Technically Speaking (Asynchronous Session)
Perceptions of local government preparedness for coastal climate change: A view from South Australia View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Beverley Clarke, Nicole Pelton, Allira Taylor Wilkins, Cassandra Star, Peter Tangney, Claire Nettle
It is now widely understood that the impacts of coastal climate change will pose significant challenges to coastal communities. In response to anticipated threats, much effort is being devoted to adaptation planning, and many policies, plans and strategies have been prepared. Due to their key responsibilities for land-use planning and management, much of this effort is focused on and undertaken by local government. However, it is understood that since there are many uncertainties about coastal futures and climate change scepticism endures, achieving organisational ‘buy-in’ can be difficult when not all parties accept anticipated changes and associated risks. It is also documented that public perceptions may compel or constrain action to progress policies across many dimensions (political, social and economic), including climate change. Little is understood about the role of elected members and their influence on decision-making processes for coastal planning and adaptation. As representatives of the community, their perceptions of climate threats and associated risks have the potential to either promote or impede acceptance and action at the local government level. This study canvasses the perceptions of elected members and local government staff from South Australia’s 34 coastal councils about coastal climate change preparedness. It provides a comparison between the perceptions of these two groups and offers some insights into possible adaptation barriers and implementation gaps.
Featured Indigenous Climate Change Mitigation in the Antropocene: Extra-modern Communities and the Ethical and Theoretical Implications of Anthropology View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hannah Machado Cepik
In this study, I discuss some mitigations to climate change carried out by extra-modern communities and the ethical and theoretical implications of anthropology in this scenario. As Latour writes, dealing with Antropocene's consequences has demonstrated the need for the participation of extra-moderns (Viveiros de Castro, 2018) - peoples who never set out to be part of modernity but who were forced to adapt and finish the world they built - in research and decision-making. The insecurity of events creates the need to deal in some way with the unpredictable, and the agency of indigenous peoples is a way to understand in what ways one can deal with the world to come (Viveiros de Castro, 2018). In this communication, I demonstrate some examples of indigenous mitigations and anthropological research to discuss how this intersection is constructed in the discipline, seeking to weave possible paths in the face of new climatic events. Then, I discuss the place of anthropology and ethnology in studies on climate change, as well as if and how these researches are justified in a scenario of decoloniality, of questions on appropriation of knowledge and ethnographic authorship.
Projected Impacts of Climate on Temperature-Humidity Index Under Representative Concentration Pathway Scenarios
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nozar Ghahreman, Sajad Asgari, Iman Babaeian
The temperature humidity index (THI) is one of the measures to describe heat stress, especially while animals' production (meat and milk) is considered. It is expected that THI values would vary due to changes in temperature and humidity in the coming decades. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of climate change on THI and milk production under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) climatic scenarios proposed in the fifth assessment report (AR5) of IPCC in the western region of Iran. The climatic projections required for calculation of THI values during the future period were obtained from EC-EARTH model outputs, downscaled and calibrated for the study region. The suitable equation for calculation of THI was based on the climatic condition of selected study stations. The index values for baseline and future period were calculated and the trend of variation was worked out. Besides, the number of days with different level of heat stress in annual and monthly basis under RCP4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios during four periods of 1981-2010, 2011-2040, 2041-2070 and 2071 to 2100 were calculated and compared with corresponding values of the baseline period. The results revealed that the index would be less affected by climate change during the months of April and May. The trend of milk production affected by climate change, during the future period is decreasing and significant at 99% level of confidence. Such that, by 2100, under RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, milk production would decrease 1 and 2 Kg per year, respectively.
Integrating Mobile Thermal Energy Storage in the City of Surrey’s District Energy Network: A Techno-economic Analysis View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maha Shehadeh
The City of Surrey in British Columbia, Canada has recently launched a district energy network (DEN) to supply residential and commercial buildings in the Surrey Centre area with hot water for space and domestic hot water heating. The network runs on natural gas boilers and geothermal exchange. However, the City plans to transition to low-carbon energy sources and envisions the DEN as a key development in reaching its greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction targets in the building sector. Harvesting and utilizing waste heat from industrial sites is one of the attractive alternative energy sources that Surrey is considering. In this study, a techno-economic analysis (TEA) was conducted to determine the energy storage density (ESD) of the proposed Mobile Thermal Energy Storage (M-TES) technology, costs, and the emission reduction potential of integrating waste heat into Surrey’s DEN. Three transportation methods were considered to determine the most cost-effective and low-carbon option(s) to transfer heat from industrial waste heat locations at various distances (15km, 30km,45km) to district energy networks, including i) a diesel truck; ii) a renewable natural gas-powered (RNG) truck, and iii) an electric truck. To evaluate the effectiveness of mobile thermal energy storage (M-TES), the cost of emission reduction ($/tCO2e avoided) is compared with business as usual (BAU), which is using a natural gas boiler only. The minimum system-level ESD that makes M-TES competitive when compared to other low carbon energy sources was 0.4 MJ/kg.
Climate Change Impacts and Residential Electricity Consumption in the Province of New Brunswick, Canada View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yuri Yevdokimov
Electricity is one of those innovations that have changed the daily life of everybody on the planet. However, ongoing changes in climate that manifest themselves through changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level, and the frequency and severity of extreme weather events have started to affect electricity production and consumption all over the world. These effects contribute to changing residential demand for electricity in terms of the need for air-conditioning, refrigeration, water temperature regulation, etc. Recognizing the importance of this issue, a number of studies have been conducted internationally on analyzing future electricity demand conditions of different countries. The estimation of such changes in electricity demand is important as they can have important consequences for electricity generation capacity building in the future. Taking the above into account, the objectives of the present study are: (i) statistical estimation of the impact of climate change on electricity demand in residential sector in the province of New Brunswick, and (ii) projection of the changes in residential demand for electricity in the province under different climate change scenarios. Increasing temperature, changing precipitation patterns, rising sea level and increasing frequency of extreme weather events are major climate change impacts analyzed in this study. As there is a protracted time lag between demand needs for electricity and its capacity building, the study will prove helpful for the provincial government regarding its design of energy policy at the time of changing climate.
