Worldwatch Institute

First Worldwatch Europe Branch Opens in Copenhagen

Amanda Stone — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:24:25 +0000

Friday, February 25, 2011

Event also announces the release of the groundbreaking report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet

Copenhagen, Denmark—The Worldwatch Institute today announces the opening of its first European office in Copenhagen. The opening will be celebrated at a major event starting today at 14:00 in downtown Copenhagen. More than 120 guests, including prominent researchers, policy makers, business leaders and press, have registered for the event.

The opening coincides with the release of the 27th annual edition of Worldwatch’s flagship publication, State of the World. The event features a policy debate on Europe’s role in developing and establishing sustainable agriculture practices, with the goal of creating a healthier global food system.

Worldwatch Europe will represent the formal extension of the Institute’s research and project activities into the European policy sphere. Bo Normander, Director of Worldwatch Europe says: “By expanding our research base into Europe, we aim to deliver these types of insights and to inform more environmentally sustainable decision-making across the European Union.”

Photo opportunity

Tree huggers will welcome all guests at the launch event today. The event includes prominent speakers such as Elsebeth Krogh, Chairwoman of ActionAid Denmark; Hans Herren, President of the Millennium Institute; Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency; and Christopher Flavin, President of the Worldwatch Institute.

Release of State of the World 2011

This year’s State of the World 2011 report:Innovations that Nourish the Planet, spotlights successful agricultural innovations and unearths major successes in preventing food waste, building resilience to climate change, and strengthening farming in cities. The report provides a roadmap for increased agricultural investment and more-efficient ways to alleviate global hunger and poverty.

“The progress showcased through this report will inform governments, policymakers, NGOs, and donors that seek to curb hunger and poverty, providing a clear roadmap for expanding or replicating these successes elsewhere,”says Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin.

Drawing from the world’s leading agricultural experts and from hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground, State of the World 2011 outlines proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions for decreasing malnutrition, improving yields, and increasing farmers’ incomes.

Worldwatch's Director of the Nourishing the Planet program Danielle Nierenberg, who recently spent 15 months conducting on-the-ground research in over 25 countries across Africa, will also speak at the launch. She will present key findings from the report, including a roadmap for agricultural investment for top donor countries in successful projects that can prevent food waste, build resilience to climate change, and strengthen farming in cities.

Global food security initiatives

State of the World 2011comes at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives—such as the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)—can benefit from new insight into environmentally sustainable projects that are already working.

Investment in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations has risen in recent years but is still nowhere near what is needed to help the 925 million people worldwide who remain undernourished. In 2008, $1.7 billion in official development assistance was provided to support agricultural projects in Africa, a miniscule amount given the vital return on investment. Under current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.

“The international community has been neglecting entire segments of the food system in its efforts to reduce hunger and poverty,”said Nierenberg, co-director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.NourishingthePlanet.org). “The solutions won’t necessarily come from producing more food, but from changing what children eat in schools, how foods are processed and marketed, and what sorts of food businesses we are investing in.”

Serving locally raised crops to school children, for example, has proven to be an effective hunger- and poverty-reducing strategy in many African nations, and has strong parallels to successful farm-to-cafeteria programs in the United States and Europe. Moreover, “roughly 40 percent of the food currently produced worldwide is wasted before it is consumed, creating large opportunities for farmers and households to save both money and resources by reducing this waste,” according to Brian Halweil, Nourishing the Planet co-director.

European tour

Beginning with a 16-country European tour, the project’s findings are being disseminated in over 20 languages to a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental and development communities. The Copenhagen launch event kicked off both the European tour and Worldwatch’s official entry into the European sphere.

###

Notes to Editors:

The full programme for the Copenhagen launch event is attached to this document.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

For review copies of State of the World 2011:

Contact Amanda Stone at astone@worldwatch.org.

Press contacts:
Ann Sophie Friis and Xenia Trier, europe@worldwatch.org or Tel. (+45) 3336 7187 (in Europe)

Amanda Stone, astone@worldwatch.org or(+1) 202-452-1999 x514 (in U.S.)

Purchasing information:

State of the World 2011sells for $19.95 + shipping & handling / £14.99 + P&P.

It can be purchased via the Worldwatch website at http://www.worldwatch.org/sow11, by e-mailing wwpub@worldwatch.org, by calling toll-free (+1) 877-539-9946 (in the U.S.) or (+1) 301-747-2340 (from overseas), or by faxing (+1) 301-567-9553 with ISBN number 9780393338805.

See www.worldwatch.org for information about editions in other languages.

Getting to One-Planet Living

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:24:20 +0000

Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2013 explores new ways to measure sustainability and live within our planet’s boundaries

Washington, D.C.—As the world continues down the path of unmitigated and unsustainable development, it is becoming increasingly clear that we have successfully pushed ourselves out of the stable geological era of the Holocene and into the more volatile and unpredictable Anthropocene. Nevertheless, many remain blissfully unaware of this truth due to the fact that ecosystem thresholds are not always marked with warning signs of impending danger. Unfortunately, this means that we may actually pass through a tipping point unaware because it is quite possible that nothing significant will happen at first.

In State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) discusses the need to collectively stay within our planetary boundaries if we wish to achieve environmental sustainability and return to a stabler, Holocene-like era.

According to Ecological Footprint studies, humans have already overshot the planet’s ecological capability by about 50 percent. State of the World 2013 contributing author and Senior Researcher at Oxfam, Kate Raworth, notes that the high consumption levels of the wealthiest 10 percent of people in the world and the resource-intensive production practices of companies are the biggest sources of stress on the planet today.

“If ‘one-planet’ living is the goal, then lifestyle choices will obviously have to entail more than recycling programs and stay-at-home vacations,” said Jennie Moore, Director of Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, and also a contributing author. “For success, the world’s nations will have to commit to whole new development strategies with elements ranging from public re-education to ecological fiscal reform, all within a negotiated global sustainability treaty.”

Although it is critical that we reduce our total resource use to a level below the natural threshold, it is equally important that every person has access to the resources they need to lead a life of dignity and opportunity. In State of the World 2013, contributing authors suggest taking into account both our planetary and social boundaries when measuring sustainability:

Examining Planetary Boundaries. Nine planetary boundaries have been identified that together describe an envelope for a safe operating space for humanity, and we may be able to achieve environmental sustainability if we collectively live within these boundaries. These include: climate change, biodiversity loss, the nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, stratospheric ozone, ocean acidification, global freshwater use, land use changes, atmospheric aerosol loading, and chemical pollution.

Incorporating Social Boundaries. Living within our planet’s natural boundaries is essential, but taking into consideration social boundaries, such as access to fresh water, education, health care, and other basic needs is as important. Between the social foundation of human rights and the environmental ceiling of planetary boundaries lies a space that is both environmentally safe and socially just, and we must work to move in to that space.

Living Within Our Means.In order to live within the ecological carrying capacity of our planet, there must be a more equitable distribution of Earth’s resources. This means that significant and widespread lifestyle changes will need to take place. The emphasis is on each individual living within their “Fair Earth-share” which amounts to 1.7 global hectares per capita, according to Moore and contributing author William E. Rees, Professor Emeritus in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia.

Transforming Social Norms.The concept of environmental sustainability must permeate both the social and cultural domains. Until society can shift away from its blind commitment to unconstrained economic growth, progress will not be made. Global action is needed to stimulate corporations and consumers to shift gears toward living within their Fair Earth-shares.

In a world where humans are inextricably intertwined with their environment, a method for measuring society’s degree of sustainability could be just what people need to begin to shift their way of thinking and embrace a truly sustainable lifestyle.

Worldwatch’sState of the World 2013, released in April 2013, addresses how sustainability should be measured, how we can attain it, and how we can prepare if we fall short. The opening section, to which the above-mentioned authors contributed, also includes deeper explorations of how to measure sustainability of energy use, freshwater, fisheries, and nonrenewable resources.

Authors of the book’s opening section include:

Carl Folke, Professor at and Director of the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and author of Chapter 2, “Respecting Planetary Boundaries and Reconnecting to the Biosphere.”
Kate Raworth, Senior Researcher at Oxfam and a teacher at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, author of Chapter 3, “Defining a Safe and Just Space for Humanity.”
Jennie Moore, Director of Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship in the School of Construction and the Environment at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, co-author of Chapter 4, “Getting to One-Planet Living.”
William E. Rees, Professor Emeritus in the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, co-author of Chapter 4, “Getting to One-Planet Living.”

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, MAY 21 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and for review copies of State of the World 2013, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Agriculture and Livestock Remain Major Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Maddy Traynor — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:08:28 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the agricultural sector’s impact on global greenhouse gas emissions

Washington, D.C.—Global greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector totaled 4.69 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent in 2010 (the most recent year for which data are available), an increase of 13 percent over 1990 emissions. By comparison, global CO2 emissions from transport totaled 6.76 billion tons that year, and emissions from electricity and heat production reached 12.48 billion tons, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).

Growth in agricultural production between 1990 and 2010 outpaced growth in emissions by a factor of 1.6, demonstrating increased energy efficiency in the agriculture sector.

The three most common gases emitted in agriculture are nitrous oxide, CO₂, and methane. Methane is generally produced when organic materials—such as crops, livestock feed, or manure—decompose anaerobically (without oxygen). Methane accounts for around 50 percent of total agricultural emissions. Enteric fermentation—the digestion of organic materials by livestock—is the largest source of methane emissions and of agricultural emissions overall.

Nitrous oxide is a by-product generated by the microbial breakdown of nitrogen in soils and manures. Nitrous oxide production is particularly high in cases where the nitrogen available in soils exceeds that required by plants to grow, which often occurs when nitrogen-rich synthetic fertilizers are applied. Nitrous oxide is responsible for around 36 percent of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Finally, carbon dioxide is released from soils when organic matter decomposes aerobically (with oxygen). The largest source of CO₂ emissions within agriculture is the drainage and cultivation of “organic soils”—soils in wetlands, peatlands, bogs, or fens with high organic material. When these areas are drained for cultivation, organic matter within the soil decomposes at a rapid rate, releasing CO₂. This process accounts for around 14 percent of total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

Emissions from enteric fermentation rose by 7.6 percent worldwide between 1990 and 2010, but regional variation was high. At 51.4 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively, Africa and Asia saw their emissions increase, while emissions in Europe and Oceania fell by 48.1 percent and 16.1 percent. Europe’s significant reduction in emissions parallels the decline in its beef production between 1990 and 2010, but it may also reflect increased use of grains and oils in cattle feed instead of grasses.

“Adding oils or oilseeds to feed can help with digestion and reduce methane emissions. But a shift from a grass-based to a grain- and oilseeds-based diet often accompanies a shift from pastures to concentrated feedlots, which has a range of negative consequences such as water pollution and high fossil fuel consumption,” said Laura Reynolds, Worldwatch Food and Agriculture Researcher and the study’s author. “Aside from reducing livestock populations overall, there is no other clear pathway to climate-friendly meat production from livestock.”

Manure that is deposited and left on pastures contributes to global nitrous oxide emissions because of its high nitrogen content. When more nitrogen is added to soil than is needed, soil bacteria convert the extra nitrogen into nitrous oxide and emit it into the atmosphere—a process called nitrification. Emissions from manure on pasture were highest in Asia, Africa, and South America, accounting for a combined 81 percent of global emissions from this source.

These data indicate the huge share of global emissions that is attributable to livestock production. While reducing livestock populations is one clear way to reduce global emissions form agriculture, farmers and landowners have numerous other opportunities for mitigation, many of which offer environmental and even economic co-benefits. For instance, growing trees and woody perennials on land can sequester carbon while simultaneously helping to restore soils, reduce water contamination, and provide beneficial wildlife habitat. Reducing soil tillage can rebuild soils while lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Some practices can even result in increased income for farmers—“cap-and-trade” programs allow farmers to monetize certain sequestration practices and sell them, while government programs like the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program pay farmers to set aside some of their land for long-term restoration.

Further highlights from the report:

Enteric fermentation accounted for 29 percent of emissions in both North America and Asia in 2010—the lowest share of all regions—but was the source of 61 percent of South America’s agricultural emissions, reflecting that continent’s world leadership in cattle production.
Rice cultivation was responsible for 17 percent of Asia’s total emissions in 2010 but no more than 3 percent of emissions in every other region—indicating Asia’s dominance of global rice output.
Four out of the top five countries with the highest emissions from cultivated organic soils were in Asia: Indonesia contributed 278.7 million tons of carbon dioxide from this source, Papua New Guinea 40.8 million tons, Malaysia 34.5 million tons, and Bangladesh 30.6 million tons— indicating the levels of deforestation and clearing for agricultural land.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Agriculture and Livestock Remain Major Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

About Vital Signs Online:

Vital Signs Online provides business leaders, policymakers, and engaged citizens with the latest data and analysis they need to understand critical global trends. It is an interactive, subscription-based tool that provides hard data and research-based insights on the sustainability trends that are shaping our future. All of the trends include clear analysis and are placed in historical perspective, allowing you to see where the trend has come from and where it might be headed. New trends cover emerging hot topics—from global carbon emissions to green jobs—while trend updates provide the latest data and analysis for the fastest changing and most important trends today. Every trend includes full datasets and complete referencing. Click here to subscribe today to Vital Signs Online.

