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In a recent paper, Sadhukhan et al. (2021) describe “the mathematics of life cycle sustainability assessment”. This is an ambitious task for a 12-page paper, given that a previous text on the mathematics of life cycle assessment (Heijungs and Suh, 2002) took 250 pages, for a smaller subject, and that another paper (Heijungs et al., 2013) which was more modest in announcing an approach “toward” the mathematics of life cycle sustainability assessment was already 12 pages. Of course, a paper from 2021 can build on and refer to such previous works, and thereby be more concise. The curious fact is, however, that Sadhukhan et al. (2021) do not refer to and neither build on those previous publications. They even ignore other related works that were published in the Journal of Cleaner Production, including Gwak et al. (2003), Suh and Huppes (2005), Heijungs and Suh (2006) and Islam et al. (2016).

Policies to assure combatting climate change and realising energy security have stimulated a rapid growth in global installed capacity of renewable energy generation. The expansion of power generation from renewables, though, has so far lagged behind the growth in generation capacity. This indicates missed and relatively cheap opportunities to reduce GHG emissions. This paper sheds light on the mismatch between installed capacity and power generation for the case of wind power. It analyses and compares wind power developments in the four countries that contributed most to the increase in wind power capacity during the last decade: namely, China, the United States, Germany and Spain. We estimate the dynamics of capacity utilisation of wind power installations and identify its drivers. Finally, we identify potential policies to reduce the gap between power capacity and generation, which will contribute to cost-effective reduction of GHG emissions.

For the sustainable development of technological innovations the involvement of non-specialist stakeholders is crucial, which requires transparency of the knowledge base of the risks and benefits concerned. This paper evaluates the basic assumptions of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development regarding the environmental risks of genetically modified micro-organisms, in industrial biotechnology under Good Industrial Large-scale Practice. A clear factual basis for these assumptions could be only partially traced, if at all, and when facts were found they proved to provide only limited support, if any. In addition, several assumptions appeared to be questionable when contrasted with knowledge from chemical and ecological sciences. There remain a number of open questions with respect to risks, most of them relating to improvement and extension of procedures, through greater attention to baselines, safety limits and further standardisation. The necessity of transparency in stakeholder communication is discussed and possible ways of improving such communication are presented.