As the nations of the world assemble in Copenhagen next week to complete the first step toward a binding agreement to confront climate change, naysayers are running out of reasons to delay or deny progress. The United States and China, which account for some forty percent of global greenhouse...

The world economy, the future of the financial system, the rebuilding of a nation's infrastructure. Nothing small, it seems, gets done in Washington these days. But the recent meeting of 17 major economies, hosted by the State Department, produced the start of real progress on perhaps the biggest challenge yet....

Soon, everybody may hear. The world's first ban on illegal wood imports could be a breakthrough on climate change.

One of the most interesting and overlooked environmental victories in 2008 came in the form of an amendment to a 100-year old U.S. statute. The Lacey Act, as it is...

With the target date for the Kyoto Protocol's successor agreement still a year away, and a lame duck U.S. delegation in attendance, nobody expected a watershed moment at the recently concluded climate change conference (COP-14) in Poznan, Poland. While delegates made modest progress on some key issues, the real...

Co-written with Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, UN Under-Secretary General

The food crises of the present will seem as nothing to those of the future unless the world brings some urgency and intelligence to managing the planet's nature-based assets.

When world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New...

Ironically, the most ambitious U.S. action in the fight against global warming is coming from big cities and their mayors.

It seems preposterous on its face. Each city's emissions are only a tiny fraction of the global pie. Cities can't force utilities to shift to renewables, or make Detroit produce...

After a brutal summer of volatile fuel prices and hyper-partisan politics, Congress's latest attempt at cogent energy policy came up frustratingly short. In the end, the Senate "gang of 20" effort stalled, and the House passed a "compromise" package primarily intended to ease pain at the pump by...

In a few weeks, elite athletes from around the world will gather in Beijing. Press coverage of the Games is likely to highlight competition between America and China about which will win the most medals. Media coverage will also -- as it has already -- focus on air quality...