More Businesses Pursue Triple Bottom Line for a Sustainable Economy

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 20:20:58 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the rise of benefit corporations and other companies that prioritize people and the planet, as well as profits

Washington, D.C.—As corporations of all sizes increasingly choose to monitor and report on their social and environmental impacts, a growing number of mostly small and medium-sized companies are going even further: They are volunteering to be held publicly accountable to a new triple bottom line—prioritizing people and the planet as well as profits, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).

Just how broadly, rapidly, and rigorously this movement can spread is of critical importance, given the supersized global impacts of for-profit enterprises.

“Sustainable economies are likely to remain elusive without substantial shifts in corporate norms,” said Colleen Cordes, a public policy consultant and the study’s author. “Recent data provide signs that such change is possible and indeed may even have begun.”

Over the last 15 years, for example, the number of businesses of all sizes that choose to self-assess how sustainable their operations are, using widely accepted social and environmental standards, and to publicly disclose their results has been growing rapidly, especially in Europe and Asia.

Recently there also has been a rise of a fast-moving movement, with significant leadership provided by sustainably minded businesses, whose goal is to persuade lawmakers to create a new legal status known as “benefit corporation” that for-profit businesses can choose voluntarily. The movement for benefit corporation statutes began in the United States, under the leadership of B Lab, which developed model legislation with the pro bonohelp of U.S. law firms.

A “benefit corporation” is a corporate form that requires a company to legally establish in its original or amended articles of incorporation that it has a general purpose of having a positive impact on society and the environment and that its board of directors, in making decisions, is required to take into account the interests of multiple stakeholders in addition to the financial interests of its shareholders. The stakeholders it must consider, by law, include the company’s own workforce and that of its suppliers, its customers, the local community and general society, and the local and global environment.

Proponents of this new corporate form say it essentially bakes a triple bottom line into a company’s DNA that frees companies from the fear of shareholder lawsuits if their decisions fail to maximize shareholder value because of some competing interest of other stakeholders, such as workers. Under current corporate case law in the United States, for example, corporate directors are generally assumed to be liable in such suits. Incorporation as a benefit corporation is intended to establish the directors’ fiduciary responsibility to consider the interests of all stakeholders. Formalizing a company’s social and environmental purposes under a legal framework also makes it more likely that its good intentions will survive the departure of its founders or any major spurts of growth and that its directors will have the legal backbone to fend off buyout offers from conventional corporations that do not have the same commitments.

Most benefit corporations to date are either small or medium-sized businesses. But they include a few larger companies that are privately held, such as the outdoor apparel and accessory firm Patagonia Inc., which reportedly had annual sales of about $540 million for the year ending April 2012, and King Arthur Flour, an employee-owned, 223-year-old company with reported sales of about $84 million in 2010.

Although the benefit corporation movement is still primarily a phenomenon in the United States, companies in 25 countries outside the United States have earned B Lab’s third-party certification as Certified B Corporations. Canada and Chile are the two countries with the most activity outside the United States. As the number of Certified B Corporations in any country begins to grow, B Lab plans to work with those that are interested in exploring the need and opportunities for revisions in their home countries’ legal infrastructure that would allow them to also legally establish their fiduciary responsibility to a wide range of stakeholders, as benefit corporations in the United States have done. A few companies in Australia have already expressed an interest in this.

Further highlights from the report:

B Lab estimates that there are currently about 200 benefit corporations in the United States (none of which are publicly traded companies at this point).
Total gross revenues for all Certified B Corps are about $6 billion annually, and together these businesses employ about 30,000 people, according to B Lab.
The number of companies annually using B Lab’s online assessment tool, a marker for broader interest in eventual certification, grew from 280 in 2007 to 2,406 in 2012. By the end of the first quarter of 2013, some 8,000 individual companies had used the tool.
Companies that apply for third-party certification by the B Lab or by the organization Green America are holding themselves accountable to higher company-wide standards for seeking positive social and environmental impacts, in addition to the conventional corporate goal of earning a profit. This trend is further evidence that the business community embracing a triple bottom line is expanding.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “More Businesses Pursue Triple Bottom Line for a Sustainable Economy,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

About Vital Signs Online:

Global Food Prices Continue to Rise

Maddy Traynor — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:18:48 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute study examines the leading causes of the growth of global food prices

Washington, D.C.—Continuing a decade-long increase, global food prices rose 2.7 percent in 2012, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s and 1970s but still well below the price spike of 1974. The price increases reverse a previous trend when real prices of food commodities declined at an average annual rate of 0.6 percent from 1960 to 1999, approaching historic lows, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).

Along with higher price levels, volatility has also increased dramatically in recent years. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the standard deviation—or measurement of variation from the average—for food prices between 1990 and 1999 was 7.7 index points, but it increased to 22.4 index points in the 2000–12 period.

Although food price volatility has increased in the last decade, it is not a new phenomenon. According to World Bank data, the standard deviation for food prices in 1960–99 was 11.9 index points higher than in 2000–12. Some price volatility is inherent in agricultural commodities markets, as they are strongly influenced by weather shocks. But the recent upward trend in food prices and volatility can be traced to additional factors including climate change, an increase in biofuels production, higher-than-normal imports, trade policies, low levels of stocks, rising energy and fertilizer prices, and increased trade within futures markets for food commodities. .

International food price trends (measured in terms of consumer prices, not those paid to producers) varied by commodity in 2012. Due to the ubiquity of corn, wheat, and rice in global diets, changes in the price of cereal grains generally affect consumers more than fluctuations in other foods. Since food prices began increasing in the early 2000s, cereal prices have jumped more than 80 percent and exhibited significant volatility, according to the FAO. Continuing this trend, global cereal prices increased 12.3 percent in 2012. Unfavorable weather conditions—including severe drought in the United States and Eastern Europe—drove cereal prices up 18.2 percent between June and September, when they approached the all-time high observed in 2008.

Various forces affecting global food supply and demand have influenced the level and volatility of food prices in the last decade. Population growth and increasing affluence—predominantly in Asia—have led to rising food demand since 2000, which in turn has triggered higher global food prices. Between 2000 and 2010, Asia’s population grew 12 percent, from 3.7 billion to 4.2 billion, and in 2010 Asians accounted for 60 percent of the world’s population.In South-Central and Southern Asia alone, the population increased by 16.5 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, wages nearly doubled in Asia from 2000 to 2011, whereas they increased only 18 percent in Africa and 15 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“There is reason to believe that food commodity prices will be both higher and more volatile in the decades to come,” said Sophie Wenzlau, the study’s author. “As climate change increases the incidence of extreme weather events, production shocks will become more frequent. Food prices will also likely be driven up by population growth, increasing global affluence, stronger linkages between agriculture and energy markets, and natural resource constraints.”

Further highlights from the report:

Between 2000 and 2012, the World Bank global food price index increased 104.5 percent, at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent.
Despite an end-of-year decline in 2012, international wheat prices were 17 percent higher in January 2013 than they were a year earlier, and maize prices were 11 percent higher. The international price of rice moved up only marginally, by 0.4 percent.
The World Bank estimates that the 2011 food price spike—driven by a 57.9 percent increase in global cereal prices between June 2010 and April 2011—drove 44 million people into extreme poverty (under US$1.25 a day).
Between 2000 and 2011, global biofuels production increased more than 500 percent, due in part to higher oil prices and the adoption of biofuel mandates in the United States and European Union.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Global Food Prices Continue to Rise,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than a dozen languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

About Vital Signs Online:

Is Sustainability Still Possible?

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:33:30 +0000

State of the World 2013 asks “can we get there—and what happens if we fall short?”

Washington, D.C.—In today’s society, the word “sustainable” has become practically meaningless, with most sustainable products just a step less bad than conventional alternatives. Because of the power of “sustainababble,” the world has largely ignored the rich spectrum of political, cultural, and technological changes that would set us on the path to a truly sustainable future. Although the science of sustainability is clearer than ever, we still face the question of whether transforming our society into one guided by sustainability is even possible.

This new volume of State of the World 2013—which features contributions from experts at the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) as well as from environmental thought leader David Orr, freshwater expert Sandra Postel, ecological economics pioneer Herman Daly, The Story of Stuff author Annie Leonard, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, and others—sets out to answer the question, Is Sustainability Still Possible?

In the book, these voices strive to define clear sustainability metrics and examine various policies and perspectives, including geoengineering, cultural engineering, corporate transformation, and energy solutions that could put the world on a path to prosperity without diminishing the well-being of future generations. They then go on to explore ways that governments and communities might cope with the likely consequences of failing to make those necessary changes before reaching planetary tipping points.

While the increasingly popular use of the term “sustainable” reflects a greater public awareness of the environmental predicament we face, the reality is that the actions taken to confront this problem are still far from ideal. Instead of throwing a loose term around haphazardly, sustainability needs to be defined and quantified as a metric so any progress can be measured.

“Simply doing ‘better’ environmentally will not stop the unraveling of ecological relationships that we depend on for food and health,” says Worldwatch President Robert Engelman. “Vastly larger changes are needed than we have seen so far. It is essential that we take stock, soberly and in scientifically measureable ways, of where we are headed. The information detailed in State of the World 2013 does that.”

Development and economic growth have long been tied to increases in greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource use. In the book, the authors discuss the urgency of reconciling economic and population growth within the tenets of sustainability in order to facilitate less, rather than more, harm to our planet.

“Clearly, trouble is coming—but there are better responses to it than stockpiling canned goods and weaponry,” says State of the World 2013 co-director Tom Prugh. “In view of humanity’s failures of foresight and political will to address the array of sustainability problems ahead, we asked some notable thinkers to ponder what we might do to make the best of it.”

State of the World 2013 is divided into three sections that address how the term “sustainability” should be measured, how we can attain it, and how we can prepare for the possibility of falling short. In The Sustainability Metric, authors offer ways to track global progress to sustainable living. In Getting to True Sustainability, chapters examine policies and perspectives that could build a truly sustainable society if implemented. And in Open in Case of Emergency, authors tackle whether and how to prepare for a disruptive global environmental transition that looks increasingly likely.

“Environmentalism, first and foremost, continues to be a game of defense—working to reduce overall carbon emissions, chemical releases, and forest loss—rather than a battle to transform the dominant growth-centric economic and cultural paradigm into an ecocentric one that respects planetary boundaries,” says Worldwatch Senior Fellow and State of the World 2013 co-director, Erik Assadourian. “The environmental movement will require a dramatic reboot if it is going to reverse Earth’s rapid transformation and help create a truly sustainable future.”

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, APRIL 09, 2013

The State of the World 2013 project’s findings are being disseminated to a wide range of stakeholders, including government ministries, community networks, business leaders, and the nongovernmental environmental and development communities. For more information on the project, visit www.sustainabilitypossible.org.

Notes to Editors: To schedule interviews, obtain a review copy of State of the World 2013,or for information about the book’s launch on April 16, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org or (+1) 202-745-8092 ex. 510.

About the Worldwatch Institute: Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 15 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Advertising Spending Continues Gradual Rebound

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute study examines how growth in Internet media has led to increasing global expenditures on advertising

Washington, D.C.—Global expenditures on advertising grew 3.3 percent in 2012 to $497.3 billion, a gradual rebound since the sudden 9.6 percent drop in 2009 as a result of the global economic downturn. Spending has responded to shifts in popular media with Internet advertising the fastest-growing sector in 2012, now accounting for 18 percent of the total, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).

U.S. advertising expenditures grew by 4.3 percent in 2012 and are still nearly a third of the global total. The Asia Pacific region accounted for the fastest growth, however, with ad spending there increasing by 7.9 percent in 2012 (excluding Japan, which grew by 3.1 percent). Expenditures fell by 2.2 percent in Western Europe, the only region to see a decline, largely due to the ongoing Eurozone crisis.

The growth in spending on Internet ads has been driven by the expansion of social media and online video advertising. Mobile and social media now account for more than half of all advertising revenue in the United States, for example, having increased by more than 30 percent in both 2011 and 2012.

“As consumers grow overexposed to advertising, traditional forms such as television commercials, print advertising, and billboards are becoming less effective,” said Shakuntala Makhijani, the study’s author. “As a result, advertisers are turning to more subtle techniques, such as promotional material on blogs, product placement, and interactive advertising on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The distinction between advertising and media content is therefore increasingly blurred.”

The impacts of advertising and consumerism on all aspects of society and culture are well documented. Advertising targeted at children is particularly penetrating and influential, defining their identity as consumers from an early age and interfering with normal childhood development. Evidence has shown that children are experiencing increased physical, emotional, and social harm as a result of consumerism through advertising.

U.S. consumer advocates continue to call for limits on the extent and influence of advertising, especially in environments such as health clinics and public spaces as well as advertising specifically targeted at children. In particular, advertising in public schools has gained force in recent years and has infiltrated nearly all aspects of student life.

Advertisers have also focused more resources recently on “green” advertising aimed at attracting consumers with claims of improved environmental impact by tapping into growing public interest in sustainability and the environment. The number of new products marketed with environmental claims each year in the United States grew from around 100 in 2004 to over 1,500 in 2009.

Due to increasing false claims by advertisers about product sustainability, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission established updated Green Guides in 2012 that will allow the agency to take enforcement action against deceptive environmental marketing. The guidelines discourage the use of general and unsubstantiated terms such as “eco-friendly” and include strong guidelines for use of terms such as “biodegradable” and “recyclable.”

While regulatory controls on false advertising such as the Green Guides are a positive development, true sustainability will ultimately require less material consumption and therefore stronger overall limits on advertising to stem its global growth and increasing presence in everyday life.

