Non-technical summary. Efforts toward global sustainability transformations risks being undermined by the formation of a global polycrisis, where multiple global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, geopolitical conflict, and pandemics interact to reinforce each other. Resilience scholarship has identified multiple capacities needed for adaptation and transformation of social-ecological systems. Here, we explore the leverage and vulnerability of such capacities to the global polycrisis. We find that many capacities have both and their development and expression can therefore be thought of as being in a direct coevolutionary struggle with the development of a global polycrisis.

Technical summary. Social and environmental challenges are combining to form a complex of crises with potential to delay or reset many sustainability efforts. These risks raise questions about what capacities will be needed for advancing sustainability during a time of global polycrisis. Here, we evaluate the adequacy of adaptive and transformative capacities – collectively, resilience capacities – for navigating the polycrisis. Specifically, we perform a rapid assessment of their potential for addressing the 14 recently proposed Anthropocene traps. We find that 10 of the 14 Anthropocene traps have characteristics that challenge in total 17 of 23 adaptive and transformative capacities. On the other hand, 10 of 23 capacities – with an overrepresentation of transformative capacities – have general potential to prevent formation and progress of traps. Coevolutionary struggles between the expression of a capacity and the progression of traps are widespread. Importantly, transformative and adaptive capacities complement each other in the types of Anthropocene traps they most frequently address, with transformative capacities targeting global traps and adaptive capacities the emergent structural traps related to connectivity and pace of change. We end by proposing five unifying processes that can serve as an organizing framework for consideration of other sustainability and crisis capacities.

Social media summary. Adaptive and transformative capacities complement each other in navigating a global polycrisis.

Non-Technical Summary Transformations to sustainability and justice have recently encountered backlash and political polarization, violent conflict, democratic backsliding, and dehumanization. In this article, we describe three archetypes of backlash that may affect whether and how transformations unfold. We then explore the role of harnessing hope and imagination, hospicing with dignity, and enabling radical collaboration while holding paradox as three capacities that may prove helpful to navigating backlash during transformative change efforts. Technical Summary Recognizing backlash as a dynamic of transformations that is distinct from the forms of counter-resistance or contentious politics that have previously been documented as crucial in transformations, we focus on three backlash archetypes and the potential for derailment of transformations to sustainability and justice. Focusing on the specific transformation phase of 'in-betweenness' when systems are in flux and the risk of backlash and derailment is high, we suggest there is a need for capacities that help create provisional spaces to grapple with the range of emotional, relational, and political issues underpinning backlash. We explore the role of three transformative capacities for their relevance in addressing backlash and derailment based on existing evidence: harnessing hope and imagination, hospicing with dignity, and enabling radical collaboration while holding paradox. Social Media Summary Societal transformations involve backlash and derailment risks - three archetypes and key capacities to navigate them.

Dominant traditions in Western science have traditionally separated humans from nature, a division that is reproduced in the distinction between natural and social sciences. This rift has persistently hampered the ability of sustainability science to comprehensively understand and address the profound challenges of the Anthropocene. In this perspective, we aim to challenge entrenched separations between humans and nature by emphasizing the embeddedness of humans in the biosphere. We conceptualize embeddedness from a systems perspective and illustrate it using case studies on human microbiomes and freshwater availability. We discuss how a focus on embeddedness can increasingly be adopted in sustainability research through developments in sensing, modeling, and commoning practices. By highlighting these conceptual and practical opportunities for studying embeddedness in the biosphere, we seek to support transdisciplinary dialogues and practices toward sustainable futures.

Understanding cascading social-ecological impacts of emerging pests is key for addressing the challenges they introduce in an ever more interconnected and rapidly changing world. Here we examine shifts in news media discourse surrounding the fall armyworm invasion across Africa, Asia, and Oceania to investigate such cascades. We apply topic modeling to 570 news articles to quantify spatial and temporal changes in the prevalence of 33 topics related to fall armyworm invasion discourse. We grouped these topics into broader thematic categories and determined their prevalence during three general invasion phases. We found that the sequence of prevalent thematic categories was consistent across news articles from the three continents analyzed. The first years of invasion discourse are dominated by topics related to a preparation-oriented ‘Surveillance’ phase, followed by those related to an ‘Impact’ phase, and finally a response-centered ‘Control’ phase. However, the duration of the ‘Impact’ phase differs by continent, lasting 3 of the 7 years analyzed in Africa, but only 1 of 5 and 1 of 3 in Asia and Oceania, respectively. Also in Oceania’s news discourse, invasion preparation features more prominently with a relative theme proportion of 0.722 in the first year after detection (Africa = 0.387, Asia = 0.259). These differences in phase duration and emphasis align with described patterns of the invasion progression and outcomes across regions. These regional variations highlight the potential of text analysis of news media for tracking cascading dynamics of emerging pests. In turn, these approaches can inform more targeted management and mitigation strategies.

Addressing sustainability challenges requires an integrative approach that bridges scientific research with practical application. The field of cultural evolution (CE) offers a perspective that may guide transitions and cultural transformations for a sustainable future. However, there have been few efforts to apply this field to sustainability challenges. This study explores how CE can inform sustainability practices through mechanisms of social learning, processes of cultural adaptation and conditions that promote cooperative governance. Through a two-phase research design—comprising online discussions with professionals from six domains, and an international workshop—we examined the perceived benefits, challenges and opportunities for applying CE in real-world contexts. Our findings indicate that professionals recognize CE’s potential to enhance knowledge dissemination, foster adaptation to social–ecological changes, improve governance structures and generate cooperation. However, barriers such as complex terminology, unfamiliarity with CE, the lack of clear, context-specific evidence of added value and competition with existing frameworks hinder its application. To overcome these challenges, we propose simplifying CE concepts, demonstrating its unique contributions, and continuing to foster co-production with practitioners to refine its applicability. This study is an initial step in building an applied science of CE that can support sustainability transformations across diverse domains.

