Search

In this paper, we estimated the methane emissions by the disposal of sanitary and domestic-use paper consumed throughout Brazil from 1901 to 2016. The apparent consumption of this type of paper from 1961 to 2016, calculated from the data of the FAOSTAT system, was used to estimate the amount of waste disposed of annually in three site categories: sanitary landfill, controlled dump, and open-air, uncontrolled dump. The 2006 IPCC Guide methodology was used to calculate CH4emissions and long-term carbon storage. Nine scenarios based upon the law that establishes the National Solid Waste Policy (NSWP) were examined, considering 100% waste disposal and treatment in landfills or incineration from 2014. The total emission was estimated at 1.967 MtCH4, corresponding to 55.080 MtCO2eq by GWP-AR5, and the stored carbon at 3.724 Mt, corresponding to 13.655 MtCO2eq. CH4emission increased beyond the population growth rate due to an increase in the per capita paper consumption in the country, from 0.02 kgCH4.year-1 in 1961 to 0.30 kg CH4.year-1 in 2016. The NSWP has not yet been accomplished, and the scenarios outlined indicate that, from the point of view of CH4 emissions, it would be more advantageous to carry out incineration instead of applying other waste treatment technologies.

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.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(2), 527-532 | European Forum Highlight of 27 July 2022 | (Abstract) The Highlight discusses the EU policy on soil protection and preservation. It is argued that the EU has thus far failed to establish a comprehensive and effective legal framework on this issue. Rather, the EU acquis is extremely fragmented, with soils being addressed as ancillary elements to other environmental priorities. The Highlight points out that the current state of affairs is largely due to the Council's inability to conduct successful negotiations on the Commission's 2006 proposal for a Soil Framework Directive. This legislative initiative was abandoned in 2014 following claims of its violation of the subsidiarity principle. However, in the framework of its new Soil Strategy for 2030, the Commission has included an upcoming proposal for a comprehensive Soil Health Directive. The Highlight argues that, while the Commission is taking seriously the pre-proposal impact assessment, subsidiarity check and consultations, the current state of the environment requires the governments sitting in the Council to leave aside their formalistic criticisms and to adopt a proactive approach to the negotiations, with a view to bridging the existing gap in EU environmental law.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(1), 253-264 | European Forum Insight of 18 May 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Un insuccès imputable à l'obstacle de la recevabilité des requêtes climatiques auprès de la Cour de justice. - III. Explorer les voies de droit à même de porter la défense du climat devant la Cour de justice. - IV. Mobiliser en Europe des droits fondamentaux substantiels adaptés au contentieux climatique. | (Abstract) So far, climate change litigation in the European Union has been a disappointment, since the European Court of Justice denied the admissibility of two promising cases in 2021: Sabo ECLI:EU:C:2021:24 and Carvalho ECLI:EU:T:2019:252. Nonetheless, the European human rights litigation can still play a significant role in alleviating the ongoing climate crisis in the future. There is still a path to find the access to the Luxembourg Court for future claims related to climate change. Renewed standards of European Human Rights could also be one of the keys to create a proper case law to fight global warming.

