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Paper has shaped society for centuries and is considered one of humanity's most important inventions. However, pulp and paper products can be damaging to social and natural systems along their lifecycle of material extraction, processing, transportation, and waste handling. The pulp and paper industry is among the top five most energy-intensive industries globally and is the fourth largest industrial energy user. This industry accounts for approximately 6% of global industrial energy use and 2% of direct industrial CO2 emissions. The pulp and paper industry is also the largest user of original or virgin wood, with deleterious impacts on both human health and local flora and fauna, including aquatic ecosystems. This critical and systematic review seeks to identify alternatives for mitigating the climate impacts of pulp and paper processes and products, thus making the pulp and paper industry more environmentally sustainable. This study reviews 466 studies to answer the following questions: what are the main determinants of energy and carbon emissions emerging from the pulp and paper industry? What are the benefits of this industry adopting low-carbon manufacturing processes, and what barriers will need to be tackled to enable such adoption? Using a sociotechnical lens, we answer these questions, identify barriers for the pulp and paper industry's decarbonization, and present promising avenues for future research.

Climate change is leading to the transformations in uses of land in Europe, at variable rates and types of change. Policies for mitigating climate change are directing changes in land use towards renewable energy generation, woodland expansion, management of natural capital through restoring peatlands and carbon rich soils, and changes in agricultural and land systems, collectively contributing to visions for rural areas of a wellbeing economy. However, spatial planning and suitable governance structures are required to ensure these mitigation actions require to be in places where the greatest impacts on mitigating climate change can be realised (e.g. where energy resource is significant; construction of renewable energy does not release more carbon than it could offset; planting woodland does not release more carbon than it can sequester; agricultural production systems do not increase demand on transporting water). However, such actions must ensure benefits (economic, social, environmental) remain higher than their respective costs.

It is important to classify academic papers in a fine-grained manner to uncover deeper implicit themes and semantics in papers for better semantic retrieval, paper recommendation, research trend prediction, topic analysis, and a series of other functions. Based on the ontology of the climate change domain, this study used an unsupervised approach to combine two methods, syntactic structure and semantic modeling, to build a framework of subject-indexing techniques for academic papers in the climate change domain. The framework automatically indexes a set of conceptual terms as research topics from the domain ontology by inputting the titles, abstracts and keywords of the papers using natural language processing techniques such as syntactic dependencies, text similarity calculation, pre-trained language models, semantic similarity calculation, and weighting factors such as word frequency statistics and graph path calculation. Finally, we evaluated the proposed method using the gold standard of manually annotated articles and demonstrated significant improvements over the other five alternative methods in terms of precision, recall and F1-score. Overall, the method proposed in this study is able to identify the research topics of academic papers more accurately, and also provides useful references for the application of domain ontologies and unsupervised data annotation.

This Position Paper written by the Multi-Actor Platform Climate-Friendly Village(CFV) is focused on finding the causes and possibilities of changes at the level of municipalities, regions and states in landscape management in the Czech Republic.

The EU and its member states face the challenge of accelerating the transition to climate neutrality and negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in increasingly turbulent times. But the challenge of governing the climate and energy transition goes far beyond phasing out GHG emissions. Given the urgency, dynamism, complexity, contentiousness, and long-term, cross-cutting nature of the “super wicked” climate challenge, the governance of the climate transition requires sustained, comprehensive, and integrated efforts across all relevant policy fields and the whole of society. To this end, the EU needs to devise political processes, structures and institutions that empower democratic political systems in Europe to effectively respond to the climate challenge (hereinafter referred to as the EU’s “climate governance framework”). In this paper, we identify key options for enhancing the EU’s evolving climate governance framework to this end. Building on the latest scientific knowledge of relevant best practice in Europe and elsewhere, as for example reflected and acknowledged in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2022b), we review the EU’s existing climate governance framework and identify EU-level policy options for further enhancing it across the Union and its member states, while paying particular attention to key interactions, synergies. and tensions between individual governance elements.

TheMulti-Actor Platform Climate proof ruralities'position paper reflects the results of three regional MAP dialogues for North Limburg, the Achterhoek, and of interviews and literature review for the region of Schouwen-Duiveland. Within the SHERPA topic of ‘Land use in the context of Climate Change’, thisMAP has focussed on the topic of climate adaptation within an area-oriented approach. This topic and the role of rural areas is less covered by the Long-term Vision for Rural areas of the European Commission (EC) and the national Network of Large Rural Municipalities (P10)wants to highlight the contribution rural areas make to the climate challenges. In this document, the MAP pints outpolicy and research recommendations on how the European Commission can support areas to be able to undertake choices that fit with societal challenges at the same time as the ambitions and identity of the area.

This position paper summarises the results from the work carried out in the third MAP (Multi-Actor Platform) Cycle by three MAPs in Tuscany (Italy). The reason for selecting ‘Sustainable value chains’ as a topic in all three MAPs is the strong interest in, and/or long experience of, this topic by the MAPs members. This position paper is based on desk-based research carried out by the MAPs’ monitor and facilitator, as well as on stakeholder engagement activities carried out in the MAPs.

This position paper summarises the results from the work carried out in the third MAP (Multi-Actor Platform) Cycle by three MAPs in Tuscany (Italy). The reason for selecting ‘Sustainable value chains’ as a topic in all three MAPs is the strong interest in, and/or long experience of, this topic by the MAPs members. This position paper is based on desk-based research carried out by the MAPs’ monitor and facilitator, as well as on stakeholder engagement activities carried out in the MAPs.

