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Nowadays budgetary funds still prevail among sources of financing of the projects in the area of increasing the energy efficiency of the regional economy in the Russian Federation. For example, in the Tver region in 2016, 82% of the projects for the modernization of the heat supply infrastructure and 100% for the modernization of the electricity supply infrastructure were implemented at the expense of the budget. At the same time, there is a decrease in the total amount of state financing of energy efficiency projects due to a high proportion of the budget deficit of the subjects of the Russian Federation. According to the agency ACRA (information dated April, 12, 2017 at www.acra-ratings.ru), 58 out of 85 regional budgets for 2017 were accepted with a total deficit of 193 billion rubles. At the same time, the urgency of applying organizational and financial mechanisms for the implementation of energy efficient projects involving alternative financing is growing. The article systematizes the views on the perspective mechanisms for implementing projects in the field of increasing the energy efficiency of the regional economy, including taking into account the analysis of problems of their application in the example of the Tver region. The authors studied existing organizational and financial mechanisms for energy-efficient projects, including public private and municipal private partnerships, and the Local Initiatives Support Program.

Achieving sustainability in the Anthropocene requires radical changes to how human societies operate. The Seeds of Good Anthropocenes (SOGA) project has identified a diverse set of existing initiatives, called “seeds,” that have the potential to catalyze transformations toward more sustainable pathways. However, the empirical investigation of factors and conditions that enable successful sustainability transformations across multiple cases has been scarce. Building on a review of existing theoretical and empirical research, we developed a theoretical framework for assessing three features identified as important to transformative potential of innovative social-ecological initiatives: (1) learning practices, (2) empowerment, and (3) networking. We applied this framework to a set of African-led and Africa-related initiatives that we selected from the SOGA database that were divided into initiatives with more or less transformative potential. We coded the presence or absence of features relating to the theoretical framework using secondary data, and then compared the initiatives using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). This analysis revealed that of the three features tested, Networking emerged as the most important feature for transformative potential when compared amongst cases. By developing and testing a framework for the comparison of cases we provide a basis for future comparative work to further identify and test properties of cases that enable transformation.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the basic legal solutions that can be used to finance initiatives to commemorate the patron of a local or regional community. As a result of the study, it was found that the financing for such initiatives could come from public sources. Such activities can be fi-nanced from budgets of units of local or regional government (at the commune, district, or province level). However, these expenditures must be allocated to the following categories of tasks: own tasks, tasks accepted for performance by way of a contract or agreement, or tasks implemented jointly with other units of local or regional government. Such initiatives can also be financed with targeted subsidies granted by units of local or regional government from the so-called par-ticipatory budget. The paper also shows that once funding is obtained for initia-tives to commemorate a local patron from public funds available in the budget of units of local or regional government, care must be taken to ensure that these funds are properly spent. In making these expenditures the following principles are of key importance: advisability and economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and timeliness, and these principles should be complied with together. Violation of these principles may entail legal liability under, among other things, the Act on liability for violating the discipline of public finance.

PurposeUnderstanding bottom-up approaches including local coping mechanisms, recognizing them and strengthening community capacities is important in the process of disaster risk reduction. The purpose of this paper is to address the questions: to what extent existing disaster policies in Nepal support and enable community-based disaster resilience? and what challenges and prospects do the communities have in responding to disaster risk for making communities resilient?Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on policy and academic literature reviews complimented by field research in two communities, one in Shankhu, Kathmandu district and another in Satthighare, Kavrepalanchowk district in Nepal. The author conducted in-depth interviews and mapped out key disaster-related policies of Nepal to investigate the role of communities in disaster risk management and post-disaster activities and their recognition in disaster-related policies.FindingsThe author found that existing literature clearly identifies the importance of the community led initiatives in risks reduction and management. It is evolutionary phenomenon, which has already been piloted in history including in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake 2015 yet existing policies of Nepal do not clearly identify it as an important component by providing details of how communities can be better engaged in the immediate aftermath of disaster occurrence.Research limitations/implicationsThe author conducted this research based on data from two earthquake affected areas only. The author believes that this research can still play an important role as representative study.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of this research is that communities need to understand about risks society for disaster preparedness, mitigation and timely response in the aftermath of disasters. As they are the first responders against the disasters, they also need trainings such as disaster drills such as earthquakes, floods and fire and mock practice of various early warning systems can be conducted by local governments to prepare these communities better to reduce disaster risk and casualties.Social implicationsThe mantra of community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM) is community engagement, which means the involvement of local people to understand and prepare against their local hazards and risks associated with disaster and haphazard development. CBDRM approaches motivate people to work together because they feel a sense of belongingness to their communities and recognize the benefits of their involvement in disaster mitigation and preparedness. Clearly, community engagement for disaster risk reduction and management brings great benefits in terms of ownership and direct savings in losses from disasters because the dynamic process allows community to contribute and interchange ideas and activities for inclusive decision making and problem solving.Originality/valueThis research is based on both primary and secondary data and original in case of its findings and conclusion.

