ID73: Towards climate neutrality in mountains
Details
Full Title
Towards climate neutrality in mountains: Local climate governance and energy transitions for GHG mitigation.
Convener
Co-Conveners
Susanne Wymann von Dach, Carolina Adler, F. Sebastián Riera, Biraj Thapa and Wenling Wang
Assigned to Synthesis Workshop
–
Keywords
Climate change policies, transition processes, territorial governance, renewable energy, energy transitions, hydropower, climate change, policy, governance
Description
Climate change severely affects mountain regions. The need to develop territorial policies to mitigate climate change, including through energy transitions, is especially relevant given that climate governance is still state-centered and suffers from an "implementation deficit". Since the inclusion of the Paris Agreement conditions in national political agendas, their implementation at the local level has encountered several obstacles. In mountain areas, bottom-up systematic transition processes that rest upon innovative participative and territorial models of governance can enable and enhance buy-in and cooperation. Mountain regions face a range of energy-pathway choices in the context of accelerated climate change, Nationally Determined Contributions for emissions, and mountain communities' own development aspirations. This session aims to gain insights into initiatives towards climate neutrality in various mountain regions around the world, discuss key challenges of policy implementation and address mountain-specific energy transitions (solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower, biomass, biochar and other forms of renewable carbon)
Registered Abstracts
Abstract ID 517 | Date: To Be Announced | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2
Wymann Von Dach, Susanne (1); Moser, Stephanie (1); Poelsma, Felix (1); Jacquat, Olivier (2); Thomas, Rosenberg (3)
1: Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland
2: Wyss Academy for Nature at the University of Bern, Regional Stewardship Hub Bern, Switzerland
3: Office for Environment and Energy of the Canton of Bern, Switzerland
Keywords: Climate Neutrality, Transition Management, Transition Pathways
Limiting global warming to less than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels requires comprehensive transformation of energy-relevant institutional, economic, and social subsystems, including changes to the dominant values and practices of actors/stakeholders in these different sectors. Achieving climate-neutrality is particularly important in mountain regions as they are disproportionally affected by climate change. However, a variety of context-specific characteristics – e.g. low population density, longer distances, sparse service infrastructure, socio-economic marginality, and dependence on agriculture and tourism – call for context-appropriate energy transition pathways that are harmonized with regional development strategies.
The Bernese Oberland in Switzerland is an important tourism destination with corresponding greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and a region with considerable hydropower production. Being aware of the impacts of climate change in the region, the "Regional Conference Oberland Ost" – a planning association of 28 communities – acknowledged the need to substantially reduce GHG emissions and set the goal "to develop the region towards a climate-neutral tourism region" in its 2019 development strategy.
In a three-year research project (2021-2023), we have been supporting the region in its efforts and have initiated a participatory process. The process is informed by the transition management approach by Loorbach (2010) and guiding principles from Wittmayer et al. (2018). It comprises four participatory workshops (WS) with selected actors from all relevant sectors (tourism, agriculture and forestry, energy, mobility, public authorities, civil society). In WS1, the actors analysed problems related to GHG emissions. In WS2 and WS3, they jointly defined visions, transition pathways, and a transition agenda. Finally, in WS 4, the actors will reflect on the process and its outcomes. A GHG balance and a survey among residents and tourists about their support for the visions and transition pathways will underpin the transition agenda. The project includes a one-year phase of experimentation to gather implementation experience and further develop the transition pathways.
In the presentation, we will provide an overview of our approach, summarize initial results and insights into the first three WS, and discuss context-specific challenges for transition towards climate neutrality in mountains.
References:
Loorbach, D. (2010). Transition Management for Sustainable Development: A Prescriptive, Complexity-Based Governance Framework. Governance, 23(1), 161–183. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01471.x
Wittmayer, J. M., van Steenbergen, F., Frantzeskaki, N., & Bach, M. (2018). Transition Management: Guiding Principles and Applications. In N. Frantzeskaki, K. Hölscher, M. Bach, & F. Avelino (Hrsg.), Co-creating Sustainable Urban Futures (Bd. 11, S. 81–101). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69273-9_4
Abstract ID 747 | Date: To Be Announced | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2
Scott, Christopher (1); Riera, Sebastián (2); Rojas, Facundo (2); Wagner, Lucrecia (2); Martín, Facundo (2)
1: Pennsylvania State University, United States of America
2: CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina
Keywords: Wef Nexus, Hydropower, Irrigation, Fracking
Development and exploitation of rivers and groundwater are inextricably linked with energy and agricultural production. While all are threatened by climate change and natural resource-intensive economic growth, they offer clear opportunities to pursue carbon-neutral pathways. This presentation examines river basin development in Mendoza, Argentina from water-energy-food-nexus and regional-planning perspectives, focusing on historical and current infrastructure and policies for irrigation, hydropower and hydrocarbon fracking. By assessing the efficacy of regulatory bans, stakeholder engagement, groundwater recharge and other institutional strategies to enhance global-change resilience, the goal is to collaboratively identify policies for water, energy, food, and carbon security in the Andes.
