AbstractThe aim of this article is to analyse the impact of climate change on bilateral trade flows. To this end, we estimate a theory‐grounded gravity model using bilateral trade flows on a sample of 67 countries over the period from 1986 to 2016. We use temperatures and extreme weather events (and their consequences) as indicators of climate change. In general, we find that international trade flows are less affected by the evolution of temperatures than domestic ones, while the opposite occurs with extreme weather events. However, there is a clear heterogeneity across countries and types of events. In particular, the results suggest that biological events, such as (epidemics and insect infestation), extreme temperatures, storms and landslides have a negative impact on international flows relative to internal ones. Interestingly, the influence of China and Japan on the global result is decisive, especially for storms in the first case and extreme temperatures in the second. Finally, our General Equilibrium estimations suggest a more detrimental impact of insect infestation and extreme temperatures on welfare than the rest of events.

Urban climate policies interact with socio–economic policy goals. These interactions can lead to trade-offs or synergies, but have been rarely analysed. Now research provides a quantification of these trade-offs and synergies, and suggests that stand-alone adaptation and mitigation policies are unlikely to be politically acceptable, emphasizing the need to mainstream climate policy within urban planning.

The aim of this review was to map synergies and trade-offs between sustainable development and energy efficiency and savings regarding exterior lighting. Exterior lighting, such as public road and street lighting, requires significant amounts of energy and hinders sustainable development through its increasing of light pollution, ecological impact, and global climate change. Interlinkages between indicators in sustainability and energy that have positive interactions will lead to a mutual reinforcement in the decision-making process, and vice versa, interlinkages between trade-offs may lead to unwanted and conflicting effects. Very few studies have presented a clear vision of how exterior lighting should be contributing to, and not counteracting, the sustainable development of our planet. This study was conducted through a theoretical and systematic analysis that examined the interactions between sustainable development and energy performance based on a framework using indicators and variables, and by reviewing the current literature. Additionally, 17 indicators of energy efficiency and energy savings were identified and used in the analysis. Most interactions between variables for sustainable development and energy performance (52%) were found to be synergistic. The synergistic interactions were mostly found (71%) in the ecological and environmental dimension showing that environmental and ecological sustainability goes hand in hand with energy efficiency and savings. Trade-offs were found only in the economic and social dimensions accounting for 18% of the interactions identified. This review shows that the interactions between sustainable development and energy performance can be used to establish more efficient policies for decision-making processes regarding exterior lighting.

To succeed in meeting carbon emissions reduction targets to limit projected climate change impacts, it is imperative that improved synergies be developed between mitigation and adaptation strategies. This is especially important in development policy among remote indigenous communities, where demands for development have often not been accompanied by commensurate efforts to respond to future climate change impacts. Here we explore how mitigation and adaptation pathways can be combined to transform rural indigenous communities toward sustainability. Case studies from communities in Alaska and Nepal are introduced to illustrate current and potential synergies and trade-offs and how these might be harnessed to maximize beneficial outcomes. The adaptation pathways approach and a framework for transformational adaptation are proposed to unpack these issues and develop understanding of how positive transformational change can be supported.

This paper provides a selective review of the interaction between international trade, international trade policies, environmental policies and climate change. The focus is on the role that international trade and the existence of countries have on the generation of emissions leading to greenhouse gas stocks in the atmosphere and hence, potentially, to climate change and on the role of trade and environmental policies in dealing with this global externality. We first review the question of whether trade exacerbates or contributes to the climate change problem by increasing global emissions, a particularly important issue being the pollution haven problem. Then we consider environmental policies and trade. We analyse non-cooperative environmental policies and investigate whether trade undermines the effectiveness of unilateral environmental policies, in which carbon leakage and international competitiveness are of particular importance. To deal with climate change, cooperation among countries is important. In this aspect, we review the interactions between trade and environmental policies, border tax adjustment policies, and the role of the World Trade Organization in combating climate change arising from economic activities.

