Building enterprises and creating new jobs, improving health and education, and providing basic needs such as food and water in an economical and sustainable manner require a balanced energy mix that is suited to the economic, social, and resource conditions of individual countries and regions.

UNESCO: Sustainable Energy Strategies in Low and Middle-Income Economies | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

The survey shows overwhelming support for the belief that if the information society is to be one in which all citizens throughout the world can equally access and use information resources for sustainable economic and social development, that cyberspace should be declared a resource to be shared by all for the global public good.

UNESCO: Communication and Information

The FA will foster the recognition of the value of groundwater as a critically important natural resource, and of the social, economic and ecological opportunities that sustainable groundwater management can provide through interdisciplinary dialogue.

UNESCO: Groundwater Governance Project: Launch of Regional Consultation Workshops | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Economic and social changes have obvious consequences for water use and the demands placed on the resource.

UNESCO: Urbanization, globalisation and climate change are creating new challenges to water management in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean. | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

Now, those settlements are bracing themselves for unprecedented change due to resource exploration, economic development, political wrangling and an influx of new wealth, people and social forces.

CNN: Sailing the Northwest Passage: mission accomplished