Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals

Without rapid change, the World Health Organization’s goals for tackling cervical cancer by 2030 will be missed. Four experts share ways to move the needle.

Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships.

Transformation narratives in water and sanitation emphasize public health and gender equality, yet miss a critical foundational perspective: planetary sustainability.

Where host communities are marginalized by industry practices, energy social science researchers must ensure that their research does not doubly exacerbate extractive practices. Place-based reflexivity provides a set of principles and concrete practices for researchers to avoid extractive relations with host communities and promote contextually relevant and democratic processes in pursuit of a just transition.

Health systems have adopted models of integrated care to better align services around the needs of aging populations. The results are encouraging, but inconsistent. Although they are untested, recent approaches — such as the WHO’s ‘Integrated Care for Older People’ — that are explicitly person-centered suggest that more-radical reform may be possible.

Studies of the microbes living on and in our bodies are conducted mainly in a few rich countries, squandering opportunities to improve the health of people globally.

The Sustainable Development Goals promise to leave no one behind. Yet recent global actions have pushed disadvantaged groups further behind, writes Magda Robalo Correia e Silva.

China faces urgent challenges associated with population aging. In this Comment, we summarize China’s adoption of long-term care insurance and underscore its importance for social and economic wellbeing. We provide recommendations for a future of sustainable and healthy aging in China.

Pallett et al. discuss the impact of human conflict on development of antimicrobial resistance. They overview approaches to limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance, using the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as an example of the challenges and opportunities.

Participants in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s processes for implementing the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework need clarity on what makes biodiversity information useful to national decision-makers. Here we present seven preconditions of useful biodiversity information and describe how these can be supported through regional support centres and south–south cooperation.

Scientific institutions must create roles so that researchers can provide the deep public engagement necessary to respond effectively to the escalating impacts of climate change.

Assessing global mean temperature rise using the average warming over the previous one or two decades will delay formal recognition of when Earth breaches the Paris agreement’s 1.5 °C guard rail. Here is what’s needed to avoid the wait.

Putting the specific needs of individuals and communities at the heart of HIV/AIDS care, by harnessing behavioural science, is key to building on the progress already been made.

California governor Gavin Newsom’s delegation is building on existing research and policy initiatives with China, showing that effective climate action can happen below the national level.

From classrooms to laboratories and conferences, working in chemistry presents huge challenges to disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people. Some simple fixes can help to shift the dial.

Finance for coping with the harms of climate change must be disbursed swiftly and pragmatically. The world’s largest existing climate fund for supporting climate mitigation and adaptation provides lessons.

Compensating for the devastating impacts of heatwaves, hurricanes and floods after they occur is too slow. With climate risks accelerating, the world must predict who needs funds and when.

From floods to wildfires, and tsunamis to volcanic eruptions, early-warning systems can stop natural hazards becoming human disasters. But more joined-up thinking is urgently needed.

Continued efforts to maintain the ban on chemical weapons depend on nations sharing information to further build trust and global safety.

Upholding human rights can ensure that environmental policy is driven by facts and evidence, not denialism, greed and profit.

Access to clean energy is essential to sustainable human development. We thus have a responsibility and an opportunity to meet the global goal of ending energy poverty by 2030. We propose the creation of a new Mission Energy Access programme to support this aim.

First Nations peoples in Australia face systemic inequities in access to kidney transplantation. The National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce was established to address these. It has provided support to clinicians to implement and evaluate innovative practices and developed strategies to address biases in the structures and models of care that create barriers to wait-listing.

Ada Lovelace was a visionary who first recognized the potential of computer programming. Almost two centuries on, six women in computer science and technology reflect on their experiences in the field.

Repeated outbreaks increase the risk of a Nipah strain emerging that is better at spreading.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 14 (‘Life below water’). We asked a range of researchers working across marine science, conservation, policy and implementation to reflect on priorities for action on ocean health and biodiversity over the next seven years.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 15 ‘Life on land’. We asked a range of researchers, working across biodiversity science, conservation, policy and implementation, to reflect on priorities for action on conserving terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems over the next seven years.

Research into vaccines, crop seeds and other innovations for low- or middle-income nations could be rewarded by offering longer patent coverage for profitable, non-essential inventions.

With a changing climate and a growing population, the world increasingly needs more-productive and resilient crops. But improving them requires a knowledge of what actually works in the field.

Better integration of climate action and sustainable development can help enhance the ambition of the next nationally determined contributions, as well as implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Governments should use this year as an opportunity to emphasize the links between climate and sustainable development.

Improving sanitation technology and service is imperative for everyone, in every country.

Digital transformation offers unprecedented opportunities for advancing healthcare, but also raises complex ethical and legal challenges. Emerging drivers of health disparity termed ‘digital determinants of health’ call for purposeful, equity-focused strategies to ensure that technological innovation benefits all without exacerbating disparities.

The production of sustainable plant-based foods is not simply a question of which process has the lowest environmental impact in the food chain. We have to consider that different degrees of processing might result in different degrees of plant protein nutritional quality in the final food product.

The alarmingly slow progress on water-related goals and targets jeopardizes the entire sustainable development agenda. In March 2023, the United Nations (UN) convened the first UN Water Conference in nearly 50 years to create momentum and accelerate progress. The outcome of the conference will feed into the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which will be held in New York on July 10–19, 2023. Nature Water asked five experts about the challenges to meet the goals and where we need to go from here.

