From China’s ban on foreign waste imports to Vanuatu’s plan to take fossil fuel firms to court, this year saw countries toughen their national and foreign policies to tackle the world's biggest social and environmental problems.
Tens of thousands of children as young as six mine for cobalt—a toxic substance and key component in batteries for electric cars—in the country's southeast, rights groups say.
Hunger had come down over the last few decades, but has recently started to increase, and climate change’s impact on agriculture is one of the reasons.
Tomoo Ueda –
Big-scale sanitation projects don't necessarily benefit the poor, writes ADB's Tomoo Ueda. How can development banks ensure benefits trickle down to this segment of society?
Esther Ngumbi –
As food waste increases by 33 per cent in the next 10 years, current efforts should include tapping into recent technologies including the use of biotech tools, University of Illinois' Esther Ngumbi writes.
Benjamin Neimark –
Trees are good for the environment, but does corporate tree planting necessarily generate environmental benefits? The University of Lancaster's Benjamin Neimark examines.
Although the number of children enrolled in primary school in Africa increased from 60 million in 2000 to some 250 million today, school quality remains uneven. The challenge now is to ensure that all children, including those who are in school – at all grade levels – are learning what they need to thrive.
Inadequate land rights perpetuate poverty and marginalisation, as numerous cases around the world have shown. What is the link between land tenure and achieving the aims of the Sustainable Development Goals?
Wind turbines and electric cars may be symbols of the clean energy movement but require cobalt, which has been linked to child labour, to produce. Researchers from Heriot-Watt University ask: are we conscious of the true cost of low-carbon technologies? And what can we do about it?
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When does a green economy come at too high a price? Land acquisitions for growth and development can compromise the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable people, as this film explores.
Vaidehi Shah –
Brazil and the Philippines are the most dangerous countries for activists fighting mining, agribusiness and hydroelectric companies for their rights to land, forests, and rivers, a new report by Global Witness found.
Medilyn Manibo –
From seawater to gravity, startup firms are using basic science to create simple and sustainable innovations to light up rural and off-grid communities around the world.
With the tagline "Taking the Pulse of the Planet", State of the World's Birds is a major global assessment that uses bird species to measure the health of our ecosystems ...
On November 22nd, Mars Wrigley unveiled its Sustainable in a Generation plan for Asia Pacific that will accelerate its efforts in traceable palm oil sourcing, training for cocoa farmers, and ...
The impact of electricity price increases on the competitiveness of selected mining sector and smelting value chains in South Africa project report investigates the relationship between South Africa's mining value ...
Start-ups with creative business models are beating multinationals to the punch in powering lights for the global 1 billion living off-grid, according to Lux Research
