Naturressurser og klima

Climate Security Language in UN Peace Operation’s Mandates

Article 24 of the United Nations Charter confers the responsibility of maintaining international peace and security to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This task requires a comprehensive engagement with the complex systems driving conflict in the world to understand and respond to threats to international peace and security. The UNSC has over the last 30 years gradually adopted a non-traditional security approach by incorporating economic, social, humanitarian and ecological instability as threats to international peace and security.

Space, nature and hierarchy: the ecosystemic politics of the Caspian Sea

Antropocen, menneskets tidsalder, har ført til skjerpet innsats for forvaltningen av verdens økosystemer. Disse økosystemene forholder seg ikke til landegrenser, og hundrevis av økosystemer krysser mer enn tre land og krever dermed komplekst internasjonalt samarbeid. Denne artikkelen undersøker de politiske og sosiale konsekvensene av den økende, men lite studerte, utviklingen mot grenseoverskridende økosystemsamarbeid. Ved å koble hierarkistudier i internasjonale relasjoner (IR) og politisk geografi, viser artikkelen hvordan diskursen rundt økosystemer kan binde sammen uvanlige samarbeidspartnere i områder som ellers er politisk krevende. Forfatterne hevder at «økosystemets politikk» kan skape brede hierarkier som går på tvers av både westfalske, postkoloniale og ulikhetsprinsipper som har hittil vært gjenstand for den ‘nye’ hierarkiforskningen i IR. Forfatterne illustrerer argumentasjonen ved å analysere hvordan miljøsamarbeidet rundt Det kaspiske hav har skapt et bredt hierarki som definerer og markerer regionens grenser, er blitt symbolsk for kaspisk naboskap og brukt som mal for fremtidig samarbeid i regionen. Dersom økosystemets politikk kan skape ny forståelse av rom i et ellers omstridt område som Det kaspiske hav, burde ytterligere forskning undersøke de hierarkiske konsekvensene også andre steder.

Loss of Tonga’s telecommunication – what happened, how was it managed and what were the consequences?

In January 2022 the subsea volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in Tonga had a major eruption which also cut the country’s communication lines nationally, between Tonga’s inhabited islands and the outside world. The damage led to a complete halt in international communication (a “digital darkness”) which meant that, in the period immediately after the outbreak, not much was known about the extent of the damage in Tonga. Due to very limited access to contact with both the authorities and the population of Tonga, it was only during overflights carried out by the Australian and New Zealand air forces that one could begin to map the extent of the damage and the need for assistance.

Stakeholder Networks in International Development Projects in the Amazon rainforest

The governance of environmental issues has become a central challenge in world politics. These issues are often complex, thus requiring flows of knowledge and resource from multiple actors across multiple levels. International development cooperation is a channel for these varied sets of actors to join their efforts in concrete projects and policies, allowing for global engagement with local envi- ronmental challenges. It thus can anchor policy networks capable of structuring polycentric modes governance. Yet, empirical research has shown that policy networks are sites of political disputes, (re)producing power rela- tions and affecting the capacity of different social groups to influence relevant outcomes. In this brief, we examine such dynamics in the network of stakeholders involved in development, execution or governance of internationally funded projects in the Amazon.

A void in Central Asia research: climate change

The environmental burdens of special economic zones on the coastal and marine environment: A remote sensing assessment in Myanmar

ASEAN’s energy transition: how to attract more investment in renewable energy

The energy transition is progressing slowly in the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). To achieve ASEAN’s target of 23% renewables in the primary energy supply by 2025, the region would need to invest USD 27 billion in renewable energy every year. However, the ASEAN countries attracted no more than USD 8 billion annually from 2016 to 2021. Through a comparative review of three key factors for attracting investment—renewable energy legislation, energy governance reform, and general conditions for investors—this study examines why the region’s renewable energy sector has not attracted more capital. The contribution of the article is threefold. First, it develops a new review model for assessing the business climate for renewable energy in any country. Second, it offers an update on the state of renewable energy deployment in the ASEAN countries. Third, taking into account international best practices, it identifies the obstacles and solutions to attracting investment in renewable energy in Southeast Asia. The article finds that carbon lock-in is pervasive, regulatory practices have been copy-pasted from the fossil-fuel sector to the renewables sector, and, except for Malaysia and Vietnam, no ASEAN country has implemented a major pro-renewable energy governance reform. Certain advanced renewable energy measures, such as auctions and feed-in tariffs, have been adopted in some member states, but the institutional capacity to implement them is limited. The share of renewables in the energy governance system needs to be increased.