Towards a framework to assess, compare and develop monitoring and evaluation of climate change adaptation in Europe.

Adaptation is increasingly recognised as essential when dealing with the adverse impacts of climate change on societies, economies and the environment. However, there is insufficient information about the effectiveness of adaption policies, measures and actions. For this reason, the establishment of monitoring programmes is considered to be necessary.

Database support for adaptation to climate change: An assessment of web-based portals across scales.

The widely recognized increase in greenhouse gas emissions is necessitating adaptation to a changing climate, and policies are being developed and implemented worldwide, across sectors, and between government scales globally. The aim of this article is to reflect on one of the major challenges: facilitating and sharing information on the next adaptation practices. Web portals (i.

Geoengineering, news media and metaphors: Framing the controversial.

We analyze how metaphors are used in presenting and debating novel technologies that could influence the climate and thereby also future climate change policies. We show that metaphors strengthen a policy-related storyline, while metaphors are rarer in purely descriptive accounts. The choice of metaphor frames the technologies.

Beyond REACH: roadblocks and shortcuts en route to integrated risk assessment and management of chemicals.

This paper addresses obstacles and opportunities for the development and application of novel methods for integrated assessment of cumulative risks from chemicals, exemplified by the REACH legislation of the EU, in the context of multiple stressors and of chemicals policy. We examine the role of such methods in connection with REACH by models of integration and innovation of risk information in multi-actor risk governance; analyses of key documents on REACH; and interviews with EU regulators and stakeholders. We first explain the emergence of REACH as a response to tensions in EU chemicals, environmental and other policies.

Integrated risk assessment and risk governance as socio-political phenomena: a synthetic view of the challenges.

To call for integration in risk assessment and governance as a self-evident goal is deceptively easy. For more insight, we ask: what level and kind of integration and for what purposes is needed and sufficient? What opportunities and obstacles can be identified for integrative treatment of risks? What causes and impacts are there of developments in risk integration? To answer these questions we investigate the socio-political processes and factors surrounding integrated risk assessment and risk governance through a combination of literature reviews and original research. We emphasize regulatory assessment and governance of risks associated with chemicals in the EU, but we link them with other areas to better grasp options and problems in integration.