Special Issue "Sustainable Environment through Sustainability Science — Environmental Studies in the Era of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030)"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Geography and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Assoc. Prof. Tymon Zielinski
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Powstańców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
Interests: sustainability science; climate change; oceanography; atmospheric physics
Dr. Carlos Garcia-Soto
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), Promontorio de San Martín s/n 39004 Santander, Spain
Interests: oceanography; climate change; remote sensing; sustainability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, using the philosophy of the SDGs, calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges, with climate change as one of the most important ones. Meeting the targets of Goal 13 (Climate) and Goal 14 (Oceans) will ensure that the targets of all other Goals are met and vice versa.

Knowledge of the current state of the climate change and hence the state of the ocean and effective management to achieve its conservation and sustainable use require new approaches, and sustainability science is one of them. Sustainability science is perceived as a new paradigm in research, which involves the achievement of all of the societal outcomes of the UN Decade. With this new paradigm, we need a new generation of scientists and research to focus on a holistic vision of the world, with special attention given to marine ecosystems.

These days, a lot of attention is given to environmental sustainability, yet the following problems still require intense and continuous research: To what extent will the climate change influence global environment and societies, and what is the ocean’s role in this process? Understanding and evaluating its rate as well as creating appropriate adaptation scenarios for the next generations, as well as describing the pace and character of these changes are among the most urgent challenges for humans.

Therefore, we invite research papers, inter- and transdisciplinary as well as review papers, contributing to the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the SDGs, which focus on ocean/climate issues as well as on ocean literacy and modern approaches to ocean environmental education.

Assoc. Prof. Tymon Zielinski
Dr. Carlos Garcia-Soto
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 papers will be 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 1900 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.

Keywords

  • sustainable science
  • climate change
  • ocean
  • interdisciplinary approaches
  • ocean literacy

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Comparative Evaluation of Top-Down GOSAT XCO2 vs. Bottom-Up National Reports in the European Countries
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6700; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126700 - 12 Jun 2021
Viewed by 554
Abstract
Submitting national inventory reports (NIRs) on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is obligatory for parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The NIR forms the basis for monitoring individual countries’ progress on mitigating climate change. Countries prepare NIRs using [...] Read more.
Submitting national inventory reports (NIRs) on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is obligatory for parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The NIR forms the basis for monitoring individual countries’ progress on mitigating climate change. Countries prepare NIRs using the default bottom–up methodology of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as approved by the Kyoto protocol. We provide tangible evidence of the discrepancy between official bottom–up NIR reporting (unit: tons) versus top–down XCO2 reporting (unit: ppm) within the European continent, as measured by the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT). Bottom–up NIR (annual growth rate of CO2 emission from 2010 to 2016: −1.55%) does not show meaningful correlation (geographically weighted regression coefficient = −0.001, R2 = 0.024) to top–down GOSAT XCO2 (annual growth rate: 0.59%) in the European countries. The top five countries within the European continent on carbon emissions in NIR do not match the top five countries on GOSAT XCO2 concentrations. NIR exhibits anthropogenic carbon-generating activity within country boundaries, whereas satellite signals reveal the trans-boundary movement of natural and anthropogenic carbon. Although bottom–up NIR reporting has already gained worldwide recognition as a method to track national follow-up for treaty obligations, the single approach based on bottom–up did not present background atmospheric CO2 density derived from the air mass movement between the countries. In conclusion, we suggest an integrated measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) approach using top–down observation in combination with bottom–up NIR that can provide sufficient countrywide objective evidence for national follow-up activities. Full article
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