The 2009 Copenhagen summit was a watershed moment in the history of climate change negotiations, especially from an Indian perspective. Brazil, South Africa, India, and China – the “BASIC” group – asserted their position, which led to a virtual collapse in talks, ostensibly marking the ascent of the global “south” and relative descent of the “north.”

The original version of this article, by Rebecca Fishman, appeared on the WASH Advocates and Maternal Health Task Force blogs.

Access to clean water is not only one of the world’s most urgent health issues, but it is also a key to boosting progress in developing countries. Women and children are disproportionately affected by inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and they shoulder the largest burden in collecting drinking water. What is more, when the needs of women and girls are not taken into account, the effects are felt far and wide, reaching across the education, health, security, and economic sectors.  On the other hand, improving WASH can have positive impacts throughout a girl’s life and can even extend across generations. As we know, when women thrive, so do their communities.

The National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2030 report maintained its grip as the top post last month (measured by unique pageviews). But it was also joined by new posts on natural resources, conflict, and development with a look at the UN’s “year of water cooperation,” East Africa’s coming natural gas boom, China’s massive west-east electricity transfer infrastructure, the relationship between oil and war, and the changing context of Nile basin negotiations. Chad Briggs also weighed in on the U.S. Air Force’s Minerva Project and how it’s helping the military plan for complex risks.

India and China – “the two most important countries going forward in this century” – will both experience domestic concerns as a result of environmental change, but they are responding very differently, said Cleo Paskal, an associate fellow at Chatham House, in an interview with the Environment, Conflict, and Cooperation (ECC) Platform.

The conversation around immigration and Mexico has long been tied to the United States and the prevailing economic conditions in both countries. But a new report from the Royal United Services Institute argues that as temperatures rise and precipitation patterns change over the course of the next century, climate too will increasingly become a driver of both internal and international migration in Mexico. [Video Below]

India’s Maoist (or “Naxalite”) insurgency has resulted in more than 9,000 deaths in the last decade and famously been called the country’s “single biggest internal security challenge” by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In, Renewable Resource Shocks and Conflict in India’s Maoist Belt, a working paper for the Center for Global Development, Devesh Kapur, Kishore Gawande, and Shanker Satyanth present their econometric analysis of the conflict and suggest that there is a link with natural resource depletion.