Agriculture is multi-functional, producing economic goods including food, feed, fibre, and fuel, as well as providing several intangible or non-tradable services to society free of cost. Non-tradable services, unlike economic goods, remain unpriced; as a result, farmers are not compensated monetarily for the benefits of the several non-tradable services they …
This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the recent and projected socio-economic development of coastal areas. It reviews the environmental pressures exerted by human activities on coastal areas, as well as the impacts of climate change that exacerbate existing challenges. The paper calls for a co-ordinated and well-adapted policy response …
A new report from the United Nations warns that time is running out to deliver on the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and calls for rapid deployment of carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) to meet carbon neutrality targets. Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) is …
To stop climate change, we have to limit global warming to 1.5°C. But can we still achieve this target? And if so, what pathways can society take in transiting towards a climate-just economy? One important yardstick emerging from it was the need for global emissions to reach net-zero by 2050, …
The annual economic value of ecosystem services provided by the Delhi zoo works out to be ₹426 crore, an assessment by the The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and commissioned by the Central Zoo Authority has found. These ‘ecosystem services’ constitute heads such as biodiversity conservation, employment generation, education and …
Indigenous populations of the Amazon own 210 million hectares of land and have proven to be highly skilled in the field of forest conservation: the deforestation rate is 0.8%, i.e., even less than that of protected areas (1.1%) and obviously significantly lower than that of the Amazon as a whole.However, …
Few studies exist that document how high-elevation Andean ecosystems recover naturally after the cessation of human activities and this can limit the implementation of cost-effective restoration actions. We assessed Andean forest (Polylepis stands) and páramo grassland recovery along an elevation gradient (3,600–4,350 m.a.s.l.) in the Yanacocha Reserve (Ecuador) where natural …
As the interest in using nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change grows, ‘blue carbon,’ which means carbon sequestered in coastal ecosystems, is also garnering attention. A number of countries have proposed including blue carbon in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and there is growing interest among some governments and fossil …
Intact tropical forests, free from substantial anthropogenic influence, store and sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon but are currently neglected in international climate policy. We show that between 2000 and 2013, direct clearance of intact tropical forest areas accounted for 3.2% of gross carbon emissions from all deforestation across the …
Forest and land degradation undermines the foundation of human prosperity and well-being. It threatens our food and water supplies, our climate, and the biodiversity that underpins the ecosystems that sustain us. Land degradation is one of the critical elements in the gathering environmental crisis that humanity must address. Only human …
Protecting forests from degradation, deforestation and fragmentation, and tree-based landscape restoration are globally recognised as cost-effective solutions for combatting climate change. As part of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris climate agreement, India committed to sequester additional 2.5 to 3 billion tons CO2 equivalent by 2030. The Restoration …
Current initiatives to store carbon in soils as a measure to mitigate climate change are gaining momentum. Agriculture plays an important role in soil carbon initiatives, as almost 40% of the world’s soils are currently used as cropland and grassland. Thus, a major research and policy question is how different …
Viet Nam is among the 196 Parties in the Paris Agreement that has committed to low-emission development pathways. The country has formulated national climate change mitigation strategies that relate to forestry and agricultural sector, with a potential revision in 2019 that can include agroforestry (AF), provided that the potential mitigation …
This paper uses a choice experiment conducted in Nepal during 2013 to estimate household-level willingness to participate in a village-level program under the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation initiative requiring reductions in fuelwood collection, as a function of the price paid per unit of avoided carbon dioxide emissions. …
Key messages Multi-lateral development banks (MDBs) have committed to financing climate change mitigation in agriculture and have adopted a harmonized methodology for attributing and reporting climate finance; however, design (including practice selection) and measurement of project impacts remains ad hoc. Decision-support tools such as “practice lists” help users identify and …
The international community's ambition to fight against climate change comes at a cost: between US$50,000 billion and US$90,000 billion over the next 15 years according to the bottom-end estimates of economist Adair Turner, and the top-end figures from economists at the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate and its …
Forests and other lands are essential for achieving climate and development ambitions. If appropriately leveraged, natural climate solutions can contribute upwards of 37 percent of cost-effective CO2 mitigation by 2030, and evidence shows Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to achieving such outcomes. This report presents the most comprehensive …
According to some estimates food production needs to increase 60% by 2050 to meet the expected demand and assure food security for all. In order to meet this target and simultaneously achieve the carbon emission targets set in the Paris agreement it is necessary to restructure agricultural production in a …
Scientists have found a rapid way of creating magnesite, a mineral that can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, offering a potential solution to global warming. The research, presented recently at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in Boston, explained how magnesite can form at low temperatures and offered a way to …
Although natural terrestrial ecosystems have sequestered ~25% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, the long-term sustainability of this key ecosystem service is under question. Forests have traditionally been viewed as robust carbon (C) sinks; however, extreme heat-waves, drought and wildfire have increased tree mortality, particularly in widespread semi-arid regions, which account for …
This paper updates previous assessments of the environmental impacts associated with using crop biotechnology in global agriculture. It focuses on the environmental impacts associated with changes in pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of GM crops since their first widespread commercial use over 20 years ago. …
