• Energy Research

Climate change is threatening water security in water-scarce regions across the world, challenging water management policy in terms of how best to adapt. Transformative new approaches have been proposed, but management policies remain largely the same in many instances, and there are claims that good current management practice is well adapted. This paper takes the case of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia, where management policies are highly sophisticated and have been through a recent transformation in order to critically review how well adapted the basin’s management is to climate change. This paper synthesizes published data, recent literature, and water plans in order to evaluate the outcomes of water management policy. It identifies several limitations and inequities that could emerge in the context of climate change and, through synthesis of the broader climate adaptation literature, proposes solutions that can be implemented when basin management is formally reviewed in 2026.

The aims of the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP) are to provide a framework for the intercomparison of global and regional-scale risk models within and across multiple sectors and to enable coordinated multi-sectoral assessments of different risks and their aggregated effects. The overarching goal is to use the knowledge gained to support adaptation and mitigation decisions that require regional or global perspectives within the context of facilitating transformations to enable sustainable development, despite inevitable climate shifts and disruptions. ISIMIP uses community-agreed sets of scenarios with standardized climate variables and socio-economic projections as inputs for projecting future risks and associated uncertainties, within and across sectors. The results are consistent multi-model assessments of sectoral risks and opportunities that enable studies that integrate across sectors, providing support for implementation of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Systematic conservation planning research has focused on designing systems of conservation areas that efficiently protect a comprehensive and representative set of species and habitats. Recently, there has been an emphasis on improving the adequacy of conservation area design to promote the persistence and future generation of biodiversity. Few studies have explored incorporating ecological and evolutionary processes into conservation planning assessments. Biodiversity in Australia is maintained and generated by numerous ecological and evolutionary processes at various spatial and temporal scales. We accommodated ecological and evolutionary processes in four ways: (1) using sub‐catchments as planning units to facilitate the protection of the integrity and function of ecosystem processes occurring on a sub‐catchment scale; (2) targeting one type of ecological refugia, drought refugia, which are critical for the persistence of many species during widespread drought; (3) targeting one type of evolutionary refugia which are important for maintaining and generating unique biota during long‐term climatic changes; and (4) preferentially grouping priority areas along vegetated waterways to account for the importance of connected waterways and associated riparian areas in maintaining processes. We identified drought refugia, areas of relatively high and regular herbage production in arid and semiarid Australia, from estimates of gross primary productivity derived from satellite data. In this paper, we combined the novel incorporation of these processes with a more traditional framework of efficiently representing a comprehensive sample of biodiversity to identify spatial priorities across Australia. We explored the trade‐offs between economic costs, representation targets, and connectivity. Priority areas that considered ecological and evolutionary processes were more connected along vegetated waterways and were identified for a small increase in economic cost. Priority areas for conservation investment are more likely to have long‐term benefits to biodiversity if ecological and evolutionary processes are considered in their identification.

Research practice, funding agencies and global science organizations suggest that research aimed at addressing sustainability challenges is most effective when ‘co-produced’ by academics and non-academics. Co-production promises to address the complex nature of contemporary sustainability challenges better than more traditional scientific approaches. But definitions of knowledge co-production are diverse and often contradictory. We propose a set of four general principles that underlie high-quality knowledge co-production for sustainability research. Using these principles, we offer practical guidance on how to engage in meaningful co-productive practices, and how to evaluate their quality and success.

The Anthropocene era is characterized by a pronounced negative impact of human and social activities on natural ecosystems. To the extent finance, economics and management underlie human social activities, we need to reassess these fields and their role in achieving global sustainability. This article briefly presents the scientific evidence on accelerating impacts of human activities on nature, which have resulted in breach of planetary boundaries and onset of global climate change. It offers some potential leverage points for change toward sustainability stewardship by highlighting the important role of finance and economics in addressing climate change. We examine the role of financial stakeholders in addressing planetary boundaries and offer a modified stakeholder theory, from which we propose future directions for finance in the Anthropocene.

Le sommet Rio+20 des Nations Unies (ONU) a engagé les nations à élaborer un ensemble d'objectifs universels de développement durable (ODD) pour s'appuyer sur les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (OMD) qui expireront en 2015. Les recherches indiquent maintenant que l'impact de l'humanité sur le système de survie de la Terre est si grand que de nouveaux changements environnementaux mondiaux risquent de saper la prospérité à long terme et les objectifs d'éradication de la pauvreté. Le développement socio-économique et la durabilité mondiale sont souvent présentés comme étant en conflit en raison des compromis entre une population mondiale croissante, ainsi que des niveaux de vie plus élevés, et la gestion des effets de la production et de la consommation sur l'environnement mondial. Nous avons établi un cadre pour une architecture fondée sur des données probantes pour de nouveaux objectifs et cibles. En nous appuyant sur six ODD, qui intègrent des considérations de développement et d'environnement, nous avons élaboré un cadre complet d'objectifs et de cibles associées, qui démontrent qu'il est possible et nécessaire d'élaborer des cibles intégrées relatives aux objectifs en matière d'alimentation, d'énergie, d'eau et de services écosystémiques ; fournissant ainsi une approche neutre fondée sur des données probantes pour soutenir les discussions sur les cibles des ODD. Les analyses mondiales, à l'aide d'une équation cible mondiale intégrée, sont proches à fournir des indicateurs pour ces cibles. Outre les cibles axées uniquement sur le développement et les cibles axées uniquement sur l'environnement, ces cibles intégrées garantiraient que les synergies sont maximisées et que les compromis sont gérés dans la mise en œuvre des ODD. La cumbre de Río+20 de las Naciones Unidas (ONU) comprometió a las naciones a desarrollar un conjunto de objetivos universales de desarrollo sostenible (ODS) que se basen en los objetivos de desarrollo del milenio (ODM) que expirarán en 2015. La investigación ahora indica que el impacto de la humanidad en el sistema de soporte vital de la Tierra es tan grande que un mayor cambio ambiental global corre el riesgo de socavar la prosperidad a largo plazo y los objetivos de erradicación de la pobreza. El desarrollo socioeconómico y la sostenibilidad global a menudo se plantean como en conflicto debido a las compensaciones entre una creciente población mundial, así como a un mayor nivel de vida. y gestionar los efectos de la producción y el consumo en el medio ambiente global. Hemos establecido un marco para una arquitectura basada en la evidencia para nuevos objetivos y metas. Basándonos en seis ODS, que integran consideraciones de desarrollo y ambientales, desarrollamos un marco integral de objetivos y metas asociadas, que demuestran que es posible y necesario desarrollar metas integradas relacionadas con los objetivos de alimentos, energía, agua y servicios ecosistémicos; proporcionando así un enfoque neutral basado en la evidencia para apoyar las discusiones sobre las metas de los ODS. Los análisis globales, utilizando una ecuación global integrada de metas, están cerca para proporcionar indicadores para estas metas. Junto con las metas solo para el desarrollo y las metas solo para el medio ambiente, estas metas integradas garantizarían que se maximicen las sinergias y se gestionen las compensaciones en la implementación de los ODS. The United Nations (UN) Rio+20 summit committed nations to develop a set of universal sustainable development goals (SDGs) to build on the millennium development goals (MDGs) set to expire in 2015.Research now indicates that humanity's impact on Earth's life support system is so great that further global environmental change risks undermining long-term prosperity and poverty eradication goals.Socioeconomic development and global sustainability are often posed as being in conflict because of tradeoffs between a growing world population, as well as higher standards of living, and managing the effects of production and consumption on the global environment.We have established a framework for an evidence-based architecture for new goals and targets.Building on six SDGs, which integrate development and environmental considerations, we developed a comprehensive framework of goals and associated targets, which demonstrate that it is possible, and necessary, to develop integrated targets relating to food, energy, water, and ecosystem services goals; thus providing a neutral evidence-based approach to support SDG target discussions.Global analyses, using an integrated global target equation, are close to providing indicators for these targets.Alongside development-only targets and environment-only targets, these integrated targets would ensure that synergies are maximized and trade-offs are managed in the implementation of SDGs. ألزمت قمة الأمم المتحدة ريو+20 الدول بوضع مجموعة من أهداف التنمية المستدامة العالمية (SDGs) للبناء على الأهداف الإنمائية للألفية (MDGs) التي من المقرر أن تنتهي صلاحيتها في عام 2015. تشير الأبحاث الآن إلى أن تأثير البشرية على نظام دعم الحياة على الأرض كبير لدرجة أن المزيد من التغير البيئي العالمي يهدد بتقويض الرخاء طويل الأجل وأهداف القضاء على الفقر. غالبًا ما يتم طرح التنمية الاجتماعية والاقتصادية والاستدامة العالمية على أنها في صراع بسبب المفاضلات بين عدد سكان العالم المتزايد، وكذلك ارتفاع مستويات المعيشة، وإدارة آثار الإنتاج والاستهلاك على البيئة العالمية. لقد أنشأنا إطارًا لهيكل قائم على الأدلة للأهداف والغايات الجديدة. بناءً على ستة أهداف للتنمية المستدامة، والتي تدمج التنمية والاعتبارات البيئية، قمنا بتطوير إطار شامل للأهداف والأهداف المرتبطة بها، والتي تثبت أنه من الممكن، والضروري، وضع أهداف متكاملة تتعلق بأهداف خدمات الغذاء والطاقة والمياه والنظم الإيكولوجية ؛ وبالتالي توفير نهج محايد قائم على الأدلة لدعم مناقشات أهداف التنمية المستدامة. التحليلات العالمية، باستخدام معادلة هدف عالمي متكامل، قريبة لتوفير مؤشرات لهذه الأهداف. إلى جانب الأهداف الإنمائية فقط والأهداف البيئية فقط، ستضمن هذه الأهداف المتكاملة تعظيم أوجه التآزر وإدارة المفاضلات في تنفيذ أهداف التنمية المستدامة.