Balancing energy transition: Assessing decent living standards and future energy demand in the Global South
Achieving low energy demand in buildings is crucial in climate change mitigation. In the Global South, however, reducing the energy demand blanketly is not advisable due to critical gaps in access to…
Human development is fundamentally dependent on the state of the environment. ‘Planetary boundaries’ define a set of limits with regard to the environmental conditions on the planet within which human…
Global sustainability scenarios lead to regionally different outcomes for terrestrial biodiversity
Mitigating climate change (CC) and reversing biodiversity decline are urgent and interconnected global priorities. Strategies to address both crises must consider the relationships, synergies and…
Global riverine land-to-ocean carbon export constrained by observations and multi-model assessment
Rivers are a key component of the global carbon cycle. They receive vast quantities of terrestrial carbon, of which a large fraction is ultimately exported to the coastal ocean. Our review of…
Digital twins of the Earth are digital representations of the Earth system, spanning scales and domains. Their purpose is to monitor, forecast and assess the Earth system and the consequences of human…
Assessing multiple ecosystem services in 708 European urban areas
Nature is increasingly recognised for its potential to address societal challenges in cities, through the delivery of ecosystem services (ES). However, large-scale assessments quantifying this…
Prospective life cycle assessment of climate and biodiversity impacts of meat-based and plant-forward meals: A case study of Indonesian and German meal options
The emerging field of prospective life cycle assessment (pLCA) offers opportunities for evaluating the environmental impacts of possible future consumption shifts. One such shift involves a transition…
Global inland-water nitrogen cycling has accelerated in the Anthropocene
Inland waters are an important component of the global nitrogen (N) cycle, functioning not only as land-to-sea transporters but also as active biogeochemical reactors. However, the latter role is not…
Modelling the impacts of climate change on agrochemical fate and transport by water on a catchment scale
The export of agrochemicals and their transformation products (TPs) following their application in the agricultural fields poses a threat to water quality. Future changes in climatic conditions (e.g…
A green hydrogen revolution in Africa remains elusive under current geopolitical realities
Africa's abundant renewable energy resources and vast land areas present an unprecedented opportunity for the development of a green hydrogen economy. Several countries in Africa have already…