Adaptation to transboundary climate risks in trade: investigating actors and strategies for an emerging challenge

There is growing recognition that international trade can transmit climate risks across borders, requiring new forms of and approaches to adaptation. This advanced review synthesizes knowledge on how, by whom and where adaptation actions can be taken in the agriculture and industrial sectors to reduce these transboundary climate risks (TCRs). We find a material difference in the literature on TCRs in agriculture as compared with industrial sectors. Operational and market risks, in particular reductions in food availability, dominate in agriculture, while supply chain and trade-related risks are highlighted for industry. While the origin of the risk (source) is the primary target of adaptation to agricultural TCRs, the general governance structure, such as UNFCCC and WTO deliberations, are important targets in both sectors. Adaptation at the country of destination and along the trade network is of minor importance in both sectors. Regarding the type of adaptation option, agriculture heavily relies on trade policy, agricultural adaptation, and adaptation planning and coordination, while in industry knowledge creation, research and development, and risk management are seen as essential. Governments and the international community are identified as key actors, complemented by businesses and research as critical players in industry. Some measures, such as protectionist trade policies and irrigation, are controversial as they shift risks across countries and sectors, rather than reduce them. While more research is needed, this review shows that a critical mass of evidence on adaptation to TCRs is beginning to emerge, particularly underscoring the importance of international coordination mechanisms. This article is categorized under:. Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for Adaptation Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

Public adaptation to climate change : an identification of public expenditures on adaptation

Immer mehr Auswirkungen des Klimawandels werden sichtbar. Somit wird Klimawandelanpassung zu einer wichtigen und anerkannten Strategie, um sowohl negative Konsequenzen zu verringern als auch vorteilhafte Möglichkeiten auszuschöpfen. Im Jahr 2013 hat Österreich, unter mehreren europäische Ländern, eine Anpassungsstrategie verabschiedet, die in 14 Handlungsfeldern mehr als 100 Maßnahmen zur Klimawandelanpassung enthält. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht öffentliche Ausgaben für die Anpassung an den Klimawandel mit der Absicht derzeitige Anpassungskosten zu identifizieren und Implikationen zukünftiger Kosten für öffentliche Budgets zu diskutieren. Zu diesem Zweck analysieren wir Österreichs Nationale Anpassungsstrategie (NAS) und die Umweltschutzausgabenrechnung, und durchleuchten das allgemeine Haushaltsbudget sowie den österreichischen Katastrophenfonds. Durch die unterschiedlichen Herangehensweisen an öffentliche Anpassungsausgaben erhalten wir ein vollständiges Bild des Status Quo in Österreich. Die Ergebnisse unserer Untersuchungen sind vielseitig. Während Anpassungsaktivitäten weitläufig als privates Unterfangen verstanden werden, macht die Auswertung der NAS deutlich, dass Anpassung in Österreich eher öffentlich als privat ist. Im Allgemeinen stoßen wir auf das Problem, dass einerseits noch keine expliziten Daten zu Anpassungskosten verzeichnet werden, und dass es andererseits noch immer keine einheitliche Definition von Anpassung gibt. Trotzdem lässt der jetzige Stand an Ausgaben und die Verknüpfung mit den Anpassungsmaßnahmen den Schluss zu, dass einige Teilbereiche des Budgets von der Umsetzung der Anpassungsstrategie betroffen sein werden und demnach dringend zusätzliche Kosten in die Planung der Budgets miteinbeziehen sollten. Zusätzlich wird eine Zusammenarbeit zwischen öffentlichen Akteuren nötig sein, da viele Handlungsfelder der NAS mehreren Untergliederungen des öffentlichen Budgets zugeordnet werden können.The occurrence of more and more climate change impacts renders climate adaptation a recognized and important approach to address negative consequences as well as to exploit beneficial opportunities of climate change. In parallel to other European countries, Austria has adopted an adaptation strategy in 2013 that provides a list of more than 100 measures to adapt to climate change in 14 different areas.The present thesis aims at investigating public adaptation to climate change in Austria. The purpose is to identify current expenditures on adaptation and to discuss the implications of future adaptation expenditures for public budgets. We therefore analyse Austrias National Adaptation Strategy, the environmental protection expenditure account, the federal budget and the Austrian disaster fund.With the different approaches for identifying public expenditures on climate adaptation we obtain a comprehensive picture of the status quo in Austria.The results of our analyses are manifold. While it is commonly understood that adaptation actions are undertaken privately, the evaluation of the National Adaptation Strategy demonstrates that adaptation in Austria is rather public than private. However, the analyses are complicated by data limitations: one the one hand, there is no explicit data on adaptation expenditures available yet, and on the other hand, there is still no clear separation between climate change damages and adaptation. Despite these data limitations we are able to link adaptation measures to different divisions of the public budgets. From this mapping, we conclude that many divisions of the federal budget will be affected by the implementation of the National Adaptation Strategy and that many impact fields are related to more than one subdivision of the public budget. It is therefore recommended to incorporate additional costs in the planning of future budgets and collaboration across public authorities is needed.Nina KnittelZusammenfassungen in Deutsch und EnglischKarl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Masterarbeit, 2016(VLID)133806

Meta-Analysis Reveals Significant Sex Differences in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Progression in theE mu-TCL1Transgenic Mouse Model

TheE mu-TCL1transgenic mouse model represents the most widely and extensively used animal model for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In this report, we performed a meta-analysis of leukemia progression in over 300 individualE mu-TCL1transgenic mice and discovered a significantly accelerated disease progression in females compared to males. This difference is also reflected in an aggressive CLL mouse model with additional deletion ofTp53besides theTCL1transgene. Moreover, after serial adoptive transplantation of murine CLL cells, female recipients also succumbed to CLL earlier than male recipients. This sex-related disparity in the murine models is markedly contradictory to the human CLL condition. Thus, due to our observation we urge both careful consideration in the experimental design and accurate description of theE mu-TCL1transgenic cohorts in future studies

-Active AKT signaling triggers CLL towards Richter's transformation via over-activation of Notch1

Richter's transformation (RT) is an aggressive lymphoma which occurs upon progression from chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Transformation has been associated with genetic aberrations in the CLL-phase involving TP53, CDKN2A, MYC, and NOTCH1, however a significant proportion of RT cases lack CLL-phase associated events. Here, we report that high levels of AKT phosphorylation occurs both in high-risk CLL patients harboring TP53 and NOTCH1 mutations as well as in RT patients. Genetic over-activation of Akt in the murine E-TCL1 CLL mouse model resulted in CLL to RT with significantly reduced survival and an aggressive lymphoma phenotype. In the absence of recurrent mutations, we identified a profile of genomic aberrations intermediate between CLL and DLBCL. Multi-omics assessment by phosphoproteomic/proteomic and single-cell transcriptomic profiles of this Akt-induced murine RT revealed a S100-protein-defined subcluster of highly aggressive lymphoma cells, which developed from CLL cells, through activation of Notch via Notch ligand expressed by T cells. Constitutively active Notch1 similarly induced RT of murine CLL. We identify Akt activation as an initiator of CLL transformation towards aggressive lymphoma by inducing Notch signaling between RT cells and microenvironmental T cells