There are high hopes that Pope Francis I will usher in an era of health reform and social activism, but doubts remain, finds Imogen Mathers.

SciDev.Net talks to ASSAf's Roseanne Diab about the role of science academies in climate change awareness and risk reduction.

Lucy Pearson looks at early warning systems for disasters, their uses and limits, and what accounts for the gap between warning and action.

Satellite images are making the fate of the Himalayan glaciers clearer, but not that of the people who live downstream, finds Smriti Mallapaty.

S. Romi Mukherjee outlines human rights-based approaches to science, technology and development, and what they mean for policy and practice.

How will science and technology fare at the Rio+20 summit? Aisling Irwin looks at scientists' demands and assesses their chances.

Promises made at previous summits have not delivered enough protection for the oceans — campaigners are pushing for better results from Rio+20, writes Prime Sarmiento.

Yuan Tseh Lee, president of the International Council for Science, tells SciDev.Net what scientists must achieve at Rio+20.

Sarah Grimes explores why we need good ocean monitoring, how to get it, and why it still fails Small Island Developing States.

Efforts to protect precious marine biodiversity by combining science and local knowledge are difficult but can work, reports Naomi Antony.

SciDev.Net talks to Sylvia Earle, scientist, oceanographer, explorer, about her hopes for oceans at the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in 2012.

The cities account for more than three quarters of emissions of CO2, are home to half the world population and will be 'highly visible' at Rio +20.

SciDev.Net speaks to UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner at the Eye on Earth Summit (12-15 December) about next year's Rio+20.

New technologies offer the promise of delivering environmental information to anyone who wants it, anywhere in the world. But we are not quite there yet.

A network of mountaintop research stations is being built across Asia to study how large bodies of ice respond to increasing temperatures.

A project that aims to help communities adapt by providing localised climate data should be ready by next year.

Researchers are combining data in new ways to identify who is most vulnerable to climate change and population growth.

The InfoClim project, which distributes climate data to local communities, has helped Senegalese farmers adapt to climate change. SciDev.Net investigates.

Climate change will affect the water security of developing countries. Lucinda Mileham explores their priorities as they struggle to cope.