Our current state of economic development has been built on burning carbon. To achieve the SDGs, or even just retain what we have, that link needs to be broken – ‘decoupled’. The decoupling process has started but will need to be total
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Developing the infrastructure to distribute low-carbon energy
Energy — Global
Conversations on energy transition tend to focus on renewable generation or the end-user. However, too often, the complex systems that are required to connect the two are neglected. Relying on ‘the market’ to develop solutions risks being too slow and inequitable. Governments need to get their heads round the radical changes that must be made to create resilient, sustainable energy networks – it is down to governments to drive the energy transition forward
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Boosting natural systems to mitigate climate change
Environment — Global
All 1.5°C global warming scenarios call for carbon removal. Natural systems provide the most readily available mechanisms, so how can these be boosted to the levels required?
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We need an ambitious global plan to reverse nature loss
Biodiversity — Global
In 2022 we should aspire to a Paris-style agreement on restoring biodiversity. Ambition alone, articulated in several published pledges, is not enough: governments must now commit to a strengthened Global Biodiversity Framework that compels them to take meaningful action
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Combating plastic pollution needs all hands on deck
Environment — Global
Plastic waste is at crisis point, causing untold harm to wildlife and poisoning food chains. A new plastics treaty could help turn the tide and avoid irreversible damage to species and ecosystems – countries must take bold action now
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The ocean, climate’s regulator
Ocean — Global
Restoring the ocean’s health is vital to achieving many of the SDGs, as humankind will need the ocean to provide more food, energy, and jobs. Perhaps less well understood – but critical for our survival – is the vital role a healthy ocean will play in SDG 13: tackling climate change
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Toward a more natural cityscape
Cities — Global
After nearly a century of believing that engineering solutions could conquer nature to make cities productive and efficient centers of socio-economic development, some urban planners now realize that nature is something to design with, not against. But how do we invite nature back in when cities have been built to keep nature out?
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Biodiversity: The canary in the mine
Environment — Global
Human activity is destroying life on Earth on an unprecedented scale. We must urgently and radically re-evaluate nature in our economic thinking and actions, or risk our own species’ survival
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A G20 for the global good
Global governance
Recent years have seen the G20 become more factional, with countries competing for national advantage. Indonesia, holder of the G20 presidency for 2022, intends to rally the member countries to deliver a unified, coordinated response to global challenges: a G20 for the SDGs
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Harnessing the power of photosynthesis for negative emissions
Climate — Global
All IPCC models to stay within the 1.5ºC limit call for net negative CO2
emissions. Fortunately, the technologies we require can be found in nature
