Traditional impact models combine exposure in the form of scenarios and sensitivity in the form of parameters, providing potential impacts of global change as model outputs. However, adaptive capacity is rarely addressed in these models. This paper presents the first spatially explicit scenario-driven model of adaptive capacity, which can be combined with impact models to support quantitative vulnerability assessment. The adaptive capacity model is based on twelve socio-economic indicators, each of which is projected into the future using four global environmental change scenarios, and then aggregated into an adaptive capacity index in a stepwise approach using fuzzy set theory. The adaptive capacity model provides insight into broad patterns of adaptive capacity across Europe, the relative importance of the various determinants of adaptive capacity, and how adaptive capacity changes over time under different social and economic assumptions. As such it provides a context for the implementation of specific adaptation measures. This could improve integrated assessment models and could be extended to other regions. However, there is a clear need for a better theoretical understanding of the adaptive capacity concept, and its relationship to the actual implementation of adaptation measures. This requires more empirical research and coordinated meta-analyses across regions and economic sectors, and the development of bottom-up modelling techniques that can incorporate human decision making.

A methodology for local stakeholders involvement in water management using a catchment model as a platform for dialogue has been developed and tested in the Kaggebo Bay drainage area in the southeast of Sweden. The process involved farmers, rural households not connected to municipal wastewater treatment facilities, local and regional authorities as well as different water and agricultural experts. This paper aims to assess whether and how the methodology has succeeded in encouraging social learning and promoting action and which barriers can be identified. The assessment shows that the methodology is able to create confidence in the process and increase the willingness to act as the methodology was able to adapt the form and content of the dialogue to better fit the cognitive and relational needs of involved stakeholders. It is also shown that the process may lead to a probable improvement of the eutrophication situation. However, if these types of processes are to serve not only as a basis for social learning and action at the local level, but also as the basis for a broader process of societal learning, then a mechanism to confer local ideas to the regional and national levels has to be clarified.

While energy-sector emissions remain the biggest source of climate change, many least-developed countries still invest in fossil-fuel development paths. These countries generally have high levels of fossil fuel technology lock-in and low capacities to change, making the shift to sustainable energy difficult. Tanzania, a telling example, is projected to triple fossil-fuel power production in the next decade. This article assesses the potential to use internationally supported Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) to develop solar energy in Tanzania and contribute to transformational change of the electricity supply system. By assessing the cultural legitimacy of NAMAs among key stakeholders in the solar energy sector, we analyse the conditions for successful uptake of the concept in (1) national political thought and institutional frameworks and (2) the solar energy niche. Interview data are analysed from a multi-level perspective on transition, focusing on its cultural dimension. Several framings undermining legitimacy are articulated, such as attaching low-actor credibility to responsible agencies and the concept’s poor fit with political priorities. Actors that discern opportunities for NAMAs could, however, draw on a framing of high commensurability between experienced social needs and opportunities to use NAMAs to address them through climate compatible development. This legitimises NAMAs and could challenge opposing framings.

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 Strom 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.

This report aims at identifying potential issues for collaboration related to climate adaptation through application of a tool for assessing macro-regional risks. The tool is intended to assist decision-makers and other stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in discussions on how climate adaptation related cooperation would benefit most from macro-regional cooperation. It is based on four criteria: 1) confidence, 2) speed (determined by Baltadapt climate modellers), 3) importance of impacts and 4) macro-regional coverage (based on a questionnaires answered by 3-8 stakeholders from each of the nine riparian BSR states). Based on equal weighting of these factors, impacts related to biodiversity/eutrophication of the Baltic Sea, as well and impacts related to agriculture were given the highest rankings, which demonstrates the importance to include these sectors and their interrelationship as an important focus in macro-regional cooperation on climate adaptation in the BSR. Impacts  related to biodiversity and agriculture have in common that they are caused by climate change that will occur or already has occurred with a high degree of certainty (e.g., linked to air and water temperatures and rising sea levels), as well as having a very large macro-regional spatial coverage, and being perceived as of high societal and/or environmental concern.

 Water-related problems are characterized by complexities, uncertainties and conflicting interests, and there is no single “optimal” way to approach these “wicked” problems. Model-assisted participatory processes have been suggested as one way to meet these challenges. However, the use of models as scenario tools for local planning of mitigation and adaptation strategies addressing environmental challenges is more often an exception than common practice. In order to assess future possibilities for successful use of participatory scenario modelling, experiences from two model-facilitated projects are presented and discussed. The participatory scenario modelling described in this paper implies modelling with people, as opposed to agent-based modelling which is based on modelling people’s behaviour and its consequences. In the first project, a participatory model-assisted process was conducted to formulate a locally proposed remedy plan to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loads in local lakes and the coastal zone. In the second project, a similar process was used to formulate local adaptation strategies to climate change impacts on water allocation, farming and the environment. Based on the experiences of these projects; recommendations are made as to how model-assisted participatory processes can best be organised and conducted. A key message is that modellers need to rethink their role as “solution providers” to become “process facilitators”.

