Laura Musikanski

Natural Climate Solutions (NCSs) represent a critical tool for addressing climate change, yet their long-term success is threatened by inadequate consideration of community impacts in current verification standards. While Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes rigorous requirements for carbon sequestration and emission avoidance verification, existing standards lack comprehensive frameworks for assessing and ensuring community well-being, undermining project permanence and market confidence. We developed an integrated framework combining community well-being assessment with verification requirements through analysis of Article 6 implementation requirements, existing voluntary carbon offset credit standards, emerging national standards, and community engagement mechanisms. Our analysis yielded a framework establishing five core tenets for community engagement (inclusion, engagement, contribution, ownership, and well-being) and nine essential well-being assessment domains, each with specific measurable indicators. The framework provides clear verification alignment protocols that integrate with existing standards while maintaining rigorous requirements and offering practical implementation guidance. Integration of community well-being assessment into NCS verification standards strengthens project permanence while meeting verification requirements, providing practical tools for standards bodies, project developers, and market participants to ensure both environmental and social benefits. As Article 6 mechanisms mature, this integration becomes increasingly crucial for project success.

The axiom of insatiability within economic theory states that needs, wants and desires can never be satisfied. This axiom drives the utility function upon which most economic policy is based. Non-satiation is not a natural human condition but rather a theoretical and cultural construction. Non-satiation is a myth that has been taken as truth in traditional economic theory. In this paper, we deconstruct the myth of non-satiation and relate its impact on the goals of human well-being and sustainable development. This paper is written for community organisers and change agents with the goal of helping them to understand a foundational premise driving the current economic paradigm and what they can do about it. In this paper, we explain some basic economic theory in simple terms for the reader who is not a trained economist so that they may gain an understanding of the underpinnings of economic theory that drives current economic policies and practices, and inspiration for changing the dominant economic paradigm.

Given the need for real time data to aid in decision-making at the community level, contact tracing applications (apps) are explored as a potential method of gauging overall community well-being. The context of contact tracing effectiveness and integration with artificial intelligence is provided, as well as ideas and suggestions for how to expand for use as a community-wide data gathering approach. This commentary seeks to explore dimensions around the use of such apps to help manage in times of crisis given the widespread and destructive impacts the pandemic has on community well-being, including negative economic impacts and social declines. By connecting with community well-being, the idea of a contact tracing framework would enable communities to track data and make decisions to help foster well-being across public health, economic and social domains.

With COVID-19 largely spread through communities, and the lack of a national strategy to manage the spread and impact of COVID-19 into communities in the United States (US), community well-being is at risk. Without a vaccine, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue for years and cause millions of deaths, primarily among the elderly and the chronically ill. A vaccine for the COVID-19 could safeguard community well-being, but cannot be counted upon at this point. We believe it is imperative for communities to form and implement strategies to manage the spread and impacts of COVID-19 and that understanding the overall death rate and for young people (ages 15–35) as well at the length of the pandemic in important to planning. We calculate an overall death rate at 1/116, a death rate of 1/3944 for young adults, and that at the current rate of infection the pandemic will last for just under 10 years or possibly indefinitely as there is no guarantee that immunity will last. Measures such as social distancing and self-quarantining are effective but have detrimental economic, educational, social and psychological impacts. Community leaders and organizers need to understand that a growing number of young people will likely not adhere to social distancing and self-quarantining indefinitely. We recommend that communities form and implement plans to managing the spread and impact of COVID-19 within a specific time frame and urge young people to adhere to measures to stop the spread for the specific time frame. Community plans should be based on a community development (CD) approach and should entail inclusive and participatory decision-making process that engaged young people. Communities should use this time to transitioning to a well-being-based local economy and implement interventions that allow for human interaction such as negative pressure ventilation and filtration of air in indoor spaces, availability of universal testing, contract tracing and the widespread use of personal powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs).

The goal of this chapter is to help students identify their own values, the values of a system and the implications of change in values. Chapter 2 introduces values through the concept of a thought experiment, which is returned to at the end of the chapter. It provides a framework for defining individual values and societal values (following Shalom Schwartz) and for understanding conflicting values. Using allegories, it explains why it may be important to know your own values before making life decisions. It explores the impact of values on a system following the work of Tom Crompton and Tim Kasser and provides students with a means of understanding biases.

The goal of Chapter 4 is to provide information for developing happiness skills the science behind them. The first part of the chapter covers mindfulness, gratitude and generosity practices, along with explanations of the scientific findings about the linkages to happiness and the practices. It includes suggestions and exercises, as well as caveats for developing happiness skills and a means for processing grief. It also provides a theory of how these practices support a change agent and their work towards systems change. The second part of the chapter covers communication skills for active listening and for speaking based on a theory developed by Marshall Rosenberg.