Climate change is often discussed through fragmented lenses. Renewable energy is framed as a mitigation tool, adaptation is treated as damage control, and carbon is reduced to a single metric of emissions. While these approaches have helped structure global climate action, they increasingly fall short in a world facing accelerating climate impacts, systemic risks, and interconnected resource crises [1,2]. What is missing is not technology or ambition, but integration. Climate change is not only an energy problem, nor solely an emissions problem. It is a carbon management challenge that unfolds across energy systems, ecosystems, water resources, food security, and socio-economic resilience [3]. To address this complexity, a new conceptual lens is needed.
This article introduces CARBONEVA, a unified framework that embeds renewable energy, carbon dynamics, climate mitigation, and adaptation into a single co-evolving system aimed at long-term climate resilience and sustainable development.
From Fragmented Climate Action to Systemic Thinking
For decades, climate strategies have been organized around linear pathways: reduce emissions, stabilize temperatures, and adapt to residual impacts. In practice, these pathways have been implemented through sectoral policies that often operate in isolation [1]. Energy planning rarely accounts for ecosystem resilience. Adaptation strategies frequently overlook carbon implications. Mitigation efforts sometimes exacerbate water stress, land degradation, or social vulnerability [8]. At the same time, climate impacts are no longer distant projections. Heatwaves, droughts, floods, and water scarcity are already reshaping economies and societies, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions [1,9].
These impacts directly influence the feasibility, performance, and sustainability of mitigation strategies themselves. CARBONEVA emerges from this reality. It is not a new technology or a replacement for existing climate frameworks, but a conceptual evolution that recognizes climate action as a dynamic system rather than a set of disconnected objectives.
What is CARBONEVA?
CARBONEVA stands for carbon–energy–adaptation, intentionally coined as a single word to reflect a process of evolution rather than a checklist of actions. At its core, CARBONEVA reframes climate action around three fundamental ideas.
- Carbon must be understood as a dynamic element that circulates through natural and human systems, not merely as an emission to be minimized [4].
- Renewable energy is a structural driver of both mitigation and adaptation, influencing water security, food systems, and resilience [2,11].
- Adaptation and mitigation are not competing priorities but mutually reinforcing processes that must evolve together [8].
Under CARBONEVA, the climate transition is no longer about choosing between decarbonization and resilience. It is about designing systems where decarbonization strengthens resilience, and resilience enables deeper decarbonization.
Carbon Beyond Emissions
Carbon lies at the heart of climate change, yet its role is often oversimplified. Climate policy has focused primarily on reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, which remains essential [1,5]. However, carbon also exists as stocks in soils, forests, oceans, wetlands, and built infrastructure. These stocks regulate climate, support ecosystems, and underpin livelihoods [6].
CARBONEVA expands the carbon narrative. It recognizes avoided carbon through renewable energy deployment, stored carbon in ecosystems and materials, recycled carbon in circular economies, and natural carbon sinks as active components of climate stability [6,8]. Managing carbon, in this sense, becomes a question of where carbon resides, how it flows, and how it supports resilience.
This perspective bridges mitigation and adaptation. Healthy ecosystems sequester carbon while buffering climate extremes. Resilient agricultural soils store carbon while improving food security [9]. Circular material systems reduce emissions while lowering resource vulnerability [8]. Carbon becomes a connector rather than a divider.
Renewable Energy as a Resilience Enabler
Renewable energy plays a central role in CARBONEVA, but its importance extends far beyond emission reduction. Solar, wind, and other renewable systems reduce dependence on volatile fuel markets, enhance energy sovereignty, and enable decentralized infrastructure [2,11]. In water-scarce regions, renewable-powered desalination and water reuse can strengthen adaptive capacity [10]. In rural areas, renewables support climate-resilient agriculture, storage, and value chains [9].
Within CARBONEVA, renewable energy systems are evaluated not only by their carbon intensity, but by their systemic interactions with water, land, ecosystems, and communities [11]. Energy planning becomes integrated planning, aligning climate goals with development priorities and resilience needs. This integrated approach is particularly relevant in regions facing compound risks, where climate change intersects with water scarcity, food insecurity, and demographic pressure [1,10].
Integrating Adaptation and Mitigation
One of the most persistent challenges in climate policy is the artificial separation between adaptation and mitigation. CARBONEVA dissolves this boundary by treating both as interdependent components of a single system [8]. Climate impacts influence energy systems through heat stress, water availability, and extreme events [1]. At the same time, mitigation choices shape adaptive capacity by affecting ecosystems, infrastructure, and social equity [8]. Ignoring these interactions leads to maladaptation and missed opportunities.
CARBONEVA emphasizes feedback loops rather than linear trajectories. Emission reductions slow climate impacts, reducing stress on ecosystems and infrastructure. Stronger ecosystems enhance carbon sequestration and stabilize water cycles [6]. Improved resilience enables societies to pursue more ambitious mitigation pathways [3]. Climate action thus becomes a reinforcing cycle rather than a trade-off.
Why CARBONEVA Matters for the Global South
While CARBONEVA is globally relevant, its value is particularly evident in climate-vulnerable regions such as the Middle East and North Africa. In these regions, climate change threatens water security, food production, and economic stability, making adaptation an immediate priority [1,9].
CARBONEVA offers an alternative to climate models that prioritize emissions targets without addressing local vulnerabilities. By embedding mitigation within adaptation and development objectives, it supports climate strategies that are both globally responsible and locally meaningful [10]. For countries facing aridity, water stress, and energy transitions simultaneously, CARBONEVA provides a coherent narrative that aligns renewable energy deployment with resilience-building and carbon management [11].
Toward Climate-Positive Development
Ultimately, CARBONEVA shifts the ambition of climate action. Instead of aiming solely for “low-carbon” or “net-zero” outcomes, it opens the door to climate-positive systems that actively improve resilience, restore ecosystems, and stabilize carbon cycles [4,6].This shift has implications for policy design, investment priorities, and governance. It calls for integrated institutions, cross-sectoral planning, and metrics that capture resilience and co-benefits alongside emissions [7,8].
It also calls for inclusive approaches that connect climate action with livelihoods, equity, and long-term sustainability [10]. In a world where climate risks are no longer abstract, CARBONEVA offers a unifying framework to navigate complexity and guide the transition toward resilient, low-carbon, and adaptive societies.
References
[1] IPCC, Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Geneva, 2023.
[2] International Energy Agency (IEA), World Energy Outlook 2023, IEA, Paris, 2023.
[3] UNEP, Emissions Gap Report 2023, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, 2023.
[4] J. Rockström, O. Gaffney, J. Rogelj, M. Meinshausen, N. Nakicenovic, H.J. Schellnhuber, A roadmap for rapid decarbonization, Science 355 (2017) 1269–1271. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah3443.
[5] UNFCCC, Paris Agreement, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Paris, 2015.
[6] B.W. Griscom, J. Adams, P.W. Ellis, et al., Natural climate solutions, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114 (44) (2017) 11645–11650. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1710465114.
[7] OECD, Climate Resilience and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, 2020.
[8] International Energy Agency (IEA), Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector, IEA, Paris, 2021.
[9] FAO, Climate-Smart Agriculture: Managing Ecosystems for Resilience, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2022.
[10] World Bank, Climate Change Action Plan 2021–2025, World Bank Group, Washington DC, 2021.
[11] IRENA, World Energy Transitions Outlook 2023, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, 2023.
