Explore the latest insights from top science journals in the Muser Press daily roundup (September 6, 2025), featuring impactful research on climate change challenges.
In brief:
Scientists transform plastic waste into efficient CO₂ capture materials
As CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere keep rising regardless of years of political intentions to limit emissions, the world’s oceans are drowning in plastics, which threatens marine environments and ecosystems.
The key global problems are often interconnected, and typically, the solution to one problem creates another one while the clock keeps ticking. But what if we could solve several problems at the same time?
It’s almost too good to be true, but a new cutting-edge invention promises to do just that. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method where one man’s trash really does become another man’s “treasure”, when decomposed PET plastic becomes the main ingredient in efficient and sustainable CO₂ capture.
We know the material from plastic bottles, textiles, and many other uses: PET plastic is one of the most widely used types of plastic in the world, but when it has served its purpose, it becomes a pressing global environmental issue. This is because it ends up in landfills in many parts of the world, where it breaks down into polluting microplastics that spread to the air, soil and groundwater. A large portion also end up in the oceans.
“The beauty of this method is that we solve a problem without creating a new one. By turning waste into a raw material that can actively reduce greenhouse gases, we make an environmental issue part of the solution to the climate crisis,” says Margarita Poderyte from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, lead author of the research paper disclosing the invention.
The solution is a potential win-win on a global scale, where plastic waste not only does not end up in nature but also becomes an active player in climate mitigation.
With the new chemical technology, researchers can transform PET plastic waste that is overlooked by recyclers into a primary resource in a new form of CO₂ sorbent they have developed. The process ‘upcycles’ it to a new material the researchers have named BAETA, which can absorb CO₂ out of the atmosphere so efficiently that it easily compares with existing carbon capture technologies.
Sustainable, flexible and scalable
The BAETA material has a powdery structure that can be pelletized, and a chemically ‘upgraded’ surface, which enables it to very effectively bind and chemically capture CO₂. Once saturated, CO₂ can be released through a heating process allowing the CO₂ to be concentrated, collected and stored or converted into a sustainable resource. In practice, the researchers expect the technology to be first installed on industrial plants with exhausts from chimneys passing through BAETA units to cleanse them of CO₂.
The research paper is now published in Sciences Advances and describes the chemical process behind the invention. The process is gentle compared to existing technologies and, at the same time, well-suited for industrial scaling.
“The main ingredient is plastic waste that would otherwise have an unsustainable afterlife, and the synthesis we use, where the chemical transformation takes place, is gentler than other materials for CO₂ capture because we can make the synthesis in ambient temperatures. It also has the advantage that the technology can be scaled up more easily,” Margarita Poderyte says.
She is seconded by co-author and Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Jiwoong Lee, who highlights the material’s flexibility also.
“One of the impressive things about this material is that it stays effective for a long time. And flexible. It works efficiently from normal room temperature up to about 150 degrees Celsius, making it very useful. With this kind of tolerance to high temperatures, the material can be used at the end of industrial plants where the exhausts are typically hot,” Jiwoong Lee says.
From laboratory to innovation at the end of the chimney
With a potentially revolutionary idea, a proven method and an effective finished product, the researchers are now ready for the next step.
“We see great potential for this material, not just in the lab, but in real-life industrial carbon capture plants. The next big step is scaling up to produce the material in tonnes, and we’re already working to attract investments and make our invention a financially sustainable business venture,” Poderyte says.
The technical challenges do not worry the researchers. Instead, the decisive challenge, they say, is to persuade decision-makers to make the necessary investments. If they succeed in that, the invention could ultimately lead to significant changes.
A sea of cheap plastic
Large amounts of PET plastic accumulate in our oceans, damaging ecosystems and breaking down into microplastics, the consequences of which are yet unknown. That sort of plastic is very well suited for the technology.
“If we can get our hands on the highly decomposed PET plastic floating in the world’s oceans, it will be a valuable resource for us as it’s so well suited for upcycling with our method,” Margarita Poderyte says.
The researchers hope that their invention can help to fundamentally change the way we see climate and environmental issues as separate problems.
“We’re not talking about stand-alone issues, nor will the solutions be. Our material can create a very concrete economic incentive to cleanse the oceans of plastic,” Jiwoong Lee says.
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This project is supported by the Novo Nordisk Foundation CO₂ Research Center in collaboration with the group of Niels Christian Nielsen, Aarhus University.
The following researchers have contributed to the research article: Margarita Poderyte, Ji-Woong Lee, Arianna Lanza, Rodrigo Lima, Dennis Wilkens Juhl, Kathrine L. Olesen, Niels Chr. Nielsen, and Peter Illum Golbækdal.