Record-high ocean temperatures, combined with a confluence of extreme climate and weather patterns, are pushing the world into uncharted waters. Researchers must help communities to plan how best to reduce the risks.

The UN SDGs will only improve human health if they are accompanied by systemic change that addresses global power imbalances.

Progress towards universal access to safe drinking water and nutritious food has been moving forward at a slower than desired rate. Computational tools can help accelerate progress towards these goals, but solutions need to be open source, and designed, developed and implemented in a participatory manner.

Rapid urban expansion presents a major challenge to delivering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Urban populations are forecast to increase by 2.2 billion by 2050, and business as usual will condemn many of these new citizens to lives dominated by disaster risk. This need not be the case. Computational science can help urban planners and decision-makers to turn this threat into a time-limited opportunity to reduce disaster risk for hundreds of millions of people.

As we approach the half-way point in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we discuss how computational science could help in reaching some of these goals by 2030.

Drilling down into why the UN Sustainable Development Goals are so hard to achieve, and showing policymakers pathways to follow, will help the planet and save lives.

The United Nations has ambitious aims to end poverty and clean up the planet by 2030. See whether you know how the world is faring on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Not one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals looks set to be achieved by 2030. But deadlines can help focus the mind, and scientists should double down on their work to support the goals.

Behind the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a stirring tale of people overcoming huge odds against hostile institutions.

Principles underpinning the 2030 Agenda — indivisibility, integration and universality — can safeguard against inaction or unsustainable practices but have not yet come into effect. We propose measures to strengthen alignment with them as the world gears up to accelerate implementation at the 2023 SDG Summit.

Health outcomes, ending poverty and greening the environment are boosted when power is shared between the genders.

As Africa emerges from the COVID pandemic, combating infectious diseases must be a priority — along with treating non-communicable and mental health conditions.

A few powerful nations are undermining progress towards global ocean sustainability. Scientists can help hold them to account.

Investment in a new tuberculosis vaccine is a landmark step forward, but continued efforts to advance treatments, diagnostics and biosocial issues are needed to meet targets to end the epidemic by 2035.

Sustainability cannot be achieved without climate action, and vice versa. What’s needed is a fight on both fronts.

In April 2023, leading experts met with members of US Congress to discuss strategies to ensure global food security. Following on from this, Pamela Ronald emphasizes the role that plant genetics has in achieving these goals.

The world is consuming more efficiently, but still using more stuff. More-concerted efforts to change both consumer and producer behaviour are needed.

In a rapidly urbanizing world, what happens in cities matters — and sustainability success stories show what can be achieved when researchers and policymakers work together.

Those urging world leaders to take action on inequality should study why earlier efforts did not translate to changes in policy.

Researchers have a big role in unlocking funds for sustainability and ensuring that companies’ pledges are credible.

Researchers advocating reform of the world’s main measure of growth have an opportunity to participate in the process that sets the rules.

Research challenges the myth that clean energy acts as a brake on global economic development.

Holistic approaches to water and land management practised by Indigenous communities worldwide hold the key to a more sustainable future, say co-organizers of the Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change.

Climate change is making water stress worse for billions worldwide. Scaling up both new and traditional solutions must be a priority.

Halting the loss of jobs and knowledge from small-scale producers requires investing in rural sustainability, addressing poverty and inequity and ensuring the economic gains stay local. The benefits would be shared globally.

The forthcoming UN summit marks the halfway point to 2030 and presents an important milestone in global efforts to address various challenges, including those related to climate change and environmental preservation. The UN SDGs include several related to microorganisms and climate change. Microbiology research is key to understanding and mitigating climate change, and in maintaining the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (SDGs 13, 14 and 15).

Strong multidisciplinary support and political commitment have helped Spain become one of the countries most likely to eliminate hepatitis C. In this Comment, we set out six key elements of the Spanish elimination effort that can serve as a model elsewhere and the remaining barriers to overcome.

Cardiovascular health is essential to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG3.4. Barriers include inequalities and a lack of political will and prioritization. A comprehensive approach is needed to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease and to achieve SDG3.4. The World Heart Federation addresses the determinants of cardiovascular disease and mobilizes the global community through roadmaps, roundtables and advocacy.

Data gaps are hindering progress on the Sustainable Development Goal for education and lifelong learning. Modest funding will help to fill them.

Infectious diseases markedly influence progress towards the SDGs. Pandemics and global inequity have hindered progress towards the health targets, highlighting humanity’s interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to new infectious agents. Enhanced global collaboration and partnerships in training, surveillance, research and innovation are essential to reach the health SDGs by 2030.

Non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries can be tackled with integrated health systems interventions that consider multimorbidity, supported by patient involvement and new technologies.

Eighteen million children have received no routine vaccines — prioritizing them will save lives and build health infrastructure.

Climate change must be embedded in funding strategies and medical curricula, with research being best conducted in the countries most affected.

Tailored community engagement led or co-led by the community can build trust with underserved communities to deliver health equity.

The COVID pandemic knocked back progress towards improving public health. Without addressing the underlying social and economic causes of ill health, it could completely stall.

Rare-earth elements that are crucial for clean-energy technologies are jealously fought over. Policies and programmes to encourage recycling and recovery could reduce tensions.