Abstract ID 781 | Date: To Be Announced | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2
Lecuyer, Lauren
The Livestock Sustainability, TLS, France
Keywords: Local Implementation, Climate Change Mitigation Policy Tools, Livestock Farmers, Participative And Territorial Policy-Making Process
The need to develop territorial policies to mitigate climate change (CC) is all the more relevant given that those policies are mostly defined in a national framework (Biesbroek et al. 2010, Ford et al. 2011) and has met several obstacles at the local level. In 2014, European Union declared direct payment for environmental services as the "backbone" of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the context of the ecological reform engaged by the organization (Tropea F., 2016)[1]. In the frame of the CAP reform, the Agro-environmental and Climatic Measures (AECMs) were reviewed. The novelty of this programming lies in the systemic measures (individual grassland and pastoral systems; collective grassland and pastoral systems; mixed crop-livestock systems; cropping systems) which apply to almost the entire farming system. Switzerland has also engaged an agricultural reform in 2014 to redefine direct payment objectives. Each service of general interest emerging from agriculture is now encouraged by seven direct payments all aiming towards a more sustainable agriculture. The implementation of those policy tools have motivated a collective management of natural resources confronting different stakeholders and sectors to work on a more sustainable territorial development approach. The "Contributions to biodiversity" for example encourage the formation of "Agro-Environmental Network" (Réseaux Agro-Environnementaux, RAE) that should be initiated by farmers[2] to coordinate ecological compensation areas for biodiversity and environment. As with the RAE in Switzerland, the interesting aspect of those policy tools is their territorial implementation. The exception lies in the fact that this prerequisite is mandatory in France as AECMs are only implemented within the framework of territorialized "Agro-Environmental and Climatic Projects" (Projets Agro-Environnementaux et Climatiques, PAEC)[3]. In light of these recent implementation processes of Direct Payment for Environmental Services in France and Switzerland, how this ecological transition prerequisite of collective management impacting the organization of mountain farmers? Our study will present the results of a comparative research lead in the frame of Highlands 3 project (Rise/Horizon) on French and Swiss local implementation policy tools aiming towards the mitigation of CC in mountain livestock farming of Haute-Savoie and Canton of Valais. The objective of this session is to reveal what it is made in mountain areas in order to mitigate climate change and present initiatives led by local public authorities and associations of mountain farmers that are gathering to think a local endogenous model of sustainable development leading to climate neutrality in mountains.
[1]https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2016/595864/EPRS_IDA(2016)595864_EN.pdf
[2] https://www.vd.ch/themes/economie/agriculture-et-viticulture/contributions-et-aides-financieres-agricoles/reseaux-ecologiques/
[3] http://draaf.bretagne.agriculture.gouv.fr/Les-Projets-Agro-environnementaux
Abstract ID 865 | Date: To Be Announced | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Seminar room SR2
Pérez Pérez, Belén (1); Forget, Marie (2)
1: University of Granada
2: EdYTeM (Environment Dynamics and Territories of the Mountains)
Keywords: Energy Transition, Mountains, Social Perception, Renewable Energies
The work analyzes the barriers and opportunities generated by the energy transition and renewable energies in two mountain areas and their impacts at the local level, as perceived by the population. It will also take into account the differences in the restrictions existing in the protected natural spaces of both areas, the relationship with other neighboring territories and the formulas to make compatible the different uses and interests in the territory, since all this influences the solutions adopted by each of these territories to face the energy transition and the fight against climate change. To this end, fieldwork has been carried out and social participation techniques have been used based on interviews and surveys of the population and social agents carried out between 2019 and 2020, which have made it possible to recognize that there are points of convergence and differences in the practical application of energy transition strategies and in the perception of the population of the French Alps and Sierra Nevada regarding renewable energies, landscapes, the protection of the natural environment and the fight against climate change, among other factors. The barriers, opportunities and challenges for territories with these characteristics will also be identified. Finally, the shared experience has served to share proposals, successful experiences and difficulties between these territories and to open new lines of shared research.
