All publications and documents

It is timely to take stock of global environmental governance as the world enters a new year and a new decade. In this volume, the Earth Negotiations Bulletin team reflects on the successes, shortcomings, and overall trends of 2019. We also look ahead, with optimism that 2020 holds promise to regain the momentum recently lost.In 2019 scientists were truth-tellers. Over the course of the year,…

Resources, including minerals and metals, underpin the world’s economies for almost all sectors, providing crucial raw materials for their industrial processes. Despite efforts to decouple economies from resource use towards a circular economy, demand for extractive resources will continue to grow on the back of emerging economies. The report maps existing international governance frameworks and…

Sustainable Life on Land, the fifteenth UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 15), calls for the protection, restoration and promotion of the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems. Among others, it requires societies to sustainably manage forests, halt and reverse land degradation, combat desertification, and halt biodiversity loss. Despite the fact that protection of terrestrial ecosystems is…

Climate change poses complex risks to sustainable peace and security. A growing body of research on the links between climate change, fragility and conflict shows that climate change will make peacebuilding more urgent and complex. Climate-sensitive peacebuilding has the potential to significantly contribute to addressing climate-fragility risks, especially in combination…

Multi-agency report highlights increasing signs and impacts of climate change in atmosphere, land and oceans The report confirms information in a provisional statement issued at the UN Climate Change Conference in December that 2019 was the second warmest year in the instrumental record. 2015-2019 are the five warmest years on record, and 2010-2019 the warmest decade on record. Since the…

Land degradation and water scarcity are closely linked. Healthy land has a natural capacity to store and filterwater, but this capacity is lost when land is degraded. Similarly, land-use changes, such as the conversion of wetlands and forests to other land uses, disrupt the water cycle and hydrological functions. Conversely, water scarcity and droughts can accelerate the processes of land…