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Our paper presents the results of an empirical research that was conducted last year in the Romanian business environment. The analyzed corpus comprises approximately 2000 associations of the sustainable development concept, all provided by 627 respondents (employees in the Romanian business environment whose main interest is to use information technology properly in order to create new paradigms and values that will help contribute to a more affluent, creative and harmonious society). The main aim of this paper is to analyse how the employees from the Romanian business environment grasp the concept of sustainable development and relate to it, firstly, on the linguistic level and secondly, on the cultural level. The point of departure is the standpoint that the sustainable development concept is based upon three main pillars: environment, economy and society and it focuses on social sub-themes. Within this framework, we consider cultural diversity and intercultural understanding through language and its infinite association possibilities. Through language, the individual relates to certain concepts and this is done affectively. Therefore, the concept related approach is not univocal, but it involves both positive (e.g., future, environment, education, growth, resources, recycle, responsibility, health, nature) and negative associations (e.g., climate change, global warming, compromise, poverty) which are always culturally conditioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has become a harsh reality of our present times. It is happening here, there, and everywhere unbound by the spatial and temporal dimensions. The vacillating impact of such a global crisis equally demands multiple and concurrent scales in order to accurately comprehend the complexity of the problem. Borrowing the title of my paper from Ursula K. Heise's book, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global, where she proposes the concept of 'eco-cosmopolitanism', this article aims at reflecting upon the globalization of the present ecocatastrophes, musing upon the local (the experiences of the working class people) and the global scale (Unnatural Migration and thereby extinction of the Monarch Butterflies) impact of the climate crisis. Ursula K. Heise believes that the 'deterritorialization' of the local knowledge is not always detrimental rather can open up new avenues into ecological consciousness. Giving consideration to a deterritorialised environmental vision my paper will fall back on Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behavior- a novel dealing with the eco-apocalypse, climate change and global warming. In providing a deeply humane account of the working people's response to the local effects of the global crisis along with a poignant account of the impact on a planetary scale- the Migration of the Monarch Butterflies and their extinction, Kingsolver in this novel contextualizes the micro-geographically bounded human experience and memory within the larger context of the global Anthropocene thereby calling for a 'sense of planet' along with a 'sense of place'- which get along with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The warming climate is expected to increase environmental thermal loading on urban buildings. Green infrastructure enhancements have been widely supported as a means to address the resulting heat-related risks, with the challenge of realising enhancements in densely built cities necessitating the consideration of vegetated architectural features. Early efforts promoted horizontal greening, although in recent years 'vertical greening' has gained increased prominence. This paper examines the hypothesis that the wider implementation of the latter typology could serve to enhance urban climate resilience, and does so by applying an analysis pathway including the coupling of a novel onedimensional vertical greening model (VGM) with an urban climate simulation framework to estimate the microclimate and energy-use implications of neighbourhood-scale vertical greening. The simulation results highlighted immediate thermal relief to canyon pedestrians, as well as net annual space-conditioning energy savings for the canyon buildings. These benefits, however, were modest, with a relatively pronounced influence offered for the urban neighbourhood than suburban, and with the living wall category than green facade application. Although the annual savings present potential for the wider implementation in temperate climates, the influence is insufficient to offer it as an exclusive solution, with any widescale application also requiring assessment against other ecosystem benefits and maintenance costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to global warming, the overheating risk in the severe cold region of China has attracted attention, but so far, no studies have examined summer overheating in this region. This paper aims to reveal the overheating risk in recent and future climates in the severe cold region of China. An 18-storey residential building in the severe cold region of China was monitored from May to September 2021 to validate the simulation data of the indoor temperature. Weather files of the typical meteorological year (TMY) from 2007 to 2020, observations in 2021, and forecasts for the climate in different carbon emission scenarios (2030, 2060) were used to simulate the indoor temperature and assess the overheating risk. The results revealed the severity of the overheating risk; the overheating hours in the south-facing bedroom were recorded as 884 h (24.07%) with the TMY weather data and 1043 h (28.40%) in 2030 and 1719 h (46.81%) in 2060 under the RCP8.5 carbon emission scenario. Thus, the low carbon emissions policy may significantly alleviate overheating. Moreover, to cope with climate change, it is suggested that the Chinese local design standards should consider the summer overheating risk and make the necessary adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examination of climatic and oceanographic changes through the Holocene (11.75 ka–present) allows for an improved understanding and contextualization of modern climate change. Climate records of the Holocene can be utilized as a "baseline" from which to compare modern climate and can also provide insights into how environments experience and recover from change. However, individual studies on Holocene climate in the literature tend to focus on a distinct geographic location, a specific proxy record, or a certain aspect of climate (e.g., upwelling or precipitation), resulting in localized, record-specific trends rather than a comprehensive view of climate variability through the Holocene. Here we synthesize the major oceanographic and terrestrial changes that have occurred in the Western United States (bounded by 30 to 52 ∘ N and 115 to 130 ∘ W) through the most recent 11.75 kyr and explore the impacts of these changes on marine and terrestrial ecosystems. We present a novel spatiotemporal analysis of Holocene marine and terrestrial temperature, hydroclimate, and fire activity across the Early, Middle, and Late Holocene using a coded analysis of over 40 published studies. Following coded analysis of temperature, hydroclimate, and fire activity in the paper, we include a broader literature review of environmental change through the Holocene, including an examination of the impacts of multi-millennial climate trends on ecological communities. We find that the Early Holocene is characterized by warming relative to pre-Holocene conditions, including warm sea surface conditions, a warm and dry Pacific Northwest, a warm and wet Southwest, and overall spatial and temporal stability. In the Middle Holocene, these patterns reverse; this interval is characterized by cool sea surface temperatures, a cool and wet Pacific Northwest and warm and dry Southwest. The Late Holocene is the most variable interval, both spatially and temporally, and a novel spatial trend appears in terrestrial climate with warmer coastal areas and cooler inland areas. Human communities interacted with the environment throughout the entire Holocene, as evidenced in archeological and paleoenvironmental records, yet the recent Era of Colonization (1850–present) represents an unprecedented environmental interval in many records. Broadly, our analysis shows linkages between terrestrial and oceanographic conditions, distinct environmental phases through time, and emphasizes the importance of local factors in controlling climate through the dynamic Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has severe and pervasive impacts on natural systems and affects many aspects of human life. Increasing temperatures and alterations in the regimes of precipitations are adding pressure to global agricultural systems, which are already struggling to respond to expanding global demand for food. This directly translates into additional risks for poor people living in developing countries who already face precarious food security conditions. Focusing on the case of Uganda and using household data from the National Panel Survey merged with climatic data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this paper explores the link between climate change and households' food insecurity. By applying a generalized ordered logit model, this work provides quantitative evidence about the impact of climate variability on food and nutrition security of clustered food consumption groups of smallholder farmers. Among the different socio-economic and environmental variables affecting the households' food security conditions, time and cross-sectional variations in the regime of precipitations play a crucial role. The results highlight that adaptation programmes aimed to reduce climate-induced food insecurity and improve coping abilities of rural communities should be site-specific and involve local communities with the aim of considering the specific risk exposure of the different agro-ecological areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The necessity to achieve global sustainability and renewable energy resources to overcome the threat of climate change has led to