Environment and Climate Change
Ukreplenie potenciala vodnogo sotrudničestva v Vostočnoj Evrope, na Kavkaze i v Central'noj Azii
Capacity for Water Cooperation in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia
Capacités pour la coopération dans le domaine de l’eau en Europe orientale, Caucase et Asie centrale
ECE Environmental Performance Reviews Series
Geneva Timber and Forest Discussion Papers
The objective of the Geneva Timber and Forest Discussion Papers is to make available to a wider audience work carried out usually by national experts in the course of UNECE/FAO activities.
Air Pollution Studies
Geneva Timber and Forest Study Papers
The Timber and Forest Study Papers encompasses sustainable forest management as well as the sound and legal use of forest products for raw material and energy and forest services. The objective is to assist member countries by: providing the best available information; facilitating policy dialogues and communication; and building capacity. The series is the product of a collaborative endeavour between the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Greening of Economic Growth Series
The conventional “grow first clean up later” approaches to economic growth are increasingly placing the futures of regional economies and societies at risk. The forward-thinking policymaker is tasked to promote development based on eco-efficient economic growth and at the same time record more inclusive gains in human welfare and socio-economic progress. In order to assist policymakers in responding to such challenges ESCAP’s “Greening of economic growth” series provides quick access to easy-to-read guidance to specific policy tools.
Our Planet
UNEPs quarterly magazine Our Planet features authoritative articles on the theme of environment and development by world scientific and political leaders. Each issue of Our Planet concentrates on one specific theme tying into international conferences meetings (the Commission on Sustainable Development) events (World Environment Day) or dealing with issues of our time (Water or Climate Change). Our Planet reports on international developments and action. It reviews current thinking suggests solutions and debates the key issues of environmentally sustainable development.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Trade and Environment Review
The Emissions Gap Report
This series assesses the latest scientific studies on current and estimated future greenhouse gas emissions and compares these with the emission levels permissible for the world to progress on a least-cost pathway to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This difference between “where we are likely to be and where we need to be” is known as the ‘emissions gap’. Each new edition of the report explores some of the most important options available for countries to bridge the gap. These reports are prepared by an international team of leading scientists assessing all available information published in multiple scientific studies. The assessment methodology and preliminary findings are made available to the governments of the countries specifically mentioned in each report to provide them with the opportunity to comment on the findings.
Global Sustainable Development Report
The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries
The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries brings together data and indicators submitted by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) on stock status national catches fleet and socio-economic aspects as well as information obtained from other sources. The aim is to provide objective reliable and up-to-date information to a wide audience and support decision-making in fisheries. This series provides the most detailed assessment yet of the state of fishery resources in the region. New editions show current status of stocks including those most at risk from overfishing and looks at related issues like discards and incidental catches of vulnerable species.
Pakistn recupera su verdor
La provincia pakistaní de Khyber Pakhtunkhwa situada a unos 50 kilómetros de la capital Islamabad se ha cubierto de árboles estos últimos años. El paisaje se ha transformado al mismo tiempo que cambiaba la sociedad. La lucha contra el recalentamiento del clima y el combate contra la pobreza forman parte de la misma estrategia.
Keeping faith with nature
Three childhood experiences set me on the course to working to restore degraded land through helping to connect people to nature. My mother’s strong and unwavering faith helped me to appreciate that life was about more than what we could accumulate in the present and that we could trust a loving heavenly father for all our needs. The abuse of beautiful forests and mountain streams seemed to be an expression of greed and disregard for future generations. Watching news programs showing children just like me going hungry seemed mad in a world of plenty.
Gran angular: Filosofía y ética del cambio climático
La humanidad está en deuda. Año tras año consume más recursos de los que la naturaleza puede proporcionar. Este consumo excesivo tiene un efecto directo sobre el clima. Para comprender mejor la problemática en juego el biólogo y filósofo Bernard Feltz esclarece las complejas relaciones entre el hombre y la naturaleza al tiempo que se centra en los aspectos éticos de la gestión del cambio climático.
Nuestro invitado: Bakú, ciudad multicultural
Con una antigüedad de varios milenios la ciudad amurallada de Bakú capital de Azerbaiyán guarda huellas de la presencia de mazdeístas sasánidas árabes persas sirvaníes otomanos y rusos. La ciudad moderna nacida del primer boom del petróleo a fines del siglo XIX y principios del XX conserva un patrimonio cultural igualmente ecléctico. Gracias a su bahía y a la proximidad de las rutas de las caravanas Bakú siempre ha estado surcada por diversas corrientes. Esa característica la ha dotado de una diversidad a la vez armoniosa y excepcional que se refleja tanto en su arquitectura como en su espíritu cosmopolita.
