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Extreme weather attribution:re-assessing company values using carbon emissions
No full textPurposeWe present an accessible method of estimating companies' potential extreme weather liabilities, which can be used by policymakers, accountants, financial analysts, lenders and others to help assess climate risks.Design/methodology/approachApplying the emerging tool of emissions-based attribution, we estimate firms' climate liabilities by proposing an innovative Gordon's growth variant model for firms' potential extreme-weather-event liabilities.FindingsUsing our modelling approach, high-emitting firms' exposures appear considerable, potentially 3% of market capitalisation from single events. We estimate extreme-weather-event liability growth rates, showing the challenges of economic growth (accompanied by emissions) outstripping climate damages.Research limitations/implicationsThe study provides a novel framework that can be used to assess the cost of extreme weather (EW) events for firms. Empirical testing is left to future research.Practical implicationsOur novel approach to assessing climate liability costs is accessible and straightforward to use by numerous stakeholders. Governments can assess carbon cost implications for high-emitting companies and contextualise corporate value implications against societal costs during policy design when considering responsibility (and cost) assignment to emitters. Accountants and analysts can explore company value sensitivities to extreme weather phenomena, emissions estimates and evolving societal positions on climate responsibility, including litigation. This will allow markets and decision-makers to better respond to corporate emissions' regulatory or financial consequences.Originality/valueWe include warming intensification, allowing financial analysts, accounting and risk management professionals to explore potential event liabilities, revised emissions estimates and evolving societal positions on climate damages responsibility (including litigation). Our model enables key economic stakeholders to more effectively integrate the financial impacts of corporate emissions into their decision-making processes and avoid a disruptive transition
The core clock transcription factor TOC1 binds directly to defence gene promoters regulating immunity in Arabidopsis
No full textThe plant circadian clock drives temporal differences in susceptibility to pathogens. We investigated the role of TIMING OF CAB EXPRESSION 1 (TOC1) in the regulation of defence against Botrytis cinerea in Arabidopsis. The temporal variation in susceptibility to B. cinerea observed in wild-type Arabidopsis was abolished in TOC1-ox and toc1-2 plants under both diurnal and constant conditions. In addition, TOC1-ox plants were more susceptible than Col0 following inoculation at dawn, while inoculation at night lead to enhanced resistance in toc1-2 plants versus C24 plants, suggesting TOC1 is a negative regulator of immunity. RNA-seq analysis showed that the genes mis-regulated in toc1-2 plants had significant enrichment for terms related to biotic stress, an overrepresentation of G-box elements in their promoters and included genes encoding key transcription factors (TFs) involved in defence against necrotrophic pathogens. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-qPCR showed that TOC1 occupies G-box containing regions of the defence TFs ERF4, ORA47, ORA59 and WRKY33 in a pathogenresponsive and MYC2-dependent manner. We suggest that the phased TOC1 occupancy of defence gene promoters contributes to the gating of plant immunity against necrotrophic pathogens, while the MYC2-dependent release of TOC1 in response to pathogen detection allows plants to mount an acute immune response
Harnessing vulnerabilities for unarmed community self-protection
No full textThis chapter focuses on harnessing vulnerabilities for protection based on the central role of selected social agents and collective actors including women, youth, the elderly, internally displaced persons (IDPs), persons with disabilities (PWDs), and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, within the context of research on unarmed civilian protection (UCP). The chapter draws on findings from participatory research projects in Cameroon, the Philippines, and Colombia. It looks at different forms of vulnerability and how vulnerability is created and can vary in differing contexts. It equally examines the nexus between vulnerabilities and overall UCP processes in different conflict contexts and selected case studies, focussing specifically on community self-protection. It explores the extent to which measures are taken (or not) to protect vulnerable groups within the community, the extent to which vulnerable people are actively involved in protecting themselves and others, and mitigation and coping strategies employed by these vulnerable groups within communities and countries plagued by violent conflicts. Particular attention and emphasis are laid on exploring the role of women, youth, the elderly, PWDs, IDPs, and LGBTQ+ among persons who may not have or play any formal role when it comes to community protection institutional frameworks and processes
Creative Methods for Biodiversity Governance:: A Critical and Inclusive Approach to Participatory Learning
