Top of the tops

It’s the end of the year, let’s make a list. Here papers published in 2020 that I read with great pleasure and/or stroke me, or are majestic, or were very useful to me, or I just liked them because…whatever. At least you can trust I chose them after reading them and not with a crappy machine learning algorithm.

Random order.

Emerging technology LCA paper

😍This is very useful stuff!

Bergerson, J.A., Brandt, A., Cresko, J., Carbajales-Dale, M., MacLean, H.L., Matthews, H.S., McCoy, S., McManus, M., Miller, S.A., Morrow, W.R., Posen, I.D., Seager, T., Skone, T., Sleep, S., 2019. Life cycle assessment of emerging technologies: Evaluation techniques at different stages of market and technical maturity. J. Ind. Ecol. doi:10.1111/jiec.12954

Another emerging tech LCA paper

This is also very useful stuff💪, in a quantitative way!

Blanco, C.F., Cucurachi, S., Guinée, J.B., Vijver, M.G., Peijnenburg, W.J.G.M., Trattnig, R., Heijungs, R., 2020. Assessing the sustainability of emerging technologies: A probabilistic LCA method applied to advanced photovoltaics. J. Clean. Prod. 259, 120968. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120968

Paper on multiple perspectives of sustainability

Very deep and comprehensive analysis🙏, going across and beyond disciplines.

Saltelli, A., Benini, L., Funtowicz, S., Giampietro, M., Kaiser, M., Reinert, E., van der Sluijs, J.P., 2020b. The technique is never neutral. How methodological choices condition the generation of narratives for sustainability. Environ. Sci. Policy 106, 87–98. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2020.01.008

Fantastic system thinking based theory - can open up for a lot of new research.🤙

Otto, I.M., Donges, J.F., Cremades, R., Bhowmik, A., Hewitt, R.J., Lucht, W., Rockström, J., Allerberger, F., McCaffrey, M., Doe, S.S.P., Lenferna, A., Morán, N., van Vuuren, D.P., Schellnhuber, H.J., 2020. Social tipping dynamics for stabilizing Earth’s climate by 2050. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 201900577. doi:10.1073/pnas.1900577117

Paper on future of climate change and human migration

A very inspiring and transcendental paper.😲

Xu, C., Kohler, T.A., Lenton, T.M., Svenning, J.-C., Scheffer, M., 2020. Future of the Human Climate Niche. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 201910114. doi:10.1073/pnas.1910114117

Paper on practitioners doing LCAs

It answered a question 🧐 I had asked myself for long time…

Scrucca, F., Baldassarri, C., Baldinelli, G., Bonamente, E., Rinaldi, S., Rotili, A., Barbanera, M., 2020. Uncertainty in LCA: An estimation of practitioner-related effects. J. Clean. Prod. 268, 122304. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122304

A modelling manifesto

Masterpiece that needs no introduction…👏

Saltelli, A., Bammer, G., Bruno, I., Charters, E., Di Fiore, M., Didier, E., Nelson Espeland, W., Kay, J., Lo Piano, S., Mayo, D., Pielke, R., Portaluri, T., Porter, T.M., Puy, A., Rafols, I., Ravetz, J.R., Reinert, E., Sarewitz, D., Stark, P.B., Stirling, A., van der Sluijs, J., Vineis, P., 2020a. Five ways to ensure that models serve society: a manifesto. Nature 582, 482–484. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-01812-9

Nature paper on climate change and uncertainty

Another amazingly 🎢 clearly written paper on the importance of uncertainty in models.

Calel, R., Chapman, S.C., Stainforth, D.A., Watkins, N.W., 2020. Temperature variability implies greater economic damages from climate change. Nat. Commun. 11. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-18797-8

Paper on circular economy and sustainability

Paradoxically, circular economy 🌀 studies do not focus on the “economic” part (and even less on the social one).

Schöggl, J.-P., Stumpf, L., Baumgartner, R.J., 2020. The narrative of sustainability and circular economy - A longitudinal review of two decades of research. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 163, 105073. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105073

Paper on food trade and network analysis

I love network analysis and I wish they have cited me…🤷‍♂️

Kummu, M., Kinnunen, P., Lehikoinen, E., Porkka, M., Queiroz, C., Röös, E., Troell, M., Weil, C., 2020. Interplay of trade and food system resilience: Gains on supply diversity over time at the cost of trade independency. Glob. Food Sec. 24, 100360. doi:10.1016/J.GFS.2020.100360

Happy end of 2020

🍾🍾🍾

Looking forward to new gorgeous reads in 2021.