A people-first approach to achieving global climate and nature goals

Meeting global and national climate goals requires action and cooperation from a multitude of actors. Current methods to define greenhouse gas emission targets for companies fail to acknowledge the unique influence of fossil fuel producers: combustion of reported fossil fuel reserves has the potential to push global warming above 2 °C by 2050, regardless of other efforts to mitigate climate change. Here, we introduce a method to compare the extraction rates of individual fossil fuel producers against global climate targets, using two different approaches to quantify a burnable fossil fuel allowance (BFFA). BFFAs are calculated and compared with cumulative extraction since 2010 for the world’s ten largest investor-owned companies and ten largest state-owned entities (SOEs), for oil and for gas, which together account for the majority of global oil and gas reserves and production. The results are strongly influenced by how BFFAs are quantified; allocating based on reserves favours SOEs over investor-owned companies, while allocating based on production would require most reduction to come from SOEs. Future research could refine the BFFA to account for equity, cost-effectiveness and emissions intensity.

Land degradation as one of the mega drivers of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services has affected billions globally, resulting in rampant loss of livelihoods and accelerated distress migration. India, one of the land degradation hotspots in Asia, has also been reeling under the impacts of the ongoing climate and pandemic crises, which have seriously imperiled local livelihoods and human well‐being. Boosting livelihood‐based social support programs can be a transformative approach to scale up Nature‐based Solutions to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality and to realize global restoration, climate, and biodiversity conservation goals. In this article, we provide evidence for enhancing landscape restoration success by creating green job opportunities to achieve post‐pandemic recovery. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was initiated as a poverty alleviation program in India and can be transformative approach to achieve global climate and sustainable development goals. We use cases from diverse ecological contexts of India to demonstrate the potential of MGNREGS. To revolutionize the process, we propose developing and mainstreaming national‐level landscape restoration guidelines by using locally relevant knowledge for addressing critical gaps, identifying institutions and their roles, developing local capacity, leveraging technology to facilitate decision‐making, encouraging multi‐stakeholder involvement, and promoting inclusiveness and community participation.

The expansion of renewable energy sources (RES) is essential to achieving regional sustainability in alignment with global climate goals. This study investigates the dynamics and projected growth of RES in West Pomerania, Poland, a region with significant potential due to its geographical characteristics and supportive policy frameworks. Historical data from 2010 to 2023 were used to perform a time series analysis that evaluated the annual growth rate (AGR) of various RES technologies, including wind, solar, biomass, and biogas. The analysis revealed a consistent upward trend in RES capacity, particularly in wind and solar energy, demonstrating effective resource mobilisation in the region. Subsequently, a forecasting model was employed to project the growth of the RES capacity through 2033 based on historical trends and technological advancements. The results indicate significant anticipated increases in RES capacity, highlighting West Pomerania’s potential to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. This growth supports increased energy security and environmental sustainability. This study addresses a notable gap in the literature by linking regional renewable energy development with broader policy frameworks, such as the European Green Deal, and exploring the specific challenges of grid integration and economic disparities in the context of local energy transitions. These findings highlight the importance of sustained investment and policy support to scale renewable infrastructure while aligning regional initiatives with international sustainability goals. By bridging this gap, this study concludes that the West Pomerania strategy can serve as a model for other regions aiming to enhance their renewable energy portfolios and effectively meet the climate goals of the EU.

At least ten Latin American and Caribbean countries have pledged to achieve carbon neutrality. Has electricity planning in the region evolved towards reaching these goals? We compare power generation capacity in 2023 to announced plans in 2019. We then estimate committed emissions from existing and planned power plants that is emissions that would result from the normal operations of these plants during their typical lifetime and compare them to emissions from power generation in published IPCC scenarios. We find that fossil fuel planned capacity has decreased by 47% since 2019, mainly due to the cancellation of 50% of coal and 40% of gas projects, compared to only 32% of renewable energy projects. But existing plants in the region will emit 6.7 GtCO2 during their lifespan, and if all planned plants are built, they will add 4.9 GtCO2, totaling 11.6 GtCO2, exceeding median carbon budgets for 1.5 and 2C-consistent IPCC pathways (2.3 and 4.3 GtCO2). Natural gas power plants are the largest contributor to existing (62%) and planned (75%) emissions (versus 24% and 23% for coal). We evaluate emissions reduction strategies to achieve carbon budgets. Assuming no new coal plants comes into operation, announced gas and oil projects are canceled at the same rate as in the past four years, all fossil fueled plant lifetimes are reduced by 10 years, and all new natural gas displaces existing coal, committed emissions fall by 59%, almost meeting the 2C budget, but still twice as large as the median 1.5C budget. Our results suggest that while progress is being made, energy planning in the region is not yet consistent with global climate goals as reflected by the IPCC scenario database.

