United Nations Climate Change Research Articles

The Politics of Youth Representation at Climate Change Conferences: Who Speaks, Who Is Spoken of, and Who Listens?

Abstract In this article, we examine how young climate activists make use of the United Nations (UN) constituency system to give voice to children and youth in global climate governance. Our study is based on a mapping of accredited youth nongovernmental organizations (YOUNGO) as well as fieldwork at two UN Climate Change Conferences, where we conducted interviews, observed events, and analyzed plenary interventions. Informed by constructivist accounts of political representation, the article pays attention to the performative relationship between institutionalized means of youth representation and “the represented.” When analyzing our material, we asked who speaks for youth, how youth are spoken of, and how institutions shape representative speech. Our study identifies three subject positions that offer competing interpretations of who youth are as a political community and what they want. Rather than taking youth’s demands and interests as a starting point for representative politics, the article illustrates how the UN constituency system actively constructs youth and effectively molds young climate activists into professional insiders.

Urban dispersion indicator to assess the Italian settlement pattern

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) reaffirmed the most urgent need to build actions to accelerate the restoration of policies to arrest and reverse the loss of natural ecosystems by 2030 and move towards full ecosystem recovery by 2050. Land take is a significant source of emissions and contributes to global warming and biodiversity loss in natural ecosystems. Consequently, it is crucial to act on it by investigating the phenomenon quantitatively and formally, thus contributing to the goal of zero net land take. In recent years, land take worldwide has become massive, leading in some cases to forming compact, high-density urban settlements. In other cases, it has led to dispersed, low-density urban settlements. The basic assumption underlying this research is that a compact context is more sustainable (environmentally, economically, and socially) than a dispersed urban one. Consequently, this research aims to investigate the evolution of land take from the point of view of the pattern of urban settlements and their dispersion over the Italian territory. The spatial configuration of the Italian settlement pattern at the regional and provincial level was analyzed through a Spatio-temporal analysis of the global Moran index and other quantitative variables. The results provide, for each territory, a reading of the main expansion dynamics that occurred from the ‘50s to nowadays: compact city, urban sprawl, or urban sprinkling.

Assessment of future solar energy potential changes under the shared socio-economic pathways scenario 2–4.5 with WRF-chem: The roles of meteorology and emission

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) proposes to limit global warming to <1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels until 2030 and aligns CO2 emissions with net-zero by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is crucial to replace fossil fuels with renewable and clean energy sources. Among the various renewable energy sources, solar energy undoubtedly stands out as an attractive option. Future meteorological conditions and emission reductions are expected to impact on solar energy potential. Consequently, the Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem) was applied to current (2016–2020) and future (2046–2050) under the shared socio-economic pathways (SSP) 2–4.5 scenario to investigate the impact of future meteorological conditions and emission reductions on solar energy potential. The evaluation of the WRF-Chem demonstrates satisfactory performance in capturing most meteorological and chemical variables at a climatological scale. However, the model underestimates 2 m temperature while overestimating 2 m specific humidity and 10 m wind speed, with mean bias (MB) of −0.1 °C, 1.4 g kg−1, and 0.8 m s−1, respectively. Additionally, the WRF-Chem overestimates PM2.5, with normalized mean bias (NMB) of −20%. The model underestimates cloud fraction and precipitation caused by the limitation in the cloud microphysical parameterization. The model well reproduced the solar energy distribution in China, with R of 0.76 and NMB of −3%. Looking ahead, the future annual average solar energy increases by 2.2, 0.1, 2, 4.1, 1.9, and 2.9 W m−2 for China, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Fenwei Plain, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Sichuan Basin, respectively. The future annual average photovoltaic potential increase by 1–4% in these regions. This increase is primarily attributed to the increase in solar energy resulting from emission reductions (4.7, 5.1, 5.0, 4.7, 3.2, and 6.1 W m−2), which outweighs the decrease caused by meteorological conditions (2.5, 5.0, 2, 4.1, 1.9, and 2.9 W m−2). Hence, emission reduction plays a vital role in promoting solar energy utilization.