Further highlights from the report:

Newspaper advertising has declined significantly, dropping from nearly a third of all expenditures in 2002 to less than a fifth in 2012.
The expansion of television’s share of global advertising has leveled off after decades of growth: it rose from 36 percent to 40 percent of advertising expenditures between 2000 and 2012.
Global product placement expenditures are increasing rapidly, reaching $8.2 billion in 2012, with the United States accounting for more than half of the market worldwide.
Retail companies account for nearly one fifth of total advertising spending, followed closely by the automobile industry in the United States.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Advertising Spending Continues Gradual Rebound Driven by Growth in Internet Media,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute's State of the World report is published annually in more than 15 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

About Vital Signs Online:

The Looming Threat of Water Scarcity

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

As World Water Day approaches, new Worldwatch Institute study examines global water use and steps to address water scarcity

Washington, D.C.—Some 1.2 billion people—almost a fifth of the world—live in areas of physical water scarcity, while another 1.6 billion face what can be called economic water shortage. The situation is only expected to worsen as population growth, climate change, investment and management shortfalls, and inefficient use of existing resources restrict the amount of water available to people, according to Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). It is estimated that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, with almost half of the world living in conditions of water stress.

Water scarcity has several definitions. Physical scarcity occurs when there is not enough water to meet demand; its symptoms include severe environmental degradation, declining groundwater, and unequal water distribution. Economic water scarcity occurs when there is a lack of investment and proper management to meet the demand of people who do not have the financial means to use existing water sources; the symptoms in this case normally include poor infrastructure.Large parts of Africa suffer from economic water scarcity.

World population is predicted to grow from 7 billion to 9.1 billion by 2050, putting a strain on water resources to meet increased food, energy, and industrial demands. But there are many other pressures, including increased urbanization and overconsumption, lack of proper management, and the looming threat of climate change. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and UN Water, global water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.

At the global level, 70 percent of water withdrawals are for the agricultural sector, 11 percent are to meet municipal demands, and 19 percent are for industrial needs. These numbers, however, are distorted by the few countries that have very high water withdrawals, such as China, India, and the United States.

Agricultural water withdrawal accounts for 44 percent of total water withdrawal among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but this rises to more than 60 percent within the eight OECD countries that rely heavily on irrigated agriculture. In the four transitional economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, agriculture accounts for 74 percent of water withdrawals, but this ranges from 20 percent in Russia to 87 percent in India.

Policymakers must introduce a variety of measures to address global water scarcity. One important initiative is to support small-scale farmers. Much of the public investment in agricultural water management has focused on large-scale irrigation systems. Farmers can also use water more efficiently by taking a number of steps, including growing a diverse array of crops suited to local conditions and adopting irrigation systems like “drip” lines that deliver water directly to plants’ roots.

Climate change will affect global water resources at varying levels. Reductions in river runoff and aquifer recharge are expected in the Mediterranean basin and in the semiarid areas of the Americas, Australia, and southern Africa, affecting water availability in regions that are already water-stressed. In Asia, the large areas of irrigated land that rely on snowmelt and high mountain glaciers for water will be affected by changes in runoff patterns, while highly populated deltas are at risk from a combination of reduced inflows, increased salinity, and rising sea levels. And rising temperatures will translate into increased crop water demand everywhere.

To combat the effects of climate change, efforts must be made to follow an integrated water resource management approach on a global scale. This involves water management that recognizes the holistic nature of the water cycle and the importance of managing trade-offs within it, that emphasizes the importance of effective institutions, and that is inherently adaptive.

Further highlights from the report:

A region is said to face water scarcity when supplies fall below 1,000 cubic meters per person, and absolute water scarcity is when supplies drop below 500 cubic meters a year.
About 66 percent of Africa is arid or semiarid, and more than 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa currently live on less than 1,000 cubic meters of water resources per person.
According to UN Water, each person in North America and Europe (excluding former Soviet Union countries) consumes at least 3 cubic meters per day of virtual water in imported food, compared with 1.4 cubic meters per day in Asia and 1.1 cubic meters per day in Africa.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “The Looming Threat of Water Scarcity,”please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

About Vital Signs Online:

Is Sustainability Still Possible

Maddy Traynor — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:49:09 +0000

Experts
	Tom Prugh Co-Director		Erik Assadourian Co-Director

State of the World 2013 cuts through the rhetoric surrounding sustainability, offering a broad and realistic look at how close we are to fulfilling it today and which practices and policies will steer us in the right direction.

Related Publications

	State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? April 2013
	State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity April 2012
	State of the World 2010: Transforming Cultures January 2010

About Is Sustainability Still Possible?
Every day, we are presented with a range of “sustainable” products and activities—from “green” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets—but with so much labeled as “sustainable,” the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline? In Worldwatch Institute’s newest project, scientists, policy experts, and thought leaders tackle these questions, attempting to restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool. State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? defines clear sustainability metrics and examines various policies and perspectives, including geoengineering, corporate transformation, and changes in agricultural policy, that could put us on the path to prosperity without diminishing the well-being of future generations. If these approaches fall short, the publication goes on to explore ways to prepare for drastic environmental change and resource depletion, such as strengthening democracy and societal resilience, protecting cultural heritage, and dealing with increased conflict and migration flows.

About Is Sustainability Still Possible?

Every day, we are presented with a range of “sustainable” products and activities—from “green” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets—but with so much labeled as “sustainable,” the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best prepare for the coming ecological decline?

In Worldwatch Institute’s newest project, scientists, policy experts, and thought leaders tackle these questions, attempting to restore meaning to sustainability as more than just a marketing tool. State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? defines clear sustainability metrics and examines various policies and perspectives, including geoengineering, corporate transformation, and changes in agricultural policy, that could put us on the path to prosperity without diminishing the well-being of future generations. If these approaches fall short, the publication goes on to explore ways to prepare for drastic environmental change and resource depletion, such as strengthening democracy and societal resilience, protecting cultural heritage, and dealing with increased conflict and migration flows.

Recent Is Sustainability Still Possible? Blogs

	This Land is Our Land, Your Land is Our Land
	Dismantling the Global Debt-based Ponzi Scheme
	Letting Nature Take Its Course?
	Launching the State of the World 2013
	Just Say ‘Neigh’ to Globalized, Processed Food
	READ MORE AT IS SUSTAINABILITY STILL POSSIBLE?



Tweets from @WorldwatchInst/worldwatch-on-twitter

Off

Featured on Program Area Page:

Off

Featured on Homepage - Current Project Block:

Off

Featured on Homepage - Featured Research Block:

Off

Smart Grid Technologies Continue to Spread

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:52:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines global investments and installation of smart grid technologies

Washington, D.C.—Driven by increasing shares of renewable energy in the electricity generation mix and by the need to update aging grid infrastructure, global investment in “smart grid” technologies rose 7 percent in 2012, totaling $13.9 billion worldwide, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). Despite a slight decline in investments, the United Sates maintained its position as a leader in smart grids, followed closely by China, writes report author Reese Rogers.

A smart grid is an electricity network that uses digital information and communications technologies to improve the efficiency and reliability of electricity transport. The increasing use of highly variable energy resources requires sophisticated control systems to facilitate their integration into the electricity grid.

The United States topped other countries in investment in smart grids, spending $4.3 billion in 2012, although that was 19 percent below the 2011 figure of $5.1 billion. China invested $3.2 billion in 2012, an increase of 14 percent over 2011. Smart grid directives in the European Union drove a 27 percent increase in European spending to $1.4 billion in 2012, up from $1.1 billion in 2011. Latin American investment in smart grid technology remains relatively small, totaling $400 million in 2012.

The decline in U.S. investments in 2012 was due in part to the expiration of federal funding programs initiated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. At the start of 2012, utilities had installed 37 million smart meters, covering 33 percent of American households. Current plans by utilities should result in 65 million units installed, covering 57 percent of American households, by 2015.

“Smart meters are just one of the many technologies involved in smart grid infrastructure,” said Rogers, a MAP Sustainable Energy Fellow Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy Program. “These electronic measurement devices gather data on energy usage and provide two-way communication with the utility for efficiency and accurate billing purposes, enabling regulatory mechanisms such as time-of-use pricing to be introduced.”

China’s rising investment in smart grid technologies stems from its plans to update its poorly designed and inefficient transmission system, and China is poised to surpass the United States in smart grid investment in 2013. Other countries in Asia are also investing in smart grid technologies and deployments. South Korea, as of February 2012, had deployed smart meters to fewer than a million households, or roughly 4 percent. And Japan is already home to one of the most efficient electricity grids in the world, with distribution losses averaging 4.9 percent over the period 2000 to 2010.

In the European Union, Electricity Directive 2009/752/EC mandates member states to deploy smart metering systems in 80 percent of households by 2020, where cost-benefit analyses of smart meters are positive. Progress varies from country to country, but as of 2011 an average of 10 percent of European households had smart meters installed.

Smart grid investment in Latin America remains generally low. Brazil is an exception, investing $240 million in stimulus funds in 2010. At the end of 2012, Brazil formalized a regulatory framework for smart grid deployment.

Grid-scale energy storage technologies are another important aspect of evolving grid networks, providing an alternate or complementary solution for the integration of variable renewable energy into the grid. They are gaining traction as larger-scale projects are beginning or are planned for the near future. The next few years will see numerous smart grid deployment projects and advances in energy storage markets, the success of which will surely influence the respective paths of each technology’s development.

Further highlights from the report:

The State Grid Corporation of China has a three-phase plan to invest $601 billion in transmission infrastructure, with $101 billion slated for smart grid technology, through 2020.
The United Kingdom plans to begin nationwide installation of smart meters in 2014, with the intention to install these meters in all households by 2019.
There were 714 grid-scale energy storage projects worldwide in 2012 in varying stages of operation or development— roughly a 19 percent increase in the number of projects from the previous year.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Smart Grid and Energy Storage Installations Rising,”please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

About Vital Signs Online:

Citizen Participation and Freedom of Information Vital for Successful Local Government

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:41:55 +0000

Worldwatch Institute emphasizes the importance of involving the public in local governments’ steps toward sustainable development

Washington, D.C.—When the issues at stake are a clean water supply, waste management, or land use, decisions at the local level can be the greatest catalysts for progress. Local citizen action is needed to ensure that local institutions are transparent, participatory, and accountable, making governments more efficient and less vulnerable to corruption. The development of local democratic procedures in cities is critical to global sustainable development, according to Joseph Foti, contributing author to the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

In 1992, the United Nations Council on Environment and Development (UNCED) established the “Environmental Democracy Principle,” which asserted that environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens. “Not all decision making for sustainable development takes place at the national level,” said Foti, formerly a senior associate at the World Resources Institute and a State of the World 2012 contributing author (Foti is now Program Manager of the Open Government Partnership’s Independent Reporting Mechanism). “Citizens need to ensure that laws are enforced and that the environment and equity are considered when making development decisions.”

Local residents can offer useful insights into development planning, and public participation can also avoid conflict between citizens and the state: when people feel that a fair process has led to a decision, they are more willing to accept the decision even if they disagree with it.

Barriers to local participation in sustainable development often involve problems in transparency, accountability, and inclusiveness. These problems lead to a loss of citizens’ faith in government, a decrease in efficiency, and a vulnerability to corruption.

In his chapter, “Getting Local Government Right,” Foti provides three approaches that can improve public participation in local government decision making:

Access to information. Local governments mustmake information on all agency jurisdictions, budgeting, revenue, and procurement available to citizens. At the local level, examples include regular information on air and water quality, local decision making, and land use data.

Public participation.This refers to the opportunities for individuals, groups, and organizations to provide input into decision making that will have—or is likely to have—an impact on the environment. At the local level, public participation can be integrated into policymaking, land use planning, permitting, and project-level decisions.

Access to justice.Effective judicial and administrative procedures and remedies need to be made available to individuals, groups, and organizations. At a local level, this means that authorities create impartial, inexpensive, and efficient institutions that hear complaints of denial of information, environmental harm, and noncompliance with the law.

By giving people access to relevant information, the opportunity to participate, and access to judicial proceedings, local governments can take advantage of the major intellectual asset that local citizens represent.

Innovations like these are necessary to continue progress toward just and sustainable local governance, and to improve the quality of life. With increasing competition for global natural resources in the coming decades, citizens and local authorities must collaborate to protect their collective rights and interests.

Worldwatch’sState of the World 2012, released in April 2012, focuses on the themes of inclusive sustainable development discussed at Rio+20, the 20-year follow-up to the historic Earth Summit of 1992, also held in Rio de Janeiro. The report presents a selection of innovative ideas and practices to achieve global environmental sustainability while meeting human needs and providing jobs and ensuring dignity for all.

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2013

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Global Hydropower and Geothermal Growth Slow

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:21:23 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines global consumption and installed capacity of hydropower and geothermal energy sources

Washington, D.C.—Although the global consumption and installed capacity of hydropower and geothermal technologieshave increased steadily since 2003, both types of energy saw slower growth in 2011, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).Global installed capacity of hydropower reached 970 gigawatts (GW), only a 1.6 percent increase from the previous year, while geothermal cumulative capacity reached 11.2 GW, slowing to below 1 percent for the first time since 2002, writes report author Evan Musolino.

“Despite the recent slowdown in growth, the overall market for hydropower and geothermal power is increasing in part because these two sources are not subject to the variability in generation that plagues other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar,” said Musolino, a research associate with the Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy Program. “The greater reliability of hydro and geothermal can thus be harnessed to provide reliable baseload power.”

