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Are subsidies good or bad news for a low-carbon nature-positive society?
Segerson, K., S. Polasky, M. Scheffer, R. Sumaila, J.-C. Cardenas, K. Nyborg, E. P. Fenichel, J. M. Anderies, S. Barrett, E. M. Bennett, S. R. Carpenter, B. Crona, G. Daily, A. de Zeeuw, J. Fischer, C. Folke, N. Kautsky, C. Kremen, S. A. Levin, T. Lindahl, M. Pinsky, A. Tavoni, B. Walker, and E. U. Weber. 2024. Are subsidies good or bad news for a low-carbon nature-positive society?. Science 386(6717).
Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss will require government policies to reverse environmental destruction and align economic activity with sustainability goals. Subsidy-based policies feature prominently in current national and international policy discussions about ways to address these challenges. Given this, now is a critical moment to reassess the role of subsidies to ensure that not only their benefits but also their potential drawbacks are at...
Malin Falkenmark: water pioneer who coined the notion of water crowding and coloured the water cycle
Rockström, J., L. Wang-Erlandsson, C. Folke, D. Gerten, L. J. Gordon, and P. W. Keys. 2024. Malin Falkenmark: water pioneer who coined the notion of water crowding and coloured the water cycle. Ambio 53:657-663.
“Water is the bloodstream of the biosphere” is a wise insight coined by Professor Malin Falkenmark, a world-leading international hydrologist, who passed away on 3 December 2023, at the age of 98 years . Falkenmark was a scientific visionary, calling for global water stewardship as a fundamental step towards human development, even before modern thinking on sustainable development was established through the 1987 Brundtland Commission...
Anticipating the global redistribution of people and property
Scheffer, M., W. N. Adger, S. R. Carpenter, C. Folke, T. Lenton, G. Vince, F. Westley, and C. Xu. 2024. Anticipating the global redistribution of people and property. One Earth 7(7):1151-1154.
Climate change will worsen conditions for people in the Global South, while conditions in large parts of the North will improve. Migration seems an effective adaptation strategy. However,making that a win-win for migrants and receiving communities requires revision of the food system, rules for mobility, and strategies for social integration.
What factors influence choosing fish over meat among grocery shoppers? Insights from an unsuccessful nudge intervention
Lindahl, T., and N. Linder. 2024. What factors influence choosing fish over meat among grocery shoppers? Insights from an unsuccessful nudge intervention. Ecological Economics 224:108297.
Food production significantly impacts Earth’s systems and accounts for approximately a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. To create a more sustainable food system, scientific evidence emphasizes replacing consumption of certain types of protein with high environmental impact such as beef and pork, with protein with less-impact alternatives such as fish or vegetable protein. This study evaluates a nudge intervention at a medium sized grocery store...
The economics of tipping points: some recent modeling and experimental advances
Li, C.-Z., A.-S. Crépin, and T. Lindahl. 2024. The economics of tipping points: some recent modeling and experimental advances. International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics 18(4):385-442.
This paper provides a review of the economics of tipping points in natural resources and climate change economics, examining recent advances in theoretical modeling and controlled experiments. We begin with the non-convexity models as a theoretical foundation, provide a typology of the resulting deterministic tipping points, and discuss their implications for management. Then, we focus on hazard rate modeling for optimal resource management with stochastic...
Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment
Wu, T., J. C. Rocha, K. Berry, T. Chaigneau, M. Hamann, E. Lindqvist, J. Qiu, C. Schill, A. Shephon, A.-S. Crepin, and C. Folke. 2024. Triple bottom line or trilemma? Global tradeoff s between prosperity, inequality, and the environment. World Development 178:106595.
A key aim of sustainable development is the joint achievement of prosperity, equality, and environmental integrity: in other words, material living standards that are high, broadly-distributed, and low-impact. This has often been called the “triple bottom line”. But instead, what if there is a “trilemma” that inhibits the simultaneous achievement of these three goals? We analysed international patterns and trends in the relationships between per-capita gross national income, the Gini coefficient for...
CO2 allocation and equity issues under China’s carbon neutrality targets: Recent advances and a review
Wei, C., J. Ni, and C.-Z. Li. 2024. CO2 allocation and equity issues under China’s carbon neutrality targets: Recent advances and a review. China Economic Review 83:102108.
This editorial establishes the context for our special issue, devoted to exploring CO2 allocation and equity considerations within the framework of China’s ambitions for carbon neutrality. As the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, China has made a pivotal development in mitigating climate change efforts with its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. This collection of 16 diverse papers delves into recent advancements, challenges, and...
Utilizing basic income to create a sustainable poverty-free tomorrow
Sumaila, U. R., C. C. C. Wabnitz, L. S. L. Teh, L. C. L. Teh, V. W. Y. Lam, H. Sumaila, W. W. L. Cheung, I. Issifu, K. Hopewell, J. E. Cinner, N. J. Bennett, C. Folke, S. Gulati, and S. Polasky. 2024. Utilizing basic income to create a sustainable poverty-free tomorrow. Cell Reports Sustainability 1: 100104.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 was a reminder of society’s vulnerability in the face of natural upheavals, leading to widespread unemployment and increased poverty. Simultaneously, human activities have precipitated large-scale environmental degradation and catastrophic climate change. Here, we conduct a global-scale, 186-country analysis examining the potential impact of basic income (BI) as a two-pronged solution to both sustainability and social resilience. We reveal BI’s potential to bolster...
Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience
Scaini, A., J. Mulligan et al. 2024. Pathways from research to sustainable development: Insights from ten research projects in sustainability and resilience. Ambio 53(4):517-533.
Drawing on collective experience from ten collaborative research projects focused on the Global South, we identify three major challenges that impede the translation of research on sustainability and resilience into better-informed choices by individuals and policy-makers that in turn can support transformation to a sustainable future. The three challenges comprise: (i) converting knowledge produced during research projects into successful knowledge application; (ii) scaling up knowledge...
The Planetary Commons: A new paradigm for safeguarding Earth’s regulating systems in the Anthropocene
Rockström, R., L. J. Kotzé, S. Milutinović, F. Biermann, V. Brovkin, J. Donges, J. Ebbesson, D. French, J. Gupta, R. E. Kim, T. M. Lenton, D. Lenzi, N. Nakićenović, B. Neumann, F. Schuppert, R. Winkelmann, K. Bosselmann, C. Folke, W. Lucht, D. Schlosberg, K. Richardson, and W. Steffen. 2024. The Planetary Commons: A new paradigm for safeguarding Earth’s regulating systems in the Anthropocene. PNAS 121(5): e230153112..
The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no-analogue trajectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This new trajectory is characterized by rising risks of triggering irreversible and unmanageable shifts in Earth system functioning. We urgently need a new global approach to safeguard critical Earth system regulating functions more effectively and comprehensively. The global commons framework is the closest example of...
