Pakistan, with its diverse ecosystems ranging from the towering Himalayas to coastal mangroves, is experiencing rapid biodiversity loss driven by several critical factors: habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, overexploitation, and invasive species. Habitat destruction, primarily resulting from deforestation and agricultural expansion, poses significant threats to iconic species such as the Snow Leopard and Indus River Dolphin. Climate change further exacerbates these challenges by altering species distributions and disrupting ecological balance. Pollution and overexploitation degrade vital habitats, while invasive species outcompete native flora and fauna, leading to ecological imbalances. Future projections suggest an alarming acceleration in species extinction and ecosystem degradation, which could have severe repercussions for human well-being. Despite ongoing conservation efforts, including the establishment of protected areas and community-based conservation initiatives, significant challenges persist. This paper calls for immediate and comprehensive action to enhance conservation strategies, implement sustainable resource management practices, and address the impacts of climate change to effectively halt biodiversity loss and preserve Pakistan’s natural heritage.

Awash River is considered as one of the most important irrigation and drinking water resources for the community. Huge amount of domestic, municipal, industrial and agricultural wastes notably are discharged to river. In the present study, the contamination levels of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Mn, Cd, and Pb) and their ecological effect in water and sediment of Awash River were investigated. Sediment and water samples were collected from selected sites along the course of river and analyzed the metals to be concerned. The result showed that mean concentrations of heavy metals ranked as: in water and sediment samples were Mn > Cr > Cd > Cu and Pb. Mean concentrations of Cr, Mn and Pb in the water samples were higher than WHO and USEPA guidelines for some sites in the upper basin of the river. Heavy metals contamination in the sediments were evaluated by applying United State environmental Protection Agency’s sediment quality Guidelines (USEPA) and indexes such as Enrichment factor, Geoaccumulation Index, contamination factor , Degree of contamination, Ecological risk factor and potencial Ecological risk index were high in the upper basin sampling sites of the river and the extent of metal pollution in the river around is frightening and considerably affecting the aquatic ecology of the river. Therefore, further studies are needed on metal speciation and effects on metal uptake by humans and organisms in addition to continuous monitoring.

Attending a recent seminar by Professor Lei Zhu on Energy Investment/Technology Evaluation sparked my curiosity about advanced carbon capture technologies. While I had a basic understanding of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the seminar provided a comprehensive overview of the latest innovations, particularly in Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS). This motivated me to expand my knowledge on the subject. In this article, I will explore CCUS technologies and their significant role in addressing climate change, offering insights tailored to those new to the topic. CCUS has emerged as a pivotal technology in the global combat against climate change. While the basic concept of capturing and storing carbon dioxide (CO2) is straightforward, the historical development and application of these technologies are complex and captivating. This article will delve into the origins, mechanisms, and impacts of CCUS, alongside its adoption across various industries. It will also explore case studies from leading projects worldwide, examining how CCUS is playing a crucial role in mitigating climate change.

This research delves into the challenges of climate change adaptation in rural Bangladesh, particularly in coastal and riverine areas, through qualitative insights on geographical obstacles. It reveals the vulnerability of low-income communities heavily reliant on agriculture, facing threats to food production and security due to climate-induced disasters and land pressure. The study underscores the multifaceted impacts of climate change, including freshwater scarcity, gender inequalities, and forced migration, exacerbating socio-economic vulnerabilities. While indigenous adaptation practices like salinity-resilient agriculture and integrated farming techniques are employed by coastal farmers, the research highlights the inadequacy of current measures to address escalating salinity levels and extreme events, leading to significant losses and livelihood challenges. Additionally, it explores the role of indigenous knowledge systems in disaster risk reduction, advocating for their integration with modern scientific approaches to enhance resilience effectively. The study emphasizes the urgent need for targeted interventions and policy measures to enhance climate resilience in vulnerable regions, advocating for essential infrastructure development, improved resource access, and community-based adaptation strategies to empower local communities in decision-making processes.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has made the adoption of change in human behaviour and attitudes, the "new normal", which calls for the integration and relevance of environmental education in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic on surveillance and sensitization. This viewpoint article discusses how artificial intelligence and environmental education could be mainstreamed in surveillance of COVID-19 and other re-emerging diseases. The current viewpoint fills this gap by presenting a critical analysis of several studies on the nexus between COVID-19 and environmental education. The aim of the review is to understand the links between environmental exposures and COVID-19 along with the association with environmental education. The author proposes an assessment tool which could be used in public health surveillance of COVID-19 and other re-emerging diseases, so as to compute their cumulative impact on people’s health and determine efficient prevention and control counter-measures. In this regard a systematic review was undertaken to synthesize the evidence that environmental education and artificial intelligence should be used in the surveillance of COVID-19 and other re-emerging diseases such as Ebola and Monkey Pox. To conduct this review, Google Scholar, Pubmed and Research Gate were utilised between January and August 2022. Only peer reviewed, English language studies on Environmental education, Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance on Covid-19 and other remerging diseases were selected for the review.