Hydroelectricity accounted for almost 6 percent of primary energy consumption among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It played a more important role in other countries—at a little over 7 percent of usage—and these non-OECD nations accounted for 60 percent of worldwide hydroelectricity consumption. On a regional basis, South America and Central America are most dependent on hydroelectricity relative to total energy use.

Although hydropower plays the least important role in the Middle East, the region experienced the greatest growth in hydroelectricity consumption in 2011, at almost 22 percent. North America was next, with an increase slightly under 14 percent. In contrast, usage fell by almost 9 percent in Europe and Eurasia and by 0.6 percent in the Asia Pacific region.

Although some 150 countries produce hydropower, half of the global capacity was concentrated in just five nations at the end of 2011. China remains the leader, with 212 GW installed, followed by Brazil (82.2 GW), the United States (79 GW), Canada (76.4 GW), and Russia (46 GW).

Despite the potential for inexpensive, low-emission electricity from hydropower, large projects can bring significant negative consequences. The damming of rivers to create the reservoirs needed for large-scale power generation is severely disruptive to ecosystems and can harm both animal and human populations. And building hydropower plants has its own significant emissions impacts, including from the creation of reservoirs and the large amounts of concrete needed for construction. In many cases, hydropower projects have led to the displacement of local populations and the adverse altering of downstream conditions.

But hydropower continues to be one of the most cost-effective renewable energy generation sources. Typical costs are in the range of 2–13 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour for existing grid-connected hydropower plants and 5–10 cents per kilowatt-hour for new plants. Micro-hydropower installations (0.1 kilowatt to 1 megawatt), which are typically used in rural communities not connected to the national grid, generate at 5–40 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Like hydropower, geothermal resources are highly location-specific. Many countries with strong hydropower potential, including much of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia, have equally impressive geothermal potential. These resources have been exploited for power generation for over a century, with significant capacity being developed since the mid-1900s.

The costs associated with geothermal power also closely mirror those of hydropower. Varying by geothermal technology, generation costs are in the range of 5.7–10.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. High capital costs, associated primarily with the cost of drilling geothermal wells and the long lead time for project development, continue to challenge project developers.

Further highlights from the report:

Global consumption of hydropower continued to increase in 2011, reaching 3,498 terawatt-hours.
A total of 25 GW of new hydropower capacity was added in 2011, less than in previous years, with China, Vietnam, Brazil, India, and Canada responsible for 75 percent of the added capacity.
Some 136 MW of new geothermal power capacity was installed in 2011, the vast majority of which came from two major projects: a 90 MW facility in Iceland and a 42 MW plant in Costa Rica.
The United States continues to be a leader in geothermal capacity, with 3.1 GW, and is followed by the Philippines (1.9 GW), Indonesia (1.2 GW), Mexico (1 GW), and Italy (0.8 GW).

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For more information and to obtain a complimentary copy of “Hydropower and Geothermal Growth Slows,” please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

About Vital Signs Online:

Global Wage Gap Continues to Widen

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines discrepancies among earners and regions as well as the widening gap between wages and productivity

Washington, D.C.—A dual gap has opened in global wage trends. The wages of most workers are falling more and more behind those of top earners, even as average wages are failing to keep pace with labor productivity growth, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).Wage trends are heavily influenced by globalization and the economic crisis that caused the ranks of the unemployed to swell from 169 million in 2007 to 198.4 million in 2009, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). Although the number temporarily dipped to 193.1 million in 2011, a preliminary estimate for 2012 indicates it was back up to 197.3 million, writes report author Michael Renner.

Cumulatively, from 2000 to 2011 global real monthly average wages grew by just under a quarter. But global figures hide considerable regional differences. Wages almost doubled in Asia, whereas they increased by 18 percent in Africa and 15 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Wages in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region (which includes Russia) nearly tripled. But this surge came on the heels of economic collapse after the fall of communism, which led wages to contract severely. In Russia, the subsequent growth only returned wages to what they had been at the beginning of the 1990s. In the Middle East, the limited wage data available suggest stagnation during the last decade. In industrial economies, wages increased by a comparatively tiny 5 percent, albeit from a much higher base than in other parts of the world.

Data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the manufacturing sectors of 34 countries illustrate the tremendous wage differentials around the world. Countries with the highest hourly compensation are primarily found in northern and western Europe; Norway had the highest reported compensation at $64.15 per hour in 2011. Japan and the United States are in the middle of the field, while southern and eastern European countries, most of Asia, and Latin America all have lower compensation. The Philippines has the lowest rate of the 34 countries, at $2.01.

Although not directly comparable due to data gaps and methodological differences, BLS also offers estimates for China ($1.36 per hour in 2008) and India ($1.17 in 2007). The estimate for India covers only the country’s formal manufacturing sector, for example. People who work in the informal manufacturing sector account for some 80 percent of India’s total manufacturing employment, but they earn substantially less than workers in the formal sector.

Since the 1980s—long before the world economic crisis of 2008—wages in many countries stopped keeping pace with improvements in labor productivity. Trade globalization, the expansion of financial markets, and declining trade union membership combined to erode the bargaining power of workers, and thus less of the wealth produced globally is going to labor compensation while a rising share is going to profits. According to the ILO, average labor productivity in industrial countries increased more than twice as much as average wages did between 1999 and 2011.

Average wage figures mask extremes of wage inequality. There is in fact a growing gap between top earners and the rest of the workforce, especially those in unskilled or low-skilled, temporary, precarious jobs.The ILO finds that especially in English-speaking countries there has been a sharp increase in the salaries and compensation of top corporate executives.In the United States, the top 1 percent of wage earners saw their annual earnings go up by 156 percent between 1979 and 2007.For 90 percent of U.S. workers, in contrast, wages advanced by a much smaller 17 percent during the same period.

“The gap between wages and labor productivity and the rising inequality of wages are developments that raise fundamental questions of fairness in the economy,” said Renner, a Worldwatch Senior Researcher. “The extremely unequal distribution of income and wealth that has emerged worldwide has profound consequences, determining who has an effective voice in matters of economics and politics, and thus how countries address the fundamental challenges before them.”

Further highlights from the report:

From 1978 to 2011, CEO compensation (including salaries, bonuses, long-term incentive pay, and stock options) at the 350 largest U.S. companies increased more than 725 percent—compared with just 5.7 percent in average worker compensation.
Among the 12 initial members of the European Union, Germany was the only country where average real compensation per employee declined in the period 1999–2010.
CEO-to-worker compensation ratio rose from 18-to-1 in 1965 to a peak of 411-to-1 in 2000, and it was 209-to-1 in 2011.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

From “Light Green” to Sustainable Buildings

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Worldwatch Institute examines necessary policy tools to move toward more sustainable buildings

Washington, D.C.—As more people move to urban areas in search of economic opportunities, the number of buildings that are needed to house them continues to rise. It is estimated that by 2030, an additional 1.4 billion people will live in cities, of which 1.3 billion will dwell in cities of developing countries. The increasing number of buildings has long-term impacts on both the environment and natural resources. Fortunately, a variety of policy tools hold promise for promoting sustainability in buildings, according to Kaarin Taipale, contributing author of the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

The buildings in which we live and work are a major consumer of energy, responsible for some 30–40 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, a similar share of total solid waste, and 12 percent of all fresh water used. With the rate of urbanization reaching record levels, there will be more construction and buildings than ever before.

The introduction and enforcement of effective public policies can be the cheapest and most efficient method for promoting sustainability in the construction and use of buildings, Taipale says. The goal is to radically reduce buildings’ environmental footprint and long-term negative social and financial effects.

“Policies can control (via restrictive regulations), motivate (via incentives), or call for attention (via awareness-raising), and successful policy packages may combine all three characteristics,” notes Taipale, an urban researcher from Finland. “In the rush to market everything as ‘green,’ builders superficially label their buildings as such. But although a solar panel on the roof may look good in a photo, it is certainly no proof of the sustainability of a building.”

Even modestly “light-green buildings,” as Taipale describes them, account for only a tiny fraction of total construction worldwide. She notes that the best way to move construction beyond greenwashing is through strict enforcement of ambitious building regulations and fulfillment of measurable targets.

In search of a “best policy” in her State of the World 2012 chapter, “From Light Green to Sustainable Buildings,” Taipale suggests considering four dimensions in a policy package:

Process.It is important to take into account the entire life-cycle of a building, from design and construction to its use and demolition. Some posit that designating a sustainability coordinator for the planning and construction period should be a requirement for any building permit. An additional tool for the time span when the building is being used is a mandatory “maintenance diary,” documenting the various ways the building is serviced and renovated.

Performance.What matters most is how well the entire building performs, not how its individual parts might adhere to requirements. Setting minimum energy performance standards, for example, makes more sense than specifying the thickness of a thermal insulation. A growing set of core criteria has evolved by which to measure building performance in terms of resource use. These consider greenhouse gas emissions, energy and water use, and waste production, among others. Policies can require that certain minimum performance standards and benchmarks be met.

Sustainable Infrastructure.Buildings need efficient infrastructures that save resources and provide everyone equal access to basic services such as fresh water and sanitation, energy, communication, and public transport. The quality of these infrastructures determines the level of urban sustainability. National water legislation, for example, can help secure access to safe drinking water for urban residents for a fair price.

Resource Use. Sustainability of resource use considers financial, human, and natural resources. Shifting toward a greater reliance on renewable energy is the most efficient method to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate climate change. Such a shift also helps reduce local air pollution and health hazards. We need higher energy performance requirements for new construction and refurbishment, however, because it does not make much sense to waste renewable energy in buildings that are not energy efficient.

No single policy is going to change light-green buildings into sustainable ones. Mainstreaming sustainability starts with setting targets and doing preliminary designs, and it needs to be followed through using maintenance and performance monitoring.

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Achieving a Sustainable Food System with Organic Farming

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:20:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines the growth of global organic agricultural practices and their impact on food security and the environment

Washington, D.C.—Despite a slight decline between 2009 and 2010, since 1999 the global land area farmed organically has expanded more than threefold to 37 million hectares, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). Regions with the largest certified organic agricultural land in 2010 were Oceania, including Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations (12.1 million hectares); Europe (10 million hectares); and Latin America (8.4 million hectares), write report authors Catherine Ward and Laura Reynolds.

Organic farming is now established in international standards, and 84 countries had implemented organic regulations by 2010, up from 74 countries in 2009. Definitions vary, but according to the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, organic agriculture is a production system that relies on ecological processes, such as waste recycling, rather than the use of synthetic inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

“Although organic agriculture often produces lower yields on land that has recently been farmed conventionally, it can outperform conventional practices—especially in times of drought—when the land has been farmed organically for a longer time,” said Reynolds, a researcher with Worldwatch’s Food and Agriculture Program. “Conventional agricultural practices often degrade the environment over both the long and short term through soil erosion, excessive water extraction, and biodiversity loss.”

Organic farming has the potential to contribute to sustainable food security by improving nutrition intake and sustaining livelihoods in rural areas, while simultaneously reducing vulnerability to climate change and enhancing biodiversity. Sustainable practices associated with organic farming are relatively labor intensive. Organic agriculture uses up to 50 percent less fossil fuel energy than conventional farming, and common organic practices—including rotating crops, applying mulch to empty fields, and maintaining perennial shrubs and trees on farms—also stabilize soils and improve water retention, thus reducing vulnerability to harsh weather patterns. On average, organic farms have 30 percent higher biodiversity, including birds, insects, and plants, than conventional farms do.

Certifications for organic agriculture are increasingly concentrated in wealthier countries. From 2009 to 2010, Europe increased its organic farmland by 9 percent to 10 million hectares, the largest growth in any region. The United States has lagged behind other countries in adopting sustainable farming methods. When national sales rather than production are considered, however, the U.S. organic industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation, expanding by 9.5 percent in 2011 to reach $31.5 billion in sales.

Sustainable food production will become increasingly important in developing countries, as the majority of population growth is concentrated in the world’s poorest countries. Agriculture in developing countries is often far more labor intensive than in industrial countries, so it is not surprising that approximately 80 percent of the 1.6 million global certified organic farmers live in the developing world. The countries with the most certified organic producers in 2010 were India (400,551 farmers), Uganda (188,625), and Mexico (128,826). Non-certified organic agriculture in developing countries is practiced by millions of indigenous people, peasants, and small family farms involved in subsistence and local market-oriented production.

Further highlights from the report:

In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, certified organic farming accounted for approximately 0.9 percent of the world’s agricultural land.
Africa is home to 3 percent of the world’s certified organic agricultural land, with just over 1 million hectares certified. Asia has 7 percent, with a total of 2.8 million hectares.
Despite a decline in organically farmed land in China and India between 2009 and 2010, India’s export volume of organic produce increased by 20 percent.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 2013

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Oil Remains King, But Coal and Natural Gas Use Continue to Grow

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines the global rate of coal and natural gas consumption and production

Washington, D.C.— Although oil remains the world’s leading energy source, coal and natural gas continue to grow in significance, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). Global consumption of coal increased 5.4 percent in 2011, to 3.72 billion tons of oil equivalent, while natural gas use grew 2.2 percent, to 2.91 billion tons of oil equivalent. Both are primary fuels for the world’s electricity market, and because they are often used as substitutes for one other, their trends need to be examined together, write report authors Matt Lucky and Reese Rogers.