How can ocean governance and science be made more equitable and effective? The majority of the world’s ocean-dependent people live in low to middle-income countries in the tropics (i.e., the ‘tropical majority’). Yet the ocean governance agenda is set largely on the basis of scientific knowledge, funding, and institutions from high-income nations in temperate zones. These externally driven approaches undermine the equity and effectiveness of current solutions and hinder leadership by the tropical majority, who are well positioned to activate evidence-based and context-specific solutions to ocean-sustainability challenges. Here, we draw together diverse perspectives from the tropics to propose four actions for transformational change that are grounded in perspectives, experiences, and knowledge from the tropics: 1. Center equity in ocean governance, 2. Reconnect people and the ocean, 3. Redefine ocean literacy, and 4. Decolonize ocean research. These actions are critical to ensuring a leading role for the tropical majority in maintaining thriving ocean societies and ecosystems.

Fossil fuels should be used sparingly, in the areas where they contribute most to human welfare.

Hundreds of millions of people are going hungry as conflicts affect food supplies. There is also growing evidence that food producers are exploiting the situation to increase their profits.

Factors ranging from COVID-19 to Russia’s war in Ukraine are increasing extreme poverty. Finding effective solutions starts with agreeing on how to measure what poverty means.

With each IPCC report, the science basis around climate change increases extensively in terms of scope, depth, and complexity. In converting this knowledge into societal climate action, research organisations face the challenge of reforming the ways they structure themselves, generate solutions, and communicate scientific findings to stakeholders. Here we present a mission-driven approach to guide those efforts.

Three approaches that aim to cut the harms of agriculture — land sharing, rewilding and organic farming — risk driving up food imports and causing environmental damage overseas. An alternative approach is both effective and cheaper.

There is no planet B, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are heading for the rocks. Researchers around the world must do their bit to change that.

The human microbiome has a crucial role in global health, with implications for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Understanding and harnessing the potential of the microbiome, while recognizing its link to the global ecosystem, can drive innovative strategies for improved public health, and promote sustainable development.

The mounting environmental pressure on coral reefs calls for a rapid push towards innovative actions. Nanotechnology could help understand and protect present-day reefs to ensure their survival.

These interventions for women and girls improve population health and boost the economy.

Increasing the capacity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an effective strategy to enhance food security while simultaneously reducing the carbon and nitrogen footprint of agriculture. Nanotechnology offers several pathways to enhance BNF successfully.

Agricultural sciences have for too long ignored traditional and local knowledge about crop plants and how best to grow them. That must change if the world is to ensure future food security.

Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon economic growth as an objective.

HIV remains a major global health issue, with the burden of the epidemic disproportionately falling on low- and middle-income countries. Progress in HIV prevention, most notably pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), has been slow to reach those most in need.

Wealthy countries must take responsibility for the people most injured by climate change.

Wildfires are increasing globally, with several recent catastrophic wildfires linked to climate change. Here, we consider the negative impact of the toxic contaminants arising from these fires on the immune system, with a focus on how wildfire pollution can exacerbate inflammatory diseases.

Sustainable Development Goal 17 focuses on partnerships that can enable the achievement of other SDGs. In this comment the authors examine the obstacles to the success of SDG 17 and suggest measures to overcome these.

Behavioural science can enhance ocean sustainability by providing insights into illegal fishing. Current enforcement criminalizes small-scale fishers and fails to address root causes, letting large-scale illegal fishing off the hook. Efforts to address illegal fishing would benefit from more holistic behavioural research.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a rapidly growing public health problem, especially in disadvantaged populations. Major political interventions are required to mitigate the social and socioeconomic inequities that contribute to the development and progression of CKD and its disproportionate impact on low and middle-income countries.

Here the authors find one third of global sub-basins will face severe clean water scarcity in 2050. Nitrogen pollution aggravates water scarcity in >2,000 sub-basins thus 3 billion more people will be posed with severe water scarcity in 2050.

Analysis of about 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems worldwide shows that extensive and often accelerating groundwater declines are widespread in the twenty-first century, but that groundwater levels are recovering in some cases.

Global research has identified six critical transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Here, Allen et al model all six transformations in a national context and discuss implications for accelerating progress on the goals.

Comparing data on genetic monitoring efforts across Europe with the distributions of areas at species’ climatic niche margins, the authors show that monitoring efforts should be expanded to populations at trailing niche margins to include genetic variation that may prove important for adaptation to ongoing climate warming.

In Australia, remote settlements and Indigenous settlements are respectively 18% and 15% more likely to be underserved across five categories of electricity retail legal protections. These settlements are therefore likely to enter the energy transition on an uneven footing.

Domestic attempts to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a country can have synergistic and/or trade-off effects on the advancement of SDGs in other countries. Here the authors demonstrate that while high-income countries make up only 14% of the global population, they drive over 60% of worldwide SDG interactions.

Australia will not achieve SDG 6.1 (water for all) without improving drinking water quality in small, rural and remote communities. Australians are willing to pay AU$1.2–4.7 billion yr⁻¹ to ensure good-quality drinking water, and the cost would be AU$0.2–1.3 billion.

A compilation of survey data from pre- and post-2000 for 42 raptor species across parts of West, Central, East and southern Africa shows 88% of species in population decline and reveals trends across regions, protected areas and species size.

Satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models are used to map industrial fishing vessel activities missing from public tracking systems and changes in offshore energy infrastructure in the world’s coastal waters during 2017–2021.

