scholarly journals Balancing Health, Economy and Climate Risk in a Multi-Crisis

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (14) ◽  
pp. 4067
Author(s):  
Jatin Nathwani ◽  
Niels Lind ◽  
Ortwin Renn ◽  
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Performance Index ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Active Management ◽  
Climate Risk ◽  
Health Economy ◽  
Human Safety ◽  
National Performance ◽  
Economic Well Being

In the presence of a global pandemic (COVID-19), the relentless pressure on global decision-makers is to ensure a balancing of health (reduce mortality impacts), economic goals (income for livelihood sustenance), and environmental sustainability (stabilize GHG emissions long term). The global energy supply system is a dominant contributor to the GHG burden and deeply embedded in the economy with its current share of 85%, use of fossil fuels has remained unchanged over 3 decades. A unique approach is presented to harmonizing the goals of human safety, economic development, and climate risk, respectively, through an operational tool that provides clear guidance to decision-makers in support of policy interventions for decarbonization. Improving climate change performance as an integral part of meeting human development goals allows the achievement of a country’s environmental, social, and economic well-being to be tracked and monitored. A primary contribution of this paper is to allow a transparent accounting of national performance highlighting the goals of enhancing human safety in concert with mitigation of climate risks. A measure of a country’s overall performance, combined as the Development and Climate Change Performance Index (DCI), is derived from two standardized indexes, the development index H and the Climate Change Performance Index CCPI. Data are analyzed for 55 countries comprising 65 percent of the world’s population. Through active management and monitoring, the proposed DCI can illustrate national performance to highlight a country’s current standing, rates of improvement over time, and a historical profile of progress of nations by bringing climate risk mitigation and economic well-being into better alignment.

Our children’s children

2021 ◽  
pp. 159-178
Author(s):  
Christopher Dye
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Economy ◽  
Carbon Taxes ◽  
Solar Hydrogen ◽  
Transformative Action

Climate change is prevention’s biggest challenge—its effects on health and well-being will be wide-ranging, long-term, and global. The pressures and opportunities for action are growing as the risks and hazards become clearer, greater, and nearer. Mitigation—cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (primary prevention)—benefits health, economy, environment, and society through agriculture, transport, air quality, energy supply, and waste management. Adaptation (secondary prevention) is the essential back-up when mitigation fails; there are strong incentives for local adaptation to counter predictable local threats such as extreme urban temperatures, flooding, and water scarcity. Carbon taxes are a powerful but underexploited mechanism for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, so need to be reinforced by other incentives, including subsidies for wind, solar, hydrogen, and hydropower. Now more than ever, the pressure for transformative action on climate change has the potential to stimulate sudden and rapid movement towards clean energy sources and technologies.

An index of sustainable economic welfare for Romania

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Anca Butnariu ◽  
Florin Alexandru Luca
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Economic Welfare ◽  
Road Accidents ◽  
Distribution Costs ◽  
The Status ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Household Labour ◽  
Economic Well Being

This paper has the objective to develop an Index of Sustainable Welfare for Romania from 1990 to 2017, in order to more clearly establish the status of the Romanian economy in terms of economic welfare. The results show that whilst gross domestic product (GDP) per capita increased significantly, the ISEW per capita grew at a much slower pace. The value of household labour contributes strongly to the growth of welfare, but income distribution, costs of climate change, cost of road accidents and cost of air pollution limit an improvement of population economic well-being. Our new valuation approach confirms the general conclusion of most authors on economic development that, during last decades, welfare has shown little improvement in spite of a growing GDP. Our conclusion is that the ISEW provides a useful alternative to indicators such as GDP despite subjected to its limitations and criticism. Keywords: Economic welfare, GDP, ISEW.

scholarly journals Constraints to Non-timber Forest Products Supply in Ago-Owu Forest Reserve of Osun State, Nigeria

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
A. F. Aderounmu ◽  
A. A. Adejumo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Forest Products ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Forest Reserve ◽  
Logit Regression ◽  
Non Timber Forest Products ◽  
Areas Of Concern ◽  
Area Data ◽  
Economic Well Being

