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The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stands with those suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. UNEP is responding in a number of ways, including by supporting global efforts to protect biodiversity, to put an end to the illegal trade in wildlife, to safeguard the handling of chemicals and waste and to promote economic recovery plans that take nature and the climate emergency into account.

The need for providing safe infrastructure for walking and cycling cannot be over-stated.  Walking and cycling are efficient modes of transport both for health and climate benefits.

As large parts of the world hunker down and social distance to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, more and more research is being released and studied suggesting that we can build back better to create a healthy, resilient, prosperous, just, and decarbonized world after the current crisis dies down.

If the world has seen a scary future with the emergence of COVID-19, the future of our planet in a 3-4° C scenario takes us to an entirely different level of uncertainty, including in terms of health.

Global renewable power growth outpaced fossil fuel growth by a factor of 2.6 in 2019, says new report

Fiscal stimulus packages in Europe to “build back better” after the coronavirus pandemic provide an opportunity for initiating a transformational and green recovery with the creation of green jobs. One such investment opportunity is in sector coupling.

The plight of Iraq’s 1.4 million displaced people just got worse. As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, displaced persons are particularly vulnerable.

Interview with Keith Alverson, Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Environmental Technology Centre in Osaka, Japan.

Did you know that around 60 per cent of all infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, as are 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases, in other words they come to us via animals?

Did you know that 60 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic, in other words they come to us via animals? Zoonoses that emerged or re-emerged recently are Ebola, bird flu, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), the Nipah virus, Rift Valley fever, sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus, Zika virus disease, and, now, the coronavirus. They are all linked to human activity.

Interview with Pushpam Kumar, United Nations Environment Programme, Chief Environmental Economist.

Schools and gatherings are being cancelled around the world as a result of the Novel Coronavirus Covid-19 Outbreak. It can be difficult to occupy your children with exciting activities for hours on end, especially when you may also be working from home.

The world demands and produces more and more plastic every year, much of which eventually finds its way into rivers, lakes and the ocean.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology teamed up to undertake a microplastics research and Ocean Literacy project linked to the Japan-Palau Goodwill Yacht Race—celebrating 25 years of Palau’s independence.

World Car Free Day is celebrated annually on 22 September. Around the world, car-free days encourage people to give up their vehicles and use non-motorized transport, like biking, skating or walking, instead. African countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda have adopted monthly car-free days, an initiative launched by their governments to encourage non-motorized transportation and fight air pollution.

Indoor and outdoor air pollution results in over 7 million deaths worldwide each year.

For hundreds of millions of years, the web of life on land has been dependent on, and determined by, day and night, light and dark. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants grow, depends on light and dark. And all animals depend on plants for their survival.

On 26 July 2019, 22-year-old Sam Bencheghib asked the crowd of friends, supporters and media gathered around him, to take two deep breaths as a reminder of the importance that the oceans have in giving life.

Young people on parts of the African continent sometimes turn to waste management as an ad hoc or extra job to make small money when they are struggling with unemployment, but often opportunities are scarce to learn how to grow in this sector and turn it into real business. Here’s an example from South African where supporting an entrepreneur pays off.

NOTE: This story was originally posted in March 2019. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, all dates below have been changed or are subject to change. Scientists and most governments agree that the world is facing an unprecedented environmental crisis with huge numbers of species on the brink of extinction and global temperatures continuing to rise.

The Secretariat for the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET), in collaboration with the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) and the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC), organized th

With a population of close to 400 million people, the West African region has one of the fastest growing vehicle fleets in the world. As in most African countries, the bulk of vehicle imports into the region consists mainly of used vehicles. Regulation to restrict the quality of cars being imported into the region is weak.

Joshua Wowo discovered and secured 1,400 boxes of DDT in Papua New Guinea’s East New Britain Province. Now he waits for the day when his township’s toxic timebomb will finally be defused.

19 February 2019, New Delhi:  United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and WHO Country Office for India organized a stakeholder consultation to deliberate on way forward for ‘The Environment and Health Initiative.’ The initiative proposed by UNEP and WHO aims to build capacity, facilitate knowledge exchange and evidence generation on environment and health issues.

Paper cones, called “cucuruchos”, have been traditionally used by shoppers in Mexico City for carrying spices and grains. Now these plastic-free alternatives are making a comeback, along with straw baskets and reusable cloth bags, after a ban on plastic bags entered into effect in the megalopolis on 1 January 2020.