Ideology and non-state climate action: partnering and design of REDD+ projects

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - Scholars and policymakers working on non-state climate action have tended to focus on functional considerations, largely...     

Exploring the agency of Africa in climate change negotiations: the case of REDD+

Emerging climate change regimes, such as the mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), are increasingly aiming to engage developing countries such as those in Africa, in sustainable development through carbon markets. The contribution of African countries to global climate negotiations determines how compatible the negotiated rules could be with the existing socioeconomic and policy circumstances of African countries. The aim of this paper is to explore the agency of Africa (African States) in the global climate change negotiations and discuss possible implications for implementing these rules using REDD+ as a case study. Drawing on document analysis and semi-structured expert interviews, our findings suggest that although African countries are extensively involved in the implementation of REDD+ interventions, the continent has a weak agency on the design of the global REDD+ architecture. This weak agency results from a number of factors including the inability of African countries to send large and diverse delegations to the negotiations as well lack of capacity to generate and transmit research evidence to the global platform. African countries also perceive themselves as victims of climate change who should be eligible for support rather than sources of technological solutions. Again, Africa’s position is fragmented across negotiation coalitions which weakens the continent's collective influence on the REDD+ agenda. This paper discusses a number of implementation deficits which could result from this weak agency. These include concerns about implementation capacity and a potential lack of coherence between REDD+ rules and existing policies in African countries. These findings call for a rethink of pathways to enhancing Africa’s strategies in engaging in multilateral climate change negotiations, especially if climate change regimes specifically targeted at developing countries are to be effective.     

Bounded rationality and social interaction in negotiating a climate agreement

An agreement on climate change mitigation hinges on large-scale international cooperation. Rational agents are supposed to consider the cost and benefits of cooperation, which then determine their negotiation positions. Behavioral economics provides experimental evidence that decision-making in negotiation-like situations is influenced by systematic cognitive biases and social interaction. In this paper, we examine the impact of bounded rationality and social preferences on bargaining in international climate negotiations and illustrate how particular deviations from full rationality affect the incentives to cooperate. Of special interest are fairness preferences for burden-sharing rules and behavioral responses to different framings of climate change and policy, as well as implications of these for communication about climate change. The analysis will further address different levels of representation, including individual citizens, politicians, experts, and (professional) negotiators. The consequences of the most prominent nonstandard preferences and biases for negotiating a climate treaty are assessed, and specific strategies to foster cooperation are suggested.     

A Clean Development Mechanism with global atmospheric benefits for a post-2012 climate regime

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol allows the crediting of emission reductions from greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement projects in developing countries. The CDM is an offsetting mechanism and, in principle, a zero game to the atmosphere: emission reductions achieved from CDM projects allow industrialised countries to increase their emissions, respectively. The article explores how the CDM could be moved beyond a pure offsetting mechanism in a post-2012 climate regime by crediting only a fraction of the emission reductions from CDM projects, thereby providing a net atmospheric benefit. Potential implications on the carbon market are assessed in a qualitative manner and different design options for such a reform to the CDM are discussed. An important conclusion is that the effects on carbon market depend considerably on whether the use of the CDM is limited through caps or not.

The political feasibility of potent enforcement in a post-Kyoto climate agreement

To be effective, a post-Kyoto climate agreement must secure significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions by all (key) emitters. Potent participation and compliance enforcement will be required to make it in every key emitter’s best interest to participate in, and comply with, an agreement which specifies deep emissions reductions for all its signatories. This article considers the conditions under which potent enforcement would likely be politically feasible. Based on assessments of the current political landscape, and on the sets of constraints that characterize negotiations over enforcement systems, the article firstly finds that neither type of enforcement would be politically feasible if agreement is sought among all key emitters. Secondly, because participation enforcement is perceived as less legitimate than compliance enforcement, the coalition of countries prepared to accept the former is likely smaller than the coalition prepared to accept the latter. Thirdly, participation enforcement likely places stricter requirements on the coalition’s membership and size. Thus, while compliance enforcement should in principle always be politically feasible among some coalition, reaching agreement on participation enforcement is less likely. To the extent that participation enforcement is politically feasible, however, an agreement which enforces the cooperation of all key emitters may be attainable.     

