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, …
Carbon markets are considered a key policy tool to achieve cost-effective climate mitigation1, 2. Project-based carbon market mechanisms allow private sector entities to earn tradable emissions reduction credits from mitigation projects. The environmental integrity of project-based mechanisms has been subject to controversial debate and extensive research1, 3, 4, 5, 6, …
This study systematically evaluates the environmental integrity of Joint Implementation (JI) in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Analysis indicates that about three-quarters of JI offsets are unlikely to represent additional emissions reductions. This suggests that the use of JI offsets may have enabled global GHG emissions to …
The report "The impact of good practice policies on regional and global greenhouse gas emissions" by NewClimate Institute, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis looks at the impact of “good practice” emission reduction policies in nine different areas globally and across six countries: …
"I don't know where to get the money from, treatment is too expensive," says Sergei, who lives in Saint Petersburg. He has been newly diagnosed with hepatitis C and is in need of treatment to reduce the risk of developing liver cancer and cirrhosis. "But the money for medication isn't …
China is expected to become the world's third largest nuclear generating nation around 2017 pushed by its national target against climate change, said US energy information administration (EIA) Monday. To fight against climate change, Chinese government set a goal to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy …
Anthropogenic declines of animal pollinators and the associated effects on human nutrition are of growing concern. We quantified the nutritional and health outcomes associated with decreased intake of pollinator-dependent foods for populations around the world. The researchers assembled a database of supplies of 224 types of food in 156 countries. …
Climate strongly influences global wildfire activity, and recent wildfire surges may signal fire weather-induced pyrogeographic shifts. Here we use three daily global climate data sets and three fire danger indices to develop a simple annual metric of fire weather season length, and map spatio-temporal trends from 1979 to 2013. We …
Paris: Scientists presented rare evidence today linking climate change to a specific weather disaster: flooding that killed more than 170 people in Russia in 2012. Increasingly, global warming is invoked by climate campaigners when the world is hit by a new drought, tropical storm or heatwave. But scientists are generally …
Recent estimates of the global carbon budget, or allowable cumulative CO2 emissions consistent with a given level of climate warming, have the potential to inform climate mitigation policy discussions aimed at maintaining global temperatures below 2 °C. This raises difficult questions, however, about how best to share this carbon budget …
There is a tremendous desire to attribute causes to weather and climate events that is often challenging from a physical standpoint. Headlines attributing an event solely to either human-induced climate change or natural variability can be misleading when both are invariably in play. The conventional attribution framework struggles with dynamically …
Turkey , which assumed the presidency of the G20, will push for inclusive growth and investment to boost economic expansion and stem the tide of rising inequality , its sherpa has said. “We defined our priorities as the three Is -namely implementation, investment and also inclusive growth. One of the …
Health expenses push six per cent of people in low and middle income countries into extreme poverty, according to a new report released here Friday by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank. Speaking at the report's release, Tessa Tan Torres-Edejer, WHO co-ordinator of health systems financing, said …
Group of Seven leaders agreed on Monday to wean their economies off carbon fuels and supported a global goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but they stopped short of agreeing their own immediate binding targets. In a communique issued after their two-day summit in Bavaria, the G7 leaders said they …
The population of the Amur tiger in Russia has increased to as many as 540 individuals over the last ten years, according to figures released by the Russian government. “I am pleased to see that the number of Amur tigers in Russia has increased in all the key areas where …
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon is calling for renewed "global action" to limit climate change ahead of a quadrennial congress in Geneva. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) meeting is a forerunner to a key conference in Paris at the end of the year which will be the first attempt to clinch …
The UK has been ranked sixth in a new index from the World Resources Institute (WRI) which tracks how 70 countries around the world are progressing on 'environmental democracy' The index evaluates whether Governments are enacting national laws to promote transparency, accountability, and citizen engagement in environmental decision making. It …
India has ranked 24th out of 70 countries in the first Environmental Democracy Index that is topped by Lithuania and evaluates nations' progress in enacting laws to promote transparency, accountability and citizen engagement in environmental decision making. Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, the US, South Africa, the UK, Hungary, Bulgaria, Panama and …
Urbanization, a major driver of global change, profoundly impacts our physical and social world, for example, altering not just water and carbon cycling, biodiversity, and climate, but also demography, public health, and economy. Understanding these consequences for better scientific insights and effective decision-making unarguably requires accurate information on urban extent …
ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The chances of shock food price rises in import-dependent states are rising as the world's population grows and nations become more reliant on global markets, researchers said in a study published on Tuesday. Countries dependent on food imports, and states where rising populations are putting …
CHINA Three Gorges Corporation and Russia's hydropower company RusHydro have signed an agreement to jointly develop a hydropower project in Russia. In a preliminary agreement signed in Moscow on Friday, the two sides plan to set up a joint venture for building a hydropower plant on the Bureya river in …