This position paper is the results of the work carried out by the DanishMulti-Actor Platform, which reflected onthe issue of land use in the light of climate change. In this position paper, the members of the MAP, from different backgrounds,wish to jointly highlight a number of important themes and key messages in relation to land use in Denmark, which politicians, civil servants, planners and local developers, amongst others, should take on board and act upon to the greatest possible extent in order to support and promote a green and sustainable transition, in which land use is central.Four themes have been highlighted in the document: renewable energy, food production and lowland set-aside, land ownership, and public governance and stakeholder consultation.

Meeting the demand for STEAM skills in the job market is considered a priority in the European Union. The concerns related to the supply of STEAM skills rely on the educational offers from secondary schools and the propensity of pupils to follow a scientific course of study at the university level. Across Europe, every country is responsible for the definition and development of its methodological approach to enhance the teaching and learning of STEAM subjects. Because of its inspirational power, space can play a relevant role in attracting the young generation towards STEAM disciplines. Multiple projects have been developed at the European level to facilitate the familiarisation of pupils with STEAM topics by using space in combination with crucial challenges, such as climate change. An example of a project with such an objective is the Erasmus+ "GIS4Schools". The project aims to improve STEAM learning paths in secondary schools, by promoting an innovative approach to the teaching of scientific subjects, while introducing the teaching of GIS and EO applied to the topic of climate change. This paper is conceived as a follow-up of last year's introduction to the GIS4Schools project to the global audience of the IAC. Leveraging in-depth interviews with the schools involved in the project and the data collected through the Digital Diaries, the paper provides an analysis of the skills acquired by the pupils in the first half of GIS4Schools. In particular, the analysis helps to understand if the GIS4Schools products, as the Training Handbook and the use cases developed by each school, can constitute an autonomous teaching module to be integrated into existing teaching curricula. By retracing the latest developments of the GIS4Schools project, the paper presents the project as a case study for the development of future initiatives on the topic.

This Position Paper provides a consiçolidated overview of challenges and recommendations emerged by the discussions of the Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) PACA Sud's members on land use and climate change. The aim of this document is to re-specify and prioritise the main issues of climate change for the rural territories of the Southern region.

Climate change poses challenges to land use that cumulate with other non-climate related challenges, such as population growth, increasing demand on limited resources by diverse actors, and land degradation. Moreover, improper land-use management and unsustainable urban development can intensify hazards including flooding and heat stress, hence intensifying the exposure of communities to such hazards. In this Position Paper, the HungarianMulti-Actor Platform Land-use planning for climate neutrality gathersome recommendations for future rural policies.&nbsp

This Position Paper provides a consolidated overview of challenges and recommendations emerged by the discussions of Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) Alqueva’s members on land use and climate change.In the Alqueva region, this theme is one of the most important and current issues affecting the region. The reason for this is the vast land use change that happened in the region over the last 25 years. Where before the main land use was cereal production and pastures, nowadays land use has shifted to irrigated crops (such as olive groves, almond orchards and irrigated arable crops)over a surface of 120.000 ha. Change in land use impacted the society and region in various aspects, but one aspect that is crucial to bring to the discussing is climate change and how it can affect the current land use of the region. In addition, another burning question is what the region can do to mitigate and adapt to the reality of climate change.

Tackling climate change and striving for environmental sustainability cross almost all aspects of the lives of citizens, and over multiple generations as individuals take on different responsibilities through their life course. The transitions required to achieve net zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 requires all citizens to be agents of change, including rural citizens. SHERPA Position Paper on Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability aims tocontributesto the process of making Europe - and rural areas within the European continent- climate neutral.Through a concerted discussion of different Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MAPs), SHERPA gathered evidence of the types of transformational changes which are necessary to transition in an effective and just manner to climate neutrality by 2050.

This position paper is the results of the work carried out by theItalian Multi-Actor Platform of the Emilia-Romagna region.The documentidentifies few priorities for what concerns land use and water management, and provides specific recommendations to policy and research in regards to the challenges this region face.&nbsp

The Czech Multi-Actor Platform VENUS is aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change through offering systemic support for the implementation of energy saving measures, triggering more economical use of energy sources and increasing the share of sustainable energy in the region. This document identifies thechallenges Local Actor Groupsface when implementing energy communities’ projects and provides principles of community energy to ensure their operationality.

The SHERPA process supports the collection of scientific and practice evidence, at multiple levels, regarding climate change and land use management. It provides an overview of the key themes relating to tackling climate change, and the associated roles of land use in rural areas of Europe. The evidence shows that significant and rapid action is required to restrict the magnitude of global warming. The target of keeping global warming to below 2ºC is only possible if all conditional and unconditional pledges made before the COP26 (Glasgow, November 2021) are implemented in full and on time. Transitions in land uses, with greater investments in natural capital and associated changes in land management practices, and public attitudes and behaviours, will be essential if policy objectives of reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), coupled with reversing the loss of biodiversity and protecting human rights.

There are 500,000 pre-1919 masonry buildings in Scotland, and they are under increasingly significant strain due to climate change. This report, in partnership with HES, the University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, explores different 3D surveying techniques and presents data processing solutions for both segmenting 3D point clouds and detecting and classifying visible defects of masonry walls.

FACCE-JPI first addressed urban agriculture through the “Exploratory Workshop on Urban Agriculture and Adaptation to Climate Change” described in the FACCE-JPI 2018-2020 Implementation Plan under Core Theme 4 (Exploratory Workshops on Urban Agriculture). At the time, this action was identified to explore the opportunities urban agriculture can offer in the challenge to provide healthy, nutritious and sufficient food for a growing population under the aspect of climate change.A first workshop in January 2020 in Wageningen brought together a broad selection of stakeholders and experts (academics, industry, policymakers, funders, retailers, land & urban planners etc.). Together they discussed what urban agriculture could offer, the main challenges and the type of instruments needed to strengthen its role e.g. through FACCE-JPI.To continue the work on this topic, a follow-up meeting took place on June 14th 2021 bringing together a similarly diverse but smaller audience to further address the recommendations and outcomes from the 2020 workshop. Specifically, the participants addressed the definition of the policy environment around urban agriculture attempted to identify the place of urban agriculturewithin FACCE-JPI remit, Strategic Research Agenda and Implementation Plan, and provided input on external activities such as Horizon Europe partnerships with a potential relevance for the area. Following the expert meeting, the FACCE-JPI Secretariat has prepared this white paper connecting the outcomes from the workshop and a JRC report with FACCE-JPI in order to aid decision-making for the Governing Board.