The role of aquatic animals in global food and nutrition security is increasingly recognised. The global demand for fish is increasing, leading to a need to significantly increase its supply. Securing future fish supplies through sustainable production is a challenge as major resources such as fresh water and land are becoming limited worldwide. Aquaculture and capture fisheries face various threats from both human-mediated and natural environmental change, including climate change. Aquaculture systems and practices are vulnerable to such changes. Moreover, aquatic animal diseases are currently considered one of the most important constraints to sustainable global fish production. The need to increase global production, combined with climate change, may increase losses due to diseases. This paper examines key vulnerabilities, their impacts and management to achieve increased and sustainable global fish production. The authors focus on the need to apply international standards, and to develop biosecurity and capacity in aquatic animal health to improve global fish health. Research needed to underpin the development of improved detection and control of fish diseases is also discussed.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2017 2(2), 519-542 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The legal phenomenon of IEMEIs. - II.1. IEMEIs regulating conduct abroad on the basis of environmental regulatory requirements. - II.2. IEMEIs regulating trade: market access conditions and obligations on Third Country actors. - II.3. Compliance with IEMEIs: "contingent unilateralism", equivalence and flexibility. - III. Access to justice. - III.1. Avenues for access to justice for different kinds of third country actors. - III.2. Standing. - III.3. The Aarhus Convention and access to justice. - IV. Conclusion. | (Abstract) The EU conducts its external relations through different types of tools, including through unilateral domestic measures with extraterritorial implications that extend its regulatory power to processes occurring partly abroad. These are increasingly prevalent in the area of environmental protection, including climate change. Examples include the sustainability criteria for biofuels, the inclusion of aviation emissions in the EU emissions trading system, ship recycling, exports of electrical and electronic waste and imports of timber. Because these measures are unilateral in nature, developed within the EU legal order, but have important legal and policy effects beyond EU borders, they raise complex legitimacy questions and may give rise to an external accountability gap. The role of EU administrative law, which controls the exercise of EU public power, is important in "disciplining" the exercise of EU power beyond EU borders and filling this gap. The Article explores some of the novel regulatory techniques employed in these kinds of internal measures to conduct external action and how administrative law responds to their complexities. It focuses on access to justice in the EU legal order in exploring the extent of an external accountability gap. The constraints of accessing the EU judicial system may accentuate the external accountability gap if the EU cannot be held into account on the basis of its own rule of law by third country actors affected by its action.

This paper aims to present a bibliometric and systemic analysis of the Bibliographic Portfolio (BP) jointly examining the literature related to topics like “Greenhouse gas,” mainly carbon, and “Management,” as published in databases data such as Web of Science and Scopus in the field of economic and social sciences. The Knowledge and Constructivist Development Process methodology —Proknow-C— was used to establish the final portfolio and through the VosViewer program were mapped the various groups or relationships between the studied literature. The paper presents the theoretical and methodological aspects focusing on the areas and countries of study and highlighting the most relevant authors to have researched this particular topic. We use this constructivist model to describe the measurement variables and synthesize the concepts most used in these studies in order to propose new focal points and thematic approaches that could be developed further in the future.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2016 1(3), 1153-1170 | European Forum Insight of 22 December 2016 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction - II. The Judgment in Context - II.1. Theory and Practice of Market-Based Environmental Regulation - II.2 Emissions Trading in the EU - III. The DK Recycling Case - III.1 Background - III.2. DK Recycling before the General Court - III.3. DK Recycling before the Court of Justice - IV. A Parallel Between DK Recycling and the Regulatory Shift to Auctioning: The Normative Landscape of Allowance Allocation - V. DK Recycling, Allowance Allocation and Theoretical Constructions of the EU ETS. | (Abstract) In its judgment of 22 June 2016, DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH v. Commission, the Court of Justice ruled on an appeal brought by a German undertaking operating installations subject to the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), i.e. a "carbon market" where operators trade greenhouse gas emission allowances. At issue in the case were the rules on free allocation of emission allowances. After putting the case in context by providing an overview of the normative framework of the mechanism, the present analysis examines how the case contributes to the understanding of the theoretical implications of the EU ETS.

This paper highlights the important leadership role of the public health sector, working with other governmental sectors and nongovernmental entities, to advance environmental public health in Latin America and the Caribbean toward the achievement of 2030 Sustainable Development Goal 3: Health and Well-Being. The most pressing current and future environmental public health threats are discussed, followed by a brief review of major historical and current international and regional efforts to address these concerns. The paper concludes with a discussion of three major components of a regional environmental public health agenda that responsible parties can undertake to make significant progress toward ensuring the health and well-being of all people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

