Researchers chart path for investors to build a cleaner aviation industry

New Science commentary shows how smarter investments can help cut emissions from one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of climate pollution

University of California - San Diego

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Cutting planet-warming pollution to near-zero will take more than inventing new clean technologies—it will require changing how the world invests in them. That’s especially true for industries like aviation, where developing and adopting greener solutions is risky and expensive, according to a University of California San Diego commentary piece in Science. 

The paper calls for smarter ways of managing investment risk could help speed up the shift toward cleaner air travel and other hard-to-decarbonize sectors.  

“The aviation sector—a fast-growing source of greenhouse gases—illustrates the broader challenge of industrial decarbonization: too little investment in technologies that could yield the biggest climate benefits,” said the paper’s coauthor David G. Victor, professor of innovation and public policy at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and co-director of the Deep Decarbonization Initiative. 

The piece outlines a new approach that could help guide a coalition of research and development (R&D) programs alongside investors and airlines seeking to deploy new technologies to curb carbon emission from the aviation industry. “Despite all the chaos in global geopolitics and climate policies these days, there are large and growing pools of capital willing to take risks on clean technology,” Victor said. “What’s been missing is a framework to guide that capital to the riskiest but most transformative investments.”

He added that investors and research managers tend to focus on familiar, lower-risk projects like next-generation jet engines or recycled-fuel pathways. “ But getting aviation and other hard-to-abate sectors to near-zero emissions means taking on bigger risks with technologies and new lines of business that will be highly disruptive to the existing industry.  Investors and airlines need to find smarter ways to encourage and manage these disruptive investments,” Victor said.  

In the article, Victor and co-authors call for a more realistic framework to guide both research funding and private investment.

They propose a tool called an Aviation Sustainability Index (ASI)—a quantitative method to assess how different technologies or investments could help decouple emissions from growth in air travel. The approach is designed to help investors distinguish between projects that only modestly improve efficiency and those that could significantly transform the sector’s climate impact.

The authors note that while roughly $1 trillion is expected to flow into aviation over the next decade, most of that money will simply make aircraft slightly more efficient. Few investors, they argue, have clear incentives to back the kind of breakthrough technologies—such as hydrogen propulsion, advanced aircraft designs, or large-scale sustainable fuel systems—that could substantially reduce emissions.

“Cleaner flight is possible, but it requires changing how we think about both risk and return,” Victor said. “We need new institutions, incentives, and partnerships that reward innovation, not just incrementalism.”

The commentary, written by a multinational team of scholars, also highlights a broader lesson for climate policy: global decarbonization goals such as “net zero by 2050” sound bold and ambitious.  But when it becomes clear that they can’t be met these goals make it harder to focus on the practical steps needed today to drive change in real-world markets.

Ultimately, the paper argues for action that begins now. By developing better tools to evaluate climate-friendly investments and by rewarding companies willing to take calculated risks on breakthrough technologies, governments, investors and industry leaders can accelerate real progress toward decarbonization. 

The paper was co-authored by Thomas Conlon of University College Dublin, Philipp Goedeking of Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany) and Andreas W. Schäfer of University College London. 

Read the full article, “Mobilizing Capital and Technology for a Clean Aviation Industry,” in Science.  

---

Journal

Science

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Mobilizing Capital and Technology for a Clean Aviation Industry

Article Publication Date

16-Oct-2025

Duty solicitor generational mismatch risks eroding trust in the UK criminal justice system, study warns

University of Exeter

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

The growing age imbalance in the duty solicitor scheme in England and Wales risks eroding trust in the criminal justice system, a new study warns.

Most duty solicitors are aged 45 and over, putting at risk the ability of vulnerable suspects to access timely and effective legal representation at the police station.

The study says the Ministry of Justice’s failure to offer training grants to criminal law firms to support trainee solicitors with Solicitors Qualifying Examination fees is likely to contribute to the growing shortage of younger duty solicitors. Without the financial capacity to attract and support the next generation, criminal legal aid firms will be left unable to replenish the duty solicitor workforce that is ageing rapidly.

This will have serious implications for the future sustainability of the duty solicitor scheme. As senior practitioners near retirement, the declining number of younger solicitors threatens the scheme’s long-term viability.

Dr Susan Rockey, from the University of Exeter Law School, surveyed 193 aspiring solicitors about whether the cost of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination is acting as a financial barrier to specialisation in criminal legal aid.

She found a link between the level of SQE fee funding and the perceived ease of entering the CLA sector. Full or substantial funding was widely viewed as an enabler, while lack of funding was consistently identified as a barrier, particularly among working-class respondents and those most committed to specialising in criminal legal aid.

Dr Rockey said: “The current age imbalance threatens the sustainability of criminal defence provision in England and Wales. With younger solicitors believing entry into the sector as difficult, due in large part to the financial burden of self-funding the SQE, the profession faces a looming generational crisis. At the same time, demand for police station advice continues to rise, compounding the strain on an already overstretched and ageing workforce.

