This study presents a high-resolution mapping of climate change perceptions across China, highlighting the evolution of public perception regarding the priority and impact of climate change over a 13-year period between 2010 and 2023. Utilizing data from two national surveys conducted (N = 11783 and N = 4050), we show a considerable rise in the perceived priority (19%) and impact (13%) of climate change issues nationally, alongside growing regional disparities. We do robustness checks of our results using repeated simulations between multilevel regression and poststratification and disaggregation methods. By examining perceived impacts against actual risk exposure, we show the need for managing regional vulnerabilities and tailored and targeted communication strategies to mitigate the spatial mismatch between climate change perception and risk exposure.
\nThe discourse on solar geoengineering (SG) is evolving, yet public perceptions of SG as a climate change solution remain underexplored, especially in the polarized US political landscape. We examine the relative importance of different SG narratives—framed as complementary, substitutive, or posing a moral hazard—and partisan information sources in shaping public attitudes. Using a conjoint experiment with 2123 American voters, we find that partisan alignment with the information source plays a decisive role in shaping trust in the messenger and support for SG, overshadowing any impact of message framing. Both Democrats and Republicans are more likely to trust the messenger and support SG when the information comes from a copartisan source. However, despite these strong partisan influences, policy preferences remain consistent with ideological baselines. These findings highlight the importance of partisanship in shaping perceptions of emerging climate technologies such as SG, even in contexts of low public awareness, and underscore the challenges of depolarizing public discourse on climate change solutions.
", "doi": "10.1038/s44168-025-00236-3", "issn": "2731-9814", "publisher": "Nature Publishing Group", "publication": "npj Climate Action", "publication_date": "2025-03-24", "series_number": "1", "volume": "4", "issue": "1", "pages": "29" }, { "id": "authors:pgz9s-a4162", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "pgz9s-a4162", "cite_using_url": "https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/pgz9s-a4162", "type": "article", "title": "Renewables but unjust? Critical restoration geography as a framework for addressing global renewable energy injustice", "author": [ { "family_name": "Nsude", "given_name": "Chinedu C.", "orcid": "0000-0002-9359-2708" }, { "family_name": "Loraamm", "given_name": "Rebecca" }, { "family_name": "Wimhurst", "given_name": "Joshua J.", "orcid": "0000-0002-2606-3910" }, { "family_name": "Chukwuonye", "given_name": "God'sgift N." }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" } ], "abstract": "A global transition toward a sustainable energy system, incorporating for example Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs), is essential for decarbonizing electricity production, meeting energy demands, and mitigating the impacts of climate change. However, the growing scale of renewable energy development has exacerbated local environmental and social challenges; improper assessment of RETs has led to recorded conflicts and resource injustice in transitioning communities. The purpose of this study is to analyze global cases of renewable energy development resulting in conflict and environmental injustice, and to propose Critical Restoration Geography (CRG) as a framework strategizing for pre-emptive avoidance of RET-related injustices. Evidence of global environmental injustice in RET development was explored using recorded conflicts from the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas). We synthesized global variations in affected demographics, land area and conflict resolution with respect to achievement of environmental justice by RET type (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal). Based on analysis of GEJA's 102 recorded cases of RET-related environmental (in)justice from 2001 to 2021, justice was either not achieved or ambiguous in 55 and 20 cases. Drivers for these injustices include displacement of Indigenous communities, exclusion of communities from decision making processes, and protection of business interests over biodiversity and community needs. The proposed CRG framework details seven principles for avoiding environmental injustice in global RET development; including recognition and deconstruction of power dynamics, incorporation of multiple knowledge systems, and promotion of social justice. These principles serve to inform environmentally just approaches to policymaking for future RET development in any geographical context.