unparalleled social and economic alterations ubiquitous throughout the world. The environment surrounding pollution correlated with global warming is essential to technological advances for developing energy resources. Renewable and sustainable energy resources are eco‐friendly energy sources that transform heat directly into electrical energy. The transformation of the global energy system underway in various countries can play a predominant role in power sectors. It helps in establishing a low‐power solution with high performance in advance. This review paper highlights technological feasibility within the economic activity of sustainable resources in various sectors. The sustainable resource would represent the world's most advanced technology and cost‐effective global power transition pathway. The present status, prospects, and updated information about these energy resources have been discussed in detail. This review provides a recommendation on which energy would be suitable for electrical energy generation and would establish a green environment for the next generation to survive in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming is causing an intensification of extreme climate events with significant changes in frequency, duration, and intensity over many regions. Understanding the current and future influence of this warming in northeastern Brazil (NEB) is important due to the region's greater vulnerability to natural disasters, as historical records show. In this paper, characteristics of climate change projections (precipitation and air temperature) over NEB are analyzed using 15 models of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) under four Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs: SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, and SSP5-8.5) scenarios. By using the Taylor diagram, we observed that the HadGEM3-GC31-MM model simulates the seasonal behavior of climate variables more efficiently. Projections for NEB indicate an irreversible increase in average air temperature of at least 1 °C throughout the 21st century, with a reduction of up to 30% in annual rainfall, as present in scenarios of regional rivalry (SSP3-7.0) and high emissions (SSP5-8.5). This means that a higher concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) will increase air temperature, evaporation, and evapotranspiration, reducing rainfall and increasing drought events. The results obtained in this work are essential for the elaboration of effective strategies for adapting to and mitigating climate change for the NEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of standard practices and platforms for assessing refurbishment strategies towards Circular Economy (CE) and their impact in global warming constitutes a challenge for the decarbonization of existing building stock. Incorporating data and feedback from designers and practitioners since early design stages is important to feed a multi-criteria dynamic process with multiple dimensions, which must be assessed under a life cycle perspective. To tackle this issue, this paper introduces a new methodology to support the implementation of tailored refurbishment strategies for increased recovery, reuse and recycling of construction materials. The final objective is to build a methodological framework for sustainable refurbishment design in a BIM environment, which aims to facilitate standardized practices in the construction sector, regarding CE, with a positive impact in the mitigation of global warming and the decarbonization of the building stock. To test the development of this methodology, a case study building in Lisbon, corresponding to a 1919-1945 archetype is analysed, making use of its BIM model, where BIM standardization criteria and circularity indicators are discussed, in order to be implemented as a Plugin for Circularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paleontological studies of the distant past and historical chronicles of the last millennia indicate that warming and cooling of the climate on our planet, replacing each other, have taken place in a continuous series. An important role in this process has been and is played by cosmic factors: variations in solar activity and parameters of the Earth's orbital motion in the gravitational field of the Sun and the planets of the Solar System. It is suggested that the currently observed climate change is associated with a decrease in the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit and the inclination of the axis of its rotation relative to the plane of the ecliptic, which has been going on for almost 30 thousand years. Both processes lead to changes in the boundaries of climatic zones. In the foreseeable future, these processes will proceed in the same direction. Therefore, the current trend towards climate change will continue. Despite the importance of addressing the problem of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions as soon as possible, this paper expresses doubts about the possibility of fending off climate warming in this way. It is proposed to focus on the development of mathematical climate models taking into account space factors and on finding the best ways to adapt industry, transport systems, and the environment to the conditions of expected climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to global warming and other climate changes, it is increasingly important to study the response of regional environmental changes and dynamic changes in vegetation to climate change. Based on meteorological data from the last 60 years, this paper calculates the humidity index of western China under a wide range of long time series in different regions and explores the cross-correlation effect between series by offering a comparison with NDVI data, to analyze the cross-correlation between wet and dry changes and changes in vegetation in western China on a spatial scale. The results show that the spatial distribution of the interdecadal humidity index is different between different regions in western China. For example, the semi-arid and the semi-humid zones of the Weihe River region exhibit significant changes, while the Xinjiang and Qinghai–Tibet regions show a trend of constant wetness, on the whole, and the Sichuan and Yunnan–Guizhou regions are relatively humid and the distribution of wetness and dryness is relatively stable. The distribution of high and low values of the humidity index is very obvious and consistent with that of the distribution of desert bare land and precipitation in western China. In common with the distribution in the humidity index, the maximum correlation number between the NDVI and the humidity index in the whole western region is also significantly different in spatial distribution. There is a positive correlation between the NDVI and the humidity index in 99% of the study area. However, the delay in response time of the NDVI to changes in the humidity index in each region is inconsistent. For example, changes in the NDVI lag changes in the humidity index in the Menggan region by generally either 2 months or 5 months, while in the Sichuan region the delay in response time is generally 3 months. The variation and trend in dry and wet areas are closely related to the geographical location, climate zone, and topographic terrain, which may be the reason for the differences in the distribution of vegetation types and the response time to dry and wet changes. There is significant interaction between the humidity index and the vegetation type or precipitation distribution in western China. The positive correlation between the NDVI and the humidity index means that the positive effect is more sensitive, and the response of grassland is the most sensitive in the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glaciers are the protector of climate change. As glacier melting is a long-term process, it does not gain the same attention in comparison to other crises. The visible evidence of global warming is the glaciers. The main cause of glaciers melting is the rising temperature of the earth by CO2 emission and ocean warming. Deforestation, burning fossil fuels, transportation, and other human activities raise the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) which warm the planet and ultimately cause the glacier to melt. 90% of the earth’s warmth is absorbed by the ocean and is responsible for the melting of marine glaciers. The main deglaciation consequences are sea-level rise which has contributed to rising sea level by 2.7cm since 1961Glaciers are always been of substantial research as their longterm behavior is like a barometer to check the weather variability, change in flora and fauna, and economic activity. Deglaciation promises grave consequences for wildlife, plant, and the region’s people and a frightening future. This paper showcase how glaciers are melting and hearts are frozen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we put forward a proposal for the design and the evaluation of teaching–learning sequences (TLSs) on the greenhouse effect (GHE), relying on the educational reconstruction model (MER). The first design, which starts from a critical analysis of textbook treatments of the GHE, is followed by a cyclic, recursive process, which consists of theoretical reflection, conceptual analysis, design, and test of a sequence. At each iteration, the analysis of the students' learning progression provided relevant information for addressing the persistent hurdles and misunderstandings that affect it. Our findings show how design choices can support the learning of the GHE, leading to the formulation of design principles that help foster understanding. The iterative approach strongly improved the design and evaluation and allowed for a significant refinement of the TLSs. The implementation and evaluation process, which went on from 2017 to 2021, involved undergraduate students attending a course on "experimental physics laboratory" at the University of Trento in those years. The results indicate that, in the end, students can reach an effective understanding of the physical grounds of the GHE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has