The Elephant
A resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
The ElephantA resource for journalists, politicians, policy makers, activists and citizens interested in climate change and the environmental emergency
Emissions Gap Report 2023
2023-11-21 (or before) in UN Environment ProgrammeAs greenhouse gas emissions hit new highs, temperature records tumble and climate impacts intensify, the Emissions Gap Report 2023: Broken Record – Temperatures hit new highs, yet world fails to cut emissions (again) finds that the world is heading for a temperature rise far above the Paris Agreement goals unless countries deliver more than they have promised. The report is the 14th edition in a series that brings together many of the world’s top climate scientists to look at future trends in greenhouse gas emissions and provide potential solutions to the challenge of global warming.
Tagged under: Net Zero | The Paris Agreement | Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Plans Remain Insufficient: More Ambitious Action Needed Now | UNFCCC
2023-09-26 (or before) in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUN Climate Change News, 26 October 2022 – A new report from UN Climate Change shows countries are bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emis...
Tagged under: Climate Change | United Nations | Climate Change Mitigation
Dr Andrew Forrest at Boao Forum for Asia Perth 2023
2023-09-11 (or before) in fortescue.comTagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Collapse | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change
Big four: global momentum
2024-03-13 (or before) in Energy & Climate Intelligence UnitHow the ‘Big Four’ emitters – China, US, India and the EU – could play their part in bending the global emissions curve to point downwards.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | European Union | India | USA | China
UK Climate Policy and Data Graphics
2024-03-12 (or before) in Zero Hour - Join the campaign for the Climate & Ecology BillClimate & Ecology Bill is a plan to tackle the climate & nature crisis
Tagged under: Climate Change Adaption | Climate Change Mitigation | Climate Data | UK Politics
Climate change: alarming Africa-wide report predicts 30% drop in crop revenue, 50 million without water
2024-02-28 by in The ConversationA new study reveals that from 2050, Africa will suffer from food and water scarcity, and a massive loss of jobs in agriculture, unless climate change mitigation measures are put in place now.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Africa
A precautionary approach required to avoid large-scale collapse of the Amazon forest
2024-02-15 in Official blog of the Met Office news teamThe Amazon is a complex dynamical system with extraordinarily diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems which are home to more than 10% of Earth’s biodiversity, as well as 40 million people. It is one of the most critical elements of the Earth’s climate system, with the forest acting as a giant “air-conditioner”, lowering land-surface temperatures and…
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Collapse | Amazon Rainforest | Trees
Post-growth: A viable path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C
2024-02-08 (or before) in Cell PressExisting climate mitigation scenarios tend to project a high GDP growth, even though growth leads to increased energy use and emissions. We show that pathways of low growth make it possible to pursue ambitious mitigation with a slower build-up of low-carbon energy and lower improvements in energy efficiency. Low growth is typically associated with poverty and social challenges; however, we argue that novel post-growth interventions could decrease social inequalities while also helping to protect the climate.
Tagged under: Degrowth | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Sustainability limits needed for CO2 removal | Science
2024-02-02 in Science | AAASThe true climate mitigation challenge is revealed by considering sustainability impacts
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Sustainability
Beyond the IPCC for Food: An Overarching Framework for Food Systems Sustainability Assessment
2024-01-15 (or before) in MDPI - Publisher of Open Access JournalsFood systems are responsible for a large share of anthropogenic impacts. In recent debates, the need to strengthen the link between science and policy has emerged with the proposal to establish a new global science–policy interface for a sustainable food system. While the clash between those who consider necessary and those who do not consider necessary the creation of this panel increases, this paper takes inspiration from this debate to highlight how strengthening the interactions between science and policy should be supported by increasing the informativeness of current sustainability assessments, regardless of the need...
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Sustainability
An environmental and socially just climate mitigation pathway for a planet in peril - IOPscience
2024-01-09 in IOPscienceTagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Mitigation of Climate Change Report 2022: "Litany of broken climate promises" - UN Chief
2023-12-21 (or before) in YouTubeThe United Nations Secretary-General called the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “a litany of broken climate promises” showing ...
