Anthropocentric Climate Change and Violent Conflict: Evidence Review and Policy Recommendations

Abstract Background: The European Commission (EC), based on the European Green Deal (2019) and the Recovery plan for Europe (2021) envisages investing 30% of the budget in climate-related programs, projects, and initiatives, which clearly shows Europe's commitment to becoming the first climate-neutral region by 2050. Activities are also planned for countries that are not members of the European Union (EU), which requires complex changes in the field of legislation, strategic planning, implementation, and monitoring. To successfully plan short-term and long-term activities on these grounds, it is necessary to have a realistic picture of the state of climate change in each country - as they spill over into the entire region of Europe. The main objective of this paper is to present the state of climate change in six Western Balkans countries, of which only Croatia is a member of the EU, for the needs of planning activities and initial harmonization with the EU plan to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 2050. Results: The main results of the research show that in all countries of the region, the average annual temperature increased by 1.2 °C compared to 1970, with stabilization and the beginning of the decline which can be expected around 2040. The main reasons for climate change in the region are: industry, energy, and heating sector based on coal exploitation, low energy efficiency, etc. Conclusions: It can be concluded that all countries of the Western Balkans have adopted (or are in the process of adopting) the necessary regulations and strategies towards climate change mitigation, but the implementation of specific activities is at a low level. The reasons for this most often lies in the insufficient commitment of decision-makers to make significant changes in the field of climate change transition (lower level of economic development, lack of investment, preservation of social peace). Finally, the paper provides an overview of climate change by country, scenario analysis, and policy recommendations.

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Environmental footprints of soybean production in China

10.21203/rs.3.rs-220995/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Wei Chen ◽

Tianzuo Zhang ◽

Xu Tian ◽

Yiji Zhai ◽

Yong Geng ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Health ◽

Monte Carlo Model ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Soybean Production ◽

Ecosystem Quality ◽

Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽

Agriculture Sector ◽

Environmental Footprints ◽

The Impact

Abstract The agriculture sector is both a significant consumer of energy and water and a major source of environmental pollution and greenhouse gases. Soybean production (Glycine max) has experienced a fast growth and it is the fourth most widely cultivated crop, leading to serious environmental concerns. This study evaluates the energy, carbon, and water footprints of China’s soybean production so that key environmental impacts can be identified. To provide reliable results for decision-making, uncertainty analysis is conducted based on the Monte Carlo model. Results show that the impact on climate change, fossils depletion, ecosystem quality, human health, and resource was 3.33×103 kg CO2 eq (GSD2 = 1.87), 343.37 kg oil eq (GSD2 = 1.60), 6.18×10− 5 Species·yr (GSD2 = 1.81), 3.26×10− 3 DALY (GSD2 = 1.81), and 89.22 $ (GSD2 = 2.28), respectively. Freshwater ecotoxicity was the dominant contributor (77.69%) to the ecosystem quality category, while climate change (85.22%) was the dominant contributor to the human health category. Key factors analysis results show that diammonium phosphate and diesel, and on-site emissions from soybean production, were the major contributors to the overall environmental burden of soybean production. Several policy recommendations are proposed, focusing on trade structure optimization, technological improvements, and efficient resource use. Such policy recommendations provide valuable insights to those decision-makers so that they can prepare appropriate mitigation policies.

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Policy Recommendations to Integrate Environmentally Sound Technologies in National Innovation Systems

10.18235/0003258 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Juan Carlos Salazar

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Innovation Systems ◽

The Other ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

National Innovation Systems ◽

Global Environmental ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Regional Project ◽

Environmentally Sound

As part of the Poznan Strategic Programme on Technology Transfer, which the Global Environmental Facility funded a regional project, implemented by the IDB. One of the components of this project was executed by Mexicos National Climate Change and Ecology Institute. It carried out two very relevant studies, one on recommendations to integrate climate change technologies into the national innovation systems, and the other on planning tools for climate change. The topics addressed on this document are i) The role of Environmentally Sound Technologies & National Innovation Systems (NIS) in the fight against Climate Change. ii) Greening NIS in LAC: Challenges and Opportunities. iii) Recommendations for the integration of ESTs into NIS.

