The Current Opinion journals were developed out of the recognition that it is increasingly difficult for specialists to keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in their subject. Elsevier’s Current Opinion journals comprise of 13 leading titles in life sciences and adjacent fields.

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

IMPACT FACTOR: 2.100
5-Year Impact Factor: 2.100
Issues per year: 6 issues
Editorial Board

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability

The Current Opinion journals were developed out of the recognition that it is increasingly difficult for specialists to keep up to date with the expanding volume of information published in their subject. In Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, we help the reader by providing in a systematic manner:
1. The views of experts on current advances in environmental sustainability in a clear and readable form.
2. Evaluations of the most interesting papers, annotated by experts, from the great wealth of original publications.

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability aims to address all the economic, social, technological and institutional aspects related to the challenge of environmental sustainability by focussing on integration across academic disciplines and insights with implications for societal practices and processes.

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability aims to stimulate scientifically grounded, interdisciplinary, multi-scale debate and exchange of ideas. It will contain polished, concise and timely reviews and opinions. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability(COSUST) will serve as an invaluable source of information for researchers, lecturers, teachers, professionals, policy makers and students.

Division of the subject into sections
The subject of environmental sustainability is divided into 6 themed sections, each of which is reviewed once a year:
(1) Climate (covering climate change, climate risk management, and adaptation)
(2) Human settlements and industrial systems (covering cities, urbanization, transport)
(3) Energy systems (covering renewable energy, energy efficiency, bioenergy)
(4) Terrestrials systems (food systems, biodiversity, and ecosystem services)
(5) Carbon and Nitrogen cycles
(6) Aquatic systems (covering marine and fresh water, fisheries, currents, etc.)

The common denominators across these sections, to assure a cross cutting approach are: (a) interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary; (b) quantitative; (c) multi-scale (regional vs. global; space vs. time); (d) focus on integrated assessment; (e) governance, ethics, behaviour, education, and policy tools.

Selection of topics to be reviewed
Section Editors, who are major authorities in the field, are appointed by the Editors of the journal. They divide their section into a number of topics, ensuring that the field is comprehensively covered and that all issues of current importance are emphasised. Section Editors commission reviews from authorities on each topic that they have selected.

Reviews
Authors write short review articles in which they present recent developments in their subject, emphasising the aspects that, in their opinion, are most important. In addition, they provide short annotations to the papers that they consider to be most interesting from all those published in their topic over the previous year.

Editorial Overview
Section Editors write a short overview at the beginning of the section to introduce the reviews and to draw the reader's attention to any particularly interesting developments.

Ethics in Publishing: General Statement

The Editor(s) and Publisher of this Journal believe that there are fundamental principles underlying scholarly or professional publishing. While this may not amount to a formal 'code of conduct', these fundamental principles with respect to the authors' paper are that the paper should: i) be the authors' own original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere, ii) reflect the authors' own research and analysis and do so in a truthful and complete manner, iii) properly credit the meaningful contributions of co-authors and co-researchers, iv) not be submitted to more than one journal for consideration, and v) be appropriately placed in the context of prior and existing research. Of equal importance are ethical guidelines dealing with research methods and research funding, including issues dealing with informed consent, research subject privacy rights, conflicts of interest, and sources of funding. While it may not be possible to draft a 'code' that applies adequately to all instances and circumstances, we believe it useful to outline our expectations of authors and procedures that the Journal will employ in the event of questions concerning author conduct. With respect to conflicts of interest, the Publisher now requires authors to declare any conflicts of interest that relate to papers accepted for publication in this Journal. A conflict of interest may exist when an author or the author's institution has a financial or other relationship with other people or organizations that may inappropriately influence the author's work. A conflict can be actual or potential and full disclosure to the Journal is the safest course. All submissions to the Journal must include disclosure of all relationships that could be viewed as presenting a potential conflict of interest. The Journal may use such information as a basis for editorial decisions and may publish such disclosures if they are believed to be important to readers in judging the manuscript. A decision may be made by the Journal not to publish on the basis of the declared conflict.

For more information, please refer to: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authorshome.authors/conflictsofinterest

Best Cited over the last year.

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Biodiversity targets after 2010

The bold commitment made by the world's governments to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010 will soon be tested. On the basis of the continuing declines measured by most indicators, it now seems inevitable that the outcome will be that it has not been achieved. Here, in order to build on the momentum created by the 2010 target, we propose a shift away from a large set of static targets towards a smaller number of specific targets. Specifically, we present three categories of targets…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 3-8
Mace, G.M. | Cramer, W. | Díaz, S. | Faith, D.P. | Larigauderie, A. | Le Prestre, P. | Palmer, M. | Perrings, C. | Scholes, R.J. | Walpole, M. | Walther, B.A. | Watson, J.E.M. | Mooney, H.A.

The Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services: Moving a step closer to an IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity

Efforts to establish an 'IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity', or an IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), may culminate soon - as governments, the scientific community and other stakeholders are getting ready for a third round of negotiations on IPBES. This paper provides firstly, a brief history and broader context for the IPBES process; secondly, a description of the niche that IPBES would occupy in the science-policy landscape for…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 9-14
Larigauderie, A. | Mooney, H.A.

Reconciling biodiversity conservation and food security: Scientific challenges for a new agriculture

Production ecology and conservation biology have long focused on providing the knowledge base for intensive food production and biodiversity conservation, respectively. With increasing global food insecurity and continuing biodiversity decline, we show that the largely separate development of these fields is counterproductive. Scenario analyses suggest that feeding the world is possible without further encroachment of agriculture into natural ecosystems. Without ignoring the necessary…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 34-42
Brussaard, L. | Caron, P. | Campbell, B. | Lipper, L. | Mainka, S. | Rabbinge, R. | Babin, D. | Pulleman, M.

Biodiversity, climate change, and ecosystem services

The capacity of ecosystems to deliver essential services to society is already under stress. The additional stresses imposed by climate change in the coming years will require extraordinary adaptation. We need to track the changing status of ecosystems, deepen our understanding of the biological underpinnings for ecosystem service delivery and develop new tools and techniques for maintaining and restoring resilient biological and social systems. We will be building on an ecosystem foundation…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 46-54
Mooney, H. | Larigauderie, A. | Cesario, M. | Elmquist, T. | Hoegh-Guldberg, O. | Lavorel, S. | Mace, G.M. | Palmer, M. | Scholes, R. | Yahara, T.

Developing a common strategy for integrative global environmental change research and outreach: the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP)

The Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP) was established in 2001 by four global environmental change (GEC) research programmes: DIVERSITAS, IGBP, IHDP and WCRP. ESSP facilitates the study of the Earth's environment as an integrated system in order to understand how and why it is changing, and to explore the implications of these changes for global and regional sustainability. Joint research projects on carbon dynamics, food, water and health have been established. As a result of an…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 4-13
Leemans, R. | Asrar, G. | Busalacchi, A. | Canadell, J. | Ingram, J. | Larigauderie, A. | Mooney, H. | Nobre, C. | Patwardhan, A. | Rice, M. | Schmidt, F. | Seitzinger, S. | Virji, H. | Vörösmarty, C. | Young, O.

Livestock, livelihoods and the environment: understanding the trade-offs

Livestock are a global resource of significant benefits to society in the form of food, income, nutrients, employment, insurance, traction, clothing and others. In the process of providing these benefits, livestock can use a significant amount of land, nutrients, feed, water and other resources and generate 18% of anthropogenic global greenhouse gases. The total demand for livestock products might almost double by 2050, mostly in the developing world owing to increases in population density,…

Volume 1, Issue 2, 01 December 2009, Pp 111-120
Herrero, M. | Thornton, P.K. | Gerber, P. | Reid, R.S.

Adaptation science for agriculture and natural resource management - urgency and theoretical basis

The urgency for adaptation actions in response to climate risks is rapidly growing and climate change mitigation efforts alone are insufficient to avoid further, and often negative, impacts. Although most agricultural producers respond rapidly to changes in their external environment, science needs to play an important, partial role in instigating adaptation actions that go beyond the ongoing, experience-based response process. This requires well-structured, conceptual frameworks that connect…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 69-76
Meinke, H. | Howden, S.M. | Struik, P.C. | Nelson, R. | Rodriguez, D. | Chapman, S.C.

An imperative for climate change planning: tracking Earth's global energy

Planned adaptation to climate change requires information about what is happening and why. While a long-term trend is for global warming, short-term periods of cooling can occur and have physical causes associated with natural variability. However, such natural variability means that energy is rearranged or changed within the climate system, and should be traceable. An assessment is given of our ability to track changes in reservoirs and flows of energy within the climate system. Arguments are…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 19-27
Trenberth, K.E.