FACCE-JPI first addressed urban agriculture through the “Exploratory Workshop on Urban Agriculture and Adaptation to Climate Change” described in the FACCE-JPI 2018-2020 Implementation Plan under Core Theme 4 (Exploratory Workshops on Urban Agriculture). At the time, this action was identified to explore the opportunities urban agriculture can offer in the challenge to provide healthy, nutritious and sufficient food for a growing population under the aspect of climate change.A first workshop in January 2020 in Wageningen brought together a broad selection of stakeholders and experts (academics, industry, policymakers, funders, retailers, land & urban planners etc.). Together they discussed what urban agriculture could offer, the main challenges and the type of instruments needed to strengthen its role e.g. through FACCE-JPI.To continue the work on this topic, a follow-up meeting took place on June 14th 2021 bringing together a similarly diverse but smaller audience to further address the recommendations and outcomes from the 2020 workshop. Specifically, the participants addressed the definition of the policy environment around urban agriculture attempted to identify the place of urban agriculturewithin FACCE-JPI remit, Strategic Research Agenda and Implementation Plan, and provided input on external activities such as Horizon Europe partnerships with a potential relevance for the area. Following the expert meeting, the FACCE-JPI Secretariat has prepared this white paper connecting the outcomes from the workshop and a JRC report with FACCE-JPI in order to aid decision-making for the Governing Board.

Accounting for almost half of global gross domestic product and 70 percent of the world’s population, middle-income countries (MICs) face multiple development challenges limiting achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty and inclusion, climate change, financial access, and economic diversification and market development. The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) portfolio is focused heavily on MICs. Additionality is the unique support that IFC brings to a private client or client country that is not typically offered by commercial sources of finance (IFC 2019). This evaluation assesses the unique support and value addition (additionality) that the International Finance Corporation (IFC) provides to middle-income countries (MICs). It will cover IFC’s support of MICs through investment and advisory projects, and through its platforms and partnerships. The primary audience is the World Bank Group Board and IFC management and staff, however some findings of the evaluation will be relevant to a broader audience including multilateral and bilateral financing private sector activities, investors, and government officials and practitioners in client countries.

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (hereafter, the World Heritage Convention). This year is a time to celebrate achievements and reflect on the success of the Convention’s goals and the challenges that lie ahead. Of the many challenges, climate change has become “the most prevalent threat” to natural World Heritage sites and the greatest future threat. Climate change is also recognized as an increasing threat to cultural heritage. This Discussion Paper considers how the World Heritage Convention’s ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’ could be used more effectively for managing sites threatened by climate change or where climate change has already caused significant degradation. The purpose of the paper is to stimulate ideas and discussion to help further develop and finalise the draft Policy Document on climate action for World Heritage which is due to be adopted by the General Assembly of State Parties to the Convention in 2023.

This compendium consists of four papers following the major themes covered in the working paper series and draws heavily upon them for much of the empirical content. The report was prepared to reach a broad audience of practitioners involved with or interested in China’s agriculture trajectory, especially its interfaces with the environment. An abridged synthesis and a policy note, primarily targeting Chinese program managers and policymakers, respectively, have also been prepared. The policy note provides a brief synopsis of major findings from the study program and a set of recommendations for strengthening ongoing initiatives supporting China’s green agricultural modernization. The coverage and major findings of the compendium papers are as follows: restoring and managing agricultural ecosystems as climate changes; deepening pollution prevention and control on China’s farms; and investing in technology, innovation, and institutions; reforming agricultural policy, institutions, and public expenditures.

Peace and security are basic conditions for economic and social development. Conflict, on the other hand, can reverse years of economic growth and induce long-term harm on almost all aspects of development. For the past decade, the Lake Chad region has been the setting of conflicts between government forces and armed groups, most notably the Boko Haram. Although the intensity of fighting has petered off in recent years, the conflict has spread from Northern Nigeria and now affects all four countries of the region. Due to the paramount importance of avoiding armed conflict, a large economic literature exists that seeks to find explanations for the onset and prevalence of conflict in developing countries. Blattman and Miguel [2010] list some of the most common theories of conflict including competition for resources, economic grievances, and the possibility of looting. This paper attempts to shed light on the geographical distribution of conflict and its climatic determinants in the Lake Chad region following a sub-national approach where readily available spatial data is employed at two different units of aggregation: Firstly, 90 second level administrative areas, and secondly, around 5,318 grid cells covering the same region. Exposure to conflict is here defined as the intensity (for districts) or incidence (for cells) of conflict in a given unit each year. Parts of the population may not be directly exposed by this definition, but since the units of analysis are relatively small, most will be affected in some ways, for instance by safety concerns when visiting the nearest towns to trade or by the general economic consequences.

