South Asia is experiencing the full range of climate change impacts, from glacial outburst floods to heat waves, droughts, and fires. An editorial in Nature Climate Change offers insights into systems shifts for climate-resilient agriculture.

September 29th is the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). With five years left to achieve Target 12.3 of Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), action to reduce food loss and waste must be accelerated immediately.

Global interest in the circular bioeconomy is growing, with governments and industry adopting the concept as a framework for minimizing resource depletion, encouraging regenerative agriculture, and promoting the reuse and recycling of bioindustrial by-products. An editorial in Nature Food emphasized the importance of traditional knowledge, which is equally important to scientific knowledge, in the bioeconomy.

Water underpins our societies, fuels our economies, and sustains our ecosystems. However, the world's water resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and at the same time, more serious water disasters are having a greater impact on people's lives and livelihoods. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)'s new report, the State of Global Water Resources 2024, highlights the increasingly irregular and extreme nature of the water cycle, with floods and droughts alternating, and the cascading impacts of water surpluses or shortages on economies and societies.

According to a report published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), food security is projected to improve in most 83 low- and middle-income countries over the next 10 years, while food insecurity is expected to persist in some regions.

The International Day of Science, Technology and Innovation for the South, observed on September 16, provides an opportunity to reaffirm that promoting science, technology and innovation is essential not only to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and leaving no one behind, but also to creating a more equitable, participatory, and inclusive world.

As pressures from human activities are expected to affect marine ecosystems globally, planning for a sustainable future requires predicting the distribution of cumulative impacts from multiple pressures. A paper published in Science predicts that the cumulative impacts of human activities on global marine ecosystems will double by the mid-21st century, and that future impacts will be uneven across regions, with the highest average impacts expected in both tropical and polar regions.

Along with average yield, interannual variability in crop yield is an important determinant of food security. While previous studies have shown increased yield variability due to global warming, it is increasingly clear that changes in water availability are also an important determinant of yield. A paper published in Science Advances quantified the impact of climate change on variability in yield of corn, soybean, and sorghum due to changes in temperature and soil moisture at a global scale.

Methane is considered the second most important driver of climate change. A study published in Nature Communications examined the latest trends in methane emissions from 164 countries, from both production and consumption perspectives. Taking into account the high levels of emissions in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific, as well as regional and sectoral trends, the study proposes technologies to mitigate emissions drivers through improved energy efficiency and cleaner production technologies.