Nature Sustainability最新文献

{"title":"Effects of demand and recycling on the when and where of lithium extraction","authors":"P. Busch, Y. Chen, P. Ogbonna, A. Kendall","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01561-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01561-5","url":null,"abstract":"Achieving electric mobility targets is crucial for global decarbonization goals and the transition to electric vehicles depends on the availability of lithium-ion batteries, the preferred traction battery for electric vehicles. Demand and supply models for lithium, a critical energy material in batteries, largely ignore time, geography and mining dynamics when evaluating mineral sufficiency. We developed a resource dispatch model with data at the mineral deposit level and found that, if trends towards larger battery packs in electric vehicles continue, >85 new deposit openings may be needed by 2050. Moderating battery size and achieving robust battery recycling at global scales can substantially decrease new lithium deposit openings, with the very best case leading to just 15 openings by 2050. Ambitious recycling and recovery targets for lithium require global policy intervention, but will reduce supply concentration and the creation of new frontline communities by reducing mine openings. Powering electric vehicles hinges on the availability to extract lithium from reserves. Modelling now shows the likely number of new lithium deposit openings required by 2050 if the demand for larger battery packs continues and suggests moderating battery size and improving recycling to reduce mine openings.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"773-783"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Synergistic gas–slag scheme to mitigate CO2 emissions from the steel industry","authors":"Zichen Di, Yanxia Wang, Chenggong Chang, Huiping Song, Xi Lu, Fangqin Cheng","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01572-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01572-2","url":null,"abstract":"Improving the sustainability of the steel industry requires decarbonization strategies that are both technically and economically viable. The recovery of both material and heat on site is a promising approach but largely unexplored. Here we propose a scheme integrating heat recovery, carbon mineralization and the use of slag in cement production, along with the blast-furnace injection of hydrogen from off-gas. The proposed scheme, based on the synergistic use of coke oven gas and slag, can reduce CO2 emissions by 48% compared to the conventional approach. When coupled with an external gas supply from coal gasification or biomass pyrolysis, CO2 emissions can drop by 63% and 92%, respectively. The cost of avoiding CO2 emissions could be less than half the cost of conventional industrial capture and could be offset by the projected carbon price by 2030. For the steel industry in China, we find that the scheme is applicable to over 46% of existing steel mills, resulting in 16 provinces meeting the 2 °C target and 19 provinces surpassing the 50% national mitigation target. Overall, we have shown how a minor reconfiguration of the steel production process could substantially improve the sustainability of the steel industry. Decarbonizing the steel industry is essential for achieving sustainable development. Here the authors propose a decarbonization strategy for the steel industry that could substantially reduce carbon emissions and is easily adaptable to existing facilities.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"763-772"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Photocatalytic upcycling of polysulfones at ambient conditions","authors":"Rui Huang, Yinsong Zhao, Chengliang Li, Daoji Li, Xuefeng Jiang","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01569-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01569-x","url":null,"abstract":"Chemical upcycling has the potential to turn plastic wastes into valuable chemicals and promote the circularity of plastics. Polysulfones and relevant composites are plastics with notable chemical durability, resistance and survivability. They are known as super engineering plastics, but they pose enormous challenges for reuse and upcycling. Here we develop a strategy for the chemical upcycling of polysulfones through copper-photocatalysed dual desulfonylative chlorination at ambient conditions, affording high-value-added dichlorinated diaryl ethers. The key to this strategy is cascade homolytic ipso-aromatic substitutions with high selectivity using the chlorine radical. Various types of polysulfones were successfully depolymerized and functionalized, including 12 examples of resins and eight examples of end-of-life plastics. Through gram-scale upcycling and mixed-plastic treatment, we further demonstrated the excellent compatibility and practicality of our strategy. Overall, this work establishes a viable approach for upcycling waste plastics into valuable chemicals, thus contributing to more sustainable plastic waste management and to realizing the circular economy. Despite pressure to improve the circularity of polysulfone plastic waste, upcycling polysulfones remains technically challenging. This study presents a photocatalytic method that can upcycle various polysulfones into valuable chemicals at ambient conditions.