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	Humanity’s future requires the urgent overhaul of the world’s existing accounting systems by UN News, OHCHR, news agencies   Jan. 2026   Humanity’s future required the urgent overhaul of the world’s existing accounting systems, says UN chief. (Guardian news, agencies)   The global economy must be radically transformed to stop it rewarding pollution and waste, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres has warned. Speaking to the Guardian after the UN hosted a meeting of leading global economists, Guterres said humanity’s future required the urgent overhaul of the world’s “existing accounting systems” he said were driving the planet to the brink of disaster.   “We must place true value on the environment and go beyond gross domestic product as a measure of human progress and wellbeing. Let us not forget that when we destroy a forest, we are creating GDP. When we overfish, we are creating GDP.”   For decades, politicians and policymakers have prioritised growth – as measured by GDP – as the overarching economic goal. But critics argue that endless, indiscriminate growth on a planet with finite resources is driving not only the climate and nature crisis but increasing inequality.   Guterres said: “Moving beyond gross domestic product is about measuring the things that really matter to people and their communities. GDP tells us the cost of everything, and the value of nothing. Our world is not a gigantic corporation. Financial decisions should be based on more than a snapshot of profit and loss.”   In January, the UN held a conference in Geneva titled Beyond GDP attended by senior economists from around the world – including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, leading Indian economist Kaushik Basu and equity expert Nora Lustig. They are part of a group set up by Guterres that has been tasked with devising a new dashboard of measures of economic success that takes “human wellbeing, sustainability and equity” into account.   A report published by the group late last year argued that, as the world wrestled with repeated global shocks over the past two decades, the need for an economic transformation had become increasingly urgent – from the financial crash of 2008 to the Covid-19 pandemic.   It said those events were exacerbated by the “triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution” and, in addition, warned that rapid technological change was upending labour markets and exacerbating growing inequality.   Prof Basu, who co-chairs the UN group alongside Lustig, said: “Nations are so locked into the game of beating other nations in terms of the GDP metric, that the wellbeing of ordinary citizens and sustainability are getting ignored.   “If all the new income accrues to a few individuals, and the GDP grows, all citizens are expected to cheer. This is feeding hyper-nationalism, inequality and polarisation.”   Prof Lustig said GDP had never been “designed to measure human progress, yet it remains the dominant benchmark of success.”   “Economic growth can coexist with poverty, exclusion, violence, and serious violations of human rights – outcomes that remain largely invisible in conventional economic accounts … The group’s aim is not to replace GDP but to complement it, helping governments and the public assess whether development is truly improving human wellbeing, advancing equity, and safeguarding sustainability now and for future generations.”   The UN initiative follows a report published last week that said current economic models are fundamentally flawed because they failed to account of the impact of climate shocks such as extreme weather disasters and tipping points, and could crash the global economy. These concerns come amid a growing debate in academia, civil society and policy circles about how to create economic structures that are compatible with greater equality and sustainability.   http://www.un.org/beyondgdp http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167457 http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/21/milestone-un-reports-advocate-moving-beyond-gdp http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/10/more-gdp-measuring-what-really-matters-people-and-rights http://www.thebeyondlab.org/article/event-summary-unctad16-parallel-event-beyond-gdp http://www.un.org/en/beyondGDP/documents   Jan. 2026   Economic Growth at any cost fails us All, by Olivier De Schutter - UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. (Time Magazine)   Last week, powerful politicians and business leaders gathered in Davos, promising to “unlock new sources of growth” to solve the world’s many crises. Poverty, climate breakdown, and political instability—all, we were told, can be fixed if only we grow our economies a little faster.   It is a familiar refrain that we have seen in countless other global gatherings—from the G7 to the G20 and IMF-World bank meetings in Washington D.C., But my six years of experience as the United Nations’ expert on poverty have taught me at least one thing: it is profoundly misguided. Economic growth is no magic bullet. And it certainly won’t solve global poverty.   Historically, the global economy everyone is so desperate to grow, has funneled vast wealth into the hands of a few, trapped millions in insecure and poorly-paid work to boost corporate profits, relied on the plundering of natural resources and the exploitation of cheap labour in the Global South and has caused irreparable damage to the planet.   This is not a system that has gone slightly off course. It is one that is fundamentally unfit for purpose.   At Davos, economic growth was not defended cautiously; it was celebrated. U.S. President Donald Trump boasted of growth “no country has ever seen before." And Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, described the 3.3% global growth forecast as “beautiful but not enough. “   The response from the top, to any claims that growth may be causing more harm than good,, is to reach for “green growth”—the idea that, when done right, economic growth can be accompanied by a reduction in its ecological footprint.   