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Domestic strategies to increase carbon stocks in agricultural soils can lead to spillover effects in countries with less stringent policies. Thinking beyond domestic policy alone is needed for effective sustainable and climate-smart agriculture.

Understanding how community-based initiatives work is crucial for effective environmental management, but robust evaluations of these efforts are rare. A study of a national network of locally managed marine areas in Fiji shows that, aside from an improvement in marine governance, there have been few tangible conservation outcomes.

Involving locals in marine conservation and management has been promoted to improve livelihoods and marine life. A study shows how community-based initiatives can be designed appropriately to generate desired social, economic and ecological outcomes.

Understanding how community-based initiatives work is crucial for effective environmental management, but causal evaluations of these efforts are rare. This study presents a national-scale evaluation of a locally managed network of marine areas in Fiji and examines whether the expected mechanisms deliver conservation outcomes.

By reconstructing the number of farms on Earth over 1969–2013, this study shows that under current development trajectories, the number of farms globally will probably halve by the end of the twenty-first century, with a doubling of the average farm size.

The presence of toxic lead enables high photoconversion efficiency of perovskite solar cells but poses environmental and human health concerns. Here the authors address the issues by introducing a cost-effective TiO₂ absorption layer through a scalable process.

Monitoring of gas flaring (GF) can be expensive and practically difficult, but better information about global offshore GF is needed to inform decarbonization policies. This study presents a monitoring framework, a detailed inventory of offshore GF sites and estimates of GF volumes globally.

The concept of resilience, once meaning the ability to ‘bounce back’ to the status quo, now refers to the capacity to live and develop with change. A mismatch between the latest science of resilience and the talk of resilience recovery after COVID-19 requires resilience thinking to be aligned with sustainable development.

The impacts of biological invasions may be unevenly distributed globally, with a few regions bearing most of the cost. This study identifies cost distributions of invasions among origin and recipient countries and continents, and determines socio-economic and environmental predictors of cost dynamics.

Laundry detergents usually contain chemicals that are problematic to the environment. The authors introduce a polymer nanofilm that renders fabrics and many more materials stain resistant and detergent free.

Many of the barriers to progress in addressing environmental problems, such as climate change, are political. This Review illustrates how insight into politics can help policymakers craft strategies to address the ambition gap, the implementation gap and the international action gap.

Plastic pollution forms a major global challenge to the ecosystem. Here the authors show a binuclear catalyst that could degrade various polyesters in an effective and scalable way, providing a promising technological solution to the challenge.

China’s power generation is still based on a centrally planned operation (CPO) as market reforms are slow. This study finds that continuing to rely on the CPO has led to the accumulation of substantial greenhouse gas emissions, and reveals the underlying mechanisms driving emissions.

A historic treaty to protect the oceans has finally been signed off by the United Nations, can we be hopeful now?

Biocrusts are crucial for soil health and sustainability in arid lands; however, human activities are degrading these biocrusts. This study explores the use of solar farms for a low-cost, low-impact and high-capacity approach to regenerate biocrusts. This technique could be used to expand current soil restoration approaches to regional scales.

Arid soils are currently under substantial anthropogenic stress and are globally degrading. Co-operating photovoltaic plants with biocrust nurseries has potential to restore soil health alongside renewable energy production.

A global analysis of income inequality and flood disasters in middle- and high-income countries between 1990 and 2018 shows that unequal countries tend to suffer higher flood fatalities.

As interest in publishing with Nature Sustainability keeps growing, the editorial team reorganizes how it provides feedback to the community.

Urban water crises are an increasingly pressing challenge. A study now shows how unsustainable behaviour fostered by social inequalities undermines water access and, if unaddressed, may lead to increased vulnerability in the long term.