Floating Photovoltaic Systems: Expanding Renewable Alternatives to Combat Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Jimmy Volmink: shaping the evidence base in South Africa

Addressing Climate Change Without Legislation - Volume 1: DOI

Climate change poses significant challenges to informal street vendors, particularly in urban settings where they operate in vulnerable environments. These challenges include economic instability, health risks, and sociopolitical exclusion, which are further exacerbated by extreme weather events and inadequate policy support. This review focuses on understanding these impacts by synthesizing lessons and exploring potential solutions from South Africa and other regions that could be implemented by governments and street vendors. A systematic review was conducted, following PRISMA guidelines, to synthesize findings from 48 studies published between 2015 and 2024. This review employed qualitative and quantitative analysis using thematic coding in ATLAS.ti and Microsoft Excel version 2024. Comparative analyses across regions and time periods were conducted to identify differences in impacts and adaptation strategies. Among the 48 studies, 52% were conducted in Africa and 50% in Asia, making these the most frequently represented regions in research on climate change and informal street vendors. Most of the publications were between 2021 and 2024 (52%). This review further highlights that climate change has led to significant economic losses, reduced working hours, and increased operational costs for informal vendors. Health impacts, such as respiratory illnesses and heat stress, are prevalent, particularly among vendors exposed to air pollution and extreme temperatures. Gender-specific vulnerabilities were noted, with women facing compounded challenges due to caregiving responsibilities and inadequate access to sanitation facilities. While Asian vendors have adopted technological solutions like mobile payment systems and cooling devices, these may not be currently feasible for South African vendors. Instead, tailored interventions that consider the local context and available resources are necessary to effectively support South African street vendors. Key recommendations include integrating vendors into urban resilience planning such as encouraging the use of cleaner and more sustainable transportation, improving access to healthcare, and providing financial support. Additionally, governments and communities should pilot the solutions identified in this review and publish their findings to inform future policies and practices.

Hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind generation in combination with green ammonia as a seasonal energy storage vector offers an excellent opportunity to decrease the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). In this work, an analysis is performed to find the most cost-effective configuration of power-to-ammonia-to-power (P2A2P). In P2A2P, wind and solar resources are combined with energy storage to design a resilient electricity grid. For daily generation, batteries are utilized for energy storage, whereas ammonia is employed to cope with seasonal fluctuations. The costs of energy storage capacity have a significant influence on the LCOE. Therefore, this work studies the effect of solar/wind hybrid generation systems and energy storage capacity on the LCOE. A base case of the region of De Aar in South Africa was selected because this inland location has excellent wind and solar resources. The optimized battolyzer and Haber-Bosch design capacity led to an overall load factor of 20-30%. At a 30% load factor, a hybrid system with 37% wind-based and 63% solar-based energy generation capacity was the most cost-effective configuration, resulting in a LCOE of 0.15 USD/kWh at a 5% annual discount rate. In an optimistic scenario for PV costs, the LCOE achieved is essentially unaltered (0.14 USD/kWh), while the contribution of wind and PV changes to 25 and 75%, respectively. This analysis indicates that appropriate designing of hybrid energy solutions will play a key role in determining the final energy storage capacities needed to reduce the LCOE. While these costs for LCOE are above those reported for coal-powered electricity in South Africa (e.g., 0.072 USD/kWh for businesses and 0.151 USD/kWh for households), a carbon tax of 50 USD/ton of CO2 can increase these costs to 0.102 and 0.191 USD/kWh, rendering a more promising outlook for the P2A2P concept.

For many of the world’s poor people, adaptation to climate change is not a choice but a reality. Existing evidence suggests that the poor, particularly those in the developing world, are the most vulnerable to any changes in climate variability and change. Using research methods inspired by the tradition of participatory research, we explore and discuss community perceptions on climate change adaptation governance in South Africa. We examine the myriad ways in which climate change adaptation policies and strategies are developed, and we systematically discuss the factors which either facilitate or hamper the involvement of all stakeholders in the development of these intervention measures. Our findings indicate that women seem to be the group of people who are mostly unaware of community initiatives, policies, and strategies for the adaptation to climate change. Thus, it is argued that, although South Africa has developed good climate change initiatives, policies, and strategies, the implementation of these policies seems to present difficulties, as those for whom they have been developed do not seem to have any knowledge of their effectiveness in helping them build resilience against extreme weather events. This study recommends that, in order to achieve successful public participation in climate change adaptation policy development, there must be an all-inclusive system which incorporates all stakeholders, including vulnerable groups.

