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Political polarization of Americans' support for climate policies often impedes the adoption of new, urgently needed climate solutions. However, recent polls suggest that younger conservatives favor adopting pro-climate policies to a greater degree than older conservatives, resulting in less political polarization among younger Americans relative to older Americans. To better understand these patterns, we analyzed Americans' support for various climate policies from 1982–2020, across 16 waves of historical, nationally representative survey data from the American National Election Studies (total N = 29,467). Regression models consistently show that, since 2012, younger Americans have been less politically polarized than older Americans on support for climate policies. Before 2012 and on non-climate policy topics, we did not find consistent statistical evidence for political polarization varying with age. These findings can inform policy debates about climate change and offer hope to environmentalists and policymakers who seek to build broad consensus for climate action at the policy level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Carbon (C) sink and stock are among the most important ecosystem services provided by forests in climate change mitigation policies. In this context, old-growth forests constitute an essential reference point for the development of close-to-nature silviculture, including C management techniques. Despite their small extent in Europe, temperate old-growth forests are assumed to be among the most prominent in terms of biomass and C stored. However, monitoring and reporting of C stocks is still poorly understood. To better understand the C stock amount and distribution in temperate old-growth forests, we estimated the C stock of two old-growth stands in the Dinaric Alps applying different assessment methods, including direct and indirect approaches (e.g., field measurements and allometric equations vs. IPCC standard methods). This paper presents the quantification and the distribution of C across the five main forest C pools (i.e., aboveground, belowground, deadwood, litter and soil) in the study areas and the differences between the applied methods. Results: We report a very prominent C stock in both study areas (507 Mg C ha− 1), concentrated in a few large trees (36% of C in 5% of trees). Moreover, we found significant differences in C stock estimation between direct and indirect methods. Indeed, the latter tended to underestimate or overestimate depending on the pool considered. Conclusions: Comparison of our results with previous studies and data collected in European forests highlights the prominence of temperate forests, among which the Dinaric Alps old-growth forests are the largest. These findings provide an important benchmark for the development of future approaches to the management of the European temperate forests. However, further and deeper research on C stock and fluxes in old-growth stands is of prime importance to understand the potential and limits of the climate mitigation role of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the oceanic surface layer, particulate organic carbon (POC) constitutes the biggest pool of particulate material of biological origin, encompassing phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria, and organic detritus. POC is of general interest in studies of biologically-mediated fluxes of carbon in the ocean, and over the years, several empirical algorithms have been proposed to retrieve POC concentrations from satellite products. These algorithms can be categorised into those that make use of remote-sensing-reflectance data directly, and those that are dependent on chlorophyll concentration and particle backscattering coefficient derived from reflectance values. In this study, a global database of in situ measurements of POC is assembled, against which these different types of algorithms are tested using daily matchup data extracted from the Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI; version 5). Through analyses of residuals, pixel-by-pixel uncertainties, and validation based on optical water types, areas for POC algorithm improvement are identified, particularly in regions underrepresented in the in situ POC data sets, such as coastal and high-latitude waters. We conclude that POC algorithms have reached a state of maturity and further improvements can be sought in blending algorithms for different optical water types when the required in situ data becomes available. The best performing band ratio algorithm was tuned to the OC-CCI version 5 product and used to produce a global time series of POC between 1997-2020 that is freely available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the oceanic surface layer, particulate organic carbon (POC) constitutes the biggest pool of particulate material of biological origin, encompassing phytoplankton, zooplankton, bacteria, and organic detritus. POC is of general interest in studies of biologically-mediated fluxes of carbon in the ocean, and over the years, several empirical algorithms have been proposed to retrieve POC concentrations from satellite products. These algorithms can be categorised into those that make use of remote-sensing-reflectance data directly, and those that are dependent on chlorophyll concentration and particle backscattering coefficient derived from reflectance values. In this study, a global database of in situ measurements of POC is assembled, against which these different types of algorithms are tested using daily matchup data extracted from the Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI; version 5). Through analyses of residuals, pixel-by-pixel uncertainties, and validation based on optical water types, areas for POC algorithm improvement are identified, particularly in regions underrepresented in the in situ POC data sets, such as coastal and high-latitude waters. We conclude that POC algorithms have reached a state of maturity and further improvements can be sought in blending algorithms for different optical water types when the required in situ data becomes available. The best performing band ratio algorithm was tuned to the OC-CCI version 5 product and used to produce a global time series of POC between 1997-2020 that is freely available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Climate change is recognised as the biggest threat to global health of the 21st century and impacts on health and wellbeing through a range of factors. Due to this, the need to take action in order to protect population health and wellbeing is becoming ever more urgent. Methods: In 2019, Public Health Wales carried out a comprehensive mixed-method Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of climate change. Unlike other risk assessments, it appraised the potential impact of climate change on health and inequalities in Wales through participatory workshops, stakeholder consultations, systematic literature reviews and case studies. Results: The HIA findings indicate potential impacts across the wider determinants of health and wellbeing. For example, air quality, excess heat/cold, flooding, economic productivity, infrastructure, and community resilience. A range of impacts were identified across population groups, settings, and geographical areas. Conclusion: These findings can inform decision-makers to prepare for climate change plans and policies using an evidence-informed approach. The work has demonstrated the value of a HIA approach by mobilising a range of evidence through a transparent process, resulting in transferrable learning for others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local climate change impacts hit hard at smallholder farmers in developing countries due to their overreliance on rain-fed farming. Whilst ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) to climate change holds an answer to smallholder farmers' adaptation needs, there are inadequate empirical results from the field to support formulation of effective adaptation strategies. Hence, this paper aimed at investigating EbA practices adopted by farmers, in North-Western Ghana to ameliorate local climate change impacts, with emphasis on benefits and associated challenges. The study methods were cross-sectional survey, mixed methods, and case study approach, with all data collected in the Wa West District of Ghana. Data were gathered using questionnaire, focus group discussion (FGD) and interviews. Data from the questionnaire were entered into SPSS version 20 to analyze associations between the variables using cross-tabulation. Descriptive statistics, in the form of percentages and frequencies, were then generated from the survey data and integrated with the qualitative information in the presentation of results. Also, statistical significance of the relationships was analyzed using chi-square test. Chi-squared tests were done to determine associations between socio-economic and environmental factors, and challenges and benefits associated with the adoption of EbA practices. This was necessary to give further insights to inform policy-related decisions aimed at addressing EbA adoption challenges. The results revealed that farmers use a combination of practices rather than single practice. Farmers integrated crops and trees and keep local breed of farm animals. Benefits of EbA included improvements in soil fertility leading to high crop yield and availability of food and income. Challenges of adopting EbA were the long timespan for benefits of most EbA practices to begin to accrue, lack of extension