The environmental crisis and climate change belong to a group of topics that appear not to be receiving as much media attention as some other issues, e.g. politics, economy, finance, and social and ethnic issues. Too often side-lined, even if environment gets some scope in news and documentaries, it is not always presented comprehensively enough. Although environmentalists and eco-philosophers are constantly – and ever more urgently – pointing to what they describe as an alarming situation at hand, it seems that most of the public has adopted a rather indifferent (disengaged) posture towards news about an imminent environmental crisis, climate change, global warming, the use of plastic etc. Public discourse and media discourse have been increasingly intertwined, so ordinary people acquire most information (not only) on environmental issues from the mass media: press, internet, radio and TV, particularly from newscast and documentaries. This paper will discuss possible relations between presentation of environmental issues in the media and attitudes held by their audience. We believe that the media must assume their part in creating public awareness of environmental issues. Our paper will be based on interdisciplinary, predominantly theoretical research involving the combination of media studies and media philosophy. We will discuss main features of this issue from the viewpoint of media-centric theories, since we maintain that effects of the mass media on empirical and social reality (including environmental issues) are beyond any doubt.

The tasks of documenting and narrating stories of climate change and border environments have become increasingly urgent in recent years, and discussions around effective approaches to environmental storytelling have intensified accordingly. The film Char… The No Man’s Island (2012), directed by Sourav Sarangi, is a noteworthy example of a work that seeks to represent one such unstable environment that exists on the border between India and Bangladesh and to explore the daily lives of the beings who inhabit it. Although the documentary has a specific regional focus, its scope is far from limited, as the film examines various dimensions of life in this border environment as well as the historical and political factors that have led to the current realities of the space and the communities established there. In this paper, I examine how Sarangi’s inclusion of a multitude of distinct human and non-human perspectives throughout the film signals a move towards a form of environmental storytelling grounded in the notion of a collective, wherein narrative agency is distributed amongst multiple entities rather than invested in a single individual. Moreover, the paper argues that the usage of these various perspectives also enables Char to depict alternate temporalities and experiences of time which contrast heavily with ideas of linear time and progress and invites audiences to consider the multifaceted temporal and spatial realities of life in a precarious border environment.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one that is largely characterized by authoritarian regimes. Much traditional scholarship writes many of these regimes off as anti democratic, and hence negate the possibility to work meaningfully and effectively with these regimes toward important global goals. By engaging in a post-democratic approach this paper looks beyond what Morocco is lacking in the way of democratic principles and norms and instead focuses on the beneficial action it is taking to fight climate change domestically, and ultimately work with the international community to contribute to global climate goals. This paper explores the many initiatives the Moroccan regime is undertaking at its own behest, while exploring the key actors in these activities as well as the main impetus for doing so. Ultimately it builds data toward conclusions that although the Moroccan regime is doing this is large part to further solidify and legitimize its own power, it is simultaneously taking important actions that are beneficial to its own people as well as the rest of the world. In this sense the authoritarian Moroccan regime is combating climate change, as a means to maintain and bolster its own grip on power in the region.

The conventional wisdom in disaster management is that communities exhibiting social capital are more likely to bounce back after disaster. This paper examines the link between social capital and resilience to disasters and climate change through an examination of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood before and after Hurricane Katrina. Using archives and interviews to examine the neighborhood’s recovery, the paper finds evidence for the existence of social capital and the properties of community resilience in the Lower Ninth Ward before the storm. Social capital and resilience proved to be fragile because the neighborhood was particularly vulnerable and lacked political power. Attempts to use social capital and community resilience alone as part of a strategy to combat climate change should take into account older notions of vulnerability and political power as important ingredients in community well-being. Este artículo analiza la relación entre capital social y resiliencia ante los desastres y ante el cambio climático a través de una observación del barrio de Lower Ninth Ward de Nueva Orleans antes y después del huracán Katrina. Utilizando archivos y entrevistas para examinar la recuperación de esa área, el artículo encuentra pruebas de que ya antes del huracán había capital social y las cualidades propias de la resiliencia comunitaria en el Lower Ninth Ward. El capital social y la resiliencia resultaron ser frágiles porque el barrio era especialmente vulnerable y carecía de poder político. Los intentos de utilizar el capital social y la resiliencia comunitaria como parte de la estrategia para combatir el cambio climático deberían fijarse en nociones más antiguas de vulnerabilidad y de poder político como ingredientes importantes para el bienestar comunitario.Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1065

