Common law damages cannot be awarded in respect of a purely equitable wrong such as breach of trust or breach of fiduciary duty. Instead, a compensatory remedy has developed in equity’s exclusive (or inherent) jurisdiction: equitable compensation. This remedy originated in cases involving breach of trust, although for many years it was not explicitly recognised as a compensatory remedy and was known instead as one of the forms of ‘account’ that a trustee must make when a breach of trust occurs. It is therefore necessary to have a brief look at the main forms of account, which are still used today.

We assess the development of informality in international climate policy on two levels: Whether informal organizations meaningfully contribute to climate change mitigation, and what role informality plays under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Proliferation of informal intergovernmental organizations (IIGOs) has enabled the move from a rigid list of countries with and without commitments, to the Paris Agreement, under which each country contributes to mitigation. Within the UNFCCC process, we find a “formality-informality cycle,” in which actors sometimes render rules and procedures more flexible and hence more efficient, only to suddenly reverse this trend at other times. Such a high-profile reversal occurred in Copenhagen in 2009. Subsequently, through the use of highly transparent negotiation procedures, trust in informality increased again, allowing negotiators to successfully override Nicaragua’s opposition in Paris in 2015. Similar formality-informality cycles can be observed on specific topics within the UNFCCC negotiations, such as international market mechanisms.

What will the climate of the twenty-first century be like? If we knew the answer to that question, this chapter would be much simpler. But we don’t, because we have little or no idea what decisions humans, and in particular our leaders in politics, business, finance, technology and science, will make. In the absence of the necessary knowledge, we really only have two options: pack up and go home; or make some ‘educated’ guesses. So that – the educated guesses, known as scenarios – will form the first part of this chapter. After that we will take you through the conclusions that the IPCC has been able to draw, based on CMIP6 simulations of those educated guesses, focusing on the AR6 indicators of Chapter 18. We will also look at any implications for policy decisions our leaders may (or may not) make on our behalf.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine how climate change actions are integrated into urban planning in Africa. Based on a review of long-term and medium-term planning frameworks from six selected cities, the chapter analyses the awareness, synthesis and strategies for addressing climate change adaptation and mitigation in Africa through urban planning. The findings indicate that despite a high level of awareness of climate change and impacts, conscious framing of planning frameworks as tools for instituting mitigation and adaptation measures for climate change action is lacking. While the issues and policies indicated in the plans have impacts on climate change mitigation and adaptation, the planning frameworks mainly regard them as immediate developmental needs rather than offering an explicit avenue for addressing climate change. Considering that climate change remains a major existential threat to the sustainable development of African cities, the chapter argues for reimagining planning to view spatial and socio-economic development issues and strategies through a climate change lens to ensure efficient allocation of resources towards climate-proof growth, sustainable development and resilience.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) puts major pressure on the natural environment. There are five main ways of mitigating its biological impacts: avoidance of using ALAN, minimizing ALAN use, restoring or rehabilitating areas from ALAN, and offsetting the use of ALAN. Their potential effectiveness can be better understood through careful consideration of how organisms respond to light. Here we focus particularly on responses to altering recurring natural periods of light and darkness that affect the internal clock of organisms. All clocks are light sensitive and, depending on the photoreceptors of the organism, they show maximal responsiveness to different wavelengths, from UV to near infrared. Moreover, they show a high light-sensitivity, with a threshold at about intensities occurring during full moon or even less. This suggests that minimizing the use of ALAN through dimming of emissions and reducing the daily periods for which those lamps are in use may provide valuable benefits. However, if the biological effects of ALAN are to be widely reduced additional measures will need to be taken, including strengthening protection of the remaining dark spaces, reducing numbers of existing lights and restoring darkness in previously lit areas, and extensive shielding of those lights that are retained.

Recent years have seen a considerable body of scholarly work on the phenomenon of ‘technostress’. Expressed briefly, technostress is the stress individuals experience because of their use of information technology (IT). It happens when they are not able to deal with the demands placed by IT use in a healthy manner. The literature over the last decade has developed a good understanding of why technostress occurs in both work and non-work–related use of IT, and its adverse effects. Scholarly interest has now turned to how such effects can be mitigated and how individuals can cope with technostress, which is the focus of this chapter. We examine technostress mitigation and coping in both the work and non-work settings.

