By the end of 2015, the United Nations will adopt a new global development agenda as a follow-up to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To this end, UN member states are now engaged in a debate on defining universal Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as decided by the 2012 Rio+20 Summit....

Protection of tropical forests is essential, for reasons bound up with the need to protect endangered species and the climate. The earth's largest uninterrupted tropical forest is to be found in Brazil's Amazon region. While the dynamics of deforestation has decelerated as compared with the...

Renewable energy technologies (RET) play an important role in industrialised countries’ strategies for reducing CO2 emissions, and thus in mitigating climate change, as well as for achieving long-term energy security. Based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, the...

As consensus on methodological issues related to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) is growing, UNFCCC talks can now move forward on policy approaches. The most important topics here are how to finance REDD and how to design a REDD...

Adaptation to climate change is an inevitable challenge, especially in developing countries. Recent calculations show that costs of adaptation and corresponding needs for financial support are high. The international community therefore has to face urgent questions on how to meet these financial...

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) calls on all parties to protect the climate system in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. This principle of equity was formulated at the United Nations Conference on the...

The hundreds of millions of people in Asia, Latin America and Africa whose incomes have increased over the last decade or so have been called the “new middle classes” of the developing world. This group is getting bigger. Their unprecedented size — likely to reach the billions by...

With the wrapping up of the United Nations' Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the end of July 2014, the international process towards the adoption of universal sustainable development goals has entered its decisive phase. Established in the wake of the 2012...

The European Union (EU) is in crisis mode. Its capacity to implement domestic reforms and its position as a global power are being severely undermined by centrifugal forces within Europe and the risk that the EU will disintegrate. Euroscepticism and populism abound; the reactions to the refugee...