This White Paper addresses this imbalance by proposing a paradigm shift - a new approach to valuing natural capital and to enabling its incorporation in the economic system. This document is a synthesis of a longer background report under preparation by the Nature- Based Economy Working Group of Task Force III of the European Commission. The recommendations of this document will be debated at a high level policy dialogue at the end of June 20211 following which they will be shared as part of an open consultation process running until mid September 2021. The outcome of this process will form the basis for an EC Expert Publication on the Nature-based Economy to be launched at the European Business Summit in November 2021. The recommendations of this White Paper provide a basis for dialogue with policy makers, at all levels of government and across all fields of policy implementation, and with wider stakeholders in business, society and the innovation ecosystem on the changes needed to shift towards a Nature-based Economy. It particularly aims at stimulating valuable cross-sectoral policy discussions between policy makers responsible for climate change and biodiversity policy and those responsible for sustainable economic growth policies within the context of rapidly depleting stocks of natural capital.

A seismic stratigraphic framework and basin fill geohistory for Arctic Ocean basins is presented based on data collected by several Russian Government organized expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. This analysis tied together seismic stratigraphic interpretations for the shelf and the deep-water part of the ocean. The stratigraphic framework is based on age data derived from linear magnetic anomalies in the Eurasia Basin, borehole data for the Lomonosov Ridge and Alaska Shelf, and correlations with various regional geological events. Six seismic boundaries were identified and traced regionally over large areas. We present as a hypothesis that the Arctic Ocean probably was formed during four phases with different kinematics: 133-125 Ma – Canada Basin opening, 125-80 Ma – superplume-related tectonics and magmatism in the Alpha-Mendeleev Rise area and adjacent basins, 80-56 Ma - strike-slip fault tectonics, and 56-0 Ma – Eurasia Basin opening. The time interval of 45-20 Ma appears to be a period of large-scale vertical intraplate movements and normal faulting. Climatic events are recorded in the sedimentary cover of the Arctic Ocean. The analyses were based on a comprehensive dataset that included more than 23,000 km of 2D seismic lines, which were acquired in the deep-water part of the ocean, supplemented by a large number of federal and commercial seismic lines, which were acquired for the Russian shelves during the past 10-15 years. In addition, special multiple Russian expeditions collected samples on scarps of the Mendeleev Rise that served as ground truth for the seismic interpretation.

A seismic stratigraphic framework and basin fill geohistory for Arctic Ocean basins is presented based on data collected by several Russian Government organized expeditions to the Arctic Ocean. This analysis tied together seismic stratigraphic interpretations for the shelf and the deep-water part of the ocean. The stratigraphic framework is based on age data derived from linear magnetic anomalies in the Eurasia Basin, borehole data for the Lomonosov Ridge and Alaska Shelf, and correlations with various regional geological events. Six seismic boundaries were identified and traced regionally over large areas. We present as a hypothesis that the Arctic Ocean probably was formed during four phases with different kinematics: 133-125 Ma – Canada Basin opening, 125-80 Ma – superplume-related tectonics and magmatism in the Alpha-Mendeleev Rise area and adjacent basins, 80-56 Ma - strike-slip fault tectonics, and 56-0 Ma – Eurasia Basin opening. The time interval of 45-20 Ma appears to be a period of large-scale vertical intraplate movements and normal faulting. Climatic events are recorded in the sedimentary cover of the Arctic Ocean. The analyses were based on a comprehensive dataset that included more than 23,000 km of 2D seismic lines, which were acquired in the deep-water part of the ocean, supplemented by a large number of federal and commercial seismic lines, which were acquired for the Russian shelves during the past 10-15 years. In addition, special multiple Russian expeditions collected samples on scarps of the Mendeleev Rise that served as ground truth for the seismic interpretation.

We present an atlas of paleogeographic and paleotectonic maps which documents major events in the Arctic for 0–157 Ma. We demonstrate that the Mendeleev Ridge has a continental basement. The following chronology of events in the history of the Arctic Ocean is proposed: (1) Jurassic: continental rifting in the area of the Sverdrup-Banks basins and in the area of the present-day Canada Basin; a system of continental-margin volcanic belts formed in the region of Chukotka and the Verkhoyansk-Omolon; (2) Berriasian-Barremian: formation of the continental-margin Verkhoyansk-Chukotka Orogen; fast opening of Canada Basin (~133–125 Ma); (3) Aptian-Albian: formation of continental igneous provinces, rifting and magmatism in the area of the Alpha-Mendeleev ridges; rifting in the Ust’-Lena, Anisin, North-Chukchi, Podvodnikov and Toll basins; (4) Cenomanian-Campanian: intraplate magmatism in the area of the Alpha-Mendeleev ridges; (5) Campanian-Maastrichtian: a likely start of compressional deformations in the area of the Chukchi Sea; (6) Paleocene: formation of the continental-margin orogen; continental rifting along the present-day Eurasia Basin and the Ust’-Lena Basin; (7) Early-Middle Eocene: onset of opening of the Eurasia Basin started; (8) Middle-Late Eocene: a major restructuring of paleogeography of the Arctic took place at ca. 45 Ma with subaerial emergence of the Barents and Kara Sea shelves and onset of ultra-slow spreading of the Gakkel Ridge, and start of the epoch of formation of normal and strike-slip faults on the Lomonosov and Alpha-Mendeleev ridges and on the shelves of the Chukchi and East Siberian seas. Paleoclimate is discussed in connection with changes in the paleogeography.