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are products or services other than timber that is produced in a forest and of course, are indispensable parts of the livelihood strategy of the forest’s adjoining communities. Their economic potentials necessitated the need for research to be carried out on its production and constraints facing its supply in the study area. Therefore, constraints to NTFPs’ supply in Ago-Owu forest reserve and its environment were investigated. Three communities (Mokore, Ajegunle and Alabameta) were randomly selected communities of the identified study area (Mokore, Ajegunle, Alabameta, Elewe, Alaguntan and Okodowo) identified communities in the study area. Their populations were sought for and samples were drawn in proportionate to their sizes: Mokore (50), Ajegunle (40) and Alabameta (20). This gave a total number of 110 respondents from which 105 questionnaires were derived for the investigations. A set of questionnaire was used to obtain data on source of NTFPs, commonly sourced NTFPs and constraints facing its supply in the study area. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logit regression at α0.05. Majority of the respondents were male (69.1%) and 64.8% of them were within the age of 30-50 years. Also, most of the respondents were married (78.1%) and less than half of them (41%) had no formal education, but were predominantly farmers (72.4%). The major source of NTFPs in the study area was forest reserve (70.5%), while a total of seventeen (17) different NTFPs commonly sourced were documented. Constraints facing the supply of NTFPs included Climate change, Lack of finance for smooth running of the activities involved in the products’ supply and price fluctuation with odds-ratio of 9.87, 5.66 and 1.92 respectively. The study established the significance of the Ago-Owu forest reserve to the livelihood of the forest dwellers. However, there is need for the establishment of new plantations to fostering production of the products as well as serving as adaptation strategies against climate change. There is also an urgent need for the State Forestry Service/government to address their areas of concern pointed out in this study for bio-prospecting, economic well-being of forest dwellers and great advantage of boost in revenue propensity of Osun State.

scholarly journals Climate risk index for Italy

2018 ◽  
Vol 376 (2121) ◽  
pp. 20170305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Mysiak ◽  
Silvia Torresan ◽  
Francesco Bosello ◽  
Malcolm Mistry ◽  
Mattia Amadio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Risk Index ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Capital ◽  
Climate Risk ◽  
Climate Indices ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Traded Goods

We describe a climate risk index that has been developed to inform national climate adaptation planning in Italy and that is further elaborated in this paper. The index supports national authorities in designing adaptation policies and plans, guides the initial problem formulation phase, and identifies administrative areas with higher propensity to being adversely affected by climate change. The index combines (i) climate change-amplified hazards; (ii) high-resolution indicators of exposure of chosen economic, social, natural and built- or manufactured capital (MC) assets and (iii) vulnerability, which comprises both present sensitivity to climate-induced hazards and adaptive capacity. We use standardized anomalies of selected extreme climate indices derived from high-resolution regional climate model simulations of the EURO-CORDEX initiative as proxies of climate change-altered weather and climate-related hazards. The exposure and sensitivity assessment is based on indicators of manufactured, natural, social and economic capital assets exposed to and adversely affected by climate-related hazards. The MC refers to material goods or fixed assets which support the production process (e.g. industrial machines and buildings); Natural Capital comprises natural resources and processes (renewable and non-renewable) producing goods and services for well-being; Social Capital (SC) addressed factors at the individual (people's health, knowledge, skills) and collective (institutional) level (e.g. families, communities, organizations and schools); and Economic Capital (EC) includes owned and traded goods and services. The results of the climate risk analysis are used to rank the subnational administrative and statistical units according to the climate risk challenges, and possibly for financial resource allocation for climate adaptation. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Advances in risk assessment for climate change adaptation policy’.

scholarly journals Assessing the public health impact of climate change in Wales

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Green
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Potential Impact

