Climate Change Mitigation Efforts Research Articles

The Role of Global Civil Society at the Local Level in Climate Change Mitigation: A Case Study of Earth Hour’s Activities in Malang

This study examines the role of global civil society at the local level in climate change mitigation. Climate change issue is one of the global issues that is responded at the local level, as the impact of the problem concerns the universal livelihood of the world’s population. This study focuses on Earth Hour’s activities in the Malang region as a part of a global civil society. This research uses global civil society and its role in environmental governance as the analytical framework. The data are collected through documentation studies and interviews. The results show that Earth Hour Malang’s activities have three important roles in climate change mitigation efforts, namely information-based role, providing policy inputs to the government, and performing operational functions.

Spatial Dependence in the Relationship between Climate Change and Internal Migration: Evidence from the United States

Understanding and accurately estimating the effects of climate change on migration patterns may be an important concern for future climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. In this context, issues of spatial dependence are likely relevant but have largely been neglected by previous literature. Drawing on empirical methods developed in the spatial econometrics literature, the current paper attempts to shed some light on the role of spatial dependence in the climate-migration relationship using data for the United States for the years 2005 to 2019. I find modest evidence of spatial spillover effects of temperature and precipitation on state-level migration rates. In particular, I show that not accounting for potential spatial spillover effects leads to an overestimation of the effects of precipitation on migration rates.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON LEGAL FRAMEWORKS ON RENEWABLE ENERGY IN MALAYSIA AND INDIA: TOWARDS THE COMMITMENTS UNDER THE PARIS AGREEMENT

Climate change has always been an agenda for the international community, individually and collectively, due to global warming and unusual weather conditions. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) believes that the adequate deployment of clean energy can achieve the targets of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Many countries have shown their commitment to decrease their carbon emission levels substantially, and they have done so by resorting to renewable energy sources. Renewable energy generation opens a viable door for climate change mitigation efforts. Both Malaysia and India are committed to fulfilling their obligation under the Paris Agreement. This comparative study evaluates the laws and policies related to renewable energy in Malaysia and India, as these countries progress towards their commitments under the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC). This study operates under the comparative qualitative methodological framework and utilises secondary sources for analysis. Based on the comparative expositions, Malaysia can learn measures adopted by India to accelerate renewable energy development as well as to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, which will prove beneficial to the country as well as in order to comply with international conventions and agreements.

Chinese cities exhibit varying degrees of decoupling of economic growth and CO2 emissions between 2005 and 2015

Summary Cities, contributing more than 75% of global carbon emissions, are at the heart of climate change mitigation. Given cities' heterogeneity, they need specific low-carbon roadmaps instead of one-size-fits-all approaches. Here, we present the most detailed and up-to-date accounts of CO2 emissions for 294 cities in China and examine the extent to which their economic growth was decoupled from emissions. Results show that from 2005 to 2015, only 11% of cities exhibited strong decoupling, whereas 65.6% showed weak decoupling, and 23.4% showed no decoupling. We attribute the economic-emission decoupling in cities to several socioeconomic factors (i.e., structure and size of the economy, emission intensity, and population size) and find that the decline in emission intensity via improvement in production and carbon efficiency (e.g., decarbonizing the energy mix via building a renewable energy system) is the most important one. The experience and status quo of carbon emissions and emission-GDP (gross domestic product) decoupling in Chinese cities may have implications for other developing economies to design low-carbon development pathways.

Reducing intensification by shifting cultivation through sustainable climate-smart practices in tropical forests: A review in the context of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

The tropical forests provide important ecosystem services at local and global scales (i.e. climate regulation, carbon cycling, and food resources). Shifting cultivation (SC) is the most common traditional farm system in tropical forest landscapes, which along with hunting and gathering from forests, have been the main food sources and livelihoods. This traditional SC was probably sustainable for nomadic indigenous populations for centuries. However, the non-traditional shifting cultivation is a consequence of cultural changes of indigenous communities influenced by western culture that induce land-use changes using new technologies, promoting the high local-scale expansion and intensification, and overhunting. The intensification occurs due to the short-term farm system, low crop diversity or monocultures, and larger slash and burn forest patches inducing agricultural expansion due to higher commercial crop demand. This expansion and intensification determine the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, forest degradation and fragmentation, higher greenhouse gas emissions, defaunation and local extinction. Thus, degraded forest rehabilitation with different sustainable food systems (i.e. Agroforestry) can reduce the expansion and intensification of SC. Restored forest, agroforestry, and second-growth forests can be restored as reservoirs for valuable biodiversity and a host of different ecosystem services. Tropical forests are central to climate change mitigation efforts and should prioritize the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. In this context, we provide a review on the effects of shifting cultivation intensification on tropical forest landscapes as a base to apply sustainable climate-smart practices in the context of UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.

