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Agricultural adaptation to climate change is critical for ensuring future food security. Social capital is important for climate change adaptation, but institutions and social networks at multiple scales (e.g., household, community, and institution) have been overlooked in studying agricultural climate change adaptation. We combine data from 13 sites in 11 low-income countries in East Africa, West Africa, and South Asia to explore how multiple scales of social capital relate to household food security outcomes among smallholder farmers. Using social network theory, we define three community organizational social network types (fragmented defined by lack of coordination, brokered defined as having a strong central actor, or shared defined by high coordination) and examine household social capital through group memberships. We find community and household social capital are positively related, with higher household group membership more likely in brokered and shared networks. Household group membership is associated with more than a 10% reduction in average months of food insecurity, an effect moderated by community social network type. In communities with fragmented and shared organizational networks, additional household group memberships is associated with consistent decreases in food insecurity, in some cases up to two months; whereas in brokered networks, reductions in food insecurity are only associated with membership in credit groups. These effects are confirmed by hierarchical random effects models, which control for demographic factors. This suggests that multiple scales of social capital—both within and outside the household—are correlated with household food security. This social capital may both be bridging (across groups) and bonding (within groups) with different implications for how social capital structure affects food security. Efforts to improve food security could recognize the potential for both household and community level social networks and collaboration, which further research can capture by analyzing multiple scales of social capital data.

“Modern energy for all,” an internationally supported initiative to connect populations to electricity services, is expected to help reduce poverty-induced vulnerabilities. It has become a primary strategy for meeting sustainable development goals, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when electricity is supplied by a capacity-constrained grid to a resource-constrained population, the service quality can vary both spatially and temporally. This research explores the quality of electricity services based on a case study of Unguja, Tanzania. Using 1) open-ended interviews, 2) detailed electricity-systems monitoring, and 3) household surveys, we show how voltage quality varies significantly, even within highly localized settings. Fluctuations result in dim lights at best and power outages and broken appliances at worst, denying many Unguja residents the expected benefits of access to modern energy. By combining an extensive understanding of the physical system together with interviews and surveys, this work presents a unique mapping of voltage quality in a system that is financially and physically constrained and highlights the consequences of poor-quality service for poor users.

Abstract Based on information drawn primarily from official planning documents issued by national governments and/or utilities, this article examines the outlook for the power sector in the year 2000 in nine countries: China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina and Mexico. This study found that the implicit rates of average annual growth of installed electric power capacity between 1991 and 2001 range from a low of 3.3% per year in Argentina to a high 13.2% per year in Indonesia. In absolute terms, China and India account for the vast majority of the growth. The plan calls for a shift in the generating mix towards coal in six of the countries, and continued strong reliance on coal in China and India. The use of natural gas is expected to increase substantially in a number of the countries. The historic movement away from oil continues, although some countries are maintaining dual fuel capabilities. Plans call for considerable growth of nuclear power in South Korea and China and modest increases in India and Taiwan. The feasibility of the official plans varies among the countries. Lack of public capital is leading towards greater reliance on private sector participation in power projects in many of the countries. Environmental issues are becoming a more significant constraint than in the past, particularly in the case of large-scale hydropower projects. The financial and environmental constraints are leading to a rising interest in methods of improving the efficiency of electricity supply and end use. The scale of such activities is growing in most of the study countries.

AbstractClimate change is one of the major global health threats to the world's population. It is brought on by global warming due in large part to increasing levels of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity, including burning fossil fuels (carbon dioxide), animal husbandry (methane from manure), industry emissions (ozone, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide), vehicle/factory exhaust, and chlorofluorocarbon aerosols that trap extra heat in the earth's atmosphere. Resulting extremes of weather give rise to wildfires, air pollution, changes in ecology, and floods. These in turn result in displacement of populations, family disruption, violence, and major impacts on water quality and availability, food security, public health and economic infrastructures, and limited abilities for civil society to maintain citizen safety. Climate change also has direct impacts on human health and well‐being. Particularly vulnerable populations are affected, including women, pregnant women, children, the disabled, and the elderly, who comprise the majority of the poor globally. Additionally, the effects of climate change disproportionally affect disadvantaged communities, including low income and communities of color, and lower‐income countries that are at highest risk of adverse impacts when disasters occur due to inequitable distribution of resources and their socioeconomic status. The climate crisis is tilting the risk balance unfavorably for women's sexual and reproductive health and rights as well as newborn and child health. Obstetrician/gynecologists have the unique opportunity to raise awareness, educate, and advocate for mitigation strategies to reverse climate change affecting our patients and their families. This article puts climate change in the context of women's reproductive health as a public health issue, a social justice issue, a human rights issue, an economic issue, a political issue, and a gender issue that needs our attention now for the health and well‐being of this and future generations. FIGO joins a broad coalition of international researchers and the medical community in stating that the current climate crisis presents an imminent health risk to pregnant people, developing fetuses, and reproductive health, and recognizing that we need society‐wide solutions, government policies, and global cooperation to address and reduce contributors, including fossil fuel production, to climate change.

