Search Results (525)

This study investigated the influence of awareness, knowledge, and risk perceptions on environmental attitudes and behaviours in Türkiye, specifically in the context of climate change, using structural equation modelling (SEM). Data were collected from all 81 provinces covering the seven geographical regions of the country. The results revealed that awareness and risk perception have the strongest direct impact on pro-environmental behaviour. Environmental attitudes also demonstrated a significant positive effect, though the findings suggest that high awareness and risk perception can directly drive action even independently of attitude. Uniquely, this study fills a critical gap in the developing country literature by demonstrating that in Türkiye, perceiving the risk translates directly into action, contrasting with the ‘value-action gap’ often observed in Western contexts. Practically, the findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize risk-communication strategies and disaster-preparedness drills over passive information campaigns to effectively stimulate pro-environmental behaviours. Full article

Climate change is the greatest health threat of the 21st century, with healthcare contributing approximately 4–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Decarbonising healthcare, the deliberate reduction of emissions across all healthcare activities, is essential to reduce the health sector’s environmental impact while maintaining equitable, high-quality care. Preparing future health professionals for sustainable, low-carbon practice is increasingly recognised as critical; however, education on healthcare decarbonisation remains inconsistent and weakly embedded in curricula. This scoping review mapped existing educational resources for pre-registration health profession students. Following the JBI methodology, six databases (Scopus, Web of Science, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and GreenFILE) were searched in April 2025 (updated in October 2025). Data were thematically analysed. In total, 32 studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 17 mixed-methods, 11 quantitative, and 4 qualitative designs. Most interventions were multimodal, addressing sustainability or climate change through simulation, digital, formal, or didactic methods. Knowledge and attitudes were the most frequently evaluated outcomes. Thematic analysis identified knowledge and awareness, attitudes and emotional responses, behavioural intent and action, identity formation through collaborative learning, and barriers to decarbonisation. Findings suggest that blended, interactive, and technology-enhanced education improves knowledge, attitudes, and identity, but sustained impact requires longitudinal, skills-based, and policy-aligned interventions to drive meaningful healthcare decarbonisation action. Full article

Eco-friendly driving, defined as an individual’s daily driving practices that reduce fuel and energy consumption, remains significantly underutilized despite growing attention to climate change and sustainability. Given that changes in consumer behaviour are central to sustainability transitions and strongly influenced by how individuals perceive sustainability-related information, this study investigates the psychological and structural barriers that shape consumers’ perceptions of eco-friendly driving. A scoping review of empirical research on these barriers (Study 1), informed by Gifford’s “dragons of inaction,” combined with 50 semi-structured interviews (Study 2) conducted in a highly car-dependent regional context, provides convergent evidence on the complex factors shaping consumer behaviour in sustainable mobility. Across both studies, consistent psychological barriers emerged, including limited awareness of eco-driving techniques, doubts about effectiveness, emotional responses such as stress or range anxiety, and habitual reliance on conventional driving. Structural barriers such as inadequate infrastructure, limited charging accessibility, economic constraints, and weak policy support further constrained perceived feasibility. Evidence from both studies showed that these barriers reinforce one another, intensifying scepticism and reducing engagement with sustainability initiatives and messages. The findings contribute to research on sustainable consumer behaviour and sustainability communication by showing how internal and external constraints jointly shape eco-friendly driving decisions. Practically, the results highlight opportunities for coordinated infrastructure, policy, and communication strategies to support broader adoption of eco-friendly driving behaviours. Full article

Understanding short-term glacier motion is vital for assessing ice sheet dynamics in a warming climate. This study investigates the tidal and diurnal influences on the flow of Helheim Glacier, one of Greenland’s fastest-flowing marine-terminating glaciers, using data from 18 high-frequency GPS sensors and a regional tide gauge collected during summer 2013. A Kalman filter was applied to separate and quantify glacier velocity, tidal admittance, and diurnal melt-driven acceleration. Results reveal a high level of tidal admittance affecting the horizontal flow speed of the glacier, especially at the centre of the glacier, which is propagated upstream. This admittance corresponds to a 0.38–0.68 m/day reduction from the mean at high spring tide and a comparable increase at low tide. The glacier’s vertical motion showed strong tidal control close to the terminus, of 0.6–1.05 m during high spring tides, but this was significantly reduced more than 1 km from the terminus. Diurnal variations in horizontal speed are less spatially and temporally variable, with most nodes experiencing changes from a mean speed of ±0.1–0.3 m/day. These findings demonstrate that both tidal forcing and meltwater input to the basal system exert a significant, and potentially spatially variable, control on glacier dynamics, highlighting the need to incorporate short-period external forcing into predictive models of marine-terminating glacier behaviour. Full article