Sverige hör troligen inte till de regioner i världen som är mest sårbara för klimatvariabilitet och förändringar. Effekter från ett förändrat klimat kommer dock med stor sannolikhet att vara märkbara även lokalt i Sverige, vilket diskuteras mer ingående i Sten Bergströms artikel.

Denna artikel syftar till att bidra med erfarenheter runt hur man kan arbeta med att ta fram lokalt förankrade anpassningsstrategier. Med tanke på osäkerheter om detaljer i det framtida klimatet, kan det ibland ifrågasättas om det är rimligt att göra stora investeringar på så osäkra grunder. I detta sammanhang är det viktigt att tänka på att anpassningsstrategier för att möta framtida förändringar även gör oss bättre rustade att möta den klimatvariabilitet som vi redan lever med.

Att välja rätt strategier för framtiden bör därför baseras på identifikation och fokus på de klimatrelaterade problem som vi har redan idag, med fokus på de problem som ger allvarligast effekter för olika sektorer i samhället, samt, baserad på regionalt nedskalade modellberäkningar, identifikation av sannolikheten för att dessa problem kommer att öka i framtiden.

I denna artikel ges ett exempel på hur man genom aktörsamverkan kan ta fram lokala och regionala åtgärdsplaner. Samverkan har assisterats av klimat och vattenmodellerare, som i dialog med lokala aktörer tagit fram det material som behövts för att föra diskussionerna vidare. Exempel ges från ett pågående projekt i Sydafrika, men metoderna är lika relevanta i Sverige. Liknande metoder har, t.ex. använts för att ta fram en lokalt föreslagen åtgärdsplan mot övergödning i Kaggebofjärden, med medverkan från bl.a. lantbrukare, sommarstugeägare och kommuner (rapport kan beställas från lotta.andersson@smhi.se) .

Dessutom beskrivs kortfattat ett nystartat INTERREG-projekt, ”Baltic Climate” som bl.a. syftar till att ge kommuner och lokala aktörer runt Östersjön möjlighet att möta klimatförändringarna på ett hållbart sätt..

This article presents the design and testing of a model-assisted participatory process for the formulation of a local adaptation plan to climate change. The pilot study focused on small-scale and commercial agriculture, water supply, housing, wildlife, livestock and biodiversity in the Thukela River basin, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The methodology was based on stakeholders identifying and ranking the severity of climate-related challenges, and downscaled stakeholder-identified information provided by modellers, with the aim of addressing possible changes of exposure in the future. The methodology enables the integration of model-based information with experience and visions based on local realities. It includes stakeholders own assessments of their vulnerability to prevailing climate variability and the severity, if specified, of climate-related problems that may occur more often in the future. The methodology made it possible to identify the main issues to focus on in the adaptation plan, including barriers to adaptation. We make recommendations for how to design a model-assisted participatory process, emphasizing the need for transparency, to recognize the interests of the stakeholders, good advance planning, local relevance, involvement of local champions, and adaptation of Information material to each groups previous experience and understanding.

This report originates from a project entitled Participatory Modelling for Assessment of Local Impacts of Climate Variability and Change on Water Resources (PAMO), financed by the Swedish Development Agency and Research Links cooperation (NRF and the Swedish Research Council).

The project is based on interactions between stakeholders in the Mhlwazini/Bergville area of the Thukela River basin, climate and water researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg Campus) and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) during a series of workshops held in 2007-2009. Between the workshops, the researcher’s compiled locally relevant climate change related information, based on requests from the workshop participants, as a basis for this adaptation plan.

The aim is to provide a local assessment of vulnerability to climate change impacts on water resources and adaptation strategies. The assessment identifies existing climate-water related problems, current adaptation strategies and recommendations for future action based on likelihoods for change and the severity if such changes will occur.

This paper lays the foundation for the use of scenario modelling as a tool for integrated water resource management in the Okavango River basin. The Pitman hydrological model is used to assess the impact of various development and climate change scenarios on downstream river flow. The simulated impact on modelled river discharge of increased water use for domestic use, livestock, and informal irrigation (proportional to expected population increase) is very limited. Implementation of all likely potential formal irrigation schemes mentioned in available reports is expected to decrease the annual flow by 2% and the minimum monthly flow by 5%. The maximum possible impact of irrigation on annual average flow is estimated as 8%, with a reduction of minimum monthly flow by 17%. Deforestation of all areas within a 1 km buffer around the rivers is estimated to increase the flow by 6%. However, construction of all potential hydropower reservoirs in the basin may change the monthly mean flow distribution dramatically, although under the assumed operational rules, the impact of the dams is only substantial during wet years. The simulated impacts of climate change are considerable larger that those of the development scenarios (with exception of the high development scenario of hydropower schemes) although the results are sensitive to the choice of GCM and the IPCC SRES greenhouse gas (GHG) emission scenarios. The annual mean water flow predictions for the period 2020-2050 averaged over scenarios from all the four GCMs used in this study are close to the present situation for both the A2 and B2 GHG scenarios. For the 2050-2080 and 2070-2099 periods the all-GCM mean shows a flow decrease of 20% (14%) and 26% (17%), respectively, for the A2 (B2) GHG scenarios. However, the uncertainty in the magnitude of simulated future changes remains high. The simulated effect of climate change on minimum monthly flow is proportionally higher than the impact on the annual mean flow. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Denna   rapport   redovisar   delar   av   resultat   och   analyser   från   Mistra-SWECIAs   arbete   i Stockholmsområdet.   Vår   förhoppning   är   att   den   är   av   intresse   för   de   som   arbetar   med anpassningsfrågor inför klimatförändringar på olika sätt i regionen och i andra delar av Sverige.

