Climate Action Plans Research Articles

Sustainable tourism in a changing climate: Strategies for management, adaptation, and resilience

This review examines the complex relationship between tourism and climate change, focusing on global strategies for sustainable management and adaptation. By synthesizing recent literature, case studies, and policy analyses, the paper provides an in-depth exploration of the effects of climate change on tourism destinations and the methods employed to mitigate these impacts. Findings reveal that climate change is significantly altering tourism patterns, with rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and sea-level rise posing substantial challenges to popular destinations and local communities. Sustainable management practices, such as reducing carbon footprints, integrating sustainability into operations, and adopting renewable energy sources, are essential to addressing these impacts. Successful adaptation strategies include enhancing resilience through robust climate action plans, while mitigation efforts focus on reducing the sector's environmental footprint through innovative technologies and sustainable practices. Policy frameworks and technological innovations are shown to be critical in advancing sustainable tourism, with policies fostering collaborative efforts and technological advancements supporting efficient adaptation measures. This review concludes that a multifaceted approach encompassing sustainable management practices, adaptation strategies, and strong policy support is vital to addressing climate change in tourism. The study highlights the need for ongoing research and innovation to strengthen sustainability and resilience in response to evolving climate challenges.

The Proposal of Integrated Actions in Transport as Part of a Climate Action Plan for UNICAMP

Since 2019, the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) has been collecting data, preparing, and annually monitoring sustainability indicators submitted to the UI GreenMetric ranking, which guide improvement projects at the university in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article aims to propose sustainable practices for managing urban mobility on its campuses, drawing inspiration from the experiences of national and international universities that ranked highest in the 2023 edition of the aforementioned ranking. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods, using a descriptive approach combined with Deductive Content Analysis (DCA). This analysis was further validated by the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method known as Fuzzy SWARA. Through this process, the study identified the most commonly adopted actions by universities: promoting the use of electric and/or conventional bicycles on campus (11.8%); projects in partnership with government, state, or municipal entities to develop express cycle paths and encourage bicycle use both on campus and in the city (9.2%); conventional bicycle rental on campus (9.2%); and electric car sharing on campus (9.2%). The proposals suggested for UNICAMP include encouraging carpooling, implementing a public transportation exemption or half-fare program for employees, promoting the use of bicycles while ensuring increased campus security, among other initiatives. This research is part of a proposal for a Climate Action Plan for the university, which aims to effectively integrate sustainability into the university's agenda and support the fight against the climate emergency through necessary adaptations.

The transition towards a healthy and sustainable food system at local level: the Brussels City case

Abstract Despite the European Union’s political efforts to promote healthier and more sustainable food systems, challenges persist, with these systems not yet achieving sustainability and still exacerbating health inequalities. The EU-funded FEAST project aims to catalyse this transition through different actions including by focusing on mapping factors shaping food environments in five European cities, including Brussels. This study focuses on mapping existing policies and initiatives by the city government supporting healthier and more sustainable food systems in Brussels City. Policies were then categorized based on Food-EPI domains, types of policies (i.e. financial incentive) and role of the government (i.e. policy development). Results indicated that while Brussels City has a clear strategy (Good Food Strategy) and objectives (Climate Action Plan) to support the transition, there is a notable emphasis on sustainability over health which could be explained by the absence of a dedicated public health expert in the local government. While there are numerous policies focused on improving the school environment (i.e. healthy and sustainable canteens, banned sodas and snack provision, forbidden advertising inside and nearby of unhealthy foods), there is a lack of corresponding measures for public spaces. Furthermore legislative policies are practically inexistent possibly due to jurisdictional barriers from higher governmental levels. Stakeholder interviews will be conducted in the next phase to delve deeper into these issues and to explore potential facilitators and barriers faced in the development and implementation process of these policies. Overall, this research sheds light on the policy landscape in Brussels City, highlighting both progress, areas for improvement and policy gaps in advancing towards healthier and more sustainable food systems. Key messages • Despite EU political efforts to prioritise more sustainable food systems, relevant barriers are still present at local level in Brussels City, hampering the development and implementation of policies. • In Brussels relevant policies for healthier and more sustainable food systems have been implemented, especially in the school environment, but health seems to be overshadowed by sustainability.