Chapter 7 concludes with the broad potential for relational health to improve health and wellbeing. It considers challenges and lessons from COVID-19 and what we have learned to improve population health in the future. Priorities of prevention, mitigation, and provision of care are emphasized along with reflections on obstacles to change.

This chapter discusses the right to environmental protection and sustainable development as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, other Council of Europe instruments, in EU law and in international instruments. It pays attention to eg climate change, environmental pollution and nuisance, In the final section, a short comparison between the different instruments is made.

Relative to agricultural systems, high-carbon ecosystems – such as forests, peatlands, and mangroves – store large amounts of carbon in relatively small areas. Agricultural expansion often comes at the expense of high-carbon ecosystems, contributing to climate change. The food system is connected to these challenges. Ensuring no further agricultural expansion occurs in high-carbon ecosystems is a substantial climate change mitigation opportunity. The estimated costs of avoiding deforestation range from US$1.1 to US$395 billion per year, depending on growth scenarios and carbon prices; this is a bargain compared to the leverage these systems have on climate change and its social costs. Individuals, indigenous people, policies, institutions, and investments are all agents of change and will have to work together to avoid further land conversion.

Food loss and waste (FLW) are important contributors to food insecurity, with a considerable environmental impact by inducing extra crop production and post-harvest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. FLW and the associated climate impacts vary greatly among different adopted technology and value-chain configurations, and solutions should be found for specific situations. FLW can be approached from a chain perspective; in many cases, reducing FLW at a certain chain stage is best achieved by interventions elsewhere along the chain. The Agro-Chain Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ACE) calculator supports the identification of FLW and GHG emission hotspots along a chain, as well as estimating the net effects of interventions. FLW-reducing interventions mostly contribute to climate mitigations, as demonstrated for rice and various fruits and vegetables; however, some high-tech interventions may induce higher extra GHG emissions than can be mitigated by FLW reduction. In high-income countries, where most food is wasted by households, manufacturers, the hospitality and food industry, and retailers, mechanisms could be set in place to achieve the target of reducing food waste by 50 percent by 2030.

To meet climate targets, a shift to low-emission diets that also support health and sustainability is necessary. A high-impact target is to reduce red meat consumption by 50 percent by 2030 in high- and middle-income countries based on the 2019 EAT-Lancet diet. Actions to lessen animal-based meat consumption could cut dietary emissions by 3–8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (Table 9.1). Scaling up plant-based meat will require viable products, low costs, effective public policy to catalyse change, and strong markets. The priority actions are to facilitate consumer behavioural change for large segments of populations, promote policy targets and actions for reduced-meat diets in high- and middle-income countries, use public-private finance to improve alternative meat product nutrition and sustainability, and enhance affordable technology and business options.

Well-designed markets and public-sector actions can promote climate-resilient agriculture and improve livelihood opportunities for farmers. To enable small-scale farmers to access appropriate technologies, agronomic services, and markets while fostering rural industrialisation, countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa have created geographically focused, transformative commodity value-chain clusters. In addition, novel initiatives to incentivise the adoption of sustainable practices have demonstrated potential to contribute to food-system transformation. For example, private-sector co-investments with small and medium-sized enterprises and farmer cooperatives aim to accelerate financial inclusion and scale climate-resilient agriculture. National policy adoption of low-emissions practices, such as alternate wetting and drying, supports innovations in rice systems. Together, the public sector and privately driven initiatives can build markets that are advantageous for small-scale farmers and lessen their risks.

Human rights cases challenging government inaction on climate change have been filed throughout the world. These cases seek to enforce government obligations to respect the rights of individuals, communities adversely affected by climate change, and specific groups of vulnerable persons. An expanding body of climate change detection and attribution research supports these claims by demonstrating that climate change is occurring and causing harmful impacts and can be linked to government policies and conduct. The research is robust, supporting claims related to both mitigation and adaptation obligations. There are gaps and limitations in the research, but those constraints do not present a major obstacle to pursuing rights-based climate litigation. Attribution science is particularly well-suited to supporting community petitions that are based on collective rights, as evidence of attribution tends to be stronger when looking at impacts on a broader geographic and temporal scale. And by using attribution science to demonstrate that future climate impacts are foreseeable, litigants bolster their claims challenging governments’ failures to adapt.