The world’s governments have agreed on actions to address the challenge of antibiotic resistance. This raises the question of what level of national action is associated with improved outcomes, including both slower growth and lower levels of antibiotic resistance. Answering this question is challenged by variation in data availability and quality as well as disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigate the association between level of national action and temporal trends in multiple indicators related to health system capacity, antibiotic use (ABU), absolute rates of resistance (ABR) and a Drug Resistance Index (DRI). Using the Global Database for Tracking Antimicrobial Resistance (TrACSS) to construct an index of national action, we apply cross-sectional regression across 73 countries to estimate the association between the level of action in 2016 and trends in national indicators (2000–2016). We find that national action is consistently associated with improved linear or categorical trends in all groups of indicators. Reductions are associated with a relatively high action index (range 0–4) for ABU (median 2.8, 25–75% quartile 2.6-3.3), ABR (3.0, 2.4-3.4), and DRI (3.5, 3.1-3.6). These associations are robust to the inclusion of other contextual factors related to socio-economic conditions, human population density, animal production and climate. Since 2016, a majority of both Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and High-Income Countries (HICs) report increased action on repeated questions, while one third of countries report reduced action. The main limitations in interpretation are heterogeneity in data availability and in when actions have been implemented. Our findings highlight the importance of national action to address the domestic situation related to antibiotic resistance and indicate the value of both incremental changes in reducing adversity of outcomes and the need for high levels of action in delivering reduced levels of resistance.

The concept of ‘polycrisis’ leapt from Davos into everyday policy talk, yet its meaning remains fluid and sometimes contradictory. To take stock, we asked fifty experts to sort key related statements, and carried out a Q-methodology analysis to reveal four distinct framings. All experts agree that polycrisis spills across sectors and borders and reject the view that polycrisis is a mere buzzword. They diverge, however, on how much faith to place in current knowledge systems and on polycrisis’ drivers. Connecting these insights with Edgar Morin’s crisis theory (crisiology) suggests that polycrisis is best understood as a metamorphic hinge where breakdown and transformation unfold together. We argue that advancing this agenda requires drawing on sustainability science: tracing feedbacks and power, embracing plural knowledges, and situating crises in relational, historical, and reflexive perspectives. Rather than a passing label, polycrisis emerges as a generative lens for navigating the turbulence of planetary upheaval and, as such, a compass for steering pathways of transformation.

Background: The concept of planetary health underscores the intricate relationship between environmental concerns and global health. This interconnection raises an important question related to cross-sectoral policy development: to what extent are environmental issues integrated into global health governance? To address this question, this study examines resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) from 1948 to 2023. Methods: Based on a systematic text search for environmental issues, this study examines the evolution of the occurrence and content of resolutions adopted by the WHA and the structure and pattern of connectivity of the normative network of resolutions regarding environment-related resolutions from 1948 to 2023. Environment-related resolutions were processed in the Python environment using relevant packages, such as Pandas, Numpy, and Matplotlib. Regular expressions were employed to identify citations among resolutions and construct a directed citation network. The network was then examined using NetworkX and Graph-Tool. Findings: Despite important variations in the attention dedicated to environmental issues in resolutions adopted by the WHA, the proportion of environment-related resolutions adopted each year has increased. The number of topics and their diversity have also expanded. Although environment-specific resolutions are well connected to each other, they are more weakly connected to environment-related resolutions, and not well connected to non-environment-related resolutions, suggesting potential silos in policy development. This study shows that several topical entry points exist for a deeper integration of environmental concerns in global health governance. Interpretation: The findings of this study indicate not only the growing reference to environmental concerns in global health governance, but also an evolution of the understanding of the environment as a key driver of the health of the people. However, there remains room for more comprehensive integration across all areas of global health policy. The study emphasises both the need for active participation in global environmental governance processes that affect health and the importance of minimising the health sector's contribution to environmental problems. Funding: None.

Non-Technical Summary. Several transnational corporations, investors, international organizations, and philanthropies have formed coalitions to respond to global social and environmental challenges. Do these coalitions, consisting of large-scale actors, have the capacity to contribute to the sustainability transformations that are needed, or do they perpetuate the same systemic dynamics that created the problems in the first place? We investigate this question by comparing publicly available information from five coalitions working on financial and food systems sustainability. Technical Summary. This paper examines whether large-scale actor coalitions (LSACs) may contribute to transformations toward equitable and sustainable futures. We use a ‘rapid assessment’ 20-variable framework to collect and analyze empirical data from five food and finance coalitions to identify their roles and capacities for transformative change. Our results indicate that LSACs implement distinct strategies to reach their goals. More specifically, due to their diverse set-ups, LSACs have the ability to raise awareness of sustainability issues, utilize ties to push forward agendas, engage in institutional policy-shaping processes, experiment with solutions, and showcase promising niche initiatives. We identify ways that LSACs’ actions can enable efforts of other change-makers who aim to change the food and finance systems and contribute to systems with high and diverse capacities for transformative change. We also discuss why the roles and lack of certain capacities of LSACs might hinder the creation of enabling conditions for transformative change within the food and finance sectors. Social Media Summary. Coalitions consisting of powerful actors have a range of transformative capacities that, under certain conditions, can support systemic transformations within their sectors.