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The document examines the historical evolution of poverty definitions and the growing recognition of the link between poverty and environmental degradation. It highlights how climate change, conflict, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbate systemic inequalities and push millions into poverty. The author argues that current global systems cannot provide acceptable living standards for all without exceeding planetary boundaries unless the wealthiest 10% of the population reduce their excessive resource consumption. The briefing recommends that governments shift from GDP-focused economic indicators to national wellbeing indices that incorporate the environment and marginalized groups.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces a 'paradox of plenty,' where immense natural resources coexist with extreme poverty and poor human development indicators. On its current trajectory, the DRC is projected to remain a low-income country with stagnant per capita income and high poverty rates through 2050. Key constraints include endemic corruption, a massive infrastructure deficit in electricity and transport, and a high fertility rate that hinders the demographic dividend. The report models several intervention scenarios, finding that while agricultural improvements offer short-term poverty relief, long-term prosperity depends on structural economic transformation and improved governance. A combined comprehensive scenario suggests that concerted action across governance, infrastructure, human capital, and agriculture could reduce the extreme poverty rate to 9.6% by 2050.

The report examines the Combined Exclusive Maritime Zone for Africa (CEMZA), a proposed 'maritime space without barriers' intended to enhance geostrategic, economic, and security benefits across the African Maritime Domain. While the author argues that CEMZA is compatible with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) if treated as a framework for cooperative governance rather than a replacement for national sovereignty, significant hurdles remain. These include the fact that less than half of Africa's coastal states have fully utilised UNCLOS to maximise their maritime zones, the existence of unresolved territorial and boundary disputes, and a historical gap between African Union norm-setting and actual treaty implementation. The report suggests that CEMZA should focus on joint enforcement jurisdiction and resource management, drawing on successful bilateral delimitation and joint-development examples from the continent.

The document examines Ghana's history of energy crises and its strategic shift toward nuclear energy to support industrialisation. It details the country's existing nuclear research capabilities, the challenges posed by political instability, and the progress made through IAEA infrastructure reviews.

The Union of Concerned Scientists' toolkit outlines a framework for strengthening science advocacy by building solidarity with marginalized groups, adopting anti-racist practices, and leveraging community-led research to influence policy and combat misinformation.

The document traces the transition from the 2000 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting the shift toward a more universal, integrated, and human-rights-based approach. While the MDGs successfully increased official development assistance and reduced extreme poverty, they were criticized for ignoring the multidimensional causes of poverty and environmental factors. The SDGs expanded this scope to 17 goals and 169 targets, integrating climate action via the Paris Agreement and financing through the Addis Ababa Action Agenda. The brief concludes that although COVID-19 has reversed progress on poverty and education, the SDGs offer the best roadmap for a resilient recovery, provided that governments utilize timely, disaggregated data to target the most vulnerable populations.

GreenLatinos welcomes President Biden's climate executive actions as a necessary shift from previous policies, noting that climate change threatens national security and public health. The organization advocates for environmental justice to be central to climate action, specifically to protect the health and livelihoods of Latino communities.

The Green Economy Coalition asserts that the COVID-19 crisis provides a unique opportunity for a radical economic break, urging governments to implement a green recovery that integrates short-term stimulus with long-term structural reforms. The author warns that current recovery efforts are often insufficiently green and risk accelerating climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. To prevent this, the document proposes six strategic recommendations, including the creation of a strategic guide for governments, fostering societal debate, aligning financial criteria, encouraging leadership from G7 and G20 nations, ensuring transparency, and improving global communications.

The project focuses on the Katari watershed in Bolivia, where high-altitude wetlands known as "bofedales" are critical for regulating water balance and supplying drinking water to La Paz and El Alto. These ecosystems are currently deteriorating due to climate change, glacier retreat, rapid urbanization, overgrazing, and mining-related groundwater extraction. To address this, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is using multi-temporal remote sensing data from 1984-2020 and the WEAP modelling platform to establish eco-hydrological baselines and evaluate potential conflicts between urban water demands and the preservation of these wetlands.

The guide argues that water and food security decisions must be accompanied by social analyses to identify and protect vulnerable groups based on sex, ethnicity, income, and race. It outlines the core objectives of social analysis, such as ensuring inclusivity in decision-making and protecting customary rights to land and water. The text illustrates potential negative impacts through scenarios, including the increased burden on women in Malawi and the marginalization of pastoralists in the Sahel. It further warns that irrigation projects in Bangladesh and Pakistan can divert domestic water to farms, and that large-scale infrastructure, such as India's UKP dam, can cause mass displacement. To support these analyses, the document lists resources from organizations like the World Bank, FAO, and UNDP, and provides a framework of critical questions regarding who benefits from and who is adversely impacted by development projects.

