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	The global economic model has failed working people. It is time for a New Social Contract by International Trade Union Confederation, agencies   The global economic model has failed working people. The power and greed of global corporations have captured governments, which now act against the rights and security of their own workers and in favour of multinationals.   In global supply chains, 94 per cent of the workforce faces poor working conditions and exploitation due to complex business contracts that make oversight difficult.   The world is richer than ever before, yet 70% of people are denied universal social protection, 84% of people say the minimum wage is not enough to live on and 79% of countries have allowed violations of the right to collectively bargain. This is inequality by design. Corporate greed entrenches inequality, exclusion and despair perpetuating instability for our communities and our planet. It is time for a New Social Contract.   A New Social Contract would ensure rights were respected, jobs were decent with minimum living wages and collective bargaining, social protection was universal, due diligence and accountability were driving business operations, and that social dialogue ensured Just Transition measures for climate and technology.   We reject the concept of workers as just another productive resource to be exploited. Therefore, the New Social Contract comprises six key elements that define social relations in the world of work and place the human dimension at the centre of socioeconomic development.   Jobs: Governments must work for full employment and decent work, including measures that formalise the informal economy and invest in quality, climate-friendly jobs supported by Just Transitions.   Rights: Governments and employers must ensure business complies with fundamental labour rights as enshrined in ILO (International Labour Organization) conventions and declarations. These include freedom of association, collective bargaining, non-discrimination and equal pay, the abolition of child and forced labour, and occupational health and safety. These rights must apply to all workers, irrespective of their employment arrangements or migration status.   Just wages: Governments must ensure minimum living wages to allow workers a basic level of dignity, as well as strengthened collective bargaining at all levels. They must ensure equal pay for work of equal value between women and men and pay transparency.   Social protection: Governments must ensure universal, well-financed, rights-based and gender-responsive social protection systems, as well as vital public services including health, care, and education. Fair taxation is central for funding these services and for reducing income inequality.   Equality: Governments must address the inequalities that exist between groups in terms of income, gender and race through robust anti-discrimination legislation and enforcement. Gender biases must be tackled in law and policy to ensure a world of work that is free of gender-based violence and harassment in line with ILO C190.   Inclusion: Governments must ensure all processes are democratic and that social dialogue is embedded in all economic policy discussions so that workers have a say in the decisions that impact their everyday lives.   "Around the world, workers are being denied the basics of life like well-funded hospitals and schools, living wages, and freedom to move, while billionaires pocket record profits and unimaginable power," said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the ITUC. "A system built for the 0.0001% is rigged against the rest of us—but workers around the world are standing up and organizing to take back democracy."   "Workers are demanding a New Social Contract that works for them—not the billionaires undermining democracy," said Triangle. "Fair taxation, strong public services, living wages, and a just transition are not radical demands—they are the foundation of a just society."   Hundreds of thousands of workers rallied in cities and towns across the United States in what the May Day Strong coalition called "a demand for a country that invests in working families—not billionaire profits."   "Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," the coalition said. "This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."   "Just one day after the 100th day of the Trump administration, families nationwide are already facing cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and education—while billionaires reap massive tax breaks and record profits. President Donald Trump's administration has spent the past three months working to secure $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy. They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services and attacking unions " May Day Strong added.   May Day marches and rallies were held in countries including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Spain, Greece, the Philippines, Turkey, and Japan..   