Climate Change Mitigation Measures Research Articles

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Nepal and South Asia: Challenges, Progress, and Recommendations

This study examines the challenges and status of climate change mitigation and adaptation in South Asian countries, with a specific focus on Nepal. The study employs a purposive sampling approach, selecting countries based on the engagement of researchers in those regions and performing a comprehensive literature review. The analysis of the gathered literature provided valuable insights into the challenges of climate change mitigation and adaptation in South Asian countries, particularly Nepal. The study highlights the significant impacts of climate change on sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, and coastal regions. However, it also acknowledges the progress made through the implementation of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Despite the progress, challenges remain in effectively addressing climate change, with current measures falling short of the ambitious targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. To address these challenges, the study recommends strengthening regional collaboration and knowledge sharing, prioritizing the adoption of renewable energy technologies, investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, developing comprehensive policy frameworks, exploring innovative financing mechanisms, and enhancing capacity and awareness.

Electrifying public transit benefits public finances in small island developing states

Deep decarbonization of the transport sector in small island developing states (SIDS) can simultaneously address issues of energy security, high fuel import prices, and climate change mitigation measures while ensuring a reduction in air pollution and higher levels of wellbeing for citizens. Electrification plays a vital role in the decarbonization process. Here, we investigate potential transition pathways towards electrification, taking the public transportation system in Mauritius as an example, where there is vast potential in electrifying the old and overburdened bus system. We simulate a variety of public bus turnover scenarios, considering initial costs of investments, energy and fuel requirements, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. We demonstrate that optimized investment into electrifying public transit pays off, with annualized investments of about $5 million superseded by annual savings on fossil fuel imports of about $15 million. We suggest that international donors can accelerate this transition by providing loan guarantees and, by this, reducing the cost of capital.

Different hydrological controls causing variable rates of Holocene peat growth in a lowland valley system, north-eastern Netherlands; implications for valley peatland restoration

The Drentsche Aa valley system in the glacial sandy landscape of the north-eastern Netherlands, is one of the many regional drainage systems in the north-western to central European Lowlands. Following deep incision in the Weichselian, ca 7 m of eutrophic peat has accumulated in the lower to middle reaches of the valley system in the Holocene, completely filling the Weichselian incision. We reconstructed the rate of water-level rise controlling peat growth at three locations in the valley system (representing the upper, middle and lower reaches), using 14C peat dates from compaction-free sampling sites on the sloping valley margin where the peat directly overlies the sandy Pleistocene subsurface. The 14C dates enabled the construction of curves showing the water-level evolution at each location. Our results show variable rates of Holocene peat growth in the valley system in response to different drivers of hydrological change: a strong increase in annual precipitation (onset Holocene), a decrease in evapotranspiration (10,000–8000 cal. years BP) and relative sea-level rise (after ~4500 cal. years BP). Because the identified hydrological controls on peat growth are regional, they probably ruled Holocene peat growth in many peat-filled valley systems in the north-western to central European Lowlands. Currently, there is growing attention for these valley systems in the context of European nature restoration efforts and climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. The present study underscores that large-scale hydrological measures outside the valley system are needed for restoration of degraded valley peatlands.

Judicial approaches to science and the procedural legitimacy of climate rulings: Comparative insights from the Netherlands and Germany

AbstractThis article explores how judicial approaches to science relate to the procedural legitimacy of rulings in cases where the plaintiffs seek a change in a government's overall climate policy. It reviews challenges in court interaction with climate science and compares two prominent cases: Urgenda v. The State of the Netherlands and Neubauer et al. v. Germany. The selected lawsuits yield comparative interest in aiming for changes in national climate policies and emission mitigation targets, involving the same kind of evidence (Assessment Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) but resulting in partially opposing decisions. The analysis reveals that scientific inputs informed courts about climate change risks and mitigation measures. It also suggests that differing approaches to scientific reports influenced contrasting decisions regarding mitigation targets. Finally, it provides insights into how engagement with evidence might impact judgments' legitimacy from a procedural perspective.

