The cover artwork captures the stark reality of our changing planet, illustrating the profound urgency of transitioning from climate vulnerability to climate resilience. Against the dramatic backdrop of a calving glacier and turbulent waters, a polar bear and its cub navigate a fractured, diminishing expanse of sea ice. This poignant scene brings the accelerating impacts of global climate change on Earth’s most fragile ecosystems into sharp focus. Rather than depicting the engineering solutions directly, the image serves as a powerful call to action. It emphasizes why the convergence of renewable energy, Earth observation, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced engineering is critical today: to transform our scientific understanding of these collapsing environments into practical, life-saving solutions for a changing world.
Responding to this critical challenge embodies the mission of Climate and Sustainable Engineering: advancing integrated, system-of-systems solutions that connect Earth-system science with engineering practice. By integrating predictive Earth-system modeling, satellite remote sensing, AI-enabled decision support, resilient infrastructure, nature-based solutions, and low-carbon technologies, engineering can simultaneously advance climate-change mitigation strategies, strengthen adaptation, and enhance societal resilience. As a special theme within Engineering, this section provides a global platform for interdisciplinary collaboration, accelerating engineering solutions across the energy–water–food nexus, ecosystems, infrastructure, and policy to build a sustainable and resilient future.
