A Step Change for Earth System Research: Future Earth – Research for Global Sustainability

More integration between scientific disciplines and between the scientific, development and policy communities have been called for by nations and organisations around the world to address the mounting challenge of a transition to sustainability in general and sustainable development in par-ticular

Are 'soft' policy instruments effective? The link between environmental management systems and the environmental performance of companies

Based on the analysis of a large dataset on the environmental performance of European companies in selected industrial sectors, the paper examines the question of whether the presence of an environmental management system (EMS) has a positive impact on the ecoefficiency of companies. It begins with a review of current evidence about the link between EMS and environmental performance, finding that despite much research into EMS there is still very little quantitative research on their actual environmental outcome. The second part of the paper uses three different statistical methods to assess whether companies and production sites with EMS perform better than those without and whether performance improves after an EMS has been introduced. Identifying only a weak link between EMS and eco-efficiency, the authors propose a number of possible explanations and warn against an overly-positive view of EMS as an autonomous driver of environmental performance.environmental management systems, environmental performance, eco-efficiency

Drawing out the Links

Wird die Informationsgesellschaft tatsächlich "leicht und sauber" sein? Ein Über­blick über die internationale Literatur nährt hier eher Skepsis. Die Verbreitung von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien birgt sowohl große Risiken als auch große Chancen für ökologische Nachhaltigkeit. Dabei fallen insbesondere die indirekten und strukturellen Wirkungen ins Gewicht. Entscheidend ist, wie die Bilanz von Effizienzsteigerungen, Substitutionseffekten, neu generierter Nachfrage (rebound effect) sowie Lebensstilveränderungen ausfallen wird

Sharing the Burden of Adaptation Financing: An Assessment of the Contributions of Countries

Climate change may cause most harm to countries that contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions. This paper identifies deontology, solidarity and consequentialism as the principles that can serve as a basis for a fair international burden sharing scheme of adaptation costs. We translate these principles into criteria that can be applied in assigning contributions of individual countries, namely historical responsibility, equality and capacity to pay. Specific political and scientific choices are discussed, highlighting implications for international burden-sharing. Combining historical responsibility and capacity to pay seems a promising starting point for international negotiations on the design of burden-sharing schemes. From the numerical assessment, it is clear that UNFCCC Annex I countries carry the greatest burden under most scenarios, but contributions differ substantially subject to the choice of an indicator for capacity to pay. The total financial contribution by the Annex I countries could be in the range of $55-68 billion annually.Adaptation Financing, Burden-Sharing, Historical Responsibility

Transformational resilience thinking: Putting people, power and politics at the heart of urban climate resilience

Resilience is receiving substantial traction as a concept to inform climate change and development policies and programmes. At the same time, a number of critiques have emerged that question its use as a framing concept for tackling urban climate change. This paper reflects on climate resilience and its critiques through an examination of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) initiative in two cities in India. We illustrate aspects of the resilience critique and, using evidence of transformational aspects of the initiative, we argue that resilience thinking must be coupled with the concept of transformation in order to bring issues of people, politics and power to the fore. In the process, the conceptual strength of resilience can be combined with a more radical agenda that engages with underlying political structures and trade-offs that determine risk and vulnerability