World in Transition – Fighting Poverty through Environmental Policy

German Advisory Council on Global Change

Earthscan, London
ISBN 1-85383-883-7, 311 pages, £ 63,75

At the start of the 21st century, fighting poverty and protecting the environment are two of the most urgent challenges facing the international community. Narrowing the massive disparities in the satisfaction of basic needs and distribution of prosperity must be a primary objective. Extreme poverty, such as that prevailing above all in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, is the most obvious manifestation of the untenable imbalance in the world's social system.

The recommendations for action set out in this report are based on an analysis of the systemic links between poverty (income poverty, disease, malnutrition, and lack of education, social stability and social capital) and environmental changes (climate change, lack of water resources, water pollution, soil degradation, loss of biological diversity and resources, and air pollution). The manifestations of and interactions between poverty and environmental problems are investigated in their various forms. This type of integrated analysis is nothing new; what is new, however, is the consistent linking of a holistic approach with the following key questions: which institutional arrangements offer ways of coping with these problems, and where must gaps be closed? To this end, WBGU has evaluated major international political processes and developed recommendations on policy coherence. It also presents various recommendations on further research to identify the strategic gaps in theoretical and practical knowledge.

The Summary for Policy-Makers can be obtained through the WBGU Secretariat or downloaded here.

Commissioned Expert's Studies
For this Report, the Council has commissioned expert's studies, which are available for download (in German only – 1 study in English):

	Beese: Ernährungssicherung als Produktions- bzw. Verteilungsproblem. (1,5 MB, 48 S.)
	Biermann, Bauer: UNEP and UNDP. (904 KB, 43 S.)
	Brühl: Funktionsweise und Effektivität der GEF. (2,5 MB, 46 S.)
	Eberlei: Umweltrelevante Aspekte in Poverty Reduction Strategies. (944 KB, 44 S.)
	Petschel-Held, Sietz, Walkenhorst, Walther, Brooks: Armut und Umwelt in Burkina Faso und NO-Brasilien: Entwicklung und Anwendung eines Matrixkonzepts zur Beschreibung differenzieller Vulnerabilitäten gegenüber dem globalen Wandel. (4,2 MB, 64 S.)
	Proksch: Bedeutung von Naturstoffen für die Pharmazie. (1 MB, 27 S.)
	Stoll: Armutsbekämpfung und Zugang zu genetischen Ressourcen. (1,6 MB, 50 S.)