information and increasing cost of hired labour. It is recommended that tree integration should emphasis trees with multiple benefits and compatible with food crops. For the achievement of food security policy objectives, agroforestry promotion should focus on the integration of fruit tree crops and food crops to address hunger and increase farmers' incomes. Mobile extension technology should be exploited by government for the provision of EbA-specific information to farmers to bridge the extension services gap. Climate change policy of government should include the planting of non-fruit trees as windbreaks to provide multi-purpose benefits including provision of stakes for yam farmers, live-fencing and firewood for women. There is the need for government policy objectives to include EbA by farmers under the flagship 'planting for food and jobs' programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the power system and climate policy implications of the anticipated expansion in electricity demand from datacentres. We perform a joint optimization of Generation and Transmission Expansion Planning for the island of Ireland considering uncertainty in future datacentre growth under various climate policies. Datacentre expansion imposes significant extra costs on the power system. A renewable energy target is more costly than a technology-neutral carbon reduction policy due to the restriction to invest solely in renewable energy, and the divergence in costs increases non-linearly in electricity demand. A carbon reduction policy is more robust to uncertainties in projected demand than a renewable policy. The increased demand from datacentres, which is relatively constant, is best matched by a power supply with constant output, generally fossil-fuelled power plants, potentially in combination with carbon capture and sequestration technology, than variable supply. Datacentre demand increases power system costs by 6% under a carbon reduction policy, and by 9% to 15% under renewable energy targets. However, the abatement cost of carbon under renewable targets decreases at higher levels of demand, while the opposite is true for the abatement cost under technology-neutral targets. High renewable targets crowd out other low-carbon options, namely CCS, leading to a higher cost solution for the same reduction in emissions, although this result is sensitive to increases in fossil fuel prices. The results suggest that climate-related energy policy should focus on technology-neutral carbon reduction policies. The climate impacts of datacentres on energy demand and thus supply requirements should also feature in climate and energy policy discussions. Climate policy that focuses on renewable energy only is more expensive than a technology-neutral climate policy The costs of a renewable-only focused climate policy increase non-linearly as demand increases [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive climate policy literature provides various recommendations for mitigating climate change, but these recommendations are not supported democratically, since the models employed consider either infinitely-lived individuals or normative social objectives (or both). In contrast, the present paper provides policy recommendations capable of incorporating democratic processes. I develop an overlapping generation model with political process micro-foundations and show how democratic climate policies are interconnected with other democratic policies. Time inconsistent social objectives combined with commitment issues lead to an inefficient tax on capital accumulation and a climate policy below the efficient level; while suppressing the tax on capital accumulation generates a climate policy even further below the efficient level. I derive a novel politico-economic Keynes–Ramsey rule for the market interest rate, which is useful for calculating the climate policy level. I show that individual pure time preference, individual altruism toward descendants, and young generation political power are key determinants of democratic climate policy ambition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Material efficiency (ME), making products with less material or substituting with less carbon‐intensive material without a loss of functionality, can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and complement other strategies to mitigate climate change. Seven ME strategies for cars and homes in the G7 countries were recently modeled in a study by the International Resource Panel. Modeling indicates that ME strategies focusing on construction and use of homes could lower the overall cumulative emissions in the G7 between 2016 and 2060 by 8.5 Gt CO2e (20%), while ME strategies for the production and use of cars could reduce up to 12 Gt (24%). For both homes and cars, the strategy of more intensive use—where fewer or smaller products are required to provide the same basic service—showed the greatest potential. A review of existing ME policies reveals that attention to ME in climate policy has been limited. Policy toward ME has historically focused on waste management rather than GHG reduction. Ex post evaluation of policies that do exist, especially for recycling and related waste strategies, is infrequent. Framing efficient use of materials as a measure primarily intended for climate mitigation is relatively recent and uncommon. Production‐related policy opportunities have been neglected because using ME to reduce GHGs is novel in some sectors and because increased ME faces economic and social barriers. Rebound effects where reduction of the cost of housing or transportation can increase material consumption offsetting potential gains, a problem for all efficiency‐based approaches, is understudied and not currently addressed through policy. This article is categorized under:The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, BehaviorThe Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Decarbonizing Energy and/or Reducing Demand [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Motivated by the growing attention on climate change acceleration, we examine the interrelationships among corporate governance disclosure index, bank ownership structures, and bank climate change initiatives through the lens of a multi‐theoretical framework. We conduct a fixed‐effects and dynamic two‐step system generalized method of moments models over an extensive dataset. Based on panel data of 220 banks (2,785 observations) from 16 Sub‐Saharan Africa emerging economies between 2007 and 2022, the study observes that banks with higher levels of corporate governance disclosure index engage in more climate change initiatives. The study shows that ownership by institutional and foreign investors is associated with more bank climate change initiatives, while government ownership reduces climate change initiatives. Further, we document that director ownership has no impact on climate change initiatives. The study documents that the association between bank ownership structures and bank climate change initiatives is positively moderated by the extent of the corporate governance disclosure index. This moderating impact improves for banks with high corporate governance mechanisms. Finally, we show that the bank ownership structures‐climate change initiatives linkage and the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms on this nexus vary significantly across banks' operating periods. We identify corporate governance disclosure as the potential channel through which bank ownership structures and climate change initiatives are interlinked. Our findings call for banks to adopt and implement good governance disclosure to improve climate change initiatives. The findings make significant theoretical and regulatory contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study theorizes and empirically tests whether firms' decisions to join multi‐stakeholder initiatives, targeting climate mitigation, lead to improved environmental performance. We focus on firms' participations in the Science Based Targets initiative, a multi‐stakeholder initiative meant to support firms in setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets in line with the thresholds defined by the Paris Agreement in 2015. The study hypothesizes that participation reduces firm's concerns about uncertainty and encourages investments in timeous internal climate change activities. We used the coarsened exact matching methodology to create a matched sample of European and North American listed firms participating in the initiative and comparable, non‐participating firms over a 3‐year period from 2015 to 2017. The results showed that firms' participation led to lower levels of GHG emissions compared to similar non‐participating counterparts, especially when they committed to the initiative with the intention to follow the proposed indications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and earnings management, using quarterly data of US commodity firms from the period 1990–2019. The findings show that oil and iron firms use both accruals and real activities to decrease earnings in quarters with high basis risk. Earnings management is economically significant. Further investigation provides fine-grained evidence that specific types of uncertainty (economic policy, climate policy, geopolitical) have varying effects on earnings management. The study also provides evidence that earnings management is aimed at giving investors useful information about the firms' performance during uncertain times. The study contributes to previous research on uncertainty and earnings management. It also informs