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Stricter regulations on ship-induced air pollution have triggered the installation of ship exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers), but these scrubbers pollute the seas. A study shows that the private economic benefits of installing scrubbers come at the expense of marine environmental damage and that the scrubber systems are paid off in only a few years.
Flood-risk management strategies are increasingly incorporating equity considerations, but measuring equity poses challenges. This study maps observed equity indicators to a taxonomy to help analysts develop robust evidence about equity when managing uneven exposure to environmental harms.
Critical clean energy materials exhibit supply risks due to unbalanced cross-country production and consumption patterns. A study now maps the global distribution of mineral property rights, through foreign direct investment, to show its potential role in reducing critical materials’ supply risks.
The energy sector has led to the creation of marine artificial structures such as oil and gas installations and offshore wind farms. This global meta-analysis assesses whether such structures can act as artificial reefs and benefit the marine environment when left at sea following decommissioning.
Landfills are a major methane emitter, but the current bottom-up inventories used for emissions accounting are poorly constrained and show strong biases. Improved emissions estimates show that across the globe, methane emissions from individual landfills have been underestimated by up to 200%.
Using decades of high-resolution mapping, this study tracks the land area of the wildland–urban interface that is exposed to fire risk, finding increases in both area and risk in multiple locations globally.
While the economic effects of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been studied extensively, this study examines how efforts to achieve balance across the SDGs affect subjective well-being within and across countries.
Air pollution is commonly thought to disproportionately affect lower-income communities. In most low- and middle-income countries, however, air pollution is found to be highest in wealthier urban areas.
Cookstove carbon offset projects can contribute to various socio-economic and environmental goals if their implementation is based on accurate emissions reductions estimations. A study assesses different methodologies for cookstove offset projects and quantifies their over-crediting.
Hydropower is expected to expand in the coming decades as an attractive renewable energy source, but one that can have negative environmental impacts in sensitive ecosystems. Enhanced integration of variable renewable energy can offset hydropower expansion in some eco-sensitive river basins, but is mostly insufficient to offset the steep upward pressure on hydropower development that will be exerted by the low-carbon energy transition.
The agricultural production of food comes with substantial greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on the environment. Dietary fats, a staple of human diet, might be produced chemosynthetically with a fraction of the detrimental effects on the environment.
While most conservation efforts rightfully focus on the percentage of protected land, this paper analyses how the size and complexity of protected area boundaries affects the remoteness of internal areas and the contiguity of protected natural ecosystems
Illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon exacerbates existing degradation and pressures, but has been difficult to measure. This paper identifies the risk of entry points for illegally logged forests into formal supply chains to quantify how widespread this issue may be.
Where to invest to help transform current livestock systems towards sustainability and climate resilience is currently unclear. This study identifies priority locations for investments supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation across 132 low- and middle-income countries, at mid- and low latitudes.
Fertilizer supply is highly sensitive to international disruptions. Geospatially differentiated strategies, including integrated inorganic and organic management to N-deficient regions, can bolster global food security
Sourcing rare earth elements (REEs) from unconventional feedstocks has substantial environmental and societal–economic benefits. Here the authors develop tools to evaluate the economic viability of unconventional REE feedstocks to facilitate the implementation of a sustainable REE supply.
A global meta-analysis examines concurrent soil organic carbon (SOC) and yield responses—including their direct connection—to cover cropping and suggests that targeting cover crops on low-carbon soils can lead to direct yield benefits from SOC increases.
Increasing the reach of biodiversity conservation requires addressing the material needs of individuals and communities in and around protected areas. This analysis provides a comprehensive global projection for a conservation basic income.
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.
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.