Climate change adaptation and mitigation measures for alluvial aquifers - Solution approaches based on the thermal exploitation of managed aquifer (MAR) and surface water recharge (MSWR)

As climate change adaptation strategies, both Managed Aquifer (MAR) and Surface Water Recharge (MSWR) are not only highly suitable tools to mitigate negative effects on water resources but also bear large potential for concomitant exploitation of thermal energy. They should thus form an integral part of any sustainable water resources management strategy. However, while at global scale general water resource adaptation and mitigation measures are discussed widely, measures that build on thermal exploitation of MAR and MSWR, and which are readily adaptable to various different local and regional scale conditions, have yet to be developed.Here, based on systematic numerical analyses of the sensitivity of groundwater and surface water recharge as well as water temperatures to climate change, we present adaptable implementation strategies of MAR and MSWR with concomitant exploitation of their thermal energy potential. Strategies and feasibility benchmarks for the exploitation of hydrologic and energetic potentials of MAR and MSWR were developed based on three hydrologically and hydrogeologically contrasting urban study sites near the city of Basel, Switzerland. Our studies show projected trends in the number of days when surface water temperatures exceed 25 °C examined for various streamflow and climate scenarios.We illustrate that local hydrogeologic settings and hydrological boundary conditions as well as legal aspects affect to which degree MAR and MSWR are suitable solutions as climate change adaptation measures. Optimal situations for exploiting the potential of seasonal heat storage in MAR and MSWR exist where subsurface travel times between the injection and the withdrawal or exfiltration point are between 4 and 8 months and legal limits allow a sufficiently large temperature spread. In such settings, the exploitable water flux and temperature spread of MAR and MSWR reaches a heat potential of 14 to 20 MW (i.e., corresponding to 3 to 7 wind power plants), and energetic exploitation becomes a suitable tool either for local low-temperature heat applications such as heating and hot water or for ecological use as a heat and water buffer in rivers affected by seasonal droughts. As a positive side effect, climate-induced warming of groundwater resources and temperature increases in drinking water withdrawals would be mitigated simultaneously.

Water-energy-food nexus in the Great Lakes Region of Africa: Current status and prospects

Water-energy-food (WEF) nexus is a concept that aims at integrating these three key economic drivers which are very crucial for the improving the livelihood of the people, general economic sustainable development and social well-being of the world population. The effective utilization and management of these key resources require in-depth planning assessment of symbiosis, competitions and concession with an essential contribution in the nexus. This paper aims at reviewing the WEF in the Great Lakes region of Africa with a focus in Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The status and prospects in each country has been assessed and the interconnection between the three fundamental resources together with the effects of climate change towards the security of these resources in the selected countries have been discussed. The review has found out that the selected countries are indeed WEF insecure since the impacts of climate change and poor infrastructure play a vital role in the insecurities highlighted. In the focused countries, it was realized that the existence of weak institutional and legal frameworks, political instability and poor infrastructure indeed hinders the regional attainment of the WEF nexus for sustainable economic development. This therefore calls for a dire need for the adoption of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures in the WEF nexus through an integrated and holistic approach in the Great Lakes Region of Africa.

Support for nuclear power and proenvironmental attitudes: The cases of Germany and Poland

Europe's energy system faces significant challenges in reducing its dependence on imports and decarbonising itself. In this context, a resurgence of discussion has occurred in recent years about the future role of nuclear power, which currently supplies one-quarter of the European Union's electricity. Public support for the development of nuclear energy plays an important role in the debate on the future role of the energy sector, as it influences legal regulations and political decisions.We investigate the relationship between support for the development of nuclear power and environmental values, knowledge, cognitive abilities, and assessment of the effectiveness of climate change mitigation measures using data from random-quota surveys in Germany (n = 933) and Poland (n = 878). Using a logistic regression model, we demonstrate that support for nuclear power is substantially higher in Poland than in Germany, and that in Poland, support for nuclear power relates less negatively to environmental values than it was observed in previous studies conducted in Western Europe. It also relates positively to the degree of public knowledge—both about nuclear energy and the causes of climate change. Our findings contribute to understanding of the mechanisms that shape attitudes towards nuclear power and to assessing its potential for public support in the European Union.

