phd research topics in climate change

Climate Change, Sustainability and Society PhD

Most students complete this programme in 4 years full-time.

Explore environmental change and the diverse responses needed to foster behaviours, practices and policies which promote sustainability.

In this interdisciplinary pathway, you will investigate sustainability topics using insights and perspectives from multiple disciplines, with a primary focus on social sciences (e.g., psychology, policy studies, political science, development studies, education, economics, social geography, sociology).

Find out what our research graduates go on to do

Department of Psychology

• Programme structure

Most students complete this programme in 4 years. You cannot take less than 2 years to finish your research and the maximum time you are allowed is normally 4 years.

This programme is only available through the Southwest Doctoral Training Partnership. Applications open from October each year and close around January. More information is available to Study as a South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) student at Bath

You may start this programme at any time. Most students start in September.

Occasionally we make changes to our programmes in response to, for example, feedback from students, developments in research and the field of studies, and the requirements of accrediting bodies. You will be advised of any significant changes to the advertised programme, in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.

Your academic progress and general welfare will be monitored by your supervisor.

Academic milestones

• Registration
• Candidature
• Confirmation
• Give notice of intention to submit a thesis / portfolio
• Submission for examination
• Examination (Viva Voce)
• Examiners report
• Final submission of thesis / portfolio
• Programme content
• Doctoral skills online
• Doctoral skills workshop
• Research project
• Supervisory team

Research content

Sustainability topics can be wide-ranging, with the content of your research determined with your PhD supervisory team. However, in line with the goals of this PhD programme, your thesis will have a primarily social science focus.

While you will have a lead (primary) supervisor, you should also have at least one additional supervisor working in a different discipline to help you develop your interdisciplinary insights.

Professional Development

Professional development is a crucial element of doctoral study, not only in supporting your research but also as part of your longer term career development. Our DoctoralSkills workshops and courses will help you build your skills and help you succeed in your doctorate.

Read more about professional development support

Assessment methods

Assessment description.

Most research students who ‘do a PhD’ register in the first instance as probationer for the programme of PhD. Confirmation of PhD registration is subject to your passing an assessment process, which normally involves submission of written work and an oral examination.

Candidates are expected to carry out supervised research at the leading edge of their chosen subject, which must then be written up as a substantial thesis.

The final stage of the PhD programme is the oral or viva voce examination, in which students are required to defend the thesis to a Board of Examiners.

• Entry requirements

Academic requirements

• A good first degree in a social science subject, or
• an equivalent degree in another subject, together with substantial relevant work experience

Underlying these conditions is a belief that students must bring a minimum combination of theoretical knowledge and practical experience to the programme. Marginal cases are often dealt with at interview, and it is not uncommon for relatively inexperienced students to be asked to defer entry.

English Language requirements

You will normally need one of the following:

• IELTS: 7.0 overall with no less than 6.5 in all components
• The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic): 69 with no less than 62 in any element
• TOEFL IBT: 100 overall with a minimum 24 in all 4 components

You will need to get your English language qualification within 24 months prior to starting your course.

If you need to improve your English language skills before starting your studies, you may be able to take a pre-sessional course to reach the required level.

Two references are required for this programme (at least one of these should be an academic reference from ypur most recent place of study).

• Fees and funding

Fees and funding information for Climate Change, Sustainability and Society PhD

Your tuition fees and how you pay them will depend on whether you are a Home or Overseas student.

Learn how we decide fee status

Tuition fees are liable to increase annually for all University of Bath students. If you aren't paying your fees in British pounds, you should also budget for possible fluctuations in your own currency.

Find out more about student fees

Funding options

This is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) recognised programme, suitable for ESRC-funded 1+3 awards or subsequent +3 applications (MRes and PhD)

ESRC-funded students are able to claim (during their studies) for three additional allowances:

• Overseas Fieldwork Allowance
• Difficult Language Training
• Overseas Institutional Visits

For more information on these allowances please see the ESRC Postgraduate Funding Guide . Please note that if you anticipate such activities you should outline the details in your application.

Find funding for Doctoral research

Payment options

You can pay your tuition fees by Direct Debit, debit card, credit card or bank transfer.

Paying your tuition fees

• Application information
• Programme title Climate Change, Sustainability and Society PhD
• Final award PhD
• Mode of study Full-time
• Course code RHPS-AFM02
• Department Department of Psychology as part of the ESRC South West Doctoral Training Partnership (SWDTP) in economic and social science
• Location University of Bath Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY

3 months prior to the intended start date (for international applicants) or 2 months prior to the intended start date (for home applicants). For example, for an end of September start, the deadline is 30 June (international) and 31 July (home).

• Regulator The Office for Students (OfS)

Applicant profile

Your proposal should address a problem or question with strong links to the themes of this interdisciplinary pathway.

Prior to applying, please contact and gain agreement to supervise you from an academic staff member (who will become your lead supervisor), as well as your additional supervisor(s), as their agreement to supervise is critical for acceptance into the PhD program. Your lead supervisor may be able to advise on the most suitable additional supervisor(s). Gaining feedback on your proposal from your potential supervisors prior to submission is strongly encouraged.

The proposal itself should include;

• a brief review of relevant background literature (to contextualise the issue)
• a core research question or theme
• an outline of the possible methods that could be used to address this question.
• how your research will draw on interdisciplinary perspectives

If you wish to study for both the MRes and the PhD (the 1 + 3) you should apply for the PhD but indicate on the Application Form, that you also wish to study for the MRes.

Progression from the MRes to the PhD stage is dependent on achieving an acceptable level of achievement (typically an overall average of 60% on at least the taught component of the MRes).

See our guide about how to apply for doctoral study

Selection process

See our guide for information on how to apply for ESRC SWDTP funding

Immigration requirements

If you are an international student, you can find out more about the visa requirements for studying in the UK .

For additional support please contact the Student Immigration Service for matters related to student visas and immigration.

• Programme enquiries

Doctoral Admissions

• Apply for this programme
• Related programmes
• Climate Change, Sustainability and Society PhD part-time

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Faculty & researchers.

Centers & Programs

Center for policy research on energy and the environment.

The Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) provides a nexus for interdisciplinary research and policy analysis aimed at addressing environmental problems, tackling key issues such as global climate change, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, psychology of decision-making, and sustainable agriculture.

Program on Science and Global Security

The Program on Science and Global Security (SGS) conducts scientific, technical, and policy research, analysis, and outreach to advance national and international policies for a safer and more peaceful world.

Research Briefs

• Graduate Program

Interdepartmental PhD Emphasis in Climate Sciences and Climate Change

Rationale for this phd emphasis.

Climate Sciences is the study of the physical processes that control climate on Earth including variations and interactions among the atmosphere, oceans, land and hydrosphere. Climate variations and changes are known to occur on broad ranges of spatial and temporal scales, ranging from decades, centuries, millennia and millions of years. Climate science can also inform the study of climate change, which is broadly defined as changes to the baseline of mean conditions and variability over long periods. Climate change since the beginning of the industrial revolution is one of the major issues affecting the environment and the future of humanity.

Anthropogenic influences on climate are already detectable and expected to continue into the future; examples of the impacts of climate change include extreme precipitation, droughts, heat waves, sea level rise, loss of habitats, food and water insecurity, economic and political stability to name just a few. Mitigation and Adaptation might involve economic regulations such as cap-and-trade or carbon tax, which put a price on carbon emissions.

Research in Climate Sciences and Climate Change requires specialized training in specific disciplines such as Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography, Geology, Geography, Ecology, Economics, as well as interdisciplinary education across different areas. UCSB has a long tradition for carrying out research in Climate Sciences and Climate Change impacts. This research includes the study of the fundamental physical processes controlling climate on Earth and its response to human activities as well as the impacts of climate on humans and the environment. Research and teaching at UCSB is highly specialized as well as interdisciplinary.

This Interdepartmental PhD Emphasis in Climate Sciences and Climate Change provides doctoral students a broader understanding of the physical principles governing climate on Earth, climate changes associated with natural variability and anthropogenic forcings, and the impacts of climate change on the environment and society. The PhD emphasis provides graduate students with both core-training opportunities to gain access to methodological expertise across UCSB as well as to interact with Faculty, Researchers and graduate students in disciplines other than their own. Furthermore, the PhD Emphasis provides graduate students opportunities to learn how to effectively teach Climate Sciences and Climate Change. The Emphasis is administered in the Department of Geography. The PhD Emphasis formally acknowledges and builds upon existing collaborations among the departments and the Bren School listed herein.

Program of Study

Participation in this emphasis is optional and independent of the doctoral curriculum and degree requirements established by the student’s home department.

Admission to the Emphasis

Applications to the PhD Emphasis are accepted at any time during a graduate student’s academic tenure at UCSB. It is expected that most students will apply for admission between their first and third year of graduate study. Application materials consist of:

• Application form
• Student’s letter including research interests in climate sciences and climate change, expectations related to the emphasis and career goals
• Letter of support from PhD Advisor

The Director of the PhD Emphasis (see Faculty roster) reviews applications on a routine basis and informs applicants the outcome of their applications. Criteria for admission will include:

• Admission into a PhD program at UCSB
• Good academic standing
• Recommendation and strong support from the student’s PhD Advisor

Kathryn Ficke

Charles Jones

Departments & programs.

• Bren School of Environmental Science and Management

Earth Science

• Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Science

  Related Faculty

• Elizabeth Ackert, Geography
• Diana Arya, Associate Professor, Education
• Kathy Baylis, Geography
• Leila Carvalho, Geography
• Kelly Caylor, Geography / Bren School
• Olivier Deschenes, Economics
• Timothy DeVries, Geography / IGPMS
• Qinghua Ding, Geography / IGPMS
• Steve Gaines, Bren School
• Vamsi Ganti, Geography
• Kostas Goulias, Geography
• Danielle Harlow, Professor and Associate Dean, Education
• Charles Jones, Geography - Director of the Emphasis
• David Lea, Earth Science / IGPMS
• Lorraine Lisiecki, Earth Science / IGPMS
• Hugo Loaciga, Geography
• Karin Lohwasser, Assistant Teaching Professor, Education
• David Lopez-Carr, Geography
• Joe McFadden, Geography
• Sally MacIntyre, IGPMS / Bren School
• Kyle Meng, Bren School / Economics
• Andrew Plantinga, Bren School
• Samantha Stevenson, Bren School
• Stuart Sweeney, Geography, Chair
• Naomi Tague, Bren School
• Anna Trugman, Geography
• Syee Weldeab, Earth Science / IGPMS
• Dave Siegel, Geography / IGPMS
• Ian Walker, Geography

Required Coursework

All students enrolled in this PhD Emphasis need to fulfill the following requirements:

Students are required to enroll and successfully pass a one-quarter, 4 Unit seminar course: GEOG 287 Seminar in Climate Sciences and Climate Change. The instructor for this course will be one of the Faculty participating in the Emphasis. This course covers key concepts and research methods related to climate, climate variability and change and impacts. Lectures consist of guest seminars primarily from Faculty participating in the Emphasis; the course serves as a venue to foster interaction among graduate students participating in the Emphasis, Researchers and Faculty.

Students are required to take two courses from the following list:

• GEOG 266 Introduction to Atmospheric Sciences Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• GEOG 263 Introduction to Physical Oceanography Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• GEOG 276 Geographical Time Series Analysis Units: 3 – Prerequisite: GEOG 172
• GEOG 213 Polar Environments Units:4 – Prerequisite: GEOG 3 or Geog4, ES 1 or 2, or EARTH1
• GEOG 243 Vegetation-Atmosphere Interactions Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• GEOG 246 Advanced Hydrologic Modeling Units: 4 – Prerequisite: GEOG 112 and 116
• GEOG 267 Chemical Oceanography Units: 4 (cross-listed with EARTH 276) – Prerequisite: CHEM 1C and graduate standing
• EARTH 205 Earth’s Climate: Past and Present Units: 3 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• EARTH 206 Introduction to Climate Modeling Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• EARTH 266 Chemical Oceanography Units:4 (cross-listed with GEOG 267) – Prerequisite: CHEM 1C and graduate standing
• EARTH 276 Geological Oceanography Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing

Bren School

• ESM 203 Earth System Science Units: 4 – Prerequisite: GEOG 3 or equivalent IGPMS
• EARTH 266/GEOG 267 Chemical Oceanography Units: 4 – Prerequisite: CHEM 1C and graduate standing
• GEOG 263 Introduction to Physical Oceanography Units: 4– Prerequisite: graduate standing

The total number of units will vary depending on which courses are selected from this list:

• Geog 244 Society and Hazards Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• Geog 254 Demography Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ESM 229 Economics and Policy of Climate Change Units: 4 – Prerequisite: ESM 204
• ESM 237 Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation Units: 4 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260D: Natural Resource Economics: Dynamic Programming Methods Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260E Natural Resource Economics: Continuous-Time Methods Units: 2 Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260F Demand for Environmental Goods Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260G Environmental Externalities and Regulation Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260H Climate Change, Adaptation, and Policy Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260I Time, Uncertainty, and Environmental Policy Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ECON 260J Environmental Macroeconomics Units: 2 – Prerequisite: graduate standing
• ED 256 Technology and Education Contexts
• ED 287 Informal STEM Education
• ED 221H Design-based Research and Research-based design

Students are required to enroll and present their research in the GEOG 280 Geography Climate Research Meetings, which are a forum for researchers and students to discuss research topics in Climate Sciences and Climate Change. The meeting is held in the Earth Research Institute (ERI). Students are required to enroll in the Climate Research Meetings for a minimum of three quarters as a way to foment their participation in climate research topics.

The PhD dissertation of students participating in this Emphasis needs to have a strong focus in Climate Sciences and/or Climate Change. Furthermore, a member of the student’s PhD committee needs to be a member of the core Faculty participating in the Emphasis in Climate Sciences and Climate Change. No other limitations are set for the other members of the PhD committee.

Alumnus Testimonial

Emily Williams, PhD: “Participating in the Interdepartmental PhD Emphasis in Climate Sciences and Climate Change helped me build a robust interdisciplinary lens and toolbox through which to engage with climate science and policy. Through the emphasis, I was able to take courses across departments on climate sciences, policy, and impacts, providing me with foundational knowledge of the socio-political and physical dimensions of climate change. The emphasis also offered opportunities for professional development, such as presenting my graduate research to students and faculty in the climate seminar, thereby receiving invaluable feedback from distinguished scholars in the field. The rich training I gained has set me up to do both postgraduate research and advocacy, as I engage with academia and non-profits on issues of climate change and historical justice”.

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Thesis Topics

The dissertation projects of the DK  (in the first phase from 2014 to 2018) contribute to finding answers to three questions:

• How do we understand and deal with climate change uncertainties in the natural and social sciences as well as from the perspective of normative theories?
• What are critical thresholds of environmental, social and economic systems considering their vulnerability and how are these thresholds related to the normative threshold of sufficiency, that is, the threshold of well-being below which persons’ basic rights are infringed or violated?
• What are scientifically sound, technologically and institutionally feasible, economically efficient, and ethically defensible and sustainable strategies to cope with climate change, particularly taking into account the problems of implementation in an environment characterized by uncertainties and thresholds?

Phd projects dealing with research question 1

Phd projects dealing with research question 2, phd projects dealing with research question 3.

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• Doctoral students
• Doctoral students (current)
• Project abstracts
• Poster: DK Topics
• Research Stays
• Guest Lectures
• Summer School "Coping with Climate Change"
• Winter School "Climate Change Thresholds"
• World Symposium "Climate Change Communication"
• Exhibition CliMatters
• Travel emissions statement

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DISCOVER THE INNOVATIVE WORK WE ARE DOING ON:

• Air, Food & Water
• Art & Culture
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• Environmental Justice
• Law & Policy
• Nature & Conservation
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Ph.D. in Environment and Sustainability

Our Environment and Sustainability Ph.D. equips students with diverse perspectives to develop profound new ideas, knowledge and approaches to the most important concerns facing people and the planet. The program provides training to develop deep understandings of the structures of current environment and sustainability issues today and to develop analytical research to address them. This requires learning in multiple disciplines and how they, together, can better provide greater knowledge to bear to the social, environmental, political, scientific and economic factors creating the situation we face today. Our goal is to prepare students for a range of careers in academia, as well as public and private sectors.

Climate Strategies

Talking solutions with Marilyn Raphael, director of UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Dangerous combination of extreme heat and smoke affected 16.5 million Californians

“as a passionate environmentalist and social justice organizer, students with diverse views helped me value mainstream and economically-framed solutions”.