http://www.ituc-csi.org/a-new-social-contract http://www.ituc-csi.org/May-Day-2025-en http://etuc.org/en/pressrelease/may-day-make-workers-priority http://www.ituc-csi.org/The-greatest-threat-to-democracy-in-80-years http://www.ituc-csi.org/global-rights-index http://www.equaltimes.org/under-neoliberal-fire-the-right-to http://www.france24.com/en/business/20250501-live-workers-worldwide-rally-for-rights-social-justice-at-may-day-protests http://www.wiego.org/news/may-day-2025-storms-dont-break-us-they-build-us/ http://www.wiego.org/news/ten-years-after-r204-rights-based-formalization/ http://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/global-ceo-pay-increased-50-percent-2019-56-times-more-worker-wages http://www.oxfam.org/en/research/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism http://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-trafficking-and-slavery/global-inequality-is-the-world-banks-elephant-in-the-room/   http://www.socialeurope.eu/democracy-under-siege-trade-unions-rise-as-a-bulwark-against-the-far-right http://peopleoverprof.it/resources/news/new-research-debunks-claim-that-lower-corporate-taxes-create-more-jobs-?id=15858&lang=en http://www.socialeurope.eu/trumps-america-the-new-global-tax-haven http://www.socialeurope.eu/how-the-billionaire-boom-is-fueling-inequality-and-threatening-democracy http://www.socialeurope.eu/how-trumps-tariff-regime-fuels-global-oligarchy http://populardemocracyinaction.org/publication/trumps-corporate-oligarchs-billionaires-cash-in-while-working-people-pay-the-price/   May 2025   Pushed to the brink by heat and injustice, South Asia’s workers demand reparations from fossil fuel corporations, by Amruta S Nair and Sandeep Verma. (Greenpeace India, agencies)   As extreme weather events become the new normal, informal workers across South Asia are bearing the growing brunt of intersecting crises. Labour rights violations and poor social protections are worsening under the climate crisis. In India, amid the ongoing heatwave, we may have come to a boiling point as street vendors, waste pickers, and other informal workers rise in defiance, coming together in solidarity.   Their demands for compensation for losses and other damages are aimed squarely at the coal, oil and gas corporations. In 2023 alone, climate disasters prompted by oil and gas corporations have affected more than 9 million people in Asia, while Big Oil continues to block climate action and spread disinformation, amassing immense wealth.   This International Workers’ Day, a new coalition is forming in Delhi. Informal workers, trade unionists and climate justice campaigners like Greenpeace India, supported by counterparts in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh, have launched the Workers’ Collective for Climate Justice – South Asia.   Along with the Collective, groups have signed the Polluters Pay Pact, a global campaign to hold billionaires and polluting corporations accountable for the climate crisis, by demanding that the governments introduce new taxes on fossil fuel corporations to help communities rebuild from climate disasters and invest in inclusive adaptation solutions.   Informal workers in South Asia are no strangers to crises. They have been on the front lines of social marginalisation, and increasingly, the effects of climate change. South Asia, with more than 80 percent of its labour force in the informal sector, is seeing rising temperatures and erratic weather events that are drastically affecting people’s ability to work and survive.   In 2024, Greenpeace India documented how street vendors face financial loss and health risks during peak summer months, with vendors in cities like Delhi reporting more than a 50% decline in income due to heat waves.   Yet, workers remain largely absent in policymaking. While just five oil majors earned more than $102bn in 2024, informal workers are left to bear the brunt of the crisis.   From the struggles of jute mill workers in Bengal to the tea plantation workers’ resistance across the region – labour organising has secured fundamental rights and labour protection for millions. They were never just about wages, but about dignity, recognition, and power.   Today, that legacy is more important than ever. The climate crisis is fundamentally altering the nature of life and work. These effects are set to worsen under a carbon-intensive scenario, with projections of more than 800 million South Asians living in locations that will become climate hotspots by 2050.   In a strong response, workers are reclaiming the power of collectivising. When workers unite across sectors, castes, genders, religions and ethnicities, they challenge systems of both exploitation and environmental degradation. This movement refuses to flatten their diverse experiences into a single narrative. By connecting the strength of past labour struggles with the urgency of the climate crisis, this collective is not merely reacting, it’s forging a new path forward.   Communities on the front lines of climate effects such as fisherfolk and waste pickers are agents of knowledge and lived experience. They witness real-time ecological changes, gaining an understanding of the risks to their livelihoods that policy briefs are often too slow to capture. Yet, both domestic and global climate policy spaces continue to remain distant, dominated by elite institutions and exclusionary technocratic jargon.   Further, it is well established that in the Global South, non-economic losses such as the loss of culture and community far exceed economic ones. Addressing these losses requires the meaningful involvement of affected communities. Particular attention must be paid to ensuring that Loss and Damage financing is equitable and just, without deepening the existing debt burden or imposing unfair conditions on the very countries already bearing the brunt of the crisis.   Loss and damage from climate change in South Asia are already running into the billions of dollars annually. By 2070, this number could jump to $997bn. Despite the promises made at UN Climate Change Conferences, climate finance has been sluggish, fragmented, and insufficient. Wealthy nations and polluters have under-delivered while continuing to drill for new oil and gas.   