No full textThis chapter examines the design and development of an open-access online training course that aims to support inclusive and critically engaged biodiversity decision-making, by enabling the uptake of creative and participatory intervention methods. Designed as part of the PLANET4B project (understanding Plural values, intersectionality, Leverage points, Attitudes, Norms, behaviour and social lEarning in Transformation for Biodiversity decision making), the course draws directly on grounded insights and practical experiences from 11 place-based and sectoral case studies. The chapter argues that biodiversity loss is not only a techno-scientific empirical issue, but a deeply relational and structural challenge, requiring disruption of both exclusionary norms and hierarchical knowledge systems. An adapted version of Donella Meadows’ leverage points offers a framework to trace dynamics of change while accounting for intersectionality and situated power relations. Building on this framework, the chapter offers a critical appraisal of creative, discursive and experiential methods, emphasising the importance of designing and implementing approaches so that they address structural inequality, support reflexive practice, and foster place-based engagement. These conceptual ideas are translated into practice through a bespoke course design targeting four sets of key enabling players: policy makers, business, academic researchers and civil society. The design is informed by a clear rationale, a set of method selection criteria, and a framework for sharing and adapting the selected methods. By way of illustration, the discussion focuses on three methods featured in the online course: the Who Am I? game, participatory theatre, and debriefing. The chapter contributes to broader debates around the democratisation of knowledge, the politics of participation, and the role of learning in advancing ecological justice. It aligns closely with the ethos of No Limits to Hope, offering grounded tools and perspectives for understanding and enabling transformations in biodiversity governance
Advancing Biodynamic Agriculture through Postmodern Science, Research and Knowledge Systems
Full text linkThis keynote address sets the scene for the 3rd International Biodynamic Research Conference by exploring the types of science, research and knowledge systems appropriate for such a holistic farming approach. To do so, I would first like us to consider how we arrived at modern, industrial farming through the particular lens of its emergence and development in Britain – the host country of this conference. I will then broaden this exploration to highlight the relevance of international developments in agricultural knowledge systems worldwide, before circling back in to reflect on the implications for biodynamic research going forward
Building Social Resilience Through Play: Societal Impacts of the ACES Project
Full text linkThe ACES (A Community-Centred Educational Model for Developing Social Resilience through Play) project addresses global challenges in education by fostering social resilience through playful and frugal approaches to co-create learning in communities across Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. ACES empowers learners and educators to engage with local issues, from environmental sustainability to cultural preservation, using co-creation to frame education as a communal and transformative process. Grounded in participatory action research and a flexible Theory of Change framework, the project utilises open, iterative and playful methods to build trust, agency and local ownership. Case studies across the three countries such as STEMBucket, the PlayLab Bus and Green Playground demonstrate scalable models of frugal and playful education. Outcomes include enhanced learner confidence, revitalised local knowledge and educators empowered as change agents. Anchored in the ACES Charter’s principles (community, playfulness, frugality and co-creation), the project offers a practical and hopeful model for reimagining education systems globally. ACES shows that resilience grows not from resources alone, but from relationships, creativity, fun and shared purpose
Federated Reinforcement Learning for Uplink Centric Broadband Communication Optimization over Unlicensed Spectrum
Full text linkTo provide Uplink Centric Broadband Communication (UCBC), New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) network has been standardized to exploit the unlicensed spectrum using Listen Before Talk (LBT) scheme to fairly coexist with the incumbent Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) network. Existing access schemes over unlicensed spectrum are required to perform Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) before transmissions, where fixed Energy Detection (ED) thresholds are adopted to identify the channel as idle or busy. However, fixed ED thresholds setting prevents devices from accessing the channel effectively and efficiently, which leads to the hidden node (HN) and exposed node (EN) problems. In this paper, we first develop a centralized double Deep Q-Network (DDQN) algorithm to optimize the uplink system throughput, where the agent is deployed at the central server to dynamically adjust the ED thresholds for NR-U and WiFi networks. Considering that heterogeneous NR-U and WiFi networks, in practice, may not be able to share the raw data with the central server directly due to data privacy, we then develop a vertical federated DDQN algorithm, where two agents are deployed in the NR-U and WiFi networks, respectively. Our results have shown that the uplink system throughput increases by over 100%, where cell throughput of NR-U network rises by 150%, and cell throughput of WiFi network decreases by 30%. To guarantee the cell throughput of WiFi network, we redesign the reward function to punish the agent when the cell throughput of WiFi network is below the threshold, and our revised design can still provide 70% uplink system throughput gain, where cell throughput of NR-U network rises by 100%, and cell throughput of WiFi network rises by 35%
