Counter Climate Change Research Articles

Managing Knowledge to Counter Climate Change

The purpose of this paper is to apply existing knowledge to counter climate change. The contribution to knowledge is to ground institutional analysis, individual behaviour, political science, economics, management and the management of global sustainability in the practices and science of governance found in nature. This is achieved by using bytes as the unit of analysis to explain how nature governs complexity on a more reliable and comprehensive basis than achieved by humans. Tax incentives could encourage organisations to adopt elements of ecological governance found in nature and in social organisations identified by Ostrom and the author. Ecological governance can provide benefits for all stakeholders as desired by CEO’s of the US Business Round Table. Corporations then become a common good to allow them to promote global common goods like countering climate change, pollution and inequalities in power, wealth and income. Democracy is enriched bottom-up.

Продукція фітомаси надземної частини робінієвих деревостанів у лісових культурах Північного Степу України

Поточний об'ємний приріст деревини стовбурів і продукція компонентів фітомаси надземної частини насаджень Robinia pseudoacacia L. визначено для модальних деревостанів, які характеризуються такими таксаційними показниками: A = 3-82 р., D1,3 = 3,9-24,8 см, H = 5,2 -21,5 м, P = 0,1-1,15.
 Як вхідні аргументи регресійних рівнянь використано таксаційні показники робінієвих деревостанів. Розраховані регресійні алометричні моделі оцінювання фітомаси деревини і кори стовбурів, фітомаси компонентів крони – деревини і кори гілок, фітомаси листкі, поточного об'ємного приросту за запасом. Коефіцієнти детермінації рівнянь (0,24-0,96) не перевищують їх критичного значення. Найбільш значущою визначено пʼятифакторну модель, яка враховує вік, середній діаметр, середню висоту головної породи, запас і відносну повноту насадження.
 Розрахунок продукції деревини стовбурів робінієвих насаджень здійснено через оцінювання поточного приросту за запасом і середньої базисної щільності деревини стовбурів робінії, яка становить 499,8 кг (м3)-1. Наведено нормативи продукції стовбурової деревини у межах значень середнього діаметра деревостану від 4 до 28 см і запасу стовбурової деревини від 20 до 180 м3∙га-1.
 Продукція стовбурової деревини зі збільшенням середнього діаметра деревостану зменшується, а зі збільшенням запасу за умови однакового значення діаметра – збільшується. У віковій структурі робінієвих насаджень Північного Степу домінує група перестиглих деревостанів, для яких у діапазоні середніх діаметрів 14-24 см продукція стовбурової деревини становить 1,73-2,69 т∙га-1∙рік-1.
 Загальну продукцію фітомаси надземної частини робінієвих деревостанів лісогосподарських підприємств Державного агентства лісових ресурсів України у Дніпропетровській області оцінено в 138,3 тис. т∙рік-1.

Taxing crude oil: A financing alternative to mitigate climate change?

To date, global cooperation has not provided enough funds to counter climate change, as evidenced by the Green Climate Fund experience. Based on this fact, this document evaluates the revenue potential of an international tax on crude oil to finance programs to mitigate climate change. For this purpose, a dynamic, general equilibrium model for the world economy with two regions is proposed. One region is a net importer of oil, while the other is an exporter. In the model, oil exports are subject to a permanent per-barrel tax. Short- and long-run revenue projections are offered under alternative assumptions. Some exercises suggest that the resources generated from a $5 per-barrel tax on 25% of world oil exports would amount to $18.4 billion dollars in the initial year. To implement such policy at the international level, an “Oil and Climate Club” is proposed, where revenues from oil taxation would be allocated to funding environment-friendly programs. The paper includes a discussion on how to make the club's rules consistent with international trade laws.

Climate experts' views on geoengineering depend on their beliefs about climate change impacts.