Journal Reference:
Margarita Poderyte et al., ‘Repurposing polyethylene terephthalate plastic waste to capture carbon dioxide’, Science Advances 11, 36: eadv5906 (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adv5906
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Copenhagen
Discovery of North America’s role in Asia’s monsoons offers new insights into climate change
Using climate models, scientists from the University of Bristol and the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP) from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found changes over North America can drive atmospheric patterns that intensify South and East Asian rainfall, with an effect nearly half as strong as the Tibetan Plateau’s influence on East Asian summer rainfall.
While researchers have long known the Asian monsoon can influence the climate far beyond Asia, this latest study is the first to reveal the reverse is also true – that the existence of North American continent has teleconnections across the Pacific Ocean and strengthens the East and South Asian summer monsoon rainfall.
Lead author Linlin Chen, PhD student in Physical Geography at the University of Bristol, said: “In the past few decades, when people talk about what factors would drive such a strong monsoon in Asia, they always looked at the Eurasian and African continents, especially the Himalaya and Tibetan region.
“These are indeed large influences. But we know Earth climate is closely connected, and now we have more evidence to show precisely how.”
The study authors first modelled an idealised ‘water’ world with no continents, and then gradually added continents from Eurasia, Africa and India to produce a basic Asian monsoon system. Australia, Antarctica, North and South America, as well as a simplified Tibetan Plateau were added separately, to see how the Asian monsoon would respond.
Dr Alex Farnsworth, a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, also affiliated with ITP, said: “We initially thought Australia would outperform, as it is the closest landmass not previously considered. But the results surprised everyone.
“North America turns out to be the most important extra continent impacting the Asian monsoon. It’s always exciting when the model reveals something unexpected.”
The team discovered the North American continent creates a heating centre in summer. This then creates atmospheric ripple effects, which strengthens the North Pacific subtropical high-pressure system and widens the north Hadley cell. This enhanced anticyclone pushes stronger westward flows toward Asia, causing a deeper convection and bringing more moisture from the ocean, thus intensifying rainfall over East and South Asia.
The Tibetan Plateau also plays a role but, remarkably, the North American impact is nearly half as strong as that of the Tibetan Plateau over the East Asian summer rainfall. The seasonal rains in Asia sustain more than a billion people. In recent years, people in Asia experienced more extreme flood and drought, which climate scientists suggest is due to global warming, which then causes more extreme climate events.
Co-author Paul Valdes, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Bristol, added: “This study reveals how deeply connected the Earth’s climate systems are: local changes can trigger global effects. Everyone is responsible for both the local and global climate changes.”
Journal Reference:
Linlin Chen et al., ‘The role of the North American continent in strengthening the Asian summer monsoon’, Science Advances 11, 36: eadu8589 (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adu8589
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Bristol
Countries’ carbon budget math is broken
Climate action is falling behind on the goals as stated in the Paris Agreement. To meet those goals, countries must act according to their ‘fair share’ targets. However, researchers from Utrecht University found a bias in how ambition and fairness assessments were calculated until now: “previous studies assessing countries climate ambition share a feature that rewards high emitters at the expense of the most vulnerable ones.” This finding influences climate change mitigations globally.
The research, led by Yann Robiou du Pont, was published in Nature Communications.
The researchers argue that previous fairness and ambition assessments were biased, as they start from shifting goalposts of rising emissions. Their proposed method avoids delaying the obligation to reduce emissions and calculates the immediate ambition gap that can be filled by climate measures and international finance.
As negotiated climate targets are still insufficient, this work underscores the growing role of courts in ensuring that climate and human rights obligations are met. The study highlights that high-emitting countries, most notably G7 countries, Russia, and China, need to do more given the very different historical responsibility and financial capability of countries.
An approach based on historical responsibility needed
Fair-share emissions allocations distribute the global carbon budget among countries based on principles like historical responsibility, capability, and development needs, aiming to assign each country a ‘fair share’ of allowable emissions. Under the Paris Agreement, these allocations indicate what each country should commit to in order to collectively limit global warming to 1.5°C and staying well below 2°C.
By calculating each ambition and fairness assessment from the present situation, we increasingly let major polluting countries off the hook. This pushes a heavier burden onto countries that have done the least to cause the crisis, or more realistically brings the world towards catastrophic levels of global warming. Therefore, the authors propose calculating fair-share emissions allocations immediately based on each country’s historical contributions to climate change and their capacity to act.
