“If we know what we need to do, why aren’t we doing it?” This is how the United Nations University (UNU) appeals to the wider audience, with its report “Interconnected Disaster Risks: Turning a New Page“, published on 9 April 2025.
“For several decades, we have known about the massive crises we are facing, such as climate change, biodiversity loss or waste. We know the problems, and we know many good solutions, too. But the pace of progress remains slow and does not seem to match the severity of the problems”.
The UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) has identified five major areas of “urgent and necessary change”. Across these areas, the report highlights practical solutions that are already being implemented around the world — and could be replicated elsewhere. Below, we explore eight such examples that show what’s possible when ambition meets action.
1 – Kamikatsu, Japan’s waste recycling model
The current system is unsustainable, generating 2 billion tonnes of household waste annually. If placed in a single line of shipping containers end-to-end, such volume would circle the equator 25 times! Hence, the report identifies the need to “rethink waste”, the first major area for change.
Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center, launched in Japan in 2003, represents an exemplary model of circular processing because it challenges the way we produce and consume. Composting, recycling, clothing exchange and waste sorting into 45 categories: the recycling rate (80%) in Kamikatsu is four times higher than the Japanese average.
2 – Restoring the Kissimmee River, Florida
Humanity must stop trying to control nature and instead “align itself” with it. This is the report’s second major recommendation. For example, the Kissimmee River in the USA was canalised in the 1960s. This process consists of making rivers flow in a straight line to facilitate navigation, create more farmland or protect cities from flooding.
However, this operation led to the drying up of some 160 km2 of wetlands and a massive decline in species. Since 1992, however, the river has been restored, enabling the return of flora and fauna to wetlands that once again act as “sponges” – playing a crucial role in flood prevention, particularly during increasingly frequent storms and cyclones.
This solution is replicable elsewhere: the European Union plans to restore 25,000 km of free-flowing rivers by 2030.
3 – The Montreal Protocol saves the ozone layer
Faced with the triple global crisis (climate, biodiversity loss and pollution), we must “reconsider responsibility from ‘me’ to ‘we'”. In their plea for the “global neighbourhood” that is multilateralism, the report’s authors cite the Montreal Protocol as an example. Adopted in 1987 and ratified by 197 countries, this environmental treaty regulates the production and consumption of 100 ozone-depleting substances.
The treaty includes enforcement mechanisms and a financial implementation fund. The report states it is “one of the most successful international treaties in history”. With a 98% reduction in ozone-depleting substances, the ozone layer is well on the way to recovery by 2066—an encouraging result for the COPs, which led to the Paris Agreement in 2015.
4 – Earth rights recognised in Ecuador
Another example of collective responsibility for the “common good“: in 2008, the Ecuadorian Constitution established the enforceable rights of the Pachamama, or Mother Earth.
In this context, a court ruled that flooding caused by the dumping of road construction debris into the Vilcabamba River violated the rights of nature and ordered the debris’ removal to restore the river’s right to flow.
Several other countries, including New Zealand, have decided to confer legal personality on rivers in order to defend their rights in court.
5 – “Committees for the future” to anticipate several generations ahead
Saving the planet from disaster means getting away from short-term thinking and looking ahead to several generations. “Re-imagining the future: from seconds to centuries” is the fourth point of fundamental change for UNU-EHS. The report refers to the traditions of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (or “League of Iroquois”), who live in North America according to the seventh-generation principle. All decisions are made with a view to their impact over 175 years.
Similarly, “committees for the future” set up at the parliamentary level are proliferating around the world, with Finland, Iceland and Chile setting an example. Their concern: “to safeguard the well-being of those who will inherit our world”. These bodies aim to embed long-term thinking into national policy-making.
6 – A global seed vault in Norway
In line with long-term thinking, how can we protect biodiversity for future generations? One answer lies in Svalbard, Norway. On this archipelago in the far north, in the Greenland Sea, the Norwegian government created a “World Seed Vault” in 2008.
The site, protected by the natural cold of permafrost, is capable of withstanding floods and earthquakes. At -18 degrees Celsius, it preserves the seeds of over 6,000 plant species like a treasure trove. In Peru, the same type of initiative preserves the seeds of various potato species. Svalbard is one of more than 1,700 sites worldwide that preserve genetic samples of 50,000 plant species.
7 – “Gross National Happiness” in Bhutan
Addressing the root causes, the report argues that we need to prioritise well-being and ecological balance over economic growth. Its authors encourage us to “redefine wealth: from economic wealth to planetary health.”
One example is Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index, which considers health, well-being and ecological diversity in decision-making. This has enabled this small Himalayan kingdom to be “quite successful in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on public health and social support over economic indicators.”
8 – “Green prescriptions” for natural treatments
Similarly, “creating systems that recognise non-economic values” should enable us to better estimate, for example, the essential contribution of forests. Forests “absorb 7.6 billion tonnes of CO2 per year, one and a half times the annual emissions of the United States”.
Some countries, such as Canada, New Zealand and Japan, already see green spaces as a good way to combat hypertension, anxiety and depression. Their doctors sign “green prescriptions” for patients to spend time in nature.
To conclude, “change can be uncomfortable, but going backwards won’t solve the challenges of a rapidly evolving world”, says Dr. Zita Sebesvari, one of the lead authors of the report. “This report is not just about avoiding disaster – it’s about breaking free from the mindset of merely mitigating harm. We limit ourselves when we focus only on preventing the worst rather than striving for the best.”