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Buildings consume about 40 % of globally-produced energy. A notable amount of this energy is used to provide sufficient comfort levels to the building occupants. Moreover, given recent increases in global temperatures as a result of climate change and the associated decrease in comfort levels, providing adequate comfort levels in indoor spaces has become increasingly important. However, striking a balance between reducing building energy use and providing adequate comfort levels is a...

This paper outlines good practices and serves as a guide to promote Social Learning in the elaboration and implementation processes of public policies for climate change adaptation at a local level. It is based on a multiple-case study covering 18 experiences from the United Kingdom and Brazil, an analysis of existing research about the contributions of Social Learning to socioenvironmental governance and public policies regarding wicked problems, as well as, empirical information collected...

The agricultural sector of the Western Cape is highly affected by climate change and thus requires fundamental change to move to a more resilient path. We analyze the development of a climate change plan to obtain a better understanding of what is needed to make such a strategic intervention meaningful in terms facilitating a sustainability transition. We use the concept of transition arena to understand how group composition and processes facilitated or hindered structural change, and apply...

Climate change is impacting socioeconomic and biophysical environments at both Global and local scales. This paper presents the results of the assessment study of student perception on the information sources, occurrences, causes, impacts and solutions of climate change in the public universities of Ethiopia. A questionnaire survey was conducted on a total of 357 university students attending undergraduate and postgraduate courses to generate the required data. The data gathered in this way...

Climate change is impacting socioeconomic and biophysical environments at both Global and local scales. This paper presents the results of the assessment study of student perception on the information sources, occurrences, causes, impacts and solutions of climate change in the public universities of Ethiopia. A questionnaire survey was conducted on a total of 357 university students attending undergraduate and postgraduate courses to generate the required data. The data gathered in this way...

Climate change is a severe threat to the agricultural sector in general and to rainfed farming in particular. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that can potentially affect the adaptation process against climate change. This study focused on wheat farmers and farming systems in the rainfed agroecological zone of Pakistan. Farmers’ data related to climate change fatalism, the availability of climate-specific extension services, socioeconomic and institutional variables, and...

Africa is likely to experience warming and increased climate variability by the late 21st century. Climate extremes have been linked to adverse economic outcomes. Hence, adaptation is a key component of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreements and development assistance. Effective climate adaptation policy requires an understanding of how temperature and rainfall variability affect migration patterns. Yet, how individuals in developing countries manage climate...

The massive expansion of scientific literature on climate change1 poses challenges for global environmental assessments and our understanding of how these assessments work. Big data and machine learning can help us deal with large collections of scientific text, making the production of assessments more tractable, and giving us better insights about how past assessments have engaged with the literature. We use topic modelling to draw a topic map, or topography, of over 400,000 publications...

In this paper, we add to the literature on the driving forces of international migration out of Africa. We particularly focus on the direct effect of climate variables: temperature, rainfall, and weather-related disaster. We revisit the question whether climate is a driver or inhibitor of migration using migration flows out of all African countries from 1980 to 2015 into 16 OECD countries. Our findings show that climate can be a driver and an inhibitor of migration depending on the size of...

Optimal control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVACs) aims to minimize the energy consumption of equipment while maintaining the thermal comfort of occupants. Traditional rule-based control methods are not optimized for HVAC systems with continuous sensor readings and actuator controls. Recent developments in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) enabled control of HVACs with continuous sensor inputs and actions, while eliminating the need of building complex thermodynamic...

Optimal control of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVACs) aims to minimize the energy consumption of equipment while maintaining the thermal comfort of occupants. Traditional rule-based control methods are not optimized for HVAC systems with continuous sensor readings and actuator controls. Recent developments in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) enabled control of HVACs with continuous sensor inputs and actions, while eliminating the need of building complex thermodynamic...

This paper mainly investigates the perception and knowledge on climate change of the university students in Bangladesh. To carry out this study, primary data are collected from 370 students and uses several statistical methods. Perception and knowledge on the causes, effects and mitigation ways of climate change problems, and perceived duties to combat against climate change are analyzed with descriptive statistics. This paper finds that deforestation is the main cause of global warming and...

This paper mainly investigates the perception and knowledge on climate change of the university students in Bangladesh. To carry out this study, primary data are collected from 370 students and uses several statistical methods. Perception and knowledge on the causes, effects and mitigation ways of climate change problems, and perceived duties to combat against climate change are analyzed with descriptive statistics. This paper finds that deforestation is the main cause of global warming and...

The intensifying physical and socio-economic effects of climate change, mainstreamed by political debates and scientific evidence on anthropogenic disruptions to the global climate system, have motivated changing legislation, regulation, litigation, and institutions. But legal education is not keeping up; climate change has not yet been taught well and broadly in Canadian law schools. While a few schools have offered climate law courses, the majority have not done so in any systematic way....

The impacts of climate change are felt profoundly on Nigeria’s health sector. The impacts of climate change on the health sector in Nigeria implies that due considerations to health issues as part of climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts has become a pressing issue. Training is a critical component of the global climate change response.. Climate change and health education is therefore vital in every community in order to prepare them for climate change impacts and to learn how to...