In this volume security specialists, peace researchers, environmental scholars, demographers as well as climate, desertification, water, food and urbanisation specialists from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America review security and conflict prevention in the Mediterranean. They also analyse NATO’s Mediterranean security dialogue and offer conceptualisations on security and perceptions of security challenges as seen in North and South. The latter half of the book anal...

During recent years, environmental debate worldwide has been dominated by climate change, carbon emissions and the greenhouse effect. But a number of academic, technical, political, business and NGO initiatives indicate the emergence of a new wave of environmental attention focused on “natural capital,†“ecosystem services†and “biodiversity,†things nature does for us. In What Has Nature Ever Done for Us? British environmentalist Tony Juniper points out that as a species we th...

Earth is our Business takes forward the argument of Polly Higgins’ first book, Eradicating Ecocide. This book proposes new Earth law, but it is also about something more than law: it advocates a new form of leadership which places the health and well-being of people and planet first. Polly Higgins shows how law can provide the tools and be a bridge to a new way of doing business. She argues, in fact, that Earth is the business of us all, not the exclusive preserve of the executives of the ...

This work focuses on urban governance in the developing world, its aim being to bring a holistic perspective to the debate on urban governance in Asia and around the globe. It has been divided into three sections: The first section is on rural interventions as they influence urbanization and its problems/solutions. The second focuses on urban governance, infrastructure programs, service delivery reforms and their evaluation. The third and final section focuses on urbanization and the envir...

At a time of global economic crisis and disillusionment with capitalism, Adodo offers refreshing and positive insight into a more integral way of business management, enterprise and community development as well as holistic healing in Africa. For over three decades, Africa was the recipient of billions of dollars in aid funds that were meant to catapult the continent from undeveloped to developed status. Yet the more the aid poured in, the poorer African countries became.The devast...

One of the early set of reforms that South Africa embarked on after emerging from apartheid was in the water sector, following a remarkable, consultative process. The policy and legal reforms were comprehensive and covered almost all aspects of water management including revolutionary changes in defining and allocating rights to water, radical reforms in water management and supply institutions, the introduction of the protection of environmental flows, and major shifts in charging for wat...

World population is forecast to grow from 7 to 9 billion by 2050, 1 in 6 is already hungry and food production must increase by 70-100% if it is to feed this growing population. No single solution will solve this problem but recent developments in the genetic technologies of plant breeding can help to increase agricultural efficiencies and save people from hunger in a sustainable manner, particularly in African nations where the need is greatest. These advances can rapidly incorporate new ...

This book evaluates and compares risk regulation and safety management for offshore oil and gas operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Norway and Australia. It provides an interdisciplinary approach with legal, technological and sociological perspectives on efforts to assess and prevent major accidents and improve safety performance. Presented in three parts, it begins with a review of the factors involved in designing, implementing and enforcing a regulatory regime for indus...

The issue of climate change is now widely recognised as one of the major challenges for mankind in the 21st century, not only because it may ultimately affect many areas of our environment, nature and human activity but also because its mitigation may have far reaching consequences for almost all sectors of the economy where energy conversion takes place. Although climate change is firmly positioned on the political agenda and some initial targets have been agreed within a global framework...

Despite the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan, a growing number of countries are interested in expanding or introducing nuclear energy. However, nuclear energy production and nuclear waste disposal give rise to pressing ethical questions that society needs to face. This book takes up this challenge with essays by an international team of scholars focusing on the key issues of risk, justice, and democracy. The essays consider a range of ethical issues, including radio...

Meta-analysis is a formal synthesis of results and findings of scientific studies, which can assist in gaining new insights, explaining differences between results of similar studies, or determine useful directions of research. In this book we focus on the use of meta-analysis in environmental economics and related fields of study.The first part of the book covers the overall meta-approach methodology for social sciences and economics in particular. This is followed by technical and...

The National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), announced in the Government of India’s Budget 2010-11, is seen as a major step in India's quest for energy security and reducing the carbon intensity of energy. Funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies, and harnessing renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels constitute the objectives of the NCEF. The NCEF’s utilization of funds is considered to be rather low and disbursements poorly aligned with the fu...