Governing by expertise: the contested politics of (accounting for) land-based mitigation in a new climate agreement

This article analyzes the contested politics of including (and accounting for) land-based mitigation in a post-2020 climate agreement. Emissions from land have been only partially included to date within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015 and “applicable to all” for the post-2020 period, raises the possibility of unprecedented reliance on land-based mitigation. This has significant consequences for furthering both ambition and equity in global climate mitigation efforts. Yet, what are these consequences, and how have they manifested themselves in the existing (pre-2020) multilateral climate regime? What role do accounting rules for land-based mitigation play herein? In addressing these questions, we identify key dimensions of what we term the “governance by expertise” approach taken to land-based mitigation to date, which has served to reduce the environmental integrity of existing (developed country) mitigation efforts. Specifically, we analyze land-use accounting rules as a site of politics and highlight the “technicalization of politics” underway in this realm, which obscures the political implications of how land has been included to date. We conclude by considering whether the Paris Agreement institutionalizes similar dynamics, and the environmental integrity and equity implications of doing so.     

A contractual perspective on succession in family firms: a stakeholder view

This paper analyses succession in family firms from a contractual perspective. A firm is regarded as a nexus of contractual relations with owners, employees, suppliers of goods and services and customers. These contractual parties are in differing degrees tied to the firm through asset specificities. Succession can affect the value of such assets. In this sense they become stakeholders with vested interests in the succession process. The theoretical discussion of affected stakeholders is backed up by a survey study of 143 Swedish family-owned businesses that have been subject to succession. The results show that the opinions of close shareholders such as family members and incumbent mangers as well as those of other stakeholders such as suppliers and customers are important.     

外伤后误诊误治死亡5例医疗纠纷分析

外伤后又有诊治失误的医疗纠纷案例是法医学鉴定、医疗事故鉴定及审判或调处的一大难点和重点。现报告5例，并就其误诊误治的原因、事故责任等进行简要分析。     

外伤后误诊误治死亡5例医疗纠纷分析

外伤后又有诊治失误的医疗纠纷案例是法医学鉴定、医疗事故鉴定及审判或调处的一大难点和重点。现报告5例,并就其误诊误治的原因、事故责任等进行简要分析。案　例【案例1】　某男,3 1岁,农民。某日下午2时3 0分横穿马路时被微型面包车撞伤,当时无昏迷,诉左胸部疼痛,送某医院就诊,透视未见异常,被给活血化瘀药物治疗;5时17分,仍觉不适,左腹疼痛,再次就诊,拍胸片未见异常,开药后让其回家休息。当晚睡觉时反复翻动,并发出哼声。5日晨5时许,同房间民工发现其死亡。尸检见左肘关节有4cm×2cm创口;左第10、11肋腋前线处肋间肌有3cm×3cm出血;腹腔…     

Opening a debate on personal boundaries and work with sex offenders: A personal view of a clinical supervisor

Abstract

As a clinical supervisor of employees working in prisons conducting rehabilitation programmes with offenders, I frequently encounter situations where personal boundaries are breached. This paper discusses the types of boundary breaches that may occur in work with sex offenders and why, and suggests ways in which individuals and teams can guard against breaches. Accepting that the possibility of boundary breaches exists for everyone, and providing awareness education of how they occur can assist in reducing them. Once they occur, the consequences can be devastating, ranging from embarrassment and unwanted publicity to loss of career and criminal convictions.     

Cellularism, guanxiwang, and corruption: A microcosmic view from within a Chinese educational danwei

This paper, based on ethnographic field work, examines the interplay between three phenomena that exist within a university in the People's Republic of China: corruption, cellularism and guanxiwang.After a brief examination of the general literature on corruption in China, one university —Southern Tertiary — is studied and various types of corruption (both perceived and real) are explored.Over the past two decades Sinologists have debated the extent to which China is fiscally centralized or fragmented. Analysts now tend to agree that a cellular or honeycomb pattern characterizes center/periphery relations. Another feature, given China's underdeveloped legal and regulatory systems, is the prevalence of negotiation. Today autonomy-through-negotiation is not confined to national economic policy, nor to only national policies. This paper finds that the same pattern occurs within the danwei (work unit).What allows for (and in fact encourages) cellularity in the work unit is the emphasis placed on relationships and networking (guanxiwang). Cellularity is permitted-indeed, mandated-by the absence of certain systems, those involving flow of information, open discourse and faculty governance. The literature studying guanxi identifies the positive function that relationships serve in business. But the concept is more often associated with unhealthy practices. This paper argues that guanxi in and of itself is not a negative aspect of culture but is rather a cultural element that can be put into service across a whole range of morality. Certain conditions may encourage its use in ways which are perceived as corrupt.     

Go and tend the earth: a Jewish view on an enhanced world.

