Friday, June 05, 2026

Biochar and beneficial fungi work together to restore soils damaged by coal mining

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

image:
Synergistic enhancement of soil multifunctionality by biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi via improved nutrient supply in coal mining reclaimed soils
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Credit: Ying Dong, Lili Yang, Xia He, Yijie Quan, Yan Yang, Huijuan Bo, Wenjuan Jin, Dongsheng Jin, Jianghong Bo, Youcai Xiong, Bianhua Zhang, Wenjing Zhang, Qiang Zhang, Minggang Xu & Wei Wang

A three-year field study shows that pairing biochar with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can improve soil health, nutrient supply, microbial diversity, and maize productivity in reclaimed mining land

Coal mining can leave behind more than empty pits. It can strip land of vegetation, weaken soil structure, reduce organic matter, and make it difficult for crops and ecosystems to recover. A new three-year field study suggests that two nature-based tools, biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, may work together to help bring degraded mining soils back to life.

The study, published in Biochar, investigated how maize straw biochar and the beneficial fungus Funneliformis mosseae affected reclaimed coal-mining soil in Shanxi Province, China. The researchers compared four treatments: traditional planting without biochar or fungi, fungi alone, biochar alone, and a combined biochar plus fungi treatment.

Their results show that the combined treatment improved soil structure, increased nutrient availability, stimulated soil enzymes, reshaped microbial communities, and enhanced overall soil multifunctionality. The findings point to a practical strategy for restoring land that has been disturbed by mining and reused for agriculture.

“Mining reclamation is not only about covering disturbed land with soil. The real challenge is rebuilding a living soil system that can retain water, cycle nutrients, support microbes, and sustain crop growth,” said corresponding author Wei Wang. “Our study shows that biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can act together to accelerate that recovery.”

Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass under low-oxygen conditions. Because it is porous and chemically active, it can help soils hold water, improve aeration, and provide surfaces where nutrients and microbes can accumulate. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, or AMF, form symbiotic relationships with plant roots, helping plants obtain nutrients and water while receiving carbon from the host plant.

In the field experiment, biochar was added to reclaimed soil and AMF was introduced around maize roots. The researchers found that the biochar plus AMF treatment reduced soil bulk density and increased soil porosity, creating a better physical environment for root growth. It also increased mycorrhizal colonization, fine root development, and soil pore volume.

The biological response was also striking. The combined treatment increased the activity of key soil enzymes involved in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. Compared with untreated soil, the biochar plus AMF treatment increased sucrase, β-glucosidase, urease, cellulase, and other enzyme activities, indicating a more active soil biochemical environment.

The treatment also changed the soil microbiome. Bacterial and fungal diversity increased, and microbial groups associated with nutrient cycling became more abundant. These changes were closely linked with improvements in soil water content, porosity, organic carbon, available phosphorus, and enzyme activity.

Most importantly, the combined treatment produced the strongest gains in soil multifunctionality, a measure that integrates several soil functions such as productivity, structure, nutrient supply, microbial community performance, and enzyme activity. A random forest analysis showed that nutrient supply was the main driver of soil multifunctionality, while enzyme activity was the strongest contributor to maize productivity.

“Biochar creates a better habitat, while mycorrhizal fungi expand the plant’s ability to access nutrients,” said co-corresponding author Dongsheng Jin. “Together, they appear to build a stronger plant-soil-microbe network in reclaimed mining land.”

The authors note that coal gangue reclamation areas often face poor fertility, compacted soil, and unstable microbial communities. By combining biochar with AMF inoculation, land managers may be able to improve both crop production and ecological restoration.

The study provides evidence that integrated biochar and microbial approaches can serve as a sustainable, nature-based strategy for restoring degraded soils in mining regions.