", "doi": "10.1016/j.erss.2024.103609", "issn": "2214-6296", "publisher": "Elsevier", "publication": "Energy Research & Social Science", "publication_date": "2024-08", "volume": "114", "pages": "103609" }, { "id": "authors:5be62-es895", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "5be62-es895", "cite_using_url": "https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/5be62-es895", "type": "article", "title": "Identifying American climate change free riders and motivating sustainable behavior", "author": [ { "family_name": "Magistro", "given_name": "Beatrice", "orcid": "0000-0001-7423-3577", "clpid": "Magistro-Beatrice" }, { "family_name": "Abramson", "given_name": "Cecilia", "clpid": "Abramson-Cecilia" }, { "family_name": "Ebanks", "given_name": "Daniel", "orcid": "0000-0001-5928-9396", "clpid": "Ebanks-Daniel" }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Alvarez", "given_name": "R. Michael", "orcid": "0000-0002-8113-4451", "clpid": "Alvarez-R-M" } ], "abstract": "Free riders, who benefit from collective efforts to mitigate climate change but do not actively contribute, play a key role in shaping behavioral climate action. Using a sample of 2096 registered American voters, we explore the discrepancy between two groups of free riders: cynics, who recognize the significance of environmental issues but do not adopt sustainable behaviors, and doubters, who neither recognize the significance nor engage in such actions. Through statistical analyses, we show these two groups are different. Doubters are predominantly male, younger, with lower income and education, exhibit stronger conspiracy beliefs, lower altruism, and limited environmental knowledge, are more likely to have voted for Trump and lean towards conservative ideology. Cynics are younger, religious, higher in socioeconomic status, environmentally informed, liberal-leaning, and less likely to support Trump. Our research provides insights on who could be most effectively persuaded to make climate-sensitive lifestyle changes and provides recommendations to prompt involvement in individual sustainability behaviors. Our findings suggest that for doubters, incentivizing sustainability through positive incentives, such as financial rewards, may be particularly effective. Conversely, for cynics, we argue that engaging them in more community-driven and social influence initiatives could effectively translate their passive beliefs into active participation.
\nIdentifying drivers of climate misinformation on social media is crucial to climate action. Misinformation comes in various forms; however, subtler strategies, such as emphasizing favorable interpretations of events or data or reframing conversations to fit preferred narratives, have received little attention. This data-driven paper examines online climate and sustainability communication behavior over 7 years (2014\u20132021) across three influential stakeholder groups consisting of eight fossil fuel firms (industry), 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and eight inter-governmental organizations (IGOs). We examine historical Twitter interaction data (n\u2009=\u2009668,826) using machine learning-driven joint-sentiment topic modeling and vector autoregression to measure online interactions and influences amongst these groups. We report three key findings. First, we find that the stakeholders in our sample are responsive to one another online, especially over topics in their respective areas of domain expertise. Second, the industry is more likely to respond to IGOs' and NGOs' online messaging changes, especially regarding environmental justice and climate action topics. The fossil fuel industry is more likely to discuss public relations, advertising, and corporate sustainability topics. Third, we find that climate change-driven extreme weather events and stock market performance do not significantly affect the patterns of communication among these firms and organizations. In conclusion, we provide a data-driven foundation for understanding the influence of powerful stakeholder groups on shaping the online climate and sustainability information ecosystem around climate change.
", "doi": "10.1038/s44168-023-00086-x", "pmcid": "PMC11062293", "issn": "2731-9814", "publisher": "Nature Publishing Group", "publication": "npj Climate Action", "publication_date": "2023-12-18", "volume": "2", "pages": "47" }, { "id": "authors:gqvr5-x2h04", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "gqvr5-x2h04", "cite_using_url": "https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/gqvr5-x2h04", "type": "article", "title": "Attention, sentiments and emotions towards emerging climate technologies on Twitter", "author": [ { "family_name": "M\u00fcller-Hansen", "given_name": "Finn", "orcid": "0000-0002-0425-1996", "clpid": "M\u00fcller-Hansen-Finn" }, { "family_name": "Repke", "given_name": "Tim", "orcid": "0000-0001-9661-6325", "clpid": "Repke-Tim" }, { "family_name": "Baum", "given_name": "Chad M.", "orcid": "0000-0002-6513-5518", "clpid": "Baum-Chad-M" }, { "family_name": "Brutschin", "given_name": "Elina", "orcid": "0000-0001-7040-3057", "clpid": "Brutschin-Elina" }, { "family_name": "Callaghan", "given_name": "Max W.", "orcid": "0000-0001-8292-8758", "clpid": "Callaghan-Max-W" }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Lamb", "given_name": "William