How Can Land Use Management in Traditional Cultural Landscapes Become a Policy Instrument for Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration and Climate Change Mitigation? A Transylvanian Case Study

Changes in land use from high-nature-value grasslands to arable fields reduce the organic carbon stock in soil, increasing atmospheric carbon concentrations. Maintaining grasslands through traditional agricultural techniques can mitigate climate change by transferring atmospheric carbon to the soil. Benefits of soil organic carbon sequestration include improved soil properties and enhanced ecosystem services and biodiversity. With Romania’s ratification of the Paris Agreement, it is crucial to review climate-related agricultural policies and incentivize carbon sequestration practices in organic soils. This paper presents a soil carbon study in Transylvania’s Târnava Mare region, Romania, known for its preserved cultural landscapes. Soil samples were taken at a depth of 60 cm to assess organic carbon pools under grassland and arable land management across three soil classes: Cernisoils, Hidrisoils, and Luvisoils. Several statistical tests were applied to evaluate the most significant drivers of soil organic carbon sequestration including land use, soil class, and soil depth. The results indicate that land management has the largest impact, with grasslands storing 45% more carbon than arable land on average. This finding should be integrated into national climate action plans, prioritizing the preservation of grasslands and sustainable agricultural practices to support soil organic carbon sequestration.

Developing a community engagement toolkit for health impact assessment in Ireland

Abstract Background Community involvement is a core principle of Health Impact Assessment (HIA). However, current guidance for HIA published by Ireland’s Institute for Public Health does not include guidelines on community engagement in HIA. As part of the project HIA-IM - ‘Development of a Health Impact Assessment Implementation Model: Enhancing Intersectoral Approaches in Tackling Health Inequalities,’ a Community Engagement Toolkit was created, with the aim of providing guidance for those carrying out HIAs and engaging with community in the process. The project will implement two HIAs, on the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) and the national Climate Action Plan (2024). Incorporating the learnings from the first HIA, the Toolkit will be employed in the second HIA of the project. Methods To develop the toolkit, a literature review of community engagement in HIA was conducted, with benefits and challenges, key approaches, and case studies of HIA’s gathered from grey literature and peer reviewed articles. In line with the participatory nature of HIA, a public consultation event was held, which was presented as a case study within the Toolkit. Results Findings from the literature review contend that engaging with community in HIA captures the lived experiences and local circumstances of the community, fostering empowerment and greater health awareness. However, many practitioners find community engagement to be practically challenging, citing factors such as time and resource constraints; with risks of consultation fatigue and raising expectations. Conclusions The review identified tools that have been used to mitigate these challenges and risks to facilitate meaningful community participation. These findings, along with learnings from conducting the first HIA, has informed the content of the Toolkit. Therefore, this Toolkit aims to complement national HIA guidance to centre the community voice in future HIA practice. Key messages • Developing a toolkit to strengthen participatory approaches and community engagement in health impact assessment in Ireland. • Centering the community voice in health impact assessment: the inclusion of lived experiences and local circumstances in health impact assessment practice in Ireland.

Multi-scale retrofit pathways for improving building performance and energy equity across cities: A UBEM framework