Gligorić, Kamath, Weiss et al. evaluate revealed versus potential travel times to healthcare facilities in over 100 countries using anonymized smartphone location history data. The authors study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel times and correlate travel times with key population health indicators.

A meta-analysis using the burden of proof risk function identified consistent evidence supporting harmful associations between the exposure to intimate partner violence against women and childhood sexual abuse on health outcomes.

Aligning the IPCC-assessed mitigation pathways with the national greenhouse gas inventories shows that key global mitigation benchmarks become harder to achieve, requiring achieving earlier net-zero and lower cumulative emissions.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Combining advanced mitigation technologies with behavioural changes could achieve the lowest carbon emissions per capita in Sweden, suggest scenario analyses combining bottom-up simulations for passenger travel, construction and housing, and food, and top-down analyses for remaining consumption.

This study tests the case for the absorption of current fossil fuel workers in emerging green jobs from the perspective of their skills and location. It finds location to be a barrier in a Just Transition for these workers.

A CO₂ emissions inventory of 4,883 individual iron and steel plants along with their technical characteristics is described, allowing the identification and guidance of the most appropriate emissions mitigation and decarbonization pathways for each plant.

The global population is increasingly exposed to daily landscape fire-sourced air pollution but there are socioeconomic disparities, with this pollution four times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries during the period 2000–2019.

U.S. federal climate policies can reduce air pollutant emissions and associated health impacts from fine particulate matter. However, near-term CO₂ reductions alone are insufficient to address racial/ethnic disparities in pollution exposure.

Surface water quality is impacted by climate change and human activities. This study identifies Sub-Saharan Africa as a major future hotspot of surface water pollution by applying a high-resolution global surface water quality model up to 2100.

The prevalence and consequences of vision impairment are increasing due to population growth and aging. This study finds that in India, one in three older adults has distance visual impairment or is blind, which may impact not only how they see the world, but also their overall health and well-being.

One in ten older adults in Canada are victims of elder abuse each year. Older adults with lower physical, mental or cognitive health or history of child maltreatment have elevated risk, while greater social support is protective against this issue.

A quantitative study of past, present and future ecological suitability of Europe for bumblebees finds that for 38–76% of species now considered non-threatened, suitable territory could decrease by at least 30% by 2061–2080.

A pooled analysis of longitudinal studies in low- and middle-income countries identifies the typical age of onset of linear growth faltering and investigates recurrent faltering in early life.

An analysis of longitudinal cohort data across diverse populations suggests that the incidence of wasting between birth and 24 months is higher than previously thought, and highlights the role of seasonal factors that affect child growth.

Analysis of data from 33 longitudinal cohorts from low- and middle-income countries indicates that conditions during pre-conception, pregnancy and the first few months of life are crucial in determining the risk of growth faltering in young children.

Emerging limitations on climate and low-carbon technology would require adjusting our 15.C climate change mitigation pathways. However, this could increase average annual emissions reductions to around 3GtCO₂/year using a broad portfolio of mitigation measures.

China’s history of large-scale water, sanitation and clean energy investments offers promising insights into the development of new interventions to reduce linear growth faltering among children and adolescents.

Machine learning models showed that social disparities, cardiometabolic disease and mental health were the main predictors of aging in Latin American populations, with these factors being more pronounced in low- and middle-income compared to high-income Latin American countries.

In the US, states vary in their efforts to address climate change. Stronger state climate policies reduce CO2 emissions without harming the economy, but these reductions are unlikely to meet the goals in the Paris Climate Accord.

This study shows that 716 million of the world’s lowest income people live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. With limited access to healthcare, they are especially vulnerable.

Government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced overall progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 8.2% between 2020 and 2023, according to an analysis of global and national SDG scores based on the global adaptive multi-regional input–output model.

Plastics were found in 77 out of 84 coral reefs surveyed in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, including in deeper reefs and remote and near-pristine reefs, such as in uninhabited central Pacific atolls.

Analysis of plastic debris found in surface waters shows that lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized regions, as well as those with elevated deposition areas, are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination.

Forest losses and gains are highly dynamic processes. Here, the authors present a forest fragmentation index to map distribution and temporal changes of forest fragments globally, revealing major trends and patterns during the first two decades of the 21st century.

This ecological analysis using the Eurostat database estimated that summer 2022, the hottest summer on record, was associated with over 61,000 heat-related deaths across 35 countries in Europe, with the highest mortality rates in countries near the Mediterranean Sea.

The recent and projected future increase in rainfall extremes in high-elevation areas of the Northern Hemisphere is due to a warming-induced shift from snow to rain.

The COVID-19 pandemic has set back progress on the Sustainable Development Goals more severely through cascading interactions between the SDGs than through the direct initial disruptions, according to an analysis of national performance data on progress towards the SDGs.

Although many countries have strengthened their emissions reduction pledges, their ability to limit the warming outcomes is still in question. A multimodel analysis demonstrates that these trajectories are in line with the 2 °C target but countries probably face feasibility challenges to achieve them.

An analysis of data from urban and rural areas shows that in wet climates the net effect of temperature and humidity in urban areas is an increase in heat stress.

Modeling analysis from the Global Dietary Database estimated that 70% of new global cases of type 2 diabetes are attributable to suboptimal intake of 11 dietary factors, with substantial differences in dietary risks across world regions and nations.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

A neural network approach, which utilises open-source big data, can help assess sustainable development in smaller cities across China which have limited data availability and may be further behind in reaching Sustainable Development Goals than their larger counterparts

A pan-tropical analysis using satellite, station-based and reanalysis datasets shows that deforestation causes reduced precipitation, and demonstrates that the effect increases with spatial scale.