​​Cassie Gardener-Manjikian

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PhD in Future Earth, Climate Change and Societal Challenges

• Admission Board
• Training and research

Application deadline: Dec 14, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

2nd NRRP Call for Applications - Further PhD positions

• Call for applications
• PhD Programme Table
• Evaluation sub-criteria

Enrolment: From Jan 26, 2023 to Feb 06, 2023 - On www.studenti.unibo.it, PhD candidates awarding NRRP positions should use NRRP forms only

Doctoral programme start date: Mar 01, 2023

Application deadline: Aug 02, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

NRRP Call for Applications

Enrolment: From Oct 03, 2022 to Oct 10, 2022 - On www.studenti.unibo.it download NRRP forms only

Doctoral programme start date: Nov 01, 2022

Application deadline: Jun 09, 2022 at 11:59 PM (Expired)

Call for Applications

Positions: More information in the PhD Programme Table

Enrolment: From Aug 04, 2022 to Aug 29, 2022

• The Earth System
• Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability
• Technological Innovations for a Decarbonized Society
• Socio-economic and Legal Studies for Mitigation of Climate Change

Curriculum 1. One Health

• Biodiversity loss and environmental impacts on health
• Environmental health risk factors, Nutrition and health/disease determinants
• Antimicrobial resistance at human/animal/environmental interfaces
• Environmental health risks and law
• Climate change and emerging infectious diseases
• Microbiome at human/animal/environmental interfaces
• Food and water safety, sustainable food production, waste management
• Urban environment and human-animal relationships
• Diseases impact and management strategies at socio-economic and environmental levels
• Artificial intelligence applied to epidemiological and environmental data

Curriculum 2. The earth system

• Solid earth physics
• Observations of the atmosphere, oceans and ecosystems
• Climate variations and modeling
• Atmospheric and ocean predictions
• Water and hydrology
• Carbon cycle and biogeochemical cycles
• Paleoclimate
• Hazard mapping and extreme events
• Machine Learning applied to earth system data

Curriculum 3. Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability

• Food production and security
• Water resources and security
• Biodiversity, environment and nature conservation
• Economics of adaptation
• Resilient agriculture
• Cultural heritage conservation
• Recovery and reuse of materials

Curriculum 4. Technological innovations for a decarbonized society

• Energy and environmental efficient systems
• Renewable energy systems and products
• Green/blue/hybrid architecture
• Smart grids and positive energy districts
• Transport innovation
• Low carbon technologies
• Sustainable chemistry and engineering
• Industrial and Urban Symbiosis

Curriculum 5. Socio-economic and legal studies for mitigation of climate change

• Social, Economic, and Ethical Concepts and Methods
• Sustainable Development and Equity
• International Cooperation
• Regional Development and Cooperation
• Cross-cutting Investment and Finance issues
• Environmental law
• Circular economy
• Communicating Climate Change

NRRP Call - Further PhD Positions Appointed by RD 952/2022 Prot. n. 0357333 of 02/12/2022

Nrpp call admission board appointed by rd 1103/2022 prot. n. 0162873 of 17/07/2022.

* The following shall take part in the work of the Examination Board as expert members for positions linked to specific research topics:

• Gabriella Scipione - Atos I
• Alexandra Brunetti - Eurovo Srl

Call for Application Admission Board Appointed by RD 830/2022 Prot. n. 0127511 of 30/05/2022

The PhD focuses on earth sciences, climate change, mitigation / adaptation strategies, national and international policy analysis, unique health, promoting multidisciplinary training. The learning outcomes align with the Sustainable Development Goals. PhD students will actively contribute to designing and implementing solutions, strategies and policies for sustainable development in the 21st century, researching ways to protect human, animal and environmental health, based on an advanced understanding of the risks deriving from climate change. The program will train professionals in the fields of earth and climate sciences, food production, economics, human health in the environmental context and social sciences in the context of climate change for careers in academia, research, government, industry and international organizations.

During the first six months of the PhD, the student will have to follow both cross-disciplinary and specialization courses. In the second six months of the first year the student will be introduced in the different research groups of the curricula and every six months the coordinator will organise meetings between students and the teachers to check the thesis progress. At the end of each year an event of 1-2 days will be organized between the PhD Committee and the PhD candidates to check the development of the research. The first year will coincide with the presentation of the PhD research Plan and initial results. The PhD candidate will have to stay abroad at least for 3 months at a laboratory decided in agreement with the supervisor. The PhD candidate will have to follow at least 10 seminars per year on the Main theme of his/her research. Furthermore, the student’s research could be carried out at other Institutions of high education and/or research over the national territory under specific agreements approved by the PhD Committee.

The doctoral program is organized around 5 curricula: (a) the earth system, (b) impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, (c) technological innovations for a decarbonised society, (d) socio-economic and legal studies for mitigation of climate change and e) One Health. Students will have to choose one of these curricula as the main one and interdisciplinary training will be ensured by compulsorily attending at least three of the transversal courses of the five curricula.

Period 1: Transversal thematic courses November, 2022- January 31, 2023 The 5 thematic courses, each lasting 24 hours, will all be followed by all the students and for at least 3 courses a final test with evaluation in 30/30 will be taken. Period 2: Specialized courses February 1, 2023 - March 30, 2023 2 Courses, one of "Statistical Analysis" of 24 hours and "HPC and Big Data" of 12 hours are compulsory At least 2, 24-hour courses, offered in the curricula with a final test rated in 30/30 March 2023 contains also the final tests

The transversal and specialized courses are visible on the website: https://phd.unibo.it/future-earth-climate-change-societal-challenges/en/teaching

The language of the PhD program will be english. We have an active co-tutelle with the University of Barcelona in the Agriculture and Veterinary sector and another with the University of Prague in the Architecture sector. The Program, through its One Health curriculum, is also linked to the UNA Europa action where the One Health Focus Area (UNAOH) is being organized for co-supervised doctorates on the subject.

The students are expected to produce articles in peer reviewed Journals, to participate to national and international Conferences presenting their work and to interface with the international community contributing to the research projects of the Departments. The students might be able to develop industrial prototypes and, whenever possible, patented products for commercial exploitation. The PhD program is the first of this kind in Italy: due to the large number of Department and expertise brought together it has the potential to be a leading doctoral program also in Europe.

Silvana Di Sabatino

Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia "Augusto Righi" - DIFA

Viale Berti Pichat 6/2 Bologna (BO)

[email protected]

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Research topics

A broad range of projects is offered by academic staff in the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at the University of New South Wales. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD, Masters or Honours in climate science, please contact the academic whose areas of research interest you.

Associate Professor Gab Abramowitz

Climate model evaluation, climate model ensembles, probabilistic forecasts, applied maths in climate research (e.g. neural networks and clustering, non-linear time series analysis/chaos theory), land surface, ecological and hydrological modelling.

Professor Lisa Alexander

Climate variability and change, especially extreme events, global dataset development, observational analysis, global climate model evaluation and intercomparison, statistical modelling including extreme value theory, large scale modes of variability and climate drivers, data rescue.

Professor Jason Evans

Land-atmosphere interactions, water cycle processes, remote sensing of the land surface, land surface & hydrological modelling, regional climate modelling, fire spread and fire-atmosphere interactions, climate change impacts, especially on freshwater resources and agriculture.

Associate Professor Melissa Hart

The impact of land use, surface characteristics and anthropogenic activities on the climate of cities, quantification of the magnitude of the urban heat island (UHI), weather and climate sensitivity of energy consumption, air pollution meteorology, statistical climatology.

Dr Martin Jucker

Atmospheric dynamics, effects of the stratosphere on surface weather and climate. Cause-and-effect studies with simpler climate models. Annular Modes, the interaction between the tropics and high latitudes, and atmospheric wave dynamics.

Professor Katrin Meissner

Earth system science, with special emphasis on abrupt climate change, as well as feedbacks and thresholds in the climate system. The role of oceans in climate change/variability; earth system modelling (ocean, land, atmosphere, cryosphere, biosphere) addressing past and future climate change. Geophysical fluid dynamics, biogeochemistry, palaeoproxy data-model comparison, isotope modelling.

Associate Professor Laurie Menviel

Impact of changes in oceanic circulation on climate and the carbon cycle, with a particular focus on Southern Ocean dynamics.

Professor Andy Pitman

Land surface processes, global and regional modelling, projections of future mean and extreme climate, vegetation dynamics, carbon cycle, abrupt climate change, probabilistic projections of climate change.

Associate Professor Alex Sen Gupta

The effects of climate change and variability on ocean circulation, its physical characteristic and how this affects marine species; marine heat waves; IPCC model evaluation and climate projections; the effect of climate variability (e.g. ENSO, SAM, IOD) on regional climate variability and change.

Professor Steve Sherwood

Physical processes controlling Earth’s climate sensitivity, clouds, water vapour, precipitation, and interactions across scales. Modelling and analysis of global satellite and in-situ observations. Identifying and improving flaws in current climate models.

Dr Tim Raupach

Severe storms and climate change, especially hailstorms and their changes. Atmospheric modelling and numerical weather simulation, regional climate modelling, atmospheric remote sensing, precipitation microstructure, climate change impacts and risks.

Associate Professor Andréa Taschetto

Rainfall variability and atmospheric teleconnections associated with large-scale climate drivers, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole.

You might also like to  browse the topics  of researchers associated with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

colorado school of public health

Colorado sph.

PhD in Climate & Human Health

Quick facts, careers, and skills.

When you complete this program, you’ll have the knowledge and skills you need to lead research projects and interventions that help address one of the most pressing challenges of our time—climate change and its impact on our health.

Quick facts

Program location: CU Anschutz Credit hours: 73 Est. time to complete: 5-7 years

Transdisciplinary Education and Training in Climate Health

Sample careers

Sustainability Research Academic Government Non-Profit Corporate & more

Skills you'll gain

Research methods Modeling and data science Research to action Communications Project management Community and business partnerships & more

Climate & human health courses

Biostatistics & analytics courses, research methods courses, communications & ethics courses, additional coursework, dissertation, total credits: 73.

View the course book and course schedule >

Competencies

Colorado school of public health.

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Wharton Climate Center

The esg initiative at the wharton school, the wharton climate center brings together stakeholders from academia, government, communities, and the private sector to conduct academically rigorous, practically relevant research on topics such as climate change, renewable energy, air and water pollution, waste disposal, biodiversity, and deforestation. our core research areas include how climate risk impacts business strategy and financial markets, how environmental policies and markets transform the energy and transportation sectors across countries at different stages of economic development, and climate and environmental ethics., featured research.

Explore the Wharton Climate Center’s projects and papers.

Affiliated Faculty and Scholars

Learn about our researchers.

News and Stories

Read the latest Wharton Climate Center news and blog posts.

Funded Research

Check out the research the Wharton Climate Center has funded.

Knowledge at Wharton’s

Ripple Effect Podcast

Every day, business scholars answer pressing questions in their research — but what do their insights mean for you? In this podcast, Wharton faculty dive into what inspired their studies and how their findings resonate with the world today. Learn how research insights translate into knowledge you can use, with host Dan Loney.

Why Climate Risk Is Financial Risk | Witold Henisz

Why Is Greenwashing So Concerning? | Sarah Light

Who Does Climate Change Hit the Hardest? | Susanna Berkouwer

Who Is Responsible for the Planet? | Brian Berkey

The Wharton Climate Center is proud to be a Leading Partner of ClimateCAP

ClimateCAP is a partnership of more than 35 leading business schools collaborating to prepare MBA students to understand and respond to the climate challenge. Managed by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, ClimateCAP offers unique opportunities for faculty, staff, and MBA students at Partner Schools. We encourage all Wharton MBA students to take full advantage of the events, programs, and resources offered to you for free as part of the Wharton Climate Center’s partnership.

Faculty Leadership

ARTHUR VAN BENTHEM

Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy Faculty Co-Director, Wharton Climate Center

SARAH E. LIGHT

Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics Faculty Co-Director, Wharton Climate Center

Affiliated Scholars

Hamsa Bastani

Associate Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions Associate Professor of Statistics and Data Science

Research Areas: Machine Learning Algorithms and Applications to Healthcare; Revenue Management; Social Good

Brian Berkey

Associate Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics

Research Areas: Climate Ethics; Climate Justice; Animal Ethics

Susanna Berkouwer

Assistant Professor in Business Economics & Public Policy

Research Areas: Environmental Economics; Development Economics; Political Economy; Behavioral Economics

Sanya Carley

Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning

Research areas: Energy Justice and Just Transitions; Energy Insecurity; Electricity and Transportation Policies; Public Perceptions of Energy Infrastructure and Technologies

Francis X. Diebold

Paul F. Miller, Jr. and E. Warren Shafer Miller Professor of Social Sciences Professor of Economics, Finance and Statistics

Research areas: Dynamic Predictive Climate Modeling; Actic Sea Ice; Climate Econometrics

Daniel Garrett

Assistant Professor of Finance

Research areas: Public Finance, Financial Intermediation, Corporate Finance, Taxation

Mirko Heinle

Associate Professor of Accounting

Research areas: Theoretical Research in Financial and Managerial Accounting

Witold Henisz

Vice Dean and Faculty Director, ESG Initiative Deloitte & Touche Professor of Management in Honor of Russell E. Palmer, former Managing Partner

Research Areas: Climate Risk Disclosure; Materiality & Management of ESG Factors

Benjamin Keys

Rowan Family Foundation Professor Professor of Real Estate Professor of Finance

Research Areas: Property Markets; Housing Markets; Mortgage Markets

Steven Kimbrough

Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions

Research Areas: Risk & Uncertainty; Deep Decarbonation Pathways; Market Design

Cait Lamberton

Duran President’s Distinguished Professor of Marketing

Research areas:  Consumer Psychology; Financial Decision Making; Risk Management

John Paul Macduffie

Professor of Management

Research Areas: Vehicle & Mobility Innovations; Urban Transportation; Environmental Law & Policy

Guardsmark Professor Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics and Professor of Management

Research Areas: Corporate Governance, Environmental Law and Policy, Environmental Management, Professional Ethics, Securities Regulation, Democratic Theory, Constitutional law

Jisung Park

Assistant Professor, School of Social Policy and Practice and Business Economics and Public Policy at Wharton

Research areas: Climate Impacts; Climate Adaptation; Climate Equity

Leandro S. Pongeluppe

Assistant Professor of Management

Research Areas: Stakeholder Management and Socioeconomic Development

Sandra Schafhäutle

Assistant Professor of Accounting

Research Areas: Use of Information in Capital Markets; Corporate Disclosure; Transparency and Disclosure Incentives; Supply Chains

Nicolaj Siggelkow

David M Knott Professor Vice Dean, Wharton MBA Program Co-Director, Mack Institute for Innovation Management Professor of Management

Research Areas: Environmental Sustainability and Competitive Advantage; Connected Strategy

Luke Taylor

John B. Neff Professor in Finance, Professor of Finance Co-Director, Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Coordinator of Finance PhD Program

Research Areas: Sustainable Investing, Climate Finance

Contributing Doctoral Students

Kenneth Chung

Postdoctoral Research Associate, ESG Initiative

Christian Kaps

Doctoral Student, Operations, Information and Decisions Department

Peter Lugthart

Doctoral Student, Business Economics and Public Policy Department

Prakash Mishra

Vishrut Rana

Benji Smith

In Anti-Woke Capitalism, the First Amendment, and the Decline of Libertarianism , Wharton’s Sarah E. Light and Amanda Shanor trace how so-called “anti-woke capitalism” laws represent a fundamental shift in the conservative legal movement the United States away from laissez-faire law and policy. They offer the first in-depth constitutional analysis of these so-called “anti-woke capitalism” laws under the First Amendment, and articulate the questions and constitutional values that should guide analyses of these laws and others like them that regulate social practices at the intersection of political and economic life.

In The Impact of Impact Investing , Wharton’s Jules H. van Binsbergen and co-author Jonathan Berk demonstrate that the impact on the cost of capital that results from a divestiture strategy is too small to meaningfully affect real investment decisions, empirically corroborating these small estimates by studying firm changes in ESG status. Their results suggest that to have impact, instead of divesting, socially conscious investors should invest and exercise their rights of control to change corporate policy.

In The Future of Emissions , Wharton’s Jules H. van Binsbergen and co-author Andreas Brøgger argue for the introduction of firm-level emission futures contracts as a novel way of assessing the real impact of ESG initiatives. They establish that backward-looking subjective ratings are limited by their failure to capture future reductions in emissions. As a result, investors may inadvertently allocate their money to firms that pollute more, not less. They discuss several applications of their new measure, including executive pay and investment management.

In Study: Green Energy Transition May Leave Some Workers Behind , Wharton’s R. Jisung Park and co-authors E. Mark Curtis and Layla O’Kane explore how workers may be affected by a shrinking labor market in carbon-intensive, or “dirty,” industries due to climate mitigation policies. Their analysis of data finds the rate of workers transitioning from dirty to green jobs rapidly increasing, as well as the number of available green jobs, including those that offer similar opportunities for longer-term employment, to be on the rise.

Last fall, Perry World House and the Wharton Climate Center brought together experts from policy and academia for our Global Climate Finance Workshop. The workshop report explores financial policy solutions to the climate crisis, the role the private sector should play, and how existing systems can be changed to better support climate adaptation and mitigation.