This paper synthesizes a set of national case studies conducted in the Sahelian countries during 2019-2020 as a collaboration between national universities and research institutes, and the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, with contributions from the Agrhymet Regional Centre, Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). These case studies provide up-to-date knowledge and critical insights on the nexus of land degradation, climate change and energy in the Sahel. The current synthesis paper highlights their major findings and provides crosscutting and cross-regional analytical conclusions. First, the synthesis paper explores current trends in the Sahel region on land use and land degradation, energy use and supply, climate change projections and impacts, as well as their interactions and links to agricultural growth, food security, poverty reduction, and peace in the region. Second, technological, socio-economic and policy solutions at the nexus of land, water, energy and climate challenges that enable environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive rural development in the Sahel are discussed, including their interactions and implications for peace and stability in the region. The findings show that such socio-economic solutions as improving access to markets, strengthening social safety nets, increasing investments to transport and energy infrastructures, promoting land tenure security, expanding off-farm employment opportunities can greatly contribute to rural development in the Sahel, particularly by aiding climate change resilience and sustainable land management. Key technological innovations highlighted across the case studies include expanding irrigation and adopting water use efficient irrigation techniques, crop diversification, expanding agricultural mechanization, investing into restoring and rehabilitating degraded lands through reforestation, afforestation and agroforestry practices. The key lessons learnt from ongoing national policy initiatives for sustainable development highlight the importance of active stakeholder consultation and participation in policy formulation, institution of effective policy monitoring and assessment mechanisms, and avoiding of excessive reliance on external sources of funding for the successful implementation of sustainable development policies and programs. Based on these findings, the synthesis paper proposes an agenda for applied research to provide guidance to and accompany promising development strategies in and for the region.

But, according to the authors, understanding pathogen history and evolution holds the key to saving technological humanity from the onslaught of those many EIDs that have yet to explore the immense opportunity space that climate change and human civilization have provided them with By taking us on a whirlwind tour through the history of such diverse topics as evolutionary biology, the history of vaccines, past pandemics, and climate change, Brooks, Hoberg, and Boeger dismantle our preconceived notions about host-pathogen co-evolution, they explain how we got into the current mess, as they aptly call it, and propose a possible way to get out of it before it is too late Daniel R Brooks, Eric P Hoberg, Walter A Boeger, The Stockholm Paradigm: Climate Change and Emerging Disease [Extracted from the article] Copyright of History & Philosophy of the Life Sciences is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

This background paper discusses the situation of education in Rwanda, and the possibility of education to enhance sustainable development in Rwanda. It addresses key opportunities and challenges for different levels and forms of education to achieve sustainable development and identifies gaps that should be addressed so that education becomes a catalyst for the achievement of sustainable development in Rwanda. Further, this paper will guide potential bidders for calls for proposals to understand the TESF Network’s key research questions in the context of Rwanda as well as provide baseline synthesis of existing knowledge gaps with respect to the goals of the TESF Network Plus. This background paper will evoke transformative approaches of addressing the learning crisis that impedes the potential of education to be a catalyst to sustainable development.

Climate change, environmental pollution control, and resource utilization efficiency, as well as food security, sustainable agriculture, and water supply are among the main challenges facing society today. Expertise across different academic fields, technologies, and disciplines is needed to generate new ideas to meet these challenges. This white paper aims to provide a written summary by describing the main aspects and possibilities of the technology. It shows that plasma science and technology can make significant contributions to address the mentioned issues. The paper also addresses to people in the scientific community (inside and outside plasma science) to give inspiration for further work in these fields.

Purpose of Review In this article, we review existing research addressing how environmental regulations have influenced the pulp and paper industry. These regulations appear in different forms and designs and address air and water pollution as well as climate change. The paper devotes particular attention to how various regulations have affected sustainable technological change and the prospects for inducing deep emission reductions without jeopardizing industrial competitiveness and future investments. Recent Findings Experiences from key pulp and paper regions, not least the Nordic countries, suggest that gradually tightening performance standards have contributed to radical reductions in emissions, e.g., chlorine compounds and biological oxygen demanding agents, and without imposing excessive compliance costs. This outcome can largely be attributed to how the regulations have been designed—and implemented—in practice, as well as to the presence of efficient and legitimate institutions. Long-term emission reduction targets, in combination with extended compliance periods and trustful firm-regulator relationships, contributed to radical technological innovation and permitted radical emission reductions without excessive compliance costs. The development of alternative bleaching technologies is an apt example. In contrast, the impact of carbon pricing schemes, including the EU emissions trading scheme, on carbon dioxide emissions reductions and related technological change in the pulp and paper industry has however been modest. Self-regulation, certification, and community pressure have exerted relatively modest influences on the environmental performance of the industry. Summary Important avenues for future research are identified. These include the following: (a) comparative research on how policy mixes in various countries have influenced environmental compliance and innovation; processes; (b) future studies of environmental regulations, their design and implementation, in emerging pulp and paper producing countries, not least China; and (c) research on how environmental regulations can affect ongoing restructurings in the industry towards a broader palette of products in biorefineries.

The paper highlights some of the key concerns across the sectors of school, higher and teacher education. A few potential research themes that can help problematise the issues raised have been identified. An emphasis is laid on the need to build on practice-based repositories of knowledge, curricular framing and pedagogic strategies. Examining the contours of and potential for ESD includes: addressing questions of environmental, social, economic and epistemic justice in school and higher education contexts; exploring linkages between ESD and climate change education, education on sustainable cities and communities and identifying novel methods of wider public engagement and social education.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) provides essential information for understanding the extent of the world’s forest resources, their condition, management and uses. Data collected through the FRA reporting process are used to assess progress towards globally agreed targets and inform policy and decisions by governments, civil society and the private sector. Therefore, concepts, definitions and methods developed for the FRA have broad influence beyond the FRA and must be carefully developed to ensure they can be implemented consistently by as many countries as possible, to provide comparable global information. One such concept is the area of ‘primary forest’. The FRA requires countries and territories to report on the extent of their forests and defines several different types of forests for countries to report on. “Primary forest” is defined as “Naturally regenerated forest of native tree species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed”. Accurate and consistent global reporting on the extent of primary forests is crucial. The FAO’s definition for primary forest has appeared in trade-related instruments, such as procurement policies and wood fuel regulations, and inconsistent reporting could lead to non-tariff trade barriers. In addition, accurate and consistent reporting is essential to assess progress towards global objectives such as the Aichi Biodiversity Target 5 forest-related goals and target proposed in the zero draft of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, Sustainable Development Goal 15 and the Global Forest Goals of the United Nations Strategic Plan for Forests 2017-2030. While the definition of primary forest may be broadly accepted, consistently measuring the actual area of primary forest among countries has proven to be challenging. Studies have shown considerable variation in how countries apply the definition in their own circumstances, which raises questions about the comparability of the data among countries and its applicability for informing policy and decisions. In addition, other recent studies have suggested new methods to assess the area of primary forest, might be broadly applicable among many countries. Although data collection efforts for the FRA 2020 have already been completed, the FAO’s newly established online data collection and reporting system will enable countries to update their data more frequently. As the FAO moves towards more frequent reporting to better meet the demands of other global reporting commitments, there is a pressing need to increase consistency in data collection requirements and schedules for primary forest in order to enhance comparability of forest statistics among countries. Therefore, the FAO has aims to bring together national correspondents and other experts through a series of workshops to improve the operational methods for data collection and reporting on the extent of primary forests. The goal of these workshops is to increase the consistency of data collection requirements and schedules as well as enhancing the comparability among countries for estimates of the extent of primary forests.

