8 results
Ten new insights in climate science 2023
- Mercedes Bustamante, Joyashree Roy, Daniel Ospina, Ploy Achakulwisut, Anubha Aggarwal, Ana Bastos, Wendy Broadgate, Josep G. Canadell, Edward R. Carr, Deliang Chen, Helen A. Cleugh, Kristie L. Ebi, Clea Edwards, Carol Farbotko, Marcos Fernández-Martínez, Thomas L. Frölicher, Sabine Fuss, Oliver Geden, Nicolas Gruber, Luke J. Harrington, Judith Hauck, Zeke Hausfather, Sophie Hebden, Aniek Hebinck, Saleemul Huq, Matthias Huss, M. Laurice P. Jamero, Sirkku Juhola, Nilushi Kumarasinghe, Shuaib Lwasa, Bishawjit Mallick, Maria Martin, Steven McGreevy, Paula Mirazo, Aditi Mukherji, Greg Muttitt, Gregory F. Nemet, David Obura, Chukwumerije Okereke, Tom Oliver, Ben Orlove, Nadia S. Ouedraogo, Prabir K. Patra, Mark Pelling, Laura M. Pereira, Åsa Persson, Julia Pongratz, Anjal Prakash, Anja Rammig, Colin Raymond, Aaron Redman, Cristobal Reveco, Johan Rockström, Regina Rodrigues, David R. Rounce, E. Lisa F. Schipper, Peter Schlosser, Odirilwe Selomane, Gregor Semieniuk, Yunne-Jai Shin, Tasneem A. Siddiqui, Vartika Singh, Giles B. Sioen, Youba Sokona, Detlef Stammer, Norman J. Steinert, Sunhee Suk, Rowan Sutton, Lisa Thalheimer, Vikki Thompson, Gregory Trencher, Kees van der Geest, Saskia E. Werners, Thea Wübbelmann, Nico Wunderling, Jiabo Yin, Kirsten Zickfeld, Jakob Zscheischler
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- Journal:
- Global Sustainability / Volume 7 / 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 01 December 2023, e19
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Non-technical summary
We identify a set of essential recent advances in climate change research with high policy relevance, across natural and social sciences: (1) looming inevitability and implications of overshooting the 1.5°C warming limit, (2) urgent need for a rapid and managed fossil fuel phase-out, (3) challenges for scaling carbon dioxide removal, (4) uncertainties regarding the future contribution of natural carbon sinks, (5) intertwinedness of the crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, (6) compound events, (7) mountain glacier loss, (8) human immobility in the face of climate risks, (9) adaptation justice, and (10) just transitions in food systems.
Technical summaryThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports provides the scientific foundation for international climate negotiations and constitutes an unmatched resource for researchers. However, the assessment cycles take multiple years. As a contribution to cross- and interdisciplinary understanding of climate change across diverse research communities, we have streamlined an annual process to identify and synthesize significant research advances. We collected input from experts on various fields using an online questionnaire and prioritized a set of 10 key research insights with high policy relevance. This year, we focus on: (1) the looming overshoot of the 1.5°C warming limit, (2) the urgency of fossil fuel phase-out, (3) challenges to scale-up carbon dioxide removal, (4) uncertainties regarding future natural carbon sinks, (5) the need for joint governance of biodiversity loss and climate change, (6) advances in understanding compound events, (7) accelerated mountain glacier loss, (8) human immobility amidst climate risks, (9) adaptation justice, and (10) just transitions in food systems. We present a succinct account of these insights, reflect on their policy implications, and offer an integrated set of policy-relevant messages. This science synthesis and science communication effort is also the basis for a policy report contributing to elevate climate science every year in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Social media summaryWe highlight recent and policy-relevant advances in climate change research – with input from more than 200 experts.
Ten new insights in climate science 2022
- Maria A. Martin, Emmanuel A. Boakye, Emily Boyd, Wendy Broadgate, Mercedes Bustamante, Josep G. Canadell, Edward R. Carr, Eric K. Chu, Helen Cleugh, Szilvia Csevár, Marwa Daoudy, Ariane de Bremond, Meghnath Dhimal, Kristie L. Ebi, Clea Edwards, Sabine Fuss, Martin P. Girardin, Bruce Glavovic, Sophie Hebden, Marina Hirota, Huang-Hsiung Hsu, Saleemul Huq, Karin Ingold, Ola M. Johannessen, Yasuko Kameyama, Nilushi Kumarasinghe, Gaby S. Langendijk, Tabea Lissner, Shuaib Lwasa, Catherine Machalaba, Aaron Maltais, Manu V. Mathai, Cheikh Mbow, Karen E. McNamara, Aditi Mukherji, Virginia Murray, Jaroslav Mysiak, Chukwumerije Okereke, Daniel Ospina, Friederike Otto, Anjal Prakash, Juan M. Pulhin, Emmanuel Raju, Aaron Redman, Kanta K. Rigaud, Johan Rockström, Joyashree Roy, E. Lisa F. Schipper, Peter Schlosser, Karsten A. Schulz, Kim Schumacher, Luana Schwarz, Murray Scown, Barbora Šedová, Tasneem A. Siddiqui, Chandni Singh, Giles B. Sioen, Detlef Stammer, Norman J. Steinert, Sunhee Suk, Rowan Sutton, Lisa Thalheimer, Maarten van Aalst, Kees van der Geest, Zhirong Jerry Zhao
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- Journal:
- Global Sustainability / Volume 5 / 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 November 2022, e20
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Non-technical summary
We summarize what we assess as the past year's most important findings within climate change research: limits to adaptation, vulnerability hotspots, new threats coming from the climate–health nexus, climate (im)mobility and security, sustainable practices for land use and finance, losses and damages, inclusive societal climate decisions and ways to overcome structural barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.