In Gas, Guns, and Governments: Financial Costs of Anti-ESG Policies , Wharton’s Daniel Garrett and co-author Ivan Ivanov of the Federal Reserve demonstrate that government regulation limiting the adoption of ESG policies distorts financial market outcomes. Their analysis of a 2021 Texas law prohibiting municipalities from contracting with banks adopting ESG policies suggests that Texas entities will pay an additional $303-$532 million in interest on the $32 billion in borrowing during the first eight months following the laws’ adoption.

In the paper Designing More Cost-Effective Trading Markets for Renewable Energy , Arthur van Benthem and co-authors study the design of state-specific renewable energy portfolios standards. The study finds that combining separate state markets into a wider regional market and ramping up interim targets progressively over time can reduce the cost of meeting green energy targets substantially, thereby avoiding escalating costs and preserving the political feasibility of renewable energy standards.

The world is under pressure to deliver on the Paris Agreement and individual countries are enacting policies such as phasing out coal, supporting renewable energy, and taxing aviation. In Overlapping Climate Policies , Arthur van Benthem and co-authors, Grischa Perino and Robert Ritz, show that when such policies overlap with a wider carbon-pricing scheme like the EU ETS, the climate effect of renewable energy subsidies is amplified, but fossil fuel bans and taxes can backfire.

Gas prices continue to climb, surpassing $6/gallon in some U.S. states. For today’s teenage drivers, the reverberations of these price shocks will be felt for years to come. According to a new study, Formative Experiences and the Price of Gasoline , by Chris Severen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and Arthur van Benthem, Wharton professor of business economics and public policy, oil crises during your formative years shape driving behavior later in life.

Benjamin Keys and Philip Mulder assess the impact of climate change on the built environment, both residential and commercial real estate, and the various holders of risk in these markets (investors, insurers, lenders). In a recent paper, Neglected No More: Housing Markets, Mortgage Lending, and Sea Level Rise, they find that home sales volumes in communities not exposed to sea level rise declined 16-20% relative to less exposed areas, and eventually real estate prices in exposed areas decreased.

Recent explosive growth in environmental and climate-related marketing claims by business firms has raised concerns about whether such claims are real or constitute greenwashing. Sarah E. Light’s research examines the role of government regulators, including financial regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, in addressing concerns about greenwashing. In Greenwashing and the First Amendment , Light and co-author Amanda Shanor demonstrate that disclosure requirements, including the SEC’s recent proposed rule requiring disclosure of climate-related risk and emissions information, are consistent with First Amendment doctrines surrounding commercial speech.

In Dissecting Green Returns , Wharton’s Robert Stambaugh and Luke Taylor and their co-author Lubos Pastor show empirically that green assets delivered high returns in recent years. This performance reflects unexpectedly substantial increases in concerns about climate change, not high expected returns. They estimate lower expected returns on environmentally friendly assets, including German green bonds and U.S. stocks.

Lubos Pastor, Robert Stambaugh, and Luke Taylor show that greener assets have lower expected returns due to investors’ green preferences and green assets’ ability to hedge climate risk. Green assets can nevertheless outperform when climate concerns increase unexpectedly. Their paper Sustainable Investing in Equilibrium recently won the 2021 Fama-DFA Prize for best paper on capital markets and asset pricing at the Journal of Financial Economics.

Rapid decreases in the amount of Arctic sea ice have far-reaching impacts on the global environment and economy. In their paper Probability Assessments of an Ice-Free Arctic: Comparing Statistical and Climate Model Projections , Wharton’s Francis Diebold and Glenn Rudebusch from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provide statistical forecasts of Arctic sea ice extent for the 21 st century and a probability assessment of the timing of an ice-free Arctic, with results indicating an almost 60 percent chance of an ice-free Arctic Ocean during the 2030s.

With the rampant climate emergency, Wharton’s Eric Orts and Brain Berkey urge businesses, especially carbon majors, to abide by a climate imperative that calls for operating responsibly in a way that limits GHG emissions to a level that is compatible with the recommended global emission limits. This requires revising the traditional profit-maximization approach, which can frequently conflict with the goal of emission reductions even with policy corrections. Their paper, The Climate Imperative for Business , recommends four constructive strategies for businesses to effectively embrace the climate imperative.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly applied in supporting climate change projections, but limited work has leveraged AI to address climate change adaptation. In Artificial Intelligence for Climate Change Adaptation , Wharton’s Hamsa Bastani and coauthors So-Min Cheong from the University of Kansas and Kris Sankaran from the University of Wisconsin-Madison identify the gap in AI applications, highlight the value of AI in supporting adaptation choices and implementation, and illustrate how AI can unlock valuable information in scarce-data settings and enable better decision making and tailor adaptation measures.

In a forthcoming  article in the American Economic Review , Wharton’s Susanna Berkouwer and co-author Joshua Dean from the University of Chicago investigate the adoption of energy-efficient technologies by low-income households in Kenya. They find that improved cookstoves reduce charcoal usage by 39%, which corresponds to 3.5 tons of CO2e per year (valued at $295 over the two-year lifetime of the stove when using a social cost of carbon of $42) in addition to $237 in private financial savings from reduced fuel expenditures. They identify credit constraints as a major barrier to adoption: demand doubles when participants are offered a 3-month loan to adopt the stove.

For Wharton’s Steven O. Kimbrough, the University of Pennsylvania’s Robin Clark, and co-author Christine Chou, two important research questions arose from the 2010 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Advisory on climate change reporting: (1) How does the discussion of climate change in SEC filings change after the Advisory? and (2) What are firms talking about when they talk about climate change? In What do firms say in reporting on impacts of climate change? An approach to monitoring ESG actions and environmental policy , they find that firms with comparatively larger transition risks tend to discuss climate change comparatively more, focusing on regulation-related topics. Meanwhile, firms exposed to the physical risks of climate change tend to discuss climate change somewhat less, focusing on meteorological topics.

To mitigate environmental and social harm, policy-makers often provide incentives or impose sanctions to discourage harmful behavior. In Are Bans Effective under Limited Monitoring? Evidence from High Seas Management , Wharton’s Hamsa Bastani and co-author Joann F. de Zegher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) find that a ban on seafood transshipments on the high seas reduces the yearly growth in transshipment rates by an estimated 58% despite significant monitoring challenges, and does not cause appreciable strategic behavior. A difference-in-differences analysis of landing prices suggests that this reduction comes at an estimated cost of 3% higher raw material prices.

Featured publications

Severen, C., & van Benthem, A.A.   Formative Experiences and the Price of Gasoline . Forthcoming in the  American Economic Journal: Applied Economics .

Berkey, B.  Prospects for an Animal-Friendly Business Ethics . Forthcoming in  Animals and Business Ethics  (Springer).

Berkouwer, S.B., Biscaye, P.E., Puller, S., & Wolfram, C.D. (2022).  Disbursing emergency relief through utilities: Evidence from Ghana . Journal of Development Economics, 102826.

Bhutta, N., & Keys, B. (2022). “ Moral Hazard during the Housing Boom: Evidence from Private Mortgage Insurance .”  Review of Financial Studies , 35(2): 771–813.

Berkouwer, S., Wolfram, C., Miguel, E., & Hsu, E.  “What does donor conditionality do? Causal evidence from Kenyan electrification.”

McGlinch, J., & Henisz, W. “Reexamining the Win-Win: Relational Capital, Stakeholder Issue Salience, and the Contingent Benefits of Value Based Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Strategies.” (Under Review)

Perino, G., Ritz, R.A., & van Benthem, A.A. “Cancelling Carbon in Cap-and-Trade Systems.” Latest draft: February 2022.

Abito J.M., Flores-Golfin, F., van Benthem, A.A. & Vasey, G. “Designing More Cost-Effective Trading Markets for Renewable Energy.” Latest draft: February 2022.

Berkey, B., & Orts, E.W. (2021).  The Climate Imperative for Business .  California Management Review (Insights/Frontier) .

Abito, J.M, Knittel, C.R., Metaxoglou, K., & Trindade, A, “ The Role of Output Reallocation and Investment in Coordinating Environmental Markets .” Revise & Resubmit at  International Journal of Industrial Organization .

Berkouwer, S., & Dean, J.T. “ Credit, attention, and externalities in the adoption of energy efficient technologies by low-income households .” Revise & Resubmit at the  American Economic Review.

Perino, G., Ritz, R.A.& van Benthem, A.A. “Understanding Overlapping Policies: Internal Carbon Leakage and the Punctured Waterbed.” Latest draft: December 2021.

Jacobsen, M.R., Sallee, J.M., Shapiro J.S., & van Benthem, A.A. “Regulating Untaxable Externalities: Are Vehicle Air Pollution Standards Effective and Efficient?” Latest draft: December 2021.

Berkouwer, S., Adkins, J., Hsu, E., Klugman, N., Streff, A., & Wall, A. (2021).  What’s reliability without voltage quality?   Energy for Growth Hub.  November 29.

van Benthem, A.A., Crooks, E., Giglio, S., Schwob, E., & Stroebel, J.C. “Climate Risks, Financial Markets, and the Energy Sector.” Latest draft: October 2021.

Han, J.S., Houde, J.F., van Benthem, A.A. & Abito, J.M. “Agency Frictions and Procurement: New Evidence from U.S. Electricity Restructuring.” Latest draft: August 2021.

Light, S.E., & Skinner, C.P. (2021).  Banks and Climate Governance .  121 Columbia Law Review 1895.

Gillingham, K.T., Houde, S., & van Benthem, A.A. (2021).  Consumer myopia in vehicle purchases: evidence from a natural experiment.    American Economic Journal: Economic Policy ,  13 (3), 207-38.

Han, J.S., Houde, J.F., van Benthem, A.A. & Abito, J.M. (2021).  When Does Regulation Distort Costs? Lessons from Fuel Procurement in US Electricity Generation: Comment .   American Economic Review , 111(4): 1356-1372.

MacDuffie, J.P., & Light. S.E. (2021).  EV Turning Point: Momentum Builds for U.S. Electric Vehicle Transition.   Yale Environmen t 360.

Light, S.E. (2021).   National Parks, Incorporated .  University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 169,  Rev. 33.

Abito, J.M. (2020). Measuring the Welfare Gains from Optimal Incentive Regulation. R eview of Economic Studies,  87(5): 2019–2048,

Engström, G., Gars, J., Jaakkola, N., Lindahl, T., Spiro, D., & van Benthem, A.A. (2020).   What Policies Address Both the Coronavirus Crisis and the Climate Crisis?   Environmental and Resource Economics  76(4): 789-810.

Wiley, H.J.P., & Kousky, C. (2020).   Speeding Up Post-Disaster Housing Buyouts .   Solutions . 11(3). September.

Bento, A.M., Jacobsen, M.R., Knittel, C.R., & van Benthem, A.A. (2020).  Estimating the Costs and Benefits of Fuel Economy Standards . In: M.J. Kotchen, J.H. Stock, and C.D. Wolfram (eds.),  Environmental and Energy Policy and the Economy  1.

Berkouwer, S.B. (2020).  Electric Heating and the Effects of Temperature on Household Electricity Consumption in South Africa .  The Energy Journal,  41:04

Schneeman, B.O., Lamberton, C., et al. (2020).  A National Strategy to Reduce Food Waste at the Consumer Level . National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC:  The National Academies Press . https://doi.org/10.17226/25876.

Jacobsen, M.R., Knittel, C.R., Sallee J.M., & van Benthem, A.A. (2020).  The Use of Regression Statistics to Analyze Imperfect Pricing Policies .  Journal of Political Economy  128(5).

Kunreuther, H. & Slovic, P. (2020).  What the Coronavirus Curve Teaches Us About Climate Change.  Politico Magazine.  March.

News & Stories

We don’t see what climate change is doing to us, well-being as a driver for climate transition: from individual action to policy change, r. jisung park on wharton business daily.

A Brief History 

Recognizing the emerging needs of its students and society at large, Wharton unified several of its existing centers, each with an extensive history of expertise in environmental, social, and governance topics, to form the ESG Initiative on July 1, 2022. Formerly known as The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, the Wharton Climate Center brings more than 37 years of academic rigor and research, ranging from climate change, to energy markets, to disaster risk financing and reduction strategies.

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• Climate Change and Environment
• Postgraduate Research home

Research topics and degrees

The challenges posed by climate change are at the forefront of many universities, but none more so than Exeter: we have more contributors on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change than any other university in the world.

In May 2019 we declared a climate change emergency to show support those calling for urgent action and show commitment to leading the change required. This statement is resulting in a clear plan of action as to how we, as a university, are playing our part.

There is a growing demand for knowledge and expertise in all aspects of climate change:

• the science of climate systems and human influences on natural processes
• the history of past climate change and the trajectory of climate projections over the next hundred years or longer
• the vulnerability of human and natural systems around the world
• the practical and policy responses we need to manage the risks and tackle the causes
• the links with the wider imperatives of sustainable development

You can explore our world-class   research in Environmental Intelligence , and see how our   Clean Growth research   spans the natural and social sciences, engineering and business. The PhD to which you wish to apply (links above) will depend on in which discipline your lead supervisor sits.

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Home to the £30 million Environment and Sustainability Institute: researching solutions to environmental change

6th in the UK for world-leading research in Geography and Environmental Studies

Based on 4* research in the Research Excellence Framework 2021

Research overview

Our research expertise in climate change and the environment can be broadly found within the following institutes:

Environment and Sustainability Institute

The   Environment and Sustainability Institute ’s world class research and education is enhancing people's lives by improving their relationships with the environment. Based at the University's Penryn Campus, in Cornwall, the ESI’s interdisciplinary research focuses on finding solutions to the problems caused by environmental and societal change to build a more sustainable future .

Global Systems Institute

The   Global Systems Institute   is applying Earth system science to create networked solutions. Researchers work with others with the goal of securing a flourishing future for humanity as an integral part ofa life-sustaining Earth system. A trans-disciplinary group of researchers, educators and partners are looking beyond single ‘environmental’ issues to a truly systemic view of global changes.

Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

The   Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence   develops innovative approaches to the use of data and artificial intelligence in modern society, covering the entire spectrum from collection through interrogation and analysis, to interpretation, visualisation and communication. Two of its key themes focus on the environment and sustainability: Physical Systems and Environment and Society.

The European Centre for Environment and Human Health

Based at the Knowledge Spa in Cornwall, the   European Centre for Environment and Human Health   conducts world-class research into the complex connections between the environment and health.

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You can expect:

• High-quality research supervision to develop and nurture your potential
• A tailored supervision approach to help best suit your requirements
• Accessible supervisors who are enthusiastic about working directly with postgraduate research students
• Regular timetabled meetings with your supervisor
• 'Open door' policy to all postgraduate students - instant access to world-leading researchers who will share their expertise and ideas with you
• Regular meetings with your supervisory team, other members of your research group, and mentors

You will only be able to apply for a PhD when you have received a letter from potential supervisors stating that they are willing to supervise your PhD thesis. You therefore need to initiate contact with faculty who are working on topics that you are interested in and present them with a proposal of no more than 2000 words.

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• Frontiers in Environmental Science
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Climate Change and Urban Resilience

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A review of the global climate change impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures

Kashif abbass.

1 School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim

2 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Chemical Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xiaolingwei 200, Nanjing, 210094 People’s Republic of China

Huaming Song

Muntasir murshed.

3 School of Business and Economics, North South University, Dhaka, 1229 Bangladesh

4 Department of Journalism, Media and Communications, Daffodil International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Haider Mahmood

5 Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, 173, Alkharj, 11942 Saudi Arabia

Ijaz Younis

Associated data.

Data sources and relevant links are provided in the paper to access data.

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the weather arrays across tropics to polls. It is a global threat that has embarked on to put stress on various sectors. This study is aimed to conceptually engineer how climate variability is deteriorating the sustainability of diverse sectors worldwide. Specifically, the agricultural sector’s vulnerability is a globally concerning scenario, as sufficient production and food supplies are threatened due to irreversible weather fluctuations. In turn, it is challenging the global feeding patterns, particularly in countries with agriculture as an integral part of their economy and total productivity. Climate change has also put the integrity and survival of many species at stake due to shifts in optimum temperature ranges, thereby accelerating biodiversity loss by progressively changing the ecosystem structures. Climate variations increase the likelihood of particular food and waterborne and vector-borne diseases, and a recent example is a coronavirus pandemic. Climate change also accelerates the enigma of antimicrobial resistance, another threat to human health due to the increasing incidence of resistant pathogenic infections. Besides, the global tourism industry is devastated as climate change impacts unfavorable tourism spots. The methodology investigates hypothetical scenarios of climate variability and attempts to describe the quality of evidence to facilitate readers’ careful, critical engagement. Secondary data is used to identify sustainability issues such as environmental, social, and economic viability. To better understand the problem, gathered the information in this report from various media outlets, research agencies, policy papers, newspapers, and other sources. This review is a sectorial assessment of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches worldwide in the aforementioned sectors and the associated economic costs. According to the findings, government involvement is necessary for the country’s long-term development through strict accountability of resources and regulations implemented in the past to generate cutting-edge climate policy. Therefore, mitigating the impacts of climate change must be of the utmost importance, and hence, this global threat requires global commitment to address its dreadful implications to ensure global sustenance.

