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On 11 November 2014, a remarkable event occurred. President Barack Obama of the United States and President Xi Jinping of China announced a bilateral agreement to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that cause global warming by their respective nations. On 12 December 2015, a year and a month later, representatives of 195 countries attending the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Paris, France, announced the Paris Climate Agreement. The goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is to limit the future emission of GHGs such that the rise in global mean surface temperature will be no more than 1.5 °C (target) or 2.0 °C (upper limit) above the pre-industrial level. The Paris Climate Agreement utilizes an approach for reducing the emissions of GHGs that is distinctly different than earlier efforts. The approach for Paris consists of a series of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), submitted by the world’s nations, reflecting either a firm commitment (unconditional INDCs) or a plan contingent on financial and/or technological support (conditional INDCs). The Obama–Xi announcement was instrumental in the framing of the Paris Climate Agreement. The INDCs submitted by the USA and China were built closely upon the November 2014 bilateral announcement. China and the USA rank number one and two, respectively, in terms of national emission of GHGs. Practically speaking, unified global action to combat global warming required these two nations to get on the same page.

Protected natural areas deserve the combination of nature uniqueness and conservation willing. The foundation stone for National Parks is the awareness of that unique character—actual or presumed, most times based on non-tangible properties or singularities —grown in some social sectors, followed by the aim of preserving particular biota, singular ecosystems or entire landscapes. This was the case for the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park. Like other protected areas in alpine mountains, its apparent wilderness was a key factor in declaring it National Park, in 1955. The rough relief carved in the Maladeta granodiorite batholith, including rocky crests and summits, steep slopes and glacial valley bottoms, had for long grabbed attention. The abundance of alpine lakes and other water-related systems must have been particularly attractive, in comparison with other Iberian mountains, and even with other Pyrenean areas.

The chapters of this book are derived from the UArctic Congress 2016 science sessions, focusing on themes identified in the report of the International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP III) that was published in 2015. Themes address the changes and developments as well as the challenges and opportunities that are taking place in today’s global world. The Arctic is changing faster than any other region in the world. Its climate is changing in a speed that cannot be found anywhere else, affecting either directly or indirectly to almost everyone and everything. How can the Arctic societies and cultures, ecosystems, and environments cope with these fast changes? This book is divided into six thematic parts reflecting the congress themes: Vulnerability of the Arctic Environments, Vulnerability of the Arctic Societies, Building the Long-Term Human Capacity, Arctic Safety, and Arctic Tourism. The final part of the book “Circumpolar, Inclusive and Reciprocal Arctic” looks at the Arctic in the light of the UArctic’s mission and values; Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv, professor of political sciences, addresses a number of issues surrounding the implementation of gender perspectives in the Arctic research, and Ulunnguaq Markussen, UArctic Student Ambassador, calls for an Arctic awakening of peoples in the era when Arctic is seen as a place for natural resource extraction and economic benefits.

This book is about governance for drought resilience. But that simple sentence alone might rouse several questions. Because what do we mean with drought, and how does that relate to water scarcity? And what do we mean with resilience, and why is resilience needed for tackling drought? And how does governance enter this equation? We argue that governance assessment—the study of restricting and facilitating characteristics of a governance setting—can greatly aid implementation of drought adaptation measures, thereby increasing drought resilience. In this chapter we will first discuss the occurrence of drought in (Northwest) Europe, and why governance matters for increasing drought resilience (Sect. 1.1). Second, we will shed more light on the notion of governance and how governance is dealt with by us (Sect. 1.2). Third, we will review existing governance assessment methods (Sect. 1.3). Fourth, we will use this knowledge on governance and governance assessment to introduce our key principles in governance assessment, and discuss how we have applied these in a real-life project setting (Sect. 1.4). Fifth, and last, this chapter ends with an outlook into the rest of the book, to guide the reader in reading (Sect. 1.5).

Reflect on the present, on the dynamics and the conditions that built it, and look forward at the same time, in search of a prospect to improve the future. Since Howard (1850–1928) and Geddes (1854–1932), this has been the dominant logic supporting the work of all those (architects, urban planners, planners, landscape architects, etc.) who grappled with city and territorial management and planning. However, from the 1970s, territorial planning has been confronted with new concepts – such as sustainable development, environmental sustainability and social equity – and more recently, new challenges – such as the ones linked to climate change, which led to the need to redefine territorial planning in disciplinary and operational terms. For some years now, the planner’s new role is under discussion, especially in relation to the challenges posed by climate change. Sustainability, mitigation, adaptation, renewable energy, low-carbon transition, ecosystem approach and post-disaster planning are just some of the new keywords surrounding the discussion on territorial management and planning. This chapter aims to present rationally, what it means to re-organize and re-think the city, in a long-term perspective. It wants to show how it is possible, and above all is a duty to integrate the new concepts mentioned above in urban planning, to deal with the effects of climate change. The Urban Heat Islands contrast enters fully into the feasible experimentation with appropriate innovations in territorial planning. The paper draws attention to the Italian situation, in the light of the European reference framework.