March 2012

By Chase Sova

As we’ve seen in the stories published on this blog from the Planet under Pressure conference [see Promoting Integration and dialogue within the context of global change and Bold optimism for science to address global sustainability challenges] a reoccurring theme at the conference has been the integration of climate science outputs and knowledge in to decision-making processes. This emphasis on translating research in meaningful ways that inform policy decisions is evidenced by the release of a series of Rio+20 oriented policy briefs covering a range of effected sectors, from energy to agriculture.  Read more »

By Moushumi Chaudhury

The most common type of “social protection” that farmers have access to either provides relief from deprivation through cash transfers or through weather indexed insurance. The paper I presented at the Planet under Pressure for the conference session “Building capacity for climate change adaptation and poverty alleviation: the role of social protection” offers a unique take to social protection. Click here to view the presentation from the conference session (PDF).

The paper firstly integrates literature on adaptive capacity with social protection, which is not commonly done. This is important because on the one hand, understanding adaptive capacity that includes assessing asset base, institutions, knowledge, innovation, and governance helps to understand the components that can make social protection effective. Read more »

By Paul Stapleton

Paradoxically, a group of scientists packed into a meeting room at the Plant under Pressure conference to discuss how to communicate climate change and improve the public’s consideration of the issue. Luckily, these scientists were actually psychologists and sociologists, who have been busy doing empirical experiments on the public.

Mathieu Jahnich, from Missions Publique, a French public participation agency, and colleagues, worked in the city of Nantes, which has established a public participation policy on climate change and a local climate plan to reduce emissions by 50%. They surveyed 2500 people out of a population of 600 000, and selected 150 families to have either three or seven meetings during 2011. The main goal was to identify the most appropriate public actions to take and the barriers that might exist to changing behaviour. They found that households that attended seven meetings in the year felt involved and supported, but those attending only three meetings were much harder to mobilize. Read more »

By Bruce Campbell

Agricultural research is still dominated by a focus on technologies and practices – at the scale of farm fields. The Planet Under Pressure conference brings home the shift that is needed: if we are interested in sustainable food and farming, then we have to broaden the agenda to cover distribution, storage, and consumption; to cover nutrition and waste. Read more »