The workshop will be jointly organized by the Global Carbon Project, the Earth System Governance Project, and the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) The workshop is supported by the Asia-Pacific Network on Global Change Research.
Background
Pathways of regional development are sequences of interrelated changes in social, economic and governance systems. They vary from place to place and over time, in ways that are likely to have different net consequences for carbon stocks and fluxes, which in turn may constrain or in other ways feed back upon development processes. Thus, the climate problem is not just a cumulative and systemic problem at the global level but has different features causes, and impacts at different levels of governance. These mutual interdependencies and feedbacks place demands on the science community to establish a common, mutually agreed knowledge base to support policy debate and action, and to develop integrated systems of governance, from the local to the global level, that ensure the sustainable development of the coupled socio-ecological system.
Asia is a key region which is rapidly growing economically. Asian contribution is already dominating the global carbon emissions. It will play a greater role for global carbon management in the foreseeable future. However, within Asia, huge differences in welfare, governance systems, and carbon emission trajectories exist and thus poses a carbon governance challenge. A better understanding of the carbon management challenges across multiple scales is necessary for Asia, which is less understood as of now. Such understanding will provide important insights to design an optimized carbon governance structure.
Workshop Objectives
The overall aim of the workshop on ‘Carbon Governance in Asia: Bringing Scales and Disciplines’ is the capacity building of Asia-Pacific young researchers and to discuss the issues and opportunities for carbon governance for developing low carbon societies in Asia.
It will include local, national, regional, and global aspects – as well inter-scale dynamics – of this research and policy challenge. This scale-based perspective will help raising awareness of the participants and through the dissemination of results also policy-makers and stakeholders of the interdependencies between scales and the importance of each scale.
The workshop will bridge the scientific disciplines and create the conducive environment to explore future collaborations. It will enable early-career researchers from the Asia-Pacific region to present their research at an international workshop and to receive feedback and support form established colleagues, and bringing these young researchers in contact with the regional and global research communities and projects.
The workshop will include lectures by leading scientists in the field, and presentations of the papers of early-career participants, as well as an extensive opportunity for discussions and interactions for early-career researchers. The leading researchers for the workshop include:
- Michele Betsill, Colorado State University, USA
- Jeffrey Broadbent, University of Minnesota
- Lorraine Elliott, The Australian National University, Australia
- Yasuko Kameyama, National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan
- Norichika Kanie, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Ma Zhong, Renmin University, China
- Elizabeth L. Malone, Joint Global Change Research Institute, USA
In addition, a number of other Japan-based senior scholars and policy-makers will attend and contribute to the workshop.
Participants to the workshop
- Leading international experts from Asia Pacific region
- Early-career researchers from the Asia Pacific region
- Selected senior scholars from Japan
- Observers. In addition to the leading researchers and early-career researchers, the workshop will invite a number of observers based on their relevancy and interests.
Key Dates
- Deadline for application: 15 July 2010
- Notification of acceptance: 15 August 2010
- Full papers due: 1 October 2010
Please visit the workshop’s website for more and frequently updated information. The final workshop report is available here (pdf).
Contact
Shobhakar Dhakal, Executive Director, Global Carbon Project
shobhakar.dhakal [at] nies.go.jp
Ruben Zondervan, Executive Officer, Earth System Governance Project
zondervan [at] ihdp.unu.edu
Jose Puppim de Oliveira, Assistant Director, UN University Institute of Advanced Studies
puppim [at] ias.unu.edu
