STWR - Share The World's Resources

Our collective abuse and displacement of fresh water is a serious cause of climate change and global warming. To ensure that universal basic needs are met sustainably we need a revolution in our management of the world’s finite water resources, argues Maude Barlow.

Thanks to new funding mechanisms, forest lands are becoming bargaining chips in carbon markets and global climate negotiations. Can the new era of forest governance be locally led and rights based or will business interests continue to dominate? Report by the Rights and Resources Initiative.

As world leaders enter into final negotiations ahead of the Copenhagen climate talks, almost a quarter of the global population lives without electricity. The energy needs of poor countries must be central to any new climate agreement, says a report by the United Nations.

Neither conventional fossil fuels nor alternative energy sources can be counted on to sustain current levels of economic growth. In order to begin a managed transition to a post-fossil fuel society, growth as we have known it can no longer drive the economy, argues Richard Heinberg.

Governments and multilateral agencies have failed to acknowledge the imminence and scale of the global oil supply crunch. There is an urgent need for international recognition of the threat oil dependency poses to global peace and the environment, warns a report by Global Witness.

Unless we drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels we are heading for an "Era of Xtreme Energy". Clinging on to conventional energy supplies is likely to devastate the environment, accelerate climate change, and create global conflict, warns Michael T. Klare.

Privatisation and commercialisation in Latin America has left people without access to water, whilst corporations make vast profits from water management. An international code is needed which classifies water as a basic human right rather than a commodity, argues Lisa Boscov-Ellen.