Nigeria’s economic development relies to a greater extent on its power generation, with the country being heavily reliant on its oil resources over the years. With energy transition underway, meeting the twin goal of ensuring universal access and transitioning to clean sources of energy puts the country at an edge. Natural gas is currently sought due to its ‘attributed transitional status’. While prices following basic economic theories play a role in influencing energy mix, other factors such as energy access, technology change, environmental implications and political factors impact energy production and supply, consequently the dynamics of its power sector. This study is descriptive and analytical, making use of qualitative and quantitative approaches for data collection and analysis on the dynamics of prices of natural gas and renewable energy, energy access, gas production, natural gas technology, environmental and political opportunities, and challenges as some of the key factors in influencing Nigeria’s transition. Natural gas with its wide abundance in Nigeria provides a bridge to meeting energy demand and has relatively lower emissions, with accruing economic benefits. Nigeria has emphasized the role of natural gas in its energy transition road map and investments and policies have currently been put in place. Clearly, Natural gas is playing and will continue to play a huge part in Nigeria’s energy transition. With a good balance of investments, in clean energy sources, good policies and regulations on the exploitation and use of natural gas, Nigeria’s environment commitments and economic goals can both be achieved, leading to a just transition.

Sustainably managed public forests are a cherished natural endowment, which contributes to national economic development and upgraded standards of living. With a multitude of benefits, the tragedy of endowment also comes the responsibility to regulate public forests by implementing and executing policies to control rights of access and to protect such forests. Henceforth the key objective of Uganda’s forests policy is to conserve and promote a balanced and diversified ecosystem, while continuously safeguarding various environmental, social and economic benefits for the present and future generations. To achieve this, the realpolitik of public forest management requires sound policy implementation and enforcement to curb the multi-layered challenges in the overall regulation process. Key policy issues and measures were identified. However, their feasibility in the institutional context is imperative. In responding to this, the study reviewed the Ugandan national forestry policy. Emerging results illuminated a mis-match between policy pronouncements and what actually happens on the ground. These included bias, corruption and interference in the regulation process. Hence, questioning the effectiveness of this forest policy is thought provoking. This diagnostic review concludes that there is a wide gap between key policy objectives and the current state of management and protection of public forest in Uganda. Policies should narrow the intraparency by taking proactive steps to implement the policy measures to address policy issues in the management of public forests in Uganda.

Today, more than 304 million people globally in over 210 countries have been confirmed to have been infected and more than 5.4 million people have died of COVID-19. In this paper we provide a systematic review of the recent literature on the effects of climate on COVID-19’s global expansion, also rapid review to map research evidence on the utilization of SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance and risks assessments. The results of the statistical and modeling techniques considered in the listed papers have been included in this review. The results of several studies, considering climate change and/or the seasonality of respiratory tract viruses, reported that both humidity and temperature affect the pattern of the worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is a lack of consensus in the conclusions about the roles of temperature, humidity and other meteorological factors on the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. Furthermore, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated in faeces and, in some cases, urine of infected people, as well as in wastewater and in sewage sludge. The possibility of faecal-oral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 resulting from these findings, has many implications, especially in regions with poor sanitation infrastructure, considering entering of SARS-CoV-2 into the sewage and wastewater treatment plants. This review takes stock 55 listed articles between December 2019 and January 2022. This paper would be useful as one of the tools for early health warning and to prioritize emergency response plans for water and sanitation operators during COVID-19 and future pandemics. Further research is needed on the assessment of health risks for communities near sewage treatment plants or for communities that simply do not have a wastewater collection system.

Since the Water-Energy-Food Security (WEF) nexus was officially established during the Bonn 2011 Conference, nexus research has grown rapidly. As a result, and due to its interdisciplinary nature, an array of academic literature now engages in the WEF nexus, often in seemingly separate disciplines. Solar energy is one of the most popular renewable energy sources; however, its role within the WEF nexus has only recently gained traction. Through a systematic review, this article examines the current state of knowledge regarding solar energy’s role within the WEF nexus, how solar energy impacts water, energy, and food (in)security, and its potential synergies and trade-offs within the WEF nexus. Accordingly, all the relevant English-language peer-reviewed publications from 2011 and onwards that focus on solar energy’s role within the WEF nexus are reviewed, followed by qualitative conventional content analysis. Four main themes emerge from the review and analysis process: general solar energy deployment, agrivoltaics, aquavoltaics and solar energy greenhouse desalination systems. This article shows that, although the current state of knowledge about solar energy’s role within the WEF nexus is sparse, solar energy creates great synergies regarding improving water, energy, and food security and has an overall positive impact within the WEF nexus. However, threats to local water sources remain a challenge since increased access to unregulated solar energy in areas without or with little previous access to energy can create water overuse, often due to extensive irrigation of food crops. On the other hand, agrivoltaics and aquavoltaics create strong synergies, and both offer water-efficient means of producing energy and food. However, aquavoltaics often undermine food production, while agrivoltaics impact on food production varies depending on what crops are grown and their location. Solar energy greenhouse desalination systems offer a way of creating self-sufficient food production but have only been examined on a small-scale level. All main research areas require more research to identify the full scope of solar energy’s role within the WEF nexus.