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"818-826"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122925","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveraging biodiversity to maximize nutrition and resilience of global fisheries","authors":"Sebastian A. Heilpern, Franz W. Simon, Suresh A. Sethi, Kathryn J. Fiorella, Alexander S. Flecker, Carla Gomes, Peter B. McIntyre","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01577-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01577-x","url":null,"abstract":"Wild fish harvests from freshwaters and oceans per person on Earth have been stagnating for decades due to increased food demand from a burgeoning global human population, raising the stakes for maximizing the nutritional benefits from limited fish stocks. Here we adopt an allocation optimization approach using biogeographic and nutrient data for the world’s fishes to identify ideal portfolios of species for consumption in every country. We find that, across nations, biodiversity increases opportunities to fulfil multiple nutritional requirements with less fish biomass. This advantage emerges through complementarity among species; portfolios of complementary species provide >60% more nutrients than the same biomass of the most nutrient-rich species. Moreover, biodiverse fisheries enable harvest allocation towards species with traits enhancing fishery resilience (for example, small size, low trophic position) and offer greater redundancy, whereby a wider range of comparably nutritious species is available. Our analysis underscores that conserving fish biodiversity can improve nutrition and fishery resilience while reducing harvest pressure on already-stressed aquatic ecosystems. Marine and freshwater fisheries around the world have had stagnating stocks due to increased demands in food from a growing human population. Authors here assess how biodiversity levels of fisheries around the world can be leveraged to maximize nutrients provided with less biomass.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"753-762"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Upcycling surplus acetone into long-chain chemicals using a tandem electro-biosystem","authors":"Chunxiao Liu, Jiankang Zhao, Hongting Tang, Jing Xue, Weiqing Xue, Xu Li, Hongliang Li, Qiu Jiang, Tingting Zheng, Tao Yu, Jie Zeng, Chuan Xia","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01568-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01568-y","url":null,"abstract":"The chemical industry faces the pressing issue of managing excess by-products: for example, the phenol sector produces acetone as a by-product in vast quantities exceeding the market demand for acetone. Integrating electrocatalysis and bioengineering offers versatile access to repurposing these by-products into a wide range of valuable commodities. Nevertheless, the lack of suitable intermediate feedstocks prevents smooth integration of the hybrid electro-biosystem. Here we introduce a tandem electro-biosystem that effectively transforms excess acetone from the phenol industry into valuable long-chain compounds using pure isopropyl alcohol (IPA) as an intermediate feedstock. We developed an intercalated ruthenium electrocatalyst that achieves a maximal Faradaic efficiency of 95.6% for acetone-to-IPA conversion, with an IPA partial current density of −240 mA cm−2. We also showed the complete conversion of acetone to ~100% pure IPA using a bipolar membrane electrode assembly device and intercalated ruthenium. We then metabolically engineered the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which can directly feed on electrogenerated pure IPA as a carbon source, secreting p-coumaric acid, free fatty acids or lycopene. This work underscores advancements in the repurposing of industrial by-products and highlights opportunities to reshape the traditional chemical industry using electricity. The phenol industry faces a pressing sustainability challenge from the production of acetone as a by-product at a level far beyond its market. Here the authors develop an electro-biosystem that can efficiently convert such surplus acetone into valuable long-chain commodity chemicals.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"806-817"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122951","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ocean future","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01581-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01581-1","url":null,"abstract":"The plans to achieve a sustainable ocean economy are shaping up — it’s up to decision makers to implement them. The world is waiting.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 5","pages":"465-465"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01581-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effective progress and implementation of the INC-5 plastics treaty through scientific guidance","authors":"Margaret Spring, Patrick Schröder, Anda Popovici, Noreen O’Meara, Ilaria Corsi, Stefano Aliani, Kishore Boodhoo, Judith Gobin, Alex Godoy-Faúndez, Anne Kahru, Christine Luscombe, Sarva Mangala Praveena, Adetoun Mustapha Olaitan, Peng Wang, Ramia Al Bakain, Fani Sakellariadou","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01574-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01574-0","url":null,"abstract":"The fifth negotiation round for a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution concluded without an agreed text and will resume at INC-5.2 in August 2025. Scientific evidence and inputs remain vital in informing the final stage of negotiations and ensuring the final treaty is robust and effective.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"728-730"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122912","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ten principles for transforming economics in a time of global crises","authors":"Jasper O. Kenter, Simone Martino, Sam J. Buckton, Sandra Waddock, Bina Agarwal, Annela Anger-Kraavi, Robert Costanza, Adam P. Hejnowicz, Peter Jones, Jordan O. Lafayette, Jane Kabubo-Mariara, Nibedita Mukherjee, Kate E. Pickett, Chris Riedy, Steve Waddell","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01562-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01562-4","url":null,"abstract":"Transformation of economic systems is widely regarded as essential for tackling interacting global crises. Unconventional economic approaches seeking holistic human and planetary well-being have transformative potential, but mainstreaming them is hampered by vested interests and intellectual lock-ins. They are also diffuse and struggle to develop sufficient discursive power to gain more widespread traction in policy. To bring coherence, we undertake a qualitative content analysis of 238 document sources from science and practice. We identify ten ecological, social, political