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Carbon opportunity cost increases carbon footprint advantage of grain-finished beef
2023-12-15 (or before) in PLOS - Open ScienceBeef production accounts for the largest share of global livestock greenhouse gas emissions and is an important target for climate mitigation efforts. Most life-cycle assessments comparing the carbon footprint of beef production systems have been limited to production emissions. None also consider potential carbon sequestration due to grazing and alternate uses of land used for production. We assess the carbon footprint of 100 beef production systems in 16 countries, including production emissions, soil carbon sequestration from grazing, and carbon opportunity cost—the potential carbon sequestration that could occur on lan...
Tagged under: Cattle and Dairy Farming | Climate Change Mitigation | Sustainability
Community forest governance and synergies among carbon, biodiversity and livelihoods - Nature Climate Change
2023-11-23 in NatureForest restoration is emerging as a key climate mitigation strategy. In this study, the authors find that formalized local control and substantive involvement in rule-making are associated with synergies for carbon sequestration, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.
Tagged under: Trees | Climate Change Mitigation
Emissions Gap Report 2023
2023-11-21 (or before) in UN Environment ProgrammeAs greenhouse gas emissions hit new highs, temperature records tumble and climate impacts intensify, the Emissions Gap Report 2023: Broken Record – Temperatures hit new highs, yet world fails to cut emissions (again) finds that the world is heading for a temperature rise far above the Paris Agreement goals unless countries deliver more than they have promised. The report is the 14th edition in a series that brings together many of the world’s top climate scientists to look at future trends in greenhouse gas emissions and provide potential solutions to the challenge of global warming.
Tagged under: Net Zero | The Paris Agreement | Climate Change Mitigation
Reinventing energy efficiency for net zero
2023-10-14 (or before) in ScienceDirect.comEnergy efficiency has delivered the largest share of historic greenhouse gas mitigation. A significant part of this relied on replacing fossil fuel te…
Tagged under: Net Zero | Climate Change Mitigation
Action needed to make carbon offsets from forest conservation work for climate change mitigation | Science
2023-10-06 (or before) in Science | AAASMost REDD projects deliver little to no decrease in deforestation and forest degradation.
Tagged under: Deforestation | Trees | Climate Change Mitigation
Paris-consistent climate change mitigation scenarios
2023-10-04 (or before) by in oecd-ilibrary.orgSince the adoption of the Paris Agreement, governments and economic actors have increasingly been setting greenhouse gas emissions reduction or net zero targets. Amidst risks of delayed action and greenwashing, there is need to understand whether...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Net Zero | Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Plans Remain Insufficient: More Ambitious Action Needed Now | UNFCCC
2023-09-26 (or before) in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUN Climate Change News, 26 October 2022 – A new report from UN Climate Change shows countries are bending the curve of global greenhouse gas emis...
Tagged under: Climate Change | United Nations | Climate Change Mitigation
Johan Rockström interview | Planetary boundaries, 'negative emissions', mitigation models & fairness
2023-09-20 (or before) in YouTubeJohan Rockström is best known for his work on the Planetary Boundary Framework and as co-director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. In th...
Tagged under: COP27 | COP26 | Renewable Energy | Climate Change | Net Zero | Climate Justice | Climate Change Mitigation
Dr Andrew Forrest at Boao Forum for Asia Perth 2023
2023-09-11 (or before) in fortescue.comTagged under: Climate Change Mitigation | Collapse | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change
Adjusting 1.5 degree C climate change mitigation pathways in light of adverse new information - Nature Communications
2023-09-07 (or before) in NatureEmerging limitations on climate and low-carbon technology would require adjusting our 15.C climate change mitigation pathways. However, this could increase average annual emissions reductions to around 3GtCO2/year using a broad portfolio of mitigation measures.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Contribution of prioritized urban nature-based solutions allocation to carbon neutrality - Nature Climate Change
2023-09-02 (or before) in NatureEffective spatial allocation of the nature-based solutions is important for city mitigation through various pathways. This Analysis allocates prioritized urban nature-based solutions to major European cities and estimates their potential contribution to emission reductions, then the carbon neutrality targets.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Income-based U.S. household carbon footprints (1990–2019) offer new insights on emissions inequality and climate finance
2023-08-30 (or before) in PLOS - Open ScienceCurrent policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and increase adaptation and mitigation funding are insufficient to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. It is clear that further action is needed to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and achieve a just climate future. Here, we offer a new perspective on emissions responsibility and climate finance by conducting an environmentally extended input output analysis that links 30 years (1990–2019) of United States (U.S.) household-level income data to the emissions generated in creating that income. To do this we draw on over 2.8 billion inter-sectoral tran...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economics | Health | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation | Finance
Remarks by Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions Graham Steele at Event Hosted by the Brookings Institution's Assessing Insurance Regulation and Supervision of Climate-Related Financial Risk
2023-08-29 (or before) in home.treasury.govAs Prepared for Delivery Introduction Thank you, Carlos. It is my pleasure to be with you all today, both those in the room and watching virtually. As the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, my portfolio includes developing the Department’s policy views on banks, credit unions, consumer protection, access to capital, and financial sector cybersecurity matters. My remarks will focus on the work that Treasury, through the Federal Insurance office (FIO), is doing to understand and help address the financial risks that our changing climate poses in the insurance sector. Work on climate-related financial...
