Climate Action

This toolkit for renewable energy policy-makers and investors builds on the work already done by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) towards sustainably increasing renewable energy investments and improving cross-sectoral planning in decision-making processes. The Renewable Energy Hard Talk events held in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018) and Serbia (2019) included a Nexus component for this purpose. Substantively the approach used drew from the nexus assessment work under the ECE Water Convention and evolved into a list of criteria for sustainable renewable energy policies and investment initiatives that bring multiple benefits across sectors and countries while minimizing trade-offs including with other water uses and environment protection.

This is a joint publication by the United Nations and the International Cartographic Association on how cartography can help to better understand share and communicate the status of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS). It demonstrates how effective mapping techniques can reduce complexity to reveal relevant spatio-temporal patterns including global population growth socioeconomic disparities and climate change. Such visualisations make tangible the challenges to and successes in achieving the SDGs facilitating public awareness thereof. The publication describes foundational design decisions in cartography introduces the SDGs in relation to geographic datasets alongside the common map types and diagrams for representing SDG indicators and discusses consideration for map use environments. By integrating geospatial and statistical data of the Global SDG Indicators Database cartography can enhance action and decision-making at the local and national level and help create a sustainable world.

Since early 2020 COVID-19 (coronavirus) has triggered unprecedented and globally-synchronized health social and economic crises. With hard-won development gains and progress in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Asia and the Pacific now under threat this publication analyzes the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic in the region. It recognizes actions taken and offers recommendations to policymakers for building back better in line with the SDGs and for fostering resilience in anticipation of future pandemics and similar widescale crises. The publication also focuses on a number of areas for regional cooperation in particular: strengthening social protection; ensuring a sustained economic recovery; strengthening sustainable regional connectivity and supply chains; and protecting and restoring ecosystems.

The 30th Anniversary 2020 Human Development Report is the latest in the series of global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990 as independent and analytically and empirically grounded discussions of major development issues trends and policies. This report offers a thought-provoking necessary alternative to paralysis in the face of alarming planetary change. Its release comes as the COVID-19 (coronarvirus) pandemic simultaneously offers a glimpse of what a ‘new normal’ could hold and opens up the opportunity for humanity to change course. The report also sets out new metrics of human development to guide us including a new experimental Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index.

The 30th Anniversary 2020 Human Development Report is the latest in the series of global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) since 1990 as independent and analytically and empirically grounded discussions of major development issues trends and policies. This report offers a thought-provoking necessary alternative to paralysis in the face of alarming planetary change. Its release comes as the COVID-19 (coronarvirus) pandemic simultaneously offers a glimpse of what a ‘new normal’ could hold and opens up the opportunity for humanity to change course. The report also sets out new metrics of human development to guide us including a new experimental Planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index.

El Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2020 (que celebra su 30º aniversario) constituye la última edición de la serie de Informes sobre Desarrollo Humano publicados a escala mundial por el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD) desde 1990. Estos informes ofrecen una explicación independiente analítica y basada en datos empíricos sobre los principales problemas tendencias y políticas en el ámbito del desarrollo. Este informe ofrece una alternativa necesaria y que invita a la reflexión frente a la parálisis ante un alarmante cambio planetario. Su publicación se produce en el momento en que la pandemia de COVID-19 ofrece una visión de lo que pudiera ser una "nueva normalidad" al mismo tiempo que abre la oportunidad de que la humanidad cambie de rumbo. El informe también plantea un nuevo Índice de Desarrollo Humano de carácter experimental ajustado por las presiones planetarias.

The UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2020 finds that while nations have advanced in planning huge gaps remain in finance for developing countries and bringing adaptation projects to the stage where they bring real protection against climate impacts such as droughts floods and sea-level rise. Public and private finance for adaptation must be stepped up urgently along with faster implementation. Nature-based solutions – locally appropriate actions that address societal challenges such as climate change and provide human well-being and biodiversity benefits by protecting sustainably managing and restoring natural or modified ecosystems – must also become a priority.

Meeting the ASEAN’s rapid rising energy demand is challenging policymakers while they have tried to balance commitments to global regional and national agendas on climate change and sustainable energy. Decisive action by the region’s policymakers is needed in order to transition and expand energy systems to sustainably and equitably deliver modern energy services. In support of knowledge-sharing among Member States this publication not only provides an overview of progress towards global SDG 7 targets and regional targets under the ASEAN framework but also offers a country-by-country review of efforts under each of the major themes.

This publication reviews the situation trends challenges and main interactions for the five natural resources of the Nexus – water energy food land and materials – from the perspective of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) Region. Increasing demand changing climates and technologies growing populations and social inequalities urbanization globalization and other megatrends are putting pressure on natural resources in the ECE region and elsewhere. There are many complex policy issues and difficult choices to be made necessitating a comprehensive nexus approach that can address the interactions and trade-offs involved. This is recognized at the international level where amongst other things the integrative character of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for an assessment of the linkages and complementarities but also of the possible conflicts that exist between different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets. The Natural Resource Nexus emphasizes the need to view water energy food land and materials as complex and inter-related entities rather than as separate ones. This approach ensures more integrated and sustainable perspectives of natural resource management and use beyond the traditional sectoral silos that can be applied at all scales. It further provides an opportunity to identify and prioritize cross-sectoral and integrative solutions. Statistics transport and trade three interlinkages which are very relevant to the Nexus are also considered here.

Coal production transportation storage and use account for roughly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Methane which is a potent greenhouse gas with a 100-year global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) and a 100-year global temperature potential 6-fold greater than CO2 once released from coal seams in which it is trapped creates number of problems even after cessation of mining activities. Following mine closure methane emissions decrease but do not stop completely. This publication presents recommended principles and standards for effective methane recovery and use from abandoned coal mines.