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The impact of climate change on the Earth's environments has been widely discussed, although there is still little consensus on the degree of influence, and to what extent the effects are positive, negative or neutral. Predicting the impacts of climate change on organisms and their response to this process has been a growing challenge for ecologists in recent years. In this review, we surveyed the published research on the relationship between lizards and global climate change. We surveyed the keywords "climate change" and "warming", combined with "lizard*" (there is, all words with this prefix), in three reference databases. We identified 401 relevant papers, and analyzed in further detail the group of studies (59 papers, 14.7% of the total) that developed thermoregulatory models to predict the persistence of lizards in a scenario of global warming. These 59 papers focused on species of 13 lizard families found on five continents. Overall, 62.5% of the papers that predicted the impacts of climate change on lizards indicated negative effects, while 21.9% reported positive effects, and 15.6%, a neutral scenario. The lizards identified as the most vulnerable to warming were tropical, viviparous, and thermoconformers, whereas species adapted to cooler climates would be the most likely to benefit from warming. On a broader scale, however, this scenario would lead to competition between lowland and highland lizards, for example, for thermally favorable areas. We conclude that it will be important to develop more detailed models that contemplate the specific features of each group for the development of more reliable predictions, in addition to the need for social conservation projects and the systematic identification of priority areas for conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, global forest area has been reducing; tropical forests have suffered from different anthropogenic and natural factors that account for forest loss. Tropical deforestation is the second driver of anthropogenic emissions; increasing demand and investments in tropical forests drive these emissions. These forests attract significant foreign direct investments, but the effects of these investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry are not well enshrined in the literature for the countries under study. This paper seeks to analyse the impact of foreign direct investments on carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry amongst 30 tropical forest countries from 1996 to 2019. The sampled countries were disaggregated by tropical blocs: Amazon, Congo basin, Australasia, and Southeast Asia, and by income levels; low-income, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high-income. The findings reveal a U-shape structure of the impact of FDI on carbon emissions from LULUCF within Congo basin and Amazon countries; at higher levels of FDI, emissions from LULUCF will increase while Australasia and Southeast Asian countries show an inverted U-shape impact, thus at higher levels of FDI, there will be a negative and significant impact on carbon emissions from LULUCF. The income levels reveal an inverted U-shape for low-income and high-income countries and a U-shape for upper-middle-income countries; the impact for lower-middle-income countries is not significant. Overall, for the whole sample, the impact depicts a U-shape. This paper proposes high-level development of environmental conditions for FDI for different sectors that align with country and regional green growth plans. Enhancing national and regional governance systems to enforce decisions and fight corruption effectively can significantly promote green FDI for green growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at investigating the harm from ecosystem services (ESs) according to agricultural land conversion (ALC) by using meta-analysis. The results of meta-regression showed that spatiotemporal effects had significant influences on some ES losses, and the maximum spatial impacts were relevant to Asia and Europe. Moreover, the results of ALC rate coefficients in meta-regression indicated that three large losses of ES were related to soil erosion (0.314), air pollution (0.202), and climate change (0.161). Therefore, the ALC should be done at a suitable conversion rate to reduce ES losses. Accordingly, administrators are suggested to consider careful research planning for the ALC in the process of economic development. Other strategies highlighted the importance of ALC–ES interactions for human well-being, such as measuring the pricing of goods and services based on land resources, continuously monitoring illegal ALC, and imposing taxes on unplanned ALC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing global concern about climate change and the circular economy have successfully established itselves in international and national policies over the last decade, with the aim of reshaping the production and consumer behavior. The circular economy is one of the core pillars of European Union policy and its success depends on the energy efficiency, reducing production costs, and maintaining employment levels by ensuring continuous strong economic independency of the region. While crises are unavoidable and continue to appear, this paper aims to project the impact of any crisis on sustainability transitions using data analysis of the Global Financial crisis from 2008 to 2009 and discuss how the success of the circular economy implementation and environmental policies could be affected. The paper notes that the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 had a short-term positive impact on environmental degradation and that economic interests overshadowed environmental goals. Due to the recent events of the ongoing Russia and Ukraine war, COVID-19 societal and industrial behavior has shifted from sustainable to linear and has taken a step backward in reducing environmental pollution and achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Analysis of already present data and the context of the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, reviewing of COVID-19 impact on the global economy, health sector, and environmental policies allows us to predict the consequences, as it relates to the future of circular economy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The serious consequences of climate warming have increasingly become a globe agenda in recent decades. China has been actively participating in various initiatives to address global climate change and has made commitments to reduce carbon emissions. Although the logistics industry is regarded as the "new driving force of national economic development", its carbon intensity is relatively high. Therefore, whether the logistics industry can develop in a green and low-carbon way is very crucial. This paper takes the green logistics efficiency of China's provincial logistics industry as the research object. The Super-SBM model is used to measure the China's green logistics efficiency, then the general dynamic characteristics is depicted by kernel density analysis. With the GML (Global Malmquist-Luenberger) index model, the reasons for the changes in green logistics efficiency are explained. Finally, Moran's I index is used to analyze the spatial correlation of green logistics efficiency in each province. The results show that the green logistics efficiency in China is at a low level, but with an upward trend. China's green logistics efficiency has a significant positive spatial correlation, showing a zonal pattern of high in the east and low in the west, and a polarization phenomenon. In addition, the bottleneck of the overall development of green logistics efficiency in China depends on the level of green technology. Furthermore, the results also imply that green technology advancement is an inherent key factor for green logistics efficiency to achieve growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions are a major contributor to global warming and climate change. The government has adopted carbon tax (CT) and cap-and-trade policies to reduce carbon emissions from carbon companies. This paper develops a production–inventory model for scarce perishable goods under different carbon policies and outside green technology. This study covers the contribution of energy-efficient green technology in a multi-stage supply chain to control carbon emissions in producing and transporting goods from the manufacturer to the dealer. However, it discusses a different combination of carbon policies chosen for manufacturers and retailers in their countries. According to the findings, changes in carbon pricing, CT, and exchange rates under various policy combinations have varying effects on the entire supply chain, each member's interests, and the social benefits of reducing carbon emissions. It seeks to provide useful information to decision-makers in businesses or supply chains, especially multinational corporations, to make decisions related to fixed rate CT and cap partial deficit cases, long cycle time, reasonable profit with small value, and long term and low cost of green technology investment. The main objective is to find the best material sourcing, production, and distribution strategy for manufacturers and the best replenishment strategy for retailers to maximize the overall joint profitability of the supply chain. In summary, sensitivity analysis has provided an optimal solution management implication based on certain key parameters and CT size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To effectively shift from economic growth based on high levels of energy expenditure and pollution and to actively address global climate change, the purpose of this paper is to explore whether environmental regulation in developing countries helps promote TFP from a credit resource allocation perspective. This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on firm TFP and the underlying mechanism of TFP