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Environment

Central Asian experts highlight the need to strengthen monitoring and data exchange on water quality and transboundary groundwater

Joint efforts to harmonize data collection, strengthen monitoring and data exchange on water quality, develop early warning systems on water pollution at transboundary waters and improve collection and sharing of data on transboundary aquifers are needed for effective regional cooperation in Central Asia. These are the messages of the Regional Workshop on Monitoring, Assessment and Information Sharing in Transboundary Basins in Central Asia which took place on 1 and 2 February 2023 in Astana.

UNECE and partners support Uzbekistan to strengthen cross-sectoral environmental policymaking

While Uzbekistan has improved its environmental performance in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to water and sanitation (SDG 6) and forests and tree cover loss (SDG targets 15.1, 15.2, 15.3), significant challenges remain related to air quality (SDG 11.6), water resources and wastewater treatment (SDG 6), and environmental health and biodiversity (SDG 15).  

UNECE issues biodiversity monitoring guidelines to help countries implement Kunming-Montreal framework

Updated guidance published today by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) will help governments to strengthen biodiversity monitoring as a basis for sharpened biodiversity protection policies across all sectors. 

The guidance is the first of its kind to build on the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework agreed at the 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-15) in December 2022.  

Netherlands to host meetings of THE PEP partnerships on active mobility and sustainable tourism mobility

The upcoming meetings of the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP) Partnership on Active Mobility and the Partnership on Sustainable Tourism Mobility will focus on challenges in promoting and developing policies for walking and cycling, as well as exchange views on sustainable mobility in tourism.  

Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee assists Parties with their plans of action to advance environmental democracy

At its seventy-seventh meeting (Geneva, 13–16 December 2022), the Compliance Committee of the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) invited fourteen Parties to attend open sessions to discuss the plans of action they were requested by the Meeting of the Parties to submit by 1 July 2022.

Building urban und peri-urban tree and forest resilience in Centra Asia

In the past years, Central Asia has been facing major climate-change related challenges – drought, floods, desertification, sandstorms, extreme cold and heat spells – and many more. Not only have these affected rural areas, but cities have been suffering, too. Accentuated by increased traffic volumes, economic growth and pressures from competing sectors such as real estate, cities have not always been able to align green goals with reality.  

SPECA
Commonwealth of Independent States

Reducing air pollution saves lives and money – so let’s not wait to do much more

With climate and biodiversity loss heading the news these days, another problem related to the planet we all share is often forgotten: air pollution. Air pollution has an enormous burden on public health, ecosystems, climate, and ultimately, the economy.  Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a staggering 7 million deaths are caused by air pollution every single year. 

Breaking down silos: how to manage water holistically from source-to-sea

While freshwater and marine specialists have largely worked in silos, nature has always worked as one: the land, freshwater, and ocean ecosystems are closely interlinked and interdependent. So must be their management.  

Bringing together the freshwater and ocean communities, the Global Workshop on Source-to-sea Management gathered more than 300 key stakeholders in Geneva and online from 14 to 16 December 2022 with the aim to strengthen cooperation, identify synergies between their activities and share good practices in policy making. 

UN report warns Europe and North America on course for sustained damage from air pollution to health, ecosystems, food production and climate in absence of strengthened measures

A new report on the effectiveness of international cooperation on cleaner air in the framework of the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention) shows that while emission reductions have been achieved, countries in the Pan-European region and North America are set to suffer long-term damage from air pollution to human health, ecosystems and crop yields, also exacerbating climate change.

Executive secretaries of UN commissions issue joint statement to enshrine biodiversity protection in all their activities

The world’s biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, with one million animal and plant species now threatened with extinction. 

Biodiversity and ecosystem services are of critical importance in underpinning the fight against poverty, supporting inclusive sustainable economic growth, ensuring food security and food sovereignty, and supporting implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

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