Schlagwort: climate change

Science-Policy Documents

Morrow, David R.; Nicholson, Simon (2021): Sustainable Carbon Removal

Morrow, David R.; Nicholson, Simon (2021): Sustainable Carbon Removal. American University, School of International Service.

„Analyzing carbon removal at different levels can illuminate environmental, social, and economic risks and opportunities. Levels of analysis range from broad technological categories, like reforestation, to specific projects, like Climeworks’ Orca direct air capture project in Iceland. Most analyses have focused on broad technological categories, but more fine-grained analyses are crucial for delivering actionable advice. Finding metrics for environmental, social, and economic impacts is vital for quantifying positive and negative impacts and comparing approaches. One possibility is to use the indicators for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which are politically negotiated, internationally accepted metrics of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Determining which approaches are most sustainable requires balancing different positive and negative impacts that may not be easily comparable. There are several ways to do this, ranging from intuitive judgments to multicriteria decision analysis, although any decisions about which approaches are most sustainable are ultimately political decisions. In summary, to develop sustainable carbon removal, we need to identify sustainability metrics, such as the indicators behind the Sustainable Development Goals; apply those metrics at different levels of analysis; and develop strategies for determining which approaches strike the right balance between environmental, social, and economic goals.“

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Media

The Washington Post: A recipe for fighting climate change and feeding the world

„Most commercial crops are annual. They provide only one harvest and must be replanted every year. Growing these foods on an industrial scale usually takes huge amounts of water, fertilizer and energy, making agriculture a major source of carbon and other pollutants. Scientists say this style of farming has imperiled Earth’s soils, destroyed vital habitats and contributed to the dangerous warming of our world. But Kernza — a domesticated form of wheatgrass developed by scientists at the nonprofit Land Institute — is perennial. A single seed will grow into a plant that provides grain year after year after year. It forms deep roots that store carbon in the soil and prevent erosion. It can be planted alongside other crops to reduce the need for fertilizer and provide habitat for wildlife.“

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Media

Gulf Times: What climate change requires of economics

„This summer’s record-breaking heatwave in the American northwest offered a reminder – as if it were needed – of what anthropogenic climate change will mean for living conditions now and in the future. Average global temperatures have already risen to 1.2C above pre-industrial levels and could increase by another 5C over the next 80 years. This warming is hastening the extinction of many species and rendering parts of the world less hospitable for human habitation. By some estimates, climate change may force more than 1bn people to migrate by 2050.
Confronted with such massive long-term risks, many of our long-held assumptions will need to be revised, and the economics discipline is no exception. If we are going to avoid misguided policy pathways such as those that would abandon economic growth completely (even though billions of people around the world are still in poverty), we need to adapt mainstream economics to new climate realities.“

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Baiman, Ron (2021): In Support of a Renewable Energy and Materials Economy: A Global Green New Deal That Includes Arctic Sea Ice Triage and Carbon Cycle Restoration

Baiman, Ron (2021): In Support of a Renewable Energy and Materials Economy: A Global Green New Deal That Includes Arctic Sea Ice Triage and Carbon Cycle Restoration. In Review of Radical Political Economics, 048661342110323. DOI: 10.1177/04866134211032396.

„A Global Green New Deal (GGND)—that includes Arctic sea ice climate triage and carbon cycle climate restoration, and that, following Eisenberger (2020), would move us toward a renewable energy and materials economy (REME)—is necessary to turn our current civilization and species-threatening climate crises into an opportunity to stabilize our planet’s climate and advance to a new, more equitable and prosperous stage of human development. Imminent, potentially catastrophic, global climate impacts of Arctic sea ice loss, the first global climate “tipping point,” are reviewed, and practical and efficient potential climate triage methods for avoiding this are summarized. Longer-term carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and carbon capture, sequestration, and use (CCSU) methods, that would move us toward long-term carbon cycle climate restoration, are presented. A general reframing of climate policy and specific GGND policy proposals—that include Arctic sea ice climate triage and carbon cycle climate restoration that would rapidly move us toward a REME and avoid increasingly catastrophic climate impacts—are proposed.“

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Media

C2G: How can the idea of a planetary emergency help the world emerge from crisis?

„Understanding that we face a planetary emergency can help countries and citizens around the world overcome our many interlocking crises, says Sandrine Dixson-Decleve, co-president of the Club of Rome during a C2GTalk interview. Bringing international, national and local leaders into inclusive, people-focused governance processes can help our emergence into a new type of civilization. „

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Peer-reviewed Publications

Osaka, Shannon; et al. (2021): Framing “nature‐based” solutions to climate change

Osaka, Shannon; Bellamy, Rob; Castree, Noel (2021): Framing “nature‐based” solutions to climate change. In Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.729.

„We review what counts (and what does not count) as a natural solution, and find that those labeled natural are routinely framed under technical and social appraisal criteria as being more beneficial, cost effective, mature, and democratic than ostensibly artificial counterparts.“

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