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Montenegro has validated the preliminary results of the country’s Needs Assessment as part of a project to strengthen evidence‐based environmental governance and sustainable environmental policies in support of the 2030 Agenda in South‐East Europe. The project, which is implemented by UNECE and…
The economies of Central Asia rely heavily on activities that produce, process or use large quantities of hazardous substances. The waste generated by activities including the extraction and processing of minerals and metals including mercury and uranium cannot be released into the environment…
Air pollution is by far the world’s largest single environmental health risk and cause of death by cancer. Dubbed “the invisible killer”, it is estimated to be responsible for about 7 million deaths annually – a situation that in reality could be much worse, as indicated by recent scientific…
Poor air quality and climate change are closely linked. Burning fossil fuels releases both air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Thus, reducing air pollution from these sources will help to improve air quality and address climate change at the same time. Some air pollutants are also climate-…
When it comes to choosing techniques to reduce emissions from industrial processes, for example, in a plant producing cement, operators might find themselves in a difficult spot. To comply with national regulations on permissible emissions from this plant, the operator, who might have been in…
Water-related ecosystems can be significantly impacted by climate change. At the same time, healthy and sustainable ecosystems increase our resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change because of the services they could provide. Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is one of the nature-based…
The Niger River Basin, shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Chad, is the second largest river Basin in West Africa and home to 140 million people. With increasing demands on its water resources, ensuring cooperation for their management is…
The revision of the Gothenburg Protocol in 2012 marked a milestone in the development of the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution as it resulted in the first binding agreement to include emission reduction commitments for fine particulate matter. Also for the first time,…
Strong cooperation between the World Bank and UNECE, which services the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and international Lakes (Water Convention), can bring many benefits: the Convention can increase the sustainability of regional and basin cooperation…
Despite being a relatively water-rich country for the Middle East, water is an increasingly scarce resource in Lebanon. Transboundary cooperation for the sustainable management of its three transboundary watercourses — the Asi-Orontes, the Nahr al-Kabir and the Hasbani-Wazzani Rivers — as well…
Climate change, the loss of biodiversity and air and water pollution are among the global environmental problems that affect everyone’s health and wellbeing. Tackling such challenges in the context of social and economic development is at the very heart of efforts to attain the Sustainable…
The North West Saharan Aquifer System (NWSAS) is one of the most important reserves of water in the North African Region, largely non-renewable in nature and shared by Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. Economic and social developments of the past decades led to a significant pressure on this resource…
Access to justice is an essential safeguard for the environment, sustainable development and human health and well-being. Members of the public in a number of countries in the UNECE region are increasingly seeking to access justice, in particular in cases relating to air quality, due to concerns…
Water resources in Latin America and the Caribbean are threatened by rising pressures related to unprecedented population growth and related exponential demand and increasing pollution, as well as the impact of extreme weather events. In the region, around 60% of freshwater resources reside in…
Air pollution impacts our health, our environment and our economy. Clean air is unfortunately not a given in all parts of the world. Almost every day, we hear news about high air pollution episodes in different cities around the globe. They remind us time and again that air pollution is a…
Upon request by the Government of Uzbekistan, UNECE will review the country’s environmental performance for a third time, 10 years after the previous (second) review took place. To ensure comprehensive information and objective analysis for the review, a team of 19 experts from different…
Strengthening environmental governance and the development of environmental policies both play an important role in the achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On 11–12 February 2019, a UNECE expert mission visited ministries and stakeholders in Podgorica to kick off a…
Water, climate and finance know no borders. This brings both challenges and opportunities. The majority of freshwater worldwide flows in transboundary basins and most climate change impacts are felt through the water cycle. Transboundary cooperation in climate change adaptation is crucial for…
With an area of approximately 350,000 km2, the Senegalo-Mauritanian aquifer basin is the largest basin in the Atlantic margin of North-West Africa. The groundwater it contains is a strategic resource for the four aquifer States, respectively The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal,…
What is common between the green sovereign bond launched in 2017 by France’s State Treasury, the National Road Map for the Circular Economy of Finland for the period 2016–2025, and the Swiss regulation on compulsory recovery and reuse of phosphorus from wastewater streams and separated organic…
Countries cannot know whether they are successful in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, unless success is defined and tracked. SDG indicators provide such a definition and something to track. As a result, indicators –…
What steps have been taken and what still needs to be done to improve environmental conditions, deliver inclusive economic growth and ensure resilience to climate change? What progress has been made in achieving public participation in decision-making and the reform of education systems towards…
Clean air is an essential need for all of us. Our health, our environment, even our economy depends on it. Every year 7 million people die prematurely globally because of exposure to air pollution. The majority of air pollutant-related deaths occur in developing countries, with Western Pacific…
On 23 May, Chad became the first African country to accede to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (Water Convention), serviced by UNECE. As a landlocked country in Central Africa, Chad faces significant water management challenges and…
Reduce deaths from air pollution… Achieve water and sanitation for all… Double energy efficiency… Consume sustainably… These and many other targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to be achieved in just 12 years from now sound more than ambitious. Making them a reality requires…