Economic Aspects of a Resource Sharing Manufacturing Network under Turbulences

Nowadays, manufacturing companies face more difficulties than ever. Unrest in global supply chains triggered by fluctuating customer demand, raw material shortages and crises (Covid pandemic, global warming, wars) complicate the utilization of production resources necessary for economic success. Also, the rapidly changing environment causes existing production plans to be adapted, which results in order changes, causing additional costs for manufacturers. One solution to cope with these problems is cooperation and sharing resources: requesting capacity from partners when having shortages and offering them temporarily in case of excess capacity. In this paper, a platform-based resource sharing mechanism is investigated from the economic perspective. In the mechanism, requests and offers are matched by a central platform applying a complex matching logic. The platform provides valid alternatives based on the incoming ordersthat the requesting company can choose from. Companies are rating each other's performance after each interaction based on delivery accuracy;choosing between resource offers is made based on the cumulated rating about the offeror and the price of the offer. Within this paper, the aim is to investigate the resource sharing mechanism from the economic point of view based on an approach to the responsiveness of a supply chain structure to turbulence, to support decision-makers trying to cope with unexpected changes. For this purpose, here the mechanism is briefly introduced, and basic concepts about turbulences in supply chains are also presented. Cost types related to resource sharing manufacturing companies are distinguished, and the model is validated with agent-based simulation. A simulation experiment is performed to investigate the use-case of outsourced jobs having different price levels. Based on the experiment, it can be concluded that there is a price level limit in such a resource sharing federation, under which it is worth it to collaborate with partners by outsourcing certain jobs to them. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers for Technology Applications: A Short Review

Nanofibers are a type of nanomaterial with a diameter ranging from ten to a few hundred nanometers with a high surface-to-volume ratio and porosity. They can build a network of high-porosity material with excellent connectivity within the pores, making them a preferred option for numerous applications. This review explores nanofibers from the synthesis techniques to fabricate nanofibers, with an emphasis on the technological applications of nanofibers like water and air filtration, photovoltaics, batteries and fuel cells, gas sensing, photocatalysis, and biomedical applications like wound dressing and drug delivery. The nanofiber production market has an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% and should reach around 26 million US $ in 2026. The limitations and potential opportunities for large-scale applications of nano-fibrous membranes are also discussed. We expect this review could provide enriched information to better understand Electrospun Polymer Nanofiber Technology and recent advances in this field. © 2023 Bentham Science Publishers.

Kinetic Energy Recovery from a Landing Aircraft: Energy Analysis, Environmental and Economic Prospects

The Intergovernmental panel on Climate Change has sounded its alarm through its special report on the impact of global warming of 1.5oC and called for a strengthened global response to the threat of climate change. Despite that the COVID-19 pandemic has left a devastating effect on the aviation industry, this is forecasted to bounce back and recover within a few years. It is therefore important now to revisit opportunities for a better balance between social, environmental and economic impact of the sector. The European Union has been leading the way in limiting the environmental impacts of aviation. Despite that most of the R&D effort has been focused on the airborne phase, the European Union is legislating so that all aircraft movements on the ground are set to be emission-free by 2050. The paper focuses on engineless aircraft taxiing with the aim to reduce emissions on the ground. We demonstrate that upon landing, an aircraft has enough kinetic energy, which if recovered could power a 5-minute engineless taxiing process. When scaled to a large fleet such as low-cost carriers, this emissions problem can be turned on its head and becomes an opportunity for fuel savings and a reduction in emissions on the ground. The paper also demonstrates that the cost to retrofit such technology can be recovered in a short timeframe and therefore there is an economic incentive to the airline. © 2022 ICAS. All Rights Reserved.