China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng’s Davos speech was littered with references to “global green and low-carbon development”, “green production capacity”, “green finance”, and a “green and prosperous future”.   Yet even under the best conditions, a growing body of evidence shows that the absolute decoupling of gross domestic product (GDP) from environmental degradation—growing the economy while simultaneously reducing resource use, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution—is impossible. Technological advances simply cannot compensate for an economic model built on ever-expanding production and consumption.   As I told the UN Human Rights Council when presenting my 2024 report on Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, the global economy, in its current form, will only ever serve a tiny minority. And it will always do so at the expense of the planet and the vast majority of people who live on it.   Given the evidence at hand, it beggars belief that world leaders continue to shout from the mountaintops of Davos that we need yet more growth. One is left to wonder whether they—as members of the economic elite—stand to benefit personally, or if they have simply run out of imagination.   Outside the conference halls, however, imagination is very much alive. This week’s first annual Reclaim the Economy Week reflects a growing global demand for fresh thinking, with individuals and collectives uniting to demand an economy that puts people and planet first.   And a new development model is emerging on the back of my report to the UN—one that breaks from the outdated formula of prioritizing economic growth first and attempting to redistribute through taxes and transfers later.   This alternative approach to global poverty eradication is being built by a growing alliance of UN agencies, governments, civil society organisations, academics, trade unions, and others. Now, this approach is being translated into a Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth, which I will present to the UN later this year.   The aim of the roadmap is not abstract theory, but practical change: a set of concrete policy options for governments in both the global north and south that shift economies away from profit maximization and towards the fulfilment of human rights.   This shift requires better rewarding work according to its social and ecological value—raising wages for essential workers, while placing limits on pay in destructive industries such as fossil fuels or tobacco. And we can benefit from job-guarantee programs whereby the government guarantees a job to anyone willing and able to work.   Our approach should also include debt cancellation and restructuring, because it is indefensible that 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on health or education.   The policies detailed in our roadmap will also guide governments towards deeper structural change: reclaiming economic decision-making, bringing democratic control to the financial system through the taxation of extreme wealth and investment in care and public services; restoring and protecting the commons; supporting just transitions to renewable energy and sustainable food systems; and holding corporations accountable for environmental destruction, labour abuses, and human rights violations.   These are the bold—but achievable—measures that could positively shape the next generation of efforts to end poverty, including the globally agreed development goals that will succeed the Sustainable Development Goals in 2030. Unfortunately, these pragmatic policies will remain out of reach as long as we cling to the belief that economic growth equals human progress.   After nearly a century of being told that the most important metric in all of our lives is how fast the economy grows, this may sound radical. But it is far less reckless than continuing to defend an economic system whose rules are written by and for billionaires and multinational corporations—and then acting surprised when it fails everyone else.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/04/un-backed-roadmap-provides-blueprint-eradicating-poverty-beyond-growth-un http://www.srpoverty.org/2026/01/27/time-opinion-economic-growth-at-any-cost-fails-us-all/ http://www.neep-poverty.org/roadmap-for-eradicating-poverty-beyond-growth/ http://www.srpoverty.org/category/reports/ http://ipdcolumbia.org/event/landmark-g20-report-led-by-nobel-laureate-joseph-stiglitz-sounds-alarm-on-inequality-emergency-and-calls-for-international-panel-on-inequality/   Changing the rules of the global economy, by Olivier De Schutter, Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Thomas Piketty, Kate Raworth and Jason Hickel, for OHCHR, New Economies for Eradicating Poverty:   "We live in an age of manufactured scarcity. In a world richer than ever before, roughly one 10th of the world’s population still lives in extreme destitution.   Millions of people cannot afford enough food, proper housing or basic healthcare, while a tiny minority accumulates unprecedented wealth and power.   At the same time, droughts, megafires, floods and heatwaves remind us that our economies are pushing the planet beyond its limits.   These are not separate crises. They are symptoms of an economic model that has reached the end of the road.   Poverty and inequality are not accidents; they are predictable outcomes of policy choices: how we design tax systems, regulate labour markets, value care, structure public services and decide whose needs and whose voices matter. Crucially, if governments can manufacture poverty, they can also dismantle it.   For decades, the recipe was simple: grow the economy, and poverty would gradually disappear. But the promise that economic growth would “lift all boats” has not been kept. While national incomes expanded, wages stagnated, work became more precarious and public services were cut. At the top, fortunes ballooned; at the bottom, families turned to food banks. Growth has become decoupled from shared prosperity.   It has also become ecologically unsustainable. We are edging towards a “hothouse Earth”, where rising emissions and biodiversity loss are destabilising the conditions that support human life.   