become one of the most prominent global issues, and Antarctic ice sheet is one of the indicator of global climate change. Satellite imagery has become an important means of monitoring the changes in Antarctic ice sheet. Due to the high overlap of satellite imaging swaths, the existing Antarctica images have the disadvantages of long period of imagery acquisition, large temporal difference among the mosaic images, and low utilization of satellite resource. This paper proposes a satellite imaging mission planning method for fast Antarctica coverage. First, the imaging time window is forecasted within the specified imaging time range to obtain all the visible time windows of the imaging satellite to Antarctica. Then, taking the selection of each time window and the satellite swing angle in each time window as decision variables, and the satellite attitude maneuver ability as constraint, an imaging mission model including two objective functions with minimum number of imaging time windows and the maximum coverage rate is established. To solving the proposed multi-objective optimization model, an improved real-binary hybrid LMOCSO (large-scale multi-objective optimization based on a competitive swarm optimizer) is proposed in this paper. Finally, a simulation experiment was performed using Gaofen-3 satellite to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper aims at quantifying the factors affecting vegetation growth in the western of Inner Mongolia, and judging the relative contribution of natural factors and man-made factors. • It is obtained through geodetectors (GD) that Rainfall is the most important driving factor, with the q-value of 0.77 and GDP also having a huge impact on vegetation growth, q-value of 0.64. • Different from most studies, human activity also has a positive effect on vegetation growth. • The relative contribution of human activities reached 51.75%, slightly exceeding the influence of natural factors. Vegetation is an essential component of terrestrial ecosystems, and understanding the drivers of vegetation change is of great importance for ecological management. In recent years, vegetation growth has increased under the combined effect of global warming and human activities in Inner Mongolia. The net primary productivity (NPP) was used as an indicator to study the spatial and temporal changes in vegetation in the Qimeng Region (QR). The residual trend analysis method was used to analyze the relative contributions of climate variations (CV) and human activities (HA) to NPP changes across the QR, while their drivers were explored using a geographical detector approach to quantify the driving forces of NPP. The results show that (1) NPP exhibited a fluctuating growth trend from 2003 to 2020, with an overall growth rate of 2.91%/year. (2) Precipitation, GDP and population density were the dominant driving factors for the spatial distribution of NPP. The combined explanatory power of any two dominant factors exceeded the power of any dominant individual factor, and the interaction between climate and human factors had a significant effect on NPP. (3) The change in NPP was influenced by the combined effect of HA and CV, accounting for 37.69% of the total area, with the relative contribution of HA being 51.75%. Finally, the relative contribution of human activities was slightly higher than that of climate change, confirming the initial success of the Grain to Green Program as well as ecological conservation projects. This paper provides a scientific basis for the local government to carry out the conversion of cropland to forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly people, especially those residing in urban areas with the urban heat island effect, are getting exposed to extreme heat due to ongoing global warming. A number of methods have been developed, so far, to assess urban heat vulnerability in different locations across the world concentrating on diverse aspects of these methods. While there is growing literature, thorough review studies that compare, contrast, and help understand the prospects and constraints of urban heat vulnerability assessment methods are scarce. This paper aims to bridge this gap in the literature. A systematic literature review with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach is utilized as the methodological approach. PRISMA is an evidence-based minimum set of items for reporting in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The results are analyzed in three aspects—i.e., indicators and data, modelling approaches, and validation approaches. The main findings disclose that: (a) Three types of indicators are commonly used—i.e., demographic properties and socioeconomic status, health conditions and medical resources, and natural and built environmental factors; (b) Heat vulnerability indexing models, equal weighting method, and principal component analysis are commonly used in modelling and weighting approaches; (c) Statistical regressions and correlation coefficients between heat vulnerability results and adverse health outcomes are commonly used in validation approaches, but the performance varies across studies. This study informs urban policy and generates directions for prospective research and more accurate vulnerability assessment method development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many regions around the world are facing climate changes, with substantial increase in air temperature over the past decades, which is mainly related to continental and global warming forced by the higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The objectives of this study were to use the Köppen climate classification to detect local climate change based on a historical series of 100 years and to assess if such change is related to those that are occurring in other spatial scales as a likely consequence of increasing GHG. This paper brings a content full of innovative results. The study area presented an average annual air temperature increase by 0.9 °C between 1917 and 2016, rising from 21.4 °C for the first climatological normal (1917–1946) to 22.3 °C for the last one (1987–2016). Furthermore, in the summer months, the temperature rose from 24.5 to 25.3 °C, and in the winter months, such increase was from 17.1 (1917–1946) to 18.3 °C (1987–2016). Our findings showed the subtropical conditions (Cfa in Köppen's classification) in the study area persisted from the beginning of the analysis (1917–1946) until the climatological normal of 1979–2008, with a clear tendency of tropicalization after that with a change in the climate type of Piracicaba from subtropical to tropical, which can now be classified as tropical with dry winter (Aw climate type). The local average air temperature showed concordances with the long-term air temperature anomalies from regional, continental, and global scales, indicating that all of them may be linked with increasing GHG emissions, since well-defined long-term linear relationships (r2 = 0.99) were observed between continental and global average air temperature anomalies and atmospheric CO2 concentration observed at the NOAA Lab in Mauna Loa in the last 59 years. While the local and regional forcing effects remain to be fully unraveled, our study provided a valid and strong scientific sound evidence that climate change occurred in Piracicaba, southeastern Brazil, in the last 100 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal variations in drought in Serbia over recent decades using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). The analysis is performed for time series of 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month SPEI indices (SPEI-01, SPEI-03, SPEI-06 and SPEI-12, respectively) calculated using the E -OBS gridded dataset with a horizontal resolution of 0.1° for the period of 1950–2022. In general, it was found that negative SPEI trends prevailed in Serbia for all months and all analyzed SPEI timescales, indicating a more frequent appearance of droughts in recent decades. Moreover, for a large majority of month-timescale combinations, the area with a negative trend was larger than the area with a positive trend. For several reasons, we focused on the SPEI for August. First, the SPEI for this month shows one of the most pronounced negative trends, which is rather consistent over different timescales and consistent in terms of the area over which the trend was found to be significant. Statistically significant negative trends of SPEI-03, −06 and − 12 for August were found over 11, 17 and 38% of the country area, respectively. To better understand the trends and changes in the SPEI for August, focusing on extreme and severe drought events, an innovative trend analysis (ITA) was applied. It was found that the occurrence of both extreme and severe SPEI drought categories has doubled over the last thirty years in comparison with the previous thirty-year period. Additionally, more frequent transitions from neutral and wet categories to dry categories were observed through an application of the Markov chain. Second, the special focus on SPEI-03, −06 and − 12 for August was motivated by the fact that we found a significant correlation between these index values and the annual maize production in Serbia, indicating that the SPEI for August can be useful for the assessment of drought impact on agriculture. To better understand interannual variability and long-term trends, this paper also explores the relations between the SPEI over Serbia and large-scale circulation patterns, together with general global and continental warming trends. Our findings indicate that drought changes over recent decades may be driven by the interplay of long-term warming and large-scale circulation patterns. In the context of climate change, especially climate projections, Serbia is situated in a region for which climate projections of mean precipitation change demonstrate weak signals and often with conflicting signs of change within multimodel ensembles. From this point of view, our results can be seen as a contribution to a better understanding of changes in extremes, in our case droughts, that can be hidden by inconclusive changes in the mean values. Finally, due