Category Archives: Climate Change

Animal well-being, Climate Change, indigenous worldview, religion

Sacred Nature: Non-Western Voices about Animals, People, and Climate

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In this book, twelve indigenous and religious leaders from different parts of the world speak about the sacredness of nature. Their age-old wisdom inspires us to think differently about how we deal with everything that lives. The Greenlandic shaman Angakkorsuaq, the American Indian leader Chief Lane Jr., Masai leader Mwarabu, the Buddhist nun Shih, the Islamic poet Ur Rehman Chishti, Orthodox rabbi Slifkin, Mayan priest Sac Coyoy, Hindu prince Jhala, Aztec leader Sanchez, leader of the Canadian Bear Clan Wawatie, Bishop Smeets of Roermond and theologian Valerio of Rochester Cathedral.

See the interviews here.

Climate Change

Policy Integration of Climate Change Adaptation in Central America

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Central American countries have been described as highly exposed to the negative effects of climate change . Policies dedicated to climate change and climate policy integration—mainstreaming—into sectoral policies have been considered key strategies. This article studies the level of integration of climate-change adaptation considerations into three prioritized sectors—general development planning, risk management, and land-use planning—by applying three criteria for policy integration—inclusion, consistency, and weighting. The results show a progressive trend to integrate adaptation into the policy outputs of the three sectors in all countries. Still, the operational level of instruments in some cases fails to fulfill the mandates to mainstream climate adaptation, and consistency is limited. These failures are indicators of lower levels of organizational maturity, which has also been detected in other developing countries and is connected to conflict and tradeoff avoidance behaviors as a filtering strategy to ensure progress at the cost of leaving key issues outside the mainstreaming process.

Read the full paper here: Segura, L.D., Van Zeijl-Rozema, A., Martens, P. (2023). Policy integration of climate change adaptation in Central America: A review for development, land-use planning, and risk management. Latin American Policy,  https://doi.org/10.1111/lamp.12314

Biodiversity, Climate Change, interdisciplinary, Sustainable Development

Teaching and Learning for Sustainability Science in a Rapidly Warming World

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We are in an era of unprecedented ecological and social crises. Human activity has led to the transgression of six of the nine planetary boundaries—including the novel entities boundary, which refers to geological changes that could have large-scale impacts that threaten the integrity of the Earth system processes . This environmental degradation has driven one in five species to extinction.

Further, warming-induced extreme weather events, such as drought, wildfires and flooding, have increased in number and intensity, resulting in widespread suffering and loss of life. Despite political commitments, most governments are failing to take the necessary actions to ensure that the global average temperatures do not surpass 1.5° warming above pre-industrial levels. Alarmingly, global fossil CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2021 and 2022 after dipping by 5.4% in 2020 due to widespread COVID-19 lockdowns. Furthermore, 2015 to 2022 were the eight warmest since the instrumental record began in 1850, despite 3 consecutive years of a cooling La Niña.

The window to control global warming is rapidly closing. On the current trajectory, humankind is set to cause an average temperature rise of 2.8° by the end of the century. In this context, the work of sustainability scientists is becoming increasingly important and challenging. In light of this reality, we argue that we must reconsider the core tenants of transdisciplinary sustainability science. To this end, we propose a model for teaching and learning sustainability as an example of how we might adapt our approach to the pressure of the contemporary context. In a novel way, we model transdisciplinarity. This paper is the product of the Education in a Warming World Research Consortium, supported by Worldwide Universities Network. The consortium comprises university academics with broad expertise in education, sociology, climate change, science communication, health, sustainability, and human behaviour. Our group members share a commitment to transdisciplinary work dedicated to understanding the evolving role of education in this era of rapid climatic change and overlapping socio-ecological crises.

Read the full paper here: Kelly, O., White, P., Butera, F., Illingworth, S., Martens, P., Huynen, M., Bailey, S., Schuitema, G. & Cowman, S. (2023).  A transdisciplinary model for teaching and learning for sustainability science in a rapidly warming world. Sustainability Science, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-023-01407-z

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health

Health Impacts and Benefits of Urban Green Space 

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Both urbanization and climate change can be expected to aggravate several major human health problems.  An example is mental health: when urbanization increases, incidence rates of psychosis and depression also rise. Other relevant health problems in this respect are those associated with heat stress, air pollution and vector-transmitted infections.

A common characteristic of these urban health problems is that they are significantly affected by urban spatial design. A major element of urban spatial design is urban greenspace (UGS), which is more and more seen as a leverage point to address such urban health challenges.