SWECIA står för Swedish Research Programme on Climate, Impacts and Adaptation och finansieras av Stiftelsen  för  miljöstrategisk  forskning,  Mistra.  Forskningsprogrammet  studerar  klimat,  ekonomi, effekter och anpassning med gemensamma socio-ekonomiska förutsättningar, och med hänsyn till kopplingarna   som   finns   mellan   dessa   forskningsområden.   Forskarna   arbetar   vid   Stockholm Environment Institute  (SEI),  Linköpings  universitet, Lunds  universitet,  Stockholms  universitet  och SMHI.  I  Mistra-SWECIA  är  kommunikationen  mellan  forskare  och  avnämare  central  då  dialogen hjälper till att planera forskningen och bidrar dessutom till effektiv omsättning av resultaten. Första programfasen är fyra år (2008–2011). Denna rapport är en första sammanställning av delresultat från den fallstudie som påbörjades i Stockholms län 2008.

Inledningsvis   diskuteras   delar   av   den   deltagandestudie   som   genomfördes   med   aktörer   i Stockholmsregionen under hösten 2008. Vi redogör översiktligt för hur deltagandeforskningen har genomförts och varför vi valt detta sätt att bedriva forskning; på vilket sätt socialt lärande bidrar till anpassningsarbetet;     vilka     intressenter     som     är     engagerade     direkt     eller     indirekt     i klimatanpassningsarbetet, och vilka faktorer vi har uppfattat som kritiska och viktiga för anpassning,. Rapporten  avslutas  med  att  presentera  resultat  från  Mistra-SWECIAs  forskning  inom  Lunds universitet  och  SMHI  angående  framtida  flöden  och  vattennivåer  i  Mälaren,  samt  beräknade klimatscenarier för Stockholmsregionen. Dessa har ockå använts som underlag för studien.

Författarna är mycket tacksamma för deltagarnas kommentarer och engagemang i studien men eventuella felaktigheter eller missuppfattningar är helt och hållet författarnas egna. Delar av resultat som presenteras i denna rapport återfinns även i andra kommande publikationer som t ex Simonsson m fl. (kommande); André & Simonsson (2009); Simonsson & André (2009), och Nilsson & Gerger Swartling (2009).

Information   om   resultat   och   aktiviteter   inom   Mistra-SWECIA   presenteras   fortlöpande   på www.mistra–swecia.se.

This paper examines the science-practice interface in the complex issue of adapting society to climate change. Through analyses of science-based stakeholder dialogues with climate scientists, municipal officers and private individual forest owners in Sweden, this paper looks at how local experts in the forestry and municipal planning sectors share and integrate scientific knowledge and experience into their work strategies and practices. The results demonstrate how local experts jointly conceptualize climate adaptation, how scientific knowledge is domesticated among local experts in dialogue with scientific experts, the emergence of anchoring devices and, in a more general way, the boundary spanning functions that are at work in the respective sectors.

To improve decisions and awareness considering climate change it is argued that stakeholder interaction and dialogue is essential. Engaging stakeholders in research on adaptation thus requires analysis of stakeholder landscape and identification of relevant actors at different levels in society. The term 'stakeholder' is broad and researchers and practitioners might have both interrelated and contrasting views on who is at stake, the need for adaptation and climate risks.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the stakeholder landscape in a Swedish region, as part of increasing the understanding of the adaptation process. The stakeholder analysis has been initiated by the research teams through stakeholder mapping and complemented by local and regional actors' notions of who is, or should be, involved and active stakeholders in adaptation to climate change. The results indicate the importance of careful stakeholder analysis for sustainable adaptation. The actors' expert knowledge of the regions deepens the picture, show important links and gaps between different actors and illuminate unclear relationships and responsibilities as well as identify those actors who have important roles to play.

It is now widely recognized that stakeholder interaction and dialogue is essential to improve decisions about and awareness of climate change. The term ‘stakeholder’ is broad and researchers and practitioners may have interrelated and contrasting views on who is a stakeholder or who is (or should be) responsible for adaptation to climate change. To engage stakeholders in research or other projects on adaptation thus requires a careful mapping of the stakeholder landscape and identification of relevant actors at different levels. Through a case study approach, based on studies of two Swedish urban regions, Stockholm and Gothenburg, this paper proposes a systematic method to analyse and identify roles and responsibilities in the stakeholder landscape. The initial mapping exercise was complemented by participatory studies of local and regional stakeholders’ perceptions of who is, or should be, involved in adaptation and their significance for climate change adaptation in the respective regions. The results indicate the value of careful stakeholder analysis for sustainable, effective, planned adaptation that is flexible, but also systematic enough to fulfil practical and scientific requirements for the study and advancement of ongoing adaptation processes and implementation.

