International Climate Protection

Advance in our understanding of recent changes in the climate system results from the combination of observations, studies of feedback processes, and model simulations [1]. Instrumental observations and climate modelling provide a comprehensive overview of the variability and long-term changes in the atmosphere, the oceans, the cryosphere, and the land surface.

2015 was a year of important milestones for Earth’s climate. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations exceeded the level of 400 ppm for the first time in human history, global temperatures were more than 1 °C above pre-industrial levels for the first time, and, finally, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (or COP21) in Paris ended with the signing of a global agreement to safeguard Earth’s climate. In this chapter, I will briefly review the current state of global warming, the projected temperature increase and expected climate impacts in the future as well as the main elements of the Paris Agreement and its implications.

Understanding ongoing climate change is a major scientific challenge. Climate events in the deep history of Earth can inform us about the possible extremes of greenhouse conditions, rates and magnitude of long-term climate change, and their consequences to the ocean and the biosphere. The end of the Triassic period was a time of greenhouse warming, driven by volcanic emission of CO2 and other gases from eruptions in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province. The end-Triassic mass extinction is the biotic response to rapid environmental changes triggered by volcanism. Ocean acidification was likely a major factor driving the selective extinction of calcifying marine organisms.

Past and future global climate changes can be analyzed on the basis of global climate models. For regional scale analysis, the downscaling of the simulation results of global models is necessary. For this purpose physically-based regional climate models are commonly used tools. The projected climate change for the Carpathian region is presented in this paper. Besides the prediction of mean temperature and precipitation, the consequent projected changes of extremes are also analysed.

During a solar eclipse the radiation of the Sun decreases, which takes an effect to the environment, included but not limited to the temperature change. We can use the collected temperature data from different land covers to analyze the diversity of temperature decreases. Due to the natural (clouds, volcano, sand, etc.) and artificial dust (exhaust fume, smog, aircraft contrails), the decrease in radiation reduces the average temperature, also the annual sunshine. We can use the experienced results in the inquiry-based learning as well.

Climate protection is worldwide meant as an action plan containing efforts to stop or limit the climate change of the Earth. This action plan is therefore sensitive for the climatic features, like temperature, concentration of the gases, vapor or dust in the Earth atmosphere. The climate change mitigation is only then successful, if the actors (agents) work in a harmonized manner using the most effective instrumentation. The theory and practice of the geographic information system (GIS) has quite enough proof to be a possible partner in this effort. The current paper wants to demonstrate the general understandings of GIS and tries to point out on the climatic application.

This chapter presents how satellite observations are used to detect and to explain the changes. After a brief introduction into possibilities and limitations of satellite remote sensing, the three ways of using them in climate science are listed. They are (i) observation of climate forcing factors, (ii) observation of the changes, and (iii) validation of climate models by testing their past and future simulations. These possibilities are illustrated by key figures of IPCC AR5 [2].

Ozone is a key atmospheric substance for both chemistry and climate. Being a secondary species, its concentration is controlled by a number of different factors, such as precursors’ emission, sunlight and oxidizing agents. Its impact on atmospheric chemistry and radiative balance differs with altitude: in the lower troposphere ozone acts as a toxic pollutant, in the upper troposphere as a greenhouse gas (GHG) and finally in the stratosphere as a protection against harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ozone is in general a radiatively active gas for both solar (shortwave, SW) and terrestrial (longwave, LW) radiation [14], therefore it’s very important to acquire and understand its radiative impact for climate related studies.

Recent climate change has already widespread observable effects on the environment. The WMO Statement on state of the global climate [25] reports that the average global temperature for 2013–2017 is the highest five-year average on record. The global mean temperatures in 2017 were 1.1 °C ± 0.1 °C above pre-industrial levels. It is more than half way towards the maximum limit of temperature increase of 2 °C sought through the Paris Agreement and we are two thirds of the way to a 1.5 °C world. Based on the IPCC AR5 it is very likely that anthropogenic influence, particularly greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone depletion, has led to a detectable observed pattern of tropospheric warming and it is likely that human influences have affected the global water cycle since 1960 [10]. There has been an overall decrease in the number of cold extremes, an overall increase in the number of warm extremes and an intensification of the hydrological cycle [9].

Impacts of climate change highly affect agriculture in general and crop production in particular. Research results in the field of climate change have emphasized, that there are various impacts that may influence production patterns, the deterioration of quantitative and qualitative values of crop yields produced for alimentary purposes, and determine postharvest feature of agricultural products inducing hazard in the field of food security, safety, transport, storage and distribution. The negative effects of climate change can be limited by changes in crops and crop varieties, improved water-management, adapted plant nutrition, protection and tillage practices. Carbon sequestration through crop production, land use and soil management practices may utilise and so reduce the annual increase in atmospheric CO2.

