Agnese and her blog

It was already clear in 2015 that mitigation policies alone would not have achieved the set goals aligned during the Paris Agreement based on the available scientific analysis (EASAC 2018). As aligned in the Article 4.1 of the UNFCCC 2015 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial times, we must "achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of GHG in the second half of this century" (UNFCCC 2015). Without the necessary R&D of expertise and technology in the Carbon  Not investing in the appropriate R&D aimed at obtaining the necessary Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies needed for anthropogenic emissions removal would "eliminate the majority of scenarios in IPCC AR5 (2014) which stay beneath 2 degrees warming and make RCP 4.5 degrees warming 60% probable by 2100" (Haszeldine 2018). To this extent, it is highly important to comprehensively assess the efficiency of NETs in order to adap...

The IPCC declares in 2021 the need to achieve net zero GHG emissions globally by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C (IPCC 2021). Since then, the concept of net zero has been widely debated as to its sufficiency to achieve the proposed goal, as companies are allowed to pay for emission cuts elsewhere outside their jurisdiction instead of actively decreasing their own pollution in the net formula (Morton 2022). In the scholarship, net zero is defined as "for every remaining ton of CO2 emitted due to human activities, exactly one ton of CO2 is actively removed from the atmosphere due to (other) human activities"  (Rogeli 2015).  Net zero allows UN countries to align on a shared accounting framework in order to progress towards the shared goal of negative emissions. At the same time it offers the private sector a solution to serve the increasingly climate-conscious consumers without an abrupt disruption of the business trajectory and functionality (Reeves 2022...

En-ROADS Climate Simulator Is a climate simulator which allows to explore the impact of more than 30 policies which would have on the future climate based on the 1.5 degrees C global goal of global warming threshold from before industrial times. En-ROADS is developed by Climate Interactive, the M IT Sloan Sustainability Initiative , and V entana Systems  and should be seen as a tool for policy makers, media and the public to explore cross-sectional climate solutions. Key findings: Energy Supply (McKinsey & Company 2022): Coal and Carbon remain the same considering the recent energy shock in the market Oil is expected to decline rapidly beyond 2030 Bioenergy is projected to be x2-4 times higher in demand Natural Gas is still strong in the energy mix being the lower carbon intensity fuel With the increase in demand of electricity, nuclear energy is expected to play an important role in the energy supply Innovation (IEA 2022): Electricity consumption is projected to triple by 2050...

Equity is a fundamental concept in the discussion about climate change which allows industrial economies to acknowledge their awareness of the inequitable impacts of climate change on different regions or communities purely based on the systemic and historic oppression of minorities (Mattoo 2012). With such awareness, equitable information, policies and actions towards climate change can be adopted in order to allow the same future for all countries in the world based on fair and equal mitigation and adaptation  (Mattoo 2012). The IPCC represents the international body of climate policy advisory as commanded by its mission "to provide scientific assessments on […] potential future risks, as well as to put forward adaptation and mitigation options." (IPCC) For this reason, the question of equity is an essential one in evaluating the accomplishment of its purpose. Okereke creates a framework to evaluate equity in the IPCC in a more systematic way. The conclusion is that with th...

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication created a survey, the Six Americas Super Short SurveY (SASSY), for analysing the respondents' impression on climate change based on only four questions which finally categorize the audience into six groups, from Alarmed to Doubtful. The results are that in more than two third countries in the world the prevailing group is Alarmed, demonstrating the public discourse's interest and belief into the changing climate (Leiserowitz 2021). An additional survey by the same research team concluded as well that respondents are more likely to say that their governments should do much more or more to address climate change, with highest percentages in Italy, Colombia, and Spain (all 89%) (Leiserowitz 2021). Nowadays, the biggest hope in terms of institutional governance and support for the fight against climate change is the Paris Agreement and its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) as the national commitments to achieve the pre-deter...