to the similar situation in terms of precipitation and drought trends and changes, our results may be relevant for a wider region, and not only for Serbia. • For Serbia negative trends in SPEI index, for different months and timescales, are dominant. • Occurrence of extreme drought categories has doubled over the last decades. • Transitions from neutral and wet categories to dry categories are more frequent. • These changes are driven by long-term warming and large-scale circulation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rice production system is one of the most climate change sensitive agroecosystems. This paper reviews the effects of current and future climate change on rice production in China. In recent decades, thermal resources have increased during the rice growing season, while solar radiation resources have decreased, and precipitation heterogeneity has increased. The increasing frequency of high-temperature stress, heavy rainfall, drought, and flood disasters may reduce the utilization efficiency of hydrothermal resources. Climate change, thus far, has resulted in a significant northward shift in the potential planting boundaries of single- and double-cropping rice production systems, which negatively affects the growth duration of single-, early-, and latecropping rice. Studies based on statistical and process-based crop models show that climate change has affected rice production in China. The effects of climate change on the yield of single rice (SR), early rice (ER), and late rice (LR) were significant; however, the results of different methods and different rice growing areas were different to some extent. The trend of a longer growth period and higher yield of rice reflects the ability of China's rice production system to adapt to climate change by adjusting planting regionalization and improving varieties and cultivation techniques. The results of the impact assessment under different climate scenarios indicated that the rice growth period would shorten and yield would decrease in the future. This means that climate change will seriously affect China's rice production and food security. Further research requires a deeper understanding of abiotic stress physiology and its integration into ecophysiological models to reduce the uncertainty of impact assessment and expand the systematicness of impact assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compound droughts and heatwaves (CDHWs) are likely to cause more severe natural disasters than a single extreme event, and they have been exacerbated by rapid global warming. Based on high-resolution grid data, this study combines the daily-scale ERA5-Land dataset and the monthly-scale SPEI dataset with multiple indicators to analyze CDHWs. We calculated and analyzed the temporal and spatial modal distribution of CDHWs in Central Asia from 1981 to 2018, and in this paper, we discuss the sequence relationship between drought events, heatwave events, and CDHWs. The results show that the number of CDHWs in the study region have increased over time and expanded in terms of area, especially in eastern and southwestern Central Asia. The tsum (total frequency of CDHWs) was 0.5 times higher than the total heatwave frequency and it increased at a rate of 0.17/yr. The maximum duration of tmax (maximum duration of CDHWs in days) was 17 days. Furthermore, the occurrence rate of tmax was 96.67%, and the AH (CDHWs' accumulated heat) had a rate of 97.78%, which, upon examination of the spatial trend pattern, accounted for the largest increase in terms of area. We also found that the TAH (CDHWs' average temperature anomalies, SPEI < −0.5) shows obvious seasonality, with the increases in winter and spring being significantly greater than the increases in summer and autumn. The intensity of the CDHWs was stronger than that of a single extreme event, the temperature anomaly was higher than the average of 0.4–0.8 °C, and there was a north–south spatial pattern across the study region. In eastern and northwestern Central Asia, the AH and heatwaves (SPEI < −0.5) increased by 15–30 times per year on average. During the transition from the base period to the reference period, CDHWs increased by 25%, and the number of dry days prior to the CDHWs decreased by 7.35 days. The conclusion of our study can provide a theoretical basis for coping with climate change in arid zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jeju Island, South Korea is a biodiversity hotspot, but the vulnerability of Jeju Island fauna to climate change has not been thoroughly investigated. In this paper, we tested the adaptability of the Korean large brown frog Rana uenoi to future climate change. While increased temperatures did not affect the hatchability of frog eggs, hatched tadpoles in greenhouse treatment with less exposure to sunlight (less maximum temperature) were significantly (14%) shorter in length after three weeks of growth, indicating increased temperature of early season helps growth of tadpoles. However, right after three weeks, all tadpoles in a higher-temperature treatment (outside) died after the experiment logged a maximum temperature of 34.3°C. In the field, the average temperature of puddles without tadpoles (puddles in the middle of the rivulet with all day exposure to sunlight) was 33.2°C. During an indoor temperature elevation experiment, tadpoles suddenly died at 32.4°C. Therefore, the expected maximum survivable temperature for R. uenoi is around 32°C. Our results therefore suggest that R. uenoi tadpoles are vulnerable to elevated temperatures and could suffer mortality from climate change. Climate change will continue to cause extreme weather events like this (sudden elevation of temperature in spring), and frogs, especially tadpoles with restricted movement, will be particularly vulnerable to these events. Identifying how adaptable these amphibian species are to the weather events predicted by future climate change scenarios will be key for their conservation on Jeju Island. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As concerns around climate change and global warming intensify, extreme weather events such as heavy rain, blizzards, and smog-induced haze have greatly impacted the commuting travel mode selection of urban residents. Such behavioral shifts have in turn led to changes of the carbon emissions generated from these residents. This paper constructs a "extreme weather (W)–travel behavior (B)–carbon emissions (C)" research framework. Using a multiple logistic regression model, the transportation mode shift model, and the econometric model of urban resident's travel behavior under the influence of extreme weather conditions were constructed. The marginal effects of weather on residents' commuter behavior, through the use of transportation type and distance of travel were also obtained. The study found that the overall carbon dioxide emission levels of daily commuting has gradually decreased due to the influence of extreme weather. However, as some travelers still adopted high-emission commuting modes through the use of taxis or ride-sharing services, there was still a slight increase in CCDE levels in certain extreme weather contexts. In particular, when haze was prevalent, vehicle restriction policies only reduced CCDE by 2.18%, while the remaining 77.83% of total CCDE remaining unchanged. This research provides a key reference point for governmental departments in urban transportation management and environmental protection to formulate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urbanization process in Peninsular Malaysia has resulted in an increase in temperature. Large cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bharu, and George Town are experiencing rapid urbanization processes, resulting in unpredictable changes in temperature and weather, which consequently impact community livelihoods. Many believe that the recent flooding in urban residential areas in Peninsular Malaysia has been worsened by climate change. Hence, this paper explores and discusses recent community perceptions of the climate change issue in Peninsular Malaysia. A group of 350 community members from different states in Peninsular Malaysia gave their views and opinions related to climate change via an online quantitative survey questionnaire. Their perception of the urbanization process and its impact on the increase in temperature was descriptively analyzed using the frequency analysis technique and mean score, while their suggestions in verbatim form on reducing the effects of climate change were analyzed thematically. The respondents perceived the climate change issue as attributable to the factors of urbanization, namely the manufacturing industry, population density, and private motor vehicles. Respondents provided suggestions for reducing the effects of climate change, ranging from government policies to community actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to characterize the trends of sunshine duration (SDU) and air temperature in Poland, which may help understand the mechanism of contemporary climate change. The daily totals of SDU and daily data on air temperature from the years 1971-2020, from 25 synoptic stations in Poland are the basic source data. The series of records of the two variables showed that the points of change in the level of stabilization of the value of SDU and air temperature are close to each other, and confirm known in the literature "global dimming" and "global brightening" periods. The linear regression model confirmed that sunshine duration explains well the variability of, and increase in day-time air temperature in Poland in the warm part of the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is vital for mitigating climate change and meeting commitments to international agreements such as the COP 21 Paris Agreement of 2015. Agriculture is reported to account for approximately 11 percent of total global GHG emissions such that: the agricultural sector has an important role to play in meeting climate change mitigation objectives. However, there is currently little consensus on how farm management and interventions, along with interactions with in-field