If all goes well, direct flights between China and Taiwan might just be the start, write Jerome Cohen and Chen Yu-jie. The next step might well be cross-strait oil co-operation.

We, Heads of State, Government and International and Regional Organizations convened in L'Aquila, remain deeply concerned about global food security, the impact of the global financial and economic crisis and last year's spike in food prices on the countries least able to respond to increased hunger and poverty. While the prices of food commodities have decreased since their peak of 2008, they remain high in historical terms and volatile. The combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture and food security, price trends and the economic crisis have led to increased hunger and poverty in developing countries, plunging more than a further 100 million people into extreme poverty and jeopardising the progress achieved so far in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The number of people suffering from hunger and poverty now exceeds 1 billion.

Iraq says it wants to sell oil contracts to foreign energy firms. The potential impact on energy markets could be large, but practical and political obstacles still prevent rapid production increases.

Sara Banaszak of the American Petroleum Institute and Morgan Gray of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming debate whether opening restricted federal lands and waters will have any effect on the continuing rise in the price of oil.

The rise of oil prices prompts calls for policy fixes, sparking heated debate among investors, politicians, and the energy industry.

Oil stocks can help buffer economic shocks, but only if Washington radically reforms its handling of them.

The Congressional Research Service reports on the history, perspectives, and issues surrounding the strategic petroleum reserve.

Conscious of the increasing pressure on limited water resources, UN-Water has identified water scarcity as the theme for World Water Day 2007. This report reflects on the challenges posed by the unsustainable increase in water use and its degradation across the globe.

A report from the Stockholm Environment Institute says the consumption of woodfuel should not be associated with deforestation.

This paper seeks to trace the likely impacts of climate change through changes in the quality of the physical asset base, access to assets, and impacts on grain production and on agricultural growth more generally.

A report from the House Committee on Natural Resources says that "big oil" is stockpiling supplies and pocketing the profits.

This panel discusses why there are malnourished people in the world despite a global capability to provide food in a cost-effective way.

In a time of rising global food prices, Africa produces a fraction of the world's crops. What can be done to foster a Green Revolution in Africa?

EU policymakers debate cutting farm subsidies as legislators on both sides of the Atlantic consider how trade distortions fit into the global food crisis.

We are now several months into the global food crisis. Food prices have almost doubled in three years, threatening to push 100 million people into absolute poverty, undoing much of the development progress of the past few years. The new hunger has triggered riots from Haiti to Egypt to Ethiopia, threatening political stability; it has conjured up a raft of protectionist policies, threatening globalization. Yet, Sebastian Mallaby argues that the response to this crisis from governments the world over has been lackadaisical or worse.

Oil and the status of Kirkuk continue to divide Iraq's central government and the Kurdish region, but signs of political progress are emerging.

Scott G. Borgerson testifies before the U.S. Senate on a current and evolving policy framework for managing Canada's fisheries and oceans.

Concerns are increasing about the consequences of global climate change, rising consumption rates, and population growth on the availability of natural resources, including water, land, forests, oil, gas, and a variety of minerals. In the face of scarcity, are we likely to see a rise in violent conflict over valuable resources? Or is the probability of 'resource wars' much less than feared? Speakers discuss these issues at a meeting cosponsored with the Council’s Center for Preventive Action.

Daniel Gustafson of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the next president should place agricultural policy high on the development agenda.

Michael Moran looks at oil, Iraq, and a price tag some estimate to exceed $2 trillion.