The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
Regulations on pesticides have failed to prevent poisoning of almost all habitats, international team of scientists concludes. The world’s most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals’ impacts. This …
The objective of this report is to help companies manage the opportunities and risks associated with plastic use. It articulates the business case for companies to improve their measurement, disclosure and management of plastic use in their designs, operations and supply chains. In order to provide a sense of scale, …
This paper presents a framework to include feedbacks from climate impacts on the economy in integrated assessment models. The proposed framework uses a production function approach, which links climate impacts to key variables and parameters used in the specification of economic activity. The key endpoints within climate impact categories are …
Climate change-induced sea-level rise in the world's 52 small island nations - estimated to be up to four times the global average - continues to be the most pressing threat to their environment and socio-economic development with annual losses at the trillions of dollars due to increased vulnerability. An immediate …
Forests and trees enhance and protect landscapes, ecosystems and production systems. They provide goods and services which are essential to the survival and well-being of all humanity. Forest genetic resources – the heritable materials maintained within and among tree and other woody plant species that are of actual or potential …
This report shows how a substantial number of developing countries, home to most of the world’s tropical forests, have reduced deforestation and thus their emissions of the global warming pollution that threatens the world with dangerous climate change.
This study focuses on evaluating and improving the assessment of forest wealth. In its broad purpose, the study is intended to help improve the current forest wealth assessment methodology by the World Bank to enable more accurate estimates of forest wealth and other related indicators. The effort has involved three …
From climate change to ecosystem degradation – the solution to these problems could re-side in an economic valuation of nature and its services. But if the existential benefits that nature provides to humankind are expressed in terms of euros and dollars, can that really give nature any better protection? The …
Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) describes the situation where the user of an environmental service, such as water purification, pays the landowners who provide that service. For PES to exist, there must be a clearly defined user and supplier, as well as a number of other necessary conditions, which are …
Global growth has not come without costs: Pollution, natural resource depletion, climate change, and the disruption of ecosystem services are now felt around the world. This report aims at helping investors in developing countries develop effective social and environmental safeguard policies that also support country ownership.
This project brief describes the scope and process for developing Guidance for how the protective services of mangroves and coral reefs can be included in national economic accounts to support development planning. This is an important step towards recognizing the critical value of coastal ecosystem services for adjacent human populations …
Phobjikha Valley is one of the largest high-altitude wetlands in Bhutan and an important habitat for various species including the vulnerable Black-necked Crane. The area provides a wide range of ecosystem services to the local people, and is becoming a major tourist attraction. However, in recent years, Phobjikha has experienced …
The World Water Development Report 2014 focuses on the interdependence between the management of water and energy and says that a sustainable approach to the management of both freshwater and energy resources is extremely essential to provide modern, affordable and environmentally sound energy and drinking water services for all. The …
A paper by Simon Maxwell, Executive Chair of CDKN, offers a five-point plan on how to win the public and policy argument on climate change. Maxwell argues that a plan is necessary because climate change policy is contested, and – like all policy – has winners and losers. The five …
This report advocates placing REDD+ into a larger landscape scale planning framework that can, and should, involve multiple sectors (especially those that are driving deforestation, sometimes inadvertently). This would go beyond forests to also serve the needs of energy, water resources, agriculture, finance, transport, industry, trade, cities, and ultimately all …
The nexus between water, energy and food (WEF) security is a critical component of human well-being, and billions of dollars are spent annually on investments intended to ensure that it is adequately addressed. A central concept throughout this guidebook is that the rural poor (i.e., those who benefit most from …
The Noyyal sub-basin, which is 3510 sq km in area, is part of the Cauvery basin that lies in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is a rapidly urbanizing sub-basin that includes the Class I cities of Coimbatore and Tiruppur as well as 84 smaller urban settlements. Water issues in …
With limited land resources, inadequate energy supply, and growing water stress, South Asia faces the challenge of providing enough water and energy to grow enough food for the burgeoning population. Using secondary data from diverse sources, this paper explores the food, water, and energy nexus from a regional dimension, emphasizing …
The concept of ecosystem services (ES) has taken the environmental science and policy literature by storm, and has become almost the approach to thinking about and assessing the nature-society relationship. In this review, we ask whether and in what way the ES concept is a useful way of organising research …
Researchers from India, Britain and Bangladesh are studying the impact of climate change on livelihoods of those living in Sunderbans mangroves, the world's largest mangrove forests. More than two-thirds of the forest lies in Bangladesh, the focus of the study, and the rest in West Bengal. Under the ongoing Ecosystem …