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Journal Reference: Dong, Y., Yang, L., He, X. et al. Synergistic enhancement of soil multifunctionality by biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi via improved nutrient supply in coal mining reclaimed soils. Biochar 8, 104 (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-026-00618-8

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About Biochar

Biochar (e-ISSN: 2524-7867) is the first journal dedicated exclusively to biochar research, spanning agronomy, environmental science, and materials science. It publishes original studies on biochar production, processing, and applications—such as bioenergy, environmental remediation, soil enhancement, climate mitigation, water treatment, and sustainability analysis. The journal serves as an innovative and professional platform for global researchers to share advances in this rapidly expanding field.

Journal

Biochar

DOI

10.1007/s42773-026-00618-8

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Synergistic enhancement of soil multifunctionality by biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi via improved nutrient supply in coal mining reclaimed soils

Article Publication Date

3-Jun-2026

Straw and biochar work together to reshape the molecular “architecture” of soil organic matter

A new study reveals how combining crop straw with biochar may help soils build humic substances that are both chemically active and structurally persistent

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

image:
Interactive effects of straw and biochar alter humic acid composition and component associations
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Credit: Rui Ma, Xiaodong Zheng, Yifeng Zhang, Xiang Li, Lan Wei, Lianxi Huang, Wenke Zhang, Qimei Lin, Zhenqing Shi & Zhongzhen Liu

Soil organic matter is often described as the foundation of soil fertility. It helps soils hold nutrients, retain water, support microbial life, and store carbon. Yet scientists are still working to understand how different farm-based carbon inputs, such as crop straw and biochar, change the molecular structure of soil organic matter over time.

A new study published in Biochar provides fresh insight into this question by focusing on humic acid, an important fraction of soil organic matter closely linked with soil fertility and long-term carbon stabilization. The research, led by Rui Ma and colleagues, examined how straw, biochar, and their combined application changed humic acid formation during a 180-day soil incubation experiment.

The results show that straw and biochar do more than simply add carbon to soil. Together, they reorganize the molecular building blocks of humic acid, creating a structure that combines chemical reactivity with potential persistence.

“Straw and biochar represent two very different carbon sources,” said the study’s corresponding authors. “Straw provides oxygen-rich and reactive compounds that can stimulate transformation, while biochar contributes more aromatic and persistent structures. Our findings show that their interaction can create a new humic acid architecture that is not achieved by either material alone.”

In the experiment, the researchers applied straw, biochar, or a straw-biochar mixture to agricultural soil and then extracted and analyzed humic acid after incubation. To capture its structure from multiple angles, the team used a suite of advanced tools, including elemental analysis, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, solid-state carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance, and Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry.

Biochar applied alone enriched humic acid in aromatic and structurally condensed components, features often associated with persistence. Straw applied alone increased oxygen-containing molecular groups, which are typically linked with higher chemical activity and biodegradability. When the two were applied together, however, the resulting humic acid showed a more complex and potentially beneficial balance.

The combined treatment enhanced radical concentration and chemical activity while shifting aromatic structures toward less highly condensed forms. This suggests that labile, oxygen-rich straw-derived components may be retained and reorganized within biochar-associated aromatic frameworks. In other words, straw contributed “active” molecular ingredients, while biochar helped provide a stabilizing matrix.

The study also used molecular network analysis to look beyond individual chemical indicators. This approach showed that straw-biochar co-application changed how humic acid components were connected and organized, indicating that the interaction between these materials reshapes the broader molecular network of soil organic matter.

These findings challenge the idea that soil organic matter must trade reactivity for stability. Instead, the study suggests that carefully combining organic inputs may help form humic materials that are both functionally active and more structurally persistent.

The authors note that the work was conducted under controlled incubation conditions using one soil type, so field validation across different soils, climates, and management systems will be important. Still, the findings provide a molecular-level explanation for why combining straw return with biochar amendment may be a promising strategy for improving soil quality and carbon management.

“Our study provides a new way to think about organic amendments,” the authors said. “Rather than treating straw and biochar as separate inputs, we can view them as interacting materials that jointly guide the formation of soil organic matter.”

