Springer Nature

This is the Editorial of the first IGES-initiated Special Feature of the Sustainability Science journal. This Special Feature on Just and Sustainable Transitions in Net-Zero Asia aims to highlight how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across Asia are applying just transition thinking to address pressing environmental challenges, climate...

While the global community has long worked to ameliorate the livelihoods of people and promote environmental sustainability around the world, many social, economic, and environmental issues remain unsolved. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sought to end poverty but ended with mixed results depending on the country. The Sustainable...

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations on 25th September 2015 and are now mid-way to the target implementation deadline of 2030. A set of 17 goals with 169 targets are being used to guide all UN Member States in implementing the challenging 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. From the beginning, it was...

Planners worldwide are exploring ways to regenerate shrinking cities, varying from pro-growth strategies with the aim of reversing population losses, to strategies that manage urban decline by adjusting the built environment to a smaller population. However, both approaches are reactionary rather than anticipatory, addressing decline after...

Reversing ecosystem degradation and halting global biodiversity loss due to climate change and other anthropogenic drivers are essential for socio-economic development and human wellbeing, as well as for advancing global sustainability. The latest initiative in this direction is the ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’, which establishes a...

COVID-19 has changed the way we understand risk and vulnerability. The pandemic provides a more in-depth understanding of how systemic risks work and how they affect lives, livelihoods and economies at a broader scale. Consequently, a range of impacts was observed, including loss of human health, livelihoods, loss of general wellbeing, protracted...

Our longing for incessant and rapid economic growth came at a cost of inefficient and wasteful use of resources and environmental pollution. The consequences are immense and far exceeding the planetary capacities to regenerate itself at such a fast pace. It became clear that a transition to sustainable societies cannot occur with our current linear...

This chapter identifies significant transformations in agricultural land in terms of land use and land-use changes, analyses major drivers and trade-offs, and describes substantial policy interventions to arrest negative trends. The rapidly growing population and their needs constitute one of the significant drivers of land-use changes in the Asia...

Globally, shifting cultivation is known to be an important driver of tropical deforestation. However, we argue that it can be sustainably managed if the environmental boundary conditions, laid by the traditional customs and practices, are fully respected. We narrate an empirical study from the Zunheboto district of Nagaland, India, where we...

The widespread adoption of low emissions technologies in rapidly developing countries is critical to resolving the climate emergency.1 However, many fast growing economies lack the energy efficient, renewable, and other advanced technologies needed to mitigate climate change. Technology transfer could help address these countries need. Yet the...