Time to change course on climate

Most power plants, particularly those that burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas, create CO2, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. By 2060, the Indonesian government has committed to reach net zero emissions. With the lowest CO2 emissions, nuclear power plants are dependable sources of energy. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are a particular kind of nuclear power plant that has the potential to be Indonesia’s first commercial nuclear power plant because of their small size, low capacity, uncomplicated design, and modular characteristics. The purpose of this study is to examine the economics and technological feasibility of SMRs. In this analysis, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) comparative method and the technology readiness level (TRL) approach are both applied. The SMRs with a minimum TRL value of 7 were CAREM-25 (TRL7), KLT-40S (TRL8), and HTR-PM (TRL 8), according to the results of this research. Although CAREM-25 and KLT-40S are still in the demonstration stage and have not yet entered the market, their LCOE estimates are greater than 0.07 USD/kWh with a 5% discount rate. Whereas CAREM 100 MW is an economy scale from CAREM-25 and VBER 300 MW is a commercial size from KLT-40S, HTR-PM is already an economy scale. With discount rates between 5% and 10%, the LCOE values of HTR-PM, CAREM 100 MW, and VBER 300 MW range from 0.06 USD to 0.12 USD per kWh. Other than hydropower and coal-fired power plants, these LCOE figures can compete with the local LCOE in Indonesia and the LCOE of a variety of other types of power plants.

There is growing attention to the impacts of climate change and related extreme weather events (EWE) on HIV vulnerabilities, yet this research largely overlooks key populations such as sex workers and gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). This is a critical knowledge gap in contexts that are greatly affected by climate change, EWE, and HIV, such as Kenya. To address this gap, this study examined the lived experiences of sex workers and gbMSM aged 18-24 in Nairobi, Kenya, regarding the relationships between climate change and EWE, resource insecurities (e.g., food, water), and HIV vulnerabilities. In 2023, we conducted a multi-method qualitative study in Nairobi, Kenya, including individual interviews using the SenseMaker web-based data collection tool and group digital storytelling workshops among 36 participants, including 21 sex workers and 15 gbMSM. Participant narratives aligned with the following themes highlighting the interconnections between EWE and HIV vulnerabilities: (1) EWE, specifically droughts and flooding, led directly and indirectly to resource scarcities and infrastructure damage; (2) participants enacted strategies to navigate resource scarcities, some of which increased HIV vulnerabilities (e.g., reduced condom agency, transactional sex engagement); (3) EWE and resource scarcities increased sexual violence risks; and (4) LGBTQ stigma exacerbated resource scarcities. Participants provided recommendations for multi-level strategies for HIV prevention, sexual health, and wellbeing for young sex workers and gbMSM in Kenya. Learning from young sex worker and gbMSM experiences can advance climate-informed HIV programming that addresses stigma, resource scarcities, and violence to advance sexual health and rights.

