Reduce Climate Change Research Articles

Exploring the relationships between worry about climate change, belief about personal responsibility, and mental wellbeing among adolescents and young adults

Today's adolescents and young adults experience high levels of media coverage, public opinion, and formal education about climate change. The young people of today are also projected to experience more climate change related extreme events than previous generations. Although adolescents and young adults may worry about the impacts of climate change and feel personal responsibility to reduce climate change, there is little known about how this relates to their mental wellbeing. This study used data from the 2016/17 European Social Survey Round 8 to examine relationships between climate change worry and beliefs about personal responsibility to reduce climate change with mental wellbeing (happiness and life satisfaction) among adolescents and young adults. Worry about climate change was negatively associated with both happiness and life satisfaction. Belief of a personal responsibility to reduce climate change was positively associated with both happiness and life satisfaction. Frequency of thoughts about climate change moderated the relationships between belief about personal responsibility and happiness. Belief in a personal responsibility to reduce climate change moderated the relationship between worry about climate change and both mental wellbeing outcomes. These findings suggest that young people who feel personally responsible for climate change reduction report on average better wellbeing, which means that holding such beliefs could be a promotive factor for positive mental health among adolescents and young adults.

Ways to Reduce External Energy Consumption and to Reduce Climate Change

Ways to Reduce External Energy Consumption and to Reduce Climate Change

Integration of Photovoltaic Distributed Generation in Grid Distribution Network: A Literature Review

Distributed Generation (DG) will become a future generation system known as a renewable energy source. Renewable energy is a topic being developed due to being environmentally friendly. It fulfills the need for electrical energy to replace fossil energy sources to reduce climate change due to carbon emissions towards net-zero emissions by 2050, reducing climate change by 1.50 C to 20 C. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is an energy source that has been widely developed and has enormous potential; where PV can be integrated off the grid and on the grid. Integrating PV into the network is challenging, so the network remains stable and reliable due to intermittent energy generation. This paper reviews the integration of PV-DG distribution networks. Topology, optimization, and impacts on the distribution network are also discussed in this paper. The literature review results show that PV-DG integrated into the grid has an impact caused by intermittent PV generation.

Investigating the Barriers to Implementation of Green Roofs in Izmir, Turkey

As a sustainable approach to urban environmental management, green roofs are becoming more and more popular. They have been discovered to help reduce the urban heat island effect, insulating against noise and heat, managing stormwater, and eventually reducing climate change. Despite its established advantages and widespread use in most developed countries, green roofs have just recently gained popularity in the Izmir building sector. Izmir, a fast-growing city that may profit from green roofs, seems to have little idea of its potential. This study aims to determine the barriers to the widespread adoption of green roofs in Izmir. For this purpose, qualitative research was carried out and semi-structured interviews with government officials from different backgrounds such as architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and engineering were carried out to gather the primary data. Although there are prospects for the adoption of green roofs, the study revealed that these roofs are not common in the study region due to expense, technical difficulties, a lack of understanding, and standards. In light of this, it was also discovered that for the local sector to progress, government authorities must provide incentives and change regulatory settings to better promote the use of green roofs, while industry organizations must offer educational initiatives. Moreover, it is crucial to enhance technicalproficiency and conduct research related to green roofs’ proven benefits in the context of Izmir.