The global food system confronts critical challenges, including food insecurity, small-scale producer vulnerability, and environmental degradation. While locally led initiatives emerge as potential solutions, they face obstacles, such as participant bias and scaling limitations. This study analyzes 157 international and 91 Japanese locally led food initiatives to understand their contributions to food system sustainability. Our findings reveal that these initiatives address key issues, including food security, environmental sustainability, community revitalization, and poverty reduction, reflecting various manifestations of problems within the modern global food system despite differing contexts. These initiatives operate across the food supply chain, emphasizing cross-group collaboration, knowledge sharing, resource utilization, and shortened supply chains. Significant differences exist between high-income and low- to middle-income approaches; lower-income regions prioritize resource access and skill development, while high-income areas focus on collaboration and leveraging existing resources. Many initiatives aim to empower marginalized groups, indicating a trend towards inclusivity. Although individual local initiatives may have limited impact, their collective action in fostering collaboration and empowerment is vital for transforming food systems. Networking and intermediary support emerge as essential components for scaling these initiatives to achieve meaningful systemic change.

One of the main mechanisms fuelling the process of territorial development both on local and regional levels is cooperation. It is distinguished as one fundamental priority for the European Union in terms of operational aspirations. Local initiative and decision making patterns are contributing processes for the regional and sub-regional level, as they target the ‘integrated’ feature of sustainable territorial development policies. In an attempt to address the role of these mechanisms in relation to their contribution towards delineating a new regional development model, existing theories on planned behaviour, new regionalism and decision-making in public administration are investigated. Following a set of innovative but rather less complex studies portraying the factors influencing the municipalities to associate, we hypothesize that there may be other elements accounting for these intentions expressed by the local authorities. These can be furthermore aggregated within a territorial intention model. The study aims to thoroughly define a set of secondary factors influencing the association intentions in local administrative units while subsequently underlining the potential of this dimension to define an alternative regional development model.

In order to actively fulfill its international treaty obligations, China has established the goal of peaking CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Since 2018, when ecological civilization was written into the Constitution, the realization of carbon peak and neutrality goals has had an ideological foundation and a constitutional basis. China has formulated various special laws and built a 1 + N policy system to reduce carbon emissions, which together with the environmental protection law, climate change law, energy law and other related laws and regulations constitute a unified legal system and provide legal support to achieve carbon peak and neutrality goals. At the same time, China has taken advantage of the new national system with concentrated efforts and resources to delineate the different roles of the government and market mechanisms in carbon emission reduction, and to make the operation of the legal system of carbon peak and neutrality suitable for its actual situation by giving full paly to the initiative of both central and local governments. This article analyzes the current legal system and its characteristics in China in the process of achieving carbon peak and neutrality goals in the context of the new era, and outlooks on the improvement path of the legal system from both domestic and international dimensions. The practice, experience and development direction of China in the construction of the legal guarantee for carbon peak and neutrality goals can provide reference for other countries to achieve carbon reduction.

CITATION: Lara, L. G., et al. 2019. Flipping the tortilla : social-ecological innovations and traditional ecological knowledge for more sustainable agri-food systems in Spain. Sustainability, 11(5):1222, doi:10.3390/su11051222.

In this paper, we exploit the introduction of the right of local initiatives in the German state of Bavaria in 1995 in order to study the fiscal effects of direct democracy. Our identification strategy combines difference-in-differences and regression discontinuity methods: we compare municipal expenditure and revenue between pre- and post-reform periods at population thresholds where the signatures needed to launch initiatives and minimum quorum requirements decrease discontinuously (difference-in-discontinuities design). The results suggest that stronger direct democratic institutions lead to an expansion of local government size.

The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected economic activities worldwide. The challenge for territories and companies has been how to cope with mobility restrictions. Even in the case of essential activities such as agri-food industries, the adaptation has been a challenging issue to deal with. The paper aims to show how the wine and olive oil industries in Spain have restructured their activities in order to respond to the confinement and the new normalcy, using new technologies as a strategic tool, but also making the most of new actions to keep their presence in the national and international markets. The research was carried out mostly through qualitative analysis, using the in-depth interview as a main tool to gain strategic information from managers of companies and local policymakers. Results show that when local policy makers and managers cooperate, despite the different perceptions they could have, the outcome is positive for facing competitive shocks and carving out new local initiatives, making firms and the territory itself more resilient.