In recent years, the push to build a “green economy” that can deliver the world from continual environmental and economic crisis, and usher in a new era of sustainable growth has been gathering force.But the push has been a source of unexpected controversy, with many predicting l

The course of public debate has become depressingly familiar. It often begins with a surprise — for example, Donald Trump, the real estate tycoon turned reality TV star, defies the odds to become the US Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee.The pundits dive in.

Last September, world leaders made a commitment to end hunger by 2030, as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It sounds like a massive undertaking. In fact, the world already produces enough food to feed everyone.

Russia’s economic prospects are looking increasingly grim.Last year, plunging energy prices and international sanctions contributed to a 3.7 per cent fall in the gross domestic product (GDP).

At the United Nations in New York on April 22, world leaders ratified the global climate agreement reached in Paris last December.One hundred ninety-five countries, ranging from richest to poorest, have now agreed to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial lev

Why are some regions plagued by seemingly endless instability?In the Middle East, one widespread argument, which even Daesh expounds, puts much of the blame for chronic conflict on the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the secret deal agreed 100 years ago by France and Great Britain to divi

 Kenya is about to destroy its entire stockpile of elephant ivory.More than 100 metric tonnes of “white gold” — both illegally harvested (confiscated from poachers or traders) and naturally accruing (from natural mortality) — will go up in smoke this weekend.In China — where

Patrick Vallance and Tim WellsIn recent years, tremendous progress has been made in the battle against malaria.According to the World Health Organisation (WTO), the number of deaths from the disease has fallen by a staggering 60 per cent since 2000 — the result of improved access

 The dramatic drop in malaria deaths since the beginning of the century is one of the great public-health success stories of recent years.Thanks to concerted investments in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, the number of people killed by the disease each year has decline