Search Results (8,157)

The challenges of climate change require in-depth attention and targeted strategies for specific sectors, such as energy and mining. Within the mining sector, climate change imposes constraints on the sustainable extraction of minerals, thereby heightening the importance of several minerals in addressing these challenges. Chile emerges as a pivotal nation due to its substantial reserves of copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite, which are essential for energy transition and decarbonization processes. Consequently, Chile must foster gradual processes to establish competitive advantages based on technological and innovative capabilities, thus projecting a competitive and sustainable mining industry. This endeavor should be accompanied by enhancements in policies and instruments to guide development, expanding local value creation. This study examines the global challenges faced by the mining sector in the context of the energy transition and evaluates Chile’s response through an assessment of public policies for mining development. It provides an analysis of the scope of various public policy instruments to establish the link between international agreements and development opportunities, subsequently proposing a series of indicators to assess policy progress. To this end, the Environmental Observatory of Mining Projects is developing indicators to evaluate compliance with these policies. In addressing the nation’s challenges related to green and sustainable mining, 20 indicators have been developed in collaboration with civil society and public and private stakeholders through a design thinking process. These indicators enable the evaluation of aspects such as air quality, water quality, and the surface area affected by tailings, among others. The initial section of the document outlines the global challenges in achieving the carbon neutrality goals set by the IPCC. The subsequent section elaborates on the theoretical framework of the research, addressing theories of economic development and sustainability, public policy approaches considered in recent years, as well as the governance of mining development, with an emphasis on its capacity to articulate industrial policies, promote environmental sustainability, and foster technological innovation. The third section details the research methodology and framework of the study. This study examines how Chile’s mining policies align with the global energy transition. Amid growing demand for critical minerals, climate change, and decarbonization, Chile faces both opportunities and socio-environmental risks. Addressing these challenges requires integrated sustainability strategies and an active state role to ensure inclusive, environmentally responsible, and innovation-driven mining development. Full article

Historically, traditional transportation planning has promoted public policies focused on building and maintaining infrastructure for private cars to improve travel efficiency. This approach presents a significant challenge for cities in the Global South due to their unique socioeconomic conditions and urban development patterns. Dedicated public transport infrastructure can make better use of the road network by moving more people and reducing congestion. Beyond its environmental benefits, it also provides the population with greater accessibility, creating new development opportunities. This study uses Mexicali, Mexico, a medium-sized city with dispersed urban growth and a high dependence on cars, as a case study. The goal is to identify the relationship between the supply of public bus routes and actual work-related commuting patterns. The methodology considers that, given the scarcity of economic resources and prior studies in the Global South, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for the spatial analysis of travel is a key tool for redesigning more inclusive and sustainable public transport systems. Specifically, this study utilized origin–destination survey data from 14 urban areas to assess modal coverage, work-related commuting patterns, and the spatial distribution of employment centres. The findings reveal a marked misalignment between the existing public transport network and the population’s travel needs, particularly in marginalized areas. Users face long travel times, multiple transfers, low service frequency, and limited connectivity to key employment areas. This configuration reinforces an exclusionary urban structure, with negative impacts on equity, modal efficiency, and sustainability. The study concludes that GIS-based spatial analysis generates sufficient evidence to redesign the public transport system and reorient urban mobility policy toward sustainability and social inclusion. Full article

The significant impact of road traffic accidents on public health requires clear and effective policies to combat them. However, public action can only be truly effective when supported by robust monitoring tools. This project aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a set of machine learning algorithms in predicting road accidents in Switzerland, utilizing open-access Confederation drive crash databases combined with environmental and socio-economic factors. Three different algorithms are tested: Logistic Regression Model (LRM), Random Forest with Ranger (RF), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with Keras. Among the predictive factors, road types are shown to be of high importance in all models. Regarding model performance, all the applied algorithms show a high level of accuracy, with all models achieving over 90%. The Random Forest algorithm, optimised using the Ranger application, exhibited the best performance, particularly in terms of specificity (0.88 compared to 0.34 and 0.40 for LRM and Keras, respectively) and negative predictive value (0.96 compared to 0.65 for LRM and 0.68 for Keras). These results suggest that this approach could support public policy for traffic management, if data collection and sharing activities are constantly carried out. Full article

Motor insurance can use telematics data not only to understand individual driving style but also to implement innovative coaching strategies that feed back to the drivers, through an app, the aggregated information extracted from the data. The purpose is to encourage an improvement in their driving style. A precondition for this improvement is that drivers are digitally engaged, that is, they interact with the app. This paper proposes a narrow understanding of the term engagement, referring to users’ interactions with the app. This interaction is also a behavior producing specific data that can be tracked and used by insurance companies. Based on the empirical investigation of the dataset of a company selling a telematics motor insurance policy, our research investigates if there is a correlation between engagement with the app and improvement of driving style. The analysis distinguishes different groups of users with different driving abilities, and takes into account time differences. Our findings contribute to clarifying the methodological challenges that must be addressed when exploring engagement and coaching effectiveness in proactive insurance policies. We conclude by discussing the possibility and difficulties of tracking and using second-order behavioral data related to policyholder engagement with the app. Full article

