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Planning for adaptation is progressing, although nature-based solutions are lagging. As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, the 2020 edition of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report finds. 

Finance for nature-based solutions should be strengthened and diversified. As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, the 2020 edition of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report finds.   

Implementation of nature-based solutions has been growing.

State of the Planet is a podcast produced and developed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP is the leading environmental authority in the United Nations system. Our work focuses on climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, sustainable development and other issues affecting the planet.

2020 was not only the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also the year of intensifying climate change: high temperatures, floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and even locust plagues. Even more worryingly, the world is heading for at least a 3°C temperature rise this century.

When it comes to the environment, the United Nations and its affiliates are walking the talk, according to a new report.

With many people around the world in COVID-19 lockdowns, International Mountain Day on 11 December might be the perfect moment to escape on a journey of discovery to the mountains. Mountains are a hugely important refuge for biodiversity – the theme for this year’s Day.

Sonia Gómez has spent her entire life around agriculture. She grew up on her parents’ plantation in the fertile mountains of Costa Rica before opening her own organic farm several years ago. But that experience did little to prepare her for what has become a dire threat to her business: climate change.

At the start of the 20th century, German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed a method for taking nitrogen from the air and melding it with hydrogen. It would prove to be one of the great scientific advances of the century.

Combined, the two elements made liquid ammonia, a key ingredient in synthetic fertilizers, which would drive an unprecedented agricultural expansion and help feed a fast-growing world.

Rice is a staple for more than 3.5 billion people, including most of the world’s poor. But it can be a problematic crop to farm. It requires massive amounts of water and the paddies in which it grows emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Published today,  a new report, Shaping the Trend of Our Time, by the UN Economist Network, analyses five global megatrends - climate change; demographic shifts, especially population ageing; urbanization; digital technologies; and inequalities –that ar

World-renowned adventurer Will Gadd is having a rethink about his ice-climbing career and carbon footprint after discovering that his planned ascent of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro was no longer possible due to the extensive shrinking of its glaciers.

For the International Day for South-South Cooperation on 12 September, we follow a pioneering, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-supported project that’s using nature to adapt to climate change in three ecosystems – the coasts of Seychelles, the mountains of Nepal and the deserts of Mauritania.

Every year, the world generates more than two billion tonnes of trash.  Even against the backdrop of a global pandemic, there is much being bought and sold, things are used and discarded.

New climate data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) predicts that the annual mean global temperature is likely to be at least 1.0°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in each of the coming five years (2020-2024) and there is a 20 per cent chance that it will exceed 1.5°C in at least one year

With reports suggesting COVID-19 could spark food shortages around the world, food systems experts and United Nations officials say countries must increase the resilience of their agricultural systems.

When Albert Pati moved closer to the sea to open a beach bar overlooking the Mediterranean in Albania, he never imagined that the sea would also be moving closer to him, now eroding the soil around his restaurant floor.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as the Caribbean Island of Grenada, face a double exposure to external economic and environmental shocks.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in his recent report on the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19 that governments should not respond to the COVID-19 crisis by making policy and investment decisions that exacerbate existing crises

Most of us spend a large chunk of our lives in one building or another, but have you ever stopped to consider the greenhouse gases linked to the construction of these buildings?

One way to reduce greenhouse gases is the use of recycled and more environmentally friendly building materials.

 Interview with Richard Munang, United Nations Environment Programme expert on climate and Africa

NOTE: This story was originally posted in December 2019. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, all dates below have been changed or are subject to change.

“I feel a strong need to share simple stories that will increase people’s knowledge on the importance of forests. Since people tend to believe what they see over what they hear, vlogging is a good way to raise awareness,” says Oluwaseun Adekugbe from Akure, Nigeria.

Presentation vlog of Oluwaseun Adekugbe

Turning plastic waste into pavement slabs, acid water into drinking water and making leather from mushrooms—these are some of the achievements of the 2019 winners for the SEED Low Carbon Awards.