scholarly journals Climate Change Challenge 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) climate summit is crucial but may be disappointing?

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-104
Author(s):  
Suresh K

Human activity is the main cause of climate change. People burn fossil fuels and convert land from forests to agriculture. Burning fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Climate change due to vehicular movements, industries, and deforestation for creating newer inhabitations affects the environmental and social determinants of health. An effective public health response to climate change is involves preventing injuries and illnesses, escalating public health preparedness, and reducing risk of consequences of all listed climate change immediate support, manage health effects and outbreaks. The world leaders are gathering in Glasgow for COP26, today the October 31st, 2021, to carry forwards the unfinished agenda. The process is ruled by arriving at consensus, and the pace is set by the least willing countries. In 2019, developed countries provided $16.7 billion as a grant, that amounts to just $1 per month for climate finance. Developed countries can surely afford more than this. A credible climate finance plan from them is, therefore, crucial. The world’s 20 biggest economies recently endorsed a landmark deal on a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% and will aim to implement the rules by 2023 for climate financing. The main reason why cop26 process matters is that the science, diplomacy, activism, and public opinion that support it make up the best mechanism the world currently must help it come to terms with a fundamental truth. Looking at the progress made since the imitation of COP so far and minimal groundwork that has been done to achieve them, most of the demands may not be met. India’s ambitious 450 GW renewable energy goal by 2030, its hydrogen mission, plan to move Indian railways to ‘net-zero’ emission by 2030, land degradation neutrality and massive programme to increase forest cover- natural carbon sink the key points the country will commit to drive home. Forty-five nations pledged to step up protection of nature and overhaul farming to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but major economies led by the US, Japan and Germany and developing nations such as India, Indonesia, Morocco, Vietnam, Philippines, Gabon, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Uruguay backed from commitments. The steps include leveraging over $4 billion of new public sector investment into agricultural innovation, including the development of climate-resilient crops and regenerative solutions to improve soil health. I think climate challenges will be met, not because of summits and global idealism but because of enormous sums likely to be spent on green innovation by profit-driven corporations, incentivised by modest government subsidies and mandates Material & methods: This article is a review of available literature on Impact of climate change on health and global Climate change efforts, in press and various government and UN agency documents.

Author(s):  
Ojo-Awo Adeyinka ◽  
A. Phillip

There is an impending need to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels in these areas of the world considering the ever depleting conventional oil resources and climate change, induced by greenhouse gas emissions. Algae are currently being prompted as a potential next generation bioenergy feedstock due to the fact that they do not compete with food or feed crops. They also produce much higher areal oil yields than the current agricultural crops. They can be produced on barren lands and have broad bioenergy potentials as they can be used to produce liquid transportation and heating fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol, or anaerobically digested to produce biogas. Algae are fast growing organisms capable of fixing high amount of carbondioxide through photosynthesis to produce biomass. Diverse technologies are currently being pursued to produce algae for bioenergy applications. The successful culture of algae could serve as a solution to the impending energy crises in both developed and developing countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1429-1441
Author(s):  
José Maria Alves Godoi ◽  
Patrícia Helena Lara dos Santos Matai

AbstractThis paper revisits the intense using of energy in the world and the role of the fossil fuels with predominance of the oil in the global primary energy supply and their effects to climate change. It also presents a new reading on the thermodynamic conditions and characteristics of CO2 and CO2-EOR together with oil industry advancement in the world and Brazil. The interface with chemical EOR processes involving nanoparticles (NPs), their application inside the reservoirs for EOR and understanding of fines migration reducing, among other physical phenomena is also studied. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a worldwide strategy for mitigating climate change. CO2 geosequestration is also analyzed on the leakage of CO2 and brine from aquifers and their implication to the security of the storage and environment. Recent studies show that, globally, CO2-EOR can extract up to 375 billion of additional oil barrels and geological storage up to 360 Gt of CO2 in the next 50 years. Pre-salt is a complex of microbial carbonate reservoirs with stromatolite framework in ultra-deep waters (1500–3000) m depth, underneath by thick salt layer (2000–2500) m. Its reservoirs are in the depth up to (5500–6500) m TVDSS and approximately (200–300) km offshore. It presents light oils and high (GOR) ranging (200–400) Sm3/Sm3 and huge CO2 contamination (8–15)%. Due to the large CO2 content of oil, this work investigated CO2-EOR and CO2 geosequestration within the reservoirs. Pilot test demonstrated that miscible CO2-EOR with WAG is feasible and beneficial to this hydrocarbon Province. This study also calculated and validated the potential of CO2-EOR to the CCS. It concludes that Pre-salt can contribute to recovery factor (RF) increasing about 5.7 billion of additional oil barrels, and to CCS with about 266 Mt CO2 to be geological stored, for the next 20 years. In this context, this work also analyses the recent changes on the Brazilian oil and gas regulation to encourage new international Companies to enter in Brazil and Pre-salt for petroleum exploring. In Pre-salt, CO2-EOR also connects the petroleum energy system to CCS, transforming the oil reservoir in a carbon sink. These results represent a substantial role of Pre-salt to the energy efficiency of energy resources recovering from the biosphere and a high contribution to the climate change mitigation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie P. Smith

