News

  • Paying for rainforests: current PLoS research on the economic valuation of ecosystem services

    By Katie Barry. Originally published by PLOS Ecology Community. Man-made climate change and large-scale alteration of the landscape are affecting the planet and the ecosystem services upon which humans depend.  These alterations include loss of forests that were once large carbon sinks, loss of pollination services provided by bees, loss of ecosystem resilience in the face […]

  • Done sensibly, agricultural development can reduce poverty in Africa

    Channing Arndt, United Nations University; Andy Mckay, University of Sussex, and Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen The recovery and acceleration of economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa since about 1995 has been widely recognised. But less is known about the extent to which this growth has led to improvements in welfare and poverty reduction in particular. […]

  • Why investing in forests is money — and time — well spent

    By Tone Skogen (Norway). Originally published by The World Bank’s Voices: Perspectives on Development Blog. It is widely acknowledged that reducing emissions from deforestation could bring about one-third of the greenhouse gas emission reductions we need by 2030 to stay on a 2-degrees trajectory. But protecting and managing forests wisely does not only make sense from […]

  • Four months after Paris, climate action needs a push and financing

    By Donna Barne (WB). Originally published by The World Bank’s Voices: Perspectives on Development Blog. The world must move quickly to fulfill the promise of the climate change agreement reached in Paris four months ago and accelerate low-carbon growth, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said on the opening day of the Spring Meetings. More […]

  • Transparency in agricultural supply chains is key to protecting Amazon’s resources

    By Toby Gardner (SEI). Contributions by Caspar Trimmer and Javier Godar (SEI); Helen Bellfield, Rachel Mountain, Alex Morrice, David Sabogal (GCP). Originally published by the Global Canopy Programme blog.  Internationally traded agricultural commodities – such as soy, beef and oil palm – are a multi-billion-dollar segment of the global economy and play a key role […]

  • Brazil: Its Forest Capital and a Promising Future in the Production of Food, Fiber, and Energy

    By Roberto Waack (AB). Originally published by The World Bank’s Latin America & Caribbean blog. The Brazilian agribusiness and forest sectors, aware that the world economy is finding new ways to incorporate carbon into the value equation, have formed an unprecedented alliance, the Brazil Climate, Forest, and Agriculture Coalition (Coalizão Brasil Clima, Florestas e Agricultura). […]

  • Development banks threaten to unleash an infrastructure tsunami on the environment

    Bill Laurance, James Cook University We are living in the most explosive era of infrastructure expansion in human history. The G20 nations, when they met in Australia in 2014, argued for between US$60 trillion and US$70 trillion in new infrastructure investments by 2030, which would more than double the global total value of infrastructure. Some […]

  • Stirred, not shaken: blended finance for climate action

    By Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante (IFC). Originally published by The World Bank’s Development in a Changing Climate blog.  Today, over 80 million tons of CO2 will be emitted from economies around the world. Tomorrow will be the same, as will the day after that. The emitted amounts of CO2 will likely stay in the atmosphere for hundreds, if […]