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Water, health, climate change and disaster risk reduction are interlinked and interdependent. For example, with climate change, floods and droughts increase in both intensity and frequency. Floods can damage water and sanitation infrastructure, disrupt essential public service provision, undermine…
UNECE continues to help its member States to respond to COVID-19 crisis. As part of this work, Guidelines and Best Practices for Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises in Delivering Energy-Efficient Products and in Providing Renewable Energy Equipment developed earlier are being customized for North…
Buildings consume over 70 per cent of the electrical power generated and 40 per cent of primary energy and are responsible for 40 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from related fuel combustion. At the same time, in 2018, out of 4.5 trillion USD spent on building construction and renovation, the…
A small sub-set of small- and medium-sized enterprises – innovative, high-growth enterprises (IHGEs) – play an outsize role in innovation and structural transformation across the world. They spearhead experimentation with new ideas to create value, address challenges, and reduce transaction costs…
The countries of Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus (the EESC sub-region), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine have come a long way in their transition from centrally planned towards market-based economies. After a difficult first decade following…
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on cities and the wellbeing of communities. Cities and urban areas are at the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 public health crisis and its socio-economic consequences. They also hold significant potential for recovering better by adopting…
Uzbekistan has shown remarkable growth in its transition from a centrally planned to a market based economy, with annual growth rates between 5 and 9 per cent since 2004. Innovation, namely fostering experimentation and collaboration between innovation stakeholders to find new ways for creating…
Water scarcity and pollution is increasing worldwide, as a result of the rising economic demands for water, population growth and rapid urbanisation, exacerbated by ecosystem losses and climate change. Water-related risks can negatively affect sustainable development, human health and well-being, …
Directive (EU) 2020/2184 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2020 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (recast) was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on 16 December 2020 and entered into force on 12 January 2021. The…
While transboundary rivers, lakes and aquifers, accounting for 60 per cent of global freshwater flows, are of crucial importance for the sustainable development and political stability of riparian States, the financial means for their management, development and protection are insufficient in most…
A vision for transboundary cooperation around the Senegal-Mauritanian Aquifer Basin (SMAB) has been developed by representatives of the States that share this aquifer system, namely The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal.
This work was carried out in the second meeting of the…
Innovation is central to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic and to drive sustainable development. Making up over 10% of Gross Domestic Product globally, public procurement carries the potential to stimulate broad experimentation with new ideas and technologies to attain economic, social…
Digital platforms have the potential to transform society fundamentally – creating new opportunities for economic growth and unlocking benefits in terms of poverty reduction on the one hand, and environmental sustainability on the other. They could help support less resource-intensive consumption…
World Habitat Day (5 October), celebrated this year under the motto Housing for All: A better Urban Future, is an invitation to reflect on the state of cities and on the basic right to adequate shelter. UNECE will celebrate it throughout its annual Sustainable Cities Week, around the following…
Cities have become the epicentres of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting mayors on the frontlines of both the emergency and the battle for a green and sustainable recovery. UNECE will open the multilateral stage to city leaders in a full-day Forum and uncover their innovative responses to the ongoing…
Out of the approximately 1.45 billion people living in the UNECE region, over 100 million spend more than 40% of their disposable income on housing. Moreover, at least 10 million people are on a waiting list for social housing and about 50 million live in informal settlements.Like many other…
The countries of the UN Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan - gathered for a virtual session of the SPECA Working Group on Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Development (WG on…
As COVID-19 continues to spread across the UNECE region, local governments are on the front lines of addressing this unprecedented pandemic. With the ambition to amplify local solutions, UNECE will bring together mayors from Europe, North America, Central Asia and the Caucasus to strengthen the…
Albania has made considerable progress in the recent years in the provision of affordable adequate housing to all. Notably, the national government has been providing support to municipal programmes for housing construction; supporting investments into construction of affordable housing,…
The coronavirus has shown the importance of adequate housing for the health and wellbeing of the population. The housing affordability challenge became especially acute in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic when Governments throughout the world requested people to “stay home”. According to Ms…
Informal settlements are a significant problem for Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek. According to the estimates shared by the city government, between eighteen and twenty-five percent of almost one million inhabitants of the city live in the forty-seven informal settlements around Bishkek. These…
From nature-based solutions for urban development in Tirana, a smart urban development online platform in Prague, and the Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 action plan to Torino’s “Climathon” citizen engagement initiative – all over the UNECE region cities are stepping up to combat the challenges of…
The world is urbanizing fast. Already today, half the population is living in cities. By 2050, that proportion is projected to rise to over two thirds. Cities are economic powerhouses, accounting for 80 percent of world GDP. They also have large ecological footprints, accounting for 60-80 percent…
Major industrial accidents can have far-reaching, transboundary and long-term impacts on populations and the environment. Without adequate coordination between land-use planning and industrial safety communities to ensure, for example, appropriate land use zoning and safety distances, the…
Today, more than half of the world population lives in cities – a number expected to grow to 70% by 2030. The concern about the pressure a growing urban population will put on cities in the future is unmistakably reflected in the distinctly urban component of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable…