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The report advocates for a paradigm shift in sanitation and wastewater management, moving from a focus on waste disposal to one of resource recovery. It details how recovering water, nutrients, and energy from waste streams can improve public health, food security, and climate mitigation while creating economic opportunities. The document provides technical guidance on system design, risk management for human and environmental health, and the institutional and financial frameworks necessary to implement sustainable, context-specific sanitation systems.

The SEI Asia Strategy 2020-24 establishes a framework to bridge science, policy, and practice to achieve environmental sustainability and inclusive development in Asia. The strategy is organized around three primary impact areas: reduced climate risk, sustainable resource use and resilient ecosystems, and improved health and well-being. To achieve these, SEI Asia focuses on five core research and policy clusters: Gender, Environment and Development; Water; Climate Change, Disasters and Development; Urban; and Policy. The document also highlights specialized programs for the Mekong Region and Myanmar, and identifies evolving areas of work including ecological economics, sustainable finance, and the environment-health nexus.

The report advocates for social-ecological transformations in Asian cities to meet global climate and development goals. It focuses on three key sectors: the built environment, transport, and public participation, arguing that environmental protection must be integrated with social justice to avoid further marginalizing vulnerable populations. The authors highlight that while Asian cities are major GHG emitters, their density offers opportunities for efficiency. The report emphasizes the need for nature-based solutions, active transport, and inclusive governance, while noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has both exposed urban inequalities and provided a catalyst for rethinking unsustainable consumption and urban design.

The report evaluates the economic viability of various eco-technologies in the Fyrisån (Sweden), Słupia (Poland), and Vantaanjoki (Finland) river basins using a combined Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) and Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) approach. It finds that most technologies currently yield a negative net present value (NPV) due to high investment costs, with the notable exceptions of anaerobic digestion and thermal treatment in the Vantaanjoki basin.

The report evaluates two ecotechnologies for nutrient recovery from anaerobic digestate: struvite precipitation and ammonia stripping. Findings indicate that struvite precipitation is highly effective, particularly around pH 9.5 and with a magnesium-to-limiting-reactant ratio up to 4:1. Struvite is found to be a suitable phosphorus fertiliser for various crops, often yielding results comparable to mineral fertilisers. Ammonia stripping is also identified as effective, though the evidence base is too heterogeneous for quantitative synthesis. The review highlights a need for more field-scale and long-term validation of these technologies, especially within the Baltic Sea Region.

The research compares Swedish forest owners who participated in Swedish Forest Agency communication projects against a randomly sampled control group to evaluate how such communication influences climate change awareness and the likelihood of taking adaptive actions.

Sivan Kartha warns that failing to address the climate crisis could lead to a catastrophic 5-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures, comparable in scale to the transition out of the last Ice Age. He asserts that while the technology and finance to avoid this exist, they are concentrated among the wealthiest 10% of the population. Kartha concludes that the only practical path to net-zero emissions is for the most privileged to lead the reduction and support the rest of the world in doing the same.

Sivan Kartha highlights the catastrophic potential of a 5-degree Celsius increase in global temperatures, comparing it to the scale of change that ended the last Ice Age. He asserts that while the technology and funds to stop fossil fuel reliance exist, they are concentrated among the wealthiest 10% of the population. Kartha concludes that achieving net-zero emissions globally requires the most privileged societies to eliminate their own emissions and provide support to less privileged populations to enable a collective transition.

The report finds that while most Swedish municipalities address sustainable consumption within their own operations, few target households or businesses. A significant majority of officials (79%) identify a lack of political support as their primary need. The report recommends systematic tracking of all purchases and investments to calculate environmental impacts and suggests that the government empower county administrative boards to coordinate local efforts.

The document analyzes how the falling costs of variable renewable energy (VRE) and batteries impact the bioeconomy. It identifies competitive tensions in ground transport and power generation, where electrification may disrupt biofuel demand or create infrastructure lock-in. Conversely, it highlights complementary roles for biomass in 'hard-to-abate' sectors like aviation, marine transport, and heavy industry (steel and cement), as well as its value as a dispatchable energy source. In low-income countries, the brief suggests 'clean stacking' for cooking and the use of solar-powered appliances to enable bioeconomy value chains. Finally, it notes synergistic opportunities where low-cost renewable electricity can reduce the carbon footprint of biofuel production via electrolysis-based hydrogen.

