Articles in 2026

The changing seasonality of river runoff and sediment in mountain regions concerns water managers as warmer, wetter conditions degrade the cryosphere. Extreme seasonal sediment transport has resulted in river mobility that threatens regional agriculture and infrastructure.

Purifying air contaminated with particulate matter is crucial to improve air quality. Here the authors introduce a triboelectric air filter that leverages pulsed bubble-induced electrostatic potentials to realize the efficient removal of particulate matter from air.

Legal systems can either enable or constrain shifts to sustainability. Here the authors bridge computational network analysis with qualitative legal expertise to develop a conceptual framework that can help identify and target changes to existing laws that can trigger system-wide effects.

Climate change-induced sea-level rise poses a significant societal challenge, but the extent of potential inundation remains uncertain. Looking at the recent geologic past and at prehistoric human adaptation provides valuable insights into possible new coastlines and strategies to help inform the future of modern coastal communities.

This study showcases the upcycling of invasive water hyacinth into photosynthetic microspheres which provide sustained oxygen evolution and metabolic regulation, significantly accelerating the healing process of chronic diabetic wounds.

Creating scalable and cost-effective smart windows that modulate solar radiation has long been a challenge. A simple electrochromic organogel can effectively tune solar radiation entering indoor space through the dynamic aggregation of polyoxometalate clusters, enabling large-area, low-cost glazing for energy-efficient buildings and vehicles.

Wastewater utilities use anaerobic digestion and biogas utilization to reduce energy costs and emissions, but methane leakage can undermine both the climate benefits and project economics of these systems, especially as power grids decarbonize. Safeguarding climate integrity will require performance-based methane policies that pair robust monitoring with enforceable leakage thresholds and targeted leak detection and repair.

Enacting the social and environmental change needed to address the most pressing sustainability challenges can prove unwieldy. However, identifying positive tipping points that accelerate positive feedback cycles may be the key to large-scale natural recovery.

Biogas recovery enables renewable energy production alongside waste treatment, but the climate benefits are compromised by methane leakage. Here the authors systematically assessed how to manage methane leakage for sustaining net climate benefits of wastewater biogas recovery.

Electrochromic windows provide an energy-efficient pathway to manage thermal efficiency. This work describes a glazing design that is scalable, stable over cycling and functional for a wide solar spectrum.

Direct non-oxidative conversion of methane into valuable hydrocarbons is a highly promising low-carbon pathway. This study presents a filament-catalyst reactor that spatially separates high-temperature methane activation from low-temperature product formation for better efficiency and selectivity.

Tidal flats are vital carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots, yet they face increasing threats from misapplied climate solutions, including mangrove afforestation and renewable energy expansion. Protecting tidal flats from well-intentioned but misapplied solutions is crucial for aligning global climate and biodiversity goals.

Governments are considering subsidies for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage fuelled by wood from existing forests. However, a transparent model estimates that this will probably increase emissions for decades, increase electricity costs 3.5-fold and not generate negative emissions for 150 years.

This work shows a sustainable, scalable and cost-effective synthetic process from polyacrylonitrile precursors for the production of high-performance carbon anode in lithium-ion batteries.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, but can also be used as a source for advanced carbon materials. This work shows a sustainable approach to produce high-value carbon fibres through methane pyrolysis.

Urbanization can affect the dynamics of microbial communities, which can, in turn, have implications for public health. By leveraging global metagenome datasets, the authors study the impact of urbanization age on microbial communities for actionable insights for urban planning and public health.

Most crop-producing regions in the USA experience critical organic nutrient deficits. These deficits could be addressed by the coordinated local reuse of important nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus sourced from human and livestock waste.

Ubiquitous mobility data from traffic cameras and mobile phones enable large-scale, fine-grained, near-real-time estimation of traffic emissions. Our analysis reveals systematic biases in conventional urban emission inventories and shows that Manhattan’s congestion pricing programme led to a 16–22% reduction in traffic emissions in the 8 weeks after its implementation.

Electrochemical processes enable the efficient removal of persistent water pollutants, yet real-world applications are hindered by electrolyte addition and low overall energy efficiency. A device design now addresses these challenges, enabling electrolyte-free operation while coupling cathodic and anodic processes to improve treatment and energy efficiencies.

Bio-photosynthesis has the potential to achieve sustainable chemical production, but technical challenges remain. This work proposes a solar–chemical hybrid-driven biosynthesis strategy to achieve efficient chemical production from wastewater and carbon dioxide.