The climate crisis is an urgent and complex global challenge, requiring transformative action from diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society, and grassroots movements. Conventional top-down approaches to climate governance have proven insufficient (e.g. UNFCCC, COP events), necessitating a shift towards more inclusive and polycentric models that incorporate the perspectives and needs of diverse communities (Bliznetskaya, 2023; Dorsch & Flachsland, 2017). The independent, multidisciplinary approach of citizen-led activist groups can provide new insights and redefine challenges and opportunities for climate governance and regulation. Despite their important role in developing effective climate action, these citizen-led groups often face significant barriers to decision-making participation, including structural, practical, and legal challenges (Berry et al., 2019; Colli, 2021; Marquardt et al., 2022; Tayler & Schulte, 2019).
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In this opinion piece, we establish some key priorities for evidence-based governance to address the increasing threat of heatwave events in Europe, particularly for human health. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA) [1], Europe is warming faster than the global average. The year 2020 was the warmest year in Europe since the instrumental records began, with the range of anomaly between 2.53˚C and 2.71˚C above the pre-industrial levels. Particularly high warming has been observed over eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Climate change-related heatwaves are becoming a significant threat to human health and necessitate early action [2]. While financial resources and technological capacities are crucial to aid (local) governments in adapting to and proactively mitigating the threats posed by heatwaves, they are not enough [3]. Akin to flood responses, European countries must prepare for large-scale evacuations of vulnerable citizens (especially older adults living alone) from their homes. Here, we outline three priorities for Europe in the governance domain. These priorities encompass developing and rolling-out heat-health action plans, a stronger role for European Union institutions in regional heatwave governance, and creating a sense of urgency by developing innovative ways of communicating research findings to relevant policy makers and citizens.
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Cities are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and there is an urgent need to become more resilient. This research involves the development of the City Climate Scan methodology to measure, map, scan and assess different parameters that provide insight into the vulnerability of urban areas and neighborhoods. The research involved the development of a set of measurement tools that can be applied in different urban neighborhoods in a low-cost low-tech approach with teams of stakeholders and practitioners. The City Climate Scan method was tested in different cities around the globe with groups of young professionals and stakeholders in rapid urban appraisals.For the Rotterdam City Climate Scan (September 2017), the following challenges were selected: risk of flooding, heat stress, water quality (micro-pollutants and plastic waste) and air quality. The Rotterdam climate scan is evaluated with their triple helix partners (public, private and academic partners). The conclusion is that the City Climate Scan approach helps policy makers and practitioners to gather valuable data for decision makers in a rapid appraisal at the neighborhood and city level. The results of the City Climate Scan methodprovides insights, creates awareness and brings together stakeholders. The most valuable deliverable is the concrete and tangible results. The participatory approach brings residents and practitioners together and provides insight into local problems, while at the same time the method facilitates the collection of valuable data about the robustness of neighborhoods. As a result of this positive evaluation, the City Climate Scan will be up scaled to a number of cities in Europe and Asia in the upcoming months.
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This book fills an important gap in the sport governance literature by engaging in critical reflection on the concept of ‘good governance’. It examines the theoretical perspectives that lead to different conceptualisations of governance and, therefore, to different standards for institutional quality. It explores the different practical strategies that have been employed to achieve the implementation of good governance principles. The first part of the book aims to shed light on the complexity and nuances of good governance by examining theoretical perspectives including leadership, value, feminism, culture and systems. The second part of the book has a practical focus, concentrating on reform strategies, from compliance policies and codes of ethics to external reporting and integrity systems. Together, these studies shed important new light on how we define and understand governance, and on the limits and capabilities of different methods for inducing good governance. With higher ethical standards demanded in sport business and management than ever before, this book is important reading for all advanced students and researchers with an interest in sport governance and sport policy, and for all sport industry professionals looking to improve their professional practice.
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Understanding the decision-making process of a boardroom is one of the most fascinating parts of organizational research. We are all interested in power games, team dynamics and how the external environment could influence the decision of directors. One of the important buzzwords of today is “good governance” and many boards face a lot of societal pressure to implement best practices of governance. It goes beyond regulatory requirements and boards need to take a different perspective on integrating governance codes and best practices in their organizations. In this study, we focused on the role of individual directors in developing organizational responses to that pressure. More specifically, we looked at how directors’ own cognitive frames of governance influence the way boards choose best practices.