The adaptation needs of workers must be met now. They urgently require shade and paid breaks for livelihood and survival. While global climate finance talks stall, adaptation costs and urgency are mounting. This is why the Polluters Pay Pact is so vital. It’s not just a gesture – it demands enforceable commitments. As workers gather in Delhi this May Day, they send a clear message: A just, sustainable future must be led by the working class. By holding oil and gas corporations accountable, climate resilience becomes a right – not a privilege.   * Amruta S Nair, is a Climate and Energy Campaigner working with Greenpeace India; Sandeep Verma, is a Trade unionist working with informal workers, especially street vendors, in India.   http://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/make-polluters-pay-south-asian-workers-demand-climate-tax-on-big-oil-sign-labour-day-pact http://www.greenpeace.org/india/en/press/18237/worker-groups-demand-polluters-pay-for-lost-income-amid-deadly-south-asia-heatwave/ http://www.wiego.org/news/may-day-2025-storms-dont-break-us-they-build-us/   May 2025   All States must prioritise adoption of a living wage. (OHCHR)   All States must prioritise the adoption of a minimum living wage so that workers are able to meet their basic needs and those of their family.   To date, over one in five workers globally live in poverty despite being employed, and almost one in ten live in extreme poverty. Millions of workers continue to earn wages and incomes that are insufficient for a decent standard of living.   Women, particularly those in low-paid, informal and care-related sectors, are disproportionately represented among the working poor. This is unacceptable and a violation of international human rights laws.   We call for increased social development action, reaffirming global solidarity and ensuring that no one is left behind. This includes considering the gendered dimension of economic injustice and the need for gender-transformative policies. The Second World Summit for Social Development will take place from 4 to 6 November 2025 in Doha (Qatar) and discussions on the Political Declaration to be adopted are expected to be initiated in the coming weeks.   At this pivotal moment, we urge States to make concrete and ambitious commitments within the Political Declaration of the Second World Summit, specifically aimed at ensuring living wages for all workers within their jurisdictions. These commitments must also integrate gender equality, close the gender pay gap, and value paid and unpaid care work. This is a unique opportunity to make the Political Declaration a transformative point for actions towards global social justice.   Living wages are not merely an economic concern, but a fundamental matter of human dignity and rights. They are an essential lever for the eradication of poverty as well as reduction of inequalities, and an essential part of the right to just and favourable conditions of work. Living wages even serve as a powerful deterrent against contemporary forms of slavery by directly addressing one of its root causes – economic vulnerability.   Living wages play a crucial role in facilitating access to the rights to education, food, housing, development and social security by ensuring that individuals and families have the financial resources necessary to meet their basic needs. They also contribute to creating a conducive environment for the respect by business of workers’ rights. Living wages advance women’s autonomy and bolster combatting gender-based risks and discrimination.   As required by the international human rights norms and standards, including Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 7(a) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, States must close the critical gaps in minimum wage adequacy, enforcement, and coverage.   States should guarantee a minimum wage in legislation, corresponding at least to a living wage, indexed on the cost of living. They should ensure that labor inspectorates are equipped to enforce such legislation and they should extend this protection to informal workers.   We also call on business enterprises to provide a living wage to workers across their value chains, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Sustainable Development Goals.   Building upon the principles of social justice and equitable development laid out since the 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, the importance of ensuring adequate wages, revaluing care work, constructing substantive gender equality and redistributing power and resources fairly, have gained increasing recognition in various global initiatives.   The 2025 World Summit for Social Development presents a critical opportunity to spotlight the necessity of living wages and drive transformative action.   http://www.srpoverty.org/2025/04/04/joint-statement-all-states-must-prioritise-adoption-of-a-living-wage-ahead-of-the-second-world-summit-for-social-development/ http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2025/02/achieving-global-social-justice/ http://actionaid.org/news/2025/imf-spring-meetings-fall-short-amid-push-more-heartless-public-budget-cuts http://actionaid.org/publications/2025/who-owes-who http://gcap.global/news/call-to-mobilise-economic-justice-in-the-jubilee-year-2025/   May 2025   Convergence alone won’t fix global inequality by 2050 without ambitious redistribution. (World Inequality Database)   What will global income inequality look like in 2050? Will the economic catch-up of developing countries lead to a more equitable world? Or will the rise of top incomes maintain or even exacerbate today’s high levels of inequality? What measures can governments implement to influence future global inequality dynamics?   In a new study, Philipp Bothe, Lucas Chancel, Amory Gethin and Cornelia Mohren address these questions leveraging on a new dataset that includes WID distributional data, UN projections and climate change projections through 2050. They outline diverging pathways for the future of global income inequality horizon 2050.   