Marina Menga, Author at Foresight

Building on sustainable foundations: Climate change and energy efficiency to decarbonize the construction sector

The link between buildings and climate change has long been a focal point of global discussions on mitigation and adaptation. A new report by UNEP and Yale addresses the urgent need to decarbonize the construction sector, responsible for more than one third of global CO2 emissions. With global emissions on the rise, this report provides a blueprint for reducing “embodied carbon” emissions from building materials by 2050. Expert Paolo Bertoldi highlights that creating a sustainable building industry is possible and needs collaboration across sectors and countries.

Night firefighters. Original public domain image from Flickr

Analyzing the blaze: climate change and the perfect conditions for wildfires

A spark is not enough to burn a forest. A combination of elements contribute to fuel a wildfire, including weather, climate, and landscape conditions. Valentina Bacciu, researcher at CNR-IBE and CMCC, provides valuable insights into the complex world of wildfires.

Climate and health: understanding the entanglement

Infographics, resources, and analyses to understand the way climate change and health are closely connected. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events and substantial environmental transformations, primarily driven by climate change, pose significant threats to both physical and mental well-being. These changes have far-reaching implications for safety, affecting people’s access to critical resources such as clean air, safe water, food, and healthcare.

In hot water: strong marine heatwaves in a record breaking summer

An extreme summer has propelled 2023 toward becoming the hottest year on record. The combination of El Niño and climate change has amplified temperatures, while strong marine heatwaves and ecosystem impacts underline the urgent need for understanding and adaptation.

“Ogni storia è una storia sul clima”, ecco perché

Deep into the future planet: raccontare storie sul clima e su come la crisi climatica si intreccia con le nostre vite individuali e collettive, a tutti i livelli e in tutte le dimensioni. Intervista a Elisabetta Tola, giornalista scientifica e autrice del podcast Foresight prodotto da CMCC e FACTA. Un mix di voci provenienti dai mondi della scienza, dell’arte, dell’attivismo e della politica mostrano la complessità della crisi climatica e delle sue possibili soluzioni.

“Every story is a climate story”, and this is why

Deep into the future planet: Telling climate stories and how they intertwine with our individual and collective lives, across all levels and dimensions. Interview with Elisabetta Tola, science journalist and author of the Foresight podcast produced by CMCC and FACTA. A mix of voices from the worlds of science, art, activism, policy, show the complexity of the climate crisis and its possible solutions.

Europe’s climate bill: the price of extreme weather

Europe’s “summer of hell” is impacting people, assets and the environment with exceptional intensity. Extreme weather and climate-related events lead to economic losses in different sectors. An overview of the estimates and projections of Europe’s economic toll from extreme climate events.

Landscape with mountains. Ramallah, Palestine

Land and climate change: a close connection

Land is a critical resource. It is under pressure from human activities and climate change, but it is also part of the solution. According to the IPCC, keeping global warming below 2°C can be possible only by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors, including land and food. The way we use land impacts climate change and, in turn, climate change deeply affects our land.

The urban divide: unequal distribution of heat-related risks on city dwellers

Climate change and global warming affect humans, nature and the environment at a global scale. However, their impacts are often not equally and uniformly distributed. People living in Urban Heat Islands are more likely to experience higher levels of heat-related risks for their health, often enhancing existing social inequalities.

The future of droughts: living on a drier planet

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines drought as “a period of abnormally dry weather long enough to cause a serious hydrological imbalance.” The definition is however flexible, as drought is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, whose impacts are influenced by social, economic, and environmental factors.

Disclosure

Transparency from companies and governments about climate-related information, risks and opportunities is crucial for building a resilient economy, empowering communities and creating an equal and fair society. In the era of climate change, a standardized disclosure framework to understand climate risk is not only helpful to investors, it’s also critical to companies for strategic planning.

Scientists and journalists unite: the teamwork of climate change communication

Reporters, scientists, data visualization designers: public awareness of climate change calls for close collaboration among many skills, disciplines and knowledge. A dialogue between Sarah Kaplan, climate reporter at the Washington Post, and Anna Pirani, senior research associate on climate risk and transformative adaptation strategies with CMCC and IPCC author, to share experiences and points of view of climate change reporting.

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Marina Menga

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