As Climate Change Responds with Terrifying Brutalities

Introduction: The lip service in tackling the climate change issues five years after the famous Paris Agreement on climate change is quite unwholesome to individual countries' pledges and promises that were made on reducing global carbon emissions at Le Bourget, France. The attempt to limit the global mean temperature to 1.50 Celsius preindustrial level has even resulted in warming the climate more than anticipated [1]. The bulk of the climate change adaptation and mitigation effort(s) have, generally, ended up in a tragic fiasco. The rise in sea level and temperature overshoot carry substantial and enormous risks and uncertainties that have caused the entire humanity to head towards an irreversible crossing tipping point [2]. For example, the year 2020 horrible flooding; animal and plant species extinction; coral reef death; permafrost melt; loss of sea and land ice; breaking of the two major glaciers in the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica that has kept climatologists and meteorologists terrified in studying the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, are all cases in point that proved an irreversible condition of the climate change. 
 Methodology: This paper used content analyses by reviewing the climate change brutal scenarios that occurred at random globally. The data on climate events was obtained from the existing literature on the magnitude of destruction of flood rains and storms’ damage due to sea level rise that is exacerbated by the breaking away of the two major glaciers in the coast of the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica.
 Results: The paper examined critically the flood scenarios that occurred in Puerto Rico; Arecibo; Panzhihua; Gopalganj; Kara-Kache; Krasnoyarsk; Tlalpane; Talas; Taif; Valencia; Lagamenas; Khabarovsk; Hadejia; Dabi; Magarya; and Auyo etc. It revealed that massive flooding was witnessed globally within a span of a weeklong catastrophe. Sea level had risen by at least 0.05 percentile as a result of the breaking away and melting of the two glaciers at the coast of the West Antarctica.
 Conclusion: The paper concluded that human beings are no longer near the target of achieving the 1.50–20C goal. What remains now is for everyone to understand the dangers of the climate change blind investment that has already thrown the entire world habitat into a déjàvu phenomenon.

Cash cows? Assembling low-carbon agriculture through green finance

‘Green’ forms of finance are deemed increasingly important in mitigating climate change. Despite growing calls to make financial flows consistent with Paris Agreement goals, to date little is known about the impact of ‘green finance’. Drawing on literature which explores how resources are assembled for investment, this research shifts the focus from financial flows to financial pools. It does so through an examination of a green financial instrument, the Green Schuldschein, issued by a multinational dairy company. This paper argues that by analysing how low-carbon agriculture is assembled as a resource for investment, we can begin to understand why green finance pools in some places, but not in others, and the implications for climate change mitigation efforts. It demonstrates that flows of green finance in the agricultural sector are unlikely to pool in places where they can have the most significant climate impact, but rather in places where they remain distant from nature’s unruly qualities. It highlights the importance of examining how sites and processes of landing are shaped by both the financial and the extraeconomic relations of the wider fields in which new ‘green’ financial instruments are situated. In doing so, the paper demonstrates how assemblage thinking can both provide nuanced critiques of the idea that we can 'green' finance, and diversify our understanding of how finance and agriculture intersect.

Global versus local framing of the issue of food waste: The role of Identification With All Humanity and the implications for climate change communication

Food waste is a major source of carbon emissions at the local and global levels. Effective public communication is essential for mitigation engagement. This study refers to the climate change communication literature to examine global versus local message framing and its interaction effects with a global identity—Identification With All Humanity (IWAH)—versus a local (American) identity on food waste mitigation behaviour. I propose that, due to its all‐inclusive nature, when IWAH is strong there will be no difference between reading a globally versus a locally framed message for intentions concerning food waste mitigation behaviour. By contrast, individuals with a weak IWAH will be less likely to engage in mitigation behaviour after reading the globally framed compared to the locally framed message, whereas a strong local (American) identity is hypothesized to induce higher mitigation engagement in the local framing condition than the global framing condition. Results showed no interaction effects except for one behavioural proxy measure, whereas IWAH was a consistent predictor of most of the mitigation behavioural intentions. The present research assesses IWAH with regards to climate change mitigation efforts and sheds light on the existing inconsistent findings about the effects of local versus global framing on climate change.