Tagged under: Drought | Finance | Climate Change | Housing | Insurance | Litigation | Economic Growth | California | Climate Change Impacts | Wildfires | Florida | Climate Change Mitigation
Drop carbon offsetting-based environmental claims, companies urged
2023-07-10 in The GuardianNew guidance says carbon credits should only be used to contribute to climate mitigation
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
What is important for achieving 2 °C? UNFCCC and IPCC expert perceptions on obstacles and response options for climate change mitigation - IOPscience
2023-06-21 (or before) in IOPscienceTagged under: IPCC | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Too late to save the planet? Why this climate crisis myth is so prevalent – and problematic.
2023-06-20 (or before) in The World Economic ForumThe idea that it’s too late to avert the climate crisis has been gaining ground recently. But it’s not true, say experts – and it's delaying mitigation.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Current emissions targets could keep the planet below a 2°C temperature rise but a turbocharged effort is needed
2023-06-07 by in The ConversationStudy suggests that current national climate commitments could be enough to stabilise global warming within the century. But mitigation action needs to be turbocharged.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Beyond fruit and timber: the many other benefits of trees in today’s climate
2023-05-22 in Official blog of the Met Office news teamNative woodland is a really powerful tool to tackle both the nature and climate crises, that is the view of Chris Nichols the Woodland Trust’s Conservation Evidence Manager. Woodland creation or protecting or enhancing existing woodlands are prime examples of what climate experts refer to as co-benefits: where climate mitigation or adaptation can bring wider…
Tagged under: Trees | Climate Change Mitigation
Demand-side solutions to climate change mitigation consistent with high levels of well-being - Nature Climate Change
2023-05-08 (or before) in NatureEvaluation of mitigation actions often focuses on cost and overlooks the direct effects on well-being. This work shows demand-side measures have large mitigation potential and beneficial effects on well-being outcomes.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Population-based emergence of unfamiliar climates - Nature Climate Change
2023-05-07 (or before) in NatureThe signal to noise ratio of temperature change can be used to determine exposure to unusual, unfamiliar and unknown climates. For large groups of the world’s population, mitigation can delay the onset of unfamiliar or unknown climates by several decades.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
What Would It Take to Defeat Big Oil? A Progressive Economist Weighs In.
2023-04-19 by in Truthout - Fearless Independent JournalismTo be successful, climate mitigation policies must not exacerbate global inequality, economist Gregor Semieniuk says.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Is carbon dioxide removal ‘mitigation of climate change’?
2023-03-31 (or before) in Wiley Online LibraryTagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
The meat industry got the IPCC to edit a climate change report
2023-03-26 (or before) in Quartz | Make business betterA leaked draft revealed how the meat industry is obstructing efforts to curb climate change
Tagged under: IPCC | Climate Change | Cattle and Dairy Farming | Climate Change Mitigation
Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven't We Bent the Global Emissions Curve?
