Search

Understanding global methane trends remains limited, especially from a consumption view. This study shows rising emissions, limited decoupling, and shifting trade patterns involving more emerging and developing economies.

Global consumption drives freshwater overuse at production sites along supply chains, of which 24% is outsourced via trade. Agricultural demand is a key driver, while manufacturing exports exacerbate water stress in emerging economies.

Low-carbon lifestyles could reduce global carbon footprints by 10.4 gigatons CO₂e by targeting the top 23.7% of emitting households. This study quantifies 21 low-carbon expenditures while noting potential rebound effects that may offset carbon savings.

The consequences of poverty eradication on limiting warming to 2 °C are not fully clear. Here, Hubacek et al. find that while ending extreme poverty does not jeopardize the climate target, moving everybody to a modest expenditure level increases required mitigation rate by 27%

Carbon use often tracks economic development. This study finds the top 5% of Chinese households by income have 17% of the nation’s carbon ‘footprint’ in 2012 but that such inequality declined with China’s economic growth.

An analysis of dietary changes in China and their environmental impact between 1997 and 2011 reveals distinct trends between rural and urban areas, and an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption and land appropriation, driven mainly by the increase of meat consumption.

Food choices greatly affect global GHG emissions, but the contributions of different groups, across or within countries, are highly unequal. Adopting the global planetary health diet could yield co-benefits by reducing both emissions and inequality among populations.

An analysis of the environmental footprints of consumption finds that planetary boundary transgressions can be mitigated by following an effective mitigation pathway focused on the food and services sectors and high-expenditure consumers.

Carbon inequality mirrors extreme wealth and income inequalities globally, with a high level of consumption-based carbon emissions in rich nations. This study shows that lifting people out of poverty does not impact much emissions globally, though in poorer countries emissions could more than double.

A systematic analysis shows that China’s climate policy on carbon intensity reduction may not help all Chinese regions to become more efficient and could actually lock the whole nation into a long-term emission-intensive economic structure.

Using a physical trade flow approach and structural decomposition analysis, this study estimates consumption-based greenhouse gas emissions throughout food supply chains over 2000–2019, revealing overall trends and five underlying drivers.

This study proposes an alternative approach for assessing CO₂ responsibility of capital assets, through allocating required CO₂ from the production of assets over their lifespans of use. It improves the assessment of emission equity across generations.

It is often argued that saving energy helps the environment and saves money. An analysis of three energy-saving measures shows that decisions on how the saved money is spent affect the size of the environmental benefit.

The Russia–Ukraine war triggered an energy crisis that affected the cost of many goods and services. Guan et al. model the direct and indirect impacts of increased energy prices across expenditure groups and countries, finding temporary increases in total household energy costs of 63–113% under different scenarios.

US CO₂emissions dropped ∼11% between 2007 and 2013; a trend widely attributed to the increased use of natural gas over coal, yet the drivers behind this decline remain unquantified. Here, the authors analyse the drivers and show that the recent economic downturn is primarily responsible for the emissions drop.

Global emissions could decrease 3.9–5.6% over 5 years due to COVID-19, and the interconnected economy means lockdown-related declines reach beyond borders. As countries look to stimulate their economies, how fiscal incentives are allocated and invested will determine longer-term emission changes.

The coupled impacts of diets on health and the environment must be considered when setting food policy targets and evaluating the effectiveness of specific interventions. A newly proposed health–environment efficiency indicator applied to 195 countries over two decades can aid this process, revealing important trends and drivers.

Activities in cities are important drivers of global carbon fluxes. Here the authors trace the carbon metabolism in 16 global cities in terms of both physical and virtual carbon inflows, stock changes and outflows in relation to the supply chains of urban production and consumption and show that the total carbon impacts of global cities are found to be highly varied in either per capita, intensity or density measures.

Achieving European Green Deal targets may benefit the European Union ecologically but increase global environmental impacts. This study quantifies such external impacts and suggests ways to minimize them

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen marked an important step in global climate action with parties submitting 2020 mitigation targets. However, this retrospective study shows that many countries either have failed to meet their targets or have reduced their emissions through carbon leakage.

Reliable statistics are important for both climate science and international negotiations about emission-reduction targets. However, China is often questioned in terms of its data transparency and accuracy. Now researchers have compiled the carbon dioxide emission inventories for China and its 30 provinces for the period 1997–2010, and found a 1.4 gigatonne discrepancy between national and provincial inventories in 2010.

New study finds geographical mismatch in cross-regional ranking between cost and benefit of carbon mitigation, as well as spatial mismatch between relative suitability of mitigation and mitigation ambition of emitters.

This study indicates that allowing up to 20% abated fossil fuel in China’s power generation system could reduce the power shortage rate by up to 9% in 2050, and increase system resilience during weather events relative to a zero fossil fuel system.

Coal–biomass co-firing power plants with retrofitted carbon capture and storage are seen as a promising decarbonization solution for coal-dominant energy systems. Framework with spatially explicit biomass sources, plants and geological storage sites demonstrate its effectiveness in China.

Guan et al. analyse the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on global supply chains. Earlier, stricter and shorter lockdowns can minimize overall losses. A ‘go-slow’ approach to lifting restrictions may reduce overall damages if it avoids the need for further lockdowns.

The integrated and indivisible nature of the SDGs is facing implementation challenges due to the silo approaches. We present the three interconnected foci (SDG interactions, modeling, and tools) at the science-policy interface to address these challenges. Accounting for them will support accelerated SDG progress, operationalizing the integration and indivisibility principles.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly being integrated into Earth science, but how Earth science may benefit artificial intelligence has been overlooked. We call for mutual balancing between the two disciplines and improving cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Higher income is associated with healthier, but more environmentally detrimental, diets in the United States. Healthy diets with lower environmental impacts are achievable within current food budgets for the majority of the population, but are unaffordable for 38% of Black and Hispanic people in the lowest income and education groups.

The global economy delivers benefits but affects the environment. A study finds that over the period 1995–2019 the environmental pressures and impacts of EU consumption of goods and services were outsourced to non-EU countries, while the benefits stayed within the EU but were not evenly distributed.

Carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution are often assessed on a national or regional level, but little is known about the role of trade structures. Here, a combination of models shows that trade restrictions can lead to massive reduction of gross domestic product in most countries, but also to a reduction of emissions and pollution.

Robust estimates of either urban expansion worldwide or the effects of such phenomenon on terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) are lacking. Here the authors used the new dataset of global land use to show that the global urban areas expanded largely between 2000 and 2010, which in turn reduced terrestrial NPP globally.

Most of the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in China’s exports come from provinces with carbon-intensive energy mixes. Reducing the carbon intensity of production in these regions is a targeted means of addressing the climate–trade dilemma.

China has entered a new normal phase of economic development with a changing role in global trade. Here the authors show that emissions embodied in China’s exports declined from 2007 to 2012, while developing countries become the major destinations of China’s export emissions.

Increased policy efforts and strengthened governance across 125 countries have contributed to the decarbonization of the global power sector, according to a collection of 1115 energy policy and governance capacity variables from 2000 to 2017.

A revised estimate of Chinese carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production is presented, based on updated energy consumption and clinker production data and two new sets of measured emission factors for Chinese coal.

China’s biomass imports and consumption from lower-middle-income and low-income countries increased between 2004 and 2017 and are expected to continue to increase by 402.9% in 2050, according to an analysis of the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production metric and model projections.

The environmental impact of companies from carbon dioxide emissions, energy use, water withdrawal and waste production increases more slowly than the size of the company, according to an analysis of 6500 companies’ data for 2018.