F.", "orcid": "0000-0003-3273-7878", "clpid": "Lamb-William-F" }, { "family_name": "Low", "given_name": "Sean", "orcid": "0000-0002-3654-5964", "clpid": "Low-Sean" }, { "family_name": "L\u00fcck", "given_name": "Sarah", "orcid": "0009-0007-2975-1923", "clpid": "L\u00fcck-Sarah" }, { "family_name": "Roberts", "given_name": "Cameron", "orcid": "0000-0001-7907-6961", "clpid": "Roberts-Cameron" }, { "family_name": "Sovacool", "given_name": "Benjamin K.", "orcid": "0000-0002-4794-9403", "clpid": "Sovacool-Benjamin-K" }, { "family_name": "Minx", "given_name": "Jan C.", "orcid": "0000-0002-2862-0178", "clpid": "Minx-Jan-C" } ], "abstract": "Public perception of emerging climate technologies, such as greenhouse gas removal (GGR) and solar radiation management (SRM), will strongly influence their future development and deployment. Studying perceptions of these technologies with traditional survey methods is challenging, because they are largely unknown to the public. Social media data provides a complementary line of evidence by allowing for retrospective analysis of how individuals share their unsolicited opinions. Our large-scale, comparative study of 1.5 million tweets covers 16 GGR and SRM technologies and uses state-of-the-art deep learning models to show how attention, and expressions of sentiment and emotion developed between 2006 and 2021. We find that in recent years, attention has shifted from general geoengineering themes to specific GGR methods. On the other hand, there is little attention to specific SRM technologies and they often coincide with conspiracy narratives. Sentiments and emotions in GGR tweets tend to be more positive, particularly for methods perceived to be natural, but are more negative when framed in the geoengineering context.
\nThe future of workspace is significantly shaped by the advancements in technologies, changes in work patterns and workers' desire for an improved well-being. Co-working space is an alternative workspace solution, for cost-effectiveness, the opportunity for diverse and flexible design and multi-use. This study examined the human-centric design choices using spatial and temporal variation of occupancy levels and user behaviour in a flexible co-working space in London. Through a machine-learning-driven analysis, we investigated the time-dependent patterns, decompose space usage, calculate seat utilisation and identify spatial hotspots. The analysis incorporated a large dataset of sensor-detected occupancy data spanning 477 days, comprising more than 140 million (145\u00d710\u2076) data points. Additionally, on-site observations of activities were recorded for 13 days spanning over a year, with 110 time instances including more than 1000 snapshots of occupants' activities, indoor environment, working behaviour and preferences. Results showed that the shared working areas positioned near windows or in more open, connected and visible locations are significantly preferred and utilised for communication and working, and semi-enclosed space on the side with less visibility and higher privacy are preferred for focused working. The flexibility of multi-use opportunity was the most preferred feature for hybrid working. The findings offer data-driven insights for human-centric space planning and design of office spaces in the future, particularly in the context of hybrid working setups, hot-desking and co-working systems.
", "doi": "10.1371/journal.pone.0292370", "pmcid": "PMC10584156", "issn": "1932-6203", "publisher": "Public Library of Science", "publication": "PLOS ONE", "publication_date": "2023-10", "series_number": "10", "volume": "18", "issue": "10", "pages": "e0292370" }, { "id": "authors:0b82c-9de25", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "0b82c-9de25", "cite_using_url": "https://authors.library.caltech.edu/records/0b82c-9de25", "type": "article", "title": "Harnessing human and machine intelligence for planetary-level climate action", "author": [ { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Creutzig", "given_name": "Felix", "orcid": "0000-0002-5710-3348", "clpid": "Creutzig-Felix" }, { "family_name": "Sovacool", "given_name": "Benjamin K.", "orcid": "0000-0002-4794-9403", "clpid": "Sovacool-Benjamin-K" }, { "family_name": "Shuckburgh", "given_name": "Emily", "orcid": "0000-0001-9206-3444", "clpid": "Shuckburgh-Emily" } ], "abstract": "The ongoing global race for bigger and better artificial intelligence (AI) systems is expected to have a profound societal and environmental impact by altering job markets, disrupting business models, and enabling new governance and societal welfare structures that can affect global consensus for climate action pathways. However, the current AI systems are trained on biased datasets that could destabilize political agencies impacting climate change mitigation and adaptation decisions and compromise social stability, potentially leading to societal tipping events. Thus, the appropriate design of a less biased AI system that reflects both direct and indirect effects on societies and planetary challenges is a question of paramount importance. In this paper, we tackle the question of data-centric knowledge generation for climate action in ways that minimize biased AI. We argue for the need to co-align a less biased AI with an epistemic web on planetary health challenges for more trustworthy decision-making. A human-in-the-loop AI can be designed to align with three goals. First, it can contribute to a planetary epistemic web that supports climate action. Second, it can directly enable mitigation and adaptation interventions through knowledge of social tipping elements. Finally, it can reduce the data injustices associated with AI pretraining datasets.
