Ineffective sorting systems: A major barrier to the circular economy of contaminated plastics

Posted by Nutcha Taneepanichskul, Helen C Hailes and Mark Miodownik on 2025-04-10

Environmental pollution leading to global warming is no longer a distant threat; it is knocking on our door, demanding immediate action. Among the major contributors to this crisis is plastic pollution. While there is increasing encouragement, including through popularisation, education, and policy measures—towards the use of biodegradable and recyclable materials, current waste management [...]

In a hostile climate, keep on decarbonising with a virtual carbon price

Posted by Richard Clarke and Mark Maslin on 2025-03-05

Reaching the Net Zero 1.5°C goal now requires Direct Air Capture. With US climate action under siege, how can public bodies, corporations and individual engineers keep on track towards decarbonisation? We propose a virtual ‘loss and damage’ based carbon price that reflects the current and future economic impacts of extreme weather and extreme heat. By accounting for the effects of actual and [...]

Procedural justice and (in)equitable participation in climate negotiations

Posted by Carola Klöck, Christian Baatz, Nils Wendler on 2025-02-07

The yearly Conferences of the Parties (COPs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have become real “mega-events”, attracting tens of thousands of participants each year. The last COP, COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November 2024, for example, was attended by just under 30,000 participants, about half of whom represented states (note that these numbers exclude [...]

Celebrating five years of highly cited articles

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2025-01-27

As we welcome the start of 2025 we want to take a moment to celebrate some of our highly cited publications – in part as a testament to the rigorous efforts of our Editors’, reviewers’, and authors’ contribution to their fields. Reflecting on just how far UCL Open Environment has come since opening for submissions in 2019, this post explores some of the papers published in the journal that shows [...]

COP and UCL Open Environment

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2024-11-11

From 11-22 November 2024, nearly 200 world leaders and 30,000 delegates will come together in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to coordinate global climate action for the year ahead at the latest UN Climate Change Convention Conference of the Parties (COP). We at UCL Open Environment, an open access and open science journal, reflect on some of the articles that have published in the journal’s [...]

Use of Lime plaster in naturally ventilated spaces and its associated risk for mould growth

Posted by Vismaya Paralkar and Rashmin Damle on 2024-10-08

In today's rapidly evolving construction industry, we've observed a shift towards unsustainable materials, with lime being replaced by cement plaster. However, it's important to recognize the significance of using lime plaster, especially in the restoration of historical buildings, to maintain their original character. Despite the prevailing dominance of cement plaster in the market, our interest [...]

Peer Review Week 2024 - A conversation with Yasemin Aktas

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2024-09-30

This year, to mark Peer Review Week, UCL Open Environment sat down with Deputy Editor, Dr Yasemin Aktas (University College London, UK) for a brief conversation on open peer review. With growing academic workloads and time devoted to other things, securing peer reviewers is becoming increasingly difficult, especially when hearing reports about canvassing large numbers of reviewers who do not [...]

Innovation and Technology in Open Peer Review: Shaping the Future of Scholarly Publishing

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2024-09-25

As we celebrate Peer Review Week 2024, the theme of “Innovation and Technology in Peer Review” invites us to reflect on how new tools and practices are transforming this critical component of scholarly communication. Traditional peer review has long been the cornerstone of academic publishing, ensuring that research is rigorously vetted before it reaches publication. However, the system has its [...]

Bring back the front garden: Developing interventions for healthier communities

Posted by Ayşe Lisa Allison on 2024-06-11

We are excited to share our paper, “Promoting planting in front gardens: a systematic approach to intervention development,” published by UCL Open Environment. With this article, we wish to highlight the numerous benefits of gardening in front gardens and outline some potential intervention recommendations that could encourage this practice. Additionally, we aim to highlight the importance of [...]

Environmental migrants as a concern for the European Union? Not anymore.

Posted by Lucia Wirthová on 2024-05-23

With my article titled “Environmentally driven migration in EU discourse: norms, policies, and realities”, published by UCL Open Environment, I hope to contribute to the understanding about a disputed phenomenon, i.e. environmental migration, that has been linked to the consequences of climate change and environmental degradation, and which has been said to threaten the EU by influxes of millions [...]

Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Posted by Prof Dan Osborn, Editor-in-Chief, UCL Open: Environment on 2024-02-07

Since launching in 2019, UCL Open Environment has come a long way. Having established ourselves in the academic literature (e.g. receiving indexing in the DOAJ, CABI, PMC, and many others), we now look to the future and reminded ourselves of our firm commitment to open science, open peer review, and to reducing the barriers to equitable publishing. It is our aim that this unique combination of [...]

1.5 degrees looks to be inevitable in the next few years – weren’t we supposed to stay below it?

Posted by Prof Dan Osborn, Editor-in-Chief, UCL Open: Environment on 2024-02-07

Posted on June 15, 2023How does the media read climate science and present it to the public and consequently to decision-makers? In this post, UCL Open Environment Editor-in-Chief, Prof Dan Osborn highlights the way scientific climate research is disseminated for public consumption through the media. Why 1.5°C mattersThe BBC recently issued a climate-related story and [...]

Expected or not? The UK’s exceptional record-breaking weather

Posted by Prof Dan Osborn, Editor-in-Chief, UCL Open Environment on 2024-02-07

Posted on July 25, 2022 by Professor Dan Osborn, Chair of Human Ecology, Earth Sciences, at UCL (University College London, UK) and Editor-in-Chief of the UCL Press journal UCL Open Environment In June 2021, when the evidence report for the 3rd UK climate risk assessment (CCRA3) was released, talk was of southern England summer temperatures over 40°C being experienced sometime “before 2050” [...]

Now indexed in PubMed Central!

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2023-11-10

Following a rigorous evaluation process, UCL Open Environment is thrilled to announce it has been accepted for indexing in PubMed Central. Researchers wishing to publish in the journal and funded by the Wellcome Trust, MRC and BBSRC, NIHR and the NIH (as well as many others all across the world) will meet open access policy requirements and be indexed automatically in the PubMed Central database [...]

Calls for Papers

Posted by UCL Open Environment Editorial Office on 2023-11-10

Throughout the year, UCL Open Environment launches a number of thematic special series exploring the journals aims and scope. Details of each call for papers can be found in the below links. This page is kept up-to-date with all specific current calls for papers. General submission is open to anyone at any time. Find out more about how to submit to the journal [...]