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Last week the UN Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals (OWG) adopted their final report to standing ovations after 13 formal sessions and a final marathon meeting. From a European perspective, the outcome is considered a sat…

There is more to the alleged contradiction between the de-prioritization of action on climate change and the consensus that it is a threat to society.

On November 23, 2013, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) proudly announced on its website that the Warsaw Climate Change Conference 2013 had concluded successfully.

The injustices of our current energy system are not on the agenda of world governments at their UN climate talks taking place in Warsaw this year. Not even the monster typhoon Haiyan seems to be able to change that. 

Although the MDGs have certainly facilitated progress in Africa’s development, sustaining this progress comes with national, regional and global challenges.

The disastrous effects of climate events on landscapes can be mitigated by ‘swarm planning’.

In the last week of September, world leaders gathered in New York for the general debate marking the opening of the 68th UN General Assembly (GA). This was an important moment for the post-2015 process, as several events were organized on the glob…

Although the MDGs are arguably the most politically important pact ever made for international development, they harbor several lessons for their successor framework.

The High-level Panel (HLP) report has failed to transform the post-2015 debate, because it has missed the opportunity to correct the misinterpretations, misconceptions and misappropriations of the MDGs.

Many trillions of US dollars are needed quickly to finance the investments for a low carbon economy. Where to find the capital and investors, what keeps them away from investing in more sustainable initiatives. Ingrid Holmes (E3G) spoke about that…

Inequalities within countries are largely ignored in the UN climate negotiations. This must change, but the global poor should be spared.

Non-renewable groundwater abstraction leading to groundwater depletion has global dimensions. It should therefore be addressed by a mix of solutions in cooperative projects between international and regional experts and local stakeholders.

The EU’s renewable energy policy, that brace food-based biofuels, is at the expense of food security, poverty eradication and the climate.

The implications of climate change on WRM and WASH need to be addressed in the post-2015 development agenda. 

The important role and value of groundwater calls for global sustainable groundwater management.

There is an inevitable trade-off between global growth and climate change. Unless there is a direct causal link from faster economic growth to the development of carbon-reducing technologies, and this is strong enough to reduce the carbon intensit…

Oxfam Novib’s Tom van der Lee writes that development aid should not only support small-scale farmers, but should find links with climate change, land grabbing, biofuels policies, and price volatility.

New actors in the food security debate are communication specialists and software developers who are necessary for innovative ways to ensure that information reaches farmers and villages, says Bruce Campbell.

This consultation on food security should shed light on who are the key and new actors in the global food security debate and how can they be better included? Does existing knowledge exchange increase innovative capacity?  

Experts will debate tough questions on how to feed the world’s population. It shed light on how effectively global knowledge and expertise on food security are being used.

“We’ll always have Paris” says one of the most famous lines from the movie Casablanca. In the international donor community, “always [having] Paris” would refer to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness launched back in 2005. Six years and two…

Recently released OECD DAC data from the Paris Declaration Survey shows improvements in the ways the international community and partner countries deliver Official Development Assistance (ODA), but this progress has been highly variable. Only one…

On Thursday 18 August the FAO had a follow-up Emergency Ministerial-Level Meeting on the deteriorating food situation in the Horn of Africa. Famine has been formally declared in several regions of Somalia, but populations in neighbouring countries…

A very interesting recent study by the Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) looks in detail at which tropical areas of the world will be threatened most by climate change, pinpointing geographical hot…

A South-North Dialogue on Knowledge on Water-related climate change adaptation was organized by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Let’s discuss the conclusions.

Brian Ashley, editor of Amandla magazine, believes in the importance of linking the climate crisis with other pressing struggles. In South Africa people are faced with mass unemployment, a housing crisis and land issues. In order to make the clima…

Susan George is Chairperson of TNI. She introduces the 2011 Fellows Meeting. When talking about sharing the pie, dividing resources, what are your…

This blog is about the ‘It’s Down 2 Earth’ conference on agriculture, food security and climate change held in The Hague between 31 October and 5 November 2010.

The alarm bells this time are not being rung by climate scientists or by environmental activists. They are rung by none other than the International Energy Agency (IEA), the institution set up in the 1970s to defend the interests of western oil co…

Editor Evert-jan Quak comments and reflects on new research, publications, blog posts, conferences and current affairs in the field of inclusive and sustainable economy.

