#society

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives and the world as we knew it upside-down. If the British government coined the phrase Keep Calm and Carry On during the Second World War, now it's German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has been asking her compatriots for

Drugs that are released into the bloodstream at the first sign of infection, buildings that react to weather conditions or mobile phone screens that repair themselves... These are just some of the possible applications of so-called smart materials, the latest revolution in the field of materials science.

The UN Climate Action Summit 2019 took place on 23 September at the United Nations headquarters in New York and focused on nine priority action areas. Many countries and over 100 cities, including many of the largest in the world, announced significant new and concrete commitments to combat the climate crisis.

Each person generates 0.74 kilos of waste per day. And in the coming years this figure is expected to increase. The old paradigm of producing, using and throwing away is flooding the world with rubbish. Solutions such as reuse, recycling and energy recovery are more important than ever. Electronic waste has become big business in the very place where waste generates the most damage, the Third World.

Sustainable buildings minimise energy and water consumption and are a key part of sustainable urban development that seeks to combat climate change. From large skyscrapers to novel museums, below we review some of the green buildings that pave the way to more responsible urban planning.

The electrification of transport and residential heating and the obtaining of electricity through renewable energies will be the key factors in decarbonising the European economy by 2050. This is the main conclusion that can be drawn from the study prepared by the consultancy AFRY (formerly POYRY) for Iberdrola, which establishes a roadmap for the energy sector on the continent.