Porous materials have attracted great attention in energy and environment applications, such as metal organic frameworks (MOFs), metal aerogels, carbon aerogels, porous metal oxides. These materials could be also hybridized with other materials into functional composites with superior properties. The high specific area of porous materials offer them the advantage as hosts to conduct catalytic and electrochemical reactions. On one hand, catalytic reactions include photocatalytic, photoelectrocatalytic and electrocatalytic reactions over some gases. On the other hand, they can be used as electrodes in various batteries, such as alkaline metal ion batteries and electrochemical capacitors. So far, both catalysis and batteries are extremely attractive topics. There are also many obstacles to overcome in the exploration of these porous materials. The research related to porous materials for energy and environment applications is at extremely active stage, and this has motivated us to contribute with a roadmap on ‘porous materials for energy and environment applications’.