Flood-risk management strategies are increasingly incorporating equity considerations, but measuring equity poses challenges. This study maps observed equity indicators to a taxonomy to help analysts develop robust evidence about equity when managing uneven exposure to environmental harms.

Malaria remains a major public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. This study examines the use of a long-acting endectocide formulation given to livestock as a measure to control mosquito vector populations that transmit the malaria-causing parasite in Burkina Faso.

Stricter regulations on ship-induced air pollution have triggered the installation of ship exhaust gas cleaning systems (scrubbers), but these scrubbers pollute the seas. A study shows that the private economic benefits of installing scrubbers come at the expense of marine environmental damage and that the scrubber systems are paid off in only a few years.

The rapid expansion of low-carbon technologies in Brazil has multiple socio-economic impacts on rural populations by further fuelling competition for land and intensifying large-scale land deals. This study traces how global ownership of, and investment in, wind and solar photovoltaic installations has evolved over time, driving substantial privatization of public and common lands.

Paired electrosynthesis is an efficient green process that minimizes resource and energy consumption as well as waste generation. The authors demonstrate an electrolysis system that pairs CO₂ reduction to CO at the cathode with allyl alcohol oxidation to acrolein at the anode.

Ion exchange membranes play an essential role in a range of technologies critical to sustainability. Here the authors show a membrane design that features a favourable combination of good stability, high ionic conductivity and processability with demonstrated application in flow batteries.

Nanofiltration membranes play a crucial role in water purification, but it remains challenging to combine high water permeance and solute removal selectivity due to their inherent pore heterogeneity. Here the authors introduce a cinnamate-mediated polymerization method to resolve such a challenge, enabling energetically efficient water purification.

Indigenous peoples’ lands (IPLs) are important reservoirs of biodiversity; however, the extent to which these lands are affected by the growing number of biological invasions worldwide is still unknown. This study evaluates whether IPLs harbour fewer alien species compared with other lands globally.

Cities are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, but the potential of urban rivers to such emissions is not well understood. A study now quantifies the greenhouse gas concentrations, fluxes and emissions from urban rivers globally.

This study presents a film design that can maximize radiative cooling, transmit photosynthetically efficient light and reflect remaining sunlight in favour of photosynthsis and plant growth.

Transitioning to a more sustainable economic system hinges on creating jobs in support of greener activities, with challenges for incumbent workers. A suite of articles highlights the need for more sustainable jobs and how to overcome the associated research gaps and political obstacles.

Although research has consistently shown that managing natural resources more sustainably is both feasible and beneficial for jobs and livelihoods, the perception that the green transition leads to job losses prevails. We recommend strategies for wider and better communicating evidence, to decision-makers across the board, about what is needed to reap job benefits from a green transition.

Scaling up adoption of green technologies in energy, mobility, construction, manufacturing and agriculture is imperative to set countries on a sustainable development path, but that hinges on having the right workforce, argues Jonatan Pinkse.

Apprehensions about job losses in incumbent industries can hold up sustainability transformations unless policymakers bolster efforts towards job reskilling programmes, argues Marko Hekkert.

As carbon capture and sequestration enter the mainstream, governments and developers grapple with the long-term liability for sequestered carbon. A multi-tiered framework with public–private sharing of risk can help promote the safe and timely deployment of this vital decarbonization technology.

Unless the green technological transition underway in Global North countries is globalized, it will fail to reach its developmental potential. To realize the ambitions of green industrial policies in the Global North, technology transfers to the Global South are a necessary supplement to climate finance initiatives.