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The 10 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of the Caribbean in this study have unsustainable water-energy-food Nexus conditions, with stress becoming more acute via climate change, population demographics and increasing tourist demands. Water resources are limited, and wastewater treatment is inadequate or missing. Nature-based solutions (NBS), especially constructed wetlands, are effective treatment options for all SIDS and have added value for recreation, conservation and product development. On islands with abundant rainfall, NBS treated water adds little to total water resources, but can be important for small scale agriculture. Rainwater harvesting is an important alternative water source for individual households and small communities, but water reuse from tourist infrastructure has the greatest potential for SIDS to reach water sustainability, while protecting coastal waters from sewage pollution. Tourism is a two-edged sword. It swells populations and associated water demand significantly and can degrade coastal waters if wastes are not treated effectively. However, a partnership among the tourist industry, local communities and national government must be given top priority to ensure sustainability of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus in the face of progressively increasing tourist numbers and pressures. Effective governance is needed at the island and regional level to develop sound adaptative management approaches for sustainability.

[Scholarcy Abstract] The rates of sea level rise in coastal Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay significantly exceed the global rate and weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation adds to the annual rates. The original vision was to enhance future resilience of Low-Elevation Coastal Zone communities by advancing understandings and approaches to better anticipate and mitigate hazards to human health, safety and welfare and reduce deleterious impacts to coastal residents and industries. The goal of the thematic Research Topic has been to assemble interdisciplinary papers that contribute to better understanding of the couplings among physical, ecological, socioeconomic, management and policy factors involved for different regions and under contrasting environmental conditions. The finding that nearly ten percent of the US population is at risk from coastal flooding by severe storms and sea level rise highlights the need for improved adaptation measures. The rates of sea level rise in coastal Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay significantly exceed the global rate and weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation adds to the annual rates. Many Australian estuaries have been degraded by human activity and are threatened by climate change. Ten Caribbean small-island developing states were studied with respect to sustainability of their water-energy-food nexus with climate change.

Climate change impacts on drylands pose more vexing risks to socio-ecological systems, resulting in food security issues, biodiversity loss, and livelihood shifts in Africa. This study critically reviewed relevant literature to evaluate the complexities and feedback loops between the climate–drylands–food security (CDF) nexus, which helps assess tactics to attain sustainable dryland ecosystem management under the changing environment. Comprehensive CDF frameworks are explored for dryland dynamics, ecosystem services, and food security (FS), and current high-precision ecosystem observation networks are used to detect regional-level climate variability and identify hotspots. In addition, this review also examines challenges and uncertainties for CDF systems and effective agrarian innovations as a way forward. To bridge the gap from science to policy making in the CDF nexus, it is vital to enhance the impacts and feedbacks of ecohydrological processes on agrarian production, ecosystem service tradeoffs and their effects on livelihoods, and regional development and preservation by optimization of the ecological water security pattern. This state-of-the-art assessment uses acquired information and knowledge to conceptually evaluate the past, current, and future impacts and risks and facilitates decision making through the delivery of long-term sustainability and socio-ecological resilience.

The choice of cleaner production practices within the supply chain can improve the textile industry’s environmental, financial, and operational advantages. The objective of this study is to evaluate smart environmental management practices (SEMPs) for minimizing the pollution load (energy waste, water consumption, wastewater generation, and chemical waste) within the supply chain in five textile production units of Lahore, Faisalabad (Punjab), and Karachi (Sindh) in Pakistan and to assist and get comprehensive knowledge on resource saving through cleaner production techniques. A multi-criteria decision-making method was used to identify the possibilities and use for cleaner production and SEMPs. A total of 36 SEMPs have been recorded with three benchmarking levels based on investment and business priority: i) low/no-cost high return, ii) high-cost high return, and iii) medium-cost medium return. After an initial assessment, SEMPs were implemented and post-assessments were conducted after gap of months. It was found that about 1.3 million m3 of water was saved which constituted up 21% of the total water consumption. Moreover, 34,600 tons of chemicals and 1,441,500 kWh energy were also saved. This resource saving also helped industries save 0.792 million USD. Using the SEMPs proposed in this article, the annual GHG emission was significantly reduced for industries where the potential varied from 200 to 8,500 tons of CO2 for different industries.

Carbon emissions have become a global challenge that threatens human development. Governments have taken various measures to reduce carbon emissions, and green finance is an important and innovative way to realize carbon emission reductions. This paper uses data on a prefecture-level city in China to explore the impact of green finance on carbon emission intensity from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, and analyzes the mechanisms by which green finance affects carbon emission intensity. On this basis, this paper further analyzes the impact of green finance on carbon emission efficiency. In addition, this paper introduces variables related to the digital economy to perform a comprehensive examination of the moderating effect of digital economy development on the relationship between green finance and both carbon emission intensity and efficiency. The results indicate that green finance reduces carbon emission intensity and that green innovation, green total factor productivity and the transformation and upgrading of industry are important mediating mechanisms. Meanwhile, analysis shows that green finance improves carbon emission efficiency. This paper also finds that the digital economy significantly enhances the role of green finance in reducing carbon emission intensity and promoting carbon emission efficiency, and makes a positive contribution to promoting carbon emission reduction. The findings will contribute to strengthening the government’s capacity for environmental protection, developing green finance, and reducing carbon emissions.

Development of large scale hydropower is proceeding rapidly in the Mekong basin without adequate consideration of the severe and cumulative impacts the dams and reservoirs will, and are already beginning to, have on biodiversity, livelihoods and the economies of the lower Mekong countries. Migratory aquatic species will be particularly affected, and global experience indicates that fishways proposed for large mainstream and tributary dams will not provide effective amelioration. An offset strategy of remediating small weirs, flood control devices, regulators and irrigation works on tributaries and flood plains is more likely to be an effective and economically efficient means of supplementing fisheries to compensate for the negative impact of mainstream dams. Mainstream hydropower developments may result in future stranded assets, high electricity costs and even threaten the sovereignty of lower Mekong countries.

Effective soil management is critical to achieving climate change mitigation in plant-based renewable energy systems, yet limitations exist in our understanding of dynamic belowground responses to the cultivation of energy crops. To better understand the belowground dynamics following cultivation of a grassland in a high-yielding tropical perennial C4 grass in a zero-tillage production system, changes in soil carbon (C) pools were quantified, modeled, and projected and the chemical composition of the aggregate-protected pool was determined in support of the simulated dynamics. Multiple C pools with different ecosystem functions and turnover increased following cultivation: immediately available microbial substrate (measured as hot water-soluble C) and active C (determined through laboratory incubation) increased by 12 and 30% respectively over time and soil C accumulated significantly in multiple physical fractions. A more rapid and dynamic nature of multiple C pools and transfers between pools existed than is often assumed in belowground models used widely in the field to simulate soil C accumulation. Multiple indicators of fresh roots, including the more easily degraded lignin monomers and root-derived long chain substituted fatty acids, appeared in aggregate-protected pools of cultivated soils over time since planting. This rapid transfer of plant inputs through active and intermediate C pools into mineral-dominated pools is the ultimate outcome required for building soil C stocks. Initial model runs suggested that this is evident, even on a 2-year frame, in transfer rates of 0.485 and 0.890 from active to slow and slow to passive pools respectively. The rapid transfer of fresh root-derived input to stable pool suggests that soil C under zero-tillage management may be resilient to disturbances, such as replanting following a kill-harvest, that would otherwise result in losses from unprotected or readily available pools.