First paragraph: Earlier this winter, the Alaska cod fishery—once considered robust and resilient—was closed for the entire 2020 season. It has been a blow to coastal communities’ economies and ways of life, and to the food supply chain North America has depended on for much of its cod. The reality is that fisheries around the world are being dramatically affected by overconsumption, overfishing, and climate change. Consumers are flocking to nutritious sources of ocean-based proteins, from top-of-the-food-chain tuna to secondary and tertiary species and even bycatch. But what are the consequences of this trend? As with many aspects of the food system, we must find a balance between our personal health and well-being and the interests of the planet. Finding this homeostasis is the mission of a growing number of food systems researchers and practitioners, and this is a welcome addition to the good food movement. As depicted on our cover, the state of Rhode Island’s Seafood Marketing Collaborative may provide an example of a practical way forward in finding this balance. . . .

A better understanding of greenhouse gas surface sources and sinks is required in order to address the global challenge of climate change. Spaceborne remote estimations of greenhouse gas atmospheric concentrations can offer the global coverage that is necessary to improve the constraint on their fluxes, thus enabling a better monitoring of anthropogenic emissions. In this work, we introduce the Adaptable 4A Inversion (5AI) inverse scheme that aims to retrieve geophysical parameters from any remote sensing observation. The algorithm is based on Bayesian optimal estimation relying on the Operational version of the Automatized Atmospheric Absorption Atlas (4A/OP) radiative transfer forward model along with the Gestion et Étude des Informations Spectroscopiques Atmosphériques: Management and Study of Atmospheric Spectroscopic Information (GEISA) spectroscopic database. Here, the 5AI scheme is applied to retrieve the column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of carbon dioxide (XCO2) from measurements performed by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission, and uses an empirically corrected absorption continuum in the O2 A-band. For airmasses below 3.0, XCO2 retrievals successfully capture the latitudinal variations of CO2, as well as its seasonal cycle and long-term increasing trend. Comparison with ground-based observations from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) yields a difference of 1.33 ± 1.29 ppm, which is similar to the standard deviation of the Atmospheric CO2 Observations from Space (ACOS) official products. We show that the systematic differences between 5AI and ACOS results can be fully removed by adding an average calculated – observed spectral residual correction to OCO-2 measurements, thus underlying the critical sensitivity of retrieval results to forward modelling. These comparisons show the reliability of 5AI as a Bayesian optimal estimation implementation that is easily adaptable to any instrument designed to retrieve column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of greenhouse gases. This work has received funding from CNES and CNRS.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the national health systems of Canada and Brazil and how both countries have addressed similar challenges in their primary care sectors. COMPOSITION OF THE COMMITTEE: A subgroup of the Besrour Centre of the College of Family Physicians of Canada developed connections with colleagues in Brazil and collaborated to undertake a between-country comparison, comparing and contrasting various elements of both countries’ efforts to strengthen primary care over the past few decades. METHODS: Following a literature review, the authors collectively reflected on their experiences in an attempt to explore the past and current state of family medicine in Canada and Brazil. REPORT: The Brazilian and Canadian primary care systems are faced with similar challenges, including geography, demographic changes, population health inequities, and gaps in universal access to comprehensive primary care services. Although the approaches to addressing these challenges are different in both settings, they highlight the central importance of family physicians in both systems. Both countries continue to face considerable challenges in the context of mental health services in primary care. It remains important for Canada to draw lessons from the primary care systems and reforms of other countries, such as Brazil.

International audience; Scenario analysis constitutes a useful approach to synthesize knowledge and derive hypotheses in the case of complex systems that are documented with mainly qualitative or very diverse information. In this article, a framework for scenario analysis is designed and then, applied to global wheat health within a timeframe from today to 2050. Scenario analysis entails the choice of settings, the definition of scenarios of change, and the analysis of outcomes of these scenarios in the chosen settings. Three idealized agrosystems, representing a large fraction of the global diversity of wheat-based agrosystems, are considered, which represent the settings of the analysis. Several components of global changes are considered in their consequences on global wheat health: climate change and climate variability, nitrogen fertilizer use, tillage, crop rotation, pesticide use, and the deployment of host plant resistances. Each idealized agrosystem is associated with a scenario of change that considers first, a production situation and its dynamics, and second, the impacts of the evolving production situation on the evolution of crop health. Crop health is represented by six functional groups of wheat pathogens: the pathogens associated with Fusarium head blight; biotrophic fungi, Septoria-like fungi, necrotrophic fungi, soilborne pathogens, and insect-transmitted viruses. The analysis of scenario outcomes is conducted along a risk-analytical pattern, which involves risk probabilities represented by categorized probability levels of disease epidemics, and risk magnitudes represented by categorized levels of crop losses resulting from these levels of epidemics within each production situation. The results from this scenario analysis suggest an overall increase of risk probabilities and magnitudes in the three idealized agrosystems. Changes in risk probability or magnitude however vary with the agrosystem and the functional groups of pathogens. We discuss the effects of global changes on the six functional groups, in terms of their epidemiology and of the crop losses they cause. Scenario analysis enables qualitative analysis of complex systems, such as plant pathosystems that are evolving in response to global changes, including climate change and technology shifts. It also provides a useful framework for quantitative simulation modeling analysis for plant disease epidemiology.