variability, such as soil type, affect the production and assimilation of GHGs in arable crop lands. Practical recommendations for farmers are often vague or generalised, and models (e.g. on the amount of nitrogen fertiliser applied) are used despite limited understanding of the influence of local conditions, such as the importance of soil type. Here, we report the findings of a systematic map of the evidence relating to the impact on GHG flux from the in-field management of arable land in temperate regions. Methods: We searched for, collated and catalogued research relating to the effects of in-field arable farming practices in temperate systems on GHG emissions. Results from 6 bibliographic databases, a web-based search engine and organisational websites were combined with evidence from stakeholders. Duplicates were removed and the results were then screened for relevance at title and abstract, and full-text levels according to a predefined set of eligibility criteria (following consistency checking). Relevant studies were then coded and their meta-data extracted and used to populate a systematic map database describing each study's settings, methods and measured outcomes. Results: The mapping process identified 538 relevant studies from 351 articles. Nearly all of these (96%) were found from traditional research papers, with 42% from European countries and nearly half (203 studies) lasting for 12 months or less. Over half of all studies (55%) investigated multiple interventions with chemical fertiliser (n = 100), tillage (n = 70), and organic fertiliser (n = 30) the most frequently studied single intervention types. When combining individually studied and multiple interventions, the top three intervention types most frequently studied were: chemical fertiliser (n = 312); organic fertiliser (n = 176) and tillage (n = 158). Nitrous oxide was the most commonly studied outcome, with over double the number of studies compared to carbon dioxide, the next most studied outcome. Sandy loam and silty loam were the most commonly studied soils but there was a good distribution of studies across other types. However, studies predominately focused on humid sub-tropical (Cfa) and temperate oceanic (Cfb) climates, with hot summer Mediterranean (CSa) and warm summer Mediterranean (Csb) climate zones less represented. Conclusions: The mapping process identified clusters of research for chemical and organic fertiliser especially in relation to nitrous oxide emissions and for both carbon dioxide and nitrous dioxide in relation to tillage. Therefore, there is potential for further synthesis for these interventions. The spread of research across soil textures and in the humid sub-tropical and temperate oceanic climates may enable further synthesis to provide tailored in-field advice for farmers and provide an evidence base to inform subsidies policy. However, smaller amounts of research relating to biochar, cover crops, crop rotation, and nitrogen inhibitors highlight gaps where further research would be beneficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To avoid the potential adverse impacts of climate change from global warming, it is suggested that the target of net zero emissions should be reached by this mid-century. Thailand is aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Since electricity generation is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide emission, the associated emissions must be greatly reduced to achieve the targets mentioned above. Thus, new generation expansion plans must be well developed. This paper discusses the development of generation expansion plans considering Thailand's latest policies along with enhancement of the existing multi-period linear programming model, allowing new electricity generation technologies having low emissions, e.g., solar PV with battery and hydrogen blending in natural gas, to be integrated into generation expansion planning. Then, four generation expansion plans with different levels of hydrogen blending in natural gas are proposed and discussed. It is found that Thailand can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 by promoting more use of renewable energy altogether with trade-off between land for solar PV installation and amount of hydrogen blended in natural gas. The lesson learned from this study provides crucial information about possible pathways to achieve carbon neutrality in the electricity sector for policy makers in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Improving rural household energy efficiency is an important policy issue for climate change mitigation in China. A better understanding of the factors affecting farmers' energy-efficient appliance use behavior can help policymakers design more effective policies. This paper explores the effect of farmers' risk preferences and loss aversion on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior in rural China. Using unique data from a survey and a paired lottery experiment completed by 235 rural household heads in the Dazu District of China, this study finds that the farmers' risk preferences and loss aversion have significant effects on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior. The more risk-averse farmers are less likely to buy or use energy-efficient appliances. The farmers who are more loss averse are more willing to purchase and more likely to use durable energy-efficient appliances. In addition, the farmers' demographic factors (age, gender, education, and family location), their perceptions of climate change adaptation and their trust attitudes have significant effects on their energy-efficient appliance use behavior. This paper contributes to the emerging literature that relates risk preferences and loss aversion in experiments to farmers' energy-efficient appliance use behavior. Highlights • The analysis is based on a unique data set combining a survey and economic experiments. • The average response of our sample is risk averse and loss averse. • The more risk-averse farmers are less likely to use energy-efficient appliances. • The more loss-averse farmers are more willing to use durable energy-efficient appliances. • Farmers' socioeconomic status and trust attitudes affect their use behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A number of empirical methods have been developed to study China's sectoral carbon emissions (CSCE). Measuring these emissions is important for climate change mitigation. While several articles have reviewed specific methods, few attempts conduct a systematic analysis of all the major research methods. In total 807 papers were published on CSCE research between 1997 and 2017. The primary source of literature for this analysis was taken from the Web of Science database. Based on a bibliometric analysis using knowledge mapping with the software CiteSpace, the review identified five common families of methods: 1) environmentally-extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA), 2) index decomposition analysis (IDA), 3) econometrics, 4) carbon emission control efficiency evaluation and 5) simulation. The research revealed the main trends in each family of methods and has visualized this research into ten research clusters. In addition, the paper provides a direct comparison of all methods. The research results can help scholars quickly identify and compare different methods for addressing specific research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic Centre of Excellence CRAICC (Cryosphere–Atmosphere Interactions in a Changing Arctic Climate), funded by NordForsk in the years 2011–2016, is the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative to date, aiming to strengthen research and innovation regarding climate change issues in the Nordic region. CRAICC gathered more than 100 scientists from all Nordic countries in a virtual centre with the objectives of identifying and quantifying the major processes controlling Arctic warming and related feedback mechanisms, outlining strategies to mitigate Arctic warming, and developing Nordic Earth system modelling with a focus on short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), including natural and anthropogenic aerosols. The outcome of CRAICC is reflected in more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications, most of which are in the CRAICC special issue of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. This paper presents an overview of the main scientific topics investigated in the centre and provides the reader with a state-of-the-art comprehensive summary of what has been achieved in CRAICC with links to the particular publications for further detail. Faced with a vast amount of scientific discovery, we do not claim to completely summarize the results from CRAICC within this paper, but rather concentrate here on the main results which are related to feedback loops in climate change–cryosphere interactions that affect Arctic amplification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate is an effective factor in the ecological structure which plays an important role in control and outbreak of the diseases caused by biological factors like malaria. With regard to the occurring climatic change, this study aimed to review the effects of climate change on malaria in Iran. In this systematic review, Cochrane, PubMed and ScienceDirect (as international databases), SID and Magiran as Persian databases were investigated through MESH keywords including climate change, global warming, malaria, Anopheles, and Iran. The related articles were screened and finally their results were extracted using data extraction sheets. Totally 41 papers were resulted through databases searching process. Finally 14 papers which met inclusion criteria were included in data extraction stage. The findings indicated that Anopheles mosquitoes are present at least in 115 places in Iran; they are compatible with climatic zones of Iran. Malaria and it’s vectors are affected by climate change. Temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind intensity and direction are the most important climatic factors affecting the growth and proliferation of Anopheles, Plasmodium and the prevalence of