Reviews & Analysis

Massive hydropower expansion in the global south repeats unsustainable past social and environmental harms, raising questions about how to govern these projects effectively. This Review highlights shifting and evolving global dynamics, and identifies opportunities for more just and strategic hydropower governance.

High temperatures disrupt sleep worldwide, with disproportionate impacts on older adults, women and populations in lower-income countries. A study uses climate change simulations to project future global sleep erosion and, in turn, the decline in childhood general cognitive ability and associated socioeconomic costs.

Soft robots inspired by living organisms hold the promise of gentle, adaptable interactions with the natural world, but leave behind persistent waste. Now scientists show a fully compostable robotic system that addresses this limitation by offering durable performance and decomposing safely into the soil at the end of its life.

Growing demand for nuclear fuel is accelerating the need for sustainable uranium resources that ensure long-term supply and mitigate environmental risks. A study now presents an intriguing self-powered methodology that utilizes the motion of falling water droplets to drive uranium recovery from salt lakes.

The planetary boundaries framework has emerged as a powerful tool for assessing the sustainable habitability of our planet. Reassessing these boundaries from a flow-based perspective demonstrates the critical threat posed by climate change relative to other biogeochemical risks.

Reusing materials from spent lithium-ion batteries is a key strategy for developing a sustainable supply chain, but we need to deepen our understanding of the associated environmental impacts. Now, a model-based analysis shows that pretreating end-of-life batteries is critical for enhancing the sustainability of recycling.

Coral reefs are at a planetary tipping point, widely threatened by ocean acidification. Preserving and promoting coastal ecosystems can align with existing nature-based solutions to bolster blue carbon reservoirs to increase ocean alkalinity and support coral reef restoration.

The growing demand for therapeutic peptides has intensified concerns about the sustainability of current synthetic processes, which typically rely on excess reagents and, most critically, large volumes of solvents. In the pursuit of more sustainable practices, scientists now report a water-based synthetic protocol.

Antimicrobial resistance continues to be a critical One Health challenge, despite research and policy progress. Building on the past decade of research, this Perspective provides an integrative roadmap for addressing antimicrobial resistance by leveraging the complexities of human and environment interactions.

In recent decades, zoonotic disease outbreaks have become increasingly frequent, necessitating strategies to improve the accuracy of predictive modelling. This Review discusses the importance of macroecological variables in such modelling efforts to improve preparedness for future potential outbreaks.

Global household material use is highly unequal: the top 10% drive roughly a third of footprints and most of the overshoot beyond safe limits. Curbing affluent overconsumption, while securing decent material floors, should be a central policy lever to cut material demand quickly and fairly.

River protection in the United States remains scant, with just over one-tenth of river length in the contiguous states protected at viable levels, often by land-based protection measures that fail to capture the full diversity of the nation’s river systems. There is an urgent need for policies that safeguard, strengthen and expand freshwater protections to secure rivers that sustain both people and nature.

Positive cross-system cascades in sustainability transitions are underexplored, despite their potential to accelerate net-zero pathways. This Perspective analyses such cascades in the context of electrification, identifying 12 mechanisms across sociotechnical systems and offering policy recommendations to amplify their impact.

Governments worldwide collected US$923 billion in fuel taxes in 2023, revenues at risk with the transition to electric vehicles, especially in lower-income countries. Policymakers should anticipate and assess their own domestic exposure and develop policies to recover enough revenues from electric vehicles as the transition progresses.

Supporting the shift towards more climate-friendly lifestyles needs legally enforced climate policies, but enforcement may result in undesired boomerang effects if policies are designed poorly. Now a study illustrates how behavioural insights can improve climate policy design.

Mixed plastics are hard to upcycle because they are not all miscible with each other and deliver blends of poor quality when melted together. Now reactive additives help to make these components compatible when processed at 180 °C.