ALBERT

Description: This report is intended to provide a review of the relevant governance frameworks currently in place for the management of high seas biodiversity in these regions. The report uses the issues under discussion in the ongoing negotiations for a new legally binding BBNJ agreement under the United Nations, as well as selected Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 targets, as a lens through which to assess progress towards conservation and sustainable use.

Description: The series of the Yamal 2040 Scenario Workshops is a part of the international research project “BlueAction – Arctic Impact on Weather and Climate” funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme. This project aims to evaluate the impact of a changing Arctic on northern hemisphere weather and climate. Blue-Action brings together 120 experts from over 40 organizations in 17 countries most of whom are climate scientists dealing with improvement of existing and development of new techniques that will enable robust and reliable forecasting of weather and hazardous climate events in the Arctic and over the northern hemisphere. However, Blue-Action is not limited to natural science’ goals alone. As a final result, the project aims to improve the safety and wellbeing of people in the Arctic and across the northern hemisphere by reducing risks associated with a changing climate and Arctic operations like resource exploitation, and to support evidence-based decision-making by policymakers worldwide. To achieve this, Blue- Action takes a transdisciplinary approach, bridging scientific understandings of Arctic climate, weather and risk management research with key rights- and stakeholder knowledge. This is being done within the project’s Work Package 5 “Developing and Valuing Climate Services”, which consists of a set of case studies that bring scientists together with stakeholders to co-develop products that “translate” the model outputs and improved modelling skill developed in other work packages into societal- and sectorrelevant products. Our case study in the Blue-Action project develops a study of the impact of the Arctic changes on resource development in the Russian Arctic with the goal of improving stakeholders’ capacity to adapt to these changes. The Yamal 2040 Scenario Workshop series is at the core of the case study. The work carried out in this deliverable is a desk study producing a map of stakeholder groups involved in oil and gas development on the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO). This study is part of the preparatory work for the scenario exercise conducted in cooperation with various stakeholder groups active in or affected by oil and gas development in YNAO.

Description: Qu'il s'agisse d'énergie propre, de production durable ou de réduction de la pauvreté, les idées et analyses sur les défis du développement durable ne manquent pas. Pourtant, nous faisons encore trop peu de progrès pour atteindre un état de durabilité. Comment mieux mettre en oeuvre nos connaissances et lier les défis du développement durable, la science et les réponses politiques? Tel est le thème du Global Sustainability Strategy Forum, qui, tous les deux ans, réunira une quinzaine d'éminents experts internationaux sur la durabilité pendant une semaine, et pour la première fois du 4 au 8 mars 2019 à Potsdam.

Description: From clean energy to sustainable production and the fight against poverty – insights into the many challenges of sustainable development are not in short supply. But despite the wealth of knowledge available to policymakers, little progress has been made in the transformation towards a sustainable future. How can we bring our knowledge to bear more effectively? This question underpins the Global Sustainability Strategy Forum, which will bring together 15 leading international experts for a week-long retreat in Potsdam every two years, beginning on 4 – 8 March 2019.

Description: What are the prerequisites for employing superconducting links in the power grid of the future? This document assesses the main elements of a new 3-gigawatt-class superconducting cable. In addition to discussing the technical details of the cable conductor, electrical insulation, and grid connections, it outlines the environmental benefits and future implementation challenges of this new technology. The concluding remarks include recommendations for industry and policymakers.

Description: In order to sketch the possibility space for the future setup of the International Monetary System (IMS), this paper develops four different scenarios that outline potential outcomes of the IMS’s evolution by 2040. These scenarios derive from the analytical exercise of adopting a Money View perspective of today’s institutional shape of the IMS. The paper argues that the IMS’s current setup crucially relies on the supply of US Dollar-denominated credit money forms issued by private and public institutions outside the United States—through Eurodollar deposits, central bank swaps as well as ‘shadow money forms’ created by non-banks such as overnight repurchase agreements, money market fund shares and foreign exchange swaps. As this ‘realm’ of offshore dollar creation forms the heart of the present IMS, the four scenarios project potential institutional developments in coming decades following different trajectories. The Continued Dollar Hegemony scenario depicts the sustained dominance of private international money creation via offshore dollars within the Pax Americana. The Competing Monetary Blocs scenario envisions the US, the EU, and China as three gravitational centers with private international money creation in the blocs’ peripheries via offshore dollars, offshore euros and offshore renminbi. In the International Monetary Federation scenario, countries have created a strong publicly organized IMS, comprising a multilateral framework of one international and several regional clearing unions, based upon Keynes’ ideas for an International Clearing Union. Finally, the International Monetary Anarchy scenario entails the post-crisis emergence of a non-system with a substantial breakdown of public and private international monetary cooperation and creation.

Description: This paper studies the transformation of the International Monetary System (IMS) in the run up to and after the 2007-9 Financial Crisis. Adopting a Money View perspective, it argues that the IMS, in contrast to wide-spread skepticism, does have a system-like quality. This paper understands the IMS as a US-centered hierarchical payments system within which short-term debt instruments are issued as credit money by various public and private financial institutions, in particular central, commercial and shadow banks. With the Fed located at the apex of the IMS, credit money forms denominated in US dollars are located highest up in the hierarchy and trade at par with each other, whilst they typically have fluctuating exchange rates to credit money forms denominated in the units of account of other monetary jurisdictions. From this, the paper argues that the key component of today’s IMS is the ‘realm’ of offshore US dollar creation, which is situated in between US dollar-denominated credit money issued in the US (‘onshore dollars’) and non-US dollar-denominated credit money issued outside the US. In this ‘offshore dollar realm’, non-US financial institutions are able to create international liquidity via US dollar-denominated private credit money outside the US. The paper systematically carves out the post-2008 setup of the offshore dollar realm with a focus on Eurodollar deposits, offshore money market fund shares, foreign exchange swaps and central bank swaps. With the institutional innovations materializing during the 2007-9 Financial Crisis, the IMS is now a public-private hybrid that fully mirrors the onshore US monetary system in the offshore dollar realm.

Description: The paper points out that a “balanced mix” of nuclear, wind and solar will be the most expensive option – unless future nuclear reactors can ramp like current open-cycle gas turbines.

Description: This policy brief demonstrates that there is both a need and opportunity to increase the interplay between the regional and global levels of ocean governance through a new global agreement for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ). Particularly, this policy brief aims to highlight the role and contribution of regional and sectoral governance in developing and underpinning the implementation of a strong high seas agreement. Regional efforts offer lessons learned, platforms for scientific data and knowledge exchange, mechanisms for convening states and stakeholders and coordinating regional approaches and measures for management. This policy brief identifies opportunities for how the coordination, cooperation and action between these two levels can be increased in view of an effective international legally binding agreement under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Description: Cette note d'information montre qu'il est à la fois nécessaire et possible d'accroître l'interaction entre les niveaux régional et mondial de la gouvernance des océans par le biais d'un nouvel accord mondial pour la conservation et l'utilisation durable de la biodiversité marine dans les zones situées au-delà de la juridiction nationale (BZAJN). Cette note vise en particulier à mettre en évidence le rôle et la contribution de la gouvernance régionale et sectorielle dans l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre d'un accord efficace sur la haute mer. Les efforts régionaux offrent des enseignements, des plateformes d'échange de données et de connaissances scientifiques, des mécanismes pour réunir les États et les parties prenantes et de coordonner les approches et les mesures régionales de gestion. Cette note d'information identifie les possibilités d'accroître la coordination, la coopération et l'action entre ces deux niveaux en vue d'un accord international juridiquement contraignant efficace dans le cadre de la Convention des Nations unies sur le droit de la mer (CNUDM).