scholarly journals Editorial for Special Issue “Socio-Economic Impacts of Carbon Sequestration on Livelihoods and Future Climate”

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Amit Kumar ◽  
Munesh Kumar ◽  
Marina Cabral Pinto

In the modern era of industrial revolution, urbanization, and deforestation of forest land, carbon (C) sequestration through well-known activities called “land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)” could establish a win–win situation from a climate change and sustainable development perspective [...]

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christie Kneteman ◽  
Andrew Green

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while facilitating sustainable development in developing countries. However, most CDM projects contribute little to sustainable development and are inequitably distributed. The 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which will take place in Copenhagen in December 2009, is an opportunity to create a more effective version of the CDM. This paper argues that the CDM should be modified to include formal sustainable development requirements and to extend eligibility to additional land use, land-use change and forestry projects. In particular, the CDM should include credit for deforestation prevention, provide more scope for afforestation and reforestation projects, and encourage further study of agricultural soil carbon sequestration.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1573
Author(s):  
Cong Liu ◽  
Zelin Liu ◽  
Binggeng Xie ◽  
Yuan Liang ◽  
Xiaoqing Li ◽  
...  

Urbanization and global climate change are two important global environmental phenomena in the 21st century. Human activities and climate changes usually increase the uncertainties of the ecosystem functions and structures and can greatly affect regional landscape patterns and the carbon cycle. Consequently, it is critical to understand how various climate and land-use changes influence the carbon dynamics at a regional scale. In this study, we quantitatively analyzed the spatial and temporal changes of net primary productivity (NPP) and the effects of climate factors and human disturbance factors (i.e., land-use changes) on the “Chang–Zhu–Tan” (CZT) urban agglomeration region from 2000 to 2015. The Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) model was combined with spatially explicit land-use maps, monthly climate data, and MODIS NDVI images to simulate the carbon dynamics in the CZT area. Based on our six different scenarios, we also analyzed the relative roles of climate change and land-use change in total production. Our results indicated that the annual NPP of the study area maintained an upward trend by 7.31 gC•m−2•yr−1 between 2000 and 2015. At the same time, the average annual NPP was 628.99 gC•m−2 in the CZT area. We also found that the NPP was lower in the middle of the north region than in others. In addition, land-use changes could contribute to a positive effect on the total production in the study area by 3.42 T gC. Meanwhile, the effect of climate changes on the total production amounted to −1.44 T gC in the same region and period. Temperature and precipitation had negative effects on carbon sequestration from 2000 to 2015. As forest land constituted over 62.60% of the total land use from 2000 to 2015, the negative effect of carbon sequestration caused by urbanization could be ignored in the CZT area. Although climate and land-use changes had simultaneously positive and negative effects during the period 2000–2015, prioritizing the protection of existing forest land could contribute to increasing carbon sequestration and storage at the regional scale. Our study assists in understanding the impact of climate changes and land-use changes on carbon sequestration while providing a scientific basis for the rational and effective protection of the ecological environment in mid-east Hunan Province, China.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (15) ◽  
pp. 4402
Author(s):  
Chun-Kai Wang ◽  
Chien-Ming Lee ◽  
Yue-Rong Hong ◽  
Kan Cheng

Energy transition has become a priority for adaptive policy and measures taken in response to climate change around the world. This is an opportunity and a challenge for the Taiwan government to establish a climate-resilient power generation mixed to ensure electricity security as well as climate change mitigation. This study adopted a sustainable development perspective and applied optimal control theory to establish a cost-effective model to evaluate a long-term (2050), climate-resilient power generation mix for Taiwan. Furthermore, this study applies the STIRPAT approach to predict the demand of electricity by 2050 for the demand side management. The results not only showed the share of various power generation mixed, but also recommended the trajectory of electricity saving by 2050.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1529
Author(s):  
Saurav Kalita ◽  
Hanna Karlsson Potter ◽  
Martin Weih ◽  
Christel Baum ◽  
Åke Nordberg ◽  
...  

Short-rotation coppice (SRC) Salix plantations have the potential to provide fast-growing biomass feedstock with significant soil and climate mitigation benefits. Salix varieties exhibit significant variation in their physiological traits, growth patterns and soil ecology—but the effects of these variations have rarely been studied from a systems perspective. This study analyses the influence of variety on soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics and climate impacts from Salix cultivation for heat production for a Swedish site with specific conditions. Soil carbon modelling was combined with a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to quantify SOC sequestration and climate impacts over a 50-year period. The analysis used data from a Swedish field trial of six Salix varieties grown under fertilized and unfertilized treatments on Vertic Cambisols during 2001–2018. The Salix systems were compared with a reference case where heat is produced from natural gas and green fallow was the land use alternative. Climate impacts were determined using time-dependent LCA methodology—on a land-use (per hectare) and delivered energy unit (per MJheat) basis. All Salix varieties and treatments increased SOC, but the magnitude depended on the variety. Fertilization led to lower carbon sequestration than the equivalent unfertilized case. There was no clear relationship between biomass yield and SOC increase. In comparison with reference cases, all Salix varieties had significant potential for climate change mitigation. From a land-use perspective, high yield was the most important determining factor, followed by SOC sequestration, therefore high-yielding fertilized varieties such as ‘Tordis’, ‘Tora’ and ‘Björn’ performed best. On an energy-delivered basis, SOC sequestration potential was the determining factor for the climate change mitigation effect, with unfertilized ‘Jorr’ and ‘Loden’ outperforming the other varieties. These results show that Salix variety has a strong influence on SOC sequestration potential, biomass yield, growth pattern, response to fertilization and, ultimately, climate impact.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9s8 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Simon Goldhill ◽  
Georgie Fitzgibbon