Weather and climatic conditions as most important production factors in agriculture strongly determine farm management options. Famers try to adapt to these conditions in order to keep maximum productivity and resource use efficiency. Farm technologies optimized to the relevant socio-economic framework influence the adaptation process in both the short and the long term. To keep sustainability of food production at farm as well as regional level is another important aim. This has to be the basic strategy for the long term globally.

The trees observed were grown at Újfehértó, Eastern Hungary in a gene bank with 586 apple cultivars. Each of the cultivars was monitored for its dates of: the beginning of bloom, main bloom and the end of blooming and ripe phenophasis separately. We analysed the statistical features, frequency distribution of these apple fruit tree phenophasis date and phenometrical parameters of apple fruit and its correlation between the meteorological variables separately. The purpose of phenometry is to examine the measurable parameters of the plants in order to follow up the consequences of weather processes. In the present study, the interactions between the above mentioned phenomena are presented and numerically defined.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs commonly also called ‘drones’ are applied in agriculture as a new form of remote sensing possibility. With the developing sensor technology most common sensors earlier applied in satellite technology are available for the UAVs. Precision agriculture (PA) practitioners and researchers started to apply the available technology for various reasons: the data is available in a very short timeframe, and its spatial resolution is far better than satellite imaginary.

Climate change is known to affect the stability of agricultural production all over the world. One of the most important problems associated with agriculture is uptake of water and nutrients by plants. Plant roots are vital organs, which are involved in water and nutrient acquisition and gravitropic responses. This review describes the pivotal role of auxin in root growth, gravitropic and abiotic stress responses, focusing on the regulatory role of CDPK superfamily members in stress tolerance.

Agroforestry (AF) systems where trees are managed together with crops and/or animal production systems in agricultural settings seem to give promising results in making agriculture more productive and resilient, in particular towards climate change. Thanks to the economic and environmental benefits explained below agroforestry has been evolving, both as a land use practice and as a science in recent years.

One of the most significant effects of climate change is its impact on hydrological processes through the alteration of precipitation patterns and evapotranspiration processes. Forests, the terrestrial ecosystems with the highest water demand, will likely be the most influenced by the changing water regime. This short study aims to describe the water cycle and its possible alteration by analyzing the various components of forest hydrology such as precipitation, interception, and transpiration, as well as the impacts these have on groundwater and on streamflow.

Climate change has induced more frequent occurrence of disasters like droughts and floods, severe shortage and spatial disparity of water resources, sharp drop of biodiversity and serious threats to ecological safety, all of which are taken as major challenges for economic and social development. China as one of the most been influenced countries by climate change, is urged to realize the problems and effects posed by climate change, and further to take corresponding actions to adapt to it. This chapter has summarized the problems arisen from climate change in China in major fields: agriculture, grassland livestock husbandry, water resources, ecosystem and biodiversity, forestry, coastal resources, and human health; and further discussed the effects caused by climate change respectively more in detail, as well as the adaption actions been taken at the national scale correspondingly.

This chapter considers a range of approaches related to improvement of the environmental impacts of mobility and the new equipment of energy use. Different aspects of mitigation are considered in detail, covering aspects such as techniques for monitoring and modelling greenhouse gas emissions, development of new fuels and renewable energies and the impact of transport on land and water use. Mobility, in all its forms, is a complex subject when considering the variety of future developments that could enable a transition to sustainability. It is also one of the most important pillars of green cities.

This study aims to describe the types of alternative fuels used in transport from its beginnings until today, and to find connections and barriers for biofuel use to estimate alternative fuels for the future based on trends. The main study findings reveal the chief disincentives for using alternative and biofuels stem from politics and the oil lobby. The only factors able to offset the repression of the oil market were the oil crisis, wars, and current, stringent environmental regulations. Experiments and references for exploring the use of a wide variety of base materials for biofuels have been many in the past, but the implementation of biofuels at the commercial level took many centuries to develop. The development of other areas like the automotive industry was far more intensive.

Calculating fuel consumption and emissions is a typical offline analysis step that uses the data previously obtained by simulations or observations. Depending on the aggregation level and level of detail, we distinguish several global, macroscopic, and microscopic approaches. The focus of this chapter is on a microscopic physics-based model with a high level of detail. Such models take as input speed and acceleration profiles (as obtained from microscopic simulations or real trajectory data) and the engine speed (as obtained from gear-shift schemes). The outputs are instantaneous fuel consumption and emission rates (CO2 and others) on a single-vehicle basis.

