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Forests are the most efficient way to sequester carbon, and forest products provide materials that are often much more carbon friendly than other alternatives. Properly managed forests and forest products have great promise in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (…
To say that we live in an information age is starting to seem like an understatement. Data are available in unimaginable quantities and humankind is continuously producing more. Around 90% of existing data have been created in the past few years and according to estimates, the amount of data is…
Approximately 71% of the total surface water flow in Latin America is derived from shared basins, which cover 55% of the total area of the region. In South America, international basins provide 75% of the total flow, and in Mexico and Central America, 24%. Increasing impacts from climate change…
Buildings consume 70 per cent of generated electrical power in the developed world and are responsible for 40 percent of CO2 emissions. Radical improvement in their energy efficiency is thus crucial to global sustainability and to achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals. However a…
Ghana’s international trade accounted for 85% of GDP in 2015. However, in Ghana it still takes 4.5 days to complete an export transaction and 11.7 days to complete an import transaction. As a result, some of the key issues that haunt traders are delayed customs clearance, poor infrastructure,…
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require massive investments in innovation and in infrastructure, including ICTs, to improve cross-border connectivity. UNECE and ESCAP are supporting the countries of Central Asia in this endeavour. UNECE carries out national innovation…
The Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), agreed in December 2015, will come into force in November following today’s vote of the European Parliament, which agreed to ratification by the European Union.With this vote, preceded by clear commitments…
Almost all countries in the world conduct a population and housing census at least every ten years, to produce key data for planning and administration at national and local level. In recent decades, census methodology and technology has developed significantly. Countries in the UNECE region are…
With the adoption by Member States of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, the discussion has focused on the implementation at the national and regional levels. Experiences of the first year clearly demonstrated that regional cooperation and action at the regional level…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…