2023-03-22 (or before) in Annual ReviewsDespite three decades of political efforts and a wealth of research on the causes and catastrophic impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise and are 60% higher today than they were in 1990. Exploring this rise through nine thematic lenses—covering issues of climate governance, the fossil fuel industry, geopolitics, economics, mitigation modeling, energy systems, inequity, lifestyles, and social imaginaries—draws out multifaceted reasons for our collective failure to bend the global emissions curve. However, a common thread that emerges across the reviewed literature is the cent...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economics | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation
Eight things the world must do to avoid the worst of climate change
2023-03-21 in The GuardianLatest IPCC report highlights key measures countries must take to avoid climate catastrophe
Tagged under: Methane | IPCC | Climate Change Mitigation
Rationing and Climate Change Mitigation*
2023-03-08 (or before) in Taylor & Francis Online: Peer-reviewed JournalsIn this paper, we argue that rationing has been neglected as a policy option for mitigating climate change. There is a broad scientific consensus that avoiding the most severe impacts of climate ch...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation
(PDF) Climate Disruption Caused by a Decline in Marine Biodiversity and Pollution
2023-02-27 (or before) in ResearchGatePDF | The world has focused on carbon mitigation as the only solution for climate change. This discussion paper considers how marine biodiversity... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Future demand for electricity generation materials under different climate mitigation scenarios
2023-01-28 (or before) in ScienceDirect.comAchieving global climate goals will require prodigious increases in low-carbon electricity generation, raising concerns about the scale of materials n…
Tagged under: Electricity | Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Uncensored: Telling it as it is.
2022-11-28 by Dan Calverley in Climate Uncensored: Telling it as it is.For a 50:50 chance of staying below 1.5°C, we’re using up the remaining carbon budget at around 1% every month.
Tagged under: The Paris Agreement | Climate Change Mitigation
Social tipping processes towards climate action: A conceptual framework
2022-11-15 (or before) in ScienceDirect.comSocietal transformations are necessary to address critical global challenges, such as mitigation of anthropogenic climate change and reaching UN susta…
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation | Tipping Points
Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change
2022-11-01 (or before) in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeTagged under: IPCC | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Lotka's wheel and the long arm of history: how does the distant past determine today's global rate of energy consumption?
2022-09-03 (or before) in ESDAbstract. Global economic production – the world gross domestic product (GDP) – has been rising steadily relative to global primary energy demands, lending hope that technological advances can drive a gradual decoupling of society from its resource needs and associated environmental pollution. Here we present a contrasting argument: in each of the 50 years following 1970 for which reliable data are available, 1 exajoule of world energy was required to sustain each 5.50±0.21 trillion year 2019 US dollars of a global wealth quantity defined as the cumulative inflation-adjusted ...
Tagged under: Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
A cautionary note about messages of hope: Focusing on progress in reducing carbon emissions weakens mitigation motivation
2022-08-26 (or before) in ScienceDirect.comFor the first time this millennium, growth in carbon emissions has slowed. Indeed, the year 2014 was the first time in 40 years that the planet saw ze…
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Drivers of peak warming in a consumption-maximizing world - Nature Climate Change
2022-08-26 (or before) in NatureAn analysis of climate change mitigation policies in an idealized integrated assessment framework highlights the importance of economic growth, and investment in technologies such as large-scale carbon dioxide removal, to limit peak warming.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Definitions and implications of climate-neutral aviation - Nature Climate Change
2022-07-31 (or before) in NatureNon-CO2 effects must be addressed for climate-neutral aviation but are currently ignored in international climate policies. The authors provide a framework with different definitions of climate neutrality, then show how technological and demand-side mitigation efforts can help to achieve these targets.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Existing climate mitigation scenarios perpetuate colonial inequalities
2022-07-07 (or before) in ScienceDirect.comThe challenge of climate mitigation is made more difficult by high rates of energy use in wealthy countries, mostly in the Global North, which far exc…
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Climate-Proofing Management Research | Academy of Management Perspectives
2022-06-04 (or before) in journals.aom.orgClimate change presents a variety of doomsday scenarios for human society, including more extreme and frequent storms, droughts, heatwaves and fires, the heating and acidification of oceans, rising sea levels, biodiversity decline, food shortages, as well as exacerbating geopolitical tensions and conflicts. While many corporations and communities are already anticipating and planning for various climate impacts, we argue that much management research is in denial of the profound consequences of a worsening climate crisis. This is evident in the relative neglect of climate change in our research and teaching and we argue reflects...