Evaluating the Crucial Relationships between Soil Health and Climate Change

Content of paper emphasizes the significant influence of soil health on global warming and climate stability. Soil affects the Earth's carbon cycle by acting as a source and sink of greenhouse gases. Climate is considered important a factor in soil formation, but also soils also have an impact on the climate. Therefore, soils are affected by the current climate change as well, particularly because they may release excessive amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) as a result of changing their usage or poor management or human wrong practices. The pressure that climate change places on soil ecosystems has a significant impact on agriculture, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. For effective climate mitigation and adaptation policies to be developed, it is essential to understand these relationships. Worthwhile that the greatest soil management practices for reducing climate change focus on increasing soil organic matter content and water retention. The enormous carbon and nitrogen (N) store that is soil. acting as a possible regulator of the CO2, N2O, and CH4—the three main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Because biota is the organic matter carrier to the soil, both in living organisms and through their decomposing remains, mature soils rich in life are frequently CO2 sinks. But heterotrophic organisms that live in soil are also OM net consumers, and they release CO2 into the atmosphere through respiration. The interactions between plants, soil organisms, and abiotic soil conditions are actually changing as a result of climate change, which has an impact on plant performance, plant diversity, and community structure. The loss of soil organic matter (OM) and its development to the atmosphere quickly became a significant effect of tillage and any other activity, agricultural or otherwise, that disturbs the natural soils since then. It is anticipated that the areas affected by salinization would increase due to climate change which affects the suitability of the soil agriculture or any other development purposes.The conclusion of the current study Carbon sequestration can reduced the green house gas emission.

Comparative life cycle assessment of renewable energy storage systems for net-zero buildings with varying self-sufficient ratios

The transition towards zero and net-zero buildings necessitates identifying sustainable and effective renewable energy systems to reduce the impacts of operational energy. This study analyses the environmental impacts of multiple microgrids that consist of a photovoltaic plant and a hybrid hydrogen/battery energy storage system in a grid-connected building. To this end, a three-step simulation process was proposed. The first step involved modelling the energy consumption of the building during operation. Following that, the size of components was optimised. Lastly, a comparative life cycle assessment was conducted to evaluate different self-sufficient ratios (SSR). The results show that as SSR increase, the optimised capacities of all components generally increase, although this relationship is complex, particularly as the system approaches full renewable capacity. The climate change impact initially decreases to its lowest values but then increase again towards achieving full self-sufficiency. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of considering multiple environmental impact categories when designing renewable energy systems. A sensitivity analysis reveals that countries with carbon-intensive electricity grids can reduce climate change impacts by increasing their renewable energy penetration. However, for countries with a high proportion of renewable energy, a higher SSR may not lead to a lower climate change impact but rather exacerbate it.

The Effects of Climate Change on the Future of Citrus Growth in the Mediterranean Region Change

Citrus fruit production is one of the largest fruit crop productions in the World, especially in the Mediterranean area. The future of citrus plantations in the sub-tropical region depends on climate change. Eight billion world’s population’s activity and energy demand is getting increased and as a result, more greenhouse gases are fluxing into the atmosphere. All the atmospheric data such as CO2 and other gases concentrations are increasing and weather patterns are continuously changing which results in climate change. Agricultural productivity and climate change parameters are interrelated in many ways. Abiotic stresses such as temperature and water stress are the main environmental factors that reduce yield at a drastic level. Climate-based stress factors cause physiological, biochemical, and anatomical changes in plant growth and structure. Stress factors also lead to a reduction in crop yield. An increase in temperature and water deficiency is expected to result in reduced citrus tree fruit growth and in turn decreased yield. In the present work, the effects of greenhouse gases on climate change and the citrus plantation future are discussed. Since net carbon dioxide assimilation in plant leaves and stomatal conductance is reduced by high leaf temperature, plant growth is depressed. Due to water deficiency, the transpiration rate and stomatal conductance are naturally reduced, and in turn, the yield will be reduced. Knowing the possible effects of climate change on photosynthesis productivity and CO2 assimilation capacity in citrus plants is better. In addition, it is better to know what can be done to keep yield at optimum levels. Also, it is better to know the rhizosphere organism’s role in the mitigation of greenhouse gases to reduce climate change effects on agricultural sustainability.