Lost in action: Climate friendly use of European peatlands needs coherence and incentive-based policies

Peatlands are significant to global efforts to combat climate change. However, to date, they have been a missing piece in the climate change mitigation policy puzzle in the European Union (EU). Taking a policy coherence perspective, we investigate how policies from different governance levels—that is, EU, member state, and regional levels—support and impede existing and new policies for climate-friendly peatland usage. We put a particular focus on incentive-based policy instruments, because such incentives are often advocated as promising policy instruments for supporting the transition to the sustainable management of peatlands. We selected the three peatland-rich EU countries Finland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Based on semi-structured interviews with 35 experts, we indicate a lack of horizontal policy coherence between agriculture, nature conservation, water management, forestry, energy, and climate policies in terms of climate change mitigation measures on peatlands. At the EU level, most prominently, the Common Agricultural Policy counteracts climate targets because direct payments currently encourage the unsustainable management of peatlands. At the national and subnational levels, water quality in Finland, nature conservation in Germany, and subsidence in the Netherlands were primary objectives of peatland relevant policies. Due to a lack of clear guidance on raising the groundwater table, the current incentive-based policy instruments are ineffective for reducing emissions. Despite its higher mitigation potential, potential incentive-based policies for rewetting encounter various regulatory barriers caused by the policy incoherence. We conclude that the transition to climate-friendly peatland usage requires coherent regulatory frameworks and incentive-based policies supporting rewetting.

Influencing the International Transport Regime Complex: The EU’s Climate Action in ICAO and IMO

Regime complexes entail a variety of institutions with a degree of overlap in terms of thematic issues and participating actors. The EU is such an actor engaging with other governmental and non-governmental entities in the formation and evolution of regime complexes. In this article, we examine the role of the EU in the international transport regime complex, and more specifically in two of its core international organizations, namely ICAO and IMO. Our actor-based approach focuses on how the EU navigates between these two constitutive components of the global transport regime complex, advancing climate change mitigation measures. Our empirical material shows how the EU’s active engagement in ICAO contributed to the organization’s shift vis-à-vis the role of the aviation industry in greenhouse gas emissions. Besides the EU learning process that occurred and led to a more engaging and less conflictual EU approach in IMO, the ICAO achievement increased pressure and created a more conducive environment for the respective recognition of the maritime industry’s share in climate deterioration. In this respect, the EU benefited from the structure of the transport regime complex to pursue its own preferences.

Carbon dioxide removal to combat climate change? An expert survey on perception and support

The most recent IPCC report considers Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) as an unavoidable climate change mitigation measure, although controversial discussions about CDR have taken place in the past. This study contributes to the ongoing debate by providing insights into academic expert opinions about Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS). An online survey was conducted to examine how academic experts (N = 172) perceive and to what extent they support BECCS and DACCS. Overall, the results show rather high expert support for research on and the deployment of BECCS and DACCS. Perceived feasibility of the technologies consistently predicted support for BECCS and DACCS, with means in the upper medium range. Further significant predictors were the extent to which experts perceived the technologies to be necessary, the experts’ amount of academic experience, the associated moral hazard, and the perceived tampering with nature.

Use of Nudges for Promotion of Sustainable Energy Consumption in Households

Sustainable energy consumption in household is linked to energy saving and the use of renewable energy sources. These are also the main measures of GHG emission reduction linked to energy consumption. There is a huge GHG emission reduction potential linked to energy consumption in households as climate change mitigation policies and measures aiming at sustainable energy consumption are mainly targeting energy supply sector. Climate change mitigation policies in households linked to promote of energy savings and use of renewable energy sources were not able to overcome behavioural barriers of sustainable energy consumption in households, as they were targeting economic barriers mainly. Therefore, new policies and measures targeting behavioural barriers of sustainable energy consumption inn households are necessary. The paper analyses behavioural barriers of sustainable energy consumption in households and provides analysis of policies and measures set to overcome behavioural barriers of sustainable energy consumption. The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of nudges is provided policy recommendations were developed based on analysis conducted.