Rough-Set-Based Rule Induction with the Elimination of Outdated Big Data: Case of Renewable Energy Equipment Promotion

As developing economies become more industrialized, the energy problem has become a major challenge in the twenty-first century. Countries around the world have been developing renewable energy to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) and the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). Leaders of enterprises have been made aware of the need to protect the environment and have been practicing environmental marketing strategies and green information systems (GISs) as part of ESG practices. With the rapid growth of the available data from renewable electricity suppliers, the analyses of multi-attribute characteristics across different fields of studies use data mining to obtain viable rule induction and achieve adaptive management. Rough set theory is an appropriate method for multi-attribute classification and rule induction. Nevertheless, past studies for Big Data analytics have tended to focus on incremental algorithms for dynamic databases. This study entails rough set theory from the perspective of the decrement decay alternative rule-extraction algorithm (DAREA) to explore rule induction and present case evidence with managerial implications for the emerging renewable energy industry. This study innovates rough set research to handle data deletion in a Big Data system and promotes renewable energy with valued managerial implications.

Examining the representativeness heuristic and anchoring effects in China's carbon markets

This paper proposes a novel integrated approach incorporating grey relational analysis, corresponding correlation test, with vector autoregression and panel vector autoregression models to examine the representativeness heuristic and anchoring effects in carbon markets. The grey relational analysis and corresponding correlation test measure the representativeness heuristic in eight pilot carbon markets. The vector autoregression and panel vector autoregression models detect the anchoring effects in eight pilot carbon markets and the overall carbon market. The study first explores the representativeness heuristic and anchoring effects in China's carbon markets. Taking the 2014–2021 United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COP20–COP26) as an event, the proposal of China's carbon emissions peak and carbon-natural targets, as well as the establishment of China's national carbon market as three events, the empirical results demonstrate that Hubei, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing six pilot carbon markets were found to exhibit the representativeness heuristics for the COP21. Hubei, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Chongqing carbon markets were found to exhibit the representativeness heuristics for the proposal of China's carbon emissions peak and carbon-natural targets, and the establishment of China's national carbon market. Anchoring effects were found to exist in Guangdong, Tianjin, and Chongqing carbon markets, while no anchoring effect has been found to exist in the overall carbon market. Investor sentiment is one of the crucial factors affecting carbon prices.

Towards COP27: Decarbonization patterns of residential building in China and India

As the two largest emerging emitters with the highest growth in operational carbon emissions from residential buildings, the historical emission patterns and decarbonization efforts of China and India warrant further exploration. This study aims to be the first to present a carbon intensity model considering end-use performances, assessing the operational decarbonization progress of residential building in India and China over the past two decades using the newest decomposing structural decomposition approach. Results indicate (1) the annual operational carbon intensity increased by 1.4% and 2.5% in China and India, respectively, between 2000 and 2020. Household expenditure-related energy intensity and emission factors were crucial in decarbonizing residential buildings. (2) Building electrification played a significant role in decarbonizing space cooling (−87.7 in China and − 130.2 kg of carbon dioxide (kgCO2) per household in India) and appliances (∼ −169.7 in China and ∼ −43.4 kgCO2 per household in India). (3) China and India collectively decarbonized 1498.3 and 399.7 M-tons of CO2 in residential building operations, respectively. In terms of decarbonization intensity, India (164.8 kgCO2 per household) nearly caught up with China (182.5 kgCO2 per household) in 2020 and is expected to surpass China in the upcoming years, given the country's robust annual growth rate of 7.3%. Overall, this study provides an effective data-driven tool for investigating the building decarbonization potential in China and India, and offers valuable insights for other emerging economies seeking to decarbonize residential buildings in the forthcoming COP2811COP28 is the abbreviation of 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. age.