Institutional inequality has created an environment in which our physical surroundings reflect racial and economic biases – causing inequitable thermal comfort and energy consumption across neighborhoods. Just as energy and thermal comfort challenges are unique to each climate and built environment, the solutions to address these issues should be optimized for their context. We introduce a novel integrated data-driven and building energy simulation method that incorporates urban context, satellite imagery, and socioeconomic data to analyze multi-scale retrofit scenarios across disparate communities. We apply this method to case studies in New York City and Los Angeles to analyze energy and thermal comfort inequities across distinct climate zones and urban morphologies. Through parametric analysis, we demonstrate the efficacy of multi-scale retrofits at improving building performance and reducing existing thermal inequities. Our research shows that retrofit effectiveness is influenced by the microclimatic changes induced by the urban context and existing infrastructural inequity. For example, instantaneous building cooling energy demand in a disadvantaged community of Los Angeles is reduced more due to window retrofits (around 30 kWh) than by a greenspace retrofit (around 3 kWh). Greenspace installation dissipates more heat overnight and in the early morning, whereas window retrofits reduce solar heat gain during the day, showing the different heat reduction pathways that retrofits can achieve. Although the window retrofits lead to an order of magnitude higher utility cost savings ($70 savings from windows vs $9 for greenspace and $12 for reduced cars), the district-scale retrofits show promising pathways for reducing the cost burden across all residents. We also analyze pathways for achieving city-specific CO2 reduction targets and find that building-level retrofits are most effective at meeting building performance standards (reducing CO2 by 40%), whereas district-level retrofits should be used to achieve city-scale climate goals because of the sequestered and abated emissions offered by these pathways. This generalizable modeling framework empowers policymakers, urban planners, and building owners around the world to analyze pathways for meeting their climate action plan goals by reducing extreme heat, reducing greenhouse emissions, and reducing energy cost burden while improving environmental justice in their cities.

(Non-)terrestrial and (Non-)local pathways of behavioral policy diffusion in European cities’ climate action plans: Contextual, cultural, and leadership framing

This study investigates the spread of innovative behavioral (green nudging) policies within city-level Climate Action Plans (CAPs) across the European Union, focusing on how these innovations diffuse and the factors influencing their adoption. Using textual analysis with a dataset consisting of CAPs from 40 cities across Europe, we categorized various green nudging innovations and then tracked their origins and uptake. Then, we employed fsQCA (Fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis) to identify the key factors driving diffusion. The findings reveal that while certain innovations, particularly in the building and transportation sectors, have achieved widespread adoption, other initiatives like community co-creation and urban parks have seen lower diffusion. Local terrestrial factors, especially sectoral carbon emissions, are significant drivers, with cities facing higher emissions more likely to adopt these policies. Interestingly, local emissions levels and strong climate leadership emerge as more critical determinants than economic status or climate similarities. The study identifies two primary diffusion pathways—Cultural Leadership for Emission Reduction and Local Adaptive Synergy—demonstrating the diverse strategies cities employ based on their unique contexts. This research highlights the importance of expanding green nudging measures in CAPs beyond technological and infrastructure domains to promote low-carbon behaviors comprehensively.

Addressing Challenges to Ensuring Justice and Sustainability in Policy and Infrastructure for Texas Water Resources in the 21st Century

Environmental justice and sustainability have both become major concerns for water resource management, particularly with recent federal emphasis on environmental justice under the Biden administration in the United States. Texas, like many U.S. states, lags behind the federal government in this emphasis. While many localities have made progress in some respects—for example, some major Texas municipalities have included equity and sustainability metrics in their recent climate action plans—others have not. This has left a patchwork of persistent water management and availability issues that are exacerbated by extreme weather and worsening impacts of climate change. We provide a review of many of Texas’s water equity and sustainability challenges, both now and in a more extreme climate future. These include water access, affordability, contamination, flooding, drought, and aging infrastructure. For example, many Texas counties rank highest in the nation for flood risk, including coastal counties with high populations of disadvantaged communities and counties containing populations that live in persistent poverty in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Additionally, approximately 44,000 Texans, or about 0.4% of the state population, lack access to complete plumbing facilities in their homes. The costs of water infrastructure leaks (estimated at about 51 gallons of water per day statewide) are shared across customers of all income levels, though they place a disproportionate burden on low-income customers. We then assess existing statewide and local policy and planning efforts and gaps in addressing these concerns in Texas. We focus particularly on the role of efforts to incorporate community voice—the ideas, concerns, needs, and expertise of impacted community members, dismantle causes of injustice, and improve equity in spending. If communities are not intentional with future development, new water infrastructure could continue to perpetuate existing harms. Thus, we provide a research agenda and recommendations for addressing some of the policy and planning gaps and persistent environmental justice issues. We aim to help water managers and policy makers identify and dismantle sources of inequity, particularly through including community voice.

