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Effectively adapting water management to climate change will require the allocation of additional funds for transboundary and regional projects, or at least considering transboundary aspects in national projects, where relevant. With more than 60% of all freshwater courses worldwide and the…
What are the key urban development and housing issues in our region? How to define the housing policies of the future in order to address them? And how to make these work sustainably? Just one month ahead of the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development -…
Kazakh university professors took part in a course on political and technical aspects of integrated water resources management (IWRM) at the German-Kazakh University in Almaty from 15-26 August. This was the first part of training for academic staff from the largest Kazakh universities within…
UNECE and ITU organized the First Meeting of the U4SSC initiative on 21-22 July 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland. Under the eyes of stakeholders from all over the world and several UN entities, the leading team of the initiative was appointed and the Terms of Reference of the team and of the joining…
Decarbonisation, greenhouse gas emissions reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energies have become urgent priorities after the signing of the UN Paris Climate Agreement. Decarbonising transport is part of the vision for the future of a green and healthy mobility. The Austrian Ministry of…
On June 23-24, 2016 Russian and Kazakh experts met in Astana to discuss the first results of assessments of transboundary rivers Ural and Kigac. Final results will be presented at the annual meeting of Russian-Kazakh Intergovernmental Commission on Joint Use and Protection of Transboundary…
2016 Aarhus week - How the Aarhus Convention contributes to sustainable development The three pillars of the UNECE Aarhus Convention - access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters - are universal environmental rights…
Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA) can be instrumental in the transition towards the green economy. This was the key message delivered by three European environment ministers, UNECE, the European Commission, the Netherlands Commission on Environmental Assessment and civil society…
Governments of the pan-European region reconfirmed their commitment to take the lead in the transition to a green economy and committed to reduce air pollution, the largest environmental health threat in the region. These were the main conclusions of the 8th “Environment for Europe” (EfE)…
The Eighth Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference will gather Ministers and high-level representatives of UNECE’s 56 member countries in Batumi, Georgia, from 8-10 June 2016. The main themes of the Conference will be: Greening the economy. This approach, which fosters a healthy…
About half of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have a direct focus on the environment and there is at least one target on environmental sustainability in each SDG. How the environmental community will work to achieve the SDGs will be the overarching theme of the second session of the…
A decade of efforts by UNECE and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to support countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia to modernize the management of their water resources have paid off. Successes include the adoption of a water sector reform…
The development plans in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, the countries that share the Drina Basin, need to be assessed for their impact on the ecosystems but also across sectors, in particular energy, agriculture and water management. These plans include some 20 new hydropower…
Institutional reform in the water sector in Armenia will reach a new milestone in 2017 with the enactment of provisions on drinking water. As a result, a single water service operator will be chosen to supply drinking water for the entire country, instead of the five separate companies operating…
While emissions of key air pollutants have been reduced considerably over the past few decades as a result of integrated air pollution management strategies developed under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention), progress has been uneven across the UNECE region…
Experts from UNECE member States and the secretariat will be visiting Bulgaria from 11 to 21 April 2016 for a field mission in the framework of the third environmental performance review (EPR) of the country. The team will meet governmental officials and representatives of international…
Europeans currently eat large amounts of meat, dairy products and eggs, exceeding health recommendations for the consumption of saturated fat and red meat. In addition, livestock production in the EU is the driver of around 80% of the losses of nitrogen from agriculture. The nitrogen that is…
Cycling is a green and healthy mode of transport, since it has the potential to significantly improve health and reduce mortality due to inactivity and to reduce local air pollution caused by motorised traffic. Overall, it is a great way to connect people with their urban environment and to take…
Countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) chose largely different models of political and economic reforms in the transition from a planned to a market economy over the period 1996- 2014. This led to the emergence of different demographic and urbanisation dynamics, with…
In Central Africa, most watercourses cross borders. There are 16 transboundary rivers, lakes or aquifers, among them the mighty Congo River — the second largest river in the world in terms of water flow after the Amazon. However, these shared rivers also bring a risk of conflict. For this reason…
How to ensure access to decent, adequate, affordable and healthy housing for all? How to reduce the impact of the housing sector on the environment? How to make the most of technological developments to make cities really “smart” and improve the quality of life of their inhabitants? What are the…
The preparation of the 2016 assessment report highlighting the main achievements of and remaining challenges facing the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution is nearing its final stages. The report summarizes current scientific knowledge on transboundary air pollution issues…
Air pollution is damaging ecosystems and has adverse effects on crops. In order to improve the understanding of these impacts, and notably that of ground-level ozone pollution on crops and other vegetation, the International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation…
Effective public participation is the key precondition for transparent and accountable governance. It helps Governments to tackle inequality by ensuring that all persons, including those from the poorest segments of society and rural communities, are able to participate in decisions that impact…
Empowering people to participate in decisions that can affect their environment and health is of key importance to UNECE. To this end, the present publication consists of two separate, but closely linked sets of recommendations: (i) Maastricht Recommendations on Promoting Effective Public…