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AbstractThe concept of a ‘just transition’ to a low‐carbon economy is firmly embedded in mainstream global discourses about mitigating climate change. Drawing on Karl Polanyi's political economy elaborated inThe Great Transformation, we interrogate the idea of a just transition and place it within its historical context. We address a major contradiction at the core of global energy transition debates: the rapid shift to low‐carbon energy‐systems will require increased extraction of minerals and metals. In doing so, we argue that extractive industries are energy and carbon‐intensive, and will enlarge and intensify social and ecological injustice. Our findings reveal the importance of understanding how the idea of a just transition is used, and by who, and the type of justice that underpins this concept. We demonstrate the need to ground just transition policies and programmes in a notion of justice as fairness.

Societal relations in rural areas have entered into a new stage of adjustment over the past decade. However, the adjustment, which might bring about profound societal changes in countryside as well as in China as a whole, have not been paid much attention and very few studies have been conducted from the perspective of ecological resource crises. We use the case of a village as an example to show how water pollution, as one of the contributory factors, possibly affect the transition of clans and societal changes in Chinese villages. Through observation and interviews, we find that there is an apparent rise of “New Clanism” within clans, which gradually abandons the tradition of supremacy of clan interests and places family or individual interests at top priority. We also find that clan boundaries get increasingly obscure since the integrity of clans is undermined by the rise of new interest groups across clans, but the boundaries remain relatively clear due to the consistency (albeit incomplete) of clan interests. Some new clan élites and representatives of new interest groups get involved in village governance, which indicates that their goals have shifted from natural resources to social or political capital. The significance of our findings is that they provide not only a unique perspective for the interaction between society and resources, but also some new ideas for the future study of rural China at the environment-social interface.

Le Pakistan traverse une crise énergétique terrifiante et dévastatrice. Récemment, la prévision de la consommation d'énergie s'est intensifiée par rapport à sa capacité de production, ce qui est problématique pour la stabilité sociale et économique du Pakistan. Par conséquent, il est essentiel d'examiner le lien entre la consommation d'électricité, les prix de l'électricité, la transition urbaine, les autres utilisations d'électricité et l'expansion économique de 1970 à 2018 au Pakistan. Pour l'analyse, la technique économétrique de deuxième génération de Lee et Strazicich (2013), le nouveau Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (AARDL) et Frequency Domain Causality (FDC) est utile pour détecter l'association à moyen et à court terme entre les variables. Les résultats montrent que la consommation d'électricité stimule l'expansion économique à court et à long terme, bien que la hausse des prix de l'électricité diminue l'activité économique à court et à long terme. En outre, la transition urbaine et d'autres utilisations de l'électricité ont un impact positif et négatif substantiel sur l'expansion économique à court et à long terme. Le résultat suggère qu'un approvisionnement énergétique efficace, des prix de l'énergie à faible coût, une bonne gestion de la transition urbaine et d'autres utilisations de l'énergie pourraient être utiles aux décideurs pour atteindre les ODD 7 et 11 au Pakistan. Pakistán se encuentra en una crisis energética aterradora y devastadora. Recientemente, la predicción del consumo de energía se ha intensificado en comparación con su capacidad de producción, lo que es problemático para la estabilidad social y económica de Pakistán. Por lo tanto, es vital examinar el vínculo entre el consumo de energía, los precios de la energía, la transición urbana, otros usos de la electricidad y la expansión económica de 1970 a 2018 en Pakistán. Para el análisis, la técnica econométrica de segunda generación de Lee y Strazicich (2013), el novedoso Retraso Distribuido Autoregresivo Aumentado (AARDL) y la Causalidad en el Dominio de la Frecuencia (FDC) son útiles para detectar la asociación a largo y corto plazo entre las variables. Los resultados muestran que el consumo de energía estimula la expansión económica a corto y largo plazo, aunque el aumento de los precios de la energía disminuye la actividad económica a corto y largo plazo. Además, la transición urbana y otros usos de la electricidad tienen un impacto positivo y negativo sustancial en la expansión económica a corto y largo plazo. El resultado sugiere que el suministro eficiente de energía, los precios de la energía de bajo coste, la gestión adecuada de la transición urbana y otros usos de la energía podrían ser útiles para que los responsables políticos alcancen los ODS 7 y 11 en Pakistán. Pakistan is in a terrifying and devastating energy crisis. Recently, the prediction for energy consumption has intensified compared to its production capacity, which is problematic for Pakistan's social and economic stability. Hence, it is vital to examine the link between power consumption, power prices, urban transition, other electricity use, and economic expansion from 1970 to 2018 in Pakistan. For analysis, the second-generation econometric technique of Lee and Strazicich (2013), novel Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (AARDL), and Frequency Domain Causality (FDC) is useful to detect the long-medium and short-run association among the variables. The results show that power consumption stimulates economic expansion in the short and long-run, though the rise in power prices declines economic activity in the short and long-run. Also, urban transition and other electricity use are a substantial positive and negative impact on economic expansion in the short and long-run. The outcome suggests that efficient energy supply, low-cost power prices, proper urban transition management, and other energy use could be useful for policymakers to achieve SDGs 7 and 11 in Pakistan. باكستان في أزمة طاقة مرعبة ومدمرة. في الآونة الأخيرة، تكثف التنبؤ باستهلاك الطاقة مقارنة بقدرته الإنتاجية، مما يمثل مشكلة للاستقرار الاجتماعي والاقتصادي لباكستان. وبالتالي، من الضروري دراسة الصلة بين استهلاك الطاقة وأسعار الطاقة والتحول الحضري واستخدام الكهرباء الأخرى والتوسع الاقتصادي من 1970 إلى 2018 في باكستان. للتحليل، فإن تقنية الاقتصاد القياسي من الجيل الثاني من Lee and Strazicich (2013)، والتأخر الموزع الانحداري الذاتي المعزز (AARDL)، وسببية مجال التردد (FDC) مفيدة للكشف عن الارتباط طويل المدى وقصير المدى بين المتغيرات. تظهر النتائج أن استهلاك الطاقة يحفز التوسع الاقتصادي على المدى القصير والطويل، على الرغم من أن ارتفاع أسعار الطاقة يؤدي إلى انخفاض النشاط الاقتصادي على المدى القصير والطويل. كما أن التحول الحضري والاستخدامات الأخرى للكهرباء لها تأثير إيجابي وسلبي كبير على التوسع الاقتصادي على المدى القصير والطويل. تشير النتيجة إلى أن إمدادات الطاقة الفعالة، وأسعار الطاقة منخفضة التكلفة، وإدارة الانتقال الحضري المناسبة، وغيرها من استخدامات الطاقة يمكن أن تكون مفيدة لصانعي السياسات لتحقيق هدفي التنمية المستدامة 7 و 11 في باكستان.

