Climate change can alter both carbon cycling and fruit production in orchard ecosystems. Pear is one of the most economically important fruit crops in Belgium, playing a key role in both local agriculture and export markets. Understanding how climate change affects pear productivity and ecosystem processes is therefore essential for both food security and environmental sustainability. To...
Enhanced weathering (EW) is proposed as a key strategy for climate change mitigation. Dissolution of silicate minerals enhances the alkalinity of the pore water, resulting at a shift of the carbonate system towards carbonate and bicarbonate, leading to higher dissolved inorganic carbon when the water is equilibrated with the atmosphere. Here, we evaluated the effects of EW on a crop ecosystem...
The cement industry alone is responsible for around 7% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, of which 60% are process emissions released during clinker production. To decarbonize these unavoidable emissions, CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) is necessary. The EU-funded LEILAC projects aim to demonstrate a new capture technology, with implementation at HeidelbergMaterial’s Lixhe (BE)...
A pan-European storage atlas is needed to inform strategic decisions on how use of the subsurface can be optimized to deliver climate targets, including through Carbon dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS). CCS has a key role to play in meeting climate targets.
The European Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) provides an annual carbon dioxide injection target of 50 million tonnes capacity by 2030....
With the Green Deal, the European Union aims to achieve carbon neutrality and circularity through building renovation and the use of secondary resources. As a major source of carbon emissions, resource consumption, and waste, the construction sector must play a central role. In Wallonia, where construction generates 39% of waste, large-scale energy renovation of historic buildings, often...
Extreme climate events pose serious threats to human society and ecosystems. Measuring their impacts remains a crucial challenge scientifically. Although data linking climate hazards to socio-economic effects are crucial, their public availability is still relatively sparse. Existing open databases such as EM-DAT and DesInventar Sendai offer some impact data on climate extremes, but impact...
Global land surface models (LSMs) describe vegetation growth in detail, simulating photosynthesis and plant hydraulics. The crop modules, however, in which growth stages and annual yields are simulated, are one of the most recent additions to LSMs. And because of their complexity, they often lack critical components, such as the effect of different stresses under various growth stages. There...
Clouds represent a major source of uncertainty in Earth system models. In particular, the altitude and vertical distribution of clouds strongly influence their radiative properties and impact Earth’s climate. As such, constructing real-time 3D global cloud maps with a high temporal frequency could result in a significant improvement in these models. Satellites such as CloudSat and, more...
This study examines the potential of local energy cooperatives to accelerate a just and effective pathway toward climate neutrality in Belgium. Focusing on an in-depth case study of the ‘Living Lab Muide-Meulestede’ in the city of Ghent, the research combines Strategic Niche Management with Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional justice framework to analyse how technological, social, and...
Climate Smart Agriculture offers an integrative whole-farming system approach to respond effectively to climate related challenges in European agriculture. It is based on practices contributing to increasing agricultural productivity while adapting and building resilience to climate change and reducing and/or removing greenhouse gas emissions. However, strengthening connections and mutual...
Architectural decisions are not cosmetic; they are binding contracts between the built environment and its users. Choices about envelope and space design determine both comfort and carbon footprint.
To illustrate this relationship, we focused on hospital buildings, as they are one of the most energy and carbon intensive typology, operating 24/7.
Hospital architecture has evolved through...
The Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) is one of the global core climate tipping elements on Earth. However, its impact on the global carbon cycle remains critically ignored in the current global carbon budget. This is especially important because the Antarctic Sedimentary Basins (ASBs) are believed to harbor significant reservoirs, ca. 400 Pg C, of the potent greenhouse gas methane (CH4) stored as gas...
Transitioning to a circular and low-carbon building sector requires a detailed understanding of the material composition of existing buildings. While mineral materials such as concrete, steel, wood, and glass are well documented, plastics have been largely overlooked despite their growing use since the post-war period. This study presents a structured literature review on the historical...
Soil contamination remains a significant environmental challenge, stemming from past industrial activities, property rights issues, and ongoing unsustainable practices. Among the innovative solutions to this issue, phytoremediation—defined as the use of plants to remove or neutralise contaminants—emerges as a dual-benefit strategy. This environmentally friendly technique offers a nature-based...
International Cooperative Initiatives (ICIs) are transboundary voluntary efforts by a group of actors (including non-Party and/or governmental actors) to achieve specific climate-related goals. To ensure that ICIs are effective in achieving their objectives, it is necessary to track their progress over time against their stated objectives.
The paper will examine the framework for global...
Subsea permafrost thaw on the warming Arctic shelf could release up to ~2822 (1518–4982) Pg of organic carbon (OC) [[1]][1]. Microbial processes convert this OC into methane ($CH_4$) and dissolved inorganic carbon ($DIC$), which, if released to the Arctic Ocean, may intensify acidification and global warming. The impact depends on how much carbon escapes and in which form. In upper...
Climate change is driving increased fire weather across the world. Hot, dry and windy conditions lead to higher risk of fire ignition and spread and make fire suppression more difficult. With further warming, fire weather is projected to increase in many parts of the world. This means today’s children and young people will be exposed to an ever-greater number of fire danger days during their...
The Congo Basin in Central Africa remains one of the few regions globally where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has not reported observed trends in hot extremes or attributed such changes to anthropogenic influences—primarily due to the scarcity of in situ observational data. Although extensive daily weather records exist, spanning from the 1900s to the early 2000s, and...
Belgium’s circular forestry and timber sector holds major untapped climate potential. One dry kg of wood stores 1.83 kg of CO₂, sequestered during tree growth. Forests offer not only carbon storage, but also biodiversity, well-being, and sustainable, low-impact materials. Belgium’s forest sink captures 1.4 MtCO₂e/year, while the domestic harvest holds 4.5 MtCO₂e/year. Additional timber imports...
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) depends on voluntary contributions from experts worldwide to produce comprehensive, balanced scientific assessments that inform global climate policy. Thousands of scientists contribute as authors, reviewers, or through the publication of relevant literature, making the IPCC a uniquely collaborative international effort. This poster outlines...
To manage current climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions will have to be reduced considerably, which is coordinated under multiple international treaties. An accurate assessment of greenhouse gas emissions therefore forms the basis for any predictions and mitigation strategies regarding climate change. Currently, this is done by most countries via bottom-up calculations that are...
The Walloon Platform for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) aims to promote understanding of climate change and ways of addressing it. This platform (PwG in French1) was created by the Walloon Government in 2016 under the direction of climatologist Jean-Pascal van Ypersele. It is currently supervised by Francesco Contino, energy expert at UCLouvain.
We highlight the work...
Just Green is an EC funded project designed to strengthen citizen engagement in the green transition across the Visegrád Four countries: Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland.
The project addresses a critical risk facing EU climate policy: decarbonisation measures that affect housing, transport, and labour markets may be perceived as externally imposed, socially unfair, or economically...
