Climate change threatens the integrity of many parks and protected areas worldwide. Mountain parks are amongst the most vulnerable, facing changes in temperature, hydrology, glaciation, fire frequency, and pest and disease outbreaks. Species migration is a key tool in climate change adaptation, but often physical and jurisdictional fragmentation makes it impossible for species to migrate, putting species at risk of extirpation or extinction. Transboundary collaboration and regional planning are tools that can help physically connected parks and protected areas overcome jurisdictional fragmentation and allow for species migration, giving species a greater chance at being able to adapt to climate change. However, there are many barriers to transboundary collaboration and regional planning that makes this difficult to achieve. This research aims to address the challenges parks face with regards to transboundary collaboration and regional planning, and provide possible solutions for overcoming these challenges. A qualitative research project was conducted to determine the state of transboundary collaboration and regional planning in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, using Jasper National Park, Mount Robson Provincial Park, and Willmore Wilderness Park as the study area. A document review, questionnaire, and Importance-Performance Analysis were conducted to determine: the current policy within the Parks Canada Agency, British Columbia Parks, and Alberta Parks in regards to the management implications of climate change; the degree to which transboundary collaboration and regional planning are occurring in and around the study area with regard to climate change; the challenges parks face with regards to transboundary collaboration and regional planning; how these challenges should be addressed; and to determine what park agencies and managers need to be able to participate in transboundary collaboration and regional planning. Ultimately, it became clear that while transboundary collaboration is a potentially effective tool for climate change adaptation, little transboundary collaboration is occurring within the study area. In order for this to occur, all parks must have appropriate legislation, policies, and plans in place; British Columbia Parks has these, but both Parks Canada and Alberta Parks do not. Parks planners and managers are not able to put priority on transboundary collaboration until it is mandated within the management plans. However, parks managers are supportive of transboundary collaboration for climate change and it seems likely that the parks will use this tool as it becomes increasingly necessary over the next 25 years.

Climate change is taking its toll on Afghanistan. Warming temperatures and decreasing precipitation levels over the last fifty years have led to innumerable weather anomalies causing droughts, floods, unseasonal precipitation, falling ground water tables, desertification, and loss of biodiversity. While it is projected that further change in climatic conditions will take place over the coming decades, the impacts of these environmental stresses on the living conditions and livelihoods of Afghans have already been significant and adverse. Among all population groups, rural communities in Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to their strong dependence on agriculture for living. This exploratory research used a qualitative methodology to investigate and document firsthand the vulnerability of the rural communities to climate change impacts in the context of food security in Afghanistan. To this end, three villages in Balkh, Herat, and Nangarhar provinces were studied for their exposure to climate change and the communities’ adaptive capacity to cope with and avert the climate-related stresses. Additional key informant interviews were conducted to learn about similar issues in other rural regions of the country. The study found that climate change has substantially contributed to increased food insecurity in the rural communities throughout Afghanistan over the last two decades and that the rural households are facing real challenges to generate income from agricultural activities while taking desperate measures to cope with and adapt to climatic conditions.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) is a global agreement between 194 countries to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere to avoid dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Through this Convention, developed countries have also agreed to provide developing countries with funds to both reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigate) and build resilience to the current and anticipated changes in average climate conditions (adaptation). This thesis is centered on financing for adaptation to climate change. While there are several funds administered by a UNFCCC-appointed institute, the World Bank recently launched Climate Investment Funds as an interim mechanism (set to expire in 2012, when the existing UNFCCC financial architecture is to be revised) for providing, among other things, adaptation finance in selected developing countries. This thesis will explore the opportunities and challenges for adaptation financing under the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), as compared to the UNFCCC. Document analysis and two rounds of interviews were done to generate information to assess the ability of the CIF to respond to the needs of adaptation financing and to fetch the institutional and governance issues that arise from the involvement of a World Bank-administered fund, namely CIF, in the climate finance regime. It was concluded that while there are some achievements with the CIF exercise, there are also significant institutional, governance and funding challenges for the CIF.

Numerous studies project that climate change will accelerate the rise in global sea levels, leading to increased coastal inundation, greater potential damage from storm surge events, beach erosion and other coastal impacts which threaten vital infrastructure and facilities that currently support the economies of island nations. There is a broad consensus amongst experts that small island developing states (SIDS) face the greatest risk to the projected impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, few sea level rise (SLR) impact assessment studies have been conducted in SIDS due to the limitations of the geospatial data with regard to currency, accuracy, relevance and completeness. This research improves upon previous SLR impact assessment research by utilizing advanced global digital elevation models to create coastal inundation scenarios in one metre increments for 19 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations and member states, and then examine the implications for seven key impact indicators (land area, population, economic activity, urban areas, tourism resorts, transportation infrastructure and beach erosion). The results indicate that a one metre SLR would have serious consequences for CARICOM nations. For example under this scenario over 10% of the 73 identified study area airports and 30% of the 266 major tourism resorts were identified as prone to flooding. Projected effects were not found to be uniform across the region; low-lying island nations and mainland countries with coastal plains below ten metres were identified as the most vulnerable countries. Recommendations for adaptive actions and policies are provided.

