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Due to the severe effects of climate change on the agricultural sector, urgent action is required on the part of farmers and is, indeed, critical to reducing climate change impacts. However, reports globally revealed farmers' engagement in climate change adaptation is still insufficient, ambivalent, and inconsistent and farmers do not consider adaptation to be urgent. Researchers have argued that this issue is rooted in psychological biases beside other factors. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate how psychological distance determines climate change beliefs, risk perception and adaptation strategies among Iranian farmers. A cross-sectional paper-based survey was conducted in the Dasht-e Azadegan county of Khuzestan province in southwest Iran. The study sample consisted of 250 farmers selected through a multi-stage random sampling process. An expert panel review and a pilot study were conducted to confirm convergent validity and reliability of the scales. The results confirm that all four dimensions of psychological distance influence water management adaptation strategies and non-farm activities. Moreover, all psychological dimensions, except the temporal dimension, affect adaptation in farming management. Thus, making climate change more proximal to decision makers could be a strategic way of encouraging individuals to take adaptive actions. This study emphasizes that concepts of psychological distance can be applied to help organizations (e.g., agriculture extension services) to understand farmers' risk perceptions and responses to climate change impacts and improve risk communication to better engage farmers in climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increase in energy demand and consumption is one of the significant challenges of the world community. Global climate change and temperature rise can significantly affect energy demand, especially in the building sector. Green passive design strategies (GPDS) such as green roof and green wall are considered a passive energy-saving technology which can deal with further climate change in near future. This paper compares the energy demand and CO2 emissions of a building with different structural scenarios during the current (2000–2019) and future climatic conditions (the 2050s) in two hot-dry (Kerman) and hot-humid (BandarAbbas) climate samples in Iran. The base case, green roof, and green wall modeling of the selected building have been developed by DesignBuilder software. Results revealed that 61% of the annual energy consumption of Kerman is related to the heating sector, while it will be changed to 47% under the effect of climate change and based on RCP2.6. However, 99% of the annual energy consumption of BandarAbbas belongs to cooling demand and it will not change by 2050s. Also, the maximum heating and cooling energy demand were calculated for the base building. Based on the results, green wall has more efficiency in optimizing total energy consumption compared to green roof in both climate types. On the other hand, GPDS are more efficient to optimize heating energy demand in comparison with cooling energy demand. Furthermore, the green wall strategy has better performance in reducing CO2 emissions as well. Accordingly, CO2 emissions reduce in Kerman by 2.73% and 2.93% by the implementation of the green wall during the observation period and 2050s, respectively. Meanwhile, this strategy can reduce CO2 emissions by only 1% per year in BandarAbbas during all studied periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses a severe threat to agriculture and rural populations around the world, with the potential to devastate lives and livelihoods. Farmers need to adapt their farming methods and land management decisions to reduce the negative consequences associated with climate change. Understanding farmers' beliefs and perceptions regarding climate change is a good starting point for addressing current and future policy. As there is no one-size-fits-all strategy to promote adaptation, local adaptation-support strategies must be tailored to the particular needs and constraints of specific groups of farmers. To determine the policy implications of such strategies, a prudent and cost-effective approach is to categorize farmers into homogenous groupings using Q methodology to establish their perceptual frameworks with respect to climate change. Forty six farmers completed the Q sort procedure in this study. Data analysis identified that there are three different types of farmers' attitudes to climate change: fatalism, support seekers, and technocrats. These findings are critical for decision makers to help them develop more appropriate adaptation strategies for the agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]