In this essay, the author considers how one particular faith community, contemporary Judaism, in all its internal diversity, has reflected on the issue of how far the project of genetic intervention ought to go when the subject of the future--embodied, willful, and vulnerable--is at stake. Knowing, naming, and acting to change is not only a narrative of faith traditions; it is a narrative of biological science as well.     

The development of drug trade and drug control in the Netherlands: a historical perspective

Drug trade is widely seen as a phenomenon rather new to the Netherlands. However, at the beginning of the 20th century the Dutch pharmaceutical industries were already extensively involved in the production of both opiates and cocaine, and they went on exporting large quantities of these drugs after the Opium Act (1919) took force. Until the 1960s, arrests were not at all common, and these largely affected minority groups like Chinese opium smokers and black marijuana users. Since then, drug control efforts have increased by leaps and bounds. At first, cannabis was the main target; then the focus turned to heroin, and that was later joined by cocaine. This paper traces the history of the drug trade and drug control in the Netherlands, with emphasis on their development in Amsterdam. The conclusion is reached that, in spite of drastic changes in both drug trade and drug control, certain ideologies, constructs and strategies have remained remarkably stable.     

A global and historical exploration: Legislative reform in Muslim family laws in Muslim-majority versus Muslim-minority countries

Thirty-five Muslim-majority and 18 Muslim-minority countries formally integrate Muslim Family Laws (MFLs) into their legal systems and enforce them through state courts. Both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority governments have undertaken legislative reforms to alleviate the effects of religious laws on fundamental human rights, increase accountability and accessibility, and strengthen the rule of law within their MFL systems. Extant literature is silent on whether MFLs are more reformed or more human rights and the rule of law compliant in Muslim-majority or Muslim-minority countries. Utilizing a novel methodological tool, the MFL Index, this exploratory article surveys cross-national and historical trends in MFL reform (1946–2016). It shows that Muslim-majority and -minority governments have opted for different forms of legislative reform. Muslim-majority countries favored substantive reform, while Muslim-minority states prioritized exit reforms. The type and extent of reform were strongly associated with colonial heritage, secularism, women's activism, ethnoreligious diversity, and prevailing multicultural arrangements. These findings have implications for studying multicultural theory, human/women's rights, and democratization in the Muslim world and beyond.     

Variation in decomposition stages and carrion insect succession in a dry tropical climate and its effect on estimating postmortem interval

Insects have an important role in minimum postmortem interval (PMI_min) estimation. An accurate PMI_min estimation relies on a comprehensive study of the development and succession of local carrion insects. No published research on carrion insect succession exists for tropical north Queensland. To address this, we aimed to obtain preliminary observational data concerning the rate of decomposition and insect succession on pig carcasses in Townsville and compare these with other regions of Australia and overseas. Adult insects were collected daily from three pig carcasses for 30 d during summer and identified to family level. Observations of decomposition rate were made each day and progression through the stages of decomposition were recorded. Adult insects were identified to family and their presence/absence used as a proxy for arrival at/departure from the remains, respectively. These preliminary data highlight several interesting trends that may be informative for forensic PMI_min estimation. Decomposition was rapid: all carcasses were at the dry/remains stage by Day 5, which was substantially quicker than all other regions in the comparison. Differences were also observed in the presence/absence of insect families and their arrival and departure times. Given the rapid progression through early decomposition, we argue that later-arriving coleopteran taxa may be more forensically informative in tropical Australia, in contrast with temperate regions where Diptera appear most useful. This research contributes preliminary observational data to understanding insect succession patterns in tropical Australia and demonstrates the critical need for comprehensive local succession data for each climatic region of Australia to enable accurate PMI_min estimation. These data will inform future research targeted at gaining a more comprehensive understanding of insect succession in the Australian tropics.

Key points:

• We obtained preliminary observational data concerning the rate of decomposition and insect succession on pig carcasses in tropical Australia.
• Decomposition was rapid: all carcasses were at the dry/remains stage by Day 5.
• Coleopteran taxa may be more forensically informative in tropical Australia than dipterans.

     

Deaths in preschool and school age--a retrospective analysis from a medicolegal point of view

At the Department of Legal Medicine in Giessen all forensic autopsies from the years 1990 until 2001 were investigated under the aspect of "death in preschool and school age between 3 and 16 years of age." Out of 69 deaths 19% were due to a natural and 81% to an unnatural cause of death. Both groups (3 to 6 and 7 to 16 years of age) were analyzed retrospectively with regard to age and circumstances of death and compared with the literature. The purpose of the differentiating evaluation is to furnish ideas how to prevent violent deaths of children.