• Energy Research
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• 2. Zero hunger close

Cities are progressively heightening their climate aspirations to curtail urban carbon emis- sions and establish a future where economies and communities can flourish within the Earth’s eco- logical limits. Consequently, numerous climate initiatives are being launched to control urban car- bon emissions, targeting various sectors, including transport, residential, agricultural, and energy. However, recent scientific literature underscores the disproportionate distribution of climate poli- cies. While cities in the Global North have witnessed several initiatives to combat climate change, cities in the Global South remain uncovered and highly vulnerable to climate hazards. To address this disparity, we employed the Balanced Iterative Reducing and Clustering using the Hierarchies (BRICH) algorithm to cluster cities from diverse geographical areas that exhibit comparable socio- economic profiles. This clustering strives to foster enhanced cooperation and collaboration among cities globally, with the goal of addressing climate change in a comprehensive manner. In summary, we identified similarities, pa􏰀erns, and clusters among peer cities, enabling mutual and generaliza- ble learning among worldwide peer-cities regarding urban climate policy exchange. This exchange occurs through three approaches: (i) inner-mutual learning, (ii) cross-mutual learning, and (iii) outer-mutual learning. Our findings mark a pivotal stride towards a􏰀aining worldwide climate ob- jectives through a shared responsibility approach. Furthermore, they provide preliminary insights into the implementation of “urban climate policy exchange” among peer cities on a global scale.

This experiment was to assess the impact of dietary macro-nutrient composition on body weight of the mouse. In total we used 30 different diets and 5 different strains of mice. This file contains the individual data of the food intake averaged over the last 10 days and food intake of entire 3 months, body composition and metabolic responses of male C57BL/6 mice to 3 months feeding on one of 6 different diets. Ten mice were exposed to each diet. The diets had variable sucrose from 5 to 30% and fixed protein content at 25% and fat content at 41.7% (diets 22, diet 25 to 29). Full details of the dietary compositions can be found in the paper supplementary table 1. Complete meta-data are in the meta-data tab of the file. Means for each diet derived from these individual values are presented in Figure S5 of Hu et al (2018) Cell metabolism.

The ecological impacts of multiple stressors are hard to predict but important to understand. When multiple stressors influence foundation species, the effects can cascade throughout the ecosystem. Gulf of Mexico seagrass ecosystems are currently experiencing a suite of novel stressors, including warmer water temperatures and increased herbivory due to tropicalization and conservation efforts. We investigated the impact of warming temperatures and grazing history on plant performance, morphology, and palatability by integrating a mesocosm study using the seagrass Thalassia testudinum with feeding trials using the sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus. Warming temperatures negatively impacted T. testudinum tolerance traits, reducing belowground biomass by 34%, productivity by 74%, shoot density by 10%, and the number of leaves per plant by 24%, and negatively impacted resistance traits through 13% lower toughness of young leaves and a trend for reduced leaf carbon:nitrogen. Lytechinus variegatus individuals preferred to consume plants grown under heated conditions, which supports findings of enhanced palatability. Simulated turtle grazing impacted more plant traits than grazing by other herbivores, potentially diminishing plant resilience to future disturbances through reduced rhizome non-structural carbohydrate concentrations and increasing palatability through reduced fiber content and 23% lower leaf carbon:phosphorus. Simulated turtle, simulated parrotfish, and urchin grazing reduced leaf carbon:nitrogen by 11%, also potentially increasing nutritive value. Interactions between warming temperatures and grazers on plant traits were additive for 16 out of 19 response variables. However, the stressors non-additively impacted the number of leaves per plant, fiber content, and epiphyte load. We suggest that the impacts of grazers on leaf turnover rate and leaf age may vary based on water temperature, potentially driving these interactions. Overall, increased temperatures and grazing pressure will likely reduce seagrass resilience, structure, and biomass, potentially impacting feedback systems and producing negative consequences for seagrass cover, associated species, and ecosystem services.

This project investigated how virtual guilds, which are communities of practice based on open source principles, can enable micro-businesses to become more sustainable. The project worked with two micro-businesses in the North West of England, taking an action research approach that also aimed to benefit the partnering organisations in terms of their development. This dataset contains six reports, three for each organisation: 1) An organisation description, based on data from participant observation of workshops facilitated by the organisation, together with interviewing key individuals within the organisation and examining organisational documents (primarily the organisation's website and social media feeds). 2) Report on the first design workshop held with each organisation, which was focused on developing a specification for a prototype virtual guild model that could be implemented by them as part of their strategic development. 3) Report on the second design workshop held with each organisation a year later, focusing on how the design technique of value-led personas could enable them to consider how their stakeholders would interact with the organisation.

Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on spring maize yield in North China was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China. Climate trends during maize growing period and their impacts on spring maize yield in North China was investigated. This dataset contains: 1) information of stations in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 2) Trend in temperature and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 3) Trend in radiation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China; 4) Trend in precipitation and its effect on yield in cultivation region for spring maize in North China.

ABSTRACT Context: reflecting the call being made by the United Nations to solve our current climate challenges and reduce companies’ CO2 emissions, there is a strong need for large corporations to not only employ the terminology of sustainable transitions, but to implement strategies and select new alternative sustainable solutions. Objective: this study fills a gap in the literature by developing and validating a model that helps researchers understand the factors that enable a large corporation undergoing a sustainable transition to select its new sustainable practices. The developed model used theories of sustainability transition and institutional theory with three pillars (regulative, normative, and cognitive) in order to help understand the nature of the company’s innovation selection criteria. Method: survey-based research was carried out among an oil and gas company’s employees, and structural equation modeling was used to test the model fit, validate the survey, and test the hypotheses. Results: the results showed that normative and regulative pillars play the main role in selecting renewable energy activities as a first step toward the company’s sustainable future. Conclusion: the findings provide researchers with a valuable model for understanding the main criteria for selecting new sustainable projects in established companies.

Comprehensive and reliable information on anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions is required to track progress towards keeping warming well below 2°C as agreed upon in the Paris Agreement. Here we provide a dataset on anthropogenic GHG emissions 1970-2019 with a broad country and sector coverage. We build the dataset from recent releases from the “Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research” (EDGAR) for CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and industry (FFI), CH4 emissions, N2O emissions, and fluorinated gases and use a well-established fast-track method to extend this dataset from 2018 to 2019. We complement this with information on net CO2 emissions from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) from three available bookkeeping models.

The study examines the linear and nonlinear relationships between per capita carbon dioxide emission, per capita real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, foreign direct investment, trade openness, urbanization, agriculture, and industry sectors as potential determining factors of CO2 emissions in the perspective of Bangladesh all through 44 years, starting from 1974. The study considers the CO2 emissions from the selected South Asian countries over the period from 1978 and 2018. The study uses three cointegration approaches. First, we employ linear cointegration method and find that crucial determining factors of CO2 emissions in Bangladesh are real GDP per capita, energy consumption, and urbanization. Then, we apply the nonlinear cointegration method and find that energy consumption and FDI have asymmetric impacts on carbon release in the long run. While energy consumption, financial development, and FDI have asymmetric influence in the short run. Finally, we apply a panel cointegration test to compare Bangladesh with other South Asian countries in terms of CO2 emissions. The estimated results disclose that the vital contributing factors of CO2 emissions in selected South Asian countries are real GDP, energy consumption, financial development, and urbanization. Our results show that energy consumption, financial development, and urbanization upturn CO2 emissions, while trade openness lowers emissions. We also claim that our results are consistent with the EKC hypothesis for both in Bangladesh and selected South Asian countries. The three cointegration estimation findings disclose that urbanization will deteriorate environmental worth in Bangladesh and selected South Asian countries in the long run.

Aim: Climate warming and biodiversity loss both alter plant productivity, yet we lack an understanding of how biodiversity regulates the responses of ecosystems to warming. In this study, we examine how plant diversity regulates the responses of grassland productivity to experimental warming using meta-analytic techniques. Location: Global Major taxa studied: Grassland ecosystems Methods: Our meta-analysis is based on warming responses of 40 different plant communities obtained from 20 independent studies on grasslands across five continents. Results: Our results show that plant diversity and its responses to warming were the most important factors regulating the warming effects on plant productivity, among all the factors considered (plant diversity, climate and experimental settings). Specifically, warming increased plant productivity when plant diversity (indicated by effective number of species) in grasslands was lesser than 10, whereas warming decreased plant productivity when plant diversity was greater than 10. Moreover, the structural equation modelling showed that the magnitude of warming enhanced plant productivity by increasing the performance of dominant plant species in grasslands of diversity lesser than 10. The negative effects of warming on productivity in grasslands with plant diversity greater than 10 were partly explained by diversity-induced decline in plant dominance. Main Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the positive or negative effect of warming on grassland productivity depends on how biodiverse a grassland is. This could mainly owe to differences in how warming may affect plant dominance and subsequent shifts in interspecific interactions in grasslands of different plant diversity levels.