WRI Insights

Over the past two decades, the world has witnessed a remarkable period of economic and human development: More than 2 billion people [have gained access](http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG%20Report%202012.pdf) to improved drinking water; life expectancy [has increased](http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/gbd/publications/healthy-life-expectancy-187-countries-1990-2010-systematic-analysis-global-bu) by approximately five years; more children are going to school, with 90 percent enrolled in primary education; and per capita income levels have doubled across developing countries.

“This gathering represents man’s earnest endeavor to understand his own condition and to prolong his tenancy of this planet.” With these stirring words, Indira Gandhi, India’s Prime Minister, galvanized the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. A wake-up call to the state of our planet, Stockholm gave birth to the [UN Environment Programme](http://www.unep.org/), amid high hopes that humanity could together curb alarming trends in pollution and natural resource loss.

Worldwide, one out of every five people [lacks access](http://www.sustainableenergyforall.org/objectives/universal-access) to modern electricity. Affordability, quality of service, and social and environmental impacts pose great challenges in providing people with the power they need for lighting, cooking, and other activities. Good governance involving open and inclusive practices is essential to overcoming these pressing obstacles.

As more and more people move into cities, more cars are also hitting the streets. These vehicles not only spew greenhouse gas emissions, they can cause urban traffic fatalities. We already see [1.2 million traffic-related deaths](http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/en/index.html) per year worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, with increased urbanization and motorization, road fatalities [are expected to become](http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/en/) the fifth-leading cause of death by 2030.

The national conversation around climate change [has resumed](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/02/how-turn-state-union-address-commitments-real-climate-action). In both the [Inauguration](http://www.wri.org/news/2013/01/statement-president-obama-commits-climate-change-action-second-inaugural-address) and [State of the Union addresses](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/02/how-turn-state-union-address-commitments-real-climate-action), President Obama devoted considerable time to the issue, including his declaration that “we must do more to combat climate change.”

Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper companies, [announced](http://www.rainforestrealities.com/newsroom/press-releases/app-commits-to-an-immediate-halt-to-all-natural-forest-clearance/) earlier this month that it will no longer cut down natural forests [in Indonesia](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/10/2-new-tools-can-cut-deforestation-and-support-sustainable-palm-oil-indonesia) and will demand similar commitments from its suppliers. The announcement was received with guarded optimism by [Greenpeace](http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/major-breakthrough-in-protection-for-indonesias-remaining-rainforests/), [Rainforest Action Network](http://ran.org/rainforest-action-network-responds-asia-pulp-and-paper%E2%80%99s-new-forest-commitments), [World Wildlife Fund](http://wwf.panda.org/?207497/WWF-Welcomes-APP-Announcement-to-Halt-Clearing-Urges-Paper-Buyers-to-Wait-for-Proof), and other NGOs who have waged a persistent campaign to change APP’s forest policies.

President Obama [made it abundantly clear](http://www.wri.org/news/2013/02/statement-wri-response-state-union) during the State of the Union address last night that he will direct his Administration to take on climate change. The president reiterated the urgency for action, citing climate impacts we’re already seeing like [record high temperatures](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/numbers-hottest-year-record), heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods. “We can choose to believe that [Superstorm Sandy](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/11/listening-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-here), and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence,” he said. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science--and act before it’s too late.”

Tonight, President Obama will address the nation at the State of the Union, laying out his priorities for his second term. Climate change is expected to be high on the list, especially following the Inauguration when the president [declared](http://www.wri.org/news/2013/01/statement-president-obama-commits-climate-change-action-second-inaugural-address) that a failure to respond would "betray our children and future generations."

I spent the [recent U.N. climate negotiations](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/12/reflections-cop-18-doha-negotiators-made-only-incremental-progress) in Doha trying to reconcile two injustices. The first is captured by Nicholas Stern’s [“brutal arithmetic.”](http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/04/lord-stern-developing-countries-deeper-emissions-cuts) This is the simple, unavoidable fact that bold greenhouse gas emissions reductions will be needed from *all* countries to hold global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, thus preventing climate change’s most dangerous impacts. Developing nations, many of which are battling crippling poverty and inequality at home, are being told that the traditional, high-carbon pathway to prosperity is off-limits, and that they, too, will need to embrace aggressive mitigation actions. This is a glaring injustice – the product of two decades of missed opportunities in the [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)](http://unfccc.int/2860.php), inadequate domestic action in industrialized countries, and substantial geopolitical changes in major emerging economies.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago, I was struck by how often the issue of water risk was raised by business executives. As the global economic turmoil is receding, many CEOs and global leaders are turning to other threats—and water is high on the list. For the second year in a row, water crises were named among the [top four global risks](http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-2013-eighth-edition) at the WEF.