Electricity system optimisation based on python model for renewable electricity generation portfolio

100% renewable electricity scenarios have received great attention from industry and policy makers, this is due to its widespread need for technical, economical, and renewable integration action plans. In this research, a python model named WIBSS, is developed and tested for adequacy using sensitivity analysis and then used to simulate the Irish electricity system.In this investigation, the optimal cost was identified with the installed capacities needed for the electricity system for high electricity demand scenario, and the generation portfolios for the electricity system in Ireland is proposed.The electricity system parameters are determined and the levelised cost of electricity is optimised and tabulated. In this investigation, the optimal solution is identified to decrease curtailment and minimize the total cost. Overlay graphs are plotted, and the optimal renewable sources combinations are presented.This research of determining generation portfolios toward 100% renewable electricity systems demonstrates simulations of two different pathways for 2030 scenarios to meet electricity demand in Republic of Ireland. The renewable energy target appeared in the government climate action plan and the authors renewable energy target determined based on the simulation of the python model, with more than doubled photovoltaic installation, a significant reduction in offshore wind, and a substantial integration of battery capacity, the authors renewable energy target performs better than renewable energy target, the levelised cost of electricity were 57.22 €/mWh and 51.11 €/mWh respectively. The least cost pathway is extended to balance between electricity generation and electricity demand in 2040 scenario, and keys target were proposed for generation portfolios.

Indigenous women as agents of environmental change: a study of selected Indian ecodocumentaries

ABSTRACT Mainstream feminism has always revolved around the experiences of white women and has failed to acknowledge the plight of indigenous women who were subjugated to both patriarchy and colonialism. A gendered notion of indigeneity is necessary to bring the marginalization of Indigenous women to the forefront to ensure tribal sovereignty. Indigenous women’s activism has always been distinctly connected to the environment in order to protect the community from external agencies such as companies and government bodies. Several grassroot environmental movements have emerged from the indigenous communities where women have played a pivotal role in the success of these movements. Thus, this study focuses on the environmentalism of indigenous women by analyzing selected documentaries from India i.e. Missing: Forgotten Women in India’s Climate Action Plans (2015), The Seed Guardians (2016), Agar Wo Desh Banati (2018) and Thengapalli (2020). The paper aims to recognize the struggles of these women to achieve basic environmental rights and how they promote sustainable living with the help of their traditional knowledge. Indigenous feminism will not simply be taken as a matter of identity politics, rather it will be used as a framework to understand indigenous women’s struggles as a part of a global liberation movement.

Evaluating local climate policy: Municipal action plans through the lens of resilience and environmental justice

In the US, local governments are increasingly crucial in driving climate action. Drawing upon previous scholarly work, this study assesses nine local climate action plans in the state of Michigan. It introduces a comprehensive framework integrating climate resilience and environmental justice (EJ) indicators to evaluate plan content. Despite recognizing global climate concerns, qualitative content analysis shows that plans lack localized analyses and actions, hampering planning efforts as a result of insufficient data, minimal coordination, limited funds, and finite policy options. Key aspects like equitable resource distribution, environmental burdens, and community engagement are often overlooked. Without addressing these limitations, local governments lack the tools to effectively implement justice-oriented climate policies.

