A new TEEB -The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity- initiative for Water and Wetlands will be launched at the UN's Summit on Sustainable Development on 15 June in Rio, Brazil.
Half of humanity – 3.5 billion people – currently live in cities and by 2055 an estimated 75% of the world's population will live in urban areas. Cities occupy just 2% of the Earth's land, but account for over 70% of both energy consumption and carbon emissions.
There is growing recognition among policy-makers and private sector decision-makers that the current model of economic growth is socially, environmentally and economically unsustainable.
The UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative (SE4ALL) has a strong focus on the private sector to deliver universal energy access, improved efficiency and increased investment in renewable energy.
Many rural communities in the global South – including some 370 million indigenous peoples – are directly dependent on biodiversity and related traditional knowledge for their livelihoods, food security, healthcare and well-being.
Aren’t critics of genetically engineered food anti-science? Isn’t the debate over GMOs (genetically modified organisms) a spat between emotional but ignorant activists on one hand and rational GM-supporting scientists on the other? A new report released , “GMO Myths and Truths,” challenges these claims.
Access to affordable, reliable and clean energy is fundamental for poverty reduction and sustainable development; without it, the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved.
Access to affordable modern energy services may not be a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) but without it, sustainable development, indeed the MDGs themselves, cannot be achieved. Yet energy access remains an area of great global inequity.