", "doi": "10.1038/s44168-023-00056-3", "pmcid": "PMC11062317", "issn": "2731-9814", "publisher": "Nature Publishing Group", "publication": "npj Climate Action", "publication_date": "2023-08-17", "volume": "2", "pages": "20" }, { "id": "authors:ga8ac-53s46", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "ga8ac-53s46", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230519-999570000.1", "type": "article", "title": "Conspiracy spillovers and geoengineering", "author": [ { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Reiner", "given_name": "David M.", "orcid": "0000-0003-2004-8696", "clpid": "Reiner-David-M" }, { "family_name": "Sovacool", "given_name": "Benjamin K.", "orcid": "0000-0002-4794-9403", "clpid": "Sovacool-Benjamin-K" }, { "family_name": "M\u00fcller-Hansen", "given_name": "Finn", "orcid": "0000-0002-0425-1996", "clpid": "M\u00fcller-Hansen-Finn" }, { "family_name": "Repke", "given_name": "Tim", "orcid": "0000-0001-9661-6325", "clpid": "Repke-Tim" }, { "family_name": "Alvarez", "given_name": "R. Michael", "orcid": "0000-0002-8113-4451", "clpid": "Alvarez-R-M" }, { "family_name": "Fitzgerald", "given_name": "Shaun D.", "clpid": "Fitzgerald-Shaun-D" } ], "abstract": "Geoengineering techniques such as solar radiation management (SRM) could be part of a future technology portfolio to limit global temperature change. However, there is public opposition to research and deployment of SRM technologies. We use 814,924 English-language tweets containing #geoengineering globally over 13 years (2009\u20132021) to explore public emotions, perceptions, and attitudes toward SRM using natural language processing, deep learning, and network analysis. We find that specific conspiracy theories influence public reactions toward geoengineering, especially regarding \"chemtrails\" (whereby airplanes allegedly spray poison or modify weather through contrails). Furthermore, conspiracies tend to spillover, shaping regional debates in the UK, USA, India, and Sweden and connecting with broader political considerations. We also find that positive emotions rise on both the global and country scales following events related to SRM governance, and negative and neutral emotions increase following SRM projects and announcements of experiments. Finally, we also find that online toxicity shapes the breadth of spillover effects, further influencing anti-SRM views.", "doi": "10.1016/j.isci.2023.106166", "pmcid": "PMC10040962", "issn": "2589-0042", "publisher": "Cell Press", "publication": "iScience", "publication_date": "2023-03-17", "series_number": "3", "volume": "26", "issue": "3", "pages": "106166" }, { "id": "authors:9dtnf-gfa96", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "9dtnf-gfa96", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230118-531429800.1", "type": "article", "title": "Bridging the divide in energy policy research: Empirical evidence from global collaborative networks", "author": [ { "family_name": "Ali", "given_name": "Muez", "clpid": "Ali-Muez" }, { "family_name": "Couto", "given_name": "Lilia Caiado", "clpid": "Couto-Lilia-Caiado" }, { "family_name": "Unsworth", "given_name": "Samuel", "clpid": "Unsworth-Samuel" }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" } ], "abstract": "Energy research seeking to influence policy in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is often funded by \u2013 and conceptualised by authors in \u2013 institutions from higher income countries (HICs). Research agendas and policy recommendations determined in HICs potentially yield the most influence on policymaking in LMICs. This risks leaving a multidimensional gap in how LMICs frame, evidence and enact policies. This paper is the first to provide quantitative evidence to geographical imbalances in energy policy research, and to shed light into the fact that research proposing energy policy coupled with development objectives to LMICs is dominated by HICs researchers. We find that the latter not only publish more articles proposing energy policy to LMICs, but also are more cited when doing so. We reach these findings by analysing the spatial dynamics of energy research on LMICs through a multi-method approach using bibliometric, network science and regression-based techniques. We