Since conclusion of the Paris Agreement and the high-profile Urgenda case, potential new avenues for strategic climate litigation have received considerable attention in many countries, including Australia. Australia already has a substantial climate jurisprudence, primarily involving administrative challenges under environmental laws. This paper aims to examine the prospects for a “next generation” of cases focused on holding governments and corporations to account for the climate change implications of their actions. We draw on analysis of existing legal precedent and emerging cases to explore four key aspects: drivers for next generation lawsuits, potential legal avenues, and likely enablers and barriers. The paper uses the Australian experience as a case study but draws also on litigation trends globally. We find that the most fruitful strategy for future climate change litigation is likely to be one that advances lower risk cases building from the base of existing litigation, while simultaneously attempting novel approaches. Desde los Acuerdos de París y el caso Urgenda, varios países han prestado mayor atención a los litigios estratégicos sobre el clima. Australia ya tiene una notable jurisprudencia sobre el clima, especialmente en cuanto a los desafíos que para la administración suponen las leyes ambientales. Este artículo analiza las posibilidades de una “nueva generación” de casos basados en pedir responsabilidades gubernamentales y empresariales. Partimos de antecedentes jurídicos y de casos emergentes para explorar cuatro cuestiones claves: los motores para demandas judiciales, posibles vías legales, y capacitadores y obstáculos probables. Se usa la experiencia de Australia como estudio de caso, pero también se traen a colación tendencias judiciales globales. Hallamos que la estrategia más provechosa es propulsar casos de menor riesgo desde la base de los litigios existentes, a la vez que ensayar nuevos abordajes. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1060

Climate change is a wicked problem, a framework not often used in sociolegal studies. The problem is complex, not readily named, and not limited to one jurisdiction. Therefore, the places of law are multiple: human rights instruments, supranational tribunals, regional courts, and local governments and NGOS. Litigation concerning responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions has largely not resulted in favorable judgments, and the papers in this collection turn to other ways of conceptualizing law and courts in responding to climate change. Relevant legal strategies include environmental legal enforcement, but also changes in investment, and response to the many disasters that are related to climate change. The papers in this collection travel across jurisdictions, actors and problems to assess legal strategies concerning climate change. El cambio climático es un problema perverso, un marco poco usado en los estudios sociojurídicos. El problema es complejo, de difícil denominación, y no está limitado a una sola jurisdicción. Por lo tanto, el derecho tiene muchos espacios: instrumentos de derechos humanos, tribunales supranacionales, juzgados regionales y gobiernos y ONG locales. Los litigios sobre responsabilidades por emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero no han solido acabar con veredictos favorables, y los artículos de esta colección miran hacia otras formas de conceptualizar el derecho y los tribunales como respuesta al cambio climático. Estrategias legales importantes incluyen la aplicación del derecho, pero también cambios en inversiones y respuestas a los múltiples desastres relacionados con el cambio climático. Los artículos de este número navegan por varias jurisdicciones, agentes y problemas para valorar las estrategias jurídicas sobre cambio climático. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35295/osls.iisl/0000-0000-0000-1059

