Volume 1 Issue 9, September 2018

The development of the post-2020 strategic plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a vital window of opportunity to set out an ambitious plan of action to restore global biodiversity. The components of such a plan, including its goal, targets and some metrics, already exist and provide a roadmap to 2050.

Evidence-based approaches to sustainability challenges must draw on knowledge from the environment, development and health communities. To be practicable, this requires an approach to evidence that is broader and less hierarchical than the standards often applied within disciplines.

Geoengineering is unproven and risky. Social science scholars explain why some are still investing in and pursuing geoengineering to address climate change, and the consequences this has for alternatives.

Sustainability challenges, such as feeding people with fewer resources, involve challenges at the nexus of multiple issues, such as food, water and energy. This Review explores such nexus approaches, surveying their use towards sustainable development challenges, discussing examples, and proposing a systematic procedure and future directions.

High-yield farming systems have the potential to spare non-farmed land for other uses (such as nature conservation), but raise concerns about their other environmental impacts (such as greenhouse gas emissions and soil erosion). This study argues such impacts should be measured per unit of production and shows that viewed this way, some land-efficient systems have less impact than lower-yielding alternatives.

Designing interventions to address water scarcity under climate change is challenging given the large uncertainties in projected water availability. In this study, changes in the uncertainty range of anticipated water scarcity conditions are identified, and a general decision-making framework to support policy decisions is developed.

Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries, and half the world’s supply comes from one district in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This study assesses the sustainability of artisanal mining there, finding much higher levels of cobalt in blood and urine of community members and especially of children.

Focusing on China’s six natural gas sources and three end-use gas-forcoalsubstitution strategies in 2020, this study shows that, except for coal-based synthetic gas, replacement of coalwith gas usually has air–carbon–water co-benefits, although with air–water trade-offs in the magnitude ofimprovement.

Understanding the sources of particulate matter responsible for extreme air pollution and climate change is critical for designing adequate policies to protect the wellbeing of citizens. This study shows that extraordinary levels of particulate matter with diameter smaller than 1 µm were observed in Dublin in November 2016 and January 2017 and can be attributed to emissions from residential burning of peat and wood, often promoted as ‘slow renewables’.

Footprint analysis of how much water is embedded in food consumption in France, Germany and the United Kingdom finds geographical differences in water footprints and projects how different diets could affect water conservation.

Measures to adapt coastal areas to tsunamis risk creating greater vulnerabilities owing to a false sense of security. Hard-adaptive projects like seawalls must be considered within an assessment of human behaviour and feedback loops.