Abstract Background Infant formula requires mass production by the dairy industry, with plastic and other waste and degradation of land and waterways. Millions of babies, two thirds globally, now have milk formula, with breastfeeding in dramatic decline in Asia. Economic cost externalities and commercial incentives Economic thinking clarifies that markets are not perfect - price incentives can lead to excessive and inefficient environmental damage. Market prices paid to produce or use a commodity may not reflect its true resource costs. The ongoing global transition in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) toward milk formula use makes urgent the investigation of its environmental costs, including greenhouse gas (GHG) implications. Socially vulnerable populations are also particularly exposed to climate change risks, but have the least voice and agency. The important role of public health advocacy Few question the scale of the baby food industry, especially in major food exporting countries. Breastfeeding advocacy non-government organisations have led the investigations, and exposed the inequitable vulnerabilities. A ground-breaking study in 2016 showed emissions from just six Asia Pacific countries were equivalent to 6 billion miles of car travel. Each kilogram (kg) of milk formula generated 4 kg of (carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent) greenhouse gas during production. Much of this was from unnecessary toddler formula. Recent research reveals that if looking at the full product lifecycle, including consumer use, GHG emissions per kg are actually three times higher than these pioneering estimates. Environment and health harms combined with economic evidence highlight the place for a strong public health response on this issue. Conclusion Formula feeding is a maladaptive practice in the face of contemporary global environmental and population health challenges. Breastfeeding protection, support and promotion helps to safeguard planetary and human health by minimising environmental harm. It is a beneficial response to concerns about disease burdens and climate change. Breastfeeding populations are more resilient in emergencies. Effective and cost-effective policies and interventions exist for increasing breastfeeding and reducing unnecessary use of formula. Implementing such measures presents a rare opportunity to both reduce the greenhouse gas problem and improve human nutrition, health, and health equity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4290
Author(s):  
Nuno Figueiredo ◽  
Filipe Rodrigues ◽  
Pedro Morouço ◽  
Diogo Monteiro

Global health, climate, and ecological conditions cannot be dissociated, and over the last decade, the impacts of climate change on health have been profoundly felt. In 2010, the transport sector has been responsible for the direct emission of 6.7Gt of carbon dioxide (CO2), and these numbers are expected to double by 2050. Additionally, physical inactivity rates have been growing over the last years, with most individuals in developed countries still relying on their cars for daily transportation, despite the unexplored potential of daily commuting in the promotion of physical activity. Given the well-known link between chronic diseases and sedentary lifestyles, addressing both the upward tendency of public health costs and energy consumption obtained from fossil fuels can be, possibly, one of the greatest public health opportunities over the last century. In this paper, we explore the potential of active commuting as a contemporary approach to address both global issues, considering its benefits on several indicators of health, quality of life, and well-being, as well as environmental-friendly behaviors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract This workshop is dedicated on SDGs in the focus of environmental and health issues, as very important and actual topic. One of the characteristics of today's societies is the significant availability of modern technologies. Over 5 billion (about 67%) people have a cellphone today. More than 4.5 billion people worldwide use the Internet, close to 60% of the total population. At the same time, one third of the people in the world does not have access to safe drinking water and half of the population does not have access to safe sanitation. The WHO at UN warns of severe inequalities in access to water and hygiene. Air, essential to life, is a leading risk due to ubiquitous pollution and contributes to the global disease burden (7 million deaths per year). Air pollution is a consequence of traffic and industry, but also of demographic trends and other human activities. Food availability reflects global inequality, famine eradication being one of the SDGs. The WHO warns of the urgency. As technology progresses, social inequality grows, the gap widens, and the environment continues to suffer. Furthermore, the social environment in societies is “ruffled” and does not appear to be beneficial toward well-being. New inequalities are emerging in the availability of technology, climate change, education. The achievement reports on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also point out to the need of reviewing individual indicators. According to the Sustainable Development Agenda, one of the goals is to reduce inequalities, and environmental health is faced by several specific goals. The Global Burden of Disease is the most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. It is the product of a global research collaborative and quantifies the impact of hundreds of diseases, injuries, and risk factors in countries around the world. This workshop will also discuss Urban Health as a Complex System in the light of SDGs. Climate Change, Public Health impacts and the role of the new digital technologies is also important topic which is contributing to SDG3, improving health, to SDG4, allowing to provide distance health education at relatively low cost and to SDG 13, by reducing the CO2 footprint. Community Engagement can both empower vulnerable populations (so reducing inequalities) and identify the prior environmental issues to be addressed. The aim was to search for public health programs using Community Engagement tools in healthy environment building towards achievement of SDGs. Key messages Health professionals are involved in the overall process of transformation necessary to achieve the SDGs. Health professionals should be proactive and contribute to the transformation leading to better health for the environment, and thus for the human population.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1795
Author(s):  
Pedro Dorta Antequera ◽  
Jaime Díaz Pacheco ◽  
Abel López Díez ◽  
Celia Bethencourt Herrera

