Cell reports sustainability最新文献

Multilateral development banks' (MDBs) commitment to the Paris Agreement (PA) was expected to induce a shift from fossil fuel-based to sustainable energy sources in the Global South. However, we lack a comprehensive analysis of their electricity generation portfolios and internal policies since then. This paper presents two new datasets on 1,230 electricity generation investments and 215 decarbonization policies adopted by all MDBs from 2006 to 2020. We find a continued decline in fossil fuel investment since the PA but no change in pace. The volume of investment in renewables (including hydropower) has not increased enough to compensate for the phaseout, resulting in a downward trend in MDB electricity generation investments over time. The number of renewable projects funded by MDBs, however, has substantially grown. These findings raise concerns about MDBs' ability to scale up clean electricity investments, particularly in low-income countries, where the energy investment gap continues to grow.

Humans face various hazards, making it challenging to apply a precautionary approach to all of them. Instead, individuals prioritize risk reduction based on perceived threats and lived experiences, often considering multiple hazards simultaneously. This study explores how public perceptions of multiple hazards are interconnected and change over time in Italy and Sweden, using data from three representative surveys (n = 12,476) conducted in August 2020, November 2020, and August 2021. We assess risk perception across three dimensions (likelihood, impact, and authority knowledge) for nine hazards, including epidemics, climate change, and natural disasters. Findings reveal that recently encountered hazards, such as COVID-19, become more closely connected to other hazards. At the same time, connections among hazards such as wildfires, droughts, and floods remain stable over time. These results indicate a dual component of public risk perception of multiple hazards, offering valuable insights for shaping public health policies and climate adaptation strategies.

The world's natural floodplains are being lost and degraded by human alterations. The lack of standardized data for quantifying these floodplain alterations, as well as the absence of convergence among data, analysis, and approaches, has led to significant uncertainty. We discover four primary barriers contributing to this problem: (1) discrepancies in defining floodplain alterations, (2) inconsistent floodplain boundaries, (3) insufficient use of data (e.g., over-reliance on population density), and (4) mismatches in the spatial resolution and scale of analyses (e.g., aggregated across basins or countries using temporally fragmented, short-duration data). As the first step to overcome these barriers, we recommend benchmarking global floodplains using high-resolution land-use data and indices of human disturbance and by integrating existing dams and levees within floodplain maps, establishing a global reference floodplain status from which alterations and critical change points can be continuously tracked. We advocate for a new socio-ecohydrological model of floodplain management-one that redefines human alterations by considering both structural changes and functional losses within a balanced framework of benefits and trade-offs.

Urban agriculture can contribute to sustainable development. However, a holistic investigation is lacking to comprehend its positive and negative impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our systematic analysis of around 1,450 relevant publications on urban agriculture, screened from 76,000 records, fills this gap. We map and analyze the text in the literature for each SDG target and its associated positive or negative sentiments. Here, we report our results highlighting that urban agriculture is linked to all SDGs, with 142 and 136 targets having positive and negative sentiments. The mapped positive sentiments are around double the negative ones. We identify six leveraging opportunities urban agriculture provides for sustainable transformation with four hurdles to be resolved. Urban agriculture does not inherently contribute to sustainability. Its impacts rely on the adoption of specific practices. Realizing urban agriculture's social, economic, and environmental functions to accelerate SDG progress requires tackling the hurdles.

Lenders are likely to face significant financial risks from the shift to a low-carbon economy, but it remains unclear whether such risks are incorporated into their lending practices. The extent of this risk depends on whether banks incorporate such risks into their lending activity and whether financial instruments' tenors are long enough to cover the period when such risks materialize. Using a case study of shipping loans, we combine quantitative data and semi-structured interviews with key shipping debt providers. Our results show that banks, in particular signatories of the Poseidon Principles, a voluntary disclosure initiative in shipping, have started to price in the climate score of shipowners they lend to after the Paris Agreement but on a corporate rather than an asset basis. However, signatories do not differentiate their margins based on a ship's carbon intensity, despite a relatively long loan maturity, reinforcing the limitations of disclosure initiatives to influence investment outlays.