A geospatial decision support system to support policy implementation on climate change in EU

Abstract

Climate change (CC) is a global problem bringing multiple different changes in different regions that exacerbate the conflict between landscape demands. Policy in EU and elsewhere are facing the huge challenge of CC by developing specific regulations and strategies (e.g., European climate law, RDP 2014–2020) generally shaped in the United Nations Frameworks Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The “new EU strategy on adaptation to climate change” sets out how the EU can adapt to the unavoidable impacts of CC and become climate resilient by 2050. Unfortunately, the factual implementation of these policies remains critical. Most often there is a lack of science‐based decision support tools empowering regional and local levels to act toward climate resilience. Here we have produced a strong interdisciplinary research effort to support the implementation of the EU strategy on adaptation to CC by providing free web‐based Decision Support Systems having a strong focus on factual territories. Our Geospatial Decision Support System aims to support local authorities/communities, scientists, and other stakeholders in EU and more in detail in Italy in better understanding and implementing local adaptation to climate change by means of a “Climate Change Resilience” toolbox oriented to evaluate the climatic anomalies and thermal crop adaptation. Specifically, in this research, two implemented tools have been discussed: (i) tool on General climatic variation and (ii) tool on Crop thermal adaptation. These tools are demonstrated in two different case studies at both EU and national level. Such a toolbox has been produced in the framework of the LANDSUPPORT Horizon 2020 project (www.landsupport.eu).

Decoupling Economic Growth from Carbon Emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China: From the Coordinated Regional Development Perspective

“…Climate governance, especially carbon emissions reduction, will ensure that the progress made over the past decades is not stalled by climate change and that the health and resilience of national economies are ensured [3]. Most countries have responded positively to global climate governance, e.g., the Clean Energy Act for the United States, the European Climate Act for the European Union, and the Climate Change Adaptation Act for Japan [4][5][6], and have achieved relatively significant results. In 2022, carbon emissions in the United States were reduced to the 1988 level, the European Union achieved a 27.47% reduction from the 1990 level, and Japan's carbon emissions were brought down to the 1990 level [7].…”