ecosystem resilience research institutions but the rethinking of the linkages between
discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Second, it is equally imperative to build a
knowledge-based climate economy (KBCE) within a framework for economic
growth that is also able to manage climate change risks. In a nutshell, it is necessary to
go beyond convergence in order to be able to choose and shape KBCE where equitable growth and reduced climate change risk go together hand-in-hand. Third, what
the ‘ecosystems’ of research institutions and the reformed universities of tomorrow
need most urgently is a strategic multidisciplinary interface-building where they can
lay the foundations for meeting the global challenges—from the shaping of climate
change agenda to managing the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
And, fourth, the multidisciplinary interface-building can be best advanced and
understood through knowledge resources dynamics, a new framework that builds on
the assumption that in dealing with global challenges we have got to understand the
huge complexities of KBCE (turn to Fig. 1, p. 149).
Within a growing KBCE
3 that is driven by improvements in efficiency in
resource use, strategic investments in infrastructure and strong linkages between
discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship it is possible to work with two kinds of
strategies, namely, mitigation and adaptation in order to manage climate change.
The mitigation strategies mainly address the issues of how to reduce the climate
risk by reducing the GHGs emissions without compromising economic growth,
equity and poverty reduction. Essentially addressing the issues of resilience to
climate change, adaptation strategies are generally described as processes of
making improvements in resilience with which the whole communities and populations on the one hand and ecosystems on the other can adapt to global warming
driven climate change. Among the key questions that arise in this context the
following deserve a special mention:
The first question concerns high-resolution regional climate change projections: How
accurate are regional projections of climate change derived from downscaling of GCM
projections of future climate change? What can realistically be discovered about climate
change at spatial scales smaller than GCM grid spacing (Hall 19 Dec. 2014, p. 1461)?
The second question concerns the context-dependent knowledge resources dynamics:
How can KRDs interface with the development and growth models within the KBCE
projected over next 50 years, where strategies of equitable growth and reduced climate risk
may interplay in harmony, so as to innovate and develop efficient sustainable solutions to
the problems confronting society and humanity in the twenty first century? Will there be
fundamental limitations to their interface-building strategies, that originate in the knowledge resources themselves?
3
Launched in September 2003, The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate (www.
newclimateeconomy.net) is a major international initiative to examine the economic benefits and
costs of acting on climate change, with the New Climate Economy as its flagship project. Set up to
examine whether it is possible to achieve lasting economic growth while also tackling the risks of
climate change, its reports seek to inform economic policy and decision-makers how actions to
promote economic prosperity—jobs, competitiveness and poverty reduction—can go together with
the mitigation and adaptation strategies of managing the climate change risks.
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G.L. Pandit
discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship. Second, it is equally imperative to build a
knowledge-based climate economy (KBCE) within a framework for economic
growth that is also able to manage climate change risks. In a nutshell, it is necessary to
go beyond convergence in order to be able to choose and shape KBCE where equitable growth and reduced climate change risk go together hand-in-hand. Third, what
the ‘ecosystems’ of research institutions and the reformed universities of tomorrow
need most urgently is a strategic multidisciplinary interface-building where they can
lay the foundations for meeting the global challenges—from the shaping of climate
change agenda to managing the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.
And, fourth, the multidisciplinary interface-building can be best advanced and
understood through knowledge resources dynamics, a new framework that builds on
the assumption that in dealing with global challenges we have got to understand the
huge complexities of KBCE (turn to Fig. 1, p. 149).
Within a growing KBCE
3 that is driven by improvements in efficiency in
resource use, strategic investments in infrastructure and strong linkages between
discovery, innovation and entrepreneurship it is possible to work with two kinds of
strategies, namely, mitigation and adaptation in order to manage climate change.
The mitigation strategies mainly address the issues of how to reduce the climate
risk by reducing the GHGs emissions without compromising economic growth,
equity and poverty reduction. Essentially addressing the issues of resilience to
climate change, adaptation strategies are generally described as processes of
making improvements in resilience with which the whole communities and populations on the one hand and ecosystems on the other can adapt to global warming
driven climate change. Among the key questions that arise in this context the
following deserve a special mention:
The first question concerns high-resolution regional climate change projections: How
accurate are regional projections of climate change derived from downscaling of GCM
projections of future climate change? What can realistically be discovered about climate
change at spatial scales smaller than GCM grid spacing (Hall 19 Dec. 2014, p. 1461)?
The second question concerns the context-dependent knowledge resources dynamics:
How can KRDs interface with the development and growth models within the KBCE
projected over next 50 years, where strategies of equitable growth and reduced climate risk
may interplay in harmony, so as to innovate and develop efficient sustainable solutions to
the problems confronting society and humanity in the twenty first century? Will there be
fundamental limitations to their interface-building strategies, that originate in the knowledge resources themselves?
3
Launched in September 2003, The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate (www.
newclimateeconomy.net) is a major international initiative to examine the economic benefits and
costs of acting on climate change, with the New Climate Economy as its flagship project. Set up to
examine whether it is possible to achieve lasting economic growth while also tackling the risks of
climate change, its reports seek to inform economic policy and decision-makers how actions to
promote economic prosperity—jobs, competitiveness and poverty reduction—can go together with
the mitigation and adaptation strategies of managing the climate change risks.
136
G.L. Pandit