News & Comment

Experts around the world have been informing governments’ plans for a post-pandemic recovery. Leena Srivastava, Deputy Director General for Science at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), and Heide Hackmann, Chief Executive officer at the International Science Council (ISC), talk to Nature Sustainability about the recent joint effort ‘Bouncing forward sustainably. Pathways to a post-COVID world’.

A new biodiversity decade is about to start and hopefully will achieve just progress for both people and the planet.

Improving environmental stewardship requires improvement of the options available down to the poorest resource users. Agriculture will no longer be the path to development and better options that it once was, without rethinking how and where to intervene. An iconic video game provides a lens into how this can happen.

Universities and research centres around the world have made significant progress towards establishing collaborative, interdisciplinary initiatives in sustainability science. However, more needs to be done to support the career development of junior sustainability scholars whose work is often team based and outreach oriented.

The COVID-19 outbreak has stimulated calls for a global wildlife trade ban. Such actions may only partially curb pandemic risk while negatively affecting people who depend on wildlife. More worryingly, they may provide cover for inaction on issues that would make a true difference in preventing future pandemics.

China’s decision to ban the trade and consumption of terrestrial wild animals, while controversial, is a viable response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ban has implications that extend beyond safeguarding human health to also help combat illegal wildlife trade and protect threatened species.

Our expert panel on food value chains now shares recommendations on how to transform agri-food systems.

Coupling technological advances with sociocultural and policy changes can transform agri-food systems to address pressing climate, economic, environmental, health and social challenges. An international expert panel reports on options to induce contextualized combinations of innovations that can balance multiple goals.

The volume of work contributing substantial understanding and new evidence about sustainability challenges is growing. Making the most of it is imperative for interventions to be really effective.

Pandemic responses can engender healthier and more sustainable societies only if we attend to urban equality.

Sustainable interventions to manage wildfires are needed but require understanding the causes of such events.

Hand hygiene is critical for reducing transmission of communicable diseases, as we are so acutely aware during the COVID-19 pandemic. UNICEF has identified behaviour change and knowledge promotion as top strategies for increasing handwashing during this crisis, while acknowledging that millions of people lack the water necessary for handwashing.

Constructive criticism is paramount to the advance of scholarly debates but comes with challenges.

Michael Norton, from the European Academies Science Advisory Council, and Baldwyn Torto, from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, talk with Nature Sustainability about recent efforts to address neonicotinoid insecticide risks in Africa.

Jon Hutton and Melanie Ryan, respectively the Director and the Head of Programme of the Luc Hoffmann Institute, tell Nature Sustainability about the making of the Biodiversity Revisited project.

Biodiversity research is replete with scientific studies depicting future trajectories of decline that have failed to mobilize transformative change. Imagination and creativity can foster new ways to address longstanding problems to create better futures for people and the planet.

Governments need to act now to halt rising inequalities or they will fail to deliver on the promise of a better future for all.