established a framework using a sample of 6,636 papers from the Web of Science database, journal impact data from Scimago Journal Ranking and country economic data from the World Bank. Results show the existence of a cycle of imbalances across research practices. Most scientific articles recommending energy policy for LMICs have a primary author based in a HIC, funded by a HIC institution. The number of citations articles receive increases with the GDP of the country of primary author. Funders support authors based in countries of the same income band or higher. We recommend revising research practices and funding policies to place local actors and knowledge at the heart of energy policy research, enabling high-impact policymaking in LMICs.", "doi": "10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113380", "issn": "0301-4215", "publisher": "Elsevier", "publication": "Energy Policy", "publication_date": "2023-02", "volume": "173", "pages": "Art. No. 113380" }, { "id": "authors:8n4fg-p3v12", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "8n4fg-p3v12", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230223-184464800.18", "type": "article", "title": "Facilitating system-level behavioural climate action using computational social science", "author": [ { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "van der Linden", "given_name": "Sander", "orcid": "0000-0002-0269-1744", "clpid": "van-der-Linden-Sander" }, { "family_name": "Alvarez", "given_name": "R. Michael", "orcid": "0000-0002-8113-4451", "clpid": "Alvarez-R-M" }, { "family_name": "Sovacool", "given_name": "Benjamin K.", "orcid": "0000-0002-4794-9403", "clpid": "Sovacool-Benjamin-K" } ], "abstract": "Recently, a Comment in Nature Human Behaviour recommended the collection of large-scale behavioural datasets through public data observatories to enable system-level climate action. Computational social science (CSS) approaches offer important tools to use these large-scale datasets to facilitate climate action.", "doi": "10.1038/s41562-023-01527-7", "issn": "2397-3374", "publisher": "Nature Publishing Group", "publication": "Nature Human Behaviour", "publication_date": "2023-02", "series_number": "2", "volume": "7", "issue": "2", "pages": "155-156" }, { "id": "authors:ahm4h-fx511", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "ahm4h-fx511", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20230215-30605800.11", "type": "article", "title": "Financing renewable energy: policy insights from Brazil and Nigeria", "author": [ { "family_name": "Isah", "given_name": "Abdulrasheed", "orcid": "0000-0003-1356-5548", "clpid": "Isah-Abdulrasheed" }, { "family_name": "Dioha", "given_name": "Michael O.", "orcid": "0000-0001-6983-6752", "clpid": "Dioha-Michael-O" }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Abraham-Dukuma", "given_name": "Magnus C.", "orcid": "0000-0003-4975-325X", "clpid": "Abraham-Dukuma-Magnus-C" }, { "family_name": "Butu", "given_name": "Hemen Mark", "orcid": "0000-0002-3375-5499", "clpid": "Butu-Hemen-Mark" } ], "abstract": "Background: Achieving climate targets will require a rapid transition to\u00a0clean energy. However, renewable energy (RE) firms face financial, policy, and economic barriers to mobilizing sufficient investment in low-carbon technologies, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Here,\u00a0we analyze the challenges and successes of financing the\u00a0energy transition in Nigeria and Brazil using three empirically grounded levers: financing environments, channels, and instruments. \n\nResults: While Brazil has leveraged innovative policy instruments to mobilize large-scale investment in RE, policy uncertainty and weak financing mechanisms have hindered RE investments in Nigeria. Specifically, Brazil's\u00a0energy transition has been driven by catalytic finance from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES). In contrast, bilateral agencies and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have been the largest financiers of renewables\u00a0in Nigeria. Policy instruments and public\u2013private partnerships need to be redesigned to attract finance and scale market opportunities for RE project developers in Nigeria. \n\nConclusions: We conclude that robust