Around 92% of excess global carbon emissions can be attributed to the global north, and the wealthiest 10% of individuals are responsible for nearly half of global emissions, while people in poverty are the first to face crop failures and rising food prices. An economic model that depends on endless expansion on a finite planet is not just unfair; it is dangerous   Many low‑income countries still need growth to build roads, hospitals, schools, renewable energy and decent jobs. But the dominant path to growth – based on resource extraction, cheap and compliant labour, export dependence and deepening debt – has widened inequality and degraded the environment.   The real question today is not whether growth continues, but what kind of economies we are building, who they serve and whether they allow everyone to live in dignity within planetary boundaries.   That is why we have come together to develop and support the “roadmap for eradicating poverty beyond growth”. The roadmap provides a range of alternatives on how to move beyond the narrow “grow-tax-transfer” approach that has shaped policy for decades. It is not a blueprint shaped by a handful of experts, it is the exact opposite.   Over 18 months UN agencies, national governments, academic experts, civil society organisations, trade unions, social and solidarity economy actors and grassroots movements, from the global north and south – worked to answer a simple question: how can we end poverty and reduce inequalities without treating GDP growth as the primary condition for progress?   We do not agree on every policy detail. But we are united in the conviction that our economies must be redesigned around the fulfilment of rights and collective wellbeing within planetary boundaries, rather than maximising output at any cost.   Human rights here are not an afterthought; they are the organising principle for how we measure progress, set priorities and resolve trade‑offs. Social protection and public services are essential, but they cannot indefinitely compensate for economies that by design generate poverty wages, insecure jobs and unaffordable housing.   We need to change the rules upstream. That means, for instance, decent work and employment guarantees, living wages and fair remuneration, stronger unions and workplace democracy, tackling discrimination and valuing the paid and unpaid care work on which our societies depend.   It means investing in children, housing, health, education and transport through universal public provisioning. It means public control of strategic assets, credit guidance to steer investment towards social and ecological priorities, and support for the development of the social and solidarity economy.   Implementing this vision means changing the rules of the global economy. Today, governments in the global south are chided for not doing enough to tackle poverty, while being squeezed by unilateral sanctions, restrictive trade agreements, unequal exchange and debt burdens rooted in centuries of colonial dispossession.   About 3.4 billion people live in countries that spend more on debt servicing than on healthcare or education. Meanwhile, global supply chains enable a vast net transfer of labour and resources from south to north.   International solidarity is therefore a legal and moral obligation rooted in the historical reality that many rich countries built their wealth by impoverishing the south, through patterns of extraction that continue today in new forms.   A just transition beyond growth must include debt justice, increased south-south cooperation, reparative climate finance and support for universal social protection floors, rooted in the principles of non-domination and self-determination so that countries can chart their own sovereign economic futures.   Equally crucial is who gets to shape this transition. All too often, policies affecting people in poverty are designed without them – and sometimes against them. When welfare systems are built around suspicion, sanctions and humiliating conditions, they deepen stigma and deter people from claiming their entitlements.   Those who live in poverty know better than anyone how systems can fail in practice. Their expertise must guide the design, implementation and monitoring of anti‑poverty strategies, from local councils to parliaments and international forums.   We are not starting from zero. Around the world, Indigenous struggles, feminist organising, trade unions and climate justice movements are defending and building alternative futures rooted in collective care and territorial rights.   New coalitions of states are advancing new visions of global economic governance, and governments are experimenting with rights‑based anti‑poverty strategies, citizens’ assemblies and community wealth building.   The UN and many partners are exploring “beyond GDP” indicators and new institutions, such as an international panel on inequality, to help chart this shift.   Our roadmap builds on these efforts, connects them and pushes them further. We offer it now as a common reference point for those who refuse to accept that poverty and ecological breakdown are the price to pay for how we currently define economic “success”.   Governments and multilateral institutions have a choice: double down on a failing growth-first model or commit to eradicating poverty by transforming the economic rules that produce it.   Poverty is manufactured. That is the bad news – and the good news. What has been manufactured can be dismantled and replaced. We are putting concrete options on the table, all backed by detailed policy profiles that spell out evidence, implementation steps and real‑world examples.   We call on political leaders at all levels to use them, to listen to those most affected, and to treat the end of poverty, the reduction of inequalities and the effective realisation of human rights as the measure by which economic policy should be judged".   * Olivier De Schutter is the chair of New Economies for Eradicating Poverty; Joseph Stiglitz is a Nobel laureate in economics; Jayati Ghosh is professor of economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst; Thomas Piketty is professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics; Kate Raworth is an economist at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute; Jason Hickel is a political economist and professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.   http://www.neep-poverty.org/roadmap-for-eradicating-poverty-beyond-growth/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6242add2-roadmap-eradicating-poverty-beyond-growth-report-special http://www.neep-poverty.org/event/world-inequality-conference-2026/ http://www.neep-poverty.org http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/rethinking-progress-un-expert-calls-fight-poverty-beyond-growth-and-expand http://www.un.org/beyondgdp http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/21/milestone-un-reports-advocate-moving-beyond-gdp http://www.srpoverty.org/2026/01/27/time-opinion-economic-growth-at-any-cost-fails-us-all/http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/10/more-gdp-measuring-what-really-matters-people-and-rights   June 2026   The Global Justice Report: A Plan for Equality & Prosperity within Planetary Boundaries - World Inequality Lab   Imagine a future in which everyone enjoys high levels of wellbeing; where 90% of the world’s population doubles their income but works half the hours we work today. A world in which the bottom half of humanity sees its share of global wealth rise from just 2% today to 30%; a world where we consume enough, but nobody over-consumes. And imagine achieving this on a planet that can comfortably sustain human life without its climate breaking down.   Against the bleak techno-authoritarian futures now being sold to us, a radical new vision for global progress in the 21st century feels urgently needed. The most credible vision is one in which the habitability of the planet is a precondition for human development and equality.   Our new report examines the conditions required for the world to progress towards this ambition on an economically and ecologically compatible path, by the end of the century.   Its conclusion? A global transformation that reconciles planetary habitability and high standards of wellbeing for all is possible – as long as three conditions are simultaneously met.   Fast decarbonisation of energy systems is necessary. But we also need a major shift away from overconsumption towards “sufficiency”. This would involve a sharp reduction in labour hours and the use of raw materials, along with big changes in consumption patterns, food habits, land use and forest cover.   Financing and politically sustaining decarbonisation and sufficiency will require a drastic reduction in inequality of income, wealth and power, between countries and within them. This reduction of global inequality is compatible with deep decarbonisation; indeed, it is a necessary condition for shared prosperity on a finite planet.   The Global Justice Report is the first attempt to propose a fully quantified plan for this transition. It combines four dimensions that today’s debates often treat separately: redistribution at the world scale; a deep reform of the international financial and economic order; a radical transformation of energy systems; and substantial shifts in consumption patterns.   Compared with most climate scenarios (including those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the main novelty is that we model all four dimensions together – and place inequality and sufficiency at the centre of the analysis.   What would this transition deliver? At its heart is convergence between countries. Average per capita national income, today separated by a 16-fold gap between the poorest (€290 a month in sub-Saharan Africa) and richest (€4,590 in North America/Oceania) regions of the world, would rise towards a common level of about €5,000 a month in all countries by 2100.   But this convergence is not just monetary. Annual working hours per employed person would fall from roughly 2,100 to about 1,000, continuing the long shift towards shorter working time; while the share of global working hours devoted to education and health would rise from 11% to 43%. Women and men would converge on equal pay and on an equal share of economic and domestic labour.   All of this would unfold within a habitable climate. Thanks to sustainable convergence and fast decarbonisation, global heating would reach 1.8C, against more than 4C on current trends.   None of this will be possible without a deep contraction of inequality. The income scale between individuals would narrow to a ratio of one to five and the wealth scale to one to 10, prolonging what western and Nordic Europe achieved over the 20th century.   The share of global wealth held by the poorest half of humanity would rise from 2% to 30%, while the share held by the billionaire class would fall from 6% to 0.05%.   These shifts would be financed and governed through new institutions. A global justice fund would spend an average of 10% of world GDP a year from 2026 to 2060 on country dividends and investment, against the less than 0.4% that aid and the combined budgets of the UN, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank represent today.   Its resources would come from a world sovereign fund holding 10% of the world capital stock, a global wealth tax rising to 20% a year on billionaires and a global income tax rising to 90% at the very top, each touching about 1% of the world’s population.   The result is not a transfer from many to few but a gain for almost everyone. Close to 90% of the world’s population would double their income between 2026 and 2100, and once leisure and a habitable planet are counted, more than 99% come out ahead.   The plan also redistributes power. Today, the richest regions hold four times as many votes at the IMF and World Bank as their share of the world’s population would dictate; in the new order, every inhabitant would have equal voice, backed by an international clearing union and a new international currency to end the exorbitant privileges of the dominant powers and to address global trade imbalances.   