Every year, a team led by the Cambridge University conservation biologist William Sutherland conducts a horizon scan to identify the top emerging technological, political, economic and related shifts most likely to have a substantial effect on biodiversity around the world in the year ahead.
As efforts to allay climate breakdown grow, hydrogen is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to conventional fuels. The extent to which tapping this alternative energy source benefits biodiversity, however, depends on how the hydrogen is made. Hydrogen produced from natural gas continues reliance on climate-disrupting fossil fuels; production using freshwater or seawater as feedstock or tapping natural underground reservoirs poses potential unintended consequences in the form of habitat destruction or disruption. And unless hydrogen production, distribution and deployment systems are designed with care, they could end up contributing greenhouse gases of their own. Special effort will be needed to ensure the benefits outweigh the harms in ramping up this mixed-bag climate solution. Ammonia dilemma Ammonia is a key ingredient in agricultural fertiliser. It also takes massive amounts of energy currently largely derived from fossil fuels to produce. A novel technique that involves spraying tiny droplets of water onto a magnetic mesh holds promise for dramatically reducing the cost and greenhouse gas footprint of ammonia production and so mitigating climate change. However, it also poses potential threats. For one, cheaper, lower-carbon ammonia production could spark an increase in fertiliser use and so the threat of air and water pollution. In addition, because fertiliser enhances soil microbes' ability to produce nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, the net climate benefit could be far less than anticipated at first glance. Microbes The search for environmentally friendlier food sources has turned to
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