Pub Date : 2026-01-22DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2026.101605
Laura Vargas-Estrada , Raúl Muñoz
The increasing demand for biomethane in Europe requires the urgent development of sustainable and cost-effective technologies to meet the ambitious target of producing 35 bcm of biomethane by 2030. Biological technologies stand as a promising integrating platform to purify biogas and valorize biogenic CO2, while producing high-value chemicals. Photosynthetic biogas upgrading has demonstrated to be an attractive platform as microalgae can fix CO2 while producing biomass that can be further valorized for biofuel, biofertilizer or biostimulant production. However, its high investment cost and the low microalgae biomass productivities have limited commercialization. Recently, the supplementation of nanoparticles obtained from olive-mill wastewater, has demonstrated to be a promising technique to improve biomass productivity, CO2 removals, and the overall stability of the system. This review summarizes the current trends and future outlooks of this sustainable platform aiming at the development of novel integrated microalgae biorefineries devoted to biogas upgrading and high-value compounds production.
{"title":"Exploring the future of photosynthetic biogas upgrading process","authors":"Laura Vargas-Estrada , Raúl Muñoz","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2026.101605","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2026.101605","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increasing demand for biomethane in Europe requires the urgent development of sustainable and cost-effective technologies to meet the ambitious target of producing 35 bcm of biomethane by 2030. Biological technologies stand as a promising integrating platform to purify biogas and valorize biogenic CO<sub>2</sub>, while producing high-value chemicals. Photosynthetic biogas upgrading has demonstrated to be an attractive platform as microalgae can fix CO<sub>2</sub> while producing biomass that can be further valorized for biofuel, biofertilizer or biostimulant production. However, its high investment cost and the low microalgae biomass productivities have limited commercialization. Recently, the supplementation of nanoparticles obtained from olive-mill wastewater, has demonstrated to be a promising technique to improve biomass productivity, CO<sub>2</sub> removals, and the overall stability of the system. This review summarizes the current trends and future outlooks of this sustainable platform aiming at the development of novel integrated microalgae biorefineries devoted to biogas upgrading and high-value compounds production.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 101605"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146036906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101604
Kamille H Rasmussen , Martiwi D Setiawati , Anupam Khajuria
Global textile waste continues to rise, with most sent to landfill. This is partly due to the current challenges of textile recycling. This review assesses the emergence of post-consumer textile-to-textile recycling techniques and explores their respective challenges, opportunities, and environmental impacts. Following a systematic selection process, this review groups 39 studies into three thematic areas based on research scope: 12 textile recycling reviews, 16 decolorization studies, and 11 life cycle assessments (LCAs) of conventional and recycled textiles. First, this paper finds that while mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling methods represent unique opportunities, each faces its own specific challenges, partly due to the presence of synthetic dyes. Second, the analysis of decolorization case studies reveals that color removal is complex, generates hazardous by-products, and releases harmful solvents and microplastics, undermining the sustainability potential of the recycling process. Although the case studies and review papers were framed around circular economy principles, these focused more on fiber quality and stripping success than on environmental performance. In contrast, the LCA case studies compared the environmental impact of conventional and recycled textiles. The results show various environmental trade-offs along the supply chain and across measurements. Although some studies establish positive environmental impacts, improvements are often small and shaped by many parameters that may limit their expansion at scale. This review concludes that synthetic dyes and finishes serve as barriers to optimizing textile-to-textile recycling, and more research is needed on the environmental impacts of the recycling process. This paper proposes addressing the dye barrier during the design stage and replacing synthetic with undyed, naturally dyed cotton and plant dye to enhance circularity within the industry.