Our report is part of a broader international agenda for planetary habitability, social justice and reform of the global financial architecture – including the Bridgetown agenda launched by Barbados in 2022, the Sevilla Commitment on development finance, the UN tax convention process, and G20 initiatives led by Brazil and South Africa on global inequality.   The main contribution of this report is to place these proposals within a quantified institutional framework, modelling socioeconomic convergence, temperature change and distributional trajectories up to the year 2100.   A habitable, equal and prosperous 21st century is materially possible. The carbon budget allows it and history offers precedents at comparable scales: universal suffrage, the universalisation of healthcare and education, the halving of working hours and the sharp compression of inequality over the 20th century.   Technical impossibility is not what is standing in the way, but rather the absence of a shared vision of social progress, at once concrete and radical. What it will take instead is political choice, and the hard work of coalition-building behind it.   * Thomas Piketty is a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics and co-director of the World Inequality Lab; Lucas Chancel is professor of economics at Sciences Po Paris and co-director of the World Inequality Lab; Cornelia Mohren is environmental coordinator at the World Inequality Lab; Rowaida Moshrif is co-director at the World Inequality Lab; Moritz Odersky is an economist at the World Inequality Lab; Anmol Somanchi is global justice coordinator at the World Inequality Lab.   http://globaljusticeproject.wid.world/insight/summary/ http://globaljusticeproject.wid.world http://www.neep-poverty.org/event/world-inequality-conference-2026/   * World Inequality Report 2026   56,000 people own three times more wealth than half of humanity, highlights Ricardo Gomez-Carrera   Consider half of the world’s adult population, about 2.8 billion people, and add up everything they own: their houses, their savings, their belongings, minus their debts. Then do the same for the 56,000 wealthiest adults on the planet, a group small enough to fit inside a single football stadium. The stadium’s wealth would be greater. In fact, the wealth of the people of the stadium would be three times as large as that of half of humanity combined.   That is one of the headline findings of the World Inequality Report 2026, which I co-authored with Lucas Chancel, Rowaida Moshrif, and Thomas Piketty, and which draws on research and data compiled by more than 200 researchers affiliated with the World Inequality Database and the World Inequality Lab.   The report’s central message is simple and astonishing: the world is extremely unequal, and at the very top, extreme wealth inequality is still rapidly increasing.   Income inequality is large, but wealth inequality is extreme   The global top 10%, about 560 million adults, earn around 53% of all global income in a given year. The bottom half of humanity, 2.8 billion people, collectively receives 8%. So, 10% of the world earns more than 6 times what half of the world earns. That alone is a striking gap.   But when you look at wealth, the picture is far more extreme. The top 10% owns three-quarters of whatever there is to own while the bottom half holds only 2%. Meanwhile, the top 1% alone controls 37% of all wealth, roughly eighteen times more than the entire bottom 50%...   http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2026/05/12/56000-people-own-three-times-more-wealth-than-half-of-humanity/ http://wir2026.wid.world/insight/executive-summary/ http://wir2026.wid.world/ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jun/10/economists-maths-growth-doomed-strategy-un-agencies-political-leaders http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/the-rich-worlds-rich-problem-9130/ Visit the related web page
	The Future We Choose by UN Environment Programme, IPBES, agencies   Dec. 2025   The most comprehensive assessment of the global environment ever undertaken has found that investing in a stable climate, healthy nature and land, and a pollution-free planet can deliver trillions of dollars in additional global economic growth, avoid millions of deaths and lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and hunger.   The Global Environment Outlook, Seventh Edition: A Future We Choose (GEO-7), released during the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, is the product of 287 multi-disciplinary scientists from 82 countries.   The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, desertification, and pollution and waste have taken a heavy toll on the planet, people and economies – already costing trillions of dollars each year. Following current development pathways will only intensify this damage.   However, whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches to transform the systems of economy and finance, materials and waste, energy, food and the environment would deliver global macroeconomic benefits that could reach US$20 trillion per year by 2070 and continue growing.   A key enabling factor of this approach is moving away from GDP to indicators that also track human and natural capital – incentivizing economies to move towards circularity, decarbonization of the energy system, sustainable agriculture, ecosystem restoration and more.   “The Global Environment Outlook lays out a simple choice for humanity: continue down the road to a future devastated by climate change, dwindling nature, degraded land and polluted air, or change direction to secure a healthy planet, healthy people and healthy economies. This is no choice at all,” said Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director.   The report highlights transformation pathways to reduce exposure to climate risks, reduce biodiversity loss and support an increase in natural lands. Nine million premature deaths can be avoided by 2050, through measures such as cutting air pollution alone.   Following the transformation pathways would require changes across five areas, the report outlines:   Economy and finance: Move beyond GDP to comprehensive inclusive wealth metrics; price positive and negative externalities to value goods correctly; and phase out and repurpose subsidies, taxes and incentives that result in negative impacts on nature.   