Fires, droughts and land degradation cost the global economy up to 15 trillion dollars a year and are accelerating climate change even further. Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), stated this, adding that land degradation is shaving 10-17 percent off the world economy, which the World Bank estimates at 85.8 trillion dollars. 

A survey conducted by YouGov and WholeFoods Market has found that 63 percent of millennials are incorporating plant-based foods into their diet. According to the survey, more than 60% of young people between the ages of 22 and 37 are aware of the implications their food choices have on the environment and many of them are trying to find ways to lessen this impact. 

In Helsinki, at 9pm, the supermarket chain S-market offers its customers “happy hour” discounts of 30 percent on products already reduced by 30 percent. This campaign, which began two years ago, has made it possible to sell tons of pork, chicken and many other unsold food products that would otherwise go to waste. 

Seven Amazonian countries have signed an agreement to protect the world’s largest tropical forest through fire response coordination and satellite monitoring, after thousands of square kilometers of forests have gone up in smoke as a result of recent events. The Presidents of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, the Vice-President of Suriname and the Minister of Natural Resources of Guyana attended the summit in the city of Leticia, in southern Colombia. Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo was also present. 

Fourteen risk factors, many of which are modifiable. This was the finding of a large international study involving more than 155,000 people in 21 countries, which was presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in France. These risk factors include hypertension, cholesterol and abdominal obesity. Behavioral factors include smoking, diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption and salt intake. 

We need an international agreement to protect nature. This was the outcome of the World Economic Forum on Africa, during a session titled The Nature Economy, in which the panelists called for all governments to commit to a set of sustainability targets aimed at protecting nature and biodiversity across the globe. The purpose of all this is to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, which experts consider to be “staggering”.