Sea level rise and sea state variability, resulting from climate change and global warming, are critical research areas. However, current techniques for observing and monitoring these phenomena have limitations in terms of spatial and temporal resolution, particularly in dynamic coastal zones. GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is an emerging bistatic radar-based technique that utilizes the GNSS direct (transmitter-receiver) and reflected (transmitter-reflection point-receiver) signals to extract properties of the reflecting surface. This study explores the potential of airborne GNSS-R as a means to monitor sea state in coastal areas by using the Doppler spread and reflectivity as observables. The paper aims to derive a sea state factor from the reflected signal power and the Doppler shift distribution to analyze its correlation with wind speed and significant wave height data obtained from the ERA5 model. The experiment involved four flights conducted along the coast between Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, in July 2019. A GNSS software receiver processes the direct and reflected signals, tracking and re-tracking the reflected signals with the aid of a specular reflection model. The resulting in-phase and quadrature components are analyzed in the spectral domain every minute to estimate the power, the surface reflectivity, and the relative Doppler shift. The findings reveal that the sea state factor and Doppler spreading are sensitive to sea state conditions, correlated with the ERA5 parameters, and influenced by the elevation angle of GNSS satellites. At low elevations (E

One of the key challenges for agriculture today is feeding an increasing population without contributing to climate change. Increasingly, digital agriculture is discussed as a new sociotechnical regime that could help limit emissions for farmers worldwide. While sustainability is an important issue, recent papers in the field of digital agriculture do not address the problem directly. After a literature review, this paper will focus on the importance of shared perspectives as enablers in socio-technical transitions. This paper argues that the myth of the digital sublime could act in favour of the existing and unsustainable model of agriculture. This is partly a result of hardware production and connectivity already being resource-intensive. Precisely because of this high environmental impact, the following discussion will employ the legacy of the Green Revolution to highlight the importance of precaution in deploying digital agriculture. In theory, in order to address the shortcomings of the current system, private sector companies are developing proprietary software solutions that could in practice entrench unsustainable business models. As an alternative, this paper suggests, existing open-source platforms that encourage not-for-profit collaborations between farmers should be scaled up. Through bottom-up processes, future researchers and developers should seek ways to place sustainability at the centre of their analyses, and encourage the adoption of practices that can be tailored to the diverse needs of farmers. Ultimately, stakeholders in digital agriculture should understand that sustainability principles must be encoded at all stages in the deployment of digital agriculture technologies.

Abstract In this paper, we analyze secondary data from surveys focusing on climate change and adaptation in Sao Paulo municipalities. The survey was completed by municipal actors who work in 332 of the 645 municipalities in the State. In this paper, we use a theoretical framework on urban climate governance, which highlights the role that local governments play in proposing strategies to deal with climate change, to present and discuss data related to: 1) the occurrence of extreme climatic events in these municipalities; 2) the impacts of these events; 3) local government actors’ perception about climate change; and 4) local actions and responses. Our analysis of these data significantly contributes to better understanding how cities in the most populous and economically developed state in Brazil perceive, respond and deal with climate change and what critical challenges hamper climate adaptation in these cities.

The paper aims to present narrative sources from the late phase of ‘Little Ice Age’ period for a part of the Southeastern Europe, which is still poorly investigated. In the lack of solid evidence, obtained by geo-sciences (dendrochronology, sediment and pollen analysis, records of instrumental measurements, etc.), the text relies on documentary ‘proxies’ derived from several chronicles and short notes. These accounts – from Dalmatian cities of Split and Makarska, Ottoman metropolis of Sarajevo, Franciscan monasteries in Kreševo (Bosnia) and in Šarengrad (Srem, after Habsburg re-conquest) – are unevenly distributed in time and geographical space, far from the quality of ‘weather diaries’, which existed elsewhere in Europe of this period. Nonetheless, the preserved sources verify in their own manner cumulative changes occurring throughout the region: people observed changes not only in high frequency of change of seasonal temperature and precipitation patterns and the scale, but more significantly, there was coupling of extreme weather events and heavy disturbances of weather patterns. Franciscan writers in Makarska and Kreševo repeatedly wrote how weather features and course of seasons were untimely, unexpected, sudden and detrimental, ‘suis temporibus non correspondens’, and how particular agricultural works could not be performed ‘ut moris est’, at the usual, traditional schedule, due to the weather perturbances. Adriatic summers turned extremely hot and dry, with long periods without any rain, while data from Šarengrad corroborate results obtain in the historical climatology for Hungary on the severity of winters and long period of frozen Danube River. Mulla Basheski’s records from Sarajevo yield information on Miljacka River flood events, in connection to both climate condition and land-use patterns. This paper is foremost an attempt to draw attention to research possibilities for the Western Balkans, and there are more documentary, narrative and archival sources to be further investigated, with collaborations among geoscientists and historians.

