Volume 4 Issue 6, June 2021

Consensus on carbon accounting approaches at city-level is lacking and analytic frameworks to systematically link carbon mitigation with the Sustainable Development Goals are limited. A new accounting approach anchored upon key physical provisioning systems can help to address these knowledge gaps and facilitate urban transitions.

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’.

The photocatalytic conversion of CO₂ to fuels could contribute to a carbon-neutral energy cycle, but it works only when sunlight is available. Here the authors propose a persistent photocatalyst system that prolongs solar fuel production and discuss emerging trends and design strategies.

Riverine systems help transfer mismanaged waste into the ocean, but riverine litter data are scarce. Using a database of riverine floating macrolitter across Europe, this study estimates that 307–925 million litter items—82% of which is plastic—are transferred annually from Europe into the ocean.

Data on marine litter are scattered. Harmonizing worldwide aquatic litter inventories, this study finds global litter dominated by plastics from take-out food, followed by fishing, with litter being trapped in nearshore areas and land-sourced plastic reaching the open ocean mostly as small fragments.

The use and growth of ride-sharing apps in recent years has changed urban transportation patterns. This article examines their impacts on congestion, mass transit ridership and private car ownership in North American cities.

Satellite-based measures of the area irrigated by 79 schemes find a median of only 16% of the proposed area supplied. A quarter deliver over 80% of the proposed area and a fifth are inactive.

The conversion of methane to target one-carbon oxygenates relies on a two-step process that is carbon and energy intensive. Direct oxidation offers a sustainable alternative pathway. Here, the authors report on the selective photocatalytic oxidation of methane at room temperature using bismuth vanadate catalyst, realizing high methanol and formaldehyde selectivity.

Innovations to tackle marine litter are urgently needed. A global analysis of solutions to prevent, monitor and clean marine litter identifies 177 solutions, mostly for monitoring, and shows that only a few are ready to use but none have been validated for efficiency and environmental potential.

Bioenergy from grasses is a key option to mitigate climate change. This study finds that recently abandoned cropland could help meet 11–68% of today’s bioenergy demand.

This meta-analysis of over 2,400 papers tracks the influence of older publications that have ‘echoed’ through the decades, cited in countless publications and creating a potentially false confirmation bias.

Fossil fuel infrastructure impacts land use. This study estimates the present value from restoring lands with non-producing gas wells at US$21 billion at a restoration cost of US$7 billion. Deciduous forests, grasslands and chaparral had especially high net benefits.

The Sulitest, developed to gauge sustainability knowledge, has been given to thousands of people worldwide. This analysis evaluates the test and its role as a diagnostic tool for sustainability education.