Governance of Land-based Negative-emission Technologies to Promote Biodiversity Conservation: Lessons from Australia

Climate Law ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-150
Author(s):  
Phillipa C. McCormack ◽  
Jan McDonald ◽  
Kerryn A. Brent
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Ecological Resilience ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Negative Emission ◽  
Negative Emission Technologies ◽  
Biodiversity Decline

Climate change is a fundamental threat to biodiversity. Climate mitigation in general, and Negative-Emission Technologies (nets) in particular, have the potential to benefit biodiversity by reducing climate impacts. Domestic laws could help to ensure that nets have benefits for biodiversity adaptation to climate change (e.g. reducing land clearing and habitat loss and facilitating habitat restoration, corridors for species’ migration, and broader ecological resilience). Domestic laws will also need to govern trade-offs between nets and biodiversity adaptation (e.g. increased competition for land and landscape-scale fragmentation by new industrial developments and linear infrastructure). We argue that domestic laws should be used to maximize the benefits of nets while minimizing trade-offs for biodiversity. These laws should ensure that trade-offs are, at the very least, explicit and transparent, both in terms of their implications for current biodiversity and in the context of an acceleration of climate-driven biodiversity decline.

scholarly journals Treatment of International Economic Trade in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 155-165
Author(s):  
Jackie Dawson ◽  
Jean Holloway ◽  
Nathan Debortoli ◽  
Elisabeth Gilmore
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Trade ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Cascading Effects ◽  
Trade Offs

Abstract Purpose of the Review Climate change presents significant risks to the international trade and supply chain systems with potentially profound and cascading effects for the global economy. A robust international trade system may also be central to managing future climate risks. Here, we assess the treatment (or lack thereof) of trade in a selection of recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment and special reports using a quantitative text analysis. IPCC reports are considered the preeminent source of relevant climate change information and underpin international climate change negotiations. Study Findings Results show that international trade has not had substantial coverage in recent IPCC assessments. Relevant keywords associated with trade appear in very limited ways, generally in relation to the words “product” and “transport.” These keywords are often referring to emissions associated with transportation and the movement of food and global food systems. The influence of trade is given larger consideration with respect to the costs and trade-offs of climate mitigation policies, especially the interactions with food availability, that appear in Working Group III reports compared with the risks to trade from climate change impacts in Working Group II. Trade in relation to other economic sectors is largely absent as well as risks from potential climate-related trade disruption. There is almost no treatment of the potential impacts, risks, and adaptation strategies to manage the climate related-implications for international trade. Recommendations Given the importance of trade to economic growth, we recommend that additional attention be paid to trade and related economic issues in future IPCC assessment and special reports, specifically on the interactions of climate impacts and risks on trade and the potential for trade to moderate these risks. To achieve this, there must be efforts to increase the base of scientific literature focused on climate change and international trade as well as increased effort made among IPCC lead authors to review trade literature that may lie outside conventional climate change scholarship.

scholarly journals Recent advances in understanding the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne B Hollowed ◽  
Manuel Barange ◽  
Véronique Garçon ◽  
Shin-ichi Ito ◽  
Jason S Link ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ocean Science ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Many ◽  
Share Information ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract In June 2018, >600 scientists from over 50 countries attended the Fourth International Symposium on the Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans (ECCWO-4). ECCWO-4 provided a forum for scientists to share information, build understanding, and advance responses to climate impacts on oceans and the many people, businesses and communities that depend on them. Seven Key Messages emerging from the symposium and relevant information from recently published literature are summarized. Recent scientific advances are improving our ability to understand, project, and assess the consequences of different levels of 21st century climate change for ocean ecosystems and ocean dependent communities. Outcomes of the symposium highlighted the need for on-going engagement with stakeholders, communities, and managers when considering the trade-offs associated with tactical and strategic opportunities for adaptation to climate change. Science informed adaptation frameworks that engage the public in their development are needed for effective management of marine resources in a changing climate. The summary provides a brief overview of the advances in climate-ocean science emerging from the symposium and provides context for the contributed papers within the broader socio-ecological advances of the discipline.

