Food systems fundamentally depend on natural resources, such as land, soil, water, biodiversity, minerals, biomass and fossil fuels. Key statistics show that in many cases these resources are not currently managed sustainably ...

Better matching of land use with its sustainable potential is a “no-regrets” strategy for sustainably increasing agricultural production on existing land, targeting restoration efforts to where they are likely to be most ...

This International Resource Panel (IRP) Think Piece concludes that both the process of land restoration and rehabilitation, and the restored land, can have significant co-benefits for all the SDGs.

The remarkable economic and population growth of the 20th century was closely coupled to substantial increases in the extraction and consumption of natural resources, leading to increasingly-damaging negative environmental ...

Global economic production is now concentrated in cities. Some 80% of global GDP is produced in cities on just 2% of the land surface, though cities depend on the flow of resources from near and far. Cities have been growing ...

We are using unsustainable amounts of the Earth’s natural resources. We need to improve the rate of resource productivity (“doing more with less”) faster than the economic growth rate. This is the notion behind “decoupling”.

Recycling rates of metals are far lower than potential for reuse. Less than one-third of 60 studied have a recycling rate above 50 per cent, though many are crucial to clean technologies such as batteries for hybrid cars ...

International trade is indispensable in enabling countries to meet demand for vital resources, which are not available, accessible or affordable domestically. However, it is precisely the attendant impact trade has on ...

Global trends point to a relative decoupling of water – that is, the rate of water resource use is increasing at a rate slower than that of economic growth. The Options for Decoupling Economic Growth from Water Use and ...

Through a combination of resource efficiency, climate mitigation, carbon removal, and biodiversity protection policies, this report finds that it is feasible and possible to grow economies, increase well-being and remain ...