Aerosol demasking enhances climate warming over South Asia.

Anthropogenic aerosols mask the climate warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). In the absence of observational constraints, large uncertainties plague the estimates of this masking effect. Here we used the abrupt reduction in anthropogenic emissions observed during the COVID-19 societal slow-down to characterize the aerosol masking effect over South Asia. During this period, the aerosol loading decreased substantially and our observations reveal that the magnitude of this aerosol demasking corresponds to nearly three-fourths of the CO2-induced radiative forcing over South Asia. Concurrent measurements over the northern Indian Ocean unveiled a ~7% increase in the earth's surface-reaching solar radiation (surface brightening). Aerosol-induced atmospheric solar heating decreased by ~0.4 K d-1. Our results reveal that under clear sky conditions, anthropogenic emissions over South Asia lead to nearly 1.4 W m-2 heating at the top of the atmosphere during the period March-May. A complete phase-out of today's fossil fuel combustion to zero-emission renewables would result in rapid aerosol demasking, while the GHGs linger on.

Food security and climate-smart food systems: Building resilience for the global south

The resilience of food systems and security to emerging challenges and threats, especially in the context of environmental and climate risks and global pandemics such as the Covid-19 crisis, is currently gaining growing importance in research, policy, and practice. Based on this, the core focus of this book, as a part of a series of CERES publications, consists of identifiying and exploring the best ways to overcome such challenges and shocks and to build resilience in the Global South. More precisely, the book analyzes current dynamics and trends related to the climate resilience of food security and assess the relevance of emerging approaches such as climate-smart agriculture, new roles of agriculture extension, smart farming, and climate adaptation of farming systems.The book includes both conceptual and empirical research reporting lessons learned from many geographical, environmental, social, and policy settings while focusing on Africa, Middle East, and Asia. It also provides research and policy-oriented inputs and recommendations to guide change processes at multiple scales. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

How retailers can better understand what conscious consumers want

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : It is challenging to anticipate the types of trends that will shape an industry for the year ahead, but one thing that is abundantly clear is that there is a wave of public awareness towards environmental issues in South Africa. The pandemic has been the source of the build-up of many of the trends we see in business today. Research from the Boston Consulting Group unpacks the environmental issues due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The words `environmental' and `sustainable' have become top of mind when coming to making purchasing decisions

Partnership launched to convene international high-level panel on water investments for Africa

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT : The African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), along with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), African Development Bank, Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA), and Global Water Partnership (GWP) established a partnership to mobilize international commitment for water investments and SDGs in Africa. The partners adopted a resolution to convene an International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa on 12 August 2021. The International High-Level Panel on Water Investments for Africa will drive global political mobilization and international engagement to narrow the water investment gap in Africa and meet the social-economic needs for water on the continent. Its goal is to improve the investment outlook for climate resilient gender transformative water security and sustainable sanitation and address the twin challenge of climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic

Unexpected times.

The world has changed this year under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns around the world have reduced energy demand, resulting in emissions declines, but what could the post-COVID-19 world look like - a return to normal, or will this start a transition?