using data on Chinese listed A-share companies from 2011 to 2018. The relationship between ERS and enterprise TFP is found to exhibit a clear U shape, that is, it shows the characteristics of inhibition followed by promotion. The mechanism analysis indicates that credit allocation is a significant mediator between environmental regulation and its effect on firm TFP through such allocation, while the heterogeneity analysis shows that in the central and western regions and in highly competitive industries, environmental regulation significantly affects firm TFP through credit allocation. The empirical results, which indicate that ERS in China is still at the left-hand side of the U-shaped curve inhibition area, suggest that government regulation should be strengthened, differentiated regional environmental regulation should be implemented, the bank credit system should be improved, and the U-shaped inflection point must be crossed if high-quality economic development is to be achieved in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somali post-conflict development faces many challenges that affect the sustainability of the water sector. This paper reviews and analyses the post-conflict development activities in the water sector through local communications and reviewing published materials and databases from international players in Somalia, funding agencies and financial tracking service. The paper has shown that there has been great attention and support given to the country during its post-conflict development. However, most of these initiatives and projects have focused on emerging issues such as tackling food security and water, sanitation and hygiene services. The paper also shows that the continuous funding of emerging issues in Somalia has reduced its long-term sustainability of the water sector and limited its national and long-term benefits but has increased corruption due to increase the gap between actors and local people. Therefore, new transparent cooperative initiatives are needed based on transparent involvement and coordination among donors, local authorities and implementers to improve and develop the water sector and the livelihood in Somalia through a solid water governance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context marked by the intensification of climate change as well as an increase in the frequency and intensity of violent conflicts in Africa, this paper analyses the effects of vulnerability to climate change on conflict through the channel of migratory movements. Given the complex causal relationships between the variables, and to distinguish between their direct and indirect effects on conflicts, we employ structural equation modeling on a sample of 37 African countries observed between 1995 and 2017. The results show that vulnerability to climate change has both direct and indirect negative effects on internal conflict in Africa. An increase in vulnerability to climate change reduces the net stock of international migrants; while the net stock of migrants increases internal conflict. These effects are robust regardless of the components of the climate change vulnerability index considered and vary, however, according to the official language spoken and the level of development. In English-speaking and low-developing countries, the effects of climate change vulnerability on conflict remain negative, while in French- and Arabic-speaking as well as in more developed African countries, climate change vulnerability indirectly increases conflict through migration.In a given territory, the implementation of specific adaptation measures helps to reduce the level of vulnerability to climate change. Furthermore, the increase in conflicts caused by a reduction in vulnerability to climate change can be mitigated by a decrease in migratory movements through a better allocation of natural resources such as arable land and an increase in gross domestic product per capita. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often hypothesized that adaptive capacity leads to increased yield. However, the veracity of this assumption in quantitative terms has largely remained understudied by researchers. Also, adaptation depends on the vulnerability of the agricultural sector, climate risks, biocapacity of the area, readiness and adaptive capacities of stakeholders. Adaptation can only take place if stakeholders are ready to respond and resources are also available. To understand these relationships, the paper examined the impacts of climate change, food vulnerability, adaptive capacity, biocapacity and readiness on yields of major cereal crops in thirty-five African countries. We used the panel autoregressive distributive lag model to analyse publicly available panel data obtained from FAOSTAT, Global Foot Print Network, and Notre Dame Adaptation Index databases, and World Bank Group Climate Change Knowledge Portal. The results show that biocapacity, adaptive capacity, food sector vulnerability, and temperature decreased rice yield in the long. Biocapacity increased maize and sorghum yields, while adaptive capacity decreased their yields in the long run. Food sector vulnerability and temperature decreased maize yield in the long run, while temperature increased sorghum yield in the long run. The results suggest that improvement in adaptive capacity is an important policy tool to increase the yield of some cereal crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and associated processes can increase the occurrence of some natural hazards and threaten business operations. Therefore, it is widely recommended businesses respond to climate change and implement climate change adaptation. Worldwide, businesses make efforts towards climate change adaptation, but investigation on such efforts is still required. To partially fill this research gap, the paper explores businesses adaptation efforts in the Hunter Valley, Australia. The paper collects primary data from open-ended interviews to 10 representatives of local businesses and supporting organizations. The paper reveals that businesses interpret climate change in different ways. While some businesses are sceptical about climate change, others are aware of it and its impacts on everyday operations. Businesses therefore implement adaptation by integrating climate change into everyday operations and continuity planning. The paper also shows diverse interactions occurring between businesses and other local stakeholders such as governments and communities. Usually, higher government levels offer vague and limited support to businesses and inhibit their adaptive efforts. Meanwhile, interactions between businesses and City Councils can be both collaborative and fragmented. Some businesses also interact with local communities by disclosing information about their operations and response to climate change. The paper discusses these findings and provides conclusions under the form of recommendations for policy and research on Australian businesses and climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discourse on urban flood resilience and the notions associated with the word has grown enormously and has been discovered to be in staggering form. This paper intends to provide a bibliometric analysis of nearly 30 years of urban flood resilience by mapping the knowledge domain, identifying evolving themes & trends over time, and extracting publications addressing urban flood resilience from the Scopus database. Trends, evolution, and mapping purpose of subject and field information analysis are undertaken using VOSviewer and SciMAT tools. The VOSviewer programme highlights the emphasis areas, whereas SciMAT traces the field's intellectual evolution across time and the essential themes that drove the transition. The study period is divided into four segments: 1996–2005, 2006–2010, 2011–2015, and 2016–2022 based on the significant international policy milestones. The findings of the analysis highlight that the urban flood resilience field initially concentrated on a few themes and subsequently expanded to encompass the multi-dimensional characteristics of urban area resilience. In recent years, spatial planning approaches, nature-based and sustainable solutions, community-based and citizen science approaches, application of artificial intelligence, urban–rural relationship in resilience aspect, health services, and critical infrastructure networks have been the field's primary themes and concerns for achieving and assessing urban flood resilience. Despite a lack of emphasis on resilience assessment methods and approaches favouring conceptual framework and factors, it is observed that these themes are emerging in the developing scenario to solve the resilience concepts. The research may serve as a springboard for people's and policymakers' concerns about climate change and its effects, infrastructure development to improve the health and social well-being of societies, and a desire to learn more about resolving urban flooding problems in order to enhance flood management concepts pertaining to urban flood resilience and its history. Hence, a comprehensive list of themes and thematic areas concerning urban flood resilience with varying weights according to contexts is recommended, leading to the development of the urban flood resilient assessment tool and modifying the existing tools to reflect better the holistic understanding of sustainable and resilient cities/areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetlands provide numerous ecological and economic services to mankind. The soils of wetlands are one of the largest sinks of carbon (C) among the terrestrial ecosystems and can play an important role in offsetting the emission of C as a greenhouse gas (GHG) to the atmosphere. India is bestowed with enriched wetland ecosystems that support diverse and unique habitats. The potential of the wetlands in terms of C capture and sequestration has not been quantified. Therefore, in the present paper, an assessment of C capture from