A paradigm shift in sustainable use of natural resources and their ecosystem services

The sustainable development of natural resources along with interconnected crises of climate change, economic recession, food insecurity, increasing fuel consumption, and inflation in commodity prices have become hot burninign issue from last few decades, which have the greatest and most devastating impact on society's poor families. The theme of this chapter is to focus on the global issues of sustainable development, including knowledge of the interconnected crises in climate, energy, economy, poverty, and social injustice. This book chapter examines how practical science can be applied to real-world conservation and development problems to interpret natural resource management for those who must manage complex natural resource systems. It includes a significantly extended discussion of ecosystem assessment in which poverty, education, tradiation and other factors remains central concern to sustainable development. Finding solutions to and prevention of these crises necessitate interconnected and interdisciplinary thinking, which is also at the heart of sustainable development. The chapter takes a fresh look at the problem of attaining lower-carbon growth, climate adaptation, and the consequences for the long-term development of rapidly expanding economies. It investigates how these concerns are prompting serious reconsideration of what sustainable development is, what it should be, and how sustainable development policies and processes are being reassessed. It provides a concise, well-illustrated, and understandable introduction to the challenges and prospects of sustainable development, with a focus on developing countries. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Systematic Review on the Climate and Ecosystem Change Associated With the COVID-19 Epidemic: Global Challenges

The most serious current challenge in the world is COVID-19 disease incidence. With the spread of COVID-19, in addition to widespread human and economic damages, concerns have increased about the world's climate and ecosystem change. This change alters the genetic structure of viruses, leading to newer strains. This study addressed global challenges regarding the COVID-19 epidemic effects and possible two-way changes in climate and ecosystems. Studies conducted from 2019 to 2022 were reviewed in this systematic review. Articles on climate and ecosystem change related to the COVID-19 epidemic were searched in the Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed databases in accordance with the MeSH search strategy using keywords such as "Climate Change” and "Ecosystem” or "COVID-19”. In this research, the coding method based on the PRISMA chart was used, and 13 related articles were included in the study after qualitative evaluation. The COVID-19 epidemic is likely to have significant implications for progress in climate and ecosystem change. The phenomenon of climate change and its interaction with the COVID-19 epidemic is not limited to natural issues. One of the most important consequences is its impact on the social and economic issues of human societies, the most important of which are air pollution and environmental degradation. An increase in normal and special wastes, water consumption and wastewater production, air pollution after the start of the global economy, damage to forests and animals, and tendencies to use fossil fuels are only a part of the direct and indirect negative effects of COVID-19 on climate and ecosystem change. Epidemics directly threaten people and the health system, while climate and ecosystem change more broadly weakens natural and human systems. The COVID-19 crisis requires solutions within weeks and months, whereas responses to the climate and ecosystem change crisis seem less acute. However, the effects of climate and ecosystem change worsen with further procrastination. Thus, such crises with overlapping conditions and interactions require more attention and immediate public mobilization. Thus, the necessary planning should be implemented to moderate and reduce its effects. © 2022 The Author(s);.

Fast track to differential equations: Applications-Oriented-Comprehensible-Compact

The second edition of this successful textbook includes a significantly extended chapter on Climate Change with an analysis of the CO2 budget. It also contains a completely new part on Epidemiology, treating the SEIR-model which describes the behavior and dynamics of epidemics. In particular, COVID-19 with actual data is discussed. This compact introduction to ordinary differential equations and their applications is aimed at anyone who in their studies is confronted voluntarily or involuntarily with this versatile subject. Numerous applications from physics, technology, biomathematics, cosmology, economy and optimization theory are given. proofs and unnecessary formalism are avoided as far as possible. The focus is on modelling ordinary differential equations of the first and second orders as well as their analytical and numerical solution methods, in which the theory is dealt with briefly before moving on to application examples. In addition, program codes show exemplarily how even more challenging questions can be tackled and represented meaningfully with the help of a computer algebra system. The first chapter deals with the necessary prior knowledge of integral and differential calculus. 103 motivating exercises together with their solutions round off the work. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.