BACKGROUND: Island communities such as Puerto Rico (PR) are profoundly impacted by climate extremes. Patients with chronic disease, particularly cancer, have unique needs and challenges in the aftermath of extreme weather events. Understanding cancer patients’ barriers, knowledge, risks, and vulnerabilities are essential to develop equitable adaptation strategies. This research aims to investigate the perceptions and experiences of cancer patients associated with extreme weather events over the past 10 years in Puerto Rico (PR). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study via survey questionnaires (April 22, 2023-June 8, 2023) among adults aged ≥21 years from Puerto Rico who are cancer patients/survivors (n=207). A total of 23 questions listed on the survey were used to collect information on variables of interest which included demographic characteristics, information on extreme weather event experiences, and attitude towards climate change. Using the data collected, descriptive statistics were used to describe the study population and multivariable logistic regression models were used to evaluate the associations of interest (IRB approval # 2023-04-101). RESULTS: The average age of individuals recruited is 56.3 years ±13.5 SD, 79.7% are female, 65.2% reported having additional chronic diseases, and 85.0% have more than a high-school education. Regarding extreme weather events, 99% of cancer patients and survivors reported floods, including coastal, fluvial, and urban floods, impacted their communities, 76% reported tropical cyclones impacted their residences and communities, and 72% reported extreme heat impacted both their residences and communities in the last 10 years. Additionally, the most common problems encountered in the aftermath of these extreme weather events were water (88.4%) and electricity service interruption (91.4%), as well as water (88.9%) and electricity service interruption (77.1%). Most participants reported feeling very and extremely worried about their health in the face of climate change (75.0%) and feeling concerned about climate change (85.0%). After adjusting for age, sex, and education, logistic regression models showed that participants with more than one cancer type were more likely to be worried about their health in the face of climate change (OR=2.40,95% CI=1.06-5.35). CONCLUSION: Study findings highlight the burden of extreme weather events and the problems encountered in the aftermath of such events on cancer patients in Puerto Rico. This population expresses concern and worry about climate change and their health, respectively. This information is important for cancer control and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions and management strategies to remove detrimental and avoidable impacts on cancer populations. Citation Format: Jimena Perez, Pablo A. Méndez-Lázaro, Fabiola A. Rivera-Gastón, Ana P. Ortiz. Assessing the impact of extreme climate weather events on cancer patients in Puerto Rico: A cross-sectional study [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A114.

Global climate change refers to the long-term, large-scale shift in the planet’s weather patterns and average temperatures, primarily driven by human activities, particularly greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. It constitutes a global emergency, profoundly impacting human health, food security, and safety. Despite global efforts to limit temperature increases to 1.5°C, the consequences of climate change are becoming increasingly apparent. According to the World Health Organization, between 2030 and 2050, climate change could cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths annually due to malnutrition and infectious diseases. Extreme weather events—prolonged droughts, heatwaves, heavy rainfall, and floods—threaten food systems, increasing the prevalence of zoonoses, food-, water-, and vector-borne diseases. These conditions displace millions of people annually, leading to the phenomenon of climate refugees. Beyond environmental factors, climate change also affects agricultural productivity and food quality, exacerbating hunger in vulnerable regions. It disrupts plant health, alters pathogen life cycles, and increases vulnerability to invasive species and diseases. Simultaneously, armed conflicts and geopolitical instability further aggravate migration and food insecurity, creating a vicious cycle that disproportionately impacts economically fragile regions. This study aims to explore the interconnections between climate change, armed conflict, migration, and global food insecurity. It highlights the causal relationships among these factors, emphasizing how extreme weather events, natural disasters, and conflicts affect food production, access, and distribution. By addressing key drivers—such as forced migration due to environmental and political crises—and analyzing the impact on vulnerable populations, particularly in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, this research underscores the urgent need for a multidimensional response encompassing foreign, economic, energy, and food policies to mitigate the escalating risks to global food security. Keywords: Global warming, greenhouse gas emissions, extreme weather events, food and nutrition security, natural disasters, armed conflicts, migrations.

The increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events resulting from climate change have led to grid outages and other negative consequences. To ensure the resilience of buildings which serve as primary shelters for occupants, resilient strategies are being developed to improve their ability to withstand these extreme events (e.g., building upgrades and renewable energy generators and storage). However, a crucial step towards creating a resilient built environment is accurately estimating building performance during such conditions using historical extreme climate change-induced weather events. To conduct Building Performance Simulation (BPS) in extreme conditions, such as weather events induced by climate change, it is essential to utilize Actual Meteorological Year (AMY) weather files instead of Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) files. AMY files capture the precise climatic conditions during extreme weather events, enabling accurate simulation of such scenarios. These weather files provide valuable data that can be used to assess the vulnerabilities and resilience of buildings to extreme weather events. By analyzing past events and their impacts using BPS tools, we can gain insights into the specific weaknesses and areas that require improvement. This approach applies to both existing buildings needing climate change-resilient retrofits and new building designs that must be compatible with future climatic conditions. Moreover, the intensification and frequency increase of these extreme weather events makes developing adaptation and resilient-building measures imperative. This involves understanding the potential losses that households may experience due to the intensification of extreme events and developing farsighted coping strategies and climate-proof resilient-building initiatives. However, addressing the knowledge gap caused by the absence of an AMY weather file dataset of extreme events is essential. This will allow for accurate BPS during past extreme climate change-induced weather events. To fill this gap, this article introduces a comprehensive .epw format weather file dataset focusing on historical extreme weather events in Canada. This collection encompasses a diverse array of past extreme climate change occurrences in various locations, with potential for future expansion to include additional locations and countries. This dataset enables energy simulations for different types of buildings and considers a diverse range of historical weather conditions, allowing for better estimation of thermal performance.

