highlight the strengths and weaknesses in using indicators for assessing urban regeneration performance

Urban Biodiversity and Climate Change

Urban biodiversity refers to the variety and variability among living organisms found in a city and the ecological systems in which they occur. Overall, urban biodiversity responds to a combination of biogeographic and anthropogenic factors, with a strong influence of the latter. In a rapidly urbanizing world under the pressing threat of climate change, there is a growing interest in understanding how cities benefit from local biodiversity and how these benefits can be under threat due to climate change. This chapter addresses how the combined effects of climate change and urban factors affect urban biodiversity and the practical steps cities are taking to incorporate biodiversity issues in their development agendas