Weakening blocking effect of the High Mountain Asia on the westerlies-carried deficit in precipitation minus evaporation from the southeast North Atlantic is demonstrated, leading to persistent northward expansion of terrestrial water storage deficit in the Tibet Plateau.

Local government investment in water infrastructure is associated with rural economic development in the United States. Through the use of interactional models, the economic benefits are shown to be ethnically and racially uneven.

The development of hydropower offers a renewable energy source that can help reduce society’s dependence on fossil fuels. A global assessment of the unused profitable hydropower potential can be performed by incorporating strict constraints to identify hydropower station locations with reduced environmental and societal impacts.

The authors conduct a national inventory on individual tree carbon stocks in Rwanda using aerial imagery and deep learning. Most mapped trees are located in farmlands; new methods allow partitioning to any landscape categories, effective planning and optimization of carbon sequestration and the economic benefits of trees.

The difference between the number of men and women listed as authors on scientific papers and inventors on patents is at least partly attributable to unacknowledged contributions by women scientists.

Coupling advances in socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions and discounting methods yields an estimate of the social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO₂—triple the widely used value published by the US government.

Improved energy access can bring socio-economic benefits, yet these may not be evenly distributed within the household. Zhang et al. conduct a large-scale survey in India and find gender-based disparities in energy services within households.

Helldén et al. apply the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Synergies approach to investigate interactions between SDGs and child health in Cambodia in an interdisciplinary Cambodian stakeholder group. They identify SDGs that positively influence child health and show that progress on child health also promotes the achievement of most other goals.

Measuring the impact of energy policies towards emissions reduction and other sustainability goals is critical for designing effective future policy. Meng et al. assess the impact of energy policies in 42 Asia–Pacific countries and find that strategies are more effective than laws or regulations.

Thousands of plants are known to be edible, yet we lack nutritional data for many of them. This study predicts the B-vitamin profiles for edible plants and finds many have the potential to help alleviate deficiencies and should be conservation priorities.

Different racial/ethnic populations and income groups are found to have been exposed to different levels of air pollution in the USA during the years 2000 to 2016.

Despite the wide acceptance of the role of the material footprint indicator in sustainability, no reporting facility at present provides sufficient information on countries’ material footprints. This study presents a new research platform that regularly provides detailed global material footprint accounts.

Analyses of plant genomes sequenced in the past 20 years, the species taxonomic distribution and national participation reveal that genome quality has increased but substantial taxonomic gaps exist, and that the field has been dominated by the Global North.

Across 57 global food security projection and quantitative scenario studies that have been published in the past two decades, the total global food demand is expected to rise from +35% to +56% between 2010 and 2050, and the population at risk of hunger is expected to change by −91% to +8%. Both ranges are substantially lower than previous projections.

Analyses of a global database reveal that in many developing countries progress in learning remains limited despite increasing enrolment in primary and secondary education, and uncover links between human capital and economic development.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Systematic methods for evaluating progress towards the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are developed and tested using 119 indicators at China’s national and subnational levels during 2000–2015, showing improvement overall.

Avoiding the most damaging land use and freshwater impacts of solar PV, wind, and hydropower development while halving carbon emissions by 2040 in the Southern Africa region is not only possible but incurs only modest (3-6%) system cost increases.

The authors found that replacing animal source foods with plant-based alternatives would lead to substantial reductions in environmental impacts, while meeting most nutrition recommendations and being cost-competitive with the current average Swedish diet.

We develop a proton-exchange membrane system that reduces CO₂ to formic acid at a catalyst that is derived from waste lead–acid batteries and in which a lattice carbon activation mechanism contributes.

A machine learning model for generating crop-specific and spatially explicit NH₃ emission factors globally shows that global NH₃ emissions in 2018 were lower than previous estimates that did not fully consider fertilizer management practices.

Steps to enhance countries’ emission pledges – early implementation of existing net-zero pledges, inclusion of all countries, and aiming for net-zero 5 years earlier– can close most of the gap between emissions trends and Paris targets, according to integrated assessment model results.

This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.

Clean water and sanitation are major global challenges. Here, Prof. Zhang’s group developed a two-dimensional cobalt-functionalized vermiculite membrane, which overcame the persistent membrane permeability-selectivity trade-off in water purification.

Here the authors demonstrate how managed urbanization in China could halve reactive nitrogen pollution to both the atmosphere and water resources. Investing 61 billion USD could provide 245 billion USD in benefits, while contributing to multiple SDG goals.

Post-disaster education continuity is a significant global challenge. The study demonstrates that scenario-based recovery analyses can help quantify the impact of disaster management policies on post-disaster education continuity in low-income countries.

A tethered macrocyclic peptide antibiotic class described here—which shows potent antibacterial activity against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii—blocks the transport of bacterial lipopolysaccharide from the inner membrane to its destination on the outer membrane through inhibition of the LptB₂FGC complex.

A mechanism of lipid transport inhibition has been identified for a class of peptide antibiotics effective against resistant Acinetobacter strains, which may have applications in the inhibition of other Gram-negative pathogens.

Here, the authors adopt systemwide EROI to assess the sustainability risks of nine global energy transition scenarios. The EROI of fossil fuel dominated scenarios tend to approach the upper limit of the net energy cliff, posing higher sustainability risks.