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This booklet presents twenty-one impact stories of Ethiopian and Kenyan alumni of Dairy (Livestock) trainings in the Netherlands. The Dutch trainings consists of Master courses conducted by Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (VHL) in Wageningen or Velp, short courses or diploma courses organised by Practical Trainings Centre (PTC+) in Oenkerk or Barneveld / Dairy Trainings Centre (DTC) in Oenkerk and short courses organised by Centre of Development Innovation – part of Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR) in Wageningen. Most refresher course participants attended the Dutch trainings between 2010 and 2018. These alumni attended the Refresher Course entitled “Assessing the impact of Dutch knowledge institutions on performance of Netherlands alumni on dairy value chain governance in Kenya and Ethiopia” organised by Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (VHL), Agrikom (alumni organisation) and Egerton University on 7-16 July 2019 in Nairobi and Nakuru, Kenya. Part of the refresher course was dedicated to a write shop about the impact of the Dutch training. It was written in collaboration with the professorship Climate Smart Dairy Value Chains.
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We summarize what we assess as the past year's most important findings within climate change research: limits to adaptation, vulnerability hotspots, new threats coming from the climate–health nexus, climate (im)mobility and security, sustainable practices for land use and finance, losses and damages, inclusive societal climate decisions and ways to overcome structural barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.
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Adaptive governance describes the purposeful collective actions to resist, adapt, or transform when faced with shocks. As governments are reluctant to intervene in informal settlements, community based organisations (CBOs) self-organize and take he lead. This study explores under what conditions CBOs in Mathare informal settlement, Nairobi initiate and sustain resilience activities during Covid-19. Study findings show that CBOs engage in multiple resilience activities, varying from maladaptive and unsustainable to adaptive, and transformative. Two conditions enable CBOs to initiate resilience activities: bonding within the community and coordination with other actors. To sustain these activities over 2.5 years of Covid-19, CBOs also require leadership, resources, organisational capacity, and network capacity. The same conditions appear to enable CBOs to engage in transformative activities. How-ever, CBOs cannot transform urban systems on their own. An additional condition, not met in Mathare, is that governments, NGOs, and donor agencies facilitate, support, and build community capacities. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Adaptive governance by community-based organisations: Community resilience initiatives during Covid‐19 in Mathare, Nairobi. which has been published in final form at doi/10.1002/sd.2682. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions
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Executive Summary - Temperatures across the Middle East region are predicted to increase by 3°C by 2050 - Warming will be felt more in cities because of the urban heat island (UHI) effect, causing heat-related health problems - City planning and management regimes are often disconnected from disaster risk and resilience building and legislation is lacking - Lacking data and information sharing across multiple levels of governance hamper heatwave warning systems - Urban building projects lead to a soaring demand for cooling systems - Traditional adaptations such as street grid design, wind catchers and mashrabiya screens could be used more - Policy response should include national Heat Health Action Plans that are translated into Local Heat Plans, coordinated and implemented by local governments
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Climate change is now considered more than just an environmental issue, with far-reaching effects for society at large. While the exact implications of climate change for policing practice are still unknown, over the past two decades criminologists have anticipated that climate change will have a number of effects that will result in compromised safety and security. This article is informed by the outcome of a co-creation workshop with 16 practitioners and scholars of diverse backgrounds based in The Netherlands, who sought to conceptualize and systematize the existing knowledge on how climate change will most likely impact the professional practice of the Dutch (or any other) police. These challenges, with varying degrees of intensity, are observable at three main levels: the societal, organizational, and individual level. These levels cannot be separated neatly in practice but we use them as a structuring device, and to illustrate how dynamics on one level impact the others. This article aims to establish the precepts necessary to consider when exploring the intersection between climate change and policing. We conclude that much still needs to be done to ensure that the implications of climate change and the subject of policing are better aligned, and that climate change is recognized as an immediate challenge experienced on the ground and not treated as a distant, intangible phenomenon with possible future impacts. This starts with creating awareness about the possible ways in which it is already impacting the functioning of policing organizations, as well as their longer-term repercussions.
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