Technical summaryWe synthesize 10 topics within climate research where there have been significant advances or emerging scientific consensus since January 2021. The selection of these insights was based on input from an international open call with broad disciplinary scope. Findings concern: (1) new aspects of soft and hard limits to adaptation; (2) the emergence of regional vulnerability hotspots from climate impacts and human vulnerability; (3) new threats on the climate–health horizon – some involving plants and animals; (4) climate (im)mobility and the need for anticipatory action; (5) security and climate; (6) sustainable land management as a prerequisite to land-based solutions; (7) sustainable finance practices in the private sector and the need for political guidance; (8) the urgent planetary imperative for addressing losses and damages; (9) inclusive societal choices for climate-resilient development and (10) how to overcome barriers to accelerate mitigation and limit global warming to below 2°C.
Social media summaryScience has evidence on barriers to mitigation and how to overcome them to avoid limits to adaptation across multiple fields.
25 - Sustainable development in Bangladesh: Bridging the SDGs and climate action
- from Part II - Sustainable Development: Challenges and Opportunities
- Edited by Pak Sum Low
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- Book:
- Sustainable Development: Asia-Pacific Perspectives
- Published online:
- 23 December 2021
- Print publication:
- 13 January 2022, pp 327-338
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Summary
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or the 2030 Agenda, is the successor of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and has a timeline ranging from the year 2015 to 2030. Consisting of 17 goals and 169 targets, the SDGs aim to address the root causes of some of the most pressing environmental, social, and economic problems being faced by the world.
For Bangladesh, a country that performed particularly well on the MDGs, the SDGs present a great opportunity to build on the progress made with the MDGs and make transformational changes that can help boost the country’s overall development. The highly ambitious SDGs have 17 goals touching all sectors, from education and health to building sustainable infrastructure. Although the wide scope of the agenda has the potential to see greater change, it also faces substantial barriers. For Bangladesh, some of the main barriers include the effects of climate change, which can potentially offset the achievements of many of these SDG targets, and another is the lack of funding mechanisms for implementing necessary actions.
The impacts of climate change will be of concern for a country like Bangladesh, which is already vulnerable to environmental effects. Given the influence the Climate Agenda and the 2030 Agenda have on each other, they play a significant role in the success of one another. As such, while addressing the SDGs it is of key importance to implement national plans and policies that incorporate SDG targets as well as climate action.
Financing the SDGs is also a critical issue for Bangladesh, as most of the funding needs to be from domestic resources. It is estimated that implementation of the SDGs will cost Bangladesh on average about US$66.32 billion annually between 2017 and 2030. For the implementation to be successful, it needs a variety of financial resources: public and private, national and international, concessional and non-concessional. It is also important to establish a framework that can ensure that climate finance is new and additional to official development assistance (ODA) pledges and addresses issues of financial accountability and good governance.
For Bangladesh to be as successful in achieving the Sustainability Development Goals, as it was the Millennium Development Goals, the county will need to treat climate change as a cross-cutting issue that will affect the ability to attain any of the other goals. Only through developing national plans of action that are focused on climate resilience and implementing effective financial mechanisms will it be possible for Bangladesh to fulfil these transformational goals.
Global recognition of the importance of nature-based solutions to the impacts of climate change
- Nathalie Seddon, Elizabeth Daniels, Rowan Davis, Alexandre Chausson, Rian Harris, Xiaoting Hou-Jones, Saleemul Huq, Valerie Kapos, Georgina M. Mace, Ali Raza Rizvi, Hannah Reid, Dilys Roe, Beth Turner, Sylvia Wicander
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- Journal:
- Global Sustainability / Volume 3 / 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 12 May 2020, e15
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Ecosystems across the globe are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as are the communities that depend on them. However, ecosystems can also protect people from climate change impacts. As the evidence base strengthens, nature-based solutions (NbS) are increasingly prominent in climate change policy, especially in developing nations. Yet intentions rarely translate into measurable, evidence-based targets. As Paris Agreement signatories revise their Nationally Determined Contributions, we argue that NbS are key to meeting global goals for climate and biodiversity, and we urge researchers to work more closely with policy-makers to identify targets that benefit both people and ecosystems.
