This study presents the results from the second phase of the project Global Risk and Vulnerability Index Trend per Year (GRAVITY) developed by UNEP/GRID-Geneva for the UNDP/BPRD. At the end of the first phase - the feasibility study - which consisted on the identification of global data sets and indicators for explaining casualties from natural hazards, twelve recommendations were made. They mostly consisted on the creation of geographical links (georeferencing) of the impacts from past events as recorded in the database from the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). By deriving the extent, magnitude of the event, the exposed population could be extracted and a percentage of victims computed.

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) is likely to see the Kyoto Protocol finally coming into force. While this will be a moment to celebrate, there is no cause to be complacent. Although a step in the right direction, the Kyoto Protocol was always an imperfect agreement and has been made all the more imperfect by the fact that the world's largest polluter has decided to stay out of the consensus and those who have agreed to join have demanded and received changes that have weakened the Protocol considerably. It is time, therefore, to begin thinking about the shape of the global climate regime in its post-Kyoto phase.