malaria. The transmission of malaria in Iran is associated with the climatic factors of temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Therefore, with regard to the occurring climatic change, the incidence of the disease may also change which needs to be taken into consideration while planning of malaria control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In early studies, northern vegetation response to global warming recognised both increases in biomass/cover and shrinking of species' distributional ranges. Subsequent field measurements focussed on vegetation cover and biomass increases ("greening"), and more recently decreases ("browning"). However, satellite observations show that more than 50% of arctic vegetation has not changed significantly despite rapid warming. While absence of change in remote sensing data does not necessarily mean no ecological change on the ground, the significant proportion of the Arctic that appears to be stable in the face of considerable climate change points to a greater need to understand Arctic ecosystem stability. In this paper, we performed an extensive review of the available literature to seek balances or imbalances between research focussing on "greening", "browning" and "stability/no change". We find that greening studies dominate the literature though two relatively small areas of the Arctic are disproportionately represented for this main change process. Critically, there are too few studies anywhere investigating stability. We highlight the need to understand the mechanisms driving Arctic ecosystem stability, and the potential longer-term consequences of remaining stable in a rapidly changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As awareness grows of global warming and ecological degradation, words such as "climate anxiety", and "eco-anxiety" enter our vocabularies, describing the impact of climate change on human mental health and spiritual wellbeing. Distress over climate change disproportionately impacts children, who also are more susceptible to the broader health, economic, and social effects brought about by environmental harm. In this paper, I explore children's vulnerability to climate change and climate anxiety through the lens of ecofeminist practical theology. Ecofeminism brings the liberatory concerns of feminist theologies into engagement with those theologies focused on the life of the planet. Drawing on ecofeminism, practical theology must continue and deepen its own ecological conversion, and practical theologies of childhood must take seriously the work of making an ecological home, oikos, in which children are embedded as a part of the wider ecology that includes the more-than-human world. This requires foregrounding religious education with children toward the inhabitance of the earth in good and just ways. However, these theologies also must address children's lived realities of increased anxiety over planetary changes that endanger life through practices of spiritual care with children that engage and support them in their distress toward participatory empowerment for change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global warming, the melting of glaciers in the Tien Shan Mountains as the important "solid reservoir" in the arid area of Central Asia is accelerating in recent decades, leading to profound changes in regional water resources. Based on the simulated glaciological data from the Python Glacier Evolution Model (PyGEM) and the measured glaciological data from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), this paper analyzed the applicability of simulated data, the changes in glacier mass balance, and the responses of the glacier to climate change and its impacts on glacier runoff in the Tien Shan Mountains. The results show that (1) the PyGEM simulation dataset is in good agreement with the measurements, which can effectively reproduce the change in the glacier mass balance in the Tien Shan Mountains glaciers and is suitable for studying the regional scale glacier change. (2) From 1980 to 2016, the decadal average mass balance change rate of glaciers in the Tien Shan Mountains was −0.012 m w.e. yr−1. The regional mass balance showed an overall negative increasing trend (the area with increasingly negative accounted for 80.13% of the entire area), with a positive increase that only occurred in the West Tien Shan Mountains and western North Tien Shan Mountains (19.87%). (3) The correlation between the temperature and mass balance is much higher than that between the precipitation and mass balance. Temperature dominates the change and development of regional glaciers. The increase in negative glacier mass balance that was observed in the study area is mainly affected by the rising temperature, the decreasing solid precipitation in the accumulation period, and the rapid melting in the ablation period. (4) The glacier runoff in the six representative rivers showed an increasing trend. The contribution rate of glacier runoff to river runoff changed significantly after 2000 but differed among rivers. Overall, the larger the glacier area in the source region is, the greater the contribution rate of glacier runoff is, and the more the contribution rate continuously increases or fluctuates; otherwise, the contribution rate keeps declining, which means the runoff peak may have passed and future runoff may decrease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Advances in high‐performance computing have enabled large‐eddy simulations (LES) of turbulence, convection, and clouds. However, their potential to improve parameterizations in global climate models (GCMs) is only beginning to be harnessed, with relatively few canonical LES available so far. The purpose of this paper is to begin creating a public LES library that expands the training data available for calibrating and evaluating GCM parameterizations. To do so, we use an experimental setup in which LES are driven by large‐scale forcings from GCMs, which in principle can be used at any location, any time of year, and in any climate state. We use this setup to create a library of LES of clouds across the tropics and subtropics, in the present and in a warmer climate, with a focus on the transition from stratocumulus to shallow cumulus over the East Pacific. The LES results are relatively insensitive to the choice of host GCM driving the LES. Driven with large‐scale forcing under global warming, the LES simulate a positive but weak shortwave cloud feedback, adding to the accumulating evidence that low clouds amplify global warming. Plain Language Summary: Clouds remain one of the largest uncertainties in our understanding and in predictions of climate change because it is challenging to represent their small‐scale dynamics in climate models. However, high‐resolution simulations can provide faithful simulations of clouds and turbulence in limited areas, and these can be used to calibrate climate models. So far, only a limited set of simulations has been used for calibration of climate models, with focus on a few specific locations. This study presents an experimental setup that allows the high‐resolution simulations to be run anywhere on the globe, in any climate state, driven by output from different climate models. The setup is used to create a library of high‐resolution simulations of clouds across the tropics and subtropics in both the current and a warmer climate. The library substantially expands the data set available for the calibration and evaluation of climate models. Key Points: A library of high‐resolution simulations of clouds is created with large‐eddy simulations (LES) driven by a few global climate models (GCMs)Clouds simulated by LES driven by different GCMs are more similar to one another than the corresponding GCM‐simulated cloudsUnder global warming, LES‐simulated low clouds exhibit a weak but positive feedback on warming [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland affirms the climate emergency findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The summit pursues the commitment to reduce carbon emissions to keep the earth’s rise in temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. COP 26 recognizes the impact of the climate crisis on human well-being. Environmental disasters are a result of policy failures at the national level of governance. Global warming aggravates environmental degradation. The Covid-19 pandemic has truncated the economic growth in many countries. Human impoverishment accentuates the pressure on the environment. This paper analyses the problem when it comes to deficient state-centric decisionmaking procedures that preclude participatory mechanisms. It will be argued that to correct the system, policy gaps must be addressed in terms of technological and organizational support, communal leadership, and solidarity at different levels of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ongoing attempts at lessening the hydra-headed impacts of climate change, this paper explored the strategic use of salvage archaeology in the scientific retrieval and documentation of heritage remains and sites under the threat of climate change. In doing so, the research examined the effects of climate change and global warming on coastal heritage resources. Specifically, in Ghana, sea levels have been steadily rising over the centuries leading to the erosion of coastlines and the submergence of historic coastal settlements to about 110 metres inland. A historic Danish Fort Kongensten constructed in 1783 along the coast of Ada-Foah in Ghana, for example, has been totally eroded away by the rising sea water. This paper assesses how salvage archaeology was used to retrieve, document and conserve cultural materials associated with the fort. It also explored the extent to which salvage archaeology and anthropology can be used as tools in climate change mitigation projects in impacted zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several biological research studies have shown that the number of individuals of certain species of anurans in a specific geographical region, and the evolution of this number over time, can be used as an indicator of climate change. To detect