Search

The relationship between religions and sustainability allows different approaches, whether by religious diversity or by various initiatives in the field of education, spirituality, and human promotion. In the present article, we chose to present the basic concepts that guide the relationship between sustainability and spirituality, the different emphases that mobilize the environmental engagement of religions and, finally, the most significant religious and inter-religious initiatives from the 1990s to the present. However, this is not a quantitative assessment; rather, it is a way to verify the quality of religious commitment to sustainability, including hermeneutic and theological aspects: the relationship between the Creator, Humanity and Nature; sustainability and ecological virtues; environmental care and spirituality; and, recognition of Mother Earth. The results confirm the ecological awakening of religions and their environmental engagement, marked by the articulation between human ecology and environmental ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the guidelines, and the understanding of a group of principals, from elementary school in the early years, full-time, about the school climate. The research, which took place in the municipality with the highest HDI-M in Brazil, adopted a qualitative methodology, based on the analysis of documents and reflective sessions. The results showed that the municipality did not have an effective document to guide the school climate in schools, a situation that hindered the construction of actions to improve the climate. Participants understood the topic as something positive, but they do not have solid knowledge about it. These professionals carried out various actions to maintain and improve the climate, but they were much more intuitive and were not part of an institution project. As suggestions for improving the climate, they indicated more professional education, the creation of a space for participation and of a school project. This data found can be used in initial and continuing training courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzed, for the Brazilian case, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The concept of negative externality and market failure was used to understand the need for environmental policies capable of favoring the sustainable development of countries. The results show the importance of scale for the registration of projects. The energy sector, for example, has more small-scale projects that were created to simplify procedures and lower costs. It was concluded, in general, that the CDM has become an international historical landmark, as it is an innovative tool in contributing to the mitigation of climate change. However, despite its importance being recognized globally, it was observed that the mechanism has weakened over time and there are uncertainties regarding the validity of the Kyoto Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to understand how Protected Areas act for the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. The state of Mato Grosso, located in the center-west of Brazil, was analysed as it is a state of large dimensions and with different biomes in its composition. A case study was carried out in order to dimension the importance of PAs in dealing with the sequestration of Greenhouse Gases (GHG), using the state of Mato Grosso. From the literature review, it was identified that the Protected Areas are a mitigating instrument for climate change, since conservation maintains ecosystem services and helps in the capture and storage of carbon dioxide, called carbon sinks. Through a legal analysis, it was found that the environmental policies of Protected Areas do not materially establish climate change as a basis. The data obtained showed that 4.73% of the state area under study fits into this legal instrument. Despite corresponding to a small territorial parcel, the Protected Areas are spread over the three biomes that make up the state, in the search to protect the three different biodiversity. From the analysis of the data, it is concluded that the Protected Areas have a mitigating role for climate change in the state of Mato Grosso, due to Land Use Change, a factor of great incidence in the state. For further research, it is suggested to analyse the relevance of indigenous areas in this same scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the release of the final synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the sixth assessment cycle (AR6) on climate change. Topics include the unequivocal role of human activities in global warming, the impacts on all regions, and human contribution to temperature increase; and the escalating risks and damages caused by climate change with the urgency of accelerated climate action and increased funding.

The agricultural and livestock sector has caused approximately 24% of total greenhouse gas emissions (GEE) in Brazil in 2017. In 2009, the Brazilian administration established sectorial plans for the mitigation of climatic changes. The Agricultural Plan for Low Carbon (ABC) and the ABC Program are responsible for target projections to mitigate climatic changes and financial incentives for their implementation. Current paper investigates whether available credit for this public policy is being used in technological processes with great potential for the mitigation of GEEs. Secondary sources of data on the amount of credit of ABC program and GEE emissions have been researched. The historical series of emissions revealed that, within agricultural activities, enteric fermentation of animals and the use of agricultural soil are the main causes of GEEs, with almost 86% of emissions. Results also demonstrated that, within seven priority areas, one has specially received highest investment rates, or rather, the recovery of degraded pastureland, with approximately 30% of investments. Further, 15% of amounts initially projected by the ABN program have been available and only 9% have been effectively spent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development is only possible through the harmonious interconnection between economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The United Nations (UN) has defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that should guide initiatives by countries and civil society until 2030. Among the goals of SDG 13 is "awareness-raising and human capacity on climate change mitigation and impact reduction". Therefore, the objective of this work is to report on the application of Human Centered Design for the development of a social innovation solution motivated by the following challenge: "How to encourage people to adopt eco-sustainable behavior?". The result was the design of the Eco + platform that provides technological support to the following processes: the user will be able to carry out the selective collection of waste and then take it to stations responsible for destining it for composting and / or recycling; and the user will be able to use bicycles adapted for the transformation of kinetic energy and storage of the resulting electric energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents partial results of a research that aims to examine the co-benefits of sustainable development of the voluntary carbon market in Brazil. Therefore, we carried out exploratory research, document analysis and illustrative case studies, based on the analytical matrix constructed from the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) studies on co-benefits from the regulated carbon market. The results presented showed that two of the four projects had greater advances in promoting sustainable development, contradicting the results of the UNFCCC (2011) and Boyd et al. (2009) in their studies on the regulated market. The achieved result confirms the major potential market for voluntary contribution to the sustainable development at the local scale, given greater flexibility and diversity of actors. Moreover, it was found that some co-stimulate other benefits in the local communities where they were developed, besides the more advanced projects that were registered in the International Standards that require the attendance of indicators that go beyond the reduction of greenhouse gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissemination of tourism is a recent phenomenon that became particularly important in the 1960s and the systematic study of its relation to climate is even more recent. When included in the theoretical approaches to tourism motivation the climate, seen as an asset or service, becomes a resource that can be evaluated. This paper looks into various attempts to quantify the "climate resource" in the determination of the tourism potential of a given region and summarizes the importance of climate on tourists' motivation. Tourism is one of the economic sectors where climate change is expected to have a substantial impact due to climate alterations in tourist locations. Conversely, tourism activities contribute to intensify climate changes due to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions. The second part of this paper addresses the possible interactions between climate change and tourism, as well as possible mitigation and adaptation measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]