{"title":"Synthetic dyes: a barrier to circular economy within the textile industry?","authors":"Kamille H Rasmussen , Martiwi D Setiawati , Anupam Khajuria","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101604","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101604","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global textile waste continues to rise, with most sent to landfill. This is partly due to the current challenges of textile recycling. This review assesses the emergence of post-consumer textile-to-textile recycling techniques and explores their respective challenges, opportunities, and environmental impacts. Following a systematic selection process, this review groups 39 studies into three thematic areas based on research scope: 12 textile recycling reviews, 16 decolorization studies, and 11 life cycle assessments (LCAs) of conventional and recycled textiles. First, this paper finds that while mechanical, chemical, and biological recycling methods represent unique opportunities, each faces its own specific challenges, partly due to the presence of synthetic dyes. Second, the analysis of decolorization case studies reveals that color removal is complex, generates hazardous by-products, and releases harmful solvents and microplastics, undermining the sustainability potential of the recycling process. Although the case studies and review papers were framed around circular economy principles, these focused more on fiber quality and stripping success than on environmental performance. In contrast, the LCA case studies compared the environmental impact of conventional and recycled textiles. The results show various environmental trade-offs along the supply chain and across measurements. Although some studies establish positive environmental impacts, improvements are often small and shaped by many parameters that may limit their expansion at scale. This review concludes that synthetic dyes and finishes serve as barriers to optimizing textile-to-textile recycling, and more research is needed on the environmental impacts of the recycling process. This paper proposes addressing the dye barrier during the design stage and replacing synthetic with undyed, naturally dyed cotton and plant dye to enhance circularity within the industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 101604"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146034492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101594
Alicia D Barraclough , Maureen G Reed
{"title":"Editorial overview: Leveraging the power of collective learning through networks to amplify sustainability transformation","authors":"Alicia D Barraclough , Maureen G Reed","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101594","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101594","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 101594"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-12-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145692208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2025-11-21DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101590
Andrés Moreira-Muñoz , Valeria S Duval , Marcelo Leguia-Cruz , Valéria Raquel Porto de Lima , Katalina Salvador , Pablo Mansilla-Quiñones
Multiple contemporary socio-ecological crises demand urgent rethinking of regimes governing nature–culture relations. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), now in its fiftieth year, was established to apply sustainability principles worldwide. At the occurrence of the Fifth UNESCO World Congress on Biosphere Reserves in Hangzhou in September 2025, it is timely to revisit the conceptual foundations of the WNBR and their practical application. By cross-referencing UNESCO principles with emerging decolonial, convivial, and post-growth conservation approaches — including the philosophies of Buen Vivir and Buen Convivir — Biosphere Reserves can be reimagined as critical sites for cultivating balanced nature–culture relationships grounded in eco-social peace and multispecies justice. This commentary draws on Latin American experiences to highlight both the contradictions of extractivist development and the potential for reconstructing communal life through education, interculturality, and multispecies coexistence.
{"title":"Eco-social peace and multispecies justice in UNESCO Biosphere Reserves: a convivial and decolonial post-growth conservation approach","authors":"Andrés Moreira-Muñoz , Valeria S Duval , Marcelo Leguia-Cruz , Valéria Raquel Porto de Lima , Katalina Salvador , Pablo Mansilla-Quiñones","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101590","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101590","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Multiple contemporary socio-ecological crises demand urgent rethinking of regimes governing nature–culture relations. The World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR), now in its fiftieth year, was established to apply sustainability principles worldwide. At the occurrence of the Fifth UNESCO World Congress on Biosphere Reserves in Hangzhou in September 2025, it is timely to revisit the conceptual foundations of the WNBR and their practical application. By cross-referencing UNESCO principles with emerging decolonial, convivial, and post-growth conservation approaches — including the philosophies of Buen Vivir and Buen Convivir — Biosphere Reserves can be reimagined as critical sites for cultivating balanced nature–culture relationships grounded in eco-social peace and multispecies justice. This commentary draws on Latin American experiences to highlight both the contradictions of extractivist development and the potential for reconstructing communal life through education, interculturality, and multispecies coexistence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101590"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145576241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2025-11-08DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101589
Shah Md Atiqul Haq , Khandaker Jafor Ahmed , Arnika Tabassum Arno , Bijoya Saha , Nishat Tasneem
This article examines the nexus between climate change and socio-economic practices such as dowries, domestic violence, and divorce, and highlights their combined effects on sustainable development outcomes. In resource-limited regions, climate change intensifies economic and social stressors that reinforce traditional practices such as dowry systems. These interconnected pressures create gender-based vulnerabilities, increasing women's exposure to early marriage and domestic violence while deepening exisiting gender inequalities. Concurrently, climate-induced stressors adversely affect men’s psychological well-being, contributing to increased rates intimate partner violence. The study underscores the complex challenges facing livelihood sustainability in climate-exposed communities, where economic instability and resource scarcity correlate with increased dowry demands and heightened household conflict. The findings demonstrate the critical need for gender-responsive climate adaptation policies that address the socio-economic mechanisms through which environmental stressors perpetuate gender-based violence and inequality in affected communities.
