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Beekeeping relieves land degradation in Kyrgyzstan
Ship of fools: Save me from tomorrow
It is clear that we must set a new course to a sustainable, more equitable world, toward a future we have charted, not simply stumbled upon.
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Bridging development goals
Post-2015 development goals and targets must be addressed in a cohesive and interlinked way, urges UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health Director Dr. Zafar Adeel.
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Climate
Retooling New York for apocalyptic storms
Rising sea levels and increasingly erratic storm surges have New York weighing new and re-emerging ideas to improve resiliency.
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Biodiversity
India’s Auroville shows the way in green living
In the Indian township of Auroville, people from more than 40 nations aim to live in harmony with nature and protect the environment as a community.
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Biodiversity
Securing human rights through private sector standards?
Forest Peoples Programme’s Sophie Chao outlines a comparative review of private sector sustainability certification schemes.
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Biodiversity
Eco-villages instead of eviction: a new approach in Indonesia
Eco-villages may be an alternative to evicting communities who have long lived within Indonesia's parks.
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Researching resilience: Young scholars look to communities as classrooms
Students of the ProsPER.Net Young Researchers’ School studied first-hand how communities are boosting resilience.
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Climate
The Skolt Sámi’s path to climate change resilience
In a photo essay, a UNU fellow illustrates why this reindeer and fishing-reliant indigenous community is developing a climate adaptation plan.
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Climate
Greening the world economy through cities
A UNU research team explains how a cities-led green economy could lower resource and energy use.
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Climate
Nicholas Stern: ‘I got it wrong on climate change – it’s far, far worse’
With climate change impacts already beyond expert predictions there is no more time to delay our response.
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Climate
The legacy of Fukushima: Two years on
The Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to galvanize a global movement towards renewable energy, but will Japan commit to a zero nuclear future?
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Climate
China’s pearl industry: An indicator of ecological stress
The world’s largest pearl sector is a microcosm of the problems surrounding rapid socio-economic growth.
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Climate
Who should pay climate change costs?
The co-founder of the US-based Institute for Local Self-Reliance argues for an end to ad hoc financial response to natural disasters.
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Food
Quinoa brings riches to the Andes
Soaring global demand for quinoa means higher profits but pushes Peruvian and Bolivian farmers to sell their entire crops, raising concerns of malnutrition.
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World Economic Forum report offers view of global risks
This year's list of chief concerns includes severe wealth gaps, chronic fiscal imbalances, rising emissions and water shortages.
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Greeks stand up to protect their water from privatization
A Greek initiative seeks to establish a network of 16 cooperatives in Thessaloniki to manage a truly public water company.
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Readers’ choice: Best stories of 2012 and what to expect this year
The Our World 2.0 editors reflect on the most-read articles of 2012 and what to look forward to in 2013.
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Climate
Guyana hits paydirt on low-carbon development path
Guyana's low-carbon push could produce huge economic and environmental dividends.
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Japan as the new normal: Living in a constrained economy
With the end of economic growth a possibility, Japan can offer insight on new forms of economic and societal behaviour.
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Climate
Considerable benefits of decarbonizing urban transport
Multi-criteria assessment of social costs and benefits must be added to cost–benefit analysis of climate change mitigation.
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Study helps Italy at solving the e-waste problem
UNU-ISP research in Italy clarifies consumer habits and disposal attitudes towards waste electrical and electronic equipment.
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Do global summits help to tackle poverty?
To make summits matter, we need to be far more ruthless about our priorities and clearer about what we're trying to achieve.
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The endangered repairman
Locally-owned repair shops keep money in the community, help residents lower their cost of living and reduce the toll of consumerism.
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Food
How millions of farmers are advancing agriculture for themselves
An integrated system of plant-centered agriculture shows remarkable capacity to raise productivity.
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Pakistan’s rural poor on path to post-carbon prosperity
An international security expert lays out a sustainable model of economic empowerment linked to local needs rather than narrow corporate interests.
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Climate
‘Climate change is taking place before our eyes’ — the weather of 2012
Was 2012 the year that abnormal weather became normal?
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Do we all now live in fragile states?
Rising socio-economic inequality and impaired governance in the West are contributing to unwitting vulnerability.
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Biodiversity
Crunching the numbers to preserve fertile farmland
The European Commission supports data collection to help protect soil and its resources from climate change impacts.
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Food
Farming in the sky in Singapore
An urban agriculture venture in Singapore hopes to increase the country's resilience and food security with a new rooftop garden technology.
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Oil
Policy innovation for technology diffusion: Japanese renewable energy
Japan's experience with renewable energy illustrates the political dimension of policy innovation.
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Climate
Examining how rainfall variability, food security and migration interact
An innovative look at how rainfall variability and food insecurity are drivers for migration.
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Climate
Engaging indigenous peoples in global climate governance
Local knowledge and indigenous experience are crucial inputs for sound governance and climate change resilience.
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Oil
Lessons for Appalachia’s post-coal economy
Appalachia's residents are working to keep local and sustainable sources of wealth central in a post-coal economy.
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Biodiversity
Restoring the Nanao Bay ecosystem
A calm bay on Japan’s Noto Peninsula, long a marine haven for fishers, is the site of new integrative approaches to resource management.
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Biodiversity
Biocultural resilience for systems change
To ensure our own and our planet’s wellbeing, our actions must be guided by a holistic worldview based on valuing biocultural diversity and resilience.
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Food
Growing food in the desert: is this the solution to the world’s food crisis?
Using sun to desalinate seawater to irrigate and cool greenhouses, food can be grown in arid climates.
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Biodiversity
Bushmeat stories: Voices from the Congo Basin
Commercial, illegal and unsustainable hunting for the meat of wild animals is causing widespread local extinctions in Asia and West Africa.
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Climate
Dreading Doha
A global, legally binding treaty is not likely to be the solution to the world's climate imbroglio, argues a Cornell University student.
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Climate
Making the Carbon Farming Initiative more appealing to farmers
Two Australian schemes may benefit landholders while reducing impact on climate and biodiversity.
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Climate
“Writing is on the wall” at upcoming climate summit
COP18 is the chance to hit the reset button on negotiations and provoke a global shift from high-carbon to low-carbon energy.
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