This synthesis of academic and non-academic literature highlights what is and is not known about public attitudes to environmental change. It reviews attitudes and responses to: climate change; specific climate change impacts (i.e. flooding, heat stress and rising sea levels); changes in ecosystems, landscapes and species; energy technologies and infrastructure (including renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear energy); and different campaigns and engagement activities and their successes and different theories associated with environmental change attitudes.

The Nitrogen in Europe project adopts a multidisciplinary approach to examining and tackling the main problems of excess nitrogen. It identifies nine main problems associated with excessive nitrogen use: aquatic, coastal and terrestrial eutrophication, acidification, climate change, photochemical smog, urban air quality, particles, and stratospheric ozone depletion. The project has recently drafted a declaration on nitrogen and the food chain which you can read here.

Premier Foods (manufacturers of brands such as Hovis, Sharwoods, Mr Kipling, Quorn, Ambrosia, Angel Delight, Bisto, Cadbury, etc) is moving forward its target on 100% sourcing of sustainable palm oil. The original target (made in 2008) was to source all its palm oil from sustainable sources by 2011. The target has now been moved forward to the end of 2010.

As part of the Rural Economy and Land Use (RELU) Programme, researchers at the universities of Surrey and Bangor investigated the wider implications of including details of carbon footprints on food labels. This briefing paper summarises the key findings and also refers the reader to the papers upon which this briefing paper is based.

Natural England has a series of reports that consider how the natural environment in England may change between now and 2060. They cover the following topics: Report 1 No charge? Valuing the natural environment sets out the contribution that nature makes to our economy (i.e. clean water and carbon storage), the report argues that its contribution should be recognised and valued, and highlights ways in which this could be achieved.

The medical journal, The Lancet, has published a special issue that looks at the health impacts of climate change mitigation policies in four areas: agriculture; transport; the built environment; and electricity generation. All the papers are open access and can be downloaded here. A paper on food and agriculture is included: