The world is experiencing a historic convergence of increasing demand for natural resources from emerging economies, prices at record levels across various commodity groups, a downward trend in resource supply, serious trends of ecological instability, and the rise of inequality between those...

We live in a time of transformational change, with society, economy, ecology and politics in a state of flux the world over. Of particular focus in this Working Paper are the implications for mineral-dependent economies of living in an increasingly resource-constrained world. Both countries for...

Two critical megatrends are of central importance in implementing the green economy agenda launched at the recent Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development: the rise of emerging economies across the South, and the global challenges of resource security and ecological change. At the converging...

World leaders convened for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, marking 20 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, and at a time of rapidly increasing pressures on the planet?s ecosystems and impacts on the poor and vulnerable members of society. Rio+20 focused on...

This June sees world leaders and civil society convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20). It will focus on reviewing progress in achieving the goals of the original 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (the 1992 Rio Earth Summit). A main issue at the heart of...

The Rio +20 meeting in 2012 was an opportunity for the global policy framework to review 20 years of action on Agenda 21 and what has been delivered and to whom. The ripple effects of the global economic crisis?i.e. the weakening of the insurance sector, lower demand for exports and reduced...

O recém-lançado Rural Poverty Report 2011 (IFAD, 2010) demonstra que cerca de 1,4 bilhão de pessoas continua a viver em extrema pobreza, lutando para sobreviver com menos de USD 1,25 por dia, e que mais de dois terços vivem nas áreas rurais dos países em desenvolvimento. A variabilidade e...