Introduction

Worldwide observed and anticipated climatic changes for the twenty-first century and global warming are significant global changes that have been encountered during the past 65 years. Climate change (CC) is an inter-governmental complex challenge globally with its influence over various components of the ecological, environmental, socio-political, and socio-economic disciplines (Adger et al.  2005 ; Leal Filho et al.  2021 ; Feliciano et al.  2022 ). Climate change involves heightened temperatures across numerous worlds (Battisti and Naylor  2009 ; Schuurmans  2021 ; Weisheimer and Palmer  2005 ; Yadav et al.  2015 ). With the onset of the industrial revolution, the problem of earth climate was amplified manifold (Leppänen et al.  2014 ). It is reported that the immediate attention and due steps might increase the probability of overcoming its devastating impacts. It is not plausible to interpret the exact consequences of climate change (CC) on a sectoral basis (Izaguirre et al.  2021 ; Jurgilevich et al.  2017 ), which is evident by the emerging level of recognition plus the inclusion of climatic uncertainties at both local and national level of policymaking (Ayers et al.  2014 ).

Climate change is characterized based on the comprehensive long-haul temperature and precipitation trends and other components such as pressure and humidity level in the surrounding environment. Besides, the irregular weather patterns, retreating of global ice sheets, and the corresponding elevated sea level rise are among the most renowned international and domestic effects of climate change (Lipczynska-Kochany  2018 ; Michel et al.  2021 ; Murshed and Dao 2020 ). Before the industrial revolution, natural sources, including volcanoes, forest fires, and seismic activities, were regarded as the distinct sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, and H 2 O into the atmosphere (Murshed et al. 2020 ; Hussain et al.  2020 ; Sovacool et al.  2021 ; Usman and Balsalobre-Lorente 2022 ; Murshed 2022 ). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) struck a major agreement to tackle climate change and accelerate and intensify the actions and investments required for a sustainable low-carbon future at Conference of the Parties (COP-21) in Paris on December 12, 2015. The Paris Agreement expands on the Convention by bringing all nations together for the first time in a single cause to undertake ambitious measures to prevent climate change and adapt to its impacts, with increased funding to assist developing countries in doing so. As so, it marks a turning point in the global climate fight. The core goal of the Paris Agreement is to improve the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C over pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5° C (Sharma et al. 2020 ; Sharif et al. 2020 ; Chien et al. 2021 .

Furthermore, the agreement aspires to strengthen nations’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and align financing flows with low GHG emissions and climate-resilient paths (Shahbaz et al. 2019 ; Anwar et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2022a ). To achieve these lofty goals, adequate financial resources must be mobilized and provided, as well as a new technology framework and expanded capacity building, allowing developing countries and the most vulnerable countries to act under their respective national objectives. The agreement also establishes a more transparent action and support mechanism. All Parties are required by the Paris Agreement to do their best through “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the coming years (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2020 ). It includes obligations that all Parties regularly report on their emissions and implementation activities. A global stock-take will be conducted every five years to review collective progress toward the agreement’s goal and inform the Parties’ future individual actions. The Paris Agreement became available for signature on April 22, 2016, Earth Day, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. On November 4, 2016, it went into effect 30 days after the so-called double threshold was met (ratification by 55 nations accounting for at least 55% of world emissions). More countries have ratified and continue to ratify the agreement since then, bringing 125 Parties in early 2017. To fully operationalize the Paris Agreement, a work program was initiated in Paris to define mechanisms, processes, and recommendations on a wide range of concerns (Murshed et al. 2021 ). Since 2016, Parties have collaborated in subsidiary bodies (APA, SBSTA, and SBI) and numerous formed entities. The Conference of the Parties functioning as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA) convened for the first time in November 2016 in Marrakesh in conjunction with COP22 and made its first two resolutions. The work plan is scheduled to be finished by 2018. Some mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce the emission in the prospective of Paris agreement are following firstly, a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, secondly, to aim to limit the rise to 1.5 °C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change, thirdly, on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognizing that this will take longer for developing countries, lastly, to undertake rapid reductions after that under the best available science, to achieve a balance between emissions and removals in the second half of the century. On the other side, some adaptation strategies are; strengthening societies’ ability to deal with the effects of climate change and to continue & expand international assistance for developing nations’ adaptation.

However, anthropogenic activities are currently regarded as most accountable for CC (Murshed et al. 2022 ). Apart from the industrial revolution, other anthropogenic activities include excessive agricultural operations, which further involve the high use of fuel-based mechanization, burning of agricultural residues, burning fossil fuels, deforestation, national and domestic transportation sectors, etc. (Huang et al.  2016 ). Consequently, these anthropogenic activities lead to climatic catastrophes, damaging local and global infrastructure, human health, and total productivity. Energy consumption has mounted GHGs levels concerning warming temperatures as most of the energy production in developing countries comes from fossil fuels (Balsalobre-Lorente et al. 2022 ; Usman et al. 2022b ; Abbass et al. 2021a ; Ishikawa-Ishiwata and Furuya  2022 ).

This review aims to highlight the effects of climate change in a socio-scientific aspect by analyzing the existing literature on various sectorial pieces of evidence globally that influence the environment. Although this review provides a thorough examination of climate change and its severe affected sectors that pose a grave danger for global agriculture, biodiversity, health, economy, forestry, and tourism, and to purpose some practical prophylactic measures and mitigation strategies to be adapted as sound substitutes to survive from climate change (CC) impacts. The societal implications of irregular weather patterns and other effects of climate changes are discussed in detail. Some numerous sustainable mitigation measures and adaptation practices and techniques at the global level are discussed in this review with an in-depth focus on its economic, social, and environmental aspects. Methods of data collection section are included in the supplementary information.

Review methodology

Related study and its objectives.

Today, we live an ordinary life in the beautiful digital, globalized world where climate change has a decisive role. What happens in one country has a massive influence on geographically far apart countries, which points to the current crisis known as COVID-19 (Sarkar et al.  2021 ). The most dangerous disease like COVID-19 has affected the world’s climate changes and economic conditions (Abbass et al. 2022 ; Pirasteh-Anosheh et al.  2021 ). The purpose of the present study is to review the status of research on the subject, which is based on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures” by systematically reviewing past published and unpublished research work. Furthermore, the current study seeks to comment on research on the same topic and suggest future research on the same topic. Specifically, the present study aims: The first one is, organize publications to make them easy and quick to find. Secondly, to explore issues in this area, propose an outline of research for future work. The third aim of the study is to synthesize the previous literature on climate change, various sectors, and their mitigation measurement. Lastly , classify the articles according to the different methods and procedures that have been adopted.

Review methodology for reviewers

This review-based article followed systematic literature review techniques that have proved the literature review as a rigorous framework (Benita  2021 ; Tranfield et al.  2003 ). Moreover, we illustrate in Fig.  1 the search method that we have started for this research. First, finalized the research theme to search literature (Cooper et al.  2018 ). Second, used numerous research databases to search related articles and download from the database (Web of Science, Google Scholar, Scopus Index Journals, Emerald, Elsevier Science Direct, Springer, and Sciverse). We focused on various articles, with research articles, feedback pieces, short notes, debates, and review articles published in scholarly journals. Reports used to search for multiple keywords such as “Climate Change,” “Mitigation and Adaptation,” “Department of Agriculture and Human Health,” “Department of Biodiversity and Forestry,” etc.; in summary, keyword list and full text have been made. Initially, the search for keywords yielded a large amount of literature.

Methodology search for finalized articles for investigations.

Source : constructed by authors

Since 2020, it has been impossible to review all the articles found; some restrictions have been set for the literature exhibition. The study searched 95 articles on a different database mentioned above based on the nature of the study. It excluded 40 irrelevant papers due to copied from a previous search after readings tiles, abstract and full pieces. The criteria for inclusion were: (i) articles focused on “Global Climate Change Impacts, adaptation, and sustainable mitigation measures,” and (ii) the search key terms related to study requirements. The complete procedure yielded 55 articles for our study. We repeat our search on the “Web of Science and Google Scholars” database to enhance the search results and check the referenced articles.

In this study, 55 articles are reviewed systematically and analyzed for research topics and other aspects, such as the methods, contexts, and theories used in these studies. Furthermore, this study analyzes closely related areas to provide unique research opportunities in the future. The study also discussed future direction opportunities and research questions by understanding the research findings climate changes and other affected sectors. The reviewed paper framework analysis process is outlined in Fig.  2 .

Framework of the analysis Process.

Natural disasters and climate change’s socio-economic consequences

Natural and environmental disasters can be highly variable from year to year; some years pass with very few deaths before a significant disaster event claims many lives (Symanski et al.  2021 ). Approximately 60,000 people globally died from natural disasters each year on average over the past decade (Ritchie and Roser  2014 ; Wiranata and Simbolon  2021 ). So, according to the report, around 0.1% of global deaths. Annual variability in the number and share of deaths from natural disasters in recent decades are shown in Fig.  3 . The number of fatalities can be meager—sometimes less than 10,000, and as few as 0.01% of all deaths. But shock events have a devastating impact: the 1983–1985 famine and drought in Ethiopia; the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami; Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar in 2008; and the 2010 Port-au-Prince earthquake in Haiti and now recent example is COVID-19 pandemic (Erman et al.  2021 ). These events pushed global disaster deaths to over 200,000—more than 0.4% of deaths in these years. Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are. Historical evidence shows that earlier disaster detection, more robust infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response programmers have substantially reduced disaster deaths worldwide. Low-income is also the most vulnerable to disasters; improving living conditions, facilities, and response services in these areas would be critical in reducing natural disaster deaths in the coming decades.

Global deaths from natural disasters, 1978 to 2020.

Source EMDAT ( 2020 )

The interior regions of the continent are likely to be impacted by rising temperatures (Dimri et al.  2018 ; Goes et al.  2020 ; Mannig et al.  2018 ; Schuurmans  2021 ). Weather patterns change due to the shortage of natural resources (water), increase in glacier melting, and rising mercury are likely to cause extinction to many planted species (Gampe et al.  2016 ; Mihiretu et al.  2021 ; Shaffril et al.  2018 ).On the other hand, the coastal ecosystem is on the verge of devastation (Perera et al.  2018 ; Phillips  2018 ). The temperature rises, insect disease outbreaks, health-related problems, and seasonal and lifestyle changes are persistent, with a strong probability of these patterns continuing in the future (Abbass et al. 2021c ; Hussain et al.  2018 ). At the global level, a shortage of good infrastructure and insufficient adaptive capacity are hammering the most (IPCC  2013 ). In addition to the above concerns, a lack of environmental education and knowledge, outdated consumer behavior, a scarcity of incentives, a lack of legislation, and the government’s lack of commitment to climate change contribute to the general public’s concerns. By 2050, a 2 to 3% rise in mercury and a drastic shift in rainfall patterns may have serious consequences (Huang et al. 2022 ; Gorst et al.  2018 ). Natural and environmental calamities caused huge losses globally, such as decreased agriculture outputs, rehabilitation of the system, and rebuilding necessary technologies (Ali and Erenstein  2017 ; Ramankutty et al.  2018 ; Yu et al.  2021 ) (Table ​ (Table1). 1 ). Furthermore, in the last 3 or 4 years, the world has been plagued by smog-related eye and skin diseases, as well as a rise in road accidents due to poor visibility.

Main natural danger statistics for 1985–2020 at the global level

Source: EM-DAT ( 2020 )

Climate change and agriculture

Global agriculture is the ultimate sector responsible for 30–40% of all greenhouse emissions, which makes it a leading industry predominantly contributing to climate warming and significantly impacted by it (Grieg; Mishra et al.  2021 ; Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Thornton and Lipper  2014 ). Numerous agro-environmental and climatic factors that have a dominant influence on agriculture productivity (Pautasso et al.  2012 ) are significantly impacted in response to precipitation extremes including floods, forest fires, and droughts (Huang  2004 ). Besides, the immense dependency on exhaustible resources also fuels the fire and leads global agriculture to become prone to devastation. Godfray et al. ( 2010 ) mentioned that decline in agriculture challenges the farmer’s quality of life and thus a significant factor to poverty as the food and water supplies are critically impacted by CC (Ortiz et al.  2021 ; Rosenzweig et al.  2014 ). As an essential part of the economic systems, especially in developing countries, agricultural systems affect the overall economy and potentially the well-being of households (Schlenker and Roberts  2009 ). According to the report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, i.e., CH 4, CO 2 , and N 2 O, are increased in the air to extraordinary levels over the last few centuries (Usman and Makhdum 2021 ; Stocker et al.  2013 ). Climate change is the composite outcome of two different factors. The first is the natural causes, and the second is the anthropogenic actions (Karami 2012 ). It is also forecasted that the world may experience a typical rise in temperature stretching from 1 to 3.7 °C at the end of this century (Pachauri et al. 2014 ). The world’s crop production is also highly vulnerable to these global temperature-changing trends as raised temperatures will pose severe negative impacts on crop growth (Reidsma et al. 2009 ). Some of the recent modeling about the fate of global agriculture is briefly described below.

Decline in cereal productivity

Crop productivity will also be affected dramatically in the next few decades due to variations in integral abiotic factors such as temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, and CO 2 . These all factors are included in various regulatory instruments like progress and growth, weather-tempted changes, pest invasions (Cammell and Knight 1992 ), accompanying disease snags (Fand et al. 2012 ), water supplies (Panda et al. 2003 ), high prices of agro-products in world’s agriculture industry, and preeminent quantity of fertilizer consumption. Lobell and field ( 2007 ) claimed that from 1962 to 2002, wheat crop output had condensed significantly due to rising temperatures. Therefore, during 1980–2011, the common wheat productivity trends endorsed extreme temperature events confirmed by Gourdji et al. ( 2013 ) around South Asia, South America, and Central Asia. Various other studies (Asseng, Cao, Zhang, and Ludwig 2009 ; Asseng et al. 2013 ; García et al. 2015 ; Ortiz et al. 2021 ) also proved that wheat output is negatively affected by the rising temperatures and also caused adverse effects on biomass productivity (Calderini et al. 1999 ; Sadras and Slafer 2012 ). Hereafter, the rice crop is also influenced by the high temperatures at night. These difficulties will worsen because the temperature will be rising further in the future owing to CC (Tebaldi et al. 2006 ). Another research conducted in China revealed that a 4.6% of rice production per 1 °C has happened connected with the advancement in night temperatures (Tao et al. 2006 ). Moreover, the average night temperature growth also affected rice indicia cultivar’s output pragmatically during 25 years in the Philippines (Peng et al. 2004 ). It is anticipated that the increase in world average temperature will also cause a substantial reduction in yield (Hatfield et al. 2011 ; Lobell and Gourdji 2012 ). In the southern hemisphere, Parry et al. ( 2007 ) noted a rise of 1–4 °C in average daily temperatures at the end of spring season unti the middle of summers, and this raised temperature reduced crop output by cutting down the time length for phenophases eventually reduce the yield (Hatfield and Prueger 2015 ; R. Ortiz 2008 ). Also, world climate models have recommended that humid and subtropical regions expect to be plentiful prey to the upcoming heat strokes (Battisti and Naylor 2009 ). Grain production is the amalgamation of two constituents: the average weight and the grain output/m 2 , however, in crop production. Crop output is mainly accredited to the grain quantity (Araus et al. 2008 ; Gambín and Borrás 2010 ). In the times of grain set, yield resources are mainly strewn between hitherto defined components, i.e., grain usual weight and grain output, which presents a trade-off between them (Gambín and Borrás 2010 ) beside disparities in per grain integration (B. L. Gambín et al. 2006 ). In addition to this, the maize crop is also susceptible to raised temperatures, principally in the flowering stage (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). In reality, the lower grain number is associated with insufficient acclimatization due to intense photosynthesis and higher respiration and the high-temperature effect on the reproduction phenomena (Edreira and Otegui 2013 ). During the flowering phase, maize visible to heat (30–36 °C) seemed less anthesis-silking intermissions (Edreira et al. 2011 ). Another research by Dupuis and Dumas ( 1990 ) proved that a drop in spikelet when directly visible to high temperatures above 35 °C in vitro pollination. Abnormalities in kernel number claimed by Vega et al. ( 2001 ) is related to conceded plant development during a flowering phase that is linked with the active ear growth phase and categorized as a critical phase for approximation of kernel number during silking (Otegui and Bonhomme 1998 ).

The retort of rice output to high temperature presents disparities in flowering patterns, and seed set lessens and lessens grain weight (Qasim et al. 2020 ; Qasim, Hammad, Maqsood, Tariq, & Chawla). During the daytime, heat directly impacts flowers which lessens the thesis period and quickens the earlier peak flowering (Tao et al. 2006 ). Antagonistic effect of higher daytime temperature d on pollen sprouting proposed seed set decay, whereas, seed set was lengthily reduced than could be explicated by pollen growing at high temperatures 40◦C (Matsui et al. 2001 ).

