It is imperative that countries adopt a human security approach to achieve “freedom from hazard impacts”—nationally through a scientific disaster risk reduction strategy and internationally through climate diplomacy.

For this World Cities Day, the UN’s theme calls for “building sustainable and resilient cities.” Cities across the Global South are assessing their physical preparedness against future shocks. Can cities that leave out—or often push out—poor workers claim resiliency? These moves are, in fact, weakening any preparedness. The foundations of truly sustainable and resilient cities lie in their residents’ abilities and agency.

Solar farms—just like regular farms—cover large swaths of land, requiring between 3.5 to 16.5 acres per MW of generating capacity. The largest solar plant in the world, the 648 MW Kamuthi facility in Tamil Nadu, India, covers ten square kilometers. But it will be dwarfed by the 3,450 MW facility under construction on China’s Tibetan Plateau, which will span 298 square kilometers when completed. Building these large plants requires fundamentally changing how the land they sit on is used, which—without careful planning—could have negative impacts on the environment and local communities that could potentially lead to conflict. The backlash could not only derail solar projects, but could also fuel resistance to future renewable energy development.

The silver tsunami is approaching: Many countries, not all of them rich, are facing the challenges of an ageing population thanks to growing life expectancies and shrinking birth rates.

 This is what a water panic looks like in a major global city.

People hoard water. They queue for hours, well into the night, to fill jugs at natural springs. Like mad Christmas shoppers, they clear supermarkets of bottled water. They descend on stockers before they can fill the shelves.

China is four years into its war on pollution, and while the skies over many of its cities are bluer and thousands of polluting industries have been closed, many challenges remain. According to China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, 16 percent of China’s soil is polluted, 239 of China’s 338 biggest cities failed to meet air quality standards in 2017, and 32 percent of China’s surface water is not clean enough to swim in. To confront these challenges, Chinese citizens and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are taking legal action to halt polluters, push local government to be more accountable, and strengthen enforcement of pollution laws—but most lack the legal experience and expertise needed to be successful. A series of workshops held by the Environmental Law Institute earlier this year sought to close this gap by training NGOs and legal professionals in China on best practices for environmental public interest litigation.

Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, and Maeve Higgins, Irish comic, have teamed up to talk climate change with pioneering women leaders from around the world. In the coming weeks, their new podcast, Mothers of Invention, will feature an African politician, an Indian scientist, a Native American activist, and many more.

The idea of a “new middle” or “third way”—a blend of neo-liberal economic doctrines and social policies that was supposed to overcome the dichotomy between mixed economy and free market paradigms—more or less dominated U.S. and European politics for the last two decades. But today, this centrist consensus has been upended by a wave of populist, nationalist parties. Many have won over their electorates by questioning the benefits of free trade and globalization (as well as the international institutions that espouse them), while pursuing expansionary domestic economic policies.