Literature Review on Incorporating Climate Change Adaptation Measures in the Design of New Ports and Other Maritime Projects

Due to their nature and location, ports and other maritime projects are particularly sensitive to climate change actions. Thus, when designing these types of projects, it is important to follow a methodology that incorporates climate change adaptation measures throughout the design process. This paper aims to identify the most relevant work developed in this field, along with the main knowledge gaps, through a systematic literature review process. Through a careful selection and analysis of relevant articles associated with “climate change adaptation”, “ports” and “design”, it was possible to conclude that these focused on existing infrastructures and specific case studies, on individual design aspects, on policies and economic or legal frameworks, on the perceptions around climate change or on stakeholder management. The literature review process described in this paper is part of a larger project, dedicated to the development of a practical and robust framework focused on the implementation of climate change mitigation measures in the design of new ports and other maritime projects.

Characterizing Cropland Patterns Across North‐East Africa Using Time Series Vegetation Indices

AbstractThe global community faces challenges of agroecosystem sustainability in the face of changing climate and intensified agriculture, particularly in Africa. In this study, annual and seasonal cropland Normalized Vegetation Difference Index (NDVI) trends and phonological variations, and associated key drivers in North‐East Africa were generated using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectral‐radiometer NDVI of 8‐day satellite images and climate data between 2001 and 2020, which were further analyzed by a modified dynamic threshold method. The results showed that the annual cropland NDVI increased at an average rate of 0.0106 per year. The seasonal cropland NDVI was positive for the most significant changes observed in the boreal autumn season across the region. The start of the season and end of the season cropland NDVI in the boreal autumn season increased at an average rate of 0.015 (13.4% significant, p < 0.05), and 0.0151 × (12.8% significant, p < 0.05), respectively. The findings indicated that the boreal autumn season was getting longer, whereas the boreal summer season was becoming shorter during the last two decades. The most rapid cropland NDVI changes and maximum farmland NDVI variability were observed in the sub‐tropic warm arid and tropic warm semiarid agro‐ecological zones. The land surface temperature was found to be the main driving factor for the cropland NDVI and associated agroecosystem changes. This study provides essential information on the cropland productivity and shifting of greening patterns, which will support climate change mitigation measures at national and regional scales, contributing to sustainable agriculture.

Drought Vulnerability and Impacts of Climate Change on Pastoralist and Their Adaptation Measures in Southern Ethiopia: A Comprehensive Review

Drought is a complicated natural hazard has far-reaching social and Environment impacts. In Ethiopia’s diverse agro-ecological zones, drought remains severe challenge and problem. Pastoralists on the southern on the Ethiopia Kenya-Somalia border endured extreme suffering, including the loss of more than 75% of their cattle and huge migration out of drought–stricken areas. Drought has greatest immediate effects of on pastoralists, including depletion of water resources, rising deforestation, crop failure, and an increase in food price, ill health, livestock output losses and death, and a decline in livestock prices in the Borana Zone. Ethiopian pastoral system is almost all rain-fed livestock production system, which is becoming more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and variability. Current climate variability is already imposing significant challenges by preventing the struggle to reduce poverty and sustainable efforts. The review was showed in southern Ethiopia to understand the drought vulnerability and impacts of climate change and variability on pastoral community and their adaptation strategies. Moreover, based on the drought classification, seven annual droughts occurred in the reviewed area from 1986-2018. While their perception of declining annual rainfall are not supported by actual records. More over the result indicated that the significant increment of maximum and minimum temperature, high inter annual and seasonal rainfall variability have caused effects on their livestock’s wellbeing. The prominent adaptation strategies by the pastoralist are area enclosure herd mobility supplementary feeding livestock destocking. Nevertheless, the adaptation strategies are not practiced in full capacity constrained by different socio economic and institutional factors. Therefore, it is important to provide training and improved livestock’s which drought tolerant. Drought and impacts of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures depending on geography and livestock system may improve the study’s trajectory in the future if further review is done. Also, intervention is needed to address water shortage and up scaling water harvesting technology to conserve water during drought season in the study area.

