Nairobi, 7 September 2021 – A global review of policies and programmes to improve air quality shows that over the past five years more countries have adopted policies on all major polluting sectors. Yet large gaps in implementation, financing, capacity, and monitoring mean that air pollution levels remain high.
This year, Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, will begin deploying the first of 1,485 electric buses to replace the diesel vehicles that now dominate its public transit system. The move is expected to prevent the release of 16,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or its equivalents, every year.
Nairobi, 3 September 2021 - WHO, UNDP, UNEP and UNICEF have partnered to create a new compendium of 500 actions aimed at reducing death and diseases driven by environmental risk factors, the first such resource to unite this expertise from across the UN system.
Most emissions have fallen in Western, Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe since 2010
Hotspots remain in the Balkans and Central Asia, and air quality levels remain dangerous throughout region, but low-cost solutions are at hand
Geneva, 3 September 2021 – Efforts to tackle air pollution have stepped up in recent years and are bringing dividends in many European countries, but extreme hotspots
Nairobi, 02 September 2021 – One-third of the world’s countries have no legally-mandated outdoor (ambient) air quality standards. Where such laws exist, standards vary widely and often misalign with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Additionally, at least 31% of countries that do have the power to introduce such ambient air quality standards have yet to adopt them.
On 9 December 1921 at a General Motors laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, chemists poured a teaspoonful of a compound called tetraethyl lead into a spasming motor.
They were hoping to stop what’s known as ‘knock’ - the wild and potentially engine-destroying vibrations that come from burning low-grade petrol.
Official end of use of leaded petrol will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths and save USD 2.45 trillion a year
The end of leaded petrol follows a 19-year campaign led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners
UNEP urges countries to work towards zero emissions vehicles to further address air pollution and climate change
Nairobi, 30 August 2021 – When service stations i
The Shurmann family’s expedition, Voice of the Oceans, departed from Balneário Camboriú, Brazil, on 29 August.
The expedition, supported by UNEP, will focus on documenting and finding solutions to the invasion of plastics chocking marine ecosystems.
The family will sail through the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Southern Pacific Ocean.
Brasília, 29 August 2021- Brazil’s seafaring
Around the world, more than 90 per cent of people breathe in air that the World Health Organization (WHO) considers potentially harmful.
While the source of air pollution varies – some come from vehicle emissions, some from power plants, some from crop burning – the outcome is the same: airborne contaminants are a dire threat to human health.
Colombo/Bangkok, 20 August 2021 – With new research showing the major role that rivers play in bringing plastic pollution to the oceans, countries are looking for ways to tackle the root causes of the problem in their own waterways.
A recent assessment from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition found that cutting farming-related methane emissions would be key in the battle against climate change.
Every year, nearly 4 million people die prematurely from indoor air pollution. Many succumb to diseases linked to inhaling smoke from kerosene, wood and charcoal fires, which are commonly used in the developing world for cooking and heating.
People around the world are bracing for what has become known as the season of smog.
With autumn around the corner, many countries are entering agricultural crop burning season, where farmers burn their fields to make way for a new crop, sending up plumes of toxic smoke.
This week, scientists and representatives from 195 countries are gathered at the 54th Session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to review the world’s most comprehensive assessment of our climate - the Sixth Assessment Report.
Among the knock-on effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN has noted a dramatic increase in world hunger. According to The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, one tenth of the global population – as many as 811 million people – were undernourished in 2020, an increase of 118 million from 2019.
More and more countries are joining the Clean Seas campaign to fight against marine litter and plastic pollution. Over 60 countries - both coastal and landlocked - have signed up to this global movement with ambitious pledges and commitments.
The plants and animals that live along the world’s coasts are coming under increased pressure from pollution tied to harbours, agriculture, and fish and shrimp farming warns a new report from the International Resource Panel.
Panama City, June 25, 2021 - The Roadmap for the Progressive Closure of Dumpsites in Latin America and the Caribbean aims to establish the requirements and necessary steps to eliminate dumpsites in the region by 2030 and, thus, correct the impacts on health and the environment cause
Nairobi/Kampala, June 25, 2021 - Uganda has today joined the Clean Seas Campaign, demonstrating the country’s commitment to curbing the flow of marine litter and plastic waste entering lakes, rivers, and the ocean.
It was announced today that the theme of the second annual International Day of Clear Air for blue skies, facilitated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will be “Healthy Air, Healthy Planet.”
Picture this: 1,000 timber houses on stilts are clustered on the shore of a tropical island. There is no sewer system underneath them. So, raw sewage plummets directly into the sea, the ebb and flow of the tides mixing it with household trash and plastic debris. The stench, not to mention the risk of disease, is overwhelming.
On World Oceans Day 2021, UNEP’s Clean Seas Campaign renews its global efforts to tackle marine litter and plastic pollution, now with a focus on how individuals can use both national and international laws to push for change.
In June 2021, on the margins of World Environment Day, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners launched the Transformative Partnership Platform on agroecology - a farming approach that’s inspired by natural ecosystems combines lo
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have agreed to jointly boost the role of the circular economy towards achieving sustainable consumption and production (SDG 12), in the green recovery and transition, through a set of common policy and political actions.