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Current systems of energy provision and demand need to change significantly in order to address the so-called energy ‘trilemma’ – how to consistently provide affordable energy services, achieve security of energy supplies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy conversions to mitigate…
Trade facilitation is gaining interest from countries all around the world following the conclusion of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement in Bali in 2013. As a result, the work of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), which develops a body of…
Experts on active safety and advanced driver assistance systems under the World Forum for harmonization of vehicle regulations have just adopted technical provisions as a first step towards the introduction of self-steering systems. The group defined 5 categories of automation corresponding to…
How best to implement Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs)? What synergies with other international instruments, in particular with the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention) and its protocols, can be used? These were some of the main topics…
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…
Data from the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) , a system of national longitudinal Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS) and contextual database, proved popular with researchers at the European Population Conference. Research findings from some 40 studies drawing on GGS data were presented…
An underappreciated and often overlooked issue when developing safe and sustainable transportation systems in any nation is thorough and up-to-date statistics on road transport and road safety. Good, reliable statistics support governments and decision makers to understand what issues to address…
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 the…
Interest in the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 (UNFC) as a tool for natural resource management continues to grow worldwide. The practical application of UNFC in classifying resources such as coal, uranium, thorium, oil and gas in…
About 3.5 billion people have no reliable access to electricity. As the global population grows from the current 7 billion to more than 9 billion by 2050, providing sustainable energy for all is becoming increasingly challenging. In many parts of the world key energy materials occur together in…
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…
In Central Asia, the silk routes, the caravans of merchants made it possible for East and West to exchange culture, customs and goods - spices, silk, perfumes and food - and thus determined life and livelihoods for centuries… And, so have nuts and dried fruit traded on the silk routes and part of…
The UNECE region has neither the high economic inequalities typical for the Latin American region nor the high extreme poverty rates faced by some African countries. Yet, poverty continues to be widespread, especially affecting vulnerable population groups, such as ethnic minorities, immigrants,…
A majority of the 53 UNECE member countries reported a decrease in the unemployment rate in 2015. The average unemployment rate in the UNECE region in 2015 was 8.8 per cent, which is 1.1 percentage points lower than in 2014 (9.9 per cent) and 1.7 percentage points less than in 2013 (10.5 per cent…
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…
A high level group of Chinese experts in PPP have met for the first time to comment on UNECE’s Draft Guiding Principles in PPP. These Guidelines, which had been especially translated into Chinese for the occasion, are themselves a contribution to the UN SDGs and are based on the premise that to…
UNECE member States are expected to submit national reports that provide an analysis of the current state of realization of the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing and its Regional Implementation Strategy (MIPAA/RIS), by 31 October this year, as part of a five-year reporting cycle. An…
The new UNECE Standard for Dried Apricots adopted on 29 June by the Specialized Section on Standardization of Dry and Dried Produce (GE.2) will significantly boost the international trade in Dried Apricots. The standard, which has been revised in the presence of the world's largest producer,…
A new UNECE Standard will foster international trade in Dried Apricots. The standard was adopted on 27 June during the session of the Specialized Section on Standardization of Dry and Dried Produce (GE.2), in the presence of the world's largest producer, Turkey, as well as government and industry…
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 Water…
Policies that support cycling not only contribute to the fight against air pollution and greenhouse gases and boost health, but can also go a long way in creating jobs as part of the transition to a Green Economy, participants heard at a side event in Batumi.
An estimated 435,000 cycling-…
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 which are…
China has experienced rapid urbanization over the past decades; it is now actively exploring a number of specifics to develop its cities in a sustainable way. The 13th Five Year Plan of China also emphasized the need to promote new urbanization. In the past 20 years, China has widely applied…
Addressing the main security risks in the inland transport sector, such as terrorism, theft, illegal border crossings and the trafficking of dangerous substances, was the focus of the Security Discussion Forum on Securing the Global Supply Chain jointly organized by UNECE and OSCE (Organization…