The research offers theoretical support for designing soil management practices that improve fertility, enhance organic matter stability, and support more sustainable agricultural carbon cycling.

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Journal Reference: Ma, R., Zheng, X., Zhang, Y. et al. Interactive effects of straw and biochar alter humic acid composition and component associations. Biochar 8, 103 (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-026-00622-y

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About Biochar

Journal

Biochar

DOI

10.1007/s42773-026-00622-y

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Interactive effects of straw and biochar alter humic acid composition and component associations

Article Publication Date

3-Jun-2026

From lavender waste to climate-smart carbon: New study maps practical windows for producing biochar

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

image:
Mechanism-resolved operating windows for biochar production from lavender distillation residue
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Credit: Ahsanullah Soomro, Anıl Tevfik Koçer, Mahdi Hassan & Didem Balkanlı

A new study shows how leftover lavender distillation residue can be converted into useful biochar through a science-guided process that balances product quality, energy use, and environmental impacts.

Lavender is widely known for its essential oil, used in fragrances, foods, cosmetics, and traditional products. Yet the oil extraction process leaves behind large amounts of solid plant residue. Much of this material is burned, landfilled, or used in low-value applications, despite its potential as a renewable carbon resource.

Now, researchers have developed a mechanism-resolved framework to help turn this underused lavender waste into biochar, a carbon-rich material with potential uses in soil improvement, carbon storage, renewable solid fuels, and environmental applications.

The study, published in Biochar, evaluated how different pyrolysis conditions affect biochar production from lavender distillation residue. Pyrolysis is a heating process carried out in limited oxygen. The team tested 13 operating conditions under nitrogen, covering temperatures from 200 to 600 °C, heating rates from 10 to 40 °C per minute, and holding times from 0 to 30 minutes.

Rather than choosing the “best” condition only by looking at final biochar yield, the researchers connected thermal behavior, kinetic analysis, energy demand, and life-cycle environmental indicators into one decision framework.

“Lavender distillation residue is often treated as a waste, but it still contains a valuable lignocellulosic structure,” said corresponding author Ahsanullah Soomro. “Our goal was to show not only that this residue can become biochar, but also how to choose production conditions in a transparent and defensible way.”

The results showed a clear trade-off. Higher temperatures generally reduced biochar yield but increased fixed carbon, meaning the material became more carbonized and potentially more stable. Across the experimental matrix, final temperature was the dominant factor controlling this balance. For example, raising the temperature from 200 to 600 °C lowered yield while increasing fixed carbon, reflecting stronger devolatilization and carbon formation.

Thermogravimetric analysis revealed how the lavender residue decomposes during heating. The main decomposition peak shifted from about 327 to 364 °C as the heating rate increased from 5 to 40 °C per minute, showing that heating history strongly affects the thermal pathway. Kinetic analysis further indicated that activation energy remained relatively stable during early to mid conversion, then rose sharply at high conversion, consistent with late-stage carbonization and structural rearrangement.

The team also examined the resulting biochar using chemical and structural characterization. The optimized biochar showed strong carbon enrichment, reduced oxygen and hydrogen content, increased fixed carbon, and a higher heating value. Scanning electron microscopy showed that pyrolysis transformed the dense plant structure into a more porous carbon skeleton, while FTIR analysis confirmed the loss of oxygen-rich functional groups and growth of more aromatic carbon structures.

To support practical decision-making, the researchers applied entropy-weighted TOPSIS, a multi-criteria ranking method, using yield, fixed carbon, electricity intensity, and five Environmental Footprint 3.0 midpoint indicators. This analysis identified Run 5 as the best overall compromise, with 48.94% yield, 0.85 kWh per kg biochar, and 2.05 kWh per kg fixed carbon. When a minimum fixed carbon requirement of 60% was imposed, the preferred condition shifted to Run 4, which reached 61.67% fixed carbon.

