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International cooperation is needed to stop developed nations simply offloading defunct electronics on developing countries, argue Zhaohua Wang, Bin Zhang and Dabo Guan.

Song, Liu, and colleagues introduced a Hydrogen-to-Carbon Mole Ratio (HCR) index to measure the cleanness of global fossil fuel transition over nearly four decades, and found that high-income economies use cleaner fossil fuels (with higher HCR) than low-income ones, highlighting global energy inequality.

A model has been developed to identify the least-cost technology pathway for global individual iron and steel plants over 2020–2050 in alignment with national carbon-neutrality targets.

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.

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.

In China, about 10 percent of industrial sectors are the least efficient water users across 343 prefectures, and water savings opportunities exist in agriculture, the clothing and chemical industry, according to an analysis that uses water withdrawal data.

International trade links regions of production and consumption. Analyses with a multiregional input–output model based on trade data reveal that much of East Asia’s aerosol radiative forcing is tied to consumption in developed countries.

The decline in China’s CO₂ emissions in the past few years is largely due to changes in industrial structure and a decline in the share of coal for energy production, according to a quantitative analysis of the drivers of CO₂ emissions.

In order to achieve net zeros in our urban areas, buildings need to adapt. This paper demonstrates a transferable building-scale model for net zero transitions in Nanjing. China.

Recycling, renewables and a reinvigorated domestic energy market will allow China to lead the world in low-carbon development, say Zhu Liu and colleagues.

Transboundary river basins (TRBs) are at an increasing risk of water scarcity-induced conflicts. Nearly 40% of global TRBs could face such conflicts by 2050, but measures such as intra-basin cooperation could reduce this proportion to less than 10%.

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.

Regional targets and improved market mechanisms could enable the nation's carbon dioxide emissions to peak by 2030, say Zhu Liu and colleagues.

Although climate warming after the 1950s is clear in many studies, records suggest an earlier onset to industrial impacts. This study combines observational data with simulations and finds a weakening of temperature seasonality, attributable to human influence, over the Northern Hemisphere since the late nineteenth century.

The vulnerability of barley production and beer supply to future weather extremes remains unknown. A study using modelling finds that weather extremes associated with climate change would threaten the availability and economic accessibility of beer.

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.

Manipulating the electronic properties of topological semimetals is a central goal of modern condensed matter physics research. Here, the authors demonstrate how a high-entropy engineering approach allows for the tuning of the crystal structure and the electronic states in a Dirac semimetal.

The rapid growth of South–South trade reflects a new phase of globalization. Here the authors show that some energy-intensive production activities, particularly raw materials and intermediate goods, and related CO₂ emissions are relocating from China and India to other developing countries.

Households’ carbon footprints often differ with wealth and level of consumption. This study shows the urban rich disproportionally contribute to the Chinese carbon footprint, whilst overall household footprints are growing with increased consumerism.

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.

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.

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.

Household income is a typical measure of inequality, but it is limited by under-reporting, especially for rural Chinese households. A new study shows that energy consumption measures service flows of household durable electronics, which can provide more precise measurement of rural wealth inequalities and distributions.

The aluminium production process is energy intensive and individual smelters often depend on associated fossil fuel-based captive power units. With detailed global facility-level data, this research highlights the importance of early retirement of fossil fuel plants and retrofitting with inert anodes.

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.

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.

A new aviation carbon footprint tool improves accuracy and transparency by incorporating nitrogen oxide, water vapor, and contrail impacts, life cycle emissions from aircraft and airports, and adjusting flight emissions with historical flight data.

With sources of renewable energy spreading fast, all sectors can do more to decarbonize the world, argue Christiana Figueres and colleagues.

The rapid deployment of low-carbon measures is urgently needed to reduce cement emissions as cement CO₂ emissions from developing countries will almost deplete the remaining cement emissions budget within climate targets.

Achieving decent living standards for global emerging economies is estimated to lead to an additional 8.6 Gt of CO₂ emission with more than half of emerging economies emitting additional CO₂ more than the value of their emission reduction commitments

A paper led by Prof. Zhang evaluates the value chain carbon footprints of Chinese listed companies. The results could encourage collaborative climate actions along value chains and help investors understand the environmental impacts of their investment.

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.

The growing energy consumption and carbon emissions of Bitcoin mining could potentially undermine global sustainability efforts. Here, the authors show the annual energy consumption of the Bitcoin blockchain in China is expected to peak in 2024 at 296.59 Twh and generate 130.50 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

A CO₂ emissions inventory of 4,883 individual iron and steel plants along with their technical characteristics is described, allowing the identification and guidance of the most appropriate emissions mitigation and decarbonization pathways for each plant.

Air pollution can affect people’s emotional status and well-being. Here, the authors simulate fixed-scene images to show that under the atmospheric conditions in Beijing, negative emotions occur when air quality index of PM_2.5 increases to approximately 150.

Traditional carbon accounting attributes gap between consumption- and production-based emissions to international trade. The authors develop a dynamic model that incorporates capital stock change and find it improves estimates for fast-developing countries.

The online food delivery and takeaway market is growing in China, serving 406 million customers with 10.0 billion orders in 2018. Here, data from an online food delivery platform, life-cycle environmental impacts of packaging and tableware waste generated across 353 cities in China, and scenarios for paper alternatives and tableware sharing are presented.

Global CO₂ emissions in 2024 increased 0.9% on the previous year, totalling 36.3 Gt CO₂. These ongoing emissions further deplete remaining carbon budgets, with some estimates suggesting the 1.5 °C budget will be surpassed within the next 5 years — and may have been already.

International trade redistributes production activities to regions with varying emission intensities. This study finds that the convergence of emission intensities between the global South - North and changes in trade patterns have resulted in declining net emissions in trade in the past decade.

Measuring the impact of energy policies towards emissions reduction and other sustainability goals is critical for designing effective future policy. Meng et al. assess the impact of energy policies in 42 Asia–Pacific countries and find that strategies are more effective than laws or regulations.

China’s clean air action stimulated a net accumulative reduction of 2.43 Gt CO₂ emission from 2013-2020. Phase-out and upgrades of outdated, polluting, and inefficient combustion facilities have promoted the transition of the country’s energy system.