Materials and waste: Implement circular product design, transparency and traceability of products, components and materials; shift investments to circular and regenerative business models; and shift consumption patterns towards circularity through changing mindsets.   Energy: Decarbonize the energy supply; increase energy efficiency; back social and environmental sustainability in critical mineral value chains; and address energy access and energy poverty.   Food systems: Shift to healthy and sustainable diets; enhance circularity and production efficiency; and reduce food loss and waste.   Environment: Accelerate conservation and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems; back climate adaptation and resilience, leaning on Nature-based Solutions; and implement climate mitigation strategies.   Considering diverse knowledge systems, especially Indigenous Knowledge and Local Knowledge, is crucial to just transitions that address both environmental sustainability and human well-being.   The report calls on governments, multilateral organizations and the private sector to acknowledge the urgency of global environmental crises and to act to deliver a better future for all.   Drawing on multiple sources, the report also lays out in detail the current and future consequences of business-as-usual development models.   Greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 1.5 per cent each year since 1990, reaching a new high in 2024 – raising global temperatures and intensifying climate impacts. The cost of extreme weather events attributed to climate change over the last 20 years is estimated at US$143 billion annually.   Between 20 and 40 per cent of land area worldwide is estimated to be degraded, affecting over three billion people, while one million of an estimated eight million species are threatened with extinction.   Nine million deaths are attributable annually to some form of pollution. The economic cost of health damages from air pollution alone was about US$8.1 trillion in 2019 – or around 6.1 per cent of global GDP.   The state of the environment will dramatically worsen if the world continues to power economies under a business-as-usual pathway. Without action, global mean temperature rise is likely to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2030, exceed at least 2.0°C by the 2040s and keep climbing. On this path, climate change will continue to cut annual global GDP.   Land degradation is expected to continue at current rates, with the world losing fertile and productive land the size of Colombia or Ethiopia annually – at a time when climate change is reducing food availability.   The 8,000 million tonnes of plastic waste polluting the planet will continue to accumulate – driving up the estimated health-related economic losses of US$1.5 trillion attributable annually to exposure to toxic chemicals in plastics.   The multi-disciplinary group of scientists from around the world say the climate crisis, destruction of nature and pollution can no longer be seen as simply environmental crises.   “They are all undermining our economy, food security, water security, human health and they are also national security issues, leading to conflict in many parts of the world,” said Prof Robert Watson, the co-chair of the Global Environment Outlook.   All the environmental crises are worsening as the global population grows and requires more food and energy, most of which was produced in ways that pollute the planet and destroy the natural world, the experts say.   “This is an urgent call to transform our human systems now before collapse becomes inevitable,” said Prof Edgar Gutierrez-Espeleta, another co-chair and the former environment minister in Costa Rica.   “The science is good. The solutions are known. What is required is the courage to act at the scale and speed that history demands,” he said, adding that the window for action was “rapidly narrowing”.   The report contained several “critical truths”, Gutierrez-Espeleta said: environmental crises were political and security emergencies, threatening the social ties that held societies together. Today’s governments and economic systems were failing humanity and financial reform was the cornerstone of transformation, he said.   “Environmental policy must become the backbone of national security, social justice, and economic strategy.”   One of the key concerns outlined in the report is the $45 trillion a year in environmental damage caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas, and the pollution and destruction of nature caused by industrial agriculture.   These massive costs – called externalities by economists – must be priced into energy and food to reflect their real price and shift consumers towards greener choices, Prof. Watson said.   “We need social safety nets. We need to make sure that the poorest in society are not harmed by any increases in costs.”   There are also $1.5tn in environmentally harmful subsidies to fossil fuels, food and mining, the report highlights. These need to be removed or repurposed, it adds. Removing fossil fuel subsidies alone could cut emissions by up to a third.   Prof. Watson noted that wind and solar energy was cheaper in many places but was being held back by vested interests in the fossil fuel industry.   The climate crisis may be even worse than thought, he said: “We are likely to be underestimating the magnitude of climate change”, with global heating at the high end of the projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. An alarming prospect for much of the world.   