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Enhancing the Definitions of Climate-Change Loss and Damage Based on Land Conversion in Florida, U.S.A.
- Source :
- Urban Science; Jun2023, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p40, 21p
- Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Loss and damage (L&D) from climate change result from past and current greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Current definitions of L&D exclude GHG emissions even though they represent L&D to human beings and the environment. This study's objective was to identify and quantify the L&D from GHG emissions associated with land developments using the state of Florida (FL) in the United States of America (USA) as a case study. All land developments in FL caused various L&D (20,249.6 km<superscript>2</superscript>, midpoint 3.0 × 10<superscript>11</superscript> of total soil carbon (TSC) losses with midpoint $50.3B (where B = billion = 10<superscript>9</superscript>, USD) in social costs of carbon dioxide emissions, SC-CO<subscript>2</subscript>), while "new" land developments (1703.7 km<superscript>2</superscript>) in the period from 2001 to 2016 caused a complete loss of midpoint 2.8 × 10<superscript>10</superscript> kg of TSC resulting in midpoint $4.5B SC-CO<subscript>2</subscript>. These emissions are currently not accounted for in FL's total carbon footprint (CF). Climate-change-related damages in FL include permanent losses (e.g., land losses), with 47 out of 67 FL's counties potentially affected by the projected sea-level rise and repairable damages (e.g., destruction from hurricanes). Based on the fixed social cost of carbon (C), there appears to be a disconnect between the value attributed to soil-based emissions and the actual market-driven losses from climate-change-associated costs. The social cost of C could be scaled based on the vulnerability of a particular community and the market-based cost of L&D mitigation. Programs for compensation on the international level should be carefully designed to help people who have suffered climate-related L&D, without creating reverse climate change adaptation (RCCA), where compensation causes people to remain in areas that are vulnerable to climate-related L&D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 24138851
- Volume :
- 7
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Urban Science
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 164677171
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci7020040