<p>Compound events lead to substantial risks to societies around the globe. As climate change is increasingly exacerbating the intensity and frequency of many hazards in vulnerable regions, ex situ responses to climate change including human mobility and displacement are starkly moving into the spotlight. Whilst proactive migration is often used as an adaptation response to the impact of climate and weather events, reactive migration following unprecedented climatic shocks is often involuntarily and can seriously disrupt livelihoods and undermine human security. The extent to which human mobility (here, measured by internal displacement) can be attributed to extreme weather and compound events and in turn, whether and to what extent extreme weather events and consequently human mobility can be attributed to anthropogenic climate change, has been largely unexplored. </p><p>Applying a framework based on probabilistic event attribution (PEA) of extreme weather events, we investigate, for the first time, human mobility responses attributed to anthropogenic climate change along a causal chain from anthropogenic climate change and changing frequencies and intensities of extreme weather and climate events to human mobility outcomes. We use the April 2020 extreme precipitation which lead to flooding and associated displacement in Somalia as a feasibility study to present the state of the art of this method. Our attribution model investigates two locations: First, we attribute extreme precipitation at the origin region of the extreme event to then attribute the resulting flood event in the displacement impact region. Event though the analysis shows no attributable link to anthropogenic climate change, our method advances the field of climate impact research regarding statistical approaches, model development and evaluation. For our feasibility study, we also find that sparsity of climate observations reveal one of many reasons for a lack of a climate change signal, which suggests an application of our model to other climate event contexts is needed to further test our method.</p>

South Africa's AIDS response: the next 5 years

Climate change is a major threat to the world's population and is due to global warming from human activities that increase atmospheric greenhouse gas levels -burning fossil fuels, industry emissions, vehicular exhaust, and aerosol chlorofluorocarbons - that trap heat in the earth's atmosphere and adversely impact air quality. Resulting higher global temperatures, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels lead to greater frequency of wildfires and floods, which, in turn, result in population displacements and threaten air and water quality, food and water security, economic and public health infrastructures, and societal safety. Climate change has direct and indirect impacts on human health and well-being across the globe with disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations including women, pregnant persons, the developing fetus, children, older adults, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, pre-existing and/or chronic medical conditions, and low income and communities of color. As consequences of climate change, global mortality and non-communicable diseases are mounting due to lack of progress to reverse current trends. Climate change effects on reproductive processes and outcomes have received less attention globally, despite huge consequences for human development, fertility, and pregnancy outcomes. This review provides evidence for direct and indirect effects of climate change on human health with a focus on reproductive processes and outcomes based on experimental models and epidemiologic data, and strategies to mitigate harms. The goal is to increase awareness about climate effects on reproductive health among clinicians, researchers, the public, and policymakers, and to engage all stakeholders to change the current trajectory of harm.

Global climate change is inevitable--the combustion of fossil fuels has resulted in a buildup of greenhouse gases within the atmosphere, causing unprecedented changes to the earth's climate. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that North America will experience marked changes in weather patterns in coming decades, including warmer temperatures and increased rainfall, summertime droughts and extreme weather events (e.g., tornadoes and hurricanes). Although these events may have direct consequences for health (e.g., injuries and displacement of populations due to thermal stress), they are also likely to cause important changes in the incidence and distribution of infectious diseases, including vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, water-and food-borne diseases and diseases with environmental reservoirs (e.g., endemic fungal diseases). Changes in weather patterns and ecosystems, and health consequences of climate change will probably be most severe in far northern regions (e.g., the Arctic). We provide an overview of the expected nature and direction of such changes, which pose current and future challenges to health care providers and public health agencies.