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AbstractMaritime trade and associated emissions are dynamic in nature. Although shipping emissions contribute significantly to air quality and climate change, their trade-governed dynamics remain less explored due to the lack of observational evidence. Here, we use satellite measurements to capture the redistribution of shipping nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from Shanghai port, the world's busiest port, during a natural experiment posted by the localized COVID-19 lockdown in 2022. Viewing the ports as nodes in a network linked by ship journeys, we quantify a lockdown-induced −42% reduction in shipping NOx emissions for Shanghai port. We further identify an emission transfer to its neighboring connected ports, confirmed by comprehensive vessel activity observations. Our study highlights the socioeconomic drivers of shipping emissions, which may add additional layers of complexity to air quality management.

ASEAN countries face significant environmental challenges contributing to climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, and soil degradation. Green banking can help redirect investments toward environmentally friendly activities and discourage deforestation by incentivizing sustainable financing and penalizing unsustainable practices. The article examines the potential benefits of green banking in promoting sustainable financing and discusses the challenges and opportunities for its implementation in ASEAN countries. This article was prepared using a simplified PRISMA method using selected literature and legal materials. The findings suggest that green banking can be vital in promoting sustainable financing and addressing deforestation in ASEAN countries. However, it requires a collaborative effort from stakeholders, including financial institutions, policymakers, and civil society. Importantly, there is a need for legal norms in several ASEAN to be carefully reformulated to support green banking performance.

Low-carbon mega-infrastructures constitute one of the main institutional responses to climate change in India's agrarian settings, as they are imagined around features of 'greenness' and 'cleanness.' But this story entails a problematic construction of land, the reconfiguration of space for extractive development, and a complete disruption of agrarian social structures around features of exclusion and dispossession. This research adopts perspectives from political ecology to understand the persistence of class-caste relations, the legacy of coloniality, and the new citizenship regime underlying 'green' extractivism in India's low-carbon infrastructures. Wind turbines align with broad ethno-religious conceptions of Indian citizenship and space as Hindu, and their expansion over new border areas serves nationalist projects of territorial reconfiguration, cultural identity revivalism, border-making, and Muslim populations' surveillance.

PurposeThe aim of the study is to assess the extent to which Taoist philosophy offers thematic and ethical insights relevant to current global crises, including climate change, food insecurity, renewed conflict and increased authoritarianism.Design/methodology/approachA critical review of specific verses from the Tao Te Ching and research sources relevant to them is carried out.FindingsTaoist philosophy, of ancient origins, is surprisingly relevant to modern crises. While not offering definitive answers, it does provide thematic and ethical insights for reorienting governance in more productive ways.Originality/valueWhile there is a large literature on Taoist philosophy itself, there is a paucity of research articles on the modern relevance of Taoist philosophy to pressing current issues. The article brings together and assesses these sources, considering relevant research.

The study examines the relationship between voting restrictions and public health in the 50 American states. Using a recently developed Cost of Voting Index (COVI) as a surrogate for variance in state electoral climate the research tests for a statistical relationship while controlling for other considerations that notably influence community health outcomes. The research uses the America's Health Rankings composite indicator of state health as the dependent variable and examines the relationship at seven points of time over a 25-year period (1996–2020). In both bivariate and multivariate tests, a robust relationship is uncovered between the COVI and overall state health. In the bivariate tests, it is possible to see changes in state COVI values, overtime, corresponding with movement in the state public health scores.

The world price of oil is in constant flux, but countries respond to this reality in very different ways. Some heavily regulate the degree to which world prices "pass-through" to the price of gasoline at the pump, while others let domestic gasoline prices track world markets. We develop a novel, weekly dataset–to our knowledge the most comprehensive in existence–to explore the political economy of pass-through policies in over 100 countries. We find that autocracies are more likely than democracies to limit pass-through, especially those that are weakly institutionalized, ineffective providers of public services, and neo-patrimonial. Our project sheds light on the domestic policy choices that affect climate change and has significant implications for understanding price regulation more broadly.

AbstractWe establish the prevalence of partisan schadenfreude—that is, taking "joy in the suffering" of partisan others. Analyzing attitudes on health care, taxation, climate change, and the coronavirus pandemic, we find that a sizable portion of the American mass public engages in partisan schadenfreude and that these attitudes are most expressed by those who are ideologically extreme. Additionally, we find that a sizable portion of the American public is more likely than not to vote for candidates who promise to pass policies that "disproportionately harm" supporters of the opposing political party, and we demonstrate experimental evidence of demand/preference for candidates who promise cruelty among those who exhibit high amounts of schadenfreude. In sum, our results suggest that partisan schadenfreude is widespread and has disturbing implications for American political behavior.

Abstract
Damage to residential buildings caused by natural disasters will increase as climate change progresses. However, in Germany not all buildings are insured against it. This article gives an overview on the current debate in Germany on how to improve the common state of insurance. We present new empirical evidence on the acceptance of natural disaster insurances and outline the key parameters that should be subject to regulation. This includes the types of natural disasters that should typically covered by such an insurance, the level of the deductible to be paid by the household, state support for paying off the deductible, ways to deal with risk clusters that single insurers might face, as well as the specification of a stop-loss threshold to cap the insurers' financial risks.

Abstract
In this article, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner places the government's draft of the 2024 federal budget and the fiscal plan up to 2027 in the context of his fiscal policy strategy and identifies the need for further action. In order to be able to set priorities for strengthening future-oriented spending, the federal government has reviewed all expenditure in the federal budget. Action is being taken to raise savings potentials and to curb expenditure trends. However, in view of challenges such as demografic change or the transition towards climate neutrality, further steps must follow in order to ensure that the federal budget's composition and priorities are rigorously targeted towards future-oriented tasks, and to enhance the attractiveness of Germany as a business location through supply-side measures.

Planting trees is widely regarded as a positive contribution to combating climate change and establishing a future-proof, green economy. Yet, there is mounting evidence from many tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world that tree plantations can have multiple negative economic, social and environmental impacts. These are not always accounted for by the private and public institutions who have heavily supported the forestry sector in recent decades. This 'tropical provocation' reports from a recent fieldtrip to the Wallmapu, the region the Mapuche Indigenous people call their ancestral homeland. There, I saw with my own eyes that the so-called green economy does not work for Mapuche communities, as they experience extreme water shortages, wildfires and other plundering from what they regard as their territory.

This short paper discusses people's news experiences before, during and after societal crisis situations, contributing with a sequential typology outlining the three phases ritual check-in, shocked immersion and regained stability. Theoretically, we draw on classical contributions to media studies and sociology, particularly the concepts of ritual communication and ontological security. Empirically, we build on qualitative interview studies with news audiences in Norway, spanning 5 years and different crisis cases including political turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. We underline the significance of emotional distancing to regain stability, and identify crises lacking start- and endpoints as particularly difficult to navigate. These insights should instigate further debate about our understanding of news audiences in a tumultuous world, particularly relevant to scholarship on news use and avoidance.

The Agreement in Principle of the Modernisation of the Energy Charter Treaty succeeded in adjusting many of the ECT's provisions to cover developments in international investment law in the 28 years since the ECT's conclusion, particularly specifying the scope of standards of protection. The modernization has also addressed other global and regional issues such as climate change and the importance of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, and criticism of arbitral tribunals for intra-EU disputes respectively. Despite these results, criticism of the ECT had not abated but instead led to several EU member states declaring their intention to withdraw and it is questionable whether the Agreement in Principle will be accepted at all considering that investments in fossil fuels will continue to be protected in most state parties.

Organic soil amendments: Enhancing vegetable production & soil health in Puerto Rico
Ermita Hernandez Heredia, Associate Professor from the University of Puerto Rico, details enhancing vegetable production and soil health in Puerto Rico in this organic soil amendments particular focus. Puerto Rico is an island with a population of over 3 million people, but it produces less than 15% of the food it consumes. The Puerto Rican food system is particularly vulnerable because of adverse climate change effects, such as the increase of extreme weather events and the dependence on importation. Agricultural economists and food security experts recommend priority in the production and accessibility of short terms crops such as vegetables. This should be aligned with sustainable farming practices to be accessible to future generations.

Abstract
Drawing upon motifs of death, mass extinction, and predictions of chaos and collapse, the UK-based Extinction Rebellion (XR) demarcates itself as a different kind of environmental movement precisely because it "tells the truth" (in XR's own words) about the climate crisis during a time of supposed false hope, denial, and delusion. In this paper, I analyze – through a critical discourse analysis (CDA) – how XR's postnatural visions shape (and limit) the movement's demands and proposals for change. My analysis reveals how XR's calls for action are guided by a sense of loss and mourning for a future after nature's end that are embedded with nostalgic undercurrents of a very particular mode of green nationalism. The potential exclusions and limitations of XR's green nationalism are explored in this paper.

Microbial farming for habitat recovery in the Taiwanese mountains
Professor Tzen-Yuh Chiang's team at National Cheng Kung University looks toward microbial farming in the mountains slopes of South Taiwan to aid habitat recovery, as low-land slopes have been affected by climate change. The team have taken soil structures and underground water into account when helping these slope habitats recover, using sustainable engineering methodologies to stabilize the slopes with vegetation, allowing new species to grow strong roots to increase the adhesive forces in soil. Their other methodologies of accelerating habitat recovery for slope farms include through the revegetation of native plants from neighboring forests, and understanding the importance of soil health with a high diversity of microbes that can interact with plant roots.