different sources and its ultimate deposition in soils leading to sequestration has been done in three different types of wetlands, one created sewage-fed and two natural floodplain oxbow lakes, in the West Bengal state of India. Multiple seasonal sampling of water, macrophytes, and soil was done to assess the primary productivity, dissolved C, and deposition of C in soils of the wetlands in comparison to reference upland sites. All these wetlands are productive ecosystems as indicated by the physicochemical parameters of water and soil. The quantity of C accumulated up to 0.3 m depth in the oxbow lakes was to the tune of 144–166 Mg/ha, which was 3.43–4.78 times higher than that in the corresponding reference upland sites. In the sewage-fed wetland, the C accumulation estimated as 50 Mg/ha was 1.27 times higher than its corresponding upland site. So, the wetland ecosystems, particularly the floodplains, are highly efficient in accumulating C in their soils and thus can somewhat negate the GHG emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the usefulness of the water-energy-food nexus in assessing the sustainability of an economy. All economic activity depends on its surrounding physical environment, and especially on the interconnection between these three essential resources. As a result, the nexus is a useful tool for detecting the economic risk of resource scarcity, optimising investments or resource use, and assessing the effects of economic policies or shocks such as climate change. The nexus approach is also useful for guiding policies towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We show that both the objective of each study and the scale on which it is conducted are factors worth considering when choosing the most suitable research methodology. We detected important challenges relating to the heterogeneity of the methods, scales and variables used, and therefore necessary measures nare suggested in order to homogenise the studies for their comparability and/or integration, both horizontally and vertically, or over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following global warming and climate change issues, environmental policies are receiving renewed interest in the context of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Using a panel of 17 African countries over the period 2000–2019 and based on ordinary least squared, Driscoll and Kraay standard error and generalized method of moment, this paper empirically analyses the effect of environmental tax regulation on industrialization. Our results establish a negative and significant effect of environmental regulation through green tax scheme on industrialization. These findings are consistent and robust to the use of an alternative dependent variable (Manufacturing) and other estimation methods. Also, by splitting the sample into monetary zone, the initial result is found to be consistently significant only in Non FCFA zone. Moreover, Quantile analysis reveals some heterogeneity across the industrialization distribution. Indeed, there is a threshold discrepancy between lower (0.25)–median (0,50) income countries in which the effects of environmental tax on industrialization is confirmed to be significantly negative and upper-income countries (0.75) where the effect is positive but not significant. These findings suggest that green tax regulations in our sample of selected African countries, destroy more industries than they could create. We therefore recommend that environmental tax policies should be moderate on African countries at least in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and its effects are one of the main concerns of both administrations and citizens in many countries. One of the most important causes of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2, and its reduction is a target for governments around the world. In this sense, the article aims to measure the regional imbalances in CO2 emissions, through the use of a spatial shift-share analysis of the variable intensity of emissions. This methodology will be applied to the regional emissions of Chile for the year 2014, which will be obtained from the application of a multi-regional input–output model. The results of the paper have been structured in two parts: firstly, regional imported and exported emissions have been estimated, from which the responsibilities of the producer and the consumer were determined. Secondly, the Shift Share analysis has been applied to determine regional imbalances in emissions. Large imbalances have been found in the distribution of the intensity of emissions at a regional level. These imbalances may be due to differences in regional economic and production systems, which are manifested through the components that represent the sectoral structure, the localization economies and the regional effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the nexus between climate change and food security in Sub-Saharan African Region (SSA). With focus on 30 countries within the region, the study employed the dynamic panel data analysis using the one-step and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) model. The time observed spanned from 2000 through 2019. The study found that increase in greenhouse gas emission would lead to an increase in prevalence of malnourishment rate, resulting in a decrease in food security in SSA. In addition, climate change and food price have a negative significant effect on food security, while income and food supply have a positive significant impact on food security in SSA. The findings also revealed that the decline in carbon emission is expected to boost agricultural supply and productivity, reduce the prevalence of malnourishment rate and promote food security. Thus, the study recommends that SSA region should be more deliberate about meeting its targets towards achieving zero net emission. Furthermore, the region should improve its domestic food production capacity by implementing policies that will support improvement in agricultural production in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the intensity of greenhouse gas emissions is China's solemn commitment to solving the problem of climate change and building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. By constructing a noncompetitive hybrid input–output table, this paper investigates the effect of industrial restructuring on the intensity of CO2 and non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. According to the study, industrial restructuring from 1994 to 2008 increased CO2 emission intensity in most sectors, with a particularly significant contribution in sectors with high CO2 emission intensity. The suppression effect of industrial restructuring on the intensity of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions in various sectors is limited, with an impact of no more than 11%, but the reduction effect on sectors with high intensity of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions is relatively significant. From 2008 to 2015, more than 92% of all industrial sectors reduced their own greenhouse gas emission intensity as a result of industrial restructuring, with a significant curbing effect on CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Egypt, planning practice is physical and rooted in design principles, resulting in plans that seldom consider the impact of land use and land cover changes on the environment. Most used planning models are static. The paper offers urban metabolism and dynamic modeling as an alternative mode for decision making. It models population growth and expanded economic activities that characterize rapid urbanization and induce changes in land use affecting various urban economic sectors using the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) as a case study. Urban transportation contributes to climate change. The authors used secondary data and satellite images to detect land use and cover changes since 2005. After building a stock-flow diagram to describe the system's structure, they used dynamic modeling and GIS to assess the impact of transportation on air quality. Results indicate that the population of GCR will range from 33.348 to 40.334 million in 2050. The emissions from transportation will be around 52,521.2 Gg, which is beyond the ability of the region's ecosystems to store carbon. These findings shed doubt about the ability of GCR to reach carbon neutrality and, therefore, call for strict measures to control emitting GHGs and change in planning practices and education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current climate issues pose a challenge to green development, so it is important to study the relationship between climate change and agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP). This paper constructs a panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model using panel data from 2005 to 2019 in China to evaluate the relationship between climate change and agricultural green total factor productivity. Selecting agricultural operation scale, agricultural premium and green finance index as transfer variables, the PSTR model is constructed, respectively. The empirical results show that the impacts of different types of climate change on AGTFP have significant nonlinear characteristics. Smaller and larger agricultural operation scales can mitigate the negative impact of sunshine impact on AGTFP. Higher agricultural premiums and lower or higher green finance index can mitigate the negative impact of temperature shock and sunshine shock on AGTFP. Based on the research results, we put forward policy recommendations to encourage the expansion of agricultural operation scale, promote agricultural insurance and promote the construction of a green financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a fundamental concept in global climate governance, the dual goals of a low-carbon economy and sustainable development have received wide attention in recent years. In green and sustainable development, low-carbon technology innovation plays a crucial role. