A review of the global climate change impacts,adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Climate change is a long-lasting change in the weather arrays across tropics to polls. It is a global threat that has embarked on to put stress on...     

Climate change and sustainable development: realizing the opportunity

Manifold linkages exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention in the climate exchange literature, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. And there has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. This paper examines climate change through a sustainable development lens. To illustrate how this might change the approach to climate change issues, it reports on the findings of a panel of business, local government, and academic representatives in British Columbia, Canada, who were appointed to advise the provincial government on climate change policy. The panel found that sustainable development may offer a significantly more fruitful way to pursue climate policy goals than climate policy itself. The paper discusses subsequent climate change developments in the province and makes suggestions as how best to pursue such a sustainability approach in British Columbia and other jurisdictions.     

Investing in climate change adaptation and mitigation: A methodological review of real-options studies

Uncertain future payoffs and irreversible costs characterize investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Under these conditions, it is relevant to analyze investment decisions in a real options framework, as this approach takes into account the economic value associated with investment time flexibility. In this paper, we provide an overview of the literature adopting a real option approach to analyze investment in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and examine how the uncertain impacts of climate change on the condition of the human environment, risk preferences, and strategic interactions among decisions-makers have been modeled. We found that the complex nature of uncertainties associated with climate change is typically only partially taken into account and that the analysis is usually limited to decisions taken by individual risk neutral profit maximizers. Our findings call for further research to fill the identified gaps.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01342-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Nexus on climate change: agriculture and possible solution to cope future climate change stresses

The changing climate scenarios harshen the biotic stresses including boosting up the population of insect/pest and disease, uplifting weed growth, declining soil beneficial microbes, threaten pollinator, and boosting up abiotic stresses including harsh drought/waterlogging, extremisms in temperature, salinity/alkalinity, abrupt rainfall pattern)) and ulitamtely  affect the plant in multiple ways. This nexus review paper will cover four significant points viz (1) the possible impacts of climate change; as the world already facing the problem of food security, in such crucial period, climatic change severely affects all four dimensions of food security (from production to consumption) and will lead to malnutrition/malnourishment faced by low-income peoples. (2) How some major crops (wheat, cotton, rice, maize, and sugarcane) are affected by stress and their consequent loss. (3) How to develop a strategic work to limit crucial factors, like their significant role in climate-smart breeding, developing resilience to stresses, and idiotypic breeding. Additionally, there is an essence of improving food security, as much of our food is wasted before consumption for instance post-harvest losses. (4) Role of biotechnology and genetic engineering in adaptive introgression of the gene or developing plant transgenic against pests. As millions of dollars are invested in innovation and research to cope with future climate change stresses on a plant, hence community base adaptation of innovation is also considered an important factor in crop improvements. Because of such crucial predictions about the future impacts of climate change on agriculture, we must adopt measures to evolve crop.

     

Testing role of green financing on climate change mitigation: Evidences from G7 and E7 countries

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The study estimates the long-run dynamics of a cleaner environment in promoting the gross domestic product of E7 and G7 countries. The recent study...     

Fisheries regulatory regimes and resilience to climate change

Climate change is already producing ecological, social, and economic impacts on fisheries, and these effects are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude in the future. Fisheries governance and regulations can alter socio-ecological resilience to climate change impacts via harvest control rules and incentives driving fisher behavior, yet there are no syntheses or conceptual frameworks for examining how institutions and their regulatory approaches can alter fisheries resilience to climate change. We identify nine key climate resilience criteria for fisheries socio-ecological systems (SES), defining resilience as the ability of the coupled system of interacting social and ecological components (i.e., the SES) to absorb change while avoiding transformation into a different undesirable state. We then evaluate the capacity of four fisheries regulatory systems that vary in their degree of property rights, including open access, limited entry, and two types of rights-based management, to increase or inhibit resilience. Our exploratory assessment of evidence in the literature suggests that these regulatory regimes vary widely in their ability to promote resilient fisheries, with rights-based approaches appearing to offer more resilience benefits in many cases, but detailed characteristics of the regulatory instruments are fundamental.     

Materials and sustainable development

Environmental Science and Pollution Research -     

Vulnerability to climate variability and change in East Timor

This paper presents the results of a preliminary study of climate vulnerability in East Timor. It shows the results of projections of climate change in East Timor. The country's climate may become hotter, drier, and increasingly variable. Sea levels are likely to rise. The paper then considers the implications of these changes on three natural resources--water, soils, and the coastal zone--and finds all to be sensitive to changes in climate and sea level. Changes in the abundance and distribution of these resources is likely to cause a reduction in agricultural production and food security, and sea-level rise is likely to damage coastal areas, including Dili, the capital city.     

