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149. A Global Scenario on Providing Decent Living with Minimal Energy
A paper entitled “Providing decent living with minimal energy: A global scenario” was published in Global Environmental Change”. In 2050, it is estimated that a practical minimal threshold for the final energy consumption required to provide decent material livings to the entire global population could be reduced to the level of the 1960s. This would require advanced technologies across all sectors and reductions in demand to sufficiency levels.
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148. International Cooperation Day
October 6th is designated as “International Cooperation Day". On this day in 1954, the Japanese government decided to join the Colombo Plan and started the Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries. Since 1955, Japan has been promoting technical cooperation such as accepting trainees from overseas and dispatching experts. To commemorate this initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) designated October 6 as "International Cooperation Day" in 1987 to promote public understanding and participation in international cooperation.
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147. Asymmetric changes on the impact of climate change during daytime and night-time
Biologically important organismal activities occur at specific times of the day, and asymmetric changes on the effects of climate change between the daytime and night-time can have a significant impact on nature. A paper published in Global Change Biology found that between 1983-2017, the area that experienced nighttime warming above 0.25°C was more than twice that of the area that experienced daytime warming in regions that showed warming asymmetry.
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146. JIRCAS 50th Year Anniversary International Symposium 2020 – Program is Now Open
Established in 1970 as the Tropical Agriculture Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, JIRCAS is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year (2020). An international symposium will be held on November 10 (Tue) to commemorate the 50th founding anniversary. We are organizing a webinar-style event under the theme “The role of international collaboration in agricultural research to address challenges in the post-COVID-19 global food system”. Please refer to the 50th Anniversary page for the program and other details. Online registration will start on October 8th.
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145. Economist Network for the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations: Shaping theTrends of Our Time
In September 2020, the United Nations Economists Network published the “Report of the UN Economist Network for the UN 75th Anniversary: Shaping theTrends of Our Time”. The report examined the five megatrends that shape the world, namely, climate change, demographic shifts (particularly population aging), urbanization, emergence of digital technologies, and inequalities that are affecting economic, social and environmental outcomes.
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144. Science: High-impact Marine Heatwaves Attributable to Human-induced Global Warming
On September 25, 2020, a report entitled “High-impact marine heatwaves attributable to human-induced global warming” was published in Science magazine. The report warns that anthropogenic climate change is causing unusually increased ocean temperatures, and the frequency of marine heatwaves has increased more than 10-fold which could have a tremendous impact on the marine ecosystem.
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143. Additional 0.5°C can have a significant impact on global aridity
The risks due to increased aridity and drought have become major global concerns. However, there have been few studies on risk assessment based on controlling levels of warming. According to an article in Environmental Research Letters published on September 15, 2020, it is possible to reduce the frequency extreme dry-year and mitigate aridification in some regions by controlling the temperature rise from the pre-industrial levels within 2°C or 1.5°C.
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142. World Bank Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Progress over the past decade may be compromised
The World Bank published the “The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19” on September 16, 2020. The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that measures the human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by the age of 18, taking into account the current health and education situation of the country. The impact of the new coronavirus could slow down the progress in improving human capital.
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141. One Earth: Change in Terrestrial Human Footprint Drives Continued Loss of Intact Ecosystems
On September 18, 2020, One Earth journal published an article “Change in Terrestrial Human Footprint Drives Continued Loss of Intact Ecosystems” with an analysis showing that between 2000 and 2013, a land area of pristine nature approximately the size of Mexico became highly modified by human activities.
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140. Global Biodiversity Outlook 5
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal, Canada) released the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5) on September 15, 2020. This year marks the final year of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which include the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Aichi Targets) around the strategic goals. However, assessment of the progress showed that none of the targets were completely achieved.
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139. FAO: The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2020
On September 23, 2020, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched the latest edition of The State of Agricultural Commodity Markets (SOCO 2020) report with the underlying theme of “Agricultural markets and sustainable development: Global value chains, smallholder farmers and digital innovations”.
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138. World Meteorological Organization: Second Lowest Arctic Sea Minimum
The Arctic sea ice, which is an important climate change indicator, has reached its annual minimum extent after the summer melt season this year. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that this year the Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second lowest extent in history. It is believed that the heat caused the sea ice to melt over a wide area from above and below due to the extremely high air and water temperatures.
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137. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Report
On September 15, 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released the 2020 Goalkeepers Report with an assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on progress being made around the globe on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the introduction, Bill and Melinda Gates noted that the spillover effect has become devastating and the vaccination rate has been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks. CEO Mark Suzman calls for the world to unite more than ever to mark COVID-19 in history and rekindle progress towards the SDGs.
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136. IMF: Investing in a Green Recovery
In the Fall 2020 issue of Finance & Development magazine of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Professor Ulrich Volz contributed an article “Investing in a Green Recovery”, emphasizing the importance of enabling sustainable investment in preparing to a looming climate crisis as well as the return of the pandemic in the future.
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135. Africa’s Food Future at the Intersection of Agriculture and Conservation
On September 10, 2020, the article “Re-Imagining Africa’s Food Future at the Intersection of Agriculture and Conservation” was published on State of the Planet blog of the Earth Institute of Columbia University. The report emphasized the need to find a solution that balances improved food production, reduced climate footprint and conservation of natural capital to achieve resilience and sustainability.
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134. Progress Report on Food and Agriculture-related SDG Indicators 2020
The food and agriculture-related SDG targets under the jurisdiction of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are Goal 2 (zero hunger), Goal 5 (gender equality ), Goal 6 (clean water and sanitation), Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production), Goal 14 (life below water), and Goal 15 (life on land). The second report on the indicators for the 6 SDGs under FAO custodianship “Tracking progress on food and agriculture-related SDG indicators 2020” was published on September 15, 2020.
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133. Renewable Energy Plays a Central Role in Eliminating CO2 Emissions in Industry and Transport
On September 9, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a summary of the new upcoming report “Reaching Zero with Renewables”. It is expected that seven industry and transport sectors (steel, chemicals, cement, aluminum, aviation, shipping, road freight transport) will account for 38% of total CO2 emissions in 2050 unless renewable energy solutions become available. Renewable energy plays a central role in reducing CO2 emissions from these so called hard-to-decarbonise sectors in order to limit global temperature rise at 1.5-degree target.
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132. Living Planet Report 2020: Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations, has published “Living Planet Index 2020: Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss”. The report which uses the Living Planet Index (LPI), a measure of the state of the world’s biodiversity, showed that the population of vertebrate species has decreased by as much as 68% between 1970 and 2016. In order to recover from this decline in biodiversity, the report is proposing efforts that combine measures for environmental conservation with measures for sustainable production and consumption.
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131. The Future(s) of Digital Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems: An Analysis of High-level Policy Documents
The paper "The Future(s) of Digital Agriculture and Sustainable Food Systems: Analysis of High-Level Policy Documents" was published in the journal Ecosystem Services. Many researchers and policy makers look forward to the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in the current food production through data-based decision making. However, the fact remains that there is no clear vision yet on what the future of digital agriculture will look like, and the article pointed out the need to include ecosystem researchers to contribute to the evaluation of the environmental impacts of digital agriculture.
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130. Science Advances – A “Global Safety Net” to Reverse Biodiversity Loss and Stabilize Earth’s Climate
On September 4, 2020, a research article entitled - A “Global Safety Net” to Reverse Biodiversity Loss and Stabilize Earth’s Climate - was published in Science Advances. Conserving areas indicated on global safety nets can be expected to prevent further biodiversity loss and reduce the potential for zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 from emerging in the future.