Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals

As the United Nations convenes its second High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance, urgent global action is needed. This Focus issue draws attention to pressing challenges of bacterial antimicrobial resistance and underscores the need for fast and coordinated international efforts.

Antibacterial drug resistance is a critical global health issue that affects countries across all economic levels, though it disproportionately affects populations in low- and middle-income countries. Infection and resistance rates vary considerably, necessitating tailored interventions to meet the specific demands of each area. This underscores the need for global solidarity and national accountability in effectively addressing antibacterial drug resistance.

Improving access to antibiotics will save lives and reduce the rise and spread of drug-resistant infections. Instead of traditional ‘last mile’ global health solutions, global leaders need to support efforts to develop suitable antibiotics and their rational use, ensuring that countries have the capacity to make them available.

For women with kidney disease of childbearing age, kidney care should feature discussions of pregnancy, including informed counseling and support. Health disparities between regions with different levels of income are undeniable, but special care programs aimed at the early identification and management of patients at risk can greatly decrease the magnitude of the problem.

Climate-resilient development provides a framework to address the interlinked challenges of climate change, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. We discuss how these global goals can be translated to the local scale so that local governments, businesses, communities and citizens can help to implement them.

Unsupportive university policies force parents to make choices about how to feed their baby. Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, an expert in employment law and advocate for parental rights in the UK, tells us why this needs to change.

This year, 49% of the world will go to the polls. Political support for science-informed policy is not a given. Maria Caffrey, a whistleblower who defended scientific integrity under the Trump administration, offers advice on media engagement during this time.

Driven by carbon neutral targets, proton exchange membrane water electrolysis is becoming a hot technology due to its capability to convert fluctuating power into green hydrogen. Unfortunately, despite tremendous resources invested in fundamental research, only very few research outcomes have successfully translated into the development of industrial-scale electrolysers.

A UNESCO report laments the lack of progress in making science more collaborative. Greater awareness could aid efforts to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Scientists encounter pressure to validate their research work, leading to varied benchmarks and methods for performance assessment in the broad energy research field. Interlaboratory studies help highlight discrepancies in reported figures of merit, underscoring the need for standardized protocols, transparent reporting, and detailed analysis for fair comparisons. Here, we discuss this topic, focusing on battery materials.

The data are clear: taking sex and gender into account in research and using that knowledge to change health care could benefit billions of people.

Rich nations’ fixation on forests as climate offsets has resulted in the needs of those who live in or make a living from these resources being ignored. A broader view and more collaboration between disciplines is required.

Achieving inclusive and sustainable ocean economies, long-term climate resilience and effective biodiversity conservation requires urgent and strategic actions from local to global scales. We discuss fundamental changes that are needed to allow equitable policy across these three domains.

As artificial intelligence transforms the global economy, researchers need to explore scenarios to assess how it can help, rather than harm, the climate.

A United Nations-backed agreement to end plastic pollution is within reach — but only if scientists, civil society and businesses unite against powerful vested interests.

Tackling plastic pollution needs scientists to be in the negotiating room at upcoming talks.

Wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity due to climate change and have had severe impacts on the built environment worldwide. Moving forward, models should take inspiration from epidemic network modeling to predict damage to individual buildings and understand the impact of different mitigations on the community vulnerability in a network setting.

Forests are spatially and temporally dynamic, such that forest degradation is best quantified across whole landscapes and over the long term. The European Union’s forest degradation policy, which focuses on contemporary primary forest conversion to plantations, ignores other globally prevalent forestry practices that can flip forests into a degraded state.

Sustainability of African weather and climate information can only be ensured by investing in improved scientific understanding, observational data, and model capability. These requirements must be underpinned by capacity development, knowledge management; and partnerships of co-production, communication and coordination.

Four scientists reflect on how to foster a more sustainable relationship between water and society amid complex and wide-ranging challenges.

Equality is essential for sustainability. The science is clear — people in more-equal societies are more trusting and more likely to protect the environment than are those in unequal, consumer-driven ones.

Black women at universities are seldom heard. Institutions need to listen and take action.

The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE), representing 20,000 endocrinologists, is concerned about the effect of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on endocrine health, particularly thyroid and gonadal function. The policy strategies of the ESE aim to minimize overall exposure of humans to EDCs and to stimulate funding for research at the level of the European Union.

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with over 25% of these occurring in the African region. Multi-drug resistant strains which do not respond to first-line antibiotics continue to emerge, putting at risk numerous public health strategies which aim to reduce incidence and mortality. Here, we speak with Professor Valerie Mizrahi, world-leading researcher and former director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town, regarding the tuberculosis burden in South Africa. We discuss the challenges faced by researchers, the lessons that need to be learnt and current innovations to better understand the overall response required to accelerate progress.

Hurricane Otis yields lessons for researchers and policymakers on how to reduce risks in the face of inequality.

From governance to climate impacts, the world’s urban environments face many difficulties. A new journal, Nature Cities, aims to bring together researchers who are rising to the challenge.

Without rapid change, the World Health Organization’s goals for tackling cervical cancer by 2030 will be missed. Four experts share ways to move the needle.

Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships.

Transformation narratives in water and sanitation emphasize public health and gender equality, yet miss a critical foundational perspective: planetary sustainability.

Where host communities are marginalized by industry practices, energy social science researchers must ensure that their research does not doubly exacerbate extractive practices. Place-based reflexivity provides a set of principles and concrete practices for researchers to avoid extractive relations with host communities and promote contextually relevant and democratic processes in pursuit of a just transition.

Health systems have adopted models of integrated care to better align services around the needs of aging populations. The results are encouraging, but inconsistent. Although they are untested, recent approaches — such as the WHO’s ‘Integrated Care for Older People’ — that are explicitly person-centered suggest that more-radical reform may be possible.

Studies of the microbes living on and in our bodies are conducted mainly in a few rich countries, squandering opportunities to improve the health of people globally.

The Sustainable Development Goals promise to leave no one behind. Yet recent global actions have pushed disadvantaged groups further behind, writes Magda Robalo Correia e Silva.

China faces urgent challenges associated with population aging. In this Comment, we summarize China’s adoption of long-term care insurance and underscore its importance for social and economic wellbeing. We provide recommendations for a future of sustainable and healthy aging in China.

Pallett et al. discuss the impact of human conflict on development of antimicrobial resistance. They overview approaches to limit the spread of antimicrobial resistance, using the ongoing conflict in Ukraine as an example of the challenges and opportunities.