The conflicts permeating the environmental debate since the 1960s have mainly involved two actors: multinational companies and international environmental organizations (ENGOs). Today, there are signs that the antagonism is ending with regards to co-operation and strategy. We argue that this convergence is no longer limited to specific joint projects, but is also prevalent at the idea and policy levels. Both actors have begun describing problems in similar terms, articulating the same goals and recommending the same solutions. Such convergence offers advantages in efforts to counteract climate change but also some problems: declining citizen trust in ENGOs, risk of intellectually impoverished environmental and energy debates, and loss of alternate visions and values.

While previous research into understandings of climate change has usually examined general public perceptions and mainstream media representations, this thesis offers an audience-specific departure point by analysing climate change frames and frame formation in Swedish agriculture. The empirical material consists of Swedish farm magazines’ reporting on climate change, as well as eight focus group discussions among Swedish farmers on the topic of climate change and climate change information. The analysis demonstrates that while Swedish farm magazines frame climate change in terms of conflict, scientific uncertainty, and economic burden, farmers in the focus groups tended to concentrate on whether climate change was a natural or human-induced phenomenon, and viewed climate change communication as an issue of credibility. It was found that farm magazines use metaphorical representations of war and games to form the overall frames of climate change. In contrast, the farmers’  frames of natural versus human-induced climate change were formed primarily using experience-based and non-experience-based arguments, both supported with analogies, distinctions, keywords, metaphors, and prototypical examples. Furthermore, discussions of what constitutes credible climate information centred on conflict-versus consensus-oriented frames of climate change communication along with different views of the extent to which knowledge of climate change is and should be practically or analytically based. This analysis of climate change communication in the Swedish agricultural sector proposes that the sense-making processes of climate change are complex, involving associative thinking and experience-based knowledge that form interpretations of climate change and climate change information.

The profitability of agricultural production depends on weather conditions and decisions on the basis of expected weather conditions. As climate change is changing the conditions for farmers, information about climate change to individual farmers is important for the productivity in the agricultural sector. An analysis of the two largest Swedish agricultural magazines over the period 2000-2008 has been conducted with the aim to examine to what extent Swedish farm magazines report on climate change and to identify drivers for farm magazine coverage of climate change. The study identifies 1) an increased reporting on climate change in 2007 and 2) editorials and bottom-up engagement are aspects that have influenced the frequency and content of farm magazine coverage. The paper ends with a discussion of how the results of this study may relate to a wider climate science and policy context.

Climate change has shifted from being regarded as an exclusively physical phenomenon to being a social phenomenon as well, entailing many interpretations and multidimensional frames. This shift calls for an understanding of how various audiences and segments of the public understand climate change. This paper analyses how Swedish farmers perceive climate change and how they jointly shape and construct their understandings. The agricultural sector is of special interest because it both contributes to and is directly affected by climate change impact. Through focus group discussions with Swedish farmers, this study finds that: 1) farmers relate to and understand climate change through their own experience, and 2) climate change is understood either as a natural process subject to little or no human influence or as anthropogenic. The article ends by discussing frame resonance and frame clash in public understandings of climate change, and by comparing potential similarities and differences in how various segments of the public make sense of climate change.

This article examines communicative aspects of climate change, identifying and analysing metaphors used in specialized media reports on climate change, and discussing the aspects of climate change these metaphors emphasize and neglect. Through a critical discourse analysis of the two largest Swedish farm magazines over the 2000–2009 period, this study finds that greenhouse, war, and game metaphors were the most frequently used metaphors in the material. The analysis indicates that greenhouse metaphors are used to ascribe certain natural science characteristics to climate change, game metaphors to address positive impacts of climate change, and war metaphors to highlight negative impacts of climate change. The paper concludes by discussing the contrasting and complementary metaphorical representations farm magazines use to conventionalize climate change.

In everyday life scientific knowledge often poses a challenge to understanding. It is argued that scientific knowledge is often hard for non-scientists to understand and in the need of translation to be relevant. The circulation of knowledge from experts into the wider public and different decision-makers in various contexts thus involves the transformation of abstract and conceptual ideas into more accessible and concrete knowledge. Communicative tools, e.g. analogies, distinctions and metaphors, are often used to conventionalize complex phenomena, hence rendering them more concrete and easy to grasp.

In order to analyze how abstract scientific knowledge is transformed into more accessible and concrete knowledge, I have selected the case of climate change. Climate change is an issue often described as invisible, with long term effects and with many embedded uncertainties. Furthermore, information is often identified as a crucial component of the ability of a system (natural or human) to adapt to climate change. In contrast to earlier studies, which are more focused on the content of perceptions of climate change, the aim of this paper is to analyze how climate perceptions are formed and withheld, and what underlying value premises they rest upon.

In this paper, I present results from Swedish focus group discussions with farmers. Although climate change affects all sectors, the agricultural sector is among the most vulnerable and sensitive ones as changes in temperature and precipitation patterns will have a direct influence on the quantity and quality of agricultural production and the daily life of farmers. The aim is to analyse how participants talk about a complex issue like climate change. I will address questions such as: What communicative strategies do focus groups participants use in their conversations? What implicit value premises are embedded in these strategies?