Many small islands base their economy on tourism. This activity, based to a large extent on the movement of millions of people by air transport, depends on the use of fossil fuels and, therefore, generates a large amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In this work, these emissions are evaluated by means of various carbon calculators, taking the Canary Islands as an example, which is one of the most highly developed tourist archipelagos in the world. The result is that more than 6.4 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2 are produced per year exclusively due to the massive transport of tourists over an average distance of more than 3000 km. The relative weight of these emissions is of such magnitude that they are equivalent to more than 50% of the total amount produced by the socioeconomic activity of the archipelago. Although, individually, it is travelers from Russia and Nordic countries who generate the highest carbon footprint due to their greater traveling distance, the British and German tourists account for the greatest weight in the total, with two-thirds of emissions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Schott

<p><b>Abstract </b></p> <p>While the pedagogical benefits of fieldtrips have long been recognised our ever increasing understanding of the impacts of flying on climate change is presenting educators with a poignant dilemma; the many benefits long associated with international fieldtrips are at odds with the world community’s needs in limiting/halting climatic change. In response, the paper presents the concept of a VR-based virtual fieldtrip as an innovative and carbon-sensitive type of (educational) travel. The paper not only makes the case for virtual fieldtrips as a meaningful learning tool but also explores both the virtual fieldtrip’s impact on Greenhouse Gas emissions and climate change-related learning. On both accounts the initial findings in this paper are very encouraging. More in-depth research is now required to not only develop a deeper understanding of the full breadth of benefits, but also of the diverse weaknesses presented by virtual fieldtrips and how to negotiate them.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-215
Author(s):  
Mohommad Shahid ◽  
◽  
L.K. Rai ◽  

Paris Agreement recognized the role of forests as carbon sink for mitigation of climate change, under Article 5 as REDD+, i.e., reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Forest cover change analysis was done between two time periods 2005 and 2015 to assess the forest degradation. Carbon sequestration potential of the forests of Sikkim for mitigating climate change is also estimated. Benefits of implementing of REDD+ in Sikkim involving local communities as stakeholder to conserve and sustainably manage the forest is assessed. Gaps and challenges faced by the stakeholder in implementing REDD+ at project level are also highlighted.


Author(s):  
Peter Mason

Climate change poses a major threat to almost all forms of human activity on earth, including tourism. As Holden (2016: 227) argues: Of all the challenges facing tourism’s relationship with nature, it is not an exaggeration to state that climate change represents the greatest. Holden gives as his rationale for this statement that it is the stability and predictability of climate that is vital for the environments and ecosystems that are required for the continuation of current types of tourism, whether these are the traditional form of mass tourism, in terms of ‘sun, sea and sand’ holidays, or a niche activity which involves visiting a tropical rain forest with rare flora and fauna as the main attraction. Climate change also presents opportunities for tourism. If areas currently experiencing cool winters and mild summers get warmer, then new types of tourism may be possible including beach-based holidays where at present these are of little importance. Climate change is likely to lead to modifications in the weather at different times of the year so ‘seasonality’ which is currently a very important dimension to many forms of tourism will be affected, probably to the extent that seasons when there is high tourism activity will get longer in some parts of the world. Although tourism is likely to be significantly affected by climate change, it has also contributed to climate change through for example the burning of fossil fuels in transport for tourism as well through the use of power in hotel accommodation.


Author(s):  
Timothy H. Holtz ◽  
Leighton Jessica ◽  
Sharon Balter ◽  
Don Weiss ◽  
Susan Blank ◽  
...  

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