Enduring Climate Action and its Contributions to Social Well Being and Quality of Life

Continuity of climate actions, whether focused on mitigation or adaptation, remains a significant challenge.

Ecological Civilization invites submissions for a Special Issue focused on analyzing the enduring contributions of climate actions to social well-being and quality of life. This Special Issue examines how different types of interventions for climate change mitigation and/or adaptation affect communities and society, contribute to quality of life, well-being, and prosperity, and create opportunities for wider deployment and long-term implementation.

The aim of this Special Issue is to examine successful cases of climate actions, to assess the extent to which a positive balance between social benefits and costs, together with positive impacts on well-being and quality of life, can galvanize long-term implementation and generate enduring effects.

We invite practical and theoretical contributions, including empirical case studies, evaluations of co benefits, and conceptual contributions to the study climate action and its governance. Contributions should ideally include some or most of the following elements:
•    Description of actions and contributions to climate action, including emissions reductions, carbon removals, resilience, reduced vulnerability and impacts, capacity building, and/or generation of new and additional financial resources.
•    Chronology of implementation of actions described.
•    Description of costs and benefits for different social actors and at different spatial and temporal scales.
•    Contribution to climate justice and the respect of social and biodiversity safeguards.
•    Impacts on local and national well-being, quality of life, and the equitable distribution of benefits and costs.
•    Role of the public sector and public policies, from national to local levels.
•    Conflicts, conflicting-interests and mechanisms for addressing them.
•    Key findings and challenges, including lessons for scaling up and replication.
•    Contributions to the theory and practice of climate action, sustainability, and governance.

Contributions will provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with robust evidence on how climate actions can simultaneously advance their primary mitigation or adaptation objectives while enhancing social well being and prosperity. By synthesizing lessons on costs, benefits, governance arrangements, and pathways for scaling-up, it will offer actionable guidance to design more effective, equitable, and enduring climate interventions.