Vehicles have become the primary cause of greenhouse gas emission. A comprehensive technique used for estimating energy consumption and environmental impact of vehicles is known as life cycle assessment which comprises of two parts: fuel life cycle and vehicle life cycle. Emissions from fuel life cycle is estimated using GREET (greenhouse gases regulated emissions and energy consumption in transportation) model. Vehicle life cycle emissions are calculated based on mass and type of material used for vehicle production, type of energy/electricity used for vehicle operation and its life time. This chapter made a comparison between the life cycle CO2 emissions of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs). The impacts of EVs are highly dependent on vehicle operation energy consumption and the electricity mix used for charging. For example EVs in China produce more CO2 emissions compared to ordinary ICE vehicles whereas that in Germany, USA, and Japan produce less emissions.

The subchapter contains a brief introduction to the GHG emissions linkable to the industrial sector on the basis of the IPCC fifth assessment report. It discusses the application of the IPCC’s six climate change mitigation options in the industrial sector, as energy and emissions efficiency improvements, material efficiency improvements in the manufacturing and design, more intensive use of products and reduction of the overall demand. All these options are illustrated with examples. A separate part of the subchapter provides a snapshot of carbon dioxide trade around the word, and delivers more details about the EU emissions trading system (ETS). Industrial sector is both a cause of global warming and a source of solutions to mitigate climate change.

Mankind will face further serious climate problems in near future. The emissions from maritime shipping industries are among other huge transport emissions from airfreight, road and railway. While vessels are the biggest machines created by mankind, its emissions and poisoning of ecological circles is problematically, and strengthen of regulations in international shipping besides national waste management in harbors can reduce or predict further disposal.

‘Cities are the world that man builds for himself’, writes W. Schneider in his book Überall ist Babylon. Die Stadt als Schicksal d. Menschen von Ur bis Utopia [The City as Man’s Destiny. Cities from Ur to Utopia]. Carrying the idea a little further, we might as well say that a place equals the people who live in it. There are no people without a place to live, and there is no city without people. At the same time, the basic question for urban development in our age is what sort of city man is building for himself and what kind of content is used to fill up the built environment of the city—the urban space.

One of the most crucial issues of climate protection in the near future is the satisfaction of our continuously increasing energy demand. Solar radiation offers a reasonable possibility, being the biggest source of renewable and pure energy. In this subchapter, the most relevant types of photocatalytic systems will be described, which are driven by sunlight in the ultraviolet-visible range, producing environmentally friendly fuels such as hydrogen.

The Leuphana University of Lueneburg achieved the first climate-neutral energy balance for heat, electricity, cars and business trips in 2014. The chapter focuses on the energy concept as part of an integral approach towards sustainability. A simulation study was carried out to quantify the advantageous impact of a seasonal heat storage in an aquifer on the district level. With the integration of the heat storage, the share of renewable heat reaches 95% and leads to 2,400 t less CO2 emissions.

The expected climate changes will definitely influence the dimensioning of indoor spaces in terms of comfort and thermal sensation. There are two definitions concerning human comfort. Subjective comfort as defined by ,,…comfort is a subjective sensation created in humans as a result of complex impacts.” „… Pleasant thermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses its satisfaction with the thermal environment. …”

Definition of geothermal energy: Even people of antiquity thought about utilization of geothermal energy. Geothermal reservoirs are continuously heated by terrestrial heat flow. Geothermal gradient on the earth is 0.020–0.033 °C/m on average, while it makes in general 0.042–0.055 °C/m in Hungary.

The world’s first universal climate change agreement was adopted by 195 countries in Paris on 12 December 2015. The Paris Climate Conference was the last chance to deliver a global agreement on tackling climate change. The success of the Paris Conference is the culmination of years of efforts by the international community to bring about a universal and balanced agreement on climate change.

With the Renewable Energy Sources Act 2017 (EEG 2017), Germany is introducing the most far-reaching system change in its support mechanism for renewable energy sources for electricity generation since 1990. After feed-in tariffs with a defined amount in the Act itself have been granted so far, the main renewable energy sources wind (onshore and offshore), solar and biomass now have to compete in technology-specific auctions to be able to claim a support. This contribution throws a light on the underlying reasons for the introduction of auctions for renewable energy sources and explains the functioning of auctions with a focus on onshore wind. The success of this new support mechanism involving auctions will have major impacts on the success of Germany’s climate change policy due to the central role that the energy transition to renewable energy sources has therein.

The task tackled is the development of a micro PEMS which can estimate real driving emissions in cars in an easy way. The main advantage of the micro PEMS is the miniature size, the low cost, the low energy consumption, and the easy mobile installation without any net connection. The long-time stability of the measured parameters and the wireless data transfer to a data collection center are additional advantages.

