Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Nature Index 2018 Earth and Environmental Sciences
The US remains by far the largest producer of high quality Earth and environmental sciences research, but China’s output has grown rapidly since 2012 to take over second place from the United Kingdom. For every other top ten country producer of Earth and environmental sciences research, output has been declining. Climate change is the issue that looms largest. Just as we depended on scientists to identify the problem, we look to them for solutions. As this supplement makes clear, there are no grounds for complacency.
Nature Index 2018 Earth and Environmental Sciences is an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.
Urgent environmental problems central to national well-being jostle for the attention of China’s scientists as they strive to produce research with global prestige.