Carbon footprints and embodied carbon at multiple scales

Carbon footprints and embodied carbon have a strong methodological foundation and provide valuable input into policy formation. The widespread use of carbon footprints using existing knowledge needs to be encouraged and even regulated. At the product level, carbon footprints can empower consumers to shape their own climate friendly behaviour and help governments design policies that do not give the wrong incentives. Companies can use carbon footprints to reduce exposure to carbon prices or…

Volume 2, Issue 4, 01 October 2010, Pp 245-250
Peters, G.P.

Biodiversity in forest carbon sequestration initiatives: not just a side benefit

One way of mitigating global climate change is protecting and enhancing biosphere carbon stocks. The success of mitigation initiatives depends on the long-term net balance between carbon gains and losses. The biodiversity of ecological communities, including composition and variability of traits of plants and soil organisms, can alter this balance in several ways. This influence can be direct, through determining the magnitude, turnover rate, and longevity of carbon stocks in soil and…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 55-60
Díaz, S. | Hector, A. | Wardle, D.A.

'Tipping points' for the Amazon forest

The stability of the Amazon forest-climate equilibrium is being perturbed by a number of human drivers of change (e.g. deforestation, global warming, forest fires, higher CO2 concentrations, and increased frequency of droughts and floods). Quantitative assessments for the maintenance of the tropical forest indicate that 'tipping points' may exist for total deforested area (>40%) and for global warming (ΔT > 3-4°C). The likelihood of exceeding a tipping point can be greatly exacerbated by…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 28-36
Nobre, C.A. | Borma, L.D.S.

Evosystem services: An evolutionary perspective on the links between biodiversity and human well-being

A framework for exploring regional-scale trade-offs among ecosystem services and biodiversity protection has been established for some time, and it is clear that optimizing these trade-offs provides a strategy to address targets for a reduced rate of biodiversity loss. Recent trade-off studies have highlighted the need for better biodiversity measures, to complement measures of ecosystem services. Biodiversity typically has been linked in this context to existence and other non-use values. We…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 66-74
Faith, D.P. | Magallón, S. | Hendry, A.P. | Conti, E. | Yahara, T. | Donoghue, M.J.

Can we reconcile atmospheric estimates of the Northern terrestrial carbon sink with land-based accounting?

We estimate the northern hemisphere (NH) terrestrial carbon sink by comparing four recent atmospheric inversions with land-based C accounting data for six large northern regions. The mean NH terrestrial CO 2 sink from the inversion models is 1.7PgCyear -1 over the period 2000-2004. The uncertainty of this estimate is based on the typical individual (1-sigma) precision of one inversion (0.9PgCyear -1) and is consistent with the min-max range of the four inversion mean estimates (0.8PgCyear -1).…

Volume 2, Issue 4, 01 October 2010, Pp 225-230
Ciais, P. | Canadell, J.G. | Luyssaert, S. | Chevallier, F. | Shvidenko, A. | Poussi, Z. | Jonas, M. | Peylin, P. | King, A.W. | Schulze, E.-D. | Piao, S. | Rödenbeck, C. | Peters, W. | Bréon, F.-M.

Global urban land-use trends and climate impacts

In 2008, the global urban population exceeded the nonrural population for the first time in history, and it is estimated that by 2050, 70% of the world population will live in urban areas, with more than half of them concentrated in Asia. Although there are projections of future urban population growth, there is significantly less information about how these changes in demographics correspond with changes in urban extent. Urban land-use and land-cover changes have considerable impacts on…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 89-95
Seto, K.C. | Shepherd, J.M.

Learning to adapt to climate change in urban areas. A review of recent contributions

There are two lessons emerging from this review relevant to the debate of adaptation to climate change in urban areas: there are diverse and useful disciplinary contributions and experiences to build adaptation strategies during the last few years, but few efforts to create multidimensional approaches guiding operational strategies; there is growing attention to integrate adaptation as part of a development process addressing structural condition causing social and urban vulnerability. The…

Volume 1, Issue 2, 01 December 2009, Pp 201-206
Sanchez-Rodriguez, R.

Beyond exclusion: Alternative approaches to biodiversity conservation in the developing tropics

The exclusionary protected area-based approach to biodiversity conservation has succeeded at several places, but at a significant social cost and conflict, especially in the developing country tropics. More inclusive approaches, including community-based conservation (CBC), its subset enterprise-based conservation (EBC), and payments-based conservation (PES) programs, have been tried in the past 15 years. A brief summary of the literature on socio-economic impacts of the exclusionary approach…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 94-100
Lele, S. | Wilshusen, P. | Brockington, D. | Seidler, R. | Bawa, K.

