As climate change continues to permeate the current political discourse and its effects becomes increasingly visible, the way countries respond to the situation is crucial for determining the extent of future environmental degradation. The Paris Agreement is an attempt to mitigate and adapt to the situation, however the western values tied to it have been criticised. The effectiveness of democracy in environmental protection has been questioned, especially its ties to capitalism and individualism. This thesis uses the theory of authoritarian environmentalism to investigate this debate and see whether the claims have any legitimacy in the context of the Paris Agreement and the promises made in relation to it.     This thesis is a structured focused comparison which compares the policies and projects in three democratic and three autocratic African countries in close geographical proximity and similar environmental situations, to investigate if and in what way the type of government affects the promises made, and whether they are kept, to the Paris Agreement and its signatories. The indicators used for the thesis include policies and internationally funded projects, due to their accessibility, however it is worth noting that they only give a crude approximation of the activities and ambition in the countries, with several others having important roles.    The quality of the six countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions is investigated and followed up with an evaluation of some of the projects active to examine if the countries are implementing their promised efforts, already in these early, yet important, stages of the Agreement. In addition, the theory is applied to the countries’ efforts and some conclusions are reached, including the overall good quality of the countries’ environmental work and confirming that authoritarian countries can produce quality policies, while still having lacking areas, similar to their democratic counterparts, pointing to the complexity of the topic.

This diploma thesis focuses on the phenomenon of global climate change from the perspective of climate change law. The thesis defines the phenomenon in legal terms and deals with problems it brings to the environment and the world population. Its major part is dedicated to the international law of climate change, including all past Conferences of the Parties (COP) and their outcomes together with the most important treaties - United Nations Framework Convention in terms of Kyoto Protocol and the unsuccessful Doha Amendment. The Paris Agreement, which is the most recent international treaty, already ratified by 160 countries, could be a game changer in terms of effectivity in both climate change mitigation and adaptation legislation as well as much needed international solution. This thesis also focuses on the EU law of climate change, especially on the progress and future of Emissions Trading System and other legislation. Not only is the EU now more focused on the adaptation legislation, this is an important topic also for the Czech Republic. Especially when many Czech laws stem from EU regulations, there is still a great potential in the adaptation legislation and major progress is expected in the near future. Key words Climate change, Paris Agreement, emissions allowances, COP

The study of climate change communication has become a vital research field. It has evolved into being an essential translator between the scientific community and the public. The Conference of the Parties (COP) met in December 2015 to discuss the basis of a 54-page document on how the world will proceed with the challenges of climate change in the future. Throughout the conference the media was an important tool in spreading opinions and information about the on-going negotiations. This study analyzes how the COP21 was framed by the British newspaper the Guardian. Therefore, the empirical material consists of online newspaper articles from the period of the conference. A qualitative research approach was used to identify four frames and formulate themes. The findings mirror the central discussion points from the past 20 years of climate change negotiations: mitigation, adaptation, leadership, scientific proof of climate change and the urgency of change. In addition, the study identifies the politics of climate policy.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(地球環境学) / 甲第22103号 / 地環博第189号 / 新制||地環||37(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院地球環境学舎地球環境学専攻 / (主査)教授 西前 出, 教授 柴田 昌三, 准教授 SINGER JANE / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Global Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

Legal regulation of climate protection following the adoption of the Paris Agreement Abstract The Paris Agreement was adopted on 12 December 2015 and became effective on 4 November 2016. The Agreement's central aim is to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2žC above pre-industrial levels and to limit the increase to 1.5žC. The Agreement starts to apply in 2020. Under the Paris Agreement, each Party must communicate its nationally determined contributions, which will help to achieve the purpose of the Agreement. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the development of the legal protection of the Earth's climate system in the European Union after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. Part One is subdivided into four chapters. The first chapter is introductory and provides an overview of basic terminology, scientific knowledge and observed changes in climate and their impact. Chapter Two deals with the subject matter of international climate change law. Chapter Three deals with the legal sources of international law, in particular with international conventions. Legal principles are described there as well. Chapter Four looks at the historical development of the international protection of the climate. Also, it focuses on the analysis of the Paris Agreement. This chapter describes the...

The Paris Agreement is one of the most important international agreements concerning environmental issues of the world. It aims to keep global warming within a safe range, primarily by reducing national greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement was adopted at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris in December 2015, and it came into force less than a year later. The agreement has received media attention in various countries, including France. Moreover, French politicians saw the Paris Agreement as a success of French diplomacy. The thesis is based on framing theory and uses the method of qualitative content analysis to find and name frames found in articles in the French regional daily Ouest-France and the national daily Le Monde, and then to compare them. The work focuses on the period of one year since the adoption of the agreement, specifically covering the period between 13 December 2015 and 13 December 2016 inclusive. The two selected newspapers contain the same seven frames (the important but insufficient agreement frame, the doom frame, the responsibility of all countries frame, the responsibility of France frame, the economic consequences frame, the intra-state conflict frame, and the inter-state conflict frame, with Ouest-France additionally containing the...

