 | Editorial—Policy and Climate Change (1-6) |
 | | Jean Boulton & Eve Mitleton-Kelly |
 | Sustainable Energy Systems: Linking the Local to the Global (7-14) |
| | David Elliott |
| ABSTRACT | The new sustainable energy paradigm emerging around the world, in response to climate change and energy resource concerns, will require a rethink of many aspects of the system we have inherited for energy production and use, from the local to the global. Many of the technologies exist, but we have yet to decide on how best to develop optimal systems. Focussing on renewable energy, this paper looks at the sustainable energy options available at local, national and global levels, for the UK and more widely, and argues that we must develop and introduce new ways of designing and managing the system, and make use of new tools for analyzing the complex interactions involved.
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| Policymaking as Design in Complex Systems—The International Climate Change Regime (15-22) |
| | Stephen Peake |
| ABSTRACT | This paper explores policymaking as a design process in complex systems using the example of the international climate policy regime. Applying Johnson’s (2008) framework on science and the designing of policy for complex futures, we establish that the evolution of international climate policy displays some characteristics of an ad hoc complexity-science policy-design process. The IPCC’s emissions scenario approach is used as an example of the current climate-science policy regime’s approach to dealing with policy uncertainty. We conclude that such an approach fails to capture the true relationships between policymakers, the complex models they seek to design and the actual uncertainty inherent in the environment. Further, we conclude that more formal linkages between climate policymaking and complex systems science could generate valuable new insights for both policymakers and scientists.
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| Cities as Complex Systems: Modelling Climate Change Dynamics (23-30) |
| | Sir Alan Wilson |
| ABSTRACT | It is argued that our knowledge of urban and regional models as effective representations of cities and regions is advancing rapidly in the context of complexity science and that this knowledge can now be applied to problems of climate change. An hierarchical comprehensive model framework is described, governed by demographic and input-output modelling at the higher levels of aggregation and in terms of interaction and spatial structure models at urban and regional scales. The importance of the key concepts of dynamic modelling—particularly path dependence and phase transitions—is emphasized. The idea of urban and regional ‘DNA’ is introduced. It is shown that it is straightforward in principle to estimate energy consumption and carbon emissions within the comprehensive framework and to use the models at the various scales to aid policy development by testing various scenarios associated with climate change. The associated research challenges are outlined.
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 | Complexity Theory and Implications for Policy Development (31-40) |
| | Jean Boulton |
| ABSTRACT | Complexity theory presents to us a view of the world as essentially systemic, interconnected: where the future emerges and cannot be predicted, and where diversity is essential for adaptation and change. This paper will explore what such a worldview implies for policy makers. Conclusions centre on the need for policies and regulatory frameworks to be inter-connected and handle explicitly the sometimes conflicting objectives of economics, the environment and concerns for social justice; emphasis is given to the need for policies to be ‘live’, dynamic, able to respond to potential unintended outcomes. The issue of global governance and the role, in this, of social movements, is raised.
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 | Why is Economics not an Evolutionary Science? (41-69) |
| | Thorstein Veblen (with an introduction by Jean Boulton) |
 | Energy and Climate Change: The Contribution Of Complexity Science - An Interview with Lord David Puttnam (24 March 2009) (70-76) |
| | Eve Mitleton-Kelly & Jeff Johnson |
| Energy, Transport, Environment and the Policy Challenge (77-80) |
| | Brian Collins |
| ABSTRACT | This paper explores, using real and current examples, how a focus on the world as complex can affect the development and implementation of policy. I am writing it from my perspective as Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) for the UK Department for Transport and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in the sense that I draw on this experience in selecting examples. But the views expressed are my personal reflections and are not necessarily representative of Government policy. Indeed it is not the purpose of this article to critique any policy; rather it is to show how policy development, particularly on complex issues, can benefit from the experience of such examples as part of a process of continual improvement.
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| Adjacent Opportunities: The Failure of Simple Answers (81-83) |
| | Ron Schultz |
| Empowerment: Chapter 10 (of 10)—The Practice (84-86) |
| | Michael Shenker |
| The Death of the Expert? (87-98) |
| | Kurt A. Richardson & Andrew Tait |