Accounting for immediate responsibilities sets a new baseline. It would cause some countries’ emission paths to suddenly and drastically change instead of following a smooth decline. This approach would demand steep, immediate cuts mostly from wealthier, high-emitting countries. Since the cuts needed from these countries are too large to achieve locally, it requires substantial financial support for additional mitigation in poorer countries.
Importantly, removing the systemic reward for inaction affects the ranking of countries’ gap between their current pledges and fair emissions allocations, even within the group of high-income countries. Then, the USA, Australia, Canada, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have the greatest gap, requiring the most additional effort and finance. Much of equity discussions is about developed versus developing countries, but this paper is particularly relevant for developed countries being rewarded for inaction compared to other and more ambitious developed countries.
Role in climate litigation
Fair-share studies like this one are increasingly used in climate litigation, such as the KlimaSeniorinnen case before the European Court of Human Rights. The court recognised that insufficient national climate action constitutes a breach of human rights and that countries must justify how their climate pledges are a fair and ambitious contribution to the global objectives. Courts rely on these assessments to evaluate whether national emissions targets are sufficient and equitable. Biases in the assessments therefore have real-world impact: they can shape legal rulings, influence policy commitments, and inform public opinions.
Courts are thus emerging as a key force in ensuring accountability and indirectly promoting cooperation when political and diplomatic negotiations fall short. In a landmark advisory opinion issued on July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice affirmed that countries have a legal obligation under international law to prevent significant harm to the climate system, emphasising the duty to act collectively and urgently. “This strengthens and underscores the growing role of courts in enforcing climate justice,” says Robiou du Pont.
Paying the debt
Solving the climate crisis is a moral imperative long identified by climate justice activists and scholars. Practically, we are observing that the lack of fair efforts by countries with the greatest capacity and responsibility to act and provide finance, results in insufficient action globally. A fairer allocation of effort is likely to results in more ambitious outcomes globally. This study explains how immediate climate efforts and finance are key to align with international agreements to limiting global warming.
Journal Reference:
Robiou du Pont, Y., Dekker, M., van Vuuren, D. et al., ‘Effect of discontinuous fair-share emissions allocations immediately based on equity’, Nature Communications 16, 8020 (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62947-9
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Utrecht University (UU)
Global methane levels continue rising as planet heats up
As major trade patterns shift, South-South transactions now dominate global supply chains with developing countries increasingly participating in global supply chains. Asia and the developing Pacific region emerge as the largest contributors to global methane emissions, driven by rapid industrialisation and population growth.
Publishing their research in Nature Communications, an international team led by researchers at the Universities of Birmingham and Groningen provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of methane emissions across 164 countries and 120 sectors from 1990 to 2023.
With a global warming potential 80 times greater than CO₂ over a 20-year period, methane mitigation offers a critical opportunity to slow climate change in the near term. The researchers discovered that only developed countries have consistently reduced emissions while maintaining economic growth – mainly through improved production efficiency.
Lead author Prof. Yuli Shan, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Methane has a short atmospheric lifespan, which means reductions today can have an immediate impact. Our findings underscore the need for coordinated global action, especially in developing regions where emissions are rising fastest.”
The study highlights fertiliser production as a key sector for action – also calling for targeted sectoral strategies, including advanced leak detection in oil and gas extraction, improved livestock feed formulations, and enhanced waste management practices. It also advocates for smarter consumption choices, such as reducing red meat intake, which has been linked to high methane emissions.
Co-corresponding author Professor Klaus Hubacek, from the University of Groningen, commented: “This study provides a roadmap for policymakers to integrate methane into national climate strategies. It’s not just about where emissions occur, but why – and that requires looking at the entire supply chain.”
Using the latest global trade and environmental accounts dataset, the researchers found that global trade is responsible for approximately 30% of methane emissions. Shifting trade patterns have led to increased emissions in developing countries, which often lack the technological efficiency of their developed counterparts.
While economic growth and changing consumption patterns have fuelled increases, improvements in energy efficiency and cleaner production technologies have helped offset some of the growth. Between 1998 and 2023, global average methane emission coefficients dropped by nearly 67%, reflecting significant technological progress.
Methane has contributed about 30% to global warming since pre-industrial times. Unlike CO₂, methane has a shorter atmospheric lifespan, making its reduction a fast-acting climate solution. It also contributes to air pollution, causing around one million premature deaths annually.
Journal Reference:
Shan, Y., Tian, K., Li, R. et al., ‘Global methane footprints growth and drivers 1990-2023’, Nature Communications 16, 8184 (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-63383-5
Article Source:
Press Release/Material by University of Birmingham
Featured image credit: Gerd Altmann | Pixabay
