Publications

Daniel Ospina, Paula Mirazo, Richard P. Allan, Smriti Basnett, Ana Bastos, Nishan Bhattarai, Wendy Broadgate, Derik J. Broekhoff, Mercedes Bustamante, Deliang Chen, Yeonju Choi, Peter Cox, Luiz A. Domeignoz-Horta, Kristie L. Ebi, Pierre Friedlingstein, Thomas L. Frölicher, Sabine Fuss, Helge F. Goessling, Nicolas Gruber, Qingyou He, Sophie Hebden, Nadja Hedrich, Adrian Heilemann, Marina Hirota, Øivind Hodnebrog, Gustaf Hugelius, Santiago Izquierdo-Tort, Sirkku Juhola, Fumiko Kasuga, Piyu Ke, Douglas I. Kelley, Şiir KILKIŞ, Maximilian Kotz, Nilushi Kumarasinghe, William F. Lamb, Shih-Yu Lee, Junguo Liu, Cara N. Maesano, Maria A. Martin, Guilherme G. Mazzochini, Christopher J. Merchant, Akira S. Mori, Jennifer Morris, Åsa Persson, Hans-Otto Pörtner, Benedict S. Probst, Justine Ramage, Estelle Razanatsoa, Aaron Redman, Johan Rockström, Regina R. Rodrigues, Johan Rockström. 2026. Ten New Insights in Climate Science 2025. Global Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2025.10043

This review highlights 10 recent advances in climate change research with high policy relevance, spanning diverse topics: (1) the global temperature jump of 2023–2024; (2) sea surface warming and marine heatwaves; (3) land carbon sinks; (4) interactions between climate change and biodiversity loss; (5) accelerated groundwater decline; (6) global dengue incidence; (7) income and labour productivity loss; (8) strategic considera...

Tilman Hertz, Francois Bousquet, Mathilde Boucher, Catherine Lumalé, María Mancilla García, Maja Schlüter, Aurélie Sors. 2026. Theorizing for Transformative Collective Action - A Process-Relational Approach. OSF. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/vkwqg_v2

This paper draws on process-relational perspectives to present an understanding of socio-environmental problems not as obstacles but as modes of existence. We argue that engaging with problems in this way unlocks their potential to be transformative, rather than merely resolving them. But how can those who set up and engage with processes of transformative change unlock this potential? This brings us to the topic of theorizing...

Paul D L Ritchie, Norman J Steinert, Jesse F Abrams, Hassan Alkhayuon, Constantin W Arnscheidt, Nils Bochow, Ruth R Chapman, Joseph Clarke, Donovan P Dennis, Jonathan F Donges, Bernardo M Flores, Julius Garbe, Annika Högner, Chris Huntingford, Timothy M Lenton, Johannes Lohmann, Kerstin Lux-Gottschalk, Manjana Milkoreit, Tessa Möller, Paul Pearce-Kelly, Laura Pereira, Courtney Quinn, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Simone M Stuenzi, Didier Swingedouw, Larissa N Van der Laan, Kirsten Zickfeld, Nico Wunderling. 2026. The implications of overshooting 1.5 °C on Earth system tipping elements—a review. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae3cad

Due to insufficient emission reductions in recent years, it is increasingly likely that global warming will exceed the 1.5 °C temperature limit in the late 2020s or 2030s. As a result, several Earth system tipping elements could, at least temporarily, have their tipping points surpassed, posing risks of large-scale and profound structural change. Tipping does not always occur immediately upon crossing such a critical threshold...

Petri Ylikoski, Rodrigo Martinez Peña, Thomas Banitz, Tilman Hertz, Lars-Göran Johansson, Emilie Lindkvist, Sonja Radosavljevic, Maja Schlüter. 2026. The challenge of causal complexity in sustainability science. OSF. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/wgu4y_v1

Understanding causal relations for sustainability scientists means studying phenomena that involve complex causality, e.g. multiple and heterogeneous relations and entities, context-sensitivity, and multi-scalar phenomena. To cope with this, sustainability scientists have borrowed concepts from neighboring disciplines, used causal expressions that have confusing meaning, or abstained from using causal language altogether. We a...

Simon West, Oliver Lilford, Vanessa Masterson, Emmeline Laszlo Ambjörnsson, Beau Austin, Bram Büscher, Laura‐Bethia Campbell, Marnie Graham, Kuntala Lahiri‐Dutt, Lisen Schultz, Marja Spierenburg, Grace Wong, Carina Wyborn. 2026. Masculinities in Conservation Science, Policy and Practice: A Qualitative Systematic Review. Conservation Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/con4.70007

Gender equality is a key target for conservation but is often treated as a women's issue with limited attention to the roles of men and masculinities in perpetuating unequal gender relations. This paper provides a qualitative systematic review of academic literature on “masculinities”—actions, norms, and values associated with men—in the conservation sector and synthesizes the reported effects of masculinities on conservation ...

Muhammad Alif K. Sahide, Siswandi Siswandi, Nurhady Sirimorok, Micah R. Fisher, Grace Yee Wong, Maria Brockhaus. 2026. The SPA-cube framework: An integrated approach for analysing power dynamics in environmental governance. MethodsX. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2026.103814

This article presents the SPA-Cube Framework, an integrated methodological protocol that addresses key limitations in power analysis for environmental governance. Traditional approaches often employ singular or static lenses, failing to capture power’s multidimensional, dynamic, and governmental nature. Our framework systematically integrates three complementary pillars: Gaventa’s Power Cube (typologizing visible, hidden, and ...

Romi Lotcheris, Nielja Knecht, Lan Wang-Erlandsson, Juan Rocha. 2026. Global assessment of terrestrial water cycle resilience. EarthArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31223/x5275b

Green water - transpiration, soil moisture, and land precipitation - is critical for Earth system stability and ecosystem productivity. Despite evidence of considerable and widespread change globally, its resilience, or ability to absorb and recover from disturbances, is not yet well understood. Here, we assess green water resilience using early warning signals (EWS) applied to global satellite time series of green water varia...

Ugo Legendre, Louis Delannoy, Pablo Brito-Parada. 2026. Physically consistent sectoral pathways for phasing out fossil fuels. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2025.116575

The transition away from fossil fuels relies on a range of strategies, including deploying low-carbon, electricity-producing energy sources. To understand how much electricity is needed to substitute fossil fuels, sectors of the economy being electrified must be analysed discretely, as their suitability for electrification varies significantly. Constructing, operating, and maintaining these renewable power plants requires subs...

Charlotte Stijnen, Katinka Wijsman, Timon McPhearson, Niki Frantzeskaki. 2026. Uncovering streams, dreams, and dilemmas: A case study analyzing trade-offs and justice in the urban stream daylighting of Tibbetts Brook in New York City, USA. Environmental Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101391

Daylighting urban waterways is one form of nature-based solution (NBS) gaining attention amongst cities internationally. Urban daylighting – which involves removing historically buried waterways from underground pipes and bringing them back to the surface – is an intensive form of NBS which can address urban stormwater management, reduce combined-sewage overflow issues, improve riparian habitat, and increase biodiversity. The ...

Grzegorz Budzik, Marta Sylla, Catharina J.E. Schulp. 2026. Cooling benefits of Urban agriculture to inhabitants—mapping cooling potential of allotments in European functional urban areas. Journal of Environmental Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.128275

As climate change accelerates and open urban spaces diminish, multifunctional urban planning solutions that enhance multiple ecosystem services (ES) are essential. Urban agriculture, particularly allotment gardens, plays a key role in addressing these challenges. This study assesses the cooling potential of all allotments across European Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) in terms of area cooled, maximum cooling distance and intens...