A multilateral climate action approach enables national efforts to progress concurrently with, mutually agreed, global climate goals, and is a first step toward a global transition to a green economy. Climate change is a very complex socioeconomic challenge that cannot be resolved solely with policy changes and climate pledges; an entire infrastructure transformation is required. With the continuous globalization of the world’s economies (and cross-border interdependence), it is critical that all stakeholders are convened toward common climate goals, beyond national interests and ideologies. Approaching climate change from both a scientific and policy perspective, the intent of this chapter is to review the current global landscape and outline important aspects of climate change on human society and economy, and the many challenges associated with a multilateral and cross-border approach. This includes reflecting over the core objectives of a multilateral approach, previously negotiated agreements, and the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships in order to deliver quantifiable and sustainable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Is energy planning consistent with climate goals? Assessing future emissions from power plants in Latin America and the Caribbean

Boreal forests have enormous potential to mitigate climate change by taking up and holding back carbon (C) from the atmosphere, but often they are managed to maximize wood productivity. To achieve regional and global climate goals, boreal forest management must consider trade-offs between wood productivity and potential climate change mitigation. Quantifying forests' climate change mitigation potentials requires knowledge of both the amount of C fixed from the atmosphere and how long trees and subsequently soil and wood products withhold it from the atmosphere (C transit time). Despite its importance for climate change mitigation, transit time is often overlooked when focusing on climate change mitigation potential.We developed a novel mass-balanced and process-based compartmental forest management model comprising trees of different ages and species in a single stand. The model follows the C path from photosynthetical fixation to return to the atmosphere by autotrophic or heterotrophic respiration or by wood-product burning. The fixed C is allocated to different tree organs according to dynamically changing allometries derived from site- and species-specific forest inventory data and affected by the tree's physiological state (healthy or stressed). The compartmental model structure and its mathematical description as a system of ordinary differential equations enable computing stored nonstructural C age as well as age and provenance of C used for tissue growth and respiration. Furthermore, the dynamical implementation of nonstructural C provides a measure of the forest stands' resilience to stressors and a mechanism for tree mortality .We apply the model to even-aged pure Scots pine and Norway spruce stands as well as to an even-aged mixed-species stand and to a mixed-aged pine stand, under conditions for southern Finland. We compute: 1) wood productivity as the amount of C in harvested wood products, 2) the net balance of C in trees, soil, and wood products, and 3) the amount of fixed C together with its transit time - a key metric to assess climate change mitigation potential. Different metrics entail different conclusions regarding the most beneficial stand structure and management strategy. Even-aged stand management strategies provide more long-lasting wood products than the mixed-aged stand, and the same amount of short-lasting and long-lasting wood products combined. Furthermore, they have substantially better net C balance afters an 80-years rotation. However, it takes them about 40 years to regain the C lost at initial clear cut. Considering also the transit time of C, the even-aged strategies need almost the entire rotation to offset early clear-cut related C losses. While C sequestration assessed by the net C balance evaluates even-aged strategies as beneficial, a trade-off emerges between considering long-lasting wood products and climate change mitigation potential when taking the C transit time into account.These results show the importance of considering the transit time in the assessment of forest management strategies and highlight that clear-cut based, even-aged management strategies on stand level undermine climate goals on regional and global scale.

The urgency of addressing climate change and meeting global carbon reduction goals, such as those outlined in the Paris Agreement, necessitates innovative approaches to energy development. Greenfield energy projects, defined as entirely new infrastructure developments, offer a unique opportunity to align energy systems with decarbonization targets. These projects are uniquely suited for achieving climate goals as they allow for the development of modern, customized infrastructure free from legacy constraints, enabling the seamless integration of renewable energy technologies and sustainable practices. However, these projects face significant challenges, including high financial risks, technological gaps, regulatory barriers, and socio-environmental issues such as community resistance and biodiversity impacts. This paper explores strategic frameworks to integrate renewable energy technologies, circular economy principles, and public-private partnerships into Greenfield projects while emphasizing lifecycle carbon footprint assessments. Additionally, it highlights the role of global collaboration in fostering knowledge sharing, standardizing carbon accounting, and aligning projects with national and regional energy transition plans. The paper recommends actionable measures such as strengthening regulatory frameworks, fostering innovation in clean energy technologies, and promoting stakeholder engagement to ensure sustainable and equitable outcomes. These strategies aim to advance Greenfield energy development as a cornerstone of the global energy transition and the achievement of climate objectives.

This paper explores the legal challenges in standardizing contracts across the energy, oil and gas and renewable energy sectors amid the global energy transition and sustainability goals. It examines the benefits as well as key contractual elements, being government policy objectives, phased transition terms, assignment clauses, force majeure clauses, stabilization clauses, technology transfer, and local content, and how these can be harmonized to support evolving energy demands. Jurisdictional comparators, especially those with strong institutional frameworks, such as the United Kingdom, are used to highlight the deficiencies in current oil and gas contracts in countries with weaker economies and which have a heavy reliance on fossil fuels. In assessing legislative frameworks, policy decisions and model contracts, the paper proposes a framework, consisting of those key contractual elements, for drafting a standard model contract for oil and gas and renewable energy which is balanced, adaptable and in alignment with global energy transition and climate goals.