Rapid climate change and its anticipated impacts trigger significant worry and distress among vulnerable groups, including young adults. Little is known about how Dutch young adults experience and cope with climate change within their specific social and environmental context. This study examines Dutch young people’s emotional responses to climate change, their perceived emotional and psychological needs arising from these experiences, and the barriers they encounter in engaging in pro-environmental behaviour, with the aim of informing public health strategies to better support and empower this vulnerable group. Data were drawn from a large online survey among a representative sample of 1006 Dutch young adults (16–35 years; 51% women). The questionnaire included fixed-answer sections assessing emotional responses to climate change, as well as two open-ended questions exploring participants’ perceptions of their emotional and psychological needs related to climate change and the barriers they perceive to pro-environmental behaviour. Descriptive statistics were used for the fixed-response items, and thematic analysis was applied to the open-ended responses. Many Dutch young adults reported worry and sadness about climate change and its impacts, with approximately one third experiencing feelings of powerlessness. A large percentage of respondents attributed responsibility to large companies, and nearly half indicated that they still had hope for the future. One third (31%) felt that nothing could make them feel better about climate change, and another third (36%) reported to experience no climate-related emotions. Key emotional needs included more action at personal, community, and governmental levels, and more motivating positive news. Almost half (46%) of young adults said they already lived sustainably, while perceived barriers to pro-environmental behaviour were mainly financial (21%), knowledge-related (8%), and time-related (7%). This exploratory study highlights key practical and emotional barriers to pro-environmental behaviour reported by Dutch young adults 16–35, who expressed diverse emotional needs while coping with climate change. The findings underscore the need for a multi-level public health response to climate-related emotions, that simultaneously addresses emotional needs, structural barriers, and opportunities for meaningful engagement. Lowering barriers to pro-environmental behaviour and fostering supportive environments that enable sustainable action among young adults may enhance wellbeing and strengthen their sense of agency. Public health supports this by reducing barriers to pro-environmental behaviour in young adults, through targeted support, clear information, and enabling social and structural conditions that promote wellbeing and sustained engagement. Full article

Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is an important crop globally, being a starchy, energy-dense food source rich in several micronutrients and bioactive compounds. Achieving food security for everyone is highly challenging in the context of growing populations and climate change. As a highly adaptable crop, potatoes can significantly contribute to food security for vulnerable populations and have outstanding commercial relevance. Specific pre- and post-harvest parameters influence potato quality. It is vital to understand how these factors interact to shape potato quality, minimizing post-harvest losses, ensuring consumer safety, and enhancing marketability. This review highlights how pre-harvest (cultivation approaches, agronomic conditions, biotic and abiotic stresses) and post-harvest factors impact tuber’s microbial stability, physiological behaviour, nutritional, functional attributes and frying quality. Quality parameters, such as moisture content, dry matter, starch, sugar, protein, antioxidants, and color, are typically measured using both traditional and modern assessment methods. However, advanced non-destructive techniques, such as imaging and spectroscopy, enable rapid, high-throughput quality inspection from the field to storage. This review integrates recent advancements and specific findings to identify factors that contribute to substantial quality degradation or enhancement, as well as current challenges. It also examines how pre- and post-harvest factors collectively impact potato quality. It proposes future directions for quality maintenance and enhancement across the field and storage, highlighting research gaps in the pre- and post-harvest linkage. Full article

Understanding the seasonal behaviour of sewer failures is essential for infrastructure reliability and sustainable asset management. This study presents a seasonality-centred, data-driven analysis of monthly sewer failures over a 15-year period (2010–2024) in a major city in south-eastern Poland. The assessment is based exclusively on operational failure records, allowing intrinsic temporal regularities to be extracted without the use of external meteorological covariates. Seasonal Decomposition of Time Series by LOESS (STL), Autocorrelation Function (ACF), Seasonal Index (SI) and the Winter–Summer Index (WSI) were applied to quantify periodicity, seasonal amplitude and long-term variability. The results confirm a pronounced annual cycle, with failures peaking around March and reaching minima in September, supported by a strong autocorrelation at a 12-month lag (r ≈ 0.45). The mean WSI value (1.05) indicates a nearly balanced but still winter-sensitive pattern, while annual WSI values ranged from 0.71 to 1.51. The STL seasonal amplitude remained structurally stable at ≈61 failures throughout the study period, while annual values showed a modest but statistically significant increasing tendency. Trend analysis showed no significant monotonic trend in the deseasonalized series (Z ≈ 0.89, p = 0.37), whereas the raw series exhibited a weak but significant upward trend (τ ≈ 0.33, p < 0.001), largely attributable to short-term operational variability rather than to changes in intrinsic failure rate. The study demonstrates that long-term operational data alone are sufficient to capture seasonal and long-term dynamics in sewer failures. The presented framework supports utilities in integrating seasonality diagnostics into preventive maintenance, resource allocation and resilience planning, even in the absence of detailed climatic datasets. Full article

