The United Nations University (国際連合大学, Kokusai Rengō Daigaku) (UNU) is the academic and research arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a U.N. institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare through collaborative research and education. In 1969, U.N. Secretary-General U Thant proposed "the establishment of a United Nations university, truly international and devoted to the Charter objectives of peace and progress". Following three annual sessions discussing the matter, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) approved the founding of the United Nations University in December 1972. Tokyo was chosen as its main location due to the Japanese government's commitment of $100 million to the UNU endowment fund.Since 2010, UNU has been authorized by the UNGA to grant degrees, offering several master's and doctoral programs. It also facilitates the U.N.'s engagement with academic institutions and policymakers around the world.
Geopolitical conflicts are increasingly threatening global food security, economic stability, and peace, impacting Tanzania's tea agrifood system. This study develops a quantitative Resource Nexus-based system dynamics simulation model assessing the feedbacks and interdependencies among key environmental and socioeconomic resources shaping system vulnerability and resilience in the context of geopolitical tensions. Over a 10-year horizon (2024-2034), the model simulates interactions among land use, agricultural inputs, capital productivity, and export performance, as the main variables driving the tea agrifood system in the context of geopolitical tensions, and generates vulnerability and resilience indices. Results indicate that rising geopolitical tensions increase vulnerabilities in land use, inputs, and capital, reducing agricultural productivity and export potential that negatively impact income generation and decent livelihoods. The study recommends adaptive strategies (i.e., intensive agricultural mechanization, capacity building, and modern tea markets) and transformative change policies (i.e., conflict resolution, sustainable agriculture, and agrifood systems governance and policy reforms) can stabilize resource performance, lowering vulnerability and strengthening the sector's resilience, which is essentially shaped by multiple archetypes, such as limits to growth and shifting the burden archetypes. This study contributes to the growing knowledge on the consideration of Resource Nexus on achieving agrifood resilience and finally recommends policy renovations that facilitate sustainable livelihoods and conflict prevention.
Heavy metal pollution from mining activities and urban runoff poses a serious threat to public health and aquatic ecosystems in vulnerable communities around the Bolivia-Peru transboundary Lake Titicaca basin. This study evaluates the use of two abundant wetland plants-totora (Schoenoplectus californicus) and reed (Phragmites australis)-as low-cost, locally available biosorbents for the removal of dissolved iron (Fe2+) from the Pallina River, a major contaminant source to Cohana Bay. Monitoring data from Bolivia's Ministry of Environment and Water (2019-2022) revealed Fe2+ concentrations exceeding the national legal limit (0.3 mg/L) by more than 20 times during the dry season. Laboratory experiments using synthetic Fe2+ solutions (20 mg/L) optimized biosorption conditions, identifying pH 5, 4-6 g/L biomass, fine particle size (0.15-0.212 mm), and a 3 h contact time as optimal. Both plants followed pseudo-second-order kinetics and Langmuir isotherms. Totora showed superior performance, achieving a maximum capacity of 7.8 mg/g compared to reed's 2.9 mg/g. Continuous-flow column tests removed up to 95% of Fe2+ from synthetic water. When applied to real Pallina River water, totora achieved 50% Fe2+ removal despite reduced efficiency due to competing organic matter. The findings demonstrate the potential of totora-based biosorption as a scalable, nature-based solution for transboundary water management. The policy implications of this study are profound under the national and global water and wetland governance mechanisms and transboundary frameworks like the Binational Autonomous Authority of Lake Titicaca (ALT, est. 1996) and Ramsar Convention.
Global water scarcity has intensified competition among different water-use sectors. Collection, treatment, and fit-for-purpose use of wastewater generated by non-agricultural activities offers an opportunity in augmenting water supplies, recovering nutrients and energy, and mitigating pollution. Disparities across countries persist with high-income nations treating 91.5% of wastewater, whereas low-income countries managing to treat only a small fraction (5.8%). Major challenges include limited investments, lack of pertinent policies and application of regulations, and fragmented institutional support amid aging infrastructure, emerging contaminants, and limited resource recovery, particularly in developing regions. Implementation of advanced treatment technologies, regulatory frameworks, and integrated resource management are fundamental to address such challenges. Investments in wastewater monitoring, governance, and capacity-building are essential to achieving safely managed wastewater systems. Such efforts can transform wastewater into a sustainable water resource, support public health and environmental protection, and provide economic benefits. Learning from successful policies, such as the EU's Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive and the US Clean Water Act, can guide global efforts in line with the global sustainability agenda.
Abstract Despite its strong influence on relative sea-level (RSL) rise, there is still low confidence in estimates of vertical land motion (VLM) and its contribution to RSL change. To address this problem, we synergize diverse VLM data, which now cover almost 65% of the coastal population, and are key to resolve small scale subsidence, including East, South, and Southeast Asian cities and populated deltaic regions, largely not covered by earlier geodetic measurements. We find that the average modern (1995-2020) global RSL rise experienced by coastal populations (6 mm/year) is about twice the climate-driven absolute sea-level rise. This reflects a strong tendency for higher rates of subsidence in densely populated areas, with 71% of the global coastal population living in subsiding regions. Paired with community efforts to extend consistent observations, these data are essential to ensure reliable estimates of present and future RSL rise to support risk and adaptation assessment.
Seven decades ago, Simon Kuznets put forward the hypothesis that as economies developed, national inequality would first increase and then decrease—an inverted U-shape. He provided preliminary evidence for the hypothesis on the basis of the limited data available at the time, and theorized the genesis of the curve as arising from the twin forces of structural transformation of the economy and political economy pressures. Seven decades on, the Kuznets curve still has a hold on the development discourse as new data is used to test the hypothesis, new theories are elaborated to explain the evolution of inequality, and the metaphor of an inverse U-shape is extended beyond its original realm of national inequality. With this rich history and background, the time is right to examine the Kuznets curve literature broadly construed. This overview takes stock of what has been learned and highlights emerging research and policy questions.