Performance and Sustainability Tradeoffs of Oxidized Carbon Nanotubes as a Cathodic Material in Lithium-Oxygen Batteries.

Climate change mitigation efforts will require a portfolio of solutions, including improvements to energy storage technologies in electric vehicles and renewable energy sources, such as the high-energy-density lithium-oxygen battery (LOB). However, if LOB technology will contribute to addressing climate change, improvements to LOB performance must not come at the cost of disproportionate increases in global warming potential (GWP) or cumulative energy demand (CED) over their lifecycle. Here, oxygen-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotube (O-MWCNT) cathodes were produced and assessed for their initial discharge capacities and cyclability. Contrary to previous findings, the discharge capacity of O-MWCNT cathodes increased with the ratio of carbonyl/carboxyl moieties, outperforming pristine MWCNTs. However, increased oxygen concentrations decreased LOB cyclability, while high-temperature annealing increased both discharge capacity and cyclability. Improved performance resulting from MWCNT post-processing came at the cost of increased GWP and CED, which in some cases was disproportionately higher than the level of improved performance. Based on the findings presented here, there is a need to simultaneously advance research in improving LOB performance while minimizing or mitigating the environmental impacts of LOB production.

Investment and production dynamics of conventional oil and unconventional tight oil: Implications for oil markets and climate strategies

Unconventional tight oil production has increased fast in recent years. This development can appear threatening to climate change mitigation efforts as more available supply might lead to continuing or increasing consumption, contributing to ‘carbon lock-in’, possibly making a low-carbon energy transition more difficult. However, the investment and production cycles of tight oil differ from conventional oil. This study investigates such differences and discusses whether it has any implications for the oil market and for energy and climate strategy in regard to carbon lock-in and stranded assets.Production and capital investment data for conventional oil fields and unconventional tight oil wells are analysed and standard production profiles are derived. Through a bottom-up approach aggregate investment and production dynamics are then investigated.The analysis shows that in conventional production, once initial investments are made, decades of high production rates can follow. In contrast, tight oil production declines fast with the dominating part of cumulative production produced within the first few years. Both kinds of production are characterised by large initial capital costs and lower operating costs. This cost structure incentivises continued production once initial costs are spent, even if oil prices fall, but since tight oil wells decline faster the amount of locked-in production is significantly lower than for conventional projects.The different dynamics of conventional oil and tight oil needs to be considered when formulating energy and climate strategies. Since tight oil production can entail lesser lock-in effects and stranded asset risks, it might provide a beneficial and more flexible pathway in face of future uncertainty in the development of substitute technology and in climate policy commitments.

Mapping Conservation Management Practices and Outcomes in the Corn Belt Using the Operational Tillage Information System (OpTIS) and the Denitrification–Decomposition (DNDC) Model

Identifying and quantifying conservation-practice adoption in U.S. cropland is key to accurately monitoring trends in soil health regionally and nationally and informing climate change mitigation efforts. We present the results of an automated system used across 645 counties in the United States Corn Belt from 2005 to 2018, mapped at field-scale and summarized for distribution at aggregated scales. Large-scale mapping by OpTIS (Operational Tillage Information System), a software tool that analyzes remotely sensed data of agricultural land, provides trends of conservation tillage (defined as >30% residue cover), cover cropping, and crop rotations, while modeling by DNDC (Denitrification–Decomposition), a process-based model of carbon and biogeochemistry in soil, provides estimates of the ecosystem outcomes associated with the changes in management practices mapped by OpTIS. Ground-truthing data acquired via OpTIS mobile, a roadside field-surveying app, were used for verification in 30 counties. OpTIS results for the Corn Belt show adoption of cover crops after planting corn and soy increased from 1% to 3% of the mapped area when comparing 2006 to 2018. Comparison of trends for conservation tillage use from 2006 to 2018 shows a slight decrease in conservation tillage adoption, from 46% to 44%. Results from DNDC show these soils sequestered soil organic carbon (SOC) at an area-weighted mean change in SOC (dSOC) rate of 161 kgC/ha/year. Comparatively, in a scenario modeled without the adoption of soil health management practices, the same soils would have lost SOC at an area-weighted rate of −65 kgC/ha/year. As many factors affect changes to SOC, including climate and initial SOC in soils, modeling counterfactual scenarios at the field scale demonstrates outcomes of current soil health management in comparison to regional management practices and best management practices, with respect to SOC sequestration. Regional trends in adoption rates of conservation agriculture and resulting soil health implications are of great use for a wide range of stakeholders. We demonstrate the capability of OpTIS remote sensing to deliver robust, large-scale, multi-sensor, ground-verified monitoring data of current and historical adoption of conservation practices, and of DNDC process-based modeling to provide assessments of the associated environmental outcomes across regions in U.S. cropland.