Humanity is challenged with making progress toward global biodiversity, freshwater, and climate goals, while providing food and nutritional security for everyone. Our current food and land-use systems are incompatible with this ambition making them unsustainable. Papers in this special feature introduce a participatory, integrated modeling approach applied to provide insights on how to transform food and land-use systems to sustainable trajectories in 12 countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Finland, India, Mexico, Rwanda, Sweden, the UK, and USA. Papers are based on work completed by members of the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-use, and Energy (FABLE) initiative, a network of in-country research teams engaging policymakers and other local stakeholders to co-develop future food and land-use scenarios and modeling their national and global sustainability impacts. Here, we discuss the key leverage points, methodological advances, and multi-sector engagement strategies presented and applied in this collection of work to set countries and our planet on course for achieving food security, biodiversity, freshwater, and climate targets by 2050.

<p>Successful implementation of the Paris climate agreement and the 2015 UN sustainability goals requires large-scale transformations in all relevant areas, with land-use and land-management among the most critical ones. <span>On a global scale, a variety of transformation pathways has been discussed. However, these pathways often assume a uniform global transformation from which each country’s transformation pathway follows in a top-down manner. This approach faces implementation difficulties due to inconsistencies between resulting country pathways and the respective country’s political reality. </span>Hence, a bottom-up approach may create less ambitious, but more realistic transformation pathways, both on a regional and global scale. <br>As part of an international effort to create national and global transformation pathways in line with the Paris climate agreement and the 2015 UN sustainability goals, this project aims to model impacts from current and projected German environmental policies and societal developments and to embed them into a broader international context. We analyze current data, trends and developmental goals for key aspects of German society and policies affecting environmental factors, utilizing the FABLE calculator. <br>By implementing these national results as well as data from analogous projects focusing on other countries into a global framework, we can compare the global impacts of projected national transformation pathways as well as needs for adjustment in regards to climate and sustainability goals. <span>This approach will allow for partial corrections in each national model, more in line with each country’s respective economic and political circumstances.</span></p>

Oral health in a warming world: aligning dentistry with global climate goals - how are we doing?

Applications of sustainable proteins in food and feed, and perspectives on health and circular bioeconomy.

This paper explores the tensions between hydropower and sustainable development to critically examine how hydropower, often promoted as a strategy for fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals, may not align with the values and needs of local communities. Research in Costa Rica highlights a key issue: For whom and for what is hydropower sustainable? While hydropower may support global energy and climate goals, it often undermines the autonomy, cultural practices, and ecological relationships of Indigenous peoples. This disconnect raises further questions: what social, economic, and ecological trade-offs are acceptable, and for whom? This paper discusses how these trade-offs—climate mitigation versus the loss of land, resources, and autonomy—are often imposed without meaningful consultation or participation from affected communities. Furthermore, it asks who makes the decisions, and how can these decisions be more just? By analyzing the power dynamics within hydrosocial territories, this paper argues for water governance that applies an environmental justice framework to address power asymmetries and centers marginalized voices to ensure that sustainability efforts do not reproduce the very injustices they seek to solve.

The article is devoted to the study of issues of energy policy formation in nine changing climatic and environmental vectors. A retrospective analysis of the impact of the climate agenda on the energy intensity of global GDP and greenhouse gas emissions was carried out. The authors present a “time line” from 1972-2022, demonstrating the connection between the adoption of a number of key international documents aimed at achieving global environmental and climate goals, and the dynamics of growth rates in the energy intensity of global GDP and greenhouse gas emissions. According to data from 2010-2022, it is shown that the policy of replacing traditional fossil hydrocarbon fuel and energy resources with renewable energy sources in the global energy balance helps to overcome environmental and climate problems, positive results have been identified, in particular, a steady trend of transformation of development scenarios of the global energy system through the introduction of low-carbon and carbon-free technologies, primarily hydropower, solar photovoltaic energy, and wind energy. An inversely proportional relationship is observed, demonstrating several trends: a decrease in the capital intensity of renewable energy sources, a decrease in the costs of the process of their implementation and operation. The results of the study allow us to state the consistency of processes in relation to changes in the dynamics of global GDP and greenhouse gas emissions, while in recent years the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions at the global level is lower compared to the growth rate of GDP, which proves the effectiveness of the measures being implemented. The materials presented in the article can be used to develop theoretical models and applied measures to implement scenarios for decarbonization of economic systems, increasing their environmental sustainability and mitigating climate change.