Tagged under: Oceans | Extreme Weather | Heatwaves | Drought | Climate Change | Ocean Acidification | Sea Level | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation
Carbon capture and storage at the end of a lost decade
2022-05-30 (or before) in Cell PressCarbon capture and storage (CCS) provides a direct means to achieve the transition to net-zero. We show that the gap between what is expected from CCS and what has been delivered is still significant. Facility deployment, proven storage capacity, and storage rates must increase to play a part in CO2 mitigation. There must also be a greater global effort with government and multinational corporation engagement, and a rapid step-change in policy to avoid disillusionment toward the usefulness of CCS.
Tagged under: Net Zero | Climate Change Mitigation
Mitigation of Climate Change Report 2022: "Litany of broken climate promises" - UN Chief
2022-05-02 (or before) in YouTubeThe United Nations Secretary-General called the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “a litany of broken climate promises” showing ...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Impacts From a Removal of Anthropogenic Aerosol Emissions
2022-03-23 (or before) in Advancing Earth and Space Sciences JournalAbstract Limiting global warming to 1.5 or 2.0°C requires strong mitigation of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Concurrently, emissions of anthropogenic aerosols will decline, due to c...
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Climate change: IPCC scientists to examine carbon removal in key report - BBC News
2022-03-21 (or before) in The BBCThere's likely to be a new emphasis on technology to suck CO2 from the air in IPCC report on mitigation.
Tagged under: IPCC | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity - Nature Communications
2022-03-19 (or before) in NatureRenewable energy production is necessary to mitigate climate change, however, generating the required technologies and infrastructure will demand huge production increases of many metals. Here, the authors map mining areas and assess spatial coincidence with biodiversity conservation sites, and show that new mining threats to biodiversity may surpass those averted by climate change mitigation.
Tagged under: Renewable Energy | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation
2022-03-17 (or before) by in Climate Change: Vital Signs of the PlanetLearn where climate change solutions begin and NASA's role in adaptation and mitigation.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Shift the focus from the super-poor to the super-rich - Nature Climate Change
2022-03-14 (or before) in NatureCarbon mitigation efforts often focus on the world’s poorest people, dealing with topics such as food and energy security, and increased emissions potential from projected population, income and consumption growth. However, more policies are needed that target people at the opposite end of the social ladder — the super-rich.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Global expansion and redistribution of Aedes-borne virus transmission risk with climate change
2022-02-28 (or before) in PLOS - Open ScienceAuthor summary The established scientific consensus indicates that climate change will severely exacerbate the risk and burden of Aedes-transmitted viruses, including dengue, chikungunya, Zika, and other significant threats to global health security. Here, we show more subtle impacts of climate change on transmission, caused primarily by differences between the more heat-tolerant Aedes aegypti and the more heat-limited Ae. albopictus. Within the next century, nearly a billion people could face their first exposure to viral transmission from either mosquito in the worst-case scenario, mainly in Europe and high-elevation tropical ...
Tagged under: Africa | Climate Change | Health | Climate Change Mitigation | Climate Change Impacts
Another Record: Ocean Warming Continues through 2021 despite La Niña Conditions - Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
2022-01-11 (or before) in Springer VerlagThe increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from human activities traps heat within the climate system and increases ocean heat content (OHC). Here, we provide the first analysis of recent OHC changes through 2021 from two international groups. The world ocean, in 2021, was the hottest ever recorded by humans, and the 2021 annual OHC value is even higher than last year’s record value by 14 ± 11 ZJ (1 zetta J = 1021 J) using the IAP/CAS dataset and by 16 ± 10 ZJ using NCEI/NOAA dataset. The long-term ocean warming is larger in the Atlantic and Southern Oceans than in other regions and is ...
