Politics And Economics

The European Emissions Trading Scheme was always going to disappoint the NGOs who wanted a perfect climate solution, but simply bashing it ignores the progerss that can be made through small steps

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer... well, enemies who are making some pretty bold pledges, at any rate

Brazil is hailed as a biofuels success story - producing and using ethanol from high yielding crops within the country. But those indigenous families who have been displaced by sugar cane cultivation see things differently

An obsession with celebrity is costing us more than our free time - it has led to a culture in which individual endeavour is the only form of success

Former Director of the Tyndall Centre and a Professor at the University of East Anglia, Andrew Watkinson explains why 'a few loose sentences' in the IPCC report shouldn't change people's opinion of the science

The lack of agreement at Copenhagen has left some thinking that the only way to protect national economies is to tax imports from nations who don't pay a carbon price...

Individuals and local campaign groups are being prevented from challenging environmental damage because of the potentially crippling cost of legal action

Pressure groups take Treasury to court for second time in a year over failure to assess the environmental and human rights impact of RBS

Come 31st of January - the day when international emissions cuts were supposed to be announced - carbon markets should have rocketed. They didn't, and that's a bad sign

It's called the 'Cinderella economy'. You know it as the local, sustainable businesses that don't make the GDP figures soar, but do provide jobs and glue communities together...

Deutsche Bank economist Pavan Sukhdev is heading up the groundbreaking TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) report and doing for nature what Sir Nicholas Stern did for climate change - valuing it

Building offshore wind farms is great. Inaccurately quoting or massaging the figures that support them is not

The Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) has accused the Government of producing energy strategies that are 'carbon blind'

Self-builders are no longer a niche segment of society: they are industrious, skilled, innovative individuals who should be helped to create vital, sustainable communities

Economists have all but forgotten about the source of real wealth - the land under our feet. They do so at their peril

Survey finds global financial decision makers ignoring climate risks and opportunities

Politicians talk a good green economy, but when it comes down to it, they're still only interested in seeing the GDP figures tick upwards...

Obsessed with technology, we have overlooked something critical that lurks in our institutionalised notion of sustainability

What few have stopped to consider in the continuing 'battle' against Somali pirates is what industrialised nations have been doing to the country's fishing grounds for years

No hairshirt or sandals for Molly this year - she's bellowing carols and splashing the cash (in her local currency, of course)

Water scarcity and mis-management in India are creating a significant human and ecological crisis that will only be worsened by climate change

There's still money to be had for good environmental projects, but it's a fraction of what's being spent in other areas, says Harriet Williams

India has a substantial part to play in a climate deal, but failing to acknowledge historical responsibility is akin to giving the US 'squatters' rights' to the atmosphere

In an exclusive investigation, the Ecologist Film Unit reveals the impact of Indonesia's plans to privatise its entire 90,000 km coastline