What are some stories that caught your attention in 2015?   They are ones that focus on people, data and events tied to sustainable growth, climate action and efforts to end energy poverty.   As…

Villoresi irrigation canal in Italy Credit: Nico Saporiti The intake of the Villoresi irrigation canal is a monumental structure of classical beauty: it tames the blue waters of the River Ticino,…

The events of the Arab Spring took the world by surprise: there were no obvious signs of an approaching storm in the Levant and the Maghreb. Objective measures—used on a regular basis—showed that…

The agreement reached by 196 countries at Paris to collectively work to limit the growth of global average temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is a landmark…

  The world forged a historic climate deal in Paris on Saturday, cheered on and celebrated by people around the world. Getting to that agreement has involved years of work and collaboration that…

The Climate Change conference in Paris only confirmed what we already knew—that increasingly, there’s an overlap between conventional security threats of a military nature, which are focused on…

Defense budgets are not publicly available, oversight is weak, and information about hidden spending is non-existent, says Transparency International-UK (TI-UK) of defense spending by the 17…

The 2014/15 oil price collapse may actually provide an opportunity for the Gulf region to focus on “green” economic thinking and on maximizing energy productivity overall. Given their large…

Photo:  Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) As Beijing is issuing its first-ever red alert due to record levels of air pollution, it is time for us to reflect on how we can…

PISA measures the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics and science. Photo: Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank  Investing in people starts by ensuring that graduates…