What can be expected of the United Nations climate change negotiations? A reply to commentaries on ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess

What can be expected of the United Nations climate change negotiations? A reply to commentaries on ‘Why do climate change negotiations stall? Scientific evidence and solutions for some structural problems’ by Ulrich J. Frey and Jazmin Burgess

Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution Performance of Ni−Mo-Based Electrocatalysts in Seawater by Controlling Surface Wettability

Environmental pollution and global warming have become enormous problems all over the world. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, carbon neutrality was proposed as a way to solve this problem through the Paris Agreement in 2015. To achieve zero net carbon dioxide emissions, research on how to obtain energy from renewable energy resources has been intensively conducted. Among various candidates of renewable chemical fuels, green H2, produced by water electrolysis is considered as one of the promising, next generation chemical fuels.Almost 97% of earth’s water resources exist as seawater. Moreover, seawater has an advantage that it can be used as an electrolyte owing to the various ions, existing naturally. Therefore, one of the ultimate goals in green H2 generation is to directly utilize seawater as the electrolyte source.Although Pt-group materials (PGMs) are well known catalysts in hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) but one of the main challenges for wide commercialization with PGMs is its high cost and scarcity. In order to overcome this issue, research on HER catalysts using non-PGM (NPGM) has been intensively performed. Among various NPGM elements, Ni−Mo has great potential for electrocatalysts in HER owing to its cost effectiveness as well as their high electrocatalytic activities in wide pH range of electrolytes. It is well known that not only the electrocatalytic activity in HER, mainly originating from chemical compositions at the surface, but also the physical surface properties, especially the surface wettability, play an important role to regulate the electrocatalytic performance. The evolved bubbles by the HER form the solid−gas−liquid interfaces, which results in the turn-off of the active sites toward electrochemical reactions until the gas bubbles remove from the electrocatalytic surface. Previous studies reveal that this dynamic, evolutionary behavior of surface active sites by the bubble growth/departure significantly influence the electrocatalytic performance.Herein, we demonstrate the Ni−Mo-based material as the electrocatalyst toward HER in simulated seawater, which is 0.5 M phosphate buffer with 0.6 M NaCl. The electrocatalytic layers are deposited by simple electrodeposition with the aminated graphene oxide (aGO) to form composites (aGO/NiMo). The addition of aGO in Ni−Mo does not influence the electrocatalytic activity in HER, exhibiting nearly the same cyclic voltammograms with pure NiMo. Interestingly, the long-term performance of aGO/NiMo, however, is observed when compared to the pure NiMo. The enhanced durability by chronopotentiometric measurements in the aGO/NiMo is ascribed to the improved surface wettability, originating from added aGO. The images taken by high-speed camera clearly show that the H2 bubbles with smaller sizes at the surface of aGO/NiMo but much larger density than the ones at pure NiMo are observed. These phenomena denotes that the regeneration rate of active sites by bubbles departure from the surface is much higher in the aGO/NiMo than NiMo without aGO, indicating that the aGO is beneficial for improving the surface wettability. The longer residence of H2 bubbles at the pure NiMo increases the actual overpotential applied in the single active site under constant current density, leading to the faster degradation of electrocatalytic activity in HER. The physical properties of surface between aGO/NiMo and NiMo for surface wettability is also supported by surface roughness measurements in atomic force microscope and contact angles. Our study contributes to the fundamental design of the physical properties of electrocatalytic surfaces physical properties, thereby simply improving the electrochemical performance in HER.

Corporate environmental disclosure in Europe: the effects of the regulatory environment

Purpose This paper aims to assess the impact of regulatory changes on corporate environmental disclosure practices in Europe. More specifically, the authors perform a difference-in-differences analysis to study the impact of the Paris agreement (United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21) and of the French Law 2015-992 on energy transition for green growth. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of the listed companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx 50 index, and they are analysed over the 2010–2019 time horizon by means of an expert validated environmental disclosure dictionary and difference-in-differences analysis. Findings The main results show that both regulatory interventions contributed to improving corporate environmental disclosure. The authors also show that firms belonging to the most polluting sectors tend to provide more information on environmental matters, likely in an attempt to divert stakeholders’ attention. Originality/value By analysing an under-investigated topic, the paper calls for significant efforts by regulators to find the most suitable solutions to induce firms to increase their levels of transparency on the impact of environmental risks and on how these risks are managed.

