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Copyright of Naturaliste Canadien is the property of La Societe Provancher and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Biotechnologie, Agronomie, Societe et Environnement is the property of Les Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Forestry Chronicle is the property of Canadian Institute of Forestry and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Different intervention mechanisms are proposed to transform agricultural landscapes so that they fulfill multiple functions, compatible with sustainable development goals. In the case of climate change mitigation and adaptation, support policies and direct payments to affected populations are promoted as part of REDDþ initiatives. These interventions attempt to balance the provision of multiple ecosystem services with the maintenance or improvement of local livelihoods. In this paper, we explore the role that participatory evaluation can play in the implementation of payments for ecosystem services in rural communities in Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam and China. Engaged in a process of rapid integration into the market economy, these communities have been transforming their traditional Slash-and-burn systems in recent years and followed different paths of agricultural intensification. The positive or negative assessment of these developments is necessarily subject to value judgements in the choices made between different options. Ecosystem services allow for the comparison of landscape trajectories. Village communities explored scenarios for the evolution of their local agriculture, negotiated trade-offs between ecosystem services and identified potential “winners” and “losers”. These simulations showed the importance of the timing of REDDþ programs in relation to ongoing agrarian transformations. They point to the risk of moving away from the initial ambitions related to the carbon ecosystem service to become an additional instrument for sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article takes stock of climate change, based on three special IPCC reports published in 2018 and 2019. These reports provide integrated assessments across different scientific disciplines, and for the first time are written by scientists from different disciplines in each chapter. They provide an update on observed changes and their causes, future opportunities and risks, depending on the evolution of greenhouse gas emissions, socio-economic development choices, and shed light on solutions for climate action and for sustainable development, preserving biodiversity and enabling everyone to live in dignity. The first SR15 Special Report (October 2018) focuses on the impacts associated with a global warming of 1.5 °C, as well as compatible greenhouse gas emission trajectories, in the context of strengthening the response to climate change, sustainable development and efforts to eradicate poverty: www.ipcc.ch/report/SR15. The second SRCCL Special Report (August 2019) focuses on climate change and land use, particularly desertification and land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas flows in terrestrial ecosystems: www.ipcc.ch/report/SRCCL. It addresses the challenges of both adaptation and mitigation. The third SROCC Special Report (September 2019) focuses on the ocean and cryosphere in an changing climate. It focuses on how climate change is affecting the ocean and the cryosphere, ecosystems and human societies, in high mountain areas, the regions polar, for the coastline, which is linked to the ocean, including via extreme and abrupt events. The mitigation options are not part of this assessment, except for “blue carbon” (the potential for carbon sinks linked to coastal marine ecosystems). This report highlights the challenges of action to building resilience: www.ipcc.ch/ report/SROCC. This summary takes stock of the trends observed, their causes, the projections of future changes, in particular with regard to their impacts and risks, depending on the future greenhouse gas emission trajectories, and our collective choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the evolution of issues and practices relating to the governing of household energy consumption in Japan since the oil crises of the 1970s. It highlights the impact of domestic and international circumstances, scientific and technical progress, and the expression of industrial stakeholders' interests. During the 1990s, international agreements on climate change mitigation led to increased promotion of energy-saving behaviours, establishing the Ministry of the Environment as a new stakeholder in Japan's energy policy. State intervention has increased again since the Fukushima disaster and the development of new policy tools in the United States, while retaining the objective of maintaining the competitiveness of Japanese companies and promoting economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how can carbon footprint calculators help doctors in maintaining planetary health. It mentions they will help health professionals who wish to assess their footprint to use a reliable and efficient calculator, validated on a scientific, medical and ethical level, and efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in society must be considerable to respond to the climate crisis.

This paper reviews the policy and legal framework for the implementation of CDM projects in Uganda and its implications for climate change mitigation. It gives a background to climate change in Uganda and notes that climate change in Uganda can largely be attributed to unsustainable utilisation of the natural resources which has led to over exploitation and total loss of some of the natural resources. The paper reviews the international legal regime for climate change and its significance for climate change mitigation in Uganda and observes that Uganda has implemented the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol in accordance with the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle. This has for instance culminated in the carrying out of a National Inventory of Sources and Sinks of Greenhouse gases. The role of CDM in climate change mitigation is explored by examining the key CDM projects that have been implemented in Uganda. The key finding of the paper is that Uganda does not have an independent policy or law which deals with CDM and recommends that such policy and legal inadequacies should urgently be addressed.

The article offers information on the comsmon but differentiated responsibilities principle and the difficulty related to the compliance of party States with equitable sharing of fighting global warming.

Copyright of Futuribles is the property of Futuribles SARL and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Adaptation to climate change: so ambiguous. The paper consiçlers the meaning of the increasing importance given to adaptation to climate change. First it examines the theoretical challenge of the concept from the systems theory standpoint. Paradoxically this leads to focussing attention on the values and structural features specific of the system considered rather than on the features of its environment. This outcome justifies the introduction of a key distinction between those features and components touching the identity of the system and those that are purely instrumental. The status of adaptation is then scrutinized both in the discourse of economic experts and in international negotiations that aim to set up a new climate agreement. Beyond the need to take account of the inescapable part of climate change over the next thirty years, the paper shows how in the past the notion of adaptation has been mobilized to downsize the pressing need to take immediate vigorous mitigation policies. At present, its seems that the rise of adaptation is the sign and vector of an implicit abandonment of the goal of containing climate change within the 2°C increase range from pre-industrial levels. This meaning finds an appropriate vehicle in the economic mode of representation that considers mitigation and adaptation as two alternative means towards the same end, i.e. maximization of an intertemporal social utility function. Several objections are raised against the current assumptions made in that context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]