Insights Blog

The UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, launched on World Environment Day this year, has one goal: to prevent, halt and reverse ecosystem degradation worldwide. For the 3.2 billion people affected by degraded land, nature is not simply an instrument for growth, it is fundamental to their livelihood.

Environmental impacts have risen alongside our dependence on nature. While governments, businesses and financial institutions have made progress towards accounting for carbon emissions, most economic decisions still do not account for our impacts and dependencies on natural capital – from the soils we use for growing crops and forests sequestering carbon to land generating diverse and key ecosystem services for our well-being.

Dan Broghan breaks down the mechanism behind sovereign credit rating models and its evolving relationship with natural capital valuation and risk assessment.

Infrastructure is central to economic development, climate change mitigation and adaptation and promotion of social inclusivity. Indeed, building resilient and sustainable infrastructure is part of Goal 9 of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)s, and infrastructure impacts the achievement of up to 92% of all SDG targets. However, despite the wide range of benefits it delivers to societies, infrastructure is also responsible for an estimated 79 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Governments are presented with a unique multi-generational opportunity to recover from COVID-19 by building sustainable infrastructure that protects biodiversity, minimizes pollution, and decarbonizes the global economy.

Next year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stockholm Conference, which brought into being the United Nations Environment Programme and a host of other environmental agreements and agencies that today live on as a thriving, chaotic family of governance mechanisms put in place to improve human well-being and to safeguard the life support systems on our planet.

Tens of billions of kWh of electricity are consumed around the world each day, allowing people to communicate, travel, conduct business and live comfortably as in lighting and heating buildings. Currently, 60%[1] of global electricity is generated from fossil fuels and the energy sector accounts for around 70%[2] of global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, reworking our energy systems would be a necessity for our future.

Decarbonizing the energy sector is one of the most pressing challenges on the path to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Generating more than 98% of its energy from renewable resources, Costa Rica is pioneering the way. This success story is written by a courageous individual who has dedicated her life to developing renewable energy sources. María de los Angeles Gálvez Orellana shares her personal journey from growing up in El Salvador to working with the pioneers of geothermal energy in Costa Rica.

Circular business investments bring both climate-wins and resilient, risk-adjusted returns.

High-level dialogue on Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Infrastructure Investment held by United Nations Environment Programme and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Governments have the opportunity to close the infrastructure gap by promoting a green recovery from COVID-19—especially in health, energy, logistics, and connectivity.

Scientists agree to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and avoid climate catastrophe, we need to make drastic changes to the way we produce food. Why?

Developing more sustainable infrastructure systems is a prerequisite for changing the way that our economies and societies function, as well as achieving the SDGs and the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.