Arshak Makichyan, piquetero solitario
Todos los viernes desde marzo de 2019 Arshak Makichyan ha manifestado solo en la plaza Pushkin de Moscú la capital de Rusia. En sus pancartas se leen consignas como “El calentamiento global es igual al hambre las guerras y la muerte”. Este joven violinista libra una batalla solitaria y tenaz en nombre de todo el planeta.
Making gold greener?
Poorly regulated gold mining is spreading around the world. Every day millions of artisanal and small-scale gold miners work extremely hard in often poor conditions and without the protective framework of formal labour market standards. By evening the vast majority have harvested only miniscule amounts of gold if anything at all. But the economic incentives are still attractive. Since ancient times gold has continuously been used as a source of long-term investment and it has now found its way into modern technologies and industry including computers cell phones and medical equipment. Global financial turmoil has helped more than double the price of an ounce of gold from $500 to well over $1000 over the past decade. Many poor people in rural areas have shifted their attention from agriculture to mining as a source of livelihood.
Matters of judgement
An independent judiciary in a political and legal system that values integrity and transparency is vital in addressing environmental degradation and in upholding the environmental rule of law worldwide. In an urban planning case at the National High Court of Brazil the court stated a view that I believe to be true in all areas of environmental law.
Ethical business works best
Forty-four years ago my parents joined the Government of Malaysia's settler programme administered by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) a decision that has had a big influence on my life right up to today.
Blood gold
Day or night? It makes no difference in the Amazon gold rush. The clatter of the hundreds of engines that pump water in search of the precious metal never stops. By day enormous trucks move the earth where forests once stood; by night the soil is washed with hundreds of cubic metres of water to extract the gold. Informal mining camps extend into Peru Colombia Bolivia and Brazil destroying the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world and poisoning the land inhabited by hundreds of indigenous peoples with mercury. Huge tracts of tropical rainforest have become graveyards for trees drenched in the toxic metal.
Delivering on the mission
“No matter how minuscule or how vast only protection will make them last. We need to help the ones that can't help themselves because they become extinct so fast.”
Good connections
In 2012 I was invited to join a safari at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Lion prides cheetah coalitions and herds of buffalo and giraffes walk freely there. Majestic African elephants also roam the conservancy’s terrain but in far smaller numbers than they once did.
Green and fair
The richest 1 per cent of the world’s population now controls 50 per cent of global assets while the poorest half owns just 1 per cent – and that gap is set to widen. At the same time 60 per cent of the world’s ecosystems are degraded. If ever there was a need to rewrite the economic rulebook it’s now.
Innovation 01. Tracking progress
Open access to data and knowledge is fundamental to the transition to a vibrant and inclusive green economy. Such access enables all stakeholders to better understand and participate in the collection use and analysis of data. That’s why UNEP has developed UNEP Live (uneplive.unep.org) a web-based knowledge management platform that gives users access to substantiated contextualized data about sustainable consumption and production patterns and economic performance. Such information which looks beyond growth in income and GDP to include human well-being can be a powerful tool for policy-makers.
Prosecute climate crimes
Criminal justice can help achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement on climate change as part of an integrated approach from governments private businesses finance science civil society and others.
Zoom: Des femmes puissantes
Naliapou la doyenne de Tumai un village kenyan interdit aux hommes se prépare pour la cérémonie des chants aux esprits en enduisant son visage de terre rouge mélangée de graisse animale.
Greener finance
The Paris Agreement has sent clear signals to markets and to the financial sector that more than 190 countries are going to vigorously pursue the transition to a low-carbon economy that’s resilient to mounting climate change. It is no longer a question of if this transition will happen but of how fast. Some of the key changes required lie outside the financial sector such as changing relative prices of harmful goods and services vis-à-vis those that benefit the environment and the development of new technologies to facilitate changes in consumption patterns. Finance however has an important role to play.
Clearing the air
Ninety-eight per cent of cities with more than 100000 inhabitants in low and middle income countries do not meet World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines concludes the WHO Global Urban Ambient Air Pollution Database 2016 update. In high-income countries however that percentage decreases to 56 per cent. In South Asia air pollution is especially acute in such countries as China Indonesia and India requiring State authorities to take immediate action to safeguard the health of their citizens. Long-term health effects include respiratory diseases like lung cancer and even damage to the brain and an increased risk of heart disease. A WHO study estimated that about 12.6 million deaths in the year 2012 could be linked to an unhealthy environment. India's Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 defines air pollution as “the presence in the atmosphere of any air pollutant” and an air pollutant as “any solid liquid or gaseous substance including noise present in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to human beings or other living creatures or plants or property or environment.”