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive and in-depth bibliometric analysis, mapping publications on low-carbon technology innovation that fill the research gaps that have existed in this field for several years. A search was conducted on the Web of Science Core Collection database to obtain metadata on literature published from 2006 to 2022. Bibliometrix R package and VOSviewer software programs were used to identify important documents, relevant sources, key researchers, major countries and affiliations, keywords for abstracts and articles. Corresponding information such as trends in the evolution of topics were analyzed and visualized. The results show that the number of countries and scholars involved in researching low-carbon technology innovation is gradually increasing, especially in China, which has made strong contributions of influential research to this field. The research in this field has gone through the stages of theoretical exploration and practical application, and the focal topics are now gradually shifting from macroscopic policy evaluation, etc., to local impact mechanisms. Finally, this paper summarizes the historical evolution, current research status, and future directions of the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores agro-ecological implications of climate change and gendered adaptations in Northern Ghana. Drawing on feminist political ecology, sequential mix-method design was used to collect socio-economic and livelihood data through a survey of 300 smallholder farmers. Paired sample t test, simple linear regression and descriptive statistics were used to determined yield variation, gendered perception, and adaptive capacities to climate change. Three focus group discussions and 15 key informant interviews were conducted to validate the survey results. Findings show that climate change has threatened the sustainability of local livelihoods with a significant drop in food production over the last 15 years. Adaptation to climate change in the study area is polarized by gender, affecting productivity. This is because men perceive climate change and its impacts differently from women. Men were likely to adapt changing methods of farming and improvement in storage capacity, while women were likely to adapt migration and livelihood diversification. Policy toward building resilience to the impacts of climate change should recognize and adopt these gender adaptive capacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme climate change is an existential threat to humanity and infrastructure development. At the same time, the construction and operation of carbon-intense public–private partnership (PPP) infrastructure such as road transport, water, public houses, energy supply and sanitation unleash most of the greenhouse gas emissions that impacts negatively on the climate. Increasingly, there is a heightened interests in the development and financing of climate-smart PPP solutions to promote resilient and sustainable public infrastructures. Therefore, this article aims at identifying the critical solutions to the provision of climate-smart PPP infrastructure projects together with the driving factors and challenges of its implementation in public facilities. The paper utilized a systematic literature review method where data were sourced from prominent academic databases of Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and PubMed. The outcomes of the review demonstrate that the adoption of climate finance, renewable energy, and maintaining resilient infrastructures are prominent solutions to attain low-carbon infrastructure development. Key drivers such as the global call to reduce huge emissions from construction projects and transition to sustainable green construction management account for the shift toward climate-smart PPP projects. The barriers identified include poor and unconcerted practice and policy directions to resolve emission problems in the construction industry. The outcomes of this article provide incentives for the development and management of climate-smart public projects. Researchers can harness the results to investigate and develop adaptation and mitigation strategies for low-carbon PPP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the demand of the growing population, there exists pressure on food production. In this context, appropriate prediction of crop yield helps in agricultural production planning. Given the inability of the traditional linear models to provide satisfactory prediction performance, there is a need to develop a crop yield prediction model that is simple in complexity, accurate in prediction, and less time-consuming during training and validation phases. Keeping these objectives in view, the present paper focuses on building an adaptive, low complexity, and accurate nonlinear model for the prediction of crop yield. A time series dataset for the period 1991–2012 of Karnataka, a southwestern state of India, is used for yield prediction. An empirical nonlinear relation between crop yield and the four independent attributes has been obtained from the proposed ANN model. The independent attributes employed are total rainfall, the cumulative distribution of temperature, the proportion of irrigated land, and the average amount of fertilizer used. It is demonstrated that the developed model exhibits better prediction accuracy, less root mean square error in the range of 0.07–0.14, less mean square error in the range of 0.01–0.04, and mean absolute error in the range of 0.07–0.15 compared to its corresponding linear regression model. It is recommended that the proposed ANN model can also be applied to predict other agricultural products of the same or other geographical regions of the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the procedure of employing novel software tools within a series of participatory workshops designed for measuring and monitoring the resilience of Austria's socioeconomic system based on network analysis and systems research. This study employs the principles of the four-stage adaptive cycle to quantify the perspectives of major stakeholders regarding resilience readiness in Austrian society and to explore the implications. At the FASresearch company in Vienna, 278 representatives from 15 key sectors of Austrian society were asked to estimate the resilience of their respective sectors and identify the key resilience factors for each sector. Results pinpoint the most critical stakeholders and resilience factors, highlight the importance of quality relationships among stakeholders, and indicate that while stakeholders accurately perceive the stages of growth (r), equilibrium (K), and regeneration (α), they tend to underestimate the significance of the final (Ω) stage of the adaptive cycle, characterized by disturbance and collapse of outdated systems. Improved recognition and preparation for each stage may result in the increased resilience of each sector to potential crises in the future. Notably, perspectives regarding resilience in the face of a crisis were gathered prior to the occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, in addition to fulfilling an analytic-diagnostic function, resilience monitoring techniques are also intended as an adaptive tool for novel resilience management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming and climate change represent current threats for island states in the Pacific Ocean region. Next to global warming and the effects of Sea Level Rise, the resulting vulnerability of coastal offshore, shoreline, and oceanic ecosystems are additional factors that need to be considered urgently. As a coastal atoll area and part of the Pacific Small Island States, Tuvalu is now under threat with its cultural landscapes due to climate change impacts. The country and its landscapes surround an area of only 26 km2, where 11,810 people live in hostile climatic conditions. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change projected that Tuvalu would probably be the first country to sink underwater. The question arises about sustainable solutions for ongoing security and a habitable situation for people, culture, landscapes, and ecosystems. Unstable agricultural crop production, fishing, and coconuts cultivation are some of the challenges on the island. The exemplary derived polynomial curve of nine different islands and their islands' population displacement behavior shows up results of hostile conditions with six islands having lost their inhabitants, and only three islands' populations have increased. This study aims to analyze the overall situation of Tuvalu and find an alternative solution to safeguard Tuvaluan people, the island ecosystems and heritage, and cultural landscapes. Specific objectives of this study are the following: (1.) Understanding the theoretical concept of climate change impacts, sea-level rise impacts, the protection of Tuvaluan people, and the islands' unique biodiversity; (2.) Analyzing the socio-economic condition, livelihoods, culture, heritage, and environmental scenarios of Tuvalu; (3.) Giving potential recommendations for creating an international network, applied research, and training for the future development of ecosystems and cultural landscapes of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean. This paper analyzed the present affected situation of Tuvalu; it also highlighted socio-economic and livelihoods sustainability, future scenarios, and alternative suggestion to mitigate this hostile environment of Tuvalu. GIS applications for visualizing and analyzing environmental data were one of the appropriate tools for decision-makers to support long-term planning for Tuvalu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The considerable relevant size of the tourism sector for some economies, together with this sector's vulnerability to CC, renders this study an insightful aid to tourism demand forecasting. The