Sensitivity of tropospheric oxidants to global chemical and climate change

A photochemical model has been used to quantify the sensitivity of the tropospheric oxidants O₃ and OH to changes in CH₄, CO and NO emissions and to perturbations in climate and stratospheric chemistry. Coefficients of the form ∂1n[O₃]/∂1n[X] and ∂1n[OH]/∂1n[X], where [X] = flux of CH₄, CO, NO; stratospheric O₃ and H₂O have been calculated for a number of “chemically coherent” regions (e.g. nonpolluted continental, nonpolluted marine, urban) at low and middle latitudes. Sensitivities in O₃ and OH vary with regional emissions patterns and are nonlinear within a given region as [X] changes. In most cases increasing CH₄ and CO emissions will suppress OH (negative coefficients) and increase O₃ (positive coefficients) except in areas where NO and O₃ influenced by pollution are sufficient to increase OH. Stratospheric O₃ depletion will tend to decrease O₃ (except in high NO_x areas) and increase OH through enhanced u.v. photolysis. Increased levels of water vapor (one possible outcome of a global warming) will also decrease O₃ and increase OH. We conclude that in most regions, NO, CO and CH₄ emission increases will suppress OH and increase O₃, but these trends may be opposed by stratospheric O₃ depletion and climate change. A regional survey of OH and O₃ levels suggests that the tropics have a pivotal role in determining the earth's future oxidizing capacity.     

Towards a sustainable food production: modelling the impacts of climate change on maize and soybean production in Ghana

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The Ghanaian economy relies heavily on maize and soybean production. The entire maize and soybean production system is low-tech, making it extremely...     

Socio-economic research in support of climate policy development: Mistra's Research Program Clipore

Mistra's Climate Policy Research Program, Clipore, is one of the largest research programs directed to support international climate policy development, involving research groups in Sweden, Norway, United States and India. It has been running from 2004 to 2011 with a budget of more than 100 MSEK (15?M USD). The paper briefly describes the program and its outcomes in relation to climate policy development. Discussion focuses on how the program has been able to be in the front of and include the development of emissions trading systems in Europe and the United States and how the program has been able to follow and produce inputs to the agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The paper also discusses how the program has managed to present its outcomes and maintain an active dialogue with the various stakeholders. The paper emphasises options and obstacles in the communication between science and policy.     

Supporting the development of environmentally sustainable technologies and products: the role of innovation, informal cooperation and governmental agency

Sustainable, economic, environmental and social development will require substantial improvements in the efficiency of present environmental and resource use, which in turn will increase the focus on a broader set of environmental, economic and social linkages. These are the result of dynamic interactions, in which changes in one set of factors will impact on others, and vice versa. This paper discusses the role and potential of technology, innovation and interorganisational collaboration as strategic drivers of a renewed market-driven green development in industry, and it discusses the ways in which governments have and can nurture and support an environmentally more sustainable development.     

Reshaping sustainable development trajectory due to COVID-19 pandemic

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Humanity could face the COVID-19 epidemic to crystallize a sustainable future for the water, hygiene, and food sectors. The epidemic has affected the...     

Piggery: From environmental pollution to a climate change solution

Pig farms are a vital component of rural economies in Australia. However, disposal of effluent leads to many environmental problems. This case study of the Berrybank Farm piggery waste management system in Victoria estimates greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits from three different activities. Analysis reveals that the capturing and combusting of methane from piggery effluent could save between 4859 and 5840 tCO₂e yr^{? 1} of GHG emissions. Similarly, using methane for replacing fuels for electricity generation could save another 800 tCO₂e yr^{? 1}of GHGs. Likewise, by utilizing the biogas wastes to replace inorganic fertilizers there could be a further saving of 1193 to 1375 tCO₂e yr^{? 1} of GHG, depending on the type of fertilizers the waste replaces. Therefore, a well-managed piggery farm with 15,000 pigs could save 6,852 to 8,015 tCO₂e yr^{? 1}, which equates to the carbon sequestrated from 6,800 to 8,000 spotted gum trees (age = 35 year) in their above plus below-ground biomass. Implementation of similar project in suitable areas in Australia could have significant environmental and financial benefits.     

Access to information and sustainable development: friend or foe?

This paper calls the reader's attention to the extent to which the advancement of sustainable development depends on industry's technology development ability and on the important role assigned to governments by environmental law and policy as brokers of industrial information. It argues that the provision of indiscriminate, unrestricted access to information may hinder industry's ability to contribute to the future of sustainable development. Rather than advocating restriction of the public's right to access, the paper proposes the need to review the manner in which the government's role is carried out in the light of its potential negative impact on environmentally oriented technology development.     

Piggery: from environmental pollution to a climate change solution

Pig farms are a vital component of rural economies in Australia. However, disposal of effluent leads to many environmental problems. This case study of the Berrybank Farm piggery waste management system in Victoria estimates greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits from three different activities. Analysis reveals that the capturing and combusting of methane from piggery effluent could save between 4859 and 5840 tCO2e yr(-1) of GHG emissions. Similarly, using methane for replacing fuels for electricity generation could save another 800 tCO2e yr(-1)of GHGs. Likewise, by utilizing the biogas wastes to replace inorganic fertilizers there could be a further saving of 1193 to 1375 tCO2e yr(-1) of GHG, depending on the type of fertilizers the waste replaces. Therefore, a well-managed piggery farm with 15,000 pigs could save 6,852 to 8,015 tCO2e yr(-1), which equates to the carbon sequestrated from 6,800 to 8,000 spotted gum trees (age=35 year) in their above plus below-ground biomass. Implementation of similar project in suitable areas in Australia could have significant environmental and financial benefits.