Europe is leading the way in the fight against climate change, according to the 2007 Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI). The Index ranked 56 countries (together making up over 90% of global carbon dioxide emissions) based on their domestic and international efforts to combat climate change. Sweden is ranked number one and is joined by six other European countries, including the United Kingdom and Germany, in the top 10. The world's two largest emitters of greenhouse gases, the United States and China, are ranked 53 and 54, respectively.

Over one billion people worldwide lack access to safe water and another 2.6 billion do not have adequate sanitation, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This global crisis has been labeled a "silent emergency," because water and sanitation have been chronically under-prioritized by the international development community. The 2006 Human Development Report (HDR): Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, explores the causes and consequences of the global water and sanitation crisis and recommends a plan for global action.

The Kyoto Protocol is currently the only legally-binding international agreement that seeks to tackle the challenges of global warming. By setting individual greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets for 35 industrialized countries and members of the European Community (known as Annex I Parties), the Protocol aims to cut global emissions by 5% of 1990 levels by 2012.

A new report by the Food and Agriculture Organization finds that the world is failing to achieve its 1996 World Food Summit pledge: to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by 2015. According to The State of Food Insecurity in the World (SOFI) report for 2006, the number of undernourished people in developing countries has risen by 20 million since 1996 and continues to increase by four million per year.