ID73: Towards climate neutrality in mountains
Details
Full Title
Towards climate neutrality in mountains: Local climate governance and energy transitions for GHG mitigation.
Scheduled
Tuesday, 2022-09-13
13:30 - 15:00
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 865 | Date: 2022-09-13 13:30 – 13:50 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Lecture hall HS3 | 
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.
Abstract ID 517 | Date: 2022-09-13 13:50 – 14:10 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Lecture hall HS3 |
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 781 | Date: 2022-09-13 14:10 – 14:30 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Lecture hall HS3 |
Lecuyer, Lauren
The Livestock Sustainability, TLS, France
Keywords: Local Implementation, Climate Change Mitigation Policy Tools, Livestock Farmers, Participative And Territorial Policy-Making Process
As climate change severely affects mountains region, the need to develop territorial policies is all the more relevant that CC governance is still particularly state-centered (Biesbroeck et al., 2010; Ford et al., 2011, Österblom and Bodin 2012; Ingold and Fischer 2013, Giles et al 2021). In mountain areas, bottom up strategies that rest upon innovative participative models of governance can represent an opportunity to enhance buy-in and cooperation. Thus, it can help to counter the “implementation deficit” (Bardach 1977, Pressman and Wildavsky 1984, Knoepfel and Dupuis, 2011) of CC mitigation policies. Indeed, although agriculture contributes significantly to climate change through its greenhouse gas emissions (mainly methane and nitrous oxide) and national objectives foresee a significant reduction in GHG emissions for 2030 (55% emissions cut compared with 1990 levels for European Union’s target and 50% for Switzerland), agricultural policies are still advancing only too timidly on the issue of mitigating climate change. In the aim of empirically documenting implementation brakes, my research is then focused on a comparative study of local implementation processes of policies orientated towards the mitigation of CC in mountain livestock agriculture in the Haute-Savoie region (France) and Canton of Valais (Switzerland). Since 2007 following a reform of the CAP for France and a reform of article 104 of the Swiss Constitution in 2014 in Switzerland, agricultural policies have begun to introduce payments for environmental and climatic services. Some of those policy tools are implemented throw a territorial framework aiming to encourage different stakeholders to work on a more sustainable rural development approach. However, our results have shown how territorial policies aiming towards mitigation of CC have followed a “top-down institutionalization” process (Bertrand F., Richard E., 2014) implementing objectives through a top-down governance model. While mitigation policies need a strong consensus, this centralizing tendency tends to exclude farmers from the policy-making process of CC instruments. Theoretically, we propose to identify the obstacles to the implementation of the mitigation policy by crossing the analysis of public policies (type of public policies: individual/collective/territorial/sectoral/incentive/mandatory/voluntary) and the analysis of the participation of farmers in CC mitigation policies. Methodologically, we conduct our comparison on local implementation processes crossing an analysis of policy tools with an analysis of participation through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, the method of semi-direct interviews, farms visit and the observation of participation in local reunions of climatic plans.
Abstract ID 747 | Date: 2022-09-13 14:30 – 14:50 | Type: Oral Presentation | Place: SOWI – Lecture hall HS3 |
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.
