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A few months after the ground-breaking 2030 Agenda entered into effect, governments and other actors across the region are gearing up to turn the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into reality. It became clear at this week’s Regional Forum on Sustainable Development, held in the framework of…
Experts from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand recently translated the United Nations Framework Classification for Fossil Energy and Mineral Reserves and Resources 2009 (UNFC) into Thai. A copy of the publication in Thai…
Hazardous wastes contain chemicals, heavy metals, dangerous pathogens, or other substances of concern that make them, inter alia, explosive, flammable, infectious or toxic. The movement of such wastes pose serious risks to human health and the environment.The Basel Convention on the Control of…
Discussing the sustainability credentials of natural gas might not be the first thing that comes to one’s mind on International Mother Earth Day. But this is nevertheless what happened on 22 April, underlining the importance of the topic debated by the UNECE Group of Experts on Gas.The share of…
Miracle seeds, power food or “poor man’s meat” as they are sometimes called – pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas and more) are the super food that we have certainly all eaten - but which many of us have never heard of. Perhaps this is why the United Nations General Assembly named 2016…
Used approximately 1.5 billion times per year in international trade transactions for goods, the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations (UN/LOCODE) plays an essential role in international trade. UN/LOCODE is also used in international transactions for trade in services and at…
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…
We are all more or less familiar with the concept of inflation - rising prices that reduce our purchasing power. The consumer price index (CPI) is the most commonly used measure of consumer price inflation. It measures the average price change of goods and services purchased by households for…
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…
The role of trade as a powerful engine for development is well recognised, including within the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Electronic business tools and trade facilitation have a key supporting role to play by providing effective, efficient and accessible solutions to…
Most of us probably still remember the time when during a family car trip the hard-to-fold windshield-sized paper map was drawn out to determine which way to turn next, or when everyone in the back seat was instructed to keep their eyes open for the next gas station. Now, many of us are used to…
Ever growing energy security, environmental and sustainability concerns means that countries and conventional oil and gas companies are increasingly looking to manage their energy portfolio as a mix of conventional and renewable resources. Classification of renewable energy resources, as well as…
Energy impacts every aspect of our lives and underpins the Sustainable Development Goals – yet energy remains a vast and complex subject. An acclaimed online project embraced by both environmental groups and the energy industry, the SWITCH Energy Project, provides a balanced and pragmatic…
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…
Pulses have been an integral part of human diets for thousands of years, with ancient civilizations growing beans, chickpeas and lentils as far back as 7000 - 8000 BC. Pulses still form a core part of traditional food and culture in many countries. Rich in nutrients, minerals…
For many years Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) were a rather narrow financial model for transferring project risk to the private sector. It was, for the most part, not viewed as a ‘development’ model, but rather as a value-for-money alternative to traditional public procurement. A change is…
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…
Managing methane emissions from energy-related extractive activities is a win-win for delivering on the global promises on climate change and sustainable development. This was the key message delivered by UNECE Executive Secretary Christian Friis Bach in his keynote address to the Global Methane…
Earlier this month in New York, countries from around the world expressed their appreciation for the work done by UNECE to improve official statistics for the measurement of climate change. Almost twenty countries spoke at the 47th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the global…
The Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) was awarded the status of Emerging Project by ESFRI, the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure, initiated by the European Council. The GGP is a collaboration of 16 European partners, coordinated by the Netherlands Interdisciplinary…
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…
UNECE is assisting Belarus to better align its innovation policies with national development objectives, with a particular focus on promoting innovation as a way to implement the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda. A Team of experts under the guidance of UNECE undertook a fact-finding…
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…