Investing in our planet's future: Taylor & Francis research to achieve the SDGs

In the open access article "Global Warming Has Accelerated: Are the United Nations and the Public Well-Informed?" from the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development the authors have a very clear message, that there is new data and evidence on global warming which must come to light.

They write: "Are the public and United Nations well-informed? Not if judged by assertions that global warming can be kept 'well below 2 °C,' the goal of the Paris Agreement, without purposeful global cooling (in addition to phasedown of greenhouse gas emissions). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios that achieve that target … are implausible. We also conclude that IPCC underestimated cooling by human-made aerosols, and, largely as a result of that, IPCC’s best estimate of climate sensitivity (3 °C for doubled CO2) is also an underestimate."

The article goes into detail on several worst-case scenarios that may play out, in particular the "Point of No Return", when there is "catastrophic loss of the West Antarctic ice sheet with sea level rise of several meters. Large areas in China, the United States, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, island nations, and at least half of the world’s largest cities would be substantially submerged, an irreversible result on any time scale that people care about."

The authors remain hopeful, however, explaining that: "Clearly, we must avoid passing the Point of No Return. Learning how we can do that requires understanding how the ice sheets, ocean, and atmosphere work together."

They explain the reasons for this positivity: "Our optimism (in reference to climate change) is based on the growing interest of young people in the condition of the world that they and their descendants will live in, and in their conviction that they should follow the science. The scientific approach, as we will explain, has potential to lead to a radical change of policy."

Of all the articles that Dimensions filtered as research outputs related to the SDGs from Taylor & Francis in 2025, this article had the highest Altmetric score, meaning it received a significant amount of attention from various online sources, including over 1300 social media mentions and 365 stories from 288 news outlets, including MSN, The Guardian, and The New York Times. In addition it has already received 35 citations and 127,000 views in the seven months since it has been published.

Read this open access article here.

One of the most common concerns about renewable energy - from wind turbines to solar farms - is its impact on wildlife. Negative impacts on wildlife are often cited by anti-renewables advocates. The burden of addressing those concerns inevitably falls on renewables advocates. They must find solutions that won't harm the environment they're seeking to help protect, as such solutions may alienate the like-minded pro-environment supporters that they need on their side.

A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge and the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science set out to do just that, exploring bird populations on solar farms in Britain for their paper "Solar farm management influences breeding bird responses in an arable-dominated landscape" published in the journal Bird Study.

The authors write: "To date, surprisingly little research has examined the impact of solar farms on birds. It has been theorized that waterbirds could mistake large arrays of solar panels for water bodies, colliding and dying as they attempt to land, although there is little evidence to confirm or contradict this theory. Perhaps the greatest impact on birds could be through land use change and habitat loss for breeding and foraging, as shown in the wider land use change research."

The researchers found that: "Solar farms contained a greater bird abundance and species richness than arable farmland, but this varied with solar farm management. Our findings suggest that solar farms can benefit biodiversity in arable-dominated landscapes, especially when managed with biodiversity in mind."

However they caution that: "Our results do not reduce the need to ensure that solar farms are developed away from nature-sensitive areas that are locally, nationally, or internationally important for wildlife."

This open access paper has received more than ten thousand views, and was cited in 141 news outlets including the BBC. You can read it here.

A global team of researchers led by Radalescu Magdalena collaborated on the paper "Pioneering sustainable energy: a dynamic analysis of AI and green patents in renewable and nuclear power" published in the Journal of Applied Economics. They looked at the "the joint impact of AI and green patents (GPT) on RENE across 34 countries from 2000 to 2019" ... explaining that "It is a novel dual-sector focus that fills a critical gap in the literature."

The introduction of the paper sets out why they embarked on this research: "The use of depletable fossil fuels has led to environmental degradation and climate change, threatening sustainable global economic growth. This has resulted in increased severe weather phenomena and natural catastrophes. Reducing GHGs and decreasing reliance on depletable fossil fuels is crucial to mitigate these impacts and achieve sustainable growth."

"Transitioning to renewable and nuclear energy is widely accepted as a crucial step towards sustainable growth worldwide. However, the high cost of renewable and nuclear energy compared to fossil fuels poses a challenge, highlighting the need for rapid technological advancements in AI and Green Patents."

The team concludes: "The findings of this study reveal a significant and positive impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and green patents (GPT) on renewable and nuclear energy efficiency across 34 countries from 2000 to 2019."

They provide several recommendations to policy makers, including: "Governments should implement incentives such as tax breaks, subsidies, or grants to accelerate AI adoption in renewable and nuclear energy management" and "Policies fostering innovation ecosystems that encourage the generation and diffusion of high-quality green patents, particularly in renewable and nuclear technologies, are crucial."

You can read this open access paper here.