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Editorial overview: Confronting the challenges of

implementing global sustainability goals
Eduardo Brondizio
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
2017, 26–27:v–vii

For a complete overview see the Issue

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.10.005

1877-3435/Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Eduardo Brondizio We are pleased to release the second part of the 2017 Open Issue of
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. This has been a productive
year for the journal, marked by an exciting and far-reaching coverage of
sustainability themes and discussions. Together, these Open Issues offer
a representative sample of the transforming agenda of environmental
sustainability research, marked by the challenges and opportunities to
implement major global initiatives such as the Paris agreement, the
2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the first work program of
the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(IPBES), and beyond.

In addition to these two Open Issues, our 2017 Special Issues have covered
topics such as inclusive development, governance challenges for sustain-
ability, sustainability and health, and within these topics offered reviews as
related to energy, climate, equity and fairness, biodiversity and environ-
mental change in terrestrial and aquatic systems, regional changes, and
numerous methodologies and conceptual frameworks. Several papers are
contributing to set new research and policy agendas. Since last year, we have
published contributions from authors coming from 43 countries, virtually
from every region of the world (see map). Readership of the journal
continues to grow internationally. For instance, in 2016 COSUST articles
were downloaded more than 315 000 times, a pattern that continues in
2017. We hope to continue this trend and further expand the geographic
representation of authors and articles.

Interesting to note that it has become harder to distinguish articles within

specific disciplinary fields. These articles are representative not only of the
international nature of sustainability research, but the integration of per-
spectives across the natural and social sciences, and policy domains. These

www.sciencedirect.com Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 26-27:v–vii

vi Open issue, part II
articles provide not only an assessment of recent literature
and thinking, but historical and critical perspectives to the
Sustainable Development Goals, to the challenges and
opportunities of transdisciplinary research, and to the
challenges posed by drivers of environmental change in
different regions of the world. They also provide concrete
examples of approaches and tools that respond to these
challenges in forward-looking ways. These reviews and
agenda setting articles can be grouped broadly around
three inter-related themes: firstly, the implementation of
the sustainable development and global biodiversity
goals, secondly, the evolution of concepts, models and
approaches to sustainability and transdisciplinary
research, and thirdly, the analysis of global and regional
drivers of environmental change.
Several articles (e.g. [1–6]) are contributing to unpack the
history [7] and the analytical and policy challenges posed
by the SDGs and the Paris agreement. They provide
conceptual frameworks for the selection of indicators and
for implementing the SDGs and biodiversity related
agreements. Articles (e.g. [8–10]) also analyze the impacts
of globalization and trade, climate change, and the role of
national and global economic and policy drivers affecting
people and ecosystems globally and in different regions.
Examples from Latin America [5,11] and Africa [12] in
particular make it clear the relentless pressures that these
drivers put on regional environments and their unequal
social consequences.
Several articles in this Open Issue provide critical
analysis of concepts and approaches to sustainability
and transdisciplinary research. Particularly relevant
and exciting are efforts to advance the integration of
different cultural perspectives and knowledge systems
to environmental issues [13–15], thus providing
approaches that contribute to bridging diverse perspec-
tives to sustainability from local to global levels. These
articles are contributing for instance to expand the
concept of ecosystem services in the context of diverse
value systems (e.g. [2,16–18]); they provide assessment
of and suggest approaches to bringing together knowl-
edge systems to collaborate on sustainability challenges
(e.g. [14,18,19]), and tools for integrating different types
of evidence [20] and for engaging diverse stakeholders to
collaborate on knowledge co-production, policy imple-
mentation, and participatory scenarios (e.g.
[5,6,11,12,20]).
By critically examining concepts and governance chal-
lenges and by proposing novel approaches and frame-
works to integrate knowledge and data the articles in this
Open Issue contribute to expand the conversation and
scope of sustainability research in face of the global
challenges society has set forth to confront during the
coming decade.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 26-27:v–vii
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Editorial overview Brondizio vii
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Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 2017, 26-27:v–vii