Participants in the Convention on Biological Diversity’s processes for implementing the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework need clarity on what makes biodiversity information useful to national decision-makers. Here we present seven preconditions of useful biodiversity information and describe how these can be supported through regional support centres and south–south cooperation.

Scientific institutions must create roles so that researchers can provide the deep public engagement necessary to respond effectively to the escalating impacts of climate change.

Assessing global mean temperature rise using the average warming over the previous one or two decades will delay formal recognition of when Earth breaches the Paris agreement’s 1.5 °C guard rail. Here is what’s needed to avoid the wait.

Putting the specific needs of individuals and communities at the heart of HIV/AIDS care, by harnessing behavioural science, is key to building on the progress already been made.

California governor Gavin Newsom’s delegation is building on existing research and policy initiatives with China, showing that effective climate action can happen below the national level.

From classrooms to laboratories and conferences, working in chemistry presents huge challenges to disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent people. Some simple fixes can help to shift the dial.

Finance for coping with the harms of climate change must be disbursed swiftly and pragmatically. The world’s largest existing climate fund for supporting climate mitigation and adaptation provides lessons.

Compensating for the devastating impacts of heatwaves, hurricanes and floods after they occur is too slow. With climate risks accelerating, the world must predict who needs funds and when.

From floods to wildfires, and tsunamis to volcanic eruptions, early-warning systems can stop natural hazards becoming human disasters. But more joined-up thinking is urgently needed.

Continued efforts to maintain the ban on chemical weapons depend on nations sharing information to further build trust and global safety.

Upholding human rights can ensure that environmental policy is driven by facts and evidence, not denialism, greed and profit.

Access to clean energy is essential to sustainable human development. We thus have a responsibility and an opportunity to meet the global goal of ending energy poverty by 2030. We propose the creation of a new Mission Energy Access programme to support this aim.

First Nations peoples in Australia face systemic inequities in access to kidney transplantation. The National Indigenous Kidney Transplant Taskforce was established to address these. It has provided support to clinicians to implement and evaluate innovative practices and developed strategies to address biases in the structures and models of care that create barriers to wait-listing.

Ada Lovelace was a visionary who first recognized the potential of computer programming. Almost two centuries on, six women in computer science and technology reflect on their experiences in the field.

Repeated outbreaks increase the risk of a Nipah strain emerging that is better at spreading.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 14 (‘Life below water’). We asked a range of researchers working across marine science, conservation, policy and implementation to reflect on priorities for action on ocean health and biodiversity over the next seven years.

This year marks the mid-point for the implementation of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including Sustainable Development Goal 15 ‘Life on land’. We asked a range of researchers, working across biodiversity science, conservation, policy and implementation, to reflect on priorities for action on conserving terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems over the next seven years.

Research into vaccines, crop seeds and other innovations for low- or middle-income nations could be rewarded by offering longer patent coverage for profitable, non-essential inventions.

With a changing climate and a growing population, the world increasingly needs more-productive and resilient crops. But improving them requires a knowledge of what actually works in the field.

Better integration of climate action and sustainable development can help enhance the ambition of the next nationally determined contributions, as well as implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Governments should use this year as an opportunity to emphasize the links between climate and sustainable development.

Improving sanitation technology and service is imperative for everyone, in every country.

Digital transformation offers unprecedented opportunities for advancing healthcare, but also raises complex ethical and legal challenges. Emerging drivers of health disparity termed ‘digital determinants of health’ call for purposeful, equity-focused strategies to ensure that technological innovation benefits all without exacerbating disparities.

The production of sustainable plant-based foods is not simply a question of which process has the lowest environmental impact in the food chain. We have to consider that different degrees of processing might result in different degrees of plant protein nutritional quality in the final food product.

The alarmingly slow progress on water-related goals and targets jeopardizes the entire sustainable development agenda. In March 2023, the United Nations (UN) convened the first UN Water Conference in nearly 50 years to create momentum and accelerate progress. The outcome of the conference will feed into the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which will be held in New York on July 10–19, 2023. Nature Water asked five experts about the challenges to meet the goals and where we need to go from here.

Record-high ocean temperatures, combined with a confluence of extreme climate and weather patterns, are pushing the world into uncharted waters. Researchers must help communities to plan how best to reduce the risks.

The UN SDGs will only improve human health if they are accompanied by systemic change that addresses global power imbalances.

Progress towards universal access to safe drinking water and nutritious food has been moving forward at a slower than desired rate. Computational tools can help accelerate progress towards these goals, but solutions need to be open source, and designed, developed and implemented in a participatory manner.

Rapid urban expansion presents a major challenge to delivering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Urban populations are forecast to increase by 2.2 billion by 2050, and business as usual will condemn many of these new citizens to lives dominated by disaster risk. This need not be the case. Computational science can help urban planners and decision-makers to turn this threat into a time-limited opportunity to reduce disaster risk for hundreds of millions of people.

As we approach the half-way point in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, we discuss how computational science could help in reaching some of these goals by 2030.

Drilling down into why the UN Sustainable Development Goals are so hard to achieve, and showing policymakers pathways to follow, will help the planet and save lives.

The United Nations has ambitious aims to end poverty and clean up the planet by 2030. See whether you know how the world is faring on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Not one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals looks set to be achieved by 2030. But deadlines can help focus the mind, and scientists should double down on their work to support the goals.

Behind the UN Sustainable Development Goals is a stirring tale of people overcoming huge odds against hostile institutions.

Principles underpinning the 2030 Agenda — indivisibility, integration and universality — can safeguard against inaction or unsustainable practices but have not yet come into effect. We propose measures to strengthen alignment with them as the world gears up to accelerate implementation at the 2023 SDG Summit.

Health outcomes, ending poverty and greening the environment are boosted when power is shared between the genders.

As Africa emerges from the COVID pandemic, combating infectious diseases must be a priority — along with treating non-communicable and mental health conditions.

A few powerful nations are undermining progress towards global ocean sustainability. Scientists can help hold them to account.

Investment in a new tuberculosis vaccine is a landmark step forward, but continued efforts to advance treatments, diagnostics and biosocial issues are needed to meet targets to end the epidemic by 2035.

Sustainability cannot be achieved without climate action, and vice versa. What’s needed is a fight on both fronts.

In April 2023, leading experts met with members of US Congress to discuss strategies to ensure global food security. Following on from this, Pamela Ronald emphasizes the role that plant genetics has in achieving these goals.