A triple environmental crisis marks the current century: the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies that challenge¡ societies around the world and require global dialogue. Consequently, it seems worth assessing across international strata, whether young adults living in different regions would share social representations of the environmental crisis. Built on findings from 16 focus group discussions held in Ireland and Uruguay, comprising 109 participants, the objective of this article is to uncover and compare between countries: which environmental issues remain crucial for young citizens of diverse backgrounds and affiliations; how coincidental issues of concern are articulated across countries; and how structural factors are perceived as key to an environmentally unsustainable system. Let alone the case of Climate Change, the main findings point to shared topics of concern, such as Waste Generation and Disposal or Food Production and Consumption, with contrasting social representations of them between the two regions, which shed light on how environmental risk is socially built in dialogue with the context despite global discursive trends, in a highly mediatized and glocal era. Unlike university students focused studies, the paper offers a qualitative approach to the perceptions of young adults of diverse backgrounds in both countries.

The network structures that have arisen out of globalisation could provide an alternative means of addressing major global challenges (climate change, mitigation of its effects or the prevention of pandemics). Cities increasingly consider themselves “actors motivated by interests” and they turn to urban diplomacy and interest-based networks to change the conversation – and, ultimately, the power structure – of multinational governance. Starting with a definition of what urban power is, this paper examines the rise of urban networks and their leverage of data to claim a more active role in the face of their nation-states, and on a global scale. Drawing on two brief case studies – the C40 network and Voluntary Local Reviews – it points to possible ways forward for urban networks of influence in the short term.

Agricultural drought is a serious threat for those locations where one of the most important economic activities is crop production, which occurrence has been rising due to climate change. In addition, different kinds of phenomena could exacerbate agricultural drought frequency, duration, and severity. For example, El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which mostly occurs in the tropical western and central pacific, directly affects the Peruvian territory. This study aims to understand ENSO's influence on agricultural drought in the Mantaro Valley, Peru since it is one of the most important agricultural lands in the country without clear scientific information linked to drought and ENSO events. For drought assessment using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration (SPEI) index and for ENSO events through a documentary and numerical analysis under Oceanic Niño Index (ONI) with information from several scientific recent papers to integrate information and formulate a clear event influence understanding. The results show that within Mantaro Valley along its four provinces and their six meteorological stations, 70% of agricultural drought events occurred when ENSO was present between 1990-2021. Also, the severity straight correlation percentage between both, ENSO and SPEI events is quite variable between 9.09%-70%. It is important to keep analyzing those stations with few data since it can provide a new scenario deportment and track new ENSO forecasting methods to rise adaptive capacity and guarantee national and international food security which has as an important supplier to the Mantaro Valley, Peru.

This paper aims to briefly discuss the concept of the Anthropocene within the geological sciences, and to consider, more broadly, some of the theoretical unfolding of the term within the humanities. Towards its conclusion, the paper presents the demands the Anthropocene makes, as a geological Epoch (in which the human becomes a geophysical force, capable of changing the Earth’s biophysical systems), of literary studies as a possible field for theoretical articulations that may add to the debates on this historical moment in which climate change, forced dislocations, the mass extinction of several species, and other urgent matters come to the fore.

