Overview

Most countries are attempting to achieve environmentally and socially sustainable economic growth, coupled with food, water and energy security at a time of enormous global changes, including environmental degradation at the local, regional and global scale. Key issues include climate change, loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services (provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting), local and regional air pollution, and land and water degradation.

There is no doubt that the Earth's climate is changing and it is very likely that most of the observed changes in the last fifty years are due to human activities. Cost-effective and equitable approaches to address climate change exist or can be developed, but will require political will and moral leadership. A combination of technological and behavioural changes, coupled with pricing and effective policies (including regulatory policies), are needed to address this global challenge at all spatial scales, that is, local, national and international, and across sectors.