united nations

If you've ever cooked a meal for a family made up of more than one person, there's a good chance you've become intimate with a problem that plagues the entire world: wasted food. According to a new report released last week from the United Nations, one-third of all food produced for human...

In a somewhat surprising report, The U.N. Environment Programme says one of the most promising green industries -- at least when it comes to creating economic growth, reducing poverty, fueling job creation and addressing major environmental challenges -- turns out to be tourism.

Global food prices are the highest in more than 20 years as rising oil prices stemming from civil unrest in the Middle East have caused the cost of items like cereal, dairy products and meat to increase, a United Nations agency said in a report released Thursday.

Wheat prices reached their highest prices in more than two years after a United Nations agency warned that China may face a wheat-supply shortage because of a recent drought, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may have unleashed a chain of events that could extend economically far beyond the region, threatening one of the world's most lucrative fishing species -- the bluefin tuna. The main culprit: the dispersants used to dissolve the oil.

From flooding in Pakistan to wildfires in Russia, something seems to be going on. Climate change? A growing number of businesses aren't waiting around to find out for sure. Instead, they're making pragmatic plans to get ready just in case.

Carbon offsets are meant to reward companies for cutting their emission of greenhouse gases. But environmentalists claim that some companies are producing extra emissions in order to get paid for destroying it. A U.N. board has halted credits for the projects in question while it investigates.

How long will it take Haiti to make even a modest recovery from the devastating earthquake that killed 330,000 people six months ago? At least 20 years, according to the Action Plan released by the impoverished island nation's government.

After the rescue stage is completed, Haiti will need a Marshall Plan like one implemented in Europe, post-World War II. But this time, there will need to be a large corporate presence to help make the island nation a land of opportunity and hope.

The state of Kerala in India is held up in global circles as a paragon of progressiveness. The southern region has a 97 percent literacy rate, the highest in India and far higher than the current literacy rate in the United States. Health care is nearly universal and 95 percent of babies are...