A review of Madagascar's derived grasslands: Low palatability following anthropogenic fires may threaten food security

Societal Impact StatementThe 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference emphasised the need to modify practices that negatively impact biodiversity and food security in the context of global change. Following Madagascar's drought‐induced famine, our systematic review supports the theory that grasslands of the Malagasy Central Highland that are subjected to human‐lit fires are anthropogenically derived. Furthermore, these overly frequent fires that characterise much of the Malagasy Central Highland grasslands select poorly palatable grasses. Given the reliance on pastoralism as insurance against crop failure in Madagascar, fire‐dependent practices that degrade rangeland emerge as a threat to food security and biodiversity. Education can mitigate against future humanitarian crises.SummaryFood insecurity is greatest in countries where impacts of global change are predicted to be severe. Many, like Madagascar, rely on livestock‐based pastoralism (and consequently palatable rangelands) for insurance against natural disasters and crop failure. It is recognised that derived grasslands can impact climate and biodiversity. Furthermore, the well‐established palatability‐flammability trade‐off predicts that overly‐frequent fires select increasingly unpalatable, fire‐adapted grassland. The drought‐induced Malagasy famine of 2021 highlights the need to identify factors that threaten food security. Given the ubiquitous practice of rangeland preparation through annual, landscape‐scale human‐lit fires, we evaluate whether Malagasy grasslands are derived and then test for fire‐driven selection of increasingly degraded and unpalatable rangelands across Madagascar's largest grassland system, the Malagasy Central Highland (MCH). We conducted a systematic literature review, evaluating for a palatability‐flammability trade‐off, by determining dominant Malagasy grass species, and then applying functional traits, and palatability ratings to these species. Data were extracted using a suite of relevant search terms, and of 1977 studies identified, 145 were directly relevant to the questions posed. Evidence from the review is compelling for much of the Malagasy highland grassland being derived. Furthermore, Malagasy dominant grass species are fire‐adapted with poor forage‐value, suggesting current burning practices negatively impact both biodiversity and pastoralism. Decreasing rangeland palatability caused by human‐lit fires in a society suffering food insecurity emphasises the need to re‐evaluate pastoralist burning practices. Identifying optimal fire frequencies can avert breaching fire‐induced tipping points to rangeland palatability and the humanitarian crises that may follow.

Towards a ‘pluralist’ approach for examining structures of interwoven multimodal discourse on social media

This study proposes a framework for examining hashtagged content on social media, which captures how specific issue frames (i.e. hashtags) contribute to navigable structures. We introduce ‘interwoven multimodal discourse’ as a pluralist alternative to the widely applied unitary approach in which trending hashtags serve as primary sites of analysis. The study argues that ‘interweaving’ of social media discourse takes place through practices such as hashtag colocation, which result in ambient and navigable structures. Analysis of hashtag colocation networks can serve as an approach for mapping ambient affiliations accessible through such structures. We analyse a hashtag colocation network constructed using a sample of 1100 Instagram posts related to climate change uploaded during the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021 (COP26) held in Glasgow to demonstrate two structural properties of interwoven discourse on Instagram: (1) hashtags contribute to multiple thematic clusters and (2) micro-level hashtags representing secondary topics are nested within larger thematic clusters.

Land and the feminine: Silence as a Room #1 of #5, Richmond, Karoo

abstract We cannot fight ‘climate change’– we objectify that which we cannot touch. The ‘fight’ refers instead, to our observations, reflections and concerns on the impact these shifts in climate patterns (as a result of a substantial increase in global warming) have made on our lives and on the natural environments that we rely on for sustenance. It refers to the devastation these shifts have created, impacting vulnerable peoples significantly. The media particularly during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), focused attention on the myriad ways in which the change in climate could be blamed for the state of hunger and poverty, political and social unrest – globally. This begs the question of why Climate Justice – the elephant in the room – is embedded in the agenda; and as a concern within this ‘fight’, cannot find its way to restore women to land ownership in previously colonised areas of the world. This photo essay, through the lens and experience of the making of Silence as a Room#1 of #5, Richmond, Karoo, considers the ways in which our relationships to land and ‘the feminine’ have formed a significant impact on all areas of our survival; where women in particular for the past few centuries have been severed from the land rendering many destitute, without means and by extension without dignity or autonomy. Speaking through a visual language (as seen here: https://coral4art.co.za/silence-as-a-room/), a work in and of the land (and the feminine), the structure, created to draw attention to silence in the land as experienced and created by a brown woman; was developed by manually working the land, observing ownerships, access and power to and on the site. The work highlights and speaks to the gendered power and authority inherent in our access to land drawing attention to the engine − capitalism that ultimately should pay the price of affected and vulnerable peoples the world over, but does not. I consider that this is no coincidence.

