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While there is increasing awareness about the health effects of air pollution, its impact on ecosystems and crops is sometimes overlooked. Recent air pollution peaks in Warsaw, Krakow and other cities in Poland and other parts of Europe also have significant effects on plant life. This, in turn…
Six months after UNECE ministers from 44 countries renewed their commitments on a number of environmental issues in the region (Batumi, Georgia, 8-10 June 2016), delegates at the 22nd session of the UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy (CEP) discussed progress in the implementation of those…
A goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” (Goal 16). One way of analysing justice systems in…
How to make the most of the recommendations contained in UNECE Environmental Performance Reviews (EPRs)? How to involve the public in decisions affecting the environment, making public participation effective? How to involve better the private sector in the development and implementation of…
On 25 January 2017, a national round-table discussion on legal implementation of the UNECE Protocol on Strategic Environmental Assessment was held in Astana, Kazakhstan. Underpinning the round table was a legislative review prepared by UNECE experts, assessing the existing legislative…
In the UNECE region, employed people spend two to three hours per day on domestic work[1] according to data from time-use surveys around 2010. But these average figures hide wide gender differences: for example, employed women in Albania spend eight times as long on domestic tasks as employed…
Kazakhstan is assessing the prospects for developing a strategic environmental assessment system. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) helps to evaluate the likely environmental (including health) and social consequences related to implementing strategic decisions (national plans and…
An intersectoral (nexus) approach to managing water, energy, land resources and ecosystems has a significant potential to improve sustainability in the Syr Darya River Basin in Central Asia. This is the main conclusion of a technical report just issued by the United Nations Economic Commission…
As highlighted by recent political developments in several UNECE countries, migration continues to play a substantial role in shaping responses to economic and foreign policy challenges. Member countries of the United Nations recently emphasised the importance of addressing migrant movements in…
Who is telling the story? Changes in the proportion of women among journalists since 2000 In today’s data-rich environment, the news media plays a vital role in identifying and reporting the most useful and relevant topics to the general public. But who is telling the story?One target of the 2030…
Should the public be consulted about whether to extend the lifetime of a chemical or nuclear plant? Should the public have a say when there is a proposed change to a mining activity? What about the rights of future generations? Are their interests protected when deciding on sustainable…
Transboundary water cooperation often brings many more benefits than expected, but they are frequently not fully perceived by and not appropriately communicated to policy-makers. The Policy Guidance on Identifying, Assessing and Communicating Benefits of Transboundary water Cooperation,…
The Drin River basin, shared by five Riparians: Albania, Greece, Kosovo (UNMIK, Security Council resolution 1244), Montenegro and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, faces several acute challenges, such as loss of biodiversity, pollution and frequent floods. The basin includes three major…
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will require coordination across sectors, coherent policies, and integrated planning. It is increasingly clear that authorities need to “break the silos” of their sectoral mandates and work in better coordination across different sectors. The…
UNECE environmental performance reviews (EPRs) can play an important role in supporting the achievement and monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). EPRs can assess the progress made by a country in achieving the relevant SDGs, identify challenges and provide recommendations to…
Following up on member States’ pledges to improve air quality across the region at the Eighth Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference in Batumi, Georgia earlier this year (8-10 June 2016), Parties to the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention) this week…
Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA) are tools for greening economic development at the planning and project levels. Since 2013, UNECE has supported Georgia’s efforts towards establishing full-scale national SEA and EIA systems in accordance with the…
Delegations from Bulgaria and Tajikistan meeting with expert representatives from other UNECE countries in Geneva from 6 to 8 December 2016 discussed and finalized recommendations arising from environmental performance reviews (EPRs) undertaken in those countries. In January 2017, the Committee…
The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015 by the UN General Assembly brought challenges to national statistical systems worldwide. Measuring the 17 Goals and 169 targets with reliable, consistent and comparable indicators is a complex task, comprising multiple policy…
Much progress has been made since the 1990s in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan) to address severe environmental problems while…
Water quality is a serious problem in Central Asia, but until now there was no formal cooperation between the countries in the region. A new regional working group on water quality, established under the project “Strengthening cooperation on water quality management in Central Asia” funded by…
What is free time, and how can we measure it? Following increased demand for time-use data from both policymakers and researchers, in 2013, UNECE published the Guidelines for Harmonizing Time-Use Surveys. Free time was defined as time spent on activities such as volunteer work and meetings,…
Today, genetically modified crops are grown on some 450 million acres in over two dozen countries, but there are also numerous countries that ban or prohibit genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Even among countries that prohibit GMO cultivation, most still allow GMO products — in particular…
The beginning of November marked the thirtieth anniversary of the Sandoz accident, one of the worst transboundary environmental disasters in the UNECE region. The end of the month will see the Conference of the Parties to the UNECE Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents…
While others debate the merits of green economy, the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP) demonstrated once again its hands-on approach by hosting a green economy discussion that focused not on whether to implement green economy, but how to do it.
The…