In this article we examined the ways in which strategic ambiguity (Eisenberg, 1984) in the use of keywords (Williams, 1976/1983) served an enabling function within a discourse marked by conflict and ideological divisions. Our analysis focused on the intertextual relationships between five documents intended by the government to guide the development of biotechnology in New Zealand. Through our analysis we identified ‘sustainability’ as a keyword and three major roles for the deployment of the discourse strategy of strategic ambiguity in the use of this keyword. First, strategic ambiguity lent an internal and intertextual coherence to the texts (albeit superficial). Second, it allowed multiple perspectives and objectives to co-exist. Third, strategic ambiguity facilitated the participation of discourse actors who subscribed to ideologies that were more or less incommensurable.

AbstractArctic plant communities are altered by climate changes. The magnitude of these alterations depends on whether species distributions are determined by macroclimatic conditions, by factors related to local topography, or by biotic interactions. Our current understanding of the relative importance of these conditions is limited due to the scarcity of studies, especially in the High Arctic. We investigated variations in vascular plant community composition and species richness based on 288 plots distributed on three sites along a coast‐inland gradient in Northeast Greenland using a stratified random design. We used an information theoretic approach to determine whether variations in species richness were best explained by macroclimate, by factors related to local topography (including soil water) or by plant‐plant interactions. Latent variable models were used to explain patterns in plant community composition. Species richness was mainly determined by variations in soil water content, which explained 35% of the variation, and to a minor degree by other variables related to topography. Species richness was not directly related to macroclimate. Latent variable models showed that 23.0% of the variation in community composition was explained by variables related to topography, while distance to the inland ice explained an additional 6.4 %. This indicates that some species are associated with environmental conditions found in only some parts of the coast–inland gradient. Inclusion of macroclimatic variation increased the model's explanatory power by 4.2%. Our results suggest that the main impact of climate changes in the High Arctic will be mediated by their influence on local soil water conditions. Increasing temperatures are likely to cause higher evaporation rates and alter the distribution of late‐melting snow patches. This will have little impact on landscape‐scale diversity if plants are able to redistribute locally to remain in areas with sufficient soil water.

In order to help keep readers up to date in the field, each issue of Progress in Photovoltaics will contain a list of recently published journal articles most relevant to its aims and scope. This list is drawn from an extremely wide range of journals, including IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Journal of Applied Physics, Applied Physics Letters, Progress in Photovoltaics and Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. To assist the reader, the list is separated into broad categories, but please note that these classifications are by no means strict. Also note that inclusion in the list is not an endorsement of a paper's quality. If you have any suggestions, please email Santosh Shrestha at s.shrestha@unsw.edu.au.

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are perceived to be more energy efficient and less polluting than conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. However, increasing evidence has shown that real-driving emissions (RDE) could be much higher than laboratory type approval limits and the advantages of HEVs over their conventional ICE counterparts under real-driving conditions have not been studied extensively. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the real-driving fuel consumption and pollutant emissions performance of HEVs against their conventional ICE counterparts. Two pairs of hybrid and conventional gasoline vehicles of the same model were tested simultaneously in a novel convoy mode using two portable emission measurement systems (PEMSs), thus eliminating the effect of vehicle configurations, driving behaviour, road conditions and ambient environment on the performance comparison. The results showed that although real-driving fuel consumption for both hybrid and conventional vehicles were 44%-100% and 30%-82% higher than their laboratory results respectively, HEVs saved 23%-49% fuel relative to their conventional ICE counterparts. Pollutant emissions of all the tested vehicles were lower than the regulation limits. However, HEVs showed no reduction in HC emissions and consistently higher CO emissions compared to the conventional ICE vehicles. This could be caused by the frequent stops and restarts of the HEV engines, as well as the lowered exhaust gas temperature and reduced effectiveness of the oxidation catalyst. The findings therefore show that while achieving the fuel reduction target, hybridisation did not bring the expected benefits to urban air quality.