economy and holistic principles cutting across 38 economic approaches. They include: (1) social–ecological embeddedness and holistic well-being; (2) interdisciplinarity and complexity thinking; (3) limits to growth; (4) limited substitutability of natural capital; (5) regenerative design; (6) holistic perspectives of people and values; (7) equity, equality and justice; (8) relationality and social enfranchisement; (9) participation, deliberation and cooperation and (10) post-capitalism and decolonization. We also consider opportunities and barriers to applying these principles in the context of global crises. Our results can help consolidate transformative economic approaches and support future efforts to synthesize conceptual models, methodologies and policy solutions and to validate the identified principles more explicitly within global south contexts. Unconventional economic approaches with transformative potential for sustainability are too dispersed to gain sufficient traction in policy. With qualitative content analysis, this study brings coherence to many documents discussing such approaches to support efforts towards mainstreaming them.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 7","pages":"837-847"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01562-4.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forest biodiversity and structure modulate human health benefits and risks","authors":"Loïc Gillerot, Dries Landuyt, Audrey Bourdin, Kevin Rozario, Taylor Shaw, Matthias Steinparzer, Katarzyna Stojek, Tosca Vanroy, Ana Gabriela Cuentas Romero, Sandra Müller, Rachel R. Y. Oh, Tobias Proß, Damien Bonal, Aletta Bonn, Helge Bruelheide, Douglas Godbold, Daniela Haluza, Hervé Jactel, Bogdan Jaroszewicz, Katriina Kilpi, Melissa R. Marselle, Quentin Ponette, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Pieter De Frenne, Bart Muys, Kris Verheyen","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01547-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01547-3","url":null,"abstract":"The benefits and risks of forests to human health are widely recognized. Yet, variation across forest types and their ecological characteristics driving health effects remain underexplored. Based on a continental-scale, interdisciplinary empirical database from 164 European forest stands, we constructed a Bayesian Belief Network to quantify seven causal pathways relating distinct forest types to physical and mental health. These forest–health pathways included mental well-being via visual or auditory stimuli, thermal comfort, polyphenol content of medicinal plants, mushrooms and nutrition, air quality, and ticks and Lyme disease. Results show that forests consistently provide net health benefits regardless of their ecological characteristics. Forest canopy density and tree species diversity emerge as key drivers, but their effect size and directionality are strongly pathway-dependent. Changes in forest canopy density can generate trade-offs. For example, forests optimized for heat buffering and air pollution mitigation may compromise medicinal plant yield and enhance Lyme disease prevalence. Tree diversity effects were weaker but more uniformly positive. Therefore, forest management should account for such trade-offs to tailor forest biodiversity and functioning to local public health priorities. The benefits and risks of nature to human health have been studied, however, robust empirical research on forest biodiversity and health outcomes is still lacking. Here the authors use a unique dataset from 164 European forest stands to explore the associations between forest types and well-being.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 5","pages":"485-497"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Deltaic freshwater scarcity driven by unsustainable groundwater-fed irrigation","authors":"Augusto Getirana, Nishan Kumar Biswas, Sujay Kumar, Wanshu Nie, Shahryar Ahmad, Fadji Maina, Nazmus Sakib, Md Sazzad Hossain, Robin Kumar Biswas","doi":"10.1038/s41893-025-01566-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41893-025-01566-0","url":null,"abstract":"Southern Asia benefits from groundwater pumping for dry-season irrigation by increasing both crop productivity and monsoon aquifer recharge rates in the region. On the basis of a data-driven integrated modelling system, we provide numerical evidence that the impacts of unsustainable groundwater-fed irrigation on surface freshwater availability go beyond what was previously understood. Our results confirm findings from previous studies showing increased groundwater recharge rates during wet seasons over 2002–2021, but these rates are insufficient for aquifers to recover, gradually depleting groundwater across the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta. The main findings are that this increased recharge causes a drop in surface runoff and baseflow generation during the monsoons, resulting in lower flood risk (a beneficial outcome), but also less surface freshwater available for farming, which may trigger additional groundwater demand. The drop in coastal flood risk induced by inland groundwater-fed irrigation exceeds the increase caused by sea level rise by about five- to tenfold. Reduced runoff may also increase seawater intrusion, driven by less freshwater to push ocean water away, further increasing freshwater scarcity. This is particularly concerning, since the region has been under rising sea levels and sinking lands. Our findings over this delta have global implications, as humans and climate are increasingly pressuring coastal and deltaic ecosystems worldwide. Dry-season groundwater irrigation in southern Asia increases annual agricultural productivity while monsoon rains recharge aquifers. However, groundwater irrigation rates in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta exceed monsoonal recharge rates, reduce available surface freshwater and increase the risk of saltwater intrusion.","PeriodicalId":19056,"journal":{"name":"Nature Sustainability","volume":"8 8","pages":"914-924"},"PeriodicalIF":27.1,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}