Environment

Explaining the link between heatwaves and climate change, the impacts of extreme heat, and what governments and cities are doing to adapt.

Long-running border disputes between Ethiopia and Sudan are intersecting with other internal conflicts, bringing greater militarization and economic instability.

Explaining the key issues at the COP28 summit in Dubai.

Where does deforestation occur, why is it happening, and what can be done to prevent it?

Explaining the human activities that threaten biodiversity, and why a loss of biodiversity threatens the future of humanity.

Animation showcasing how a collaborative approach between policy institutes in the Global South and Global North can improve forestry policy decisions.

Explaining the concept of ‘loss and damage’, its role in international climate negotiations, and which countries are suffering the worst effects.

How should societies rethink their cities to meet future challenges and make urban life better for all?

Examining what is on the agenda for COP27, a critical test of whether the international process can respond to the increasing climate crisis.

Short animation explaining why burning biomass produces more carbon dioxide per unit of energy generated than almost all fossil fuels.

Gareth Price examines the key factors contributing to the food crisis in Southeast Asia.

Short animation explaining a new investor framework specifically for understanding the risks and returns of nature-based investments.

How great a problem is plastics pollution, how can it be reduced, and is a future without plastics possible or desirable?

Ahmed Soliman examines the challenges the new president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud faces in his first 100 days as president.

The Common Futures Conversations community share their priorities for rebuilding their communities in the wake of COVID-19.

Short explainer outlining the energy issues facing those forced to flee their homes due to conflict, and how a lack of acccess impacts them.

Examining the short-term and medium-term economic impact of the Ukraine invasion on the Middle East region, especially in oil production.

The Common Futures Conversations community share strategies for accelerating the adoption of renewable energy around the world.

Richard King and Dr Helen Harwatt explain how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the UK’s interactions with the global food system.

Amid growing recognition of the impacts of environmental and climate change on migration, a comprehensive package of policy solutions is needed.

Short animation examining how, within the next decade, climate change will increasingly disrupt lives with climate hazards such as droughts, flooding and wildfires striking harder and more often.

This short video explainer outlines how, within the current decade, climate hazards are expected to have increasingly serious disruptive impacts.

Antony Froggatt and Anna Aberg explain what is needed for a clean energy transition.

The 2021 UN climate change conference (COP26) is a crucial moment for efforts to address the climate crisis. What are the summit aims and what would a ‘good outcome’ look like?

What is meant by circular economy, how does it differ from the current linear model, and why is it an important part of climate action?

Sand from fragile rivers, beaches, and the sea floor is mined to meet vast demand for construction material, resulting in major environment and social impact.

COVID-19 has created a unique convergence of environment and economic summits in 2021. But the world must unite to seize the moment for success to be achieved.

Laura Wellesley and Ana Yang explain why a healthy diet will lead to a healthy planet.

Current climate efforts are not progressing quickly enough to prevent the world from overshooting the global emissions targets set in the Paris Agreement.

Sara Vakhshouri explores Iran’s oil export options following the decision by the US to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

COP29 must raise countries’ ambitions to deploy vastly more low-cost modular renewable technologies to help meet the tripling of renewables target set at COP28 and reduce our reliance on expensive carbon capture systems.

In this episode, guests discuss ways to turn Somalia’s climate vulnerability to climate resilience.

The contestation over gold – and its connection to transnational networks – is becoming a major driver of Ethiopia’s complex conflicts.

Amid concern about lack of progress on the SDGs, an opportunity is emerging to put the ‘circular economy’ at the heart of international action on everything from tackling climate change to reducing poverty.

The outcome of the US election is consequential for the global climate agenda, through its potential impact on environmental governance and perhaps more importantly, its consequences for global trade and tensions.

A selection of potted reviews from our sister journal International Affairs, by its book reviews editor Mariana Vieira.

Private investment is key to closing the vast gap in climate finance, but too little is reaching the world’s most vulnerable countries. COP29 is an opportunity to change this, writes Thierry Watrin.

In July, artist Freddie Yauner sent each of Britain’s new intake of 650 MPs a limited edition of his ‘What colour is disaster?’. Why? Because art has a crucial role to play in the climate transition, he tells Mike Higgins.

Explaining the link between heatwaves and climate change, the impacts of extreme heat, and what governments and cities are doing to adapt.

In this episode, we discuss the challenges and opportunities of the energy transition in key sectors, including non-energy uses of fossil fuels.

The country’s nuclear energy industry has languished. The new government’s plans to revive it provide important opportunities, but cybersecurity needs bolstering.

The UK’s once serious claims to climate leadership have been severely damaged in recent years. Rebuilding its standing will be a challenge, at home and abroad.

Some investors in hydrocarbons may be assuming that governments will bail them out if climate-related transition risks crystallize.

A new UK government must confront these issues to meet voter expectations.

As the EU seeks to diversify its energy supply, Russian ‘gas-laundering’ could undermine its foreign policy objectives.

By following the United States and applying significant tariffs on EVs from China, the EU is risking its ambitious decarbonization goals.

Amid civil war and territorial rivalry on both sides of the Ethiopia–Sudan border, sesame has become central to a conflict economy that perpetuates violence and political instability.

Long-running border disputes between Ethiopia and Sudan are intersecting with other internal conflicts, bringing greater militarization and economic instability.

France’s proposed bill to slow down fast fashion and set higher standards for environmental supply chain transparency is an important first step in addressing the hidden water crisis in global trade.

In this episode, guests discuss gold’s connection to the current war and transnational dynamics.

Watch the keynote address at our Energy Transitions Conference 2024 by Claire Coutinho, Secretary of State, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.

£1000 grants are available for innovative and engaging ideas to deliver a fair and sustainable future.

The pledge was an important signal to international partners about future energy policy. Dropping it increases doubts about the credibility of UK plans should Labour win the election later this year.

Reducing floods and emissions, the female textile waste workers are the Bangladeshi capital’s unsung climate heroes, write Patrick Schröder and Prachi Singhal.

Chile, Argentina and Bolivia have vast lithium reserves but must entice international investors to do more than dig mines, writes Jewellord Nem Singh.

In ‘Slow Down’, Kohei Saito insists that only ‘degrowth communism’ can save us from climate disaster – but his argument fails to convince, writes Danny Dorling.

Events in France and Germany show that policies to deliver sustainable food, transport and energy systems need to take far better account of the needs of rural communities.

With a COP28 deal to transition away from fossil fuels, speeding up the energy transition and economic diversification will help Gulf countries protect the needs of future generations and avoid costly consequences of delayed action.

The UAE Consensus is both groundbreaking in scope, and insufficient for the most climate vulnerable groups. Now countries must prepare ambitious new national climate plans to build on the agreement.

As an agriculture powerhouse and future G20 and COP president, the country can lead the effort to change the way the world produces food.