Environment

Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) will be at the forefront of discussions at the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) on how to tackle the triple planetary crisis. 

Executive Secretary Tatiana Molcean will lead a UNECE delegation to UNEA-6, the world’s highest decision-making body on the environment, which takes place from 26 February to 1 March at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. 

In her first visit to Brussels as UNECE Executive Secretary, Tatiana Molcean held strategic discussions this week with European Commissioners for environment and energy, and high-level officials responsible for industrial policy, trade and cooperation with EU acceding, candidate and neighbouring countries. 

Following the adoption last year of a methodology to measure the emissions from braking systems, UNECE’s World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) now turns to tackling emissions from tyres.   

Made from a mixture of natural and synthetic rubber and plastic polymers, including other chemical components, tyres represent a significant source of non-exhaust emissions. 

Uzbekistan has joined to the UNECE-WHO/Europe Protocol on Water and Health, thereby becoming its 29th Party and the first country in Central Asia to join this treaty. Accession to the Protocol is expected to serve as a catalyst to further drive and streamline national action on water, sanitation, hygiene and health with the aim of ensuring access and protecting the growing population of Uzbekistan against water-borne disease and in a changing climate. 

Batteries fitted to electric vans will be required to be of high quality and durable over the years thanks to a proposal agreed today by UNECE’s Working Party on Pollution and Energy (GRPE).  

The proposal will now be submitted to the UNECE-hosted World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) for adoption in June 2024. 

Today, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan signed a joint statement on the approval of the Strategic Action Programme (SAP) for the Chu and Talas river basins aimed at effective transboundary cooperation in the context of climate change to ensure health, security and economic well-being for the 3 million inhabitants as well as ecosystem resilience in the basin. The statement was signed by the Co-Chairs of the Chu-Talas Water Management Commission. 

Nitrogen, which is vital for plant growth, is present in animal excreta and synthetic fertilisers that are applied to land to boost crop production. But excessive and inefficient use of this nutrient means up to 80% of it leaks into the environment, mostly in various polluting forms of nitrogen: ammonia and nitrogen oxides, which are harmful air pollutants; nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas; and nitrate, which affects water quality.