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

Can a new network of African energy researchers lead the way on solar power for the continent? Christine Ottery finds out.

Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan talks to SciDev.Net about hopes for science in the Middle East, science diplomacy and the role of women scientists.

An international meeting aims to shake up donor−recipient relations in a quest for more enduring health gains, reports Beverly Petersen Stearns.

Awards for young female scientists in developing nations are giving them motivation and global acclaim.

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.

Preventing loss of life and limb and limiting damage in disasters requires information that draws on the knowledge of local people and helps them react, reports Ochieng’ Ogodo.

When it comes to biodiversity information, incentives need to be provided to improve international sharing of data, report Tracy Irvine and Daniela Hirschfield.

'Blue carbon' is seen as an increasingly important issue, but it needs to be backed up by better science, reports Mićo Tatalović.

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

Crowdsourced environmental data can be useful, for example in measuring black carbon emissions, but concerns remain about quality, says Yojana Sharma.

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

Mohammed Al Madfaei, deputy manager of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, says data access is vital in the context of the Rio+20 talks.

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.

An organic farmer has invented a mobile phone application called 'iCow', which lets farmers register their herds and receive expert advice.