The decline in wheat output is linked with higher temperatures, confirmed in numerous studies (Semenov 2009 ; Stone and Nicolas 1994 ). High temperatures fast-track the arrangements of plant expansion (Blum et al. 2001 ), diminution photosynthetic process (Salvucci and Crafts‐Brandner 2004 ), and also considerably affect the reproductive operations (Farooq et al. 2011 ).

The destructive impacts of CC induced weather extremes to deteriorate the integrity of crops (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ), e.g., Spartan cold and extreme fog cause falling and discoloration of betel leaves (Rosenzweig et al. 2001 ), giving them a somehow reddish appearance, squeezing of lemon leaves (Pautasso et al. 2012 ), as well as root rot of pineapple, have reported (Vedwan and Rhoades 2001 ). Henceforth, in tackling the disruptive effects of CC, several short-term and long-term management approaches are the crucial need of time (Fig.  4 ). Moreover, various studies (Chaudhary et al. 2011 ; Patz et al. 2005 ; Pautasso et al. 2012 ) have demonstrated adapting trends such as ameliorating crop diversity can yield better adaptability towards CC.

Schematic description of potential impacts of climate change on the agriculture sector and the appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures to overcome its impact.

Climate change impacts on biodiversity

Global biodiversity is among the severe victims of CC because it is the fastest emerging cause of species loss. Studies demonstrated that the massive scale species dynamics are considerably associated with diverse climatic events (Abraham and Chain 1988 ; Manes et al. 2021 ; A. M. D. Ortiz et al. 2021 ). Both the pace and magnitude of CC are altering the compatible habitat ranges for living entities of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial regions. Alterations in general climate regimes influence the integrity of ecosystems in numerous ways, such as variation in the relative abundance of species, range shifts, changes in activity timing, and microhabitat use (Bates et al. 2014 ). The geographic distribution of any species often depends upon its ability to tolerate environmental stresses, biological interactions, and dispersal constraints. Hence, instead of the CC, the local species must only accept, adapt, move, or face extinction (Berg et al. 2010 ). So, the best performer species have a better survival capacity for adjusting to new ecosystems or a decreased perseverance to survive where they are already situated (Bates et al. 2014 ). An important aspect here is the inadequate habitat connectivity and access to microclimates, also crucial in raising the exposure to climate warming and extreme heatwave episodes. For example, the carbon sequestration rates are undergoing fluctuations due to climate-driven expansion in the range of global mangroves (Cavanaugh et al. 2014 ).

Similarly, the loss of kelp-forest ecosystems in various regions and its occupancy by the seaweed turfs has set the track for elevated herbivory by the high influx of tropical fish populations. Not only this, the increased water temperatures have exacerbated the conditions far away from the physiological tolerance level of the kelp communities (Vergés et al. 2016 ; Wernberg et al. 2016 ). Another pertinent danger is the devastation of keystone species, which even has more pervasive effects on the entire communities in that habitat (Zarnetske et al. 2012 ). It is particularly important as CC does not specify specific populations or communities. Eventually, this CC-induced redistribution of species may deteriorate carbon storage and the net ecosystem productivity (Weed et al. 2013 ). Among the typical disruptions, the prominent ones include impacts on marine and terrestrial productivity, marine community assembly, and the extended invasion of toxic cyanobacteria bloom (Fossheim et al. 2015 ).

The CC-impacted species extinction is widely reported in the literature (Beesley et al. 2019 ; Urban 2015 ), and the predictions of demise until the twenty-first century are dreadful (Abbass et al. 2019 ; Pereira et al. 2013 ). In a few cases, northward shifting of species may not be formidable as it allows mountain-dwelling species to find optimum climates. However, the migrant species may be trapped in isolated and incompatible habitats due to losing topography and range (Dullinger et al. 2012 ). For example, a study indicated that the American pika has been extirpated or intensely diminished in some regions, primarily attributed to the CC-impacted extinction or at least local extirpation (Stewart et al. 2015 ). Besides, the anticipation of persistent responses to the impacts of CC often requires data records of several decades to rigorously analyze the critical pre and post CC patterns at species and ecosystem levels (Manes et al. 2021 ; Testa et al. 2018 ).

Nonetheless, the availability of such long-term data records is rare; hence, attempts are needed to focus on these profound aspects. Biodiversity is also vulnerable to the other associated impacts of CC, such as rising temperatures, droughts, and certain invasive pest species. For instance, a study revealed the changes in the composition of plankton communities attributed to rising temperatures. Henceforth, alterations in such aquatic producer communities, i.e., diatoms and calcareous plants, can ultimately lead to variation in the recycling of biological carbon. Moreover, such changes are characterized as a potential contributor to CO 2 differences between the Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods (Kohfeld et al. 2005 ).

Climate change implications on human health

It is an understood corporality that human health is a significant victim of CC (Costello et al. 2009 ). According to the WHO, CC might be responsible for 250,000 additional deaths per year during 2030–2050 (Watts et al. 2015 ). These deaths are attributed to extreme weather-induced mortality and morbidity and the global expansion of vector-borne diseases (Lemery et al. 2021; Yang and Usman 2021 ; Meierrieks 2021 ; UNEP 2017 ). Here, some of the emerging health issues pertinent to this global problem are briefly described.

Climate change and antimicrobial resistance with corresponding economic costs

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an up-surging complex global health challenge (Garner et al. 2019 ; Lemery et al. 2021 ). Health professionals across the globe are extremely worried due to this phenomenon that has critical potential to reverse almost all the progress that has been achieved so far in the health discipline (Gosling and Arnell 2016 ). A massive amount of antibiotics is produced by many pharmaceutical industries worldwide, and the pathogenic microorganisms are gradually developing resistance to them, which can be comprehended how strongly this aspect can shake the foundations of national and global economies (UNEP 2017 ). This statement is supported by the fact that AMR is not developing in a particular region or country. Instead, it is flourishing in every continent of the world (WHO 2018 ). This plague is heavily pushing humanity to the post-antibiotic era, in which currently antibiotic-susceptible pathogens will once again lead to certain endemics and pandemics after being resistant(WHO 2018 ). Undesirably, if this statement would become a factuality, there might emerge certain risks in undertaking sophisticated interventions such as chemotherapy, joint replacement cases, and organ transplantation (Su et al. 2018 ). Presently, the amplification of drug resistance cases has made common illnesses like pneumonia, post-surgical infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, etc., too difficult and costly to be treated or cure well (WHO 2018 ). From a simple example, it can be assumed how easily antibiotic-resistant strains can be transmitted from one person to another and ultimately travel across the boundaries (Berendonk et al. 2015 ). Talking about the second- and third-generation classes of antibiotics, e.g., most renowned generations of cephalosporin antibiotics that are more expensive, broad-spectrum, more toxic, and usually require more extended periods whenever prescribed to patients (Lemery et al. 2021 ; Pärnänen et al. 2019 ). This scenario has also revealed that the abundance of resistant strains of pathogens was also higher in the Southern part (WHO 2018 ). As southern parts are generally warmer than their counterparts, it is evident from this example how CC-induced global warming can augment the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains within the biosphere, eventually putting additional economic burden in the face of developing new and costlier antibiotics. The ARG exchange to susceptible bacteria through one of the potential mechanisms, transformation, transduction, and conjugation; Selection pressure can be caused by certain antibiotics, metals or pesticides, etc., as shown in Fig.  5 .

A typical interaction between the susceptible and resistant strains.

Source: Elsayed et al. ( 2021 ); Karkman et al. ( 2018 )

Certain studies highlighted that conventional urban wastewater treatment plants are typical hotspots where most bacterial strains exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (Fig.  5 ). Although at present, the extent of risks associated with the antibiotic resistance found in wastewater is complicated; environmental scientists and engineers have particular concerns about the potential impacts of these antibiotic resistance genes on human health (Ashbolt 2015 ). At most undesirable and worst case, these antibiotic-resistant genes containing bacteria can make their way to enter into the environment (Pruden et al. 2013 ), irrigation water used for crops and public water supplies and ultimately become a part of food chains and food webs (Ma et al. 2019 ; D. Wu et al. 2019 ). This problem has been reported manifold in several countries (Hendriksen et al. 2019 ), where wastewater as a means of irrigated water is quite common.

Climate change and vector borne-diseases

Temperature is a fundamental factor for the sustenance of living entities regardless of an ecosystem. So, a specific living being, especially a pathogen, requires a sophisticated temperature range to exist on earth. The second essential component of CC is precipitation, which also impacts numerous infectious agents’ transport and dissemination patterns. Global rising temperature is a significant cause of many species extinction. On the one hand, this changing environmental temperature may be causing species extinction, and on the other, this warming temperature might favor the thriving of some new organisms. Here, it was evident that some pathogens may also upraise once non-evident or reported (Patz et al. 2000 ). This concept can be exemplified through certain pathogenic strains of microorganisms that how the likelihood of various diseases increases in response to climate warming-induced environmental changes (Table ​ (Table2 2 ).

Examples of how various environmental changes affect various infectious diseases in humans

Source: Aron and Patz ( 2001 )

A recent example is an outburst of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Republic of China, causing pneumonia and severe acute respiratory complications (Cui et al. 2021 ; Song et al. 2021 ). The large family of viruses is harbored in numerous animals, bats, and snakes in particular (livescience.com) with the subsequent transfer into human beings. Hence, it is worth noting that the thriving of numerous vectors involved in spreading various diseases is influenced by Climate change (Ogden 2018 ; Santos et al. 2021 ).

Psychological impacts of climate change

Climate change (CC) is responsible for the rapid dissemination and exaggeration of certain epidemics and pandemics. In addition to the vast apparent impacts of climate change on health, forestry, agriculture, etc., it may also have psychological implications on vulnerable societies. It can be exemplified through the recent outburst of (COVID-19) in various countries around the world (Pal 2021 ). Besides, the victims of this viral infection have made healthy beings scarier and terrified. In the wake of such epidemics, people with common colds or fever are also frightened and must pass specific regulatory protocols. Living in such situations continuously terrifies the public and makes the stress familiar, which eventually makes them psychologically weak (npr.org).

CC boosts the extent of anxiety, distress, and other issues in public, pushing them to develop various mental-related problems. Besides, frequent exposure to extreme climatic catastrophes such as geological disasters also imprints post-traumatic disorder, and their ubiquitous occurrence paves the way to developing chronic psychological dysfunction. Moreover, repetitive listening from media also causes an increase in the person’s stress level (Association 2020 ). Similarly, communities living in flood-prone areas constantly live in extreme fear of drowning and die by floods. In addition to human lives, the flood-induced destruction of physical infrastructure is a specific reason for putting pressure on these communities (Ogden 2018 ). For instance, Ogden ( 2018 ) comprehensively denoted that Katrina’s Hurricane augmented the mental health issues in the victim communities.

Climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Forests are the global regulators of the world’s climate (FAO 2018 ) and have an indispensable role in regulating global carbon and nitrogen cycles (Rehman et al. 2021 ; Reichstein and Carvalhais 2019 ). Hence, disturbances in forest ecology affect the micro and macro-climates (Ellison et al. 2017 ). Climate warming, in return, has profound impacts on the growth and productivity of transboundary forests by influencing the temperature and precipitation patterns, etc. As CC induces specific changes in the typical structure and functions of ecosystems (Zhang et al. 2017 ) as well impacts forest health, climate change also has several devastating consequences such as forest fires, droughts, pest outbreaks (EPA 2018 ), and last but not the least is the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. The rising frequency and intensity of another CC product, i.e., droughts, pose plenty of challenges to the well-being of global forests (Diffenbaugh et al. 2017 ), which is further projected to increase soon (Hartmann et al. 2018 ; Lehner et al. 2017 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ). Hence, CC induces storms, with more significant impacts also put extra pressure on the survival of the global forests (Martínez-Alvarado et al. 2018 ), significantly since their influences are augmented during higher winter precipitations with corresponding wetter soils causing weak root anchorage of trees (Brázdil et al. 2018 ). Surging temperature regimes causes alterations in usual precipitation patterns, which is a significant hurdle for the survival of temperate forests (Allen et al. 2010 ; Flannigan et al. 2013 ), letting them encounter severe stress and disturbances which adversely affects the local tree species (Hubbart et al. 2016 ; Millar and Stephenson 2015 ; Rehman et al. 2021 ).

Climate change impacts on forest-dependent communities

Forests are the fundamental livelihood resource for about 1.6 billion people worldwide; out of them, 350 million are distinguished with relatively higher reliance (Bank 2008 ). Agro-forestry-dependent communities comprise 1.2 billion, and 60 million indigenous people solely rely on forests and their products to sustain their lives (Sunderlin et al. 2005 ). For example, in the entire African continent, more than 2/3rd of inhabitants depend on forest resources and woodlands for their alimonies, e.g., food, fuelwood and grazing (Wasiq and Ahmad 2004 ). The livings of these people are more intensely affected by the climatic disruptions making their lives harder (Brown et al. 2014 ). On the one hand, forest communities are incredibly vulnerable to CC due to their livelihoods, cultural and spiritual ties as well as socio-ecological connections, and on the other, they are not familiar with the term “climate change.” (Rahman and Alam 2016 ). Among the destructive impacts of temperature and rainfall, disruption of the agroforestry crops with resultant downscale growth and yield (Macchi et al. 2008 ). Cruz ( 2015 ) ascribed that forest-dependent smallholder farmers in the Philippines face the enigma of delayed fruiting, more severe damages by insect and pest incidences due to unfavorable temperature regimes, and changed rainfall patterns.

Among these series of challenges to forest communities, their well-being is also distinctly vulnerable to CC. Though the detailed climate change impacts on human health have been comprehensively mentioned in the previous section, some studies have listed a few more devastating effects on the prosperity of forest-dependent communities. For instance, the Himalayan people have been experiencing frequent skin-borne diseases such as malaria and other skin diseases due to increasing mosquitoes, wild boar as well, and new wasps species, particularly in higher altitudes that were almost non-existent before last 5–10 years (Xu et al. 2008 ). Similarly, people living at high altitudes in Bangladesh have experienced frequent mosquito-borne calamities (Fardous; Sharma 2012 ). In addition, the pace of other waterborne diseases such as infectious diarrhea, cholera, pathogenic induced abdominal complications and dengue has also been boosted in other distinguished regions of Bangladesh (Cell 2009 ; Gunter et al. 2008 ).

Pest outbreak

Upscaling hotter climate may positively affect the mobile organisms with shorter generation times because they can scurry from harsh conditions than the immobile species (Fettig et al. 2013 ; Schoene and Bernier 2012 ) and are also relatively more capable of adapting to new environments (Jactel et al. 2019 ). It reveals that insects adapt quickly to global warming due to their mobility advantages. Due to past outbreaks, the trees (forests) are relatively more susceptible victims (Kurz et al. 2008 ). Before CC, the influence of factors mentioned earlier, i.e., droughts and storms, was existent and made the forests susceptible to insect pest interventions; however, the global forests remain steadfast, assiduous, and green (Jactel et al. 2019 ). The typical reasons could be the insect herbivores were regulated by several tree defenses and pressures of predation (Wilkinson and Sherratt 2016 ). As climate greatly influences these phenomena, the global forests cannot be so sedulous against such challenges (Jactel et al. 2019 ). Table ​ Table3 3 demonstrates some of the particular considerations with practical examples that are essential while mitigating the impacts of CC in the forestry sector.

Essential considerations while mitigating the climate change impacts on the forestry sector

Source : Fischer ( 2019 )

Climate change impacts on tourism

Tourism is a commercial activity that has roots in multi-dimensions and an efficient tool with adequate job generation potential, revenue creation, earning of spectacular foreign exchange, enhancement in cross-cultural promulgation and cooperation, a business tool for entrepreneurs and eventually for the country’s national development (Arshad et al. 2018 ; Scott 2021 ). Among a plethora of other disciplines, the tourism industry is also a distinct victim of climate warming (Gössling et al. 2012 ; Hall et al. 2015 ) as the climate is among the essential resources that enable tourism in particular regions as most preferred locations. Different places at different times of the year attract tourists both within and across the countries depending upon the feasibility and compatibility of particular weather patterns. Hence, the massive variations in these weather patterns resulting from CC will eventually lead to monumental challenges to the local economy in that specific area’s particular and national economy (Bujosa et al. 2015 ). For instance, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report demonstrated that the global tourism industry had faced a considerable decline in the duration of ski season, including the loss of some ski areas and the dramatic shifts in tourist destinations’ climate warming.