Climate change poses a major global health threat, with healthcare systems contributing substantially to global greenhouse gas emissions. Health professionals and students play an essential role in advancing sustainable practice, yet many lack the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to address the environmental impacts of healthcare. This study aims to co-design and evaluate a gamified e-resource that enhances pre-registration health profession students’ knowledge, self-efficacy, and attitudes towards healthcare decarbonisation, while encouraging sustainable behaviour change. A sequential explanatory design will be employed in three phases: (1) a scoping review of the literature; (2) four co-design workshops with students (n = 20) followed by post-workshop focus groups using focused ethnography to explore co-design experiences; and (3) pre- and post-test questionnaires (n = 200) assessing knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, behaviours, willingness to act, and usability, followed by focus groups (n = 30) exploring behavioural changes after using the e-resource. The study will generate evidence on how a co-designed, gamified e-resources influence student learning and engagement with healthcare decarbonisation. Findings will inform the integration of sustainability and decarbonisation principles within education and support efforts to equip future health professionals with the competencies required for a low-carbon healthcare system. Full article

Water stress is among the most important abiotic constraints affecting forest ecosystem functioning and regeneration, a phenomenon expected to intensify with climate change. It impacts photosynthesis, growth, and seedling survival, therefore threatening biodiversity and accelerating forest degradation. The use of silicon-based biostimulants has emerged as a way of mitigating the effects of water stress by improving water status and stimulating mechanical and biochemical defense. However, its effectiveness on forest tree species remains poorly explored. This study examines how potassium silicate (PS) alleviates the effects of drought on Canarium madagascariense, with the aim of improving our understanding of the resilience mechanisms of tropical forest species. To do this, an experiment with 135 two-year-old C. madagascariense saplings has been conducted, testing three irrigation levels in combination with the addition of potassium silicate (PS) at concentrations of 5 and 10 mM, via foliar spraying and soil application. Morphometric and physiological parameters were monitored, followed by the biochemical profiling of the induced responses. Linear mixed models were computed to assess the effects of the different factors on the different growth performance, physiological functioning parameters over time, and ANOVA was used for evaluating the punctual data on the biochemical compounds. Drought had a significant impact on the morphological and physiological behaviour of the seedlings. However, the application of PS modified the drought-induced changes, even at a low concentration of 5 mM. Biochemical defenses were also improved further with PS application. Hormone profiling revealed a predominance of auxins, while abscisic acid was lower in the water stress treatments under drought. Therefore, using PS could support the production of robust seedlings that are more tolerant of, and adaptive to, the challenges of climate change, making restoration more efficient. Full article

South Africa, like many other emerging economies, has witnessed a growing awareness of climate change in recent years, driven by school-based initiatives, media coverage, and non-governmental campaigns. However, evidence indicates that this awareness does not consistently translate into green purchasing behaviour. Drawing on quantitative data collected from 384 respondents residing in urban and semi-urban areas of the Eastern Cape Province, this study examines the impact of consumer attention to green communication, green attitudes, and awareness of climate change on green purchasing behaviour after controlling for demographic variable effects (gender, age, education and income level). Primary data were obtained through a survey and statistically analysed using SMART-PLS 4 software. The results of the structural equation modelling reveal that consumer attention and green attitude significantly influence green purchasing behaviour, consistent with the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In contrast, awareness of climate change exhibits a non-significant negative effect on green purchase behaviour, an outcome that diverges from existing empirical evidence, which generally reports positive associations between these variables in other emerging economies. This finding suggests that in contexts where poverty and income inequality persist, increasing awareness of climate change may paradoxically correspond with a reduction in green purchasing. The study recommends implementing strategies to enhance access to eco-friendly products and reduce their cost, thereby improving affordability in resource-constrained nations. Full article

Amine-based CO₂ absorption is a leading technology for post-combustion carbon capture, but solvent degradation remains a critical barrier to its long-term sustainability. Degradation reduces capture efficiency, increases solvent make-up costs, and generates environmentally harmful by-products, undermining the viability of carbon capture as a sustainable climate mitigation strategy. This study applies advanced machine learning techniques—Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Random Forest (RF), XGBoost, and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS)—to predict thermal and oxidative degradation of amine solvents under varying operating conditions. Experimental datasets for piperazine-based mixtures and tertiary amines were used to train and validate predictive models with high statistical accuracy. The results demonstrate that machine learning can reliably forecast degradation behaviour, reducing dependence on resource-intensive experimental campaigns and enabling more sustainable CO₂ capture systems. By improving solvent stability assessment and process monitoring, this work contributes to the development of more resilient, cost-effective, and environmentally responsible carbon capture technologies, directly supporting global sustainability and climate change mitigation goals. Full article