Urban environmental governance innovations in China

China's system of environmental governance is changing rapidly, resulting in new environmental institutions and practices. State authorities rule increasingly via laws and decentralise environmental policymaking and implementation. Non-state actors - both private companies and (organised) citizens - are given and taking more responsibilities and tasks in environmental governance. This results in new relations between state, market and civil society in environmental governance, with more…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 96-100
Mol, A.P.

Trends in shifting cultivation and the REDD mechanism

In many parts of the forest-agriculture frontiers of the tropics, particularly in Southeast Asia, shifting cultivation is rapidly being transformed to other land uses. Yet, there is rather limited knowledge on the spatial and demographic extent of shifting cultivation and the consequences of the transitions taking place. The proposed mechanism for reduced greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) can be both a challenge and opportunity for shifting cultivators. Very…

Volume 1, Issue 2, 01 December 2009, Pp 156-160
Mertz, O.

Biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation: What role can economic instruments play?

Tradable permits and intergovernmental fiscal transfers play an increasing role in both biodiversity conservation and climate mitigation. In comparison to regulatory and planning approaches these economic instruments offer a more flexible and cost-effective approach to biodiversity conservation. Economic instruments should act as complements to rather than substitutes for conventional land-use planning, given that their applicability is limited by the heterogeneity of biodiversity. Linking…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 50-58
Ring, I. | Drechsler, M. | van Teeffelen, A.J.A. | Irawan, S. | Venter, O.

Global water resources and their management

Water resources are subject to and an integral part of global change and globalization. Interdependencies of water resources with other ecological and social systems exist at all spatial scales. They can expose water resources to exogenous pressures originating in other regions and/or sectors ('teleconnections'). Non-linear responses to these pressures can disturb the hydrology of ecosystems or whole regions and pose threats to water security and water-related goods and services. Water…

Volume 1, Issue 2, 01 December 2009, Pp 141-147
Hoff, H.

The global technical potential of bio-energy in 2050 considering sustainability constraints

Bio-energy, that is, energy produced from organic non-fossil material of biological origin, is promoted as a substitute for non-renewable (e.g., fossil) energy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and dependency on energy imports. At present, global bio-energy use amounts to approximately 50 EJ/yr, about 10% of humanity's primary energy supply. We here review recent literature on the amount of bio-energy that could be supplied globally in 2050, given current expectations on technology, food…

Volume 2, Issue 5-6, 01 December 2010, Pp 394-403
Haberl, H. | Beringer, T. | Bhattacharya, S.C. | Erb, K.-H. | Hoogwijk, M.

Climate change, related hazards and human settlements

The assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) have demonstrated that the climate is changing and the future will see higher sea levels, more heat waves, intense storms and heavy precipitation events and extension of drought areas. These climate hazards are having impacts on human settlements causing major loss of life, social disruption and economic hardship. Recent literature has demonstrated that the problem is more rather than less critical. Linking of climate…

Volume 1, Issue 2, 01 December 2009, Pp 179-186
McBean, G. | Ajibade, I.

Regional Earth System prediction: a decision-making tool for sustainability?

While the IPCC will continue to lead Earth System projections for global issues such as greenhouse gas levels and global temperature increase, high-resolution regional Earth System predictions will be crucial for producing effective decision-making tools for day-to-day, sustainable Earth System management and adaptive management of resources. Regional Earth System predictions and projections at the order of a few meters resolution from days to decades must be validated and provide uncertainties…

Volume 1, Issue 1, 01 October 2009, Pp 37-45
Murtugudde, R.

Challenges in framing the economics of ecosystems and biodiversity: The TEEB initiative

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) study is a major international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity, to highlight the growing costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions moving forward. TEEB seeks to show that economics can be a powerful instrument in biodiversity policy, both by supporting decision processes and by…

Volume 2, Issue 1-2, 01 May 2010, Pp 15-26
Ring, I. | Hansjürgens, B. | Elmqvist, T. | Wittmer, H. | Sukhdev, P.

Carbon and the Anthropocene

Life on earth has created vast stores of detrital carbon - the remnants of carbon-based organisms after they have died. These carbon stores range from dead leaves and wood to the fossil carbon in coal, oil and gas. They contain large amounts of usable chemical energy. When the ancestors of modern humans learned to access this energy by mastering fire, they discovered a 'new trick' which led to massive evolutionary advantages for the human species. In the technological explosion of the last two…

Volume 2, Issue 4, 01 October 2010, Pp 210-218
Raupach, M.R. | Canadell, J.G.