Robust modelling to address UPH19 to predict future hydrological responses for water resources adaptation under climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Chiew ◽  
Hongxing Zheng ◽  
Jai Vaze
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Accurate Estimate ◽  
Severe Drought ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Projected Range ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Robust Modelling

<p>This paper addresses the implications of UPH19 in extrapolating hydrological models to predict the future and assessing water resources adaptation to climate change. Many studies have now shown that traditional application of hydrological models calibrated against past observations will underestimate the range in the projected future hydrological impact, that is, it will underestimate the decline in runoff where a runoff decrease is projected, and underestimate the increase in runoff where a runoff increase is projected. This study opportunistically uses data from south-eastern Australia which recently experienced a long and severe drought lasting more than ten years and subsequent partial hydrological recovery from the drought. The paper shows that a more robust calibration of rainfall-runoff models to produce good calibration metrics in both the dry periods and wet periods, at the expense of the best calibration over the entire data period, can produce a more accurate estimate of the uncertainty in the projected future runoff, but cannot entirely eliminate the modelling limitation of underestimating the projected range in future runoff. This is because of the need to consider trade-offs between the calibration objectives, particularly in simulating the dry periods, versus enhanced bias that results from the consideration. Hydrological models must therefore also need to be adapted to reflect the non-stationary nature of catchment and vegetation responses in a changing climate under warmer conditions, higher CO<sub>2</sub> and changed precipitation patterns. This is an active area of research in UPH19, and some ideas relevant to this region will be presented.</p>

scholarly journals Cumulative carbon as a policy framework for achieving climate stabilization

2012 ◽  
Vol 370 (1974) ◽  
pp. 4365-4379 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Damon Matthews ◽  
Susan Solomon ◽  
Raymond Pierrehumbert
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Temperature Change ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Global Temperature ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Rate Of Increase ◽  
Global Temperature Change

The primary objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will avoid dangerous climate impacts. However, greenhouse gas concentration stabilization is an awkward framework within which to assess dangerous climate change on account of the significant lag between a given concentration level and the eventual equilibrium temperature change. By contrast, recent research has shown that global temperature change can be well described by a given cumulative carbon emissions budget. Here, we propose that cumulative carbon emissions represent an alternative framework that is applicable both as a tool for climate mitigation as well as for the assessment of potential climate impacts. We show first that both atmospheric CO 2 concentration at a given year and the associated temperature change are generally associated with a unique cumulative carbon emissions budget that is largely independent of the emissions scenario. The rate of global temperature change can therefore be related to first order to the rate of increase of cumulative carbon emissions. However, transient warming over the next century will also be strongly affected by emissions of shorter lived forcing agents such as aerosols and methane. Non-CO 2 emissions therefore contribute to uncertainty in the cumulative carbon budget associated with near-term temperature targets, and may suggest the need for a mitigation approach that considers separately short- and long-lived gas emissions. By contrast, long-term temperature change remains primarily associated with total cumulative carbon emissions owing to the much longer atmospheric residence time of CO 2 relative to other major climate forcing agents.

scholarly journals A Strategic Approach for Existing Buildings to Withstand Climate Change

2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
T. Valdbjørn Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Building Design ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Change In Mean

Buildings play a vital economic and social role in society and are vulnerable to climate change. This paper suggests a strategic approach for existing buildings to withstand climate change. It emphasises the most likely climate impacts, including the change in mean year values as well as the extent of maximum and minimum extremes, which are pointed out and set against a background of national and international agreements. Assumptions that form the basis for the scenarios are outlined and evaluated in a Danish context and similar evaluations can be drawn for other countries. As climate change progresses, the uncertainty of the scenarios leaves major challenges that will grow far more serious, if not addressed and taken into account in building design and into a strategy for the adaptation of existing buildings. An outline of the actions needed for developing a broad strategic approach to the adaptation to climate change for buildings is given. The actions include four stages: a survey of the performance, the impact of climate change, the vulnerability of the existing building stock and climate adaptation needs. This leads to the identification of a risk-based strategic framework for adaptation to climate change based on the results of a vulnerability analysis. In addition, this paper describes some issues that must be addressed in case a strategic approach is not developed, as the building sector is continuously investing in measures to adapt to climate change.

scholarly journals Ecosystem-based adaptation in Lake Victoria Basin; synergies and trade-offs

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 201847
Author(s):  
Dorice Agol ◽  
Hannah Reid ◽  
Florence Crick ◽  
Hausner Wendo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Lake Victoria Basin ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Temporal Scales ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Scales ◽  
Trade Offs

Healthy ecosystems such as forests and wetlands have a great potential to support adaptation to climate change and are the foundation of sustainable livelihoods. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) can help to protect and maintain healthy ecosystems providing resilience against the impacts of climate change. This paper explores the role of EbA in reconciling socio-economic development with the conservation and restoration of nature in Lake Victoria Basin, Kenya, East Africa. Using selected ecosystems in the Lake region, the paper identifies key EbA approaches and explores trade-offs and synergies at spatial and temporal scales and between different stakeholders. The research methods used for this study include site visits, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, participatory workshops and literature reviews. An analytical framework is applied to advance the understanding of EbA approaches and how they lead to synergies and trade-offs between ecosystem services provision at spatial and temporal scales and multiple stakeholders. Our results show that EbA approaches such as ecosystem restoration have the potential to generate multiple adaptation benefits as well as synergies and trade-offs occurring at different temporal and spatial scales and affecting various stakeholder groups. Our paper underscores the need to identify EbA trade-offs and synergies and to explore the ways in which they are distributed in space and time and between different stakeholders to design better environmental and development programmes.

