Climate change

Stephan Krinke and Yu-Yi Lin

Chapter 13 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 39-41 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Climate change describes the long-term alterations in Earth's climate system, including the rising and fluctuation of Earth's surface temperature, intensified precipitation levels, changes in wind patterns, and other climatic constituents. Climate change can be caused by natural processes and anthropogenic influences, with the latter being the primary driver. The most dominant anthropogenic influence exacerbating climate change is the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Deforestation, land use change, and industrial processes are also examples of anthropogenic influences. In the context of sustainability, ‘climate change’ is introduced in the nine planetary boundaries framework as one of the Earth-system processes and is also defined as one of the midpoint impact categories in the context of Life Cycle Assessment. Overall, the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of climate change are interconnected; thus, strategies to adapt to and mitigate such consequences need to be developed and implemented holistically across all sectors of society to make a substantial step towards sustainability.

Keywords: Anthropogenic influences; Planetary boundaries; Climate change midpoint impact category; Greenhouse Gas (GHG); Emission; Adaptation and mitigation; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309887
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