#society

Each person generates 0.74 kilos of waste per day. And in the coming years this figure is expected to increase. The old paradigm of producing, using and throwing away is flooding the world with rubbish. Solutions such as reuse, recycling and energy recovery are more important than ever. Electronic waste has become big business in the very place where waste generates the most damage, the Third World.

Sustainable buildings minimise energy and water consumption and are a key part of sustainable urban development that seeks to combat climate change. From large skyscrapers to novel museums, below we review some of the green buildings that pave the way to more responsible urban planning.

The electrification of transport and residential heating and the obtaining of electricity through renewable energies will be the key factors in decarbonising the European economy by 2050. This is the main conclusion that can be drawn from the study prepared by the consultancy AFRY (formerly POYRY) for Iberdrola, which establishes a roadmap for the energy sector on the continent.

Its nickname, the eighth continent, says it all, and is no exaggeration. Lying between California and Hawaii, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is three times the size of France and is the world's biggest ocean waste repository, with 1.8 billion pieces of floating plastic which kill thousands of marine animals each year.

Towns and villages are no strangers to the digital revolution that is taking place in the world, or at least they should not be because their survival depends on it. Innovative solutions, from Big Data to the Internet of Things (IoT), have reached rural areas to help develop and improve their social, economic and environmental conditions.

The Madrid Climate Summit (COP25) ended on Sunday 15 December — instead of Friday 13 as scheduled, making it the longest of all the COPs — with lacklustre results as far as the negotiations were concerned, despite having had a substantial impact in terms of mobilising civil society as a whole.