Tagged under: Oceans | Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change | Pacific Ocean | El Niño | Climate Change Mitigation
MEDIA COVERAGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION IN THE SPANISH PRESS
2021-12-18 (or before) in Academia.edu - Share researchThis article analyzes how the Spanish press covers the mitigation of climate change. We have used the search engine MyNews to study in El País and El Mundo, the newspapers with the largest circulation in Spain during the years 2016 and 2017, the news
Tagged under: Spain | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Attractions of delay: Using deliberative engagement to investigate the political and strategic impacts of greenhouse gas removal technologies - Duncan McLaren, Rebecca Willis, Bronislaw Szerszynski, David Tyfield, Nils Markusson, 2023
2021-12-15 (or before) in Sage JournalsConcerns have been raised that a focus on greenhouse gas removals (GGR) in climate models, scientific literature and other media might deter measures to mitigat...
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Analysis: Do COP26 promises keep global warming below 2C? - Carbon Brief
2021-11-10 by in Carbon BriefCOP26 negotiations have seen a flurry of new reports on what existing and new promises and pledges mean for the climate.
Tagged under: The Paris Agreement | Net Zero | Climate Change Mitigation | COP26
Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven't We Bent the Global Emissions Curve?
2021-10-23 (or before) in Annual ReviewsDespite three decades of political efforts and a wealth of research on the causes and catastrophic impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise and are 60% higher today than they were in 1990. Exploring this rise through nine thematic lenses—covering issues of climate governance, the fossil fuel industry, geopolitics, economics, mitigation modeling, energy systems, inequity, lifestyles, and social imaginaries—draws out multifaceted reasons for our collective failure to bend the global emissions curve. However, a common thread that emerges across the reviewed literature is the cent...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economics | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation
Global mapping of crop-specific emission factors highlights hotspots of nitrous oxide mitigation - Nature Food
2021-10-21 (or before) in NatureEstimating the global cropland N2O mitigation potential is limited by the uncertainty and variability of direct emission factors (EFs). Here, using a data-driven approach with 1,507 chamber-based field observations of EFs, the study shows that EF variation is primarily driven by climatic and edaphic factors. Two-thirds of the mitigation potential could be achieved on one-fifth of the global harvested area, mainly located in humid subtropical climates and across gleysols and acrisols.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Urgent need for post-growth climate mitigation scenarios - Nature Energy
2021-08-20 (or before) in NatureEstablished climate mitigation scenarios assume continued economic growth in all countries, and reconcile this with the Paris targets by betting on speculative technological change. Post-growth approaches may make it easier to achieve rapid mitigation while improving social outcomes, and should be explored by climate modellers.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Past world economic production constrains current energy demands: Persistent scaling with implications for economic growth and climate change mitigation
2021-08-08 (or before) in PLOS - Open ScienceClimate change has become intertwined with the global economy. Here, we describe the contribution of inertia to future trends. Drawing from thermodynamic principles, and using 38 years of available statistics between 1980 to 2017, we find a constant scaling between current rates of world primary energy consumption E ( t ) and the historical time integral W of past world inflation-adjusted economic production Y, or W ( t ) = ∫ 0 t Y ( t ′ ) d t ′. In each year, over a period during which both E and W more than doubled, the ratio of the two remained nearly unchanged, that is λ = E ( t ) ( t ) / W ( t ) = 5 ....
Tagged under: Renewable Energy | Nuclear Power | Predictions | Climate Change | Economics | Fossil Fuels | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Urgent need for post-growth climate mitigation scenarios - Nature Energy
2021-08-08 (or before) in NatureEstablished climate mitigation scenarios assume continued economic growth in all countries, and reconcile this with the Paris targets by betting on speculative technological change. Post-growth approaches may make it easier to achieve rapid mitigation while improving social outcomes, and should be explored by climate modellers.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
1.5 °C degrowth scenarios suggest the need for new mitigation pathways - Nature Communications
2021-08-06 (or before) in NatureEstablished climate mitigation modelling relies on controversial negative emissions and unprecedented technological change, but neglects to consider degrowth scenarios. Here the authors show that degrowth scenarios minimize many key risks for feasibility and sustainability and thus need to be thoroughly assessed.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Degrowth | Climate Change Mitigation | Sustainability
On avoiding dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system: Formidable challenges ahead
2021-07-04 (or before) in PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of ScienceThe observed increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) since the preindustrial era has most likely committed the world to a warming of 2.4°C (1.4°C to 4.3°C) above the preindustrial surface temperatures. The committed warming is inferred from the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates of the greenhouse forcing and climate sensitivity. The estimated warming of 2.4°C is the equilibrium warming above preindustrial temperatures that the world will observe even if GHG concentrations are held fixed at their 2005 concentration levels but without any other anthropogenic forc...