Media coverage plays a pivotal role in shaping public perception of the energy transition. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of how the lignite phase-out is represented in Greece, both by national and regional media, with a specific focus on the impacted region of Western Macedonia. Using data from the Leipzig Corpora Collection and regional news portals from 2013 to 2022, the analysis reveals significant divergences between media levels. While both show synchronized peaks for key terms like “Climate change” (2019) and “Western Macedonia” (2021), regional media addressed the direct impacts of the transition earlier and more intensely, with terms like “post-lignite” and “de-lignification” peaking in 2020 following the announcement of the Master Plan. National media framed the transition within a broader, top-down policy context, often with an optimistic tone, reflecting EU directives. In contrast, regional media provided a community-centric perspective, highlighting concerns over job losses and the preservation of local identity. The findings underscore a clear tension between official narratives of progress and local-level concerns, demonstrating that media discourse is a critical, multi-faceted component of just transition processes that policymakers must consider. Full article

During recent decades, the commons approach has emerged as a tool with which to critically analyse current reality and propose alternatives. Using this approach, the paper asks how the common good can be promoted in education, especially in times and places of superdiversity. After a short conceptual presentation of the commons approach, it discusses the current approaches to the management of diversity (multicultural, intercultural, liberal, social cohesion) that, produced from the same episteme based on substantive identities and schools as ‘invited’ spaces, provide unexpected barriers to the development of schools as inclusive and participative commonplaces. With this conceptual foundation of the problem in place, the paper then examines the convivial approach as an alternative way to rethink schools as educational commons and to offer opportunities for collaboration and co-operation, generating a web of sustained connections between different actors. Finally, the paper outlines what schools as educational commons might look like in a superdiverse context and how this can be promoted as a new education policy. It focuses on specific policies that might promote conviviality and education as a common good in which schools become ‘invented’ spaces, participatory and self-governed common places, and producers of alternative citizenship, relations, and identities. Full article

We propose the Commodity-Specific Sustainability Index (CSSI), a multidimensional system for quantifying Brazil–China commodity trade dependence that integrates environmental, economic, and social sustainability metrics with conventional trade dynamics. Traditional trade metrics often overlook sustainability risks due to their focus on volume or monetary value. The CSSI combines three dimensions of sustainability risk (environmental impact, economic resilience, and social well-being) into a single assessment framework for major commodities, including soybeans and iron ore. The framework uses a dynamic weighting mechanism that adjusts sub-indices depending on policy priorities and stakeholder inputs, and a Transformer-based time series model captures relationships between CSSI trends with bilateral trade flows along with external shocks, enabling the predictive analysis of sustainability-driven trade adjustments. Furthermore, the CSSI replaces conventional trade volumes with sustainability-adjusted counterparts that are then incorporated into standard trade frameworks such as gravity equations. Our analysis of soybeans and iron ore from 2015 to 2022 shows that conventional dependence metrics overestimate trade dependence by 12–19% (95% CI: 10.8–21.2%, p < 0.001) for commodities with a high environmental footprint. The predictive model, built entirely based on publicly accessible data sources, produces a mean absolute error of 5.5% (±0.8%) in forecasting quarterly trade flows, outperforming ARIMA (6.8% ± 0.5%) and LSTM (6.1% ± 0.6%). The CSSI’s novelty is its holistic approach to sustainability–trade connections, providing policy makers and researchers with a tool to assess long-term commodity resilience, beyond traditional economic metrics. Full article

Green and digital transitions represent a dual strategic objective for the European Union (EU), requiring behavioral changes from citizens, markets, and state institutions. To support these transformations, the EU has developed an extensive policy framework that is backed by significant financial instruments. However, the existing research suggests that these transitions may exacerbate both spatial and socioeconomic inequalities, depending on country-specific conditions and institutional capacities. This paper investigates how environmental and technological contexts, alongside EU-transition-related policies, influence regional and income inequalities within the selected EU countries. Using panel data covering the period 2007–2020 and employing a Generalized Least Squares (GLS) estimator, the present study reveals the complex relationship between structural conditions, policy designs, and inequality outcomes. The results show that smart and green policies tend to mitigate spatial inequalities, though they are found to be less effective in addressing income inequalities. By contrast, the contextual dynamics of the twin transition, such as skill intensity, digital adoption, and emissions, exhibit mixed effects, sometimes reinforcing inequality. The findings underline the urgency of designing inclusive EU policies that combine green and smart transition measures while accounting for country- and region-specific challenges. Such an integrated approach is essential for ensuring that the twin transition strengthens social cohesion in Europe, rather than undermining it. Full article