Application of Data Mining to Support Facilities Management in Smart Buildings

Concerns about the effects of global warming and predicted rising sea levels are radically changing government policies to lower carbon emissions using sustainable green technologies. The United Kingdom aims to reduce its carbon emissions by 78% by 2035 and achieve net zero by 2050. This is a major driver for energy management and is influencing development of buildings which use autonomous smart technologies to assist in lowering carbon footprints. These Smart Buildings use digital technologies by connecting sensor data with intelligent systems which can be monitored remotely to provide more efficient facilities management. The data harvested and transmitted from the IoT sensors provides a key component for Big Data Analytics using techniques such as Association rule mining for intelligent interpretation which can assist facilities management becoming more agile regarding office space utilization. The shift toward hybrid working particularly instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic and recent energy supply concerns caused by the Ukraine crisis presents facilities management with opportunities to optimize their space, reduce energy consumption, and allow them to identify commercial opportunities for the unused space throughout the building. This chapter discusses the use of association rules for data mining derived from a simulated dataset for an investigative analysis of office workflow patterns for facilities management operations, resource conservation, and sustainability. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Smart Device for CO2 Measuring and Supplementing with O2 Using IOT

Globally, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is rising due to rising carbon-based fuel consumption and ongoing deforestation. As carbon dioxide levels grow due to the warming trend, the atmosphere's temperature is predicted to climb. Increased fatigue, headaches, and tinnitus are just a few health issues that high CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere can cause. The electrical activities of the brain, the heart, and the lungs have all been demonstrated to change significantly after a brief exposure to 0.1 percent CO2. Continuous measurements of the atmospheric CO2 content have recently been shown to help evaluate the ventilation conditions in buildings or rooms. Additionally, it prevents the development of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Severe acute respiratory). The coronavirus, known as a powerful acute respiratory, can make people ill. This has grown to be a significant concern in emergency medicine. © 2022 IEEE.

Climate Change and the Great Power Rivalry in the Arctic

The world politics of the 2020s seems to consist of two realities: People are concerned about an ecological catastrophe, as tion kills and climate change threatens societies. The focus of this article is to discuss climate change, and state politics in the Arctic in the context of the two realities. Behind this is the assumption that climate change mitigation is a challenge to state politics and national security. The commentary assumes that, although in world politics, there is a new (East-West) great power rivalry with its related conflicts, no armed conflicts appear in the Arctic, but environmental degradation and rapid climate change still threaten the people. The study firstly analyses how environmental issues came onto the political agenda of States, in particular, that of the Arctic states;secondly, it discusses huge investment packages and great power rivalry as substitutes for climate change mitigation, revealing the political inability of states;thirdly, it examines the Arctic from the point of view of functional cooperation on environmental protection, and that on science;and finally, it concludes what has possibly gone wrong in state politics related to the environment, and could be taken as the biggest challenge.

International cooperation, production side emissions and environmental sustainability

PurposeRising greenhouse gases have contributed to global warming above the pre-industrial levels with detrimental effects on world climatic patterns. Extreme weather has inflicted drastic impacts, including loss of lives and livelihoods and economic disruption. However, collective international cooperation in adopting greenhouse gas emission mitigating measures can translate into long-run beneficial effects of improving environmental quality. This study examines if international environmental cooperation among the world's top ten polluters can reduce production side emissions.Design/methodology/approachThe panel estimation procedure was applied to data from ten top polluting countries from 2000 to 2019.FindingsThe results revealed a statistically significant inverse association between a nation's commitments to international environmental treaties and carbon dioxide emissions. Other than confirming the environmental Kuznets curve effect, industrial intensification, international trade and law rule are other strong correlations of carbon dioxide emissions.Research limitations/implicationsThe main policy implication is the urgency for the leaders of the world's top ten polluters to actively cooperate in developing and implementing new production-side carbon emission measures as well as the implementation and enforcement of existing international treaties to minimize further environmental damage and let the countries in the lower ranks of carbon emissions to enjoy the long-run benefits of the decarbonized world.Originality/valueThis study makes a new contribution to the environmental research literature by unfolding how collective global cooperation on environmental challenges can help reduce environmental damage in a coherent analytical framework.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0598

