Analyses

Focusing on China’s six natural gas sources and three end-use gas-forcoalsubstitution strategies in 2020, this study shows that, except for coal-based synthetic gas, replacement of coalwith gas usually has air–carbon–water co-benefits, although with air–water trade-offs in the magnitude ofimprovement.

Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries, and half the world’s supply comes from one district in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This study assesses the sustainability of artisanal mining there, finding much higher levels of cobalt in blood and urine of community members and especially of children.

Footprint analysis of how much water is embedded in food consumption in France, Germany and the United Kingdom finds geographical differences in water footprints and projects how different diets could affect water conservation.

An econometric modelling analysis shows that eliminating tariffs in key inputs for renewable energy production can have a significant impact on reducing carbon emissions in Europe.

Intensifying agricultural production often imposes environmental costs. This study assesses progress towards the redesign of agricultural systems, finding that seven types of sustainable intensification now characterize an estimated 29% of farms on 9% of agricultural land worldwide.

Land management and ownership by Indigenous Peoples are critical components of conservation strategies, but information on these has previously never been aggregated. Here, global data is compiled to show that Indigenous Peoples have tenure rights or manage a quarter of the world’s land area and 40% of all protected areas and intact ecosystems.

As agriculture is the primary driver of eutrophication resulting from the oversupply of nitrogen and phosphorus to water bodies, much attention has been paid to the environmental impacts of food consumption. Little is known about the impacts of consuming other goods. This study shows that in 2011 the final demand for non-food products accounted for over one-third of the global marine and freshwater eutrophication impacts—a 28% increase since 2000.

Aquaculture is surpassing wild-caught seafood, but we feed aquaculture with wild forage fish for key nutrients. This study finds removing such forage fish from diets of livestock and non-carnivorous aquaculture species and moderating its use in China will help sustain forage fish populations in the future.

China’s agricultural output is growing rapidly, but the environmental impacts are unclear. This study finds this impact has risen, but much more slowly than output due to improved farm management, though ongoing shifts in cropland location may challenge this development.

A social network analysis of over 20,000 reports of illegal child adoption in China reveals the most important cities, provinces and paths of child trafficking. Over 80% of the network can be reached by targeting four cities.

Freshwater resources sustain ecosystems and societies, so reliable monitoring is critical. This study finds that streamgaging data reporting has declined worldwide since 1979, and that variation in monitoring threatens many US river basins.

A unique dataset of over 550 programmes of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) worldwide, grouped into water, forest- and land-use carbon, and biodiversity programmes, is used to assess the trends and the current status of such policy instruments.

A curated global dataset of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) reveals that theoretical principles are only partially applied in practice, particularly conditionality, which makes payments underperform.

Little is known about the water impacts of concrete production. This study quantifies this impact globally for 2012 and projects it to 2050. It also evaluates in which regions the impacts will be more severe, based on the availability of renewable water resources.

After developing a unit-based air pollutants emission inventory of more than 30,000 fossil fuel power plants operating worldwide in 2010, the authors find that retiring or implementing controlling measures on coal-fired power plants, representing 0.8% of global capacity, could reduce PM_2.5 emissions from coal-fired plants by up to 14.2%.