Tacking global warming and ensuring millions gain access to clean water, food and energy should not be tackled separately – they’re both sides of the same coin. Choices countries make now over future infrastructure will determine whether and how they deliver on their climate change agendas.

California has been at the forefront of the modern environmental movement that, in its most iconic form, we associate with hippies and alternative lifestyles. In the following decades, Silicon Valley - the mecca of tech-companies and engine of technological innovation and progress – also became another widely known Californian export. It is thus fitting that the Californian think tank The Breakthrough Institute held its annual Dialogue in Sausalito, CA, - close to Berkeley and Mountain View - bringing together scientists, journalists, activists, and entrepreneurs from across the world to discuss how to overcome societal and technological hurdles for a brighter future for humankind and nature.

India is all set to embark on exploration and other developmental activities pertaining to polymetallic sulphides in the Indian Ocean after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the signing of a contract between the Minister of Earth Sciences and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), that formalises India’s exclusive rights for exploration in the Central Indian Ridge, and South West Indian Ridge in the Indian Ocean for 15 years. India is not the only country that is actively tapping into the resources of the region, or is attempting to do so. China, South Korea and Germany have also been granted permission to prospect for polymetallic nodules and sulphides, increasing the potential for competition in the region.

In 2010-11 Australia’s coal-rich Queensland region was hit hard by flooding events of historic proportions. They were the result of one of the strongest La Niña phenomena since 1917. Almost 80 % of the entire state was declared flood-affected. The state’s mining sectors, in particular, suffered huge losses.