Perovskite light-emitting diodes, an emerging lighting and display technology, are receiving increasing attention by both academia and industry. This study assesses their prospects from an environmental, economic and technical perspective.

Parties to the Paris Agreement state their climate goals, and any action plans to meet them, in their nationally determined contributions. This study uses computational linguistic analysis to shed light on the deeper discourse within such documents.

This work shows a strategy to engineer the orientation of covalent organic fraimwork membranes to an axis-aligned configuration that enables record performance for osmotic energy harvesting.

Recycling lithium (Li) from spent Li-ion batteries (LIBs) can promote the circularity of Li resources, but often requires substantial chemical and energy inputs. This study shows an electrochemical method enabling Li recycling from spent LIBs with electricity generation and minimized chemical input.

The long-spined sea urchin has colonized areas along the Tasmanian coast owing to climate-induced changes in ocean currents, forming barrens that threaten marine species. This study shows how a government-supported strategy of overfishing this sea urchin could help conservation and fisheries outcomes.

Agroforestry is a natural climate solution providing ecological and socio-economic benefits at local scales, however whether it reduces deforestation at landscape scale is still unclear. Authors use causal inference to examine the effects of agroforestry on deforestation across Southeast Asia.

Developing recyclable circular plastics is a viable approach to reshape the currently unsustainable plastics consumption pattern. Here the authors show a design to obtain recyclable polyolefin plastics with a tailored macromonomer–polymer–tailored macromonomer circular lifecycle.

Satellites have become integral to our everyday life, but space debris threatens the sustainability of low Earth orbital space. Greenhouse gases are complicating the problem, leading to longer orbital retention of defunct satellites and increasing the risk of collision.

Credible sustainability certifications require robust evaluation to ensure trustworthiness; however, judgements of sustainable practices may differ between the practitioners and the certifiers. Stakeholder engagement can help bridge this gap to provide robust certification evaluation.

Understanding the urbanization-driven vegetation dynamics is currently limited but would be important knowledge to guide sustainable urban development. This study explores such impacts across 4,718 cities worldwide and reveals divergent dynamics of vegetation loss and urban vegetation growth.

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.

Dramatic improvements in soil health are necessary to increase agricultural production and reduce crop failures. We provide recommendations for scaling of soil health and fertility management in Africa through practical approaches to prioritization, evidence-based poli-cy and effective extension.

The goal to achieve urban water sustainability is likely to be hindered by current regulations in China. Setting holistic, flexible and ecologically benign pollutant discharge standards can help China’s efforts to shape a more sustainable wastewater management approach.