The green economy challenge to IPE

Calls for a transition to a low-carbon energy system, favouring renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and conservation are now entering the mainstream of policy discourse in many sectors and parts of the world, with some measurable effects. This paper explores the transformative nature of these calls on key aspects of the global political economy. It argues that a diverse and increasingly effective discourse coalition is emerging around the concept of energy transition, and looks at how the Transition Movement wishes to reconfigure the nature, the content and the governance of the global political economy. More specifically, it asks how this movement sees the world, what makes up its ontological worldview, and how it wants to change it. This paper further suggests that these calls are accompanied by remarkable changes in global investment patterns in favour of key elements of what can be labelled “the green economy”

États fédérés et mise en œuvre des traités climatiques internationaux : le cas du Québec

La Convention-cadre des Nations Unies sur les changements climatiques (CCNUCC) et le Protocole de Kyoto encadrent les efforts de la communauté internationale en matière de lutte aux changements climatiques. Les gouvernements fédéraux américain et canadien ne sont pas soumis aux dispositions du Protocole, ne l’ayant jamais ratifié ou l’ayant récemment dénoncé, dans le cas plus récent du Canada. Jusqu'à quel point peut-on affirmer que certains États fédérés nord-américains se substituent à leur État fédéral dans la mise en oeuvre, sur leur territoire, des obligations contenues à la Convention-cadre et au Protocole de Kyoto? Le présent article évalue le degré et la nature de cette éventuelle substitution en analysant un premier cas, celui du Québec. Les auteurs concluent que cet État, de façon autonome, se conforme à la plupart des obligations climatiques internationales telles que visées à la Convention et au Protocole, à l'exception notable, pour le moment, d'un niveau de soutien significatif en faveur des pays en développement. L’étude de ce cas confirme l’importance des acteurs subétatiques face aux grands défis internationaux contemporains, dans un contexte de gouvernance à paliers multiples.Abstract: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol both determine the nature and the level of international cooperation on the issue of climate change. The United States has never ratified the Protocol and the Canadian federal government has recently denounced it, thus rendering its provisions inapplicable within their jurisdictions. In this context, to what extent can some federated North American states be said to substitute themselves for their federal governments in the implementation of the provisions of the Convention and the Protocol within their own territories? The article examines the nature and the degree of this type of potential substitution using Quebec as a first case study. The writers find that Quebec voluntarily abides by most of the international climate obligations as set out in both the Convention and the Protocol, but with the notable exception of failing to provide a meaningful level of support to developing countries. This analysis confirms the importance of subnational states in the context of contemporary global issues, from the perspective of multilevel governance

Le test de Rorschach : Keystone XL comme controverse politique têtue

Le projet d'oléoduc Keystone XL, potentiellement une des infrastructures énergétiques les plus importantes du continent, n'a encore fait l'objet que de peu d'attention académique. Il se situe pourtant au cœur d'un important conflit entre différentes façons de concevoir la gouvernance de l'économie, de l'énergie et de l'environnement dans une Amérique qui peine à sortir de récession. Ce texte étudie ce conflit en tant que controverse politique têtue. Dans ce type de controverse, des acteurs aux visions du monde très différentes cherchent à contrôler le processus de prise de décision en imposant leurs points de vue et leurs solutions privilégiées. À partir d'une approche constructiviste et post-structuraliste inspirée par les travaux de Martin Rein, Donald Schön et Marteen Hajer, nous avons examiné les visions qui s'affrontent dans l'espace public comme autant de perspectives ontologiques et prescriptives distinctes. Nous avons émis l'hypothèse selon laquelle les débats entourant Keystone XL s'articulent autour de trois cadres de référence en matière de sécurité énergétique, soit les cadres libéral, géopolitique et environnemental, et qu'aucun de ces cadres n'était parvenu à dominer ces débats. Nous avons analysé les interventions des 1032 individus ayant participé aux rencontres publiques menées par le Département d'État américain à l'automne 2011 sur le projet Keystone XL. Nous avons codé chacune de leurs interventions, à partir d'une approche d'analyse discursive développée par John Dryzek et que nous avons complétée. Les résultats de l'analyse nous ont amené à rejeter notre hypothèse. La majorité des intervenants (85 %) ne conçoit pas Keystone XL à travers le prisme de la sécurité énergétique, mais plutôt comme un grand projet créateur d'emplois ou encore une menace à la qualité de l'environnement local. Par ailleurs, les considérations liées à la création d'emplois auront nettement dominé les débats.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Keystone XL, États-Unis, Canada, pétrole bitumineux, cadres de référence, discour

Computing a lower bound for the solution of a robotic process automation (RPA) problem using network flows

Robotic process automation (RPA) helps companies reduce the time required to process tasks by using software or robots to mimic human actions on graphic interfaces. In this paper, the RPA problem is solved for a financial institution. A set of different types of financial transactions are to be processed with different processing times, volumes, market hours and clearance delays. In a previous work, a two-phase linear integer model was used to solve the problem on small instances. In this study, a network flow algorithm is used to compute a lower bound for the problem, thus reducing the computational time required to obtain a solution. The method is tested on a real case provided by a bank in North America and on synthetic test cases containing a greater number of transaction types. Results show that combining the computation of the lower bound with a linear integer model is faster and more practical

