Intersectional Realities
Economic Effects of Climate Change: Disentangling the Influence of Climate Change and Media Narratives on the Home Insurance Market View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Stefano Mazzotta
This study investigates the multifaceted impact of climate change and its media portrayal on the home insurance market. We employ a novel approach to disentangle the effects of objective climate events (e.g., hurricane intensity, flood events) from the influence of climate change-related television news narratives. Firstly, we meteorological data to construct a comprehensive index capturing the physical manifestation of climate change. Secondly, we leverage natural language processing techniques to quantify the volume and sentiment of climate change narratives presented on television news. Finally, we isolate the independent and combined effects of these factors on home insurance premiums and policy availability. This research sheds light on the relative influence of objective climate events and media portrayals on the home insurance market. Our findings will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of how climate change risk is perceived and priced by the insurance industry, and how media coverage shapes these dynamics. The study's insights can inform policy decisions aimed at mitigating climate risk and fostering a more resilient housing market.
Cultivating Community : How Discourse Shapes the Philosophy, Practice and Policy of Water Management in the Murray–Darling Basin View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amanda Shankland
In the face of escalating water scarcity, effective water management has become a central concern globally. The Murray–Darling Basin, spanning over a million square kilometres across four states and one territory, is a lifeline for Australian agriculture and rural communities. This study dissects the prevailing environmental discourses shaping water policy in the Murray–Darling Basin and assesses their implications for both the environment and for farming communities. Drawing on five months of extensive field research among farmers and Murray–Darling Basin Authority officials, Dr Amanda Shankland presents a nuanced understanding of farmer perspectives within the broader policy discourse. By examining the interplay between environmental discourses and farmer knowledge, Shankland sheds light on how different ideologies shape policy decisions and, subsequently, impact water management practices. Central to the book’s contribution is the identification and analysis of four key environmental discourses prevalent in the Murray–Darling Basin: administrative rationalism, economic rationalism, democratic pragmatism, and green environmentalism. Against the backdrop of looming water scarcity and the declining health of the Murray–Darling Basin, Cultivating Community challenges these dominant discourses by highlighting a new perspective, community centrism, which emphasises community-based cooperation and engagement in water management. By amplifying farmer voices and advocating for a more inclusive approach to policy deliberations, Cultivating Community paves the way for alternative futures in water management that prioritise social values alongside economic and environmental considerations.
International Development Finance for the Energy Transition in ASEAN Member States: Historical Trends and Future Directions View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeong Won Kim
Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable to climate change due to the region’s unique geographic, economic and sociodemographic circumstances. In order to minimize the adverse impacts of climate change, ASEAN member states (AMS) have set various targets and policies to tackle climate change and decarbonize their economy. However, most AMS are developing countries struggling with budget and financial constraints, so they have called for external financial support to meet their climate targets and realize energy transition. This study examines historical trends of international development finance that AMS received for their energy sector during the last 20 years (2003–2022), as a traditional major funding source. Then, it discusses whether the trends are aligned with global and AMS’s energy transition ambition and whether international development finance is sufficient to support AMS’s net zero pathways. The review confirms that bilateral and multilateral development finance for renewable energy generation projects in AMS has been growing, although there are some fluctuations by year. By contrast, development finance for fossil fuel generation was much larger than that for renewable generation until 2016 but became smaller in 2017 with a decreasing trend. Despite such growth, international development finance will be insufficient to achieve AMS’s net-zero targets. Thus, it needs to explore how to scale up the finance for the decarbonization and energy transition in this region with additional proper financing models.
