Urban planning and development in Africa has been fraught with many challenges. A study of Accra and Nairobi provides some lessons on what needs to improve.
If we want the Sustainable Development Goals to be more than just big dreams, Africa will need well trained engineers who can put their skills to good use in their own communities.
After two years of negotiations, the UN Sustainable Development goals will be adopted today. How can society and government actually end poverty and achieve other lofty goals?
Health has secured its place as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. But without clear mechanisms to report, finance or engage other sectors, could more end up as less?
By championing economic growth, the Sustainable Development Goals are a barely disguised defence of the market fundamentalism that underpins business-as-usual. But in an age of planetary limits, sustained economic growth is not the solution to our social and environmental ills, but their cause.
Later this week, world leaders will gather at the United Nations in New York and adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals to guide global development.
A survey of OECD nations puts Australia 18th out of 34 on progress towards the world’s new sustainability goals. It scores well on quality of life, but lets itself down on - you guessed it - climate.
The ‘linear economy’ that drove 20th-century leaps in wealth is no longer sustainable, and our standard of living will not survive without a dramatic redesign.
What does your vision of a sustainable future look like? Some people imagine a world where technology solves the world’s most pressing environmental problems.
Despite improvements, there are still millions of people without adequate sanitation in Africa. Sustainable solutions that can be replicated elsewhere are being developed in South Africa.
China’s formal climate target shows that the world’s largest greenhouse emitter is determined to green its economy on an unprecedented scale - and that it can bring the rest of the world along for the ride.
Professor of Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute and School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand