India and China are the world’s fastest-expanding large economies but which has been better at sharing the benefits of that growth with its people?

Inadequate waste management has become a major public health, economic and environmental problem, with 7-10 billion tons of urban waste produced each year and 3 billion people worldwide lacking access to controlled waste disposal facilities reveals this new UNEP report. 

The world's forests continue to shrink as populations increase and forest land is converted to agriculture and other uses, but over the past 25 years the rate of net global deforestation has slowed down by more than 50 percent, FAO said in a report published today.

An estimated 80 per cent of global deforestation occurs as a direct result of agricultural practices. Government subsidies, estimated at $200 billion annually, are often the key underlying drivers of forest loss worldwide, with policy makers rarely recognizing their impact, says a new United Nations brief.