This special issue focuses on the intersections of climate, disasters, and development. The research presented here is designed to facilitate climate-resilient decision-making, and promote sustainable development by maximising the beneficial impacts of responses to climate change and minimising negative impacts across the full spectrum of geographies and sectors that are potentially affected by the changing climate.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiphaine Chevallier ◽  
Maud Loireau ◽  
Romain Courault ◽  
Lydie Chapuis-Lardy ◽  
Thierry Desjardins ◽  
...  

The Paris Climate Agreements and Sustainable Development Goals, signed by 197 countries, present agendas and address key issues for implementing multi-scale responses for sustainable development under climate change—an effort that must involve local, regional, national, and supra-national stakeholders. In that regard, Continental Carbon Sequestration (CoCS) and conservation of carbon sinks are recognized increasingly as having potentially important roles in mitigating climate change and adapting to it. Making that potential a reality will require indicators of success for various stakeholders from multidisciplinary backgrounds, plus promotion of long-term implementation of strategic action towards civil society (e.g., law and policy makers, economists, and farmers). To help meet those challenges, this discussion paper summarizes the state of the art and uncertainties regarding CoCS, taking an interdisciplinary, holistic approach toward understanding these complex issues. The first part of the paper discusses the carbon cycle’s bio-geophysical processes, while the second introduces the plurality of geographical scales to be addressed when dealing with landscape management for CoCS. The third part addresses systemic viability, vulnerability, and resilience in CoCS practices, before concluding with the need to develop inter-disciplinarity in sustainable science, participative research, and the societal implications of sustainable CoCS actions.


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (9) ◽  
pp. 2223-2234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Boyland

Changes in forest-management practices have the potential to increase forest land carbon storage, which would help to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere linked to climate change and contribute to Kyoto Protocol targets for signatory countries. However, successfully increasing carbon storage while maintaining economic profitability is challenging because of the long planning horizons required for many forest activities and slow carbon sequestration rates in northern forests. The literature on the economics of forest management for carbon storage is unfortunately sparse and, in many instances, confused and misleading. Three carbon valuation equations are widely used that give contradictory results, with two of them (flow summation and average storage) ignoring the time-value carbon benefits and other essential data. Only the discounted carbon equation gives reasonably interpretable economic results. As well, many studies have omitted essential economic gradients that result in structurally questionable results. I review the literature, highlighting deficiencies in equations and how analyses are structured with the intent to produce a reasonable method of interpreting previous work and advice for future studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 10942
Author(s):  
Khun La Yaung ◽  
Amnat Chidthaisong ◽  
Atsamon Limsakul ◽  
Pariwate Varnakovida ◽  
Can Trong Nguyen

Land use land cover (LULC) change is one of the main drivers contributing to global climate change. It alters surface hydrology and energy balance between the land surface and atmosphere. However, its impacts on surface air temperature have not been well understood in a dynamic region of LULC changes like Southeast Asia (SEA). This study quantitatively examined the contribution of LULC changes to temperature trends in Myanmar and Thailand as the typical parts of SEA during 1990–2019 using the “observation minus reanalysis” (OMR) method. Overall, the average maximum, mean, and minimum temperatures obtained from OMR trends indicate significant warming trends of 0.17 °C/10a, 0.20 °C/10a, and 0.42 °C/10a, respectively. The rates of minimum temperature increase were larger than maximum and mean temperatures. The decreases of forest land and cropland, and the expansions of settlements land fractions were strongly correlated with the observed warming trends. It was found that the effects of forest land converted to settlement land on warming were higher than forest conversion to cropland. A comprehensive discussion on this study could provide scientific information for the future development of more sustainable land use planning to mitigate and adapt to climate change at the local and national levels.


2010 ◽  
Vol 161 (8) ◽  
pp. 291-294
Author(s):  
Mario F. Broggi

In order to operationalise the concept of biodiversity for biological variety, it has been applied at three levels: ecosystems, species and genetic diversity. In most cases the debate has been reduced to the aspect of the variety of species, ignoring the fact that the interactions are considerably more complex. In order to do justice to our responsibility for diversity, further efforts are needed, which could be subsumed under the heading “sustainable development”. At the moment, however, our ecological footprint is clearly too big. A strong focus must therefore be placed on such ecosystem services as fertility of the soil, carbon sequestration, maintenance of the hydrological balance, etc. That ultimately leads to economic arguments, which in turn will have massive impacts on current land use policies. Climate change and the increasing cultivation of biofuels are creating new effects, whose impacts on biodiversity were until recently unforeseeable. The underlying message must accordingly be that in the biodiversity debate we must focus on the landscape as such and an appropriate land use policy.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document