Sustainable Development

Globally, political leaders are lauding the acceptance of the global and legally binding Paris Agreement on Climate Change at COP 21 as a historical moment. It achieves a goal long believed unattainable. However, judged against the enormity of the challenge and the needs and pressure from people on the ground demanding a global deal anchored in climate justice (“system change, not climate change!”), the Paris Agreement can only be called a collective failure and disappointment. Read a critical assessment by HBS colleagues from around the world. 

The Heinrich Böll Foundation and Friends of the Earth International have published the first English edition of the Coal Atlas 2015 in Brussels.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were agreed upon in September 2015. The goals, 17 in total, aim to complete what the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) didn’t achieve as well as address the root causes of poverty and inequality.

As the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations suffer huge losses from climate change, the entities most responsible for the problem - the so-called "Big Polluters" - continue to reap billions in profits. This has to change.

As the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations suffer huge losses from climate change, the entities most responsible for the problem - the so-called "Big Polluters" - continue to reap billions in profits. This has to change.

For many rural Kenyans, it’s too expensive for households to pay to be connected to the national electricity grid. Some communities, who live near the right kinds of rivers are opting for a cheaper, more sustainable option: small scale hydro plants, to power lights, charge mobile phones, and pick up on the airwaves. South Africa-based science writer Leonie Joubert takes a closer look at a thriving model for community development.

Healthy soils are crucial to human nutrition and the fight against hunger. But worldwide 24 billion tons of fertile soil is lost annually. Barbara Unmüßig calls attention to the growing threat to one of Earth’s most important resources. The United Nations has declared 2015 to be the International Year of Soils, and April 19-23 marks this year’s Global Soil Week. Such events, though not exactly glamorous, do not receive nearly the amount of attention they deserve.

We are using the world’s soils as if they were inexhaustible, continually withdrawing from an account, but never paying in. At the start of the International Year of Soils 2015, the Soil Atlas - Facts and Figures about Earth, Land and Fields – demonstrate why the protection of soil is important to us all.