Policy and politics: How specialist farming media frame climate action

The agriculture sector in Ireland is a leading contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, and faces challenges in meeting reduction targets. The communication of climate-related information to farmers will be important in encouraging the farming community to adopt more sustainable farming practices. This study examines how a key information source - the specialist farming media in Ireland - frames the issue of climate change. It does so by analysing coverage of the release of the Irish government's 2021 Climate Action Plan, across a six-week period in three publications: the Irish Farmers Journal, the Farming Independent, and Agriland. It investigates media framings, the use of sources, and the influence of a powerful lobbying organisation, the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA). We find that, when it comes to climate action measures targeted at agriculture, the Irish farming media favour policy and political frames, and largely focus on narrow policy impacts, often omitting the context and rationale for policy interventions. Broader issues concerning climate justice and political economy are also neglected. Farming coverage by the country's most popular print title adopted a more combative approach, and deployed a conflict frame with greater frequency than the other publications. Government politicians and farming organisations are the most frequently quoted sources, giving these groups the most opportunity to shape the debate. This study adds to the limited research focused on climate change coverage in specialist farming publications.

Harmonising Indicators to Report Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan: Systemic Analysis of Existing Regional and City Indicators Sets

Harmonising Indicators to Report Sustainable Development Goals and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan: Systemic Analysis of Existing Regional and City Indicators Sets

GCoM datasets: a collection of climate and energy action plans with mitigation, adaptation and energy access commitments

This paper presents a collection of datasets holding information on the energy and climate action plans of 6,850 municipalities, taking part in the transnational initiative of the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM). This collection includes commitments for reducing net GHG emissions by at least 20% by 2020, 55% by 2030 and becoming climate neutral by 2050. The signatories commit to addressing any of the three pillars of the initiative, namely climate change mitigation, adaptation and energy access. Following two previous releases, the third release of the GCoM collection is introduced, with closing date September 2022. The datasets include information on the action plans and monitoring reports as they are self-reported by signatories, undergoing a quality-harnessing procedure before publication. Additionally, an external comparison is developed with the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR v7), controlling for comparable sources and activity sectors, ensuring the usability of the GCoM datasets for relevant research on local policies and their effects on reducing the impact of climate change.

The intersection of economic growth and environmental sustainability in China: Pathways to achieving SDG

This study explores the intricate relationship between economic development and ecological degradation in China to find ways to achieve the set goals of sustainable development within the framework of the SDGs. Fueled by the pursuit of sustainable development alongside economic growth, this study includes dimensions like carbon footprint, air and water pollution, and resource consumption in thirty-three provinces of China for the period of 2005–2015.Based on economic, environmental, and political perspectives, the existing research compares one policy measure the Chinese government has adopted to promote sustainable environmental development while continuing economic growth. This study, therefore, highlights the trade-offs and co-benefits between environmental conservation and development, based on an evaluation of large datasets and a review of literature. In analyzing the key findings, the paper notes significant progress and shortcomings in achieving the set Sustainable Development Goals. The findings indicate that sustainable clean water investments synergize with the protection of land-based ecosystems and climate action plans. Therefore, these findings enhance the understanding of China's sustainable development process, providing relevant knowledge to practitioners, policymakers, and scholars to tackle similar issues worldwide. The study demonstrates the need for policy coherence and intervention measures to align economic development with environmental conservation, contributing to the discourse on sustainable development.

How effective is the carbon pricing implementation in ASEAN Member States to reduce regional emissions

Abstract At the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27), the ASEAN Member States (AMS) reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris Agreement by pledging to achieve net zero or carbon neutrality targets by 2050. According to the 7th ASEAN Energy Outlook (AEO7) study, ASEAN’s GHG emission will rise 3.7-fold to 6,704 MtCO2-eq in 2050 from 1,815 Mt in 2020. This will require all AMS to scale up their efforts to reach their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission target, and one of them is by introducing carbon pricing to smoothen the transition by encouraging more renewable energy use. Currently, some AMS have already introduced or proposed carbon pricing. Singapore has introduced carbon tax implementation since 2019. Indonesia has been stepping up its commitment to enforce both carbon tax and emission trading system (ETS) by introducing numerous supporting policies. Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are anticipating launching ETS as their latest climate action plan. A question on how effective carbon pricing implementation to reduce regional emission may come up and this paper shed lights to answer this question through expert interviews and literature reviews. The findings indicate that carbon pricing may reduce emissions, especially from power generation and manufacturing industry, and support the transition to a low-carbon economy, helping the region reach carbon neutrality or net zero targets by 2050.