Willingness to pay for climate change mitigation: college students’ perceptions in Tennessee and Kentucky

Climate change and its impact on agriculture and rural communities has been a much-discussed topic among scientists, academics, and the general public. Existing studies have revealed a disconnect between agricultural stakeholders and the wider climatological community in the U.S., which impacts the process of making informed decisions in response to climate related issues in agriculture. This study evaluates college students’ perspectives about global warming and climate change in two agricultural schools located in western Tennessee and western Kentucky, respectively. Data was collected using a Likert scale survey tool and questions ranged from awareness of specific climate change terms, mitigation efforts, and the level of concern for such efforts. Ultimately, this study analyzed differences in students’ perception of willingness to pay for climate change mitigation efforts as affected by demographics, concern about the impact of climate change on agriculture, and existing knowledge about climate change. Among other variables, the need for more information about climate change had a significantly positive impact on the willingness to make a financial contribution to climate change mitigation efforts. This study will potentially enhance existing literature on the future workforces’ perceptions for climate change mitigation efforts, which will in turn provide insights for policy recommendations.

Beyond the Precautionary Principle: Climate Justice Transfers and the Behavioral Green New Deal

We live in the time beyond the precautionary principle. A precautionary approach to innovations is taken with respect for the potential for causing harm when extensive scientific knowledge on a matter is lacking. It emphasizes caution before leaping into new endeavors that may prove harmful or disastrous. In the age of climate change, the precautionary approach is currently melting for two trends: First, the incentivization and redistribution of climate change gains and losses. Second, the Green New Deal emphasizing to steer green market action as an economic driver with respect for ecologic potentials. This chapter addresses first climate justice based on climate gains and losses redistribution to then introduce the potential of the Green New Deal to steer positive change and action beyond the precautionary approach. The Mapping Climate Justice proposes a 3-dimensional climate justice approach to share economics benefits and the burden of climate change right, just and fair around the globe. Scientific data is grounded by ethical imperatives that argue for a pre-precautionary principle based on Rawls’ veil of ignorance and Kant’s categorical imperative.Empirically, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) gains and losses of a warming globe are captured to be distributed unequal around the world. The ethical climatorial imperative demands for an equalization of the gains of climate change around the globe in order to offset for losses incurred due to climate change (Kant, 1783/1993; Puaschunder, 2017b, c; Rawls, 1971).First, climate justice within a country should pay tribute to the fact that low- and high-income households carry the same burden proportional to their dispensable income, for instance, enabled through a progressive carbon taxation, consumption tax to curb harmful behavior and/or corporate inheritance tax to reap benefits of past wealth accumulation that may have offset climate change (Puaschunder, 2017c). Secondly, fair climate change burden sharing between countries ensures those countries benefiting more from a warmer environment also bear a higher responsibility regarding climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts (Puaschunder, 2020). Thirdly, climate justice over time is proposed in an innovative bonds climate change burden sharing strategy (Puaschunder, 2016a). All these recommendations are aimed at ensuring to share the burden but also the benefits of climate change within society in an economically efficient, legally equitable and practically feasible way now and also between generations.

