Antarctic ozone hole in late 1985, Governments finally recognised the need for stronger measures to reduce consumption and production of various CFCs and halons. The Montreal Protocol came into force on 1 January 1989.

Countries receive funds according to their compliance needs. That is, they receive funds to phase-out specific amounts of ozone depleting substances (ODS) production and consumption. Hence, ODS producer countries and high consumers receive more funds since they have greater needs.

It was once quoted in the US as being second in value only to cocaine. A 2006 estimate indicated that CFCs alone accounted for 7,000 to 14,000 tonnes of this trade, valued at US$ 25 to US$ 60 million. The disparity in production and consumption has created problems around the world.

A trophic level of an organism is its position in a food chain. Levels are numbered according to how far particular organisms are along the chain from the primary producers, to herbivores, to predators, to carnivores or top carnivores.

As biomass feedstocks are widely available, bioenergy offers an attractive complement to fossil fuels and thus has potential to alleviate concerns of a geopolitical and energy security nature. However, only a small part of globally available biomass can be exploited in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way.

Under current water use practices, increases in population and changes in diet are projected to increase water consumption in food and fiber production by 70-90%. If demands for biomass energy increase, this may aggravate the problem. In addition, sectoral competition for water resources will intensify, further exacerbating the stress on developing country producers.

Approximately 240 million of the world's poor that live in forested areas of developing countries depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forest and its products provide cash income, jobs, and consumption goods for poor families. Forestry provides formal and informal employment for an estimated 40-60 million people. The sector contributes in some developing countries more than eight per cent to GDP. Timber may be the most important forest produc...

Fisheries, together with tourism, represents a major economic activity around Antarctica. In the old days whales were hunted for oil - these days fish and krill are captured for fish meal and human consumption. The areas in the Southern Atlantic are vastly more productive, and this is where most of the fish is caught. The top fishing vessels hail from Japan, Ukraine and Poland. Worth mentioning is that these figures are still small compared to th...

As nearly half of the world’s cereal production is used to produce animal feed, the dietary proportion of meat has a major influence on global food demand (Keyzer et al., 2005). With meat consumption projected to increase from 37.4 kg/person/year in 2000 to over 52 kg/person/year by 2050 (FAO, 2006), cereal requirements for more intensive meat production may increase substantially to more than 50% of total cereal production.

i.e., before conversion of food to feed. After discounting the losses, conversions and wastage at the various stages, roughly 2,800 kcal are available for supply (mixture of animal and vegetal foods) and, at the end of the chain, 2,000 kcal on average – only 43% of the potential edible crop harvest – are available for consumption. (Source: Lundqvist et al., 2008).

The use of fertilizers accounts for approximately 50% of the yield increase, and greater irrigation for another substantial part (FAO, 2003). Current FAO projections in food demand suggest that cereal demand will increase by almost 50% towards 2050 (FAO, 2003; 2006). This can either be obtained by increasing yields, continued expansion of cropland by conversion of natural habitats, or by optimizing food or feed energy efficiency from produ...

Food losses in the field (between planting and harvesting) could be as high as 20–40% of the potential harvest in developing countries due to pests and pathogens (Kader, 2005). Postharvest losses vary greatly among commodities and production areas and seasons. In the United States, the losses of fresh fruits and vegetables have been estimated to range from 2% to 23%, depending on the commodity, with an overall average of about 12% losses b...

Increase in crop production has mainly been a function of increases in yield due to increased irrigation and fertilizer use. However, this may change in the future towards more reliance on cropland expansion, at the cost of biodiversity. (Source: FAO, 2006).

Water is essential not only to survival but is also equally or even more important than nutrients in food production. Agriculture accounts for nearly 70% of the water consumption, with some estimates as high as 85% (Hanasaki et al., 2008a,b). Water scarcity will affect over 1.8 billion people by 2025 (WHO, 2007). This could have major impacts on health, particularly in rural areas, and thus also major impacts on farmer productivity. Althoug...

Food losses in the field (between planting and harvesting) could be as high as 20–40% of the potential harvest in developing countries due to pests and pathogens (Kader, 2005). Postharvest losses vary greatly among commodities and production areas and seasons. In the United States, the losses of fresh fruits and vegetables have been estimated to range from 2% to 23%, depending on the commodity, with an overall average of about 12% losses b...

As many of the parks and surrounding forests have lost 50–80% of their wildlife species, typically antelopes, zebras and other ungulates, the poachers are increasingly targeting primates including gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees. A significant demand comes from bushmeat hunters to supply militias, refugee camps and mining and logging camps, where much of the work- force is forced. Thirty-four million people living in the forests of Central Afri...

Emissions increase as economies and populations grow; however, there can also be an energy decoupling (relation between energy and GDP) and a decoupling of emissions and decarbonization (relation between emissions and energy consumption). In this way, an increase in per capita income is achieved with less energy consumption and reduced emissions (ECLAC, 2009). Examining an energy intensity index by region for 1980-2005, one sees that, in aggregat...

Available evidence indicates that energy intensity – the ratio between energy consumption and gross domestic product (GDP), expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) at 2005 prices – in Latin America and the Caribbean remained almost constant in the 1980-2007 period. This shows that the region has not made the progress necessary, in terms of energy efficiency, to reduce its emissions of greenhouse gasses. The stagnation in energy-intensity level...

According to reports from the region’s countries, contained in national communications to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions relate to changes in land use, forestry, agriculture and energy consumption. Brazil stands out as the highest emitter of greenhouse gasses caused by land use changes, accounting for more than 800,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent. The importance of agricul...

By comparing the emissions:energy ratio (carbon intensity) between regions, one finds different patterns over time. Thus, between 1980 and 1995, decarbonization in Latin America and the Caribbean was in line with the world average; in the first half of the 1980s, the region progressed even faster than the OECD countries. Later, between 1995 and 2003, the emissions-to-energy consumption ratio increased.