Sustainability Horizons is CISL’s monthly scan of issues and evidence coming into view, but which may not yet feature in the mainstream sustainability debate. This is not a prediction of the future, but a way of helping practitioners and policymakers to get early notice of new ideas, trends or evidence, to inform their own view of what might or should happen as a result. Find out more about our own work in developing new ideas and approaches that have the potential to deliver transformational change and rewire the economy.

Latest review

Economic inequality and social mobility

June 2019: Rising economic inequality reduces the belief that upward social mobility is possible amongst disadvantaged youth. Policies such as access to paid internships, mentoring programmes or subsidised education could counteract this.

Community-forest management

June 2019: Regions engaging in small-scale community-forest initiatives show a 37% reduction in relative poverty and relative deforestation. These initiatives combine environmental conservation with human development and could make vital contributions to achieving the SDGs in low income countries.

Waste exports

June 2019: An increasing number of South-East Asian countries are restricting waste imports, leading to spikes in landfill deposits and waste incineration in developed nations. However, this could encourage efforts to create a global governance framework for ‘circular’ resource management practices in the long-run.

Emotivism of nuclear energy

June 2019: New evidence shows that nuclear energy remains a highly emotive topic. Most likely, there will be 40% less use of nuclear energy than there might have been without the general public’s high sense of dread, limiting its potential to decarbonise the economy.

Natural Climate Solutions (NCS)

June 2019: NCS focus on ecosystem restoration projects that could deliver approximately a third of the carbon reduction needed between now and 2030. Many solutions currently receive limited funding opportunities and attract only narrow political attention.

Extreme wind speeds and wave heights

May 2019: Data from the last 33 years suggests that wind speeds and wave heights have increased around the world. It increases the risk of costal erosion, flooding events, and decreases the predictability of ocean movements.

Global economic inequality

May 2019: Evidence suggests that global warming increased global economic inequality by 25% between the world’s richest and poorest countries. Simultaneously, the study suggests that implementing climate change mitigating practices will stimulate economic growth in poorer countries.

Sustainability of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

May 2019: Public concerns from the head of the IMF about the environmental and debt sustainability of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) are coinciding with new evidence that many BRI projects could pose significant risks for unprotected key biodiversity areas. It suggests that the BRI’s loan governance and environmental planning requires intensive restructuring and rethinking.

Slowing sustainability transition in the fashion industry

May 2019: Improving social and environmental practices of the fashion industry has slowed by a third in 2018 in comparison to previous years, leading to strengthened calls for fashion companies to focus on system wide changes based on collaboration with bargain brands.

IPBES Report on biodiversity loss

May 2019: The UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) reports that more than 1 million animal and plant species are under threat of extinction over the next decades due to human activities. The risk can be reduced by removing or redirecting perverse subsidies, increasing the number of protected areas, and moving away from economic growth as a measure for quality of life.

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Contact

Adele Wiliams

Adele Williams, Communications and Media Manager

Email | T: +44 (0)1223 768451

Disclaimer

The views expressed in these external research papers are those of the authors and do not represent an official position of CISL, the University of Cambridge, or any of its individual business partners or clients.

Sustainability Horizons: what’s coming into view?

Find out more about our own work in developing new ideas and approaches that have the potential to deliver transformational change and rewire the economy.