Furthermore, different studies (Neuvonen et al. 2015 ; Scott et al. 2004 ) indicated that various currently perfect tourist spots, e.g., coastal areas, splendid islands, and ski resorts, will suffer consequences of CC. It is also worth noting that the quality and potential of administrative management potential to cope with the influence of CC on the tourism industry is of crucial significance, which renders specific strengths of resiliency to numerous destinations to withstand against it (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). Similarly, in the partial or complete absence of adequate socio-economic and socio-political capital, the high-demanding tourist sites scurry towards the verge of vulnerability. The susceptibility of tourism is based on different components such as the extent of exposure, sensitivity, life-supporting sectors, and capacity assessment factors (Füssel and Hildén 2014 ). It is obvious corporality that sectors such as health, food, ecosystems, human habitat, infrastructure, water availability, and the accessibility of a particular region are prone to CC. Henceforth, the sensitivity of these critical sectors to CC and, in return, the adaptive measures are a hallmark in determining the composite vulnerability of climate warming (Ionescu et al. 2009 ).

Moreover, the dependence on imported food items, poor hygienic conditions, and inadequate health professionals are dominant aspects affecting the local terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. Meanwhile, the greater dependency on ecosystem services and its products also makes a destination more fragile to become a prey of CC (Rizvi et al. 2015 ). Some significant non-climatic factors are important indicators of a particular ecosystem’s typical health and functioning, e.g., resource richness and abundance portray the picture of ecosystem stability. Similarly, the species abundance is also a productive tool that ensures that the ecosystem has a higher buffering capacity, which is terrific in terms of resiliency (Roscher et al. 2013 ).

Climate change impacts on the economic sector

Climate plays a significant role in overall productivity and economic growth. Due to its increasingly global existence and its effect on economic growth, CC has become one of the major concerns of both local and international environmental policymakers (Ferreira et al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Abbass et al. 2021b ; Lamperti et al. 2021 ). The adverse effects of CC on the overall productivity factor of the agricultural sector are therefore significant for understanding the creation of local adaptation policies and the composition of productive climate policy contracts. Previous studies on CC in the world have already forecasted its effects on the agricultural sector. Researchers have found that global CC will impact the agricultural sector in different world regions. The study of the impacts of CC on various agrarian activities in other demographic areas and the development of relative strategies to respond to effects has become a focal point for researchers (Chandioet al. 2020 ; Gleditsch 2021 ; Mosavi et al. 2020 ).

With the rapid growth of global warming since the 1980s, the temperature has started increasing globally, which resulted in the incredible transformation of rain and evaporation in the countries. The agricultural development of many countries has been reliant, delicate, and susceptible to CC for a long time, and it is on the development of agriculture total factor productivity (ATFP) influence different crops and yields of farmers (Alhassan 2021 ; Wu  2020 ).

Food security and natural disasters are increasing rapidly in the world. Several major climatic/natural disasters have impacted local crop production in the countries concerned. The effects of these natural disasters have been poorly controlled by the development of the economies and populations and may affect human life as well. One example is China, which is among the world’s most affected countries, vulnerable to natural disasters due to its large population, harsh environmental conditions, rapid CC, low environmental stability, and disaster power. According to the January 2016 statistical survey, China experienced an economic loss of 298.3 billion Yuan, and about 137 million Chinese people were severely affected by various natural disasters (Xie et al. 2018 ).

Mitigation and adaptation strategies of climate changes

Adaptation and mitigation are the crucial factors to address the response to CC (Jahanzad et al. 2020 ). Researchers define mitigation on climate changes, and on the other hand, adaptation directly impacts climate changes like floods. To some extent, mitigation reduces or moderates greenhouse gas emission, and it becomes a critical issue both economically and environmentally (Botzen et al. 2021 ; Jahanzad et al. 2020 ; Kongsager 2018 ; Smit et al. 2000 ; Vale et al. 2021 ; Usman et al. 2021 ; Verheyen 2005 ).

Researchers have deep concern about the adaptation and mitigation methodologies in sectoral and geographical contexts. Agriculture, industry, forestry, transport, and land use are the main sectors to adapt and mitigate policies(Kärkkäinen et al. 2020 ; Waheed et al. 2021 ). Adaptation and mitigation require particular concern both at the national and international levels. The world has faced a significant problem of climate change in the last decades, and adaptation to these effects is compulsory for economic and social development. To adapt and mitigate against CC, one should develop policies and strategies at the international level (Hussain et al. 2020 ). Figure  6 depicts the list of current studies on sectoral impacts of CC with adaptation and mitigation measures globally.

Sectoral impacts of climate change with adaptation and mitigation measures.

Conclusion and future perspectives

Specific socio-agricultural, socio-economic, and physical systems are the cornerstone of psychological well-being, and the alteration in these systems by CC will have disastrous impacts. Climate variability, alongside other anthropogenic and natural stressors, influences human and environmental health sustainability. Food security is another concerning scenario that may lead to compromised food quality, higher food prices, and inadequate food distribution systems. Global forests are challenged by different climatic factors such as storms, droughts, flash floods, and intense precipitation. On the other hand, their anthropogenic wiping is aggrandizing their existence. Undoubtedly, the vulnerability scale of the world’s regions differs; however, appropriate mitigation and adaptation measures can aid the decision-making bodies in developing effective policies to tackle its impacts. Presently, modern life on earth has tailored to consistent climatic patterns, and accordingly, adapting to such considerable variations is of paramount importance. Because the faster changes in climate will make it harder to survive and adjust, this globally-raising enigma calls for immediate attention at every scale ranging from elementary community level to international level. Still, much effort, research, and dedication are required, which is the most critical time. Some policy implications can help us to mitigate the consequences of climate change, especially the most affected sectors like the agriculture sector;

Warming might lengthen the season in frost-prone growing regions (temperate and arctic zones), allowing for longer-maturing seasonal cultivars with better yields (Pfadenhauer 2020 ; Bonacci 2019 ). Extending the planting season may allow additional crops each year; when warming leads to frequent warmer months highs over critical thresholds, a split season with a brief summer fallow may be conceivable for short-period crops such as wheat barley, cereals, and many other vegetable crops. The capacity to prolong the planting season in tropical and subtropical places where the harvest season is constrained by precipitation or agriculture farming occurs after the year may be more limited and dependent on how precipitation patterns vary (Wu et al. 2017 ).

The genetic component is comprehensive for many yields, but it is restricted like kiwi fruit for a few. Ali et al. ( 2017 ) investigated how new crops will react to climatic changes (also stated in Mall et al. 2017 ). Hot temperature, drought, insect resistance; salt tolerance; and overall crop production and product quality increases would all be advantageous (Akkari 2016 ). Genetic mapping and engineering can introduce a greater spectrum of features. The adoption of genetically altered cultivars has been slowed, particularly in the early forecasts owing to the complexity in ensuring features are expediently expressed throughout the entire plant, customer concerns, economic profitability, and regulatory impediments (Wirehn 2018 ; Davidson et al. 2016 ).

To get the full benefit of the CO 2 would certainly require additional nitrogen and other fertilizers. Nitrogen not consumed by the plants may be excreted into groundwater, discharged into water surface, or emitted from the land, soil nitrous oxide when large doses of fertilizer are sprayed. Increased nitrogen levels in groundwater sources have been related to human chronic illnesses and impact marine ecosystems. Cultivation, grain drying, and other field activities have all been examined in depth in the studies (Barua et al. 2018 ).

• The technological and socio-economic adaptation

The policy consequence of the causative conclusion is that as a source of alternative energy, biofuel production is one of the routes that explain oil price volatility separate from international macroeconomic factors. Even though biofuel production has just begun in a few sample nations, there is still a tremendous worldwide need for feedstock to satisfy industrial expansion in China and the USA, which explains the food price relationship to the global oil price. Essentially, oil-exporting countries may create incentives in their economies to increase food production. It may accomplish by giving farmers financing, seedlings, fertilizers, and farming equipment. Because of the declining global oil price and, as a result, their earnings from oil export, oil-producing nations may be unable to subsidize food imports even in the near term. As a result, these countries can boost the agricultural value chain for export. It may be accomplished through R&D and adding value to their food products to increase income by correcting exchange rate misalignment and adverse trade terms. These nations may also diversify their economies away from oil, as dependence on oil exports alone is no longer economically viable given the extreme volatility of global oil prices. Finally, resource-rich and oil-exporting countries can convert to non-food renewable energy sources such as solar, hydro, coal, wind, wave, and tidal energy. By doing so, both world food and oil supplies would be maintained rather than harmed.

IRENA’s modeling work shows that, if a comprehensive policy framework is in place, efforts toward decarbonizing the energy future will benefit economic activity, jobs (outweighing losses in the fossil fuel industry), and welfare. Countries with weak domestic supply chains and a large reliance on fossil fuel income, in particular, must undertake structural reforms to capitalize on the opportunities inherent in the energy transition. Governments continue to give major policy assistance to extract fossil fuels, including tax incentives, financing, direct infrastructure expenditures, exemptions from environmental regulations, and other measures. The majority of major oil and gas producing countries intend to increase output. Some countries intend to cut coal output, while others plan to maintain or expand it. While some nations are beginning to explore and execute policies aimed at a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuel production, these efforts have yet to impact major producing countries’ plans and goals. Verifiable and comparable data on fossil fuel output and assistance from governments and industries are critical to closing the production gap. Governments could increase openness by declaring their production intentions in their climate obligations under the Paris Agreement.

It is firmly believed that achieving the Paris Agreement commitments is doubtlful without undergoing renewable energy transition across the globe (Murshed 2020 ; Zhao et al. 2022 ). Policy instruments play the most important role in determining the degree of investment in renewable energy technology. This study examines the efficacy of various policy strategies in the renewable energy industry of multiple nations. Although its impact is more visible in established renewable energy markets, a renewable portfolio standard is also a useful policy instrument. The cost of producing renewable energy is still greater than other traditional energy sources. Furthermore, government incentives in the R&D sector can foster innovation in this field, resulting in cost reductions in the renewable energy industry. These nations may export their technologies and share their policy experiences by forming networks among their renewable energy-focused organizations. All policy measures aim to reduce production costs while increasing the proportion of renewables to a country’s energy system. Meanwhile, long-term contracts with renewable energy providers, government commitment and control, and the establishment of long-term goals can assist developing nations in deploying renewable energy technology in their energy sector.

Author contribution

KA: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Study design, Formal analysis, Visualization, Revised draft, Writing-review, and editing. MZQ: Writing the original manuscript, data collection, data analysis, Writing-review, and editing. HS: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, Conceptualization, Validation, Supervision, literature review, Revised drapt, and writing review and editing. MM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. HM: Writing review and editing, compiling the literature review, language editing. IY: Contribution to the contextualization of the theme, literature review, and writing review and editing.

Availability of data and material

Declarations.

Not applicable.

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Contributor Information

Kashif Abbass, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@ssabbafihsak .

Muhammad Zeeshan Qasim, Email: moc.kooltuo@888misaqnahseez .

Huaming Song, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@gnimauh .

Muntasir Murshed, Email: [email protected] .

Haider Mahmood, Email: moc.liamtoh@doomhamrediah .

Ijaz Younis, Email: nc.ude.tsujn@sinuoyzaji .

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The Institute hosts a vibrant group of PhD students working on climate change and environmental topics. They receive their research training in one of the School’s teaching departments, being placed according to discipline. They then carry out their research in the Institute, supervised by members of the Institute and/or by our Associates in other parts of LSE.

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How to apply.

The Institute does not handle PhD applications directly. To apply to study in an area of interest please follow the  London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) application process.

You should apply via the teaching department closest to your interests. This is often the Department of Geography and Environment , which has PhD programmes in Environmental Economics , and in Environmental Policy and Development . Applications to other departments such as Economics, Government, International Relations , Law, Social Policy and Statistics are also welcome.

There are various funding opportunities for Institute students, including LSE scholarships and, for EU students, scholarships from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The Institute also awards its own scholarships, usually 1-2 each year. These are comparable to ESRC scholarships in paying your tuition fees and offering a stipend to cover living expenses. Applications are welcome on any topic within the remit of the Institute’s research.

The deadline for applying for an Institute scholarship (to start in the following autumn) is  the end of the second week in December . Please provide your name, email address, applicant number, and the PhD programme and Department applied to and send in an email to  [email protected] . PhD applications can still be submitted for consideration until May but these applications will not be considered for funding. Any such applications will need to be made via your chosen teaching department (see above).

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The following Institute staff are currently available to supervise PhD students: Marion Dumas Candice Howarth Elizabeth Robinson Misato Sato David Stainforth Frank Venmans

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Hot Topics on Climate Change

On June 1, 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. In spite of this announcement, the fact remains that a global climate change agreement under the United Nations was adopted in December 2015 in Paris. Prior to Trump’s presidency, countries—including the United States— had submitted their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) for the next one-and-a-half decades. These INDCs lower global greenhouse gas emissions compared to existing policies. However, when projected further into the future, the INDCs still suggest a median warming of roughly 2.5 to 3.0°C by 2100. This exceeds the “well-below 2°C” aim of the Paris Agreement, and year-2030 emissions are higher than what energy-economic analyses indicate would minimize overall costs in view of the necessary long-term reductions. Should the United States really depart the Paris Agreement, which can only technically happen on November 4, 2020 (at the earliest), the situation will only get worst.

Many hot topics have marked the year when it comes to climate change. And it is very likely —more than 90 percent probability—using Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) technical language, that these topics, and many others, will continue to be increasingly hot in the United States and elsewhere during 2017 and beyond.

The Climate in 2016

Climate conditions were not that great in 2016. Last year the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the global surface temperature was record warm in 2015. This presses the record set the year before by 0.16°C, the largest margin ever by which one year has beaten another on the records (NOAA 2016). And climate trends continued to break marks in 2016, according to NASA (2016).

Only in the course of this year will we know for certain, but a preliminary November 2016 WMO report assessed that 2016 will likely be the hottest year on record, with global temperatures reaching even higher marks than the record-breaking temperatures of 2015 (WMO 2016). Global average temperature by the end of 2016 was already running 1.2°C above pre-industrial levels, a number perilously close to the 1.5°C target aim of the Paris climate agreement of December 2015.

On other fronts, while global temperatures warmed, here in the United States the political climate also began to heat up. Exactly a month and a half after the landmark Paris Agreement officially took effect on November 4, 2016—when one hundred nations, accounting for 69 percent of global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, had formally joined the treaty (UNFCCC 2016)—Mr. Donald John Trump was formally elected by the United States Electoral College on December 19, 2016 as the country´s 45th President. 

The hot topic here is that, on various recent occasions, President Trump expressed his skepticism about human-induced climate change. This included a tweet expressing a view that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” and various other public manifestations. Trump stated that with his “America First Energy Plan” he would revert all of President Obama´s policies on climate change, which would include cancelling the country’s participation in the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. funding of the United Nations climate change programs, and abandoning the Clean Power Plan—in order to bring back the coal industry. 

Mr. Trump’s leadership choices for the Department of Energy, the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency—the three most important, energy-policy-related Federal State institutions—have either denied or strongly challenged the science of climate change. In fact, at the same time that many world leaders are creating dedicated policies to support climate change mitigation and supporting renewable energy sources in order to open new economic sectors, some world leaders perceive this movement as a threat to existing, more conservative, economic forces, like the ones associated with the fossil-fuel industry (Nature 2016b). And indeed, on June 1, 2017, when President Trump proclaimed that the United States was quitting the Paris Climate Agreement, he very much pleased some of the forces within his administration that goaded him to do so.

The Paris Agreement: The Starting Point of a Three-Year Process

Under the December 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Paris Agreement, more than 190 nations committed to take ambitious action 1) to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, 2) to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C, and 3) to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century (UNFCCC 2016a). This means that, from emissions of roughly 50 GtCO2eq/yr today, in the second half this century these emissions will not only need to be zeroed completely, but turned negative. 

This will only be possible with massive carbon sequestration, which is the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and depositing it in a reservoir. The candidate sectors for this process are the land use sector, with the afforestation and reforestation of large areas of the globe, and the power sector, with the use of carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as fossil-fuel-based and biomass-based power plants with carbon capture and sequestration facilities. 

Already earlier, in preparation of the agreement, countries had submitted their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs) for the agreed 2025 to 2030 period, promising to lower global GHG emissions compared to already existing policies. These INDCs outline national plans to address climate change after 2020. They address a range of issues of which targets and actions for mitigating GHG emissions are a core component. 

The Paris Agreement is a general document, with a framework and overarching goals for global climate action. It is the beginning of a longer process. Some of its loose ends were tied up during the 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 22) in Marrakech in November of 2016  (UNFCCC 2016b)—which served as the first meeting of the governing body of the Agreement. But ironing out Paris Agreement details will take some time. Countries participating in COP 22 aim to have the process established by 2018, with a review of progress planned for this same year. But the only concrete outcomes of COP 22 were procedural in nature, with parties to the Convention adopting work plans for further discussions.

However, the real result of the Paris Agreement and of COP 22 (and their long-term success) will depend on assessments of whether or not the already committed pledges, and the ones to come, will have the expected effect on reducing aggregate GHG emissions. Success will mean that the world achieved the temperature objective of holding global warming to well below 2°C and is continuing to “pursue efforts“ to limit it to 1.5°C.