The world is consuming more efficiently, but still using more stuff. More-concerted efforts to change both consumer and producer behaviour are needed.

In a rapidly urbanizing world, what happens in cities matters — and sustainability success stories show what can be achieved when researchers and policymakers work together.

Those urging world leaders to take action on inequality should study why earlier efforts did not translate to changes in policy.

Researchers have a big role in unlocking funds for sustainability and ensuring that companies’ pledges are credible.

Researchers advocating reform of the world’s main measure of growth have an opportunity to participate in the process that sets the rules.

Research challenges the myth that clean energy acts as a brake on global economic development.

Holistic approaches to water and land management practised by Indigenous communities worldwide hold the key to a more sustainable future, say co-organizers of the Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change.

Climate change is making water stress worse for billions worldwide. Scaling up both new and traditional solutions must be a priority.

Halting the loss of jobs and knowledge from small-scale producers requires investing in rural sustainability, addressing poverty and inequity and ensuring the economic gains stay local. The benefits would be shared globally.

The forthcoming UN summit marks the halfway point to 2030 and presents an important milestone in global efforts to address various challenges, including those related to climate change and environmental preservation. The UN SDGs include several related to microorganisms and climate change. Microbiology research is key to understanding and mitigating climate change, and in maintaining the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems (SDGs 13, 14 and 15).

Strong multidisciplinary support and political commitment have helped Spain become one of the countries most likely to eliminate hepatitis C. In this Comment, we set out six key elements of the Spanish elimination effort that can serve as a model elsewhere and the remaining barriers to overcome.

Cardiovascular health is essential to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG3.4. Barriers include inequalities and a lack of political will and prioritization. A comprehensive approach is needed to reduce the global burden of cardiovascular disease and to achieve SDG3.4. The World Heart Federation addresses the determinants of cardiovascular disease and mobilizes the global community through roadmaps, roundtables and advocacy.

Data gaps are hindering progress on the Sustainable Development Goal for education and lifelong learning. Modest funding will help to fill them.

Infectious diseases markedly influence progress towards the SDGs. Pandemics and global inequity have hindered progress towards the health targets, highlighting humanity’s interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to new infectious agents. Enhanced global collaboration and partnerships in training, surveillance, research and innovation are essential to reach the health SDGs by 2030.

Non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries can be tackled with integrated health systems interventions that consider multimorbidity, supported by patient involvement and new technologies.

Eighteen million children have received no routine vaccines — prioritizing them will save lives and build health infrastructure.

Climate change must be embedded in funding strategies and medical curricula, with research being best conducted in the countries most affected.

Tailored community engagement led or co-led by the community can build trust with underserved communities to deliver health equity.

The COVID pandemic knocked back progress towards improving public health. Without addressing the underlying social and economic causes of ill health, it could completely stall.

Rare-earth elements that are crucial for clean-energy technologies are jealously fought over. Policies and programmes to encourage recycling and recovery could reduce tensions.

How can ocean governance and science be made more equitable and effective? The majority of the world’s ocean-dependent people live in low to middle-income countries in the tropics (i.e., the ‘tropical majority’). Yet the ocean governance agenda is set largely on the basis of scientific knowledge, funding, and institutions from high-income nations in temperate zones. These externally driven approaches undermine the equity and effectiveness of current solutions and hinder leadership by the tropical majority, who are well positioned to activate evidence-based and context-specific solutions to ocean-sustainability challenges. Here, we draw together diverse perspectives from the tropics to propose four actions for transformational change that are grounded in perspectives, experiences, and knowledge from the tropics: 1. Center equity in ocean governance, 2. Reconnect people and the ocean, 3. Redefine ocean literacy, and 4. Decolonize ocean research. These actions are critical to ensuring a leading role for the tropical majority in maintaining thriving ocean societies and ecosystems.

Fossil fuels should be used sparingly, in the areas where they contribute most to human welfare.

Hundreds of millions of people are going hungry as conflicts affect food supplies. There is also growing evidence that food producers are exploiting the situation to increase their profits.

Factors ranging from COVID-19 to Russia’s war in Ukraine are increasing extreme poverty. Finding effective solutions starts with agreeing on how to measure what poverty means.

With each IPCC report, the science basis around climate change increases extensively in terms of scope, depth, and complexity. In converting this knowledge into societal climate action, research organisations face the challenge of reforming the ways they structure themselves, generate solutions, and communicate scientific findings to stakeholders. Here we present a mission-driven approach to guide those efforts.

Three approaches that aim to cut the harms of agriculture — land sharing, rewilding and organic farming — risk driving up food imports and causing environmental damage overseas. An alternative approach is both effective and cheaper.

There is no planet B, and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are heading for the rocks. Researchers around the world must do their bit to change that.

The human microbiome has a crucial role in global health, with implications for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Understanding and harnessing the potential of the microbiome, while recognizing its link to the global ecosystem, can drive innovative strategies for improved public health, and promote sustainable development.

The mounting environmental pressure on coral reefs calls for a rapid push towards innovative actions. Nanotechnology could help understand and protect present-day reefs to ensure their survival.

These interventions for women and girls improve population health and boost the economy.

Increasing the capacity of biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is an effective strategy to enhance food security while simultaneously reducing the carbon and nitrogen footprint of agriculture. Nanotechnology offers several pathways to enhance BNF successfully.

Agricultural sciences have for too long ignored traditional and local knowledge about crop plants and how best to grow them. That must change if the world is to ensure future food security.

Wealthy countries can create prosperity while using less materials and energy if they abandon economic growth as an objective.

HIV remains a major global health issue, with the burden of the epidemic disproportionately falling on low- and middle-income countries. Progress in HIV prevention, most notably pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), has been slow to reach those most in need.

Wealthy countries must take responsibility for the people most injured by climate change.

Wildfires are increasing globally, with several recent catastrophic wildfires linked to climate change. Here, we consider the negative impact of the toxic contaminants arising from these fires on the immune system, with a focus on how wildfire pollution can exacerbate inflammatory diseases.

Sustainable Development Goal 17 focuses on partnerships that can enable the achievement of other SDGs. In this comment the authors examine the obstacles to the success of SDG 17 and suggest measures to overcome these.