Contributors
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- By W. Neil Adger, Jeroen Aerts, Armando Apan, Jessica Ayers, Jon Barnett, Juan F. Barrera, Simon P. J. Batterbury, Linda C. Botterill, Sarah Boulter, Edwin Castellanos, Declan Conway, Gustavo Cruz-Bello, W. Priyan, S. Dias, Markus G. Donat, Stephen Dovers, Thomas E. Downing, Hallie Eakin, C. J. Fotheringham, Andrew W. Garcia, Marisa C. Goulden, Daniela Guitart, John Handmer, Katharine Haynes, Sam S. L. Hettiarachchi, Saleemul Huq, Jiang Tong, David John Karoly, Jon E. Keeley, Diane Keogh, David King, Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Timothy M. Kusky, Karine Laaidi, Alain Le Tertre, Gregor C. Leckebusch, Matthew Mason, David M. Mills, Helda Morales, Michael J. Mortimore, Colette Mortreux, Karen O’Brien, Jean Palutikof, Mathilde Pascal, Bimal K. Paul, Munshi K. Rahman, William D. Snook, Su Buda, Alexandra D. Syphard, Melanie Thomas, Madeleine C. Thomson, Uwe Ulbrich, Pier Vellinga, George Walker, Joshua Whittaker
- Edited by Sarah Boulter, Griffith University, Queensland, Jean Palutikof, Griffith University, Queensland, David John Karoly, University of Melbourne, Daniela Guitart, Griffith University, Queensland
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- Book:
- Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change
- Published online:
- 05 October 2013
- Print publication:
- 14 October 2013, pp ix-xii
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21 - Disasters and Development
- from Part V - Synthesis Chapters
- Edited by Sarah Boulter, Griffith University, Queensland, Jean Palutikof, Griffith University, Queensland, David John Karoly, University of Melbourne, Daniela Guitart, Griffith University, Queensland
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- Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change
- Published online:
- 05 October 2013
- Print publication:
- 14 October 2013, pp 199-208
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17 - Global adaptation governance beyond 2012
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- By Jessica Ayers, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, Mozaharul Alam, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Saleemul Huq, International Institute for Environment and Development
- Edited by Frank Biermann, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Philipp Pattberg, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Fariborz Zelli
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- Global Climate Governance Beyond 2012
- Published online:
- 05 July 2014
- Print publication:
- 18 February 2010, pp 270-285
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Summary
Introduction
It became apparent in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that climate change impacts are already being felt (IPCC 2007) and that those most vulnerable to these impacts are the poorest communities within poor countries, notably in the small-island developing states, the least industrialized countries, and countries whose economies heavily rely on climate-sensitive activities, particularly in Africa (Huq and Ayers 2007; IPCC 2007: 9). Yet it is also apparent, as we lay out in this chapter, that climate governance under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the ‘climate convention’) still fails to adequately address climate change adaptation needs in developing countries.
Adaptation to climate change describes the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (IPCC 2007). Adaptation is seen as one of two options for managing climate change; the other is mitigation, which involves the limiting of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly of carbon dioxide and methane. Although adaptation and mitigation are inherently linked in the climate system (the more effective mitigation is undertaken now, the less need for adaptation in the future), until very recently they have been viewed as separate or even competing policy options under the convention (Swart and Raes 2007). Mitigation has been treated as an issue for industrialized countries who hold the greatest responsibility for climate change, while adaptation is seen as a priority for developing countries where mitigation capacity is lower and vulnerability is high (Dodman et al. 2009). Adaptation has historically been seen as a marginal policy option, mitigation’s ‘poor cousin’ in the climate policy arena (Pielke et al. 2007).
7 - Global Industrialization: A Developing Country Perspective
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- By Saleemul Huq
- Edited by R. Socolow, Princeton University, New Jersey, C. Andrews, Princeton University, New Jersey, F. Berkhout, University of Sussex, V. Thomas, Princeton University, New Jersey
- Foreword by William R. Moomaw
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- Industrial Ecology and Global Change
- Published online:
- 04 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 24 November 1994, pp 107-114
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Summary
Abstract
A wide disparity exists in the consumption of the world's product between the North and the South. Countries in the South cannot expect to follow the same development path as have those in the industrialized countries of the North. Alternative paths must be identified and followed.
Introduction
Global industrialization over the past 200 years since the Industrial Revolution has followed a relatively similar pattern in country after country. The so-called developing countries of the South are continuing to follow the path of the industrialized or developed countries of the North. Even the very terms “developing” and “developed” connote two stages of industrial development, with the transition from developing to developed occurring when a country has achieved a certain level of industrialization.
There is, however, a real question as to whether the earth and its resources can sustain the transition of all the world's developing countries into developed or industrialized countries, particularly considering energy and other nonrenewable resource use and also waste production. This chapter outlines the consequences of present levels of industrial waste and energy consumption, as projected into the future. It suggests that present levels and patterns of consumption and industrialization in the developed countries are inappropriate and indeed impossible for the developing countries to follow. Hence it will be necessary to look at new and alternative technologies, industries, and development paths in order for the poor countries of the South to offer a better quality of life to their present and future generations.
The world's population, at present just over 5 billion people, could double within the next 40 years, and could stabilize at roughly 14 billion people (base case) or much higher if fertility rates decline more slowly (Figure 1). The fastest population growth is in urban areas, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.