Is there a green premium in the green bond market? Systematic literature review revealing premium determinants

The green bond market is emerging as an impactful financing mechanism in climate change mitigation efforts. Studies investigating this market have revealed the notion of a ‘green premium’ or ‘greenium’ within green bond pricing, including insights into influential characteristics and drivers that govern it. However, methodological heterogeneity among these studies has resulted in general ambiguity regarding a consensus over the existence of the green premium. This research addresses this gap through a systematic literature review with the aim of establishing a consensus on the existence, or nonexistence, of a green premium in the green bond market. The review examines studies published between 2007 and 2019. A ranking of the green bond characteristics most likely to exhibit a green premium is organised, including a framework of driving factors. The findings confirm a consensus on the existence of a green premium within 56% of primary and 70% of secondary market studies, particularly for those green bonds that are government issued, investment grade, and that follow defined green bond governance and reporting procedures. The green premium varies widely for the primary market; however, an average greenium of −1 to −9 basis points on the secondary market is observed. Overall, our findings highlight the crucial role of strengthening environmental preferences amongst bond market participants; including implications for bond pricing theory, by suggesting that future bond pricing should consider noneconomic motives of investors, such as environmental preferences; and, for future growth implications as a catalyst towards the financing of climate change mitigation efforts globally.

Integrated assessment of deforestation drivers and their alignment with subnational climate change mitigation efforts

Efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD+) have evolved over the past decade. Early REDD+ programs and local/subnational projects used various interventions (i.e. enabling measures, disincentives and incentives), implemented by government, the commercial and non-commercial private sector, but are currently understudied vis-à-vis their effectiveness to address site-specific drivers of deforestation and forest degradation (DD). We assess how well REDD+ interventions addressed DD at five project sites in Peru (1), Brazil (1), Vietnam (1) and Indonesia (2). Our study design includes an integrated assessment of remotely sensed, spatially modelled, and locally reported drivers. First, we observe follow-up land use from high resolution imagery as proxy for direct deforestation drivers. Second, spatial Random Forest modelling of DD drivers allows for influence quantification of topographic, climatic and proximity variables at each site. Third, we report direct and indirect DD drivers from pre-intervention surveys and semi-structured interviews with five REDD+ implementers, 40 villages and 1200 households. Data gathered included perceived changes in forest cover and quality, and their causes. We found general agreement between observed, modelled and reported local DD drivers, yet some were inadequately addressed by interventions. Intra-site differences in drivers underscores the importance of analysing micro-level DD drivers. Our interdisciplinary approach reveals the complexities of local direct and indirect DD drivers, and the complementarity of remotely sensed, spatially modelled and locally reported methods for driver identification. A better understanding of the alignment between DD drivers and REDD+ interventions is vital for practitioners and policy makers to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, equity and co-benefits of REDD+ at the local level.

Overstated carbon emission reductions from voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) has gained international attention over the past decade, as manifested in both United Nations policy discussions and hundreds of voluntary projects launched to earn carbon-offset credits. There are ongoing discussions about whether and how projects should be integrated into national climate change mitigation efforts under the Paris Agreement. One consideration is whether these projects have generated additional impacts over and above national policies and other measures. To help inform these discussions, we compare the crediting baselines established ex-ante by voluntary REDD+ projects in the Brazilian Amazon to counterfactuals constructed ex-post based on the quasi-experimental synthetic control method. We find that the crediting baselines assume consistently higher deforestation than counterfactual forest loss in synthetic control sites. This gap is partially due to decreased deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon during the early implementation phase of the REDD+ projects considered here. This suggests that forest carbon finance must strike a balance between controlling conservation investment risk and ensuring the environmental integrity of carbon emission offsets. Relatedly, our results point to the need to better align project- and national-level carbon accounting.

Transportation strategies for a 1.5 °C world: A comparison of four countries

Decarbonizing transportation in emerging economies will be one of the key challenges in global climate change mitigation efforts. In this paper, pathways are developed towards achieving a 1.5° degree scenario for land-transport for four emerging economies (Brazil, India, Kenya and Vietnam). The aim is to highlight the key opportunities and challenges for low-carbon transport in countries with rapidly growing mobility demand. The main focus of this paper is to reconcile actual and required emission reduction targets and develop plausible pathways to achieve these targets. The paper also identifies potential strategies and measures for these countries to follow these pathways. The analysis considers the contributions of “avoid” (cutting travel growth), “shift” (to lower CO2 modes) and “improve” (vehicle and fuel CO2 characteristics) interventions to decarbonisation scenarios. These scenarios aim to inform renewed Nationally Determined Contributions and shed light on the feasibility of deep decarbonisation pathways that would be in line with the Paris Agreement. Results from this study show that achieving 1.5DS would require dramatic changes in travel patterns, technology and fuels, and major intensification of current policy approaches. Decarbonization solutions will need to include greater use and investment of efficient modes, major shifts toward near-zero carbon fuels such as clean electricity, systems integration, modal shift and urban planning solutions. Although the socio-economic situations and national transport systems differ between the selected countries, some fairly similar strategies appear likely to be core to the mitigation effort, such as rapid growth in light- and heavy-duty vehicle electrification and investments in public transit systems.

