Korea’s clean energy shift: Drivers, obstacles, and outcomes

Dr Elizabeth Thurbon and collaborators highlights the various initiatives that Korea has implemented which means that it is now a leading example of green technologies and development in green industry, as well as highlighting the current obstacles and impetus regarding this change to low-carbon technologies

In the wake of the UN’s COP 26 Climate Change Conference, the devastating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global energy crisis, governments of varying political persuasions are hoping for a green-led economic recovery – investment in renewable and clean technologies to both create jobs and address climate change. For a case study they should consider South Korea. […]

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Structured expert judgment using the Classical Method

The Classical Model has been employed in a structured expert judgement study into climate change.

When complex decisions must be made while data is unavailable, structured expert judgment can be used to combine uncertainty distributions resulting from experts’ assessments. Roger Cooke, the Chauncey Starr Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, and Emeritus Professor at Delft University of Technology, created the well-known Classical Model to quantify uncertainty using expert opinion. Together with Dr Tina Nane, […]

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Asynchronous horizons durable-strategies dynamic games

Graphic representing the environmental degradation that comes as a result of climate change. Dr Yeung and Dr Petrosyan have developed a theoretical solution based on the ideas of cooperative game theory that relies on cross-generational involvement to negate the current climate crisis.

Professor David Yeung from Shue Yan University, China, and Professor Leon Petrosyan from St Petersburg State University, Russia, are using game theory to understand responses to climate change. They have identified two critical features of real-life problems that involve strategic interactions – durable strategies and participants’ asynchronous horizons – and have developed a new class of dynamic games to solve […]

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Understanding and responding to climate change: our favourite climate research from 2021

An aerial view of sea ice in the Arctic, showing white ice at the top and a blue green sea. The article summarises six key articles relating to climate change research published by Research Outreach in 2021

Climate change solutions must reach across education, agriculture, energy production, politics and policymaking, manufacturing, travel, transport – almost every aspect of life. The six articles highlighted below demonstrate the breadth of research being undertaken by scientists globally as they work to understand the complex impacts of climate change, design new technologies and processes for a greener future, assess the financial […]

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The effects of climatic trends on agriculture in Western Uzbekistan

Julian Schlubach investigates the effect of climate change on agriculture and crop yields in Western Uzbekistan

Temperature plays a vital role in plant development. Extreme hot and cold temperatures can perturb and even stop plant growth, dramatically affecting crop yields. Independent researcher Julian Schlubach looks at climate trends in an agro-region in Western Uzbekistan. He analysed local meteorological data and IPCC future climate projections to determine how the primary crops there have been and will be […]

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Strains of honeybee viruses provide intelligence in the battle against global bee extinction

a honeybee collecting pollen

The large-scale death of bees could culminate in an ecological and agricultural disaster. This may present as significantly reduced wild and domestic flora, as well as drastically reduced availability of various fruits, vegetables and nuts. There are several pressures on the global bee population, e.g., use of pesticides, destruction of habitat and infection with pathogen-carrying mites. Professor Ivan Toplak, an […]

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Museums and climate change: From passive bystander to agent of change

Museums have traditionally been institutions that maintain the stories of the past, implicitly supporting the Western ideological status quo. However, this role is rarely congruent with contemporary issues in our communities, such as climate change and social justice. With her critical paper, Dr Julie Decker, the CEO of the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, looks at how museums can become an […]

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Pioneering materials informatics: Clean technologies from molecular design

The Department of Materials Design and Innovation, University at Buffalo

Tackling global challenges in sustainable energy production calls for the rational design of new generations of clean materials, coupling efficiency with low environmental impact. Materials discovery offers a powerful means to predict structure-property relationships in novel materials, but often lacks the ability to account for the complex interplay of length- and timescales that ultimately determine the potential of a material […]

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Climate change and the rise of infectious diseases: An Arctic perspective

arctic landscape

Animals that carry infectious microorganisms are migrating towards the North with climate-change transitions of Arctic landscapes into warmer biomes. This threatens to change societal exposure to infectious diseases and affect the OneHealth status of Arctic cultures. OneHealth takes a multidisciplinary approach to health risks and risk mitigation for humans, animals, plants and the environment with the understanding that human health […]

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ENACTS: Risk, Resilience, and the Revitalisation of Climate Services in the Developing World

The availability of climate data is vital for the provision of effective climate services.

To build resilience and national capacity to manage climate variability and adapt to change, governments and other bodies need robust and decision-relevant climate information at different levels. In many places, however, including most African countries, collection of climate data has been seriously inadequate, and even when available, poorly accessible. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Dr Tufa […]

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