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Food production depends upon the adequate provision of underpinning ecosystem services, such as pollination. Paradoxically, conventional farming practices are undermining these services and resulting in degraded soils, polluted waters, greenhouse gas emissions and massive loss of biodiversity including declines in pollinators. In essence, farming is undermining the ecosystem services it relies upon. Finding alternative more sustainable ways to meet growing food demands which simultaneously support biodiversity is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Here, we review the potential of urban and peri-urban agriculture to contribute to sustainable food production, using the 17 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations General Assembly as a framework. We present new data from a case study of urban gardens and allotments in the city of Brighton and Hove, UK. Such urban and peri-urban landholdings tend to be small and labour-intensive, characterised by a high diversity of crops including perennials and annuals. Our data demonstrate that this type of agricultural system can be highly productive and that it has environmental and social advantages over industrial agriculture in that crops are usually produced using few synthetic inputs and are destined for local consumption. Overall, we conclude that food grown on small-scale areas in and near cities is making a significant contribution to feeding the world and that this type of agriculture is likely to be relatively favourable for some ecosystem services, such as supporting healthy soils. However, major knowledge gaps remain, for example with regard to productivity, economic and employment impacts, pesticide use and the implications for biodiversity.

Purpose: The urgent challenges of sustainability require novel teaching methods facilitating different types of learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the important role of experiential learning in higher education programmes relating to sustainability and to evaluate a number of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) that can be used to leverage this approach. Design/methodology/approach: Based on questionnaire surveys carried out for over seven years with students from a highly international master's-level course, this paper describes the utility of experiential learning theory in teaching around \"innovation for sustainability\". Drawing on Kolb's theories and subsequent modifications, the paper reviews and evaluates the TLAs used in the course that have fostered experiential learning in the classroom, including role-play seminars, case study-based seminars and sessions centred around sharing and reflecting on personal professional histories. Findings: The qualitative data and discussion illustrate the utility of experiential learning approaches in post-graduate education for sustainable development, especially in generating empathy and understanding for different sustainability perspectives and priorities from around the world. In particular, the paper offers novel insights into the strengths and limitations of the TLAs. Originality/value: These insights are valuable to education for sustainable development practitioners dealing with international student intakes displaying variable levels of professional experience who are looking to foster experiential learning, reflection and inter-cultural empathy. They can inform the design of classroom-based TLAs that are capable of equipping students with not only the analytical skills for career success but also the inter-cultural sensibility required for international leadership in the sustainable development domain.

The urgency of charting pathways to sustainability that keep human societies within a \"safe operating space\" has now been clarified. Crises in climate, food, biodiversity, and energy are already playing out across local and global scales and are set to increase as we approach critical thresholds. Drawing together recent work from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the Tellus Institute, and the STEPS Centre, this commentary article argues that ambitious Sustainable Development Goals are now required along with major transformation, not only in policies and technologies, but in modes of innovation themselves, to meet them. As examples of dryland agriculture in East Africa and rural energy in Latin America illustrate, such \"transformative innovation\" needs to give far greater recognition and power to grassroots innovation actors and processes, involving them within an inclusive, multi-scale innovation politics. The three dimensions of direction, diversity, and distribution along with new forms of \"sustainability brokering\" can help guide the kinds of analysis and decision making now needed to safeguard our planet for current and future generations.

Since the United States committed to withdraw from the UN Paris Agreement on climate change, international observers have increasingly asked if China can take the lead instead to raise global ambition in the context of a world leadership vacuum. Given the country's increasing economic and strategic focus on sustainable and low-carbon innovation, China might seem well placed to do so. However, much depends on the direction of governance and reform within China regarding the environment. To better understand how the government is seeking to make progress in these areas, this article explores key political narratives that have underpinned China's policies around sustainable development (kechixu fazhan) and innovation (chuangxin) within the context of broader narratives of reform. Drawing on theoretical insights from work that investigates the role of power in shaping narratives, knowledge and action around specific pathways to sustainability, this article explores the ways in which dominant policy narratives in China might drive particular forms of innovation for sustainability and potentially occlude or constrain others. In particular, we look at ecological civilization (shengtai wenming) as a slogan that has gradually evolved to become an official narrative and is likely to influence pathways to sustainability over the coming years. 随着美国宣布退出联合国气候变化框架公约《巴黎协定》，国际观察人士愈发质疑中国能否在全球领导力真空的背景下引领全球的气候行动。鉴于中国当前经济对可持续发展和低碳创新的重视，中国看似有着良好的战略基础。然而，中国在环境问题上的管理和改革的方向也具有关键性作用。为了更好地理解政府如何在这些领域取得进展，本文在广泛的改革阐述背景下，探讨中国关于可持续发展和创新的关键政策阐述。基于研究形成“可持续发展”这一阐述、知识和行动的理论基础，本文探讨了中国主流政策阐述如何推动特定形式的创新性可持续发展，以及可能存在的阻碍和限制。我们特别关注“生态文明”这一阐述，其作为一个逐渐演变成官方阐述的口号很可能影响未来几年的可持续发展之路。