Energy policy simulation in times of crisis: Revisiting the impact of renewable and non-renewable energy production on environmental quality in Germany

In this paper, we examine for the first time in the literature the implications of energy policy alternatives for Germany considering the aftermath of coronavirus as well as Electricity and Gas energy supply shortages. Whilst several policy options are open to the government, the choice of investment in renewable energy generation versus disinvestment in non-renewable energy such as coal energy generation provides divergent impacts in the long term. We utilize data from British Petroleum and the World Bank Development Indicator database for Germany covering 1981 to 2020 to explore a Carbon function by applying a battery of Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL), dynamic ARDL and Kernel-Based Regularized Least squares approaches. The particular policy tested is the pledge by Germany to decrease emissions by ∼100% in 2050, and this was integrated through the estimation of dynamic ARDL estimation. The simulation result shows that a ＋61% shock in renewable energy production decreases carbon emissions unlike coal energy production which increases carbon emissions in the beginning but the carbon emissions decrease thereafter. The findings highlight the inevitability of cutting down on coal production, and recommends energy investment alternatives. Hence, Germany's energy policy should contemplate more thoroughly on these factors. © 2023 The Author(s)

Preface

Climate change has led to the increase of heat exposure or natural hazard due to extreme weather. This anthropological climate change phenomenon has negatively altered the most fundamental natural resources for living organism: air, water, and soil. Air has been polluted and warming due to human activities. The quantity of freshwater keeps on depleting, while the ground water recharge intervened with chemical and biological contamination. The sustainability of soil as the natural planting media is under threat due to land use conversion and soil quality degradation. Water acidification and temperature increase have been proved to change the salinity of seawater. Those are the impact of the increasing greenhouse gas emission in the earth's atmosphere.The 8th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) aims to accommodate and to discuss the regional findings related the adaptation and mitigation strategies on climate change worldwide. The meaning to hold ICCC is getting more and more important. This conference can alert the creeping disaster. The contribution of all the participants, distinguished guests to this conference would make our world better and progress our scientific knowledge. Sharing the insight into the recent research and the cutting-edge technologies should enhance our ability and it might give us the breakthrough ideas on our sustainability under climate change. ICCC would be fruitful for every participant and be a great chance to approach the scientific solution for our common goals.Faculty of Agriculture of Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta, Indonesia is very proud to organize the 8th International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC). International Conference on Climate Change has been playing a significant contribution to formulate the strategies to cope with the emerged problems due to the climate change, as well as to support the sustainable development goal achievement. Sebelas Maret University has been seriously taking part to minimize the climate change impact, by promoting environment-friend programs, such as the green campus program and prohibiting the motor-vehicle to enter the campus every month. Sebelas Maret University also realizes that the responsibility of maintaining this earth should be by everyone. Each of us plays a significant contribution to minimize the global warming of this earth. That is why Faculty of Agriculture of Sebelas Maret University organize such events to discuss the findings related the earth-protection.We hope this conference will resulting into valuable recommendations in focusing and improving the natural resources management as well as improving the human's living efficiency to bring the greenhouse gas emission down. We need to produce alternative technologies as the climatic resilience strategies to overcome the key climate-change sensitive pathways, as well as to support the achievements some global goals in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Accordingly, the topic of the 8th ICCC is "Environmental Management towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the Changing Climate”.The 8th ICCC was organized by Faculty of Agriculture, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia, in collaboration with Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand and The United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, Gifu University, Japan. The 8th ICCC was held at The Asian Institute of Technology Conference Center, Thailand from 17-18 November 2022. The 8th ICCC was conducted in the Hybrid method because travel restrictions are still enforced by some countries to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Besides, providing options for attending the 8th ICCC virtually is more comfortable for participants and presenters with limitedness of budgets.The 8th ICCC 2022 delivers great appreciation to Prof. Dr. Samanhudi, Dean of Faculty of Agriculture, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia;Professor Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand;and Prof. Dr. Ken Hiramatsu, Dean of United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, ifu University, Japan;for formal support to the conference.Gratitude presented to the invited speakers: Prof. Dr. Avishek Datta from Head of Department of Food, Agriculture, and Bioresources, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand;Prof. Dr. Eric van Hullenbusch from Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France;Dr. Taku M. Saitoh from Gifu University, Japan;Dr. Jauhari Syamsiyah from Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia;and Dr. James MacGregor from Eco-Plannet, Canada.List of Committee of the 8th ICCC 202 is available in this Pdf.

