Sustainable Development Goals – a useful outcome from Rio+20?
January 2012

Recent months have seen increasing interest in the idea that Rio+20 could be the launch pad for a new set of 'Sustainable Development Goals' (SDGs). But what would SDGs cover, what would a process to define and then implement them look like, and what would some of the key political challenges be? This short briefing Alex Evans and David Steven sets out a short summary of current thinking the issue, followed by thoughts about the way forward.

Read the full CIC report here.

World Resources Outlook

It is more important than ever for global policymaking on resource scarcity to 'connect the dots' among the different facets of the issue. In this policy brief, Alex Evans proposes one concrete way of doing so, through the production of a World Resources Outlook.

Read the full World Resources Outlook policy brief here.

Making Rio 2010 work
June 2011

The Rio 2012 summit on sustainable development is now one year away. Over two decades since the 1992 'Earth Summit', sustainable development has not materialized: as global GDP has risen, so have greenhouse gas emissions, species loss and environmental degradation.

This failure is due to political reasons. Publics around the world remain focused on material standards of living; leaders are reluctant to expend political capital on long-term, global risk issues; multilateral 'bandwidth' remains low; in many cases it is unclear what solutions would look like.

With these blockages still in place, there is a real risk that Rio 2012 could be a damp squib. To avoid this fate, it needs to place unsustainability squarely at the center of larger debates about globalization and the global economy – in particular by focusing on three key areas:

• Greening Growth
• Equity in a world of limits,
• Building resilience to shocks and stresses

Making Rio 2010 work | Setting the stage for global economic, social and ecological renewal by CIC Non-Resident Fellows, Alex Evans and David Steven

Global food crisis: Counting the real cost of biofuels
June 2011

A perfect storm of factors has driven the breathtaking rates of inflation and volatility in food markets over recent years, but biofuels have been the game changer.

Read the full Guardian article by Alex Evans here.