Plastic bags are too practical to be banned, but policies to manage their use are necessary to protect the environment, says Lilia Casanova.

Farming projects must be able to access research at any point along the innovation trajectory, say Rasheed Sulaiman V. and colleagues.

Organising research into different types of knowledge can promote decision-making based on evidence from a range of sources.

The Rio+20 Secretariat's analysis of S&T trends and achievements since the 1992 Earth Summit points to ways of accelerating progress.