Climate change is a fundamental challenge for which agriculture is sensitive and   vulnerable. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified relevant information as key to enabling appropriate climate adaptation and mitigation action. Information specifically directed to farmers can be found, for example, in specialized farming magazines.

While recent studies examine how national news media frame climate change, less —if any —studies have addressed climate framings and coverage in specialized media. Media framings are storylines that provide meaning by communicating how and why an issue should be seen as a problem, how it should be handled, and who is responsible for it. This paper analyses the framings and coverage of climate change in two Swedish specialized farming magazines from 2000 to 2009. It examines the extent of the climate change coverage, the content of the media items, and the dominant framings underlying their climate change coverage. The study identifies: increased coverage of climate change starting in 2007; frequent coverage of agriculture 's contribution to climate change, climate change impacts on agriculture, and consequences of climate politics for agriculture; and four prominent frames: conflict, scientific certainty, economic burden, and action. The paper concludes that climate change communicators addressing farmers and agricultural extension officers should pay attention to how these frames may be interpreted by different target audiences. Research is needed on how specialized media reports on climate-related issues and how science-based climate information is understood  by different groups of farmers and which other factors influence farmers’ engagement in climate mitigation and adaptation.

Together with 106 farmers who started growing Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) in 20042006, this research sought to increase the knowledge around the real-life experience of Jatropha farming in the southern India states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Launched as an alternative for diesel in India, Jatropha has been promoted as a non-edible plant that could grow on poor soils, yield oil-rich seeds for production of bio-diesel, and not compete directly with food production. Through interviews with the farmers, information was gathered regarding their socio-economic situation, the implementation and performance of their Jatropha plantations, and their reasons for continuing or discontinuing Jatropha cultivation. Results reveal that 82% of the farmers had substituted former cropland for their Jatropha cultivation. By 2010, 85% (n = 90) of the farmers who cultivated Jatropha in 2004 had stopped. Cultivating the crop did not give the economic returns the farmers anticipated, mainly due to a lack of information about the crop and its maintenance during cultivation and due to water scarcity. A majority of the farmers irrigated and applied fertilizer, and even pesticides. Many problems experienced by the farmers were due to limited knowledge about cultivating Jatropha caused by poor planning and implementation of the national Jatropha program. Extension services, subsidies, and other support were not provided as promised. The farmers who continued cultivation had means of income other than Jatropha and held hopes of a future Jatropha market. The lack of market structures, such as purchase agreements and buyers, as well as a low retail price for the seeds, were frequently stated as barriers to Jatropha cultivation. For Jatropha biodiesel to perform well, efforts are needed to improve yield levels and stability through genetic improvements and drought tolerance, as well as agriculture extension services to support adoption of the crop. Government programs will -probably be more effective if implementing biodiesel production is conjoined with stimulating the demand for Jatropha biodiesel. To avoid food-biofuel competition, additional measures may be needed such as land-use restrictions for Jatropha producers and taxes on biofuels or biofuel feedstocks to improve the competitiveness of the food sector compared to the bioenergy sector.

 In India expectations have been high on production of biodiesel from the oil-crop Jatropha. Jatropha is promoted as a drought- and pest-resistant crop, with the potential to grow on degraded soil with a low amount of inputs. These characteristics encourage hope for positive environmental and socio-economic impacts from Jatropha biodiesel production. The purpose of this study was to explore the performance of Jatropha biodiesel production in Southern India, to identify motivational factors for continued Jatropha cultivation, and to assess environmental and socio-economic impacts of the Jatropha biodiesel production. 106 farmers who have or have had Jatropha plantations were visited and interviewed regarding their opinion of Jatropha cultivation. The result indicates that 85 percent of the farmers have discontinued cultivation of Jatropha. The main barriers to continued cultivation derive from ecological problems, economic losses, and problems in the development and execution of the governmental implementation of the Jatropha programme. The Jatropha characteristics were overrated, and the plantations failed to provide income to the farmer. A common factor for the farmers who continued Jatropha cultivation was that they had the economic means to maintain non-profitable plantations. As the Jatropha programme was not as successful as expected, the expected positive environmental and socio-economic impacts have not been realized.

Geochemical parameters and major ion concentrations from sediments of a freshwater lake in the town of angstrom tvidaberg, southeastern, Sweden, were used to identify the geochemical processes that control the water chemistry. The lake sediments are anoxic, characterized by reduced sulfur and sulfidic minerals. The hypothesis tested is that in sulfidic-anaerobic contaminated sediments, the presence of redox potential changes creates a favorable condition for sulfide oxidation, resulting in the release of potentially toxic metals. The acid volatile sulfide (AVS) contents ranged from 5.5mol/g to 16mol/g of dry sediment. Comparison of total mine tailing metals (Sigma mine tailing metals) with simultaneously extracted metals (SEM) in sediments indicates that up to 20% of the Sigma mine tailing metals are bound to the solid phase as AVS. Consequently, the AVS and SEM analysis classified all sediment samples as potentially toxic in terms of heavy metal concentrations (i.e., SEM to AVS ratio distribution>1). Evaluation of hydrogeochemical data suggests that calcite dissolution, iron (III) oxyhydroxysulfate mineral jarosite (H-jarosite) precipitation, hematite precipitation, and siderite precipitation are the most prevailing geochemical processes that control the geochemical interactions between the water column and sediment in a mine-impacted lake. The geochemical processes were verified and quantified using a chemical equilibrium modeling program, Visual MINTEQ, Ver 3.1, beta. The identified geochemical processes create an environment in which the characteristics of sulfate-rich waters and acidic-iron produce the geochemical conditions for acid mine drainage and mobilization of toxic metals. (c) 2015 SETAC