Temperature Increase as a Consequence of the INDCs

It should come as no surprise that limiting global warming to any level implies that the total amount of GHG emissions that can ever be emitted into the atmosphere is finite, given the technical and economic limitations of carbon sequestration possibilities to compensate for that. For example, for a higher than 66 percent chance (meaning “likely”) of limiting global warming to below the internationally agreed temperature limit of 2°C, carbon budget estimates range around 590 to1,240 Gt CO2 from 2015 onward (Rogelj et al 2016b). 

According to IPCC language, a statement that an outcome is “likely” means that the probability of this outcome can range from ≥66 percent (fuzzy boundaries implied) to 100 percent probability. This implies that all alternative outcomes are “unlikely” (0 to 33 percent probability). To put this carbon-budged range in perspective, given current annual emissions of about 40 Gt CO2 globally, this means that the world has a budget of no more than 15 to 60 years of CO2 emissions left at the level of today´s emissions to limiting global warming to 2°C. Only the successful deployment of carbon sequestration practices and technologies could extend this time frame. 

More specifically, for keeping warming to below 2°C, some two thirds of the total CO2 budget have already been emitted, with an urgent need for global CO2 emissions to start to decline, so as not to foreclose the possibility of holding warming to below 2°C. The Paris Agreement acknowledges both of these insights and aims, on the one hand, to reach global peaking of GHG emissions as soon as possible and, on the other hand, to achieve “a balance” between anthropogenic emissions and removals of GHGs in the second half of this century (UNFCCC 2016a).

The purpose of this digest is to assess the extent to which the proposed INDCs impact global GHG emissions by 2030, and explore the consistency of these reductions with the “well below 2°C” objective of the Paris Agreement. This analysis draws heavily on a previous published work (Rogelj et al 2016a), in which I was one of the authors, and where we updated and expanded INDC modelling results that were collected in the framework of the 2015 UNEP Emissions Gap Report (UNEP 2015), in which I was also one of the authors.

The number of INDCs considered by the studies we assessed ranged from the initial 118 INDCs submitted by October 1, 2015 to the final 160 INDCs from the different parties submitted by December 12, 2015 (Rogelj et al 2016a). These INDCs cover emissions from Parties to the Convention responsible for roughly 85 to 88 percent to more than 96 percent of global emissions in 2012. Furthermore, we look at projections of global-mean temperature increase over the twenty-first century that would be consistent with the INDCs, and at post-2030 implications of the INDCs for limiting warming to no more than 2°C.

We used four scenario groups to frame the implications of the INDCs for global GHGs in 2030: 1) no-policy baseline scenarios, 2) current-policy scenarios, 3) INDC scenarios, and 3) least-cost 2°C scenarios:

• No-policy baseline scenarios are emissions projections that assume that no new climate policies have been put into place from 2005 onwards. In this analysis, the no-policy baseline scenarios are selected from the scenario database that accompanied the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) (available at: https://tntcat.iiasa.ac.at/AR5DB/ ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) By design, these no-policy baseline scenarios exclude climate policies, but may include other policies that can influence emissions and are implemented for other reasons, like some energy efficiency or energy security policies.
• Current-policy scenarios consider the most recent estimates of global emissions and take into account implemented policies. These scenarios were drawn from three global INDC analyses (see Rogelj et al 2016a for more details).  Not all countries and sectors are covered by these official and independent country-specific data sources. If this is the case, the median estimate of the three global studies for the ‘current-policy baseline’ for that country or sector is assumed.
• INDC scenarios are at the core of this analysis. They project how global GHG emissions would evolve under the INDCs. These projections are based on the eight global INDC analyses (see Rogelj et al 2016a for more details), which in their calculations use official estimates from the countries themselves.
• 2°C scenarios are idealized global scenarios which are consistent with limiting warming to well below 2°C, keeping open the option of strengthening the global temperature target to 1.5°C. These scenarios are based on a subset of scenarios from the IPCC AR5 Scenario Database that meet the following criteria: they have a greater than 66 per cent chance of keeping warming to below 2°C by 2100; until 2020, they assume that the actions countries pledged earlier under the UNFCCC Cancun Accord are fully implemented; and after 2020, they distribute emission reductions across regions, gases and sectors in such a way that the total discounted costs of the necessary global reductions are minimised, often referred to as least-cost or cost-optimal trajectories.

All scenarios are here expressed in terms of billion tons of global annual CO2 equivalent emissions (Gt CO2e/yr), with. CO2 equivalence of other GHGs calculated by means of 100-year global warming potentials (GWP-100) (Rogelj et al 2016a).

INDC Aggregate Emissions Impact

Different countries report their INDCs differently. Some provide ranges instead of a single number of emissions reductions. Many INDCs lack necessary details, including clarity on sectors and gases covered, on the base year or a reference from which reductions would be measured, or accounting practices related to land use and the use of specific market mechanisms. Also, some of the actions listed in INDCs are, implicitly or explicitly, conditional on other factors, like the availability of financial or technological support. The interpretation of all these factors influences the range of possible outcomes. So, conditional and unconditional INDC scenarios have to be distinguished from each other, although some argue that, implicitly, all INDCs are conditional, with “some being more conditional than others.” This is because, even if a country submits an unconditional INDC, later in time facts out of a country’s control may change its future priorities. Even so, we will keep here a distinction between conditional and unconditional INDCs.

Unconditionally, the INDCs are expected to result in global GHG emissions of about 55 (52 to 57; 10 to 90 percent range) billion tons of annual CO2 equivalent emissions (Gt CO2e/yr; see four scenerio groups above and Figure 1 below) in 2030. This is a reduction of around 9 (7 to 13) Gt CO2e/yr by 2030 relative to the median no-policy baseline scenario estimate and around 4 (2 to 8) Gt CO2e/yr relative to the median current-policy scenario estimate. To have these numbers in context, global GHG emissions in 2010 are estimated at about 48 (46 to 50) Gt CO2e/yr (UNEP 2015), and our median no-policy baseline estimate reaches about 65 Gt CO2e/yr by 2030.

A number of countries place conditions on all or part of their INDC. Some included a range of reduction targets in their INDC and attached conditions to the implementation of the more ambitious end. Others indicate that their entire INDC is conditional. Of the INDCs submitted, roughly half came with both conditional and unconditional components, a third was conditional only, and the rest did not make any distinction. 

For a number of countries, the targets included in their INDC submission suggest achieving emission levels above the estimated no-policy baseline or their current-policy scenario. These countries are thus expected to overachieve their INDC climate targets by default.

Uncertainties in the Estimates and Optimal 2°C Pathways

There is a wide range of possible estimates of future emissions under nominally similar scenarios. These differences are a result of a number of factors, including modeling methods, input data, and assumptions regarding country intent. In fact, four confounding factors in this respect can be identified: 1) global and national sectors coverage, 2) uncertainties in projections, 3) land-use emissions, and 4) historical emissions and metrics.

Once the GHG implications of the INDCs by 2030 are quantified, the question that remains is whether these levels are consistent with the Paris Agreement’s aim of holding warming to well below 2°C. The Paris Agreement’s aim of reaching net-zero GHG emissions in the second half of the century goes even further. For some non-CO2 emissions, only limited mitigation options have been identified. Therefore, net-zero CO2 emissions are always achieved before achieving net-zero GHG emissions. The Scenario Database that accompanied the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chang (IPCC) is used to explore cost-optimal 2°C pathways from 2020 onward (four scenerios).

The comparison of these cost-optimal 2°C scenarios to the INDC projections shows a large discrepancy (Fig. 1). The median cost-optimal path towards keeping warming to below 2°C (starting reductions in 2020) and the emissions currently implied by the unconditional INDCs differ by about 14 (10–16) Gt CO2e/yr in 2030. Even if the conditions that are linked to some INDCs are met, this difference remains of the order of 11 Gt CO2e/yr. As they stand now, the INDCs clearly do not lead the world to a pathway towards limiting warming to well below 2°C.

Implications of INDCs Post 2030

A large share of the potential warming until 2100 is determined not just by the INDCs until 2025 or 2030, but also by what happens afterwards. Different approaches can be followed to extend INDCs into the future, which basically assume that climate action stops, continues, or accelerates. Stopping action is often modelled by assuming that emissions return to a no-climate-policy trajectory after 2030; continuing action by assuming that the level of post-2030 action is similar to pre-2030 action on the basis of a metric of choice; and accelerating action by post-2030 action that goes beyond such a level. Because of the path-dependence and inertia of the global energy system, the INDCs have a critical role in preparing what can come afterwards.

Each approach may lead to different global temperature outcomes, even when starting from the same INDC assessment for 2025 to 2030. As a conservative interpretation of the Paris Agreement, the assumption made here is that climate action continues after 2030 at a level of ambition that is similar to that of the INDCs. The assumption that climate action will continue or accelerate over time is supported by the Agreement’s requirement that the successive nationally determined contribution (NDC) of each country must represent a progression beyond the earlier contributions, and reflect the highest possible ambition of that country.

Under these assumptions of continued climate action, the 2030 unconditional-INDC emission range is roughly consistent with a median warming relative to pre-industrial levels of 2.6 to 3.1°C (median, 2.9°C; full scenario projection uncertainty, 2.2 to 3.5°C; Table 1), with warming continuing its increase afterwards. This is an improvement on the current-policy and no-policy baseline scenarios, whose median projections suggest about 3.2°C and more than 4°C of temperature rise by 2100, respectively.

The successful implementation of all conditional INDCs would decrease the median estimate by an additional 0.2°C, but keeps the outcome far from the targets the Paris Agreement is aiming for, with well-below 2°C and 1.5°C of warming. Moreover, all above-mentioned values represent median projections coming out of emission scenarios, which in themselves are a function of uncertain assumptions with respect to population growth (more growth, more emissions), economic growth (here too, more growth, more emissions) and even rates of technological improvements (more improvements, less emissions).

Because the climate response to GHG emissions remains uncertain, it is also possible that substantially higher temperatures will materialize with compelling likelihoods (Table 1). For example, at the 66th percentile level, warming under the unconditional INDCs is projected to be about 0.3 °C higher (3.2°C, with a range of 2.9 to 3.4°C). Finally, the INDC cases that are discussed here will exceed the available carbon budget for keeping warming to below 2°C by 2030 with 66 percent probability (that is, roughly 750 to 800 Gt CO2e implied emissions under the INDCs during the 2011 to 2030 period compared to the 750 to 1,400 Gt CO2e available).

The question thus arises whether global temperature rise can be kept to well below 2°C with accelerated action after 2030. Global scenarios that aim to keep warming to below 2°C and that achieve this objective from 2030 GHG emissions similar to those from the INDC range have been assessed in detail by recent large-scale model-comparison projects (Clarke et al 2014 and Riahi et al 2015), but show that even with accelerated action after 2030 options to keep warming to well below 2°C from current INDCs are severely limited, particularly if some key mitigation technologies, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) or CCS with biomass energy (BECCS), for example, do not scale up as anticipated.

Scenarios in which global warming is successfully contained show rapidly declining emissions after 2030, with global CO2 emissions from energy- and industry-related sources reaching net-zero levels between 2060 and 2080. The global economy is thus assumed to fully decarbonize in the time span of three to five decades and from 2030 levels that are higher than today’s. Furthermore, about two-thirds of these scenarios achieve a balance of global GHG emissions between 2080 and 2100. Because some non-CO2 emissions are virtually impossible to eliminate entirely (for example those from specific agricultural or animal agricultural sources), reaching such a balance will involve net-negative CO2 emissions at a global scale to compensate for any residual non-CO2 emissions, limiting global-average temperatures increase over time.

Exploring futures in which a global balance of GHG emissions can be achieved in the second half of this century with technically feasible and societally acceptable technologies represents a major research challenge emerging from the Paris Agreement. This challenge is particularly relevant to policy, because limiting emissions in 2030 does not only increase the chances of attaining the 2°C target, but also reduces the need to rely on unproven, potentially risky or controversial technologies in the future (Clark et al 2014 and Riahi et al 2015).

Final Considerations

The world has made its decision on Climate Change, despite some recent setbacks here and there. As a recent Editorial of the New York Times put it very clearly, “It´s hard to know how Mr. Trump will change climate policy, but it is almost certain that he won’t advance it” (The New York Times 2016). And indeed, if it is true that the United States will leave the Paris Agreement, for sure it will lose the ability to pressure other countries, including the large emerging economies like Brazil, China and India, to do more.

On the global front, as discussed here, actions may still be too slow and/or too weak, but we can be optimistic and say that, in spite of some hurdles on the way, momentum is building. Covering more than 90 percent of the world’s GHG emissions with climate plans in the form of INDCs was a historic achievement. Now that the Paris Agreement came into force, and that the original INDCs are not simply “Intended” anymore (so, they are no longer INDCs but now Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs), it will continue with NDCs, subject to strong transparency of individual contributions and a global stock-take, in the light of equity and science, every five years.

However, the optimism accompanying this process has to be carefully balanced against the important challenges that current INDCs imply for post-2030 emissions reductions. Even starting now limiting warming to no more than 2°C relative to preindustrial levels constitutes an enormous societal challenge. While the contributions open a new era for climate policy under the Paris agreement, they also represent both an invitation and call, if not a need, for further action. Furthering deeper reductions in the coming decade, as well as preparing for a global transformation until mid-century are critical. In absence of incrementally stronger policy signals over the coming five years to a decade, the likelihood that our society will be able to meet the challenge of limiting warming to below 2°C with less than even odds will become extremely small.

Therefore, let us put this clear: Should the United States’ new administration, indeed step back from the previous administration commitment, two possibilities could arise. First, other major emitting nations could also follow suit, turning the Paris Agreement an absolutely irrelevant effort of international negotiation, driving the planet towards unknown climate consequences. Second, because the United States is the second largest GHG emitter, with some 15 percent of world´s total emissions, any climate-change global agreement to succeed would probably also require to have the United States on board, something that is now under a question mark. Therefore, the latter in itself is already a problem even if the former does not materialize. Interestingly enough, the very structure of the Paris Agreement, like the Kyoto Protocol, was designed largely to United States specifications, and also an answer to United States’ prayers.

The problem is that, in fact, political upsets could stall coordinated international mitigation action, with long-term consequences, eventually even rendering the 2°C target unachievable (Sanderson et at 2016). Interesting enough, although the governments of the world have requested the IPCC to assess, through a Special Report due in 2018 (IPCC 2016), the impacts of 1.5°C of warming, as well as ways to prevent temperatures from rising higher, many scientists have practically already written off the chances of limiting warming to 1.5 °C (Rogelj et al 2016b and Luderer et al 2016).

As discussed before, the Paris Agreement commits governments to keeping average global surface temperatures to between 1.5°C and 2°C above the preindustrial level, but warming has already passed the 1°C mark (WMO 2016). If the 2°C goal is already seen implausible by some, given a lack of more effective actions and current politics, let alone the even more ambitions 1.5°C target (Nature 2016a), let us hope that the economies of the world will be able to do their homework on time. We cannot travel the last mile with quick fixes, which would be too dependent on extremely risky and uncertain technologies, such as geoengineering, as some have begun to consider (Hubert et al 2016). Unfortunately, the recent move of the current United States Administration with respect to the Paris Agreement is not going to be of much help in that respect.

T his digest has been inspired by from Rogelj et al (2016a), of which Roberto Schaeffer is one of the authors. The author wishes to acknowledge extremely helpful comments from a reviewer of an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the author alone.