In recent years, a growing body of research has investigated the factors influencing land surface temperature (LST) in different cities, employing diverse methodologies. Our study aims to be one of the few to examine the socio-environmental variables (SV) of LST with a holistic approach, especially in primate cities in developing countries, which are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In this context, the study preliminarily identifies the SV of LST while investigating the most vulnerable areas related to extreme LST at the neighborhood level. The combined 11 variables are analyzed using spatial modeling methods (GWR and MGWR). The MGWR model outperforms the GWR model with an adjusted R2 of 0.96. The results showed that: (1) the 65+ population is negatively associated with LST in 95% of neighborhoods; the socioeconomic index–LST relationship is negative in 65% of neighborhoods. (2) In 90% of the neighborhoods where the relationship between LST and the built environment ratio is positive, the socioeconomic level decreases while household size increases in 98% of the neighborhoods. (3) In 62% of the neighborhoods where the relationship between the 65+ population and LST is negative, the relationship between the socioeconomic level and LST is negative. This study aids decision-makers and planners in managing urban resources to reduce extreme LST exposure region by region and recommending multiscale policies to control determinant influences on LST.

Our article analyses the prospects of coal industry development in the 21st century. It is apparent that the share of coal in the world’s total energy mix is shrinking as it is replaced by natural gas, renewables, and other forms of energy production. In the same time, countries like China, Russia, but also Poland are dependent on coal as the major fuel for generating their electricity. Quite remarkably, China is using more coal to generate electricity for powering its growing fleet of electric vehicles and transport. This cycle needs to be broken in order to ensure the full transition to the renewable energy future and reducing the burden on the climate and global warming. We argue that the shift away from coal to the renewable energy is driven mainly by the growth of green energy policies and supporting actions induced by the political forces. However, it might still remain the major source of power generation in less-developed and developing economies.

AbstractThroughout much of the African continent, healthcare systems are already strained in their efforts to meet the needs of a growing population using limited resources. Climate change threatens to undermine many of the public health gains that have been made in this region in the last several decades via multiple mechanisms, including malnutrition secondary to drought‐induced food insecurity, mass human displacement from newly uninhabitable areas, exacerbation of environmentally sensitive chronic diseases, and enhanced viability of pathogenic microbes and their vectors. We reviewed the literature describing the various direct and indirect effects of climate change on diseases with cutaneous manifestations in Africa. We included non‐communicable diseases such as malignancies (non‐melanoma skin cancers), inflammatory dermatoses (i.e. photosensitive dermatoses, atopic dermatitis), and trauma (skin injury), as well as communicable diseases and neglected tropical diseases. Physicians should be aware of the ways in which climate change threatens human health in low‐ and middle‐income countries in general, and particularly in countries throughout Africa, the world's lowest‐income and second most populous continent.

With a focus on alternative methods for accelerating clean energy policy adoption, this study introduces an innovative financing scheme for renewable and energy efficiency deployment. Financing barriers represent a notable obstacle for energy improvements and this is particularly the case for low-income households. Limited access to credit, due to socio-economic status and the lack of guarantees, are key issues related to financing barriers. Implementing a policy such as PACE – Property Assessed Clean Energy – allows for the provision of up-front funds for residential property owners to install electric and thermal solar systems and make energy-efficiency improvements to their buildings. This paper will inform the design of better policies tailored to the creation of the appropriate conditions for such investments to occur, especially when the lack of access to capital tends to stall them.