A growing number of scientific and policy institutions recognize predominantly plant-based diets as the most sustainable dietary patterns, for both public health and the environment, and are therefore encouraging citizens to shift their eating habits. Alongside this, more people are adopting vegan or vegetarian diets in response to environmental concerns and animal welfare. In this context, the responsibility for planning nutritionally adequate diets cannot be solely individual, with household solutions, but collective actions are needed at the industrial and agricultural level. Historically, the food industry has improved the nutritional value of animal-derived foods through feed modification and supplementation. Today, similar efforts are needed to enhance the nutrient profile of plant-based foods. In addition, nutrient recommendations originally designed for mixed diets may not be directly applicable to populations following exclusively plant-based diets, given the differences in bioavailability and metabolism. This review aims to (1) identify nutrients that may be absent or present in insufficient amounts in plant-based and especially vegan diets; (2) explore potential solutions, ranging from soil management and crop biofortification to food processing, fortification, and supplementation; and (3) call for a revision of dietary reference intakes that better reflects the specific needs of populations consuming total or predominantly plant-based diets. Full article

Discrimination and harassment (DH) against women are topics of broad concern to gender equality advocates. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of DH against women in Nigeria, based on seven specific forms of DH captured in the 2021 Nigeria Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), and to identify key socio-demographic factors associated with an aggregated DH outcome variable. Drawing upon data from 38,806 women aged 15–49, we used descriptive statistics to summarize the prevalence of DH across seven reasons and the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, followed by chi-square analysis to test bivariate associations and binary logistic regression to identify predictors. Results showed that the prevalence of DH against Nigerian women (18.9%) was significantly associated with socio-demographic factors such as age, education level, wealth index, marital status, and ethnicity. At the individual level, women who felt very unhappy had higher odds of experiencing DH (OR = 3.101, 95% CI: 2.393–4.018, p < 0.001) compared to those who felt very happy. In contrast, women with higher/tertiary education (OR = 0.686, 95% CI: 0.560–0.842, p < 0.001) were 31.4% less likely to face DH than those with no education. Regionally, respondents living in Zamfara (OR = 5.045, 95% CI: 3.072–8.288, p < 0.001) were over five times more likely to experience DH than those in Kano state. The findings underscore the need for policy interventions and support systems to address DH against women in Nigeria. Full article

Analyzing the status of food production in Qinghai Province and exploring the nexus between its ecological conservation and food supply are of critical significance. This study systematically synthesizes the evolution of ecological protection policies in Qinghai Province from 2000 to 2020 and delineates the spatiotemporal evolutionary patterns of grain production in Qinghai Province and their underpinning driving factors. The key findings are as follows. (1) From 2000 to 2020, the corpus of policies governing ecological governance measures in Qinghai Province exhibited a sustained growth trend, with management-oriented policies predominating. (2) The primary grain and meat-producing regions in Qinghai Province are predominantly clustered in the northeastern part, displaying a gradual intensification of concentration. From 2000 to 2020, grain production showed an upward trajectory in the northern region and a downward trend in the southern region, whereas meat production exhibited an ascending trend in both the northern and western regions. (3) Agricultural production conditions represent the principal drivers of grain and meat production in Qinghai Province. Specifically, two driving factors—common cultivated area and total power of agricultural machinery—have exerted significant positive effects on grain and meat production across over 30 counties. Ecological protection conditions have manifested heterogeneous effects across different regions of Qinghai Province; the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has exerted a negative influence on grain and meat production in the eastern region while exerting a positive influence in the western region. Full article

This paper examines the characteristics of agriculture in High Nature Value farmlands (HNVf) in Poland and assesses their capacity to implement key environmental measures under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023–2027. Using spatial and statistical analyses at the municipal level, the study compares agricultural structures, production types, participation in eco-schemes, organic farming and agri-environment-climate measures under the CAP 2023–2027. The delimitation of HNVf areas was based on the EU methodology, focusing on the extent of agricultural production and the environmental value of the surrounding landscape. The results indicate that HNVf areas are predominantly located in regions with challenging natural conditions, a high share of permanent grasslands, and limited capacity to diversify crop structures. Farms in these areas show lower participation in eco-schemes compared to more intensive farming regions, suggesting that current instruments may not fully align with the specific needs of low-intensity systems. In contrast, higher levels of engagement were observed in organic farming and agri-environment-climate measures in HNVf. These findings highlight the need for better-adapted CAP instruments that reflect the environmental and economic realities of HNVf areas. Enhancing support mechanisms for these regions is essential to safeguard biodiversity, promote sustainable land use, and maintain the socio-environmental functions of rural landscapes. Full article