the presence of anurans, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are usually deployed with the aim of obtaining bio-acoustic information in a set covering numerous locations. However, the identification of the anuran species from a huge number of recordings usually involves an overwhelming task that has to be undertaken by expert and intelligent systems. Previous studies into this issue have proposed several classification techniques with a common approach: they all take into account the sequential characteristic of sounds by considering syllables or other kinds of vocal segments. In noisy sounds, as it is usually the case in recordings made in natural habitats, segmentation of the signal is no straightforward task and may cause low classification accuracy. To override this problem, a new non-sequential approach is proposed in this paper. It is based on considering very small pieces of sounds (frames) each of which is then classified without considering preceding or subsequent information. Up to nine frame-based classifiers are explored in this paper and their performances are compared to the most commonly used sequential classifier: the Hidden Markov Model (HMM). Additionally, for featuring the frames, many choices have been described, although the application of the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) has probably become the most common method. In this work, an alternative methodology is suggested: the use of a set of MPEG-7 parameters, which offers a normalized solution with a much greater semantic content. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method clearly outperforms the HMM, thereby showing the non-sequential classification of anuran sounds to be feasible. From among the algorithms tested, the decision-tree classifier has shown the best performance with an overall classification success rate of 87.30%, which is an especially striking result considering that the analyzed sounds were affected by a decidedly noisy background. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a notable change from the position in the past, the Greek government took steps to commit itself to greening the economy and determining policies and actions to boost the utilization of renewable energy. The aim of the paper is, firstly, to present the latest developments on the renewable energy policy in Greece, the current achievements and impediments to the implementation of planned reforms in the accomplishment of its 2020 targets, and the specific policy measures introduced; secondly, to discuss the pace of respective developments in other EU-28 member countries; thirdly, to verify the achievements of the government towards reversing previous bureaucratic, prone-to corruption procedures through a questionnaire survey and stratified interviews with market participants. Research survey results from our survey and interviews conducted in the second semester of 2014 are respectively presented. The majority of respondents expect to see the targets set in the National Renewable Energy Action Plan reached by 2020. The paper and questionnaire survey have been conducted under the auspices of the European research program THALES, aiming to measure various aspects of the shadow economy and the areas of renewable energy trade and finance in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an innovative framework is introduced for assessing the impact of climate change on coastal structures, with a primary emphasis on modeling future climate conditions. The framework encompasses several key components: the development of a new climate emulator to facilitate multivariate extreme value analysis; a hybrid statistical–numerical wave propagation strategy; and the integration of a novel compound modeling approach specific to coastal structure sites. These advancements are designed to effectively manage multiple climate scenarios and models within the context of high uncertainty. The methodology is applied and validated for a coastal structure located on the Mediterranean coast in Spain. Focusing on compound wave and sea-level events, the projections indicate an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme conditions, exacerbating coastal impacts such as wave overtopping. For instance, the present-day 500-year coastal flooding level would be associated with a return period of 50 years by mid-century under a stabilization scenario and would be further reduced to 25 years under a high-emission global warming scenario, resulting in important consequences for structure performance if no adaptation is implemented. • Develops a framework for assessing the impact of climate change on coastal structures. • It develops a new climate emulator to facilitate multivariate extreme value analysis. • It encompasses a hybrid statistical–numerical wave propagation strategy. • It integrates a novel compound modeling approach specific to coastal structures sites. • It has been applied and validated for a coastal structure in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming has accentuated the effects of extreme heat on health. Health insurance, functioning as a risk management tool, has the potential to alleviate these impacts. Consequently, this paper investigates the correlation between extreme heat events and the demand for health insurance in China. Using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we have observed a substantial increase in the likelihood of residents purchasing health insurance during extreme heat events. To be specific, for every extra day of extreme heat events annually, there is a 0.3% increase in the probability of purchasing health insurance. This effect is not uniform across different demographic groups. It is particularly pronounced among middle-aged and elderly individuals, rural residents, those with lower educational levels, higher income brackets, and individuals residing in underprivileged areas with limited access to green spaces and healthcare facilities. Furthermore, our study indicates that the increased frequency of extreme heat events not only impacts individuals' physical health but also triggers negative emotions, which in turn drive risk-averse behavior related to health insurance purchases. These findings carry substantial policy implications for mitigating the economic consequences of climate change. • Extreme heat increases the likelihood of residents purchasing health insurance. • Each additional day of extreme heat boosts health insurance purchases by 0.3%. • This effect varies among different populations. • Mechanistic analyses indicate extreme heat impacting physical and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The extent of flooding in China is greater than in any other country. • Nearly 66% of China's landmass is submerged by flooding. • Financial toll of flooding accounts for approximately 1.42% of the annual GDP. • Various forms of climatic change contribute to flooding. The extent of flooding in China is more significant than in any other country. Our research reveals that approximately 66 % of China's landmass is submerged by flooding, affecting about 50 % of the population. Furthermore, the financial toll of flooding now accounts for approximately 1.42 % of the annual gross domestic product (GDP), which is almost 40 times higher than the corresponding figure for the United States. We have observed that Zhengzhou city in Henan province, which faced a devastating flood in 2021, received a significant amount of rainfall, specifically a total of 552.5 mm within a 24-hour period. The floods in Henan province in 2021 caused considerable damage, including impacting nearly 15 million people, resulting in almost 400 deaths, damaging over 10,000 square kilometers of agricultural land, causing almost $19 billion in economic losses, and leading to the collapse of over 35,000 households and damage to various properties. In a similar manner, the significant flooding that occurred in southern China in 2020 impacted approximately 7.1 million individuals across eight provinces and resulted in 54 fatalities, the collapse of 6,700 houses, and incurred a direct economic loss of US$3.33 billion. We found that rainstorms have significantly increased to 10 % in the last 60 years in China. In this paper, we delved into exploring the existing published articles, reports, and government and authoritative legal texts to analyze the causes and impacts of flooding in China's flood-prone regions and potential mitigation strategies to reduce the repercussions of distressing flood events. We believe this study will help policymakers by providing new insights while formulating policy to reduce the loss caused by high-level flooding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a uniform global tax-like price on carbon emissions, whose revenues each country retains, can provide a focal point for a reciprocal common climate commitment, whereas quantity targets, which do not nearly so readily present such a single focal point, tend to rely ultimately on individual quantity commitments. The paper postulates the conceptually useful allegory of a futuristic 'World Climate Assembly' (WCA) that votes for a single worldwide price on carbon emissions via the basic democratic principle of one person, one vote majority rule. A WCA-like uniform price-tax counters self-interest by incentivizing countries or agents to internalize the externality because each WCA agent's higher abatement cost from a higher emissions price is counterbalanced by that agent's extra benefit from inducing all other WCA agents to simultaneously lower their emissions in response to the higher price. The paper derives fresh insights and new simple formulae that relate each emitter's most-preferred world price of carbon to the world 'social cost of carbon' (SCC), and further relates the WCA-voted world price of carbon to the world SCC. Some implications are discussed. The overall methodology of the paper is a mixture of mostly classical with some behavioural economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most organizations, especially order-oriented ones meeting deadlines are crucial. Job shop environments could be mentioned as an example where decision