As SDG7-related interventions seek to transform access to clean energy, this paper presents an analysis of both a previous transformative intervention (Lighting Africa) and a theoretical approach to understanding how such transformations can be achieved in the Global South (socio-technical innovation system, STIS, building). The paper makes four contributions. First, it tests the extent to which the STIS-building concept is useful in understanding and conceptualising how Lighting Africa transformed the market for solar lanterns in Kenya from an estimated market size of 29,000 lamps in 2009 to one where 680,000 Lighting Africa certified lamps were sold in Kenya by the end of the Programme in 2013. Second, it presents the most in-depth analysis of Lighting Africa that we are aware of to date. Third, it presents a conceptual framework that illustrates the Lighting Africa approach, providing a framework for future policy interventions aiming to transform access to clean energy technologies in the Global South. Fourth, it reflects on weaknesses in the STIS approach. In particular, these include a need to better attend to: the gendered implications of interventions (and social justice more broadly); implications of different scales of technologies; value accumulation and the extent to which interventions benefit indigenous actors and local economies; and the political and economic implications of any intervention and its distribution of benefits.

Social Impact Statement Urban agriculture depends on insect pollination, but knowledge gaps persist due to difficulties accessing diverse growing spaces. We developed a citizen science approach for monitoring insect visits to crops and compared grower‐collected data to that of a trained researcher while also gathering participant feedback. Although trends in crop attractiveness were similar, discrepancies highlighted limitations in the reliability of citizen‐collected data alone. This work shows that grower involvement can enhance ecological monitoring and awareness, but methodological support and ongoing dialogue are essential to improve data quality and engagement, both key considerations for future urban food policy and practice. Summary There is a significant knowledge gap regarding the pollination needs of urban farming, partly because accessing urban growing spaces requires permission from multiple different landowners and growers, which can be laborious. Involving growers in data collection offers a potential solution but presents other challenges in terms of data accuracy and participant retention. We developed a citizen science methodology for monitoring plant–pollinator interactions in urban food systems and evaluated the accuracy of data collected by growers by comparison to data collected by a professionally trained researcher. We also collected feedback from participants at the mid‐ and endpoints of the project regarding their experiences of taking part. While there was some agreement between the datasets in terms of the crops most (raspberries and squash) and least attractive (tomatoes) to insects, relying only on the dataset collected by growers themselves would lead to an overestimation of the generality of relationships between crops and pollinating insects in urban food production. Possible reasons for discrepancies between the datasets include species misidentification and non‐reporting of surveys where no insects were observed by citizen scientists. Citizen scientists reported lack of time, concerns about data accuracy and too complex methods as barriers to participation. Implementation of their suggestions for improvements led to a 66% increase in participation in the following year, demonstrating the importance of maintaining a two‐way dialogue between participants and project organisers. Citizen scientists reported an increased appreciation and understanding of insect pollinations following participation, highlighting additional benefits of involving urban growers in data collection. La agricultura urbana depende de la polinización por insectos, pero aun sabemos poco sobre estas interacciones urbanas por las dificultades para acceder a diversos espacios de cultivo. Desarrollamos un enfoque de ciencia ciudadana para monitorear visitas de insectos a los cultivos y comparamos los datos recopilados por los agricultores urbanos con los de un investigador, a la vez que recopilamos opiniones de los participantes. Si bien los datos mostraron tendencias similares, las discrepancias señalan limitaciones en la fiabilidad del enfoque de ciencia ciudadana. La participación de los agricultores urbanos puede mejorar el monitoreo y la concienciación ecológica, pero el apoyo metodológico y el diálogo continuo son esenciales para mejorar la calidad de los datos y la participación, dos consideraciones clave para las futuras políticas y prácticas alimentarias urbanas. Urban agriculture depends on insect pollination, but knowledge gaps persist due to difficulties accessing diverse growing spaces. We developed a citizen science approach for monitoring insect visits to crops and compared grower‐collected data to that of a trained researcher while also gathering participant feedback. Although trends in crop attractiveness were similar, discrepancies highlighted limitations in the reliability of citizen‐collected data alone. This work shows that grower involvement can enhance ecological monitoring and awareness, but methodological support and ongoing dialogue are essential to improve data quality and engagement, both key considerations for future urban food policy and practice.