This study was carried out to develop aboveground biomass estimation equations for five dominant shrub species of Combretum longispicatum, Anisotes dumosus, Abrus schimperi, Opilia amantacea, and Harrissonia abyssinica and estimating their contribution to the total carbon storage of four selected private ngitilis in Pandagichiza Village, Shinyanga Rural District. A destructive sampling approach was adopted whereby 40 individual shrubs for each species were harvested for the purpose of developing aboveground biomass models. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between the biomass and three field measurements of equivalent diameter at root collar (edrc), crown diameter (D) and top height (H) for both species-specific models and for a general shrubs biomass model. Results show that shrub aboveground biomass can be estimated using equivalent diameter at root collar (edrc) alone. The best fit models were found to have coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.90, 0.85, 0.92, 0.88, 0.94 and 0.84 for C. longispicatum, O. amantacea, A. dumosus, A. schimperi, H. abyssinica and general model respectively. The candidate models were validated using independent data and found to have acceptable bias of less than 10%, which is acceptable. They can therefore be used to estimate aboveground biomass of the studied shrubs in the studied area. On the other hand, this study observed that there is a significant contribution of shrub species to aboveground biomass ranging from 4 to 18%. It is therefore recommended to include the shrub species in biomass studies for the ngitilis. Further research however, needs to be conducted to develop more species-specific shrub biomass models in the ngitilis of Shinyanga Rural District as well as in other areas.

The last decade witnessed a return to traditional ways of farming that were, for decades, braced by technological advancement. Along with many countries around the world, Qatar manifests an interest in urban farming, encouraged by a strong political will to achieve food security. The plans set and implemented by the Qatari government, on both micro and macro levels, raised awareness around urban farming and inspired many urban households. In this study, a survey of 70 households practising backyard farming was performed to explore their particular challenges. A thorough literature review winds up with national scale challenges, raising issues common to urban farming in hot-arid regions. The research design follows a mixed qualitative method, which includes a literature review and semi-structured interviews. The synthesized data, shaped by an understanding of the national scale challenges and drawn from the interviews and surveys’ conclusions, is categorized into 4 themes: environmental, economic, regulative and social. The results showed that many macro-level challenges cascade down to the household/micro level. Under the environmental category, key findings include climatic challenges, non-viable organic farming problems, soil scarcity, and pollution. Economic challenges include the low return on investment in rent and labour, soil, fertilizers, and water costs. The public policy appeared to lag in areas of urban-farming subsidy, land-use policy, and food safety. Recommendations to abate challenges include national strategies to mitigate water and soil scarcity, land use policy upgrades, public health policies, suitable selections of agricultural systems, and farmers’ support.

This paper investigates the impacts of climate change on men and women in the Mt. Elgon districts of Kapchorwa and Manafwa. Rapid rural appraisal and household survey methods were used to elicit information on patterns of climate change shocks, perception of vulnerability, impacts and adaptation strategies. The results indicated that while the impacts of climate change may be similar between men and women in general contexts, vulnerability to climate change is contextual and varies between men and women. Men and women’s perceptions of the impacts are also different and the adaptation strategies adopted by households in respect to the changes in climate are gendered and unsustainable. It is therefore recommended that climate adaptation policies and programmes aimed at promoting climate-smart adaptation interventions need to be tailored in recognition of the vulnerability perceptions and the differential gender roles, if men and women’s resilience to climate shocks is to be enhanced.

Water, energy, and food security are interdependent and crucial to supporting human welfare and livelihoods. The lack of clean and affordable energy is a major underpinning factor to energy, water, and food insecurity for the rural poor, further undermining access to basic services and opportunities. Latin America has some of the world’s best renewable energy conditions. Still, 17 million people lack energy access due to living in rural off-grid locations in hard-to-reach areas, which further increase their water and food insecurity, and associated impoverishment. Therefore, this article aims to analyse small-scale rural renewable energy project’s potential in rural areas through the Water-Energy-Food security (WEF) nexus. The Wayuu people, an indigenous tribe in La Guajira, Colombia, have shown a favourable attitude to renewable energy deployment in past research projects and will therefore be used as an example of rural communities that would benefit from small-scale rural renewable energy. This article argues that small-scale rural renewable energy projects can create energy security, which subsequently will lead to water and food security in La Guajira, with the potential to improve the livelihoods of poor rural communities, especially in areas with vast wind and solar potential.