Insights Blog

What is the economic value of a tree? Since economics was founded as a discipline, there has been a single answer to this question: the value of a tree is equivalent to its market price. Through this lens, the economic value of the tree is simply its ‘exchange value’ in the market.

World Resource Institute (WRI) experts used the Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas to map and analyse water stress in China. The Aqueduct methodology, alongside policies that cap annual water usage, increase irrigation efficiency and protect water quality, are helping the country manage its water supply.

Natural assets provide many of the same services to communities as engineered assets but are generally not accounted for and/or are undervalued in asset management practices.

Sixteen leading banks, UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and Acclimatise, have published new methodologies that help banks understand how the physical risks and opportunities of a changing climate might affect their loan portfolios.

In 2012 a UN Environment-GIZ study recognized Peru’s potential “to become a leader and a model for other countries to follow in their transition to a green economy”, focusing on the biodiversity-based industry and bio-trade. Where does Peru's transition to a green economy stand now?

"The reporting under the SDG12c indicator will be the first attempt to systemically monitor fossil fuel subsidies to both consumption and production sides, based on national data of 193 UN member countries and collected by an internationally agreed methodology," says Joy Kim, Climate Change Expert at UN Environment.

"There is a need to introduce sound and responsible policies and practices from fish to dish. What type of policies and practices are we talking about?" Hear more from Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

UN Environment has launched a new initiative to unite with communities of faith to repair our common home - #Faith4Earth. Reaching out to the literally hundreds of millions of people who find their home and strengthen their resolve to act in these communities of faith.

Effective action on climate change needs us to make sure that the efforts of one group aren’t undermined by those of another. In the policy realm, this means we need policies to work together across different sectors, rather than against one another. Working out how we can achieve these things in a coherent manner across policy sectors presents a substantial governance challenge.

Sea-levels may rise substantially above 1 or even 2 meters during the 21st century. To what extent will coastal societies be able to adapt? Following the headlines, one easily gets the impression that sea-level rise will simply wash away coastal cities and small islands. While these risks are real, the picture is incomplete because it lacks consideration of adaptation.

The ability of societies around the world to adapt to 21st century sea-level rise (SLR) is more likely to be dependent upon social factors, including finance, than technical capabilities. That’s the conclusion I came to with an international team of researchers and addressed in a paper published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

My team and I had a closer look in a set of case studies, including Bangladesh, Catalonia, Ho Chi Minh City, The Maldives, New York City and The Netherlands, and found that the ability of coastal societies to adapt is mainly determined by social rather than technical challenges.