Few challenges pose a greater threat to a healthy planet and people than air pollution and climate change. Over the past three decades, research has demonstrated that integrated solutions to air pollution and climate change can yield co-benefits that support cost-effective, coherent policies. However, research on co-benefits has yet to generate...
In this novel and integrated MAR approach, an offsetting scheme under the concept of payment for ecosystem services (PES) is used to enhance groundwater recharge along the Shirakawa River in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The scheme gives a cash incentive to farmers who pond their abandoned rice fields for groundwater recharge. For a specified period...
Integrating climate actions and the SDGs poses some major governance-related challenges, in the forms of horizontal integration across different governmental agencies and vertical interactions among different levels of administrative decision making, while at the same time ensuring effective participation of relevant stakeholders in the...
This case study reports on the development of a healthcare waste management (HCWM) system at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Nepal where the intervention began in 2014 with support from HECAF 360, a local NGO, and Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), an international NGO, and WHO Nepal. It describes the approach and path followed by...
CONSERVATION, RESTORATION AND management of forest resources are critical for addressing climate change. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) are a vehicle for targeted climate actions, including those related to forest management, by countries towards contributing global efforts agreed under the Paris Agreement. Operationalizing climate...
Current commitments in nationally determined contributions (NDCs) are insufficient to remain within the 2-degree climate change limit agreed to in the Paris Agreement. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that lifestyle changes are now necessary to stay within the limit. We reviewed a range of NDCs and national climate change...
The objective of this paper is to explain elements that are related to credit credibility and high quality carbon credits to buyers (private companies) who are considering the use of offset credits. These elements could serve as a general guidance and should be considered when purchasing offset credits from voluntary carbon markets (VCMs). In...
The mass accumulation of population in the larger cities of India has led to accelerated and unprecedented peripheral urban expansion over the last few decades. This rapid peripheral growth is characterized by an uncontrolled, low density, fragmented and haphazard patchwork of development popularly known as urban sprawl. The Kolkata Metropolitan...
Increasing resilience to natural hazards and climate change is critical for achieving many Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). In recent decades, China has experienced rapid economic development and became the second-largest economy in the world. This rapid economic expansion has led to large-scale changes in terrestrial (e.g., land use and land...
The Emissions Gap Report 2021: The Heat Is On is the 12th edition in an annual series that provides an overview of the difference between where greenhouse emissions are predicted to be in 2030 and where they should be to avert the worst impacts of climate change.