Role of the COVID-19 imposed lockdown in climate change

As the transmission of COVID-19 increases rapidly, the whole world adopted the lockdown activity with restriction of human mobility to prevent its spread. Everyone thinks of the COVID-19 negatively;however, it has some positive aspects too. Before COVID-19, the world was suffering by a high level of urban air pollution especially in the form of CO2, SO2, NO2 and particulate matter. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and limited human engagement with nature accompanied by social distance have proven to be beneficial for nature. As a result, significant reduction in environmental pollution and improvement in the quality of air, cleaner rivers, less noise pollution, undisturbed and calm wildlife was observed. Knowledge gained from the studies suggests that a substantial relationship exists between the contingency measures and environmental health. It is concluded that the COVID-19-induced lockdown has a positive impact on the global warming, a major issue of the 21st century.

Climate Security Insights from the COVID-19 Response

The climate change crisis and COVID-19 crisis are both complex collective action problems. Neither the coronavirus nor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions respect political borders. Both impose an opportunity cost that penalizes inaction. They are also increasingly understood as nontraditional, novel security threats. Indeed, COVID-19's human cost is staggering, with American lives lost vastly exceeding those lost in recent armed conflicts. And climate change is both a threat accelerant and a catalyst for conflict--a characterization reinforced in several climate-security reports. To counter COVID-19, the President embraced martial language, stating that he will employ a "wartime footing" to "defeat the virus." Perhaps not surprisingly, the military has played a critical role in the government's pandemic response. The National Guard has staffed hospitals, vaccination sites, and schools. As our pandemic response continues, what insights are emerging that will inform our climate response? This Article identifies and analyzes several, focusing on the relationship between health security and climate security. These insights--particularly the U.S. domestic military response and how we conceptualize "security"--have normative implications for climate governance and disaster response. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Indiana Law Journal is the property of Indiana Law Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Determinants of environmental disclosure of mining industry near the COVID-19 outbreak: Some Indonesian evidence

In their business operations, mining companies that process natural resources must deal with environmental degradation. The companies shall do environmental preservation to mitigate global warming due to business processes and make an environmental responsibility report to ensure a sustainable business. Whether the COVID-19 pandemic affects environmental responsibility is the focus of this study. The pandemic disrupts all sectors, including the mining industry. Therefore, this study investigates the level of environmental reporting made by mining companies before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, this study also investigates the determinants of the level of environmental reporting disclosed in either the annual report or sustainability report. Thirty-seven companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in the mining sector in 2019 and 2020 were used as a sample. Results from the Wilcoxon signed rank analysis suggest that the level of environmental disclosure increased following the epidemic's spread, contrasted to levels prior to the outbreak. The multiple regression analysis reveals that public ownership and size are likely to enhance environmental disclosure. Meanwhile, leverage tends to reduce environmental disclosure. The analysis offers perspective on the capital market authority agency's new strategy aimed at enhancing aspects that could influence environmental responsibility disclosure.

