📝 New article on Our World in Data: A 73% average decline in wildlife populations: an overview of the 2026 Living Planet Index report. The 2026 Living Planet Index report is published today. As with previous additions, it can make for a depressing read. The headline is a 73% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970. Declines in global biodiversity are extremely concerning, but many of the news headlines you’ll see today will probably report this latest result incorrectly. At least they have in previous years. Some may report that the world has lost “73% of animal populations since 1970” or “73% of species are in decline”. Neither of these is correct, and the report’s authors go to great lengths to stress this. Instead, the Living Planet Index captures the average decline in population numbers across almost 36,000 populations. These changes are then averaged using a geometric mean and given different weightings in the final index. It’s a bit more complicated than a “we’ve lost 73% of wildlife” headline might suggest. When we dig beneath the headline number, we find that around half of the studied populations have declined, but just as many have either increased or remained stable. In this article, we look at what the Living Planet Index does and doesn’t capture, and what’s changed since the last report.

The world faces two energy problems: hundreds of millions lack access to energy, and most of our energy still produces greenhouse gas emissions. The first energy problem of the world is the problem of energy poverty. People in very poor countries have very low emissions. The reason that the emissions of the poor are low is that they lack access to modern energy and technology. When people lack access to modern energy sources for cooking and heating, they rely on solid fuel sources — mostly firewood, but also dung and crop waste. This comes at a massive cost to the health of people in energy poverty. The reliance on fuelwood is also the reason why poverty is linked to deforestation. The second energy problem is the one that is more well-known: greenhouse gas emissions are too high. The problem is larger for the extremely rich, but it is not limited to them. People need access to energy for a good life. However, in a world where fossil fuels are the dominant source of energy, access to modern energy means that carbon emissions are too high. Once we look at it this way, it becomes clear that the twin energy problems are really the two sides of one big problem. We lack large-scale energy alternatives to fossil fuels that are cheap, safe, and sustainable. Until we scale up those alternatives, the world will continue to face the two energy problems of today.