“There is an urgent need for systemic reform. The Ministry of Justice must consider committing to fully funding training for aspiring CLA solicitors. Failure to act risks entrenching the current trajectory toward collapse, with serious consequences for access to justice, the rule of law, and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system in England and Wales.

“Restoring generational diversity within the duty solicitor workforce is not merely a workforce issue; it is fundamental to safeguarding the future integrity and fairness of the criminal justice system itself.

“The Ministry of Justice’s failure to address the barriers firms face in funding trainees SQE fees has left them with even fewer tools to attract and recruit the next generation of duty solicitors, thereby exacerbating the systemic age imbalance.”

The majority of respondents said they believed full funding would make it easier to specialise in criminal legal aid, with similarly strong support for 75 per cent funding. However, this support declined substantially as the proportion of funding decreased, with less than half of the respondents stating that 25 per cent funding would ease specialisation, and almost all reporting that no funding would make entry more difficult. This trend was even more pronounced among the subset of respondents who definitely or probably intended to become CLA solicitors.

Dr Rockey said: “The burden of having to self-fund SQE fees presents a genuine barrier to entry, while full or substantial coverage of SQE fees appear to serve as an important enabler, potentially lowering a major economic barrier to entry into the profession.

“Some regions in England and Wales already face duty solicitor shortages and demand for police station advice continues to grow. Public confidence in the fairness and accessibility of the criminal justice system is at stake.

“Duty solicitors form a crucial link between communities and the justice system, yet a stark demographic imbalance persists. A generational mismatch risks eroding trust, particularly among younger and more diverse communities, who may feel poorly represented by a workforce that does not reflect their lived experiences.”

When asked whether full funding of their SQE fees by criminal legal aid firms would make specialisation easier or more difficult, 183 respondents (95 per cent) stated it would make it easier. At a 75 per cent contribution level, support remained high: 175 respondents (91 per cent) said this would make specialisation easier.

 

---

Journal

International Journal of the Legal Profession

DOI

10.1080/09695958.2025.2551519 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The age imbalance in the duty solicitor scheme: exploring the role of solicitors qualifying examination costs and criminal legal aid policy

 

In the midst of a global dengue epidemic, one program kept a Brazilian city safe

Introducing a bacteria called Wolbachia into the local mosquito population lowered the rate of dengue by almost 90 % Niterói, Brazil

Monash University

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Dengue has been a public health problem in the tropical world for decades and 2024 saw a global dengue surge, with more than 14 million cases and 10 thousand deaths reported worldwide – more than more double the figures for dengue epidemics previously recorded in 2023 and 2019.

 

In the middle of the world’s worst global dengue epidemic – the city of Niterói, Brazil, was effectively protected against the deadly disease by an innovative program that introduced a bacteria called Wolbachia into the local mosquito population, reducing their ability to transmit dengue and lowering the rate of dengue by almost 90 per cent.

 

According to the authors, the study findings “suggest that Wolbachia prevented at least three-quarters of the dengue case burden that may have otherwise occurred in Niterói in 2024, corresponding to thousands of cases averted.”

 

The study, led by the World Mosquito Program and researchers at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and published in the journal Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases, involved the release of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes infected with the wMel-strain Wolbachia bacteria throughout Niterói, a city of half a million people in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. Within five years of the introduction, the majority of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Niterói carried Wolbachia, lowering the incidence of dengue by 89 per cent.

 

Associate Professor Katherine Anders from Monash University and Professor Luciano Moreira, from the World Mosquito Program and  now CEO of Wolbito do Brasil, led the study evaluating the long-term public health impact of the Wolbachia deployments in Niterói.

 

Of particular significance was the finding that dengue incidence Niterói in 2024 – which was a period of record high incidence of the disease in Brazil – was 374 per 100,000 population, substantially lower than overall in Rio de Janeiro state (1884 per 100,000) and nationwide in Brazil (3157 per 100,000).

 

According to Associate Professor Anders, the study adds to the accumulating evidence that successful introduction of Wolbachia into mosquito populations is a sustainable intervention that provides ongoing protection to communities. This sets it apart from traditional ways of controlling the mosquitoes that transmit dengue – such as the use of insecticide, which has led to resistance and is challenging to deliver in complex urban environments.

In July, Brazil has unveiled the world's largest biofactory, Wolbito do Brasil, located in Curibita, dedicated to breeding mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria, described by Professor Moreira as “an innovative method poised to safeguard an estimated 140 million people from dengue fever across the nation in the coming years.”

