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These 7 climate stories illustrate partnership in action

As governments, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, and civil society organizations gather in Madrid for the latest UN Climate Summit, we are reminded of the importance of partnerships to meaningfully address the challenges of a warming planet. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is…
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Earth from space

Earth system alert

In response to growing public demand, policymakers and business leaders are increasingly uniting around shared commitments to reduce planet-warming greenhouse-gas emissions. But while phasing out fossil fuels is necessary, ensuring humanity's long-term survival will also require far-reaching…
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Cargo ships entering one of the busiest ports in the world, Singapore.

The next challenge for business: adapting to climate change

The private sector must begin preparing for climate change and the ensuing disruption to operations and services with new approaches The future success of the private sector may not only depend on how successfully it can mitigate, but also on how it can adapt to climate change. Extreme weather…
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Combine in wheat field

We need a new approach to growing and consuming food

Food wastage must be reduced, consumer preferences must change and farmers must be weaned on to ecologically sustainable practices From consumers in London to drought-prone farmers in central India, nobody needs convincing that climate is changing for the worse. But policymakers are failing to…
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A shallow seagrass meadow surrounds a tropical island on the Mesoamerican barrier reef off the coast of Belize. Photo: Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock.

Three steps to meeting the climate and nature emergency

We must make the most of a super-year in 2020 for saving the global commons next year There are growing calls to declare climate and nature emergencies. But are these justified? The latest scientific assessments on the state of Earth’s climate and biodiversity provide robust evidence.  The latest…
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Aerial shot of Amazon rainforest in Brazil, South America. Photo: Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock.

Exploiting rainforest riches while conserving them

Products that are sustainably harvested from the Amazon can form a powerful bioeconomy Climate change is coming to the global policy agenda, and damage to the world’s tropical rainforests is a key component of it. In my own country, Brazil, there is widespread concern about climate change linked to…
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Houses in Tonle Sap, Cambodia. Photo: takepicsforfun/Shutterstock.

All hands on deck: the climate crisis is here

The British daily newspaper The Guardian recently updated the language it uses to write about the environment, introducing terms that more accurately describe the environmental predicament facing the world. Terms like climate change will give way to preferred terms like “climate emergency, crisis,…
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Man looking at piles of rubbish at a landfill. Photo: Comaniciu Dan/Shutterstock.

Going circular offers a great opportunity

Combating climate change and the throwaway economy could achieve a leap in prosperity In the past few months, I have heard Sir David Attenborough, and believe him when he says the next 10 years are make-or-break time for environmental stability on this planet. I have heard Greta Thunberg, and share…
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Wind turbines on Costa Rica ridgelines. Photo: Stefan Scherer-Emunds/Shutterstock.

Helping countries improve transparency to meet bold climate commitments

Costa Rica has an ambitious goal to become the first carbon neutral nation in the world by 2021. The Central American country has long been known for its environmental stewardship, but the commitments Costa Rica made for itself under the Paris Agreement have set a new high bar for decarbonization.…
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Our failure to act over the past decades means that we are increasingly accepting that a part of our climate disruption is irreversible, and looking at adapting to it. But this, of course, should not prevent us from setting targets to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to stop it getting worse. Photo: testing/Shutterstock.

Pricing carbon will help us better deal with climate change

Nearly 1,400 companies are adopting an internal carbon price so as to future-proof prosperity The impact of climate disruption is already visible worldwide: irreversible damage to the oceans, more floods and prolonged droughts, which are causing issues for food production. Methane explosions in…

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