The IISD reviewed 32 food system visualizations (FSVs) from 1998 to 2020, finding that most are explanatory tools designed to illustrate the complexity of food systems by linking production, external drivers, and outcomes. While most FSVs focus on agricultural production and value chains, policy and governance are typically listed as influencing factors rather than primary subjects. The review found that just under one-fifth of the FSVs cover all four targets of SDG 2 (zero hunger), and only 16% specifically address food system resilience.

The Biden-Harris administration has issued a series of executive orders to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks, focusing on rejoining the Paris Agreement, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, and reviewing methane and fuel economy standards. The administration is also reviewing chemical safety regulations, water protections, and wilderness conservation, including a moratorium on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. These actions are intended to restore science-based policy and environmental justice across federal agencies including the EPA, Department of Energy, and Department of the Interior.

The January 6 Capitol attacks damaged the United States' reputation as a democratic leader, prompting various nations to reconsider their reliance on U.S. leadership. While the UK sees an opportunity for a values-based partnership under Joe Biden, Brazil's President Bolsonaro has aligned himself with Trumpism, potentially hindering cooperation on climate change. South Africa views the events as a cautionary tale regarding democratic fragility and a reinforcement of U.S. racial inequality. Turkey expects a return to predictable diplomacy but notes the need for humility in U.S. human rights advocacy. India and other Quad members may pursue more autonomous regional initiatives to counter authoritarianism, specifically from China, due to perceived U.S. domestic dysfunction.

The document describes a methodological effort to integrate Robust Decision Support (RDS) into Bolivia's National Watershed Policy, specifically for the Rocha River Basin Master Plan. It aims to provide stakeholders with tools to analyze interactions between water management interventions, manage hydrologic risks, and mitigate conflicts across different sectors and regions in the face of climate-induced water scarcity.

The author argues that Donald Trump pursued a 'herd immunity' approach to Covid-19 not for epidemiological reasons, but to frame public health measures as Democratic-led attacks on the working class and small business owners. By dismissing scientific expertise and associating mask-wearing with weakness, Trump leveraged the pandemic as a campaign tool to solidify support among his base, particularly the less-educated petite bourgeoisie, by presenting a choice between public health and employment.

The document calls for a shift from a destructive extractive model to one that prioritises human well-being and environmental preservation. It highlights the severe impacts of mining on water, soil, and air, and emphasizes that global coal use must drop by 80% in the next decade to maintain a 1.5°C temperature limit. In South Africa, failure to adapt could lead to interior temperature increases of up to 7°C by 2100, threatening health and agriculture.

The briefing argues that while climate change is unlikely to be the primary ideological driver for terrorist groups, it acts as a risk multiplier. It identifies three channels of impact: the creation of recruitment opportunities due to food and livelihood insecurity; the erosion of state legitimacy when governments fail to respond effectively to climate-induced disasters; and the security instabilities caused by the global energy transition, which may strand assets in hydrocarbon-exporting states and increase the value of critical minerals in fragile regions.

The Council on Strategic Risks condemns the violent attempt to obstruct the 2020 U.S. presidential election certification on January 6th. The Council asserts that while the attack was fueled by political actors and falsehoods, it was also the result of broader systemic risks—such as environmental degradation, climate change, and economic devastation—that create conditions for democratic erosion and instability globally.

The paper explores 'Buen Vivir', an indigenous-rooted concept from Latin America that challenges anthropocentrism and infinite economic growth. It examines the concept's formal introduction into EU-Latin American relations via a 2015 EuroLat resolution and contrasts it with the 'Green Economy' and 'European Green Deal', which the authors argue maintain a growth-centric logic. While governmental adoption in Europe remains limited, the text identifies local 'post-developmentalist' practices in countries like Spain, Greece, and the Netherlands—such as agroecology and the recognition of nature's rights—as aligned with Buen Vivir principles.

The authors highlight a gap in the understanding of how soil microbiota influence peatland functioning and the recovery of ecosystem services. They propose a phased approach to research: short-term characterization of microbial communities, medium-term definition of 'target' microbiomes for carbon cycle services, and long-term application of this knowledge to restoration practices. The paper emphasizes that multidisciplinary collaboration and genetic characterization are essential to meeting climate targets and ensuring cost-effective ecosystem service delivery.