paper applies a pooled mean group (PMG) model to identify climate parameters that affect tourism demand. Then, it continues with an input–output table analysis to show the transmission effects of CC on each component of the tourism sector. The PMG model imposes homogeneity on the long-run coefficients and while less restrictive, it is more efficient than other methods of the same family. The estimated gravity equation enables comparisons of the baseline scenario with various different scenarios of CC and finds how tourist arrivals could be affected up to 2080. Our results suggest that there is mostly a positive relationship of the squared difference of temperature and precipitation between Greece and tourist origin countries. Our findings also suggest that CC could lead to a fall in Greek GDP between 1.79 and 2.61%. We believe that our findings will help design appropriate policy actions that may offset or alleviate these negative future negative impacts of CC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household energy consumption has been one of the most critical factors to climate change. We conducted bibliometric research on household energy consumption by using CiteSpace and HistCite. The Web of Science was used to identify and visualize the evolution of paper citation diagram, the collaboration network, the cocitation network and emerging trends by mapping the knowledge domain of 2984 academic publications between 2011 and 2018 related to household energy consumption. The results showed that the number of academic articles published in the field of household energy consumption and carbon emissions was on the rise, but the number of highly cited articles decreased. The most productive authors and institutions in this subject are in Australia, the USA, China, Britain and Germany. Much of the research has focused on electricity consumption and heat supply, while there have been few studies on other subdomains in the area of energy consumption. The impact of greenhouse gases produced by energy consumption on the environment was the focus of this study. Here, we present an in-depth analysis of household energy consumption and carbon emission research to better understand global trends and hot topics in this field which have emerged over the last few years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global climate change is closely related to conventional energy consumption. Taking the regulations for emissions into account, this article uses a game theory approach to identify industries depending on conventional energies to reduce emissions. This paper proposes to design a suitable supervisory system for emission regulation based on limited supervisor and asymmetric production efficiency. Two different supervision mechanism, random and selected supervisions, are employed. Some interesting conclusions are achieved. Firstly, the greater the level of competition, the smaller the number of firms with emission-reduction technology (ERT) are. Interestingly, the number of firms without ERT increases faster than does the number of firms with ERT. Secondly, under the asymmetric case, the threshold value for firms with low production costs that always employ emission-reduction technology is presented. Finally, this paper proves that firms with higher production costs have greater incentives to avoid emission restriction. Based on the above conclusions, the corresponding policy implications or regulation institutions to reduce climate changes are outlined. Random inspect is optimal if firms' efficiency information, measured by production cost, is incomplete, while selected supervise is better if efficiency information is complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fishers' local knowledge and their perceptions of climate change are increasingly recognized by researchers and international institutions. However, in India, limited regional studies are available to understand the fishers' local knowledge, and a crucial question which largely remained unaddressed has been how fishers perceive the relevance of their local knowledge systems in the face of climate change. Provided this background, this paper aims to explore the fishermen's local knowledge and their climate perceptions in the face of climate change. This paper has employed the data that were obtained by in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions with the small-scale fishermen of three highly vulnerable fishing villages of Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu. The marine fishers across this coast were the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster, several major cyclones, and various weather and climate events for over the last four decades. Key results show (1) fishermen perceive multiple aberrations and anomalies in the weather and climate patterns for over the previous three to four decades, particularly after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami disaster. (2) The next finding is contrary to the conventional understandings, in which we have found that the fishermen are increasingly felt and experienced that their local knowledge is no longer adequately relevant in the face of climate change. Thus, for promoting the adaptive capacity of fishers, this paper has suggested that fishermen's perceptions and their expectations should be appropriately recognized and there is a strong need to provide scientific assistance to the fishermen through proper channels to respond to climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the barriers and adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers in the Northern Development Authority (NDR) zone of Ghana to climate change. The study also investigates the effect of the socio-economic and institutional factors on the on-farm adaptation strategies to climate change of smallholder farmers. The study employs descriptive statistics to analyse the barriers and adaptation techniques of a sample of 125 smallholder farmers in the NDR zone of Ghana. The binary logit model was employed to analyse the effect of the socio-economic and institutional factors on the on-farm adaptation strategies to climate change. The results show that households face considerable availability and liquidity constraints in adapting to climate change. The lack of capacity building program is the major availability constraint, while the lack of funds to purchase fertiliser is the major liquidity constraint. Most farmers do not apply any adaptation technique, while the few farmers who adapt to the changing climate frequently use soil and water conservation and grow different crop varieties and diversification of the crop produced. A number of socio-economic characteristics and institutional factors (particularly governmental extension services), and the longitudinal temperature and rainfall significantly affect the on-farm adaptation strategies of households. Though smallholder farmers in the NDR zone of Ghana apply a multiplicity of on-farm and non-farm adaptation strategies, this research is limited to on-farm adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers. The study recommends that policies aimed at helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change should greatly emphasise on capacity-building programs. Also, investment in extension services to support rural farm households is highly recommended due to the great impact it has on adapting to climate change. This paper contributes to the empirical literature by first using the farm-level survey data from wider geographical areas in the NDR zone of Ghana to analyse the climate change adaptation strategies of smallholder farmers. This paper also focusses on only the on-farm climate change adaptation strategies of households in the NDR zone of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of a green roof is best suited for urban areas, as it provides an array of environmental benefits toward mitigating and adapting to climate change, including reduced flood risk, greenhouse gas emissions, urban heat island effects, and air pollution. However, green roof research and maintenance awareness in Malaysia are comparatively scarce, largely due to the absence of local tropical green roof guidelines. Therefore, this paper aims to explore current green roof maintenance practices and challenges for non-residential buildings in Malaysia through case studies and in-depth interviews. These results were then compared with three international green roof guidelines, namely those of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyor, Singapore's National Parks Board, and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The findings show that current green roof maintenance elements implemented in the case studies are insufficient and inadequate for Malaysia's tropical climate conditions. The paper recommends nine (9) green roof maintenance elements specific for non-residential buildings in Malaysia and the tropical climate: plant selection, rainwater harvesting system, pest control, monitoring performance, accessibility, irrigation cleaning, waterproofing membrane maintenance, plants and growing medium, and maintenance of outdoor furniture. As this paper has only included data from Kuala Lumpur, this limits the generalizability of the findings to other buildings in Malaysia and a tropical climate. The implications of this study may provide further direction for researchers to consider a larger sample size and other cities in a tropical climate. This study will allow policymakers and building stakeholders to develop suitable green roof maintenance guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of environmental taxes and environmental stringent policies in reducing CO2 emissions in a panel of 20 European countries for the period 1995–2012. As mounting global environmental and climate challenges are becoming great cause for concern, environmental stringency policies and environmental taxes are becoming the cornerstones for a sustainable environment. Applying panel cointegration