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This final chapter extends the discussion to the implications of China’s evolving international energy relations, in turn, on its domestic energy transition, the geopolitical landscape, and global sustainability, including international efforts to combat climate change. It also reflects on the ramifications of energy transitions on the international stage in other countries, specifically Japan and Germany. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of the main findings of the book, providing with an overview of how China’s ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewables, along with geopolitical shifts, is reshaping its interactions with the global energy sector.
This chapter evaluates the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Sports for Climate Action Initiative (S4CA), a prominent example of public–private collaboration in addressing climate change within the sports sector. It examines the efforts of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It compares them with the commitments of professional leagues such as England’s Premier League (EPL), Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA). The chapter demonstrates how international organizations leverage direct and indirect interactions with private entities to achieve treaty goals through these examples. It highlights the role of ’pioneer organizations’ in driving significant change within the sports sector. The analysis covers the theoretical background of public–private regulatory interactions, describes the S4CA framework, and illustrates its application by sports entities, showcasing complex regulatory interactions within international legal frameworks.
Chapter 1 elaborates on how the assemblage of multilateral, bilateral, transnational, and private nongovernmental actors – the clean energy regime complex – interacts with domestic politics in emerging economies and developing countries (EMDEs) to foster energy transitions. The ripple effects of international norms regarding energy transitions are visible in domestic institutional change in Indonesia and the Philippines, but both cases demonstrate variable outcomes in terms of the relative impacts of the clean energy regime complex in removing barriers to geothermal development. The chapter underlines the importance of studying the interaction between the international and domestic politics in EMDEs to understand how best to catalyze energy transitions to meet global climate mitigation goals. The chapter summarizes the case study selection, research design and methods, and theoretical arguments on regime complex effectiveness mechanisms – including utility modifier, social learning, and capacity building, and their impact in overcoming domestic political lock-in. The chapter also provides a brief overview of the book.
Chapter 5 traces the history of a number of existing UN mechanisms which represent the interests of particular vulnerable groups in the international system (persons with disabilities, women, and children). The aim of this analysis is to see what types of normative discourses have found traction and led to the development of institutions to represent these vulnerable groups, in order to ascertain the type of normative arguments that would gain support in arguing for international institutions to represent future generations. An important lesson from the case studies is that a normative discourse in which development concerns feature prominently, has been a common thread running through the history of these UN mechanisms. The chapter analyses the differences and similarities between arguments which justify the institutions which have been put in place to represent these vulnerable groups, with arguments used to justify institutions to represent future generations.
Chapter 4 involves a focus on the legitimacy and effectiveness of proxy-style institutions for future generations. It sets out criteria for assessing the legitimacy of such institutions based on Klaus Dingwerth, Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, and Antto Vihma. Criteria for assessing the legitimacy of international tribunals are developed based on an extension of Bogdandy and Venzke’s work with the idea of accountability to the demos being extended to include future generations. A concept of ‘future legitimacy’ is introduced which involves assessing institutions in operation now from the perspective of future generations when climate change is predicted to be ravaging the planet. Criteria for effectiveness are elaborated involving the Paris Agreement goals, as well as an assessment of the promotion of intergenerational justice and the values of inclusiveness, solidarity and addressing vulnerability. Particular challenges in application of these criteria in the context of international law and related institutions which represent future generations are discussed.
In the coming decades, cities and other local governments will need to transform their infrastructure as part of their climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. When they do, they have the opportunity to build a more resilient, sustainable, and accommodating infrastructure for humans and non-humans alike. This chapter surveys a range of policy tools that cities and other local governments can use to pursue co-beneficial adaptations for humans, non-humans, and the environment. For example, they can add bird-friendly glass to new and upgraded buildings and vehicles; they can add overpasses, underpasses, and wildlife corridors on transportation systems; they can reduce light and noise pollution that impact humans and nonhumans alike; they can use a novel trash policy to manage rodent populations non-lethally; and more.
Air pollution related to greenhouse gases (GHGs) is a threat to the climate system, which is changing – a change that is bound to affect the survival of entire states and populations. The enclosure of the air has been inclusionary since it was realized that the reduction of emissions by some states will not do much to improve air quality or abate climate change if other states continue to pollute. The same is true with regard to the enclosure of the ozone layer, since the elimination of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) by some states will be fruitless if other states continue to produce and consume ODSs. In the ozone and climate change regimes, developed countries have been willing to provide side payments to developing states for joining in and for outlawing ODSs and reducing their GHGs. Other issues examined in this chapter include: the politics of green energy transition in connection with the mining of rare earths and minerals and revival of nuclear energy, and the transboundary air pollution regime – an effective inclusionary enclosure.
