Yojana Sharma describes various proposals for a new panel to monitor progress towards sustainable development after Rio+20.

Yojana Sharma analyses the work of a four-day meeting on access to data and information that will feed into next year’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.

Smriti Mallapaty looks at an attempt to overcome the difficulties of accessing and understanding environmental and societal information.

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

Data-sharing is part of the answer to problems arising from the Arab region’s most serious challenge, water, finds Rehab Abd Almohsen.

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 preparatory meeting for the Rio+20 summit will discuss open access environmental data with a focus on biodiversity, water, oceans, cities and disasters. Yojana Sharma reports.

Controversy over fracking for natural gas has spread to Africa, where it is feared that the extraction process could deplete water supplies.

The Royal Society's new foreign secretary, Martyn Poliakoff, talks to SciDev.Net about his plans to develop links with African scientists.

Are small seed banks that deposit their collections with Norway's global seed vault being exploited by big business?

Laura Hood summarises the latest data on the world's biodiversity, with facts and figures on its value and efforts to conserve it.

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

Many new technologies have promised to remove arsenic from drinking water but little has changed on the ground, finds T. V. Padma.

Hannah Chalmers gives the low-down on how reducing emissions from deforestation can play a central role in tackling climate change.

Chinese action on Olympic air pollution is a huge experiment that will be closely watched across China, and further afield, writes Wang Ying.

Tanzania's land is gradually being reclaimed, thanks to a new regional development programme and improved land management systems.

The UN supports forest protection in the next climate agreement, but questions on how to tackle deforestation are still being debated.

Brazil's successful sugarcane ethanol industry owes much to massive investment in infrastructure and research, reports Carla Almeida.