Behavioural science can enhance ocean sustainability by providing insights into illegal fishing. Current enforcement criminalizes small-scale fishers and fails to address root causes, letting large-scale illegal fishing off the hook. Efforts to address illegal fishing would benefit from more holistic behavioural research.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a rapidly growing public health problem, especially in disadvantaged populations. Major political interventions are required to mitigate the social and socioeconomic inequities that contribute to the development and progression of CKD and its disproportionate impact on low and middle-income countries.

Wang and colleagues assess the G7’s collaboration in achieving the SDGs from 2000–2020. They find that all G7 members contribute positively economics-related SDGs, but performance on environmental goals shows less collaboration and discrepancies in contributions.

The Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) program was developed to promote a function-centered and individualized approach to healthy aging, but it is not yet widely implemented. In this study, de Souto Barreto et al. used early-stage ICOPE data collected in primary healthcare from more than 20,000 older adults to characterize patterns of intrinsic capacity impairment and associated odds of frailty and disability.

Data from boreal, temperate and tropical forests over the past three decades reveal that the global forest carbon sink has remained steady during that time, despite considerable regional variation.

A natural experiment reports that US healthcare systems have substantial adaptability but only a moderate level of resilience to disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using longitudinal data from the ELSA-Brasil study, Gonçalves et al. report that income is a barrier to how adherence to the sustainable planetary health diet is linked to slower cognitive decline.

Rangelands in Mongolia suffered a marked decline in grazing conditions between 1986 and 2020, according to an approach which combines satellite big data with statistical modeling to remotely assess rangeland sustainability and management strategies

The challenging prospect of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals faces various disruptors in China. Li et al. quantify the disruptors’ effects and explore integrated policy portfolios for safeguarding China’s long-term sustainability

Ibanez et al. performed a scoping review and meta-analysis of healthy aging studies across Latin America and report substantial heterogeneity in how risk factors affect cognitive and functional ability, underscoring the need for further regional research.

A prudent strategy on carbon dioxide removal can minimize the risk of overestimating its potential and reduce mitigation costs, according to an integrated assessment model analysis of the relationship between uncertainties in carbon dioxide removal feasibility and climate sensitivity.

An analysis of fish and macroinvertebrate communities in European rivers over 32 years shows that inland ship traffic is associated with declining taxonomic richness, diversity and trait richness and with increased taxonomic evenness.

Carbon pricing policies are adopted in many countries around the world to mitigate climate change. This systematic review shows that significant emission reductions of between 5 and 21% are achieved by at least 17 out of 21 reviewed policy schemes.

The average Internet user spends over 40% of their waking hours online, yet the environmental footprint remains poorly understood. This study suggests that digital content consumption could exacerbate the pressure on the finite Earth’s carrying capacity.

A survey of 23,000 adults in 23 countries in 2023 reports that the pandemic experience reduced participants’ willingness to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and receive routine vaccinations and reduced trust in recommendations from public health authorities.

Species distribution modelling for 69 European tree species under current climate conditions and projected conditions to 2100 (in decadal steps) demonstrates that, for climate suitability to be maintained throughout a tree’s lifespan, many fewer tree species are available to forest managers than are currently used.

The type of vehicles owned by Norwegians depends on household size, income and work commute, and battery electric vehicle ownership is concentrated in the wealthier part of the population, according to an analysis of socio-economic data of 2.4 million households from 2005 to 2022.

In a prospective cohort of Chinese participants aged 65 years and older, heatwaves doubled the risk of mortality, especially in adults with functional impairments and dependency on daily living activities.

Analysing camera-trap data of 163 mammal species before and after the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, the authors show that responses to human activity are dependent on the degree to which the landscape is modified by humans, with carnivores being especially sensitive.

We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories for six regions in the USA, finding methane emission intensities that vary by more than a factor of ten.

Abundance data for marine fish populations show that those shifting poleward rapidly due to climate change experience substantial population declines, suggesting that rapid range shifts are not sufficient to maintain stable populations.

Conventional agricultural intensification can lead to ‘traps’ where production actually declines because of biodiversity loss. By integrating case study archetypes, literature review and simulations, the authors show what systems are at risk of traps and how these risks can be limited.

Increasing exposure to climate hazards under climate change will disproportionately impact poor communities. This study shows that disruptions to infrastructure service threaten progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in coastal Bangladesh, but impacts can be mediated through adaptation.

Analysis of 42 severe weather disasters (floods, storms and cyclones) in the United States between 2011 and 2016 reported associations with increased emergency department utilization and mortality in affected counties for up to 6 weeks.

Here the authors find one third of global sub-basins will face severe clean water scarcity in 2050. Nitrogen pollution aggravates water scarcity in >2,000 sub-basins thus 3 billion more people will be posed with severe water scarcity in 2050.

Analysis of about 170,000 monitoring wells and 1,693 aquifer systems worldwide shows that extensive and often accelerating groundwater declines are widespread in the twenty-first century, but that groundwater levels are recovering in some cases.

Global research has identified six critical transformations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Here, Allen et al model all six transformations in a national context and discuss implications for accelerating progress on the goals.

Comparing data on genetic monitoring efforts across Europe with the distributions of areas at species’ climatic niche margins, the authors show that monitoring efforts should be expanded to populations at trailing niche margins to include genetic variation that may prove important for adaptation to ongoing climate warming.

In Australia, remote settlements and Indigenous settlements are respectively 18% and 15% more likely to be underserved across five categories of electricity retail legal protections. These settlements are therefore likely to enter the energy transition on an uneven footing.

Domestic attempts to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a country can have synergistic and/or trade-off effects on the advancement of SDGs in other countries. Here the authors demonstrate that while high-income countries make up only 14% of the global population, they drive over 60% of worldwide SDG interactions.

Australia will not achieve SDG 6.1 (water for all) without improving drinking water quality in small, rural and remote communities. Australians are willing to pay AU$1.2–4.7 billion yr⁻¹ to ensure good-quality drinking water, and the cost would be AU$0.2–1.3 billion.

A compilation of survey data from pre- and post-2000 for 42 raptor species across parts of West, Central, East and southern Africa shows 88% of species in population decline and reveals trends across regions, protected areas and species size.

Satellite imagery, vessel GPS data and deep-learning models are used to map industrial fishing vessel activities missing from public tracking systems and changes in offshore energy infrastructure in the world’s coastal waters during 2017–2021.

Gligorić, Kamath, Weiss et al. evaluate revealed versus potential travel times to healthcare facilities in over 100 countries using anonymized smartphone location history data. The authors study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel times and correlate travel times with key population health indicators.

