“In our interdependent world, our neighbors are not only on our street, but can be ten thousand miles away on an island in rising seas.”

Many of our partners are here and this is where the world’s expertise on environment and the wider sustainability agenda often and regularly gathers.

We are at a pivotal moment in our shared history. The global goals of a healthy planet, social equality, and economic opportunity for all are within reach. But we cannot prevaricate.

The report makes it clear that climate policy is preventative security policy.

Our vision of a sustainable future will only materialize through action taken today.

Here is where international initiatives frequently start and are nurtured. Geneva is one of the hubs where global programs can be often most effectively managed.

With Climate Change as a Security Risk, WBGU has compiled a flagship report on an issue that quite rightly is rising rapidly up the international political agenda.

Bees underline the reality that we are more, not less, dependent on nature’s services in a world of close to seven billion people.

Including the value of natural resources and our social capital in national accounting is a vital step to achieve economic growth that is equitable and sustainable.

Even if we act immediately, the world is doomed to lose many of its animal and plant species and this inturn will reduce the ability of ecosystems to deliver vital services to human populations.

The only ones to profit from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing are the owners of the fishing fleets who remain hidden behind veils of corporate secrecy.

If you take the hard numbers, then science is clearly telling us that we’re running out of time.

A recent report by UNEP and Interpol estimated that between 50 to 90 per cent of logging in key tropical countries of the Amazon basin, Central Africa and South East Asia is being carried out by organized crime.

We have a responsibility to first understand how climate change impacts all peoples of the world. Then, we must consider the individual and collective choices and actions that can move us toward a sustainable future.

This threatens not only attempts to eradicate poverty and deforestation but also efforts to combat climate change.

The authors pull no punches on the likelihood of increasing tensions and conflicts in a climatically constrained world and spotlight places where possible conflicts may flare up in the 21st century unless climate change is checked.

Human beings have fabricated the illusion that in the 21st century they have the technological prowess to be independent of nature.