Chapter 3 delves into the functions and foundations of international environmental law. International environmental law is an institution based on the deliberate redundancy of parallel and overlapping networks that contribute to its resilience and to the maintenance of the minimum public order. We analyze the foundational purposes of international environmental law: the quest for equity and the pursuit of effectiveness. We underline that addressing matters of distributive equity successfully is the sine qua non condition for the effective protection of environmental commons. The tragedy of the commons rationale that precipitated the enclosure of common pool resources in national systems is also driving the enclosure of global common resources. This chapter analyzes the specifics of this enclosure, as it has been unfolding in fisheries, marine genetic resources, germplasm resources and related knowledge, deep-seabed resources, freshwater resources, air, seas, chemicals, wastes, and space. The nature of inclusionary and exclusionary enclosures and how these types of enclosure affect perceptions of distributive equity are critically examined. Finally, international environmental regimes are evaluated based on the effectiveness of the enclosure they have commanded and the perceptions of equity held by the stakeholders and participants in the regimes.
Chapter 8 makes a preliminary assessment of the likely effectiveness of the proposed UN special envoy for future generations by examining this proposal through the lens of three frameworks. These frameworks are, firstly, the rationale or normative basis for such a proposal measured against the principles of intergenerational justice, solidarity and vulnerability set out in Chapter 3 of the book. Next, the special envoy proposal is evaluated in terms of its legitimacy and effectiveness using the criteria elaborated in Chapter 5 (inclusive representation, democratic control in the form of accountability and transparency, deliberation, source-based/input legitimacy in terms of expertise, legal legitimacy, tradition and discourse, substantial/output legitimacy in terms of effectiveness and equity). The possible functions of a special envoy are examined and recommendations are made as to what mandate the special envoy should have, applying the matrix of proxy functions elaborated earlier in this book, which involves breaking proxy representation down into its functions (representative, compliance, reform and norm entrepreneurial). Finally, an overarching framework is proposed for measuring the potential effectiveness of the special envoy which incorporates both frameworks – proxy representation functions and democratic legitimacy.
Chapter 6 contains a case study in which we sketch how the normative framework set out in part A of the book, can be used as a basis for arguments that can be made in relation to the ongoing ICJ advisory opinion on climate change. It argues that the court should interpret international rules in a manner which furthers justice including intergenerational justice. This is essential for maintaining the court’s legitimacy, which must include its future legitimacy. The court should flesh out the principle of intergenerational equity by defining it in terms which require states to take climate action to ensure protection of the human rights of future generations necessary for them to lead a decent life. In addition, the normative framework is used to argue for: (i) an particular interpretation of the no harm rule to incorporate harm towards future generations and (ii) reform of the procedural rules of the ICJ so as to allow NGOs and scientists to make amicus curiae submissions (directly or implicitly) on behalf of future generations in proceedings before the court.
The purpose of this study is to examine the law and policy for the management and protection of the global commons. It analyzes the protection and distribution of global common resources from fairness, effectiveness and world order perspectives. We examine whether international environmental policymaking has resulted in the fair allocation of global common resources that will be effective in protecting the environment.
Australia’s World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef experiences cumulative impacts from diverse activities, including regional catchment-sourced water pollution and the impacts of climate change. Regulating these threats engages a wide range of laws for intervention, which have been influenced by a regulatory mechanism for information – a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) undertaken a decade ago at the request of UNESCO. This chapter explores how the strategic assessment and associated interventions influence impacts from two major activities that contribute to water pollution and climate change – cattle grazing and coal mining. It shows that regulatory SEA can provide for entrenching and integrating ongoing information collection, analysis, and sharing. Moreover, SEA can directly influence diverse regulatory interventions to address cumulative impacts. It can link the functions of information and intervention, two of the regulatory functions advanced by this book’s CIRCle Framework. At the same time, opportunities remain to build stronger links between interventions for water quality and climate adaptation, and between climate change mitigation interventions and the Reef context.
In recent times, the effects of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and other natural disasters have undermined global efforts to reduce poverty and inequality among rural farmers. While efforts at mitigating the impacts of climate change, particularly in developing countries, have not yielded significant improvements, the global health crises of the COVID-19 pandemic have, in many ways, undermined the positive adaptations to climate change. Based on data produced through mixed methods, the paper explores how COVID-19 affected farmers’ ability to adapt to the changing climatic conditions in Ghana’s Coastal and Guinea savannah ecological zones. The paper argues that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has undermined farmers’ access to markets, knowledge, innovations, technologies and critical inputs such as fertilisers, seeds and weedicides/herbicides/pesticides. This has decreased farm output, increased post-harvest loss and increased farmers’ vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change.