“This approach helps avoid selecting conditions that look good by one metric but are less attractive when energy and environmental burdens are included,” said Soomro. “It provides a pathway for designing biochar production that is both technically meaningful and sustainability-oriented.”

The study offers a reproducible strategy for converting aromatic-plant residues into value-added carbon materials and may support circular bioeconomy efforts in regions where lavender processing generates large quantities of biomass waste.

By linking how biochar forms with how production choices affect energy and environmental performance, the work provides a practical roadmap for lavender-residue valorization.

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Journal Reference: Soomro, A., Koçer, A.T., Hassan, M. et al. Mechanism-resolved operating windows for biochar production from lavender distillation residue. Biochar 8, 105 (2026).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s42773-026-00617-9

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About Biochar

Journal

Biochar

DOI

10.1007/s42773-026-00617-9

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Mechanism-resolved operating windows for biochar production from lavender distillation residue

Article Publication Date

3-Jun-2026

Carbon Research reaches new high in Scopus CiteScore rankings

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University

Carbon Research has achieved a new milestone in the latest Scopus CiteScore performance, with its 2025 CiteScore Tracker rising to 19.2, up from 14.0 in the 2024 CiteScore release. The new result reflects the journal’s growing visibility, strong citation performance, and expanding role in advancing carbon science for environmental sustainability, engineering innovation, and global change research.

Published by Springer Nature, Carbon Research focuses on carbonaceous materials, carbon cycling, renewable energy, greenhouse gases, carbon neutrality, and carbon-negative technologies. The journal provides an international platform for research that connects fundamental carbon science with real-world solutions for climate, energy, and environmental challenges.

In the latest Scopus rankings, Carbon Research improved its position across three major subject areas. In Environmental Sciences, the journal rose from 9th out of 271 journals to 7th out of 307 journals. In Engineering, it advanced from 14th out of 264 journals to 8th out of 300 journals. In Earth and Planetary Sciences, it climbed from 3rd out of 183 journals to 2nd out of 184 journals.

“These results highlight the increasing international recognition of Carbon Research and the strong support of our authors, reviewers, editors, and readers,” said the journal’s editorial team. “As carbon science becomes increasingly important for addressing climate change, sustainable energy, environmental remediation, and carbon neutrality, we are committed to publishing high-quality research with broad scientific and societal impact.”

The continued rise in CiteScore and subject rankings demonstrates that Carbon Research is becoming one of the leading journals at the intersection of environmental science, engineering, and Earth system research. The journal welcomes interdisciplinary studies that deepen understanding of carbon-related processes and accelerate the development of practical technologies for a more sustainable future.

For more information, visit: https://www.springer.com/journal/44246

Vietnam’s Gia Lai draws wave of renewable energy investment as wind projects expand

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By IntelliNews June 3, 2026

Vietnam’s central province of Gia Lai is emerging as a renewable energy investment hub, with several large-scale wind power projects secured in the first months of 2026, VnEconomy reports.

Officials said the province is benefiting from strong wind conditions, abundant land resources and a policy focus on green growth. It has become one of the country’s key destinations for renewable energy development, supported by Vietnam’s revised National Power Development Plan VIII.

In late May, provincial authorities approved a consortium of ANI Power, Song Da 505 and Trang Duc Solar Power as the investor for the Chu Pong wind power project in Bo Ngoong commune. The project has total investment of more than VND1.6 trillion ($61mn). Construction is expected to start in December 2026, with operations targeted for early 2028.

In April, another consortium was selected to develop the 42-MW Nhon Hoa 4 wind power plant, with investment estimated at VND1.68 trillion.

Separately, VinEnergo, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Vingroup, was named investor in the Hon Trau phase 1 and Vinh Thuan wind power projects. The combined investment exceeds VND53 trillion.

By the end of 2025, Gia Lai had 87 renewable energy and hydropower projects in operation. This includes 17 wind farms with total capacity of 916 MW, reinforcing its position as a leading renewable energy centre in Vietnam.