Environmental problem shifting from climate change mitigation: A mapping review

AbstractClimate change mitigation will trigger major changes in human activity, energy systems, and material use, potentially shifting pressure from climate change to other environmental problems. We provide a comprehensive overview of such “environmental problem shifting” (EPS). While there is considerable research on this issue, studies are scattered across research fields and use a wide range of terms with blurred conceptual boundaries, such as trade-off, side effect, and spillover. We identify 506 relevant studies on EPS of which 311 are empirical, 47 are conceptual–theoretical, and 148 are synthetic studies or reviews of a particular mitigation option. A systematic mapping of the empirical studies reveals 128 distinct shifts from 22 categories of mitigation options to 10 environmental impacts. A comparison with the recent IPCC report indicates that EPS literature does not cover all mitigation options. Moreover, some studies systematically overestimate EPS by not accounting for the environmental benefits of reduced climate change. We propose to conceptually clarify the different ways of estimating EPS by distinguishing between gross, net, and relative shifting. Finally, the ubiquity of EPS calls for policy design which ensures climate change mitigation that minimizes unsustainability across multiple environmental dimensions. To achieve this, policymakers can regulate mitigation options—for example, in their choice of technology or location—and implement complementary environmental policies.

Open and Closed Black Soldier Fly Systems Tradeoff Analysis

When it comes to waste management, it is essential to consider human and environmental safety, financial feasibility, and social benefits. So often, one of these factors takes priority over the others. However, integrated social, environmental, and economic benefits are more apparent with insect-based waste treatment technology like the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) system. BSF waste treatment is an innovative and adaptable technique that offers sustainable benefits to communities in developing countries because it can be designed to be as simple or complex as required. Depending on the local context, simple (open) systems based on naturally occurring flies or more complex (closed) systems based on captured fly colonies are viable. However, what are the environmental tradeoffs when choosing between these two systems? The surge in the use of both BSF systems makes this consideration imperative. Furthermore, until now, the environmental and social impacts of open BSF waste treatment systems have not been compared. The environmental tradeoffs in implementing an affordable, socially accepted, open BSF biowaste treatment system are explored in this study to address this gap. Co-production for delivering public services was used to develop an accepted BSF system through a case study by applying qualitative interaction research methodologies. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was then used to compare the environmental impacts of natural ovipositing BSF systems compared to captured BSF systems. Natural ovipositing BSF (open) systems, in comparison, have reduced climate change (33%) and water, land, and energy use (55%, 37% and 32%) while also motivating the development of socially accepted infrastructure measured through community engagement. This mixed-methods approach facilitates the development of contextually appropriate technology in low-income communities in developing and developed countries while also reducing environmental consequences.

Bank climate change initiatives, ownership structures, and corporate governance mechanisms: Evidence from emerging economies

AbstractMotivated by the growing attention on climate change acceleration, we examine the interrelationships among corporate governance disclosure index, bank ownership structures, and bank climate change initiatives through the lens of a multi‐theoretical framework. We conduct a fixed‐effects and dynamic two‐step system generalized method of moments models over an extensive dataset. Based on panel data of 220 banks (2,785 observations) from 16 Sub‐Saharan Africa emerging economies between 2007 and 2022, the study observes that banks with higher levels of corporate governance disclosure index engage in more climate change initiatives. The study shows that ownership by institutional and foreign investors is associated with more bank climate change initiatives, while government ownership reduces climate change initiatives. Further, we document that director ownership has no impact on climate change initiatives. The study documents that the association between bank ownership structures and bank climate change initiatives is positively moderated by the extent of the corporate governance disclosure index. This moderating impact improves for banks with high corporate governance mechanisms. Finally, we show that the bank ownership structures‐climate change initiatives linkage and the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms on this nexus vary significantly across banks' operating periods. We identify corporate governance disclosure as the potential channel through which bank ownership structures and climate change initiatives are interlinked. Our findings call for banks to adopt and implement good governance disclosure to improve climate change initiatives. The findings make significant theoretical and regulatory contributions.