At first glance forest economics seems simple as it covers timber production, harvest and processing. This paper gives an overview of the development trends of forest economics, including the increasing complexity of regulation and decision making. Along the time, pure economic questions are mixed with additional features like long term planning, risk management, biodiversity considerations, public opinion, global warming and carbon stock exchanges.

The climate change effects fundamentally influence the human communities’ essential conditions, and their transformation may bring a change in the economic structure of a country or even of a larger area, and also may modify the inner relations of the society and may lead to conflicts. Any kind of dramatic change of the essential conditions disturbs societies’ inner and/or exterior balance, and conflicts take shape. The inner relations of the natural environment and of the society, and their interaction broadened the concept of the security.

Climate change in liaison with several factors, including globalisation and changes of demography, environment and urbanisation, is considered to have an impact on the occurrence and transmission of infectious diseases, comprising vector-borne, rodent-borne, food-borne and water-borne diseases (Wei et al. PLoS One 9:e109476, 2014 [1], World Health Organization in Climate change and human health: risks and responses. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2003 [2]). Variability in temperature, humidity and precipitation as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events are discussed to cause shifts in geographic range and incidence of infectious diseases due to effects on the occurrence of transmitting vectors, the suitability of environments, or even human behaviours leading to exposure (World Health Organization in Climate change and human health: risks and responses. World Health Organization, Geneva, 2003 [2], Suk et al. in Int J Environ Res Public Health 11:2218–2235, 2014 [3], Wu et al. Environ Int 86:14–23, 2016 [4]).

Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time, and our knowledge regarding its consequences is improving rapidly. In addition to international treaties and accords, an increasing number of actors from science, research and technology are calling attention to potential solutions. The expected impacts of climate change are difficult to forecast with certainty, creating challenges for the analysis of the capacity and willingness to adapt in different social and economic systems. There are two three-pronged sets of objectives in climate change and sustainability. On the one hand, the dimensions of the economy, society and the environment must be harmonized, and on the other hand, there are the possible measures (adaptation, mitigation, climate consciousness). Adaptation and sustainability are closely interconnected and reinforce each other.

Calculating carbon footprint is the first step towards reducing it. We focus on measuring the CO2 emission of food products, from raw materials, through production (or service provision), distribution, consumer use and disposal/recycling. Comparison analysis shows the sensibility of the measurement to different steps of technology. It helps identify possible ways of reducing the rate of charging the environment. We intend to encourage producers and consumers to be more environmental friendly.

The Alaskan landscape challenges those who try to depict the experience of place through visual language. How artists decipher the complex intricacies of a changing climate in an already dynamic landscape is vital to understanding past and future concepts of change in Alaska. Daily patterns and cycles are becoming more unpredictable, making it difficult to visualize, measure, and adapt to new ways of living on and with the land. How artists see, comprehend, deconstruct, and communicate these complicated narratives aides in understanding the stress of human-caused climate change on the northern landscape.

The starting point of this paper corresponds with the basic idea of multidisciplinary climate research according to which anthropogenic climate change can no longer be perceived as a matter for scientists to explore. Anthropogenic climate change is, as Gregers Andersen recently pointed out, in some sense a culturally constructed phenomenon which can also be investigated by any researcher of cultural studies and a number of other humanities dealing with the narrative and historical dimensions of culturally constructed objects (Andersen in Interdisc Stud Lit Environ, [1]. In the first part of my paper I will deal with Alexander von Humboldt’s take on nature and climate. Then I will present some works of critical response to the effects of technology and ecological damage taken from 19th to 20th century English, American and German literature. Finally, I will give an analysis of the various occurrences of climate change in literature through a number of fictional pieces from the past two decades.

Numerical climate models are used to simulate possible future climate changes. Hereby, extensive, time-dependent, and complex data is produced, which then needs to be analyzed. In this workflow, visualization plays a vital role: first, it is used to comprehend the results. Second, visualizations are indispensable for communicating the findings within the scientific community and to the public. We give a brief overview of the visualization process and tools used in practice today.

This article examines how the blending of art and science in climate change communication offers a more holistic approach to understanding our global crisis and has a greater potential to inspire people to take action than the presentation of scientific data alone. Two examples of artistic works informed by science are discussed: James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey program, and Santiago Muros Cortés’s Solar Hourglass, the winning entry of the Land Art Generator Initiative 2014 design competition.

The future of Earth is in danger because of global warming and other alarming phenomena of nature. Raising awareness about the importance of environmental protection became a relevant issue in the 21st century. It is present in politics, the economy and often appears in fine art. There have been artists in the past for whom environmental protection was a capital accomplishment. Who were they and how did they behave? What can a contemporary artist do for the protection of the environment today?