market participants about the financial reporting quality of commodity firms, and has practical implications for financial reporting regulation in extracting industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Substantial pressure from civil society and investors has forced governments around the world to take climate neutrality initiatives. Several countries have pledged their nationally determined contributions towards net-zero. However, there exist various obstacles to achieving the same and the agriculture sector is one of them. Thus, this study identifies and models the critical barriers to achieving climate neutrality in the agriculture food supply chain (AFSC). Design/methodology/approach: Sixteen barriers are identified through a literature survey and are validated by the questionnaire survey. Furthermore, the interactions amongst the barriers are estimated through the application of the "weighted influence non-linear gauge system (WINGS)" method which considers the both intensity of influence and the strength of the barrier. To mitigate these barriers, a framework based on green, resilient and inclusive development (GRID) is proposed. Findings: The obtained results reveal that lack of collaboration amongst AFSC stakeholders, lack of information and education awareness, and lack of technical expertise obtained a higher rank (amongst the top five) in three indicators of the WINGS method and thus are the most significant barriers. Originality/value: This paper is the first attempt in modelling the climate neutrality barriers for the Indian AFSC. Additionally, the mitigating strategies are prepared using the GRID framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to address three research questions pertaining to climate neutrality within the supply chain of metal and mining industry: (1) How can an organization implement practices related to climate neutrality in the supply chain? (2) How do members of the supply chain adopt different measures and essential processes to assist an organization in responding to climate change-related concerns? (3) How can the SAP-LAP framework assist in analyzing and proposing solutions to attain climate neutrality? Design/methodology/approach: To address the proposed research questions concerning climate neutrality, this study employs a case study approach utilizing the SAP-LAP (situation, actor, process–learning, action, performance) framework. Within the SAP-LAP framework, adopting a natural resource-based perspective, the study thoroughly examines the intricacies and interactions among existing situations, pertinent actors and processes that impact climate initiatives within a metal and mining company. Findings: The study's findings suggest that organizations can achieve the objective of climate neutrality by prioritizing resources and capabilities that lead to reduced GHG emissions, lower energy consumption and optimal resource utilization. The study further proposes key elements that significantly influence the pursuit of climate neutrality within enterprises. Research limitations/implications: This study is one of the earliest contributions to the development of a holistic understanding of climate neutrality in the supply chain of the metal and mining industry. Practical implications: The study will assist practitioners and policymakers in comprehending the present circumstances, actors and processes involved in enterprises' supply networks in order to attain climate neutrality in supply chains, as well as in taking the right steps to enhance performance. Originality/value: This study presents a climate neutrality model and provides valuable insights into emission management, contributing to the achievement of the climate neutrality objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dairy farming is highly vulnerable to climate change in Pakistan; therefore, productivity and earnings of small dairy farmers are at a higher risk. Dairy farmers can reduce the determintal impacts of climate change on productivity and earnings by adaptation to climate change. It is thus critical to understand the adaptation to climate change among dariy farmers and consequent impacts on productivity and earnings. Using cross-sectional data of 450 dairy farmers from three different agroecological zones of Punjab, Pakistan, study has employed the logistic regression to determine determinants of adaptation and to analyze the adaptation impact on farm productivity and on earnings of the farmers. Educated and large farm size farmers are highly probable to adopting more adaptation measures compared to their counterparts. Estimates of PSM reveal that milk productivity and earings of adapters are higher than non-adapters. Regular vaccination found to be the most widely adopted strategy, which provides greater returns in terms of sustained milk prodction and improved dairy income. The research makes significant recommendations for adapting policies to climate change in dairy farming for improving well-being of rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global South (or Low-Income Countries, LICs) long has been advocating for the establishment of a Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund to address vulnerability and limited adaptation capacity in response to disasters exacerbated by climate injustices, which finally gained international recognition of late. This essay focuses on two key moments that led to this landmark agreement: at COP19, when Philippines climate delegate Naderev "Yeb" Saño advocated for L&D in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan; and during COP27, when global leaders invoked the historic floods in Pakistan as the agreement was reached. We consider how these two disasters were invoked during the passing of L&D in ways that critically interrupted the prevailing spiral of silence to articulate "disasters" to "climate" and "climate" to "justice" in the global climate policy arena. These discourses reveal, then, part of the expanding imaginary emerging to address human agency and inequities in an age of the climate disasters, including the idea of a "global majority." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate adaptation strengthens and builds the resilience of health systems to future climate-related shocks. Adaptation strategies and policies are necessary tools for governments to address the long-term impacts of climate change and enable the health system to respond to current impacts such as extreme weather events. Since 2011 South Africa has national climate change policies and adaptation strategies, yet there is uncertainty about: how these policies and plans are executed; the extent to which health policies include adaptation; and the extent of policy coherence across sectors and governance levels. A policy document analysis was conducted to examine how South African climate change, development and health policy documents reflect the health adaptation response across national and Western Cape levels and to assess the extent of coherence across key health and environment sector policy documents, including elements to respond to health-related climate risks, that can support implementation. Our findings show that overall there is incoherence in South African climate adaptation within health policy documents. Although health adaptation measures are somewhat coherent in national level policies, there is limited coherence within Western Cape provincial level documents and limited discussion on climate adaptation, especially for health. Policies reflect formal decisions and should guide decision-makers and resourcing, and sectoral policies should move beyond mere acknowledgement of adaptation responses to a tailored plan of actions that are institutionalized and location and sector specific. Activities beyond documents also impact the coherence and implementation of climate adaptation for health in South Africa. Clear climate risk-specific documents for the health sector would provide a stronger plan to support the implementation of health adaptation and contribute to building health system's resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sector-level cooperative initiatives involving both national governments and non-state actors were launched around the 2021 Glasgow climate conference (COP26). However, there have been questions about whether and to what extent these initiatives could substantially contribute to achieving the Paris Agreement's goal to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. To this end, this paper examines the prospects of the 14 Glasgow sector initiatives by investigating their aggregate mitigation ambition under current national signatories and the institutional robustness of each initiative. We find that the additional emission reduction ambition of the current national government signatories would, even if fully implemented, only fill about a quarter of the emissions gap in 2030 between the aggregate of existing national targets (nationally determined contributions: NDCs) and the required emission levels consistent with keeping warming below 1.5 °C, while the institutional robustness varied considerably across the initiatives. We also find that most national government signatories did not mention Glasgow initiatives in their updated NDCs submitted after COP26. Expansion of the national government participation, national government signatories' incorporation of the initiatives' goals into their updated NDCs by setting quantifiable domestic targets, and enhanced institutional capacity are key to successful emission reduction outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stratospheric