Editor Evert-jan Quak comments and reflects on new research, publications, blog posts, conferences and current affairs in the field of food security. 

The Broker has started a new series on Emerged States. We kicked off with the articles Turkey turns the tide and Brazil braves new waters. 

The greatest task facing mankind is managing the future – but given the paroxysmal intensity of so many accumulated and emerging problems or challenges that we face today we need to and will treat our mission as Solving the Future.Solving the futu…

The global ‘It’s Down 2 Earth’ conference on agriculture, food security and climate change was held in The Hague, the Netherlands, from 31 October to 5 November 2010. The Broker hosted an online discussion blog where participants agreed that agric…

Two weeks on the beach in Cancun ought to be enough to banish winter blues – but is unlikely to next week for Connie Hedegaard and the other EU climate negotiators. Never mind that there probably won’t be time for them to feel the sand between the…

How to solve the growing global food crisis? A drastic shift is needed towards a sustainable, resource-efficient and climate-smart agriculture.

Fossil-fuel subsidies cost the global economy an estimated US$500 billion annually. But these heavy subsidies serve to discourage energy efficiency and defer investment in clean-energy systems. If international governments were to stop subsidizing…

Early from the beginning of the ISEE 2010 conference, the Yasuni-ITT initiative was in my priority list among the sessions as it is at the frontier of the sustainability, ecological economics, environmental economics and political ecology debate….

What will be the challenges for next 50 years?1. Improving eco-efficiency (environmental pressure per unit of value added/GDP) necessary to cope with increasing affluence and population growth;2. Reduction of total environmental impact for major e…

Weblog linked to the Third International Conference on Eco-Efficiency Modelling and Evaluation for Sustainability: Guiding Eco-Innovation and Consumption Global industrialization is coming, with an increasing proportion of the world populatio…

…..That’s pronounced CAR-cen-taur-OP-olis.While I was living in Lost Angeles in the 1960s, lost in the smog, back when each breath seared your throat and lungs and hot tears rolled down your cheeks under dark mid-day skies, this European journal…

We face a number of highly challenging tendencies which require fundamental new approaches to get us on the track of a decent global society. First, the industrial transformation of societies has taken off globally. It is not a matter if but only…

On Sunday I join the working group on political strategies. The two dozen people assembled in the courtyard repeatedly return to a big question that begs a satisfactory answer in order to develop viable political strategies for degrowth. Back in…

Could de-growth reduce poverty and avoid climate change? A scientific study coordinated by researchers of the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona has recently argued that “The solution both t…

The Green Economy is one of the key themes to be addressed by the UNCSD summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. But what is exactly the concept of a green economy?

The alternative climate summit for mayors in Copenhagen in December 2009 aims to put cities at the top of the climate change agenda. The summit’s message to heads of state, the media and citizens is that cities and local governments have a crucial…

Humans have transformed the planet beyond recognition, and the institutions and governance mechanisms regulating our relationship with the natural environment cannot cope. New, integrated systems of governance, from local to global levels, are nee…

The Earth system is changing rapidly due to human activity. The scale of human interference with planetary systems is such that our time could be recognized as a new era in planetary history: the ‘anthropocene’.

This blog discusses the new turn in Germany after the latest elections in September 2009.

In Dubai the scale of building construction is staggering. But progress should not be at the expense of sustainability. Thom Bohlen of the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development talks about how research can help promote green development p…

  In his famous 1955 article in which he hypothesized that national income inequality would increase in the early stages of economic development and subsequently decline as average per capita incomes rose, Simon Kuznets warned that poli…

Editor in Chief Frans Bieckmann will update an editor’s blog reflecting on the thought processes behind production of The Broker and highlighting interesting, useful and unusual information that he comes across day to day

What are the problems facing smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas in India? And how can research contribute to solutions? Dr. Y.V. Malla Reddy of Accion Fraterna (AF) Ecology Centre argues that agricultural research should change its vantage…

The International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) is working toward achieving consensus on ways to ensure global food security. In April, some of the world’s governments will decide whether to approve the…

Extreme weather events, partly caused by climate change, are already wreaking havoc, especially in the South. Both floods and droughts are expected to become more frequent and more severe. But who will pay for the measures needed to respond to the…

Anyone who wants to help prevent climate change would do better to give up eating meat rather than their car, suggests a recent FAO report. Scientists agree that livestock are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, but not all of them e…