tests, we found a negative and a statistically significant relationship between environment taxes (disaggregated into total, energy and transport taxes) and CO2 emissions on the one hand and also a negative and a statistically significant relationship between environmental policy stringent and CO2 emissions on the other. The robustness of the evidence is also supported by a quantile regression model. The higher the environmental stringency policy, the lower the CO2 emission. Similarly, the higher the revenue from total environmental tax, energy and transport tax, the higher the reductions in CO2 emissions. Both these two policy instruments were effective in reducing CO2 emissions. The positive impact of environmental tax on improving environmental quality should encourage policy makers to increase environmental tax as the current level of environmental tax is believed to be low relative to levels required to achieve climate change objectives and is also low relative to the social cost of carbon and relative to the prices of taxed fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global climate change, much hope is placed in technological progress's ability to address environmental problems. However, the persistence of technology inequality across countries undermines environmental technology innovation's contribution to environmental issues. In such a context, this paper introduces a new approach that combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the Gini coefficient to gauge technology inequality. Additionally, decomposition analysis is adopted to identify the driving factors affecting technology diffusion. Empirically, the proposed approach is applied to 49 African countries from 2000 to 2017. The results of our study show that, although the unified efficiency of African countries improved slightly during the study period, there is still much room for improvement in terms of economic prosperity and environmental performance. Secondly, there is group heterogeneity between two groups of African countries (low-efficiency group and high-efficiency group) under both managerial and natural disposability. Thirdly, the inequality decomposition revealed that cross-group inequality is the source of group heterogeneity and the main barrier to technology diffusion, followed by within-group inequality. Finally, environmental technology progress exhibits a low contribution to enhancing sustainability in Africa due to technological inequality persistence. In future, it would be quite meaningful to perform sector-level analysis, which could provide more detailed information on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Green Climate Fund (GCF) is expected to launch by the government in the foreseeable future to support local governments in climate change adaption and mitigation. Lessons from experiences of international financing and allocating mechanisms provide valuable references for establishing the Chinese GCF. This study aims to explore the feasibility of several well-recognized schemes for financing and allocating the Chinese GCF among China's 30 provinces. These include: financing schemes of historical emission responsibility (HR), ability-to-pay (AP) and preference score compromises (PSC); as well as allocating schemes of carbon emissions intensity (CI), carbon emissions per capital (CC), GDP per capital (GC) and PSC. This study derives several important findings. Firstly, given different financing schemes, the coastal economically developed provinces including Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang would collectively shoulder most of the financing responsibility (almost 70% in total) and play central roles in climate financing. Shandong province presents high financing responsibilities mainly due to its export trades of primary products which rely on the development of high-polluted industries. Other three provinces show high financing responsibilities mainly due to the rapid growth of their industries (petrochemical, steel, building materials, electric power, etc.) for economic development. Secondly, the inland economically backward provinces including Shanxi, Ningxia, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and Gansu would be the top five largest recipients of the funds, obtaining more than 30% of total disbursements. The innovations and contributions of the present study are as follows: Firstly, this paper systematically explored the feasibility and alternative schemes for Chinese GCF for the first time. Further, it introduces PSC methods based on diversified approaches to explore suitable financing and allocating schemes. The schemes proposed would establish theoretical foundations for the Chinese GCF and would also promote the development of other kinds of financing for China and countries with similar economic features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to 17 Sustainable Development Goals, one emerging global environmental issue in the 21 century is the gap between science and policy (UNEP, 2012). While humans may comprehend some complicated sustainability problems at some degrees, we are far from properly addressing and governing these problems. This is specifically important for a global sustainability issue with a high scientific complexity, such as global climate change. Although the sustainability science research continues to grow, few studies contribute policy-relevant output for governing the problem and fewer studies focus on evaluating the operation of these researches. Hence, a sustainability research project that can link global to local, theory and practice, research and action, and science and policy can certainly share some experiences and insights. Therefore, this study aims to present a valuable case study that demonstrates how a domestic sustainability science research project transforms a highly scientifically-complicated global-scale problem to a more manageable local-scale problem and how multiple disciplines and agencies work accordantly toward a common research goal. Ultimately this paper hopes to contribute the field of sustainability science by providing valuable in-depth experiences in terms of the operation of a sustainability science research at domestic levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change severely affects sub-Saharan African economies in several ways: increased temperatures, erratic rainfall variability patterns, and recurrent droughts and floods. Such adverse climate change effects may result in a greater incidence of crop pests, loss of soil moisture content, rapid soil nutrient depletion and substantial decreases in crop productivity and yields. These effects in combination with lack of access to improved, high-yielding crop varieties, limited agricultural extension services and poor access to irrigation infrastructure could further threaten access to food, limit export earnings and markedly lower net crop revenue. Several definitions, assessment approaches and methods for the concepts related to "vulnerability" and "adaptation" exist due to complex nature of climate impact and strategies used to deal with them. Based on the context of such studies, this paper reviews climate change risks, people's vulnerability to such risks as well as synthesize different approaches, methods and models used to assess vulnerability and adaptation in the area of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. As climate change effects are complex and site-specific, the understanding of several concepts, approaches and methods provides detailed information on farmers' vulnerability and adaptation process. Such information would be useful to inform adaptation interventions and agricultural policies that build farmers' resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates whether exposure to natural disasters very early in the life of a person has persistent effects on her human development outcomes in the case of Argentina. Using the microdata of the 2010 National Census of Population and the Disaster Inventory System's (DesInventar) records of the occurrence of natural disasters, we estimate a differences in differences model, exploiting geographical variation (between districts of Argentina) and temporal variation (between birth cohorts) in the occurrence of natural disasters. Fixed effects are considered by cohorts and districts, as well as control variables. We find that exposure to natural disasters during the first year of life significantly reduces the number of years of schooling achieved in 0.03 years and increases the chances of being unemployed when adult. Importantly, we find that the personal experience of a natural disaster goes beyond individual outcomes, increasing the chances of living in a multidimensionally poor household when adult. Exposure to natural disasters during gestation also has significant detrimental impact on these outcomes. In the context of climate change, in which an increase in the frequency and severity in the occurrence of natural disasters is expected, our results are a call of attention, indicating that it is of outmost importance to design and implement public policies towards increasing the country's preparedness and resilience to natural disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poultry sector is large and expanding in the global South, playing a central role in providing increased protein to a rapidly growing base of consumers. The sector includes small backyard farms, small commercial operations, and very large, complex enterprises. Although there is substantial literature on climate adaptation by crop farmers and large livestock farmers, such information is limited for poultry. This study focuses on the effects of higher temperatures on commercial poultry farms in southwest Nigeria and their adaptation strategies. We use a rich set of in-depth interviews to describe how poultry farmers are adapting to higher temperatures and their reasons for adopting particular practices. In general, interviewees are aware that temperatures