policy frameworks, a dynamic public bank, strategic deployment of blended finance, and diversification of financing instruments would be essential to accelerate RE investment in Nigeria. Considering the crucial role of donors and MDBs in Nigeria, we propose a multi-stakeholder model to consolidate climate finance and facilitate the country's\u00a0energy transition.", "doi": "10.1186/s13705-022-00379-9", "pmcid": "PMC9879844", "issn": "2192-0567", "publisher": "BioMed Central", "publication": "Energy, Sustainability and Society", "publication_date": "2023-01-26", "volume": "13", "pages": "Art. No. 2" }, { "id": "authors:2tek4-ak894", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "2tek4-ak894", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20221122-564647900.14", "type": "article", "title": "Machine learning-based evaluation of dynamic thermal-tempering performance and thermal diversity for 107 Cambridge courtyards", "author": [ { "family_name": "Peng", "given_name": "Zhikai", "orcid": "0000-0001-6449-6621", "clpid": "Peng-Zhikai" }, { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Bardhan", "given_name": "Ronita", "orcid": "0000-0001-5336-4084", "clpid": "Bardhan-Ronita" }, { "family_name": "Steemers", "given_name": "Koen", "orcid": "0000-0001-8135-158X", "clpid": "Steemers-Koen" } ], "abstract": "The dynamic thermal conditions profoundly impact on the quality of physical, cultural, and social experiences in courtyard spaces. This research aims to identify the microclimatic dissimilarities between courtyards in terms of tempering seasonal\u2013diurnal thermal extremes and enriching ground-level thermal textures. The methodology included field measurements in summer-2021 and winter-2022 in Cambridge, UK; microclimatic simulations of 107 courtyards in ENVI-met and model validations; and machine learning-driven clustering using Super Organising Maps (SuperSOM). The results indicate that the diurnal thermal range of the spatial-UTCI mean in summer (DTR (M) < 24\u00b0C) is double that in winter (DTR (M) < 12\u00b0C); meanwhile the maximum spatial-UTCI deviation is three times as significant (\u03b4 > 3\u00b0C at 7:00 BST versus \u03b4 > 1\u00b0C at 12:00 GMT). SuperSOM analysis was performed using K-means and hierarchical agglomerative clustering to partition all courtyards into seven subclusters on its graph-lattice structure. Clusters Km_I, Hac_I, and Hac_IV feature a positive synergy between the thermal-tempering and thermal-enriching potentials. In contrast, the other four clusters exhibit conflicting scenarios during the day and night across the two seasons analysed. These data-driven outcomes enabled us to optimise spatial and landscape strategies for designing and retrofitting courtyard microclimates, contributing to the current discussions on climate-responsive and sensation-inclusive design in historical urban contexts.", "doi": "10.1016/j.scs.2022.104275", "issn": "2210-6707", "publisher": "Elsevier", "publication": "Sustainable Cities and Society", "publication_date": "2023-01", "volume": "88", "pages": "Art. No. 104275" }, { "id": "authors:wh8mh-pqk33", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "wh8mh-pqk33", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20221205-666301600.8", "type": "article", "title": "Social media enables people-centric climate action in the hard-to-decarbonise building sector", "author": [ { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Bardhan", "given_name": "Ronita", "orcid": "0000-0001-5336-4084", "clpid": "Bardhan-Ronita" }, { "family_name": "Shah", "given_name": "Darshil U.", "clpid": "Shah-Darshil-U" }, { "family_name": "Mohaddes", "given_name": "Kamiar", "orcid": "0000-0002-2501-2062", "clpid": "Mohaddes-Kamiar" }, { "family_name": "Ramage", "given_name": "Michael H.", "orcid": "0000-0003-2967-7683", "clpid": "Ramage-Michael-H" }, { "family_name": "Alvarez", "given_name": "R. Michael", "orcid": "0000-0002-8113-4451", "clpid": "Alvarez-R-M" }, { "family_name": "Sovacool", "given_name": "Benjamin K.", "orcid": "0000-0002-4794-9403", "clpid": "Sovacool-Benjamin-K" } ], "abstract": "The building and construction sector accounts for around 39% of global carbon dioxide emissions and remains a hard-to-abate sector. We use a data-driven