Predictors of U.S. public support for climate aid to developing countries

Effectively responding to global warming requires mitigation and adaptation efforts worldwide. Although developed countries have pledged substantial financial support to help developing countries respond to climate change, these pledges have yet to be fulfilled. A majority of American voters support providing aid to developing nations, however, levels of support differ sharply between Democrats and Republicans. To investigate the predictors of support for climate aid among registered voters in the United States and to assess the effect of political party identification, we conducted hierarchical regression and relative weight analysis on a nationally representative sample of U.S. registered voters (n = 898) surveyed in 2021. Among all voters, the predictors of support for climate aid were: party identification (with more support among Democrats), perceived risk to developing countries, worry about global warming, injunctive beliefs that the U.S. should do more, and global warming belief certainty. Among Democrats, the predictors were: perceived risk to the U.S., worry, injunctive beliefs the U.S. should do more, education, and income. Among Republicans, the predictors were: perceived risk to developing countries, and injunctive beliefs the U.S. should do more. These findings have both theoretical and practical relevance for efforts to build public support for development assistance aimed at reducing climate change.

Ways to Reduce External Energy Consumption and to Reduce Climate Change

Ways to Reduce External Energy Consumption and to Reduce Climate Change

Green Economy Policies in the Digital Transformation of Forest Management in Indonesia

This study examines green economy policies in relation to Indonesia’s digital transformation of forest management. It employs the normative juridical approach as well as the primary and secondary sources of legal materials. It demonstrates that the digital transformation policies of forest managements are implemented to reduce climate change and facilitate a green economy. The green economy approach underscores that sustainable development is premised upon improving human wellbeing and social equality considering environmental concerns. The instrumental theory uses a backward-looking approach and the substantive theory uses a forward-looking approach. The later adjusts to technological developments and protects interests disrupted by them. Hence, it can be used in making forestry digital transformation policies. Furthermore, the application of the legal theory of development exhibits the absolute and crucial importance of the digital transformation policies as a way of advancing forest management, community participation policies as well as transparency in environmental and forest management. They call for a holistic, all-encompassing, and interdisciplinary approaches. In view of this, this study presents novelty in the forestry-related digital transformation policies, which aim at lessening the harm to forests and ecosystems and the planet.

Creative and Happy Individuals Concerned about Climate Change: Evidence Based on the 10th Round of the European Social Survey in 22 Countries

Previous studies, to some extent, link creativity, well-being, and environmental concerns. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the associations between self-reported creativity, psychological well-being, and climate change concerns. This study was based on data derived from the European Social Survey’s 10th round and applied several items from sections H, B, and C. The findings revealed that creativity was positively linked to climate change concerns and psychological well-being, while psychological well-being was, to some extent, negatively related to climate change concerns. The SEM model demonstrated an acceptable fit, χ2 = 1627.862; Df = 7; CFI = 0.959; TLI = 0.876; NFI = 0.958; RMSEA = 0.078 [0.075–0.082]. Additionally, the findings indicated that more creative and happy individuals were also more concerned about climate change; they were more prone to believe that climate change is caused by human activity, they felt a higher personal responsibility to reduce climate change, and they were significantly more worried about climate change. This implies that as creative and happy individuals have a heightened sense of responsibility for climate change, these individuals may indeed play a key role in promoting climate change awareness and actions, including communication on sustainability, sustainability-related projects, and other activities; thus, tailored campaigns could be developed within the frames of citizen science. The findings also suggest implications for policy development: policymakers could consider the perspectives of creative and happy individuals when crafting climate policies, potentially leading to more effective and widely accepted solutions.

Life cycle assessment of the manufacturing and operation of distillation column for eliminating volatile and organic halogen compounds from process wastewater