Hybrid urban water supply systems combine conventional, centralized water sources with distributed sources. Such system configurations are shown to exhibit lower severity, range of impact and duration of substandard performance compared with centralized systems in a number of disruptive incidents.

Picchio et al. report findings from a community-based hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening program for sub-Saharan African migrants in Catalonia, Spain, utilizing simplified testing and expedited referral to specialist care. Their findings support the adoption of these strategies to increase HBV testing and linkage to care among at-risk populations.

A modelled evaluation of screening and treatment strategies for prevention of cervical cancer in 78 low- and lower-middle-income countries provides evidence to support the World Health Organization’s recommendation of primary HPV testing for women in the general population.

A model evaluating cervical screening, triage and treatment strategies to prevent cervical cancer in women living with HIV in Tanzania provides evidence to support the World Health Organization’s recommendation of primary HPV testing starting at age 25 years with 3–5-year regular screening intervals.

Network-based restoration strategies that prioritize the reintroduction of highly connected species maximize the recovery of biodiversity following ecosystem collapse.

The rapid deployment of low-carbon measures is urgently needed to reduce cement emissions as cement CO₂ emissions from developing countries will almost deplete the remaining cement emissions budget within climate targets.

Combining mussel and macroalgae farming with offshore wind farms can provide emission capture and utilization of carbon and macro-nutrients for food, feed, and materials, suggest up-scaled model simulations from the North and Baltic Seas.

Analysis of the largest behaviour change programme for prediabetes globally provides causal evidence that lifestyle advice and counselling implemented at scale can improve key cardiovascular risk factors.

Unproductive palm oil is hindering sustainable development in Sumatra, Indonesia, but its replanting through small plantations could contribute more to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals than industrial replanting, suggests a model-data analysis based on 25,067 villages.

Current cereal crop production levels could be sustained with significantly reduced total global fertilisation if nitrogen fertiliser use is evenly distributed across global croplands, according to an analysis of simulations from the LandscapeDNDC biogeochemical model

A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies representing 16 countries found that hobby engagement was associated with better mental and self-reported health in adults aged 65 years and older as well as correlation with higher life expectancy and national happiness levels.

Efforts to retain or increase land carbon pools are hampered by the risk of loss to natural or human disturbances. The proposed approach to tonne-year accounting could effectively quantify and track the climate value of both temporary and permanent carbon storage.

A community-led randomized controlled trial in China showed that a pay-it-forward incentives increased the uptake of hepatitis B and C virus testing in men who have sex with men as compared with standard-of-care.

The adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties has the potential to build farmers’ climate resilience. Here, the authors show that adoption of climate-resilient groundnut varieties in West Africa benefits all households, with the biggest gains accruing to small-scale farmers.

Emissions embodied in equity portfolios have increased since 2015 due to holdings of more carbon-intensive assets but investing in high-tech sectors instead can enhance sustainability and reduce climate-related risks, according to estimates of carbon footprint trends in the portfolios of 105 Chinese equity fund firms.

In Europe, social innovation in energy is largely driven by governance in a national context, and receives strong acceptance from citizens, concludes a mixed methods analysis of surveys, experiments and expert elicitation.

Surveys of reef change are combined with a unique 20-year time series of land–sea human impacts and the results show that integrated land–sea management could help achieve coastal ocean conservation goals and provide coral reefs with the best opportunity to persist in our changing climate.

This work quantifies the climate benefits of efficiently utilizing concrete through improved material and structural design, and it shows that over 75% of CO2 emissions from global concrete production could be cut with already implementable measures

By harvesting aquatic vegetation that provides habitat for snails that harbour Schistosoma parasites and converting it to compost and animal feed, a trial reduced schistosomiasis prevalence in children while providing wider economic benefits.

Europe’s aviation must reduce more than just flight CO₂ emissions to achieve net-zero. Synthetic fuels and carbon capture and storage could help but decreasing air traffic is crucial due to non-CO₂ climate impacts and resource constraints.

Ru nanoparticles on HZSM-5 catalysed solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into a separable distribution of linear (C₁ to C₆) and cyclic (C₇ to C₁₅) hydrocarbons.

A survey of mortality data from low- and middle-income countries shows that government-led cash transfer programmes are associated with decreased mortality among women and children under five years of age.

The hidden costs of current diets, or the cost saving associated with the adoption of low-carbon diets, remain unknown. This study combines life cycle assessment and monetarization factors to quantify the indirect costs of nine global dietary change strategies which progressively reduce animal-sourced foods, including consumption-linked health burden from changes in diet-related disease risk.

Achieving net zero targets in Switzerland will increase the per capita energy system cost by 320 to 1390 CHF/year and will rely on carbon capture and negative emissions, according to an energy system modelling analysis of 7 scenarios with different socio-economic and geopolitical contexts.

Floatable hydrogel nanocomposites, with facile intercalation of various photocatalysts, effectively produce hydrogen. The easily scalable nature of the nanocomposites demonstrates the practical application of this new type of photocatalytic platform.

Ensuring that waste or by-products from one process form the input of another is key for food systems sustainability. This study assesses the biophysical potential of redesigning the European (EU27 + UK) food system on the basis of circularity principles. Changes in food consumption, crop production, animal production and fertilizer patterns are considered through scenario analysis.