Effects of Climate Change Adaptation on Agricultural Productivity in Malakand (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of climate change adaptation on agricultural productivity in selected villages of District Malakand, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Adapting to climate change in District Malakand, is vital for helping farmers protect their crops from unpredictable weather, ensuring they can continue to grow enough food. Data were collected from 143 sampled households from Kot, Maina, and Mungai through a semi-structured questionnaire, and to analyze the data, descriptive statistics and binary logit regression were used. The study identified various adaptation strategies used by farmers for climate change and the effects of these adaptations on agriculture productivity. The adaptation strategies include changes in irrigation practices, adjustment of sowing periods, and the use of chemical fertilizers etc. Binary logit regression result indicates that the co-efficient and significance of the sample respondents for age (β=.058, p=.024), education (β=.111, p=.025), family size (β=.234, p=.007), income (β=.000, p=.018), landholding (β=.224, p=.036), farming experience (β=.090, p=.031), and tenancy status (β=1.120, p=.045) had a positive and significant relationship with adapting climate change adaptation strategies for agriculture productivity while the specific strategies for climate change adaptation is (β=-1.385, p=.023) had a negative and significant relationship with adapting climate change effect for agriculture productivity. The study recommended the formulation of a comprehensive national climate action plan, increased investment in rural infrastructure, and targeted policy measures to support the agricultural sector.

Assessing Accra’s Climate Action Plan as a case of vertical integration to achieve sustainable development

Assessing Accra’s Climate Action Plan as a case of vertical integration to achieve sustainable development

The Role of Philosophy in Addressing Climate Change

Purpose: The general objective of this study was to investigate the role of philosophy in addressing climate change. Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library. Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to philosophy in addressing climate change. The study underscored the indispensable role of philosophy in combating climate change by examining its ethical, epistemological, and socio-political dimensions. It highlighted the importance of ethical theories like utilitarianism and intergenerational justice in ensuring climate policies are just and equitable. The study emphasized epistemic justice, advocating for the inclusion of marginalized perspectives to create more inclusive climate policies. It also revealed the interconnectedness of environmental and social justice, calling for holistic climate strategies that address social inequalities. Overall, the study demonstrated that integrating philosophical insights into climate action fosters a more ethical, effective, and sustainable response to the climate crisis. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Utilitarianism, Intergenerational Justice and Epistemic Justice Theory may be used to anchor future studies on the role of philosophy in addressing climate change. The study recommended incorporating a broader range of philosophical theories into climate change research, integrating ethical considerations systematically into climate action plans, and adopting ethically informed policies that prioritize justice, equity, and sustainability. It emphasized the need for ethical leadership, promoting epistemic justice by including marginalized communities in climate discourse, and fostering global cooperation through international ethical standards and strengthened partnerships. These recommendations aimed to create more comprehensive, inclusive, and effective responses to climate change.

Climate-Induced Migration: Conflict Resolution and Legal Efforts in Pacific, Africa, and South Asia

Climate-induced migration involves people relocating caused by detrimental climate changes affecting their living environment. Pacific, Africa, and South Asia have experienced climate-induced migration resulting from extreme weather events, sea level rise, drought and desertification, and temperature extremes. The purpose of this research is to find out in terms of conflict resolution, what legal efforts have been made by the government of the affected regions to address climate-induced migration. This study uses descriptive qualitative method and case studies. Based on the results obtained from the data, it was found that the affected governments are pursuing various legal efforts to be able to tackle climate-induced migration. Several efforts made, namely “Migration with Dignity” policy, the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) Project, Great Green Wall initiative, the African Union’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Bangladesh’s Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Disaster Management Centre, and India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The regional initiatives mentioned earlier play pivotal roles in implementing these frameworks and fostering collaborative endeavors, whilst the innovative legal frameworks, guided by SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) indicators, ensure that climate-induced migration is addressed effectively. To sum up, dealing with climate-induced migration requires a holistic approach involving regional collaboration and innovative legal frameworks.