Palliative Justice Post-COP27.

The climate crisis is a planetary existential threat, disproportionately affecting the poorest populations worldwide. People in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience the most detrimental consequences of climate injustice, endangering their livelihoods, safety, overall wellbeing, and survival. Although the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) put forth several internationally salient recommendations, the outcomes fall short to efficiently tackle the suffering that exists at the intersection of social and climate injustice. Individuals with serious illness living in LMICs have the highest burden of health-related suffering globally. In fact, more than 61 million people experience serious health-related suffering (SHS) each year that is amenable to palliative care. Despite this well-documented burden of SHS, an estimated 88-90% of palliative care need is unmet, the majority in LMICs. To equitably address suffering at individual, population, and planetary levels in LMICs, a palliative justice approach is crucial. The interplay of human and planetary suffering requires that current planetary health recommendations be expanded to incorporate a whole-person and whole-people perspective that recognizes the need for environmentally conscious and community-based research and policy initiatives. Conversely, palliative care efforts should incorporate planetary health considerations to ensure sustainability in capacity building and service provision. In sum, the optimal health of the planet will remain elusive until we can holistically recognize the value of relieving all suffering due to life-limiting conditions, as well as the value in preserving the natural resources of countries in which all people are born, live, age, suffer, die, and grieve.

Green innovation, environmental governance and green investment in China: Exploring the intrinsic mechanisms under the framework of COP26

The United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, has highlighted the crucial role of increasing climate investment in mitigating climate change through ecological governance and the diffusion of green innovations. In response, we conducted a study using data from 30 regions in China between 2011 and 2019, employing a spatial model to investigate the relationship between green innovation, environmental regulations (ER), and green investment. We also examined the potential nonlinear relationships and influence mechanisms underlying these effects. Our study reveals that ER can stimulate green innovation both locally and in surrounding regions. Furthermore, ER and green innovation are found to benefit from green investment, forming a positive feedback loop. Enhancing government support, financial development, and ER can potentially amplify the impact of green investment in promoting green innovation. These findings provide a theoretical and institutional foundation for firms to promote green innovation by addressing institutional and investment gaps. Moreover, the study offers important practical implications for environmental policy-making and addressing environmental issues within the COP26 agenda.

Renewable energy, forest cover, export diversification, and ecological footprint: a machine learning application in moderating eco-innovations on agriculture in the BRICS-T economies.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) recommended that the member nations enhance their technological progression and structural transformation to mitigate the problems of climate change. The BRICS-T countries consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and Turkey agreed to implement COP26's policy suggestions. These countries accounted for 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2017, thus posing severe threats to the global environment. The current study explores the role of renewable energy, forest depletion, eco-innovations, and export diversification in impacting the ecological footprint for those BRICS-T countries. We further examine the moderating effect of eco-innovations on agriculture on the BRICS-T nations. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing newer empirical insights on how eco-innovations and export diversification, along with renewable energy, forest cover, and agriculture, affecting the ecological footprint in the BRICS-T nations. It utilizes novel empirical methods like parametric and non-parametric techniques to derive the short-run and long-run empirical results. The empirical findings based on the augmented mean group and the kernel regularized least square methods document that economic growth, agriculture value added, and forest depletion increase the ecological footprint. In contrast, renewable energy and eco-innovations decrease the level of ecological footprint. In the long run, a 1% rise in GDP leads to a rise in the ecological footprint by 0.64% using the augmented mean group (AMG) estimation. The mean marginal effects are - 0.27%, 0.29%, and 0.17% for renewable energy; agriculture and forest cover, respectively, using the kernel-based regularized least square methods. The study suggests that policies designed for controlling the ecological footprints focus on the use of energy efficient technologies, particularly in the agricultural sector.