aerosol injection is a potential method of climate intervention to reduce climate risk as decarbonization efforts continue. However, possible ecosystem impacts from the strategic design of hypothetical intervention scenarios are poorly understood. Two recent Earth system model simulations depict policy-relevant stratospheric aerosol injection scenarios with similar global temperature targets, but a 10-year delay in intervention deployment. Here we show this delay leads to distinct ecological risk profiles through climate speeds, which describe the rate of movement of thermal conditions. On a planetary scale, climate speeds in the simulation where the intervention maintains temperature are not statistically distinguishable from preindustrial conditions. In contrast, rapid temperature reduction following delayed deployment produces climate speeds over land beyond either a preindustrial baseline or no-intervention climate change with present policy. The area exposed to threshold climate speeds places different scenarios in context to their relative ecological risks. Our results support discussion of tradeoffs and timescales in future scenario design and decision-making. Hueholt et al. find that considering how the rate of temperature change contributes to ecosystem risk helps inform future hypothetical design of climate intervention scenarios [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union is committed to a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, as outlined in the Green Deal and Climate Law initiatives. In response to geopolitical events, the RePowerEU initiative aims to enhance energy self-sufficiency, reduce reliance on Russian natural gas, and promote hydrogen utilization. Hydrogen valleys, localized ecosystems integrating various hydrogen supply chain elements, play a key role in this transition, particularly benefiting isolated regions like islands. This manuscript focuses on optimizing a Centralized Green Hydrogen Production Facility (CGHPF) on the island of Crete. A mixed-integer linear programming framework is proposed to optimize the CGHPF, considering factors such as land area, wind and solar potential, costs, and efficiency. Additionally, an in-depth sensitivity analysis is conducted to explore the impact of key factors on the economic feasibility of hydrogen investments. The findings suggest that hydrogen can be sold in Crete at prices as low as 3.5 EUR/kg. Specifically, it was found in the base scenario that, selling hydrogen at 3.5 EUR/kg, the net profit of the investment could be as high as EUR 6.19 million, while the capacity of the solar and wind installation supplying the grid hydrogen facility would be 23.51 MW and 52.97 MW, respectively. It is noted that the high profitability is justified by the extraordinary renewable potential of Crete. Finally, based on our study, a policy recommendation to allow a maximum of 20% direct penetration of renewable sources of green hydrogen facilities into the grid is suggested to encourage and accelerate green hydrogen expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the carbon pricing debate by providing new evidence on the aggregate macroeconomic effect of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) in the Eurozone. To this end, a novel macroeconomic performance index is created to capture the overall economic performance of the Eurozone countries. The index is a weighted aggregation of key macroeconomic variables—GDP growth rate, inflation rate, employment rate, exchange rate, and long-term inflation rate—for the 19 member countries of the group. The effect of the EU ETS on this macroeconomic performance index is then empirically examined while controlling for the effects of physical capital accumulation, human capital accumulation and regulatory quality. A panel framework covering the period 2005–2022 is set up to achieve this objective and the relationship is examined using panel method of moments quantile regression with fixed effects, as well as fixed and random effects regressions of Driscoll and Kraay. A number of important revelations are made. Firstly, the behavior of the macroeconomic performance index constructed clearly reflects the economic reality of the Eurozone, with downward spikes visible in periods corresponding with the economic crisis of 2007–2009, the Eurozone debt crisis of 2010/2011, the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2016, and periods around the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Hence, a case is made for the use of the macroeconomic performance index as a superior aggregate measure of the overall economic performance in empirical research. Secondly, a statistically significant negative effect of the EU ETS on aggregate macroeconomic performance in the Eurozone is confirmed. This shows that there are significant economic costs associated with the use of carbon pricing as a means of lowering pollution. Thirdly, the findings further show that the negative impact gradually decreases (in absolute values) from lower to higher quantiles. Overall, higher carbon prices cause greater economic disruption when macroeconomic performance is relatively poor but have less damaging effect when aggregate economic performance is relatively strong. Policy recommendations based on the study findings are also provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid escalating climate challenges, we examine relationships between longtermism beliefs with policy-level and grassroots climate-protective attitudes and actions. Across four primary pre-registered studies (N = 4451) and two supplementary pilots (N = 1858), we find that a significant portion, approximately 25% of our participants, who endorse the longtermism ethical philosophy, report heightened climate change concerns. Furthermore, longtermists show stronger support for pro-climate policies, advocate for initiatives in line with climate justice for future generations and present-day minoritized groups and make proactive contributions to environmental causes and initiatives. Moreover, we find that responsibility to distant future generations drives these associations. Through a targeted intervention, we boosted intergenerational responsibility and increased donations to an environmental charity. These findings highlight how longtermism beliefs shape pro-environmental attitudes and actions, offering valuable insights for climate advocacy strategies and cultivating more widespread support for comprehensive environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change (CC) is a global problem bringing multiple different changes in different regions that exacerbate the conflict between landscape demands. Policy in EU and elsewhere are facing the huge challenge of CC by developing specific regulations and strategies (e.g., European climate law, RDP 2014–2020) generally shaped in the United Nations Frameworks Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The "new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change" sets out how the EU can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of CC and become climate resilient by 2050. Unfortunately, the factual implementation of these policies remains critical. Most often there is a lack of science‐based decision support tools empowering regional and local levels to act toward climate resilience. Here we have produced a strong interdisciplinary research effort to support the implementation of the EU strategy on adaptation to CC by providing free web‐based Decision Support Systems having a strong focus on factual territories. Our Geospatial Decision Support System aims to support local authorities/communities, scientists, and other stakeholders in EU and more in detail in Italy in better understanding and implementing local adaptation to climate change by means of a "Climate Change Resilience" toolbox oriented to evaluate the climatic anomalies and thermal crop adaptation. Specifically, in this research, two implemented tools have been discussed: (i) tool on General climatic variation and (ii) tool on Crop thermal adaptation. These tools are demonstrated in two different case studies at both EU and national level. Such a toolbox has been produced in the framework of the LANDSUPPORT Horizon 2020 project (www.landsupport.eu). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current era, entire global economies are transitioning to sustainable development because of global warming and climate change. Due to turbulence in environmental issues such as weather shocks, climate change and basic infrastructure and industrial planning, many countries are changing their approach and taking green steps. This paper assesses sustainable finance in India and the ways in which India can mitigate climate changing risk toward zero carbon policy and supporting SDGs 2030. It talks about the physical and transitional climate risks in India like surface temperature, heat wave concourse, etc., and provides a comprehensive analysis of how the corporate sector is imparting its role in sustainable nature through corporate social responsibility (CSR). India is an emerging economy where energy is an essential component. This study analyzes about supply of energy and how India is shifting from traditional energy sources to renewal energy sources. Thus, the objective of this study is to focus on the initiatives taken by the Indian government for sustainable finance through green bond policy at national and international platforms using the Panchamrit framework adopted by India thereby focusing on India's sustainable policy support for SDGs 2030. Also, this research proposes numerous recommendations for future sustainable finance research in the context to India, which includes developing and diffusing innovative sustainable financing instruments, magnifying, and managing the profitability and returns of sustainable financing, making sustainable finance more sustainable, and leveraging the power of new-age technologies for sustainable finance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To align with climate initiatives, multiple reporting programs are transitioning from generic activity-based emission factors to site-specific measured emissions data to estimate greenhouse gas emissions at oil and gas facilities. This study contemporaneously deployed two top-down (TD) aerial methods across 14 midstream facilities, building upon previous research in the field. The methods produced multiple whole-facility estimates at each facility, resulting in 773 individual paired estimates (same facility, same day), and robust mean estimates for each facility. Mean estimates for each facility, aggregated across all facilities, differed by nearly 2:1 (49% [32% to 69%]). At 6 of 14 facilities, the methods produced mean estimates that differed by more than a factor of two. These data suggest that one or both methods did not produce accurate facility-level estimates at a majority of facilities and in aggregate across all facilities. The overall results are augmented with two case studies where TD estimates at two pre-selected facilities were coupled with comprehensive onsite measurements to understand the factors driving the divergence between TD and bottom-up (BU) emissions estimates. In 3 of 4 paired comparisons between the intensive onsite estimates and one of the TD methods, the intensive onsite surveys did not conclusively diagnose the difference in estimates. In these cases, our work suggests that the TD methods mis-estimate emissions an unknown fraction of the time, for unknown reasons. While two methods were selected for this study, it is unlikely that the issues identified here are confined to these two methods; similar issues may exist for other similar whole-facility methods on midstream and/or other facility types. These findings have important implications for the construction of voluntary and regulatory reporting programs that rely on emission estimates for reporting fees or penalties, or for studies using whole-facility estimates to aggregate TD emissions to basin or regional estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The utilization of remote sensing soil moisture products in agricultural and hydrological studies is on the rise. Conducting a regional applicability analysis of these soil moisture products is essential as a preliminary step for their effective utilization. The triple collocation (TC) method enables the estimation of the standard deviation of errors in products when true soil moisture values are unavailable. It assesses data uncertainty and mitigates the influence of product errors on fusion, thereby enhancing product accuracy significantly. In this study, the TC uncertainty error analysis was employed to integrate Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR-2), and the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI) active (ESA CCI A) and passive (ESA CCI P) products, with ground-based measurements serving as a reference. Traditional evaluation metrics, such as the correlation coefficient (R), bias, root mean square error (RMSE), and unin situed root mean square error (ubRMSE), were employed to evaluate the accuracy of the product. The findings indicate that SMAP and ESA CCI P products demonstrate strong spatiotemporal continuity within the research area and exhibit low uncertainty across various land types. The products derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR-2) exhibit a high level of temporal and spatial continuity; however, there is a requirement for enhancing their accuracy. The products of ESA CCI A exhibit notable spatiotemporal disjunction, contributing significantly to their elevated level of uncertainty. After fusion with TC analysis, the correlation coefficient (R = 0.7) of the TC-2 product derived from the fusion of SMAP, AMSR-2, and ESA CCI P products is significantly higher than the correlation coefficient of the TC-1 product (R = 0.65) obtained from the fusion of SMAP, AMSR-2, and ESA CCI A products at a 95% confidence level. The integration of data can efficiently mitigate the challenges associated with spatiotemporal gaps and inaccuracies in products, offering a dependable foundation for the subsequent utilization of remote sensing products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) is an emerging technique for the remote sensing of the environment. Traditional GNSS-R bio-geophysical parameter retrieval algorithms and deep learning models utilize observables derived from only the peak power of the delay-Doppler maps (DDMs), discarding the rest. This reduces the data available, which potentially hinders estimation accuracy. In addition, reflections from water bodies dominate the signal amplitude, and using only the peak power in those areas is challenging. Motivated by all the above, we propose a novel deep learning retrieval model for biomass estimation that uses the full DDM of surface reflectivity. Experiments using CYGNSS data have illustrated the improvements achieved when using the full DDM of surface reflectivity. Our proposed model was able to estimate biomass, trained using the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) biomass map, outperforming the model that used peak reflectivity. Global and regional analysis is provided along with an illustration of how biomass estimation is achieved when using the full DDM around water bodies. GNSS-R could become an efficient method for biomass monitoring with fast revisit times. However, an elaborate calibration is necessary for the retrieval models, to associate GNSS-R data with bio-geophysical parameters on the ground. To achieve this, further developments with improved training data are required, as well as work using in situ validation data. Nevertheless, using GNSS-R and deep learning retrieval models has the potential to enable fast and persistent biomass monitoring and help us better understand our changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this policy paper is to characterize the current situation of Tunisian municipalities in matters of climate change policies and actions and to understand the barriers and best practices. By surveying municipalities in Tunisia, we were able to provide an overview of the Tunisian municipalities in matters of climate change actions and strategies, as well as finding the main barriers and best practices. First, we found that most Tunisian municipalities are facing different effects of climate change. Second, the majority of municipalities do not have a strategy for mitigation and adaptation of climate change at the local level. Third, the main barrier that municipalities face in investing in climate change actions is the lack of financial resources and funding. Four, we have identified some of the best climate change mitigation and adaptation practices of surveyed cities, which should be taken into consideration and implemented also by the other cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a key socioeconomic and environmental concern in South Africa. The South African government introduced several climate change initiatives to address the impacts of climate change, resulting in the proliferation of climate adaptation policies across spheres of government. This paper studies different climate change adaptation policies and climate policy paradigms (CPP) to understand the adaptation landscape; it explains and compares the changes in CPP in South Africa over time. We mapped 40 policy documents from 2004 to 2022, which shows 12 national policies, 12 provincial (sub-national) policy documents and 14 metropolitan city policy documents. We then used 12 national policy documents to illustrate and understand the CPP. The research shows that different stakeholders have shaped climate change adaptation policy, both private and public firms advised on climate change policy and there are a number of different funding partners supporting the adaptation policy like GEF, C40 and GIZ. The changing policy environment has introduced new frameworks, objectives and processes. Therefore, more efforts will be needed going forward to guide adaptation policy across national, provincial and local governments. We find that several CPPs have emerged, that is different paradigms encompassing a range of policy goals, framings and instruments. The present National CC Adaptation Strategy (NCCAS) mandates adaptation across all levels of government and allows all important stakeholders to address climate change consequences. This NCCAS increases the number and ambition of adaptation policy, encourages integrated approaches, policy coherence and clear direction on how to handle climate risks and impacts in varied South Africa and its global commitment. Changes in policy paradigm enable the use of new policy instruments, including funding and budget mechanisms. Finally, climate adaptation policy has become more ambitious and stringent, requiring all levels of government to plan for climate change. The climate change policy landscape in South Africa has grown over the past 18 years, with policy development across different spheres of government (national, sectoral, provincial and metros), New CPPs have emerged, supported by new policy frames, goals and instruments. The NCCAS provides a clear policy goal, which also provides new policy instruments