Aligning Sub-national Climate Actions for the new post-Paris Climate Regime

The rise of sub-national actors in global climate governance underscores the need for clear alignment between these efforts and their national counterparts. As these sub-national climate actions are filling gaps in mitigation, adaptation, and financing, among other functions, a critical question is how these efforts complement or overlap with national climate pledges. This consideration is particularly important in the context of the Paris Agreement’s mandate for fiveyear review cycles, where national governments will be asked to demonstrate progress towards climate mitigation goals and increase their ambition. In this paper, we argue that alignment – both vertically between multiple jurisdictions and horizontally with external networks and actors – is critical to clarifying climate actions between multiple levels of actors and to maximizing mitigation potential. We use nine case studies to demonstrate the varying degrees and modes of vertical integration between subnational and national climate actors. We find that the case studies embody different styles of vertical alignment, and exhibit significant variation in the degree and direction of vertical alignment within each of these modes. We also find that many case studies rely on horizontally- aligned international networks and coalitions to fill gaps in financial resources or technical support. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate that an additional 1 gigaton carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2020 can be achieved in these nine case studies through stronger alignment that makes it possible to scale sub-national climate actions to the national level. These findings suggest there may be a missed opportunity to realize greater mitigation potential by fostering stronger vertical alignment, and enhancing coordination between horizontal networks of climate action and national governments

A research roadmap for quantifying non-state and subnational climate mitigation action

Non-state and subnational climate actors have become central to global climate change governance. Quantitatively assessing climate mitigation undertaken by these entities is critical to understand the credibility of this trend. In this Perspective, we make recommendations regarding five main areas of research and methodological development related to evaluating non-state and subnational climate actions: defining clear boundaries and terminology; use of common methodologies to aggregate and assess non-state and subnational contributions; systematically dealing with issues of overlap; estimating the likelihood of implementation; and addressing data gaps

Comparison of Influenza and SIV Specific CD8 T Cell Responses in Macaques

Macaques are a potentially useful non-human primate model to compare memory T-cell immunity to acute virus pathogens such as influenza virus and effector T-cell responses to chronic viral pathogens such as SIV. However, immunological reagents to study influenza CD8+ T-cell responses in the macaque model are limited. We recently developed an influenza-SIV vaccination model of pigtail macaques (Macaca nemestrina) and used this to study both influenza-specific and SIV-specific CD8+ T-cells in 39 pigtail macaques expressing the common Mane-A*10+ (Mane-A01*084) MHC-I allele. To perform comparative studies between influenza and SIV responses a common influenza nucleoprotein-specific CD8+ T-cell response was mapped to a minimal epitope (termed RA9), MHC-restricted to Mane-A*10 and an MHC tetramer developed to study this response. Influenza-specific memory CD8+ T-cell response maintained a highly functional profile in terms of multitude of effector molecule expression (CD107a, IFN-γ, TNF-α, MIP-1β and IL-2) and showed high avidity even in the setting of SIV infection. In contrast, within weeks following active SIV infection, SIV-specific CD8+ effector T-cells expressed fewer cytokines/degranulation markers and had a lower avidity compared to influenza specific CD8+ T-cells. Further, the influenza specific memory CD8 T-cell response retained stable expression of the exhaustion marker programmed death-marker-1 (PD-1) and co-stimulatory molecule CD28 following infection with SIV. This contrasted with the effector SIV-specific CD8+ T-cells following SIV infection which expressed significantly higher amounts of PD-1 and lower amounts of CD28. Our results suggest that strategies to maintain a more functional CD8+ T-cell response, profile may assist in controlling HIV disease

Multigenic DNA vaccine induces protective cross-reactive T cell responses against heterologous influenza virus in nonhuman primates

<div><p>Recent avian and swine-origin influenza virus outbreaks illustrate the ongoing threat of influenza pandemics. We investigated immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a multi-antigen (MA) universal influenza DNA vaccine consisting of HA, M2, and NP antigens in cynomolgus macaques. Following challenge with a heterologous pandemic H1N1 strain, vaccinated animals exhibited significantly lower viral loads and more rapid viral clearance when compared to unvaccinated controls. The MA DNA vaccine induced robust serum and mucosal antibody responses but these high antibody titers were not broadly neutralizing. In contrast, the vaccine induced broadly-reactive NP specific T cell responses that cross-reacted with the challenge virus and inversely correlated with lower viral loads and inflammation. These results demonstrate that a MA DNA vaccine that induces strong cross-reactive T cell responses can, independent of neutralizing antibody, mediate significant cross-protection in a nonhuman primate model and further supports development as an effective approach to induce broad protection against circulating and emerging influenza strains.</p></div