1 Introduction
The enormous amount of scientific data on historic evidences of climatic changes
and on negative impacts and vulnerabilities observed in diverse natural and human
systems justifies the urgency to put the climate change issues central in the social
and political agenda. The prospects about those changes for the medium to
long-term call for action in all economic sectors in the next decade, making climate
change a central challenge for this century. Scientific community, policy makers,
business and social media have been increasingly aware of climate change and of
means to deal with and solve it, in an unprecedented engagement movement.
Starting in 2007, when Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) won the Nobel Peace prize, public engagement increased with the adoption
of the Paris Agreement [1] in 2016 and come to the front pages in 2018, when Greta
Thunberg starts to drag crowds of young people to the streets.
Climate change is a complex issue involving science, economics, society, politics and moral and ethical questions, referring to a global problem, although felt on
local scales that will be around for decades and centuries to come. Currently, global
average temperature has already increased approximately 1.0 °C above
pre-industrial era, due to anthropogenic actions, and there is a high confidence; it
likely reaches 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052 if the current rate will persist [2].
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) are heat-trapping
greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by many human daily activities that have driven
recent global warming. Since they linger in the atmosphere for hundreds of years,
and the planet, especially the oceans, takes a while to respond to warming, the
effects of a changed climate system will last for many years.
Two approaches have been adopted to respond to climate change: mitigation,
requiring the reduction of the flow of heat-trapping GHG into the atmosphere, either
by reducing sources of these gases (e.g. the burning of fossil fuels for electricity,
heat or transport) or enhancing the sinks that accumulate and store these gases (such
as the oceans, forests and soil); and adaption, demanding the adjustment to current
or expected future climate, in order to reduce the vulnerability of human systems to
the harmful effects of climate change, like sea-level encroachment, more intense
extreme weather events or food insecurity.
The pressure imposed by communities, scientists, organizations and media, at a
certain extent, and especially by the increasing frequency episodes of ice cap
melting and unmanageable fires in Australia, California and in Siberia near the
Arctic Circle, as occurred during 2019, several countries have asked for a coordinated and timely action. Climate emergency has been propelled by several organizations and governments as a strategy to set priorities to mitigate climate change
aiming to prevent, in time, high economic and ecological losses and human lives.
A wide range of options are claimed to deliver climate mitigation across all the
economic sectors and human activities, and requesting innovative solutions
everywhere, from engineering and technology, to economic models and behaviour
changes. As a new orchestra that replaces the old fashion, climate mitigation
4
J. Seixas and F. Ferreira
The enormous amount of scientific data on historic evidences of climatic changes
and on negative impacts and vulnerabilities observed in diverse natural and human
systems justifies the urgency to put the climate change issues central in the social
and political agenda. The prospects about those changes for the medium to
long-term call for action in all economic sectors in the next decade, making climate
change a central challenge for this century. Scientific community, policy makers,
business and social media have been increasingly aware of climate change and of
means to deal with and solve it, in an unprecedented engagement movement.
Starting in 2007, when Al Gore and the International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) won the Nobel Peace prize, public engagement increased with the adoption
of the Paris Agreement [1] in 2016 and come to the front pages in 2018, when Greta
Thunberg starts to drag crowds of young people to the streets.
Climate change is a complex issue involving science, economics, society, politics and moral and ethical questions, referring to a global problem, although felt on
local scales that will be around for decades and centuries to come. Currently, global
average temperature has already increased approximately 1.0 °C above
pre-industrial era, due to anthropogenic actions, and there is a high confidence; it
likely reaches 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052 if the current rate will persist [2].
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) are heat-trapping
greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by many human daily activities that have driven
recent global warming. Since they linger in the atmosphere for hundreds of years,
and the planet, especially the oceans, takes a while to respond to warming, the
effects of a changed climate system will last for many years.
Two approaches have been adopted to respond to climate change: mitigation,
requiring the reduction of the flow of heat-trapping GHG into the atmosphere, either
by reducing sources of these gases (e.g. the burning of fossil fuels for electricity,
heat or transport) or enhancing the sinks that accumulate and store these gases (such
as the oceans, forests and soil); and adaption, demanding the adjustment to current
or expected future climate, in order to reduce the vulnerability of human systems to
the harmful effects of climate change, like sea-level encroachment, more intense
extreme weather events or food insecurity.
The pressure imposed by communities, scientists, organizations and media, at a
certain extent, and especially by the increasing frequency episodes of ice cap
melting and unmanageable fires in Australia, California and in Siberia near the
Arctic Circle, as occurred during 2019, several countries have asked for a coordinated and timely action. Climate emergency has been propelled by several organizations and governments as a strategy to set priorities to mitigate climate change
aiming to prevent, in time, high economic and ecological losses and human lives.
A wide range of options are claimed to deliver climate mitigation across all the
economic sectors and human activities, and requesting innovative solutions
everywhere, from engineering and technology, to economic models and behaviour
changes. As a new orchestra that replaces the old fashion, climate mitigation
4
J. Seixas and F. Ferreira