Access to energy is essential to addressing the problems that cause poverty. Without energy, people cannot access the opportunities provided by the modern world but 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity today. With coal resources existing in many developing countries, coal clearly has a major role to play in providing energy access in the form of coal-fired electricity. The World Coal Association’s (WCA) latest report "Coal – Energy for Sustainable Development" looks at how coal can bring energy access to millions and support economic growth in the developing world.

By providing estimated figures for indigenous and forest peoples’ populations in countries and regions across the globe, this new Forest Peoples Programme report seeks to raise awareness of the existence of peoples who primarily depend on forests for their livelihoods, and to enhance their visibility as key actors and rights-holders in the management and use of forests and forest resources.

The lack of real progress at the Durban climate change conference in 2011—postponing effective action until at least 2020—has many causes, one of which is the failure to address trade issues and in particular carbon leakage. This paper advances two arguments. First, it argues that the conventional view of Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) as a “dirty” trade barrier should be turned on its head. Rather, the absence of a carbon price comprises an implicit subsidy to dirtier production in non-regulated markets.

This note takes stock of poverty research to date, proposes a set of ‘building blocks’ or lessons learnt in terms of poverty policy analysis and research, and identifies challenges and future directions for research

Read this Press Release on "GE, Alcoa, Johnson Controls, Ford and Intel named as leaders in clean-tech innovation and climate responsiveness – Maplecroft Climate Innovation Indexes" dated 23 April 2012.

In order to accelerate progress on undernutrition reduction we need to understand how the governance of nutrition programmes leads to successful outcomes. Based on evidence from six countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Peru and Zambia, this briefing informs government leaders, policymakers and key stakeholders of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement: how they can better mobilise political commitment for undernutrition reduction and how they can facilitate cooperation across national and local institutions, and among nutritionists, civil society and the private sector.

This report highlights deficiencies in the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) undertaken by Vedanta Resources Plc for its proposed bauxite mine in Niyamgiri, Orissa, its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa, and the proposed expansion of this refinery. Vedanta Resources Plc is a UK-registered mining company with strong Indian connections. It owns and controls subsidiaries in India that are engaged in mining and refining activities in the state of Orissa.

The question of 'what changes do we need to empower women smallholders and achieve food security?' has been asked repeatedly. But transformational changes in both public policy and practice have been few and far between, although increasing access to resources and opportunities for women farmers could substantially reduce the number of hungry people in the world.

This paper offers a new perspective on global poverty. It does so by estimating the distribution of poverty across countries, regions and income categories based on national poverty lines (NPLs). Even though comparing NPLs across countries means comparing poverty lines of different monetary value, we argue that exploring “poverty” as a nationally defined concept by countries at different stages of development unveils important and often unnoticed findings.

This report examines the top 40 humanitarian recipient countries in the context of 'natural disasters', especially with regard to financing to reduce risk. It highlights how prevalent disasters are in these countries, and their particularly significant impact. Beyond this, It examines the current state of funding for disaster risk reduction and, in the context of those countries most at risk of natural disaster, asks questions about the volume and type of funding, and its equity.