News

Globally, over 4,2 million premature deaths per year can be attributed to outdoor air pollution, with the majority occurring in lower- and middle-income countries.

Abu Dhabi, 10 February 2020 - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), together with UN-Habitat and IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, today launched the world’s largest air quality data platform, bringing together real-time air pollution data from over 4,000 contributors, including citizens, communities, governments and the private sector to work towards healthier, more sustainable cities.

In mid-February, government representatives from across the African continent will come together in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo to work towards a safe chemicals and waste future. Read on for more about the process and what it means. What is the Bamako Convention?

In the two years since Mariama Mamane won the Young Champions of the Earth prize back in 2017, she has taken great strides in her mission to provide people in Burkina Faso with energy.

“The smell alone when you cross the bridge tells you something’s wrong,” says Renison Ruwa, deputy director of the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. The bridge in question is Mtwapa bridge, which straddles Mtwapa Creek in Mombasa, Kenya. And the smell to which Ruwa is referring stems from this very creek, into which waste from the nearby Shimo la Tewa prison—and indeed many other places—is directly dumped.

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is considered to be among the worst in the world. In 2019, 80 per cent of Yemen’s people were in need—an estimated 24 million people.

A new global study sheds light on how interactions between specific characteristics of catchments, such as carbon and pollution, affect aquatic plant diversity and function in freshwater environments. Photosynthesis in many aquatic plants relies on bicarbonate (HCO3−) in addition to carbon dioxide (CO2). The study investigates the link between the two and their impact on  plant distribution.

World Wetlands Day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. The 2020 theme for World Wetlands Day is an opportunity to highlight wetland biodiversity, its status, why it matters and to promote actions to reverse its loss.

At the beginning of this decade, millions of people around the world made new year’s resolutions, with the hope of bettering themselves.  Whether you pledged to exercise more, to save money, or to take up a hobby, the reality is that many pledges are likely to have been broken.

Every year, billions of people go on holiday to escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Eight out of ten tourists travel to coastal areas, hoping to relax under blue skies, clear waters and white sandy beaches.

What does it take to get the world’s attention on climate change? Lewis Pugh thinks swimming across a supra-glacial lake in East Antarctica might. The pioneer swimmer—and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Patron of the Oceans—embarked on a gutsy 1-kilometre swim across a river, which has formed as a result of melting ice caused by climate change.

The environmental category of the 16th edition of the International Poster Biennial, hosted by Mexico for three decades, will be devoted to biodiversity Artists around the world are invited to submit their posters until 15 May 2020 Biodiversity is the theme of the World Environment Day 2020 Mexico City, 22 January 2020 – In the spirit of harnessing the power of art to raise environmental aw

INVEST in nature. CHANGE our habits. LISTEN to young people. What are three things that can save the world? UN Environment Programme’s Inger Andersen shares her thoughts as the United Nations kicks off its #UN75 celebrations.

Living atop a hill in Malindza, a tiny county in eSwatini’s lush east, 56-year-old Ntombi Ndzimandze is the matriarch of her household of 11 women and children.

When Arpit Dhupar won the Young Champions of the Earth prize, he was in a bar with friends and didn’t believe the news. “Are you sure I have won?” He repeated. Finally convinced, he celebrated with his friends, who echoed, “Are you sure you’ve won?”

The word “Mottainai” in Japanese literally translates to “it is a shame to waste.” It stems from Buddhist philosophy on living minimally and appreciating nature’s gifts. The practice has been in place for generations.

Extensive wildfire disasters, such as recently reported in Australia, Indonesia and the United States, adversely affect communities, economies and ecosystems. More generally, they contribute to air pollution and global warming, and indicate that existing mechanisms to deal with wildfire, centered around disaster risk management, are insufficient.

Since 2011, the World Customs Organization has been an active partner to the Green Customs Initiative, which is coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The pace of development of offshore wind technologies and markets is faster than most people would have expected a few years ago. Larger wind turbines are enabling more efficient energy production and lower electricity costs, paving the way to achieve more than 1,000 gigawatts of cumulative offshore wind capacity by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement.

What a year it has been. For the environment, not a good one. But for youth around the world, an outstanding show of courage, determination and fearlessness.

From powerful cyclones to extreme droughts, human-induced extreme weather events have become a daily fixture of life today.

Soil’s contribution to climate change, through the oxidation of soil carbon, is important, and soils—and thus agriculture—can play a major role in mitigating climate change.

The Montreal Protocol to protect the Earth’s ozone layer is to date the only United Nations environmental agreement to be ratified by every country in the world. It is also one of the most successful. With the parties to the Protocol having phased out 98 per cent of their ozone-depleting substances, they saved an estimated two million people from skin cancer every year.

In mid-November, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) hosted a summit in Nairobi, Kenya to rally the political will and financial commitments urgently needed to implement the goals of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) adopted

Philip Beale, Yuri Sanada and a crew of about 10 people have embarked on an expedition to prove the possibility of the Phoenicians as the first ancient sailors to have reached the Americas over 2,000 years before Christopher Columbus.