“Staying on our land”: The centrality of land, the natural environment, and identity in community self-protection
No full textIs ethnic cleansing the fundamental condition of Palestinian life? Is uprooting the fundamental condition of Colombian life? Is forced exploitation of the commons the fundamental condition for the life of Papuans in Indonesia? In this chapter the authors explore the connection between nonviolent community self-protection and the persistence of peoples to stay on their land and territories, recognising their particular ways of understanding the relationship between humans, land, and water and the ways in which these cultural conceptions contradict the instrumental and utilitarian visions imposed by colonial and capitalist powers that promote dispossession, war, and genocide. To this end, the chapter establishes a dialogue between case studies of Colombia, Palestine, and Papua, drawing on the results of research projects developed within the Creating Safer Space network on unarmed civilian protection and community self-protection. The authors show how, in addition to dispossession, ethnic cleansing, dispersion, and disenfranchisement by political and economic interests, a fundamental feature of life of different peoples in different parts of the world is the extraordinarily widespread and tenacious resistance in the face of such hardships. This spirit of resistance is present in their struggle for land rights and their persistence to stay on their land in the face of the uprooting caused by settler colonialism, colonialism, and processes of capitalist exploitation of commons such as land, natural resources, and energy. The chapter shows how the very act of staying on and maintaining their ancestral lands is an act of these people’s resistance and unpacks which role community-led UCP plays in enabling this.<br/
The many significances and nuances of jazz in 21st Century European cultural policies
No full textJazz in Europe, like Europe, is an extremely complex and multi-layered reality. A myriad of jazz subgenres, such as manouche, swing, free, contemporary and fusion jazz co-exist in a continent composed of distinctive nationalities, national histories, cultural landscapes, with around fifty languages and forty ethnic groups. There is not a monolithic sonic representation of jazz in Europe, nor is there one sole European cultural identity and policy. More than a continent, Europe has always been an idealised projection of ‘political significance and immense symbolic weight, without agreed boundaries’ (Wallace 1990: 7). And, as an ideal, Europe has been used as a blank canvas upon which different notions of what Europe is or can be are projected. Across the 20th century, but increasingly more in the 21st century, jazz was and has been used in the narratives and discourses of European political institutions as an optimum metaphor for that ideal: one of unification, diversity and, in the last decade, of a neo-liberal capitalist approach to culture as a value neutral economic and political diplomacy tool. In the last ten years, my research has been mainly focused on jazz networks in Europe. What I find interesting about networks is that not only do they allow us to map actors within certain ecologies and identify who are the musicians, promoters, educators, and audiences; they can also tell us a great deal about the different processes and dynamics that take place between those actors: namely how different levels and kinds of hierarchies are established, how informal networks sometimes generate formal networks, and, in turn, formal networks generate further informal networks. But perhaps what fascinates me the most about jazz networks is the ways in which those actors build their discourses and negotiate their identities in order to position themselves on a larger ecology. And this means two things: first, that identities are dynamic processes; second, that ground practices are heavily informed by constructed narratives and discourses, particularly those created at the official level designed to support specific cultural policies. What I suggest (Dias 2016a, 2016b, 2019; Dias, Frota and Martins 2020) is that networking invariably triggers a negotiation of identities: individual, national and – in this case – European. And by negotiating, I mean questioning, not only what one’s music as an individual artist or one’s venue as a promoter represent, but what jazz means to ourselves and others, and, perhaps more crucially, what it means to be a jazz actor in Europe, or even, ultimately, what it means to be a European.<br/