Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Obligations of Means or Result? A Jurisdictional Approach

In education for sustainable development, widely regarded as a framework that offers us the opportunity to improve the ways in which we cope with climate change issues, the need for student teachers to express willingness to act in order to deal with numerous issues and challenges of sustainable development, especially climate change, is of particular importance. Therefore, the focus of this study is on the examination of predictors of student teachers’ willingness to act in a climate-change mitigation and adaptation context. For the purpose of this study, measurement instruments of willingness to act in climate change mitigation and adaptation context, attitudes towards climate change, perception of action possibilities in climate change mitigation and adaptation context, interest in climate change and concern for ecological problems were validated. A total of 201 student teachers from the University of Rijeka (Croatia) participated in the study. It was determined that (I) attitudes towards climate change, (II) perception of action possibilities in climate change mitigation and adaptation context and (III) interest in climate change represent significant predictors of willingness to act in climate-change direction and mitigation contexts. Based on the results of this study, recommendations for teacher education in the climate change context have been offered.

Climate is one of the most important factors that influence and determine the behavior, abundance and distribution of species, as well as having a strong influence on the ecology of habitats and ecosystems structure. Changes in the behavior, abundance and distribution of species are linked to climate. Diversity and plant species are highly interlinked and the relationship between biodiversity and climate change should be explored from several perspectives. This variety provides the building blocks to adapt to changing environmental conditions which are caused due to climate change. Conserved habitats can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus helping to address climate change by storing carbon in the plant biomass. Climate is one of the major limiting factors which determine the survival and growth of plants. The conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services can play a key role in helping societies to adapt to climate change. Biodiversity is affected by climate change, but biodiversity, through the ecosystem services and function it supports, also makes an important contribution to both climate-change mitigation and adaptation. Maintenance of agro-biodiversity and carbon sequestration through the process of photosynthesis is the two important and complementary environmental services of agro-ecosystems. Climate change affects biodiversity and one of the causes of biodiversity loss. At the same time climate change will accelerate further if biodiversity and ecosystems are not effectively protected. Generally due to the variation of genetic makeup within pants, different plant species diversity plays a great role in climate change adaption and mitigation process.

The climate challenges confronting agriculture are multiple, interconnected and multi-scaled. Agriculture is a source of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, but it is also vulnerable to climate change impacts. Adopting resilient approaches in the agricultural industry can help to contribute to both climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation. Climate-smart agriculture has emerged as a solution to address the multiple challenges of climate change and food security by sustainably increasing productivity, enhancing resilience and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To date, there is limited scholarly evidence on what constitutes climate-smart agriculture, and how it is framed globally and practiced by smallholder farming communities. This research helps to bridge this gap by analysing the international discourse around climate-smart agriculture, and providing local empirical evidence derived from smallholder farming communities in the Philippines and Timor-Leste. At the broad level, this research aims to identify how climate-smart agriculture within community-based adaptation programs is contributing to the integration of mitigation and adaptation responses to climate change. Drawing from political ecology and climate change (adaptation and mitigation sciences) theories, the research explains how socio-institutional factors – inequality, unequal power relations and social injustice – influence climate-smart agriculture. The theoretical arguments are illustrated with empirical case studies of smallholder farmers and civil society organisations in the two case studies. Using mixed qualitative methods and descriptive analysis of over 150 semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, the research examines climate-smart agriculture practices across three broad categories: vulnerability of smallholder farmers (socioeconomic factors), synergistic relationships (adaptation, mitigation and food security) and governance (socio-institutional determinants). This research argues that mitigation and adaptation interventions are climate-smart for smallholder farmers when they directly address local climate risks, support a combination of adaptation, food security and livelihood strategies, and empower at-risk and marginalised populations. Results indicate that climate-smart agriculture in the Philippines and Timor-Leste are characterised and influenced by multiple socio-institutional factors. The increasing burden of loss and damage as a result of extreme climate events subject women to migration, increased discrimination, loss of customary rights to land, resource poverty and food insecurity. In terms of farming practices implemented by smallholder farmers, most adaptation actions were found to have corresponding positive mitigation, food security and livelihood co-benefits. At the community level, climate-smart interventions are highly location-specific, technically rigorous, involve knowledge-intensive processes, and are influenced by the finance and capacities of local farming communities and implementing partners. Furthermore, of relevance at the global level, this research finds that there is a growing divide between how developed and developing countries frame solutions to the impacts of climate change on agriculture despite agriculture featuring prominently in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations. Such a divide is limiting the recognition of solutions that integrate mitigation and adaptation opportunities. The insights from the Philippines and Timor-Leste make a compelling case for joint adaptation and mitigation actions in the agriculture sector across three broad policy frontiers. First, implementation of climate-smart agriculture will require participatory platforms that have a focus on livelihood and income opportunities for smallholder farmers. Second, policies and institutions on agriculture, agrarian reform, land use and climate change should mainstream both adaptation and mitigation outcomes using local plans and community level programs. Third, partnerships with community-based organisations and local governments are pivotal to coordinating services with farmers, providing an array of agriculture and climate services generating new knowledge and implementing climate-smart farming solutions.

