What role for soft law in building and developing the climate change regime?

This paper aims to portray the increasingly complex normative structure of international climate change regime, which consists of the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Cimate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol as well as other additional elements that playing a role, such as the practices of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Global Environmental Facility and procedures of these institutions. The paper is composed of three parts. The first part defines three key concepts, used extensively in this paper. Part two discusses factors promoting the increasing use of soft law in international environmental management in general and climate change regime in particular and overviews the international legal foundations on which the climate change regime is built. Part three briefly analysis of the normstructure of the CCR, including the reporting, review and non-compliance mechanisms as well as the fJexibility mechanisms that this regime lays down. The paper concludes that both hard and soft law, may have diffirential efficts on both rule development and effictive implementation of climate change rules depending mainly on three factors: 'political saliency', 'the perceived state of scientific knowledge', and 'the bargaining power of the states' that favour either hard or respectively soft law

Case Study Report: Kronoberg County

The content of this report is a Deliverable of the FP7 project RUFUS (Rural Future Networks) concerning the Swedish case studies that have been conducted within the project. Two regions in the south of Sweden – the counties of Kronoberg and Kalmar – have been studied in order to find out how social and economic development strategies are enacted in these rural regions. This report concerns Kronoberg County. The aim of the study has been to discover how different sectoral policies are taken into account in the planning system and how the political actors and administrations are helped or hindered by the EU funding system in their work towards a sustainable future of the regions

Case Study Report: Kalmar County

The content of this report is a Deliverable of the FP7 project RUFUS (Rural Future Networks) concerning the Swedish case studies that have been conducted within the project. Two regions in the south of Sweden – the counties of Kronoberg and Kalmar – have been studied in order to find out how social and economic development strategies are enacted in these rural regions. This report concerns Kalmar County. The aim of the study has been to discover how different sectoral policies are taken into account in the planning system and how the political actors and administrations are helped or hindered by the EU funding system in their work towards a sustainable future of the regions

Use of participatory scenario modelling as platforms in stakeholder dialogues

A participatory methodology, based on dialogues between stakeholders and experts has been developed and tested in the drainage area to Kaggebo Bay in the Baltic Sea. This study is focused on the EU Water Framework Directive, with emphasis on reduction of eutrophication. The drainage area is included in the WFD administrative area of the Motala Ström River basin. A similar approach is now applied in a recently initiated project in the Thukela River basin, with focus on impacts of climate change on water resources. The methodology is based on the idea that a catchment model serves as a platform for the establishment of a common view of present conditions and the causes behind these conditions. In the following steps, this is followed by model-assisted agreement on environmental goals (i.e. what do we want the future to look like?) and local agreement on a remedy or mitigation plans in order to reduce environmental impact (e.g. eutrophication); alternatively to adapt to conditions that cannot be determined by local actions (e.g. climate change). By involving stakeholder groups in this model-supported stepwise process, it is ensured that all stakeholder groups involved have a high degree of confidence in the presented model results, and thereby enable various actors involved to share a common view, regarding both present conditions, goals and the way to reach these goals. Although this is a process that is time- (and cost-) consuming, it is hypothesised that the use of this methodology is two-pronged: it increases the willingness to carry out remedies or necessary adaptations to a changing environment, and it increases the level of understanding between the various groups and therefore ameliorates the potential for future conflicts. Compared to traditional use of model results in environmental decision-making, the experts’ role is transformed from a one-way communication of final results to assistance in the various steps of the participatory process.Keywords: participatory, catchment, coastal zone, modelling, nutrient

A data management framework for strategic urban planning using blue-green infrastructure

Spatial planning of Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI) should ideally be based on well-evaluated and context specific solutions. One important obstacle to reach this goal relates to adequate provisioning of data to ensure good governance of BGI, i.e., appropriate planning, design, construction, and maintenance. This study explores the gap between data availability and implementation of BGI in urban planning authorities in Sweden. A multi method approach including brainstorming, semi-structured interviews with urban planners and experts on BGI and Geographical Information System (GIS), and validating workshops were performed to develop a framework for structured and user-friendly data collection and use. Identified challenges concern data availability, data management, and GIS knowledge. There is a need to improve the organisation of data management and the skills of trans-disciplinary cooperation to better understand and interpret different types of data. Moreover, different strategic goals require different data to ensure efficient planning of BGI. This calls for closer interactions between development of strategic political goals and data collection. The data management framework consists of three parts: A) Ideal structure of data management in relation to planning process, data infrastructure and organisational structure, and B) A generic list of data needed, and C) The development of structures for data gathering and access. We conclude that it is essential to develop pan-municipal data management systems that bridge sectors and disciplines to ensure efficient management of the urban environment, and which is able to support the involvement of citizens to collect and access relevant data. The framework can assist in such development

Training materials for different categories of users

Agricultural and Food Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy, Farm Management, Land Economics/Use, Production Economics, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Law, Norms, Piracy and Online Anonymity – Practices of de-identification in the global file sharing community

Purpose The purpose of this study is to better understand online anonymity in the global file-sharing community in the context of social norms and copyright law. The study describes the respondents in terms of use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) or similar services with respect to age, gender, geographical location, as well as analysing the correlation with file-sharing frequencies. Design/methodology/approach This study, to a large extent, collected descriptive data through a web-based survey. This was carried out in collaboration with the BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay (TPB), which allowed us to link the survey from the main logo of their site. In 72 hours, we received over 75,000 responses, providing the opportunity to compare use of anonymity services with factors of age, geographical region, file-sharing frequency, etc. Findings Overall, 17.8 per cent of the respondents used a VPN or similar service (free or paid). A core of high-frequency uploaders is more inclined to use VPNs or similar services than the average file sharer. Online anonymity practices in the file-sharing community depend on how legal and social norms correlate (more enforcement means more anonymity). Research limitations/implications The web-based survey was in English and mainly attracted visitors on The Pirate Bay’s web site. This means that it is likely that those who do not have the language skills necessary were excluded from the survey. Practical implications This study adds to the knowledge of online anonymity practices in terms of traceability and identification, and therefore describes some of the conditions for legal enforcement in a digital environment. Social implications This study adds to the knowledge of how the Internet is changing in terms of a polarization between stronger means of legally enforced identification and a growing awareness of how to be more untraceable. Originality/value The scale of the survey, with over 75,000 respondents from most parts of the world, has likely not been seen before on this topic. The descriptive study of anonymity practices in the global file-sharing community is therefore likely unique

Studying Norms and Social Change in a Digital Age: Identifying and Understanding a Multidimensional Gap Problem

The fact that the debate concerning copyright in a digital society has been both intense and filled with polemic conflicts ever since the late 1990s makes it clear that it is a most complicated issue to solve, or even grasp. Basically, both the legal and societal discussion and development are explicitly dependent on a greater understanding of the on-going processes surrounding copyright. This presents a well-suited point of departure for research such as the one conducted within the Cybernorms research group – both in terms of providing valuable insights into the field of sociology of law when it comes to understanding how to relate to the framework provided by digitalization in general and the Internet in particular, and in terms of providing more accurate knowledge and toolsets to legislators in related fields

Approach towards an operational tool to apply institutional analysis for the assessment of policy feasibility within SEAMLESS-IF

Environmental Economics and Policy,