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Violent Conflict and Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation

The Routledge Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction Including Climate Change Adaptation ◽

10.4324/9781315684260-15 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 150-160 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Richard S. Olson ◽

Vincent T. Gawronski

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Risk Reduction ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Disaster Risk Reduction ◽

Disaster Risk ◽

Violent Conflict

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COVID-19 and the Politics of Crisis

International Organization ◽

10.1017/s0020818320000375 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Phillip Y. Lipscy

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

International Relations ◽

International Security ◽

Time Pressure ◽

International Political Economy ◽

Violent Conflict ◽

Careful Examination ◽

Economic Relations ◽

Relative Neglect ◽

Scholarly Attention

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to refocus scholarly attention on the politics of crisis. Crises that abruptly upend political and economic relations are important and increasing in frequency. However, the division of international relations into international political economy (IPE) and international security has contributed to the relative neglect of non-militarized crises like pandemics. Crises are defined by threat, uncertainty, and time pressure: understanding them requires a careful examination of how these variables affect political and economic outcomes. Drawing on often disparate literatures on finance, energy and climate change, natural disasters, pandemics, and violent conflict, I propose a broad research program around the politics of crisis, focusing on puzzles related to causes, responses, and transformations.

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False Starts

10.1093/oso/9780197567982.003.0002 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 19-62

Author(s):

Joseph Heath

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Environmental Ethics ◽

Policy Implications ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Policy Options ◽

Philosophical Literature ◽

Specific Policy ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Normative Dimension ◽

Second Wave

Despite the fact that there is an obvious normative dimension to the problem of anthropogenic climate change, environmental ethicists have so far not had much influence on policy deliberations. This is primarily because mainstream views in the philosophical literature have policy implications that are implausibly extreme. This chapter begins by considering the case of traditional environmental ethics, and the debate over anthropocentrism that has dominated this literature. Far from generating specific policy recommendations, this perspective has tended rather to generate only pluralism, if not outright skepticism about value. These difficulties led to the emergence of a second wave of environmental philosophers, who have attempted to grapple with the issues raised by climate change using the tools of normative political philosophy. Many of these frameworks have also failed to make a productive contribution because their deontological structure makes them poorly tailored to consideration of the trade-offs involved in different policy options.

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The Drivers of Corporate Climate Change Strategies and Public Policy

Business & Society ◽

10.1177/0007650315578450 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (4) ◽

pp. 545-575 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Charles A. Backman ◽

Alain Verbeke ◽

Robert A. Schulz

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Public Policy ◽

Information Management ◽

North American ◽

Climate Change Impact ◽

Change Strategies ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Firm Level ◽

Change Impact ◽

Better Than

Effective public policy to mitigate climate change footprints should build on data-driven analysis of firm-level strategies. This article’s conceptual approach augments the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and identifies investments in four firm-level resource domains (Governance, Information management, Systems, and Technology [ GISTe]) to develop capabilities in climate change impact mitigation. The authors denote the resulting framework as the GISTe model, which frames their analysis and public policy recommendations. This research uses the 2008 Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database, with high-quality information on firm-level climate change strategies for 552 companies from North America and Europe. In contrast to the widely accepted myth that European firms are performing better than North American ones, the authors find a different result. Many firms, whether European or North American, do not just “talk” about climate change impact mitigation, but actually do “walk the talk.” European firms appear to be better than their North American counterparts in “walk I,” denoting attention to governance, information management, and systems. But when it comes down to “walk II,” meaning actual Technology-related investments, North American firms’ performance is equal or superior to that of the European companies. The authors formulate public policy recommendations to accelerate firm-level, sector-level, and cluster-level implementation of climate change strategies.

