Quantification of the environmental effectiveness of nature-based solutions for increasing the resilience of cities under climate change

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international community has sought to find a policy framework to address the threat of human induced climate change. The most significant action to date has been the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997, which could enter into force in 2003. The protocol includes legally binding emission reductions for some countries over the period 2008–12.It has yet not been possible, however, to find an approach that is truly global and that is aligned with the long-term environmental goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to a safe level.A framework for action that addresses these shortcomings is developed in this paper. The underlying tenets are environmental effectiveness, economic efficiency, and equity. The power of technology is drawn into the solution, the importance of an appropriate timeframe for action is acknowledged and involvement by all major emitting countries is facilitated. Importantly, this last point includes participation by developing countries in a way that accommodates their aspirations for economic growth. Together, these elements allow a response that minimises costs and maximises the environmental outcome while at the same time enhancing the growth prospects of developing countries.

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Cost and Environmental Effectiveness of the Climate Change Mitigation Measures

Sustainable Energy Production and Consumption - NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security ◽

10.1007/978-1-4020-8494-2_5 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 67-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Natasa Markovska ◽

Mirko Todorovski ◽

Tome Bosevski ◽

Jordan Pop-Jordanov

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Mitigation ◽

Mitigation Measures ◽

Environmental Effectiveness ◽

Change Mitigation

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Evaluating Climate Change Mitigation Options in the Philippines with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

ASEAN Journal of Chemical Engineering ◽

10.22146/ajche.49725 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 61

Author(s):

Michael Angelo B. Promentilla ◽

Carla Angeline M. De la Cruz ◽

Katrina C. Angeles ◽

Kathrina G. Tan

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Solar Energy ◽

Analytic Hierarchy Process ◽

Geothermal Energy ◽

Nuclear Energy ◽

Economic Viability ◽

Social Acceptability ◽

Analytic Hierarchy ◽

Environmental Effectiveness ◽

Hierarchy Process

The environmental problem of climate change is an issue that needs to be addressed worldwide. As the electricity-generating power sector is the largest contributor of CO2 in the country, low-carbon technologies or sustainable energy systems are being considered as viable alternatives to reduce the CO2 emissions from this sector. These are fossil-based power plants with carbon capture and storage (F-CCS) technology, nuclear energy (NE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies, particularly solar energy (SE), wind energy (WE), hydroelectricity (HE), geothermal energy (GE) and biomass (BE). However, successful implementation of any of these CCMOs depends not only on the technical and economic aspect but also the socio-political aspect of the project. This study therefore proposes an analytical decision modeling framework to evaluate these options by incorporating the subjective judgment of stakeholders. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to structure the problem and quantify the relative preference of each option with respect to four criteria namely environmental effectiveness (EE), economic viability (EV), technical implementability (TI), and social acceptability (SA).Results from the decision model indicate that the most important criterion is environmental effectiveness, and the least important is social acceptability. With respect to environmental effectiveness, their most preferred CCMO was solar energy whereas their least preferred is nuclear energy mainly because of the risk posed by the generated nuclear wastes. With respect to economic viability, their most preferred CCMO was geothermal energy, and the least preferred was nuclear energy. With respect to technical implementability, the respondents gave the highest preference weight on geothermal energy and the least preferred is nuclear energy. With respect to social acceptability, the most preferred was wind energy and again, the least preferred was nuclear energy.

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Averting robo-bees: why free-flying robotic bees are a bad idea

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190063 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 723-729

Author(s):

Roslyn Gleadow ◽

Jim Hanan ◽

Alan Dorin

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Computer Simulation ◽

Food Security ◽

European Countries ◽

Plant Interactions ◽

Plant Insect Interactions ◽

Native Habitat ◽

Insect Pollinators ◽

Insect Interactions

Food security and the sustainability of native ecosystems depends on plant-insect interactions in countless ways. Recently reported rapid and immense declines in insect numbers due to climate change, the use of pesticides and herbicides, the introduction of agricultural monocultures, and the destruction of insect native habitat, are all potential contributors to this grave situation. Some researchers are working towards a future where natural insect pollinators might be replaced with free-flying robotic bees, an ecologically problematic proposal. We argue instead that creating environments that are friendly to bees and exploring the use of other species for pollination and bio-control, particularly in non-European countries, are more ecologically sound approaches. The computer simulation of insect-plant interactions is a far more measured application of technology that may assist in managing, or averting, ‘Insect Armageddon' from both practical and ethical viewpoints.

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Modelling ecosystem adaptation and dangerous rates of global warming

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20180113 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 221-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Rebecca Millington ◽

Peter M. Cox ◽

Jonathan R. Moore ◽

Gabriel Yvon-Durocher

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Global Warming ◽

Diffusion Rate ◽

Individual Species ◽

Genetic Evolution ◽

Rates Of Change ◽

Rapid Climate Change ◽

Warming Climate ◽

Intraspecies Competition ◽

High Trait

Abstract We are in a period of relatively rapid climate change. This poses challenges for individual species and threatens the ecosystem services that humanity relies upon. Temperature is a key stressor. In a warming climate, individual organisms may be able to shift their thermal optima through phenotypic plasticity. However, such plasticity is unlikely to be sufficient over the coming centuries. Resilience to warming will also depend on how fast the distribution of traits that define a species can adapt through other methods, in particular through redistribution of the abundance of variants within the population and through genetic evolution. In this paper, we use a simple theoretical ‘trait diffusion’ model to explore how the resilience of a given species to climate change depends on the initial trait diversity (biodiversity), the trait diffusion rate (mutation rate), and the lifetime of the organism. We estimate theoretical dangerous rates of continuous global warming that would exceed the ability of a species to adapt through trait diffusion, and therefore lead to a collapse in the overall productivity of the species. As the rate of adaptation through intraspecies competition and genetic evolution decreases with species lifetime, we find critical rates of change that also depend fundamentally on lifetime. Dangerous rates of warming vary from 1°C per lifetime (at low trait diffusion rate) to 8°C per lifetime (at high trait diffusion rate). We conclude that rapid climate change is liable to favour short-lived organisms (e.g. microbes) rather than longer-lived organisms (e.g. trees).

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