have increased over time and that heat stress reduces poultry productivity in terms of weight gain and laying capacity. They are knowledgeable and are not passively enduring the adverse effects of higher temperatures as they have adopted a range of adaptation practices. This study identified three main adaptation strategies: (i) keeping drinking water cool, (ii) keeping the building cool and increasing ventilation, and (iii) giving birds medicines and supplements that help them cope with increased heat. Small farms tend to adopt simple and low-cost practices, and large farms tend to adopt more sophisticated and expensive approaches, in line with the nature of their respective operations. The paper's findings can help address gaps in strategies aiming to help this critically important sector of the food system be robust to future environmental change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small-scale irrigation schemes (SSIS) have been considered a solution to viability challenges in drought-stricken farming areas in developing countries. However, the schemes face severe constraints. In this paper, relevant constraints are identified and ranked in terms of how serious the limitations are from the perspective of stakeholders in drought-prone areas of the Chipinge District in Zimbabwe. Information for the study was gained through a questionnaire and focus group discussions with small-scale irrigation farmers as well as key informant interviews with government irrigation officials, irrigation managers and members of the local community leadership. The information was garnered between August and December in 2017 with the analysis conducted using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis, guided by the Theory of Constraints and classified in the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) framework. Results indicated that SSIS are important in the drought-prone areas of the Chipinge District regarding food security and income generation. However, technical issues bedevilling the schemes are considered to be the most challenging limitations. The most important constraints—ranked in descending order of gravity—are technical, economic, social, environmental, legal and political challenges. Based on these findings, the research strongly recommends modernising small-scale irrigation schemes' infrastructure, among other issues, as a priority in Zimbabwe's drought-prone areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smallholder farmers require viable adaptation strategies for addressing climate change. Climate change adaptation project might be maladapted unless it considers the local context. This paper argued challenges of agriculture in developing countries in general and Ethiopia in particular, are highly diversified, and thus any intervention requires embarrassing the specific agroecosystems. Cognizant of this fact, the research investigated locally viable climate change adaptation strategies (CCAS) specific to Rib watershed in Ethiopia by using agroecosystem analysis framework. The study used primary data collected from 383 randomly selected farm-households complemented with data collected with key-informant interviews and focus group discussions. The study area was characterized and mapped in two groups of agroecosystems: Fogera plain and Libo-Farta highlands. The finding portrayed that across agroecosystems, there were considerable differences in terms of productivity potential, inherit constraints, crop varieties, income level and soil type. The study found the blanket application of similar CCAS irrespective of the heterogeneities. Farmers in the plain land witnessed less income inequality that stood at a Gini coefficient of 38.3 as compared to the highlanders of 42.8. The study further identified prioritized CCAS for the respective agroecosystems. It is imperative to consider local diversities before any intervention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change risks threaten social–ecological systems (SESs) across the globe. Efforts are increasingly focusing on reducing vulnerabilities of SES to climate change. Scientists and practitioners of resilience assessment have been developing frameworks to conduct integrated analyses of social–ecological systems. Such frameworks would ideally lead to a stronger commitment of various groups of stakeholders to act toward building the resilience of the system in focus. In this context, we explore and present in this paper how two sequential processes: social–ecological inventory (SEI) and group model building (GMB) have been employed to assess the resilience to climate change of Ikel watershed in the Republic of Moldova. The two processes come from two related fields: resilience and system dynamics. They have many things in common, but have not been combined much in the literature thus far. The methodology is being applied in two stages: for identifying vulnerabilities and for building the conceptual model. We find that SEI and GMB can be used together smoothly, adding value to both system dynamicists and resilience practitioners. We conclude that SEI is a valuable addition to GMB by enhancing stakeholder engagement for resilience building in a network governance setting. Similarly, employment of the GMB practice and vocabulary added value to resilience assessment by providing a conceptual dynamic feedback model. This conceptual model can be further built upon to develop a computer simulation model for testing of various policy options. The paper offers resilience practitioners an approach for participatory resilience assessment and the system dynamicists an approach for GMB practice in network governance settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify how targeted asset transfers help to build adaptive capacity and adaptive actions of the urban extreme poor to climate change phenomena. This paper explores the theoretical debates of community-based adaptation approach and failure of such approach to address urban extreme poor. The empirical evidence of these theoretical debates will be drawn from two informal settlements of Dhaka city, where a targeted asset transfer project has been implementing since 2009. This paper explains that urban extreme poor usually work as unskilled labour and lack different livelihood capitals; and climate change is an increasingly important influence exacerbating an already vulnerable livelihood context. There is growing recognition in the literature that poor urban people and communities are adapting to climate change in physical and behavioural terms. But, in the case of urban extreme poor these adaptation approaches are delivering short-term survival strategies disregarding the notion of wellbeing in the medium to long-term perspectives. It is also evident that community level initiatives structurally reproduce the exclusion of the urban extreme poor. However, poverty literatures acknowledge that poverty-centred approaches could help to reduce vulnerability. As urban extreme poor are significantly more resource constrained, it is reasonable to assert that targeted asset transfers could be a poverty-centred adaptation approach in a changing climate. Targeted asset transfers approaches are the outcomes of recent social protection revolution that especially consider accumulation of physical, financial, human, and social capital in order to build adaptive capacity of the urban extreme poor. This adaptive capacity of the extreme poor may facilitate adjustments in assets, livelihoods, behaviours, and technologies in order to reduce future climate vulnerability. In this context, this paper seeks to answer whether targeted asset transfer approaches can be considered as effective poverty-centred adaptation approaches for the urban extreme poor or not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to provide various maps of the evolution, current situation and future lines of sustainability indicators for tourism destinations research. The bibliographic analysis of 440 papers (after refinement) published from 1995 to 2021 reveal the existence of three stages over time and an enormous increase during the last eight years. The results suggest the multidisciplinary nature of the subject that has developed from environmental and social areas to scientific and technological areas, and the existence of seven clusters around the knowledge base. The key research topics have evolved from an essentially instrumental approach to the applicability of developments to management and specific perspectives. The seven following topics merit further research: (1) proposals for different types of destination, (2) indicators construction methodologies, (3) fulfilment of SDGs, (4) development of international frameworks, (5) role of host communities, (6) interactions between stakeholders and (7) focus to climate change effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a theory-driven thematic analysis, the paper gauges how, since 1990, New Zealand (NZ) Governments have approached climate change ethics and provides insight into the importance of ethics in the broader context of sustainable development and global sustainability. Analysis of the policy-related data identified two main ethical themes labelled standard self-interest and advocacy. The data show that despite some advocacy consistent with urging the objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the international arena, Governments from 1990 to 2008 have held back to an extent on climate change policy development having operated broadly under a 'standard self-interest' approach. Since 2008, the current Government has also held back on policy development and is operating under a particularly narrow, highly unethical and unjust form of self-interest. Strong criticism of the Government is therefore warranted. The paper has also highlighted the significant consensus around the broad overarching operational conclusions of sustainable development. The paper concludes, inter alia, that the NZ Government should advocate