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| 1 |
ID:
101447
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article presents the findings of a study that examined three municipalities in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada, in order to determine the nature of the socio-cultural and institutional barriers to action on climate change at the local level. The central goals of this paper are: (1) to propose a simple typology of institutional and socio-cultural barriers to action by gathering insights from an inter-disciplinary set of literatures; (2) to explore the ways that these barriers influence the utilization of various forms of capacity to achieve greenhouse gas reduction and resiliency in three case study communities; and (3) to understand the dynamic interactions amongst, and relative importance of, these barriers at the local level. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that barriers are deeply interwoven phenomena, which may reinforce one another and create substantial inertia behind unsustainable patterns of municipal operations. Nevertheless, the same factors that can inhibit action on climate change (such as an organizational culture of combativeness or mutual disrespect) can also facilitate it (as with a culture of collaboration or innovation). This article suggests that a deeper understanding of the ways in which barriers can be transformed into enablers of action is a critical next step in the evolution climate change policy design and implementation at the local level.
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| 2 |
ID:
109659
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Renewable energy remains a contested topic in South Africa. This paper argues that South Africa can build on the momentum surrounding its introduction of a feed-in tariff by enacting policies that may, if given adequate funding and political effort, allow the country to be a world leader in renewable energy. Given a variety of renewable energy policy options for moving forward, a majority of stakeholders consulted in this study strongly prefer the development of a renewable energy manufacturing cluster, in which government develops coordinated policy mechanisms that attract renewable energy manufacturers, over three other policies suggested by the authors. Interviews with key informants that play critical roles in this decision-making process suggest that there are reasons to remain cautiously optimistic about the country's renewable energy future while cognizant of the challenges that must still be overcome. Opportunities for a low carbon renewable energy transition in South Africa include the prevalence of broad stakeholder consultation, facilitated by civil society, and an innovative policy development context. Significant impediments also exist, however, and include pervasive social issues such as poverty and political inertia, along with the ongoing difficulties facing renewable energy technologies in reaching grid parity with inexpensive and abundant South African coal.
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