This contribution addresses the federal architecture of Belgium to understand its core functioning elements with regard to the country’s climate change governance. For several historic, cultural and political reasons, Belgium bears a heavily decentralised institutional and organisational setup, which, however, provides for several drawbacks when addressing face-offs and cross-cutting policy issues such as climate change. The compartmentalised allocation of powers and the intergovernmental conflicts arising as a result of diverging political stances at different levels of government towards climate action have led to several policy failures. This paper will thus first outline the complex governance structure of the Belgian federal state. While doing so, it will also underscore key formal and informal features underpinning policymaking in Belgium, which are of utmost relevance for climate policy. Next, it will chart such governance structure within the specific context of climate action in Belgium. Last, it will display some examples of climate policy failures to unfold how different tenets of the Belgian system interplay with climate change planning and policy implementation. Notably, Belgium displays an example of how decentralisation could be put at odds with the effective development and implementation of climate policy.

In a world where climate change has been one of the main challenges in the last decades, cities and local governments are key players to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to new climate conditions. This article focuses on climate change policy implementation at local level. Using the city of Buenos Aires as a case study, in this research it is aimed to identify which micro- and macro-level factors and the context enable the local government to implement its climate change action plan launched in 2015. To do so, Ryan’s framework is used. The main findings of this paper support the hypothesis tested: Buenos Aires local government had sufficient resources and support from political and social coalitions, as well as the ability to link climate action with local issues to implement the Climate Change Action Plan (2015-2020).

This paper moves from the idea that cities represent a central “battlefield” for today’s environmental challenges. Climate change, in particular, poses significative threats for urban landscapes and communities living in urban space. On the one hand, today’s challenges have significant continuities with classical urban issues: cities have always been space of conflicts, contradictions, inequalities. Environmental issues represent one of the many stressors of urban dynamics; conflicts on the locations of polluting sites, for example, have developed over the last fifty years, intertwined with segregation and discrimination processes. On the other hand, the central role of the environment in current policies, framed as “sustainability policies”, need a specific, renewed and stronger focus on urban inequalities, that can significantly benefit from new analytical tools, such as Big data. The first paragraph give a short perspective on environmental justice history and main topics, focusing in particular on its lasting interest for spatial inequalities and discrimination processes. The second paragraph underlines how, within the context of climate change, such perspective proves to be still useful, permitting to deepen our understandings of vulnerabilities and recovery processes in the aftermath of disasters, or resilience planning’s failures. The third and last paragraph illustrates how new analytical tools, such as Big Data or ecometrics, can be used to inform local policies and strengthen cooperation between activists, citizen, administrators and academics in tackling inequalities within the urban fabric.

The paper reflects on the state of the art in the field of smart cities and climate change focusing on how cities can play a role in meeting the 2030 climate neutrality goal. It investigates the main streams of literature on cities’ visions (smart city, sharing city, self-sufficient city, 15-minuts city, circular city) and the climate-neutrality approach proposed by the European Commission through the EU mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities. The mission has identified 100 European cities that will be engaged in a transition to climate neutrality by the end of 2030 as cities’ model to push other cities to work for meeting goals of decarbonization. The 9 Italian cities selected by the mission, as well as a city inspired by the mission itself, are presented with their programs and initiatives in order to highlight how they are replying to the main urban challenges in terms of services provisions. The emerging hypothesis is that, to provide services in a fair and just way reducing environmental impact, city should be understand as a commons. A co-city model based on a penta helix approach as those proposed by Foster and Iaione, is thus a strategic way to deal with the urban challenges also in a climate logic and would help cities to meet the EU goals by 2030.

The aim of this paper is to discuss improvements for the Master in Sustainability Management of Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), in order to incorporate the topic of disaster risk management (DRM). Considering the risks and opportunities that climate change – and more specifically extreme weather events that can lead to disasters – represent to business, it is essential that business schools help prepare managers to deal with this critical sustainability issue. Therefore, it is extremely important to include this topic in management education. Aiming to support companies to assess and address busi-ness risks and opportunities derived from climate change, the Business for Climate Platform (EPC) of the Center for Sustainability Studies (GVces) of FGV has developed a framework and a tool for business adaptation strategies for climate change and implemented them with seven large companies in Brazil. Thus, based on EPC’s experience, the paper brings a proposal for the inclusion of DRM in the MSM’s syllabi, through the lens of climate change adaptation.