Potential benefits of biodiversity to Australian vegetation projects registered with the Emissions Reduction Fund—is there a carbon‐biodiversity trade‐off?

SummaryGlobal assessments show biodiversity has already declined beyond ‘safe limits’ across most biomes, calling for large‐scale conservation and restoration interventions. At the same time, the potential and emerging catastrophic impacts of accelerated climate change have led to increasing investment in climate change mitigation efforts through maintaining or sequestering carbon in vegetation biomass, particularly woodlands and forests. This raises the challenge of whether these climate change mitigation investments can concurrently contribute to ameliorating the biodiversity crisis. However, the assumption of industry observers is that tree monocultures will sequester more carbon than biodiverse plantings, that is, there is a carbon‐biodiversity trade‐off. Here, we review experimental and observational evidence to examine whether a biodiversity trade‐off is necessary to maximise carbon credits. We apply the findings to the four types of Australian vegetation projects that have been registered with the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund since 2012: avoided deforestation, managed regeneration, farm forestry and tree planting. We find limited evidence in the biodiversity‐ecosystem function literature for a trade‐off between biodiversity and carbon stored in above‐ground vegetation biomass; rather we find evidence for neutral or positive relationships. Further, additional benefits of plant diversity to carbon storage, rarely accounted for in vegetation projects, include increased soil carbon storage, stability and ecological resilience to disturbances. Our findings suggest opportunities for enhancing biodiversity in vegetation projects, for example through more diverse plantings, or manipulation of herbivores or plant propagules in avoided deforestation and managed regeneration projects. More research is needed to understand the contribution of faunal diversity to ecosystem functions and to manage fire in vegetation projects. We conclude that vegetation projects can aim to benefit biodiversity without compromising carbon credits.

Introduction and early measurement of carbon footprint concepts to respond the challenge of SDGs-Goal 13

One of the efforts to prevent the effects of climate change was the introduction of the concept of carbon footprints from an early age to students. Science subjects in this school have included elements of environmental knowledge in their subject matter. However, mitigation and adaptation efforts to climate change were still lacking recognition. The purpose of this study was to introduce and measure the extent to which elementary students are able to recognize the concept of carbon footprints and can use a simple carbon footprint calculator application in climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The study was conducted at MIM Kupang Karangdowo Klaten, Central Java. The activity was carried out on February 19, 2020 with the method of lectures, interviews, and simulations, followed by 11 teachers and 21 grade VI students. The flow of activities was divided into 3, namely: (1) counseling/explanation of the carbon cycle, global warming, carbon footprint and carbon footprint calculator, (2) interviews about the student's daily and weekly lifestyle or carbon footprint pattern, (3) socialization of the footprint calculator application carbon and usability observations. The activity ended with a simulation of a carbon footprint calculator for several students. From the study conducted, it can be seen that students are interested in this carbon footprint concept and were technically assessed as being able to use a carbon calculator without significant obstacles.

Urban-scale air temperature estimation: development of an empirical model based on mobile transects

The urban microclimate is influenced by many factors which trigger the well-known Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon. Different approaches have been developed in the literature for estimating urban temperatures, but a compromise is always needed, either spatial or temporal. To solve this issue, this work presents a new way for estimating urban temperatures with a fine spatial resolution (even specific streets) while also keeping a high temporal resolution (hourly time-steps) for prolonged periods. This is done by developing an empirical model, based on the measurements of a reference weather station and data taken from mobile transects.The proposed method was tested in Seville (Spain). The validation was done comparing the prediction of the model with the measurements of a fixed temperature sensor, from the 7th of June 2019 until the 7th of December 2019 (4390 hours). The results showed a high R2 coefficient of 0.976 and a low RMSE of 1.21, improving the accuracy of previous literature for estimating urban temperatures. The methodology is applicable for any geographical location around the world, with different climates or population densities. In addition, it offers a precise way to verify the real impact of UHI mitigation strategies and concentrate climate change mitigation efforts.