Driven by both natural and anthropogenic factors, farmland abandonment and recultivation constitute complex and widespread global phenomena that impact the ecological environment and society. In the Inner Mongolia Yellow River Basin (IMYRB), a critical tension lies between agricultural production and ecological conservation, characterized by dynamic bidirectional transitions that hold significant implications for the harmony of human–nature relations and the advancement of ecological civilization. With the development of remote sensing, it has become possible to rapidly and accurately extract farmland changes and monitor its vegetation restoration status. However, mapping abandoned farmland presents significant challenges due to its scattered and heterogeneous distribution across diverse landscapes. Furthermore, subjectivity in questionnaire-based data collection compromises the precision of farmland abandonment monitoring. This study aims to extract crop phenological metrics, map farmland abandonment, and recultivation dynamics in the IMYRB and assess post-transition vegetation changes. We used Landsat time-series data to detect the land-use changes and vegetation responses in the IMYRB. The Farmland Abandonment and Recultivation Extraction Index (FAREI) was developed using crop phenology spectral features. Key crop-specific phenological indicators, including sprout, peak, and wilting stages, were extracted from annual MODIS NDVI data for 2020. Based on these key nodes, the Landsat data from 1999 to 2022 was employed to map farmland abandonment and recultivation. Vegetation recovery trajectories were further analyzed by the Mann–Kendall test and the Theil–Sen estimator. The results showed rewarding accuracy for farmland conversion mapping, with overall precision exceeding 79%. Driven by ecological restoration programs, rural labor migration, and soil salinization, two distinct phases of farmland abandonment were identified, 87.9 kha during 2002–2004 and 105.14 kha during 2016–2019, representing an approximate 19.6% increase. Additionally, the post-2016 surge in farmland recultivation was primarily linked to national food security policies and localized soil amelioration initiatives. Vegetation restoration trends indicate significant greening over the past two decades, with particularly significant increases observed between 2011 and 2022. In the future, more attention should be paid to the trade-off between ecological protection and food security. Overall, this study developed a novel method for monitoring farmland dynamics, offering critical insights to inform adaptive ecosystem management and advance ecological conservation and sustainable development in ecologically fragile semi-arid regions. Full article

Global policy actions to reduce the environmental and social impacts of natural gas flaring are primarily derived from voluntary arrangements. This paper evaluates stakeholder preferences amongst competing policies and regulatory options, optimizing environmental governance to eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030 and achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050, whilst addressing questions of justice and fair implementation. Using a mixed-methods social scientific approach, incorporating literature and document review, interviews, expert surveys, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (G-TOPSIS), we derive two competing perspectives on gas flaring policy strategy, with differences revealed through the AHP ranking process of individual criteria. All identified criteria and sub-criteria were integral to achieving the flaring and emissions targets, with “policy and targets” and “enabling framework” being the most important individual criteria. The “background and the role of reductions in meeting environmental and economic objectives” and ‘’nonmonetary penalties” were the key emergent sub-criteria. G-TOPSIS showed that fully implementing gas flaring policies and regulatory framework criteria to limit warming to 1.5 °C is the most effective policy alternative. Globally coordinated, uniform, and reciprocal legally binding agreements between countries to supplement national initiatives are imperative for improving the effectiveness of country-specific gas flaring policy strategies. Full article

Cancer remains a leading global health challenge, with conventional diagnostic and treatment methods often lacking precision and adaptability. This review explores transformative advancements that are reshaping oncology by addressing these limitations. It begins with an overview of cancer’s complexity, emphasizing the shortcomings of conventional tools such as imaging and chemotherapy, which frequently fail to deliver targeted care. The discussion then shifts to biomarkers, which represent a groundbreaking frontier in early detection, enabling the identification of unique biological signatures that signal the presence of cancer with heightened sensitivity. Building on this foundation, the review examines personalized molecular therapies, which target the specific genetic and molecular vulnerabilities of tumors. These therapies not only enhance treatment efficacy but also minimize adverse effects, offering patients improved outcomes and quality of life. By integrating biomarker-driven diagnostics with tailored therapeutic strategies, a new paradigm of precision oncology emerges, bridging the gap between early detection and effective intervention. Real-world case studies highlight both successes, such as significantly improved survival rates, and persistent challenges, including accessibility and cost barriers. Looking ahead, the review outlines pathways by which to scale these innovations, emphasizing the critical need for robust infrastructure, sustained research investment, and equitable healthcare policies. It concludes by envisioning a future where biomarkers and personalized therapies converge to redefine cancer care, offering earlier detection, precise interventions, and better patient experiences. This work underscores the urgency of adopting cutting-edge approaches to overcome cancer’s persistent threats, paving the way for a more effective and humane era in oncology. Full article