We are losing the climate change mitigation challenge. The task now before us: minimize the impacts.

The status of the climate change mitigation challenge is analyzed and summarized. Pressures spawned by industrialization and population growth have driven unsustainable growth in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, yielding global warming. Such warming has accelerated over the last three years and for 2016 was 1.3 °C over pre-industrial levels. Serious climate change induced impacts have already occurred and more serious ones are projected. The recent UN Paris COP agreement is only a small step toward meaningful mitigation. It will only slow emission growth and will not lead to near term aggressive annual emission decreases, which are needed to avoid warming of 2 °C or more. We are losing the battle to protect the planet from unacceptable climate change impacts. To minimize the impacts, the following is needed: more aggressive communication of the seriousness of the problem to national leaders and the public, a serious adaptation program, a dramatically expanded RD&D program to accelerate the development of low cost low C technologies, with a focus on potentially transformational technologies, and a serious commitment to peak global emissions as soon as possible and drastically reduce such emissions annually from that point on. A global agreement to set a price on carbon (C) could be effective in helping to achieve such an aggressive emission reduction trajectory.

We provide an overview of the field of rigidity theory applied at the atomic scale. This theoretical approach, initially designed for macroscopic structures such as bridges or buildings, has gained renewed interest in the past few years thanks to new methodological developments and to attractive applications in a variety of materials, such as scratch-resistant glassy sheets for mobile phones, phase-change memory, tough cement, dielectrics, and photonic devices. In parallel, basic phenomena associated with the onset of rigidity have been discovered, which have challenged our current understanding of the structural modification induced by changes in composition. This has led to the identification of “smart” glasses with multiple functionalities and superior mechanical performances. Topological prediction and engineering of physical properties are also enabling intelligent design of new disordered materials.

Sustainable, carbon-free methods of large-scale hydrogen production are urgently needed to support industrial processes while decreasing carbon dioxide emissions. The realities of product development timelines dictate that existing commercial technologies such as low-temperature electrolysis will have to serve the majority of this need for at least the next 20 years. At the same time, even a cursory understanding of device design principles and real-world constraints can help to inform basic research. Accelerating the impact from fundamental material discoveries in related technologies therefore requires improved collaboration between academic, government, and industry sectors.

Renewable hydrogen is a key component to global decarbonization and reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. A common misconception is that the need for greener sources of hydrogen is dependent on whether fuel cell vehicles significantly penetrate the automotive market. However, hydrogen is a critical feedstock for many industrial processes, with an annual demand of 65 million metric tons globally. The large majority of this hydrogen is made via steam methane reforming, which represents the major carbon dioxide contribution for industrial processes such as ammonia production. Sustainable manufacturing of hydrocarbons also requires a sustainable source of hydrogen. Deep decarbonization and meeting 80% reduction targets for carbon dioxide emissions thus requires carbon-free sources of hydrogen. Based on the technology readiness levels, the reality is that existing commercial technologies will dominate the market for the next 20 years and beyond. To accelerate the impact of fundamental work in long-term technologies, improved collaboration between researchers across academic, government, and industry sectors is essential, to inform basic research as well as to leverage technology breakthroughs in the near term.

The nature of glass transitions in chalcogenides and modified oxides depends on the network mean coordination number $\langle r\rangle$ . These display systematic trends when spanning across the three topological phases: flexible, intermediate, and stressed-rigid. Trends in the glass-transition temperature T g( $\langle r\rangle$ ) show a monotonic increase with $\langle r\rangle$ , but the nonreversing enthalpy of relaxation at T g, ΔH nr( $\langle r\rangle$ ), shows a deep- and square-well-like minimum with the walls representing the rigidity and stress transitions with increasing $\langle r\rangle$ , respectively. In the well, the ΔH nr( $\langle r\rangle$ ) term remains minuscule (∼0) corresponding to the isostatically rigid intermediate phase (IP). The melt fragility index (m) shows rather low values, m( $\langle r\rangle$ ) < 20 for IP compositions, but increases outside the IP. Glass compositions in the IP show absence of network stress, form compacted networks, possess thermally reversing glass transitions, and display high glass-forming tendency—functionalities that have attracted widespread interest in understanding the physics of glasses and applications of the new IP formed.

The efficiencies of present-day modes of transportation are reviewed. Future sustainable options are discussed.

Transportation takes about 20% of the energy use worldwide [1], and this figure is likely to increase. The fact that transportation requires some form of mobile energy storage makes this topic especially challenging for the post-fossil-fuel era. When looking at alternatives, we should realize that nothing matches the energy density of liquid fuels like gasoline or diesel, if the system as a whole is considered. It is, therefore, important to consider the efficiency of various modes of transportation. To assess the possibilities of improvements in efficiency, a brief introduction into the physics of transportation is given first. Subsequently, the efficiencies of present-day modes of transportation—cars, buses, trains, air transport, and bicycles—are reviewed. Finally, new technologies relying on biofuel, electricity, solar power, and hydrogen are discussed.

The properties and functionalities of inorganic glasses can be tuned by adjusting their chemical composition and, in turn, their atomic-scale structure. However, accurate prediction of glass properties from composition has traditionally been impossible. Recent progress in temperature-dependent constraint theory paves the way for the design of new multicomponent glasses with tailored properties. Atoms in network glasses are constrained by their chemical bonds and bond angles, and the strength of these constraints depends on the local topology and the chemical nature of the elements. By counting the number of constraints around both network-forming and network-modifying atoms as a function of both composition and temperature, it is possible to make quantitative connections among composition, structure, and certain macroscopic properties. Here, we review recent developments in glass-structure determination and modeling. We then demonstrate how the structural information is used as input for topological predictions of glass properties such as viscosity and hardness. These predictions enable the design of novel industrial glasses with desired properties and manufacturing attributes.