A meta-analysis using the burden of proof risk function identified consistent evidence supporting harmful associations between the exposure to intimate partner violence against women and childhood sexual abuse on health outcomes.

Aligning the IPCC-assessed mitigation pathways with the national greenhouse gas inventories shows that key global mitigation benchmarks become harder to achieve, requiring achieving earlier net-zero and lower cumulative emissions.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

Combining advanced mitigation technologies with behavioural changes could achieve the lowest carbon emissions per capita in Sweden, suggest scenario analyses combining bottom-up simulations for passenger travel, construction and housing, and food, and top-down analyses for remaining consumption.

This study tests the case for the absorption of current fossil fuel workers in emerging green jobs from the perspective of their skills and location. It finds location to be a barrier in a Just Transition for these workers.

A CO₂ emissions inventory of 4,883 individual iron and steel plants along with their technical characteristics is described, allowing the identification and guidance of the most appropriate emissions mitigation and decarbonization pathways for each plant.

The global population is increasingly exposed to daily landscape fire-sourced air pollution but there are socioeconomic disparities, with this pollution four times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries during the period 2000–2019.

U.S. federal climate policies can reduce air pollutant emissions and associated health impacts from fine particulate matter. However, near-term CO₂ reductions alone are insufficient to address racial/ethnic disparities in pollution exposure.

Surface water quality is impacted by climate change and human activities. This study identifies Sub-Saharan Africa as a major future hotspot of surface water pollution by applying a high-resolution global surface water quality model up to 2100.

The prevalence and consequences of vision impairment are increasing due to population growth and aging. This study finds that in India, one in three older adults has distance visual impairment or is blind, which may impact not only how they see the world, but also their overall health and well-being.

One in ten older adults in Canada are victims of elder abuse each year. Older adults with lower physical, mental or cognitive health or history of child maltreatment have elevated risk, while greater social support is protective against this issue.

A quantitative study of past, present and future ecological suitability of Europe for bumblebees finds that for 38–76% of species now considered non-threatened, suitable territory could decrease by at least 30% by 2061–2080.

A pooled analysis of longitudinal studies in low- and middle-income countries identifies the typical age of onset of linear growth faltering and investigates recurrent faltering in early life.

An analysis of longitudinal cohort data across diverse populations suggests that the incidence of wasting between birth and 24 months is higher than previously thought, and highlights the role of seasonal factors that affect child growth.

Analysis of data from 33 longitudinal cohorts from low- and middle-income countries indicates that conditions during pre-conception, pregnancy and the first few months of life are crucial in determining the risk of growth faltering in young children.

Emerging limitations on climate and low-carbon technology would require adjusting our 15.C climate change mitigation pathways. However, this could increase average annual emissions reductions to around 3GtCO₂/year using a broad portfolio of mitigation measures.

China’s history of large-scale water, sanitation and clean energy investments offers promising insights into the development of new interventions to reduce linear growth faltering among children and adolescents.

Machine learning models showed that social disparities, cardiometabolic disease and mental health were the main predictors of aging in Latin American populations, with these factors being more pronounced in low- and middle-income compared to high-income Latin American countries.

In the US, states vary in their efforts to address climate change. Stronger state climate policies reduce CO2 emissions without harming the economy, but these reductions are unlikely to meet the goals in the Paris Climate Accord.

This study shows that 716 million of the world’s lowest income people live in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. With limited access to healthcare, they are especially vulnerable.

Government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced overall progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals by 8.2% between 2020 and 2023, according to an analysis of global and national SDG scores based on the global adaptive multi-regional input–output model.

Plastics were found in 77 out of 84 coral reefs surveyed in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, including in deeper reefs and remote and near-pristine reefs, such as in uninhabited central Pacific atolls.

Analysis of plastic debris found in surface waters shows that lakes and reservoirs in densely populated and urbanized regions, as well as those with elevated deposition areas, are particularly vulnerable to plastic contamination.

Forest losses and gains are highly dynamic processes. Here, the authors present a forest fragmentation index to map distribution and temporal changes of forest fragments globally, revealing major trends and patterns during the first two decades of the 21st century.

This ecological analysis using the Eurostat database estimated that summer 2022, the hottest summer on record, was associated with over 61,000 heat-related deaths across 35 countries in Europe, with the highest mortality rates in countries near the Mediterranean Sea.

The recent and projected future increase in rainfall extremes in high-elevation areas of the Northern Hemisphere is due to a warming-induced shift from snow to rain.

The COVID-19 pandemic has set back progress on the Sustainable Development Goals more severely through cascading interactions between the SDGs than through the direct initial disruptions, according to an analysis of national performance data on progress towards the SDGs.

Although many countries have strengthened their emissions reduction pledges, their ability to limit the warming outcomes is still in question. A multimodel analysis demonstrates that these trajectories are in line with the 2 °C target but countries probably face feasibility challenges to achieve them.

An analysis of data from urban and rural areas shows that in wet climates the net effect of temperature and humidity in urban areas is an increase in heat stress.

Modeling analysis from the Global Dietary Database estimated that 70% of new global cases of type 2 diabetes are attributable to suboptimal intake of 11 dietary factors, with substantial differences in dietary risks across world regions and nations.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

A neural network approach, which utilises open-source big data, can help assess sustainable development in smaller cities across China which have limited data availability and may be further behind in reaching Sustainable Development Goals than their larger counterparts

A pan-tropical analysis using satellite, station-based and reanalysis datasets shows that deforestation causes reduced precipitation, and demonstrates that the effect increases with spatial scale.

Weakening blocking effect of the High Mountain Asia on the westerlies-carried deficit in precipitation minus evaporation from the southeast North Atlantic is demonstrated, leading to persistent northward expansion of terrestrial water storage deficit in the Tibet Plateau.

Local government investment in water infrastructure is associated with rural economic development in the United States. Through the use of interactional models, the economic benefits are shown to be ethnically and racially uneven.

The development of hydropower offers a renewable energy source that can help reduce society’s dependence on fossil fuels. A global assessment of the unused profitable hydropower potential can be performed by incorporating strict constraints to identify hydropower station locations with reduced environmental and societal impacts.

The authors conduct a national inventory on individual tree carbon stocks in Rwanda using aerial imagery and deep learning. Most mapped trees are located in farmlands; new methods allow partitioning to any landscape categories, effective planning and optimization of carbon sequestration and the economic benefits of trees.

The difference between the number of men and women listed as authors on scientific papers and inventors on patents is at least partly attributable to unacknowledged contributions by women scientists.