Key Findings:   In a business-as-usual scenario, overall global income inequality will remain largely unchanged in 2050 compared to today. Without significant changes to current redistribution policies, rising within-country inequality will continue disproportionately benefit the global top 1% who will continue to receive 17% of worldwide income. Meanwhile, rapid growth in developing countries will only slightly increase the average income of the world’s poorest 50%, with their share rising from 10% to 12%.   Progressive “post-tax redistribution” policies, in the form of taxation and cash transfers at a country level, are important but will most likely have a limited impact on the global income distribution on their own.   On the other hand, “pre-tax redistribution”, through measures reshaping the distribution of labor and capital income (e.g. increased government spending on public education and health, and minimum wage policies), will play an essential role in reshaping future inequality.   If all countries aligned both their pre-tax inequality and post-tax redistribution policies with those of the most progressive country in their region, the global bottom 50% income share could double by 2050, reaching nearly 20%. Such policy convergence could be sufficient to offset the effect of four decades of rising within-country inequality.   Climate change is likely to exacerbate existing inequalities further. In a high climate impact scenario, the bottom 50% of the world population could see their income share fall to levels not seen since 1980. This group stands to bear the brunt of climate-related shocks, absorbing nearly three-quarters of total relative income losses.   http://wid.world/news-article/global-inequality-by-2050-convergence-redistribution-and-climate-change/ http://wid.world/news-article/new-version-of-the-global-wealth-tax-simulator-released-at-international-taxing-billionaires-conference/ http://wid.world/world-wealth-tax-simulator/ http://wid.world/news-article/unequal-exchange-and-north-south-relations/ http://inequalitylab.world/en http://www.taxobservatory.eu/joint-press-release-conclusion-of-the-international-conference-on-taxing-billionaires/ http://www.taxobservatory.eu/publication/a-blueprint-for-a-coordinated-minimum-effective-taxation-standard-for-ultra-high-net-worth-individuals/ Visit the related web page
	Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, threatening millions by PNAS, IPBES, agencies   Mar. 2025   Researchers say problem could increase number of people at risk of starvation by 400 million in next two decades, highlights Damian Carrington for Guardian News   The pollution of the planet by microplastics is significantly cutting food supplies by damaging the ability of plants to photosynthesise, according to a new assessment.   The analysis estimates that between 4% and 14% of the world’s staple crops of wheat, rice and maize is being lost due to the pervasive particles. It could get even worse, the scientists said, as more microplastics pour into the environment.   Over 700 million people were affected by hunger in 2022. The researchers estimated that microplastic pollution could increase the number at risk of starvation by another 400 million in the next two decades, calling that an “alarming scenario” for global food security.   Other scientists called the research useful and timely but cautioned that this first attempt to quantify the impact of microplastics on food production would need to be confirmed and refined by further data-gathering and research.   The annual crop losses caused by microplastics could be of a similar scale to those caused by the climate crisis in recent decades, the researchers behind the new research said. The world is already facing a challenge to produce sufficient food sustainably, with the global population expected to rise to 10 billion by around 2058.   Microplastics are broken down from the vast quantities of waste dumped into the environment. They hinder plants from harnessing sunlight to grow in multiple ways, from damaging soils to carrying toxic chemicals. The particles have infiltrated the entire planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans.   “Humanity has been striving to increase food production to feed an ever-growing population but these ongoing efforts are now being jeopardised by plastic pollution,” said the researchers, led by Prof Huan Zhong, at Nanjing University in China. “The findings underscore the urgency of cutting pollution to safeguard global food supplies in the face of the growing plastic crisis.”   People’s bodies are already widely contaminated by microplastics, consumed through food and water. They have been found in blood, brains, breast milk, placentas and bone marrow. The impact on human health has been linked to strokes and heart attacks.   Prof Denis Murphy, at the University of South Wales, said: “This analysis is valuable and timely in reminding us of the dangers of microplastic pollution and the urgency of addressing the issue..”   The new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, combined more than 3,000 observations of the impact of microplastics on plants, taken from 157 studies.   Previous research has indicated that microplastics can damage plants in multiple ways. The polluting particles can block sunlight reaching leaves and damage the soils on which the plants depend. When taken up by plants, microplastics can block nutrient and water channels, induce unstable molecules that harm cells and release toxic chemicals, which can reduce the level of the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll.   