Abstract In April 2019, Wales declared a climate emergency. Public Health Wales commissioned a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to assess the potential impact of Climate Change on the population of Wales to be carried out to inform key strategic decision makers to understand/plan for the potential differential health impacts that may occur in Wales from climate change. A comprehensive mixed-method HIA was conducted over a 6-month period in 2019/20. A review of peer-reviewed evidence on the potential impact of climate change/climate change events on health and population groups and a review of grey literature on direct impacts such as the environment, mental wellbeing and health care settings was conducted. The search was undertaken using MEDLINE, Embase, Proquest. 2 stakeholder workshops, qualitative interviews, a community health profile utilising recognised data sources (i.e. The National Survey for Wales) and a survey to identify the publics' views on climate change were also carried out. All findings were analysed, synthesized and collated into a report. The HIA initial findings indicate significant potential impacts across the wider determinants of health and mental well-being i.e. Air quality, excess heat/cold; flooding; economic productivity; working conditions; access to services; infrastructure; and community resilience. A range of impacts were identified across population groups, settings, geographical areas including urban and rural contexts; outdoor workers; children and young people; older people; schools; hospitals/care homes and workplaces. The impacts identified are both confirmed and potential. Undertaken in a short timeframe, the findings have been beneficial to inform decision-makers to prepare for Climate Change plans/policies using an evidence-informed approach. The work has demonstrated the value of a HIA approach for significant, complex policies by mobilising a range of evidence through a transparent process, resulting in transferrable learning for others.

Beyond choice architecture: a building code for structuring climate risk management decisions

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
JOSEPH ÁRVAI ◽  
ROBIN GREGORY
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Climate Risk ◽  
Choice Architecture ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Climate Risk Management

Abstract Although the need for urgent climate change action is clear, insights about how to make better climate risk management decisions are limited. While significant attention from behavioral researchers has focused on choice architecture, we argue that many of the contexts for addressing climate risks require increased attention to the needs of a deliberative and dynamic choice environment. A key facet of this kind of decision is the need for decision-makers and stakeholders to identify and balance conflicting economic, social and environmental objectives. This recognition of difficult, context-specific trade-offs highlights the need for structuring the decision-making process so that objectives are clearly articulated and prioritized. Equally, policy analyses and deliberations must effectively link priorities with climate risk management options. This restructuring of decision-making about climate change calls for more than a nudge. Scientific and technical efforts must be redirected to help stakeholders and decision-makers better understand the diverse implications of climate change management alternatives and to become better equipped to take actions commensurate with the urgency of the problem.

scholarly journals Climate and energy issues as preconditions for health and well being

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Jevtic ◽  
C Bouland
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Air Pollution ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Health Indicators ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Economy ◽  
Significant Shift ◽  
Global Quality Of Life ◽  
Safe Food

Abstract Globalization and modern economic trends bring enormous changes to civilization. The human health pattern also changes and the overall system becomes more complex. Exponential growth in demographic, in economic and in human activities alters the natural global environment beyond safe or sustainable borders, which refers to energy for the future, as well as climate change in the broadest sense. These changes pose threats to human health and with the rise in temperature the most visible symptoms are seen in the difficulty of securing sufficient energy amount, as well as the appropriate supply of health-safe food and water. Global influences on the health of the population require changes in different sectors (economy, health, economy, etc). Even though, World Meteorological Organization data show that the five-year average global temperature from 2013 to 2017 was at a record level, and that in 2017 it was one of the three hottest years. Today, about 3 billion people have no access to safe food and/or water and are also exposed to significant air pollution. Nearly one billion people have no electricity in the household, and 13% of the world’s population has no access to modern electricity. Air pollution indoors by using combustible fuels for domestic energy caused 4.3 million deaths in 2012 (women and girls accounted for 6 out of 10). Energy has a dominant contribution to climate changes and accounts for about 60% of overall global greenhouse gas emissions. Overall progress made through the use of renewable energy sources should reduce risks and allow for the improvement of basic living conditions. However, a significant shift in reducing inequalities and improving global quality of life and health indicators requires transformation of many sectors. Energy, therefore, is crucial for almost every challenge the world is facing today (climate change, food production, health systems, etc.). SDG 7 is particularly important and is linked to other SDGs.

scholarly journals Epidemics in Pre-industrial Europe: Impacts of Climate Change, Economic Well-Being, and Population

Anthropocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 100317
Author(s):  
Yiru Pei ◽  
Qing Pei ◽  
Harry F. Lee ◽  
Mengyuan Qiu ◽  
Yuting Yang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change ◽  
Economic Well Being
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