 The literature on climate change communication addresses a range of issues relevant

to the communication of climate change and climate science to lay audiences

or publics. In doing so, it approaches this particular challenge from a

variety of different perspectives and theoretical frameworks. Analyzing the body

of scholarly literature on climate change communication, this article critically

reviews how communication is conceptualized in the literature and concludes

that the fi eld of climate change communication is characterized by diverging and

incompatible understandings of communication as a theoretical construct. In

some instances, communication theory appears reduced to an ‘ad hoc’  toolbox,

from which theories are randomly picked to provide studies with a fi tting framework.

Inspired by the paradigm shift from transmission to interaction within

communication theory, potential lessons from the fi eld of communication theory

are highlighted and discussed in the context of communicating climate change.

Rooted in the interaction paradigm, the article proposes a meta-theoretical

framework that conceptualizes communication as a constitutive process of producing

and reproducing shared meanings. Rather than operating in separate

ontological and epistemological perspectives, a meta-theoretical conceptualization

of communication would ensure a common platform that advances multiperspective

argumentation and discussion of the role of climate change

communication in society.

The common assumption that chloride (Cl^-) is conservative in soils and can be used as a groundwater tracer is currently being questioned, and an increasing number of studies indicate that Cl^- can be retained in soils. We performed lysimeter experiments with soil from a coniferous forest in southeast Sweden to determine whether pore water residence time and nitrogen and Cl^- loads affected Cl^- retention. Over the first 42 days there was a net retention of Cl^- with retention rates averaging 3.1 mg Cl^- m^-2 d^-1 (68% of the added Cl^- retained over 42 days). Thereafter, a net release of Cl^- at similar rates was observed for the remaining experimental period (85 d). Longer soil water residence time and higher Cl^- load gave higher initial retention and subsequent release rates than shorter residence time and lower Cl^- load did. Nitrogen load did not affect Cl transformation rates. This study indicates that simultaneous retention and release of Cl^- can occur in soils, and that rates may be considerable relative to the load. The retention of Cl^- observed was probably due to chlorination of soil organic matter or ion exchange. The cause of the shift between net retention and net release is unclear, but we hypothesize that the presence of O₂ or the presence of microbially available organic matter regulates Cl^- retention and release rates.

Does perceived corruption in recipient countries reduce support for foreign aid in donor countries? This under-explored yet salient question is examined using the 2009 Eurobarometer survey for the 27 EU countries. We suggest that perceived corruption can cause aid fatigue but that this relationship is highly contextualized. The results show that perceptions about corruption in developing countries reduce overall support for aid among respondents in donor countries. However, this effect is mitigated by country and contextual-level effects and different understandings of what we call the "aid-corruption paradox," namely that the need for foreign aid is often the greatest in corrupt environments. Three different dynamics of the aid-corruption paradox influence support for aid: moral, pragmatic, and strategic understandings. In EU-15 countries, the effect of perceived corruption in recipient states on aid fatigue can be substantially altered if aid is motivated by moral reasons for helping poor countries or if the purpose of aid is understood to improve governance. In new member states (NMS-12), the effect is reduced if respondents believe that the result of aid can serve national interests. The results provide new insights into the public opinion/development policy nexus, which suggest a number of salient policy recommendations and future areas for research.

How do international organizations (IOs) promote quality of government (QoG) and reduce corruption? IOs play a central role in most accounts of power in international relations. However, our understanding of how IOs exercise power seldom moves beyond the traditional materialnormative dimensions of power. We suggest that an important dimension to understand IO power is the contestationintegration dimension, where IOs can exercise power either by integrating countries into networks of cultural exchange or by contesting existing orders. By analyzing multilateral aid data and building on recent advances in our understanding of the effectiveness of IO anti-corruption work, we apply this framework to show how the contestationintegration dimension helps us understand the success or failure of anti-corruption strategies. We show that when IOs contest existing orders using governance rankings and aid conditionality, they suffer from ideational shortcomings, including lack of objective data and contested policy advice. In contrast, measures based on integration, such as the membership process of IOs or interaction with IOs, are more likely to suffer from internal procedural shortcomings, such as IOs failing to internalize and mainstream the norms that they seek to promote. Our findings have implications for both understanding conditions that limit the diffusion of the international anti-corruption agenda and advancing our knowledge of IO power and its limits.