to the international community to achieve, and among their people to support, the objective of the UNFCCC, while advocating at the national and international levels for a science-informed global ethic on sustainable development. The same logic would apply to all other UNFCCC members, of which it appears many are also operating unethically and unjustly on this global transformational issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most mitigation scenarios compatible with a likely change of holding global warming well below 2 °C rely on negative emissions technologies (NETs). According to the integrated assessment models (IAMs) used to produce mitigation scenarios for the IPCC reports, the NET with the greatest potential to achieve negative emissions is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Crucial questions arise about where the enormous quantities of biomass needed according to the IAM scenarios could feasibly be produced in a sustainable manner. Africa is attractive in the context of BECCS because of large areas that could contribute biomass energy and indications of substantial underground CO2 storage capacities. However, estimates of large biomass availability in Africa are usually based on highly aggregated datasets, and only a few studies explore future challenges or barriers for BECCS in any detail. Based on previous research and literature, this paper analyses the pre-conditions for BECCS in Tanzania by studying what we argue are the applications of BECCS, or the components of the BECCS chain, that are most feasible in the country, namely (1) as applied to domestic sugarcane-based energy production (bioethanol), and (2) with Tanzania in a producer and re-growth role in an international BECCS chain, supplying biomass or biofuels for export to developed countries. The review reveals that a prerequisite for both options is either the existence of a functional market for emissions trading and selling, making negative emissions a viable commercial investment, or sustained investment through aid programmes. Also, historically, an important barrier to the development of production capacity of liquid biofuels for export purposes has been given by ethical dilemmas following in the wake of demand for land to facilitate production of biomass, such as sugarcane and jatropha. In these cases, conflicts over access to land and mismanagement have been more of a rule than an exception. Increased production volumes of solid biomass for export to operations that demand bioenergy, be it with or without a CCS component, is likely to give rise to similar conflicts. While BECCS may well play an important role in reducing emissions in countries with high capacity to act combined with existing large point sources of biogenic CO2 emissions, it seems prudent to proceed with utmost caution when implicating BECCS deployment in least developed countries, like Tanzania.The paper argues that negative BECCS-related emissions from Tanzania should not be assumed in global climate mitigation scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, human activities are causing an important collapse in global biodiversity while also affecting the global climate considerably. Despite historical agreements on both biodiversity conservation and climate change, humanity keeps changing the face of the planet at an increasing rate. An undisputed factor in global change is the excessive and growing human consumption. On the other hand, it seems that linking humanity's environmental impact with population growth has been quite controversial in the international debate, as if, somehow, biodiversity loss and climate change were unconnected to it. To this purpose, this paper reviews (1) the impacts of continuing human population growth on global biodiversity and climate through the examples of food and energy production, (2) changing perceptions about population growth and (3) the potential solutions that could be used to address this issue. Despite not the only factor, the research reviewed in this paper highlights that continuing population growth plays a substantial global role in the destruction of biodiversity and in climate change, and this role urgently needs more attention in scientific, policy and public circles. Both unsustainable population levels and excessive consumption are part of the equation and must be addressed concurrently in developing and developed countries. Several non-coercive strategies are possible to address the population question, mostly through access to education and contraception, in order to empower women through the basic human right to have children by choice. In any case, although limiting population growth may not be the only solution required to fix current environmental problems, ignoring it is likely to hinder any ecologically sustainable future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes an analysis of the social–ecological resilience of the Limarí Basin, an agriculture-intensive dryland in the north of Chile, featuring one of the most innovative market-based water managements and the most active water rights market in the country, but concurrently affected by an ongoing water stress situation. The Chilean water market, one of the main examples of the application of neoliberal policies in water management, has received mixed appraisals although, at present, few empirical studies evaluate the social and environmental conditions associated with their operation. This paper, on the contrary, maintains the necessity to assess the capacity of market-based models to face situations of water stress, particularly since mega-drought phenomena are projected to become a recurring and increasing problem during the following decades because of climate change. The study offers a mixed bottom-up and top-down qualitative empirical analysis of how the Chilean water market operates, providing relevant insights into four dimensions of the social–ecological resilience of the watershed: redundancy, diversity and flexibility; connectivity, collaboration and collective action; social–ecological memory and learning; self-organization and governance of system changes. The conclusion is that water scarcity is self-produced: despite the flexibility provided by market-based water management, the combined effect of strong deregulation, of the absence of territorial planning and integrated management of water resources, and of short-term attitudes and generalized mistrust, has led the system to the critical situation it is now facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BREEAM Communities (BC) is a neighbourhood sustainability assessment method that has been implemented across the world and has been widely recognised to be a successful tool in supporting the delivery of urban sustainability. The research presented here aimed to contribute to the current literature in sustainability and adaptation through identifying and evaluating the potential that BC has in supporting and promoting climate change adaptation in terms of theoretical and practical governance. Media City, Salford, UK, provided the context for this study having been identified as an exemplar case study and the site of practical implementation of a breadth of community sustainability strategies. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the relationship between established characteristics of adaptive governance (AG) in relation to relevant BC indicators; alongside an evaluation of the perceptions of key actors' as to the adaptive capacity promoted by the application of this tool in practice. This research was informed by interviews with key actors and wider stakeholders in the design, construction and management of the development as well as focus groups with occupants, workers and students in the case study location. Consequently, the need for enhancement of the tool's indicators was identified, and suggestions for their improvement were proposed. Accordingly, BC was found to be a significant tool that holds potential to positively influence community response to climate change adaptation needs. In conclusion, in order to enable effective neighbourhood scale adaptation to climate change, the following themes were identified for further enhancement in the tool: adaptive behaviour and learning, communication, community awareness, knowledge and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts between human demands for clean water and terrestrial ecosystems' needs for water are increasing. Such conflicts are stronger in the case of groundwater, as one of the cleanest forms of drinking water, and are expected to increase in frequency, in the context of population growth and climatic changes. This paper argues that behavioral approaches are essential not only toward understanding how socio-ecological conflicts emerge, but also how they could be overcome. A theoretical the framework is proposed, which suggests that the behaviors/actions of actors who sustain such conflicts can be understood by examining their 'boundary judgments' regarding natural resources and sustainability, in interaction with their powers/resources to implement the preferred behaviors. The concept of boundary judgements is rarely used in investigating sustainability conflicts. This concept is operationalized in relation to nature-society conflicts and applied empirically to illuminate the conflict in a case study from the Netherlands. Further, the theoretical framework suggests a parsimonious, yet comprehensive, typology of mechanisms that can be used to change/'converge' the behaviors and actions of the actors contributing to the problem, toward conflict closure. These are referred to as convergence mechanisms and can be persuasive, enabling or constraining. The paper concludes with reflections on the practical usefulness of the framework and concretes suggestions for further research, drawing on these convergence mechanisms and their interactions with boundary judgments on natural resources and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]