Dust as a solar shield

We revisit dust placed near the Earth–Sun L1 Lagrange point as a possible climate-change mitigation measure. Our calculations include variations in grain properties and orbit solutions with lunar and planetary perturbations. To achieve sunlight attenuation of 1.8%, equivalent to about 6 days per year of an obscured Sun, the mass of dust in the scenarios we consider must exceed 1010 kg. The more promising approaches include using high-porosity, fluffy grains to increase the extinction efficiency per unit mass, and launching this material in directed jets from a platform orbiting at L1. A simpler approach is to ballistically eject dust grains from the Moon’s surface on a free trajectory toward L1, providing sun shade for several days or more. Advantages compared to an Earth launch include a ready reservoir of dust on the lunar surface and less kinetic energy required to achieve a sun-shielding orbit.

Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Measures Initiated by Farmers in Aravalli Hill Zone of Rajasthan, India

Aims: To study about the adaptation and mitigation measures initiated by the farmers against climate change in local conditions.
 Study Design: Ex-post-facto research design was followed.
 Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication, Bhagwant University, Ajmer during 2019-2022.
 Methodology: The study was conducted in Aravalli Hill Zone of Rajasthan to understand adaptation & mitigation measures employed by farmers to the adverse effects of climate change. In the investigation region, 240 farmers were randomly selected.
 Results: In the region 95.83 per cent of the farmers pursued that soil and water conservation was the most widely practiced strategy. Whereas, almost three fourths of the respondents were practicing adoption of drought tolerant and early maturing crop varieties were (75%), use of small-scale irrigation (73.75%), enhancing participatory forest management (73.33%) and afforestation/ reforestation (72.91%), while (70. 83%) practiced diversification of small ruminant animals and changing cropping calendar of agricultural activities. In the constants of the maize crop adaptation measures against excess rainfall was 70.83 per cent of delayed sowing dates; this change in sowing date was adopted by the farmers and adaptation measures in maize crop against deficit rainfall observed by the investigator that 69.58 per cent of the farmers found that delayed sowing dates had affected them.
 Conclusion: The local people employed different strategies to adapt the adverse effects of climate change, there were constraints that limit the farmer’s adaptation strategies i. e. lack of financial support, lack of climate information and lack of technical skills. Therefore, the local decision makers such as agricultural sector, microfinance sector, and meteorological agency should provide farmers credit access and climate information to reduce shortage of finance and lack of climate information. There is also need of providing training to the farmers on improved agricultural technology and market access to enhance their climate resilience conditions.

A study of management decisions to adopt emission reduction measures in heavy industry in an emerging economy

Heavy industry can face challenges in choosing applicable climate change mitigation measures due to a lack of technical background and practical guidance. A better understanding of these determinants is needed to design region-specific climate policies that most effectively enable more ‘successful’ low carbon transitions. Set in an emerging economy, this study aims to understand the determinants which underlie investment decision-making in greenhouse gas reduction. It relies on empirical research using an exploratory case study method in the leading cement company in Indonesia. The results show four key determinants influencing (constraining) adoption were (1) the primacy of profit-seeking objectives in operational planning and development; (2) the availability of sources (clinker substitutes and alternative energy fuels); (3) the limited access to cash capital; and (4) the complexity in implementing emissions reduction projects. The inquiry also compares determinants in an emerging and developed country to provide a comparative perspective on emissions management in manufacturing. It appears that firms from the industrial sector in emerging economies have investment strategies that are largely characterised by activities that accentuate achieving financial benefits or best value for money or cost savings in a short time frame, or ‘short-termism’. Currently, greenhouse gas emissions management activities tend to be second-preference strategies for firms in emerging economies, at least in the industrial manufacturing sector.

