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Picture your favorite tree-lined street or childhood park. Now picture it without trees. Would it be the same?   On 30 March, at the Regional Forum for Sustainable Development, UNECE debuted the short film “Why Trees?”, which invites us to reflect on our human connection with the trees around us.…
In the past years, Central Asia has been facing major climate-change related challenges – drought, floods, desertification, sandstorms, extreme cold and heat spells – and many more. Not only have these affected rural areas, but cities have been suffering, too. Accentuated by increased traffic…
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…
Cities, which are already responsible for around 75% of global CO2 emissions, are also at the forefront of fighting climate change and simultaneously are particularly vulnerable to its impacts. Urban trees and forests have been highlighted as a solution that can help to achieve the SDGs and make…
As guests of the planet, we human beings can thrive only if our host environment is thriving. We are strongly connected to it, more than we probably understand and more than we probably dare to admit. Conversely, the ways humans treat the environment has clear negative effects on our health and…
Policymakers looking for innovative solutions to global problems are increasingly recognizing that the answers have been around for a long time even before the earth got populated by humans. Trees can help achieve pressing global objectives for sustainable development, biodiversity conservation,…
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…
The new UNECE Guide on producing CPI under lockdown, published today, helps national statistical offices to produce the Consumer Price index (CPI) under periods of lockdown and other emergencies.   The Consumer Price Index, or CPI, is a key economic indicator in most countries, giving a …
The UNECE region, in particular Europe and North America, has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to the devastating impact on lives and health, countries in the region are suffering heavy socio-economic consequences. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to fall…
On 8 March, we celebrate International Women’s Day with this year’s theme “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. We still have a long way to go. In October 2019, UNECE hosted a regional meeting to review the progress and discuss the challenges in the implementation of the most…
In 2014, Austria and France launched The Partnership on Cycling Promotion under the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP), a programme jointly serviced by UNECE (bringing together its work on environment and sustainable transport) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe…
The diesel scandal in Europe has made us aware of the potential trade-offs between different fields of policy. While trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, policies to subsidize diesel cars were made without taking into account that diesel emissions have serious negative impacts on air quality…
Marking two hundred years since the invention of the Draisine, an ancestor of the bicycle, in Mannheim, Germany, the city will host two events this month on the theme of active mobility: the International Cycling Conference and a Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP)…
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…
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…