Global Environmental Change最新文献

Agency, social networks, and adaptation to environmental change

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-03-04 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102983

Michele L Barnes , Sarah Sutcliffe , Innocent Muly , Nyawira Muthiga , Stephen Wanyonyi , Petr Matous , Michael Murunga

Environmental change is escalating across the globe, threatening the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of people. Substantial effort and resources have been committed at a global scale to support adaptation projects in affected communities to confront these changes. Yet not everyone has equal capabilities to adapt, guide adaptation decisions, and contribute to envisioning alternative futures. Drawing on theories of agency, social networks, and adaptation and employing a unique time-series dataset including 653 individuals across five Kenyan coastal communities, here we examine how agency over adaptation decisions is socially differentiated and the disparities that exist regarding who is able to bolster their level of agency over time. Our results show that involvement in local environmental decision-making processes, where adaptation to environmental change is negotiated, is strongly associated with feelings of effective power. Yet this power is largely concentrated among older individuals, community leaders, those with greater assets, and those with social ties to leaders – pointing to existing social hierarchies and resource differentials that drive adaptation decisions. The only significant predictor of changes in agency over time was network exposure: individuals with direct contact with those who were actively involved in environmental decision-making (individual agency) were likely to become more involved themselves; yet contact with passively involved partners (proxy agency) led to decreases in agency over time. Our results suggest a dynamic ripple effect in agency through social networks, suggesting that social networks can both catalyse and inhibit perceptions of effective power over adaptation decisions through participation in environmental decision-making. Our findings underscore the importance of social networks in enabling and constraining agency, highlight the role of leadership and power dynamics in environmental decision-making and locally led adaptation, and provide a foundation for future research on fostering inclusive and just adaptation.

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引用次数: 0

The environmental statehood of ecological restoration: An institutional analysis of three regulatory case studies

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-02-26 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102982

Emille Boulot

Throughout Australia, social-ecological systems are in decline. Ecological restoration has been identified as a key process for reversing this decline, but the recovery of social-ecological systems following ecological restoration is rare. As ecological restoration is a social practice as much as it is a natural science practice, regulatory frameworks have a key role to play in either promoting or impeding recovery. This paper investigates how institutions in the regulatory space for ecological restoration approach recovery and identifies the drivers for regulatory instruments through a multi-level institutional analysis of three regulatory case studies across Australia. The findings from the institutional analysis demonstrate a paradox in the regulation of ecological restoration as it shows that the regulatory frameworks are actually contributing to low recovery rates. Ecological restoration is often regulated by the same regulatory frameworks that regulate land degradation and the regulatory systems continue to articulate the value of land degrading activities, with ecological restoration a way of avoiding state liability. Drivers for regulatory reform are then often market orientated. These findings all demonstrate what has been called an environmental statehood; that is, the way in which modern states engage with social-ecological issues, only continues to reinforce land degradation.

The role of the state, state institutions and regulation is often overlooked in studies addressing socio-ecological resilience and adaptation, despite the central role of these institutions in the management of socio-ecological systems. This paper adds to the growing scholarship that addresses this research gap by contributing an empirically informed analysis of the regulation of ecological restoration in Australia.

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引用次数: 0

Integrating power, justice and reflexivity into transformative climate change adaptation

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-02-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102981

Marcus Taylor , Siri Eriksen , Katharine Vincent , Morgan Scoville-Simonds , Nick Brooks , E. Lisa F. Schipper

Transformative adaptation requires transformation among those who fund, plan, implement and evaluate interventions. In response, we emphasise the need for donor and implementing organisations to self-reform to create the necessary space and support for adaptation projects that embrace a transformative ethos. We argue that projects can appropriately centre justice as the primary goal of transformative adaptation by (1) confronting power relations, (2) embracing knowledge pluralism, (3) fostering bottom-up coalitions, and (4) recognizing trade-offs and unexpected outcomes. At the heart of this reflexive approach is the foregrounding of learning processes targeted towards shifting knowledge and power that is critical to avoid adaptive outcomes that exacerbate the vulnerability and exclusion of already marginalised groups.

引用次数: 0

Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-02-15 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102980

Ian Walker , Marco te Brömmelstroet

Motonormativity is a shared bias whereby people judge motorised mobility differently to other comparable topics. This works against societies addressing climate and public health crises effectively. A social-ecological explanation has been suggested for the phenomenon, in which motonormativity is shaped by people’s environments, but this has not been tested. Here we used a large international sample (N = 2035) and novel within-participants testing to show, for the first time, at least two environmental pathways linked to judgement biases: one related to people’s social surroundings and linked with their explicit views on transport, and a separate, more implicit pathway related to higher-level structural influences such as nationality, and living in rural areas. Additionally, respondents dramatically underestimated public support for non-motorised transport relative to their own, a pluralistic ignorance effect likely reflecting another facet of motonormativity. The social-ecological explanation, with its nested environmental influences, helps explain the ‘stickiness’ of automobility, and implies change will be most likely when multiple facets of a person’s social, physical and cultural surroundings align in supporting non-motorised mobility.