Leading the way
People across the globe celebrated the signing of the United Nations climate accord in Paris in December. It was truly a landmark event and I was proud to be a part of the Local Climate Leaders Circle of Mayors representing my city and others across the United States.
Colonel: We must act quickly!
Apathetic and soporific. These words describe the state of public opinion and the media’s attitude to climate change according to French-Danish conceptual artist Thierry Geoffroy alias Colonel. Little by little his slogans – that wavered between “Before it’s too late” and “Tomorrow is too late” – were reduced to a simple “Too late”. Paradoxically it is in despair that he finds some consolation.
Catching crime
Indonesia the world’s largest archipelago – consisting of approximately 17000 islands spread across nearly 2 million square kilometres – also holds at over 80000 km its second longest coastline. Sixty per cent of its population lives in the coastal area. So it is no surprise that fishing is one of our biggest economic activities. And soon after Joko Widodo was elected as the President of the Republic of Indonesia he made a political commitment to reclaim the nation's status as a global maritime axis.
Protecting people through nature
For too long we have been told that conserving the environment comes at the expense of economic opportunities for people. But the world’s new commitment to sustainable development clearly shows that humanity is waking up to the fact that social economic and environmental agendas are intrinsically linked.
Defining moment
We stand at a defining moment for the future of the planet and human well-being. Our global commons – the land seas and atmosphere we share and the ecosystems they host – are under severe threat from ever more powerful human activities.
Current Affairs: Mandela’s South Africa: Reality or distant dream?
Twenty-five years after attaining democracy South Africa has taken giant strides towards forging a united nation. But overcoming racism and realizing Nelson Mandela’s vision of a nation that belongs to all who live in it remains a wonderful ideal – which still requires a lot of work according to Justice Jody Kollapen. Both an arbitrator and a victim of racist cases (he was refused a haircut as recently as in October 2003!) this human rights defender maintains that there is enough goodwill to build on Mandela’s vision.
Climate change: A new subject for the law
More and more citizens and nongovernmental organizations around the world are going to court to seek climate change justice. The unprecedented extent of these disputes deserves to be highlighted. This relatively recent type of litigation is forging public opinion and constitutes a form of pressure on states and industries that is forcing them out of their inertia.
Pakistan: Green again
A billion trees have been planted in recent years in the Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa about fifty kilometres from Islamabad the country’s capital. The landscape has been transformed and so has society. The fight against global warming and the fight against poverty are one and the same.
Environmental champion
We have reached an essential turning point in our journey to save the planet as we know it. More than 175 global leaders have now signed onto the historic climate agreement reached in Paris last December. Having been at the UN for the signing event on April 22nd I am filled with hope – but I’m also fighting a growing sense of dread.
Climate and social justice
There is a tendency in the public debate on climate change to present the use and development of green technologies as a miracle solution or panacea. We often forget one aspect: it is crucial to ensure that their development goes hand in hand with social justice. “The realization that it is not just global warming that we are dealing with but global warming in an unequal and unjust world has yet to sink in” according to Thiagarajan Jayaraman. Without equality and equity – in other words without peace and security – we cannot effectively fight climate change the Indian climate policy expert insists.
Managing the global commons
Here’s a prediction: planetary intelligence could emerge on Earth by 2050. “Hold on” you might say “that has emerged already right? Homo Sapiens.” No. What we have is a technologically advanced civilization. There is a subtle difference.
Hope from the hills
Kenya's Chyulu Hills host not just rich wildlife and beautiful landscapes but a groundbreaking partnership to conserve biodiversity and combat climate change between its people and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.
UNEP at work. The big picture
Everyone in the environmental community recognizes the urgent challenges facing the planet – but how do you spread the word to a truly global audience?
Green innovation
The need to strike a balance between increasing demand for natural resources and environmental sustainability has opened new opportunities for Malaysia to grow economically. Under its eleventh economic plan 2016-2020 a green economy – one that aims to reduce ecological risks and address resource scarcities – has been identified as one of the main drivers for development. In line with this new approach emphasis is given to innovation for creating more environmentally friendly industries to enable the growth to take place. Thus eco-innovation is to be nurtured in the spirit of this green economy to support attaining the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) especially those related to responsible consumption and production and action on climate change.
Greening cities
Climate change is the greatest threat facing our planet. The leaders of the world’s great cities recognize that fact and are taking urgent action. But mayors need strong allies to deliver the transformations needed to create sustainable green cities of the future. There is no greater partner for our campaign to save the planet than the Global Environment Facility.