It was during the COP26 in 2021 that Commissioner Thierry Breton discussed the relevance of a green-digital nexus. According to Brenton, the advance of digital technologies represent a driving force in the fight against climate change, in the sense that it allows a direct and sustainable impact on the reduction of CO2 and boosts circularity by improving the resources efficiency (Brenton 2021). As Breton shareed during his speech, teleworking would be able to reduce the CO2 emissions from commuting by 18% in Germany in the case where 40% of the workforce would be working remotely (Brenton 2021). Digital technologies allows as well information to be shared more efficiently creating a more informed network of stakeholders. It can also optimise the usage of renewable energy in order to make it more efficient and thus create a less fossil fuels' dependent resource system (Brenton 2021). Digital technology can be as well a source of innovation for projects in the infrastructure as well a...

With the understanding that limited resources are at the core of the survival of Earth, the discussion surrounding a sustainable development has turned its focus towards the notion of food, water and energy nexus. Such approach allows a more effective utilization of natural reserves through cross-sectoral integration. However, cross-sectoral integration will not allow a successful nexus implementation without the foresight of other variables. The correct valorisation and management of existing natural ecosystems will avoid that the interdependency of natural resources would impact the necessary outcomes to local communities resulting from the food, water and energy nexus framework. Considering the continuously fast growing world population and hence the increasingly strong demand for natural resources, it is essential to understand the interconnectivity of ecosystems, which provide and most of all ensure future provisions of water, thus food and energy. Moreover, spatial coordination m...

  Nexus approach represents a concept and action methodology based on the understanding of connections, synergies and trade-offs in order to avoid falling into intellectual or applicational silos. The advantage is that it allows a more interconnected and solution oriented proposal of operationalisation tailored to support resource managers and policy makers in tackling a strictly interconnected and wicked problem such as the one presented by environmental changes.  This is achieved through "higher resource use efficiency, lower production of pollutants and wastes, and more coherent policy". The final benefits of the system's outcome include as well the detection of potential unexpected consequences and harmful trade-offs coming from the interlinkages of the parties (Liu 2018). However, demanding such an advanced level of integration requires that the analyst be an expert in all the relevant fields, therefore increasing the costs of the study.  It should also be considered...

The human development during the Holocene period has consistently fluctuated around the same averages in terms of biogeochemical and atmospheric parameters. Only recently, after the Industrial Revolution, progress has advanced without any limits aiming at the highest economic and social yields which marked the first recorded human-induced changes of Earth System at global scale ( Rockström 2009). Planetary boundaries are a new approach towards global sustainability which allow humanity to achieve a renewable and environmental-friendly growth. They do so implementing certain non-negotiable thresholds for environmental change which, when surpassed, would result in irreversible and non-linear modifications of planetary systems. The correct consideration of such boundaries would allow humanity to transition from the Holocene to the Anthropocene state in a sustainable manner ( Rockström 2009). Nine planetary boundaries have been defined as the human-induced disr...

Climate modelling as for its latest formulation is the science of simulating the Earth's climate system through the use of a supercomputer capable of resolving simultaneously hundreds of thousands of physical, geological and chemical formulas which govern the climate processes occurring among ocean, land, cryosphere and atmosphere (National Centre for Atmospheric Science). Climate models assist decision-making in terms of providing probable future projections or scientific hypothesis outcomes of climate processes based on diverse feedbacks. In such way, they represent an instrument of information during the outlining of adaptation policies as well as supporting arguments in attribution science (Harper 2018). The measurement of the atmosphere generally implies a degree of uncertainty coming from the chaotic nature of atmospheric flow, which must be limited by estimating a degree of variability and uncertainty in the models' forecasts. Moreover, climate models inherently present ...

Climate models are composed by physical equations, which make the interactions of climate components explicit, and system feedback, which consists in those processes that can either amplify or reduce the effects of those climate forcings before computed (Stocker 2001). The first mathematical equations ever formulated to clarify climate processes in terms of planetary energy budget and with the goal of proving the impact of CO2 on the latter were developed by Swede Svante Arrhenius, a Swedish chemist, who successfully created the first prediction of CO2 impact on the atmosphere (Anderson 2016). Based on Arrhenius and other researchers' mathematical investigations, science was able to develop the first ever draft of an accurate climate model in 1967  at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in America by Manabe and Wetheral. Such model worked on a computer and included all the major components of the climate,  the atmosphere, oceans and clouds, and the relat...