Coupling advances in socioeconomic projections, climate models, damage functions and discounting methods yields an estimate of the social cost of carbon of US$185 per tonne of CO₂—triple the widely used value published by the US government.

Improved energy access can bring socio-economic benefits, yet these may not be evenly distributed within the household. Zhang et al. conduct a large-scale survey in India and find gender-based disparities in energy services within households.

Helldén et al. apply the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Synergies approach to investigate interactions between SDGs and child health in Cambodia in an interdisciplinary Cambodian stakeholder group. They identify SDGs that positively influence child health and show that progress on child health also promotes the achievement of most other goals.

Measuring the impact of energy policies towards emissions reduction and other sustainability goals is critical for designing effective future policy. Meng et al. assess the impact of energy policies in 42 Asia–Pacific countries and find that strategies are more effective than laws or regulations.

Thousands of plants are known to be edible, yet we lack nutritional data for many of them. This study predicts the B-vitamin profiles for edible plants and finds many have the potential to help alleviate deficiencies and should be conservation priorities.

Different racial/ethnic populations and income groups are found to have been exposed to different levels of air pollution in the USA during the years 2000 to 2016.

Despite the wide acceptance of the role of the material footprint indicator in sustainability, no reporting facility at present provides sufficient information on countries’ material footprints. This study presents a new research platform that regularly provides detailed global material footprint accounts.

Analyses of plant genomes sequenced in the past 20 years, the species taxonomic distribution and national participation reveal that genome quality has increased but substantial taxonomic gaps exist, and that the field has been dominated by the Global North.

Across 57 global food security projection and quantitative scenario studies that have been published in the past two decades, the total global food demand is expected to rise from +35% to +56% between 2010 and 2050, and the population at risk of hunger is expected to change by −91% to +8%. Both ranges are substantially lower than previous projections.

Analyses of a global database reveal that in many developing countries progress in learning remains limited despite increasing enrolment in primary and secondary education, and uncover links between human capital and economic development.

Although progress in the coverage of routine measles vaccination in children in low- and middle-income countries was made during 2000–2019, many countries remain far from the goal of 80% coverage in all districts by 2019.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

Systematic methods for evaluating progress towards the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are developed and tested using 119 indicators at China’s national and subnational levels during 2000–2015, showing improvement overall.

Reuse and recycling of retired electric vehicle batteries offer sustainable waste management but face decision challenges. Ma et al. present a strategy with an accessible economic and environmental evaluation framework for treating these batteries.

Solar water evaporation is regarded as a promising toolset for decentralized drinking water purification. This study predicts the global drinking water supply potential via solar water evaporation, highlighting where and how to promote solar evaporation devices to fulfill the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 with reasonable costs.

In Bangladesh, crop vulnerability, crop income, and access to technical and educational services determine the adoption of climate-smart agriculture practices, which reduce farmers’ multidimensional poverty, according to coastal household data and statistical analysis.

A cluster-randomized trial carried out across 980 villages in a high-risk region in China found that systematic treatment of antibiotics, omeprazole and bismuth modestly reduced gastric cancer incidence in Helicobacter pylori-positive populations.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation initiatives have moderately helped to conserve forests while delivering minor benefits to local people, according to a meta-analysis of 32 quantitative studies.

Strategic redistribution of wheat in China’s Huang-Huai-Hai region could significantly reduce environmental impacts and groundwater depletion by improving water and nitrogen use efficiency without decreasing wheat production, according to optimization models

Future water scarcity is expected to increase up to fourfold in most parts of the Pearl Basin by 2050, driven by changes in both water quantity and quality. Water quality management options could cost-effectively half future water scarcity.

Increased soil carbon, lower soil bulk density, higher earthworm abundance and vascular plant richness indicate that permaculture in Central Europe enhances soil health and biodiversity, suggest field experiments in Germany and Luxembourg.

A randomized controlled trial performed in a screen-and-treat program in Zambia found that a portable, battery-operated thermal ablation device was not inferior to cryotherapy and electrosurgical excision in cervical precancer treatment.

A survey of sharks and rays on coral reefs within 66 marine protected areas across 36 countries showcases that the conservation benefits of full MPA protection to sharks almost double when accompanied by effective fisheries management.

A photopolymer platform derived from renewable lipoates can be 3D-printed into high-resolution parts, which possess properties comparable to some commercial acrylic resins, and then recycled to produce a re-printable resin.

Sustainable agricultural policies need to be practically assessed. Here, the authors assess how management practices affect ecosystem services in Swiss agricultural grasslands showing that organic farming has a lesser impact than the eco-scheme and the use as pasture or meadow.

The effectiveness of carbon dioxide emission reduction targets increases with the level of the targets’ ambition and countries’ education level and income equality, according to an analysis using an econometric model and emission intensity and socio-economic data for 163 countries over the past decade.

Implementation of organized low-dose computed tomography screening in over 4,000 individuals with high risk for lung cancer as part of the Ontario Lung Cancer Screening Pilot reported high cancer detection rates, early detection of cancer and low serious harms.

Camera-trap images of 55 mammal species in 14 logging concessions in western equatorial Africa reveal greater animal encounter rates in FSC-certified than in non-certified forests, especially for large mammals and species of high conservation priority.

Pioneering coral probiotics study shows in situ application reshapes the coral microbiome, boosting beneficial bacteria and reducing pathogens without affecting surrounding seawater and sediment microbiomes.

A deep learning-based system enables the rapid detection and classification of the invasive hornet Vespa velutina, providing an automated surveillance capability at the invasion front.

This study shows that urban irrigation is capable of achieving the environmental co-benefit of heat mitigation and carbon neutrality and has the potential to counteract the climate–carbon feedback loop in the U.S. urban environment.

In the European Union, current climate policies improve energy- and carbon- as well as inequality-related aspects of sustainability; future net-zero emissions pathways further improve population health and agricultural productivity, according to an integrated assessment modelling analysis.

The PRODIGITAL-D trial in adults aged 60+ years from socioeconomically deprived areas of Brazil showed that a 6-week self-help mobile messaging psychosocial intervention was effective in improving depression recovery at 3 months compared to a single message control intervention.

A modeling study of 35 cholera-affected countries in Africa showed that introducing cholera surveillance could improve the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of preventive cholera vaccination campaigns.

Household water, sanitation, and handwashing (WASH) interventions can reduce diarrhoea-related morbidity in young children. Here, the authors report findings from a pre-specified secondary analysis of a cluster-randomised trial assessing how WASH impacts vary by socioeconomic position and season.