makers are try to schedule all jobs in such a way that tardy jobs (TJ) are minimized. Indeed, manufacturers are received customers' orders and required to deliver them no later than the determined due dates. Otherwise, penalties should be paid to customers and it can lead to a huge amount of financial loss. Also, regarding global warming and climate changes manufacturers should redesign their processes from an eco-friendly perspective. Motivated by these issues, in this paper, a green bi-objective model has been formulated to solve the problem of scheduling parallel machines considering TJ and job splitting property (JSP). In the proposed model, the first objective function minimizes the total number of TJ while the second objective function is minimization of total energy consumption. An augmented -constraint method has been deployed for solving small-scale problems. However, to solve large-scale problems, an efficient Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm has been developed while a Harmony Search (HS) algorithm has also been applied to examine the quality of the proposed SA algorithm. Random generated problems have been used to compare the results of three deployed algorithms. Results approved that the proposed SA algorithm outperforms others significantly. In particular, SA solved the problems sooner than others while its solutions were closer to solutions of the augmented -constraint method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new analysis of how global warming may affect the size of forest fires through its effects on air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. The effects of attack time on the size of the final burned area were also determined simultaneously in the statistical analysis. Two nonlinear functions determining the size of fires in the Prague-East District of the Czech Republic were estimated, based on a set of explanatory variables including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and attack time. The functions were determined by multiple regression analysis combined with logarithmic transformations. The effects of climate change scenarios on future forest fires were calculated using the estimated fire-size function. The results show that if global warming leads to increased air temperature, reduced humidity, and stronger winds, we can expect larger fires. According to climate change scenarios, an upturn in the size of fires is predicted over this century. While we can control the fire by reducing the attack time, the results also show that if firefighters can reach a fire more quickly, the size of the fire will be reduced. If forest management methods, infrastructure, and fire brigade capacity are not adapted to the new climate, larger areas can be expected to be destroyed by fire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of climate change, the paper presents an analysis of the evolution of grapevine phenophases, in the period 1991-2021, for four grapevine cultivars Selena, Blasius, Rubin and Radames, and two clones Sauvignon blanc 9 Bl, Feteasca alba 29 Bl homologated at SCDVV Blaj. The study is based on the climatic and phenological data from SCDVV Blaj. The climatic data have been processed into fourteen parameters and for the phenological periods the starting date was analyzed. Regarding the average annual temperature, during 2010-2021 there is an increase of 1.1 ºC compared to the multiannual average reference temperature (calculated as the annual average of the years 1975-2010), which means that in the studied area, during the period 2010-2021 there was a warming compared to reference years. The average duration of the vegetation period from 2010-2021 is shorter than the reference period by 3.2 days. In 2011 the annual aridity index denotes a semi-arid dry climate, and in 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2019 a moderately humid climate. The hydrothermal coefficient was higher in the studied period compared to the reference period, registering values between 1.0 (2011) and 2.8 (2016), which has a positive influence on grape production. The Huglin index for the studied period is between 2237.6 in 2021 and 2928.5 in 2012, with an average of 2542.6 which places Tarnave vineyard area in a warm climate zone. Concerning the precipitation, a slight increase of 34.7 mm/m2 compared to the multiannual reference amount was monitored. In these conditions the warming of the climate induced an earlier budburst with an average of 8 days, correlated with an earlier maturation with 9-11 days in average. So far for the blooming and veraison phenophases starting date, no differences of the outrunning were clearly observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all matters regarding climate change, the modern world presents complex challenges which highlight how investments in infrastructure have as of yet been inconclusive. The emission percentages calculated by relevant studies demonstrate the need for long-term investments in infrastructures, to ultimately reduce the impact on the environment and our health. To this end, in alignment with the principles expressed in the Paris Agreement - reducing global warming and incentivising a zero-emission transportation system - and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these new infrastructures will require a structural change that can be guaranteed by multilateral development banks (MDBs), given their nature, especially within developing countries. MDBs play an important role in supporting local governments, on the one hand creating a prosperous environment for sustainable infrastructures and, on the other, providing innovative financial instruments that could increase the financial sector's participation. In this paper, after a brief excursus on the Paris Agreement's role in the global climatic crisis, there will be an evaluation of the relations between MDBs and climate finance, with a focus on green bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is stated as one of the largest issues of our time, resulting in many unwanted effects on life on earth. Cloud fractional cover (CFC), the portion of the sky covered by clouds, might affect global warming and different other aspects of human society such as agriculture and solar energy production. It is therefore important to improve the projection of future CFC, which is usually projected using numerical climate methods. In this paper, we explore the potential of using machine learning as part of a statistical downscaling framework to project future CFC. We are not aware of any other research that has explored this. We evaluated the potential of two different methods, a convolutional long short-term memory model (ConvLSTM) and a multiple regression equation, to predict CFC from other environmental variables. The predictions were associated with much uncertainty indicating that there might not be much information in the environmental variables used in the study to predict CFC. Overall the regression equation performed the best, but the ConvLSTM was the better performing model along some coastal and mountain areas. All aspects of the research analyses are explained including data preparation, model development, ML training, performance evaluation and visualization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency with which tropical cyclones (TCs) occur controls all other aspects of tropical cyclone risk since a storm that does not occur can do no harm. Yet this frequency is poorly understood. There is no accepted theory that explains the average number of TCs that occur each year on the Earth, nor how that number will change with global warming. Arguments based on global budgets of heat or moisture do not yet appear helpful, nor does a detailed understanding of the physical processes of TC genesis. Empirical indices that predict TC frequency as a function of large‐scale environmental variables can explain some of its relative variations in space and time, but not its absolute value. Global numerical models with horizontal grid spacings on the order of 25–50 km have allowed much improved simulations of TC activity, however. Many such models project a decrease in frequency with warming, but some project an increase. Idealized simulations, including those at higher resolutions, offer promise by allowing a systematic, deductive investigation of the roles of individual environmental factors. In addition to the larger‐scale environmental modulation of genesis likelihood, precursor disturbances, or "seeds", may exert an independent influence on TC frequency. Plain Language Summary: The term tropical cyclone frequency refers to the average number of tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes, typhoons, etc.) which occur each year, either over the earth as a whole or in smaller regions. In this paper, the authors review the state of the science regarding what is known about tropical cyclone frequency. The state of the science is not great. There are around 80 tropical cyclones in a typical year, and we do not know why it is this number and not a much larger or smaller one. We also do not know much about whether this number should increase or decrease as the planet warms‐‐‐thus far, it has not done much of either on the global scale, though there are larger changes in some particular regions. No existing theory predicts tropical cyclone frequency. In this situation, we are left with numerical models as our primary tool, and the authors discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and different ways of using such models to investigate tropical cyclone frequency. Idealized simulations, in which the planet is made simpler than it really is, are allowing some new insights. Another promising avenue of investigation involves studying the weaker disturbances that sometimes strengthen into tropical cyclones. Key Points: We do not understand why the number of tropical cyclones per year is what it is, nor how it may be changingIn the absence of theory, our main tools are numerical modelsPromising research directions include idealized simulations at high resolution and study of precursor disturbances, or "seeds" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]