Monocultures of crops have created problems and challenges, including damage to soil fertility, reduction of biodiversity, and impact on water resources and pollinators. Increased use of fertilisers and fossil fuels has enhanced climate change, leading to a reduction in farm income. Hence, areview of the literature was conducted to diagnose the significant horticultural and short forestry systems suitable for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The review highlighted that the short forestry systems are mostly practised in developing countries rather than developed countries. Silvi-Horti-pisciculture is a short forestry system where fish, wood, fruits, and annuals are cultivated synergistically. Silvi-Horti-pisciculture with beekeeping offers better ecosystem services such as control and prevention of pollution, food security and environmental sustainability, the protection of biodiversity, and adaptation to climate change in climate change scenarios. The order of significance is: carbon sequestration, nutrient recycling, biodiversity conservation, water conservation, and economies of the different components in the short forestry system, which include fruit trees, timber trees, bees, fish, medicinal plants, flowers, vegetables and crops. In the system of short forestry, the dominant component is fruit trees, where annual vegetables are intercropped. Hortoforestry can be a multifunctional tool for high food production, poverty population reduction, input reduction, water conservation, improved soil quality, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. Water bodies (both ground and surface water) have provided importance to hortoforestry, around the world, since the early twentieth century, with the rise of both the global population and society’s consumerism, agriculture has intensified, having a direct impact on the degradation of soils, water, air, natural landscapes and biodiversity. The study concluded that short forestry systems are a possible multifunctional solution for global food security, environmental protection, and mitigation and climate change and adaptation in the wasteland.

In contemporary media discourse, suggestions for publicly mandated climate change mitigation or adaptation measures are frequently challenged from a cost perspective. However, empirical data on the actual economic appreciation of local mitigation and adaptation measures expressed as citizen willingness-to-pay (WTP) are scarce. In this paper, we report results of a prefer- ence survey using a choice experiment (CE) that quantifies economic preferences for biodiversity- based climate change mitigation and adaptation in the region surrounding Hainich National Park (Thuringia, Germany). A representative sample of 302 respondents — the majority of them frequent Hainich forest visitors — was interviewed in autumn 2006. Nested logit analysis showed that respon- dents state a substantially positive WTP for climate change mitigation by afforestation (p < 0.001). If converted to WTP for an additional sequestration of carbon that average German citizens emit as CO2, a monetary value of 7.34 € yr -1 t C -1 is obtained. For increasing forest resistance and resilience against insect pests and storms (climate change adaptation) a WTP of 27.54 € yr -1 (p < 0.001) is obtained, and 16.83 € yr -1 (p < 0.001) is obtained for increasing the general resilience and resistance of forest ecosys- tems to environmental stressors. Respondents support moderate programs to eradicate invasive plants when compared to more aggressive eradication measures. Due to the lack of comparable studies, it can only be conservatively assumed that WTP would be lower if mitigation and adaptation measures were to be implemented in forests not, or only rarely, used by respondents. As all proposed means for climate change mitigation and adaptation contribute to local forest ecosystem biodiversity, the results of the study advocate the realization of measures that potentially benefit both climate policy and regional conservation concerns.

Learning from Tribal Innovations: Lessons in Climate Change Adaptation

Early forest thinning changes aboveground carbon distribution among pools, but not total amount

Studies suggest that the restoration of degraded land through planting bamboo could be a viable strategy for forest landscape restoration. As part of more extensive landscape restoration, planting bamboo in degraded and marginal landscapes have the potential to restore its productive use and ecosystem services, thus improving the adaptive capacity and resilience of such systems under the accelerated climate change phenomenon. However, using bamboo in landscape restoration has yet to receive significant attention primarily due to data scarcity, scattered or even missing in the literature, and general poor perception, thus contributing to less attention at policy and development planning levels. The lack of adequate information has hindered the potential usefulness of bamboo in landscape restoration and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Therefore, this chapter aims to review and assemble existing knowledge on bamboo resources related to its ability to restore the degraded forest landscape and its contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The chapter, therefore, also aims to highlight promising practices deemed viable to inform decision-makers and to upscale in Africa, which has a bamboo potential of about 115 species covering 7.2 million ha. We highlighted specific key characteristics of bamboo in forest landscape restoration, such as rapid growth, soil binding, and erosion control properties, adaptive capability, nutrient and water conservation, and the provision of a continuous and permanent canopy. Furthermore, we examined its contributions to direct and indirect human well-being through ecosystem services. It is concluded that bamboo has enormous potentiality in landscape restoration vis-a-vis climate change adaptation and mitigation. Finally, it is suggested to initiate an action call for good practices to restore degraded forest landscapes in Africa within frameworks of initiatives such as the REDD + strategy, Bonn Challenge, Afr100 initiative, and the Great Green Wall incorporating bamboo as one of the essential components.

