Why companies fund climate change projects on national forests: insights into the motivations of the Forest Service’s corporate partners

The presented study focuses on the problem of increasing the participation of institutional investors in climate finance.Aim. The study aims to identify key drivers and barriers for increasing the participation of institutional investors in climate finance.Tasks. The author considers the transformation of the concept of the fiduciary debt of institutional investors; examines international efforts to address climate risks and mobilize institutional investment in low-carbon projects; analyzes factors preventing wider engagement of institutional investors in climate finance.Methods. This study used general scientific methods of cognition, such as synthesis and analysis.Results. The transformation of the concept of the fiduciary debt of institutional investors is described and its modern interpretation is provided. Factors facilitating the consideration of climate risks and increasing the role of institutional investors in climate finance are identified. The main barriers to considering climate change issues in the investment decisions made by institutional investors are identified.Conclusions. Common approaches to financial policies and regulations are being actively developed at the international level to help mobilize institutional investment in climate change projects. Credible international structures in the field of responsible investment, such as PRI, have a significant influence on the way investors address climate-related risks and opportunities when making decisions. Along with the drivers for institutional investment, numerous barriers still remain.

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Brief Communication: Piloting a Climate-Change Adaptation Index on US National Forest Lands

Journal of Forestry ◽

10.1093/jofore/fvab032 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michael R Coughlan ◽

Heidi Huber-Stearns ◽

Courtney Schultz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

The United States ◽

Northern Region ◽

Forest Service ◽

National Forests ◽

National Forest ◽

Planning And Management ◽

Forest Lands ◽

Adaptation Index

Abstract Climate change presents a novel and significant threat to the sustainability of forest ecosystems worldwide. The United States Forest Service (USFS) has conducted climate change vulnerability assessments for much of the 193 million acres of national forest lands it manages, yet little to no research exists on the degree to which management units have adopted considerations of climate change into planning or project implementation. In response to this knowledge gap, we piloted a survey instrument in USFS Region 1 (Northern region) and Region 6 (Pacific Northwest region) to determine criteria for assessing the degree to which national forests integrate climate-change considerations into their management planning and activities. Our resulting climate-change adaptation index provides an efficient quantitative approach for identifying where, how, and, potentially, why some national forests are making more progress toward incorporating climate-change adaptations into forest planning and management. Study Implications We used a self-assessment survey of planners and managers on US National Forests in Forest Service Regions 1 and 6 to design a climate change adaptation index for measuring the degree to which national forests units have integrated considerations of climate change into their planning and management activities. Our resulting index can potentially be used to help understand how and why the USFS’s decentralized climate-change adaptation strategy has led some national forests to make comparatively significant progress towards adapting to climate change while others have lagged behind.

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Evaluating farmers’ adaptation strategies to climate change: A case study of Kaou local government area, Tahoua State, Niger Republic

Jàmbá Journal of Disaster Risk Studies ◽

10.4102/jamba.v8i3.241 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

A. Moussa Tabbo ◽

Zakou Amadou ◽

Agada B. Danbaky

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Adaptation Strategies ◽

Small Scale ◽

Vegetable Production ◽

Random Utility Theory ◽

Wild Fruits ◽

Climate Change Information ◽

Change Projects ◽

The Difference

The study discusses local farmers’ strategies of coping with and building resilience against the negative impact of climate change. Information for the discussion was from data collected using a set of structured questionnaires from interviews scheduled with 128 farmers. The questionnaire was based on previous literature and direct reconnaissance interview with farmers, which culminated in 13 strategies used for the study being reported. For each question, respondents were asked to choose their best and worst strategies. Thus, the difference between the best and worst strategies consistent with random utility theory has been used for the modelling. Results show that semi-transhumance, various handicrafts making, rural migration, small-scale vegetable production and small-scale river exploitation were the most important strategies identified, whilst water transport and vending, shifting cultivation, gypsum mining, gathering and trading of wild fruits and edible plants as well as cattle and sheep fattening were the least appreciated strategies identified amongst the farmers facing climate change. These findings are therefore imperative for planning farmers’ capacity-building and resilience against climate change projects to ensure sustainability in the study area.Keywords: Farmers’ adaptation strategies; Climate change resilience; Kaou

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Embedding Preference Uncertainty for Environmental Amenities in Climate Change Economic Assessments: A “Random” Step Forward

Economies ◽

10.3390/economies7040107 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 107

Author(s):

Skourtos ◽

Damigos ◽

Kontogianni ◽

Tourkolias ◽

Hunt

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Environmental Amenities ◽

Environmental Goods ◽

Goods And Services ◽

Preference Uncertainty ◽

Change Projects ◽

Random Step ◽

Climate Change Damages ◽

General Random Walk

While there is a considerable debate regarding the choice of proper discount rates for assessing climate change projects and policies, only a tiny body of literature emphasizes “what to discount”. Usually, climate change economic assessments rely on tools and methods that employ strong simplifications, assuming, among others, given and fixed preferences about the values of man-made and environmental goods. Aiming to fill a gap in the literature, this paper leaves aside the issue of discounting and focuses on the nature and impact of preference uncertainty on the economic estimates of future climate change damages on ecosystem non-market goods and services. To this end, a general random walk-based stochastic model is proposed, combining a number of parameters, e.g., the growth of income, depletion of environmental assets, the elasticity of income and demand, and the change in preferences towards the environment. The illustrative application of the model shows that the value of environmental losses is significantly affected by the change in preferences. By doing so, the model allows the analyst to visualize future paths of preference evolutions and to bring future values of damaged environmental assets realistically to the fore. If these elements are neglected when estimating climate change-related future damages to environmental goods and services, the results may be too narrow from a policy perspective.

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Effects of Climate Change on Natural-Caused Fire Activity in Western U.S. National Forests

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12080981 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 981

Author(s):

Hadi Heidari ◽

Mazdak Arabi ◽

Travis Warziniack

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

United States ◽

Forest Fire ◽

Forest Fires ◽

Western United States ◽

National Forests ◽

Climate Change Scenarios ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Fire Activity ◽

The Future

Climate change, with warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns, may increase natural-caused forest fire activity. Increasing natural-caused fires throughout western United States national forests could place people, property, and infrastructure at risk in the future. We used the fine K nearest neighbor (KNN) method coupled with the downscaled Multivariate Adaptive Constructed Analogs (MACA) climate dataset to estimate changes in the rate of natural-caused fires in western United States national forests. We projected changes in the rate of minor and major forest fires from historical (1986–2015) to future (2070–2099) conditions to characterize fire-prone national forests under a range of climate change scenarios. The results indicate that climate change can add to the occurrence of forest fires in western United States national forests, particularly in Rocky Mountain, Pacific Southwest, and Southwestern United States Forest Service regions. Although summer months are projected to have the highest rate of natural-caused forest fire activity in the future, the rate of natural-caused forest fires is likely to increase from August to December in the future compared to the historical conditions. Improved understanding of altered forest fire regimes can help forest managers to better understand the potential effects of climate change on future fire activity and implement actions to attenuate possible negative consequences.

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