Climate change damages are expected to increase with global warming, which could be limited directly by solar geoengineering. Here we analyse the views of 723 negotiators and scientists involved in international climate policy who will have a significant influence on whether solar geoengineering will be deployed to counter climate change. We find that respondents who expect severe global climate change damages and who have little confidence in current mitigation efforts are more opposed to geoengineering than respondents who are less pessimistic about global damages and mitigation efforts. However, we also find that respondents are more supportive of geoengineering when they expect severe climate change damages in their home country than when they have more optimistic expectations for the home country. Thus, when respondents are more personally affected, their views are closer to what rational cost-benefit analyses predict.

Are insurance balance sheets carbon-neutral? Harnessing asset pricing for climate change policy†

Due to its enormous size and capital base, the insurance industry has the potential to play a key role in countering climate change. To this end, the major capital flows associated with its investment and underwriting businesses would need to be redirected towards carbon-neutral activities. Since insurance companies can be viewed as large portfolios consisting of financial risks (asset side) and underwriting risks (liability side), we suggest an asset pricing approach to detect carbon-intensive positions on their balance sheets. The framework should be accompanied by two simple policy changes to reinforce its effectiveness.

Grenada

Grenada has made significant strides to counter climate change but meeting the daunting remaining challenges will require domestic policy actions and sustained international support. Climate change is an existential threat to Grenada. Increasing frequency and intensity of coastal storms threatens infrastructure and livelihoods, as do increased risk of coastal flooding and drought. Notably, Hurricane Ivan in 2004 caused damages of over 200 percent of GDP. Grenada has recognized this by placing climate resilience at the center of its policy making and forging strategic alliances with key global climate finance providers. However, the challenges facing the country remain daunting and will require large increases in international support, both financial and technical, to assist the Grenadian authorities turn their impressive resilience plans into action.

Evidence-based strategies to combat scientific misinformation

Nowhere has the impact of scientific misinformation been more profound than on the issue of climate change in the United States. Effective responses to this multifaceted problem have been slow to develop, in large part because many experts have not only underestimated its impact, but have also overlooked the underlying institutional structure, organizational power and financial roots of misinformation. Fortunately, a growing body of sophisticated research has emerged that can help us to better understand these dynamics and provide the basis for developing a coordinated set of strategies across four related areas (public inoculation, legal strategies, political mechanisms and financial transparency) to thwart large-scale misinformation campaigns before they begin, or after they have taken root. This Perspective synthesizes research on the origins and impacts of scientific misinformation campaigns, pointing to public inoculation, legal, political and financial strategies for countering climate change misinformation and limiting its dissemination.

Psychiatric Educators Issue ‘Call to Action’ on Climate Change

Psychiatric Educators Issue ‘Call to Action’ on Climate Change

Coping with and Adapting to Climate Change: A Gender Perspective from Smallholder Farming in Ghana

The negative impacts of climate change on agriculture could erode gains made toward gender equality in Ghana. Much of the literature on gender dimensions of climate change adaptation has focused on assessing differences in coping and adaptation practices of smallholder farmers. Mostly overlooked is whether gender influences influenced perception of effectiveness of adaptation practices and preferences for institutional support for future adaptation. Using key informant interviews, household surveys, and focus group discussions, we address these gaps by exploring coping and adaptation measures adopted by heads of farm households to counter climate change impacts on their livelihood activities and household well-being in the Guinea Savanna agroecological zone in Ghana. Additionally, we assessed the preferred institutional adaptation support of heads of farm households in adapting to future projected impacts. We find that female heads of farm households relied mainly on borrowed money from village savings and loans group as a coping measure; male heads of farm households depended primarily on sales of livestock. Varying planting and harvesting dates, crop diversification, and use of improved crop varieties were the major adaptation strategies adopted by farmers. We argue that provision of dams and/or dugouts, postharvest processing facilities, adaptation capacity-building resources, and improved access to markets and credit could enhance the adaptive capacity of male and female heads of farm households to mitigate projected climate change impacts on their livelihood activities and household well-being.

The Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (CDRMIP): rationale and experimental protocol for CMIP6

Abstract. The recent IPCC reports state that continued anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are changing the climate, threatening severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts. Slow progress in emissions reduction to mitigate climate change is resulting in increased attention to what is called geoengineering, climate engineering, or climate intervention – deliberate interventions to counter climate change that seek to either modify the Earth's radiation budget or remove greenhouse gases such as CO2 from the atmosphere. When focused on CO2, the latter of these categories is called carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Future emission scenarios that stay well below 2 °C, and all emission scenarios that do not exceed 1.5 °C warming by the year 2100, require some form of CDR. At present, there is little consensus on the climate impacts and atmospheric CO2 reduction efficacy of the different types of proposed CDR. To address this need, the Carbon Dioxide Removal Model Intercomparison Project (or CDRMIP) was initiated. This project brings together models of the Earth system in a common framework to explore the potential, impacts, and challenges of CDR. Here, we describe the first set of CDRMIP experiments, which are formally part of the 6th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). These experiments are designed to address questions concerning CDR-induced climate reversibility, the response of the Earth system to direct atmospheric CO2 removal (direct air capture and storage), and the CDR potential and impacts of afforestation and reforestation, as well as ocean alkalinization.>

300 마력급 터보 압축기용 자기베어링의 설계 및 평가

Recently, the international community is making steady efforts to reduce energy consumption to counter climate change and reduce CO₂ emissions. In view of this trend, there is a high interest in oil-free turbo compressors that are highly efficient in replacing conventional screw compressors and do not generate waste oil in the compressor field. In accordance with this trend, in the field of compressors, there is a high interest in oil-free turbo compressors which can replace existing screw compressors, have high efficiency and do not generate waste oil. In the case of an oil-free turbo compressor, magnetic bearings tend to be applied in a large amount, which has a high rotational stability at high speed and a load capacity capable of coping with a large axial thrust. In this study, magnetic bearings were designed to apply to a compressor of 300-HP and 50,000 rpm, and a rotor in the compressor were designed by direct drive method by applying a permanent magnet synchronous motor. After fabricating a 300-HP compressor with magnetic bearings, the motoring test under the no-load condition without impellers was performed up to 51,000 rpm to evaluate the structural stability against the centrifugal force of the rotating shaft. In addition, the rotational stability was evaluated by motoring test up to 50,000 rpm under the load condition with impellers. Based on the experimental results, it is presented that the hybrid magnetic bearings are suitable oil-free bearings capable of stably supporting turbo compressors.

Contextual vulnerability of rainfed crop-based farming communities in semi-arid Zimbabwe

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to climate change and variability based on the socioeconomic and biophysical characteristics of Chiredzi District, a region that is susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change and variability.Design/methodology/approachVulnerability was assessed using the Vulnerability to Resilience and the Climate Vulnerability and Capacity frameworks.FindingsThe major indicators and drivers of vulnerability were identified as droughts, flash floods, poor soil fertility and out-migration leaving female- and child-headed households. From sensitivity analysis, it was shown that different areas within the district considered different biophysical and socioeconomic indicators to climate change and variability. They also considered different vulnerability indicators to influence the decisions for adaptation to climate change and variability.Originality/valueThe results of this study indicate that the area and cropping systems are greatly exposed and are sensitive to climatic change stimuli, as shown by the decline in main cereal grain yield. These results also showed that there is a need to define and map local area vulnerability as a basis to recommend coping and adaptation measures to counter climate change hazards.

‘The Environment and International Law’ - An Overview of the 2017 ALF Annual Seminar

What environmental challenges does the world face today? How can (international) law and policy react to these challenges? What types of environmental crimes are there, and how can these be countered? Should ecocide become an international crime, and what would ecocide then entail? Can law and policy counter climate change, and how can law regulate sustainability issues? During ALF’'s 2017 Annual Seminar 2017, which took place on 8 th June at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, these questions and more were discussed in two moderated panel discussions and one student panel. Through their varying specialisations, the panellists were able to explore these topics from multiple disciplines. This commentary thus provides an overview of the event. THE ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNATIONAL LAW’ - AN OVERVIEW OF THE 2017 ALF ANNUAL SEMINAR