Methane emissions maximised by global warming

Queen Mary University of London

A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how increases in natural methane emissions will be maximised under future climate warming.

Say ‘methane’ and most people think of cows, yet nearly half of all methane is produced by microbes in the natural world, especially lakes, ponds and wet soils. How much methane reaches our atmosphere depends on a balance between the production of methane by one type of microbe and the consumption of methane by another type. We know in a simple sense that these methane related microbes are stimulated by warming, but how both types will respond to warming over the next century is unknown.

The scientists used a unique natural experiment spanning the northern hemisphere to test the effect of warming on the methane balance over centuries to millennial time scales that is, after plenty of time for the microbes to adjust to climate change. They used samples collected from naturally warmed streams in remote parts of Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, Svalbard and Kamchatka (Russia). They showed that while methane consuming microbes do work harder under warmer conditions, they cannot fully check the extra methane being produced with warming. Worryingly this new study thus describes a seemingly inevitable increase in methane emissions as Earth continues to warm, building a positive feedback loop through climate change and still higher temperatures.

Scientist Dr Sarah Faye Harpenslager (now of B-Ware Research Centre and Radboud University) who led the field work to remote sites near the Arctic said “Doing fieldwork in these remote settings was both a unique and challenging experience. Luckily, we had a great multidisciplinary team of scientists, working together to collect samples and perform measurements under difficult conditions.”

And Professor Gabriel Yvon-Durocher of the University of Exeter said “What is remarkable is that despite the complexity of microbial processes involved in the emission of methane from natural ecosystems, we find the same strong temperature sensitivity among the diversity of geothermally heated freshwaters across the Arctic region”.

This methane research formed part of a wider project led by Professor Guy Woodward of Imperial College and Professor Alex Dumbrell of the University of Essex who said: “We have now shown how the combined effects of warming has contrasting effects on microbes that produce methane versus those that consume it - this new insight required a uniquely ambitious genes-to-ecosystems field campaign, which spanned intercontinental scales”.

Journal

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-026-02649-2

Article Title

A fixed methane filter maximizes freshwater emissions under warming

Article Publication Date

5-Jun-2026

European aviation sector warns Brussels climate targets could cause 'international backlash'

By Marta Pacheco

Published on 05/06/2026 - EURONEWS

With a key revision of the European Union's Emissions Trading System due on 15 July, an open letter pleads with legislators to consider how carbon emissions should be calculated and managed internationally.

An aviation industry alliance has urged the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to back down from plans to expand the European Union's carbon market to international flights, citing likely trade disruptions.

In an open letter made public on Friday, European aviation leaders argue that a revision of the bloc's Emissions Trading System (ETS) is slated for mid-July could trigger an aggressive trade war and cripple continental airlines.

The plea is signed by top executives from Airlines for Europe, the Airports Council International Europe, the Aerospace, Security and Defence Industries Association of Europe, CANSO Europe and the European Regions Airline Association.

At stake is a long-standing "stop the clock" mechanism, which has exempted extra-European flights from paying carbon costs linked to their emissions for over a decade and is legally set to expire at the end of 2026.

Although the ETS technically targets all domestic and international flights, the "stop the clock" rule means airlines do not have to surrender carbon certificates for long-haul flights entering or leaving the European Economic Area (EEA).

The exemption was designed to give the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency, breathing room to roll out its own global market mechanism, which is considered less ambitious than the ETS – and if the exemption is allowed to lapse, the EU's carbon system will automatically expand to cover long-haul flights.

The open letter's signatories describe this as unilateral regulatory overreach, and warn that it could spark severe global retaliation. They point to the chaos of 2012, when a similar expansion attempt provoked a fierce international backlash.

During that dispute, the US Congress legally banned American carriers from participating, while other international powers threatened to freeze billions of euros in European aerospace contracts.

