Articles

Excluded futures: the continuity bias in scenario assessments

Global scenario assessments in support of climate, biodiversity, energy and other international policy deliberations tend to focus on a narrow bandwidth of possibilities: futures that unfold gradually from cur...

Authors: Paul Raskin and Rob Swart

Biophilic streets: a design framework for creating multiple urban benefits

Biophilic urbanism is bringing new perspectives to how natural systems need to be integrated into the fabric of cities. This paper shows how biophilic streets can be the front door to biophilic urbanism by int...

Authors: Agata Cabanek, Maria Elena Zingoni de Baro and Peter Newman

The green economy transition: the challenges of technological change for sustainability

The Green Economy is an alternative vision for growth and development; one that can generate economic development and improvements in people’s lives in ways consistent with advancing also environmental and soc...

Authors: Patrik Söderholm

Uneven solidarity: the school strikes for climate in global and intergenerational perspective

The school strikes for climate (henceforth, the school strikes) initiated by Greta Thunberg have brought young people’s environmental concerns to the global stage. However, there is a danger of considering you...

Authors: Catherine Walker

Learning to rebel

As a response to collective failure to move adequately towards sustainability, youth movements have grown. This article explores the experiences of one young climate activist, Elsie Luna. The article is the pr...

Authors: Elsie Luna and Andrew Mearman

Urban youth preserving the environmental commons: student learning in place-based stewardship education as citizen scientists

The urban ecology and especially youth of color living in urban spaces have received relatively little attention in environmental education. The purpose of this work was to assess what urban youth learn about ...

Authors: Erin Gallay, Alisa Pykett, Morgan Smallwood and Constance Flanagan

Policy transfer processes and renewable energy penetration: a comparative analysis of Peru, Thailand, and Uganda

Low-carbon technologies must be widely adopted at a large scale to address climate change and enhance access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy. The uptake of those technologies is often supported ...

Authors: Stefan Bößner, Tim Suljada, Francis X. Johnson, Aina Bruno, Jorge Rodriguez Morales, Mengyin Hu, Padmasai Lakshmi Bhamidipati and James Haselip

A second-take on the role of science: the case for applying public administration theory to natural resource management

Natural resource management theory has been informed by disciplines such as ecology, agricultural science, economics and engineering; but much less so by the literature of planning and public administration. T...

Authors: Philippa M. Brock and Daniel K. Y. Tan

National progress, sustainability and higher goals: the case of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness

The context of this study is the predominant global paradigm for measuring national progress, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has resulted in an over-emphasis on production and consumption that in turn...

Authors: Jigmi Y. Thinley and Janette Hartz-Karp

Plastic habits – an overview for the collection ‘Plastics and Sustainable Earth’

Over the last 60 years we have modified our behavior to make use of new synthetic material produced from fossil fuels. We have incorporated it into almost every facet of our lives making us more comfortable. T...

Authors: Harriet Paterson

The practice of climate change policy evaluations in the European Union and its member states: results from a meta-analysis

This article presents the main findings from a meta-analysis of how climate change mitigation policy evaluations have been undertaken in the European Union (EU) and six of its Member States: Austria, Czech Rep...

Authors: Noriko Fujiwara, Harro van Asselt, Stefan Böβner, Sebastian Voigt, Niki-Artemis Spyridaki, Alexandros Flamos, Emilie Alberola, Keith Williges, Andreas Türk and Michael ten Donkelaar

In Praise of Civicide

Authors: P. A. Hancock

Resilience by industrial symbiosis? A discussion on risk, opportunities and challenges for food production in the perspective of the food-energy-water nexus

Growing population and affluence coupled with climate change puts pressure on the supply of food, water and energy. The three are interconnected, conceptualised in the food-energy-water nexus. In this article,...

Authors: Thomas Parker and Maria Svantemark

Institutional innovations in public participation for improved local governance and urban sustainability in India

Improving urban governance is an imperative for India, with its accelerated rate of urbanization, distrust of government, and inadequate public involvement in policy development and decision-making. Deliberati...

Authors: Sanskriti Menon and Janette Hartz-Karp

Participation in planning and governance: closing the gap between satisfaction and expectation

Making and implementing decisions to improve long term sustainability, particularly in democratic countries, is a significant challenge. This is exacerbated when citizens’ expectations of their relationship wi...

Authors: Rob Weymouth and Janette Hartz-Karp

Transforming manufacturing to be ‘good for planet and people’, through enabling lean and green thinking in small and medium-sized enterprises

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals remind us of the urgent need for every business to operate in ways that are good for planet and people. Manufacturing is a critical sector to address, where in...

Authors: H. T. S. Caldera, C. Desha and L. Dawes

Planetary health and reduction in meat consumption

With an annual meat consumption of 110 kg per capita, Australia is one of the top countries in the world according to this indicator. High meat consumption however is associated with adverse impacts on the pla...

Authors: Dora Marinova and Diana Bogueva

Climate security and a vulnerability model for conflict prevention: a systematic literature review focusing on African agriculture

Climate change poses credible threats to the livelihoods of many. This paper addresses how climate change adaptation can help counter the increased risk of violent conflict that is associated with these climat...

Authors: Daniel Pearson and Peter Newman

To be or not to be for humankind - organic diets revisited for a sustainable development

Worldwide, traditional diets are being replaced by diets with high proportions of ultra-processed industrial foods, meat products and refined sugars, fats and oils. By contrast, the (slowly) growing consumptio...

Authors: Ana Paula Simões-Wüst and Pieter C. Dagnelie

Improving collaborative knowledge production for climate change mitigation: lessons from EU Horizon 2020 experiences

Scientific knowledge is key to climate mitigation governance. However, effective exchange between science and policy is challenging. Science-policy theory suggests collaboration, stakeholder participation and ...

Authors: Daan Boezeman and Heleen de Coninck

Correction to: Climate information services, integrated knowledge systems and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development

It has been highlighted that the original article [1] contained a spelling mistake in the last name of Elizabeth Stuart. Her last name was incorrectly captured as ‘Stewart’ in the original article which has si...

Authors: Fortunate Machingura, Admire Nyamwanza, David Hulme and Elizabeth Stuart

The Planetary Accounting Framework: a novel, quota-based approach to understanding the impacts of any scale of human activity in the context of the Planetary Boundaries

Human impacts on the environment are so great that we are at risk of changing the state of the planet from one that is hospitable to one that is hostile to humanity. Scientists have proposed nine Planetary Bou...

Authors: Kate Meyer and Peter Newman

The green soul of the concrete jungle: the urban century, the urban psychological penalty, and the role of nature

By 2050, there are forecast to be 2.4 billion more people in cities, and this century could rightly be called the urban century. This paper argues that, paradoxically, without the use of nature the urban centu...

Authors: Robert Ian McDonald, Timothy Beatley and Thomas Elmqvist

Sustainable Earth begins its journey

Authors: Peter Newman

Climate information services, integrated knowledge systems and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

This commentary explores the role of climate information services in supporting the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. At the centre of the commentary is a discussion of how integrated...

Authors: Fortunate Machingura, Admire Nyamwanza, David Hulme and Elizabeth Stuart