Tagged under: Oceans | Arctic | Greenhouse Gases | IPCC | Climate Change | Sea Level | Climate Change Mitigation | Tipping Points
Few realistic scenarios left to limit global warming to 1.5°C
2021-05-16 (or before) in Science DailyOf the over 400 climate scenarios assessed in the 1.5°C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), only around 50 scenarios avoid significantly overshooting 1.5°C. Of those only around 20 make realistic assumptions on mitigation options, for instance the rate and scale of carbon removal from the atmosphere or extent of tree planting, a new study shows. All 20 scenarios need to pull at least one mitigation lever at 'challenging' rather than 'reasonable' levels.
Tagged under: Oceans | Global Warming | IPCC | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Potential and risks of hydrogen-based e-fuels in climate change mitigation - Nature Climate Change
2021-05-06 (or before) in NatureE-fuels—hydrocarbon fuels synthesized from green hydrogen—can replace fossil fuels. This Perspective highlights the opportunities and risks of e-fuels, and concludes that hydrogen and e-fuels should be prioritized for sectors inaccessible to direct electrification.
Tagged under: Hydrogen | Climate Change | Fossil Fuels | Climate Change Mitigation
The Only Carbon Capture Coal Plant in the US Just Closed
2021-03-03 (or before) in Earther | GizmodoLast week, NRG Energy announced that it would shut down the only commercial carbon capture project in the U.S., ironically due to low oil prices. The closure of the Petra Nova plant may be one of the last gasps for the technology in the U.S.
Tagged under: Coal | Climate Change Mitigation
'Fair' inequality, consumption and climate mitigation - IOPscience
2021-02-16 (or before) in IOPscienceTagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Eco-reproductive concerns in the age of climate change - Climatic Change
2020-11-27 (or before) in Springer VerlagMedia reports and public polls suggest that young people in many countries are increasingly factoring climate change into their reproductive choices, but empirical evidence about this phenomenon is lacking. This article reviews the scholarship on this subject and discusses the results of the first empirical study focused on it, a quantitative and qualitative survey of 607 US-Americans between the ages of 27 and 45. While 59.8% of respondents reported being “very” or “extremely concerned” about the carbon footprint of procreation, 96.5% of respondents were “very” or “extremely concerned&r...
Tagged under: Children | Climate Change | Climate Change Impacts | Women and Children | Climate Change Mitigation
AAAS
2020-11-10 (or before) in Science | AAASMuch recent attention has focused on the potential of trees and forests to mitigate ongoing climate change by acting as sinks for carbon. Anderegg et al. review the growing evidence that forests' climate mitigation ...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Trees | Climate Change Mitigation
Net-zero carbon emissions won't be sustainable if social inequalities aren't addressed
2020-10-26 (or before) by in The ConversationThe effects of climate change and mitigation are not just unequal between countries but also within countries.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Net Zero | Climate Change Mitigation
Approximate calculations of the net economic impact of global warming mitigation targets under heightened damage estimates
2020-10-09 (or before) in PLOS - Open ScienceEfforts to mitigate global warming are often justified through calculations of the economic damages that may occur absent mitigation. The earliest such damage estimates were speculative mathematical representations, but some more recent studies provide empirical estimates of damages on economic growth that accumulate over time and result in larger damages than those estimated previously. These heightened damage estimates have been used to suggest that limiting global warming this century to 1.5 °C avoids tens of trillions of 2010 US$ in damage to gross world product relative to limiting global warming to 2.0 °C. However,...
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change | Economics | Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets - Nature
2020-10-09 (or before) in NatureIf the world can meet the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, economic damage will probably be greatly reduced, especially in poorer countries.
Tagged under: Climate Change Mitigation
Supreme Court finds government climate plan falls "well short"
2020-07-31 (or before) by Lauren Boland in The JournalThe case was brought to the Supreme Court by Friends of the Irish Environment after the High Court rejected its case in September.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Scientists’ warning on affluence - Nature Communications
2020-06-28 (or before) in NatureCurrent environmental impact mitigation neglects over-consumption from affluent citizens as a primary driver. The authors highlight the role of bottom-up movements to overcome structural economic growth imperatives spurring consumption by changing structures and culture towards safe and just systems.