In this paper, we present a new model, with the aim to address the shortcomings of existing methods and tools, and to meet the needs of urban spatial planners for quantitative, spatially explicit assessment of both the beneficial and detrimental impacts of UGS on human health. The model, named Urban-EcoMATCH (Urban Ecosystems Mapping and Assessment Tool of Costs and Benefits for Health), is applied it to the city of Maastricht (The Netherlands) with a (multi)hotspot analysis for five major urban health issues.: ‘Unattractive views’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), ‘Heat stress’ (contributing to, e.g., heat stroke), ‘Air pollution’ (contributing to, e.g., respiratory diseases), ‘Perceived unsafety’ (contributing to, e.g., psychological stress), and Tick-bite risk’ (contributing to, e.g., Lyme disease).

With the model we were able to identify the hotspots, the areas within a city where urban design-related health problems are the largest. The hotspot analysis did not only provide concrete results for a specific city, but also generated more general insights into which spatial design-related health issues often occur together, and how greening strategies could reduce health burdens and/or enhance health benefits in these hotspots by paying attention to design aspects, especially to UGS type and location.

Read the full paper here: Oosterbroek, B., de Kraker, J., Huynen, M., Martens, P. & Verhoeven, K. (2023). Assessment of green space benefits and burdens for urban health with spatial modeling, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 86, 128023, doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2023.128023.

Climate Change, Human Health, Klimaatverandering

Climate Change can Exaggerate the Effect of Ozone on Cardiovascular Mortality

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Ozone is one of the main air pollutants, and is a global health hazard. Ozone increases the short-term risks of the worldwide total mortality and attribute to about 63 million of mortality around the world. The health effects of ozone are demanding more attention because of its high concentration and the larger influence of climate change in the future.

Ambient ozone pollution becomes critical in China, as in many places in the world. Conclusions on the short-term effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortality have been controversial and limited on cause-specific cardiovascular mortalities and their interactions with season and temperature.

This research aimed to investigate the short-term effects of ozone and the modifications of season and temperature on cardiovascular mortality in China. Higher temperature, particularly extreme heat, rather than warm season, could significantly enhance the adverse effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortality in population under 65 years old. The revealed cardiovascular impacts of ozone below current (national) standards of air quality urges for improved standards and interventions in China, and other places with similar interactions.

Read the full paper here: Gao, P., Wu, Y., He, L., Wang, L., Fu, Y., Chen, J., Zhang, F., Krafft, T. & Martens, P. (2023). Adverse short-term effects of ozone on cardiovascular mortalities modified by season and temperature: a time-series study. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, DOI: doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1182337

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health, indigenous worldview, interdisciplinary, Planetary Health, scientivism, Sustainable Development

Planetary Health: The Recipe for a Sustainable Future

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The concept of Planetary Health is too human-oriented. The emphasis here is mainly on the consequences for our health through global environmental disturbances. Later definitions are already better, with the focus more on the health of our planet and the realization that human health ultimately depends on the health of the planet. For example, climate change and the decrease in biodiversity are unhealthy for the earth and everything that lives on it, including humans. However, the field of Planetary Health is more than that. It is not only the realization that everything is connected, but also the realization that it is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as it is’. Positive, regenerative development must take place to keep the planet and everything on it healthy. This also includes a different way of dealing with our earth, a change of perspective. When we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what I believe Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!

Read, watch or listen to my inaugural address regarding the Chair Planetary Health below:

Climate Change, Sustainable Development

Climate change adaptation in Central America: A review of national policy efforts

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As a tropical developing region, Central America (CA) is one of the areas most vulnerable to current climate variability and future climate change. CA had already been severely affected by changes in climate variability and extreme events and there is a grave potential for an increase in the risk of disasters and therefore multiple losses due to climate change.

CA has a combination of social, economic, and governance factors that exacerbate its exposition to risk. For example, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua are more vulnerable compared to Costa Rica and Panama, where governance, health, and income indicators point to better conditions to face current climate variability and sustain adaptation to climate change.

The authorities of the region have responded to the climate change challenge with a combination of measures integrated into laws, strategies, and plans. Notwithstanding the progress reported in this article, recent developments are hampering and even converting into regressions the advancements in adaptation policy discussed here. Among the destabilizing situations of the economic and political fabric, which sustain progress, we could mention the uprisings and repression in Nicaragua; conflict and threats among the executive and judiciary powers in Guatemala; challenged electoral results, corruption scandals, and social unrest in Honduras; and the increasing fiscal deficit and political deadlock in Costa Rica to advance state reforms. This situation supports the conclusions on corruption as a threat to adaptation efforts, and the vital role of institutions for advancement adaptation.