analysis of global high-level climate action on emissions reduction in the building sector using 256,717 English-language tweets across a 13-year time frame (2009\u20132021). Using natural language processing and network analysis, we show that public sentiments and emotions on social media are reactive to these climate policy actions. Between 2009\u20132012, discussions around green building-led emission reduction efforts were highly influential in shaping the online public perceptions of climate action. From 2013 to 2016, communication around low-carbon construction and energy efficiency significantly influenced the online narrative. More significant interactions on net-zero transition, climate tech, circular economy, mass timber housing and climate justice in 2017\u20132021 shaped the online climate action discourse. We find positive sentiments are more prominent and recurrent and comprise a larger share of the social media conversation. However, we also see a rise in negative sentiment by 30\u201340% following popular policy events like the IPCC report launches, the Paris Agreement and the EU Green Deal. With greater online engagement and information diffusion, social and environmental justice topics emerge in the online discourse. Continuing such shifts in online climate discourse is pivotal to a more just and people-centric transition in such hard-to-decarbonise sectors.", "doi": "10.1038/s41598-022-23624-9", "pmcid": "PMC9671910", "issn": "2045-2322", "publisher": "Nature Publishing Group", "publication": "Scientific Reports", "publication_date": "2022-11-17", "volume": "12", "pages": "Art. No. 19017" }, { "id": "authors:g5zsj-a6f53", "collection": "authors", "collection_id": "g5zsj-a6f53", "cite_using_url": "https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20220317-376372000", "type": "article", "title": "Lockdown impacts on residential electricity demand in India: A data-driven and non-intrusive load monitoring study using Gaussian mixture models", "author": [ { "family_name": "Debnath", "given_name": "Ramit", "orcid": "0000-0003-0727-5683", "clpid": "Debnath-Ramit" }, { "family_name": "Bardhan", "given_name": "Ronita", "orcid": "0000-0001-5336-4084", "clpid": "Bardhan-Ronita" }, { "family_name": "Misra", "given_name": "Ashwin", "orcid": "0000-0003-0554-9409", "clpid": "Misra-Ashwin" }, { "family_name": "Hong", "given_name": "Tianzhen", "orcid": "0000-0003-1886-9137", "clpid": "Hong-Tianzhen" }, { "family_name": "Rozite", "given_name": "Vida", "clpid": "Rozite-Vida" }, { "family_name": "Ramage", "given_name": "Michael H.", "clpid": "Ramage-Michael-H" } ], "abstract": "This study evaluates the effect of complete nationwide lockdown in 2020 on residential electricity demand across 13 Indian cities and the role of digitalisation using a public smart meter dataset. We undertake a data-driven approach to explore the energy impacts of work-from-home norms across five dwelling typologies. Our methodology includes climate correction, dimensionality reduction and machine learning-based clustering using Gaussian Mixture Models of daily load curves. Results show that during the lockdown, maximum daily peak demand increased by 150\u2013200% as compared to 2018 and 2019 levels for one room-units (RM1), one bedroom-units (BR1) and two bedroom-units (BR2) which are typical for low- and middle-income families. While the upper-middle- and higher-income dwelling units (i.e., three (3BR) and more-than-three bedroom-units (M3BR)) saw night-time demand rise by almost 44% in 2020, as compared to 2018 and 2019 levels. Our results also showed that new peak demand emerged for the lockdown period for RM1, BR1 and BR2 dwelling typologies. We found that the lack of supporting socioeconomic and climatic data can restrict a comprehensive analysis of demand shocks using similar public datasets, which informed policy implications for India's digitalisation. We further emphasised improving the data quality and reliability for effective data-centric policymaking.", "doi": "10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112886", "pmcid": "PMC9022708", "issn": "0301-4215", "publisher": "Elsevier", "publication": "Energy Policy", "publication_date": "2022-05", "volume": "164", "pages": "Art. No. 112886" } ]