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Standards are in everything that surround us. Just the mobile phone in your pocket uses hundreds of standards, from the cellular network and the cable connectivity to physical elements such as the processing chips and the LED screen, not to mention security testing and the process design. We rely…
Meeting the goals of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and overcoming the challenges of sluggish economic growth, social exclusion and environmental degradation requires the contribution of both men and women. More-over, many sustainable development challenges affect women more…
Governments, Mayors, leading architects, urbanists and experts will gather in San Marino on 3-6 October 2022 for the 83rd session of the UNECE Committee on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management. The session will support regional exchange of experiences and good practices to promote…
The UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Road Safety, Mr. Jean Todt, is in Athens on 26 and 27 September to meet several high-level officials in Greece such as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Citizen Protection, the Minister of Infrastructure & Transports, the Minister of…
June 2022 has been the month of trade discussions in Geneva, first with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) and then UNEC’s Steering Committee on Trade Capacity and Standards (SCTCS). Both looked in detail at responses to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, both…
At what point do we cease to be alarmed by a shocking reality? Many of you may already be familiar with the following figures, from the last WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety (2018).
Every year 1.3 million people are killed and around 50 million injured on the world’s roads, often with…
Products today are integrating more and more advanced technologies and sustainability criteria into their design. Soft toys with computer chips, medical devices that can assist in operations and learn from past uses, repurposed plastic bottles assembled to form a new, different product… each pose…
Standards are an integral part of society and are present in nearly everything that surrounds us on a daily basis; they shape how products are designed, produced and used. They are in all products that cross borders and can play a key role to reduce technical barriers to trade as well as integrate…
Uzbekistan faces serious challenges in the realm of road safety, with around 3,600 people killed on its roads in 2018, according to WHO figures. Between January and March 2022 alone, 39 children lost their lives on the country’s roads, where 204 out of 1,469 road accidents involved children,…
As an established convenor of standards developing organisations, UNECE encourages the integration of a gender perspective, providing practical steps for organisations to advance women’s full and effective participation in standards and standards development. With the objective of strengthening…
Improving energy efficiency is one of the most cost-effective options for climate action and to meet growing energy demand in most countries. It contributes to energy security, a better environment, improved quality of life, and economic well-being. Out of all sectors of economic activity, the…
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…
The Group of 7 nations (G7), six of which are UNECE member States (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US), took bold step towards reducing barriers to trade by agreeing on the principles to govern cross-border data use and digital trade. At their meeting in London on 22 October,…
The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have brought the benefits of paperless trading to the forefront of attention. Many countries are considering issuing, accepting and exchanging electronic documents for paperless trading. Issues related to paperless trading are also at the core of World Trade…
An exhibition of urban sketches by Architect Norman Foster is opening today at the Palais des Nations on the occasion of the UNECE Ministerial Meeting on Urban Development, Housing and Land Management (6-8 October). The sketches present visions of city planning that incorporate concepts of…
Building regional capacity for devising and putting into practice trade facilitation policies is critical to strengthen trade as a driver of sustainable and resilient recovery.
UNECE teamed up with the Kyrgyz Economic University (KEU) to produce a professional development course on trade…
Improving energy efficiency is a cost-effective means to support economic development while contributing to climate action. On a national scale, energy efficiency helps strengthen energy security, reduce energy expenditure, slow down energy demand growth, reduce investment needs for new generation…
The economic and sanitary crisis caused by the pandemic calls for new ways of doing business. We need to digitalize data and document exchange in cross-border transport and supply chains to avoid person-to-person contacts, while increasing the efficiency of trade and transport operations. However,…
Mobility is a primary enabler of our economic and social life. However, despite its many benefits, the costs of mobility to societies around the world remain unacceptably high. These include greenhouse gas emissions (transport accounts for some 24% of global CO2 emissions, three quarters of which…
UNECE continues to help its member States to respond to COVID-19 crisis. As part of this work, Guidelines and Best Practices for Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises in Delivering Energy-Efficient Products and in Providing Renewable Energy Equipment developed earlier are being customized for North…
Buildings consume over 70 per cent of the electrical power generated and 40 per cent of primary energy and are responsible for 40 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from related fuel combustion. At the same time, in 2018, out of 4.5 trillion USD spent on building construction and renovation, the…
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on cities and the wellbeing of communities. Cities and urban areas are at the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 public health crisis and its socio-economic consequences. They also hold significant potential for recovering better by adopting…
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Trade facilitation has acquired even greater importance for the land-locked countries of Central Asia, as it helps remove burdensome formalities for their trade and transport operations. Simplifying and digitalizing procedures helps diminish physical contacts along…
A new working paper, Adapting household surveys to the situation of the pandemic, shows that statistical producers in countries in the UNECE region have moved fast to measure the effects of the pandemic on households, and to adapt data collection to crisis conditions; but they need support for…
New guidance published by UNECE’s Conference of European Statisticians offers support to national statistical offices to better communicate their statistics about gender equality. The guidance, developed by a task force of experts from across the region, focuses on six themes: the gender pay gap;…