In a cluster-randomized trial performed in 48 residential elderly care facilities in China, use of a low-sodium salt substitute instead of regular salt decreased blood pressure and cardiovascular events, whereas an alternative strategy of restricting salt consumption was not successful and did not have these beneficial effects.

Here, the authors perform analysis of technology pathways for existing buildings using urban building energy models developed with cities, showing that shallow and deep retrofits along with onsite photovoltaic and grid decarbonization can help achieve carbon reduction targets.

Spatial optimizations of high-resolution data from China on crop-specific yields, harvested areas, environmental footprints and farmer incomes shows that crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes, and contribute substantially towards China’s agricultural sustainable development targets.

Analyses of eight dietary patterns revealed that adherence to low insulinemic, low inflammatory or diabetes risk-reducing diets was associated with the largest risk reduction of cardiometabolic diseases and cancer in US men and women.

Carbon dioxide removal will be essential to reaching ambitious climate goals by offsetting hard-to-abate emissions and drawing down legacy CO₂. A diverse portfolio of CO₂ removal strategies, rather than any single approach, could achieve gigatonne-scale removals while limiting risks to the water–energy–land system.

A proposed optimal nitrogen rate strategy together with analysis of an extensive on-farm dataset shows that meeting national rice production targets in 2030 in China is possible while concurrently reducing nationwide nitrogen consumption.

Recovering metals from wastewater and brine could augment metal stocks that are fundamental to modern technology. This Perspective assesses the potential of, and provides guidance for, recovering metals from wastewater and brine.

The Nile River system is faced with challenges including increasing water demands, political tensions, and future climate and socio-economic uncertainties. Cooperative adaptive management can help increase synergies, balance trade-offs and bring various benefits to riparian countries.

An Indonesia-wide analysis identifies locations for potential mangrove restoration, ranked by scenarios of success likelihood according to biogeomorphology, current and past land use and land tenure, and estimates the restoration costs.

An efficient and scalable direct seawater electrolysis method for hydrogen production that addresses the side-reaction and corrosion problems associated with using seawater instead of pure water is demonstrated.

Advancements in satellite imagery and machine learning can be used to infer the causal impact of electricity access on livelihoods, providing a low-cost, generalizable approach to evaluating public policy in data-spare environments.

Natural gas is seen as a key interim fuel along the pathway to a zero-carbon energy system, yet there is some concern it may delay the transition. This Analysis estimates the life cycle emissions from gas-fired electricity and the abatement potential of different mitigation options.

This work introduces lightweight, leaf-like photoelectrochemical devices for unassisted water splitting and syngas production, which could be used in the fabrication of floating systems for solar fuel production.

A horizon scan was used to explore possible impacts of robotics and automated systems on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Positive effects are likely. Iterative regulatory processes and continued dialogue could help avoid environmental damages and increases in inequality.

Clean development mechanism projects with the largest local co-benefits for achieving the sustainable development goals are valued up to 30% higher by the climate finance market, according to econometric analyses.

A forward-synthesis platform, Allchemy, computationally determines how to ‘close the circle’, or use waste chemicals to make valuable pharmaceutical or agrochemical products, ranking possible routes by environmental, geospatial, and other factors.

Untreated, postconsumer-PET from 51 different thermoformed products can all be almost completely degraded by FAST-PETase in 1 week and PET can be resynthesized from the recovered monomers, demonstrating recycling at the industrial scale.

Psychosocial measures improve the cost-effectiveness of multi-faceted interventions against extreme poverty.

Providing reliable, sustainable and clean energy in humanitarian contexts is increasingly important but a lack of data on settlements impedes progress. Here, Baldi et al. present a database and analytical tools for 288 refugee settlements in sub-Saharan Africa that can support renewable energy deployment decisions.

A comprehensive analysis of the key properties of nanopesticides in controlling agricultural pests for crop enhancement shows a much higher efficacy compared with non-nano analogues, also for in-field trials.

Data on the nutrient content of almost 3,000 aquatic animal-source foods is combined with a food-systems model to show that an increase in aquatic-food production could reduce the inadequate intake of most nutrients.

Principles from the field of fair division are used to develop selection algorithms for citizens’ assemblies that produce panels that are representative of the population while simultaneously selecting individuals with near-equal probabilities.

Current action is insufficient to meet both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Integrated model-based analysis shows that strong interventions across many dimensions, together with ambitious lifestyle change, are needed to enable real progress towards the UN Agenda 2030.

This meta-analysis of 419 randomized controlled trials found that various types of psychological interventions could improve mental wellbeing in clinical and non-clinical populations. Effect sizes tended to be small to moderate and were influenced by various moderators.

Analysis of global smoking prevalence trends from 2009 to 2017 demonstrates that, when implemented, national-level tobacco control policies are highly effective; however, considerable gaps remain in the universal adoption of anti-tobacco interventions.

We develop a proton-exchange membrane system that reduces CO₂ to formic acid at a catalyst that is derived from waste lead–acid batteries and in which a lattice carbon activation mechanism contributes.

Natural climate solutions can mitigate climate change but misunderstandings about what constitutes a natural climate solution generate unnecessary confusion and controversy. This Perspective distills five foundational principles of natural climate solutions and fifteen operational principles for practical implementation.

In this Review, Jones, Marken and Silver develop a conceptual framework for synthetic microbiology organized into three domains — factory, farm and field — to explore the utility of synthetic microbiology in addressing sustainability challenges, and examine several examples of microbial engineering applications relevant to each domain.

