Why, after decades of international agreements, are we still damaging the environment? New research, looking at dozens of unsuccessful policies, has uncovered the basic elements of failure.
Community participation is vital to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. But at the moment it often comes too little, too late.
N'da Yao Messou is president of a cocoa farmers’ association in Niable, eastern Ivory Coast. Women’s right to development has a long way to go.
Reuters/Thierry Gouegnon
Natural capital is a hot topic that proponents have jumped onto, believing it is the future of sustainable development. But this concept is based on fundamental fallacies.
Climate action by Australia affects all of Sustainable Development Goals, including those on water.
Pushpendra Maheshwari
When Australia joins the 71st UN General Assembly, it will reflect on its progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. But where do we start to achieve these complex and interlinked ambitions?
Accustomed to abundant, convenient food supplies, Australians have a complacent attitude to urban food security.
AAP/Dan Peled
The draft agenda for the UN urban development conference in Quito neglects the food systems on which the wellbeing of the world’s 4 billion city dwellers depends.
A distinctive feature of the New Urban Agenda is that it redefines informal settlements, such as Dharavi in Mumbai, India, as an asset based on their potential to promote economic growth.
YGLvoices/flickr
Hayley Henderson, The University of Melbourne; Alexei Trundle, The University of Melbourne; André Stephan, The University of Melbourne; Hesam Kamalipour, The University of Melbourne, and Melanie Lowe, The University of Melbourne
More than 25,000 delegates will meet in Quito in October to set out a New Urban Agenda for the UN, to be implemented over the next 20 years. But Australia is yet to play a major role in the process.
The world’s use of finite resources continues to rise as global development continues. Can we help poorer nations raise their standard of living without exhausting all of our raw materials?
Does Nauru now face a sunnier outlook?
Saleem H. Ali
Nauruans used to be some of the richest people in the world, before their mining industry imploded. Now, as the island aims to develop sustainably, there are signs of the green shoots of recovery.
A 17th-century folding screen depicting the early Edo period on the site of modern-day Tokyo.
Wikipedia
Edo, which gave rise to Tokyo, was also the world’s largest city three centuries ago. Facing ecological collapse, Edo developed a culture and practices that supported sustainable living.
While Melbourne City Council is responsible for the CBD, governance of the vast area of metropolitan Melbourne is poorly co-ordinated between 31 councils in all.
Alex Proimos/Flickr
Governance of metropolitan Melbourne is fragmented among 31 city councils. All levels of government need to work towards creating a metropolitan authority to meet the challenges of a growing city.
Major development banks are funding logging, mining and infrastructure projects that are having enormous impacts on nature. Here, forests are being razed along a newly constructed road in central Amazonia.
William Laurance
Big new investors such as the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank are key players in a worldwide infrastructure, and that could be bad news for the environment.
Australia has isolated sustainable development projects, like Adelaide’s Bowden precinct that got Princes Charles’ attention in 2015, but lacks an overarching commitment to sustainability.
AAP
The challenges we face demand profound changes in our thinking and priorities. Replacing the Productivity Commission with a National Sustainability Commission would help us make this paradigm shift.
Traffic jams in major African cities such as Lagos, pictured here, as well as Uganda’s Kampala, are a major drain on productivity.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
Kampala generates about 60% of Uganda’s GDP. In the coming decade urbanisation is the single largest opportunity to spur economic growth in the coming decade.
The Open Government Partnership can play an important part by increasing trust among citizens and public accountability in Africa.
shutterstock
The Open Government Partnership promotes transparency, public accountability and civic participation in government to combat corruption. It is hoped South Africa will help it grow in Africa.
Road development for logging in the Congo Basin.
William Laurance
While everyone needs access to proper sanitation to stay healthy, for girls and women it is also an issue of safety and equal participation in society.
Professor of Global Change and Sustainability Research Institute and School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand