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For many people around the world, the work and achievements of the United Nations remain in the realms of grand summits of heads of state on pressing global issues, of diplomatic brokering of peace agreements, of urgent humanitarian interventions for people in the greatest need, and other high-…
The mandatory wearing of safety-belts in cars first introduced in Europe at the turn of the 1970s has saved millions of lives around the world in the past 50 years.
According to the World Health Organization, the use of safety-belts by occupants of vehicles in front seats reduces the risk of…
Electrification of vehicles is an important tool to align the transport sector with a climate neutral future and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Focused on climate actions, this year’s annual session of UNECE’s Inland Transport Committee (ITC) agreed on dedicated actions to…
A UNECE working paper released today, Population and migration statistics in Armenia: current situation, future plans and ways to improve describes how Armenia is improving its statistics on population and migration by combining administrative data with sample surveys. The study reviews innovations…
Participants in the motor industry’s complex supply chains, regulators as well as investors seeking to invest sustainably are increasingly interested in considering the carbon footprint of vehicles over their entire lifetime - from material extraction and production to manufacturing, use and…
COP26 was a positive step forward in the fight against climate change, but as the UN Secretary General pointed out in his comments: “it is not enough. We must accelerate climate action to keep alive the goal of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.” The compromise deal reflects the…
UNECE’s Expert Forum for Producers and Users of Climate Change-related Statistics took place in Geneva and online from 31 August to 3 September, in the run-up to COP26 later this autumn.
The annual UNECE expert forums bring together not only producers but also users of climate change-related…
The heads of national statistical offices of 59 countries and 24 international organizations are gathering this week in Geneva and around the globe for the 69th plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians, the decision-making body for statistical matters in the UNECE region and…
A team of expert labour statisticians is to be convened by UNECE for the Conference of European Statisticians, to investigate how to reflect new ways of working in the employment figures we use every day.
Over the past year the work-from-home orders and business closure rules issued by many…
The importance of statistical information to help us cope with disasters has never been clearer than over the past year. As the Covid-19 pandemic has gripped the world, numbers have become our bread and butter. Yet the pandemic has also highlighted the challenges and imperfections in many systems; …
As globalization increases the diversity of innovative ways of doing business around the world, economies become ever more interdependent. Multinational enterprise groups, or MNEs, have operations in several countries, so counting up their economic impacts entails looking across borders to gather…
Director General of Statistics Finland Marjo Bruun has chaired the Conference of European Statisticians (CES), UNECE’s statistical body, since 2016. As she retires from Statistics Finland at the end of this month, she reflects on how leading this international statistical work has broadened her…
While the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extent to which water, sanitation and hygiene are key to human health through frequent handwashing, in the UNECE region over 16 million people still lack access to drinking water and more than 31 million are currently living without basic…
To avoid damage to the environment, public health and the economy, adopting targets to reduce emissions and introducing measures to enforce them is essential. Providing a framework to facilitate these measures, UNECE assists countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia in…
Policy solutions to abate air pollutant emissions need to be targeted to the main emission sources in a given country. To know where exactly the emissions are coming from is therefore the first step in designing a viable air quality management system. The UNECE Convention on Long-range…
Ratification of the Gothenburg Protocol, a unique instrument to reduce emissions of key air pollutants under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention), by as many countries as possible, specifically by those in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (…
40 percent of the world’s population lives in one of the 275 transboundary river basins. Transboundary waters account for 60 percent of the world’s freshwater flows. Cooperation for the management of shared water resources is therefore crucial for economic development, peace and environmental…
With the amendments to the Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-Level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol) under the UNECE Air Convention now in force for almost a year, preparatory work is underway for the review of the effectiveness of its measures.The amended Protocol establishes…
Environmental degradation has gendered impacts which need to be properly assessed and monitored to understand and adopt gender-responsive strategies and policies. While designing these, it is essential that measures targeting gender equality and women’s empowerment are adequately…
Mounting scientific evidence of the health impact of air pollution – which kills some 7 million people annually –, together with high media coverage of heavy local air pollution episodes, is contributing to increased recognition of the need to act for clean air worldwide.The first …
People around the world are breathing dirty air, making it the fifth leading risk factor for mortality globally. Air pollution is a complex issue in all countries, as it requires cooperation, innovation, good governance, behavioural change, public demand, and strong technical capacity across…
The new regional interagency Issue-based Coalition on Environment and Climate Change has just issued summary recommendations for pandemic socioeconomic assessments and post-pandemic recovery strategies. The recommendations are intended to provide guidance to UN Country Teams in assessing the…
Between 2017 and 2018, emissions of key air pollutants that are harmful to human health and the environment have gone down in the European Union, according to the annual emission inventory report under the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention). The report,…
Forest ecosystems are affected by many different stressors, such as climate change and air pollution. Drought periods, like the one in 2018, strongly reduce tree growth and increase tree mortality in the UNECE region. At the same time, air pollution affects forests from the leaf to the ecosystem…
UNECE, UNEP and UNESCO, as co-leads, together with 15 other UN agencies, funds and programmes active in Europe and Central Asia, have joined forces to address environmental and climate change challenges. They have established a regional interagency Issue-based Coalition on Environment and…