The document argues that Brazil's agricultural expansion has historically occurred at the expense of native ecosystems, specifically noting that nearly 65 million hectares of forests and savannas in the Legal Amazon were replaced by pastures and cropland since 1985. To shift away from this horizontal expansion, the authors suggest four interventions: designating undesignated public forests as protected areas to stop land grabbing; using the Brazilian Forest Code to facilitate payments for environmental services on private lands; investing in sustainable intensification technologies for medium and large properties; and providing technical assistance to small farmers to improve livelihoods and reduce deforestation pressure.

The document examines the relationship between the bioeconomy—defined as sectors based on biomass production and processing—and the rapid growth of variable renewable energy (VRE) and electrification. It argues that while electrification competes with biofuels in some areas, such as road transport, it offers complementary and synergistic opportunities in others. For instance, biomass provides dispatchable power to balance VRE, and low-cost solar energy can enable critical infrastructure for agricultural bioeconomies in low-income countries. The text emphasizes that the bioeconomy should be designed to support and benefit from electrification to achieve deep decarbonization.

The report details the development of a water management strategy for the Rocha River basin, supported by the Ministry of Environment and Water (MMAyA) and the Autonomous Departmental Government of Cochabamba (GADC). It focuses on strategic modeling via the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) system to address water vulnerability caused by limited resources, economic development needs, and climate change. The process emphasizes local participation and self-management to improve integrated water resources management.

The CANDI project's first stage identified a need for standardized carbon footprint calculation models in the food industry to build consumer trust and drive behavioral change. While consumers expressed a willingness to alter food choices based on environmental data, the report highlights that such information must be easily digestible and provided at the point of decision-making. The project also notes a lack of transparency in industry methods and a need for government support to manage the socio-economic trade-offs of transitioning to sustainable diets.

The document evaluates the water security of the Rocha River basin, identifying critical deficits in urban and agricultural supply and poor water quality. Using the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) system, it tests several strategies—including the Misicuni Multiple Project, new water transfers, wastewater treatment, and irrigation efficiency—finding that only integrated, combined strategies can guarantee water supply through 2050.

The report argues that the bioeconomy—the use of bio-based feedstocks and processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions—requires context-specific sustainability monitoring across environmental, economic, social, and governance pillars. It highlights that while the bioeconomy can support UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it risks deepening existing social inequalities if not managed through a lens of feminist political ecology and multidimensional poverty frameworks. The authors propose a monitoring system that integrates socio-economic indicators, such as the Human Development Index (HDI) and Gini Index, to ensure benefits reach vulnerable groups in the global South.

The document examines the water-energy nexus (WEN) in Los Angeles and Beijing, finding that Los Angeles employs more explicit integration mechanisms—largely driven by state-level climate legislation—while Beijing relies on implicit mechanisms and sector-specific targets. It argues that common evaluation criteria, such as greenhouse gas emissions, and explicit incentives are essential for improving policy coherence and avoiding cross-sectoral conflicts.

The document examines how the consumption of Argentine soy in Europe and other regions externalizes environmental and social costs to Argentina, complicating the achievement of SDGs. It highlights significant land-use change, GHG emissions, and mixed social impacts, while recommending bilateral cooperation between Argentina and the EU to mitigate these spillovers.

The document examines the environmental and socioeconomic externalities of Argentine soybean production driven by global demand, particularly from the EU. It highlights that while soybean exports provide macroeconomic stability for Argentina, they cause significant environmental degradation, including deforestation and GHG emissions, and mixed social outcomes. The brief argues that achieving the SDGs requires coordinated international governance and shared responsibility between producing and consuming regions to mitigate these negative spillovers.

The study models the impact of climate change and mining on the Chindwin River, finding that future climate scenarios are likely to reduce streamflow and associated metal loading, while identifying specific river segments with the highest concentrations of arsenic, mercury, and iron.