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Assessing the impacts of oil sanctions on Russia
Spiro, D., H. Wachtmeister, and J. Gars. 2025. Assessing the impacts of oil sanctions on Russia. Energy Policy 206:114739.
This paper evaluates the effects of the two most important oil sanctions imposed on Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine—the EU import embargo and the G7 price cap. Using data on prices, discounts, trade patterns and transport, and based on previous research, we assess these sanctions’ individual and combined impacts. We conclude that the import embargo has likely been the most consequential sanction, reducing...
Whose conservation, revisited: how a focus on people–nature relationships spotlights new directions for conservation science
Reyers, B., and E. M. Bennett. 2025. Whose conservation, revisited: how a focus on people–nature relationships spotlights new directions for conservation science. Philosophical Transactions B 380(1917):20230320.
Georgina Mace introduced a compelling perspective on the major shifts in conservation science’s framing and purpose from 1960 to 2010. A decade ago, she proposed that the conservation community had begun to move into a new framing of ‘people and nature’ based on changes in perspectives on the relationships between people and nature and new interdisciplinary concepts and methods used in conservation. Progress in using...
Meltdown of trust in weakly governed economies
Polasky, S., M. Scheffer, and J. M. Anderies. 2025. Meltdown of trust in weakly governed economies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122(14):e232052812.
A well-functioning society requires well-functioning institutions that ensure prosperity, fair distribution of wealth, social participation, security, and informative media. Such institutions are built on a foundation of trust. However, while trust is essential for economic success and good governance, interconnected mechanisms inherent in weakly governed market economies tend to undermine the very trust on which such success depends. These mechanisms include the intrinsic tendency for...
Dark Machines: How Artificial Intelligence, Digitalization and Automation is Changing our Living Planet
Galaz, V. 2025. Dark Machines: How Artificial Intelligence, Digitalization and Automation is Changing our Living Planet. Routledge.
This book offers a critical primer on how Artificial Intelligence and digitalization are shaping our planet and the risks posed to society and environmental sustainability. As the pressure of human activities accelerates on Earth, so too does the hope that digital and artificially intelligent technologies will be able to help us deal with dangerous climate and environmental change. Technology giants, international think-tanks and policy-makers are...
Advances in the social construction of energy management and energy efficiency in industry
Thollander, P., M. Andrei, N. Jalo, P. Rohdin, J. Palm, A. Sannö, J. Colding, S. Barthel, G. Salah Uddin, and B. M. Xavier. 2025. Advances in the social construction of energy management and energy efficiency in industry. Nature Communications 16:4075.
Energy efficiency is essential for climate change mitigation. Energy management, shaped by both technical artefacts and social constructions, can overcome barriers and achieve greater emission reductions than technology-focused approaches alone. Nine social constructions of energy management emphasize the need for a broader view that includes operations, processes, and knowledge creation and diffusion. By adopting these strategies, corporations and policymakers can substantially reduce industrial energy use...
Community climate commons for collective climate action
Nässén, N., M. Lilja, S. Sjöberg, and J. Colding. 2025. Community climate commons for collective climate action. Sustainable Development 33(2):2078–2095.
Mitigating and adapting to climate change is a vital challenge that cannot rely solely on technology or macro policies but need also be tailored to local social and ecological contexts. As theory suggests, institutional designs that increase collective climate action could potentially speed up climate action in society. In this article we explore the concept of ‘community climate commons’ (CCCs) to foster interconnected and holistic...
Crop diversity, organic farming, and agricultural productivity: Evidence from European regions
Li, C-Z and G. Engström.. 2025. Beijer Discussion Paper 282: Crop diversity, organic farming, and agricultural productivity: Evidence from European regions. Beijer Discussion Paper Series.
This paper examines the relationship between crop diversity, organic farming, and agricultural efficiency across European regions using data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Technical efficiency is measured via a conditional Debreu-Farrell input-oriented index within a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) framework, based on labor, capital, and land inputs. Efficiency scores are analyzed using panel data models with correlated random effects to distinguish within- and...
The Earth alignment principle for artificial intelligence
Gaffney, O., A. Luers, F. Carrero-Martinez, B. Oztekin-Gunaydin, F. Creutzig, V. Dignum, V. Galaz, N. Ishii, F. Larosa, M. Leptin, and K. Takahashi Guevara. 2025. The Earth alignment principle for artificial intelligence. Nature Sustainability https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01536-6.
At a time when the world must cut greenhouse gas emissions precipitously, artificial intelligence (AI) brings large opportunities and large risks. To address its uncertain environmental impact, we propose the ‘Earth alignment’ principle to guide AI development and deployment towards planetary stability.
What does “sustainable seafood” mean to seafood system actors in Japan and Sweden?
Blandon, A., M. Jonell, H. Ishihara, and A. Zabala. 2025. What does “sustainable seafood” mean to seafood system actors in Japan and Sweden?. Ambio 54:1010–1025.
“Sustainability” can mean different prioritisations of society, environment and economy to different people. As one of the largest globally traded food commodities, for seafood, these differences could have large implications. The study captures different understandings of “sustainable seafood” among 29 key actors along the seafood supply chain—government, NGOs, industry bodies, retailers and producers—using a novel cross-country application of Q method in Japan and Sweden. Sweden,...
Artificial intelligence, digital social networks, and climate emotions
Galaz, V., H. Metzler, C. Schill, T. Lindahl, S. Daume, A. Marklund, A.J. Castro, J. Bard, T. McPhearson, D. Galafassi, and H. Peters. 2025. Artificial intelligence, digital social networks, and climate emotions. npj Climate Action 4:23.
Emotions relate to climate change action in various ways. Here we elaborate on how the expansion of digital social networks and advances in artificial intelligence, ranging from recommender systems to generative AI, may affect the way people perceive and engage emotionally on climate change. We develop a simple framework that links individual and collective emotions, AI, and climate action, and suggest three critical areas in...