The domestic endorsement and institutionalization of transparency is of central importance to the implementation of global environmental policies. Studies often contend that interaction with international organizations (IOs) promotes domestic support for transparency. This article qualifies this conclusion and suggests that the positive effects of interaction with international organizations depend on the quality of IO decision-making processes, defined as their fairness, predictability, and effectiveness. Unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable decision-making processes in IOs can increase corruption, reduce legitimacy, and make officials blame transparency for unsatisfactory decision-making. The results build on a study of government officials in developing countries responsible for managing funds from the Clean Development Mechanism and the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Our findings suggest that government officials who perceive IO systems as unfair, ineffective, and unpredictable cultivate an adversarial relationship with media and NGOs and become more critical of the benefits of transparency.

The role and design of global expert organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) needs rethinking. Acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all model does not exist, we suggest a reflexive turn that implies treating the governance of expertise as a matter of political contestation.

The goals for water-quality and ecosystem integrity are often defined relative to "natural" reference conditions in many water-management systems, including the European Union Water Framework Directive. This paper examines the difficulties created for water management by using "natural" as the goal. These difficulties are articulated from different perspectives in an informal (fictional) conversation that takes place after a workshop on reference conditions in water-resources management. The difficulties include defining the natural state and modeling how a system might be progressed toward the natural, as well as the feasibility and desirability of restoring a natural state. The paper also considers the appropriateness for developing countries to adopt the use of natural as the goal for water management. We conclude that failure to critically examine the complexities of having "natural" as the goal will compromise the ability to manage the issues that arise in real basins by not making the ambiguities associated with this "natural" goal explicit. This is unfortunate both for the western world that has embraced this model of "natural as the goal" and for the developing world in so far as they are encouraged to adopt this model.

Nutrient losses from agricultural land constitute an important part of the total flow of nutrients to lakes and seas in Sweden and the Baltic region. With the Water Framework Directive, to be implemented shortly throughout Europe, emphasis is increasing on the role of stakeholder participation and decentralisation of various responsibilities from authorities to groups in the civil society. This paper investigates a Swedish case where local watercourse groups (WCGs) have formed in order to be involved more actively in the efforts to reduce nutrient losses from agricultural lands. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the institutional landscape surrounding WCGs, goals, goal formulation and space of action.

Since the 1990s there has been an explosion of literature on the topic of commercialisation of water services in low-income cities. However, relatively little of this research analyzes a longer time perspective. This article historicizes contemporary policydebates on urban water supply and sanitation provision. By examining Ghana’s urban history from British colonial rule to the immediate post-independence era, the article demonstrates that many of the critical issues and arguments that appeared in past debateson water are echoed in contemporary discussions. The much debated issue of pricing ofwater sparked heated discussions in colonial Accra, thus these debates are not new. Second, whereas much of the literature in the area focuses on commodification of waterservices in the context of neo-liberalism and economic globalisation since the 1970s, this article points to the important role played by historically conditioned concerns about democracy, representation and trust in deepening our understanding of contemporary protests against private sector participation in urban water management. Third, the article argues that a colonial legacy from the past tends to continue normalising intra-urbaninequality in consumption and access to urban water services in Ghana. Taken together this shows the role of history as a highly present and operating force in the shaping of ourpresent-day politics.

SMHI har fått i uppdrag att senast den 20 december 2016 redovisa ett förslag på hur det nationella arbetet med klimatanpassning fortlöpande kan följas upp. Uppföljningen ska bland annat ge svar på effekten av det nationella arbetet kopplat till identifierade problem och behov och kunna användas för rapportering till EU och andra internationella organisationer.

Den föreslagna utvärderingsmodellen består av tre olika delar/block som kan användas var för sig i olika syften men som tillsammans ger en bredare helhetsbild av det svenska klimatanpassningsarbetet. De tre olika delarna är avsedda att svara på tre olika typer av övergripande frågeställningar:

1. Finns de processer som är nödvändiga för att kunna arbeta med klimatanpassning på plats? I vilken utsträckning har frågan om anpassning integrerats i det svenska förvaltningssystemet?

1. Vilka åtgärder har implementerats för att minska de negativa effekterna/sårbarheten? Vilka sektorer har man arbetat med och vilka centrala utmaningar och klimateffekter har adresserats/har inte adresserats?

1. Vilka framsteg kan vi se i arbetet med att minska de negativa effekterna?

Dessa frågor besvaras med hjälp av processindikatorer, åtgärdsuppföljning och effektindikatorer. Data samlas in via enkäter riktade till nationella myndigheter, länsstyrelser och kommuner. Ett omfattande utvecklingsarbete återstår för att ta fram effektindikatorer för olika sektorer/verksamheter. SMHI föreslår därför att uppdrag utdelas till nationella myndigheter att i samverkan med berörda aktörer utarbeta förslag på effektindikatorer för dessas respektive verksamheter.

Det är vår slutsats att ett strategiskt nationellt ramverk för klimatanpassning, som sätter uppföljningsprocessen i ett sammanhang, krävs för att säkerställa effektivitet och kontinuitet i det svenska klimatanpassningsarbetet. SMHI föreslår därför, i linje med EU:s klimatanpassningsstrategi, att en nationell policycykel för det svenska klimatanpassningsarbetet etableras. Ett exempel på hur ett sådant ramverk skulle kunna se ut presenteras.

