Atmospheric water harvesting is challenging due to the presence of airborne pollutants. The authors show a device design that enables fog capture with simultaneous pollutant decomposition powered by sunlight.

Our daily lives and economic activities increasingly rely on 5G mobile networks, but their carbon emissions are concerning. Here the authors quantify the carbon emissions of 5G mobile networks in China and propose a strategy to reduce them, paving the way to sustainable mobile communication infrastructures.

Reductions in air pollution in the United States over the past two decades have led to positive results for forest growth and survival. However, further measures are needed to protect sensitive tree species and bolster forest biodiversity

Levees can obscure the public perception of flood risk, reflected in accelerated rates of development in floodplains relative to surrounding areas. Effective regulation and legislative measures can reverse this effect for more sustainable management.

This study examines productivity and workforce dynamics in the world’s fisheries over six decades, finding that the natural limits of fish stocks combined with technological advances have led to diminishing returns per fisher.

Facilities that store the waste and tailings of mining operations pose a salient threat to biodiversity. Despite international consensus to mitigate mining impacts on local ecosystems, globally, nearly 10% of facilities are located within protected areas and another 20% can be found within 5 km of their boundaries.

Water consumption in line with natural water supply ensures sustainable and equitable access to freshwater resources worldwide. This study assesses whether renewable surface water is enough to meet people’s basic needs and, where it is not, estimates how much groundwater would be required.

As political institutions debate environmental policies, this paper reveals how some members of the European Parliament think about underlying principles of degrowth versus more traditional ‘green’ and economic growth platforms.

Theories of change have been a staple of sustainability research, but how to connect such overarching concepts to actionable items can be a struggle. This study uses coastal wetlands to demonstrate a potential framework for integrating indicators of conservation enabling conditions into theories of change.

The agricultural production of food comes with substantial greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on the environment. Dietary fats, a staple of human diet, might be produced chemosynthetically with a fraction of the detrimental effects on the environment.

In the context of climate change, the discourse of capacity building may reproduce colonial power dynamics by framing adaptation failures as the responsibility of marginalized communities. “Capacity sharing” offers an alternative paradigm for a more environmentally just and decolonial approach to managing local climate risks.

Veera Mitzner, Director of the Sustainability Research & Innovation (SRI) Congress and Associate Director of Future Earth US Global Hub, and Omar R. López Alfano, Director of the National Research System, SENACYT, Panama, and President of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research, talk to Nature Sustainability about the success and prospects of the SRI Congress.

End-of-life plastics conversion is crucial to reduce plastic pollution and realize a circular economy, argues Ding Ma.

Plastics are ubiquitous, but problematic from a whole life cycle perspective. Nature Sustainability asked four experts to present their views about the ongoing plastics crisis.

Policy making is entering a phase of more transformative strategies targeting the full life cycle of plastics, argues Patrick Schröder.