Blog

Malaria remains in the top three diseases causing the highest mortality globally.

Author: Solveig Aamodt, Senior Researcher, CICERO Center for International Climate Research.

A unison sigh with relief could be heard among environmentalists worldwide when Luiz Ignacio “Lula” da Silva was announced as winner of the Brazilian presidential election on 30 October 2022. Especially to those defending the environment, climate, and indigenous peoples’ rights, the four years of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration have felt like an incrementing disaster. The election of Lula saved the hope of a future for the Brazilian Amazon, but how easy will it be for Lula to put Brazil on a low-carbon and sustainable track?

Norwegians are world champions in consumption, but most of us feel our levels of consumption are completely normal. This is one of the reasons why sustainability transformations cannot be left to the consumers alone.

There is considerable concern that the world is off-track in achieving the SDGs. As the SDGs are not directly referred to in treaties, local laws, or case law, a particularly relevant question is how and to what extent the SDGs are achievable when they are not legally binding

Arve Hansen argues for a new research agenda that takes the complexity of consumption seriously.

Over the 75 years that has passed since India’s independence in 1947, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has gradually developed research and manufacturing hubs that offer a steady supply of affordable drugs to large parts of the world.

Read the latest op-ed on India-Africa cooperation by Prof. Ranga Reddy Burri, Prof. Dan Banik and PhD candidate Lise Bjerke. 

Sindre Brennhagen is one of the winners of UiO's sustainability prize for best master's thesis. 

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the River Nile has begun producing electricity for the first time. While supporters claim that the dam will make an important contribution to economic development in the country, the project has been at the centre of a 11-year-long dispute between Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan.

The COP26 conference marks a breakthrough in the discourse on climate change by addressing fossil fuel subsidies for the first time. Yet, environmental justice continues to be in the forefront of the climate debate.   

Urgent and ambitious climate mitigation and adaptation policies are needed to strengthen responses to climate change. What are the trade-offs between social and ecological objectives and outcomes of a green transformation for (dis)abled people?

India has made considerable progress in recent years towards bringing energy services to its citizens and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Two recent IEA reports shed light on the challenges ahead.

The Government of Norway recently launched a new action plan for climate adaptation and food security, building on the key principles of the 2030 Agenda.

Recent reports by V-Dem and Freedom House indicate that democracy is backsliding across the world. What does this tell us about democracy and sustainable development in 2021?

In this blog, Kristin Bergtora Sandvik and Ingunn Ikdahl argue that a framing of remote learning, connectivity, and access to hardware as the solutions to lockdown unduly privileges certain understandings of how children’s right to education are violated.

There are five key reasons why a small country like Norway would not do better on its own in the global vaccine race, write Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée and Katerini Storeng.

As much of climate change research in psychology is focused on individuals, we found the youth movement’s collective approach interesting. What motivated thousands of young people to strike for policy change and structural measures rather than individual measures?

A recent OECD report explores how the SDGs can be operationalised in a prosperous world. Norway's most populous county, Viken, recently implemented the SDGs in regional planning with good results. 

What does literature have to do with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? This question can be answered in many ways, and literary scholars can provide a wide range of different responses. Literary fiction often addresses the most pressing and current issues, and so, literature can, and does, tell a great variety of stories mirroring the problems that we face today. However, literature is not only about what it tells, but also about how it tells it. As is clear from debates on climate change or the range of topics discussed in the current US presidential campaign, how we communicate to the rest of the world certainly affects what we do. In this blog, I would like to focus on one specific way that literary fiction can contribute to achieving the SDGs, namely through exploring the workings of our minds.

A group of Nordic researchers are appealing for support for the scholarly journal Economic & Political Weekly (EPW), which is struggling due to the current pandemic and nationwide lockdown in India.

There are numerous well-intentioned global efforts and development agendas and a multitude of stakeholders involved in saving lives as well as promoting long-term development in many developing countries. But what characterizes the relationship between good intentions and actually achieved results? How well are such activities coordinated? How effectively can external actors make a meaningful contribution to alleviating local problems? And most importantly, whose priorities do such interventions address, and to what extent are the so-called “beneficiaries” consulted?

In March and April 2020, an ecosystem of tracing apps suddenly emerged, presenting digital solutions as indispensable for winning the battle against Covid-19. 

This blog critically assesses the potential of legal tech for improving access to civil justice as measured by the new Sustainable Development Goals indicator 16.3.3.

'Critical junctures' are the scandals, crises or conflicts that can throw the status quo and power relations into the air, opening the door to previously unthinkable reforms. In Plagues and the Paradox of Progress, Thomas Bolloky argues that such events include health shocks: 'Encounters with infectious disease have played a key role in the evolution of cities, the expansion of trade routes, the conduct of war and participation in pilgrimages'.

It is great to be back in Malawi, where there is considerable political excitement following a recent landmark ruling by the Constitutional court that has received massive attention in large parts of the world.

Managing an epidemic requires tackling the health consequences of the outbreak, as well as its social, political, security, and economic dimensions. This implies setting priorities and making trade-offs between various interests and goals – in short, a lot of politics.