A synthesis of the complex relationships, including synergies and trade-offs, between urban development projects and climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives can ensure that all these relationships are taken into consideration. We used a systems approach and applied an impact matrix and chain effect analysis methods to projects in the highly urbanized Taipei metropolitan region to identify the influences and effects between urban development projects and climate change objectives. Three types of urban plans and projects were analyzed: flood control, transportation, and urban planning. The magnitudes of the influences and effects between these projects and plans were derived through interviews with experts familiar with Taipei's urban development. This pilot study found no synergy in the response to climate change mitigation and adaptation for the urban development projects analyzed. The current standalone policies and plans related to urbanization in Taipei have resulted in trade-offs for flood control and public transit projects because they contribute positively toward one climate objective but negatively impact another. A high-level policymaking mechanism that ensures coordination and collaboration between different sectors is needed to supervise sectoral policies. Prior to the approval and implementation of a plan, policymakers should request the assessment of synergies and trade-offs between plans and projects to ensure a synergistic effect to climate change issues. This study confirms that the strategy from individual sector in a metropolitan region will result in trade-off between climate change issues is a global problem. This paper also strengthens the concept that the assessment of synergy/trade-offs between policy and plans should be conducted using systemic approach.

Abstract The United Nations has reported that the world is off track to achieve water sustainability and this has been exacerbated by climate change. Studies indicate that water-related sustainable development goals (SDGs) have significant synergies and trade-offs involving various sectors. We measure the synergies and trade-offs between climate actions (mitigation and adaptation) and five water-related SDG targets based on a global numerical simulation driven by climate change and socioeconomic scenarios. We found that synergies outweigh trade-offs in all regions regarding water-related targets, with an approximately five-fold difference in the globally affected population. The main trade-off source is increased water use due to economic development in Africa and Central/South America, and increased irrigation water if bio-energy crop production is enhanced in Africa and North Africa, suggesting that more coordinated policy-making is needed between climate action and water management in these regions.

International trade enables us to exploit regional differences in climate change impacts and is increasingly regarded as a potential adaptation mechanism. Here, we focus on hunger reduction through international trade under alternative trade scenarios for a wide range of climate futures. Under the current level of trade integration, climate change would lead to up to 55 million people who are undernourished in 2050. Without adaptation through trade, the impacts of global climate change would increase to 73 million people who are undernourished (+33%). Reduction in tariffs as well as institutional and infrastructural barriers would decrease the negative impact to 20 million (-64%) people. We assess the adaptation effect of trade and climate-induced specialization patterns. The adaptation effect is strongest for hunger-affected import-dependent regions. However, in hunger-affected export-oriented regions, partial trade integration can lead to increased exports at the expense of domestic food availability. Although trade integration is a key component of adaptation, it needs sensitive implementation to benefit all regions.

Mitigation actions needed to achieve the ambitions of the Paris agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 °C or below 2 °C have to align with sustainable development. In the near term, this implies a better understanding of context-specific challenges in integrating sustainability with climate policies during the designing, planning, implementation and financing stages. Through a review of selected studies across regions, this paper draws out conclusions focussing on mitigation–sustainable development goal (SDG) trade-offs, with implications on costs and equity for different development contexts. Studies show that trade-offs depend on how the option is implemented and at what scale; mitigation options such as afforestation, biomass production and digitalisation are examples of this. Some options could also result in significant adverse environmental impacts as in the case of battery waste and raw material resources for electric vehicle (EV) or air pollution associated with compact urban development. We find the most important factors influencing equity include unequal access (e.g. urban green spaces and public transportation), high costs (e.g. EV) and financial constraints. Major knowledge gaps include (i) limited empirical evidence of SDG-related trade-offs associated with scaling up mitigation options, (ii) limited understanding of the extent to which benefits are experienced by different groups, (iii) an understanding of the extent to which local context was considered when assessing mitigation–SDG interaction, including the engagement of stakeholders and (iv) synergies and trade-offs associated with cross-sectoral policies. The paper recommends ex-post analysis of detailed and place-based cases that document how synergies and trade-offs emerged and how these were addressed.

Climate actions are centered on either mitigation or adaptation or both. Mitigation and adaptation actions can interact with each other resulting in synergies or tradeoffs. An integrated approach that considers these interactions is important to harness the synergies to create win-win situations and to avoid trade-offs for no-regret decisions. In this context, this study presents a qualitative analysis of the existing national level climate policies of Nepal to identify the extent and mechanism of their mitigation-adaptation interactions based on expert survey. Four key sectors having inter-relationships between mitigation and adaptation were identified as Agriculture, Forestry and Land use (AFOLU), urban planning, energy and water. We used Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to rank and prioritize the opportunities and barriers for harnessing synergies and avoiding trade-offs of mitigation-adaptation interlinkage with these sectors in view. Our results show that such interactions in the Nepalese policy context are present mostly in the form of synergies in the order of AFOLU > Urban Planning > Energy > Water. We identified that developing an institution dedicated to climate change at the national level is the most important opportunity while inadequate institutional co-ordination is the most important barrier for harnessing these synergies.