This study explores the role of geographic visualization for supporting theimplementation of climate change adaptation. Interviews and group discussions withplanners and decision makers indicate that geographic visualization bears primarypotential for communicative purposes. In order to respond to analytical needs a highlevel of interactivity including the exploration of background data and the ability tolink the tools with own databases were some of the key requirements made by theparticipants. The study concludes that more than better climate predictions, awarenessand involvement may be precisely what is needed to narrow the implementation gapin climate change adaptation

Ideas on what is best practice to provide more people in rapidly growing low- and middle-income cities with adequate water supplying services have changed during the 20th century. By applying a frame-theoretical approach, this article analyzes institutional choice in Ghana’s urban water sector. Special attention is paid to two major events: first, the establishment of the state water utility, Ghana Water and Sewerage Corporation, in 1965, and, second, the reform process in the 1990s and early 2000s that aimed at private sector participation in urban water management. By unraveling the arguments and the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying the two reforms, the article shows how the perceived space for policy alternatives available to decision makers at a certain point in time has been largely constrained by the dominant frames in a particular historical context. This conclusion is supportive of the argument that rationality is a highly contextual and time-dependent concept.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports reflect evolving attitudes in adapting to sea-level rise by taking a systems approach and recognizing that multiple responses exist to achieve a less hazardous coast.

Scenarios play an important role for the societal acceptance of CCS. This paper looks into influential reports containing CCS scenarios and analyses results, key assumptions and drivers for CCS' deployment. Significant uncertainties regarding CCS' development were in several cases excluded or marginalized. Despite these shortcomings, scenarios support a massive deployment of CCS and reflect an undivided optimism. If CCS would fail to meet the high expectations a backlash could follow. Indications were found that new scenarios including uncertainties are needed to balance this over-optimism. So-called unpleasant scenarios are often valuable in helping decision makers develop flexible strategies and policies.

Recent literature on institutional entrepreneurship has examined the enabling conditions under which actors may influence institutional arrangements. Whereas conditions at field level and among actors have been highlighted, scholars have paid little attention to how and why the field is amenable to change at certain times and how actors act upon these conditions in a timely fashion. This paper examines the temporal conditions for institutional entrepreneurship. I propose that a collective of time-aware institutional entrepreneurs opens a window of opportunity for policy breakthrough by relating its activities to temporally favorable conditions of the multidimensional institutional process. These theoretical propositions are illustrated through an empirical case study of how aviation was targeted for its climate change impact by inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

This paper contributes to the literature on institutional plurality by examining how domestic and foreign institutions interact to shape corporate strategies. Our argument suggests that institutional plurality lead to both complementarities that encourage firms to pay attention to an issue and develop soft strategies such as management incentives, and fragmentation which makes firms more likely to avoid or postpone the adoption of hard strategies that require higher levels of commitment like formal plans. The hypotheses are tested in an empirical analysis of the influences of domestic and foreign institutions on the likelihood that U.S. corporations use soft and hard climate change strategies. While institutions in general increase the likelihood that firms engage in both forms of climate change strategies, we find that firms with experience from both state-level emission targets and the EU Emission Trading Scheme are less likely to develop formal plans than firms with sole experience from one of the two institutional contexts. This finding stresses the value of a contextualized theory of institutional influences which takes into consideration the spatial distribution of institutional pressures and the level of organizational commitment required by different strategic responses. We demonstrate that organizational passivity can be an unintended consequence of situations governed by multiple regulatory initiatives, which each seeks to increase the level of organizational action.

Denna bok visar hur medierna har tagit sig in som en viktig del av företagandet och målar upp detta förändrade landskap. Författarna belyser vilka intressen som står på spel, hur det intrikata samspelet mellan företag och medier ser ut och hur olika aktörer hanterar påtryckningar och försöker driva sina egna dagordningar. Sammantaget utmanas bilden av kommunikationen mellan företag och medier som direkt, endimensionell och linjär.

This report examines how domestic and foreign regulations interact to shape corporate strategies to address climate change. We expect that heightened attention and uncertainty encourage firms to use low commitment strategies that signal involvement in an issue, but discourage high commitment strategies which can expose firms to higher levels of external accountability. Analyzing climate change strategies of U.S. corporations, we find support for the idea that firms with both domestic and foreign regulation experience are less likely to develop emission reduction plans (high commitment strategy) than firms with sole experience from one of the two contexts. Thus, passivity can be an unintended consequence of multiple regulatory initiatives.

A number of urban living labs have been set up in recent years, with the aim of developing innovation processes within a multi-stakeholder partnership in an urban context. Several urban living labs focus on sustainable development, which is a visible and urgent issue in less valued suburbs in need of modernization and social uplift. We argue that, when applying the living labs approach in the context of sustainable development in suburbs, the primary focus should be societys collective goals, as expressed through municipalities and users. The aim of this article is to show examples of how urban living labs can be applied in less valued suburbs in order to contribute to sustainability based on societal goals. We build on analyses from the research project SubUrbanLab, where urban living labs were set up in Alby and Peltosaari, two suburban areas in Sweden and Finland, respectively. We draw lessons regarding how to use urban living labs for sustainable development in order to create favourable conditions for ongoing engagement with the municipality and users towards long-term sustainability.