scholarly journals Post-growth strategies can be more feasible than techno-fixes: Focus on working time

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklós Antal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Working Time ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Negative Emission ◽  
Solar Geoengineering ◽  
Time Reduction ◽  
Negative Emission Technologies ◽  
Change Mitigation

For sufficiently fast climate change mitigation, strategies once considered unthinkable have to be discussed. As negative-emission technologies and solar geoengineering are risky, social and economic innovations are needed as well. Working time reduction is a completely neglected strategy that needs urgent attention in climate–economy models and policy.

Interdisciplinary collaboration and joint knowledge production in climate change adaptation in mountain regions in South Asia, Latin America and Switzerland

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Huggel ◽  
Veruska Muccione ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Joint Knowledge Production

<p>The level of already committed climate change implies massive impacts and risks to natural and human systems on the planet which probably have been underestimated so far, as recent research and science-policy assessments such as from the IPCC indicate. Scenarios with less stringent emission reduction pose even greater risks of partly unknown dimensions. Adaptation to climate change is therefore of critical importance, in particular for countries with low adaptive capacity where climate change can seriously undermine efforts for sustainable development. Mountains are among the hotspots of climate impacts and adaptation.</p><p>Climate adaptation is fundamentally an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary endeavor. Various sources of knowledge and perspectives need to be considered and integrated to produce actionable and solution-oriented knowledge. While experiences on joint knowledge production (JKP) has been increasing over recent years there is still missing clarity how to design and implement such a process in the context of climate adaptation.</p><p>Here we analyze experiences from a new initiative and network of climate adaptation in education and research with institutions from South Asia, the Andes and Central America, and Switzerland (knowledgeforclimate.net). Partners form a highly multi-disciplinary network with diverse cultural and institutional backgrounds which is both an important asset and challenge for interdisciplinary collaboration. A core of the collaboration are case studies conducted in all six countries in mountain contexts which are developed considering different disciplinary perspectives and represent the basis for both research and teaching. JKP takes place at different levels which need to be systematically and carefully analyzed. </p><p>We find that the processes of JKP are diverse, complex, and highly dependent on the interests and roles of actors within a network. To keep such processes alive, signposts in form of analysis and intermediary products along the network lifetime should be positioned as means of stocktaking and monitoring for the future.</p><p>We suggest that existing models of JKP need to be broadened to better accommodate the high diversity and non-linearity of JKP processes. JKP does not just happen as a product of interdisciplinary collaboration but needs continuous reflection, research, update and upgrade. Trust and a range of common interests among partners in the network have been identified as key aspects in the process. A particular challenge furthermore is to dedicate enough time and resources to the framing process but then clearly moving beyond into the action and solution space. Harmonizing different forms of knowledge pertinent to climate adaptation in mountains and harvesting the diversity while accepting possibly limited consensus is essential, yet, it is not a priori predictable where this balance lies.</p>

scholarly journals Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 375 (1794) ◽  
pp. 20190104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yadvinder Malhi ◽  
Janet Franklin ◽  
Nathalie Seddon ◽  
Martin Solan ◽  
Monica G. Turner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
First Century ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
National Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Management Interventions ◽  
Twenty First Century

The rapid anthropogenic climate change that is being experienced in the early twenty-first century is intimately entwined with the health and functioning of the biosphere. Climate change is impacting ecosystems through changes in mean conditions and in climate variability, coupled with other associated changes such as increased ocean acidification and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. It also interacts with other pressures on ecosystems, including degradation, defaunation and fragmentation. There is a need to understand the ecological dynamics of these climate impacts, to identify hotspots of vulnerability and resilience and to identify management interventions that may assist biosphere resilience to climate change. At the same time, ecosystems can also assist in the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change. The mechanisms, potential and limits of such nature-based solutions to climate change need to be explored and quantified. This paper introduces a thematic issue dedicated to the interaction between climate change and the biosphere. It explores novel perspectives on how ecosystems respond to climate change, how ecosystem resilience can be enhanced and how ecosystems can assist in addressing the challenge of a changing climate. It draws on a Royal Society-National Academy of Sciences Forum held in Washington DC in November 2018, where these themes and issues were discussed. We conclude by identifying some priorities for academic research and practical implementation, in order to maximize the potential for maintaining a diverse, resilient and well-functioning biosphere under the challenging conditions of the twenty-first century. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions’.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document