Hatzenbuehler et al. argue that cognitive neuroscience should take more interest in the consequences of social inequality, and discuss various research methods for accomplishing this goal.

In the field of lithium-based batteries, there is often a divide between academic research and industrial needs. Here, the authors present a view on applied research to help bridge academia and industry, focusing on metrics and challenges to be considered for the development of practical batteries.

This Review identifies factors that lead to ‘unsafely managed sanitation’ in the United States, the specific types of access, and obstacles to characterizing and addressing the problem.

Access to sanitation is a fundamental right that is still missing, especially in many parts of low-income countries. This Perspective focuses on the impact of unclean school latrines on child health.

Suicide is an important problem among older adults and in particular older men. Here, the author discusses factors that impact suicide risk, including social determinants of health and cultural perception of old age, and proposes strategies for a multifaceted approach to suicide prevention.

Age-friendly cities initiatives aim to facilitate active and healthy aging. Focusing on the urban physical environment, the authors argue that longevity-ready cities that aim for better health and well-being for people of all ages from a life-course perspective can accomplish more than initiatives focused solely on old age.

Photosynthetic electron transport chains convert solar energy into chemical energy. In this Review, engineering efforts to rewire these electron transport pathways for electricity and chemical production are discussed, highlighting major advances alongside outstanding research problems for achieving real-world applications.

This Perspective highlights the role that nanotechnology might play in tackling the rise of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.

This Review outlines three ‘grand challenges’ to protect and promote health in the face of climate change, and discusses the role of the health community in driving change within and beyond the health sector.

Adverse childhood experiences can negatively impact lifelong health; this Review discusses the underlying mechanisms and potential solutions, advocating for multisectoral interventions and implementation research.

As the proportion of older adults increases globally, digital health innovations, particularly wearables, could transform the future of healthy aging.

The advent of portable, low-field MRI is transforming clinical brain imaging. This Review discusses the bioengineering advances that have enabled scanning outside the controlled environment of conventional MRI suites, enhancing access to neuroimaging. Ongoing development and innovation will increase the real-world application of MRI.

Microbial production of food and cosmetics is a promising technology with which to obtain sustainable and environmentally friendly compounds. This Review discusses the production of food and cosmetic compounds using metabolically engineered microorganisms and the systems metabolic engineering strategies that can be used to develop industrially competitive microbial strains and processes.

Cell co-culture can assist the fabrication process of cultured meat and improve the quality of the final product. This Review discusses relevant cell types and co-culture techniques, and examines their use for cultivated meat production.

An analysis of chemical processes to immobilize lead from perovskite solar cells is presented, highlighting the need for a standard lead-leakage test and mathematical model to reliably evaluate the potential environmental risk of perovskite optoelectronics.

Precision environmental health leverages environmental and system-level data to understand underlying environmental causes of disease, identify biomarkers of exposure, and develop new prevention and intervention strategies. In this Perspective, the authors provide real-life illustrations of the utility of precision environmental health approaches and identify current challenges in the field.

This Perspective piece outlines potential avenues to support ecosystem restoration projects into the future.

This Review provides an overview of the global epidemiology and burden of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, identifying gaps in the HBV care cascade and proposing some solutions to help reach the goal of WHO to eliminate HBV as a public health threat by 2030.

This Perspective reviews key water-related goals and progress achieved since the first UN Water Conference in Mar del Plata (1977) and highlights three priorities for the second UN Water Conference in New York (2023).

Developing point-of-care devices for the detection of pathogenic bacteria is essential to prevent and treat infections and to provide food security. This Review highlights paper-based analytical devices with substantial point-of-care applicability for bacteria detection and discusses challenges and opportunities for future development.

Micro- and nanorobots hold great promise for next-generation water-remediation applications. This Review discusses the development of intelligent micro- and nanoscale systems for the removal and degradation of water contaminants and the challenges toward their practical application.

Discussions abound regarding the future of African energy systems, yet they typically overlook the different starting points and development objectives of each country. This Perspective highlights these differences and calls for more context-specific attention to define low-carbon energy pathways.

Careful and responsible microbiome management is a critical strategy to counter biodiversity loss, but practical and regulatory hurdles must be addressed to maximize its utility.

Studying the ocean microbiome can inform international policies related to ocean governance, tackling climate change, ocean acidification and pollution, and can help promote achievement of multiple Sustainable Development Goals.

Agricultural nitrogen legacies are delaying improvements to water quality. Comprehensive management strategies that address legacy issues are needed to ensure better environmental outcomes.

Low-carbon innovations in technology and behaviour are increasingly prevalent, but they are not always equitable. This Review examines how such innovations can introduce and perpetrate inequalities, and discusses ways to ensure that a low-carbon future is both sustainable and equitable.

This Perspective chronicles the journey to the elimination of transmission of wild poliovirus in Africa, with a critical discussion of the global, continental, national and community actions that were required and the lessons learnt along the way.

Asia has a rich variety of nutritious ‘neglected crops’, including cereals, roots and pulses. Adopting a diverse cropping portfolio using these forgotten crops is a promising approach to closing the current production and nutrition gaps.

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 encompasses targets ranging from the eradication of hunger and malnutrition to ensuring a sustainable food production system. Conflicts between these goals gives rise to gaps in our understanding that hamper attempts at evidence-based policy-making.