Distillation serves as the foremost method for commercial-scale separation of fluid mixtures. Widely applied in wastewater treatment, it is the preferred choice for isolating volatile multi-component mixtures into pure substances. Distillation technology offers notable economic benefits due to its easy implementation, high efficiency, productivity, and robust safety features. This study examines the environmental impacts associated with the production and usage of a distillation, specifically in treating pharmaceutical process wastewater containing organic halogen compounds (AOX). The analysis adopts a 'gate-to-gate' approach, with the specified functional unit (FU) set at 1 kg of treated effluent containing no more than 8 ppm of AOX and less than 1000 mg O2/L of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD). In this work, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is conducted using Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Recipe 2016 Endpoint (H) V1.06 methodologies, utilizing the SimaPro V9.3.0.3 software in conjunction with the Ecoinvent V3.8 database. Analysis results have shown the emission of 1.11 × 10–2 kg CO2-eq, in which operational and production processes contribute 91.9% and 8.1%, respectively. To mitigate adverse effects, alternative energy sources, i.e., solar, offshore wind, and onshore wind are integrated into the distillation procedure. The substitution of hard coal with solar, offshore wind, and onshore wind energy displays the potential to significantly reduce climate change impact by 64.3%, 62.9%, and 62.8%, respectively.Article HighlightsDistillation process undergoes a thorough life cycle assessment from production to application.Distillation process requires high energy and emits 1.11 × 10–2 kg CO2-eq per functional unit.The operational phase dominates over 90% in three damage categories: human health, ecosystems, and resources.

Blending Carbon Intensity for Ethanol in Gasoline

<div>Greenhouse gas emissions reduction from the light-duty transportation fleet is urgent and should address both electric and conventional powertrain technologies. Internal combustion engines will continue to be employed for vehicle propulsion and fleet turnover is slow, encouraging reduction of carbon content in gasoline. Currently ethanol, a renewable fuel, is blended at the 10% level into petroleum to produce finished market gasoline. Ethanol enables a less carbon-intensive petroleum blendstock composition, providing for additional reduction, but this is often overlooked in studies. Carbon intensity, as a ratio of CO<sub>2</sub> mass to heat released upon combustion, is a measure of well-to-wheels greenhouse gas production. The well-to-wheels carbon intensity of ethanol does not include its chemical carbon content because it arises from a renewable source, but does consider all upstream farming, production, and transportation carbon impacts. The well-to-wheels carbon intensity of the petroleum fraction includes the chemically bound carbon, as well as production and transportation impact. Carbon intensity modeling results for ethanol vary widely, primarily due to differences in land-use change assessment. The GREET model has gained wide acceptance and provides a present-day carbon intensity for pure ethanol that is 43% lower than for petroleum gasoline. Ethanol exhibits a high blending octane number so that the petroleum component has a lower octane rating than required for purely petroleum gasoline. Fuel trends and modeling suggest that a 10% (by volume) ethanol addition enables a 9% reduction of aromatics, which have a high carbon intensity. If the carbon reduction benefits of the aromatic reduction are assigned to the agency of the ethanol, the blending carbon intensity of ethanol is 56% lower than for petroleum gasoline. Increase in ethanol blending therefore offers substantial immediate climate change reduction.</div>

Techno-economic analysis of hybrid solar-biomass-wind for water pumping considering carbon tax and renewable energy rebate

There is a need for increased penetration of renewable energy resources (RES) in the energy mix of South Africa that is currently bedevilled by recurring load shedding thus affecting sustainable critical infrastructures such as water pumping and water use. This paper assesses the viability of three RES of solar, biomass, and wind for water pumping at two locations (University of Johannesburg, APK campus – L1 and Zuikerbosch pumping station – L2) in Johannesburg, South Africa by utilising daily data from 2003 to 2020. A detailed feasibility analysis of the three RES was conducted, after which a rebate-based novel model for reducing the unit cost with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) was implemented for solar PV. Key findings reveal that the power requirement in L1 and L2 booster stations are 91 kW and 71,331 kW, respectively while the produced power from a 350 W monocrystalline PV-module utilized is 0.103 kW in L1 and L2 using 882 and 692,534 modules. The biomass power of 47.68 GW in L1 and 99.42 GW in L2 was produced from an average amount of food waste estimate of 1641 and 1248,800 tonnes evaluated from 3729 and 2838,100 tonnes of putrescible waste using a population model. The power density results depict a very weak wind energy application capability in the two locations based on National Renewable Energy Laboratory indices after using 11 differently sized wind turbines in the two locations. Finally, the result from the rebated unit-cost model reveals that the unit cost of water dropped by 17.09$/kWhr from 0.33$/kWhr in L1 and 21.20$/kWhr from 0.66$/kWhr in L2 using the solar PV modules. The study aligns with similar study done in Qatar, and the Springer report on Energy Democracy Evaluation for 100% Renewable Energy Policies and Projects showing an increased penetration of affordable and carbon-free RES which will in turn reduce climate change effects globally.