http://www.unep.org/resources/global-environment-outlook-7 http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/09/food-fossil-fuel-production-5bn-environmental-damage-an-hour-un-geo-report- http://www.unep.org/resources/state-finance-nature-2026 http://hdr.undp.org/content/new-climate-dataset-warns-poorest-nations http://horizons.hdr.undp.org http://www.ipsnews.net/2025/12/businesses-impact-nature-on-which-they-depend-ipbes-report-finds/ 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://www.ids.ac.uk/news/new-global-report-on-transformative-change-for-biodiversity/ http://www.ipbes.net/ http://www.lse.ac.uk/research/research-for-the-world/sustainability/investing-in-climate-adaptation   * A Future We Choose (GEO-7) Executive summary: http://tinyurl.com/2p6jzv22   June 2026   With fewer than five years to 2030, decisive action is needed to keep the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within reach. (UN News)   Despite progress major challenges persist. One in ten people still live in extreme poverty. Around 2.3 billion people face moderate or severe food insecurity. More than 150 million children remain stunted. Maternal mortality stands at nearly three times the global target. None of the gender equality targets are on track.   Escalating conflicts, climate change, slowing economic growth, rising debt and a record decline in official development assistance are disproportionately affecting the world’s most vulnerable people.   273 million children and young people remain out of school; one in five young people aged 15–24 is not in employment, education or training, and young people are nearly four times more likely to be unemployed than adults.   An estimated 1.16 billion people — roughly one in four urban residents — live in slums or informal settlements. Official development assistance fell by a record 23.1 per cent in 2025 — the largest annual decline ever recorded.   The Extinction risk is worsening across all species groups; protection of key biodiversity areas averaged only 45 per cent in 2025.   Violent conflict has surged to its highest level in decades. As of December 2025, more than 117.8 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, erasing years of development gains in months.   The number of people affected by climate-related disasters has more than doubled since 2015. Global temperatures in 2025 reached 1.43°C above pre-industrial levels and atmospheric carbon dioxide hit its highest concentration in two million years..   June 2026   Despite Geopolitical Headwinds and Slow Progress, Global Commitment to the SDGs Holds Strong. (SDSN)   With less than four years remaining in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remains significantly off track: Only 16% of targets are projected to be achieved by the deadline.   The vast majority of UN Member States remain committed to the framework, but a small number of countries, most notably the United States, have moved into active opposition to the paradigm of sustainable development and the multilateral institutions that underpin it.   These are among the key findings of the 11th edition of the Sustainable Development Report (SDR), released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).   This year’s SDR calls for stronger SDG implementation and renewed global cooperation as the world enters the final years of the 2030 Agenda and begins laying the groundwork for a post-2030 framework.   The report includes the SDG Index and Dashboards, ranking all UN Member States across the 17 SDGs, and the Index of Countries’ Support for UN-Based Multilateralism (UN-Mi), which tracks countries’ engagement with the UN system.   The report also features two new surveys: 1) The “SDSN Expert Survey on Government Efforts for the SDGs” and 2) a large-scale public survey spanning 127 countries on “SDG Challenges and Means for Implementation.” Together, they reveal broad public support for maintaining the SDG framework beyond 2030, while also exposing significant regional and country-level disparities in governance, policy effort, and implementation capacity.   Across respondents, stronger mechanisms for financing, governance, and the use of science and data emerged as the top priorities for accelerating sustainable progress by 2030 and beyond.   “Support for sustainable development as the global paradigm remains strong throughout the world. Notable success stories have emerged across East and South Asia and in many other countries and regions. Sustainable development cannot be achieved amid ongoing conflict, making peace the top priority of our time,” said Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, President of the SDSN and a lead author of the report.   “As the 2030 landmark approaches, the next era of sustainable development must put the global emphasis on implementation and ensuring strong financing and effective governance at all levels."   "The 2030 Agenda was always an ambitious undertaking, and today's geopolitical headwinds are testing the resilience of the multilateral system," said Dr. Guillaume Lafortune, Vice President of the SDSN and a lead author and coordinator of the report.   "The moment calls for all countries to reaffirm the principles of the UN Charter, starting with Article 1, and to cooperate in building a credible global and regional security architecture. The next era of sustainable development must prioritize implementation through a reformed Global Financial Architecture, greater involvement of continental, regional, and local institutions, but also a central role for civil society and universities in driving accountability, innovation, and solutions on the ground.”   This year’s SDR highlights the following key findings:   Global commitment to the SDGs remains strong. A large majority of countries continue to support UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions referencing sustainable development, with more than 170 of the 193 UN Member States backing all of these resolutions in 2025.   Argentina and the United States were the only countries to consistently vote against resolutions linked to the sustainable development framework.   East and South Asia outperform all other regions on SDG progress. East and South Asian countries have recorded the strongest SDG progress since 2015. Among major economies, India (+18) and China (+14) show the largest rank improvements. Finland leads this year’s SDG Index, followed by Sweden and Denmark.   However, even these top performers face significant challenges on SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), and SDG 15 (Life on Land), partly due to unsustainable consumption patterns and negative international spillover effects.   