The bulk of coal use is for power generation, with smaller amounts being used in steelmaking. Spurred mainly by rising demand in China and India, coal’s share in the global primary energy mix reached 28 percent in 2011—its highest point since the International Energy Agency began keeping statistics in 1971. Although the United States remains one of the world’s largest coal users, just over 70 percent of global demand in 2011 was in countries outside of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), including China and India. Consumption in non-OECD countries grew 8 percent in 2011 to 2.63 billion tons of oil equivalent.

China alone accounted for nearly half of all coal use in 2011. India is the second largest contributor to rising coal demand and is the world’s third largest coal consumer, after surpassing the European Union in 2009. The United States remains the second largest coal user, even though U.S. demand decreased by around 5 percent in 2011 and continued to fall in 2012 due to the shale gas boom and the abundance of cheap natural gas. Even with declining demand, the United States still accounts for 45 percent of coal demand within the OECD.

Coal production, like consumption, is concentrated mainly in China. But the United States holds the largest proved coal reserves, with 28 percent of the global total, followed by Russia at 18 percent, China at 13 percent, Australia at 9 percent, and India at 7 percent. Together, these five countries accounted for three-quarters of proved coal reserves as well as three-quarters of global coal production in 2011.

In the case of natural gas, global consumption grew at a slower rate than coal—2.2 percent—to reach 2.91 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2011. Usage grew in all regions except the European Union, which experienced a 9.9 percent decline in natural gas consumption—the largest on record and due mainly to a struggling economy and high natural gas prices.

Natural gas accounted for nearly 23.7 percent of global primary energy consumption in 2011, down slightly from 23.8 percent in 2010. Consumption increased most significantly in East Asia, led by China (21.5 percent) and Japan (11.6 percent).

Natural gas production increased at a higher rate than consumption—3.1 percent—reaching 2.96 billion tons of oil equivalent in 2011. The United States and Russia accounted for nearly 40 percent of the world’s output in 2011, contributing 20 percent and 18.5 percent, respectively, followed by Canada, Iran, and Qatar at 4–5 percent each.

Continued strong growth in the global coal and natural gas sectors depends on numerous factors. Demand for coal could stagnate with the introduction of new technologies in the power sector, or with the adoption of policies to reduce the environmental and health impacts of coal combustion. Increasing global concern about greenhouse gas emissions and climate change could lead to a greater transition from coal to natural gas. Other factors that could change the equation include rising environmental and other concerns about hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) and the possibility that cheap natural gas might undermine growth in renewable energy.

Further highlights from the report:

Over the period 2001–11, China accounted for 80 percent of the global increase in coal demand. China alone accounted for 49.5 percent of global coal production in 2011.
U.S. coal exports are growing at a rate not seen since the 1979–81 export boom, and 2012 exports are projected to be more than double those in 2009, according to data as of August 2012.
The greatest growth in natural gas production in 2011 occurred in Yemen (51.3 percent), Iraq (42.0 percent), Turkmenistan (40.6 percent), and Qatar (25.8 percent).
Liquefied natural gas’s share of the total natural gas trade grew to 32.2 percent in 2011, up from 30 percent in 2010.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

With Effective Roadmaps and Political Will, Governments Can Create Healthier, Livable Cities

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:59:54 +0000

Worldwatch Institute highlights solutions for more inclusive and sustainable urban development

Washington D.C.—By harnessing an innovative mix of tools and approaches, governments can strengthen the economies of urban areas and improve their overall livability, according to research presented in the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity. Today, nearly 1 billion of the world’s poor live in urban areas that are dangerously overcrowded and lack adequate access to basic sanitation and clean water, with wide-ranging health and environmental impacts. But even in wealthier countries, governments face serious challenges in making their cities more inclusive, sustainable, and livable.

In 2010, informal urban settlements, known more commonly as “slums,” housed approximately one-third of the urban population of developing countries. “Slum populations are often viewed as an eyesore, but few realize that the urban poor are at the core of a city’s economy, accounting for a large share of employment and performing essential functions for the city,” said Eric Belsky, Managing Director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and State of the World 2012 contributing author.

In his chapter, “Planning for Inclusive and Sustainable Urban Development,” Belsky calls for a new paradigm for urban planning that utilizes all levels of government to promote more livable, environmentally sensitive, economically competitive, and socially inclusive cities. Although there are formidable barriers to inclusive and sustainable development, several bold steps, such as the creation of National Urban Sustainable Planning Commission, national incentive funds, and international academic collaboration on urban planning, can be taken to overcome these challenges. “With deliberate spatial planning, we can mitigate the environmental and health risks of slum dwellers, as well as harness their potential to contribute to economic growth and move out of poverty.”

In the United States, meanwhile, more than 200 cities have developed plans for improving economic, environmental, and social sustainability, but few have established specific metrics to monitor their progress. A national indicator system would help cities more uniformly measure their success in moving toward sustainable development, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s Eugenie Birch and Amy Lynch, co-authors of “Measuring U.S. Sustainable Urban Development” in State of the World 2012.

Using indicators to monitor sustainable development of urban areas has long been on the global agenda: Agenda 21, developed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, specifically called for the development of such benchmarks. In their chapter, Birch and Lynch provide three steps to develop a national indicator system that will help U.S. cities achieve sustainability:

Start with a vision. Until 2009, when the government created the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, the United States did not have a national sustainable development agenda, much less national standards. To fill this void, the Partnership crafted and released the Livability Principles, six statements that express what is needed to create liveable communities nationwide, including affordable housing and a better mix of transportation options.

Use what already exists. The lack of standardized national indicators in the United States is due not to a dearth of developed indicators, but to a failure to align local efforts with the national vision. Effective local initiatives include the STAR Community Index, created in cooperation with numerous national organizations, including the U.S. Green Building Council. Based on 81 goals, the index helps local governments manage their sustainability performance and encompasses broad themes of environment, society, and economy, but it fails to relate directly to any national policy. Other indicator systems in use include Philadelphia’s Greenworks 2009 plan, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s 62 published economic and social indicators, and the Green City Index.

Create a national indicator database. As effective indicators are identified, they should be assessed and culminated into a national monitoring system. In 2010, the American Planning Association and the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Urban Research identified and analyzed 22 existing indicator systems with the aim of creating a Sustainable Urban Development Indicator Database. Out of the 22 systems, 145 achievable and measurable indicators were identified, with the aim of ultimately developing a national indicator database.

With effective roadmaps and political will, governments can advance the goals of sustainability, inclusion, and poverty alleviation through improved urban planning to create healthier, livable cities.

Worldwatch’s State of the World 2012, released in April 2012, focuses on the themes of inclusive sustainable development discussed at Rio+20, the 20-year follow-up to the historic Earth Summit of 1992, also held in Rio de Janeiro. The report presents a selection of innovative ideas and practices to achieve global environmental sustainability while meeting human needs and providing jobs and ensuring dignity for all.

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2012

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Rapidly Urbanizing Populations Face Unique Challenges

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 22:28:47 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines the growth rate of the global urban population and its social and health challenges

Washington, D.C.—The world’s urban population is expected to grow by 2.6 billion people between 2011 and 2050, bringing the total number of urbanites to 6.3 billion, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). This urban expansion will be especially burdensome for developing countries, where 82 percent of the world’s population currently lives, writes report author Grant Potter.

Although the developing world is less urbanized than the industrial world in relative terms, developing countries are home to an estimated 1.54 billion more people. In absolute terms, the developing world is projected to add approximately 2.45 billion people to its cities by 2050, while the industrial world is due to add just 170 million.

Within the developing world, the vast majority of this urban growth is projected to occur in Asia and Africa. Asia far outstrips Africa in total population, with 4.2 billion people in 2011 compared with Africa’s 1 billion. But these regions are also the least urbanized areas on Earth: Asia’s population was 45 percent urban in 2011, and Africa’s was only 40 percent urban. In Latin America and the Caribbean, by contrast, 78 percent of the regions’ 599 million people live in cities.

A characteristic feature of Asian urbanization is the prevalence of “megacities” that are home to more than 10 million people. In 2011, there were 23 such cities worldwide, 13 of which were Asian. By 2025, the total number of megacities is expected to reach 37—with 21 in Asia alone. Specifically, Southeast Asia is home to the most densely populated cities: approximately 16,500 people per square kilometer are squeezed into the region’s urban areas.

Cities, especially in the developing world, must find a way to provide essential services to their ever-increasing populations. When cities fail to meet these essential needs on a large scale, they create areas known as slums, where households typically lack safe drinking water, safe sanitation, a durable living space, or security of a lease. According to UN HABITAT, 828 million people in developing-world cities are considered slum dwellers—one in every three residents. Slum populations are expected to grow significantly in the future, and UN HABITAT projects that 6 million more people live in slums every year.

The World Health Organization identifies the rapid increase of urban populations, especially slum populations, as the most important issue affecting health in the 21st century. The agency cites overcrowding, lack of safe water, and improper sanitation systems as the primary factors contributing to poor health among the urban poor. Slums often become breeding grounds for diseases like tuberculosis, dengue, pneumonia, and cholera, and slum dwellers contract water-borne or respiratory illnesses at much higher rates than people in rural areas do.

Cities and their slums will continue to grow as long as rural populations continue to migrate to cities to find economic and other opportunities, such as access to cultural amenities, education, and health care.

Further highlights from the report:

Census data in 2010 indicate that cities are home to 3.5 billion people, or 50.5 percent of the global population.
The UN Population Division projects that between 2011 and 2050, the world’s population will increase by 2.3 billion people, bringing the total population to 9.3 billion
The industrialized world has little room to urbanize further: it was 78 percent urban in 2011, and by 2050 it is expected to be approximately 86 percent urban. By comparison, the developing world was only 47 percent urban in 2011, a share that could reach 64 percent by 2050.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

High Emissions, Low Ambitions

Cameron Scherer — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:29:02 +0000

The new Climate Change Performance Index published at Doha's climate talksshow another record breaking increase in global CO2 emissions

Doha, Qatar—In a time of heavily increasing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel investments, the light at the end of the tunnel cannot yet be seen. The eighth annual Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), which was published at the Doha climate talks yesterday by Germanwatch and the Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-E), ranks the climate protection performance of the 58 highest emitters worldwide. For the first time, the index used deforestation data, which resulted in a drop in rankings of countries with high forest emissions such as Brazil and Indonesia. Once again, no country made it into the first three spots on the list due to a lack of ambition to reach the goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

The Worldwatch Institute has been a long term supporter of the CCPI and this year again provided, along with other U.S.-based organizations, an assessment of the United States climate policy performance.

The two biggest emitters, the U.S. and China, are still ranked comparably low. “China's emission levels have risen, but as the massive investments in renewable energies are expected to show an effect shortly, its emissions trend could slow down in the near future and lead to better results,” said Jan Burck, Team Leader for German and European Climate Policy at Germanwatch. China is ranked 54 in this year’s index.

The United States climbed up in this year’s CCPI, from its position at 52 last year to number 43 this year. “The United States has shown a substantial decrease in emissions, both in relative and absolute terms, which is good news for the world’s climate,” said Alexander Ochs, Worldwatch Institute’s Climate and Energy Director who, together with Reese Rogers, MAP Sustainable Energy Fellow at the Institute, contributed to the report. “The scoring of the United States should be interpreted with caution, however. Reductions are, to a substantial degree, a result of the ongoing economic crisis and the relatively warm winter last year which reduced emissions from heating. Another main factor is the shift from coal to natural gas, most of which is unconventional shale gas. Only direct carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of shale gas are accounted for and methane emissions from the process of conveyance at the borehole are ignored.”

“At the same time, we start seeing the results of significant federal support for green technologies including as part of the economic recovery package and tax incentives for renewables,” said Ochs. “In addition, states and communities throughout the United States are moving ahead with policies and measures in favor of sustainable technologies and practices. It will now be important to keep these programs at all levels of governments alive while developing a truly comprehensive national climate and energy policy.As a first and most important step, subsidies for fossil fuels finally need to be eradicated that are responsible for unjustified governmental expenses and the deaths of thousands of Americans every year.”

CCPI is an instrument meant to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to encourage political and social pressure on those countries which have, up to now, failed to take ambitious actions on climate protection as well as to highlight countries with best-practice climate policies. On the basis of standardized criteria, the index evaluates and compares the climate protection performance of 58 countries that are, together, responsible for more than 90 percent of global energy-related CO₂ emissions. Eighty percent of the evaluation is based on objective indicators of emissions trend and emissions level and 20 percent of the results are built upon national and international climate policy assessments by more than 200 experts from the respective countries.

PRINT/EMAIL

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 07, 2012

—END—

Notes to Journalists: For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute: Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

About Germanwatch: Germanwatch has been actively promoting global equity and the preservation of livelihoods since 1991. In doing so, the Institute focuses on the politics and economics of the North with their worldwide consequences. The situation of marginalized people in the South is the starting point of Germanwatch’s work. Together with its members and supporters as well as with other actors in civil society, the Institute intends to represent a strong lobby for sustainable development. For more information, visit www.germanwatch.org.

About the Climate Action Network Europe (CAN-E): CAN-E is recognized as Europe‘s leading network working on climate and energy issues. With over 100 members in 25 European countries, CAN-E unites to work to prevent dangerous climate change and promote sustainable energy and environment policy in Europe. For more information, visit www.climnet.org.

Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 21:39:46 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines the role that sustainable agriculture can play in mitigating the effects of climate change

Washington, D.C.—This summer, record temperatures and limited rainfall parched vast areas of U.S. cropland, and with Earth’s surface air temperature projected to rise 0.69 degrees Celsius by 2030, global food production will be even more unpredictable, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org). Although agriculture is a major driver of human-caused climate change, contributing an estimated 25 to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, when done sustainably it can be an important key to mitigating climate change, write report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Laura Reynolds.

Because of its reliance on healthy soil, adequate water, and a delicate balance of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, farming is the human endeavor most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. But agriculture’s strong interrelationships with both climatic and environmental variables also make it a significant playerin reducing climate-altering emissions as well as helping the world adapt to the realities of a warming planet.

“The good news is that agriculture can hold an important key to mitigating climate change,” said Reynolds, Worldwatch’s Food and Agriculture Research Associate. “Practices such as using animal manure rather than artificial fertilizer, planting trees on farms to reduce soil erosion and sequester carbon, and growing food in cities all hold huge potential for reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.”

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the global agricultural sector could potentially reduce and remove 80 to 88 percent of the carbon dioxide that it currently emits. By adopting more-sustainable approaches, small-scale agriculture in developing countries has the potential to contribute 70 percent of agriculture’s global mitigation of climate change. And many of these innovations have the potential to be replicated, adapted, and scaled up for application on larger farms, helping to improve water availability, increase diversity, and improve soil quality, as well as mitigate climate change.

This report, Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production,discusses six sustainable approaches to land and water use, in both rural and urban areas, that are helping farmers and other food producers mitigate or adapt to climate change—and often both. They are:

Building Soil Fertility: Alternatives to heavy chemical use in agriculture, such as avoiding unnecessary tilling or raising both crops and livestock on the same land, can help to drastically reduce the total amount of energy expended to produce a crop or animal, reducing overall emissions.

Agroforestry: Because trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, keeping them on farms whenever possible can help mitigate climate change. Agroforestry also keeps the soil healthier and more resilient by maximizing the amount of organic matter, microorganisms, and moisture held within it. Agroforestry also provides shade for livestock and certain crops, and creates habitats for animals and insects, such as bees, that pollinate many crops.

Urban Farming: Growing food in cities can mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions released from the transport, processing, and storage of food destined for urban populations. Urban agriculture also increases the total area of non-paved land in cities, making urban landscapes more resilient to flooding and other weather shocks, while improving the aesthetic value of these landscapes.

Cover Cropping/Green Manure: Cover cropping, also known as green manure, is the practice of strategically planting crops that will deliver a range of benefits to a farming system, and often plowing these crops into the soil instead of harvesting their organic matter. Planting cover crops improves soil fertility and moisture by making soil less vulnerable to drought or heat waves. Cover crops also serve as a critical deterrent against pests and diseases that affect crops or livestock, such as corn root worm or Rift Valley fever, particularly as warmer temperatures enable these organisms to survive in environments that were previously too cold for them.

Improving Water Conservation and Recycling: Innovations in water conservation, including recycling wastewater in cities, using precise watering techniques such as drip irrigation rather than sprinklers, and catching and storing rainwater, all help to reduce the global strain on already-scarce water resources.

Preserving Biodiversity and Indigenous Breeds: Growing diverse and locally adapted indigenous crops, such as yams, quinoa, and cassava, can provide a source of income and improve farmers’ chances of withstanding the effects of climate change, such as heat stress, drought, and the expansion of disease and pest populations. Preserving plant and animal biodiversity also reduces farmers’ overreliance on a small number of commodity crops that make them vulnerable to shifts in global markets.

By tapping into the multitude of climate-friendly farming practices that already exist, agriculture can continue to provide food for the world’s population, as well as be a source of livelihood for the 1.3 billion people who rely on farming for income and sustenance.If agriculture is to play a positive role in the global fight against climate change, however, agricultural practices that mitigate or adapt to climate change will need to receive increased research, attention, and investment in the coming years.

PRINT/EMAIL | DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 04, 2012

—END—

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a complimentary copy of Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture: Supporting Climate-Friendly Food Production, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Global Irrigated Area at Record Levels, But Expansion Slowing

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 18:13:10 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines the expansion of irrigated area worldwide and its impact on natural aquifers

Washington, D.C.—In 2009, the most recent year for which global data are available from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 311 million hectares in the world was equipped for irrigation but only 84 percent of that area was actually being irrigated, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org). As of 2010, the countries with the largest irrigated areas were India (39 million hectares), China (19 million), and the United States (17 million), writes report author Judith Renner.

The irrigation sector claims about 70 percent of the freshwater withdrawals worldwide. Irrigation can offer crop yields that are two to four times greater than is possible with rainfed farming, and it currently provides 40 percent of the world’s food from approximately 20 percent of all agricultural land.

Since the late 1970s, irrigation expansion has experienced a marked slowdown. The FAO attributes the decline in investment to the unsatisfactory performances of formal large canal systems, corruption in the construction process, and acknowledgement of the environmental impact of irrigation projects.

The increasing availability of inexpensive individual pumps and well construction methods has led to a shift from public to private investment in irrigation, and from larger to smaller-scale systems. The takeoff in individual groundwater irrigation has been concentrated in India, China, and much of Southeast Asia. The idea of affordable and effective irrigation is attractive to poor farmers worldwide, with rewards of higher outputs and incomes and better diets.

“The option is often made even more appealing with offers of government subsidies for energy costs of running groundwater pumps and support prices of irrigated products,” said Renner, a senior at Fordham University in New York. “In India’s Gujarat state, for example, energy subsidies are structured so that farmers pay a flat rate, no matter how much electricity they use. But with rising numbers of farmers tapping groundwater resources, more and more aquifers are in danger of overuse.”

If groundwater resources are overexploited, aquifers will be unable to recharge fast enough to keep pace with water withdrawals. It should be noted that not all aquifers are being pumped at unsustainable levels—in fact, 80 percent of aquifers worldwide could handle additional water withdrawals. One troubling aspect of groundwater withdrawals is that the world’s major agricultural producers (particularly India, China, and the United States) are also the ones responsible for the highest levels of depletion.

Another problem with pumping water from aquifers and redirecting flows for irrigation is the impact on delicate environmental balances. Salinization occurs when water moves past plant roots to the water table due to inefficient irrigation and drainage systems; as the water table rises, it brings salts to the base of plant roots.Plants take in the water, and the salts are left behind, degrading soil quality and therefore the potential for growth.

A potentially better alternative is drip irrigation, a form of micro-irrigation that waters plants slowly and in small amounts either on the soil surface or directly on roots.Using these techniques has the potential to reduce water use by as much as 70 percent while increasing output by 20–90 percent. Within the last two decades, the area irrigated using drip and other micro-irrigation methods has increased 6.4-fold, from 1.6 million hectares to over 10.3 million hectares.

With predictions of a global population exceeding 9 billion by 2050, demand for higher agricultural output will put more strain on already fragile water reserves. Even without the effects of climate change, water withdrawals for irrigation will need to rise by 11 percent in the next three decades to meet crop production demands.Reconciling increasing food demands with decreasing water security requires efficient systems that produce more food with less water and that minimize water waste. Intelligent water management is crucial especially in the face of climate change, which will force the agriculture industry to compete with the environment for water.

Further highlights from the report:

The share of the area equipped for irrigation that is actually under irrigation ranges from 77 to 87 percent in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and in Oceania, but is only 59 percent in Europe. More reliable rainfall allows farmers in northern and eastern Europe to rely less on existing irrigation infrastructure than is the case in drier or more variable climates.
Worldwide, the most commonly used irrigation technique is flood irrigation, even though plants often use only about half the amount of water applied in that system.
India claims the lead in irrigated area worldwide, irrigating almost 2 million hectares of its land using drip and micro-irrigation techniques.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Climate-Related Migration Often Short Distance and Cyclical, Not International

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 14:00:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines global migration patterns related to climate change, and their impact on international policy

Washington, D.C.—Recent reports, as well as extreme weather events such as Superstorm Sandy, suggest that climatechange, and particularly sea-level rise, may be occurring faster than earlier anticipated. This has increased public and policy discussions about climate change’s likely impacts on the movement of populations, both internally and worldwide. Research suggests that when climate-related migration does occur, much of it is short distance and within national borders, as opposed to international, according to new analysis conducted by Lori Hunter, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, for the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs Online service (www.worldwatch.org).

Recent research has added nuance to the scientific understanding of the potential connections between climate change and human migration. Previous studies over the past two decades relied largely on descriptive data and simplistic assumptions to put forward at-times alarmist estimates of future numbers of “environmental refugees,” ranging from 150 million to 1 billion people. But such broad-sweeping generalizations mask several central issues that are important in the development of appropriate policy responses. These include:

Environmental drivers, such as changing climatic patterns, are rarely the only factor leading to migration.Rainfall shortages and heat waves interact, for example, with persistent impoverishment and land degradation, as well as political and economic pressures. In addition, in many regions women’s inability to limit their family size, combined with the unmet demand for family planning, results in unsustainable population pressures on local and natural resources.
Environmentally related migration is not new: migration has represented a livelihood strategy for millennia.In low-lying Bangladesh, for example, migration has long served as an adaptive strategy. Over two-thirds of Bangladeshis work in agriculture, forests, or fisheries—all livelihoods that depend on environmental conditions. Natural disasters plague rural Bangladesh with regular exposure to flooding as well as crop failure due to rainfall deficits, and food insecurity abounds.
Migration comes with costs—social, financial, and otherwise.People tend to be attached to their homelands, their cultures, and their ways of life, so it is likely that they will seek to remain close to home, and to maintain their accustomed patterns, to the extent possible.

“In all, climate pressures on human migration cannot be denied,” said Hunter. “Yet new data and research are shedding light on the complexities underlying migration decision making, as well as providing more precise estimates of vulnerable populations. Future estimates of potential climate-related migration must take these insights into account.”

Around the world, environmental change interacts with existing challenges, including persistent impoverishment, unsustainable livelihoods, and population pressures. Such challenges can encourage relocation in some cases, but constrain it in others. Research suggests that when climate-related movement does occur, much of it will be short distance and within national borders, as opposed to international. And, like much environmentally influenced migration, people’s movements may be cyclical as opposed to permanent. More-rapid climate change, however, could increase both the overall number of individuals who are affected and the desperation brought on by a lack of viable livelihood alternatives.

Further highlights from the report:

Over half of Africa’s urban residents are in cities located in arid zones vulnerable to water scarcity and lacking the infrastructure and resources needed to improve resilience and lessen potential outmigration.
Researchers estimate that some 20 million people in the United States will be affected by sea-level rise by 2030.
Research focused on urban vulnerability in Africa, Asia, and South America estimates the population at risk of climate change in two zones expected to experience serious impacts: low-level coastal zones, which are vulnerable to flooding and related health risks (such as cholera and diarrheal diseases), and arid drylands, where urban residents are often not adequately served by distribution systems even if water is plentiful.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Mobilizing the Global Business Community to Achieve Sustainable Prosperity

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:21:34 +0000

Worldwatch explores ways to transform and engage corporations to move toward a green, inclusive, and responsible economy

Washington, D.C.—Transnational corporations are now so numerous and in some cases so well capitalized that their global influence now rivals and in many cases exceeds that of governments, according to research published by the Worldwatch Institute.

Around 80,000 transnational corporations (TNCs) operate worldwide, a mere 147 of which control 40 percent of the total value of all these corporations’ value. Any vision of a sustainable future must include full recognition of the role that TNCs play in shaping the planet’s human and ecological destiny, authors argue in the Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

Because corporations operate with a primary purpose of increasing value for their shareholders, they have often tended to de-prioritize other fundamental concerns. In the worst instances, the pursuit of profit by corporations worldwide has led to neglect for their employees, lack of accountability in their societies, and indifference in their contribution to negative environmental effects. These failures have come under particular scrutiny since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 and the realization that financial corporations deemed “too big to fail” pose a serious threat for the economy.

In their chapter, “Reinventing the Corporation,” in State of the World 2012, Allen White and Monica Baraldi of the Tellus Institute outline four areas of needed transformation for the modern corporation:

Purpose. A company is not required to have a statement of purpose in countries that have common law traditions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The B Corp (or “benefit” corporation) is a U.S. example where participants are required to have a corporate purpose to create material positive impact on society and the environment.

Ownership. Ownership systems such as trust ownership, hybrid social enterprises, and cooperative ownership have much more potential to align their goals and values for the benefit of society and to realize that their actions form part of the larger economic system. These alternative ownership structures are flourishing around the world and provide testament to the ability of corporations to operate successfully while contributing to the benefit of society.

Capital. Historically, capital markets operated without regard to long-term social or environmental impacts or regulations. Recent efforts to embed sustainability within the investment decision-making process show that it is possible to generate significant changes in corporate sustainability behavior.

Governance. If boards can shift from a narrow focus on increasing shareholder value to a more comprehensive view of the corporation and its impacts, progress toward sustainable development can be achieved. While far from sufficient, corporate reporting is a first step in improving governance through increased transparency and long-term goal setting.

In critically thinking about corporations, it is necessary to remember that they are not islands: corporations operate within a vast economic system that includes a multitude of players and variables. Sustainable development can become a viable future when transnational corporations recognize that with their position of global influence comes responsibility to the societies and environments in which they are embedded.

The current global economic model is socially narrow and environmentally predatory, placing private interests above public ones. As such, it is unable to address the dire needs of a world burdened by a population of 7 billion people, let alone the looming threat of climate change and alarming levels of poverty. What is needed is a new economic model that draws from a new paradigm of development that is not based solely on economic growth, but rather integrates and embraces the natural limits of our planet, the need for reducing inequalities of income and opportunity, ethical principles, and the preservation of the rights of future generations.

