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![With less than 10 years to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5˚C and only 10 years to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, it is critical to bring together leaders across industry, government, and civil society to shift the global economy more aggressively toward circularity. Photo: Pavlo Glazkov/Shutterstock Modern sustainable neighborhood in Almere, The Netherlands. The city heating in the district is partially powered by a solar panel island. Aerial view.](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_netherlands_solar.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=yxZXDapj)
The world needs a circular economy. Help us make it happen
The circular economy could be a $4.5 trillion business opportunity.
Only 9% of the global economy is circular at present.
The Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy is helping to speed this transition.
As policy-makers worldwide respond to a rising tide of climate activism and…
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![The authors co-chair the Earth Commission, which will spend the next three years compiling a high-level synthesis of knowledge on the processes that regulate the planet’s stability and underpin biodiversity and life-supporting land, water, and oceanic systems. It will also provide a scientific synthesis of the social transformations required to sustain the development of human societies within a safe planetary operating space. Photo: NASA. Earth from space](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/nasa_earth_sunrise.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=DyFlfq57)
Earth system alert
In response to growing public demand, policymakers and business leaders are increasingly uniting around shared commitments to reduce planet-warming greenhouse-gas emissions. But while phasing out fossil fuels is necessary, ensuring humanity's long-term survival will also require far-reaching…
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![All of us in the supply chain have the information we need to make more informed decisions about the social and environmental changes required. But we, and the rest of the sector, need to go much further and more quickly. To do so, we also need the help of others. Photo: ABO Photography/Shutterstock. Basket of vegetables](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_food_blog.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=2D3mj7a9)
Producing sustainable food is every company's business
Businesses of all kinds must be prepared to help re-imagine the world’s food system, which is not fit for purpose
Are you reading this with a cup of coffee, a piece of chocolate or maybe even a protein bar with nuts and puffed rice? There is a good chance that the coffee beans, cocoa, nuts or…
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![Cities are already taking action. More than 50 cities across the globe are now working together, through the EAT C40 Food Systems Network, to create healthier and more sustainable urban food systems. Photo: saiko3p/Shutterstock. Oslo harbor at the Aker Brygge neighbourhood in Oslo](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_telegraph_oslo.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=PLzf0Eo1)
Can cities change the world through what they eat?
Shifting to healthier and more sustainable diets will benefit people and the planet – and build prosperity
Three years ago, our city of Oslo was the first to introduce a “climate budget”. The city government budgets its emissions like it budgets its money. Long-term political promises become…
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![Next year is expected to mark the tipping point when Asia’s economies surpass the rest of the world in terms of purchasing power parity. But the bigger and inarguably more transformative impact will come not from this greater prosperity, but from Asia’s opportunity to embrace and drive sustainable development. Photo: BatmanV/Shutterstock. Deforested area](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_telegraph_deforestation.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=9ZL5KiLb)
Sustainable development in Asia: seeing both the forests and the trees
As the continent comes to dominate the global economy, it will do much to determine the fate of the global commons
As a young Asian business leader, it is fascinating to be part of an important transformation – the rise of Asia in the global economy.
Next year is expected to mark the tipping…
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![Alternative approaches need a major change of mindset and a paradigm shift to design a new food ecosystem based on agroecology principles, requiring different kinds of crop planting practices, mechanisation and aggregation of commodities. Photo: LALS STOCK/Shutterstock. Combine in wheat field](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_blog_wheat_field.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=b-SKcybc)
We need a new approach to growing and consuming food
Food wastage must be reduced, consumer preferences must change and farmers must be weaned on to ecologically sustainable practices
From consumers in London to drought-prone farmers in central India, nobody needs convincing that climate is changing for the worse. But policymakers are failing to…
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![Fishery improvement projects (FIPs) bring together businesses, vessel owners, NGOs and governments to identify environmental challenges in a fishery and develop an action plan to address them. Photo: J'nel/Shutterstock. Tuna amongst prey. Photo: J'nel/Shutterstock.](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_telegraph_tuna_blog.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=8v42mnZ4)
Needed: an ecosystem of partners to support ocean health
Global co-operation, with businesses playing a critical role, is needed to transform the seafood industry
It is estimated that approximately three billion people around the world rely on seafood for their primary source of protein, making flourishing oceans an integral part of the global…
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![We are in the middle of a disruptive digital transformation that compels us to update traditional business models. We need to create an entirely new model for the chemical industry – one we might term “chemistry and materials as a service.\" Photo: Tong Nawarit/Shutterstock. Woman using a microscope. Photo: Tong Nawarit/Shutterstock.](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_scientist_microscope_blog.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=4hgMXhHz)
Business should ensure the well-being of people and the planet
Innovation, sustainability and the efficient use of capital are mutually reinforcing
More and more private companies are incorporating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their operating strategies and using them as business opportunities.
Approved by the UN General…
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![Human activity has “significantly altered” 75 per cent of land and 66 per cent of oceans, mainly through food production. Photo: Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock. A shallow seagrass meadow surrounds a tropical island on the Mesoamerican barrier reef off the coast of Belize. Photo: Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock.](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_seagrass_global_commons.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=PN-pTEjT)
Three steps to meeting the climate and nature emergency
We must make the most of a super-year in 2020 for saving the global commons next year
There are growing calls to declare climate and nature emergencies. But are these justified? The latest scientific assessments on the state of Earth’s climate and biodiversity provide robust evidence.
The…
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![Madagascar is the world’s leading producer of vanilla. Fanamby has initiated a programme for the crop which aims to support farmers in producing good-quality vanilla with sure access to international markets, but without it being their only source of revenue. This programme also aims to promote gender equality by involving the leadership of strong women producers. Photo: Pierre-Yves Babelon/Shutterstock. A malagasy farmer and son in their plantation of vanilla near Sambava, east of Madagascar. Photo: Pierre-Yves Babelon/Shutterstock.](/sites/default/files/styles/listing_image_290x218/public/shutterstock_malagasy_vanilla_farmer.jpg?h=e85f6c07&itok=uhZA9pQb)
Conserving nature boosts farmer incomes and cuts poverty
Local communities need to be engaged when it comes to using their natural resources sustainably
Madagascar, island of a thousand wonders, is well known for its many endemic species of plants and animals. With more than 13 million hectares (more than 50,000 sq miles) of forest, it is home to more…