Global Climate Change and Sustainable Economy

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that we launch this call for contributions to a Special Issue of Sustainability that will focus on the topic of “Global Climate Change and Sustainable Economy”.

Climate change is ubiquitously recognized as a ‘wicked problem’, with only a residual share of society holding on to the view that human activity is causing irreversible climate damage.

The breadth and depth of the challenges that require a confrontation to adapt to our economic systems are daunting, but so are the potential opportunities. There are no forms of economic activity that are unaffected by climate change. For this reason, many economies have initiated and promoted efforts to confront climate change head-on. The efforts are too numerous and diverse to discuss here in any depth, but essentially, a push for a re-calibration of economic activity to adapt to already-realized climatic change and mitigate further change, a re-consideration of physical assets and infrastructure with the aim to balance them increasingly in favor of preserving finite natural assets, a and re-evaluation of the value systems used in guiding resource allocation decisions to be increasingly cognizant of life-cycle and full supply chain considerations instead of mere private gains.

This Special Issue will collate a selection of high-quality and novel research contributions assessing the impacts of climate change and the effectiveness of measures put in place to adapt to them, shield against further impacts, and potentially reverse the existing impacts.

Suggested themes for the Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The impact(s) of climate change on economies;
• The impact(s) of climate change on industries and economic sectors;
• The impact(s) of climate change on individual firms and supply chains;
• The impact(s) of economic activity and resource allocations on climate change;
• The design of policies and mechanisms to address the economic and human impacts of climate change;
• The role of financial and legal institutions in responding to, preparing for, and/or mitigating climate change;
• The role of global agreements and institutions to coordinate climate-related initiatives;
• The effectiveness of carbon markets and related mechanisms to “make polluters pay”, i.e., internalize their externalities;
• Circular economy;
• SME’s and climate change;
• Transition towards more efficient and renewable energy sources to facilitate more sustainable economic activity;
• Green economy agreements, carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and the role of international trade in future sustainable economies.

We welcome contributions of all types, including empirical or theoretical studies or relevant review articles. Submissions are welcome from any disciplinary perspective, and multi- or cross-disciplinary research is encouraged given the nature of the subject matter.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Johan Sulaeman
Dr. David C. Broadstock
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• climate change
• sustainable economy
• environmental impact
• carbon markets
• circular economy