Editorials

Recent progress demonstrates the potential of hydrogen as a vector for decarbonization in different sectors of the energy system, but continued support is required to avoid losing momentum in delivering solutions to climate and energy goals.

As the yellow vests protests in France continue despite rollback of planned fuel taxes, energy science and policy will have to rethink how they look at social unrest.

This year marks ten years of organic–inorganic perovskite solar cell research. Now, after achieving remarkable gains in performance, applications are starting to make their way out of research laboratories into the real world.

Mounting calls for action on low-carbon heating and cooling systems are welcome, but we must move beyond only talking about it.

Enacting structural changes to systems that reinforce existing gender norms is a critical step that we must undertake in academia.

Behavioural interventions are an important instrument in the energy-policy toolkit. However, researchers and policymakers should consider their own bounded rationality in these efforts.

Increased local energy generation may offer a route to meet climate targets while empowering community groups, but care is still needed to support those vulnerable to energy system change.

Negative emissions technologies face numerous challenges, from techno-economic hurdles to public acceptance concerns, but progress in research, collaboration and regulation provide indications that they may yet form part of future energy systems.

The growth of photovoltaics in electricity markets and in research laboratories brings exciting challenges in scaling-up innovative technologies and deploying them for a variety of applications.

Cities appear to be progressing in leaps and bounds towards a renewable energy world, but their actions may soon start to lead to increasing friction with higher levels of governance.

Electric motors are replacing combustion engines in vehicles thanks to the tremendous progress in battery development, but issues remain in navigating transportation with battery technologies.

A set of new and updated policies have recently been launched at the Nature Research journals to try to increase the reproducibility and transparency of the research we publish.

US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry may have lost his bid to prop up coal and nuclear power, but he has started a valuable conversation about the grid and its resilience.

Investment in clean-energy technology is increasingly seen as a clear opportunity. Definitive plans would spur more concrete action.

Cold temperatures put financial strain on millions of households for whom sufficient heating is prohibitively expensive.

New approaches to collaboration between private and public sectors can speed up innovation, but greater coordination is required to make even greater gains.

We all stand to gain by doing more to combat gender inequality.

Energy models provide powerful insights for decision-makers, but more care is needed around the choice of reference scenarios and the transparency of assumptions.

Recent large-scale carbon-capture schemes in the energy sector point to progress, but further development and support are still required to improve viability and widespread deployment.

The development of rechargeable batteries looks hugely successful on paper, but moving in leaps takes fundamental breakthroughs, truly meaningful performance advances, and technological integration.