scholarly journals Responding to the Call for Climate Action

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 237
Author(s):  
Daniel E. Lane
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Climate Response ◽  
Climate Information ◽  
Carbon Footprints ◽  
Climate Action

Global calls for action on climate change have become more urgent in recent years. However, how to act to achieve climate sustainability remains elusive. The evidence is clear that governmental initiatives – global, national, and provincial – have not been able to coalesce into a meaningful strategy for climate sustainability. What is required is a shift in climate responsibility from governments to individuals and communities who think globally but are best able to act locally. To encourage the citizenry to act requires a science-based information and education whereby climate action is clearly defined along with the consequences of actions (or inaction). Education must include a climate curriculum as a mainstream subject in our schools. Using this approach, local community baselines of climate information, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity can be established. In enhancing their climate roles, governments’ need to shift from carrying out mandates for climate response, to becoming auditors of carbon use in which citizens and businesses are given incentives to reduce carbon footprints. Finally, increased investments need to be directed to communities so that they can take more responsibility and be more prepared to live with climate change impacts. Governments also need to engage the community in participatory strategic long-term planning for adaptation to the changing climate. Keywords: climate action, climate responsibility, institutional arrangements, science-based information, education legacy, strategic planning, community investment

scholarly journals Assessment of climate change vulnerability in Chiti area of Lamjung district, Nepal

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 151-170
Author(s):  
Sher Bahadur Gurung
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Climate Change Issue ◽  
Climate Change Vulnerability

Climate change issue is the global concern of the present day. The present study attempts to assess the vulnerability of the community due to climate change for which Chiti area of Besisahar Municipality from Lamjung district of Nepal was selected as the study area. The climate change vulnerability was assessed using the Long Term Research Program (LTRP). The long term climate change vulnerability household surveys from 2014 baseline data to 2016, 2017 and 2019 data were analysed in this study. This study adapted IPCC (2001) methodology i.e. also used by C4 EcoSolutions on their baseline climate change vulnerability assessment. This is a bottom-up, integrative approach that considers both physical and social dimensions at a local level. Consequently, vulnerability is best understood as a function of three components: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Exposure to climate change vulnerability is calculated with sum of changes in temperature, changes in rainfall patterns, changes in rainfall intensity, drought episodes and flooding events. Sensitivity is calculated based on slope failures, soil fertility, changes in natural environment (i) soil cover; ii) levels of river sedimentation; iii) water salinity; iv) river ecosystems; v) forest size; and vi) the presence of invasive species), economic dependency level, irrigation facilities and livelihood sources. The major finding is that Chiti has been facing climate change since last decade and it is found severely vulnerable due to climate change. There is an urgent need of improvement on climate change adaptive capacity which could result of awareness, information on climate change and adaptation, surplus production and change in agricultural practices. The present study has used awareness score based on conceptual awareness, experiential awareness, and engagement of household to talk about climate change and adaptation. The Long Term Research Approach is appropriate to assess climate change vulnerability in community level. Climate change awareness is one of the major components to reduce vulnerability to climate change in the research area. This is a post adaptation vulnerability analysis of local community which supports climate change vulnerability adaptation policy.

scholarly journals Future climate change vulnerability of endemic island mammals

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Leclerc ◽  
Franck Courchamp ◽  
Céline Bellard
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Vulnerability ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
Insular Ecosystems

Abstract Despite their high vulnerability, insular ecosystems have been largely ignored in climate change assessments, and when they are investigated, studies tend to focus on exposure to threats instead of vulnerability. The present study examines climate change vulnerability of islands, focusing on endemic mammals and by 2050 (RCPs 6.0 and 8.5), using trait-based and quantitative-vulnerability frameworks that take into account exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. Our results suggest that all islands and archipelagos show a certain level of vulnerability to future climate change, that is typically more important in Pacific Ocean ones. Among the drivers of vulnerability to climate change, exposure was rarely the main one and did not explain the pattern of vulnerability. In addition, endemic mammals with long generation lengths and high dietary specializations are predicted to be the most vulnerable to climate change. Our findings highlight the importance of exploring islands vulnerability to identify the highest climate change impacts and to avoid the extinction of unique biodiversity.

scholarly journals Epidemic malaria and warmer temperatures in recent decades in an East African highland

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1712) ◽  
pp. 1661-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Alonso ◽  
Menno J. Bouma ◽  
Mercedes Pascual
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Nonlinear Response ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Human Model ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
East African ◽  
Highly Nonlinear ◽  
The Impact