Tagged under: Economic Growth | Climate Change Mitigation
Fairly sharing 1.5: national fair shares of a 1.5 °C-compliant global mitigation effort - International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics
2020-06-10 (or before) in Springer VerlagThe problem of fairly distributing the global mitigation effort is particularly important for the 1.5 °C temperature limitation objective, due to its rapidly depleting global carbon budget. Here, we present methodology and results of the first study examining national mitigation pledges presented at the 2015 Paris climate summit, relative to equity benchmarks and 1.5 °C-compliant global mitigation. Uniquely, pertinent ethical choices were made via deliberative processes of civil society organizations, resulting in an agreed range of effort-sharing parameters. Based on this, we quantified each country’s range of fai...
Tagged under: Brazil | Economics | International Agreements | Climate Justice | Climate Change Mitigation
Assessing the Mitigation Deterrence Effects of GGRs
2020-05-13 (or before) in Lancaster University | Just another WordPress siteAMDEG Assessing the Mitigation Deterrence Effects of Greenhouse Gas Removal Technologies Project focus This project looks into the risks of greenhouse gas removal (GGR) technologies delaying or deterring climate mitigation.The project is funded by the RCUK programme Greenhouse Gas Removal from the Atmosphere. Who are we? The project is based at Lancaster University, and involves […]
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change Mitigation
The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions
2020-03-02 (or before) in email.mg1.substack.comStrategies to mitigate climate change often center on clean technologies, such as electric vehicles and solar panels, while the mitigation potential of a quality educational experience is rarely discussed. In this paper, we investigate the long-term impact that an intensive one-year university course had on individual carbon emissions by surveying students at least five years after having taken the course. A majority of course graduates reported pro-environmental decisions (i.e., type of car to buy, food choices) that they attributed at least in part to experiences gained in the course. Furthermore, our carbon footprint analysis...
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
We must adapt to climate decline
2019-12-13 (or before) in Green World | Green Party News and FeaturesIn the aftermath of the Conservatives’ historic majority at the 2019 general election, Rupert Read, Professor at the University of East Anglia, reflects on the implications for the struggle to respond the climate emergency adequately, calling for the focus of the Green movement to move from climate change mitigation to adaptation to the impacts of climate decline, and to move beyond electoral politics to non-violent direct action.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Impacts | Climate Change Mitigation
Latest climate models confirm need for urgent mitigation - Nature Climate Change
2019-12-03 (or before) in NatureMany recently updated climate models show greater future warming than previously. Separate lines of evidence suggest that their warming rates may be unrealistically high, but the risk of such eventualities only emphasizes the need for rapid and deep reductions in emissions.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Macroeconomic and Financial Policies for Climate Change Mitigation: A Review of the Literature
2019-10-11 (or before) by in International Monetary FundClimate change is one of the greatest challenges of this century. Mitigation requires a large-scale transition to a low-carbon economy. This paper provides an overview of the rapidly growing literature on the role of macroeconomic and financial policy tools in enabling this transition. The literature provides a menu of policy tools for mitigation. A key conclusion is that fiscal tools are first in line and central, but can and may need to be complemented by financial and monetary policy instruments. Some tools and policies raise unanswered questions about policy tool assignment and mandates, which we describe. The literature is ...
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Personal Vehicles Evaluated against Climate Change Mitigation Targets
2019-06-10 (or before) in American Chemical SocietyMeeting global climate change mitigation goals will likely require that transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions begin to decline within the next two decades and then continue to fall. A var...
Tagged under: Greenhouse Gases | Climate Change | Climate Change Mitigation
Factcheck: How electric vehicles help to tackle climate change
2019-05-13 in Carbon BriefElectric vehicles (EVs) are an important part of meeting global goals on climate change. They feature prominently in mitigation pathways that limit warming to well-below 2C or 1.5C, which would be inline with the Paris Agreement’s targets.
Tagged under: Climate Change | Electric Cars | EVs | Climate Change Mitigation
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