In their State of the World 2012 chapter, “Mobilizing the Business Community in Brazil and Beyond,” authors Jorge Abrahao, Paulo Itacarambi, and Henrique Lian (all members of the governing body of the Ethos Institute) advocate for internalizing a variety of multilateral commitments to bring the world closer to the ideal global economy. These include:

Payment for Ecosystem Services. Natural resources and environmental services should come with a quantifiable, concrete price tag in order to change perceptions and the way markets function. The goal is to close the production loop—by using renewable energy inputs and generating no waste outputs—and to fully acknowledge the shared benefits from biodiversity.

Establishment of Minimum Operation Standards. Businesses—domestic and international alike—should be required to obey a certain set of standards that governs decent work, inclusion of minorities, socio-environmental practices, sustainable development, and closed-loop production.

Promotion of Sustainable Production and Consumption. Governments must take the lead in lifting the pressure off of natural resources, cutting carbon emissions, and facilitating decent work conditions through innovative strategies such as sustainable government procurement policies, research and development programs, and tax regimes. This in turn can encourage sustainable production patterns that are effectively paired with behavioral changes that start with the consumer.

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2012

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Global Meat Production and Consumption Slow Down

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:58:37 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines how disease and drought have curbed global meat production and consumption

Washington, D.C.—Global meat production rose to 297 million tons in 2011, an increase of 0.8 percent over 2010 levels, and is projected to reach 302 million tons by the end of 2012, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.worldwatch.org) for the Institute’s Vital Signs Online service. By comparison, meat production rose 2.6 percent in 2010 and has risen 20 percent since 2001. Record drought in the U.S. Midwest, animal disease outbreaks, and rising prices of livestock feed all contributed to 2011 and 2012’s lower rises in production, write report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Laura Reynolds.

Also bucking a decades-long trend, meat consumption decreased slightly worldwide in 2011, from 42.5 kilograms (kg) per person in 2010 to 42.3 kg. Since 1995, however, per capita meat consumption has increased 15 percent overall; in developing countries, it increased 25 percent during this time, whereas in industrialized countries it increased just 2 percent. Although the disparity between meat consumption in developing and industrialized countries is shrinking, it remains high: the average person in a developing country ate 32.3 kg of meat in 2011, whereas in industrialized countries people ate 78.9 kg on average.

Pork was the most popular meat in 2011, accounting for 37 percent of both meat production and consumption, at 109 million tons. This was followed closely by poultry meat, with 101 million tons produced. Yet pork production decreased 0.8 percent from 2010, whereas poultry meat production rose 3 percent, making it likely that poultry will become the most-produced meat in the next few years.

A breakdown of meat production by geographic region reveals the dramatic shift in centers of production from industrialized to developing countries over the last decade. In 2000, for example, North America led the world in beef production, at 13 million tons, while South America produced 12 million tons and Asia, 10 million tons. By 2011, North America had lowered its beef output by 200,000 tons and was overtaken by both South America and Asia, which produced 15 million and 17 million tons, respectively.

Widespread and intense drought in China, Russia, the United States, and the Horn of Africa contributed to lower meat production—and higher prices—in 2010 and 2011. The combination of high prices for meat products and outbreaks of new and recurring zoonotic diseases in 2011 curtailed global meat consumption. Zoonotic diseases, or zoonoses, are diseases that are transmitted between animals and humans. In 2011 alone, foot-and-mouth disease was detected in Paraguay, African swine fever in Russia, classical swine fever in Mexico, and avian influenza (H5N1) throughout Asia. According to a 2012 report by the International Livestock Research Institute, zoonoses cause around 2.7 million human deaths each year, and approximately 75 percent of all emerging infectious diseases now originate in animals or animal products.

Many zoonotic disease outbreaks can be traced to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), also known as factory farms. These systems now account for 72 percent of poultry production, 43 percent of egg production, and 55 percent of pork production worldwide.

“Factory farming systems contribute to disease outbreaks in several ways,” said Danielle Nierenberg, report co-author and Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project director. “They keep animals in cramped and often unsanitary quarters, providing a breeding ground for diseases; they feed animals grain-heavy diets that lack the nutrients needed to fight off disease and illness; and many CAFOs feed animals antibiotics as a preventative rather than a therapeutic measure, causing the animals—and the humans who consume them—to develop resistance to antibiotics.”

But not all livestock are reared in industrial or mechanized environments. Nearly 1 billion people living on less than $2 a day depend to some extent on livestock, and many of these people are raising animals in the same ways that their ancestors did. Reconnecting meat production to the land and its natural carrying capacity, as well as reducing meat consumption, can thus greatly improve both public and environmental health.

Further highlights from the report:

Production of both beef and sheep meat stagnated between 2010 and 2011, at 67 million and 13 million tons, respectively.
Over the last decade, meat production grew nearly 26 percent in Asia, 28 percent in Africa, and 32 percent in South America.
In 2012, drought and corn crop failures continue throughout the United States, causing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to estimate that by 2013, beef will cost 4–5 percent more than in 2010, pork 2.5–3.5 percent more, and poultry 3–4 percent more.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Degrowth Offers Alternative to Global Consumer Culture

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Worldwatch Institute highlights the dangers of overconsumption and the possibilities of economic degrowth

Washington, D.C.—If everyone lived like the average American, according to the Global Footprint Network, the Earth could sustain only 1.7 billion people—a quarter of today’s population—without undermining the planet’s physical and biological systems. Overconsumption in industrialized societies and among developing world elites causes lasting environmental and human impacts. In his chapter, “The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries,” Worldwatch Senior Fellow and State of the World 2012 Project Co-director Erik Assadourian describes the benefits and opportunities of proactive “economic degrowth”—defined as the intentional contraction of overdeveloped economies and more broadly, the redirection of economies away from the perpetual pursuit of growth.

Fixation with economic growth and increasing levels of consumption contributes to debt burdens, long working hours, increased rates of obesity, dependence on pharmaceuticals, social isolation, and other societal ills, Assadourian writes. Meanwhile, the window to prevent runaway climate change is closing, and mitigating global warming will be all but impossible without dramatic reductions in consumption and fossil fuel use. High levels of warming will result in large population shifts due to natural disasters, such as coastal flooding, prolonged drought, and the introduction of disease to new regions—a future scenario not only incompatiblewith perpetual economic growth but likely to lead to economic and societal decline.

In response to the destructive impacts of the growth-centered global economy, degrowth has begun to gain traction as an economic strategy in recent years. In Italy and France, there are now degrowth political parties, and worldwide, the third bi-annual International Degrowth Conference recently concluded in Venice with over 700 registered participants. More broadly, there is growing recognition that an end to or reversal of growth will be an essential rite of passage for global civilization as humanity comes to understand that climate change and natural resource scarcity are rooted in the impossibility of perpetual human growth in a finite biophysical environment.

Efforts to facilitate degrowth are in the early stages worldwide and range from shifting taxes and moving from private to public goods, to building Transition Towns and promoting healthier, more sustainable consumption habits, such as “Meatless Mondays” that are helping to reduce levels of meat consumption.

“Moving toward degrowth will involve redefining prosperity altogether—resurrecting traditional understandings of what this word means with regard to health, social connectedness, and the freedom to work less while still earning a livable wage,” said Assadourian. “Degrowth offers a new vision of prosperity focused on living well with less, instead of maximizing growth and consumption. It strives to establish a stable economic system that no longer transcends Earth’s limits.”

Advocates of degrowth also voice the need for equitable distribution of societal benefits. Industrialized countries will need to curb their overconsumption, while the poorest third of humanity undoubtedly will need to increase resource consumption at least modestly to improve their quality of life through improved sanitation and safe water, nutrition, shelter, and transportation. “By realigning economic priorities, policymakers can improve individual well-being, strengthen community resilience, and start to restore the Earth’s ecological systems,” said Assadourian.

In Chapter 2 of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, Assadourian details three reforms that would augment the global movement toward degrowth in industrialized societies:

Transform the consumer culture: Shifting societal norms regarding food, housing, and transportation can affect great change. To promote degrowth, governments can help normalize living in smaller homes, leading walkable lifestyles, and eating less food as well as food that is less processed and lower on the food chain. Communities can also facilitate degrowth and increase their resilience by cultivating opportunities for localized formal and informal economic activities, such as small-scale farming, child and elder care, midwifery, and helping to develop essential skills like repair and carpentry.

Distribute tax burdens more equitably:Taxes on the wealthiest sectors of societies, on polluting resources, on advertising, and on financial transactions could discourage excessive economic growth and overconsumption. This new revenue could further fund degrowth initiatives, such as goods-sharing services, or improve existing essential infrastructure (like water and sanitation services and public transit) and help build important sustainability infrastructure like green roofs, renewable energy, and bicycle paths.

Share working hours: If the real average per-capita work week were calculated, counting the unemployed, the underemployed, and people working excessive hours, it would be much shorter. Indeed, in the United Kingdom, this real average work week was 21 hours in 2010, according to the New Economics Foundation. Restructuring the work week to better distribute work hours would help reduce unemployment and poverty, while also significantly improving the quality of life of employees.

These reforms are just a few of the many initiatives that societies can implement in order to catalyze a movement toward global degrowth. Degrowth, Assadourian argues, offers a new perspective and an array of solutions to the social and environmental problems that afflict the global community today.

Worldwatch’s State of the World 2012, released in April 2012, focuses on the themes of inclusive sustainable development discussed at Rio+20, the 20-year follow-up to the historic Earth Summit of 1992, also held in Rio de Janeiro. The report presents a selection of innovative ideas and practices to achieve global environmental sustainability while meeting human needs and providing jobs and ensuring dignity for all.

PRINT/EMAIL

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2012

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

On World Food Day, Supporting Agricultural Cooperatives in the Fight Against Hunger and Poverty

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:53:56 +0000

Washington, D.C.—Some one billion people belong to cooperatives in nearly 100 countries worldwide guarding consumers, producers, and workers against hunger, bankruptcy, and rights abuses. Agricultural cooperatives help farmers access and share information, get fair prices for their goods, and participate in local decision making. This October 16, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will celebrate “agricultural cooperatives: key to feeding the world” for World Food Day.

Agricultural cooperatives are part of a larger movement to make food more environmentally and socially just and sustainable. Agroecological practices enrich soils, improve yields, increase incomes, and support the people, animals, plants, and entire ecosystems affected by agriculture.

An infographic released recently by the Christensen Fund highlights how industrial agricultural practices—including raising meat in factory farms, adding pesticides and chemical fertilizers to fields, and shipping food to markets across the globe—contributes to increased incidences of chronic diseases and severe air and water pollution.

By contrast, agroecological practices—including composting and agroforestry, conserving wildlife habitats, and selling products within a localized food system—can build resilience to climate change, increase nutritional and biological diversity, and double or triple agricultural yields over the long term.

“Agricultural cooperatives and agroecological practices go hand-in-hand to support a more sustainable food system,” said Danielle Nierenberg, Director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project. “By encouraging worker empowerment, farmer training, and consumer awareness, this year’s World Food Day theme is showcasing one of the most promising elements of a more sustainable food system.”

World Food Day is a global day of action against hunger. FAO suggests a variety of ways you can become involved in the day of action, including:

Host a World Food Day meal: As part of its GROW Method, OxfamAmerica promotes 5 very simple actions to help create a better food system: save food, eat seasonally and locally, eat less meat and dairy, support small farmers, and cook smart. If you sign up to host a meal, OxfamAmerica will send you everything you need to host a great event: free World Food Day recipe cards from famous chefs, placemats, videos, and more.
Join your local hunger coalition: The Alliance to End Hunger has created the Hunger Free Communities Network, an online platform for coalitions, campaigns, and individuals committed to ending hunger in their local communities.
Activate a school campus: Why Care? is a student-led campaign of Universities Fighting World Hunger to spark a global conversation about hunger and to build momentum to World Food Day campus events. The campaign offers several simple suggestions on how to spread the word about world hunger on a campus.
Arrange a food and fund drive: The World Food Day website can help you find your nearby food bank or pantry, and gives tips on donating food or funds to maximize your positive impact.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

Notes to Journalists:

For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 18 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Global Grain Production at Record High Despite Extreme Climatic Events

Cameron Scherer — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:00:00 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report examines rising rates of global grain production and consumption

Washington, D.C.—Global grain production is expected to reach a record high of 2.4 billion tons in 2012, an increase of 1 percent from 2011 levels, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project (www.worldwatch.org) for the Institute’s Vital Signs Online service. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the production of grain for animal feed is growing the fastest—a 2.1 percent increase from 2011. Grain for direct human consumption grew 1.1 percent from 2011, write report authors Danielle Nierenberg and Katie Spoden.

In 2011, the amount of grain used for food totaled 571 million tons, with India consuming 89 million tons, China 87 million tons, and the United States 28 million tons, according to the International Grains Council. The world relies heavily on wheat, maize (corn), and rice for daily sustenance: of the 50,000 edible plants in the world, these three grains account for two-thirds of global food energy intake. Grains provide the majority of calories in diets worldwide, ranging from a 23 percent share in the United States to 60 percent in Asia and 62 percent in North Africa.