Climate change impacts on malaria are typically assessed with scenarios for the long-term future. Here we focus instead on the recent past (1970–2003) to address whether warmer temperatures have already increased the incidence of malaria in a highland region of East Africa. Our analyses rely on a new coupled mosquito–human model of malaria, which we use to compare projected disease levels with and without the observed temperature trend. Predicted malaria cases exhibit a highly nonlinear response to warming, with a significant increase from the 1970s to the 1990s, although typical epidemic sizes are below those observed. These findings suggest that climate change has already played an important role in the exacerbation of malaria in this region. As the observed changes in malaria are even larger than those predicted by our model, other factors previously suggested to explain all of the increase in malaria may be enhancing the impact of climate change.

scholarly journals Targeting adaptation to safeguard sustainable development against climate-change impacts

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Fuldauer ◽  
Scott Thacker ◽  
Robyn Haggis ◽  
Francesco Fuso Nerini ◽  
Robert Nicholls ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Global Priority ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Systems Framework ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract The international community has committed to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 and to enhance climate action under the Paris Agreement. Yet achievement of the SDGs is already threatened by climate-change impacts. Here we show that further adaptation this decade is urgently required to safeguard 68% of SDG targets against acute and chronic threats from climate change. We analyse how the relationship between SDG targets and climate-change impacts is mediated by ecosystems and socio-economic sectors, which provides a framework for targeting adaptation. Adaptation of wetlands, rivers, cropland, construction, water, electricity and housing in the most vulnerable countries should be a global priority to safeguard sustainable development by 2030. We have applied our systems framework at the national scale in Saint Lucia and Ghana, which is helping to align National Adaptation Plans with the SDGs, thus ensuring that adaptation is contributing to, rather than detracting from, sustainable development.

scholarly journals Satellites, Self-reports, and Submersion: Exposure to Floods in Bangladesh

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 232-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Guiteras ◽  
Amir Jina ◽  
A. Mushfiq Mobarak
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Objective Data ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Flood Exposure ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Term Variation

A burgeoning “Climate-Economy” literature has uncovered many effects of changes in temperature and precipitation on economic activity, but has made considerably less progress in modeling the effects of other associated phenomena, like natural disasters. We develop new, objective data on floods, focusing on Bangladesh. We show that rainfall and self-reported exposure are weak proxies for true flood exposure. These data allow us to study adaptation, giving accurate measures of both long-term averages and short term variation in exposure. This is important in studying climate change impacts, as people will not only experience new exposures, but also experience them differently.

From Kyoto to Paris and Beyond: The Emerging Politics of Climate Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 097492842110272
Author(s):  
Saurabh Thakur
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Climate Politics ◽  
Greenhouse Gases Emissions ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Action Strategies ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Justice Movements

Anthropogenic climate change has emerged as the most disruptive socio-political issue in the last few decades. The Kyoto Protocol’s failure to curb the rising greenhouse gases emissions pushed the UNFCCC-led negotiations towards a more flexible, non-binding agreement at the Paris COP21 meeting in 2015. The Paris Agreement’s hybrid approach to climate change governance, where flexible measures like the nationally determined commitments are balanced against the ambition of limiting the global temperature within the two-degree range, ensured the emergence of an increasingly complex and multi-stakeholder climate change regime. The article outlines the roadmap of the transition from the top-down approach of Kyoto Protocol to the legally non-binding, bottom-up approaches adopted for the post-Paris phase. The article outlines the post-Paris developments in international climate politics, which hold long-term geopolitical and geoeconomic implications. The article focuses on the fundamental shifts and balances within the UNFCCC architecture and examines the four fundamental features of this transition—the interpretation of differentiation and common but differentiated responsibilities, the evolving role of emerging economies in the negotiations, the rising profile of non-party stakeholders in shaping the climate action strategies and the emergence of climate justice movements as an alternate site of climate action.

A gendered approach to understanding climate change impacts: lessons from a coastal region of Bangladesh.

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
S. Momtaz ◽  
M. Asaduzzaman ◽  
Z. Kabir
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Coastal Region ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Household Surveys ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
The Face

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to understand the vulnerability of women's livelihoods to climate change impacts in Bangladesh. Data were collected through a survey of 150 randomly selected women from a sample of households. Focus group discussions, key informant interviews, participant observations, and a transect walk, provided supporting information to substantiate the household surveys. The chapter first outlines the theoretical foundation on which the research is based. This is followed by examining women's vulnerability in the study area. The chapter then describes women's coping strategies in the face of climate change-induced disasters. The chapter further explores women's adaptive capacity through the examination of their access to various services. It ends with a set of recommendations for policy makers in order to improve the situation of women's vulnerability.

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