Policy innovation through local, sustainable development evaluation

The global political agenda has included some high-profile environmental summits over the past few months. Three of these events stand out. The 2022 United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, was held from 6–20 November 2022. This was followed from 7–19 December 2022 by the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montréal, Canada, and the UN-Water Summit at UN Headquarters in New York City from 22–24 March 2023. Of these three events, the Biodiversity Summit made the most impact as delegates committed to protecting 30% of land and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030. This pledge is remarkable because it re-establishes political commitments to protect biodiversity, which is a key component of climate action. At the same time, many observers of the summit questioned how nation-states will implement this goal. Like the SDGs, the “30 by 30” commitment is long on aspirations but short on operationalization details. This observation is not a criticism of the agreement per se but a recognition of the challenges preventing ambitious biodiversity conservation plans from being fully implemented.

Strategy for Climate Crisis: Introducing Innovative System for CO2 Fixation and Storage

The so-called Paris Agreement was reached at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP20) in 2015. This agreement was based on the requirement to keep the increase in the mean global temperature below 2°C relative to the temperature prior to the industrial revolution, and preferably less than 1.5°C. At present, this goal is challenging based solely on the development of carbon-neutral energy systems. The concept of the carbon-neutral society by 2050 seems to be far too late. Herein, we propose an innovative system based on simple chemical reactions using NaOH and CaCl2 via the electrolysis of NaCl or seawater. The generated H2 from the electrolysis of NaCl can be used as a clean energy source for fuel batteries, supplying electricity for the operation of the system. When other renewable energy sources power the system, H2 can be generated as a clean energy alternative. Furthermore, this system produces stable and harmless CaCO3 as a final product, along with NaCl, which can be reused as an electrolysis starting material. The proposed system provides a safe and inexpensive approach for simultaneous CO2 fixation and storage.

Spotlight on the Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group

Spotlight on the Youth and Early Career Special Interest Group

Testing the role of digital financial inclusion in energy transition and diversification towards COP26 targets and sustainable development goals

This study investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion, energy transition, and diversification on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Change Conference (COP26) targets in the context of emerging seven economies (E-7). The SDGs include objectives related to sustainable energy consumption, the availability of sustainable energy, economic growth, sustainable development through technology, and climate change actions. This research employs novel econometric panel quantile regression and ordinary least square methods for benchmark estimations and pooled mean group for causality analysis. The empirical results indicate that energy transition and diversification, technological innovation, and foreign direct investment negatively correlate with CO2 emissions across all quantiles. Conversely, digital finance inclusion, energy consumption, and economic growth are the primary contributors to the environmental deterioration in the E-7 region. The PMG causality findings demonstrate a feedback effect for the indicators. Furthermore, our results are robust to alternative measures by Augmented Mean Group (AMG) and Common Correlated Effect Mean Group (CCEMG), which may assist policymakers in developing long- and short-term environmental protection initiatives. Based on the outcomes, we suggest that strategies to reduce carbon emissions and achieve the SDGs and COP26 targets should prioritize sustainable energy, and policymakers should enhance incentives for inclusive green funding. The findings recommend a comprehensive policy framework through which E-7 states may proceed toward reaching the SDGs (7-8-9-11-12 and 13) and COP26 commitments.

IHL in the era of climate change: The application of the UN climate change regime to belligerent occupations

AbstractThis article invites the reader on a journey through the legal arguments that would confirm the application of the United Nations (UN) climate change regime to belligerent occupations. Although the regime is silent on this issue, its application should not be limited to peacetime due to the seriousness of global climate change and its adverse effects on the environment and living entities. A harmonious interpretation and application of the UN climate change regime and the law of occupation would allow Occupying Powers to ensure the safety and well-being of the civilian population and contribute to the protection of the Earth's climate system.