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Social instability occurs as a consequence of war, civil strife or natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and droughts. Animal diseases, including zoonoses, can be both a precursor to social instability and a result of social instability. Coping mechanisms, such as sound policies, trust in government, and robust infrastructure break down at times of civil instability. Such breakdowns often lead to a decline in both public health and the food and agricultural livestock base, thus creating a vicious cycle that involves inadequate nutrition, threatened livelihoods, and fewer opportunities for safe trade. This article is principally a discussion of a theoretical nature on the dynamics between animal diseases and social instability. Based on their experience of working for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the authors provide numerous examples of the connection between the two, mostly in countries that have fragile environments and are experiencing protracted crises. Disease has a direct and immediate effect on a community, but, in addition, if the community is not able to recover from the impact of a disease on their health and livelihoods, the consequences of an outbreak can persist even after the disease is no longer present. Stability, therefore, depends on a variety of factors, including the ability of a community to overcome the effects of a disease outbreak or other destabilising event. The FAO approach to helping families and communities to cope with the destabilizing effects of animal diseases is to build resilience, particularly amongst the most vulnerable households. This requires individuals and governments to gain a better understanding of what drives disease at the interface between human and animal health. In addition, it requires governments to invest in social protection programmes, establish a long-term risk reduction strategy that decreases vulnerability, and improve the sustainability of safe agricultural and marketing practices.

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With 49% of the world’s gross domestic product under net zero goals, the global community is changing in how it treats emissions and carbon releases, with shareholders, stakeholders and investors demanding transparency on current performance and strategies to reduce or offset emissions. High frequency, reliable data empowers an organisation to strategically optimise and track emissions to reach committed goals from the asset level to the board room and across direct, indirect and supply chain sources (Scope 1, 2 and 3). A carbon footprinting solution, which provides a holistic view of total greenhouse gas emissions, requires a combination of carbon accounting, control system integration, emissions monitoring and greenhouse gas reporting software, to deliver an automated, reliable and verifiable real-time emissions/carbon reporting solution. This solution is also critical in providing managed data which can be utilised in the carbon economy and when combined with a blockchain platform, results in a holistic data transfer chain for emissions reporting which is secure, transparent and trusted throughout industry and government. The role of comprehensive, connected environmental monitoring will be explored in the role of effective emissions offset and carbon trading economies with blockchain supported technologies being presented as an enabling aspect of the overall solution. Smart contracts embedded within a blockchain solution could automate trading mechanisms however require quality emissions monitoring data as a foundation for successful implementation. The role of quality emissions monitoring and governance in this process will be presented together with implications for industry and government for the carbon economy.