The researchers estimated that microplastics reduced the photosynthesis of terrestrial plants by about 12% and by about 7% in marine algae, which are at the base of the ocean food web. They then extrapolated this data to calculate the reduction in the growth of wheat, rice and maize and in the production of fish and seafood.   Asia was hardest hit by estimated crop losses, with reductions in all three of between 54m and 177m tonnes a year, about half the global losses. Wheat in Europe was also hit hard as was maize in the United States. Other regions, such as South America and Africa, grow less of these crops but have much less data on microplastic contamination.   In the oceans, where microplastics can coat algae, the loss of fish and seafood was estimated at between 1m and 24m tonnes a year, about 7% of the total and enough protein to feed tens of millions of people.   The scientists also used a second method to assess the impact of microplastics on food production, based on current data on microplastic pollution levels. It produced similar results, they said.   “Importantly, these adverse effects are highly likely to extend from food security to planetary health,” Zhong and his colleagues said. Reduced photosynthesis due to microplastics may be also cutting the amount of climate-heating CO2 taken from the atmosphere by the huge phytoplankton blooms in the Earth’s oceans and unbalancing other ecosystems.   The world’s nations failed to reach an agreement on a UN treaty to curb plastic pollution in December, but will restart the talks in August. The scientists said their study was “important and timely for the ongoing negotiations and the development of action plans and targets”.   Prof Richard Thompson, at the University of Plymouth said the new study added to the evidence pointing towards the need for action. “While the predictions may be refined as new data become available, it is clear … that we need to start towards solutions. Ensuring the treaty addresses microplastic pollution is of key importance,” he said.   http://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2423957122 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microplastic-pollution-is-messing-with-photosynthesis-in-plants/ http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/10/microplastics-hinder-plant-photosynthesis-study-finds-threatening-millions-with-starvation http://insideclimatenews.org/news/27052025/todays-climate-plastic-pollution-seabird-health-ocean http://www.plasticsandclimate.com/post/groundbreaking-report-reveals-plastics-climate-impacts   Dec. 2024   IPBES: Tackle Together Five Interlinked Global Crises in Biodiversity, Water, Food, Health and Climate Change.   Environmental, social and economic crises – such as biodiversity loss, water and food insecurity, health risks and climate change – are all interconnected. They interact, cascade and compound each other in ways that make separate efforts to address them ineffective and counterproductive.   Underlines the landmark new report launched by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health – known as the Nexus Report - offers decision-makers around the world the most ambitious scientific assessment ever undertaken of these complex interconnections and explores more than five dozen specific response options to maximize co-benefits across five ‘nexus elements’: biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change.   The report is the product of three years of work by 165 leading international experts from 57 countries from all regions of the world. It finds that existing actions to address these challenges fail to tackle the complexity of interlinked problems and result in inconsistent governance.   “We have to move decisions and actions beyond single-issue silos to better manage, govern and improve the impact of actions in one nexus element on other elements,” said Prof. Paula Harrison (United Kingdom), co-chair of the Assessment with Prof. Pamela McElwee (USA).   “Take for example the health challenge of schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia) – a parasitic disease that can cause life-long ill health and which affects more than 200 million people worldwide – especially in Africa.   Treated only as a health challenge – usually through medication – the problem often recurs as people are reinfected. An innovative project in rural Senegal took a different approach – reducing water pollution and removing invasive water plants to reduce the habitat for the snails that host the parasitic worms that carry the disease – resulting in a 32% reduction in infections in children, improved access to freshwater and new revenue for the local communities.”   “The best way to bridge single issue silos is through integrated and adaptive decision-making. ‘Nexus approaches’ offer policies and actions that are more coherent and coordinated – moving us towards the transformative change needed to meet our development and sustainability goals,” said Prof. McElwee.   The report states that biodiversity – the richness and variety of all life on Earth – is declining at every level from global to local, and across every region. These ongoing declines in nature, largely as a result of human activity, including climate change, have direct and dire impacts on food security and nutrition, water quality and availability, health and wellbeing outcomes, resilience to climate change and almost all of nature’s other contributions to people.   Building on previous IPBES reports, in particular the 2022 Values Assessment Report and the 2019 Global Assessment Report, which identified the most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss, including land- and sea-use change, unsustainable exploitation, invasive alien species and pollution, the Nexus Report further underscores how indirect socioeconomic drivers, such as increasing waste, overconsumption and population growth, intensify the direct drivers – worsening impacts on all parts of the nexus. The majority of 12 assessed indicators across these indirect drivers – such as GDP, population levels and overall food supply, have all increased or accelerated since 2001.   “Efforts of Governments and other stakeholders have often failed to take into account indirect drivers and their impact on interactions between nexus elements because they remain fragmented, with many institutions working in isolation – often resulting in conflicting objectives, inefficiencies and negative incentives, leading to unintended consequences,” said Prof. Harrison.   The report highlights that more than half of global gross domestic product – more than $50 trillion of annual economic activity around the world – is moderately to highly dependent on nature. “But current decision-making has prioritized short-term financial returns while ignoring costs to nature, and failed to hold actors to account for negative economic pressures on the natural world. It is estimated that the unaccounted-for costs of current approaches to economic activity – reflecting impacts on biodiversity, water, health and climate change, including from food production – are at least $10-25 trillion per year,” said Prof. McElwee.   The existence of such unaccounted-for costs, alongside direct public subsidies to economic activities that have negative impacts on biodiversity (approximately $1.7 trillion per year), enhances private financial incentives to invest in economic activities that cause direct damage to nature (approximately $5.3 trillion per year), in spite of growing evidence of biophysical risks to economic progress and financial stability.   Delaying the action needed to meet policy goals will also increase the costs of delivering it. Delayed action on biodiversity goals, for example, could as much as double costs – also increasing the probability of irreplaceable losses such as species extinctions. Delayed action on climate change adds at least $500 billion per year in additional costs for meeting policy targets.   “Another key message from the report is that the increasingly negative effects of intertwined global crises have very unequal impacts, disproportionately affecting some more than others,” said Prof. Harrison.   More than half of the world’s population is living in areas experiencing the highest impacts from declines in biodiversity, water availability and quality and food security, and increases in health risks and negative effects of climate change. These burdens especially affect developing countries, including small island developing states, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, as well as those in vulnerable situations in higher-income countries. 41% of people live in areas that saw extremely strong declines in biodiversity between 2000 and 2010, 9% in areas that have experienced very high health burdens and 5% in areas with high levels of malnutrition.   Some efforts – such as research and innovation, education and environmental regulations – have been partially successful in improving trends across nexus elements, but the report finds these are unlikely to succeed without addressing interlinkages more fully and tackling indirect drivers like trade and consumption. Decision-making that is more inclusive, with a particular focus on equity, can help ensure those most affected are included in solutions, in addition to larger economic and financial reforms.   If current “business as usual” trends in direct and indirect drivers of change continue, the outcomes will be extremely poor for biodiversity, water quality and human health – with worsening climate change and increasing challenges to meet global policy goals.   A focus on trying to maximize the outcomes for only one part of the nexus in isolation will likely result in negative outcomes for the other nexus elements.   For example, a ‘food first’ approach prioritizes food production with positive benefits on nutritional health, arising from unsustainable intensification of production and increased per capita consumption. This has negative impacts on biodiversity, water and climate change.   An exclusive focus on climate change can result in negative outcomes for biodiversity and food, reflecting competition for land. Weak environmental regulation, made worse by delays, results in worsening impacts for biodiversity, food, human health and climate change.   “Future scenarios do exist that have positive outcomes for people and nature by providing co- benefits across the nexus elements,” said Prof Harrison. “The future scenarios with the widest nexus benefits are those with actions that focus on sustainable production and consumption in combination with conserving and restoring ecosystems, reducing pollution, and mitigating and adapting to climate change.”   http://www.ipbes.net/nexus/media-release http://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/news/latest-news/ipbes-nexus-report-integrated-solutions-to-address-interconnected-global-crises http://www.carbonbrief.org/ipbes-nexus-report-five-takeaways-for-biodiversity-food-water-health-and-climate/ http://www.iied.org/new-biodiversity-reports-wake-call-for-action http://www.ipbes.net/transformative-change/media-release http://ipbes.canto.de/v/IPBES11Media http://sfcs.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe/insights/news-insights/news-detail/new-hlpe-fsn-note--tackling-climate-change--biodiversity-loss-and-land-degradation-through-the-right-to-food/en http://www.ids.ac.uk/news/new-global-report-on-transformative-change-for-biodiversity/ http://www.ipsnews.net/2024/12/transformative-change-will-save-a-planet-in-peril-ipbes/IPBES, Visit the related web page
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