In this exploratory study, we employ an interdisciplinary approach to explore potential synergies and trade‐offs between the needs of people and nature in the context of agroecological farming and nature conservation. Ecological field studies and management surveys from six sites were combined with a participatory‐deliberative appraisal exercise using the Multi‐Criteria Mapping (MCM) method. All six study sites and all four land use options in the appraisal were characterised by the use of large herbivores for agricultural and/or conservation purposes, to varying degrees, and were located in South‐East England. MCM participants identified habitat and species diversity, soil health, food production, provision of education and recreational access, as the principal benefits associated with successful management of such sites. Taken overall, their appraisals indicated that a combination of land uses may be best suited to delivering these diverse benefits, but with agroecological (While organic and biodynamic agriculture are subject to legal definition, agroecology offers a more flexible approach and can be viewed as ‘a development pathway from input‐intensive industrial systems through to highly sustainable, ecological systems’—see Laughton, R. (2017) ‘A Matter of Scale’, Land Workers Alliance and Centre for Agroecology, Coventry University) farming being perceived as a particularly effective multi‐purpose option. Five of the six sites were used for recreational purposes, and in total we recorded five times more humans than wild mammals. Ecological data from the sites indicated that the most conservation‐oriented sites performed best in terms of species richness and activity (birds, mammals, bats and invertebrates) and number of species of conservation concern. However, beta diversity metrics indicated important variation in the species assemblages recorded within and between sites. Whereas both agroecological farms in our study produced the greatest weight of saleable meat per unit area, the site that produced the most meat also demonstrated consistently strong performance across many biodiversity metrics. Overall, expert perspectives and the performance of our study sites suggests that combinations of diverse approaches to the management of large herbivores, within a ‘wildlife‐friendly’ envelope, are consistent with providing for the diverse needs of people and nature within shared landscapes. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Purpose The urgent challenges of sustainability require novel teaching methods facilitating different types of learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the important role of experiential learning in higher education programmes relating to sustainability and to evaluate a number of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) that can be used to leverage this approach. Design/methodology/approach Based on questionnaire surveys carried out for over seven years with students from a highly international master’s-level course, this paper describes the utility of experiential learning theory in teaching around “innovation for sustainability”. Drawing on Kolb’s theories and subsequent modifications, the paper reviews and evaluates the TLAs used in the course that have fostered experiential learning in the classroom, including role-play seminars, case study-based seminars and sessions centred around sharing and reflecting on personal professional histories. Findings The qualitative data and discussion illustrate the utility of experiential learning approaches in post-graduate education for sustainable development, especially in generating empathy and understanding for different sustainability perspectives and priorities from around the world. In particular, the paper offers novel insights into the strengths and limitations of the TLAs. Originality/value These insights are valuable to education for sustainable development practitioners dealing with international student intakes displaying variable levels of professional experience who are looking to foster experiential learning, reflection and inter-cultural empathy. They can inform the design of classroom-based TLAs that are capable of equipping students with not only the analytical skills for career success but also the inter-cultural sensibility required for international leadership in the sustainable development domain.

The authors respond to the article Scientific Responsibility and Development by Catherine Rhodes and Sir John Sulston, saying that the pair offer a powerful and persuasive call for scientists to take greater responsibility in steering science towards addressing global development goals. They rightly highlight the case and scope for individual action.