Read the full paper here: Segura, L.D., Van Zeijl-Rozema, A. & Martens, P. (2022). Climate change adaptation in Central America: A review of the national policy efforts. Latin American Policy, November 2022, https://doi.org/10.1111/lamp.12277

Climate Change, interdisciplinary

The use of scenarios in climate policy planning

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Scenarios are often used to depict the possible outcomes of alternative future developments as part of the evaluation of climate and energy policy measures. In Finland, scenarios have become a standard practice in climate-related policy planning. However, scenario planning often results in a single cohesive narrative, which lacks transparency in why certain developments and solutions are included and others left out.

This article focuses on how scenarios created during the planning of Finland’s Medium-term Plan for Climate Change Policy (KAISU) were built, and how the actors involved assessed the characteristics and quality of these scenarios. We interviewed a total of 18 participants from research, administration, and policymaking domains involved in the creation of the plan and the scenarios it contains. Semi-structured interviews provided an insight into the creation and use of scenarios as part of policy formulation, as well as points of further improvement for the process.

The KAISU plan was constructed as a cross-sectoral collaborative effort between policymakers, public officials, and researchers. Despite the variety of actors involved in the process, the resulting scenarios were perceived as well executed by the participants. However, national scenario foresight could be improved in three dimensions: 1) the process where actors collaborate to build scenarios, 2) the scenario methodology, where solutions and developments are included or excluded, and 3) use of the scenarios after their construction.

Read the full paper here: Aro, K., Aakkulaa, J., Lauttamäki, V., Varhoa, V., Martens, P. and Rikkonen, P. (2022). The use of scenarios in climate policy planning: an assessment of actors’ experiences and lessons learned in Finland. Climate Policy, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2022.2123773

Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Health, interdisciplinary, Planetary Health, scientivism, Sustainable Development

Planetary Health: Taking sustainability to the next level

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After being a professor of Sustainable Development for more than 18 years, I am proud to let you know that – as of today – I will hold the chair Planetary Health at Maastricht University.

For me, Planetary Health has always been the foundation of sustainable development. However, the sustainability debate has been hijacked in recent years by industry and governments. Their view regarding sustainable development significantly has been subordinate to the dogma of economic growth with little regard for planetary health. How shortsighted this is, has been illustrated by the various outbreaks of zoonotic diseases (with corona as one of the latest examples), our current climate crises and the global decline of biodiversity. These are just some examples, but it is increasingly clear that our own well-being is closely connected with the health of the planet on which we live.

It is not nearly enough to keep the planet ‘as is’. There has to be a positive, regenerative development in order to make the planet, and everything on it, healthy. If we respect our planet, we respect life, we respect ourselves. That is also what the new chair Planetary Health stands for. Taking sustainability to the next level!

Climate Change, Sustainable Development

Public awareness, lifestyle and low-carbon city transformation

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Climate governance is not only an issue of emission reduction, but also a question of how to make people change their lifestyle of generating high carbon emissions. In our Chinese study, there are huge differences in citizens’ lifestyles, economic means, consumption habits, and awareness among different regions of the Western, central and Eastern parts of China due to unbalanced development.

Public understanding mainly relates a low-carbon city to a low-carbon life, and that here is a gap between low-carbon awareness and low-carbon behaviour. From the reviewed articles, we learned that while some citizens have knowledge of the conception of a low-carbon economy, it actually is rather difficult for them to change their behaviour as their low-carbon behaviour is passively affected by government, media and enterprises who advertise low-carbon products.

Then there are others who have been living a low-carbon life for many years, although they do not have any specific knowledge about the low-carbon concept. Improving the understanding of people’s motivation, concerns and cultural constraints as well as including aspects of reconciliation from the philosophical perspective might unify knowledge and action.

Education plays a vital role in improving people’s low-carbon awareness and changing traditional behaviours, which requires schools to provide more low-carbon knowledge to students and encourage them to engage already in an early age in low-carbon consumption habits.

Besides China, there are many other countries that are making an effort to reduce carbon emissions. For high-income European countries, such as the UK, Finland and the Netherlands, further behavioural changes in mobility patterns, housing or diet choices, which made up the largest contributions to household carbon footprints is most needed but also feasible. The aim of low-carbon city development is to create and put into practice city construction and social development models that will help to reduce carbon emissions under the premise of ensuring continuous improvements to the quality of life, whether it is economic development, consumption or transformation of lifestyle. When the different departments of cities attempt to cooperate and make rational use of natural resources and reduce carbon emissions, it will not only contribute to sustainable urban development but will also benefit individuals.

Read the full paper here: Wu, Y., Martens, P. & Krafft, T. (2022). Public Awareness, Lifestyle and Low-Carbon City Transformation in China: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 14(16), 10121.