Environmental Research Letters™ (ERL) is a high-impact, open-access journal intended to be the meeting place of the research and policy communities concerned with environmental change and management. ERL is dedicated to bringing together intellectual and professional scientists, economists, engineers, and social scientists, as well as the public sector, industry, and civil society, all of whom are engaged in efforts to understand the state of natural systems and, increasingly, the human footprint on the biosphere.

The style and impact of an ERL article should be such that it will appeal to the journal’s broad and multi-disciplinary readership, with results or findings of interest and accessible to researchers working in other fields. This gives authors the opportunity to convey the importance of their work to a wider community (including policymakers and the public) in addition to specialists in their field.

Within this broad and inclusive scope, some key areas of interest include (but are not limited to) the following, with a key emphasis on linkages between topics and consideration of policy implications:

Climate variability and global change: earth system modelling, hydrological modelling, variability of the atmosphere, oceans, land surface, and cryosphere, weather and climate extremes, natural hazards, resilience and tipping points.
Management of natural resources: coupled human and natural systems, biodiversity and conservation, forestry, fire regimes, remote sensing approaches to monitoring and evaluating ecological change.
Human and ecological health and feedbacks: ecosystems and human health, associated human health impacts from air and water pollution, projected health risks of climate change, sustainable cities and health.
Agriculture and sustainable food systems: natural resource use, land management and natural habitats, soil carbon sequestration, water scarcity and food security, environmental, economic, and societal trade-offs.
Energy transitions to a low carbon economy: renewable and sustainable energy systems, fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, energy access, impacts of energy technologies and policies on societies and the environment.
Sustainable socio-economic development: circular economy, global environmental governance, environmental justice and ethics, climate change adaptation and mitigation, environmental impacts on the economy and society.
ERL focus collections are specially themed groups of articles that highlight exciting work conducted in a high interest or rapidly emerging subject area. To see further areas of interest please visit the focus issues page.