Tree-ring analyses have contributed significantly to investigations of climate change and climate cycles, including the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Stable isotope climate proxies (?18O, ?D, and ?13C) have enhanced traditional ring-width data, although poor preservation of ancient wood has generally constrained reconstruction of stable isotope proxy records to the Holocene and Late Pleistocene. An opportunity to apply these stable isotope methods to older wood has been presented by recovery of remains of Mixed-Coniferous Boreal Vegetation, in Early Pliocene (4-5 Ma) deposits at Strathcona Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada (~79°N). An exceptionally well-preserved tree trunk, identified as Larix (larch) through wood anatomical characteristics, from this high Arctic site provided a 203-year tree-ring record, from which we present the first high-resolution, secular isotope record of Pliocene climate. ?18O, ?D, and ?13C isotope values indicate a variable climate with alternating intervals of cool/wet to warm/dry weather. These fluctuations in climate may be attributable to phase changes in climate cycles observed in the record. A growing season mean temperature of 14.4 °C was calculated from isotopic analysis of gastropod shells. Palaeoclimatic modeling of tree isotope values has revealed growing season temperatures of 11-15 °C, and estimated isotope values of precipitation of 18.3 (?18O) and 228 (?D). Both palaeotemperature estimates and source water calculations are comparable to those found in a modern Boreal Forest. Time-series wavelet analysis was applied to these data revealing prominent short (<10 years), intermediate (16-35 years) and long-term (~45-50 years) cyclicity. These are the highest resolution climate cycles recovered from the pre-Holocene terrestrial record, providing evidence for decadal scale cyclicity similar to the NAO and/or PDO 4-5 million years ago.

Multiple global climate models suggest that the Canadian Prairies will experience temperature increases due to climate warming. This could influence pasture and grazing production. Three climate scenarios CGCM2 A21, CSIROMk2 B11 and HadCM3 A21 were used to predict daily weather data to 2099 and incorporated into the GrassGro decision support tool to project pastoral production during 30-year increments, 2010 to 2099. Simulations were compared with the World Meterological Organization baseline years, 1961-1990 at two sites (Saskatoon and Melfort) and two soil textures (loam topsoil / loam subsoil and sandy-loam / sandy-clay-loam). Two tame grasses [crested wheatgrass (CWG; <i>Agropyron cristatum</i>) and hybrid bromegrass (HBG; <i>Bromus inermis x Bromus riparius</i>) and a mixed native pasture (<i>Festuca hallii; Elymus lanceolatus; Pascopyrum smithii; Nassella viridula</i>) were studied at each location.<p> Soil moisture was greater for loam/loam than sandy-loam/sandy-clay-loam resulting in more plant available moisture in all climate scenarios at both locations. However, plant available moisture alone was unable to explain changes in pasture dry matter (DM) production. The results projected from CGCM2 A21 were more favorable to plant and livestock production than those of CSIROMk2 B11 and HadCM3 A21. CGCM2 A21 simulated increases in mean DM production of HBG at both locations during spring each 30-yr period (P<0.05) but an overall decline (P<0.05) in mean average daily gain (ADG) of steers at Melfort, whereas at Saskatoon there was an increase in ADG (P<0.05). CWG decreased in DM production at Melfort during summer and increased at Saskatoon with CGCM2 A21 but there was an overall decrease in ADG of steers during each 30-yr period relative to baseline. It was concluded that HBG was better able to stabilize production under various future climatic conditions than CWG. There was a shift in species dominance from <i>Festuca hallii</i> to <i>Elymus lanceolatus</i> in the mixed native pasture at both locations associated with the increase in summer temperatures. This suggests that various grass species may respond differently to climate change.These results indicate that climate change will cause significant changes in soil moisture, productivity and quality of tame pastures, liveweight of grazing cattle and species composition of native pasture.