This study explores the interconnections among environmental attitudes, climate change perceptions, and willingness to pay (WTP) for environmentally friendly energy sources in Hungary. Using data from a nationally representative survey of 2000 adults, we integrate socio-demographic, attitudinal perspectives to examine how social structure, identity, and moral norms shape pro-environmental behaviour. Factor analysis identified four key attitudinal dimensions—environmental self-identity, perceived governmental environmental awareness, personal norms, and social norms—incorporated into a series of linear and logistic regression models. The results show that education and urban residence underpin environmental identity and moral commitment, while income and social capital exert no direct influence. Environmental self-identity is the strongest predictor of the WTP, nearly doubling the likelihood of financial support for greener energy, while personal norms play a secondary but meaningful role. Climate change scepticism significantly reduces the WTP, whereas awareness alone does not, suggesting that knowledge without moral engagement is insufficient to drive behaviour. Interaction effects reveal contextual variation, with settlement type moderating the link between attitudes and behaviour. Overall, the findings demonstrate that pro-environmental action depends less on material capacity than on internalized moral and identity-based motivations, underscoring the importance of strengthening environmental identity and trust-based engagement to advance the energy transition. Full article

The building sector represents a major frontier in the global response to climate change, accounting for approximately one-third of global energy consumption and a comparable share of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. This review conducts a PRISMA-ScR–based scoping synthesis of technological, behavioural, and policy pathways to achieve energy efficiency and deep decarbonization in buildings. It systematically examines passive design principles, high-performance envelopes, efficient HVAC and lighting systems, renewable energy integration, building energy modelling, and retrofit strategies. The study also addresses the role of regulatory instruments, energy codes, and certification schemes in accelerating sectoral transformation. The synthesis identifies three cross-cutting drivers of decarbonization: integrated design across building systems, digitalization enabling predictive and adaptive operation, and robust policy frameworks ensuring large-scale implementation. The review concludes that while most technologies required to reach zero-emission buildings are already available, their potential remains underutilized due to fragmented policies, limited retrofit rates, and behavioural barriers. Coordinated implementation across technology, governance, and user engagement is essential to realise a net-zero building sector. Full article

Air quality is a key priority in environmental policy agendas worldwide, yet rapid urban growth in developing countries disproportionately affects urban air quality. In sub-Saharan Africa, the spatial and temporal dynamics of key pollutants remain underexplored. This knowledge gap limits the ability to understand how pollution hotspots emerge, how they shift over time, and how they interact with the broader planetary processes such as climate change. This study analysed the spatial distribution of ozone (O₃) and carbon monoxide (CO) hotspots in Diepkloof and Klieprivier townships, Johannesburg, South Africa, using data from 2019 to 2023 obtained from air quality monitoring stations. Spatial patterns were mapped using Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) interpolation in a Geographic Information System (GIS), and meteorological influences were assessed through multiple linear regression. Results showed distinct spatial trends: Diepkloof experienced a decrease in O₃ from 23 ppb to 16 ppb, whereas Klieprivier remained stable but exhibited marked seasonal variation, peaking at 30 ppb in spring. Wind speed, wind direction, and humidity were significant predictors (p < 0.05) of both CO and O₃. In Klieprivier, meteorological factors explained 54.2% of O₃ variability, with temperature being the strongest predictor. These findings provide valuable insight into pollutant behaviour in urban townships and highlight the importance of integrating spatial analysis with meteorological modelling for targeted air quality management. Full article

Understanding the impact of hydric stress on medicinal plants in the context of climate change is becoming increasingly important. This study aimed to assess the quality of a seed lot of Agastache mexicana subsp. mexicana (Amm) through a novel calculation of the Vigour Index on time basis (${VI}_T$). The evaluation was based on relationships among plant height, leaf number, survival time, and plant density across six irrigation regimes, referred to as stages, which differed in the timing and quantity of water, designed to impose water stress from seedling emergence until plant death. To maximise growth and survival time, we utilised two input factors: Artificial Shade Levels (ASLs) of 38%, 87%, and 94%, as well as Silicon Dioxide Levels (SDLs) of 0.0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.8%. The effects of these treatments were measured using the Survival Index (SI) and the ${VI}_T$. The plants achieved their highest SI and ${VI}_T$ values influenced by minimum mortality and maximum height and leaf number in stage three. This behaviour aligned with the field capacity of the substrate, supporting the evaluation of stages one and two as waterlogging stress, while the remaining stages were classified as drought stress. The ${VI}_T$ results showed statistically significant effects from ASL, particularly at 94%. However, the ${VI}_T$ in relation to SDL was not statistically significant. The ${VI}_T$ measurements were visualised using spline interpolation, a method that provides an effective approach to quantify adverse conditions affecting Amm’s development and that it can support to identify the hydric stresses type. Full article