Roberto Schaeffer

Clarke, L. et al. in Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds O. Edenhofer et al.) Ch. 6, 413-510 (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Hubert, AM., Kruger, T. Rayner, S. Code of conduct for geoengineering. Nature 537, 488 (2016). IPCC. Scoping Meeting for the IPCC Special Report on the Impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways. Geneva, Switzerland, 15-16 August. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ , accessed on 30 December (2016). Luderer, G., Kriegler, E., Delsa, L., Edelenbosch, O. Y., Emmerling, J., Krey, V., McCollum, D. L., Pachauri, S., Riahi, K., Saveyn, B., Tavoni, M., Vrontisi, Z., van Vuuren, D. P., Arent, D., Arvesen, A., Fujimori, S., Iyer, G. Keppo, I., Kermeli, K., Mima, S., Ó Broin, E., Pietzcker, R. C., Sano, F., Scholz, Y., van Ruijven, B. & Wilson, C. Deep decarbonisation towards 1.5 °C – 2 °C stabilisation. Policy findings from the ADVANCE project (first edition, 2016). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/climate-trends-continue-to-bre… , accessed on 20 December (2016). Nature. Climate ambition. Nature 537, 585-586, 29 September (2016a). Nature. Let reason prevail. Nature 538, 289, 20 October (2016b). NOAA. http://www.noaa.gov/climate , accessed on 20 December (2016). Riahi, K. et al. Locked into Copenhagen pledges — Implications of short-term emission targets for the cost and feasibility of long-term climate goals. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 90, Part A, 8-23, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2013.09.016 (2015). Rogelj, J., den Elzen, M., Hohne, N., Fransen, T., Fekete, H., Winkler, H., Schaeffer, R., Sha, F., Riahi, K. & Meinshausen, M. Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C. Nature 534, 631-639, doi:10.1038/nature18307 (2016a). Rogelj, J., Schaeffer, M., Friedlingstein, P., Gillett, N. P., van Vuuren, D. P., Riahi, K., Allen, M. & Knutti, R. Differences between carbon budget estimates unravelled. Nature Climate Change 6, 245-252-, doi: 10.1038/nclimate2868 (2016b). Sanderson, B. M. & Knutti, R. Delays in US mitigation could rulled out Paris targets. Nature Climate Change, advance publication, published online on 26 December, http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3193.html , accessed on 28 December (2016). The New York Times. States Will Lead on Climate Change in the Trump Era. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/opinion/states-will-lead-on-climate-ch… , accessed on 26 December (2016). UNEP. The Emissions Gap Report 2015. 98 (UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya, 2015). UNFCCC. Adoption of the Paris Agreement. Report No. FCCC/CP/2015/L.9/Rev.1, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/cop21/eng/109r01.pdf , accessed on 20 December (2016a). UNFCCC. http://unfccc.int/meetings/marrakech_nov_2016/session/9676.php , assessed on 27 December (2016b). WMO. https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/provisional-wmo-statement-… , accessed on 20 December (2016).  

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New major crosses disciplines to address climate change

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Lauren Aguilar knew she wanted to study energy systems at MIT, but before Course 1-12 (Climate System Science and Engineering) became a new undergraduate major, she didn't see an obvious path to study the systems aspects of energy, policy, and climate associated with the energy transition.

Aguilar was drawn to the new major that was jointly launched by the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) in 2023. She could take engineering systems classes and gain knowledge in climate.

“Having climate knowledge enriches my understanding of how to build reliable and resilient energy systems for climate change mitigation. Understanding upon what scale we can forecast and predict climate change is crucial to build the appropriate level of energy infrastructure,” says Aguilar.

The interdisciplinary structure of the 1-12 major has students engaging with and learning from professors in different disciplines across the Institute. The blended major was designed to provide a foundational understanding of the Earth system and engineering principles — as well as an understanding of human and institutional behavior as it relates to the climate challenge . Students learn the fundamental sciences through subjects like an atmospheric chemistry class focused on the global carbon cycle or a physics class on low-carbon energy systems. The major also covers topics in data science and machine learning as they relate to forecasting climate risks and building resilience, in addition to policy, economics, and environmental justice studies.

Junior Ananda Figueiredo was one of the first students to declare the 1-12 major. Her decision to change majors stemmed from a motivation to improve people’s lives, especially when it comes to equality. “I like to look at things from a systems perspective, and climate change is such a complicated issue connected to many different pieces of our society,” says Figueiredo.

A multifaceted field of study

The 1-12 major prepares students with the necessary foundational expertise across disciplines to confront climate change. Andrew Babbin, an academic advisor in the new degree program and the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Associate Professor in EAPS, says the new major harnesses rigorous training encompassing science, engineering, and policy to design and execute a way forward for society.

Within its first year, Course 1-12 has attracted students with a diverse set of interests, ranging from machine learning for sustainability to nature-based solutions for carbon management to developing the next renewable energy technology and integrating it into the power system.

Academic advisor Michael Howland, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, says the best part of this degree is the students, and the enthusiasm and optimism they bring to the climate challenge.

“We have students seeking to impact policy and students double-majoring in computer science. For this generation, climate change is a challenge for today, not for the future. Their actions inside and outside the classroom speak to the urgency of the challenge and the promise that we can solve it,” Howland says.

The degree program also leaves plenty of space for students to develop and follow their interests. Sophomore Katherine Kempff began this spring semester as a 1-12 major interested in sustainability and renewable energy. Kempff was worried she wouldn’t be able to finish 1-12 once she made the switch to a different set of classes, but Howland assured her there would be no problems, based on the structure of 1-12.

“I really like how flexible 1-12 is. There's a lot of classes that satisfy the requirements, and you are not pigeonholed. I feel like I'm going to be able to do what I'm interested in, rather than just following a set path of a major,” says Kempff.

Kempff is leveraging her skills she developed this semester and exploring different career interests. She is interviewing for sustainability and energy-sector internships in Boston and MIT this summer, and is particularly interested in assisting MIT in meeting its new sustainability goals.

Engineering a sustainable future

The new major dovetail’s MIT’s commitment to address climate change with its steps in prioritizing and enhancing climate education. As the Institute continues making strides to accelerate solutions, students can play a leading role in changing the future.   

“Climate awareness is critical to all MIT students, most of whom will face the consequences of the projection models for the end of the century,” says Babbin. “One-12 will be a focal point of the climate education mission to train the brightest and most creative students to engineer a better world and understand the complex science necessary to design and verify any solutions they invent."

Justin Cole, who transferred to MIT in January from the University of Colorado, served in the U.S. Air Force for nine years. Over the course of his service, he had a front row seat to the changing climate. From helping with the wildfire cleanup in Black Forest, Colorado — after the state's most destructive fire at the time — to witnessing two category 5 typhoons in Japan in 2018, Cole's experiences of these natural disasters impressed upon him that climate security was a prerequisite to international security. 

Cole was recently accepted into the  MIT Energy and Climate Club  Launchpad initiative where he will work to solve real-world climate and energy problems with professionals in industry.

“All of the dots are connecting so far in my classes, and all the hopes that I have for studying the climate crisis and the solutions to it at MIT are coming true,” says Cole.

With a career path that is increasingly growing, there is a rising demand for scientists and engineers who have both deep knowledge of environmental and climate systems and expertise in methods for climate change mitigation.

“Climate science must be coupled with climate solutions. As we experience worsening climate change, the environmental system will increasingly behave in new ways that we haven’t seen in the past,” says Howland. “Solutions to climate change must go beyond good engineering of small-scale components. We need to ensure that our system-scale solutions are maximally effective in reducing climate change, but are also resilient to climate change. And there is no time to waste,” he says.

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Beyond Higher Temperatures: Preparing for National Security Risks Posed by Climate Change

PNNL couples climate, national security expertise to address future threats

Access to food is one consideration when scientists study a future with climate change. Drought, global trade, and income will all play a role.

(Photo by Ververidis Vasilis | Shutterstock)

When talk turns to climate change, certain images pop to mind—maybe polar bears on ever-shrinking ice floes, coral reefs drained of color, or more powerful hurricanes hitting the coast.

But also at stake is the security of the United States and other nations. What if people become desperate for food? What if long-dormant microbes come to life due to thawing permafrost? What if water and electricity become scarce?

These are the sorts of questions that researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are asking as they take part in a series of national forums. Scientists have raised these questions and more at recent gatherings of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), the American Meteorological Society, and the U.S. military.

This week, as the world celebrates Earth Day, more than a dozen PNNL scientists and others are gathering at Battelle’s Conference of Innovations in Climate Resilience (ICR) 2024 in Washington, D.C., to discuss climate change and its impact. Decarbonization, energy storage, clean fuels, and national security implications are among the topics discussed by PNNL researchers.

“ National security has many facets affected directly by climate ,” said Jill Brandenberger, an oceanographer who is on the ICR organizing committee and who leads the Laboratory’s climate security research. “It involves energy and water, which may be more obvious, but also food security, infrastructure, and health. These are all critical to national security and overall human security.”

Understanding the changes starts with fundamental insights about the climate. PNNL is home to Ruby Leung, chief scientist of the Department of Energy’s Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) , a sophisticated undertaking to model climate and human interactions. The model, breathtaking in the scope of data it encompasses, is the starting point for many scientific studies exploring Earth’s future. At the same time, PNNL is one of the nation’s leading resources on national security issues, addressing an array of traditional threats (such as weapons of mass destruction) and emerging threats to protect its citizens.

At AGU last December, Brandenberger and colleague Brian O’Neill brought these two threads together and organized a special session on climate and national security . O’Neill, an Earth scientist at the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI), suggested that social and economic conditions, not just climate hazards, are important to understand the security risks from climate change.

“Oftentimes, the first tendency is to do climate modeling, project out extreme events, and then note society’s vulnerability to climate’s effects on food, water, and other issues,” said O’Neill, a member of the National Academies’ Climate Security Roundtable . “But typically, those issues are shaped much more by other underlying conditions, such as social and economic factors—they can be exacerbated by climate, but the baseline vulnerability apart from climate is crucial to take into account.”

When broader factors beyond climate are considered, O’Neill said it’s not at all clear that the future will be worse than the present, even with a warming climate.

In a comment in Nature Climate Change , he noted that factors such as poverty levels, income, and education have been improving in many parts of the world and are expected to continue to do so. While there will certainly be harmful effects of climate change that cannot be avoided, improving social conditions will likely outweigh warming climate conditions in some parts of the world.

“Climate has a direct influence on complex social dynamics and the geopolitical situation worldwide,” added Todd Hay, who manages a five-year project funded by the Department of Defense to study climate threats. “Can we fuse the results of climate models with human domain systems in ways that planners can use to make decisions that will have broad consequences 10 or 20 years from now?”

Food security in the future

Stephanie Waldhoff of JGCRI is looking at food security—an issue that goes far beyond concerns about which foods can be grown in warmer environments or in areas that will see more drought or heavier rain.

Waldhoff looked at factors that could contribute to a nation’s food security—for instance, drought, income, global alliances, and dependence on other nations for food supplies. In particular, she studied the levels of income that will be needed for people to meet their dietary needs.

Her models show that more food likely will be available to people in Africa in the coming decades, thanks largely to increasing incomes and improved agricultural yields. But other parts of the world, such as areas of India, where incomes are expected to grow more slowly, are more likely to experience food shortages.

“You have to eat, but as prices rise, people will spend more on food, eat less, and change what they eat, shifting toward cheaper, but less nutritious foods, and increasing the amount they spend on food. This will translate into food insecurity,” said Waldhoff. “Low-income groups will need to make trade-offs to get food, and that can exacerbate negative outcomes on other aspects of well-being, like energy security or housing. An increase in food prices affects people much differently if they make $10,000 a year compared to $100,000 a year.”

Dimming the sun

Ben Kravitz of Indiana University is exploring a way to reduce global warming by reducing the amount of sunlight hitting Earth. One approach to this solar geoengineering would be to use aircraft to deposit tiny particles known as aerosols high in the atmosphere, reflecting some sunlight away from Earth.

Kravitz discussed potential global concerns and how governments might work together to navigate the issues. For instance, who would make decisions about an effort that would affect the entire planet? And what if there are disagreements—for example, some locations where a bit more warming might actually help the local economy vs. large swaths of the planet that would be hurt?

“Geoengineering is a volatile topic,” said Kravitz. “There would be winners and losers. Some people find the concept scary—but so is climate change. People are starting to recognize that there’s a trade-off. It’s magical thinking to think we’re going to stay below an increase of 1.5 degrees without taking strong action.”

Pathogens in the permafrost

The temperature increase is already real in the Arctic, where permafrost is thawing rapidly. Last year, Brandenberger helped organize a Pathogens and Permafrost Workshop where experts discussed the potential risks of the phenomenon. At the top of the list are potential pathogens that could be released as temperatures warm.

“We have not seen some of these pathogens for hundreds or even thousands of years. We’re not sure what we’re dealing with. We need to chart the pathways pathogens could follow to infect plants or animals,” said Brandenberger. “We absolutely need to understand this problem better. We can’t put this on the shelf and say we don’t need to think about it.”

An additional concern is water quality as long-frozen ice and snow turn to water. Being able to identify microbes that have perhaps never been seen will be critical to keeping the water supply safe for troops, scientists, and others. Detecting and identifying unknown pathogens , and determining whether they are friend or foe, is a longtime strength at PNNL.

Brandenberger’s colleague Becky Hess is studying the microbes that might be found in thawed permafrost. Other teams have found snippets of genes from multiple bacteria in thawed permafrost. Hess is studying permafrost from 150 feet below the surface to see if long-dormant bacteria could still be alive once the permafrost thaws.

“Climate change is presenting new challenges on many fronts—there is no place on Earth that isn’t affected, including the soil beneath our feet,” said Brandenberger. “Earth Day offers an opportunity to consider how to prepare for our changing climate, including the challenges posed to national security. The models we’re building are designed to anticipate changes and the impacts they may have on the environment and society, which in turn have an impact on national security.”

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry , Earth sciences , biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in sustainable energy and national security . Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science . For more information on PNNL, visit PNNL's News Center . Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and Instagram .

Published: April 22, 2024

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Can climate change accelerate transmission of malaria? Pioneering research sheds light on impacts of temperature

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite that spreads from bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. If left untreated in humans, malaria can cause severe symptoms, health complications and even death.

In tropical and subtropical regions where malaria is prevalent, scientists are concerned that climate warming might increase the risk of malaria transmission in certain areas and contribute to further spread. However, there is still much to learn about the relationship between temperature and the mosquito and parasite traits that influence malaria transmission.

In "Estimating the effects of temperature on transmission of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum," a groundbreaking study published in the journal Nature Communications , researchers at the University of Florida, Pennsylvania State University and Imperial College, combined novel experimental data within an innovative modeling framework to examine how temperature might affect transmission risk in different environments in Africa.

"In broad terms, scientists know that temperature affects key traits such as mosquito longevity, the time it takes for a mosquito to become infectious after feeding on an infected host, and the overall ability of the mosquito to transmit the disease" said Matthew Thomas, a UF/IFAS professor and UF/IFAS Invasion Science Research Institute (ISRI) director. "But what might seem surprising is that these temperature dependencies have not been properly measured for any of the primary malaria vectors in Africa."

"Our findings provide novel insights into the effects of temperature on the ability of Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes -- arguably the most important malaria mosquito in Africa -- to transmit Plasmodium falciparum, the most prevalent species of human malaria in Africa," said Eunho Suh, joint first-author with Isaac Stopard at Imperial College, and assistant research professor at Penn State, who conducted the empirical research as a post-doctoral student in Thomas' previous lab.

The study involved several detailed laboratory experiments in which hundreds of mosquitoes were fed with Plasmodium falciparum-infected blood and then exposed at different temperatures to examine the progress of infection and development rate within the mosquitoes, as well as the survival of the mosquitoes themselves.

"The novel data were then used to explore the implications of temperature on malaria transmission potential across four locations in Kenya that represent diverse current environments with different intensities of baseline transmission, and that are predicted to experience different patterns of warming under climate change," explained Thomas.

The study supports previous research results in demonstrating that various mosquito and parasite traits exhibit intermittent relationships with temperature and that under future warming temperatures, transmission potential is likely to increase in some environments but could reduce in others. However, the new data suggest that parasites can develop more quickly at cooler temperatures and that the rate of parasite development might be less sensitive to changes in temperature, than previously thought.

The data also indicate that the successful development of parasites in the mosquito, declines at thermal extremes, contributing to the upper and lower environmental bounds for transmission.

Combining these results into a simple transmission model suggests that contrary to earlier predictions, the anticipated surge in malaria transmission, attributed to climate warming, may be less severe than feared, particularly in cooler regions like the Kenyan Highlands.

"Some of the current assumptions on mosquito ecology and malaria transmission derive from work done in the early part of the last century. Our study is significant in highlighting the need to revisit some of this conventional understanding," said Thomas.

"While the time it takes for a mosquito to become infectious is strongly dependent on environmental temperature, it also depends on the species and possibly strain of malaria and mosquito," said Suh.

The comprehensive study and findings represent a significant step forward in understanding the intricacies of malaria transmission and paves the way for future research aimed at controlling malaria on a global scale.

"Our work focused on the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in the African malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae. However, Plasmodium vivaxis another important parasite species responsible for most malaria in Asia, as well as the recently reported malaria cases in the U.S.," said Suh. "Like Plasmodium falciparum, the established model describing the effects of temperature on development of Plasmodium vivaxremains poorly validated."

The same is true for other vector-borne diseases, such as dengue or Zika virus, added Suh.

"We need more work of the type we present in the current paper, ideally using local mosquito and parasite or pathogen strains, to better understand the effects of climate and climate change on transmission risk," he said.

• Infectious Diseases
• HIV and AIDS
• Pests and Parasites
• Insects (including Butterflies)
• Global Warming
• Environmental Issues
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• COX-2 inhibitor
• Climate model
• Sexually transmitted disease
• Scientific method
• Earth science
• Temperature record of the past 1000 years

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Florida . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Eunho Suh, Isaac J. Stopard, Ben Lambert, Jessica L. Waite, Nina L. Dennington, Thomas S. Churcher, Matthew B. Thomas. Estimating the effects of temperature on transmission of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum . Nature Communications , 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47265-w

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