Nature Communications
An open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, health, physical, chemical and Earth sciences.
Replacing 50% of meat and milk products with plant-based alternatives by 2050 can reduce agriculture and land use related greenhouse gas emissions by 31% and halt the degradation of forest and natural land. Additional climate and biodiversity benefits could accrue from reforesting the spared land.
Portable and High-yield Atmospheric Water Harvesters for Emergency Water Supply
By 2025, almost two billion people will live in areas with absolute scarcity. To alleviate worldwide water shortage, scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have developed a low-cost and scalable hygroscopic material and deployed it into a portable water harvester for a stable water supply.
Fairly sharing the effort in the EU’s Green Deal
Just today we’ve learned that the European Council agreed on a number of issues in the Fit for 55 Package; a proposal to reach the goal of reducing emissions by 55% compared to 1990 by the year 2030. We developed a tool to be used in negotiations and reflect on the fairness of the current proposal.
A roadmap for securing a larger and greener global rice bowl
Rice systems face the dual challenge of producing more and being more efficient in the use of water, labor, nutrients, and pesticides. An article published in Nature Communications on Dec 9 assessed performance of 32 rice cropping systems, altogether accounting for 50% of global rice cropland.
Rewetted fen peatlands - novel and essential for climate protection
Peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the biomass of the World’s forests. Vast areas of peatland have been drained and turned into CO2 sources. Their rewetting is essential to reduce CO2 emissions. But how exactly do the rewetted peatlands look like, do they resemble again the natural state?
Rural Electrification is Impeding Carbon Neutral Strategy in China
China has enacted a series of policies since 2015 to substitute electricity for in-home combustion toward rural electrification and pollution management. However, this shift has resulted in a sharp increase in electric loads and associated carbon emissions from power generation.