Climate change and the ever growing frequency of natural disasters and extreme weather conditions are issues of high interest in present times and are considered to be one of the biggest threats facing mankind. These prevalent issues associated with environmental risks can eminently cause implications towards corporations, not least when the frequency and intensity can impact their operations and finances. Recent happenings confine with the increased importance and urgency to address matters of environmental concerns, not least when advocates fear that mankind is heading into uncharted territories, when the affect towards corporations and society are unknown. Subsequently, the increased stressed conditions related to our environment are thought to elevate the magnitude and severity of environmental risks that can result in economic havoc. This calls for a great understandings of environmental risks and their potential impact on corporations, thus it was of essence to detect which environmental risks that permeate the business environment, identify risks highlighted by the chosen corporations and elucidate potential mitigation strategies towards addressing these risks. With this stated, it is of value to consider environmental risks in light of corporate strategies to help overcome the risk of economic loss. The objective and focus of this study was to identify what environmental risks that are identified by large Swedish corporations within the pulp and paper industry. More specifically, attend to the different environmental risks and mitigation strategies in terms of addressing prominent risks that can affect corporate finances. Further the aim was to see if the corporations perceive the natural environment as a stakeholder or what drivers initially influence them to adhere to environmental interests, this influenced by the stakeholder theory. An additional objective was to see if any differences existed between the risks placed ´on the agenda´ by the media for the given industry and the specific corporate risk identification. This objective was derived from the agenda-setting theory. In order to meet these objectives, annual reports, other relevant sources and publications of the largest corporations within the pulp and paper industry in Sweden were examined. This in order to acquire the information of necessity to answer the stated research question: What environmental risks do large corporations within the Swedish pulp and paper industry identify and how are these managed, and what stakeholders influence the corporations to adhere to the natural environment? The findings revealed evidence that corporations placed emphasis on presenting environmental risks and different mitigation strategies to prevent the chance of financial loss. The most apparent risks that were found constituted of: raw material risks, production risk, climate change, facility risk, forest risk, restoration cost risk and insect/animal pest risk. Further, we found similarities between the risks acquired from corporate data and the elucidated risks for the pulp and paper industry prevalent in media. Subsequently, it was found that only one corporation chose to explicitly state the natural environment as a stakeholder, though other key drivers towards influencing the corporations towards adhering to environmental concerns were found, key drivers such as: inputs by internal and external stakeholders through substantiality analysis, different laws, policies and regulations, trend spotting, their own perceived social responsibility and also through pressure by media. Key words: Environmental risks, risk management, pulp and paper industry, stakeholder, climate change, environmental management systems, agenda-setting theory, stakeholder theory.

This article introduces a bottom-up global model of the pulp and paper sector (PULPSIM) with a focus on energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is an annual recursive simulation behavioural model with a 2030 time horizon incorporating several technological details of the industry for 47 world regions. The long time horizon and the modular structure allow the model users to assess the effects of different environmental, energy and climate policies in a scenario comparison setup. In addition to the business as usual developments of the sector, a climate commitment scenario has been analysed, in which the impacts of changing forest management practices are also included. The climate scenario results reveal that there is a significant carbon reduction potential in the pulp and paper making, showing a number of specific features: the central role of the fibrous resource inputs and the potential impact of increased waste wood and black liquor based heat generation.

This is a paper delivered to a forum organised by the Royal Society of NSW (in conjunction with the four academies) titled "The future of rationality in a post-truth world." The world faces an existential threat from climate change and the transition to clean, renewable energy is front and centre of global hopes for avoiding some of the worst forecasts. Today, Australia has no peak national body or commission for climate change. Yet thanks to the efforts of four cross bench politicians whose votes were courted by an appeasing government, we have a Commissioner for Wind Farms. The National Health and Medical Research Council has no dedicated program of research focussed on climate change, but it has a dedicated research program on wind farm disease. Some 25 reviews published since 2003 have concluded that there is very weak evidence for any direct effects on health of wind turbine exposure, but good evidence of small numbers in some exposed communities being “worried sick”. My presentation will discuss psychogenic illness and wind farms and the effort of their opponents to spread scientific claptrap. These efforts have seen 3 Senate and 2 state parliamentary enquiries in 5 years to what is a non-disease and retarded Australia’s embrace of wind energy while many nations have greatly accelerated their roll-out.