Goals related to cities, the environment, sustainable agri-food systems, and peace are particularly off-track. Among these, the most concerning are SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land), and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions).   At the indicator level, the areas furthest from their targets include progress toward sustainable agriculture (SDG 2), the prevalence of obesity (SDG 3), as well as the timeliness of administrative proceedings, press freedom, and the Corruption Perceptions Index (SDG 16).   In contrast, several indicators are showing some progress at the global level. These include rising mobile broadband subscriptions and internet use (SDG 9), declining adolescent fertility rates and HIV infections (SDG 3), and expanded electricity access (SDG 7).   Barbados ranks first in commitment to UN-based multilateralism, while the U.S. ranks last. Barbados ranks as the country most committed to UN-based multilateralism in the SDR’s 2026 Index of Countries’ Support to UN-based Multilateralism (UN-Mi), which assesses countries’ engagement with the UN system and their support for SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) using six headline indicators.   At the opposite end of the Index, the U.S. ranks last. This is highlighted in recent actions from the U.S. federal government, which withdrew from more than 60 international organizations in January 2026; voted with the international majority in only 5% of recorded UNGA votes in 2025; and formally opposes the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda, and the Paris Climate Agreement.   Strengthening implementation is the defining priority for the next era of sustainable development.   In 2026, the SDSN surveyed its networks across 64 countries and the European Union, alongside over 1,000 respondents from 127 countries, to assess government efforts and barriers to SDG implementation.   Respondents broadly support maintaining the SDG framework beyond 2030, pointing to financing, governance, and the use of science and data as the areas most in need of strengthening.   Views on progress vary significantly by region, with East and South Asia reporting more optimistic assessments of national and local SDG performance.   The report identifies eight priorities to accelerate progress toward 2030 and beyond:   (1) end ongoing wars and redirect military expenditures toward peace and human development; (2) establish an ambitious timeline for SDG implementation; (3) organize implementation around six major transformations; (4) adopt long-term investment plans to support these transformations; (5) strengthen continental, regional, and local cooperation and investment; (6) introduce new global taxes to finance global public goods; (7) develop global governance frameworks for AI, biotechnology, and other emerging technologies; and (8) establish new UN campuses in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.   * The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) has been operating since 2012 under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General. The SDSN mobilizes global scientific and technological expertise to promote practical solutions for sustainable development, including the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.   http://www.unsdsn.org/news/despite-geopolitical-headwinds-and-slow-progress-global-commitment-to-the-sdgs-holds-strong/ http://sdgtransformationcenter.org/reports/sustainable-development-report-2026 http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2026/07/recording-side-event-transforming-sustainable-growth-through-the-lens-of-people-centred-investment-with-universal-social-protection http://lens.civicus.org/sdgs-civil-society-shut-out-as-progress-falls-short/ http://lens.civicus.org/interviews/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/general-comments-and-recommendations/ec12gc27-general-comment-no-27-2025-economic-social http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/participation-people-essential-inclusive-and-sustainable-development-un   July 2026   Decisions taken this week at the World Bank have created uncertainty around the Bank's future role in climate finance and its commitment to climate action. (Eurodad, agencies)   It has been clear for some time that the USA, the World Bank’s biggest shareholder, was on a mission to weaken the integration of climate change into the Bank’s work. This has had - and will have - further implications for the broader Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) landscape. A clear sign of this was a joint statement on collaboration issued by 10 MDBs at the 2026 Spring Meetings which made no mention of financing climate action.   The World Bank energy investments must be aligned with 1.5°C: energy investments and advice should prioritise decentralised renewable energy, energy access and community-centred energy systems that meet the needs of people, particularly women and marginalised communities.   The Bank must work to align its policies with a just transition away from fossil fuels. With a growing group of countries committing to transition away from fossil fuels, the World Bank must support a just transition for countries and workers by ensuring adequate finance for strategic renewable energy investments (including financing with greater concessionality), and by equitably phasing out all direct and indirect financing for fossil fuel exploration, extraction, transport and power generation, including through financial intermediaries.   The Bank must recognize that continued investments in fossil fuel expansion and associated infrastructure deepen ecological harm across the Global South. The Bank’s new critical minerals strategy must avoid creating new environmental “sacrifice zones” and work to ensure value-addition for source countries to enable green economic transformation..   http://www.eurodad.org/world_bank_ccap_climate_just_transition http://www.eurodad.org/cso_letter_world_bank_must_not_abandon_climate_commitments http://www.eurodad.org/fossil_fuel_surtax Visit the related web page
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