Integrated analysis of clinical, serological and behavioral data estimates that current clinical surveillance systems detect only 1 of 3,280 true community infections in a cholera-endemic region of Bangladesh.

In a phase 3 trial, an anxiety-focused cognitive behavioral therapy intervention delivered during pregnancy by non-specialist providers in Pakistan reduced the incidence of postnatal depression and anxiety compared to enhanced care.

An interrupted time series analysis found that the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control reduced smoking prevalence across 170 countries (excluding China) since the country-specific year of ratification.

Avoiding the most damaging land use and freshwater impacts of solar PV, wind, and hydropower development while halving carbon emissions by 2040 in the Southern Africa region is not only possible but incurs only modest (3-6%) system cost increases.

The authors found that replacing animal source foods with plant-based alternatives would lead to substantial reductions in environmental impacts, while meeting most nutrition recommendations and being cost-competitive with the current average Swedish diet.

We develop a proton-exchange membrane system that reduces CO₂ to formic acid at a catalyst that is derived from waste lead–acid batteries and in which a lattice carbon activation mechanism contributes.

A machine learning model for generating crop-specific and spatially explicit NH₃ emission factors globally shows that global NH₃ emissions in 2018 were lower than previous estimates that did not fully consider fertilizer management practices.

Steps to enhance countries’ emission pledges – early implementation of existing net-zero pledges, inclusion of all countries, and aiming for net-zero 5 years earlier– can close most of the gap between emissions trends and Paris targets, according to integrated assessment model results.

This study shows that conserving approximately half of global land area through protection or sustainable management could provide 90% of ten of nature’s contributions to people and could meet representation targets for 26,709 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. This finding supports recent commitments to conserve at least 30% of global lands and waters by 2030.

Clean water and sanitation are major global challenges. Here, Prof. Zhang’s group developed a two-dimensional cobalt-functionalized vermiculite membrane, which overcame the persistent membrane permeability-selectivity trade-off in water purification.

Here the authors demonstrate how managed urbanization in China could halve reactive nitrogen pollution to both the atmosphere and water resources. Investing 61 billion USD could provide 245 billion USD in benefits, while contributing to multiple SDG goals.

Post-disaster education continuity is a significant global challenge. The study demonstrates that scenario-based recovery analyses can help quantify the impact of disaster management policies on post-disaster education continuity in low-income countries.

A tethered macrocyclic peptide antibiotic class described here—which shows potent antibacterial activity against carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii—blocks the transport of bacterial lipopolysaccharide from the inner membrane to its destination on the outer membrane through inhibition of the LptB₂FGC complex.

A mechanism of lipid transport inhibition has been identified for a class of peptide antibiotics effective against resistant Acinetobacter strains, which may have applications in the inhibition of other Gram-negative pathogens.

Here, the authors adopt systemwide EROI to assess the sustainability risks of nine global energy transition scenarios. The EROI of fossil fuel dominated scenarios tend to approach the upper limit of the net energy cliff, posing higher sustainability risks.

Hybrid urban water supply systems combine conventional, centralized water sources with distributed sources. Such system configurations are shown to exhibit lower severity, range of impact and duration of substandard performance compared with centralized systems in a number of disruptive incidents.

Picchio et al. report findings from a community-based hepatitis B virus (HBV) screening program for sub-Saharan African migrants in Catalonia, Spain, utilizing simplified testing and expedited referral to specialist care. Their findings support the adoption of these strategies to increase HBV testing and linkage to care among at-risk populations.

A modelled evaluation of screening and treatment strategies for prevention of cervical cancer in 78 low- and lower-middle-income countries provides evidence to support the World Health Organization’s recommendation of primary HPV testing for women in the general population.

A model evaluating cervical screening, triage and treatment strategies to prevent cervical cancer in women living with HIV in Tanzania provides evidence to support the World Health Organization’s recommendation of primary HPV testing starting at age 25 years with 3–5-year regular screening intervals.

Network-based restoration strategies that prioritize the reintroduction of highly connected species maximize the recovery of biodiversity following ecosystem collapse.

The rapid deployment of low-carbon measures is urgently needed to reduce cement emissions as cement CO₂ emissions from developing countries will almost deplete the remaining cement emissions budget within climate targets.

Combining mussel and macroalgae farming with offshore wind farms can provide emission capture and utilization of carbon and macro-nutrients for food, feed, and materials, suggest up-scaled model simulations from the North and Baltic Seas.

Analysis of the largest behaviour change programme for prediabetes globally provides causal evidence that lifestyle advice and counselling implemented at scale can improve key cardiovascular risk factors.

Unproductive palm oil is hindering sustainable development in Sumatra, Indonesia, but its replanting through small plantations could contribute more to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals than industrial replanting, suggests a model-data analysis based on 25,067 villages.

Current cereal crop production levels could be sustained with significantly reduced total global fertilisation if nitrogen fertiliser use is evenly distributed across global croplands, according to an analysis of simulations from the LandscapeDNDC biogeochemical model

A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies representing 16 countries found that hobby engagement was associated with better mental and self-reported health in adults aged 65 years and older as well as correlation with higher life expectancy and national happiness levels.

Efforts to retain or increase land carbon pools are hampered by the risk of loss to natural or human disturbances. The proposed approach to tonne-year accounting could effectively quantify and track the climate value of both temporary and permanent carbon storage.

A community-led randomized controlled trial in China showed that a pay-it-forward incentives increased the uptake of hepatitis B and C virus testing in men who have sex with men as compared with standard-of-care.

The adoption of climate-resilient crop varieties has the potential to build farmers’ climate resilience. Here, the authors show that adoption of climate-resilient groundnut varieties in West Africa benefits all households, with the biggest gains accruing to small-scale farmers.

Emissions embodied in equity portfolios have increased since 2015 due to holdings of more carbon-intensive assets but investing in high-tech sectors instead can enhance sustainability and reduce climate-related risks, according to estimates of carbon footprint trends in the portfolios of 105 Chinese equity fund firms.

In Europe, social innovation in energy is largely driven by governance in a national context, and receives strong acceptance from citizens, concludes a mixed methods analysis of surveys, experiments and expert elicitation.

Surveys of reef change are combined with a unique 20-year time series of land–sea human impacts and the results show that integrated land–sea management could help achieve coastal ocean conservation goals and provide coral reefs with the best opportunity to persist in our changing climate.