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This report investigates inconsistencies in climate policy engagement of 16 major corporations in five industrial sectors and analyses which problem areas are significant in the inconsistency of their engagement. The purpose of this report was to scope the area of inconsistent climate policy engagement on behalf of the company GES International – Global Engagement Services, who offers advisory services in responsible investment. This report has been performed through a literature review and is partly based on a report on corporate carbon policy footprint by the independent organisation InfluenceMap.   All companies investigated in this report are to some extent supporting the climate agenda of the Paris Agreement, including limiting global warming to below two degrees. Nevertheless, 14 of the 16 companies are at the same time showing a negative climate policy engagement. The problem areas leading up to this inconsistency that have been detected in this report are; when companies are taking part in organisational relationships that are unsupportive of climate change mitigation strategies, when companies are against climate legislation, the unwillingness of companies to change their own industrial sector and companies showing mixed signals on the same policy topic.   The conclusions that can be drawn from this report is that there are substantial inconsistencies in the climate policy engagement of companies and it can be difficult to assess what the company’s true stance on climate engagement is. Some measures to improve on consistency is for companies to review their policy engagement and be transparent on what their actual stance climate engagement is, however this transition can take time. / Den här rapporten undersöker inkonsekvenser inom klimatpolicy engagemang hos 16 av världens största företag, inom fem olika sektorer, och analyser vilka problemområden som är betydande inom motsägande klimatengagemang hos företagen. Syftet med rapporten är att granska området kring inkonsekvent klimatpolicy engagemang på uppdrag av företaget GES International – Global Engagement Services, som erbjuder rådgivning inom hållbara investeringar. Rapporten har utförts genom en litteraturstudie som delvis är baserad på en rapport om företags påverkan på klimatet genom policys som är utgiven av den oberoende organisationen InfluenceMap.   Samtliga företag som undersöks i den här rapporten visar sig till viss del stödja klimatagendan i enlighet med Parisavtalet, vilket inkluderar en höjd global temperatur på max två grader. Trots detta visar sig 14 av de 16 företagen ha en distinkt negativ klimatpolicy engagemang som strider mot deras erkännande av Parisavtalet. De identifierade problem i den här rapporten som leder till motsägande klimatengagemang hos företagen är; när företagens organisatoriska relationer som arbetar strategiskt mot att förbättra klimatförändringar, när företagen strategiskt arbetar för att motverka lagstiftande om klimat, när företag är emot att inkludera sin egen sektor i klimatarbetet och när företagen visar olika åsikter inom samma ämne.   Slutsatsen som kan dras från den här rapporten är att det finns substantiella motsägelser i företagens klimatpolicy engagemang och det kan vara svårt att avgöra vilken som är den sanna inställningen hos företagen. För att för att göra företagens klimatengagemang mer konsekvent kan företagen till exempel granska sina egna engagemang och vara transparenta med vad deras egentliga inställning till klimatet är. Omställning till ett mer konsekvent klimatengagemang hos företagen kan ta lång tid.

The purpose of the study is, based on implementation theory and Lennart Lundquist’s three concepts- understanding, capability, and willingness, to identify whether these factors can affect the implementation of the Paris Agreement in four countries. Through a qualitative text analysis of the NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) of four countries, using understanding, capability, and willingness as categories, various aspects have been identified and are presented in the results. The study focuses on four countries with similar climate and economies to establish criteria as closely as possible. The study takes a hermeneutic approach as the authors interpret the material. The results indicate that the countries understand the Paris agreement and why implementation is necessary, considering the environmental issues present today. The countries also present measures for implementations, such as economic or technical aspects on how to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, as well as their priorities in relation to their circumstances. The countries also demonstrate a willingness to carry out implementation, and their ambitions are considered high based on their explanations. The conclusions highlight that implementation theory, and the three concepts of understanding, capability, and willingness can be used to understand the context in which countries implement the Paris Agreement.

Ethiopia is rapidly urbanising. Similar to other urban areas in developing countries, major issues in Ethiopia include a high level of income inequality, lack of formal employment opportunities and deeply rooted poverty, tenure insecurity, poor infrastructure, and limited access to electricity and energy. Frequently settlers end up in impoverished urban squatters and slums which do not offer them even the most basic infrastructure and hence lack to provide them with the perspectives they came for. Onward migration to farer off destinations such as the EU member states thus often remains as sole option for those caught in such urban poverty traps. Although the issue of informal urban settlements is not new to the context of Ethiopian cities, the current rapid urban growth rates are exposing urban rental markets as well as infrastructure and energy supply to considerable pressure. The paper investigates the respective situation in Ethiopia and demonstrates some best practice examples. In the context of Ethiopian cities, energy production and distribution have been highly centralised under state entities and the scope for exploring local/business driven and decentralised systems has been limited. Transitions can be implemented towards sustainability and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals if collective identification and structuring of issues along with collective envisioning of future is provoked or facilitated.