"In the current geopolitical context, extending the EU ETS beyond intra-EEA flights will likely provoke an even stronger international backlash than in 2012," the coalition writes.

EU costs versus global costs

Flights departing the EU for destinations outside the EEA are mostly exempt from the EU ETS. Instead, they fall under the United Nations' carbon offsetting rules, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

According to the campaign group Transport & Environment, 68 percent of emissions from European departing flights in 2025 went unpriced, which they see as a "consequence of the carbon market’s scope limitation to intra-European routes, leaving the most polluting long-haul routes entirely exempt."

But the airline alliance argues that targeting long-haul flights unilaterally will simply divert traffic to non-European hub airports, delivering absolutely "no net climate benefit" while punishing homegrown carriers.

"The appropriate solution is a strengthened CORSIA as the single global carbon pricing framework for international aviation," the signatories wrote.

According to the global campaign group Aviation Benefits Beyond Borders, CORSIA covers approximately 60 percent of total international aviation carbon dioxide emissions.

If CORSIA fails to align with the Paris Agreement goals or covers less than 70 percent of global aviation emissions, the EU ETS will likely be expanded to include flights departing from the EEA as of January 2027.

The European Commission is due to file a report on the environmental integrity of the CORSIA framework to the European Parliament and the Council by 1 July 2026.

A Commission spokesperson told Euronews that the EU executive hasn't yet submitted it.

World Environment Day: Earth’s Climate Warnings Keep Growing Louder – Analysis

June 5, 2026
By Dr. Majid Rafizadeh

World Environment Day, observed annually on June 5, should be considered one of the most important international platforms when it comes to raising awareness about the environment and mobilizing collective action.

Azerbaijan will host Friday’s global commemoration of World Environment Day in Baku on the theme “Inspired by Nature. For Climate. For Our Future.” This theme highlights the need to confront the climate crisis while charting a sustainable path for humanity on this planet.

World Environment Day 2026 falls amid urgent signals coming from the Earth, which include rising seas, raging wildfires, heat waves and melting glaciers. This needs firm action and millions worldwide will this week participate in events, campaigns, educational initiatives, tree-planting drives, policy forums and community-led projects under the banner “#NowForClimate.”

The scientific consensus, anchored in reports from the World Meteorological Organization, NASA, the Copernicus Climate Change Service and other authoritative bodies, paints an image of accelerating climate disruption.

The years 2015 to 2025 were the 11 warmest on record. Global mean near-surface temperatures in 2025 stood at about 1.43 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline, ranking it as the second or third warmest year since records began.

Projections indicate that the period 2026 to 2030 will see annual global temperatures ranging between 1.3 C and 1.9 C above pre-industrial levels, with a high probability of temporarily exceeding the 1.5 C Paris Agreement threshold in at least one year. Long-term warming trends, compounded by potential El Nino influences, mean that 2026 will likely rank among the warmest years, potentially challenging recent records.

Sea-level rise also continues unabated. The global average sea level has risen between 21 cm and 24 cm since 1880, with acceleration driven by thermal expansion and loss from glaciers and ice sheets. In 2025, levels remained close to the record highs observed in 2024. Low-lying coastal regions and small islands, in particular, face existential threats.

Meanwhile, glacial melt and Arctic amplification are proceeding rapidly. There have been profound changes, with record-low Arctic sea ice in early 2026 and accelerated Greenland and Antarctic ice loss contributing to sea-level dynamics.

Extreme weather events have also intensified. The frequency, severity and duration of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and tropical cyclones have increased markedly.

Climate impacts manifest across regions, disproportionately burdening populations with limited adaptive capacity.

Europe is warming at twice the global average rate. The 2025 European heat waves caused thousands of excess deaths, with estimates ranging from 4,700 to more than 16,000. Wildfires ravaged parts of the Iberian Peninsula, with more than 670,000 hectares burned across Portugal and Spain last year.

