World View

Besides decarbonizing energy supply, photovoltaics can also largely enhance the resilience of global food supply, argues Zhenguo Li.

How can sustainability science avoid paralysis in the face of complexity and ensure it catalyses meaningful action? The key lies in practising the science and art of simplexity, argues Bassel Daher.

Transforming wastewater treatment into a system that closes the nutrient cycle is paramount to achieve a fairer, healthier and cleaner future, argues Cees Buisman.

Only a holistic approach can help to mitigate the intensified global systemic environmental risks under climate change.

Advanced remote sensing shows illegal deforestation as it happens, allowing for prompt action when there is the political will to stop it, argues Stuart Pimm.

Want faster permits? Start by giving agencies the staff they need to do their jobs, then let’s talk about updating laws.

Scaling up adoption of green technologies in energy, mobility, construction, manufacturing and agriculture is imperative to set countries on a sustainable development path, but that hinges on having the right workforce, argues Jonatan Pinkse.

Apprehensions about job losses in incumbent industries can hold up sustainability transformations unless policymakers bolster efforts towards job reskilling programmes, argues Marko Hekkert.

End-of-life plastics conversion is crucial to reduce plastic pollution and realize a circular economy, argues Ding Ma.

Policy making is entering a phase of more transformative strategies targeting the full life cycle of plastics, argues Patrick Schröder.

The rapid increase in plastics waste is worrying, but approaching sufficiency in a broader sense can tackle much more than plastic waste streams only, argues Sylvia Lorek.

When strategizing the design of sustainable polymers, the timescale must be an essential dimension, that is, even for bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics their resource utilization should not outpace resource regeneration, argues Eugene Chen.

Orchestrating a global transition to a sustainable world economy seems both urgent and surpassingly daunting. J.R. McNeill asks whether there is a workaround.

A mission-oriented approach to transform capitalism is the only way to make progress towards sustainable development, argues Mariana Mazzucato.

Rapid progress toward intergenerational well-being requires systems approaches, inclusion, collaboration and a focus on scale, argues Pamela Matson.