This work quantifies the climate benefits of efficiently utilizing concrete through improved material and structural design, and it shows that over 75% of CO2 emissions from global concrete production could be cut with already implementable measures

By harvesting aquatic vegetation that provides habitat for snails that harbour Schistosoma parasites and converting it to compost and animal feed, a trial reduced schistosomiasis prevalence in children while providing wider economic benefits.

Europe’s aviation must reduce more than just flight CO₂ emissions to achieve net-zero. Synthetic fuels and carbon capture and storage could help but decreasing air traffic is crucial due to non-CO₂ climate impacts and resource constraints.

Ru nanoparticles on HZSM-5 catalysed solvent- and hydrogen-free upcycling of high-density polyethylene into a separable distribution of linear (C₁ to C₆) and cyclic (C₇ to C₁₅) hydrocarbons.

A survey of mortality data from low- and middle-income countries shows that government-led cash transfer programmes are associated with decreased mortality among women and children under five years of age.

The hidden costs of current diets, or the cost saving associated with the adoption of low-carbon diets, remain unknown. This study combines life cycle assessment and monetarization factors to quantify the indirect costs of nine global dietary change strategies which progressively reduce animal-sourced foods, including consumption-linked health burden from changes in diet-related disease risk.

Achieving net zero targets in Switzerland will increase the per capita energy system cost by 320 to 1390 CHF/year and will rely on carbon capture and negative emissions, according to an energy system modelling analysis of 7 scenarios with different socio-economic and geopolitical contexts.

Floatable hydrogel nanocomposites, with facile intercalation of various photocatalysts, effectively produce hydrogen. The easily scalable nature of the nanocomposites demonstrates the practical application of this new type of photocatalytic platform.

Ensuring that waste or by-products from one process form the input of another is key for food systems sustainability. This study assesses the biophysical potential of redesigning the European (EU27 + UK) food system on the basis of circularity principles. Changes in food consumption, crop production, animal production and fertilizer patterns are considered through scenario analysis.

In a cluster-randomized trial performed in 48 residential elderly care facilities in China, use of a low-sodium salt substitute instead of regular salt decreased blood pressure and cardiovascular events, whereas an alternative strategy of restricting salt consumption was not successful and did not have these beneficial effects.

Here, the authors perform analysis of technology pathways for existing buildings using urban building energy models developed with cities, showing that shallow and deep retrofits along with onsite photovoltaic and grid decarbonization can help achieve carbon reduction targets.

Spatial optimizations of high-resolution data from China on crop-specific yields, harvested areas, environmental footprints and farmer incomes shows that crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes, and contribute substantially towards China’s agricultural sustainable development targets.

Analyses of eight dietary patterns revealed that adherence to low insulinemic, low inflammatory or diabetes risk-reducing diets was associated with the largest risk reduction of cardiometabolic diseases and cancer in US men and women.

Carbon dioxide removal will be essential to reaching ambitious climate goals by offsetting hard-to-abate emissions and drawing down legacy CO₂. A diverse portfolio of CO₂ removal strategies, rather than any single approach, could achieve gigatonne-scale removals while limiting risks to the water–energy–land system.

A proposed optimal nitrogen rate strategy together with analysis of an extensive on-farm dataset shows that meeting national rice production targets in 2030 in China is possible while concurrently reducing nationwide nitrogen consumption.

Recovering metals from wastewater and brine could augment metal stocks that are fundamental to modern technology. This Perspective assesses the potential of, and provides guidance for, recovering metals from wastewater and brine.

The Nile River system is faced with challenges including increasing water demands, political tensions, and future climate and socio-economic uncertainties. Cooperative adaptive management can help increase synergies, balance trade-offs and bring various benefits to riparian countries.

An Indonesia-wide analysis identifies locations for potential mangrove restoration, ranked by scenarios of success likelihood according to biogeomorphology, current and past land use and land tenure, and estimates the restoration costs.

An efficient and scalable direct seawater electrolysis method for hydrogen production that addresses the side-reaction and corrosion problems associated with using seawater instead of pure water is demonstrated.

Advancements in satellite imagery and machine learning can be used to infer the causal impact of electricity access on livelihoods, providing a low-cost, generalizable approach to evaluating public policy in data-spare environments.

Natural gas is seen as a key interim fuel along the pathway to a zero-carbon energy system, yet there is some concern it may delay the transition. This Analysis estimates the life cycle emissions from gas-fired electricity and the abatement potential of different mitigation options.

This work introduces lightweight, leaf-like photoelectrochemical devices for unassisted water splitting and syngas production, which could be used in the fabrication of floating systems for solar fuel production.

A horizon scan was used to explore possible impacts of robotics and automated systems on achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Positive effects are likely. Iterative regulatory processes and continued dialogue could help avoid environmental damages and increases in inequality.

Clean development mechanism projects with the largest local co-benefits for achieving the sustainable development goals are valued up to 30% higher by the climate finance market, according to econometric analyses.

A forward-synthesis platform, Allchemy, computationally determines how to ‘close the circle’, or use waste chemicals to make valuable pharmaceutical or agrochemical products, ranking possible routes by environmental, geospatial, and other factors.

Untreated, postconsumer-PET from 51 different thermoformed products can all be almost completely degraded by FAST-PETase in 1 week and PET can be resynthesized from the recovered monomers, demonstrating recycling at the industrial scale.

Psychosocial measures improve the cost-effectiveness of multi-faceted interventions against extreme poverty.

Providing reliable, sustainable and clean energy in humanitarian contexts is increasingly important but a lack of data on settlements impedes progress. Here, Baldi et al. present a database and analytical tools for 288 refugee settlements in sub-Saharan Africa that can support renewable energy deployment decisions.

A comprehensive analysis of the key properties of nanopesticides in controlling agricultural pests for crop enhancement shows a much higher efficacy compared with non-nano analogues, also for in-field trials.

Data on the nutrient content of almost 3,000 aquatic animal-source foods is combined with a food-systems model to show that an increase in aquatic-food production could reduce the inadequate intake of most nutrients.

Principles from the field of fair division are used to develop selection algorithms for citizens’ assemblies that produce panels that are representative of the population while simultaneously selecting individuals with near-equal probabilities.

Current action is insufficient to meet both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Integrated model-based analysis shows that strong interventions across many dimensions, together with ambitious lifestyle change, are needed to enable real progress towards the UN Agenda 2030.