 

 

 

 

---

Journal

Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease

DOI

10.3390/tropicalmed10090237 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Long-Term Durability and Public Health Impact of City-Wide wMel Wolbachia Mosquito Releases in Niterói, Brazil, During a Dengue Epidemic Surge

 

University of Oklahoma researchers propose novel solution to American Indian Health Service underfunding

University of Oklahoma

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Junying Zhao of the University of Oklahoma is the lead author of an article in Health Affairs titled "The Indian Health Service Is Chronically Underfunded. Here Is How To Close The Gap."

view more 

Credit: University of Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY – For many years, the Indian Health Service (IHS) has been underfunded, leading to health and life expectancy disparities among Indigenous people, according to University of Oklahoma researchers. In a newly published article in Health Affairs, OU researchers propose a novel trust fund solution to increase and sustain the funding level, with the ultimate goal of improving health care access and outcomes.

“IHS underfunding has been a challenge for tribal nations and the United States, and it is highly relevant to Oklahoma, which was partly founded on Indian Territory. The health of Indigenous populations in the U.S. has suffered greatly because of chronic underfunding of IHS. Indigenous people have a life expectancy of 67.9 years – a decade less than the average U.S. life expectancy,” said lead author Junying (June) Zhao, Ph.D., Ph.D., MPH, an assistant professor at the OU Hudson College of Public Health.

“The difference in federal health care investment compared to other health programs is stark,” she added. “In fiscal year 2021, per capita federal spending for the IHS was $4,140. In comparison, the Bureau of Prisons spent $8,302; Medicaid, $8,908; the VA, $12,223; and Medicare, $15,094. For the IHS, this has meant staff shortages, outdated facilities and care that is declined or deferred.”

To raise funding, Zhao and her research team propose the creation of an IHS Trust Fund, modeled after the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund. In the late 1980s, Congress made a one-time appropriation to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Fund, which has since collected excise taxes on vaccine sales and invested its balances. As of January 2023, the fund held over $4 billion, which is used to pay for injury claims. An IHS Trust Fund would operate similarly to generate ongoing financial resources for unmet Indigenous health care needs.

From fiscal years 2009 to 2020, the IHS was underfunded by about $60 million annually, Zhao said. To generate a $60 million annual return, about $600 million would be needed for the baseline principal, assuming a modest 10% return rate on investments. Accounting for inflation, that number would be close to $1 billion today, she said.

In addition to a one-time congressional appropriation to launch an IHS Trust Fund, Zhao and her team suggest that Congress should grant IHS the ability to accept gifts. Although government programs typically cannot accept gifts, Zhao believes that some entities and individuals have shown the ability and desire to contribute. There is a precedent for IHS accepting gifts: About 20 years ago, the IHS manual included a policy for donations.

“This approach is similar to endowments created by major universities for their capital projects,” said Pallab Ghosh, Ph.D., an associate professor in OU’s Department of Economics and co-author of the paper. “We believe it would be good to apply this solution to the IHS budget problem as well.”

The IHS health care system is comprised of IHS facilities, tribal-administered services and urban Indian facilities. Together, they serve approximately 2.6 million Indigenous people. Past efforts to address the underfunding problem have fallen short. Members of Congress have twice proposed transforming IHS funding from discretionary to mandatory. Other ideas, such as creating a unique Medicaid program for individual tribes, have also failed to gain support.

“Since the late 18th century, the United States has had a trust responsibility to provide care in exchange for tribal lands,” said study co-author Rashmi Jaggad, MPH, MDS, research project coordinator in the OU Hudson College of Public Health. “But when funding is low, health care access decreases. If people cannot afford services in private care, they often must go without. That is the problem we are seeking to solve.”

Zhao and her team have a long history of conducting research involving underserved populations. Their work is at the heart of public health, said Dale Bratzler, D.O., MPH, dean of the OU Hudson College of Public Health.

“At the OU Hudson College of Public Health, we are committed to research that addresses real-world inequities and improves the health of all communities,” Bratzler said. “This work reflects that mission by offering a creative, evidence-based solution to a longstanding issue that has impacted Indigenous people for generations.”

###

About the project

Research support was provided by the Presbyterian Health Foundation in Oklahoma City and a National Institutes of Health grant for the Strong Heart Study. Additional authors of the article are James R. Kennedye, M.D., MPH, of the Chickasaw Nation and Creek Nation Medical Centers; Kylie Stewart, a clinical fellow at OU Health; and Janis E. Campbell, Ph.D., MSc, a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the OU Hudson College of Public Health.

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university with campuses in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. In Oklahoma City, the OU Health Campus is one of the nation’s few academic health centers with seven health profession colleges located on the same campus. The OU Health Campus serves approximately 4,000 students in more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs spanning Oklahoma City and Tulsa and is the leading research institution in Oklahoma. For more information about the OU Health Campus, visit www.ouhsc.edu.

---

Journal

Health Affairs

DOI

10.1377/forefront.20250827.319208 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

The Indian Health Service Is Chronically Underfunded. Here Is How To Close The Gap