{"title":"Women unprepared for an unknown fate: the quadruple burden of climate change — disasters, dowry, domestic violence, and divorce","authors":"Shah Md Atiqul Haq , Khandaker Jafor Ahmed , Arnika Tabassum Arno , Bijoya Saha , Nishat Tasneem","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101589","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101589","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the nexus between climate change and socio-economic practices such as dowries, domestic violence, and divorce, and highlights their combined effects on sustainable development outcomes. In resource-limited regions, climate change intensifies economic and social stressors that reinforce traditional practices such as dowry systems. These interconnected pressures create gender-based vulnerabilities, increasing women's exposure to early marriage and domestic violence while deepening exisiting gender inequalities. Concurrently, climate-induced stressors adversely affect men’s psychological well-being, contributing to increased rates intimate partner violence. The study underscores the complex challenges facing livelihood sustainability in climate-exposed communities, where economic instability and resource scarcity correlate with increased dowry demands and heightened household conflict. The findings demonstrate the critical need for gender-responsive climate adaptation policies that address the socio-economic mechanisms through which environmental stressors perpetuate gender-based violence and inequality in affected communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101589"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145474381","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2025-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101588
Shruti Kashyap , Charles Mario Abela , Veronique Blum , Beatrice Crona
Corporate biodiversity reporting is critical for assessing planetary health and meeting biodiversity targets, yet current frameworks and practices remain insufficient. This paper reviews 51 academic articles, along with additional policy and legal sources, and evaluates 30 biodiversity assessment tools to examine the state of biodiversity reporting. The analysis identifies three interlinked challenges of complexity, conceptualization, and governance. These challenges arise from gaps in knowledge, methods, and data, and are reinforced by the dominance of financial logics over ecological realities. Collectively, these challenges limit the reliability of reporting and the usefulness of existing tools for decision-making and risk mitigation. The paper concludes that meaningful biodiversity reporting requires closer integration of ecological knowledge and clearer alignment with the best available science. Important research and policy steps towards meaningful biodiversity reporting include establishing mandatory, standardized corporate disclosures of impact data linked to the five drivers of biodiversity loss, and stronger coordination across legal, accounting, and scientific domains on issues of materiality, risk, and valuation.
{"title":"Business and finance on a path towards meaningful biodiversity reporting?","authors":"Shruti Kashyap , Charles Mario Abela , Veronique Blum , Beatrice Crona","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101588","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101588","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Corporate biodiversity reporting is critical for assessing planetary health and meeting biodiversity targets, yet current frameworks and practices remain insufficient. This paper reviews 51 academic articles, along with additional policy and legal sources, and evaluates 30 biodiversity assessment tools to examine the state of biodiversity reporting. The analysis identifies three interlinked challenges of complexity, conceptualization, and governance. These challenges arise from gaps in knowledge, methods, and data, and are reinforced by the dominance of financial logics over ecological realities. Collectively, these challenges limit the reliability of reporting and the usefulness of existing tools for decision-making and risk mitigation. The paper concludes that meaningful biodiversity reporting requires closer integration of ecological knowledge and clearer alignment with the best available science. Important research and policy steps towards meaningful biodiversity reporting include establishing mandatory, standardized corporate disclosures of impact data linked to the five drivers of biodiversity loss, and stronger coordination across legal, accounting, and scientific domains on issues of materiality, risk, and valuation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101588"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145474382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
Pub Date : 2025-11-01DOI: 10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101586
Jorge H. García, Lina M. Moros
Voluntary carbon markets remain a controversial instrument for financing biodiversity conservation. From the perspective of credit-selling countries — especially in the Global South — carbon offsets represent both risks and hopes for aligning climate mitigation with biodiversity protection and much-needed financing of local development. Drawing on recent empirical evidence, we review the biodiversity, additionality, implementation, and equity challenges that have undermined the credibility and impact of carbon crediting, using cases from tropical forest regions. We argue that offset markets may still play a transitional role if embedded in strong regulatory frameworks, with transparent benefit-sharing and robust quality criteria. We call for a reframing of carbon markets not as ends in themselves but as transitional tools within a broader, justice-oriented biodiversity financing agenda. Our proposal to improve carbon markets combines top-down components — State-led biodiversity zoning and jurisdictional approaches — with a bottom-up approach that encourages a broader social engagement.
{"title":"Key issues in carbon markets and lessons for biodiversity conservation and financing","authors":"Jorge H. García, Lina M. Moros","doi":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101586","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cosust.2025.101586","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Voluntary carbon markets remain a controversial instrument for financing biodiversity conservation. From the perspective of credit-selling countries — especially in the Global South — carbon offsets represent both risks and hopes for aligning climate mitigation with biodiversity protection and much-needed financing of local development. Drawing on recent empirical evidence, we review the biodiversity, additionality, implementation, and equity challenges that have undermined the credibility and impact of carbon crediting, using cases from tropical forest regions. We argue that offset markets may still play a transitional role if embedded in strong regulatory frameworks, with transparent benefit-sharing and robust quality criteria. We call for a reframing of carbon markets not as ends in themselves but as transitional tools within a broader, justice-oriented biodiversity financing agenda. Our proposal to improve carbon markets combines top-down components — State-led biodiversity zoning and jurisdictional approaches — with a bottom-up approach that encourages a broader social engagement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":294,"journal":{"name":"Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability","volume":"77 ","pages":"Article 101586"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145413031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"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}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号