Holistic and integrated systemic policies and practices for decarbonization

A bold, visionary, transforming, systemic, holistic, integrated, caring, inclusive, equitable, sustainable, and resilient paradigm for fast transitions toward a clean energy and decarbonized future is imperative and urgently needed. Business as usual and silo approaches are not viable with the changes that are occurring. These changes are linked and interacting systems of physical, natural, health, social, economic, finance, governance, and institution. The effects and impacts are dire, existential, and pervasive. The 2021 IPCC Report Physical Science Basis: Summary for Policymakers, in clear language stated "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land”. The scientific communities in the US, Europe, Asia and other regions all subscribe to this situation. Well documented global empirical evidence is also confirming the profound systems and systemic transformations that are occurring. Business, industry, and the general public, in particular youths, worldwide are all increasingly demanding actions – that transcend words of what needs to be done to deeds of how and now. In the US, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, would allocate US 370 billion for combating climate change and clean energy production. The IRA is the largest climate spending package ever. President Biden has called for 100% clean electricity by 2035 and pledged to cut carbon emissions by 50%–52% below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, doubling the previous target. A decarbonized future was endorsed by Leaders at the 2021 G-7 Carbis, UK Summit. There is growing realization that the global climate change crisis requires strengthened and expanded global cooperation with new, innovative and non-bureaucratic mechanisms for collaboration. The 2021 IPCC Report summarized that global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid- century under all emissions' scenarios considered. "Global warming of 1.5 and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.” The UNEP and IEA contends reducing anthropogenic methane emissions will help mitigate climate change and is a cost-effective proposition. The release of methane and micro-organisms from melting of permafrost needs to be better studied and understood., The confluence of increased heat, humidity, fine particulates air pollution, water contaminants and the COVID pandemic, will exacerbate health burdens. This will have serious consequences for human wellbeing, and cascading into national and global security. With climate change, therapeutics and vaccines will not work. The article provides a brief overview of the unprecedented climate related hurricanes, storms, floods and wildfires disasters occurring in all regions of the world. It highlights of some of the key effects, impacts and consequences with current policies and practices with regard to the energy-climate conundrum. There is an imperative to change course toward a decarbonized future. A number of systemic expeditious interventions are delineated. These include actions by all on:. The* fundamental need to change behavior;*afforestation, reforestation, rehabilitation of wetlands, mangroves, wastelands and coral reefs to restore ecosystem functions which would also create significant number of employment and livelihoods' opportunities;*retrofitting existing structures to be more energy efficient, incorporate increasing renewable energy, sustainability and resiliency criteria, – to "build back better” and provide jobs;*the life cycle of food and agriculture practices need to be systemically examined to reduce adverse impacts on climate, Energy, environment and health. There are difficulties and challenges. The commensurate opportunities and benefits of a decarbonized paradigm include clean and safe jobs;healthy quality of life;and a sustained and resilient future for current and future generations. © 2023 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

DISCURSOS EXPERTOS SOBRE EL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO EN ESPAÑA: COMUNICAR LAS INCERTIDUMBRES O NO, ESA ES LA CUESTIÓN

En las disposiciones sociales ante el cambio climático influyen notablemente las incertidumbres que lo envuelven. Su conocimiento, a su vez, depende de los expertos: los actores legitimados para producir un saber válido sobre el clima. Como en España sus puntos de vista apenas han sido estudiados, este artículo los aborda mediante un análisis del discurso generado en entrevistas en profundidad a especialistas en la materia. Los discursos examinados a través de la óptica de la «sociología de la ignorancia» revelan una aguda conciencia de las incertezas científicas, unida al temor a que sean utilizadas para justificar el negacionismo y la inacción. La visión del futuro común amenazado por el calentamiento global es sombría, en contraste con el horizonte individual, menos pesimista. Se reafirma la división epistemológica entre expertos y legos, aunque para algunos son posiciones intercambiables. Hay acuerdo en que los especialistas deben asesorar e informar a las instituciones y la sociedad, aunque les cuesta comunicar las incertidumbres;y discrepan en cuanto a la conveniencia de exponerlas a los legos. El análisis concluye que el cambio climático -sumado a las dudas suscitadas por el COVID-19- aboca a los expertos españoles a afrontar las incertidumbres científicas y a sopesar los pros y contras de su comunicación pública.Alternate :Social attitudes to climate change are strongly influenced by the uncertainties associated with it;in turn, perceptions of them depend on the experts: the actors socially entitled to produce valid knowledge about the climate. Theirs points of view have been scarcely studied in Spain. Filling this empirical gap is the aim of this article based on the analysis of the discourse produced in in-depth interviews to experts in the subject. The analysis carried out within the framework of the «sociology of ignorance» reveals a sharp awareness of scientific uncertainties linked to the fear of its use for justifying climate change denial and inaction. The vision of global futures in a context of global warming is bleak;by contrast, personal horizons appear less disturbing. The epistemic gap between experts and laymen is reaffirmed, but some argue that both positions are interchangeable. The interviewees agree that experts have to advice institutions and inform society, and that uncertainties are difficult to communicate;and disagree over the pros and cons of communicating them to laymen. In conclusion: climate change -together with the doubts raised by COVID-19- leads the Spanish experts to confront scientific uncertaintes and to ponder the challenge of its public communication.