North America endured catastrophic events as well. The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires were the costliest on record, destroying thousands of structures, displacing more than 50,000 people and causing damage exceeding $135 billion. Subsequent events include deadly Texas flash floods and widespread severe storms.

In Asia, the 2025 Pakistan floods claimed more than 1,000 lives, while India and East Asia faced extreme heat waves and cyclones. China experienced significant flooding that caused substantial economic losses. Southern and Eastern Asia continue to grapple with the compound risks of monsoonal variability, heat stress and glacial lake outburst flood threats in the Himalayas.

Africa and Latin America witnessed severe droughts interspersed with floods. And Southern Africa and parts of the Amazon faced drought conditions that exacerbated the wildfire threat, while the likes of Nigeria and Mozambique suffered devastating floods. The Amazon basin saw extensive burning throughout 2025, threatening biodiversity hotspots and carbon sinks.

Australia and the Pacific endured heat waves and wildfires in early 2026, alongside ongoing threats to coral reefs from marine heat waves and ocean acidification.

These examples are not isolated anomalies, they highlight systematic shifts.

Amid these challenges, one bit of good news is that a profound energy transition is unfolding. In 2025, renewables (solar, wind, hydro and others) surpassed coal in global electricity generation for the first time in the modern era, achieving 33.8 percent of the mix compared to coal’s 33.0 percent. Solar alone met 75 percent of global electricity demand growth.

By the end of 2025, renewables accounted for nearly 49 percent of global installed power capacity. Global energy transition investment reached a record $2.3 trillion in 2025, up 8 percent from the year before and outpacing fossil fuel investments.

Countries like China and India lead in deployment scale, while policy frameworks in the EU and commitments under the Paris Agreement are accelerating the transition. Nevertheless, this progress remains insufficient to align with 1.5 C pathways.

Climate change necessitates a multilateral approach and governance. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, enshrined in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, recognizes that wealthier, historically high-emitting nations bear greater obligations. These countries must provide financial, technological and capacity-building support to the vulnerable nations that are least responsible for the crisis yet are most severely impacted.

In other words, wealthier economies, having accrued prosperity through carbon-intensive development, possess both the moral imperative and material capacity to lead. Support for small island states, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa and forest conservation in the tropics is critical and could even be viewed as in their own best interest because we have a shared planetary system.

In a nutshell, the Earth’s warnings amid the climate crisis keep growing louder. As we mark World Environment Day, we should remember one key truth: that we share and inhabit one planet. We need cooperative climate action — #NowForClimate.

This article was published at Arab News

Thursday, June 04, 2026

A user-friendly software suite for DNA structure generation and analysis

Universiteit van Amsterdam

image:
Examples that highlight the building of biomolecular assemblies with MDNA: extension of DNA structures (left), using proteins as scaffold to generate DNA structure (centre), and connecting two DNA strands to form a DNA loop (right). (Molecular representations visualized with Mol* Viewer). Image: HIMS.
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Credit: HIMS / UvA

Computational chemists at the University of Amsterdam’s Van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences have developed a comprehensive software suite to create accurate models of DNA in biomolecular assemblies. Called MDNA, the user-friendly molecular modelling toolkit helps biochemists, molecular biologists, bioinformaticians, and biophysicists to visualise and analyse DNA structures and perform accurate simulations.

The development of the MDNA suite, led by associate professor Jocelyne Vreede, has just been presented in in a paper in Nucleic Acids Research. The software is open-source and publicly available through Figshare and Github. It is easily accessible, providing inspiration to any scientist with an interest in DNA. It has been thoroughly tested by students in mathematics, chemistry and biology, some of whom had hardly any programming experience.

Structure generation

MDNA supports molecular simulations by providing atomic resolution structural modelling of double-stranded DNA in diverse shapes and compositions, including DNA-protein assemblies. By facilitating precise structural modelling of DNA at atomic resolution, MDNA contributes to improving the understanding of DNA dynamics and interactions in complex biological systems.

With MDNA, users can easily generate coordinates for the atoms in double-stranded DNA. It represents each base pair as a rigid body, according to the rigid base formalism of the Curves+ code, already a popular tool for analysis and visualisation of three-dimensional nucleic acid conformations. MDNA allows to create DNA coordinates in many different forms on any arbitrary curve in three-dimensional space. Users can create DNA strands or modify and extend existing structures. It comes with a library of sixteen bases that will be expanded in the future.

The Amsterdam researchers collaborated with the group of Helmut Schiessel at TU Dresden (Germany), implementing an energy function to equilibrate the generated structures and ensure that physical properties of DNA, such as stiffness and mobility, are modelled correctly. This does not need to explicitly include all atoms, which enables rapid equilibration within seconds. The energy function also includes constraints that can introduce supercoiling into the DNA.

A single workflow

In addition to generating structures, the software library offers the ability to analyse existing DNA structures, for example from MD simulations. By integrating structure generation and analysis into a single workflow, MDNA facilitates the study of DNA-protein interactions, supporting new insights into DNA dynamics and molecular simulations. To support users at various levels of molecular modelling, MDNA is complemented by tutorials and demos. These resources improve accessibility for novice and experienced users, providing a starting point for educational applications such as workshops or classroom demonstrations.

Journal

Nucleic Acids Research

DOI

10.1093/nar/gkag549

New MOF material harvests water from air in ultra-dry conditions

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

image:
Synthesis and Water Harvesting Performance of M-Gallate MOFs.
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Credit: Jianji Wang

Researchers at Henan Normal University have developed a new metal-organic framework (MOF) capable of harvesting water directly from the air in extremely dry environments, offering a potential solution for regions facing severe water scarcity.

The study, published in Green Chemical Engineering, focuses on gallate-based MOFs made from low-cost materials including magnesium, cobalt, and nickel. Among them, the magnesium-based material, Mg-gallate, showed the strongest performance, capturing 170 mg of water per gram at just 0.2% relative humidity (RH), one of the highest water uptake capacities reported for porous materials under such ultra-low humidity conditions.

Atmospheric water harvesting is being explored as a sustainable solution to the growing global water crisis, particularly in arid regions where traditional adsorbent materials struggle to function efficiently. Current technologies often lose effectiveness in environments with very low moisture levels, such as deserts.

The researchers found that Mg-gallate combines strong water adsorption capacity with excellent stability. The material remained structurally stable after 28 days in water and maintained strong performance after 20 adsorption-desorption cycles. It also demonstrated high selectivity for water molecules over nitrogen, making it suitable for extracting water directly from air.

In particular, the material's performance is driven by hydrogen-bonding interactions between water molecules and oxygen-containing groups inside the MOF structure, alongside ultramicroporous channel filling effects. The MOF was successfully produced on a gram scale using inexpensive raw materials and standard laboratory methods, highlighting its potential for future large-scale production.

The researchers believe the technology could support atmospheric water harvesting in deserts and other ultra-dry environments, while also offering potential applications in semiconductor dehumidification, electronics protection, natural gas dehydration, and even space-based water recovery systems.

"Water scarcity is one of the most pressing survival challenges facing humanity in the coming decades. What makes Mg-gallate particularly exciting is that it works precisely where other materials give up: at the edge of detectability for humidity," says corresponding author Jianji Wang. "We are not just improving on existing benchmarks by a small margin; at 0.2% relative humidity, this material is operating in territory that was essentially inaccessible before. And because we can synthesise it in gram quantities from inexpensive, commercially available starting materials, there is a genuine path from the laboratory to real-world deployment."

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Contact the author: Jianji Wang, Henan Normal University, jwang@htu.edu.cn

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Journal

Green Chemical Engineering

DOI

10.1016/j.gce.2026.03.002

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Gallate-based metal-organic frameworks for atmospheric water harvesting under ultra-low humidity