Editorials

The sustainability community is increasingly calling for transformation, but action to transform is too slow. Nature Sustainability and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation have convened an expert panel to address the issue and recommend a way forward.

Transitioning to a more sustainable economic system hinges on creating jobs in support of greener activities, with challenges for incumbent workers. A suite of articles highlights the need for more sustainable jobs and how to overcome the associated research gaps and political obstacles.

Exploring potential synergies of genome editing with modes of agriculture, such as agroecology, could help food security and environmental integrity.

As our reach extends outside our planet into Earth’s orbital space and beyond, the need for proactive research and equitable governance of human activity in outer space is more urgent than ever.

Reforming interventions to achieve progress for all is a tough call. Success hinges on adopting a systems-based approach.

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.

Media attention to the disastrous consequences of this summer’s wildfires has been at a record high. Now the world should wake up to the urgent need to restore burnt sites.

This season’s wildfires have wreaked havoc for local communities, summer tourists and densely populated cities more than 1,000 km away. International cooperation is urgently needed to ensure humans’ sustainable future with increasing wildfires.

As the research community remembers John Bannister Goodenough for his contributions to the development of batteries, we reflect on his legacy, what it means to sustainability and where we go next in the quest for a more sustainable future.

In the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, voters’ support for environmental protection seems to be dropping, even though we need it now more than ever before.

As armed conflicts claim dreadful death tolls and destroy nature, they jeopardize humanity’s future. If safe and peaceful societies are the priorities of governments, more needs to happen to achieve them.

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

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

Nature Sustainability is five. We reflect on what we have achieved so far and our ambitions going forward.

Restoring the connection between people and the rest of nature hinges on whole-system science, actions and negotiations.

As the pace of global change quickens, traditional means of data collection may fall short in monitoring its impacts. To ensure a sustainable future, we need all hands on deck in observing our changing planet.

The unfolding energy crisis will have dramatic consequences in many parts of the world, for both people and the planet. Governments should keep that in mind when deciding what to do.

The provision of good healthcare is one of the top priorities of modern societies. Experts are urging decision-makers to ensure that healthcare is delivered sustainably.

The anniversary of a historic publication provides the chance to reflect on how we consider limits and on the value of cross-fertilization between research traditions.

Commemorating the environmental movement matters, but fulfilling its goals matters more.