An Evaluation of ASEAN Renewable Energy Path to Carbon Neutrality

Maintaining our standard of living and keeping the economy running smoothly is heavily reliant on a consistent supply of energy. Renewable energy systems create abundant energy by utilizing resources such as the sun, wind, earth, and plants. The demand for renewable energy is increasing, despite power scarcity, pollution, and climate change posing challenges to long-term development in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has seen significant social and economic growth in recent years. To achieve its 23% renewable energy (RE) target, ASEAN can develop solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity. Members of the ASEAN have established regulations and incentives to encourage individuals and businesses to use renewable energy in the future. This paper explores Southeast Asian countries' comprehensive fossil-free energy options, the region's renewable energy potential, current capacity, goals, and energy needs. Through the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2016–2025 and the ASEAN Declaration on Renewable Energy, ASEAN is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable development aligning with the Paris Agreement's aim to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Results show that decarbonizing the region's energy system is possible, but current policies and actions must be altered to reach that target level. Further research is necessary to optimize the ASEAN region's renewable resource technical potential and commercial viability with available technology.

On growth patterns and mechanisms in arctic-alpine shrubs. (Special Issue: The uneven geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic.)

Arctic-alpine ecosystems are considered hot-spots of environmental change, with rapidly warming conditions causing massive alterations in vegetational structure. These changes and their environmental controls are highly complex and variable across spatial and temporal scales. Yet, despite their numerous implications for the global climate system, the underlying physiological processes and mechanisms at the individual plant scale are still little explored. Using hourly recordings of shrub stem diameter change provided by dendrometers, paired with on-site environmental conditions, enabled us to shed light on these processes. In this way, growth patterns in three widely distributed shrub species were assessed and linked to thermal and hygric conditions. We started our analysis with a close examination of one evergreen species under extreme environmental conditions, followed by a comparison of evergreen and deciduous species, and, finally, a comparative look at growth patterns across local micro-habitats. The results revealed distinct growth strategies, closely linked to species-specific water-use dynamics and cambial rhythms. Within the heterogenous alpine landscape these conditions were mainly attributed to the variation in local micro-habitats, defined by fine-scale topography and consequent variation in snow conditions and exposure. Thus, the overall growth success was mainly controlled by complex seasonal dynamics of soil moisture availability, snow conditions, and associated freeze-thaw cycles. It was therefore in many cases decoupled from governing regional climate signals. At the same time, exceedingly high summer temperatures were limiting shrub growth during the main growing season, resulting in more or less pronounced bimodal growth patterns, indicating potential growth limitation with on-going summer warming. While shrubs are currently able to maximize their growth success through a high level of adaptation to local micro-site conditions, their continued growth under rapidly changing environmental conditions is uncertain. However, our results suggest a high level of heterogeneity across spatial and temporal scales. Thus, broad-scale vegetational shifts can not be explained by a singular driver or uniform response pattern. Instead, fine-scale physiological processes and on-site near-ground environmental conditions have to be incorporated into our understanding of these changes.