Health impact studies of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures – A scoping review

Climate change affects both mental and physical health. Besides limiting the extent and consequences of climate change, mitigation and adaptation measures can have additional and potentially unintended health impacts. This scoping review outlines how health effects of climate mitigation and adaptation measures have been studied in the scientific literature. We conducted a systematic literature search in the databases PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science without time restriction. All peer-reviewed articles reporting quantified health impacts linked to specific climate change adaptation and mitigation measures were included. Overall, the 89 included articles considered only a narrow range of health determinants and health outcomes. Adaptation- and mitigation-related articles most frequently investigated the environmental health determinants air temperature and air pollution, respectively. Non-communicable diseases were predominantly studied while other relevant health outcome categories, such as mental health, food- and nutrition-related issues, and communicable diseases were rarely reported. The scarcity of studies focusing on the social health determinants and providing stratified health impacts among vulnerable population groups in assessments points to an inadequate consideration of health equity aspects. Increased efforts to quantify health impacts more comprehensively and to identify underlying vulnerability factors among specific population groups seem needed. This information could provide policymakers with more accurate evidence to address health equity aspects, limit adverse health impacts and promote health co-benefits of climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.

Green harvest: consumer attitudes as seeds of change towards a sustainable food revolution

The breakthrough of organic food plays a crucial role in mitigating climate change. This is based on several research findings stating that organic food can reduce the use of chemicals, improve soil conditions, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and support biodiversity. However, the high price constraint of organic food leads most people to prefer non-organic food daily. The focus of this research is to determine the level of consumer willingness to pay more (WTPM) for organic food by examining the role of knowledge of organic food (OFK), price consciousness (PC), and consumer attitudes (CA). The 300 respondents were collected from all islands in Indonesia, including Java, Bali, Kalimantan, Sumatra, Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi, Bangka Belitung, and Papua. This study uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the research hypothesis. The research results indicate that OFK and PC directly and significantly influence CA. Furthermore, PC and CA also directly and significantly affect WTPM. Interestingly, OFK does not directly drive consumer WTPM. On the other hand, CA plays a significant mediating role between OFK and PC regarding WTPM. The implications of this research finding are that to increase the adoption of organic food as a climate change mitigation measure; efforts are needed to enhance consumers' knowledge and awareness of the benefits of organic food to form a more positive attitude towards the product. This, in turn, can improve their willingness to pay a slightly higher price to support organic food consumption in Indonesia.

Community-based participatory climate action

Non-technical summary Improving the flow of information between governments and local communities is paramount to achieving effective climate change mitigation and adaptation. We propose five pathways to deepen participation and improve community-based climate action. The pathways can be summarized as visualization, simulations to practice decision-making, participatory budgeting and planning, environmental civic service, and education and curriculum development. These pathways contribute to improving governance by consolidating in governments the practice of soliciting and incorporating community participation while simultaneously giving communities the tools and knowledge needed to become active contributors to climate change adaptation and mitigation measures. Technical summary Community participation is considered a key component in the design of responses to climate change. Substantial engagement of local communities is required to ensure information flow between governments and communities, but also because local communities are the primary sites of adaptation action. However, frontline communities are often excluded from decision-making and implementation processes due to political choices or failures to identify ways to make participatory frameworks more inclusive. Climate action requires the active engagement of communities in making consequential decisions, or what we term deepened participation. We propose five pathways to deepen participation: visualization, simulations to practice decision-making, participatory budgeting and planning, environmental civic service, and education and curriculum development. The five pathways identify strategies that can be incorporated into existing organizational and institutional frameworks or used to create new ones. Shortcomings related to each strategy are identified. Reflection by communities and governments is encouraged as they choose which participatory technique(s) to adopt. Social media summary Climate action requires the active engagement of communities. Learn five pathways to get started deepening participation.