Maize production in the United States—the largest producer—was expected to reach a record 345 million tons in 2012; however, drought in the Great Plains has altered this estimate severely. Maize yields for the 2012–13 growing season are now expected to decrease 13 percent from 2011 production, for a total production of 274.3 million tons.

The reliance on grain crops for food security is threatened by more-extreme climatic events, especially droughts and floods. According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, the World Food Programme, and Oxfam International, some 375 million people will be affected by climate change-related disasters by 2015. By 2050, the FAO notes, 10–20 percent more people will be subject to hunger based on the changing climate’s effects on agriculture, and 24 million more children are expected to be malnourished—21 percent more than if there were no climate change.

“The relationship between food security, grain production, and climate change is especially important in 2012,” said Nierenberg, a Worldwatch senior researcher and Nourishing the Planet project director. “The recent drought affecting the United States and the rest of the world show the need to reduce price volatility, move away from fossil fuel–based agriculture, and recognize the importance of women farmers to increase resilience to climate change.”

The drought taking place in the Midwest and Great Plains of the United States is considered the country’s worst in 50 years, coming close to matching the late-1930s Dust Bowl. The drought is expected to cost many billions of dollars and could top the list as one of the most expensive weather-related disasters in U.S. history. The global market will be most affected by this drought, as so much of the developing world relies on U.S. corn and soybean production. Food prices have already begun to increase due to lower yields, and price fluctuations will inevitably affect food security around the globe.

Further highlights from the report:

The FAO expects global maize production to increase 4.1 percent from 2011, reaching an estimated 916 million tons in 2012.
Global rice production achieved an all-time high of 480 million tons in 2011, a 2.6 percent increase from 2010.
World wheat production is projected to drop to 675.1 million tons in 2012, down 3.6 percent from 2011, with the largest declines in feed and biofuel utilization.
Since 1961, grain production has increased 269 percent and grain yield has increased 157 percent, while the grain harvest area has increased only 25 percent. This is due largely to the Green Revolution and the introduction of high-yielding grain varieties.

PRINT/EMAIL | PURCHASE FULL REPORT HERE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Using Information and Communications Technology to Create Cohesive, Sustainable Cities

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:44:04 +0000

The Worldwatch Institute details how information and communication technology (ICT) is promoting sustainable and inclusive cities

Washington, D.C.—More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and countries such as India and China are in need of hundreds of additional cities to accommodate growing populations. People in many cities suffer from inadequate transportation, sub-standard buildings, lack of sanitation, and poor public safety, highlighting the need for sustainable and livable urban planning. Information and communication technology (ICT) can be a useful tool in helping cities improve their safety, cleanliness, and sustainability, according to Diana Lind, contributing author to Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity.

ICT not only contributes to sustainable urban initiatives, but also encourages more environmentally conscious consumer choices. In Singapore, for example, commuters can use mobile phones to avoid hours in traffic by accessing data mapping tools that display traffic and provide alternate travel routes. Commuters can also plan trips on public transportation and be notified of delays or changes in service.

“As cities try to become more sustainable, some municipal governments are finding out just how useful ICT can be,” said Michael Renner, Worldwatch Senior Researcher and State of the World 2012 project co-director. “Cities can be run more intelligently with the help of digital infrastructure, such as motion-sensor street lamps and energy chips in transit passes that allow people to enter a subway or bus with the simple swipe of a card.”

In many cases, cities are partnering directly with businesses to boost urban sustainability. The Dutch city of Rotterdam, for example, is working with General Electric (GE) in an effort to reach the city’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent compared with 1990 levels. GE will use data visualizations, smart meters, and other technologies to optimize energy efficiency and improve water management. The use of these ICTs will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Rotterdam, which emits as much carbon dioxide as New York City, while being only a tenth of its size.

“ICT can be an excellent tool, but it is not the silver bullet solution to greening cities,” said Lind, Executive Director and Editor in Chief of Next American City, a nonprofit that promotes socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in cities in the United States. “To be effective, ICT must be used not only in mapping problems encountered across cities, but also to find sustainable solutions to those problems.”

In Lind’s State of the World 2012 chapter, “Information and Communications Technologies Creating Livable, Equitable, and Sustainable Cities,” she highlights three ways that communities can effectively use ICT to promote sustainability:

Open access to data. Improving data access is critical to creating sustainable cities. By sharing information, it is possible to make connections among seemingly disparate variables. The Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University in New York used data to establish the connection between crime and poor housing, education, and health care. By analyzing data from the criminal justice system, researchers found that a disproportionate number of felons were from specific neighborhoods in large U.S. cities. Similar research may help officials target policies around education and poverty reduction in these areas, which could help in preventing crime.

Community mapping. Mapping all neighborhoods and regions of a city is vital to ensuring effective and sustainable urban planning. Kibera, the largest slum in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, is home to approximately 1 million people. Yet Kibera has been excluded from city maps, discounting its thousands of residents. Recently, an independent team of researchers partnered with Kibera youth to create an interactive map of the slums. In 2009, the team succeeded in placing Kibera on official Nairobi maps, which resulted in a new project, Voice of Kibera, which helps citizens report the location of robberies or fires, and hold discussions by text message.

Community watch. ICTs can enhance community involvement and help authorities respond to local concerns. The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, a grassroots-mapping community based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, uses low-tech materials, including helium balloons and digital cameras, to take aerial photos of areas that may endanger public health or be of environmental concern. These tools helped identify contaminated areas in the Gulf of Mexico after a major oil spill and an illegal dumping site in Brooklyn, New York. In addition, FixMyStreet in the United Kingdom or SeeClickFix in the United States are websites where people can report concerns, such as a burned out street light. Each problem is logged on the site, making it easier for local governments to respond to issues of importance to the community.

Using ICT helps cities achieve sustainability efficiently while connecting with local communities, to ensure that diverse perspectives are included in the city’s plans.

PRINT/EMAIL

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

Notes to Journalists:

For more information and for a review copy of State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Auto Production Roars to New Records

Cameron Scherer — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 20:52:59 +0000

New Worldwatch Institute report discusses the role of China and other emerging economies in rising global automobile production and use

Washington, D.C.—Production of passenger vehicles (cars and light trucks) rose from 74.4 million in 2010 to 76.8 million in 2011—and 2012 may bring an all-time high of 80 million or more vehicles, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) for its Vital Signs Online service. Global sales of passenger vehicles increased from 75.4 million to 78.6 million over the same period, with a projected 81.8 million in 2012,writes report author and Worldwatch Senior Researcher Michael Renner. The major driver of increased production and sales are the so-called emerging economies, especially China.

Rising sales translate into ever-expanding fleets. An estimated 691 million passenger cars were on the world’s roads in 2011. When both light- and heavy-duty trucks are included, the number rises to 979 million vehicles, which was 30 million more than just a year earlier. By the end of 2012, the global fleet could top 1 billion vehicles—one for every seven people on the planet.

Electric vehicle (EV) production remains at barely perceptible levels. Although several countries have issued targets for future EV fleets, it remains to be seen whether these goals can be met. China, for instance, wants to put 5 million plug-in hybrid-electric and fully electric vehicles on its roads by 2020—which could account for more than 40 percent of the global EV fleet that year. An analysis by Deutsche Bank Climate Advisors, however, suggests that production of 1.1 million EVs and a fleet of 3.5 million in China is a more realistic projection.

“Automobiles are major contributors to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Renner. “Greater fuel efficiency, along with the use of cleaner fuels, can help mitigate these impacts, although increases in the numbers of cars and the distances driven threaten to overwhelm fuel economy advances.”

Discussions about reducing the environmental impacts of vehicles tend to focus on technical improvements, such as engines, aerodynamic design, and fuels—yet another concern is the distances traveled. Even though the United States has just 25 percent of the total population of the group of wealthy nations known as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2008 it alone accounted for just over 40 percent of the 10.3 trillion passenger-kilometers driven in all OECD member countries. Still, U.S. car travel is down slightly from its peak of 4.3 trillion passenger kilometers in 2005, to 4.1 trillion passenger kilometers in 2008.

Further highlights from the report:

The passenger vehicle fleet in China grew at an annual average rate of 25 percent during 2000–11, from fewer than 10 million cars to 73 million cars.
The top four producers of light vehicles—China, the United States, Japan, and Germany—together account for more than half of global output.
Hybrid vehicles are growing in number, but they remain below 2 percent of total vehicle output.
Car travel in non-OECD countries doubled between 1975 and 2000, but it then picked up pace by doubling again in just the decade to 2010.

Purchase the full report here. | Print/Email | Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Notes to Editors:

For a complimentary copy of this report, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

Experts Assess Future of Renewable Energy in Central America

Cameron Scherer — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:27:55 +0000

August 30, 2012 | Print/Email

The Worldwatch Institute and the INCAE Business School host high-level workshops on energy access and renewable energy potential in Central America

Washington, D.C.—The Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) and the INCAE Business School’s Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) are co-hosting two workshops on “The Way Forward for Renewable Energy in Central America” in Managua, Nicaragua and Alajuela, Costa Rica today and on September 3, respectively. The participative dialogues will promote the exchange of ideas and experiences among a select group of experts from regional institutions, civil society organizations, energy sector companies, and government agencies. The workshops will focus on the role of renewable energy technologies in broadening access to modern energy services and achieving regional development.

The Central American countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama rely heavily on large hydropower, imported petroleum, and traditional biomass for their energy supply. This dependence on conventional energy sources has had wide-ranging and adverse social, environmental, and economic impacts, hampering sustained and sustainable development in the region.Energy needs, particularly of marginalized and low-income communities, have not been sufficiently met. Although Central American governments have embraced various policies to promote renewable energy—and recent trends in geothermal, wind, and solar energy have been encouraging—the region still faces many challenges in advancing renewables to their full potential.

With support from the Climate Development Knowledge Network and the Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America, Worldwatch and the INCAE Business School are partnering to design “sustainable energy roadmaps” that help decision makers in the region implement an improved transitional strategy toward an energy system that is socially, environmentally, and economically superior to the one that currently exists. The goal is to help Central America continue to harness its immense potential to utilize renewable energy sources such as wind, geothermal, solar, biomass, and small-scale hydropower.

During the workshops, Worldwatch and other experts will present and discuss initial findings of the roadmap project, enabling completion of Phase 1 of the project. The goals of this first phase are: to scope existing market trends, given investment conditions and implemented policies; to identify renewable energy success stories that can be replicated elsewhere in the region and discuss what is needed for their scale-up; and to analyze the technical, socio-economic, and political/financial “cold spots” where future data gathering and analysis can add to the information needed to make successful policy choices. In Phase 2, the project team will propose concrete steps toward rapidly expanding the adoption of renewable energy technologies in Central America, and communicate these to key decision makers.

Experts from a range of renewable energy and policy professions, including representatives from the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Nicaragua, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America, and the EAP, among others, will present best-practice case studies as well as recommendations on how to replicate such examples. Workshop participants will discuss individual suggestions in break-out groups or ‘action labs.’ The involvement of leading thinkers in the project will extend beyond the single-day events through ongoing participation in the project’s future activities as well as a moderated online forum, enabling the formation of a community of experts committed to advancing renewable energy in Central America.

“This project is a joint effort aimed at speeding the development of renewables in Central America,” said Alexander Ochs, Director of Worldwatch’s Climate and Energy Program. “Key energy experts will gather in one room to discuss Nicaragua’s and the region’s challenges and opportunities in embracing renewables, discussing state-of-the-art reforms as well as areas of local, national, and regional best practices.”

“It’s not just that all countries will need to contribute to mitigating and adapting to global climate change,” continued Ochs. “Central America can become a real leader on renewables, given the high price it pays for its current energy system—some countries spend 10 percent or more of their GDP on importing fossil fuels. The region has also had exciting early experiences with adopting new, unconventional renewable technologies, including geothermal, solar, biomass, and wind technologies.”

The first workshop will take place at the INCAE Business School’s Managua campus from 9:00 a.m.to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 30, 2012.

The second workshop will take place at the INCAE Business School’s Alajuela’s campus from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Monday, September 3, 2012.

Notes to Journalists:

For more information, please contact Supriya Kumar at skumar@worldwatch.org.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. Worldwatch's Climate and Energy program identifies key components of energy and transportation systems that aim to de-carbonize the global economy, boost energy efficiency, spur innovation and job creation, address resource scarcity, and reduce local environmental pollution. For more information, visitwww.worldwatch.org.

About the INCAE Business School:

The INCAE Business School is a private, nonprofit, multinational, higher education organization devoted to teaching and research endeavors in the fields of business and economics. The Latin American Center for Competitiveness and Sustainable Development (CLACDS) is INCAE’s principal research and impact center, and has a long history of collaboration with regional and international organizations in the promotion of sustainability in the energy sector through the development of case studies, promotion of dialogue, and training activities. For more information, visit www.incae.edu/en.

About Climate Development Knowledge Network:

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network supports decision makers in designing and delivering climate compatible development. This is done by combining research, advisory services and knowledge management in support of locally owned and managed policy processes. The organization works in partnership with decision-makers in the public, private and non-governmental sectors nationally, regionally and globally.For more information, visit www.cdkn.org/.

About the Energy and Environment Partnership in Central America: The Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America is an initiative launched during the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002. The Energy and Environment Partnership with Central America objectives are to promote the sustainable use of the renewable energy sources and clean technologies through the development of accessible energy services, for the most underprivileged groups from rural areas in the region and to support the three bases of the sustainable development: the economic, the social, and the environmental. For more information, visit www.sica.int/energia/index_en.aspx?Idm=2&IdmStyle=2.