This paper presents a status report of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) on two crucial development parameters—inequality and poverty—that have a significant bearing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; especially SDG-1 and SDG-10). The paper tracks the origins and movements of absolute and relative poverty, …
It would take five years and cost $40 billion. Close on the heels of the recently concluded $400-billion mega gas pipeline deal between Russia and China, Moscow wants to work on a pipeline to India “through the Himalayas” that could become the “biggest-ever energy project in history,” Russian Ambassador Alexander …
Crossing the 2-degree limit in global warming will invite catastrophic and irreversible impacts as predicted by climate scientists.NASA SVS/NASA Center for Climate Simulation Tremendous technological effort will now be needed to limit global warming to two degrees by 2050. Nations of the world have hardly taken any step towards this …
Antibiotic use has surged by 36% worldwide in a decade, much of it unwarranted, according to a new study. The rise, particularly in countries with a burgeoning middle class, heightens concerns that overuse of antibiotics is leaving more of the world's population vulnerable to drug-resistant bacteria, according to the authors …
Fossil fuels will remain an indispensable part of the global energy supply for at least the next 50 years, so a means must be found to burn them without pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times: "(Just) as the civilisation …
The association of five major emerging national economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) has a special responsibility towards helping the world achieve its goal of ending extreme poverty, reducing inequality and achieving sustainable development, as they collectively represent some of the world’s greatest challenges and achievements. Despite …
This twentieth edition of the Agricultural Outlook published jointly by OECD and FAO provides market projections to 2023 for major agricultural commodities, biofuels and fish across 41 countries and 12 regions: OECD member countries (European Union as a region), key non-OECD agricultural producers (such as India, China, Brazil, Russian Federation …
A draft report prepared for the United Nations suggests, out loud, what the U.S. needs to do about climate change: Cut emissions to one-tenth of current levels, per person, in less than 40 years. It’s perilous to say these things in the U.S., where a mere description of the scale …
Report is the first of its kind to prescribe concrete actions that the biggest 15 economies must take to keep warming below 2C The United Nations was presented with a roadmap to avoid a climate catastrophe on Tuesday, prescribing specific actions for the world’s biggest economies to keep warming below …
This interim 2014 report by the Deep Decarbonization Pathway Project (DDPP) summarizes preliminary findings of the pathways developed by the DDPP Country Research Teams with the objective of achieving emission reductions consistent with limiting global warming to less than 2°C. The DDPP is a knowledge network comprising 15 Country Research …
Bulgaria, one of five EU states that depend totally on Russia for nuclear fuel, is set to take a step towards diversifying its suppliers when Westinghouse Electric Company buys a stake in a state-controlled firm building new atomic units. Westinghouse, the world's largest nuclear fuel producer and part of Japan's …
The poor environmental practices of the former Soviet Union and other eastern European states over many decades is well documented. While these were most glaring for industrial plants and mines, they also spread to agriculture. One of the lesser-known disasters came from a lack of systems thinking in irrigation. To …
A report based on new satellite imagery says forests on the slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains are disappearing more quickly than anywhere else in the province — including the oilsands area. The Global Forest Watch data, to be released Thursday, suggests industrial development is cutting through forests on the eastern …
Poor air quality causes an estimated 2.6–4.4 million premature deaths per year. Hazardous conditions form when meteorological components allow the accumulation of pollutants in the near-surface atmosphere. Global-warming-driven changes to atmospheric circulation and the hydrological cycle are expected to alter the meteorological components that control pollutant build-up and dispersal, but …
According to new data released this week, May 2014 is officially the warmest May in recorded history. Both NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency have tentatively ranked May at the top of historical measurements, though NASA's numbers are preliminary because crucial information is still missing from China. Gavin Schmidt, the …
The European Union needs an ambitious emissions-reduction goal, targets for energy-efficiency and renewables as well as tools to foster investment under its planned 2030 policies, an advisory panel to 14 ministers said. EU leaders need to agree on the framework for the next decade by October, sticking to the deadline …
Japan, the world’s fourth-largest buyer of timber products, needs to introduce laws and stricter oversight to stamp out imports of illegally logged wood, said the Environmental Investigation Agency, a lobbyist group. The country’s laws do not require private buyers of foreign timber to ensure it was legally logged nor do …
Russia’s ban on smoking in bars and restaurants took effect yesterday as the government pressed on with a crackdown on tobacco consumption in the face of protests from cigarette makers. The batch of anti-tobacco measures rolled out includes a prohibition on displaying cigarettes in stores. They add to a previous …
The influence of the BRICS countries – Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa – in the international arena has risen enormously in recent decades. These five countries represent around 25% of the world’s gross national income, more than 40% of the world’s population and about 40% of …
A sweeping antismoking bill enacted in Russia last year has resulted in a 12% drop in cigarette consumption in what had been the world's second largest market, a legislator in charge of national health issues said Friday. The news of the decline comes as Russia prepares to implement a second, …
Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Jumped 27.5% for Adults, 47.1% for Kids From 1980 to 2013 The obesity epidemic is global: 2.1 billion people, or about 29% of the world's population, were either overweight or obese in 2013, and nearly two out of three of the obese live in developing …
