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This review article summarizes fundamental knowledge about biochar. Biochar is getting paid a lot of attention recently for its ability to enhance crop yield and mitigate climate change. Main European furnace producers for generating biochar are introduced. Relevant physicochemical and textural properties are reviewed with emphasis on a stability of biochar, pH, water holding, and nutrient retention capacity. Czech legislation, where biochar is classified as a supplementary soil substance and voluntary certification initiatives such as European Biochar Certificate (EBC) and International Biochar Initiative (IBI) are discussed. The methods of application of biochar in agriculture are described as well.

In the Czech Republic, much attention is paid to the codification of special constitutional water protection and the constitutional right to water. These efforts respond to changes such as low rainfall and more frequent droughts and to forecasts stemming from climate change models. Since 2019, four parliamentary proposals have been submitted, all motivated by the need for greater water protection and prioritization of the public interest in water protection. Two of the proposals explicitly enshrine the constitutional right to drinking water, and rights of access to water, respectively. Water is a limited natural resource and at the same time essential element for the lives of present and future generations. The reason for the use of the constitutional law level may be that it is a society-wide interest, and its constitutional entrenchment will ensure its security and support further steps of the state. Opening up the issue of water protection at the constitutional level sends a clear signal for the need for water protection, but it is not a sufficient solution in itself. Besides that, it is necessary to carefully consider what specific measures should be reflected at the constitutional level and what goals should be promoted at this level. On the one hand, the submitted parliamentary proposals reflect the requirements of the internationally recognized right to water, but, on the other hand, they raise some problematic issues which should be subjected to a wider public debate.

This paper deals with the importance of land use planning in relation to the need to address the impacts of climate change. It then examines the structure of land use planning instruments, specifically land use planning documentation and aspects of its hierarchical organization in the light of the existing and new Building Act. It reflects on the need for the preparation of some mitigation and adaptation measures in a national context. It also assesses the readiness of land and spatial planning legislation in terms of response to climate change through the goals and objectives of land use planning.

The European Union called for the need to change the current model of production and consumption. From the linear model it seeks to move to the circular economy model. In this model traditional “take-make-use-dispose” approach is replaced by a reduction in input raw materials, a product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability and waste reduction. The EU “circular economy package” adopted in 2018, brings specific requirements in the area of waste management. It requires an increase in recycling and a reduction in landfilling. The Czech legislation, following EU scheme, took into account the requirements of the circular economy in the “waste package” approved in December 2020.

The paper demonstrates the results of a biogeographic model of climatic conditions of vegetation zones in the landscape of Czechia. The model uses climatological prediction data of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute for the time period 2010–2100 according to the SRES A1B scenario and geobiocoenological characteristics of vegetation zonation of the landscape from the Register of biogeography. According to the model, the projected trends in climatic conditions of vegetation zones will be demonstrated by a substantial improvement in the conditions suitable for xerothermophilous Ponto-Pannonian biota in Czechia (the area of the 1st vegetation zone will increase). On the contrary, the size of the area with climatic conditions of the 6th to 8th vegetation zone will decrease. The model allows an algorithmization of specific climatic growing conditions of individual biological species.

Paper summarises new finds, total distribution and ecology of three species of Euphorbia from the subgenus Chamaesyce E. humifusa, E. maculata a E. prostrata) in the Czech Republic, where these species belong to neophytes and they started to considerably spread as a consequence of climate chage.

The development of wind energy in the Czech Republic is significantly delayed compared to most European countries, and the current construction of wind turbines is characterized by marked regional differentiation. Differences in the rate of project implementation cannot be explained just by the physical-geographic and infrastructural conditions of the given territories, but are also related to different levels of social acceptance by politicians and local residents. The aim of the article was to find out, on the basis of statistical analysis of the data, what environmental and socio-economic factors affect the regional differences in the implementation of wind energy projects. The analysis revealed that wind energy is probably perceived more positively and accepted as an alternative to fossil fuels in environmentally-affected industrial regions. At the same time, in economically and socially depressed areas the economic motivation (money for municipalities) has a bigger effect, and local opposition is less mobilized due to lower civic engagement.

This book chapter interconnects theoretical debates on ‘public space’ and the issue of actual and possible effects of climate change on life in cities. Specifically, it focuses on how current environmental situation possibly influences the ways public space is understood in political decision making on urban level, and how sociological theory of the city includes it to the concept of public space. The chapter addresses wider audience beyond the discipline of sociology.\n

The article focuses on the applicability of human rights instruments in the protection against negative impacts of climate change. It follows from the findings that have been confirmed by international human rights bodies on human rights commitments of states in the field of environmental protection. The author identifies the main difficulties that arise for the application of human rights instruments from the specific characteristics of climate change, especially from a global spread of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by a great number of state and non-state actors and their cumulative effects with emissions from natural sources, and from an unequal geographical distribution and diversity of its impacts. The text then concentrates in more detail on two selected issues of interlinking human rights and climate change: on the time lapse between the causes and consequences of climate change that leads to the need to take into account the interests of future generations within the concept of human rights, and on the extraterritorial character of impacts of greenhouse gas emissions that leads to considering that we need to surmount the current limitation of human rights obligations within the state territory resp. the state jurisdiction. In both issues, the current state of affairs in the theoretical elaboration and judicial interpretation are examined, especially with an eye for future solutions.

Bottom ash (BA) from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) contains valuable components such as ferrous (Fe) and non-ferrous (NFe) metals. Metal-free mineral fraction can be used in building industry. In the Czech Republic NFe metals separation is performed only at one MSWI plant. At the other two plants only Fe scrap is separated. To study the possibilities of BA treatment it was necessary to obtain data about its composition. We found material composition of the BA samples: 10 – 24 % glass, 2 – 4 % ceramics and porcelain, 12 – 17 % magnetic fraction, 1.1 – 4.5 % Fe scrap, 1.3 a 2.4 % NFe metals, 40 – 70 % residual fraction with particles under 2 mm. The amounts of components were also studied with respect to the granulometry. The results showed differences in composition of BA coming from different MSWI plants. For that reason, effect of MSWI plant collecting area on the BA composition was investigated. Economic potential for metals recovery was outlined based on the results.