Purpose- Cities and their residents are affected by climate change, the poor are more vulnerable to consequences of climate extremes and variability increases. Climate change mitigation and adaptation are challenges that face cities. City administration offices can contribute positively in mitigating climate change impact if workers have right perception. This study focus on determining the perception of Gondar City administration workers on climate change impact, organizational adaptation capacity and adaptation works. Factors associated with adaptation practices of climate change impact were also determined. Design/methodology/approach- A cross sectional study design was implemented among Gondar city administration workers. Findings - Majority of workers in City of Gondar administration offices were aware of climate change and its impact. Adaptation capacity of the city administration was relatively low; which results unavailability of adaptation plans and minimal works done on climate change adaptation. The study also revealed that adaptation capacity of Gondar city administration offices was associated with the practicality of adaptation activities within the city. Originality/value - This paper will be of value to city management and policy developers looking in to mainstream climate change adaptation in Ethiopia at City level. Key words : Awareness, Perception, Climate change adaptation, Adaptation capacity

Mapping Climate in the 21st Century

Mound plantation as an effective climate change adaptation and mitigation measure: Evaluation of the growth in the Chittagong coastal forest division of Bangladesh

This essay seeks to further the dialogue concerning climate-change impacts for small island developing states (SIDS). Climate-change adaptation and mitigation strategies must be developed to cope with changes such as shifting precipitation patterns, increasing evapotranspiration, and expanding saline intrusion into coastal aquifers and wells. While it is necessary to study all climate-change mitigation measures, this essay uses Jamaica as a case study to examine the utility of rainwater harvesting (RWH) in SIDS. What role can RWH play in providing a sustainable supply of water in a changing climate? Through various water demand and deficit scenarios, questions are answered regarding (1) how much rainwater can be harvested on the island given present and future precipitation patterns and (2) how much can RWH realistically curb water-supply deficits now and in the future. Water resources are directly linked to many other considerations, including infrastructure, energy, agriculture, and the overall economy. Exploring the aforementioned questions can help to facilitate more effective policy decisions for water resources given predictions for rainfall. It is my hope that this analysis spurs a broader reflection on what concrete actions SIDS should take to prepare for the water-resource impacts of climate change.

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Climate change makes coastal communities more vulnerable to floods associated with storm surges and sea level rise, requiring both adaptation and mitigation measures. Moreover, proper understanding of flood risks and their potential impacts on climate change appears to be a communication challenge. In climate change communication, the effect of framing congruency on perception of risk, efficacy and behavioural intentions towards climate change adaptation and mitigation has received limited attention. Messages have not been congruent in framing risks associated with climate change. We define congruency as the coherent alignment of several aspects of message content. Messages are considered congruent when they provide recipients with consistent contents such as giving concrete and actionable advice, or by providing more abstract and general background information. This research focuses on climate change communication in fostering mitigation behaviours among adolescents in vulnerable locations in the global South. Based on Construal Level Theory, this paper investigates how message congruency affects the link between perceptions of climate change risk and efficacy and two predictors of behavioural change: perceived responsibility and mitigation intentions. We conducted an experiment to test the effect of congruent vs. incongruent risk communication among adolescents in highly vulnerable coastal communities in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam (N = 348). Multiple regression analysis found strong effects of congruency in message framing; when messages were congruent in the content, communicative interventions changed adolescents’ perceptions and attitudes toward climate change mitigation more consistently. This research contributes both theoretically and practically to risk communication among adolescents and toward climate change mitigation behaviour.

Climate Compatible Development (CCD) is an emerging development approach which seeks to minimize the threat posed by climate change while maximize the opportunities for development. In view of the adverse impact of climate change on the general development of the country, Ethiopia, a number of polices which constitute climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies have been adopted and established. Among such polices, Ethiopian water resources and disaster risk management policy is expected to have direct and indirect role in addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation. Rainwater harvesting, water shed management, use of water efficiently, small scale irrigation and water resource protection, strengthening drought and flood early warning system are adaptation strategies for water resource policy, and water harvesting and improved energy efficiency are low carbon footprint strategies/mitigation strategies. Disaster risk management policy also comprises climate change and variability related disaster risk reduction strategies; enhancing early warning information system, and safety net program as the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, which are the major component of CCD. These policies also have its own limitation in relation to the system base and institutional gap in implementing CCD. In fact, these barriers can be eased by updating and/or adjustment of the policies under the framework of climate compatible development; mainstreaming climate change issues into water resource and disaster risk management policy; strengthening sector-wise linkage and synergy to avoid overlap; as well as monitoring the climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies among sectors. Key words: Climate change, low-carbon footprint, adaptation, mainstreaming, Ethiopia