Minimizing the number of robots required for a robotic process automation (RPA) problem

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is used in various fields of human activity in order to implement faster and more secure processes through a reduction in the risks or errors but also an increase in the productivity rates. The increase of its use and importance calls for evermore efficient solution methods for this problem. In this paper, the RPA is addressed in the context of a financial institution. The problem consists in assigning transactions to software robots, where each transaction type has a different clearance date and a different processing time. First, four heuristics are used to compute an upper bound on the number of required software robots. Then, this bound is given as a parameter to an integer linear program, which is used to assign the transactions to the different robots. The quality of the solutions is assessed by an extensive experimental study on a set of 39,000 instances. The results show that two heuristics outperform the others and allow for a faster resolution by the integer linear program which in turn finds the optimal solution for most of the instances within a timeout of 60 seconds

Infection assays in Arabidopsis reveal candidate effectors from the poplar rust fungus that promote susceptibility to bacteria and oomycete pathogens

Fungi of the Pucciniales order cause rust diseases which, altogether, affect thousands of plant species worldwide and pose a major threat to several crops. How rust effectors—virulence proteins delivered into infected tissues to modulate host functions— contribute to pathogen virulence remains poorly understood. Melampsora larici-populina is a devastating and widespread rust pathogen of poplar, and its genome encodes 1184 identified small secreted proteins that could potentially act as effectors. Here, following specific criteria, we selected 16 candidate effector proteins and characterized their virulence activities and subcellular localizations in the leaf cells of Arabidopsis thaliana. Infection assays using bacterial (Pseudomonas syringae) and oomycete (Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis) pathogens revealed subsets of candidate effectors that enhanced or decreased pathogen leaf colonization. Confocal imaging of green fluorescent protein-tagged candidate effectors constitutively expressed in stable transgenic plants revealed that some protein fusions specifically accumulate in nuclei, chloroplasts, plasmodesmata and punctate cytosolic structures. Altogether, our analysis suggests that rust fungal candidate effectors target distinct cellular components in host cells to promote parasitic growth. © 2016 BSPP AND JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

The expression pattern of the Picea glauca Defensin 1 promoter is maintained in Arabidopsis thaliana, indicating the conservation of signalling pathways between angiosperms and gymnosperms*

A 1149 bp genomic fragment corresponding to the 5' non-coding region of the PgD1 (Picea glauca Defensin 1) gene was cloned, characterized, and compared with all Arabidopsis thaliana defensin promoters. The cloned fragment was found to contain several motifs specific to defence or hormonal response, including a motif involved in the methyl jasmonate reponse, a fungal elicitor responsive element, and TC-rich repeat cis-acting element involved in defence and stress responsiveness. A functional analysis of the PgD1 promoter was performed using the uidA (GUS) reporter system in stably transformed Arabidopsis and white spruce plants. The PgD1 promoter was responsive to jasmonic acid (JA), to infection by fungus and to wounding. In transgenic spruce embryos, GUS staining was clearly restricted to the shoot apical meristem. In Arabidopsis, faint GUS coloration was observed in leaves and flowers and a strong blue colour was observed in guard cells and trichomes. Transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing the PgD1::GUS construct were also infiltrated with the hemibiotrophic pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato DC3000. It caused a suppression of defensin expression probably resulting from the antagonistic relationship between the pathogen-stimulated salicylic acid pathway and the jasmonic acid pathway. It is therefore concluded that the PgD1 promoter fragment cloned appears to contain most if not all the elements for proper PgD1 expression and that these elements are also recognized in Arabidopsis despite the phylogenetic and evolutionary differences that separates them

Canada’s multiple voices diplomacy in climate change negotiations: a focus on Québec

Abstract: This article sheds light on the complexity of international climate change negotiations in a federal country, like Canada, where there is no clear attribution of full power over international negotiation concerning this issue. Climate change is a multi-level and multi-stakeholder issue, one that can only be tackled successfully if all actors, at all levels of government, are involved in the process. In recent years, Canadian provinces, especially Québec, have become intensely involved in climate change paradiplomacy. That situation has led to a Canadian paradox where the Government of Québec worked to respect the Kyoto Protocol and act accordingly, while Canada opted out of the Protocol in 2011

Chapitre 12. Transition énergétique : le Québec se donne-t-il les moyens de ses ambitions ?

Le 12 décembre 2015, l’Accord de Paris sur les changements climatiques est adopté par consensus par 195 États, après plusieurs années de négociation. Pour la première fois, tous sont mis à contribution afin de limiter l’augmentation de la température mondiale « bien en deçà » de 2 degrés Celsius au-dessus de l’ère préindustrielle. Pour y arriver, les États, et en premier lieu les économies développées, devront réaliser d’importants efforts de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre (G..