Climate change may change the frequency and intensity of weather events which will likely challenge human and natural systems more than normal change. Agriculture is considered one of the most vulnerable systems to climate change. The main goal of this study is to estimate the economic impact of climate change on agriculture in the Canadian prairies and to capture the impact of weather conditions on the viability of production systems along with the impact of market price effects by predicting the economic impact of climate change. A two way fixed effects panel model with time and provinces group fixed effects is calibrated to simulate a set of potential climate change and global change in prices on the economics of prairie agriculture. The predicted impact of change in rainfall, increase in temperature and rise in future global market prices indicate that climate change will have complicated nonlinear effects on prairie agriculture. The results of this study also highlight the importance of precipitation for agriculture on the Canadian prairies. Marginal impacts of the evapo-transpiration proxy, rainfall, and July relative humidity indicate direct and positive relationship between agricultural land values and water related climate variables. It verifies that agriculture in the Prairies is very vulnerable to water scarcity and land use and land value strongly depends on the precipitation. The most important finding of this study is that climate change is beneficial for Canadian prairie agriculture except for some south east regions of Alberta. Comparing the results from direct impacts of climate and price changes on land value with the results from indirect impacts through area response estimation reveals that direct impacts of climate and price change increase farmland value by 31% while the indirect impacts from different scenarios increase simulated land value by up to 51%.<p> The results from base and three scenarios in this study reveal that climate change may not be a big threat for prairie agricultural economics if farmers employ appropriate adaptation strategies such as switching between crops and introducing new crops. As a matter of fact, climate change may provide an opportunity for agricultural producers in the prairies to gain from future price and environmental change. To achieve this goal, policies to address climate change concerns need to put a greater emphasis on dealing with water deficit and scarcity. Policies that facilitate access to irrigation and crop choices will help farmers to adapt to climate change.

The 2002 ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the government of Canada represents an interesting case study in Canadian federalism. This thesis seeks to explore the perspective of the government of Saskatchewan during the debate surrounding the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. In examining Saskatchewans perspective, this thesis uses the theoretical framework developed by Richard Simeon in Federal-Provincial Diplomacy: The Making of Recent Policy in Canada. In particular, the four major sources of intergovernmental conflict identified by Simeon, economic conflict, ideological conflict, political competition, and differences in perspective, will be used to examine Saskatchewans reaction to the ratification to the Kyoto Protocol. Climate change policy provides interesting insights into Canadian federalism. Constitutional authority in environmental policy is concurrently shared between both levels of government. At the same time, the federal government has authority to make international treaties, but requires provincial consent to implement those treaties in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Unlike other previous intergovernmental negotiations, the Kyoto Protocols ratification also introduces international elements and considerations to domestic federal-provincial relations, which have rarely been explored in academic literature surrounding Canadian federalism. As such, this thesis hopes to use the case study of Saskatchewans perspective on Kyotos ratification as a means of expanding on the relevance of Simeons framework through the consideration of unexplored international factors on Canadian federalism.

Background:              The environmental impacts of tourism have recently become a high-profile topic due to the increasing amount of attention devoted to issues such as climate change. The harmful effects of aviation, in particular, have led airline companies to adopt proactive sustainability agendas. In light of this, this study seeks to explore the extent of environmental awareness amongst consumers as well as the effects that corporate sustainability measures have on the decision-making process of air travelers. Purpose:                     The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether or not consumers value environmental responsibility within the airline industry and to determine the factors that influence the consumer decision-making process. Method:                      This thesis utilizes a mixed-method approach, with both quantitative and qualitative methods employed. Quantitative data was collected through a survey distributed online and to travelers at Göteborg Landvetter airport, with a total of 95 respondents. Additionally, an in-depth interview was conducted with Stefan Gössling, a prominent researcher within the field of tourism. Findings:                    The results of this thesis reveal relatively low awareness amongst consumers with regard to the environmental actions of airlines. Although consumers appear to have a general knowledge of the negative impacts of air travel, they are reluctant to alter their own flying behavior. Additionally, the results of the survey reveal that consumers are not yet familiar with the concept of eco-friendly flights or the sustainable options that are available to them when purchasing flight tickets.  Ultimately, when buying from airline companies, consumers place greater emphasis on other factors such as costs, services and the availability of desired routes.

Adaptation finance has recently become an essential component to address internationalclimate change impacts. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is the main mechanismproviding financial adaptation assistance from developed to developing countries. Underthis mechanism, Bolivia figures as the country with more projects than any other eligiblecountry, giving the impression that Bolivia receives favourable treatment when resourcesare allocated. This study analyzes the process by which Bolivia receives funding foradaptation projects using the principle of good governance and elements of accountability,fairness and effectiveness in the allocation of resources, to understand how suchadaptation projects are granted. The analysis results showed the process in Bolivia has lowlevels of accountability, neither low or high levels of fairness and low levels ofeffectiveness and that the theories presented by the literature review reflect the resultsfound. The analyses also suggested that it is difficult to determine that Bolivia receivesfavourable treatment because all projects where Bolivia received funding are all sharedwith other countries. It was also found that two projects are currently suspended and notyet implemented.