A Multi-Criteria Strategic Decision Making Model to Assess Renewable Energy Forms

Renewable energy can potentially be a source of competitive advantage, reduce greenhouse gases, and counter climate change. This study utilizes Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to systematically assess the relative attractiveness of multiple renewable energy forms based on three factors: 1. business (economic), 2. technical (environmental), and 3. social (regulatory). It uncovers the relative attractiveness of various renewable energy forms and suggests strategies for their development for providers and customers. After considering multiple factors, the study found hydro, geothermal, and wind power to be relatively attractive renewable energy sources.

Comparision of Different Raw Densities and Board Thicknesses in the Production of Enzymatically Bonded Fiberboards

Reducing CO2 emissions for the long term is an important issue in countering climate change. For this reason, the use of renewable construction materials inter alia wood-based materials is becoming increasingly important. Wood based materials often depend on petrochemical-based binding agents, most of which contain and emit formaldehyde. This causes environmental and health-related difficulties that could be rectified by avoiding the utilization of these adhesives. For this purpose, enzymatically bonded medium-density fiberboards (MDF) with a targeted raw density of 650 kg/m³ and 750 kg/m³ and high-density fiberboards (HDF) with a density of 900 kg/m³ were produced in different thicknesses. Laccase-Mediator-System (LMS) was applied to manufacture the boards and to compare them to those glued with UF and inactivated laccase, respectively. These panels were tested in terms of their physical technical properties, such as internal bond strength (IB), modulus of rupture (MOR) and thickness swelling (TS) after 24 h immersion. The aim was to show the correlation between density and these properties for fiberboards bonded this way. Most panels meet the requirements of the European standard when LMS and UF-resin were used. The possibility to produce fiberboards bonded with alternative bonding agents opens up the way to alternative, innovative, healthy and environmental-friendly wood based products.

Olivine Weathering against Climate Change

One natural process has since the origin of the Earth removed almost all the CO2 that was ever produced by volcanism. That process is the reaction of CO2 and water with rocks, a process known as weathering. It is a logical choice to see if we can use the same process to remove also the vastly higher CO2 emissions caused by burning in a few hundred years the fossil fuels that have taken hundreds of millions of years for their formation. Many people claim that the rate of weathering of olivine is too slow to counter climate change, but they base this on experimental data in sterile laboratories, under exclusion of biotic and other environmental factors. As many conditions determine the weathering rate at each specific location, these laboratory conditions are irrelevant for the real world. Weathering models based on these laboratory data are off by orders of magnitude. Weathering experiments that use conditions closer to nature [1] show already much higher weathering rates. In this note I provide some data on the weathering of olivine in nature, which make clear that the weathering of olivine is fast enough to play an important role in the cycle of CO2 capture and its safe and sustainable storage as carbonate rocks. The CO2 released by volcanism has always been captured by the weathering of rocks since the origin of the Earth. Without this mechanism the Earth would be a lifeless planet with a CO2 atmosphere in the order of 100 bar, as our neighbor planet Venus demonstrates.

Wheat Improvement in India: Present and Future.

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) contributes substantially to global food and nutritional security. With the growing demands under the constraints of depleting natural resources, environmental fluctuation, and increased risk of epidemic outbreaks, the task of increasing wheat production has become daunting. The factors responsible for first green revolution seem to be exhausting rapidly, and there is an immediate need to develop the technologies which can not only increase the wheat production but also sustain the same at a higher level without adversely affecting the natural resources. Understanding abiotic stress factors such as temperature, drought tolerance, and biotic stress tolerance traits such as insect pest and pathogen resistance in combination with high yield in plants is of paramount importance to counter climate change related adverse effects on the productivity of wheat crops. Thus, an important goal of wheat breeding is to develop high-yielding varieties with better nutritional quality and resistance to major diseases. Therefore, in this chapter, we present a judicious mixture of basic as well as applied research outlooks. We trust that the information covered in this chapter would bridge the much-researched area of stress in plants with the information to breed climate-ready crop cultivars to ensure food security in the future.

Reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries to counter climate change and biodiversity loss: a review of influence factors

A dietary shift towards reduced meat consumption is an efficient strategy for countering biodiversity loss and climate change in regions (developed and transition countries) where consumption is already at a very high level or is rapidly expanding (such as China). Biodiversity is being degraded and lost to a considerable extent, with 70 % of the world’s deforestation a result of stripping in order to grow animal feed. Furthermore, about 14.5 % of the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are calculated to be the result of (mainly industrial) livestock farming. The research reviewed here focuses on the feasibility of reducing meat consumption in developed and transition countries, as this would—among other positive effects—reduce the global loss of biodiversity, the need for unsustainable agricultural practices and GHG emissions. This article reviews the barriers, opportunities and steps that need to be taken in order to encourage the consumption of less meat, based on an interdisciplinary and multifactor approach. The evidence is gathered from a systematic meta-analysis of factors (including personal, sociocultural and external factors) that influence individual meat-eating behaviour. The most relevant factors that influence behaviour appear to be emotions and cognitive dissonance (between knowledge, conflicting values and actual behaviour) and sociocultural factors (e.g. social norms or social identity). For different factors and groups of people, different strategies are appropriate. For example, for men and older people deploying the health argument or arguing for flexitarianism (reduced meat consumption) may prove the most promising approaches, while providing emotional messages or promoting new social norms is recommended in order to address barriers such as cognitive dissonance.

Knowledge about aerosol injection does not reduce individual mitigation efforts

Stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) is a climate engineering method that is reputed to be very effective in cooling the planet but is also thought to involve major risks and side effects. As a new option in the bid to counter climate change, it has attracted an increasing amount of research and the debate on its potential gained momentum after it was referred to in the 5th IPCC assessment report (IPCC 2013). One major objection to SAI and the research done on it is that it could undermine commitment to the mitigation of greenhouse gases. Policymakers, interest groups or individuals might wrongly perceive SAI as an easy fix for climate change and accordingly reduce their mitigation efforts. This is the first study to provide an empirical evaluation of this claim for individuals. In a large-scale framed field experiment with more than 650 participants, we provide evidence that people do not back-pedal on mitigation when they are told that the climate change problem could be partly addressed via SAI. Instead, we observe that people who have been informed about SAI mitigate more than people who have not. Our data suggest that the increase is driven by a perception of SAI as potential threat.

The International Politics of Climate Engineering: A Review and Prospectus for International Relations

Proposed large-scale intentional interventions in natural systems in order to counter climate change, typically called “climate engineering” or “geoengineering,” stand to dramatically alter the international politics of climate change and potentially much more. There is currently a significant and growing literature on the international politics of climate engineering. However, it has been produced primarily by scholars from outside the discipline of International Relations (IR). We are concerned that IR scholars are missing a critical opportunity to offer insights into, and perhaps help shape, the emerging international politics of climate engineering. To that end, the primary goal of this paper is to call the attention of the IR community to these developments. Thus, we offer here an overview of the existing literature on the international politics of climate engineering and a preliminary assessment of its strengths and lacunae. We trace several key themes in this corpus, including problem structure, the concern that climate engineering could undermine emissions cuts, the potentially “slippery slope” of research and development, unilateral implementation, interstate conflict, militarization, rising tensions between industrialized and developing countries, and governance challenges and opportunities. The international politics of climate engineering is then considered through the lenses of the leading IR theories (Realism, Institutionalism, Liberalism, and Constructivism), exploring both what they have contributed and possible lines of future inquiry. Disciplinary IR scholars should have much to say on a number of topics related to climate engineering, including its power and transformational potentials, the possibility of counter-climate engineering, issues of institutional design, international law, and emergent practices. We believe that it is incumbent on the IR community, whose defining focus is international relations, to turn its attention to these unprecedented technologies and to the full scope of possible ramifications they might have for the international system.