A alta concentração de gases de efeito estufa está provocando mudanças climáticas com forte impacto, inclusive no ambiente competitivo das empresas. Assim, algumas empresas já estão adotando práticas e estratégias climáticas em função não somente das legislações restritivas ao carbono, mas também para assegurarem sua vantagem competitiva. Contudo, há uma escassez de ferramentas gerenciais para avaliar o quanto tais práticas e estratégias são adequadas a esse novo contexto. Este artigo apresenta um modelo conceitual desenvolvido com base em benchmarks (melhores práticas) internacionais, para auxiliar as empresas na avaliação das suas práticas e estratégias climáticas, e mostra como o modelo foi aplicado no Brasil em dois setores representativos de sua economia: o automotivo e o de papel e celulose. Identifica as práticas e estratégias climáticas que precisam ser melhoradas nesses setores, quando comparadas com as internacionais. Na aplicação do modelo, foram testadas cinco hipóteses referentes às principais variáveis do modelo proposto. Para tanto, realizaram-se testes estatísticos: teste t-student, para comparação com as práticas internacionais, e teste não paramétrico Kruskal-Wallis, para verificar diferenças entre as médias dos dois setores investigados. Com base nos resultados, são feitas recomendações para futuras pesquisas e para outras empresas preocupadas em adotar práticas e estratégias climáticas eficazes.The high concentration of green house gases is causing climate changes that have a strong impact on the competitiveness of firms. Some businesses are adopting environmental practices and strategies not only because of carbon restrictive regulations, but also to ensure their competitive advantage. However, there is a lack of adequate managerial tools to evaluate the effectiveness of these practices and strategies. This article presents a conceptual model based on international benchmarks, developed to help firms assess their environmental practices and strategies. It shows how the model was applied in Brazil in two representative sectors of the its economy: automotive and pulp & paper sectors. It also identifies the environmental practices and strategies that should be improved by these firms, when compared to international benchmarks. In the scope of the model's application, five hypotheses related to its main variables were tested statistically. The t-student test was carried out to compare the firms' practices to international benchmarks, while the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was used to check differences between the averages of the two sectors under investigation. Based on the results, recommendations are made both for future research and for other firms concerned with adopting efficient environmental practices and strategies.

Natural pozzolans are defined as either raw (volcanic material, limestone) or calcined natural materials (burnt shale, calcined kaolinite) with pozzolanic properties. Historically, they are among the oldest materials that have been used in combination with lime for construction purposes. For example, Santorin earth is a natural pozzolan from a volcanic eruption around 1500 BCE on an island of the same name in Greece. Over the last decades, research into cement matrices has been changing direction, owing to deeper environmental concerns over the impact of the cement industry and its consequences for climate change. Global environmental policies are increasingly strict, prioritizing the re-use rather than the disposal of industrial wastes. In this context, one of the biggest challenges is the search for strategies that promote the industrial rotation of high volumes of wastes in their productive cycles. The main purpose of this research is to widen the existing knowledge base on the behavior of new mineral pozzolans of high added value in the cement sector, lending special attention to paper sludge wastes generated in the process of paper manufacture, in which recycled paper is used as a raw material. The results to date show that, once thermally activated (in the range of 650–700°C), paper sludge turns out to be an alternative source of recycled metakaolin. This product is characterized by its high pozzolanic activity and improved performance with regard to the benefits of certain binary cements. The possibility of incorporating this industrial waste in cements along with other already standard pozzolans focuses, as mentioned, on the notable increase in the production of these types of cements. This is due, at present, to the extensive constructive applications for type-II cements (single additive) and to their lower economic and energetic costs that also makes them more suitable in times of economic crisis. In the present paper, the influence that pozzolan blends (activated paper sludge and fly ash) have on the reaction kinetics of ternary blended cements (6 and 21% of replacement) is evaluated, paying special attention to the identification and evolution of hydrated phases with increasing reaction times. The results obtained represent a pioneering research line at a global level and represent a starting point for future investigations because in the case of using paper sludge, release of CO2 from organic matter is very low and is listed as zero release

Based on the Trnka et al. (2015) study that indicated that heat and drought will be the most important stress factors for most of the European what area the further effort focused on these two extremes. The crop model HERMES has been tested for its ability to replicate correctly drought stress, heat stress and combination of both stresses. While data on the drought stress were available for both field and growth chambers, heat stress and its combination with heat stress was available only for the growth chambers. The modified version of the HERMES crop model was developed by Dr. Kersebaum and is being currently prepared for the journal paper publication.

As a result of the 21st Conference of the Parties (CoP-21) in 2015, the Paris Agreement formally recognised the importance of finance and forests to tackle climate change. However, Article 9 of the convention calls for the leadership of developed countries in mobilising climate finance, while encouraging other parties to provide financial support voluntarily. This is rather an unstable mechanism, since it is strongly affected by political and economic hardships. Forest finance could be established instead that, just like capital markets, might allow for countries to choose between interest-bearing bonds from forest conservation (natural forests) and/or offset (forest plantations). Bonds demand comes out of carbon savings from forest conservation or offsetting forests, whereas bonds supply arises from investments giving off carbon emissions that must be avoided through forest conservation or offset through forest plantations. A Loanable-Forest Funds (LFF) model is developed which shows that forest conservation scenarios require lower rates of interest on forest bonds than forest offsetting ones. Then, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which emphasises forest offset (forestry-CDM), the formal inclusion of forest conservation (REDD+) in the Paris Agreement might lower the real rates of return to long-term forest investments.

Digitisation of specimens (e.g. zoological, botanical) can provide access to advanced morphological and anatomical information and promote new research opportunities. The micro-CT technology may support the development of "virtual museums" or "virtual laboratories" where digital 3D imaging data are shared widely and freely. There is currently a lack of universal standards concerning the publication and curation of micro-CT datasets. The aim of the current project was to create a virtual gallery with micro-CT scans of individuals of the marine gastropod Hexaplex trunculus, which were maintained under a combination of increased temperature and low pH conditions, thus simulating future climate change scenarios. The 3D volume-rendering models created were used to visualise the structure properties of the gastropods shells. Finally, the 3D analysis performed on the micro-CT scans was used to investigate potential changes in the shell properties of the gastropods. The derived micro-CT 3D images were annotated with detailed metadata and can be interactively displayed and manipulated using online tools through the micro-CT virtual laboratory, which was developed under the LifeWatchGreece Research Infrastructure for the dissemination of virtual image galleries collection supporting the principles of FAIR data.