Toward sustainable climate change adaptation

Abstract

Industrial ecology (IE) has made great contributions to climate change mitigation research, in terms of its systems thinking and solid methodologies such as life cycle assessment, material flow analysis, and environmentally extended input-output analysis. However, its potential contribution to climate change adaptation is unclear. Adaptation has become increasingly urgent in a continuously changing climate, especially in developing countries, which are projected to bear the brunt of climate-change-related damages. On the basis of a brief review of climate change impacts and adaptation literature, we suggest that IE can play an important role in the following two aspects.First, with the emphasis on a systems perspective, IE can help us determine how climate change interacts with our socio-economic system and how the interactions may aggravate (or moderate) its direct impacts or whether they may shift burden to other environmental impacts. Second, IE methodologies can help us quantify the direct and indirect environmental impacts of adaptation activities, identify mitigation opportunities, and achieve sustainable adaptation. Further, we find that substantial investment is needed to increase the resilience of infrastructure (e.g., transport, energy, and water supply) and agriculture in developing countries. Because these sectors are also the main drivers of environmental degradation, how to achieve sustainable climate-resilient infrastructure and agriculture in developing countries deserves special attention in future IE studies. Overall, IE thinking and methodologies have great potential to contribute to climate change adaptation research and policy questions, and exploring this growing field will, in turn, inspire IE development.

Climate change and pro-environmental behaviours: the significant environmental challenges of livelihoods

“…According to Panno et al (2015), CC perceptions mediate the relationship between people's frequent cognitive reappraisal and PEB. According to Yang et al (2020), there is a need to increase the resilience of developing countries' agricultural infrastructure by making substantial investment in, for example, water supply, energy and transport. Similarly, firm PEB under the Chinese government's ENS system has resulted in China's environmental enforcement intensity (EEI) moderating the effect of environmental subsidy (ENS) on environmental management performance (EMP).…”

“…(2015), CC perceptions mediate the relationship between people's frequent cognitive reappraisal and PEB. According to Yang et al. (2020), there is a need to increase the resilience of developing countries' agricultural infrastructure by making substantial investment in, for example, water supply, energy and transport.…”

Industrial ecology in support of climate change adaptation

“…They provide recommendations for how existing industrial ecology tools can be augmented to do both. Yang, Liu, Wang, Chen, and Smith (2020) discuss the methods and systems-oriented perspective at the heart of industrial ecology, and how they are well-positioned to support adaptation efforts in developing regions. Last, Andrews (2020) takes on the challenge of framing industrial ecology for climate migration.…”

Education for Sustainable Development in Foreign Language Learning

“…It was essential to teach migration from a multidisciplinary perspective because until recently, most of the scholarship on migration had come from the humanities and social sciences (Durand et al, 2016;Rumbaut & Portes, 2001;Young, 2015). However, human migration is now beginning to be seen as a consequence of a failure to attain sustainable agriculture practices, political environments, or urban development (Eakin et al, 2014;Rodriguez et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2020).…”