to implement climate actions and acts to enhance integrated approaches, The lack of domestic budget allocation remains a challenge for national government, but external partnerships have begun to provide support for policy development. Notably, a shift from a flexible to stringent approach to climate policy is needed to deliver effective climate action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of long-term scenarios to outline pathways for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 has become a standard practice in climate change policy planning. In Argentina, a modelling process was initiated in 2019 in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector utilizing three tools: FABLE calculator, Dinamica EGO and Nature Map. In order to generate technical inputs for the modelling exercise a stakeholder dialogue was launched. A 2050 Carbon Neutrality scenario was developed, alongside several intermediate scenarios based on stakeholders´ visions of the future. The modelling results demonstrated the biophysical feasibility of achieving carbon neutrality in the Argentinean AFOLU sector by 2050. However, alignment with current sectoral priorities was identified as a challenge, leading stakeholders to propose less ambitious scenarios as more attainable targets. This experience underscored the significance of constructing multiple policy scenarios, facilitating the evaluation of diverse potential future trajectories for policymaking. These different pathways provided contrasting perspectives between political objectives, such as achieving carbon neutrality, and the practical feasibility of local implementation. Moreover, the process highlighted the vital role of integrating the private sector and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in long-term climate planning, emphasizing the need for inclusive collaboration to address climate challenges effectively. Stakeholder-based modelling approaches serve as valuable discussion tools to initiate and accompany political discussions concerning the efforts required to achieve carbon neutrality. Modelling outputs provide quantitative demonstrations of the challenges involved, while stakeholder dialogues facilitate the identification of barriers and enabling conditions required to promote a successful transition. It is necessary to enhance institutionalized public-private dialogue spaces that extend beyond specific projects and government changes, given their importance in facilitating participatory long-term thinking. Nevertheless, collective scenario construction alone seems insufficient to drive the profound changes that are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use a state-of-the-art global general equilibrium model to quantify the effects of an International Carbon Price Floor (ICPF) proposal for the coordination of global climate policy. With the ICPF proposal, countries would implement a carbon price floor that is differentiated according to their level of development. The price floor could be implemented by an actual carbon price or other policies with equivalent stringency. Implementing such a joint effort would be a big step towards aligning global emissions with the Paris Agreement. The study highlights three main findings. First, the ICPF is progressive in terms of emission reductions and demands considerably more effort from high-income countries (HICs). Unlike proposals based on equity principles, however, it requires neither extremely high emission reductions from HICs nor massive financial transfers. Second, the differentiated carbon prices cost only an additional 0.3 percent of global GDP compared to a global uniform carbon price. Third, the ICPF can be as effective as border carbon adjustment (BCA) mechanisms at preserving competitiveness of HICs despite the differentiation in carbon price floors. This means, there would be no need for BCA with an ICPF. Compared to a BCA, HICs can avoid the administrative burden and low-income countries (LICs) will not face the cost of BCA. As a first step to global climate policy, a sectoral ICPF for the EITE sector could be introduced. It would address competitiveness concerns almost as well as the full ICPF. An International Carbon Price Floor (ICPF), with carbon price floors differentiated by development level, would incur only small economic costs compared to baseline economic growth. The ICPF would allow for international burden sharing, with HICs incurring higher cost than middle – and low-income countries. The ICPF reduces distortions to competitiveness as much as BCA, so that no BCA would be necessary. A 'sectoral ICPF' in energy-intensive and trade-exposed sectors would be effective against leakage and loss in competitiveness and would thus be an attractive alternative to border carbon adjustment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Turbulent times exacerbate financial instability and climate risks. • Amplifying effect of financial instability on climate policy uncertainty. • Climate policy uncertainty contributes to worsening financial instability. • Findings support climate fragility hypothesis from a macro-perspective. • Implications for integrating climate factors into decision-making. This study presents a novel investigation of the reciprocal relationship between financial instability and climate risks, focusing on the influence of climate policy uncertainty within the US financial system from a macroeconomic perspective. By adopting the bootstrap rolling-window causality method, the analysis captures structural changes over an extended period between January 2000 and March 2021. Importantly, this method provides a robust data-driven approach, avoiding ad hoc assumptions about temporal breakpoints. The results support the climate fragility hypothesis, highlighting the amplifying effect of financial instability on climate risks. The study reveals that periods of economic and political turbulence exacerbate these effects by generating substantial financial turbulence, which, in turn, influences climate policy. The results also indicate that climate policy uncertainty contributes to worsening financial instability during critical events such as sudden changes in interest rates and major financial crises. The implications of this research extend to policymakers and investors, encouraging them to integrate climate factors into decision-making processes and adopt sustainable practices to promote financial stability and mitigate climate-related risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the influential role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in shaping climate policy in Tunisia. Tunisia is a critical front in the global green transition. Our findings highlight how improved working conditions significantly increase NGO participation in climate initiatives, underscoring the value of a supportive operating environment. Growing professionalism within NGOs is particularly influencing strategic development in areas such as the Resilience 2050 and Low Carbon Economy 2050 programs. The interplay between NGOs and government agencies emerges as a transformative factor; exclusion from policymaking processes can lead some NGOs to intensify their climate action, while collaboration with governments and access to international funding generally strengthen NGOs' commitment to broader climate agendas. We also explore the influence of resource constraints on NGOs' ability to multitask, and the link between financial stability and political engagement. Our study highlights the importance of fostering robust NGO-government partnerships that balance local insights with global perspectives for effective climate action, and points to the need for such collaborations to support Tunisia's green transition within the broader context of global climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Libraries are currently undergoing a significant transformation, emerging as dynamic advocates for environmental sustainability, surpassing their conventional roles as mere repositories of knowledge. In today's world, dominated by the growing climate crisis, these evolving institutions are poised to play a pivotal role in addressing climate change. However, they confront a range of challenges, including the need to establish sustainable operations, provide accessible climate information, engage diverse audiences and uphold ethical standards. Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology used for this study involves an extensive review of literature. The authors analyze existing studies concerning green libraries and their role as catalysts for climate change action globally. This analysis draws from a variety of scholarly sources, encompassing articles, books and reports, to provide a comprehensive overview of the subject. Findings: The findings indicate that despite the aforementioned challenges, libraries in developed countries worldwide have demonstrated noteworthy success through initiatives such as green building projects, community engagement programs, collaborative partnerships, expansion of digital resources, innovative climate literacy initiatives and a commitment to ethical stewardship. These achievements serve as a source of inspiration, fostering hope and spurring action as libraries empower communities to embrace environmental stewardship. They showcase the potential of libraries as catalysts for positive environmental change. Originality/value: The originality and value of this research lie in its insights into the potential of green libraries initiative as a catalyst for climate change action. Ultimately, this study opens the door to untold literary exploration, revolutionizing the art of green library capacity in the ever-evolving technological landscape. To augment their impact, libraries are encouraged to broaden the scope of their climate education initiatives, expand their digital resources, cultivate strategic collaborations, prioritize ethical responsibility and implement thorough evaluation and communication practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the effects of three events with major importance for climate policy on energy sector stocks: the Paris Agreement, the Trump election and presidency, and the Biden election. By combining event studies with impulse‐indicator saturation methods, we show that the Paris Agreement and the election of Mr. Biden benefited renewable industries, while the election of Mr. Trump had negative effects. For fossil fuel industries, the effects were largely the opposite. Despite Trump's efforts to eliminate environmental regulations, his presidency did however witness a decrease in both US coal production and consumption, while natural gas and oil consumption increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to propose an index based on the IPAT model to quantify the performance of countries concerning their emissions, also taking into account the level of climate technology and the level of inequality. In this study, two quantitative techniques were applied to a sample of 100 countries and 21 indicators. The main results were: (a) a 1% increase in social inequality contributes to an increase in emissions levels by 0.105; (b) the 1% increase in climate techs contributes to reducing emissions levels by 0.141; (c) The proposed IPA index shows that only Estonia and Slovenia are the best performers, mainly in overcoming the inequality barrier, while South Africa and Nigeria are the worst performers in reducing their emissions. The results provide evidence that climate policies should contain social targets to improve country performance and should use a representative value to identify their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and climate change issues have exacerbated the existing gender inequalities in Ghana's cocoa sector. The current underrepresentation and unequal access to opportunities for women in climate action initiatives has negative implications for their livelihoods. This research focuses on how harvesting cocoa waste enabled the creation of a sustainable micro enterprise to encourage adoption of shaded cocoa production to generate biomass (waste) for organic compost production. The study followed a prescribed training programme for organic compost production and agribusiness management skills. The study employed the analysis of project notes and post-training community-visit observation records and interviews to assess the success of the training workshops and the overall project progress. Results from the analyses indicate that the knowledge and skills provided engendered motivation for a continuous and expanded adoption of climate-smart agri-innovation of shaded cocoa production. Further, the results show evidence of positive social, environmental, cultural, and economic impacts and favourable prospects of improved livelihoods for female cocoa farmers. These insights imply that SDG13, which calls for urgent climate action, can be integrated with SDG5, which places emphasis on gender equity, to improve the adoption of cocoa agroforestry and the livelihood of women in the cocoa sector of Ghana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore when and under what conditions state-owned enterprises (SOEs) become important players in orchestrating the global climate action and what their roles are as domestic or international (de)carbonizers. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that aims to advance understanding of the role of SOEs in addressing the global climate challenge. The authors build on the institutional theory to capture the importance of home-country climate regulation mechanisms and advance knowledge on the internationalization of SOEs. The authors review the literature on the institutional boundaries that shape the environmental activities of firms at home and abroad and develop the argument on the influence of home country institutions and internationalization on the role of SOEs in the global climate agenda. Findings: In this study, the authors elaborate the SOEs' climate action matrix and offer three propositions based on the fact that SOEs' environmental strategies are driven by the interests of the state as owner and the scope of SOEs' internationalization. First, the authors propose that the level of home country's climate policy ambition explains SOEs' stance on climate action. Second, scope of internationalization explains SOEs' stance on climate action. Third, the progressive/increasing involvement of SOEs in climate action enhances the country's climate stance. Originality/value: The authors incorporate the climate argument into international business (IB) studies of SOEs' internationalization, a novel approach that helps us to advance the knowledge on the complex issue of corporate climate action. The authors argue for a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between home/host countries and SOEs' climate engagement. In doing this, the authors contribute to the IB research and policy agenda by exploring SOEs' engagement in advancing the global climate agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In collaboration with women's organizations in India, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa, an approach for a novel gender assessment of urban climate policies was developed and tested. The Gender Assessment and Monitoring of Mitigation and Adaptation (GAMMA) methodology allows for an in-depth analysis of the institutional framework and the mitigation and adaptation policies of cities. Its application by the women's organizations in 14 pilot cities led to policy recommendations on how to integrate gender equality into urban mitigation and adaptation actions. The results of a monitoring exercise show that the project has made a significant step forward in raising awareness of gender issues and gender-responsive action at the urban level. It provides civil society organizations working on climate justice with a tool to push local governments to work towards low-carbon, resilient, gender-just and inclusive cities. It can also be used by local governments for self-assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the international community continues to fall short on reducing emissions to avoid disastrous impacts of climate change, some scientists have called for more research into solar geoengineering (SGE) as a potential temporary fix. Others, however, have adamantly rejected the notion of considering SGE in climate policy discussions. One prominent concern with considering SGE technologies to help manage climate change is the so-called "free driver" conjecture. The prediction is that among countries with different preferences for the level of SGE, the country that prefers the most will deploy levels higher than the global optimum. This paper tests the free-driver hypothesis experimentally under different conditions and institutions. We find that aggregate deployment of SGE is inefficiently high in all settings, but slightly less so when players are heterogeneous in endowments or when aggregate deployment is determined by a best-shot technology. Despite persistent inefficiencies in SGE deployment, free-driver behavior, on average, is less extreme than the theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the role of financial policy uncertainty in climate change risk. We use the financial policies uncertainty index to estimate its composite effectiveness on climate change. We test the financial development role from two perspectives covering the credit channel and market liquidation facilities for climate change. We also test the role of financial policy uncertainty through moderating channels of renewable energy production and financial development. Our sample comprises 42 developing economies from 1991 to 2020. We apply the fixed‐effects estimation, feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method and bootstrap quantile to analyze the results. The empirical results reveal that financial policy uncertainty plays a significant role in climate change risk. We conclude that climate change risk management policies and financial policy uncertainties should be considered as key indicators of financial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life expectancy can reflect both health benefit and implementation cost of climate policy. Nevertheless, little research has quantified the relation between life expectancy and climate policy in literature. In this paper, we attempt to narrow the research gap by studying how life expectancy is related to the Chinese nationwide emission trading scheme (CNETS). To achieve this research target, a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model is employed to simulate the operation of the economic system and the policy shock from emission abatement. The CGE model results show that life expectancy is prolonged by GDP but shortened by emissions, and the GDP impact on life expectancy is larger than the emission impact. Climate policy has dual effects on life expectancy because it relieves both negative emission impacts and positive GDP impacts on lifespan; its net effect on life expectancy is positive. Life expectancy positively impacts GDP, and this impact is moderated by climate policy; specifically, climate policy reinforces the positive impact