From crisis to resilience: strengthening climate action in OECD countries through environmental policy and energy transition

Climate change represents a grave challenge to the global economy, environment, and societal well-being, jeopardizing their long-term sustainability. In response to this urgent issue, the study emphasizes the significance of environmental policy and energy transitions as fundamental factors in addressing the climate change crisis. The research draws upon data from OECD countries spanning the period between 1990 and 2020, utilizing robust econometric techniques to assess data properties. The study utilizes a comprehensive CS-ARDL model, incorporating multiple control variables like non-renewable energy GDP, foreign direct investment (FDI), and research and development (R&D). The results show that environmental policy and energy transitions are effective in reducing climate change impacts in the form of CO2 emissions. The non-environmental factors like GDP and FDI are positively associated and thereby accelerate climate change processes, whereas R&D promotes environmental protection by reducing CO2 emissions. Based on these findings, the study advocates for the implementation of rigorous policy measures by OECD economies to strengthen and enforce environmental policies to ensure compliance and foster sustainable practices across sectors. The study also suggests that OECD must promote energy transitions by investing in renewable energy sources at the mass level (micro and macro) and phasing out reliance on non-renewable energy.

Determinants of eco-anxiety: cross-national study of 52,219 participants from 25 European countries

Abstract Background Climate change is the most significant threat to public health and has important implications for mental health. As well as the direct impact from extreme weather events, existential worry about climate change, or ‘eco-anxiety’ may impact wellbeing. This study aims to assess levels of eco-anxiety across European countries and explore its determinants. Methods Data were taken from the 10th round of the European Social Survey (collected 2020-22), which included 52,219 participants aged 15+ years from 25 countries. Eco-anxiety was measured by levels of worry about climate change. Multilevel logistic regression was used to assess the cross-sectional associations of social, economic and health-related factors with eco-anxiety. Results Overall, 42.8% of participants felt very worried or extremely worried about climate change. Levels of eco-anxiety were lowest in Slovakia (22.6%) and Estonia (24.7%) and highest in Germany (55.3%) and Spain (55.2%). Women were more worried about climate change than men (OR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.33-1.43). Those aged 60-69 years (OR = 1.40, 95% CI: 1.27-1.54) were most likely to be worried about climate change, compared to those aged 15-19 years. People with higher tertiary education (OR = 2.50, 95% CI: 2.25-2.77) were most likely to be worried about climate change, compared to those with less than lower secondary education. Household income was not associated once educational qualifications were accounted for. Eco-anxiety was also associated with poor self-rated health (OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.13-1.33) and lower life satisfaction. Conclusions There are marked differences in levels of eco-anxiety across European countries. As the climate crisis deepens and its impacts become more visible, there is a need to monitor eco-anxiety and its potential harms to health and wellbeing, as well as its potential to motivate climate action. Key messages • The potential impact of eco-anxiety on health and wellbeing needs further research as levels are high across Europe. • Urgent action to reduce climate change will help to mitigate the effects on mental health.

Increasing Antarctic Ice Mass to Help Offset Sea Level Rise

Global sea level is predicted to rise for centuries even if greenhouse gas emissions are greatly reduced. Sea level rise (SLR) threatens coastal communities where a large fraction of the human population lives. A possible mitigation effort is to increase the ice mass in Antarctica. Coastal Antarctic radiosonde profiles are supersaturated with respect to ice on average 47% of the time. If all of this excess water vapor and supercooled liquid cloud water were removed from the atmosphere and deposited on the Antarctic landmass, it would offset 11 cm of SLR by 2100, or about 15 (8–17) percent of the predicted SLR. This strategy could be used to supplement other efforts to reduce climate change impacts, such as carbon dioxide removal or solar climate intervention.