Improving Sustainability of the Environment in a Changing Climate

2016 ◽  
pp. 327-346
Author(s):  
Albert Arhin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Community

The mechanism of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks is emerging as one of the current efforts and actions being developed by the international climate change community to mitigate climate change. This chapter highlights the potentials as well as the challenges of this mechanism to reduce forest loss and improve the health and sustainability of the environment. Main potentials include its resolve to make trees worth more standing than cut, the transfer of funds to support conservation efforts and a focus on delivering social benefits. The main challenges include the less attention on unclear tenure and benefit-sharing framework; weak institutions and the complex historical, political and structural interests which have allowed powerful groups to expropriate the forest resources and trade-offs that may arise during implementation. It then outlines four broad areas where researchers can make contributions in national and local level policy-making and interventions related to REDD+.

Improving Sustainability of the Environment in a Changing Climate

2018 ◽  
pp. 486-505
Author(s):  
Albert Arhin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Weak Institutions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Community

The mechanism of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation plus conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks is emerging as one of the current efforts and actions being developed by the international climate change community to mitigate climate change. This chapter highlights the potentials as well as the challenges of this mechanism to reduce forest loss and improve the health and sustainability of the environment. Main potentials include its resolve to make trees worth more standing than cut, the transfer of funds to support conservation efforts and a focus on delivering social benefits. The main challenges include the less attention on unclear tenure and benefit-sharing framework; weak institutions and the complex historical, political and structural interests which have allowed powerful groups to expropriate the forest resources and trade-offs that may arise during implementation. It then outlines four broad areas where researchers can make contributions in national and local level policy-making and interventions related to REDD+.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Forest-Based Products: A Review

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamalakanta Sahoo ◽  
Richard Bergman ◽  
Sevda Alanya-Rosenbaum ◽  
Hongmei Gu ◽  
Shaobo Liang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Forest Management ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Sustainable Forest Management ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Building Products ◽  
Trade Offs

Climate change, environmental degradation, and limited resources are motivations for sustainable forest management. Forests, the most abundant renewable resource on earth, used to make a wide variety of forest-based products for human consumption. To provide a scientific measure of a product’s sustainability and environmental performance, the life cycle assessment (LCA) method is used. This article provides a comprehensive review of environmental performances of forest-based products including traditional building products, emerging (mass-timber) building products and nanomaterials using attributional LCA. Across the supply chain, the product manufacturing life-cycle stage tends to have the largest environmental impacts. However, forest management activities and logistics tend to have the greatest economic impact. In addition, environmental trade-offs exist when regulating emissions as indicated by the latest traditional wood building product LCAs. Interpretation of these LCA results can guide new product development using biomaterials, future (mass) building systems and policy-making on mitigating climate change. Key challenges include handling of uncertainties in the supply chain and complex interactions of environment, material conversion, resource use for product production and quantifying the emissions released.

scholarly journals Forest carbon management and carbon trading: A review of Canadian forest options for climate change mitigation

2011 ◽  
Vol 87 (05) ◽  
pp. 625-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Golden ◽  
M.A. Smith ◽  
Stephen Colombo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Emissions Reduction ◽  
Carbon Trading ◽  
Management Objectives ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Forest C

Forests have significant potential to mitigate climate change. Canada has 30% of the world's boreal forests. The ratification of the Kyoto Protocol commoditized carbon (C) on an international scale. To achieve Canada's emission reduction targets and mitigate climate change, the potential of forest C offset projects and forest C trading is being evaluated. Carbon trading and forest C management have economic and policy implications and potential trade-offs in other forest management objectives. We discuss how forest C management and trading can contribute to global efforts for atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions reduction through either utilization and/or conservation strategies.

scholarly journals Leaders, Followers, and Laggards: Adoption of the Us Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in California

10.1068/c1122 ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1116-1128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Wang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Climate Protection ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
Average Household Income ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

Limited quantitative research has been devoted to voluntary climate actions at the local level. It is unclear why some cities act as leaders in the fight against climate change, some act as followers, while others remain laggards. This study tests hypotheses about local climate proactiveness to mitigate climate change. Applying a survival analysis to California cities' adoption of the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, I examine the association between cities' adoption of the agreement, a range of cities' characteristics, and the behavior of neighboring jurisdictions. The results suggest important roles of the overall capacity of a local jurisdiction, its staff capacity with relevant expertise, average household income level, and voter preferences. Study results also suggest the importance of local traffic conditions and the positive peer effect.