of life expectancy on GDP. Life expectancy minimally affects carbon emissions during climate policy implementation; in other words, it has minimal impacts on emission abatement. These findings imply that climate policy and life expectancy complement each other; the government could implement climate policy to increase lifespan or prolong life expectancy to facilitate policy implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Viticulture is an example of a socio-ecological system that poses serious challenges for sustainable soil management and pesticide use, with various interactions between winegrowers' decision-making and ecological consequences. This study introduces an agent-based model (ABM) on winegrowers' decision on inter-row management and pesticide use. The ABM builds upon an empirical study of winegrowers' decision-making in European viticultural landscapes and has been built for three case study regions: Leithaberg (Austria), Palatinate (Germany) and Târnave (Romania). The ABM allows for analysing potential effects of policy instruments including mandatory vegetation cover in the inter-rows, the reduction of fungicide use and ban of insecticides against Lobesia botrana. The effects of policies differ between the case study regions, indicating how important the local context is for effective policies. For example, policies aiming at higher inter-row vegetation cover had the strongest effects on vegetation cover, landscape aesthetics and soil loss in Târnave since many vineyards are currently intensively tilled and there exist no policies supporting inter-row vegetation cover in Romania. Highlights: We introduce an agent-based model suite for three European winegrowing regions. The model explores vegetation and pest management and their ecological consequences. The feedback loop between decision-making and ecological processes is closed. Each region is simulated under climate change and various policy instruments. Results show that context is important for effective policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore the empirical relationship between climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and regional innovation performance. The empirical analysis was conducted on 36 years of available data over the period 1987 to 2022 in the United States (US). By using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model for regression analysis, we examine the impact of CPU on two crucial indicators of innovation, namely, research and development (R&D) expenditures and patent applications (PTA). The empirical analysis reveals a significant negative effect of CPU on both R&D expenditures and PTA, suggesting that higher levels of climate uncertainty may hinder innovation activities in the regional context. A high CPU introduces hesitancy and risk aversion, impacting the allocation of resources, confidence in markets, and the willingness of businesses to pursue innovative endeavors. The negative effect remains consistent even after the inclusion of several control variables and robustness checks. The findings underscore the significance of a stable and supportive policy environment and economic conditions in promoting innovation. Overall, this research provides valuable empirical evidence on the interplay between CPU and innovation outcomes, offering insights for policymakers, businesses, and researchers seeking to navigate the complexities of climate‐related challenges and their impact on innovation. We did not find any study exploring the comparable impact of CPU on innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) mechanism is a climate change mitigation policy tool widely used in tropical forested countries that faces institutional and governance challenges in its implementation. Peru provides a particularly rich case study to analyze the agency of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples' organizations (IPOs) in the development of a national REDD+ policy. We examine the multi‐scalar interaction between the Peruvian State and IPOs in the governance of REDD+, identifying the role of Amazonian Indigenous groups in this process. Drawing on socio‐ecological governance and political economy approaches, we analyze data collected through interviews and participant observation. The article provides a case study of how IPOs work within the evolving governance system of REDD+ in Peru—both in responding to opportunities and in shaping the emergent system. Furthermore, it reveals that IPOs' rights and equity frame—deployed through several multi‐scalar strategies—has finally found a place in Peru's REDD+ governance. This has resulted in a more pluralistic mode of coordination between the State and IPOs and in the increase of the socio‐political empowerment of Indigenous Peoples. Our analysis suggests that Peru's REDD+ policies could progress toward more equitable outcomes through a true operationalization of cohesiveness and inclusiveness that encourages a meaningful relationship building between the state and Indigenous Peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norway, a significant petroleum producer and exporter, has been a frontrunner within policies for carbon capture and storage (CCS). As CCS is recognized as a key technology for achieving the Paris climate policy targets, there is a clear need for more knowledge about how to design successful projects. Norway's first CCS policy initiative, the ambitious Mongstad project, was the result of a political compromise that was imposed from above, basically with one single company in control. The project was largely seen as a failure and was terminated in 2013. However, instead of dropping ambitions for developing CCS projects, the authorities launched a new policy soon afterwards. This policy evolved with the differently organized Longship CCS project as its core. Using a path‐dependency perspective, we find that established institutional structures from the Mongstad project, combined with national interests and expertise, help to explain the fundamental continuity of CCS policies in Norway. This explanation is supplemented by a policy‐learning perspective, which helps to explain policy changes and differences between the two flagship CCS projects. The Longship project developed gradually 'from below'; linked project responsibilities close to competences and interests; dealt with key risks separately to reduce the inherent complexity; and organized clear requirements up front. We hold that this way of designing CCS projects is of relevance to other countries considering CCS projects. Furthermore, by placing the Norwegian case in context of the development of EU and international climate policy we contribute a theoretical framework relevant also for subsequent research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane emissions from solid waste may represent a substantial fraction of the global anthropogenic budget, but few comprehensive studies exist to assess inventory assumptions. We quantified emissions at hundreds of large landfills across 18 states in the United States between 2016 and 2022 using airborne imaging spectrometers. Spanning 20% of open United States landfills, this represents the most systematic measurement-based study of methane point sources of the waste sector. We detected significant point source emissions at a majority (52%) of these sites, many with emissions persisting over multiple revisits (weeks to years). We compared these against independent contemporaneous in situ airborne observations at 15 landfills and established good agreement. Our findings indicate a need for long-term, synoptic-scale monitoring of landfill emissions in the context of climate change mitigation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering biology (EngBio) is a dynamic field that uses gene editing, synthesis, assembly, and engineering to design new or modified biological systems. EngBio applications could make a significant contribution to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, policy support will be needed if EngBio is to fulfil its climate mitigation potential. What form should such policies take, and what EngBio applications should they target? This paper reviews EngBio's potential climate contributions to assist policymakers shape regulations and target resources and, in so doing, to facilitate democratic deliberation on desirable futures. Engineering biology is a dynamic field that uses gene editing, synthesis, assembly, and engineering to design new or modified biological systems. Here the authors discuss the policy considerations and interventions needed to support a role for engineering biology in climate change mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper quantifies empirically the macroeconomic and financial effects of Climate Policy Risk (CPR) in Switzerland. To do so, I develop a new CPR index using text analysis techniques on a large dataset of Swiss media articles. The identification of CPR shocks is achieved by using narrative restrictions around events which are likely to have coincided with an increase in the probability of adopting tighter climate policies. I find that CPR shocks are associated with a significant decline in real GDP and a decline in firm-level CO2 emissions. Using firm-level equity price data and rolling linear panel regressions, I document that CPR is increasingly reflected in asset prices. I further find that CO2-intensive firms perform significantly worse than their greener counterparts following events which increased transition risk. The results are in line with recent theoretical contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]