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引用次数: 0

Low perception of climate change by farmers and herders on Tibetan Plateau

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-02-08 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102970

Jiawei Yi , Yuan Tian , Nicholas P. Simpson , Yunyan Du , Ting Ma , Chengqun Yu , Talbot M. Andrews , Tao Pei , Xinjie Zha , Chenghu Zhou , Wei Sun , Shaowei Li , Zhiming Zhong , Junxi Wu , Jialu An , Fusong Han , Cheng Duan , Huixia Zou , Mengmeng Zhang , Nan Wang , Rui Xu

Vulnerable groups living in climate-sensitive areas are facing unprecedented risks. Their perception of the changing climate and its impacts has potentially significant influence over the choices they make in response. However, our understanding of the climate change perceptions of many vulnerable groups, and the key environmental and social predictors of public understanding of climate risk, is insufficient. Our integrated analysis of physical climate trends, demographic characteristics, and climate change responses of over 24,000 farmers and herders across the Tibetan Plateau, finds that fewer than 26 % of respondents perceive the significant warming trend in their region. The results suggest perceptions of climate change are more sensitive to rates of temperature change, changes around ice melt, and extremes, than increases in average temperatures. Importantly, broader dimensions of well-being have influence over perception and confidence in adaptation options as average annual income, having a credit loan, consuming trusted media, and living on high-altitude locations have a significant positive effect on perceiving climate change. Identifying synergies between dimensions of human well-being and adaptation to climate change is critical for investment in the scalable transformations needed to achieve more sustainable livelihoods. Improving income, access to credit and social services present policy makers opportunities for targeted interventions to increase climate change perception of farmers and herders. These interventions can reduce inequalities in adaptation capacity and strengthen the public’s ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change with co-benefits with broader progress towards poverty reduction, social services, climate information and education.

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引用次数: 0

Creating favorable conditions for inter- and transdisciplinary integration – An analytical framework and empirical insights

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102963

Lisa Deutsch , Christian Pohl , David N. Bresch , Sabine Hoffmann

Complex global social-ecological challenges of our time such as climate change, biodiversity loss or, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic can neither be comprehensively understood nor properly addressed by employing a single disciplinary or sectoral perspective. For this reason, more and more large inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) initiatives are on the rise, intending to open up the silo-like production of knowledge and to advance the integration of different fields of expertise within academia, but also across science, policy and practice. While the need for ITD initiatives in order to both understand and address the complexity of such global socio-ecological challenges has increasingly been acknowledged by research institutions, funders and public authorities, a question remains concerning the extent to which prevailing conditions suffice for conducting ITD research, particularly in terms of whether the envisioned integration of perspectives and actors really happen in practice. This paper embraces a holistic view on ITD integration by presenting both an analytical framework and empirical insights from three ITD initiatives based in Switzerland dealing with sustainable urban water management, (future) extreme events and cross-sectoral climate impacts and climate services in different socio-economic contexts. The framework is based on critical realist reasoning and employs a structure-agency lens by distinguishing conditions of integration at different structural levels, while also acknowledging the power of actors to shape integration and the respective structures. The paper thereby illustrates and helps diagnose the source of challenges experienced in living up to ITD integration endeavors and how these different structural levels are interrelated and impact ITD integration. We conclude by discussing entry points for action aimed at transforming currently unfavorable structures into favorable ones. We thereby intend to provide, in particular, insights for a wide range of actors interested in making sure that ITD initiatives intended to address the global social-ecological challenges of our time can realize their full integration potential in practice.

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引用次数: 0

Addressing climate inaction as our greatest threat to sustainable development

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-01-29 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102969

Samuel Mackay , Rob Hales , John Hewson , Rosemary Addis , Brendan Mackey

More than 1 degree of global warming has been reached and once projected impacts are now being realized. Despite these impacts and the short timeframe available to avoid further warming, climate inaction remains a major threat to sustainable development. In this article, we bring a renewed focus to the issue of climate inaction. We unpack the systemic market failure that underpins current climate action efforts globally and how by shifting focus to address inaction this could be overcome. We explore how climate policies are inadvertently allowing climate inaction to persist, why this is happening and how to address it. Central to our argument is that climate policies still draw too heavily on a neoclassical development paradigm, rather than reinvigorated industrial policy, resulting in market interventions that fail to address the scale and systemic nature of the climate action challenge. We therefore reorient climate policies towards addressing inaction as a systemic development challenge that demands a stronger role from the government. We conclude by proposing a market systems framework for guiding policymakers to better target the systemic nature of climate inaction and the threat it poses to sustainable development.

