Geography's Unique Role in Climate Change Policy Analysis: From Global Mitigation to Regional Renewable Energy Development to Local Adaptation Strategies

Description

Because of the dual nature of geography (human and physical), geographers can provide unique insights into climate change mitigation and adaptation research. Climate change policy analysis requires not only an understanding of the physical phenomena of our planet, but also must take into account socioeconomic systems and value structures. These facets are explored in three examples related to climate change decision making, from global to regional to local scale: 1.) Analysis of multilateral climate change mitigation policies, 2.) estimating the regional potential for renewable energy sources (bioenergy is used as a specific example),and 3.) assessment of strategies for adaptation to potential climate change impacts. Process models of physical systems, energy-economic Integrated assessment models, and Geographical Information Science (GISc) systems are invaluable tools for performing such analyses. With these, geographers can test different hypothetical future scenarios and provide decision makers with more detailed information on potential costs and benefits of various policy options.

Guest Lecture at the University of Tübingen (Tübingen, Germany) to the Department of Geography.

Period	23 Jan 2012
Held at	Unknown