The new industrial revolution, along with the ‘circular’ and ‘sharing’ economy, are reconfiguring economic activities across the world. How can these activities be aligned with the idea of a sustainable resource economy which includes  deep decarbonization?

The accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence across an increasing number of sectors during the coronavirus crisis means it will soon become a general purpose technology. But critical improvements that it may bring, including for sustainability, will not come solely from AI but from the understanding of, and engagement with, how the technology interfaces with the existing economic, environmental, social and political world, write Marjorie Buchser and Matthew Oxenford.

While AI applications to decarbonize heavy industries are promising, a focus on process optimization over its more radical use could limit its potential. However, establishing knowledge bases and policy frameworks to foster innovation could speed up the application of AI to disrupt business-as-usual operations and deliver decarbonization.

Built environments have the potential to transform from primarily 'users' of natural resources to 'providers' of societal value, which in turn can create infrastructure that is in harmony with people and nature. But to reach this goal stakeholders must be aligned behind this ambition.

Although there is a long way to go before the true implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are known, the crisis does offer a rare opportunity for reflection on how to inform a better response to the other defining emergency of our times — climate change. 

Sand is a critical ingredient for many of the materials that we take for granted: concrete, glass and asphalt. Sand and coarse aggregates form the backbone of the modern world and also, through land reclamation, the ground on which we live. A growing global population increasingly living in cities has led to a spiralling rise in the extraction of sand and aggregates, with serious environmental, political and social consequences.

Is the electric business doomed? That may seem a foolish question when every analysis indicates that global electricity use will continue to increase rapidly in the coming decades. But that depends on what you mean by 'electric business'. Electricity was not originally a business. It might, once again, no longer be.

Treating 'run-of-the-river' hydro, wind and solar electricity as consumable commodities is fundamentally inconsistent, and has important implications for policy and investment, argues Walt Patterson.  

As renewables become a large share of the global energy mix, greater electricity system flexibility will be critical and will originate from the small scale, write Daniel Quiggin and Antony Froggatt.

The world is undergoing a dramatic electricity transition, and the global struggle for power over this transformed electric system is set to profoundly shape our future, argues Walt Patterson.

The dialogue explored tools to shift societal preferences and support more sustainable consumption behaviours. It analysed lessons from experiences of ‘nudging’ and other efforts in policy areas such as food, energy, buildings and infrastructure, and identified promising opportunities where interventions that target demand-side shifts could deliver more sustainable outcomes. Participants were from industry, government, international organizations, NGOs, academia, foundations and think tanks.