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Climate and Conflict in Africa

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.013.557 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jürgen Scheffran ◽

Peter Michael Link ◽

Janpeter Schilling

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Food Insecurity ◽

Natural Disasters ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Management Practices ◽

Forced Migration ◽

Food Prices ◽

Violent Conflict ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Conflict In Africa

Climate change was conceived as a “risk multiplier” that could exacerbate security risks and conflicts in fragile regions and hotspots where poverty, violence, injustice, and social insecurity are prevalent. The linkages have been most extensively studied for the African continent, which is affected by both climate change and violent conflict. Together with other drivers, climate change can undermine human security and livelihoods of vulnerable communities in Africa through different pathways. These include variability in temperature and precipitation; weather extremes and natural disasters, such as floods and droughts; resource problems through water scarcity, land degradation, and food insecurity; forced migration and farmer–herder conflict; and infrastructure for transport, water, and energy supply. Through these channels, climate change may contribute to humanitarian crises and conflict, subject to local conditions for the different regions of Africa. While a number of statistical studies find no significant link between reduced precipitation and violent conflict in Africa, several studies do detect such a link, mostly in interaction with other issues. The effects of climate change on resource conflicts are often indirect, complex, and linked to political, economic, and social conflict factors, including social inequalities, low economic development, and ineffective institutions. Regions dependent on rainfed agriculture are more sensitive to civil conflict following droughts. Rising food prices can contribute to food insecurity and violence. Water scarcity and competition in river basins are partly associated with low-level conflicts, depending on socioeconomic variables and management practices. Another conflict factor in sub-Saharan Africa are shifting migration routes of herders who need grazing land to avoid livestock losses, while farmers depend on land for growing their harvest. Empirical findings reach no consensus on how climate vulnerability and violence interact with environmental migration, which also could be seen as an adaptation measure strengthening community resilience. Countries with a low human development index (HDI) are particularly vulnerable to the double exposure to natural disasters and armed conflict. Road and water infrastructures influence the social and political consequences of climate stress. The high vulnerabilities and low adaptive capacities of many African countries may increase the probability of violent conflicts related to climate change impacts.

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China’s pathway to a low carbon economy

Carbon Balance and Management ◽

10.1186/s13021-019-0130-z ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Wenjuan Yang ◽

Rongqin Zhao ◽

Xiaowei Chuai ◽

Liangang Xiao ◽

Lianhai Cao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Local Governments ◽

Carbon Emission ◽

Carbon Sink ◽

Policy Recommendations ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Low Carbon Economy ◽

Trading Market ◽

Carbon Economy

AbstractClimate change has emerged as one of the most important environmental issues worldwide. As the world’s biggest developing country, China is participating in combating climate change by promoting a low carbon economy within the context of global warming. This paper summarizes the pathways of China’s low carbon economy including the aspects of energy, industry, low carbon cities, circular economy and low carbon technology, afforestation and carbon sink, the carbon emission trading market and carbon emission reduction targets. There are many achievements in the implementation of low carbon policies. For example, carbon emission intensity has been reduced drastically along with the optimizing of energy and industry structure and a nationwide carbon trading market for electricity industry has been established. However, some problems remain, such as the weakness of public participation, the ineffectiveness of unified policies for certain regions and the absence of long-term planning for low carbon cities development. Therefore, we propose some policy recommendations for the future low carbon economy development in China. Firstly, comprehensive and long-term planning should be involved in all the low carbon economy pathways. Secondly, to coordinate the relationship between central and local governments and narrow the gap between poor and rich regions, different strategies of carbon emission performance assessment should be applied for different regions. Thirdly, enterprises should cooperate with scientific research institutions to explored low carbon technologies. Finally, relevant institutions should be regulated to realize comprehensive low carbon transition through reasonable and feasible low carbon pathways in China. These policy recommendations will provide new perspectives for China’s future low carbon economy development and guide practices for combating climate change.

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