scholarly journals Global klimapolitik: Fra Bali til Paris

Politik ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Skovgaard ◽  
Lau Blaxekjær
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Negotiations ◽  
The Road ◽  
Stated Goal ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Global Agreement ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
International Climate Negotiations

This paper analyses the international climate negotiations from the so-called 2007 Bali Roadmap over the 2009 breakdown in negotiations at the UN climate summit COP15 to the following COP meetings with a focus on central issues and tendencies. e analysis is structured by applying the concepts of content and process as empirical and heuristic tools. is is used as the point of departure to analyse the road to Paris, where COP21 will be held in 2015 with the stated goal of reaching a global agreement corresponding to the previous goal of COP15, only now covering the period from 2020 onwards. e paper concludes that the recent COPs can be characterised by three overlapping discussions: How parties interpret and seek to imple- ment the principle of common but di erentiated responsibility, the principle of equity, as well as the question of real e ects of actions to mitigate climate change. 

scholarly journals Establishing a Governmental Duty of Care for Climate Change Mitigation: WillUrgendaTurn the Tide?

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine van Zeben
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
District Court ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Climate Policies ◽  
Ghg Reduction ◽  
International Climate ◽  
The Government ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Emission Of Greenhouse Gases

AbstractLiability for causing or failing to mitigate climate change has long been proposed as an alternative, or backstop, to lagging international cooperation. Thus far, there has been very limited success in holding governments or individuals responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are considered the primary cause of anthropogenic climate change. The recent landmark decision inUrgenda Foundationv.Government of the Netherlands (Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment)breaks with this tradition. In June 2015, the Dutch District Court (The Hague) held that the current climate policies of the government are not sufficiently ambitious for it to fulfil its duty of care towards Dutch society. The judgment, and the accompanying order for the government to adopt stricter GHG reduction policies, raises important questions about the future of climate change liability litigation, the separation of powers between the judiciary and the legislature, and the effect of litigation on international climate change negotiation and cooperation.

scholarly journals Climate Change, Land, Water, and Food Security: Perspectives From Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Appiah Ofori ◽  
Samuel Jerry Cobbina ◽  
Samuel Obiri
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
Mitigation And Adaptation ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Perpetrators And Victims ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Water And Food Security

The current and projected warming of the earth is unequivocal with humans playing a strong role as both perpetrators and victims. The warming on the African continent is projected to be greater than the global average with an increased average temperature of 3–6°C by the end of the century under a high Representative Concentration Pathway. In Africa, the Sub-Saharan region is identified as the most vulnerable to the changing climate due to its very low capacity to adapt to or mitigate climate change. While it is common to identify studies conducted to assess how climate change independently impacts water, land, or food resources, very limited studies have sought to address the interlinkages, synergies, and trade-offs existing between climate change, water, land, and food (WLF) resources as a system in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The climate change and WLF security nexus, therefore, seeks to address this shortfall in literature and subsequently serve as a relevant source of information for decision-making and policy implementation concerning climate change mitigation and adaptation. In this study, 41 relevant studies were selected from Web of Science, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and institutional websites. We provide information on the independent relationships between climate change and WLF resources, and further discuss the existing inter-linkages between climate change and the WLF security in SSA using the nexus approach, with recommendations on how decision making and policy implementations should be done using the climate change and WLF security nexus approach.

scholarly journals Public Perceptions on the Procedural Values and Proposed Outcomes of the Finnish Climate Change Act Amendment

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eerika Albrecht ◽  
Iikka Pietilä ◽  
Sanna-Riikka Saarela
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustainability Transition ◽  
International Climate ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change ◽  
Procedural Values ◽  
Climate Neutrality

This article examines the public perceptions on the drafting process of Finnish Climate Act amendment, which is a legislation on the climate policy that aims to mitigate climate change and secure adaptive capacity. In this paper we present results of a thematic analysis, which reveals citizens' perceptions of the procedural values, with respect to transparency, participation, and acceptance, and the objectives of the amendment, such as the climate neutrality target for 2035. The research data consisted of 2,458 answers to a citizen survey on the Finnish Climate Change Act amendment. Our results reveal that the opinions of citizens ranged from highlighting the urgency of political action to climate denials, with varying perceptions on process and proposed outcomes. While over half of citizens felt positively about the 2035 climate neutrality target created in the Climate Change Amendment Act, only a third believed that there was appropriate opportunity for public participation in the amendment process. Based on these findings, we suggest that participatory and transparent processes in legislative drafting are prerequisites for the sustainability transition and the implementation of international climate mitigation targets.

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