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引用次数: 0

Environmental change and migration aspirations: Evidence from Bangladesh

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-01-28 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102966

Lukas Rudolph , Vally Koubi , Jan Freihardt

The argument that environmental stress is an important driver of migration has gained renewed attention amidst increasing climatic changes. This study examines whether and how two distinct environmental stressors influence migration aspirations among affected populations. Our analysis relies on two waves of original survey data of 1,594 households residing in 36 villages along the 250 km of the Jamuna River in Bangladesh, an area heavily impacted by floods and riverbank erosion. The results reveal that riverbank erosion – a long-term environmental event causing permanent destruction – increases aspirations for internal, permanent migration by about 15 percentage points, 4 to 6 months after the occurrence. In contrast, sudden and short-term events, like floods, which have a more temporary impact, do not affect migration aspirations. These results suggest that the type of environmental event shapes adaptation strategies, with migration emerging as a viable response to more severe and lasting events such as erosion. This entails important policy implications regarding the effects of climate change on future patterns of internal migration and highlights that most affected individuals prefer to adapt to environmental stress in situ or within close proximity.

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引用次数: 0

“Sometimes, I just want to scream”: Institutional barriers limiting adaptive capacity and resilience to extreme events

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-01-24 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102967

S. Jeff Birchall , Sarah Kehler , Sebastian Weissenberger

Climate change is increasing atmospheric river risk, requiring communities to build resilience and implement adaptation strategies. Effective infrastructure and emergency management are two adaptations required for communities to cope with, and respond to, acute impacts of climate-related extreme events. In 2021, Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada experienced an unprecedented, yet anticipated, atmospheric river that exceeded risk-mitigation infrastructure and emergency management capacity. We ask: if they knew, why were they not prepared? Through a review of strategic planning documents and a qualitative analysis of semi-structured, key actor interviews, we analyze the impact of adaptive capacity on adaptation implementation. Our findings demonstrate that institutional barriers limited adaptive capacity, stagnated adaptation implementation and, in consequence, existing infrastructure and emergency management were insufficient to prevent acute impacts during the event. Further discussion identified formal and informal institutions preventing adaptation implementation: Formally, hierarchical governance decreased community adaptive capacity and led to infrastructure deficit, while informally, development-driven decision-making overshadowed infrastructure mitigation and preparedness priorities. Historical anthropocentric decisions persisted through path dependencies, preventing resilient decision-making during a time of rapid change. Recommendations are made to address these barriers and empower communities to prepare for climate change. This research offers understanding on institutional barriers limiting adaptive capacity and, more generally, contributes to a growing body of research that elucidates why communities face climate change underprepared.

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引用次数: 0

Reducing coal use is key to curbing toxic trace elements emissions in China driven by carbon neutrality policy

IF 8.6 1区环境科学与生态学 Q1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Global Environmental Change

Pub Date : 2025-01-24 DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102965

Yujie Pan , Xiaorui Liu , Chaoyi Guo , Yaqing Guo , Emily Welsch , Zhuoer Feng , Xiaotian Ma , Guowangchen Liu , Meng Xu , Hancheng Dai

Toxic trace elements (TEs) are commonly co-emitted with carbon dioxide (CO₂) and pose challenges to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the extent to which carbon mitigation measures can simultaneously reduce these pollutants remains unclear. Here, we developed an integrated assessment model to evaluate the impact of China’s carbon neutrality policies on TEs emissions from coal combustion across various regions and sectors. Our findings reveal that, compared to baseline scenarios, a 77% carbon reduction under the carbon neutrality policies leads to an 85%-88% decrease in TEs emissions in 2060 within coal-consuming sectors, highlighting the importance of regional and sectoral heterogeneity. We identified key regions and sectors with disproportionately high emission intensities and co-reduction potential. Priority regions include Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Hubei, and Jiangsu, while critical sectors include petrol oil, power generation, services, chemicals, and metal smelting. We also portrayed, for the first time in literature, an integrated long-term roadmap for synergistic control of CO₂ and TEs emissions. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing multi-pollution reduction strategies and enhancing environmental governance efficacy.

{"title":"Reducing coal use is key to curbing toxic trace elements emissions in China driven by carbon neutrality policy","authors":"Yujie Pan , Xiaorui Liu , Chaoyi Guo , Yaqing Guo , Emily Welsch , Zhuoer Feng , Xiaotian Ma , Guowangchen Liu , Meng Xu , Hancheng Dai","doi":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102965","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102965","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Toxic trace elements (TEs) are commonly co-emitted with carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and pose challenges to achieving multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the extent to which carbon mitigation measures can simultaneously reduce these pollutants remains unclear. Here, we developed an integrated assessment model to evaluate the impact of China’s carbon neutrality policies on TEs emissions from coal combustion across various regions and sectors. Our findings reveal that, compared to baseline scenarios, a 77% carbon reduction under the carbon neutrality policies leads to an 85%-88% decrease in TEs emissions in 2060 within coal-consuming sectors, highlighting the importance of regional and sectoral heterogeneity. We identified key regions and sectors with disproportionately high emission intensities and co-reduction potential. Priority regions include Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Hubei, and Jiangsu, while critical sectors include petrol oil, power generation, services, chemicals, and metal smelting. We also portrayed, for the first time in literature, an integrated long-term roadmap for synergistic control of CO<sub>2</sub> and TEs emissions. These findings provide valuable insights for optimizing multi-pollution reduction strategies and enhancing environmental governance efficacy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":328,"journal":{"name":"Global Environmental Change","volume":"91 ","pages":"Article 102965"},"PeriodicalIF":8.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143094137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0