Issues & Trends

(Reuters) - China is poorly prepared to tackle the impact of climate change that presents a serious threat to the country, thanks to a lack of planning and public awareness, the government said on Monday.

Renewable energy forecaster 3TIER has made its wind and solar annual averages available via the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)’s Global Renewable Energy Atlas, an open-access online platform.

3TIER plans the data to be used to aid the UN Sustainable Energ

LONDON: An average American was responsible for generating 29.8 kg of hi-tech trash last year - six times higher than China's per capita figure of 5.4 kg. 

Climate change will pose sharp risks to the world’s food supply in coming decades, potentially undermining crop production and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar, scientists have found.

The world's oceans are becoming acidic at an "unprecedented rate" and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years.

In their strongest statement yet on the issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100.

Health disparities between rich and poor nations could be banished in a generation by investment in research, vaccines and drugs to combat diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, global health experts said on Tuesday.

DAKAR, 16 August 2013 (IRIN) - Mobile phone, geographic information systems (GIS), Twitter and other technologies are increasingly being used to warn communities of potential crises and inform them how to prepare, and to help governments and aid agencies predict how emergencies may unfold. 

Africa currently imports almost 40 billion dollars worth of food a year, but it should implement measures to attract private sector investment in agriculture in order to reduce its food import bill and increase its self-reliance, experts in the sector tell IPS.

Africa faces climate adaptation costs in the range of $7 billion to $15 billion per year by 2020, and that figure could rise to around $350 billion annually by 2070 if global warming exceeds 2 degrees Celsius, a U.N. report said on Tuesday.

Access to improved sanitation can increase cognition in children, according to a new World Bank study, the latest research to link stunting and open defecation.

More than 2.5 billion people worldwide lack access to toilets, and one billion people practice open defecation.