Narratives like those portraying development workers as heroes and local populations as victims needing to be saved from their own unsustainable practices have led to problematic policies and interventions. Based on fieldwork across four continents, this Element critically analyzes such metanarratives. First, it demonstrates the ways their simplifying, universalistic narrative plots fail to capture more complex lived realities. Second, it argues that such metanarratives on development are converging with influential metanarratives on climate change and sustainability, thereby strengthening hierarchical geopolitical mindsets. Third, it uncovers how the emergence of for-profit sustainability superhero metanarratives reinforces universalistic development logics by combining these logics with global business management logics. The Element concludes that a multiplicity of locally grounded stories and related forms of agency must be mobilized and recognized so that policy and practice are premised upon lived realities, not abstract and unrealistic global imaginaries. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Exertional heat stroke (EHS) occurs when core body temperature exceeds 40°C (104°F) with central nervous system dysfunction and has been identified as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among endurance athletes. With rapid identification and treatment, survival approaches 100%. This study describes the clinical presentation and course of seven patients transported by emergency medical services from a half marathon with EHS.
Methods
The 2022 Cambridge Half Marathon occurred during unusually warm weather, with a did not finish rate of 2%. Retrospective review was performed of seven patients transported during the race to an urban, level I trauma center with EHS.
Results
Seven patients transported to the study site were included for analysis. All patients treated with cold water immersion at scene were discharged from the emergency department. Three patients without treatment on scene required admission to the intensive care unit. Descriptions of all patients are provided.
Conclusions
Lessons learned from this event include the importance of rapid cooling, the role of event-day communications, the varied impacts on emergency department operations, and the increasing need to anticipate such events outside of traditional warm weather seasons.
Climate change has contributed to an increase in extreme temperatures globally, with mounting evidence suggesting a relationship between extreme temperature exposure and mental health. This review synthesizes findings on the impacts of extreme temperatures on several aspects of mood disorders.
Methods
This systematic review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline. Major databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science) were searched for eligible studies. Study quality was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool.
Results
From the 471 identified reports, 22 were included in the final review. The included studies were set in Asia (n = 8), North America (n = 7), Europe (n = 5), and Oceania (n = 2), encompassing diverse designs (case-crossover, cohort, and cross-sectional). High temperatures were linked to increased hospital admissions for mood disorders, especially among adolescents, women, and the elderly. Seventeen studies identified significant correlations between extreme heat and emergency department visits, whereas others reported minimal associations. Short-term exposure to humidity was a risk factor for increased mood disorder symptoms. Extreme cold exposure was associated with increased outpatient visits and heightened symptom severity for depressive disorders, particularly among older adults and females. The included studies were generally of moderate quality.
Conclusions
The evidence from this review underscores the need for multi-pronged interventions, innovative practices, and public health strategies – including urban planning, patients’ and public education, use of telemedicine, and policy measures – to mitigate the mental health consequences of climate change-driven extreme temperature events.
As the world moves with increasing urgency to mitigate climate change and catalyze energy transitions to net zero, understanding the governance mechanisms that will unlock barriers to energy transitions is of critical importance. This book examines how the clean energy regime complex-the fragmented, complex sphere of governance in the clean energy issue area characterized by proliferating and overlapping international institutions-can be effective in fostering energy transitions at the domestic level, particularly in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Through comparative case studies of geothermal development in Indonesia and the Philippines, the chapters provide two different tales of energy transitions, demonstrating how domestic factors have hindered or facilitated progress. This book will be useful for students, researchers, and practitioners working in international relations, energy politics, political science, development studies, public policy, international law, and sociology. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Why do peat and peatlands matter in modern Russian history? The introduction highlights peatlands as a prominent feature of Russia’s physical environment and reflects on their forgotten role as providers of fuel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It discusses the invisibility of peat and peatlands in most existing historical narratives of the fossil fuel age and identifies peat as a lens to reflect upon Russia’s place within global histories of economic growth and associated resource-use. Situating the book at the intersection of modern Russian, energy, and environmental history, the introduction underscores why the planetary predicament makes the seemingly marginal history of peat extraction a topic of global significance.
How did peatlands respond to human visions of growth and development? Peat extraction entangled humans and peatlands in a relationship marked by irritation, sometimes confrontation. Examining incidents of malaria outbreaks and fire at and around peat extraction sites, this chapter highlights the agency of peatlands in the history of Russia’s fossil economy. It identifies peat extraction sites as spaces of environmental injustice and points to a crucial irony running through the history of human–peatland relationships in imperial and Soviet Russia: Peatlands had long been imagined as dangerous and useless, but they turned into unsettling landscapes only once they became part of Russia’s industrial metabolism. Central Russia’s peatland environments were not just a backdrop to history but actively challenged and constrained the different ways in which people tried to make use of them.
The history of Russia’s peatlands is closely entangled with the environmental issues of our time. Although most peat extraction in central Russia ceased decades ago, the legacy of this history is ongoing. Drainage and industrial exploitation have turned peatlands from carbon sinks into powerful carbon emitters. Recognizing how this issue is rooted in a larger history of economic growth adds depth to our understanding of the current planetary predicament. Even though Russia may not soon become an ally in efforts to cure degraded peatlands, writing their history constitutes an important step in addressing the ecological amnesia surrounding these ecosystems and in developing more caring relationships with them.